scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
and other places round about and that only for Religion and not for worldly Dominion which is the suffering of the Christians under the Turk that permitteth any profession so they yield themselves to his subjection He must ingenuously confess this truth of Isidorus that the greatest of all Persecutions is that which is prosecuted by the Ministry of Antichrist that now raigneth in the world But if you would desire to know who is this Antichrist that now reigneth and thus rageth in the world I answer VVho is the Great Antichrist divers opinions That although many good Arguments are produced to prove the Great Turk to be that Great Antichrist and Constantinople to be that Babylon which is the Throne of that bloudy beast and as many good Arguments are alleadged by Powel Whitaker Downham Thompson and others of our Protestant Writers to prove that series paparum from Boniface in Phocas time to this present Pope is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by St. Paul 2 Thes 3. and that Rome is his proper seat and so called Babylm by St. Peter Yet divers others of no small Learning do avouch That as Ecclesia credentium corpus cum capite the whole Catholick Church of Christ head and members is said to be and is so termed unus Christus one Christ as in Joh. 3.13 And Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he persecuted his Church So Ecclesia malignantium the Congregation of the wicked or especially Senatus consultus the great Sanedrim of the people the supream Counsel A pack of wicked men is termed the Antichrist and the highest Court of any Nation which is the representative mystical body of that dispersed and nefarious Synagogue is oftentimes for their unanimous consent in all wickedness spoken of quasi unus homo as if they were but one man because they all have but one head one will and one end to destroy the truth and the true Church of Christ And this supream stool of wickedness that establisheth mischief by a Law 2 Thes 3.8 doth now appear to many men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man of sin and the child of perdition whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming because they say First There is neither Note Argument Saying nor Testimony of holy Scripture that doth competere antichristo and is sutable unto Antichrist but it is most properly found to agree with that Cumulus Senatorum the representative Council of all wickedness As 1. They have seated themselves in a mystical Babylon the Amsterdam of all confusion where you may easily find almost all Heresies maintained that have been invented and any Religion used but the true Religion that dares not be professed 2. They do sit in the Temple of God as God that is they do possess the truest Church of God that we know to be on earth and as God they establish Worship and Religion and ordain Laws for the Government of that Church and root out that Worship and Government which God himself hath ordained 3. They exalt themselves above all that is called God i.e. Above Kings This point of the Great Antichrist is fully and at large handled in my Book of The Great Antichrist revealed of whom the Scripture most properly saith Dixi Dii estis I said you are Gods because they are in Gods stead and do exercise Gods Power here on Earth and yet this grand Council of the Great Synagogue would not only be worshipped themselves as Kings but will suppress Kings deny any service to be done to them and suffer none to do them Worship which is properly to exalt themselves above Kings when they keep Kings so low 4. When by their false assembled Prophets they deny the Notions whereby we understand the Father and the Son to be the true God as they plainly do by the cashiering of the words Essence Person Trinity and the like words which the Church of God penes quam norma loquendi hath ever used to bring her Children thereby to some sure knowledge of that great mystery of godliness and to inable them to confute those wicked Hereticks that denied the same they do manifest themselves to be that Antichrist who as St. John saith denieth the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 which neither Turk nor Pope as yet ever did 5. The unfolding of that great mystery of the Beast Aug de Civitat Dei l. 20. c. 9. 14. which Beast St. Augustine understandeth of the Society of wicked Christians and the City of Satan that is signified by that Beast and the mystery which the Holy Ghost setteth down to be observed as the most proper Note of the Beast is that it containeth 666. touching which if you omit one thousand which is a full and perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in the Scripture to do to make the other the more mystery and consider that in 646. this great Sanedrim or superlative Council demanded the Militia or soveraign rule over the King for twenty years which being added to 646 do make up the just number of 666. This they say is a strong Argument to prove the grand Council to be that Great Beast 6. And lastly The unspeakable unparalelled persecution of this Antichrist above all the persecutions that preceded it either of Pope Turke or heathen Tyrants do plainly prove them to the judgment of some men to be the greatest Antichrist that as yet is revealed unto the world though some think that a greater may yet come before Christ does come to judgment which I do not believe But though I say as St. Augustine doth in the like case Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt Divers men have divers opinions about the time place and person of Antichrist which neither my Text nor my time will give me leave either to discuss or to disprove any of the same now Yet thus much I dare boldly say that letting pass the persecutions of the Preachers not to be paralelled in any History if you consider first the number of them all the Reverend Bishops all the Deans all Prebends and all the best Divines in the whole Kingdom And 2. the misery that is imposed upon them worse than death Quia dulce mori miseris To be spoyled of all their means banished from all their friends wife children and Parents and exposed to all wants and contempts so that neither Nero Domitian Dioclesian nor Julian brought such a storm upon the Church of Christ as is now brought upon the body of the whole Clergy within these five years and omitting the many thousands of good Christians No Historian can shew me any king that hath suffered more indignities at any â—nchristian hand than King Charls hath suffered from the Long Parliament that for their Religion and good conscience have lost their lives livings and liberties I say letting
honoured and that so their own proper vertues only and not their Ancestors makes them glorious I had rather be as Juvenal saith the son of Thyrsites a base coward and to imitate the exploits of Achilles the most valiant Heroick than to be the son of Achilles and to behave my self like Thyrsites And I would choose sooner to be a faithful Jonathan the son of persecuting Saul than a rebellious Absolom the son of godly David But as Horace saith and we have seen it true that Aetas parentum pejor avis Horat. 3. Carm. 6. tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem The Progeny is worse than the Progenitors our Fathers worse than our Grandfathers and we far worse than our Fathers and our children like to be worse than we are a Progeny most vitious Earipides in Heraclid generatim bane sententiam ad omnes mortales retulit when as the off-spring still proves worse and worse and as Euripides saith Thou shalt scarce find one son amongst many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not worse than his father which made a certain poor Widow most earnestly to pray for the long life of her oppressing Landlord that was a most wicked Tyrant and her grievous persecutor and being demanded the reason why she did so zealously pray for him that never did her any good The poor womans prayer for her cruel Landlord but had heaped upon her very many intolerable wrongs she answered It was because she knew his Grandfather and he was a very bad man and an unjust Oppressor of his poor Neighbours and his Son this mans father proved worse than he and This man is far worse than them both and if he were dead I fear his son will be the Devil himself So these Jews though they were originally descended from Abraham the friend of God yet the posterity of Abraham degenerating How children degenerate from their Parents and the Progeny still growing worse than the Progenitors angring God in the Wilderness forty years together and killing his Prophets when they enjoyed the promised Land S. Stephen tells them they were now the children of Persecutors and of murderers and our Saviour saith John 8.43 They were the children of their father the Devil because he was a murderer from the beginning And as then it happened with the posterity of Abraham the Jews to grow worse and worse from Gods friends to be the Devils children So I fear it is now with the whole World and with all the posterity of the first good Christians to grow worse and worse and instead of being a faithful people to become a faithless and a stubborn generation a generation that setteth not their heart aright and whose spirit cleaveth not stedfastly unto God For in the Primitive times the Christians continued with one accord in the Temple praying and praising God and had Cor unum animam unam Acts 4.32 but in the suceeding times they degenerated and the love of many did wax cold and iniquity so far and so fast incrased that Linacrus reading the 6. What Linacrus did and 7. chapters of S. Mat. threw away his Testament and said Certè aut hoc non est Evangelium Christi aut nos non sumus Christiani Certainly either this is not the Gospel of Christ or we are not Christians that are so far from doing what he teacheth and commandeth us to do But when we find our Fathers to have degenerated from their good Fathers and instead of being faithful Christians and good Subjects to become Rebels and Murderers or Idolaters and the like to rob their neighbours and to resist their King to renounce their Baptism and to prophane the Chuches to countenance the wicked here on earth and to despise the Saints that are in Heaven as some of our Fathers lately did all these things and did much more horrid acts than any of these then ought we not to imitate them and to walk in the wayes of our Fathers as these Jews did and as the Prophet Jeremy saith have done worse than their Fathers Jerem. 16.12 for we ought not to observe the Statutes of Omri nor walk in the wayes of Jeroboam nor do the wickedness that our Fathers did but we ought to do as the Lord adviseth us by his Prophet Ezechiel saying unto us as he said unto the Jews Walk yee not in the Statutes of your Fathers neither observe their judgements Ezech. 20.18 nor their ordinances nor defile your selves by walking in their wayes and doing the like wrongs as they have done or confirming and continuing those injuries which they acted against their neighbours But What good children ought to do if they have made any Laws and given any Judgements to take away the goods or the lands and possessions of any man unjustly be he of what Nation or of what Religion soever when he hath done nothing worthy of censure and much lesse of disinheriting as I am sure and you may be sure of it they have done to very many in these Dominions and especially in this Kingdom Then do not ye justifie those doings and make good their judgements and continue the wrongs and oppressions that they have done and so sin with your Fathers and worse than your Fathers by making your selves not only the partakers of their sins but also the Patrons and Protectors of all their unjust proceedings But do ye confess the iniquities of your Fathers and say with the Prophet That they have done amiss and dealt wickedly and so do ye shew your selves sorry for their sins and recede from their unjust doings and rectifie what they have done amiss And if we thus return unto God Zach. 1 2. Malac. 3.7 then God promiseth that He will return unto us and he will blesse us But when we have Abraham to our father and are the sons of Jacob the children of such fathers as feared God and walked in his wayes relieved the poor and built and beautified Churches and spent their dayes in praying and doing all other pious deeds and wronging no man either in word or deed then ought we not to say with our new Saints They were superstitious and ignorant and walked in darkness by thinking to merit heaven by their works What good children ought not to do and have therefore merited to be sent to hell which is a most ungodly and uncharitable censure of most ungracious children that delight rather to spit in their fathers faces than to commend and to imitate their Vertues But we ought to honour the memories of our forefathers that have most faithfully served God and procured the blessings of God to those children that will serve God That God blesseth the good children for their godly fathers sake Gen. 26.24 as they have done because God loveth and hath promised to blesse the good children that will walk in the wayes of their godly fathers for their fathers sake that had formerly served him and
Master so that the Spirit of God disdains not to record her speech to all posterities among the rest of the sacred Scripture And so to shew her wit when her husband Ahab knew not how to compasse Naboths vineyard she was so apprehensive that she presently found out a way though a most wicked way to make him possessor of all his inheritance 1 Kings 21.6 Former times bred the daughters in learning whereby I do collect that she was both naturally witty and also probably well educated in learning by her Parents as it was the custome of former times and now likewise in many places for Princes and Noble-men to bring up their daughters as well as their sons in all good literature And so we find not only this woman but very many other women that have been famous both for wit and learning and many other excellent parts not much inferiour to the worthiest men as in the holy Scripture you may find how subtle Rebecca was to get the blessing of Isaac to her son Jacob how wittily Rachel could deceive both her father and her Husband how Debora was a Prophetess a Poet and a Judge that judged Israel and how Abigal was so discreet both in her words and actions that she could appease the raging wrath of a man of war that was set on fire Judg. 4. and not without great cause against her Husband and how Judith was so valiant as to cut off the head of Holofernes as Jahell had been the death of Sisera and how Solomon that had most reason to know it best sets down the wisdom and the many other excellent parts of a vertuous woman And if the time your patience would give me leave to trace the Histories of the Heathens Greek and Latin I could tell you how great a Prophet was Cassandra how discreetly honest was Penelope and how wisely she deluded all her woers what a rare Poet was Sappho of whom Ovid saith And she saith Jam canitur toto nomen in orbe meum Saph. epist Phaoni Camerar l. 3. cap. 10. Nec plus Alcaeus consors patriaeque lyraeque Laudis habet quamvis grandius ille sonet And amongst the letters of Phalaris there is one written to Peristthenes wherein it appeareth that some women have not much yielded for greatnesse of courage and brave resolutions to the most valiant men that have been as Pentesilaea Queen of the Amazons whereof Virgil saith Ducit Amazonidum lunatis agmina peltis Pentesilea furens mediisque in millibus ardet And Thomiris Queen of Scythia that overthrew Cyrus King of Persia and cutting off his head threw it into a tub of blood saying Satia te sanguine quem sitisti cujus insatiabilis sâ—mper fuisti And Vaodicea the wife of Prasutagus Queen of the Icenians that overthrew Petilius Cerealis the Roman Lievtenant forced Catus Decianus to flye into Gallia and slew 70. thousand of the Roman souldiers and being vanquished by Paulinus Suetonius would rather end her life with Cleopatra Queen of Egypt then be suffered to be carried for a spectacle in the Roman triumph And Martial saith of Claudia the wife of Rufus Claudia coeruleis quum sit Rufina Britannis Edita Lib. 2. Epig. 54. cur Latiae pectora plebis habet And that for her learning and wisdom Rome and Athens might well own her for their own when as she was most skilfull both in the Greek and Latin Tongues and compiled three several Treatises as Balaeus testifieth both in Greek and Latin And what shall I say of Arria the most loving wife of Cecinna Petus of Artemisia Queen of Caria that buried the ashes of her husband Mausolus in her own bowels But especially of the great wisdom of the mother of King Lemuel and of Tecla that wrote over all the Greek Testament with her own hand and that Copy is now lately translated by Mr. Patrick Young and of Trasilla Gorgonia and the rest of those famous women that Saint Hierom and Greg. Nazian do so highly commend both for wisdome and piety But omitting the wise Sybils and all others worthy of perpetual memory I will adde but one that of this Nation ought never to be forgotten our late famous Queen Elizabeth that for above 40. yeares could so wisely rule so unruly a people as we are And therefore I approve not of the French-mens Salâ—ick Law that excludes all women from the Crown of France for though women be the weaker vessels yet as the strongest liquor may be preserved and carried in glasse vials so may we find great experience and much wisdom with no small courage and learning in many women and therefore as Job saith that he despised not the Counsel of his Maid-servant when he found it worthie to be followed so ought not men to disesteem the advice and reject the Counsels of their wives True it is that where the wife adviseth ill her speech is to be rejected as Job did put off his wife's Counsel when she perswaded him to curse God and die with the just term of a foolish woman and as Origen addeth said Tu facta es deterior Eva in insipientia sed ego non sum effectus Adam in stultitia Thou art become worse then Eve in foolishnesse but thou shalt not make me like Adam in sottishnesse But when the wive's counsel is wholesom it is fit the man should regard it for so the Lord saith unto Abraham Gen. 21.12 2 Rings 4.50 In all that Sarah shall say unto thee hear her voice and the Shunamites husband followed his wife's advice in making provision to entertain the Prophet and many men would have preserved their credit their estate and health if they would have followed the friendly advice of their wives therefore we ought not to debar the right and lawful government of wise and discreet women Prov. 31.1 whom God hath made heirs and indowed with good parts both of wit and learning as well as men and in that regard as I approve not the French Salique Law so I never liked the entailing of inheritances upon the heirs male when as God if he had liked it might as well have given thee sons as daughters and the Scripture tells us how Job gave inheritances to his three daughters among their brethren Job 42.15 and so did Caleb to his daughter Achsah Josh 15.19 But the Lawyers by this wittie trick would shew themselves wiser then God and prevent by this humane Law what God intended by his divine grace And I know they like not this discourse because the taking off of this entailing of estates would take off a great deal of their revenues 3. You may observe in this Jezabel that as the was Nobly-born 3 Jezabel was a very wicked woman well bred and very witty so she was also very wicked for she caused the Elders of Jezâ—eel to become the wicked murderers of innocent Naboth she cut off the Prophets of the Lord and fed 400. 1
the manner of them to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him so it may be Zimri will shew some good reason why he kill'd his Master And I doubt not but he had learnt Absolons lesson that it was for the ill government of Elah propter bonum Reipublicae for the good of the people that they might be better governed and much eased of many burthens and relieved of their grievances To which I say that you must understand all Traytors and wicked actors to be just like unto Watermen that row one way and look another way so they pretend one thing and intend another thing Thus Zimri pretended to amend the Government to ease the people to reform the Laws and rectifie their Religion but his intention and his chiefest ayme was to make himself great to get his Masters place and to become a King himself which was first in his intention though last in the execution otherwise if his principal ayme had been as he pretended the publike good he would have turned and changed the Kingdom of Israel into a Common-wealth or else he would have made either Omri or Tibni whom the people loved and not himself whom they hated to be their King sed menrita est iniquitas sibi but wickedesse though not always yet sometimes bewrayeth it self as the action of Zimri to make himself a King discovered his prime intention and the chiefest occasion that moved him to slay his Master to be his Ambition and desire of bearing rule And indeed this Ambition and desire of bearing rule hath so strangely bewitched the minds of many men Camer l. 5. c. 8. that as Camerarius saith it is almost incredible to believe and most strange to consider what inordinate desire men have to raign and to rule as Kings what villanies they have committed to become Kings What horrible things have been done by those that were ambitious of bearing rule what execrable things they have done to continue Kings for Amurath the third caused five of his younger brethren to be strangled in his presence Ismael the second son to Teâ—mas King of Persia did put to death so many of his brethren as he could lay hold on and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might raign and rule without fear And Solyman mistrusting his own son Mustapha when he returned victorious from the Persian war and was received with such generall applause caused him presently to be strangled and a Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in heaven and one Emperour i.e. Himself here on earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetuall custom in the race of the Ottomans and among the Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom but it is also the practice of all such as are bewitched with such inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like For Plutarch writeth that Diotarus having many sons and desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his brethren that he might reign and rule alone and the sacred story sheweth that the very people of God the sons of Israel were not free but pestered with this disease Judges 9. as Abimeleck the son of Gedeon slew seventy of his brethren in one day and played many other tragicall parts that he might make himself a King 2 Sam. 15.16 And the furious ambition of young Absolon did set him on fire to seek to end his Fathers dayes and to play the Parracide that he might reign in his Fathers place and so Zimri when he began to reign as soon as he sate on his throne he delayed not the time but presently slew all the house of Baasha 2 King 16.11 as Baasha had formerly done to all the posterity of Jeroboam he left him not one that pisseth against a wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends And not to go from home for Examples Did not Henry the fourth put by Richard the second his own King and Cosen-German that he himself might be the King and did not Richard the 3d. cause the true King his brothers chidren his own Nephews the sons of Edward the fourth that were but children and never offended him to be done to death that he might wear the Crown himselfe And my papers would fail me if I should set down all the examples that I could produce of this nature for there is not any thing so sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not dare to violate and spare neither King father brether nor friend to bring themselves to their desired advancement to be the rulers of the people and to have the power both of our lives and goods in their own hands as the proof is plainly seen in the foresaid examples and especially in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had most unnaturally and barbarously slain his own brother Geta even in his mothers lap and between her arms and being counselled by some friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him with the Deastri to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a vile Caitiffe Sit divus modò non sit vivus Let him be a god among the dead so he be not alive among men So great an enemy is the inordinate desire of raigning and ruling to all piety and right saith Camerarius l. 5. c. 8. And for Zimri's pretence to rectify the government to ease the people to establish the true service of God which King Elah and his Father Baasha had permitted to be continued as Jeroboam had corrupted it and to fulfill the Words of the Lord which he spake by Jehu the son of Hanani 1 King 16.2 I say these things were least in his thoughts and were but meer pretences and shadows to hide and cover his malice unto his King and his ambitious desire of bearing rule for he being a subject and a servant unto King Elah what warrant had he or what command from God to kill his King Jeroboam was the master piece of Idolatry and the ring-leader of them that made Israel to sin and yet I would fain know where God gives leave to his subjects to kill him for this intolerable impiety But when God setteth up Kings if they prove wicked to corrupt his service and to destroy his servants he can raise other Kings to punish them as he did Pharaoh King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to chastise and to remove the evill Kings of Judah or he can take them away by death or by twenty other waies that we know not of without making their own
that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
that the same true God which giveth the Kingdom of Heaven to his children only giveth the Earthly Kingdoms both to the good and to the bad as he pleaseth yet alwaies justly And for Nimrod I say the words bear no more then he became mightier then other Kings or began to Tyrannize more then all the other Kings And for S. Peters words I say he means it only of Elective Kings Which in another place I shewed more fully than the time will now give me leave in what sense he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore I say the calling of Kings is the proper Ordinance of God as it is fully and most learnedly shewed by a most Reverend Prelate of our Church lately published and intituled Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas Howsoever as I said we condemn not as unlawfull the right of all Elective Kings yet we ought to acknowledg how much more bound we are to God that himself in a rightfull line of succession hath appointed our Kings to raign over us so that we need not fear the error of our Election if there be no error in our submission 2. As we are to consider quem whom so we ought to remember qualem what manner of King we are commanded to honor for as the unjust Vsurper may govern the people justly as they do sometimes and in some places so they that have just Titles to their Crowns may prove unjust in their Governments as too too many both of the Kings in Israel and Judah and I fear many other Kings have been And yet if they be our lawfull Kings be they what they will Cruell Tyrannous or Idolatrous or if you will put all together I say we are bound to honor them and no waies to Rebell against them for if thy Brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter Deut. 13.6 or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pity upon him but for the son to rise up against the Father the wife against her Husband the servant against his Lord or the subject against his King here is not a word and we are not to do what the Lord doth not command as Tostat well observeth upon this place Therefore though Jeroboam made Israel to sin by setting up his calves to be adored Nâ—buchadnezzar commanded all his people to worship his Golden Image Ahab Manasses Nero Julian and the rest of the persecuting Emperors did most impiously compell their Subjects to Idolatry and exercised all kinds of cruelty against Gods servants yet you shall never find that either the Jews under Jeroboam or Daniel in Babylon or Elias in the time of Ahab or any Christian under Julian or the rest of those bloody Tyrants did ever rebell against any of those wicked Kings for they all considered the law of God and I beseech you all to consider it likewise 1. Exod 22.28 Moses saith Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people yea though he should be evil yet must thou not speak evil of him for as thou art to honor thy Father not so much because he is good as because he is thy Father and therefore the son of Noah was accursed because he despised his Father when his father sinned so we are to honor our King and to speak no ill of him though he should be never so ill for Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked And to Princes Ye are ungodly Job 34.18 2. 2 Not to do the least indignity unto our King As we are to bridle our tongues so much more ought we to refrain our hands from offering the least violence unto our King When the Lord saith peremptorily Touch not mine annointed where he doth not say Non occides or ne perdas the worst that can be but ne tangas the least that may be neither doth he say Sanctos meos my holy ones but Christos meos my annointed ones whether they be holy or unboly good or bad therefore though Saul was a wicked King and a heavy persecutor of David without cause hunting him like a Partridge upon the Mountains and seeking no less then to take away his life yet when the men of David said unto him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee what seemed good unto him Truely no waies to hurt him nor to do the least indignity unto him for his heart smote him because he had cut off the skirt of his robe and therefore he said unto his men 1 Sam. 24.4 5 6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth my hand against him And why so because he is the annointed of the Lord that is not because he is a good man but because he is my King Nay we are not only forbidden to offer violence That we are to protect our King with the hazard of our lives but we are also injoyned to give our best assistance to protect the persons of our most wicked Kings for David not only staid his servants with the former words and suffered them not to rise against Saul but when Saul lay sleeping within his trench and David and Abishai took away his speare and had the power to destroy him What saith David unto Abner Art not thou a Valiant man And who is like thee in Israel Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth 1 Sam. 15.16 ye are worthy to dye because you have not kept your Master the Lords annointed And if this thing is not good and David jesteth not but sweareth As the Lord liveth they are worthy to dye that preserve not the life of their King be he never so wicked then certainly this thing is not good and they are more then worthy to die that not only refuse to assist but also rise in Arms to persecute and to take away the life of a most Pious and a Gracious King So you see the person whom we are to honor the King whatsoever he be good or bad 2. The Honor that we are to exhibite unto him is to be considered out of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word so significant that it not only comprehendeth all the duty which we owe to our Father and Mother but it is also used to express most if not all the service of God when he saith If I am a father Malach. 1.5 where is my honor And therefore when Ahassuerus asked Haman What should be done unto the man Whom the King would honor he answered let the Royall apparell be brought which the King useth to weare and the Horse that the King rideth upon
will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
his sheep and not to flea them that is The duty of a good Shepherd two-fold 1. Negative what he should not do to his sheep 1. Not flea the sheep to clip and shear the wooll and not to cut and teare the skin with the wooll and therefore Christ bids S. Peter feed my sheep and not feed thy self upon my sheep which is the property of too too many Shepherds both spiritual and temporal to seek rather the wealth of their people unto themselves and not to provide for the health of their souls but this covetousness is a vice so palpable which hypocrisie is not that the people may soon discern it in their Pastor and being truly discerned they may fear the same to be rather an hireling then the true Shepherd but let them take heed how they judge John 10. Then the good Shepherd is not to be harsh and rough but gentle and meek unto his sheep for the sheep are gentle creatures and therefore they must be gently used 2 Not prove too harsh unto them and gently led and not forced for so the Psalmist saith Duxisti populum sicut oves non traxisti God led his people like sheep and drove them not like horses And therefore when Esan would have Jacob to drive his flock so as to keep him company in his hunting pace Jacob that was a skilful sheep-master answereth him not so Sir for it is a tender cattle that is under my hands and must be softly driven Gen. 33. so as they may endure or if one should over-drive them but one day they would all die or be laid up for many dayes after Indeed Rehoboam left ten parts of his flock behind him only for his rough driving of them and his harsh carriage towards them for when in a barbarous manner he chased his sheep before him and told them what yokes he would make for them a far unmeet occupation for a Prince to be a yoak-maker they all shrunk from him and ran away presently and so clean falsified his Prophesie for whereas he told them seriously that his little finger should be as big as his Fathers body it fell out clean contrary for his whole body proved not so big as his Fathers little finger But the good Shepherd whether you mean Prince or Priest will come down amongst his sheep as the Prophet David sheweth not like haâ—l-stones on the house top but like the dew into a fleece of wooll that is gently and mildly without any noise or violence at all for otherwise the wrangling Shepherd the contentious Priest that still falls out with one or other of his parishioners and turns them onely to satisfie his own humour as unworthy from his communion can never do much good unto his people but tires them rather then feeds them 2. For the affirmative or positive duties of a good Shepherd 2 Affirmative what he should do to his sheep they are especially these four 1. To provide for his sheep sweet and fresh pasture 2. To foresee and to take care how they should feed in that pasture that is when and how much they should eat thereof for if the sheep be not warily looked unto in a fresh pasture instead of being fatted they may very easily be spoiled when the eating of too much sweet grass stayeth not in them but scoureth away all their fatness and soundness from them 3. To protect and defend them from the fury of their Foes Wolves Dogs Foxes and the like ravenous Beasts that do continually seek to disturb and destroy them 4. To watch over them lest by their wandring they should miscarry and be lost or otherwise perish out of the way And in all these respects besides many others our Saviour Christ hath approved himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that good Shepherd which excelled all the best Shepherds of the world For 1. 1 How Christ performed the negative part of a good Shepherd Touching the negative duties of a Shepherd Christ came not to gather wealth with Craesus nor to enlarge his dominions with Alexander but to save our souls and so Saint Paul saith I seek not yours but you and so every faithful Minister of Christ should not so much hunt after the wealth of their flocks as the health of their souls though this denieth not but as the Sheep should yield her fleece unto her Shepherd so should the people pay all dues and duties unto their Minister for as S. 1 Cor. 9.7 Paul saith Who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock And as he came not to enrich himself by his people so he was no wayes harsh and severe unto his people Num. 12.3 but as Moses was the meekest man upon earth and carried the children of Israel in his bosom as a nursing Father beareth a sucking Child to use Moses his own words Num. 11.12 so was Christ meek and lowly in heart and never denied any that sought unto him nor failed any man that trusted in him And so he willeth all his Ministers to be gentle and courteous unto the people for as the very heathen saith Peragit tranquilla potestas Quod violenta nequit We may sooner win men by perswasion then by compulsion rather by fair meanes and a sweet language then by foul means and rough terms as it appeareth by that parable which Damascen setteth down of the contestation betwixt the Sun and the Wind which of them was most powerfull to make the traveller cast off his cloak who the faster the wind blew the faster he held his cloak about him but the Sun with the influence of his first sweet and then piercing beams made him quickly to cast off both his cloak and his coat And therefore such a Shepherd of Christ his flock as the Poet speaks of Non pater est Aeacus that is not the gentle Child of this meek Father but Te saxum te genuere ferae such as the churlish and rough hewn Nabal was to David is fitter to drive wild Horses then to lead the harmless sheep and they do rather chase men like Nimrod from the Lord then win them with S. Paul by all fair means to our Saviour Christ as you may see how he seeks to lead the Romans unto Christ saying I beseech you brethren Rom. 12.1 by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Which makes me wonder at those rough collectors of Churches out of the Church of Christ by receiving some and rejecting others into their flock as if the day of judgement were now come Mat. 11.28 to separate the sheep from the goats and to cast off the tares from the wheat when as our chief Shepherd and this good Shepherd saith Come unto me all ye that are weary and â—eavy laden and I will ease you 2. 2 How Christ performed the affirmatâ—ve part of a good Shepherd 1. Christ provideth food