apostasie and defection from the ancient but too stale religion of their forefathers whereunto Iacob had no regard but sware by the feare of his father Isaac assured of the truth of his Religion which could not be outworne neyther by length of time nor by inveterate custome which is nothing else b Cyprian ad PompeiuÌ„ Epist. 74. Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est but oldnesse of error The maine point of Hamans accusation against the Iewes was that c Est 3.9 their lawes were diverse from all people neyther did they keepe the Kings lawes Iesus Christ the eternall Sonne of the heavenly Father when he came into the world to bear witnesse unto the truth appealed without anie difficultie unto the conscience of every man d Ioh 8.46 and defied his enemies to prove him faultie in anie thing yet hee could not eschue the venemous poison of reviling tongues The heads of accusations against his innocent and glorious person were that e Mat. 21.23 he preached and did all things without authority that both f Luk. 6.2 his Disciples and g Ioh. 5.16 he did that which is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day that h Matt. 26.64 65. he blasphemed because he called himselfe the Sonne of God and i Mat. 9.3 forgave sinnes k Iohn 7.41 that being of Galilee he affirmed that he was the Christ that l Iohn 7.48 none of the Rulers or of the Pharisees beleeved on him When he conversed with sinners to convert them they said m Mat. 11.19 Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners When they could not refute his doctrine they would cast in his teeth that n Iohn 7.52 he was of Galilee o Mar. 6.3 a Carpenter and p Matt. 27.63 a deceiver When he delivered those who were possessed with Divels ther said q Matt. 12.24 This fellow doth not cast out Divels but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Divels Neyther did he or said he anie thing so well but his adversaries maligned it with ill constructions When he spake r Ioh. 2.19 of the destroying of the Temple of his bodie and raysing of it up in three dayes Å¿ Matt. 26.61 they accused him to have spoken of the Temple of Ierusalem and when he convinced them of their sinnes they cryed that t Ioh. 8.48 he was a Samaritane and had a Divell Christ foretold his Disciples that v Mat. 5.11 men should revile them and say all maner of evill against them falsly for his sake for said he x Matt. 10.25 if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold And it did fall out so false witnesses accused Steven y Act 6.11 13. to have spoken blasphemous words against the Law of Moses against the holy place and against God It was laid to Pauls charge that he was a Act. 24.5 6. a pestilent fellow a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarens who had gone about to profane the Temple b 2. Cor. 6.8 and was a deceiver As this holy religion did rid way encrease among the Gentiles there is no kind of calumnie which the Divell did not devise to make it hateful Then the Christians were upbraided with manie heynous and foule crimes that they sacrificed to c Tertull. Apologet cap. 7.8 Euseb hâ—st Eccles lib. 5. cap. 1. Ibid. lib. 9. cap. 5. Minuâ—ius Felix in Octavio Bacchus and Ceres because they celebrated the Lords Supper with Bread and Wine that they killed little children and in their congregations did cate their flesh and drinke their blood because in the Lords Supper mention was made of the spirituall eating of Christs body and drinking of his blood that in their assemblies which for feare of persecution they held in the night time their dogges tyed to the Candlesticks were inticed by some collops cast before them to leape forward that bounding they might beate downe the lights at the time prefixed and so the darkenesse might cover and hide from their eyes the shame of their incests with their mothers sisters and others of their neerest kindred did manie mo things which they shunned to name and as may be deemed came never in any mans minde to doe them since the beginning of the world Besides all these calumnies many other exceptions were taken against them as d Tertull. cap. 10. c. Euseb histor Eccles lib. 8. cap. 18. Idem lib. 9. cap. 7. their apostasie and defection from the religion of their predecessors their contempt of the gods and of all honour given to them the profession of an accursed vanitie of a blinde error of a most abominable and execrable religion c. 5 When God in the bowels of this mercy made the truth of his religion to spring up againe in Germanie in France in this Island were not all these crimes imputed to our forefathers whose eyes were first opened to see and imbrace the glorious light thereof And although time the mother of truth hath swept away the imputations of eating of Pigges after the maner of the Passeover of the extinguishing of the Torches and Candles of incestuous villanie wherewith our ancestors were injuriously blemished yet Christs enemies forbeare not to spew out of the open sepulchre of their stinking throats in our faces the reproach of heresie noveltie factions against God schisme against the Church and such like mustie defamations of very old date which wee wipe away with the same Sponge wherewith e Euseb histor Eccles lib. 1. cap. 1. the first Christians did blot them out saying and verifying by the holy Scriptures That our Religion is the same which God from the beginning did preach to Adam which Abraham Isaac Iacob and their off-spring professed which was foretold by the Prophets published by the Apostles to all nations beleeved in the world and is come from them to us who possesse it as we have received it of them in the holy Scripture That all doctrines introduced in the time between are but errours untruthes jugglings novelties broached by the Divell which shall be cleerly verified when our adversaries leaving off their bloodie persecutions shall be willing to take a patient tryall whether of our Religions will abide the hammering of Gods word 6 But the dimnesse of untruth fearing above all things to come to the light of the Scriptures hateth unto death all those which light the candle and putting it on the candlestick â—â—â—rie it before the eyes of men to enlighten their darkenesse And therefore as whoores seeking the renowne of chastitie are accustomed to exprobrate to honest women the vices wherwith they are polluted themselves so the Divels limbs publish abroad against Gods servants the crimes whereof they know themselves to be guiltie as these of heresie of blasphemie of high treason against God whereof I have alreadie spoken whereunto they
Tim. 4 14. Alexander the Copper-smith did him much evill At Rome he was presented before the bloudy Tyrant Nero whom hee calleth a ver 16.17 a Lion Then no man stood with him but all men forsook him Then his friends abandoned him and the Tyrant put him to death What the rest of the Apostles suffered by false brethren and open enemies ye may reade in the Acts and in their lives IX What the Church was to suffer after them by b Rev. 11.7 the Beast fighting against the Saints and killing them by the Whore of Babylon c Rev. 17.4 6. drunken with the bloud of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus by d Rev. 20.8 Gog and Magog compassing about the beloved city S. Ioh. hath foretold in the Revelation What our Fathers what we have suffered not of the Turkes Persians Tartarians Americans and other sworne enemies of Christian Religion but of those bloody butchers which call themselves Catholicks the heavens have seen the earth which hath drunk up our blood can speak the murtherers which have shed it can bear record our owne experience can best of all testifie What policy what craft hath beene practised to undermine and wholly undoe us by our owne brethren of our owne kinred familie religion hardly would ye beleeve if I should tell it Christs prediction hath been accomplished e Luke 21.16 Yee shall bee betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolks and friends and some of you shall they cause to be put to death and yee shall bee hated of all men for my Names sake Our brethren have sold us for money as flesh is sold at the shambles and we have been lesse regarded than slaves by those which bought us whose humanity like Dracon's Lawes is printed in all Christendome with our Fathers and our blood and whose affection and loyaltie towards us is written upon the running waters What wonder then if among so many professed enemies and cunning traitors Many are the Evills of the righteous X. The Righteous considering how hee is thus besieged on all sides and hurried in all fashions by foes and friends is often overtaken with diverse thoughts and surmises more dangerous than all the externall Evils which may befall unto him Worldlings judge of God's favour to men by their prosperity and of his hatred towards them by their adversity When Abimelech King of Gerar saw Abraham thrive hee said unto him f Gen. 21.22 God is with thee in all that thou doest What he said was true but the ground whereupon hee built it was sand for g Luke 16.19 20. the rich Glutton in the Gospell thrived and Lazarus who was laid at his gate full of sores thrived not yet that gluttoÌ„ is in hell because God was not with him and Lazarus is in Abrahams bosome because God was with him The Scribes and Pharisees evill Doctors of the good Law concluded h Mat. 27.41 42. That God was not with Christ because hee delivered him not from the crosse The righteous man himselfe when his affliction is long and heavie taketh like conclusions against himselfe When the Angell of the Lord said to Gideon i Iudg. 6.12 13. The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour Gideon answered Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us The Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites Ye read Iobs complaints k Iob 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson wherof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me He teareth me in his wrath l Iob 16.9 he hateth me he gnasheth upon me with his teeth m Iob 19.11 and he counteth mee unto him as one of his enemies Ye heare David crying out pittifully n Psal 22. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so farre from helping me and from the words of my roaring Ieremiah bemoaned the state of the Church after the same manner o Lam. â— 20 Wherefore doest thou forget us for ever and forsake us so long time And now in the Palatinate and now in France doe not all the faithfull mourne and cry doe we not cry with them and for them O Lord how long The wicked when God crosses them in their desires and projects are accustomed to say p Mal. 3.14 14. It is in vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of bosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that worke wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God â—e even delivered The righteous Asaph held the â—â—me speech in his great affliction and said q Psal 73.13 Verily 〈◊〉 have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands 〈◊〉 innocencie Moreover these internall â—â—lls take such hold of the righteous man that he will bring Gods word which he hath beleeved in question doubt whether it be true if the Religion which he professeth be of God if the cause which he sustaineth and for which he doth undergoe so many evills be good for if it be good if it be of God why doth he not uphold it David being brought to his wits end and even to the pits brinke by Saul deemed that Gods Prophets had deceived him and said r Psal 116.11 All men are lyars What greater evill I pray you can befall a Christian man than to bring in controversie Gods providence and the perpetuall care which he hath of his Church than to thinke that godlinesse which he hath sucked with his mothers milke is but a fable a dreame an invention of man than to imagine that hitherto he hath imbraced a shadow for the body hath sought the truth in a lye hath esteemed vanity and winde to be Gods word than to frame such conceits against the honour of God and his owne salvation If such doubts come not in his mind if he beleeve that the religion which he professeth is from above that Å¿ Psal 34.15 the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry that light peace ioy salvation is sowen for the upright man it seemes unto him that he is none of that number and gathering out of the store and greatnesse of his evills most dangerous presumptions he pronounceth against himselfe That he hath beene an Hypocrite a vile reprobate and cast-away I know that such perplexities are but short symptomes to the righteous man whereof he recovereth by the powerfull assistance of Gods Spirit when as they are deadly convulsions to the wicked and wofull prefaces to a dolefull Tragedie which they shall everlastingly act and nevâ—r end yet howsoever they be short they are sensible and lye so heavie vpon the wearied soule of the righteous mâ—n that in comparison his outward evills seeme unto him â—â—ter than a feather wherewith
are as a shadow and there is none abiding Earth is onely the place of their peregrination d Ioh. 17.11 16. They are saith Christ in the world but they are not of the world Heaven is their home e Heb. 13.14 For here have we no continuing citie but we seeke one to come Every day wee heare God saying vnto vs f Micha 2.10 Arise yee and depart for this is not your rest Therefore as g 1 Kings 19.8 Eliah walked forty dayes and fortie nights till he came unto Horeb the mount of God So we walke apace and goe still forward till we come to the heavenly Mannor whereof the Apostle saith that h Heb. 4.9 there remaineth a rest to the people of God i Matt. 6.21 There is our treasure there is our heart also As a way-faring mans heart is at home because at home are his wife his children and whatsoever he loveth There is k Phil. 3.20 our conversation though our bodies be here The wicked may see that which we beleeve and daily experience teacheth them to say with the women of Tekoah l 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up againe Yet notwithstanding they m Phil. 3.19 minde earthly things n Psal 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations They call their lands after their owne Names Therefore seeing they have nothing before their eyes no end of their thoughts and actions but the earth it is no wonder that they should be called the inhabitants of the earth Out of the earth were they taken In earth they dwell in earth they have their portion to earth shall their bodies returne and if hell be in the center of the earth as many say there shall they have their last and eternall habitation VI. For what cause will the Lord visite them so rigorously For their iniquitie that is to say for the excessivenesse of their most immoderate sinnes as the word must be taken here what sinnes were those Questionlesse too too many amongst a people enemies to God and to his Church but above all the persecution of the Church They thought undoubtedly that all the harme which they did to the Church was righteousnesse and good service done to their gods As Christ hath forewarned us that they who shall kill us will deeme o Ioh. 2.16 that they doe God service But God calleth this their pretended service iniquity a most hainous and enormous sinne and if ye desire a specification of the kind of this sin God in the text calleth it blood or according to the Hebrew word bloods for by that word God signifieth the extreame and unquenchable thirst of bloud wherewith these murtherers were so dry that when they had shed it all they would have gladly shed more and wished that each of those whom they had slaine had possessed a hundred lives to furnish to them more blood to spill They kill because they take pleasure in killing like unto the Tyrant Caligula who wished that the people of Rome had all one necke that at one blow he might cut it off VII O Tyrants O bloud-thirstie butchers ye slay the Saints of God under coolur of justice and ye think that not onely God will not avenge it but that he will rather allow and reward it Whereas God saith that the earth shall disclose her bloods and shall no more discover her slaine The earth it selfe shall open her wombe and unfold her bowells and cry to God Loe here is the innocent blood which thy enemies have shed Loe here are the bodies of thy beloved servants whom these Massacrers have slaine p Iob 26.6 Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering O then shall the earth conceale your murthers from him Have ye not read that q Psal 5.6 the Lord will abhorre the bloudy and deceitfull man Doubt not but that which is written is true r Psal 116 1â— Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints and therefore hee will with an hand of yron thrust hard together the bellies of those horse-leeches which have drunke their bloud and straine them till they spue it out of their bloudy throats He hath said that Å¿ Gen. 9.5 6. he will require the life of man at the hand of every beast and at the hand of every mans brother How much more will he require the life of his deare servants at the hands of their murtherers Hee hath ordeined before the law of a most just and inexorable law that who so sheddeth mans blood by man his blood shall bee sbed whereof he rendreth two reasons The first that mens lives are in their bloud The second that in the image of God made he man Vnder the Law he confirmed this Law by another law and said t Num 35.33 that bloud unjustly shed defileth the land though it bee the blood of an ill man And the land cannot be cleansed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it This law is irrevocable for Christ hath also said in the Gospell that v Mat. 26.52 all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword If men put it not in execution God will and till he doe it the land where the blood of his Saints who are restored to his image is shed shall remaine polluted x Gen. 4.10 The voice of Abels blood cryod unto him from the ground and hee listened unto it The soules of a great many Abels which are under the Altar cry unto him with a loud voyce y Rev. 6.9 10. How long O Lord holy and true doest thou not iudge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth And will hee not heare them He will he will z Rev. 13.10 for he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints They expect with patience it shall be so because they know by faith it must be so IIX God who hath spoken it is truth it selfe he is strength it selfe a 1. Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent Therefore it must be so He is justice it selfe therefore it shall be so For howsoever we be sinners the cause for which we are molested and vexed is his His who is Almighty and just his who loveth it his who will not suffer it to bee overthrowne by the malice and wickednesse of men his who will defend them who maintaine it and destroy them who seeke to overthrow it This is the comfort which the Apostle giveth to the Thessallonians who bare a crosse as heavy then as your brethren beyond seas doe now saying unto them b 2. Thes 1.6 7. It is a righteous