of assisting Gods cause and doe not thinke that they haue done all or done enough if they haue done something some one time The Morall man hath said well and well applied it A Ship is a Ship for euer if you repaire it So sayes hee Honour is Honour and so say wee A good Conscience is a good Conscience for euer if you repaire it But sayes he well Aliquid famae addendum ne putrescat Honour will putrifie and so will a good Conscience too if it be not repaired He that hath done Nothing must begin and hee that hath done something for Gods cause must doe more if hee will continue his name in the Booke of Life though God leaue no one particular action done for his glorie without glorie as those who assisted his glorie heere haue a glorious Commemoration in this Song In the fifteenth verse Princes haue their place The Princes of Issachar were with Deborah when the King goes to the field Many who are in other cases Priuiledged are by their Tenures bound to goe It is a high Tenure to hold by a Crowne And when God of whome and whome onely they hold that hold so goes into the field it becomes them to goe with him But as God sits in Heauen and yet goes into the field so they of whome God hath said Yee are Gods the Kings of the Earth may stay at home and yet goe too They goe in their assistance to the Warre They goe in their Mediation for Peace They goe in their Example when from their sweetnesse and moderation in their Gouernement at home their flowes out an instruction a perswasion to Princes abroad Kings goe many times and are not thanked because their wayes are not seene and Christ himselfe would not alwayes bee seene In the eight of Iohn he would not be seene When they tooke vp stones to stone him he withdrew himselfe inuisibly hee would not be seene When Princes find that open actions exasperate they doe best if they be not seene In the sixth of Iohn Christ would not bee seene When they would haue put vpon him that which was not fit for him to take when they would haue made him King he withdrew himselfe and was not seene When Princes are tempted to take Territories or possessions in to their hands to which other Princes haue iust pretences they doe best if they withdrawe themselues from engagements in vnnecessarie Warres for that that onely was Iosiahs ruine Kings cannot alwayes goe in the sight of Men and so they lose their thankes but they cannot goe out of the sight of God and there they neuer lose their reward For the Lord that sees them in secret shall reward them openly with peace in their owne States and Honour in their owne Chronicles as here for assisting his cause hee gaue the Princes of Issachar a roome a straine in Deborah and Barakes Song And in the ninth verse the Gouernors the great Officers haue their place in this praise My heart is towards the Gouernors of Israel that offered themselues willingly It is not themselues in person Great Officers cannot doe so They are Intelligences that moue great Spheares but they must not bee mou'd out of them But their glorie here is their willingnesse That before they were inquired into how they carried themselues in their Offices before they were intimidated or soupled with fines and ransomes voluntarily they assisted the cause of God Some in the Romane Church write that the Cardinalls of that Church are so incorporated into the Pope so much of his body and so bloud of his bloud that in a feuer they may not let bloud without his leaue Truly the great Persons and Gouernors in any state are so noble and neere parts of the King as that they may not bleed out in any subuentions and assistances of such causes vnder-hand as are not auowd by the King for it is not euident that that cause is Gods caufe at least not euident that that way is an assistance of Gods cause But a good and tractable and ductile disposition in all courses which shall lawfully bee declared to bee for Gods glorie then not Contra but Praeter not against but besides not in opposing but in preuenting the Kings will before hee vrge before he presse to be willing and forward in such assistances this giues great Persons Gouernors and Officers a verse in Baraks and Deborahs Song and Deborah and Baraks Song is the Word of God The Merchants haue their place in that verse too For as wee said before those who ride vpon white Asses which was as honorable a transportation as Coaches are now are by Peter Martyr amongst ours and by Serarius the Iesuit amongst others well vnderstood to be the Merchants The greatnesse and the dignitie of the Merchants of the East is sufficiently expressed in those of Babylon Thy Merchants were the great Men of the Earth And for the Merchants of the West we know that in diuers forraine parts their Nobilitie is in their Merchants their Merchants are their Gentlemen And certainly no place of the world for Commodities and Situation better disposed then this Kingdome to make Merchants great You cannot shew your greatnesse more then in seruing God with part of it you did serue before you were free but here you do both at once for his seruice is perfect freedome I am not here to day to beg a Beneuolence for any particular cause on foot now there is none but my Errand in this first part is first to remoue iealousies and suspitions of Gods neglecting his businesse because he does it not at our appointment and then to promoue and aduance a disposition to assist his cause and his glory in all wayes which shall bee declar'd to conduce thereunto whether in his body by relieuing the poore or in his house by repairing these walls or in his honour in employments more publique And to assure you that you cannot haue a better debter a better pay-master then Christ Iesus for all your Entayles and all your perpetuities doe notso nayle so hoope in so riuet an estate in your posteritie as to make the Sonne of God your Sonne too and to giue Christ Iesus a Childes part with the rest of your Children It is noted perchaunce but out of leuity that your Children doe not keepe that which you get It is but a calumny or but a fascination of ill wishers We haue many happy instances to the contrarie many noble families deriued from you One enough to enoble a World Queene ELIZABETH was the great granchild of a Lord Maior of London Our blessed God blesse all your Estates and blesse your posteritie in a blessed enioying therof But truly it is a good way to that amongst all your purchases to purchase a place in Barak and Deborahs Song a testimonie of the Holy Ghost that you were forward in all due times in the assistance of Gods cause That testimonie in this Seruice in our Text haue the
heartily and sincerely repented perchance no fault but malice had otherwise cast a present and ignominious death It shall sweep your streets and wash your dores from idle persons and the children of idle persons and imploy them and truely if the whole Countrey were but such a Bridewell to force idle persons to work it had a good vse But it is already not onely a Spleene to draine the ill humors of the body but a Liuer to breed good bloud already the imployment breeds Marriners already the place giues essayes nay Fraytes of Marchantable commodities already it is a marke for the Enuy and for the ambition of our Enemies I speake but of our Doctrinall not Nationall Enemies as they are Papists they are sory we haue this Countrey and surely twenty Lectures in matter of Controuersie doe not so much vexe them as one Ship that goes strengthens that Plantation Neither can I recommend it to you by any better Retorique then their malice They would gladly haue it and therefore let vs bee glad to hold it Thus then this Text proceedes and gathers vpon you All that you would haue by this Plantation you shall not haue GOD bindes not himselfe to measures All that you shall haue you haue not yet GOD bindes not himselfe to times but something you shall haue nay you haue already some great things and of those that in the Text is The Holy Ghost shall come vpon you we find the Holy Ghost to haue come vpon men foure times in this Booke First vpon the Apostles at Pentecost Then when the whole Congregation was in prayer for the imprisonment of Peter and Iohn Againe when Peter preached in Cornelius his house the Holy Ghost fell vpon all them that heard him And fourthly when Saint Paul laid his hands vpon them who had beene formerly baptized at Ephesus At the three latter times it is euident that the Holy Ghost fell vpon whole and promiscuous Congregations and not vpon the Apostles onely and in the first at Pentecost the contrary is not euident nay the Fathers for the most part that handle that concurre in that that the Holy Ghost fell then vpon the whole Congregation men and women The Holy Ghost fell vpon Peter before hee preach'd and it fell vpon the hearers when he preach'd and it hath fallen vpon euery one of them who haue found motions in themselnes to propagate the Gospell of Christ Iesus by this meanes The Sonne of GOD did not abhorre the Virgins wombe when hee would be made man when he was man he did not disdaine to ride vpon an Asse into Ierusalem the third person of the Trinity the Holy Ghost is as humble as the second hee refuses Nullum vehiculum no conueyance no doore of entrance into you whether the example and precedent of other good men or a probable imagination of future profit or a willingnes to concurre to the vexation of the Enemie what collaterall respect soeuer drew thee in if now thou art in thy principall respect be the glory of God that occasion whatsoeur it was was vehiculum Spiritus Sancti that was the Petard that broke open thy Iron gate that was the Chariot by which he entred into thee and now hee is fallen vpon thee if thou do not Depose lay aside all consideration of profit for euer neuer to looke for returne No not Sepose leaue out the consideration of profit for a time for that and Religion may well consist together but if thou doe but Post-pose the consideration of temporall gaine and study first the aduancement of the Gospell of Christ Iesus the Holy Ghost is fallen vpon you for by that you receiue power sayes the Text. There is a Power rooted in Nature and a Power rooted in Grace a power yssuing from the Law of Nacions and a power growing out of the Gospell In the Law of Nature and Nations A Land neuer inhabited by any or vtterly derelicted and immemorially abandoned by the former Inhabitants becomes theirs that wil possesse it So also is it if the inhabitants doe not in some measure fill the Land so as the Land may bring foorth her increase for the vse of men for as a man does not become proprietary of the Sea because hee hath two or three Boats fishing in it so neither does a a man become Lord of a maine Continent because hee hath two or three Cottages in the Skirts thereof That rule which passes through all Municipal lawes in particular States Interest reipublic vt quis re sua bene vtatur The State must take order that euery man improoue that which he hath for the best aduantage of that State passes also through the Law of Nations which is to all the world as the Municipall Law is to a particular State Interest mundo The whole world all Mankinde must take care that all places be emprou'd as farre as may be to the best aduantage of Mankinde in generall Againe if the Land be peopled and cultiuated by the people and that Land produce in abundance such things for want whereof their neghbours or others being not enemies perish the Law of Nations may iustifie some force in seeking by permutation of other commodities which they neede to come to some of theirs Many cases may be put when not onely Comerce and Trade but Plantations in lands not formerly our owne may be lawfull And for that Accepistis potestatem you haue your Commission your Patents your Charters your Seales from him vpon whose acts any priuate Subiect in Ciuill matters may safely rely But then Accipietis potestatem You shall receiue power sayes the text you shall when the Holy Ghost is come vpon you that is when the instinct the influence the motions of the Holy Ghost enables your Conscience to say that your principall ende is not gaine nor glory but to gaine Soules to the glory of GOD this Seales the great Seale this iustifies Iustice it selfe this authorises Authoritie and giues power to strength it selfe Let the Conscience bee vpright and then Seales and Patents and Commissions are wings they assist him to flye the faster let the Conscience be lame and distorted and he that goes vpon Seales and Patents and Commissions goes vpon weake and feeble crouches When the Holy Ghost is come vpon you your Conscience rectified you shall haue Power a new power out of that what to doe that followes to bee witnesses vnto Christ. Infamy is one of the highest punishments that the Law inflicts vpon man for it lyes vpon him euen after death Infamy is the worst punishment and Intestabilitie to be made intestable is one of the deepest wounds of infamy and then the worst degree of intestabilitie is not to bee beleeued not to bee admitted to be a witnesse of any other he is Intestable that cannot make a Testament not giue his owne goods and hee Intestable that can receiue nothing by the Testament of another hee is Intestable in whose
behalfe no testimony may be accepted but he is the most miserably Intestable of all the most detestably intestable that discredits another man by speaking well of him and makes him the more suspitious by his commendations A Christian in profession that is not a Christian in life is so intestable so hee discredits Christ and hardens others against him Iohn Baptist was more then a Prophet because he was a Witnesse of Christ and he was a Witnesse becaue hee was like him he did as hee did he lead a holy and a religious life so he was a Witnesse That great and glorious name of Martyr is but a Witnesse Saint Stephen was Proto-martyr Christs first VVitnesse because hee was the first that did as he did that put on his colours that drunke of his Cup that was baptised with his Baptisme with his owne bloud so hee was a VVitnesse To be Witnesses for Christ is to be like Christ to conforme your selues to Christ and they in the Text you are to be witnesses of Christ in Ierusalem and in all Iudaea and in Samaria and vnto the vttermost parts of the Earth Saint Hierome notes that Iohn Baptist was not bid to beare witnesse in Ierusalem in the Citie but in the Wildernesse he and none but he there were but few men to witnes to there those few that were came thither with a good disposition to be wrought vpon there and there there were fewe witnesses to oppose Iohns Testimony few tentations few worldly alluremēts few worldly businesses One was enough for the Wildernesse but for Ierusalem for the Citie where all the excuses in the Gospell doe alwaies meete they haue bought commodities and they must vtter them they haue purchased Lands they must state them they haue maried Wiues and they must study them to the Citie to Ierusalem Christ sends all his Apostles and all little inough Hee hath sent a great many Apostles Preachers to this Citie more then to any other that I know Religious persons as they call them Cloistered Friars are not sent to the Citie by their first Canons they should not preach abroad but for those who are to doe that seruice there are more in this Citie then in others for there are more Parish Churches heere then in others Now beloued if in this Citie you haue taken away a great part of the reuenue of the Preacher to your selues take thus much of his labour vpon your selues to as to preach to one another by a holy and exemplar life and a religious conuersation Let those of the Citie who haue interest in the Gouernment of this Plantation be Witnesses of Christ who is Truth it selfe to all other Gouernours of Companies in all true and iust proceedings that as CHRIST said to them who thought themselues greatest Except you become as this little Childe so we may say to the Gouenours of the grearest Companies Except you proceed with the integrity with the iustice with the clearenesse of your little Sister this Plantation you doe not take you doe not follow a good example This is to beare witnesse of Christ in Ierusalem in the Citie to bee examples of Truth and Iustice and Clearenesse to others in and of this Citie The Apostles were to do this in Iudaea too their seruice lay in the Countrey as well as in the Citie Birds that are kept in cages may learne some Notes which they should neuer haue sung in the Woods or Fields but yet they may forget their naturall Notes too Preachers that binde themselues alwaies to Cities and Courts and great Auditories may learne new Notes they may become occasionall Preachers and make the emergent affaires of the time their Text and the humors of the hearers their Bible but they may loose their Naturall Notes both the simplicitie and the boldnesse that belongs to the Preaching of the Gospell both their power vpon lowe vnderstandings to raise them and vpon high affection to humble them They may thinke that their errand is but to knocke at the doore to delight the eare and not to search the House to ransacke the conscience Christ left the Ninteie and nine for one Sheepe populous Cities are for the most part best prouided remoter parts need our labour more and we should not make such differences Yeoman and Labourer and Spinster are distinctions vpon Earth in the Earth in the graue there is no distinction The Angell that shall call vs out of that dust will not stand to suruay who lyes naked who in a Coffin who in Wood who in Lead who in a fine who in a courser Sheet In that one day of the Resurrection there is not a forenoone for Lords to rise first and an afternoone for meaner persons to rise after Christ was not whip'd to saue Beggars and crown'd with Thornes to saue Kings he dyed he suffered all for all and we whose bearing witnesse of him is to doe as hee did must conferre our labours vpon all vpon Ierusalem and vpon Iudaea too vpon the Citie and vpon the Country too You who are his witnesses too must doe so too preach in your iust actions as to the Citie to the Countrey too Not to Seale vp the secrets and the misteries of your businesse within the bosome of Merchants and exclude all others who nourish an incompatibility betweene Merchants Gentlemen that Merchants shall say to them in reproach you haue plaid the Gentlemen and they in equall reproach you haue playd the Merchant but as Merchants growe vp into worshipfull Families and worshipfull Families let fall branches amongst Merchants againe so for this particular Plantation you may consider Citie and Countrey to bee one body and as you giue example of a iust gouernment to other companies in the Citie that 's your bearing witnesse in Ierusalem so you may be content to giue reasons of your proceedings and account of moneyes leuied ouer the Countrey for that 's your bearing witnes in Iudaea But the Apostles Dioces is enlarged farther then Ierusalem farther the Iudaea they are carried into Samaria you must beare witnesse of me in Samaria Beloued when I haue remembred you who the Samaritans were Men that had not renounced GOD but mingled other Gods with him Men that had not burnt the Law of GOD but made Traditions of Men equall to it you will easily guesse to whom I apply the name of Samaritans now A Iesuit hath told vs an ill Intelligencer I confesse but euen his Intelligencer the Deuill himselfe sayes true sometimes Maldonate sayes the Samaritans were odious to the Iewes vpon the same grounds as Heretiques and Scismatiques to vs and they we know were odious to them for mingling false Gods and false worships with the true And if that be the Caracter of a Samaritan wee knowe who are the Samaritans who the Heretiques who the Scismatiques of our times In the highest approach to Christ the Iewes said Samaritanus es Daemonium habes Thou art a Samaritan hast a Deuill
in the way but strangers shall know to Gods glory that you haue perfected a work of full three times as much charge as you proposed for it at beginning so bountifully doth God blesse and prosper intentions to his glory with enlarging your hearts within and opening the hearts of others abroad And this is your Dedication and that which without preiudice and for distinction wee call a Lay Dedication though from religious hearts and hands There is another Dedication that we haue call'd Ecclesiasticall appointed by God so as God speaks in the ordinances and in the practise of his Church Haereditary Kings are begotten conceiu'd the naturall way but that body which is so begotten of the blood of Kings is not a King no nor a man till there bee a Soule infused by God Here is a House a Child conceiu'd wee may say borne of Christian parents of persons religiously disposed to Gods glory but yet that was to receiue another influence an inanimation a quickening by another Consecration Oportet denuo nasci holds euen in the children of Christian parents when they are borne they must be borne again by Baptisme when this place is thus giuen by you for God oportet denuo dari it must be giuen againe to God by him who receiues it of you It must there seems a necessitie to be implied because euen in Nature there was a consecration of holy places Iacob in his iourney before the Law consecrated euen that stone which he set vp in intention to build God a House there In the time of the Law this Feast of Dedication was in practise first in the Tabernacle that and all that appertain'd to it was annointed and sanctified So was Salomons Temple after so was that which was reedified after their return from Babylon and so was this in the Text after the Heathen had defiled and profan'd the Altar thereof and a new one was erected by Iudas Maccabeus Thus in Nature thus in Law and thus far thus in the Gospell too that as sure as wee are that the people of God had materiall Churches in the Apostles first times so sure we are that those places had a Sanctitie in them If that place of Saint Paul Despise yee the Church of God be to be vnderstood of the locall of the materiall Church and not of the Congregation you see there is a rebuke for the prophanation of the place and consequently a sanctity in the place But assoone as the Church came euidently by the fauour of Princes to haue liberty to make lawes and power to see them practised it was neuer pretermitted to consecrate the places Before that we find an ordinance by Pope Hyginus he was within 150. after Christ and the eighth Bishop of that See after Saint Peter euen of particulars in the Consecrations But after Athanasius in his Apologie to Constantius makes that protestation for all Christians That they neuer meet in any Church till it bee consecrated And Constantine the Emperour least hee should be at any time vnprouided of such a place as we read in the Ecclesiasticall story in all his warres carried about bout with him a Tabernacle which was consecrated In Nature in the Law in the Gospell in Precept in Practise these Consecrations are established This they did But to what vse did they consecrate them not to one vse only and therefore it is a friuolous contention whether Churches be for preaching or for praying But if Consecration be a king of Christning of the Church that at the Christning it haue a name wee know what name God hath appoynted for his House Domus mea Domus orationis vocabitur My House shall bee called the House of Prayer And how impudent and inexcusable a falshood is that in Bellarmine That the Lutherans and Caluinistes doe admit Churches for Sermons and Sacraments Sed reprehendunt quod fiant ad orandum They dislike that they should be for Prayer when as Caluin himselfe who may seeme to bee more subiect to this reprehension then Luther for there is no such Liturgie in the Caluinists Churches as in the Lutheran yet in that very place which Bellarmine cites sayes Conceptae preces in Ecclesia Deo gratae and for singing in Churches which in that place of Caluin cannot be only meant of Psalmes for it was of that manner of singing which being formerly in vse in the Easterne churches S. Ambrose in his time brought into the Church of Millan and so it was deriud ouer the Western churches which was the modulation and singing of Versicles and Antiphons and the like this singing sayes Caluin was in vse amongst the Apostles themselues Et sanctissimum saluberimum est institutum It was a most holy and most profitable Institution Still consider Consecration to be a Christning of the place and though we find them often called Templa propter Sacrificia for our sacrifices of praier and of praise of the merits of Christ and often called Ecclesiae ad conciones Churches in respect of congregations for preaching and often call'd Martyria for preseruing with respect and honor the bodies of Martyrs and other Saints of God there buried often often by other names Dominica Basilica and the like yet the name that God gaue to his house is not Concionatorium nor Sacramentarium but Oratorium the House of Prayer And therefore without preiudice to the other functions too for as there is a vae vpon me Si non Euangelizauero If I preach not my selfe so may that vae be multiplied vpon any who would draw that holy ordinance of God into a dis-estimatiō or into a slacknesse let vs neuer intermit that dutie to present our selues to God in these places though in these places there bee then no other Seruice but Common prayer For then doth the House answere to that name which God hath giuen it if it be a house of Prayer Thus then were these places to receiue a double Dedication a Dedication which was a Donation from the Patron a Dedication which was a consecration from the Bishop for to his person and to that ranke in the Hierarchy of the Church the most ancient Canons limited it and to those purposes which wee haue spoken of of which Prayer is so farre from being none as that there is none aboue it A little should be said before wee shut vp this part of the manner the forme of Consecrations In which in the Primitiue Church assoone as Consecrations came into free vse they were full of Ceremonies And many of those Ceremonies deriu'd from the Iewes and not vnlawfull for that The Ceremonies of the Iewes which had their foundation in the prefiguration of Christ and were types of him were vnlawfull after Christ was come because the vse of them then implyed a deniall or a doubt of his being come But those Ceremonies which though the Iewes vsed them had their foundation in Nature as bowing of the knee