unprofitable the fig-tree or the apple-tree or others when they are unprofitable and beare no fruit you may make a pin of them to hang a vessell on but the vine what is it good for surely it is good for nothing but the fire from one end to the other of it you cannot make a pin to hang a vessell on So either there must be grapes there must be fruit or woe and eternall perdition To distribute and to doe good forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Heb. 13.16 To doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased HEre is an Exhortation and the Reason to enforce it The Exhortation is To doe good and to communicate And then doe wee doe good when we doe communicate that good that God hath given us to the good of others Wee have done with the Exhortation Wee come to the Reason that the Apostle useth to enforce the Exhortation withall For with such sacrifices God is well pleased Hee saith not With such workes God is well pleased but with such sacrifices There are spirituall sacrifices Prayer is one and Thanksgiving another and Repentance another and Beneficence another But the thing that is offered to God in all these spirituall sacrifices is the heart A devout heart in Prayer a broken heart in Repentance a gratefull heart in Thanksgiving and a tender compassionate heart in Beneficence And it is the tendernesse and compassionatenesse and the charitablenesse of the heart that makes it a sacrifice to God and well-pleasing to him and accepted of him Againe hee doth not say This is such a sacrifice as God requires though hee doe require it too but This is such a sacrifice as God is well pleased with It is motive enough to perswade a good child to doe this or that if it be a thing that will please his father It is motive enough to perswade a faithfull honest-hearted servant to doe a thing to tell him This will please your Master It is enough to perswade any good subiect to doe this or that to assure him the thing will please his Soveraigne It is motive enough to a Christian heart to perswade him to doe good and communicate to assure him that this is a thing that God is well pleased with But yet it is not every work done not every thing that is in it of the substance of a good work that is pleasing to God there is more required then so to make a sacrifice acceptable to God There is something required in the doer and There is somewhat required in the thing done There is somewhat required in the doer First hee must be in Christ that will offer a sacrifice acceptable to God Take these Rules First If the person of a man please not God his works can never please him God accepted Abel and his sacrifice Abel first and then his sacrifice God never accepts a mans offering till first hee accept of his person Now God accepts of no mans person but in Christ this is hee in whom I am well pleased The Apostle calls Christ the Sonne of Gods love and there are none that ever God loves but hee loves them in his Sonne the Sonne of his love Col. 1.13 That is one ground Another is Though a work be good as it comes from the Spirit of God the Author of all goodnesse yet it cannot come thorow our fingers but wee soyle it All our righteousnesses are as menstruous cloaths If God should bee extreme to marke what is done amisse in our best works who were able to obide it Even as the offering of the children of Israel it was called a holy offering yet as holy as it was there was some iniquity in that holy offering but that was laid on Aaron and when hee bare the iniquity of all the other the men and their workes were accepted So it is here the workes of a Christian man may be good workes good in substance because they are works that God requires at his hands Then they may be good in the fountaine when they spring from the Author of all goodnesse And good in the end because they are done to the glory of God and the good of our brethren But yet as there was some iniquity did cleave to the holy offering of the children of Israel as holy as it was so there is some iniquity cleaves to our good worke how good soever it be when that iniquity that cleaves to our workes is laid upon Christ who in his owne body on the tree bare the iniquity of us all then our persons and workes are graciously accepted and all the iniquity that cleaves to our workes mercifully pardoned This is the first thing What is required in the doer to make his beneficence acceptable to God But here is not all there is something required in the thing done and that I shall shew you in the remainder of the time by Gods grace And I shall lay it down in foure Rules The first is about the end And you must not wonder that I begin at the end for howsoever the end is the thing last attained yet it is the thing first intended it is the first thing in a mans intention And besides God regards not so much quid as propter quid not so much what wee doe as for what we doe A man may doe good works for ill ends and then hee must not look that God should accept them It is the end that commends the action Now there are three ill ends of doing good works One end that some propound to themselves in doing good works is to make satisfaction to divine iustice for the sins they have committed The Apostle would have us doe good works for necessary uses but God never appointed this use of good works Our good works may be tokens of our secret predestination they may be fore-tokens of our future happinesse but to think that by doing good wee can make recompense and satisfaction to divine iustice and appease the infinite wrath of God for sinne before the which the very Angels themselves are not able to stand it is a senslesse and gracelesse fancie tending much to the dishonour of Christ and that all-sufficient satisfaction that hee hath made for the sinnes of the world when hee offered up his flesh a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God That is one ill end Secondly some propound another end that is to merit eternall blisse by it And our English men Rhemists Romish English men by birth and Rhemists by education and Romish by profession oft times stand to it to prove that good works are truly and properly meritorious ex condigno even of very condignity In so much say they in their Comment upon Heb. 6. Good works are so farre meritorious that God were uniust if hee should not give heaven to our good works hee were uniust if hee should not yeild heaven to our good works This is the onely place wherein they
remedie but the cords of your tabernacles must be fastned among the tents of Kedar among Idolaters then learne and remember how Noah lived in the old world hee walked with God when all the world walked from him Remember how Lot lived in Sodome how Joseph lived in the Court of Pharaoh and Obadiah in the Court of Ahab and Daniel in the Court of Babylon Remember how the Saints lived in Neros houshold Phil. 4.22 Remember a Church that held the Name of God and denied not the Faith that lived in such a place where Satan's throne was The fish keepes the fresh taste though it live in salt-water A Myrtle loseth not the nature it is a Myrtle still though it grow in the midst of netles It is a foule shame to live among good men in good places not be good but it is an high commendation to live among evill men in evill places and not be ill Thus much shall suffice concerning the Idoll It was a calfe and they learned to make it in Egypt I come now to their worke the making of it They made a calfe in Horeb. There are three circumstances in that making of it First who were they that made it They made it Secondly where did they make it In Horeb. Thirdly of what did they make it That my Text speakes not of here but wee must take it out of the story It was of the golden eare-rings that Aaron tooke out of the eares of the men and women of their sonnes and daughters and of that they made a calfe They made a calfe in Horeb. For the first the persons that made it They made it The Hebrewes the Jewes would very faine put this from themselves they say that there were some Egyptians that were mingled among them and indeed wee reade that there came out a great multitude a mixed confused company came out of Egypt but they were not these only that made the calf the Israelites themselves made it too They made it Yet I doe not thinke that all of them had a hand in making of it I make no question but some of them hated this calfe with a perfect hatred and them that made it them that worshipped it they were but some of the people that made it Harke what the Apostle saith Let us not be Idolaters as some of them were Idolaters 1 Corinth 10.7 But some of them were Idolaters yea a great company of them were Idolaters They made the calfe But how can it be said they made it for if you look in the story wee shall finde that Aaron made it Aaron threw their gold into the fornace Aaron polished the calfe Aaron set up an Altar Aaron proclaimed an holy day To morrow shall be an holy day unto the Lord. It was Aaron that made it why is it not said that Aaron made the calfe in Horeb but They made the calfe Marke those words where this storie is set downe Exod. 32. verse ult It is said there that God plagued the people for their sinne in making the calfe that Aaron made Marke God plagued the people for their sinne in making the calfe that Aaron made So the people and Aaron both made it the people first They made it Take these rules A man may have a hand hee may have fellowship in the unfruitfull workes of darknesse many waies foure especially It is the usuall phrase of Scripture 1. A man is said to doe that that he doth not himself but another man if he command it that is one So David slew Uriah the Hittite with the sword because hee commanded him to be set in the Army where he might be slaine with the sword of the Children of Ammon Secondly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if hee doe counsell and perswade to it and entice and solicite to it Thus the High-Priests and the Scribes and Pharisees are said with their wicked hands to take Christ and to crucifie him and to hang him on a tree They with their wicked hands did not doe it but they perswaded Pilate to doe it with much importunity therefore they did it Thirdly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if hee occasion the doing of it It is said of Judas that hee purchased a field Acts 1. ver 18. This man purchased a field Judas did not purchase it but Judas by returning the money to the treasury again for which he sold Christ gave them occasion to purchase it therefore this man purchased the field Fourthly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if he doe not hinder the doing of it if he ought and might hinder it The men of Tyrus came upon the Sabbath day and sold wares in Jerusalem Nehemiah that good governour hee goes to the Rulers of the people and saith What is this that you doe and breake the Sabbath Nehem 13. They brake it because they should have hindred the breaking of it and did it not Wee have sinnes enough and too many of our own to answer for wee need not answer for the sins of others yet wee shall answer for the sins of others too for all those sinnes that other men have committed if either wee Command them Counsell them Occasion them Or not hinder them Aaron made the calfe but yet they made it because they would have him make it Aaron made it It is a thing to be considered a little Whether did Aaron sinne in making this calfe or no Did Aaron well in yielding to the people in making this calfe Tantum Sacerdotem condemnare non audemus c. saith S. Ambrose We dare not condemne so great an High-Priest and we cannot tell how to justifie and excuse him yet some in former time and one of late dayes in our time but a Papist hath written a book Munsius de AARONE purgato of Aaron purged Hee will free Aaron from all manner of sinne in making of this calfe but it will not be Should he purge him with Nitre and with Fullers sope seven times over hee could not doe it I see the Fathers are wondrous carefull in extenuating this sin and we may doe that excuse it we cannot we must needs acknowledge it a very great sin in this High-Priest First of all say they the people would have him doe it hee would not have done it else Well be it so hee was now a Governour left under Moses hee should have been more vigilant and have looked better to his government The permission of an evill is as great an evill as the commission of it Woe to that people that are humoured in their sins either by the Ministers or by the Magistrates the one should check them the other should punish them but woe to the people that are humoured in them But then you will say This people was set upon a mischief they would have it there would be no remedie Indeed Aaron told Moses so It is true they were so Be they so
may fall to morrow O Consider thy selfe either thou art tempted or hast been tempted or mayest be tempted as that man was The Lord would have Aaron to fall that hee might look with an eye of compassion upon sinners Then lastly It pleased God to suffer him to fall thus that hee might be a warning to us Quomodò tener Agnus c. Alas how shall the tender Lamb doe when the Bell-wether of the flock is thus endangered If Aaron the saint of the Lord as hee is called in this Psalme a man so familiarly acquainted with God and divine visions and a man that had been so powerfull with Moses in working miracles a man that approached so near to God a man so long conversant with God a man that had gone of so many errands of God as hee did with Moses to Pharaoh If so holy and so great a man as hee fell into so great a sinne as this then let us learn to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Howle Firr-tree saith the Prophet when the Cedar fals Be not high-minded but feare It is the use wee are to mak of it So much for the first circumstance The second circumstance is Where they made this calfe In Horeb. There ran all along in Arabia a ridge of mountaines it was but one mountain but there were two great tops of it Sinai was one and Horeb was the other and you shall finde them sometime called by the one name and sometimes by the other sometimes the whole mountaine is called by the name of Sinai sometimes all the mountaine is called by the name of Horeb sometime by the one top sometime by the other Now this is a thing to be observed they were not gone yet from Horeb the law was given in Sinai but a little before where the Lord charged them out of the fire Thou shalt not make an Image to me they were but at the foot of the hill and had not tarried there much above a month after the law was given they saw mount Sinai before them that was the higher top and they could not but remember how mount Sinai was all on a smoaking fire and flame and with what earnestnesse God had charged them Thou shalt not make any similitude of mee they were not yet gone altogether from the mountaine they were yet in Horeb and yet you see as it is ver 13. They made haste and forgat God and fell to this sinne so saith God to Moses Goe get the downe this people are quickly gone out of the way Exod 32.7 You may see it in this I stand not upon that point The third circumstance is Whereof did they make this calfe They made it of their golden eare-rings Pull off the golden ear-rings saith he from your wives and your sonnes and your Daughters and give them to mee No doubt of it but the servant of God Aaron would faine by this have diverted them from making them a calfe Hee would faine have turned them from it if hee could Hee knew that all those people in those Easterne parts were much delighted in ornaments in eare-rings they say they weare them usually there to this day And suppose hee could perswade the men to be content to part with their ornaments out of their eares yet he thought it impossible to get the women to part with theirs What for a woman to part with her jewels and ornaments This seems a thing impossible You see they are so desirous of them they will many of them pinch their bellies that they may lay somewhat more upon their backes We know there are many that had rather their bellies should want sufficient sustenance then their backes a superfluous ornament You see what a hard matter it is to get women to leave an idle instrument or a bagge of vanity that they carrie about with them but to leave their jewels to part with their ornaments hee never thought they would doe it though the men might part from theirs yet they all do both men and women Wee may observe how easily men and women will part with any thing to maintaine Idolatry I cannot tell whether it be as that Father imagined the pride of our hearts that wee are in love with the workes of our owne hands with the devices of our owne braine with the invention of our own spirits that because they are our own we like them Or whether it be the vigilancy of the divell that roaring lyon that goes about seeking whom he may devoure or what else is the cause I know not but this I know men are more willing to part with any thing to an Idoll to a superstitious worship then to the true worship and service of God And for this cause Idolatry may fitly be compared to whoredome You see a whoremonger will be pinching and sparing enough to his wife and children at home but he cares not how expensive and excessive and lavish he be upon his whores abroad Thus it is in spirituall whoredome men are never so niggardly as in the worship of God but they are content to part with any thing for the maintaining of Idolatry This forwardnesse of this people even to pull their very eare-rings out of their eares to bestow upon an Idoll it will rise up and condemne us that are not willing to pull any thing out of our purses to the worship and service of God Many men in this liberall age we live in are content with the Wise men to take a great journey to see Christ peradventure they are content to fall downe and worship him but they are not willing with those Wise-men to open their treasures Speake to them of opening their treasures whether for works of piety to God or of charity to men then they stand at it as Naaman the Assyrian Nay the Lord be mercifull to me for that Brethren I could speak a great deale more to this purpose but I am loath to trouble you Then besides I know how unnecessary this is in this place I have had many a time here twice especially a plentifull experience of your forwardnesse I have seene how your hearts have beene enlarged in bounty towards the enlarging of this place towards the maintenance of the Ministery and service of God in this place I need not speake of that now But yet I will exhort you now to a worke of charity Do you remember the Briefe that was read even now for that poore towne of Cambridge Me thought your hearts did even yearne within you with pity and compassion to heare of almost 3000. poore distressed soules brought into this extreame misery through the hand of * The great plague in Cambridge Aug. 1630. God Brethren I need say no more I beseech you give us that are your servants in ordinary here in the worke of the Ministery both of the one side and of the other we are all brought up in the Universities I pray give us leave to repaire to your houses and If
the City it was now departed Wee have the glory of God yet in our Land and may it be the good pleasure of God to continue this glory among us till Jesus Christ come in glory with all his Saints But brethren doth not this glory of God seeme to remove doth it not seeme to fleet a little O should God withdraw his word from us and the profession of it Should God remove the candlesticke out of his place should God withdraw this gracious presence of his in all his Ordinances then I tell you Mothers what you should name your children that are borne next Icabod Where is glory when God is gone from you I read of some foolish Nations that were wont to fetter and chaine their gods that they might not depart from them Surely our God cannot be chained nor fettered but yet there is a way to hold him still when hee seemes to be departing I gat hold on him saith the Church and would not let him goe Cant. 3.4 I will not let thee goe till thou blesse mee saith Jacob Genes 32. v. 26. When our blessed Lord seemed to the two men that were travelling to Emaus that hee would leave them the Scripture saith They constrained him to stay with them We may constraine our God there is a holy violence we may offer to our God by repentant teares and importunate prayers by which wee may stay our God with us still and this is as Tertullian calls it A holy violence pleasing and acceptable to God But I stand no more upon the words now I come to the thing They changed their glory that is their God How may a people change their God They may change their God two waies First when they forsake him and set up and worship some other God in his stead as the people forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth Judges 2.13 This is the grossest kind of Idolatry This is a breach of the first Commandement Or secondly a people may change their God when they change the truth of God into a lie when they represent and worship God in an Image when they represent God in a corporeall a visible a finite a circumscribed Majesty this is to change a God this is against the second Commandement And you must know that thus the people changed their God here at this time for wee doe not thinke that they made this calfe to be their god Their sin was bad enough let not us make it worse then it was They had cast off now all Religion and the feare of God let not us thinke they had cast off sense and reason with it Can wee imagine that this people were such calves as to think that the calf that they themselves had made yesterday was the very God that brought them out of Egyt three months before the calfe was made Never imagine that they took not this calfe to be their god What then They tooke it to be a figurative signe of their god I know they call it their god These are the gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt Or as it is in Nehemiah chap. 9. verse 18. This is thy God O Israel that brought thee out of the land of Egypt But as this Image is called a calfe in my Text They made a calfe in Horeb though it was no calfe but the Image of a calfe So they called it their god but they did not thinke it to be their god they tooke it as an Image of their god as a figurative signe of their god therefore Aaron proclaimes To morrow is an holy day to Jehovah not to the calfe but to Jehovah whom they worshipped in the calfe I pray marke this rule that I shall give you The truth of God is turned to a lie and God is changed to the Image that is worshipped though God himselfe and none but hee be worshipped in that Image I say God is changed into that Image that is worshipped for him though the true God and none but he be worshipped in that Image Here is the reason of it The rule of Divine worship is not the will of the worshipper but it is the will of him that is worshipped Now it was never Gods will to be worshipped in an Image Take a similitude Suppose a subject a vassall should devise an honour of his owne braine to his Soveraigne to his King and hee should set up a toad and hee will have it in a glasse and come every morning and bow to that toad and being asked why hee did so hee should say O I doe it not to the toad but to the honour of my Soveraigne and Prince doe you think this Prince will like well to be resembled by a toad I tell you brethren there is a thousand times a greater disproportion between Almighty God and an Image set up for him then there is between a Prince and a toad Not to speake of that infinite inequality and distance that is between God and a mortall man there is a great distance even between a toad and an Idoll a great difference For The toad is the workmanship of God an Idoll as is an Idoll it is the workmanship of man A toad it is a living creature it hath sense and motion the Image is a senselesse block it hath neither life nor motion Therefore heare how it pleaseth the Spirit of God in Scripture to call consecrated Images hee calls them sometimes lies sometimes vanities sometimes nay oft abominations sometime Dung-hill-gods sometimes Divels You worshipped divels What divels Idols the worke of their owne hands Revel 9.20 I pray heare how the Spirit of God in Scripture shewes his detestation of all Images in his service Hearken how hee thunders in the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image thou shalt not bow downe and worship it Hearken what the Prophet Esay saith Confounded be all they that worship Images Hearken what the Apostle saith in the New Testament Babes take heed of Idols 1 John c. ult v. ult I pray looke over the Bible and see if ever you finde any of Gods children except at such times as they had corrupted their waies worshipping of Images Enough out of Scripture against Images Now because wee are in this controversie to deale with such men whom the authority of Scripture doth not satisfie such unreasonable men as are not content with the authority of Scripture and because they say this stands upon tradition the worshipping of Images in the Church I pray give mee leave a little besides my custome to shew you the testimony of the Fathers the determination of Councels and the long tradition of the Church against Images Of every one a word and some few of many There is no point that a man may be so copious in as in this First for Fathers Fieri non potest c. so Origen It is not possible that a man should know God and be a suppliant to an Image There is no doubt saith
Lactantius but there is no Religion where there is a worshipping of Images It is a most indigne thing saith Tertullian that the Image of a dead man should be worshipped by man that is the Image of the living God We make no figure or representation of the Saints saith Anthelopius Bishop of Hiponium Wee have no need of them saith Ambrose God will not be worshipped by a stone We worship no Image saith Austine but that Image that is the same that God himselfe is hee meanes Christ the substantiall Image of the Father I could goe on but this is enough Come then to Councels The Councell of Illeberos in Spaine for at that time by the negligence of the Bishops Images were crept into the Church then that Councell decreed there should be no pictures in the Church The Constantinople Councell condemned all Images in the Church of God and so did the Councell at Frankfort under Charles the Great For the Tradition of the Church For three hundred yeares after Christ it is confessed by some of our Adversaries themselves that there were no Images in the Churches of God Three hundred yeares after that six hundred yeares after Christ then began Images in the Churches then the people began to yield some worship to them Gregorie the Great Bishop of Rome condemned the worshipping of them Hee allowed them and hee did ill to allow them to be in the Church to be provocations to Idolatry yet hee condemned the worshipping of them Thus it continued six hundred yeares after Christ Between six and eight hundred yeares there came a marvelous stirre in the Church of God between the Easterne and the Westerne Churches about the worshipping of Images The Bishops of the West under Rome were all for Images The good Emperour of the East was against it a bloudy war there was about it and thus it continued for above an hundred yeares Then Minera the Empresse in the minority of her Sonne a cruell Idolatrous woman and marke when you will Idolatry is cruell shee caused the second Nycene Councell to be called and there was first decreed the worshipping of Images in the Church of God in the yeare of our Lord 788. Till then Images were never appointed publikely to be worshipped in the Church yea after that time the worshipping of Images got not a peaceable quiet profession in the Church of God Charles the Great Emperour in the West mightily opposed it hee called his Bishops together at Franckford they mightily opposed the worshipping of Images Yea I pray marke that duty that concernes us in our Kingdome Charles the Great hee sent that Act of that second idolatrous Nycene Councell to our Bishops in England to know how they liked it They said Alas for woe we finde in those Acts many things against Christian Religion especially this that the worshipping of Images is decreed which the Church of God curseth Marke our Bishops Fore-fathers in England about eight hundred yeares since held that a doctrine which the Church of God curseth yea and that against all the Tables of Gods Law against the preaching of the Prophets against the institution of the Apostles against the custome of the old Church against the practice of the primitive Church against the cleare testimonies of the Fathers against the determination of Councels against a continued Tradition for almost eight hundred yeares together The beauty of the Church as one complaines in defiance of God and Man is now polluted with the very filth of Paganisme and Christian Churches are pestred as much as ever the heathen Temples were with Idols I come now to the proof of that that is the fourth point viz. That The worshipping of Images as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome is plaine Paganisme and Idolatry The Paganish and Popish Idolatry is all one I say the worshipping of Images as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome is plaine heathenish Idolatry How is it taught and how is it practised For the doctrine of their Church it is hard for a man to set it downe The determination of the Councell of Trent about it is a very nose of wax you may turne it any way They tell us of our divisions among our selves It is a wonder to see how they interferre and strike one on another in the point of worshipping of Images It is hard to say what they teach But I will tell you thus much Isolius the Jesuite saith This is the constant opinion of the Divines of our Church that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is This was the doctrine of Thomas of Aquine whom they make a Saint This was the doctrine of all his followers This was the doctrine of Nauclantus a Bishop in Italy upon Romanes 1. Wee doe not saith hee worship before an Image as some men are wont casually to speake but we worship the Image it selfe and that with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is Peter Precavaria a great professour of Divinity in Spaine saith This doctrine is the onely true and pious doctrine agreeable to the decrees of the Christian faith Hee alledgeth nineteene of the speciall School-men that all were of this opinion besides himself We take this then to be the doctrine of the Church of Rome that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is They that have travelled into foreigne parts have found that the practise of that Church is as bad as these Theorems Confessed by some of the modest sort of them that their people were growne to a kinde of piety that did not differ much from impiety You will say it if you consider First the Image it selfe Then the worship that is given to that Image And then the rites and ceremonies in the performance of that worship Consider first the Images themselves What difference can you finde in the Images between the Popish Images and the Images of the Gentiles Look to the matter of them they are the very same The matter of the Gentiles Images was silver and gold and brasse and wood and stone this is the matter of Popish Images Look to the outward forme of their Images they are the very same The Gentiles Images were the work of mens hands they had eyes and could not see they had eares and could not heare they had mouths and could not speake they had hands and could not work they had feet and could not walk Popish Images they see no more they heare no more they speake no more they doe no more they walke no further then the heathens Images Thus much for the Image it selfe Then come secondly to the acts of devotion performed to these Images The Gentiles were wont to bow to them so doe the Papists The Gentiles were wont to pray to them so doe the Papists The Gentiles were wont to render thanks to them so doe the Papists The
a revocation of a fearfull sentence against a whole Nation what may a multitude of Gods chosen ones doe uniting their forces and soliciting heaven for mercy I know beloved brethren what opinion the world hath of Gods children of Gods chosen ones they doe not onely thinke them to be contemptible things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speakes the very filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things unto this day Men of no name as Job saith Nay men of no being Those things that are not saith the Apostle They may have a being in nature but they have no being in the esteeme and account of men those things that are not And they not onely thinke them thus but besides the only troublesome dangerous men in a state Ahab tooke Eliah to be the man that troubled all Israel The men of Thessalonica tooke Jason and the brethren in his house to be the men that turned the world upside downe as they speake Acts 17. ver 5. Tertullus accuseth Paul to be a pestilent fellow nay it is somewhat worse in the Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the abstract the pestilence it selfe a plague one that moved sedition thorow the world where hee came Acts 24. In the first ages of the Church if either Tyber at any time did flow above the accustomed height or Nilus did not flow to the accustomed height if either there were famine or pestilence in the land or any calamity they laid all the fault upon the Christians the Christians were in the fault away with the Christians to the lions with them as though they were men not worthy to live in the world Yet hearken I pray what the Apostle saith for all that in Hebrew 11. ver 38. The world was not worthy of them Hee speakes of some men that wandred up and downe in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute afflicted tormented yet the world was not worthy of them Why not worthy These men bring blessings to the places where they come they bring blessings to the world the world is not worthy of these blessings therefore not worthy of the men that procured them And what blessings will you say doe Gods children bring to a place I tell you they bring a blessing with their very presence their very presence is a blessing The presence of Jacob was a blessing in the house of Laban The very presence of Joseph was a blessing in the house of Potiphar And what a blessing was in the widow of Zarephath's house when Eliah was there Then they procure a blessing with their prayers where they come Jam. 5.16 The prayer of a faithfull man prevailes much with God God promised this to Abimelech as a great favour Gen. 20.5 My servant Abraham shall pray for thee And the like favour is promised to the three friends of Job Goe saith God to those three men Job's friends goe every one of you offer a burnt offering seven bullockes and seven lambes for a burnt offering and my servant Job shall pray for you Job ult 8. Thirdly they procure blessings by their good example of life because they shine as stars among a wicked and froward generation Yea and they procure this blessing not onely to private houses as Jacob did to the house of Laban and Joseph to the house of Potiphar but to the whole society to all that are in the company There were in the ship with Paul two hundred seventy and six soules in a mighty shipwrack not one of those men perished not a haire fell from the head of any one of them and all for Paul's sake They bring a blessing to the whole company that is with them Nay further they bring a blessing to a whole City where they be Runne to and fro saith the Lord to the Prophet in the streets of Jerusalem and see if you can finde a man that will execute judgement and speake the truth and I will spare the City for his sake Jer. 5.1 If there had been but ten men in Sodome righteous it had not been destroyed there was but one righteous man found there and God could doe nothing to Sodome till hee was out of it Get thee gone saith the Angell to Lot I can doe nothing till thou be gone Nay further they doe good to the whole country wherein they live Wee are not in a continent here wee live in an Island And hearken what Eliphaz the Temanite saith according to our former translation our new somewhat varies but the words will beare as well the one as the other The righteous shall deliver the Island and it shall be delivered through the uprightnesse of his hands Job 22. ult Nay I will goe further The children of God are not the men that turne the world upside downe they are the men that keepe it upright Were it not for the Elect in the world God would soone turne it upside downe It is for the Elects sake that hee keepes it up as soone as the Elect are gathered together the world will be at an end Let mee make use of it and I have done Doth God for the righteous sake shew favour to the wicked mee thinkes the wicked for their owne sakes should shew favour to the righteous If Moses were gone and the wrath of God begin to burne like fire against us who should run to the gap and to the breach If Aaron were gone and the plague should wax hot among us who should run with his censer and stand between the living and the dead and make atonement for us If war should be in the land and if the Chariots and Horse-men of Israel were gone who should fight for us A fearefull presage of an utter destruction and was ever held so is the untimely end of many eminent persons in the Church or Common-wealth a fearfull presage Methuselah if you marke the story did live to the very six hundredth yeare of Noah's life and in the second month of that six hundredth yeare the Flood came Methuselah was but new dead and as soone as Methuselah was dead God sent the Flood As soone as Josiah that good King was slaine then came that miserable captivity Esay chap. 57. ver 1. The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and good men are taken away Why from the evill that is to come Marke that from the evill that is to come God takes those away those would hinder him those would run to the breach those would stay divine justice from proceeding further hee takes them away Let me conclude this point You have had here one worke of Moses let mee tell you of another in another history In the 17th of Exodus there was war between Israel and Amalek Moses hee gate up on the hill and held his hands to God in prayer As long as Moses his hands were held up Israel prevailed when Moses his hands grew faint come Aaron and Hur one on the one hand and the other on the other
and hold up his hands and prop them up that they might not be weary Brethren wee should all be holding up our hands to God for mercy If thou out of conscience of thine owne unworthinesse thinkest surely that God will not regard the holding up of thine hands he will never have an eye to thine hands when thou holdest them up yet doe as Aaron and Hur hold up the hands of them whose hands thou thinkest God will respect If thou canst not act Moses his part act Aarons and Hurs Alas the hands of Gods children are faint they are discouraged their knees are feeble with prayer O encourage them lift up their hands it may be God will yet heare their prayers and shew mercy to them Thus much shall serve for the first point It was Moses that got the sentence revoked I come to the other the meanes by which he got it revoked hee stands in the breach had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach A military phrase a phrase taken from the wars If a City be besieged and if the enemy without by a ram or any other warlike Engine hath made a breach in the wall all that are men of courage and valour runne to the wall runne to the breach and strive by all meanes possible to keepe the enemy from entring in at that breach chat hee hath made This fearefull sinne of the people had made a breach by which divine justice might have entred and have brought an utter destruction upon them all Moses runnes to the breach and sets himselfe between God and the people that God should not proceed further to their destruction Now you must note he stood in the breach two waies First by a due execution of justice And then by an earnest importunate intercession for mercy First I say by the execution of justice Doth the wrath of God at any time burne like fire against a sinfull people There are two things whereby it may be quenched A man may quench the wrath of God in regard of any temporall calamity the fire of Gods wrath with two things two liquors The one is blood The other is teares The blood I meane is the blood of malefactors principall malefactors that shall be shed with the sword of justice The teares I speake of are such teares as are shed by principall men by the Favourites of heaven in their prayers for mercy Moses doth both he pleads Gods cause here against the people and he pleads the peoples again with God First Causam Dei apud populum gladio he pleads Gods cause against the people with a sword of justice hee pleads the peoples cause against God with teares and prayers in both hee shewes himselfe a zealous Magistrate and I cannot tell whether hee shew himselfe more zealous to the glory of God in the one or more zealous of the peoples good in the other For the first his execution of justice There is a way to stand in the breach Moses is said to be the mildest man that was upon the earth but I pray marke what this mild man did when hee saw the glory of God bestowed upon a base filthy inglorious abomination First hee comes from the Mount and brings the Tables of God in his hand and casts down the Tables and breakes them I doe not thinke hee did it through impotency of passion Mark his words Deuteronom 9. ver 17. mee thinkes hee did it advisedly but with some secret warrant from God Hee saw the people had broken the Covenant and hee before their eyes breakes the Tables of the Covenant the most precious monument that ever the world had This was the first thing hee did Hee stayes not here hee goes to the Calfe the sinne that they had made as hee calls it he takes it and breakes it to pieces stampes it to powder hee beats it as small as dust and casts it into the brooke and makes them drink the water of it these are the Gods that shall goe before them Let them looke their god in their urine He is not yet content but cries Who is on the Lords side And the Tribe of Levi come and gird their swords on their sides and run from one side of the camp to the other and slay every man his brother and every man his Father and every man his companion They slew at that time three thousand and with the blood of these three thousand hee slacked the wrath of God The sonnes of Levi never offered a sacrifice of the flesh of beasts that was a sacrifice of so sweet a smelling favour in the nostrils of God as this sacrifice of their brethren When a sinne is committed wherewith earth is annoyed and heaven provoked the justice of God sets out presently against that sin but goes on slowly very slowly hee will see whether mans justice will follow after it or no if mans justice overtake it Gods justice pursues it no further there is an end There may be easily an unmercifull cruelty in the shedding of blood and there may be an over-cruell mercy in the sparing of it Jonah was no sooner cast out of the ship but the sea was quiet Achan and his family were no sooner stoned to death and burned with fire but Israel prevailed The sonnes of Saul were no sooner hanged but the famine ceased Phineas stood up and executed judgement and the plague was stayed in verse 30. of this Psalme As soone as this blood of three thousand men that were principall offenders in this Idolatry as soone as that was shed as soone as that blood was throwne upon the fire of Gods wrath the fire slacked presently But yet it was not quenched till his prayer came There is the second way his prayer Jam. 5.16 The prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much if it be fervent Can you finde a more fervent prayer then this that Moses made for this people Mark the prayer you shall finde it Exodus 32. where this story is set downe First hee puts God in mind of his propriety in this people It was thy people O God c. God before called them Moses his people as you may perceive when God bids him goe downe Goe downe for thy people that thou hast brought out of Egypt c. Moses disclaimes them as if he should say Lord they are none of my people they are thy people Wilt thou lose any thing that is thine There is his first argument His second argument is from Gods great workes Lord thou hast brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand Wee love not to lose our former benefits our former benefits are lost if they be not seconded with new Lord wilt thou lose thy former favours done to this people The third argument is hee puts God in mind of his glory Lord what will the Egyptians say Thou hast brought them forth with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arme Why is it To kill them in the mountaines To consume them from the earth Lord how
soule when he doth communicate such a thing as may be a means of a wel-being here in the state of grace and of his eternall wel-being hereafter in the state of glory Now to doe good both to the soule and body of thy brother forget not for with such sacrifice c. I begin with the soule first that is the principall part Doest thou see thy brother ignorant of some truth that hee should know that is necessary to salvation Thou canst not doe him a greater good then to instruct him Doest thou see him doubtfull what to doe Why then doe him good to direct him Doest thou see them over-taken with some infirmity Why then testore them againe as the Apostle saith Brethren if any of you be over-taken with infirmity you that are spirituall restore such a man The Greek word is put him in ioynt againe hee is out of ioynt set him right put him in ioynt with the spirit of meeknesse and gentlenesse Doest thou see thy brother unruly and rush into sinne as the horse into the battaile Thou mayest doe a great deale of good to admonish and reprove him to pluck him as Iude saith in his Epistle out of the fire that hee perish not Doest thou see thy poore brother feeble and weak-hearted Thou shalt doe a great deale of good then to encourage him Doest thou see him deiected and cast downe and almost swallowed up of despaire Thou canst not doe a greater good then comfort him These things you may doe And if thou see thy brother past all help from men then thou canst not doe a greater good then to pray and beg help for him at Gods hand And in very deed that sweet Communion of Saints that we believe in the Creed I believe the Communion of Saints that Communion of Saints appears in nothing more then the doing of good thus to the soule one man of another to edifie and build up one another in our holy faith to exhort one another to holinesse of life to provoke one another to love and good works to comfort one another in sicknesse to mourne one over another for your corruptions This they may doe when they are together And then pray one for another and that they may do when they are a thousand miles asunder This is the Communion of Saints Thus wee may doe good to the soules of our brethren and to doe this good to the soules of your brethren forget not with this sacrifice God is well pleased To the body we may doe good in the outward estate many wayes I will think of these three especially First wee may doe them good defendendo by defending of our brother by defending his person from violence by defending his goods from ruine by defending his name from reproach and dishonour Pro. 24.11 Deliver him that is appointed to die if it be in thy power Deliverance it is a thing that holy Iob among other works of his hee speaks of this I delivered the poore when hee cryed and helped him that was fatherlesse I brake the iawes of the wicked in pieces and took the prey out of his teeth If thou canst doe it by thy calling if thy calling will allow thee to doe it thou art bound to doe it to doe that good to right them when they suffer wrong either in their person or goods or good name if it be in thy power to right thy brother doe good that way defend him That is one way Secondly thou mayest doe good accommodando by lending and indeed sometimes a man may doe as much good by lending as by giving And this is a work of mercy that God requires of his people mark that place Deut. 15.7,8 Thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poore brother But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth Thou shalt help and help him wide so the word is Thou shalt open wide to thy brethren and shalt surely lend to them The Originall word doubles it in lending thou shalt lend that is thou shalt surely lend and lend sufficiently according to his need So the Old Testament And Christ in the New Testament saith Lend looking for nothing again Luke 6.35 And it is the commendation given to the righteous man A righteous man is mercifull and lendeth Psal 112.5 but then mark the words that follow after too hee guides his affaires with discretion That is the second way Thirdly a man may doe good donando by free giving Of what That which is according to the necessity of our brother If he be hungry then we shall doe good to feed him to give him bread if hee be thirsty we must give him drink if hee be naked we must give him clothes if hee be sick if it be in our power wee are to give him remedy if hee be dead then to give him buriall decent buriall and among the works of charity and works of mercy you shall ever find reckoned in Scripture the buriall of the dead When the Traitor Iudas grudged at the box of Spikenard that was bestowed upon our blessed Saviour saith hee Let her alone shee hath done a good work towards my buriall And The Lord shew mercy saith David to the men of Iabesh-Gilead because they shewed mercy to his Master Saul What mercy Marry They buried his bones It is a work of mercy Thus you see how many wayes there be of doing good and communicating A man may doe good you see to the Publike many wayes And then to the Private a man may doe good to the soule to the body To the soule by instructing by directing by admonishing by reproving by encouraging by comforting by praying for them A man may doe good to the body by defending them from wrong by lending that which is necessary by giving according to their necessity that aske And thus to doe good to the Publike to Private to the soules and bodies of our brethren when it is in our power forget not it is a sacrifice with which God is pleased Seeing there are so many wayes of doing good thus I will set down two Correllaries and Consectaries two things follow on it The first is this Since there are so many wayes of doing good certainly as long as wee live here in this life wee can never want oportunity of doing good some way or other That is the first We cannot want oportunities of doing good there be so many wayes to doe it either a man shall find some ignorant poore body that hee may instruct as David did Come yee children hearken unto mee I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Or a man may find some person wronged whom hee may help and succour as Iob did Or a man may sit in his tent doore and find some stranger passe by that hee may entertaine as Abraham did Or a man may find some fatherlesse children that hee may bring up as Pharaohs daughter
brought up Moses Or a man may find some naked person that hee may clothe as Dorcas did Or a man may find some wounded person which if hee have the gift and skill of healing hee may heale as the good Samaritane did I might goe further It is impossible while thou art here but thou shalt meet with oportunities of good doing wee cannot want them Let none excuse themselves with this that they have no oportunity of doing good they may have daily either to doe good to the soules or the bodies of some or perhaps both to soule and body I must worke saith our Lord while it is day the night commeth when no man can work The day is the time of life we must follow our Lord in this work while it is day while you have now time here is the time to work good The night comes when death comes there is no more time then to doe good Eccles 9.10 whatsoever thine hand shall find to doe saith Solomon there that is whatsoever God hath enabled thee to doe whatsoever good doe it with all thy power Why there is neither working nor iudgement nor knowledge nor invention in the grave whither thou goest Thinke of that you are going now to your grave you know not how long or how short a time it may be before you come there therefore whatsoever thy hand shall find to doe whatever good God hath enabled thee to doe doe it with thy power for there is no doing of good in the grave whither thou art going Titus the Romane Emperour is commended by St. Ierome and hee deserved commendations indeed and Ierome propounds his example and saying to others as commendable Titus the Romane Emperour would every night call himselfe to account what good he had done that day and if he found that all the day long there had been no good done hee would cry out to his friend Friend I have lost a day A great losse it seemed to him but to us Christians a greater losse that know we must make account to God for every day of our life what good wee have done in it And surely considering in our selves how much good God requires at our hands first in our generall calling as wee are Christians and then in our particular calling according to the places wee hold in Church and Common-wealth and in our private families it were not good to lose a day every day to doe somewhat as that Painter that would never have a day passe over his head without some line drawing wee should not suffer one day to passe over our heads without some good work done some good worke every day Since there are so many oportunities of doing good every day never suffer a day to goe over our heads without some good The Scripture saith of the devill hee bestirres himselfe and the reason is because hee knoweth that his time is short How much more should wee bestirre our selves then to doe good knowing that our time is shorter then his While wee have time saith the Apostle let us doe good to all The word is not in the Greek but while wee have oportunity so wee read it in the new Translation While wee have oportunity to doe good Gal. 6.10 Now as long as wee live here a charitable heart will never want oportunity of doing good we shall still have oportunity to doe good but when wee are gone there is no oportunity of doing good there is no doing good after but then wee are to receive for that wee have done already whether good or evill Excellently Origen with which I will conclude this point saith hee The six ages of our life are as the six dayes of the week they are dayes to gather Manna in but the day of death that is our Sabbath there is no Manna then to be gathered it is no day to gather Manna when wee are dead but then we shall eat that we have gathered before There is no doing good when wee are dead but wee then come to receive for the good wee have done before if wee have done it therefore To doe good and to communicate forget not That is the first Correllary The second is this that Since there are so many wayes of doing good there is no man exempted from doing good there is no man but may doe good some way or other Indeed rich men must be rich in good workes they that have a great deale of goods must doe a great deale of good But there is no man so poore that may challenge freedome from this doing good because hee is poore Harke what the Apostle saith Ephes 4.28 Let him that stole steale no more but let him labour with his hands working that which is good that hee may communicate to thens that need See the poore labouring man that labours with his hands hee must not bee free from doing good Iohn Baptist when hee was asked of the people What shall wee doe Marry saith hee Hee that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none and hee that hath meat let him doe likewise Luke 3.11 Let him that hath two coats hee saith not Let him that hath ten coats a number of coats but him that hath two coats let him part to him that hath none Our blessed Lord did live upon that which good women gave him that you shall see if you look Luke 8.3 there it is said that Mary Magdalene out of whom hee had cast seven devils and Ioanna the wife of Chuza Herods steward and Susanna and other women ministred unto him of their substance Christ lived upon that that good persons gave unto him yet out of that that was given him hee was wont to give almes you may perceive that by that speech of the Apostles when our Lord had bidden Iudas That hee did doe quickly they did not know what he meant but did think that hee would have them provide somewhat or to give somewhat to the poore Ioh. 13.29 To give somewhat to the poore Our Lord himselfe lived upon that which was given him yet hee himselfe out of that which was given him gave to the poore The Macedonians are commended by St. Paul for their great liberality that whereas they were poore I deeply poore it was deep poverty so the word is profound poverty deep poverty as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 8.2 it was poverty deeply poverty yet they abounded in liberality for all that You know the woman in the Gospel cast in but two mytes into the Treasury but it was all that ever shee had it was but a little money but it was great charity a great worke of charity all that ever shee had When the Creple asked an almes of Peter and Iohn coming to the Temple say they Silver and gold wee have none but such as wee have give wee thee If thou have no silver and gold to give that thou canst not give that yet give such things as thou hast The widow of Sarepta had no gold
Arminianisme The Lord Primate of Armagh never to be mentioned without honour for his unparallel'd Workes and many others whereof some are fallen asleep and some remain to this day and long may they live to the performances of the like services Who hath so plainly discovered unto us a See Bishop Morton his Book of that Argument THE GRAND IMPOSTURE OF THE now CHURCH OF ROME Who hath so openly laid before us b See his Institution of the Sacrament the superstitious sacrilegious and idolatrous abominations of the Romish Masse Who hath so fully manifested c See his Catholike Appeale with many other of his accurate and learned Treatises against the Romanists the Antiquity of our Religion and satisfied all scrupulous Objections which have been urged against us Who hath so evidently demonstrated d See Bish Downham his Diatribe de Antichristo Bish Abbot of the same Argument the Pope to be The Antichrist Who hath so fully cleared that high point of e See Bish Downham his Treatises of Justification Justification and overthrown the Popish Doctrine of Merits Who hath so clearely set downe f See Bish Usher his Historica Explicatio of that subject the beginning progresse and encrease of the mystery of Iniquity from the birth of Antichrist to his full age out of manifold Records of Antiquity Who hath given us so wholesome a g See Bish Hall of the old Religion Preservative against all Popish Insinuations In a word who have more approved themselves the worthiest Champions most willing most ready most able to oppose all Popish Antichristian Arminian Pelagian Doctrine then some of These who have been stiled in the late pamphlets Popish Antichristian Arminian Pelagian Bishops It is no open enemy that hath done this wrong but the men of this Land and children as they would be thought to be of this Church that have dishonoured these Worthies that have been an Honour to this Church and Land As for us Ministers of the Gospel of inferiour rank who have alwaies preached the same divine Truth some of us in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and have received that mercy from God to be faithfull 〈◊〉 holding the same profession without wavering or warping unto this day how are we at this time only because we walk in the way of the Church and study the peace of it desirous to yeeld obedience to God and our Superiours how are wee I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought upon the Stage Heb. 10.33 traduced as Baals Priests derided contumeliously used reproached in our streets our Churches our Pulpits accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things a spectacle to Angels and men But holy Brethren to come to my third point wherein I shall make the use of all this Wee may approve our selves to be the true Ministers of Jesus Christ if that neither honour puffeth us up nor dishonour disheartneth us if neither a good report doth make us proud nor an evill report faint-hearted but can passe through all these honour and dishonour evill report and good report counting nothing in life nor life it selfe dear to us so as we may finish our course with joy and the Ministration which we have received of the Lord Jesus Christ To that end let me tender these things briefly to our consideration First that this vicissitude of honour and dishonour evill report and good report is from the Lord who must be allowed to doe what seemeth good in his eyes The time was wee doe confesse with thankfulnesse that the people did esteem us as the Ministers of Jesus Christ that they knew us and did acknowledge us worthy and accordingly had us in exceeding great love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our works sake that they might shew that they could have pulled their eyes out of their head to have done us good that they honoured us with much honour and laded us with necessaries and plentifull provision for our encouragement to the worke of the Ministery Have wee received so much good at the hand of God and may we not now with patience receive some evill There is no evill done in the City in this kinde but the Lord hath done it Amos 3.6 God hath bidden them to curse us and revile us and traduce us and load us with all these contumelies and reproaches and it may be these things being sanctified to us God may doe us good for all our reproaches this day wee should consider that as it cometh not without due desert seeing God is just 〈◊〉 shall not passe away without due profit seeing God is good Consider againe That there is nothing can come from the hand of this God to his servants but it cometh in the nature of a mercy while wee were honoured it was in mercy to encourage us and now wee are dishonoured and our soules filled with contempt it is done in mercy to admonish us to walke both more humbly with God and more warily with men Againe It is but the pride of our hearts that makes us so impatient of every light dishonour for if wee were as wee should be vile in our own eyes it were nothing nothing to be vile in the eyes of others Besides hear what our Lord sayes to his Disciples Blessed are you when men shall say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be glad For so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Matt. 5.11,12 The Prophets before the Apostles were thus persecuted the Apostles and all the Worthies since the Apostles dayes have bin so persecuted in their severall Generations and our blessed Lord the Head both of Prophets and Apostles hath been as you heard before persecuted in like manner Now the disciple must not look to be above his Master nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple that hee be as his Master and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Mat. 10.24,25 Lastly Behold there is a crown in the right hand of Christ and the word upon it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that overcometh Brethren let us hold fast that which we have and let no man take away our crown let us hold on still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide the Word of God aright and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk with a right foot in the profession of it Et innocenter agere scienter praedicare not studying so much to have our gifts commended as to have God glorified the consciences of people edified their lives reformed and their souls saved And then if wee finde favour in Gods sight God may bring us againe into favour with men but if hee thus say I have no delight in you nor in your services behold here are we let him doe to us as he pleaseth He that passing through honour and dishonour as St. Paul did can say as St. Paul 〈◊〉 I have fought the good fight I have finished my cours◠I have kept the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have kept it may assure himselfe of a crowne of Righteousnesse laid up for him which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give him that day and to all them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit Three Persons one True Immortall Invisible onely Wise God be given all Honour Glory Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS