be said But seeing the pressing of Obedience will avail little with the Rebellious if the fear of Gods judgements and the punishments of him that beareth not the Sword in vain doth not terrisie them from disobedience for such is the frowardness of mans nature that he would never fear God if he thought God consisted all of mercy and were not as just as He is merciful Therefore as you heard how necessary is obedience so I intend by Gods help to shew you the just judgement of God and the punishment of the Rebellious and disobedient upon the words that you shall find in 2 Kings 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slue his Master The last Sermon that I Preached in this City was on the Day of our Humiliation for the unnatural Rebellion and the monstrous Murder of our late most gracious King Charles the First And that work I then told mine Auditors I knew not how to do it in any better way than by paralleling the transcendent murder of Jesus Christ by those wicked Jews that crucified him which was their true and lawful King with that late unnatural murder that our English-Jews have committed upon their own just and lawful King Charles the First and that parallel I then prosecuted à capite ad calcem And this Text that I have now read unto you seems to be a Question demanding What became of one and what should become of all others wicked murderers that like him and like the other two sorts of Jews should kill both their King and their Master And the words are a Speech made at the entrance of a brave Conquerer into a famous City that is of Jehu into Jezreel A custom very often used amongst all Nations to make solemn Speeches at the Inauguration of their Soveraign Kings and Emperours or when any Noble Person cometh to any famous City as the University Orator doth it in the Academy and the Recorder in other Cities And so Jezabel makes this Speech unto Jehu assoon as ever he entred into the Gates of Jezreel Had Zimri peace that slew his Master And we do read of two special Zimries in the Book of God and both of them wicked men Numb 25. The first you may read of in the 25th of Numbers where you may see 1. How that Israel contrary to the Command of God joyned himself to Baal-Peor and that one Zimri a Prince of a chief House among the Simeonites brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman named Cozbi the daughter of Zur that was Head over a people and of a chief House in Midian 2. How that for this transgression of God's Command the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel so that he said unto Moses Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel And Moses said unto the Judges of Israel Slay ye every one his men that were joyned to Baal-Peor And so they did that there were slain 24. thousand men 3. How that Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest according to the Commandment of the Lord and of Moses took a Javelin in his hand and killed both Zâ—mri and Cozbi and that the Lord was so well pleased therewith that he rewarded him with the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood and stayed the plague from the children of Israel And the Prophet David saith that when the plague was so great among them Psal 106.30 then stood up Phinehas and prayed and so the plague ceased And our Presbyterians that find such fault with our Liturgy do say That we corrupt the Text because in the Original it is said That Phinehas stood up and executed judgement and so the plague ceased But their carping at this without cause hath been fully and sufficiently answered and may be easily and briefly done because he both prayed and executed judgement for the Text tells you plainly That the people were weeping before the door of the Congregation Verse 6 and so praying to God to turn away his anger from them and Phinehas rose from amongst the Congregation and killed them and then the plague ceased To teach us that the only sure way to turn away God's anger and the plagues that we deserve is not only to weep and mourn and be sorry for the wickednesse of the people but we must also execute judgement upon the transgressors Deut. 13.8 and as the Lord often sets it down Thine eye shall not pity them neither shalt thou conceal them but thou shalt surely kill them So shall you put away evil from among you and turn away the judgements of God from you which otherwise must still lie upon you because sins and especially great sins such as are Idolatry Rebellions and Murders and their punishments are so indiss lubly linked together that God seldom or never remits the one without inflicting the other And therefore he would not take away the plague from Israel until judgement was executed upon Zimri and Cozbi And this was the first Zimri that we read of and is not meant here in my Text. 2. 1 Kings 16.9 For the other Zimri you may read of him in 1 Kings 16.9 where you may find 1. How this Zimri conspired against his King and his Master and killed him and slew all the House of Baasha and left not one that pisseth against the wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends 2. How that after this murder of their King and Zimri's possessing the Royal Throne all Israel was divided and most miserably embroyled in Civil Wars when some of them were with Zimri in Tyrza others with Tibni and the rest with Omri 3. What became of this Zimri and his conspirators that have wrought all these Wonders and most tragical Acts to kill their King and all the Kings friends how he went into the Palace of the Kings house and burnt the Kings house over him and died burning himself therein A just judgement of Almighty God against such as would conspire to kill their King And of this Zimri Jezabel demands the Question Had Zimri peace As if she should have said Is it possible that either Zimri or any one of them that conspired with Zimri and had any hand with him in the murder of their King and their Master or that very Kingdom that fostereth any of those murderers should have any peace or settlement or any happiness in the world until justice and judgement be executed upon such transcendent Malefactors For she conceived that as the wrath of God and his plagues were not turned away from Israel until Phinehas stood up and executed judgement upon the other Zimri and Cozbi so this Zimri and the Associates of this Zimri and all the kingdom that abetted him should never have peace nor happiness so long as judgement was unexecuted upon them as the example of Achan and abundance more doth make it plain that the
seminando occidit eum Aug. super Johan not because he killeth him with weapons but because he destroyeth man by wicked counsels and by setting on others to destâ—oy him so are they murderers that take away the life of man by any of these ways and therefore proculdubiò decipiuntur saith the same Father they are far deceived that think them only to be murderers which lay violent hands upon their neighbours Idem habetâ—r de poenit dist 1. periculosè The hainousness of a judicial murder and not them also per quorum consilium fraudem hortationem homines extinguuntur by whose wicked counsels and procurements men are brought unto their death And if any other murder be odious and wicked The hainousness of a judicial murder then certainly this Judiciarie murder whereby the innocent person is condemned to death as Naboth was by the High Court of Jezreel and Christ by the Parliament at Jerusalem must needs be most transcendently abominable and wicked above all other kind of murders whatsoever for that this is not a single simple murder but it is morbus complicatus a twisted de-compound maltiplied sin of many-many branches so that neither Cains malicious killing of his brother Abel nor Joabs traiterous murdering of Amasa nor Davids crafty killing of Vrias nor Brutus and Cassius his conspiring the death of Caesar nor any other kind of murder is neer comparably so hainous and so abominable as this which uno ictu by one single sentence doth cast an infinite number of persons into sin and binds them all together to be lyable to the severe judgement of God for hereby 1. 1 In the place The Seat of Judgement is made the stool of wick ednesse the throne of Satan and the shambles and slaughter-house of innocent blood to do the greatest wrong where I should expect the greatest right 2. 2 The persons Witnesses Jury Judge Jerem. 5.7 The persons here offending are many-many persons the witnesses forsworn and perjured the Jury corrupted and the Judge a devill that is a liar and a murderer from the beginning and doth hereby wrong 1. The innocent person that is condemned 2. The place that is abused 3. All good people that are scandalized and offended with this unjust proceeding 4. All Light-headed credulous people that hold and believe that innocent condemned person to be a malefactor justly punished and 5. God himself that is first cast out of his throne and the devil placed in his stead 2. He is made a lyar to pronounce a false sentence 3. A murderer to kill an innocent man and so lastly a very devill for he that doth all this can be none other then the devill and the Judge stands here loco Dei as Gods Vice-gerent in Gods stead and God himself saith dixi Dei estis and commands us to reverence and honour them as Gods and therefore this judiciary condemning of the innocent unto death doth as much as lieth in man make the just God to seem to be an unjust devill And it were a lesse sin to un-god him then to make the just God seem to be so unjust a Judge for as Plutarch saith Satius est nullos Deos credere quà m Deos noxios And may not God much better say to such offendors as he doth in like case unto the Jewes onely for swearing by them that are no gods and assembling themselves in the harâ—ots houses How shall I pardon them for this As if the hainousnesse of this sin of judiciary murder went beyond the understanding of the omniscient and All-knowing God to find out a way and the means to pardon it especially if we consider 1. The persons condemned For 2. The Courts condemning them For 1. The more considerable eminent and excellent the person condemned is in respect of his calling as are Kings Priests and Prophets and the more innocent upright and religious he is in respect of his life and conversation the more odious and the more abominable is the sin 2. The more eminent and high the Court is that condemneth the innocent the more transcendent is the offence And You may more that this Judicial murder may be done either 1. By an inferiour Court of Justice as the Judges of Jezreel condemned Naboth 2. By the High Court of Iustice the highest Court of the kingdom and the Synopsis of the whole Nation as Christ was by the Sanhedrim of the Jews And I cannot remember in all the book of God of any that were thus judiciarily condemned but only two 1. The subject Naboth by the personal procurement and command of his King Ahab and 2. The King Christ Jesus by his subjects and the National malice of the Jewes And what became of these murderers how did God pardon them Elias telleth Ahab the King In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood and the blood of Jezabel and God will bring evill upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and so Jehu caused the Rulers of Jezreel the same town and perhaps the same Judges that condemned Naboth to cut off the heads of 70. of Ahabs children and when he came to Samaria he slew all that remained unto Ahab untill he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord. And how the Jewes have been destroyed by Titus and afterwards by Adrian and ever since persecuted and plagued in all Countries and by all Nations for killing their King the time would be too short and my papers too scant for me to relate And therefore if any King or Kingdom Nation or City be guilty of such a judiciarie murder as was the subject Naboth or the King Christ Jesus Let them assure themselves the heavie wrath of God like a thick cloud hangs over their heads and is ready to pour down most terrible showrs of vengeance upon them if they do not most speedily repent as I shall by and by more fully shew unto you But whether Zimri did kill his Master with his own hands But we are sure Zimri did not judicially condemn Elab to death yet he had no peaceâ— and what peace shall they have which shall judicially condemn an innocent person unto death which is so compounded a murder and far more abominable then any other sin 1 King 16.29 Acts 25.16 or by some others of his confederates for it is said that he conspired and so plotted with other companions against him or whether he alone did murder him I cannot tell but because he was the primum mobile the first and chief setter on of this murder it is here onely ascribed unto him But afore we do absolutely condemn Zimri for Elah's death we ought to hear what he can say for himself and not as some Judges that will hear no reason but condemn the innocent against all reason for as it was not
that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
herein and that is that all and every one that had any hand or finger in that good King's Death or in the death of any of those His good Subjects that were unjustly and illegally sentenced to death I do not speak of them that were killed in the War because as the Poet Lucan saith Pharsal lib. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni And as the Prophet David saith The Sword devoureth the one as well as the other but of those that in cold blood by usu ping Judges under the Colour of Law were contrary to the Laws both of God and of the Land most unjustly condemned unto death should for that their unjust Proceedings be justly questioned and legally tryed for their former Offence the same being of so high a Nature as I shewed to you before But you will say many of them as blinde Bartimaeus might easily see that acted very highly against the last King and as it is conceived had their hands deep in his death were as active as any others and most special Instruments to bring His now Sacred Majesty unto His Right whereby they have fully expiated their foul offence and deserve rather to be well rewarded and honoured as some say they are then any ways questioned as their Adversaries would have them to be I answer that His Majesty is wise as the Angel of God and knoweth best what he should best do and the Policy of State is far beyond the Sphere of mine Intelligence and their doings therein ought highly to be commended and deserve not meanly to be rewarded though as Will. Sommers told King Henry the Eight that such a Gentleman threatned to kill him and the King answered that if he killed him he would have him hanged for it Will. Sommers replied Nay good King let him be hanged before he kills me or else his death will not preserve my life and his hanging will do me no good so I heard some say that they would have had the Enemies of the last King first punished for their Rebellion and the Murder of Him and then rewarded for their good Service to His now gracious Majesty or else reward them well for their good Service done to our now gracious King and then question them and punish them answerable to their Deserts for their Disloyalty and Treachery to our late King as I read it in the Turkish History and in some other Historians of some very wise Kings that did so to the like Offenders because we may believe it for a truth that they which have proved false to their own true just and lawful Prince will scarce ever prove faithful to any Prince nor seem to be but either for hope still to reap the fruit of their Subtlety to turn when the Winde turns or for fear to be dash'd in Pieces if they turn not their Sayls to escape those Rocks which they cannot otherwise avoid and no thanks to such men for any good they do when they do it perforce and therefore should be trusted perchance And it may be many of the very Murderers both of the good King and of his loyal Subjects have robbed and spoyled not the Aegyptians of their Jewels but the Israelites their Brethren of their Goods Lands and Possessions which they have gotten into their own hands and thereby became exceeding rich and enabled themselves to match their Sons and their Daughters to great Families and to bestow large Gifts that do blind the eyes of the wise on others to make to themselves Friends of their unrig hteous Mammon to preserve them from ther just deserts and to pull down the Wrath and Vengeance of God on others for this their obstructing of the straight rule of Justice that teacheth us to do otherwise Or if it were not so many men do wonder how so many men as were conceived to have been active and most of them to have their hands embrued in the good King's Blood and were likewise guilty of the death of His innocent Subjects should escape uncensured and so few of them sentenced to expiate and appease the Wrath of God for such horrible unparallebd and transcendent Murthers for I knew eight persons executed at Dublin for the Murther of one ordinary Traveller and is it not strange that we see no more brought to their Trial for such a Sâ—aughter as was done upon our good King and His innocent Subjects so judicially and yet so illegally and altogether unjustly sentenced to death or shall we think that no more were guilty then were condemned or not rather that the guilty Murtherers by their Wealth Subtlety and Friends made many others guilty of God's anger and the pulling down of God's vengeance upon many more for their excusing covering and clearing such abominable Transgressours for I would have all men to consider duly how destructive Murther is to mankinde and how odious and hatefull it is to God above all other sins whatsoever especially when an innocent man is judicially and illegally Murthered as you may rightly finde the truth hereof fully proved in the fifth Chapter of the first Book of The Great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Sermons following And I would the Protectours of the King's Murtherers would rightly weigh what the people sayd to King David that His life was worth ten thousand of the lives of the common people and how the Lord punished the whole house and posterity of Saul and all the Kingdom of Israel until his wrath was satisfied for the innocent death of the Gibeonites that were but a poor contemptible people but killed without cause 2. Sam. xxi and especially that there be not any more but two sins that I can finde in the whole Book of God that the Lord saith cannot be pardoned and obliterated without their due punishment and they are 1. The high Abuse of God's Messengers and Publishers of his Will 2. The unjust shedding of innocent Blood For Of the First the Spirit of God saith that when the Lord God sent his Messengers unto the Children of Israel and they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets the wrath of the Lord arose against his People until there was no Remedy as if he had said For other sins of these Israelites some ways and remedies might have been found out as Moses and Aaron by their prayers and censers appeased the wrath of God to turn away the Punishment of them and David and Ezra did the like from the Jews but when they mocked his Messengers despised his Word and misused his Prophets which were the onely Sâ—â—ve or Medicine that could heal their sickned Souls when they refused and cast away these Remedies from them then there was no Remedy in the World for them to preserve them from their just deserved Punishment and therefore saith the Text The Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in thâ— House of their Sanctuary and had no Compassion
upon young Man or Maiden old Man or him that stooped for Age he gave them all into his Hand for that there was no Remedy 2 Chron. xxxvi 15 16 17. And of the Second the Spirit of God saith that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of the Chaldees and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Children of Ammon and he sent them against Juda to destroy it and to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasses and for the innocent blood that he shed for he filled Hierusalem with innocent blood as the Judges of the Rump-Parliament did fill Ingland which the Lord would not pardon 2 Reg. xxiv 4. as if he had said though the Lord God might have been perswaded by Prayers and Tears and Sacrifices to pardon all other Sins yet this sin of shedding innocent Blood especially when it is judicially shed the Lord will no ways nor by any means pardon it and though men would fain pardon it yet God will not pardon it because God which is the God of truth and Truth it self hath said it and that we should not doubt of it he hath said Surely your blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every man's Brother will I require the life of man And Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man Gen. ix 5 6. and see how fully and how energetically the Lord hath said and the Scripture hath set down all these things against the pardoning of them that shed innocent blood And then these things being duly weighed as Saint Ambrose said to Theodosius Quod inconsulto fecisti consultius revocetur so I believe that if any man hath inconsideratly either through ignorance corruption or partiality caused or consented to let any Agag to escape whom the Justice of God hath designed to death he would assuredly consultius errorem corrigere amend His former errour and not let the death of such a King as was worth ten thousand of us and the Blood of so many of His loyal Subjects as were judicially and unjustly condemned to death pass away unpunished and unquestioned whensoever any of the Authours or Contrivers of their death should be found out or at least wise he would be satisfied and not blame others for doing if they do what he should have done It is no matter when better late then never for Nunquam sera est ad Justitiam via The way to do Justice is never too far nor the time too late and God deserreth his Judgments for many years together when we finde Murderers flourishing in all Pomp and Power a long time as I have shewed it at large in the Tragedy of Zimri and yet at last to come to tast of their just deserved Punishment as Pilate and Herod and the rest of the Murderers of Jesus Christ were not apprehended by God's Justice some of them in fourty years after they had condemned their just and lawful King and many more such Murderers you may finde in Dr. Beard 's Theatre of God's Judgments and in other Authours to have lain secure and to have slept in their sins for a long Season before the hand of Vengeance hath rouzed them up and yet after many Ages to pay Death for Death And therefore though the Parliament and Parliaments have passed over and perhaps pardoned those whom God saith he will not pardon yet I conceive that whensoever any of them that had their hands imbrued or the least finger stayned in our King's Blood or in the Blood those His loyal Subjects that were judicially unjustly condemned shall be found out and made known to be such they should be brought unto their Trial especially when we consider that Justice donâ— upon such transcendent Malefactours that do now as yet as it is conceived wallow in those innocent Bloods that they have spilt and do jet up and down most proudly in the spoils of their Slaughtered and Beggered Brethren would as the Scripture testifieth purge the Land from the stain of that innocent Blood which they have so plentifully lost and doth still crie like Abel's Blood for Vengeance against them appease the Wrath of God for our former neglect of doing Justice increase the King's Revenues by the Forfeited estates of these Transgressours satisfie the Friends of those Murthered innocents terrifie all other Rebellious hearts from such horrible attempts and all other Judges from abusing the Laws and perverting Justice and be an excellent Example of a just and unpartial proceeding against Traitours for the Foreign Kings to applaud it and for their Subjects to fear it if ever the like thoughts should enter into their hearts of doing such things as were done by these Murtherers And truely it hath often grieved me to hear the vulgar people so generally complaining that they see divers of the late King's Enemies and Rebels that they suspect guilty some way of the Kings death so much favoured in the World and so domineering over others jetting up and down in Pride so gloriously trimmed with the spoils of the loyal Subjects and some of the King's Friends and faithfull Servants sneaking up and down wholly dejected so as if there were an Act of Oblivion past of the King's Friends and an Act of Indempnity for His Adversaries To whom I have often answered that our King is wise as the Angel of God and He knoweth best what He hath to do far better then the best of us all and they should rather remember what the Psalmist saith Fret not thy self because of the ungodly neither be thou Envious because of the wicked doers for they shall soon be cut down like the Grass and be withered like unto the green Herb especially when their Iniquitie their Treasons and Treacheries that as yet are hidden from the Eyes of men shall be found out and be made apparent unto the World And therefore though I say all this that I said before as from the straight unpartial rule of severe Justice yet as I am a Bishop of Jesus Christ and a Messenger of the God of mercy that takes no delight in the blood of his Brethren nor desireth the death of any one I am obliged most humbly and earnestly to pray and beseech Your gracious Majesty to be still gracious as You have demonstratively shewed Your Self to be hitherto unto these ungracious Offenders and when the Law of Justice hath decreed their Desert to stretch forth unto them the right Hand of Mercy and to do with them as the Wisdom of the most merciful God shall direct Your Majesty Secondly The next thing that I am bound to declare and to remonstrate unto Your Majesty and to all others is lest Your Majesty should be misinformed concerning me as I understood by Mr. Secretary Nicholas I have been misrepresented in Your Majestie 's Court most humbly to
begotten of him And therefore it is the duty of all Fathers Filios colere quasiproprie vitae propaginem proprio exemplo optimè regere tanquam membra saith Marcilius Ficinus To love and to delight in his Children as in the issue and the offspring of his own flesh and the Continuance of his life and to guide them and instruct them by his own proper example as he doth guide the members of his own body And the Poet very divinely saith Nil dictu faedum visuque haec limina tangat Marcil Fic l. 3. Epâ—st Intra quae puer est procul hinc prooul ite puellae Lenonum cantus pernoctantis parasiti Maxima debetur puero reverentia si quid Turpe paras nec tu pueri contempseris annos Sed peccature obsistat tibi filius infans Let no unseemly act or unsavory speech be seen or heard where thy Children are and if thou intendest to do any lewd prank or to speak any immodest thing forget not the years of the young Youths but when thou art about to do it let the consideration of thy Children refrain thee that thou mayst not teach them to be evill and wicked by thine example And it is the duty of Children to love and honor their Fathers as those that gave them their very being and all the things wherein they delight that is themselves as Diogenes said to one that he saw despising his Father And they ought to imitate and to follow their Fathers in all the good things that they see they do But who were those Fathers of those Jews that persecuted the Prophets that we may understand whom this Martyr meaneth For they boasted very much that they were the Children of Abraham and very proud they were that they had Abraham to be their Father because as the Poet saith Vera quidem res est patrem sequitur sua proles Et leviter sequitur filia matris iter The Children are like Apes apt to imitate and to follow their Fathers waies whether they be good or bad and to become like their Fathers both in respect of body and mind because as another saith Scilicet est olion vis rerum in semine certa Martil Poet. Et referunt animos singula quaeque patrum Nec leporem canis Aemathius timidámve columbam Children commonly like their Parents Notus hyperboreo falco sub axe creat There is a certain power and strength left by God in the seed of things and each severall thing doth shew the nature of his begetter as the Aemathian Dog begets not a Hare nor the Northen Hawk a fearfull Dove but as Horatius saith Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Horat. 4. Carm. 4. Virtus nec imbecillem feroces Progenerant aequilae columbam The strong creatures beget strong breed as we see in Beasts in Bullocks and in Horses the strength and stature of their Sires and the fierce Eagle begeteth not a silly Pigeon So commonly good and godly Fathers have good and gracious Children and for the most part valiant and heroicall men beget valiant sons as Jupiter begat Hercules Aeacus Achilles and Anchises Aeneas Rom. 11 2â— And the Apostle saith that Children are beloved of God for their Fathers sake and therefore questioniesse à Principibus nasci praeclarum est It is a most excellent grace and honor to be born of honorable parents And S. James saith that Abraham was called the friend of God James 2.23 and God himself giveth this testimony of Abraham that he knoweth Abraham would command his Children and his Houshold after him Genes 17.4 that they should keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And therefore it cannot be otherwise but that this should be a great deale of Honor and Glory unto the Jews that they were of the seed of Abraham and the sons of Israel who wrastled with God and would not let him go untill he blest him But though all good Fathers do take special care to make their Children good and say with the Poet Hen henâ— ut illud dictitant rectè probum Patrem ab improbo non posse nasci filium Euripides Disce puer virtutem exme verumque laborem Learn to be good and to serve God by mine example yet experience sheweth that the best Fathers have not alwaies the best Children for as what Euripides saith is seen commonly true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a towardly son doth seldom spring from an untoward father because as the Proverb is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An evil Crow brings forth an evil Egg and as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rose riseth not from shrimps nor * Mat. 7.16 thorns of thistles So it is often seen that a good and a godly father hath a very lewd and an ungodly son as faithful Abraham had a persecuting Ismael religious Isaac had a prophane Esau dutiful David had an undutiful Absolom zealous Ezechias had an Idolatrous Manasses Children not alwayes like their Parents and the good Prophet Samuel had very bad sons as were the sons of Eli. And the prophane Stories do record the like Progenies For Caius Caligula the worst of that time was the son of Germanicus the best of that Age and Commodus that became a lascivious sword-player was the son of Mar. Antonius that was a Sage Philosopher So Chrysippus was the son of Gabrias the Athenian Carinus was the son of the Emperour Carus Licinius Galienus was the son of Cornelius Licinius Valerianus very bad sons of very good fathers And I believe you may remember some fathers in your own time that were good men and very loyal subjects and their sons proved to be arrant rebels and some godly Bishops that had sons little better than the Rebels And therefore it is most true which Ovid saith Non census nec clarum nomen avorum Ovid. de ponto l. 1. Sed probitas magnos ingeniumque facit It is not our Progenitors To be vertuous is more noble than to be born of Noble Parents nor the having of Abraham to be our father that adds any thing to our felicity or encreases our glory unlesse we approve our selves faithful in our calling and dutiful to our God as Abraham was and our good fathers were Nam genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco The famous deeds and the worthy exploits of our Ancestors are none of ours and as the Poet saith Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus Hae nobilis Hector Alcidesque fuit It is our own vertues and goodness and not the vertues of our Fathers that makes us glorious and acceptable both with God and Men. And therefore seeing it is the imitation of their fathers vertues and religious carriage and not their procreation from their fathers seed that makes the children to be both loved and
taught their children to do the like even as you may see how the Lord saith unto Isaac I am the God of Abraham thy father and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake And you may be sure they are more to be commended and more accepted of God that in the night of ignorance of blindness and superstition have done the good works of the day as the pious works of building and beautifying Gods House and the charitable works of relieving the poor and erecting alms-houses than those men that in the day-light of knowledg and such cleer preaching of the Gospel as we have had do the works of darkness and the very deeds of the Devil as are the persecuting of the Prophets Quia melior est fidelis ignorantia August quà m temeraria scientia 2. 2 Who were persecuted Having heard of the persecutors their Fathers we are now to speak of the persecuted and they were the Prophets for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted saith this holy Martyr The Prophets were men sent from God to declare his will to teach his people to bring them unto God and it was their own defire that God would reveal his will unto them by men that were like themselves and not by Himself whose Majesty was so glorious and so terrible that their weakness was not able to endure it for when God descended upon Mount Sinai to talk unto his people and to deliver his Statutes and Ordinances unto them and all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoaking they all removed and stood afar off Exod. 20.19 and they said unto Moses Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die for this great fire will consume us and if we hear the voice of the Lord our God we shall die Deut. 5.25 26 27. and therefore go thou near unto God and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will heare it and do it and the Lord heard the voice of their Words and yielded to their desire and as the Prophet Amos saith Amos 3.7 he revealeth his will and his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and he sent them early and late to reveale the same unto his people And as Jehosaphat said unto Juda and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem 2 Chro. 20.20 Esay 7.9 If they believe in the Lord their God they shall be established and if they believe his Prophets they shall prosper and if they will not believe them then surely saith the Prophet Esay they shall not be established they cannot be blessed And therefore not only not to believe these men that are thus and to this end sent from God but also to persecute them is an offence beyond mine ability of expression for to render good for evill and to do good to them that hate us is charity and to do as Christ adviseth us and to render evil for evil is iniquity and to do what God forbiddeth us who saith Vengeance is mine and I will repay for the evil that is done Deut. 32.35 But to render evil for good and to persecute and destroy them that would preserve us is a devillish sin and a degree beyond all ingratitude which is but the retention and deniall of the thanks that we owe and not the reddition and offering the evil that we owe not and should no waies be rendered to any one And besides this unkind requitall of the great good that the Prophets and publishers of Gods will do unto the people with such great evil as is the persecuting of them to persecute the Prophets and Messengers of God is a breach and a transgression of a special precept of God who doth peremptorily say to every one Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 1 Chro. 16.22 And how then dares any man to persecute them which is so high a degree and so large a measure of harm But here you must observe with some diligence What Prophets What Persecution is and whose Prophets we must not harm for the Lord saith not this in general of all Prophets but do My Prophets no harm and therefore we must examine what and whose Prophets they were whom their Fathers persecuted For the Scripture maketh mention of two sorts of Prophets 1. The one sort is of false Prophets That there are two sorts of Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Groves and the Prophets of Baal and of the Beast that you may read of in the Revelation 2. The other sort is of the true Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Lord and these God owneth and calleth them my Prophets and bids every one to take heed that they do them no harm and saith further that Whosoever toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zechary 2.8 And for the first sort that is the false Prophets as the Poet saith that Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. The Wolf doth often lurk under the Lamb-skin So our Saviour tels us that these false Prophets will come to us in sheeps cloathing Apoc. 13.11 but inwardly they are ravening Wolves and the Holy Ghost saith that the false Prophet signified by the Beast that arose out of the Earth had two horns like a Lamb that is although every truth is from God which is the God of all truth and truth is truth as well from Simon Magus as from Simon Peter from Plato the Philosopher as from Paul the Apostle yet because the Heathens truths are mingled with some errors and those false Prophets The very practice of the false Prophets either have not the Wit or will not take the Pains to sift the wheat from the chaff and the truth from their errors therefore they will have nothing but the two horns of the Lamb the Two Testaments which are the strength to uphold the Christian Religion as Cornelius à Lapide rightly expoundeth them Corn. à Lapid in Apoc. c. 13. and yet he spake like the Dragon to shew unto us the true properties and practice of your false teachers to alleadge nothing but the pure Scripture the very words of the Old and New Testament and yet in their Expositions and Apptications of them to speak the words of the Dragon that is falshoods and lies As the Dragon did unto Eve when he told them they should be like gods Luk. 12 49. and he made them like Devils and so the false Prophets though they pretend to bring down fire from heaven that is the same fire which our Saviour saith he came to bring upon the earth which is the fiery zeal of Gods glory and fervent charity among neighbours yet in very
they prosper bear rule and raign in a flourishing stare for some years they shall therefore flourish for ever and never be punished because the Lord is flow to anger and cometh to punish on leaden feet using much patience towards the most wicked reprobates to see if his long sufferance can lead them to repentance But if they be such as the wise man speaketh of that Because sentence against an evill work treason Eccles 8.11 or murder or the like is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill Te peccare sinit siquidem divina potestas Temporis ad spatium parcit quandoque nocenti Sed gravius tandem tormentum rector Olympi Injungit torquetque magis delicta nocentum Obadiah v. 15.16 Exod. 1.22 15.5 then will God recompence the slownesse of his coming with severity of vengeance and smite then home with iron-hands for this law is irrevocably enacted in heaven that murders adulteries oppressions perjuries and other such wickednesses shall not always prosper but shall undoubtedly be punished though the times and the manner are not by us to be known 2. For the punishment of malefactors it is 1. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall suffer the same strokes and receive the same measure as they have measured unto others As thou hast done it shall it be done unto thee Even as Pharaoh drowned all the male-children of the Israelits in the waters of Nilus so was He and all his Host drowned in the red Sea and as the sword of Agag had made many women childless so did the sword of Samuel make Agags mother childless among women and as all the foresaid examples that have proved Traytors and have kil'd their Kings have been kil'd themselves just as the Lord had said Whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed 2. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall suffer some punishment that shall be somewhat like to the sin 2 Chron. 12.5 that they have committed for so the Lord saith You have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you and so it hapned to Solomon that as he divided Gods service betwixt God and the Idols so God divided his Kingdom betwixt Rehoboam his son and Jeroboam his servant And this likeness of the punishment hath a reference sometimes 1. To the Subject 2. To the Place 3. To the Time of our sinning for 1. 1 Kings c. 11. c. 12. As Adam sinned in eating the forbidden fruit so his punishment shall be to eat the fruit of the ground in the sweat of his face and Hezechias for shewing his Treasure was punished with the loss of his treasure 2 King 20. as many other men for being proud of their wealth do lose their wealth some one way and some another 2. The Lord saith that 2 In respect of the place 1 King 21.20 In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine which came to pass accordingly you may see in 1 King 22 38. 3. Sometimes the punishment hath reference to the time of our sinning 3 In respect of the punishment as the spies that searched the land of Canaan 40 daies and sinned by their false report were punished by wandering in the wilderness 40 years and it is observed that Pompey was killed by Septimius and Achillas as upon the same day wherein he had formerly triumphed for the spoile of Jerusalem and the Jews had their City utterly destroyed by Titus at the same time of the year and as some think on the same day of the month wherein they had crucified our Saviour Christ 3. In respect of the persons sinning and punished we are to observe 3 The persons sinning 2 King 14.6 that although the Lord saith The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin and the soul that sinneth that soul shall die and God will not have them say The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Yet it is most certain that many times the wickedness of the fathers is remembred in their posterity and the punishment of that wickedness is oftentimes delated and after a sort both deferred and in part transferred as well to the children and to the childrens children of them that walk in the same steps and follow the same courses as their fathers did and sometimes upon the very innocent Infants as upon the wicked fathers that are murderers and malefactors themselves For so the Lord saith that for the sin of Jeroboam therefore behold and mark it well I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 14.10 11. and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam asa man taketh away dung till it be all gone And so Baasha the son of Ahijab smote all the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15.29 he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed untill he had destroyed him 1 King 16.3 4. according to the Word of the Lord and the Lord threatneth the very same punishment and the rooting out of all his posterity to Baasha 1 King 16.11 12. that killed his King Nadab and did other evils in the sight of the Lord and this Zimri the servant of Elab brought to pass according as the Lord had threatned and the very like punishment happened to all the posterity of Ahab even for Naboths murder and other sins of Ahab 2 King 9.9 and c. 10.17 and too many more murderers and wicked men that by their sins and desire to raign and unjust preferring of their children have pulled down vengeance upon themselves and rooted out all their posterity And for Romulus Tarquinius and Nero I say neither of them were either good or honest and yet the holy Scripture doth not allow the killing or sentencing of them to death and the proof of the Senat 's killing Romulus or sentencing Nero to death is not Authenticall nor the examples by any means to be followed when they are so apparantly contrary to the practice and precepts of the holy Apostles and the success which followed Neroes death proved so lamentable Corn. Tacit. l. 20. 21. as the Tragicall butchering of three of their succeeding Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius that had been three most famous Captains and had done very worthy exploits for their Countrey And therefore whosoever thinketh by murder and slaughter to usurp another mans Kingdom Inheritance or Possession and thereby to raise his house and to advance his children as Zimri Baasha Shallum and others thought to do or thereby to benefit the Common-wealth as they pretend to do he deceives himself because this is the only
fashion devised by the false Prophets now serving him in his Temple and consecrated house dedicated for his worship and presently serving him in Chambers in the Groves and under every green Tree But I conceive that the Prophet means according to Tremelius translation that they erred from the right service of God and from the performance of their duties unto their neighbours and so straid like lost sheep without a shepherd The Law of God is the way wherein we ought to walk both from the way of piety and from the rules of equity and the further they go on the harder it is for them to return to the right way for you must know that the way wherein we ought to walk is the Law of God even as the Prophet David sheweth saying Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 that walk in the Law of the Lord and not in the way of sinners which is the transgression and aberration from the right way that is the Law of the Lord. And this people The Jews and ourselves like the Egyptians and why the Jews were as we are for the most part of us like unto the Egyptians that received the most plentifull benefits of the river Nilus and yet they knew not the fountain from whence it sprang so did they reap all the favours of God his Oracles his Prophets and his blessings more then any other Nation of the World and yet they neither knew God nor the will of God Hos 4.1 Vide Esay 1.3 for as the Prophet Hosea saith There was neither truth nor mercy nor knowledg of God in the Land and therefore they wandered indeed and wandered far out of the way But you will say it is very strange that the Jews of all other people should be ignorant either of God or of the law of God when as the Apostle saith Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God and Rom 3.2 chap. 9.4 Psal 76.1 What great means the Iews had to understand learn the true service of God Amos 3.7 as the Prophet saith In Jurie is God known and his name is great in Israel and he gave unto them Priests and Levits Scribes and Pharisees that should continually expound his Laws both to them and to their children for ever and when they failed to do their duties he raised up his Prophets to direct them to the right way and to shew them how they should both worship God and love their neighbour and as the Prophet Amos saith Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he reveileth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and therefore How could this people be ignorant of God or wander out of his waies To this the Prophet answereth in the next point and sheweth the true cause of their wandering and of all their deviation and starting aside from the right service of God for 2. He saith They loved to wander therefore what wonder is it Where the Jews erred that they should erre and go out of the right way when they loved desired and were well pleased to go out of it but it is strange and a great deal more strange for men to love to erre then it is to erre For humanum est errare God alone is truth and every man a lyer the best of us all is subject unto error when as ever since the fall of Adam there were four things Four things imposed on Adam and on all his seed for his transgression saith Beda most justly imposed upon all his seed for his unjust transgression 1. Ignorance 2. Impotence 3. Concupiscence 4. Malice For the healing of which four maladies the second Adam was made unto us as the Apostle saith 1. Wisdom 2. Righteousness 3. Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.20 4. Redemption Therefore seeing ignorance is incident unto all men and every man is born blind every one may well say with the Eunuch How can I understand without a Teacher or Act. 8.31 how can I walk in the right way without a guide But for a man to put out the light or for a blind man to refuse a guide and for an ignorant man to refuse knowledge this is the condemnation whereof our Saviour speaketh That light is come into the world Joh. 3.19 and men love darkness more then light And yet this was the Epidemicall disease of this people and it hath continued among all Nations to this very day for as the Scripture testifieth of the ungodly Noluerunt intelligere ut bene agerent but they say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies So it is true of too too many they will not understand the truth that they might do right they will not hear the true Preachers Job 21.14 2 Chr. 18.7 but as the King of Israel would not hear Micaiah but hated him so will not many men hearken to the true Prophets but they will do as Ahab said he did to Micaiah hate them and as the Jews dealt with the teachers of Gods true worship that is stone the Prophets and kill them that were sent unto them as Samuel was rejected Esay sawed in pieces Jeremy thrown to a filthy dungeon Zachary the son of Jehâ—ida was stoned with stones even in the court of the House of the Lord Micheas thrown down by Joram to break his neck because he rebuked him for the sins of his fathers Amos killed with a club Ezechiel slain Vrias the son of Semeiah for Prophesying against Jerusalem was killed by Joakim Jer. 26.23 Elias persecuted and threatned to be killed by Jezabel and the spirit of God demandeth of the Jews Act. 7.52 Which of the Prophets had not their fathers persecuted Even so do many men in many places and in most Countreys use the true Preachers and teachers of Gods true worship and the repairers of their errors in these very daies and if the true Preachers say with this Prophet Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old pathes where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls I am affraid our people will answer with the words of this people and say We will not walk therein But to proceed to shew unto you the doings of this people the Prophet tels us they have not only rejected the true Prophets and refused the bright shining light of the truth and right service of God offered unto them by the legitimate messengers of God but as our Prophet speaketh they have committed two evils 1. Jer. 32.33 chap. 7.25 They have forsaken the Fountain of living waters 2. They have hewed them out Cisterns even broken Cisterns that can hold no water And these two evils do commonly go together to silence and deprive the old and true Preachers and to advance and magnify the young novices that are fitter to be taught then to teach yea to forsake God and then to adore the Calf to throw away the service of
that they needed not to sell their lands And Aâ—taxerxes King of Persia certified to all his Officers in all Provinces that touching any of the Priests Levits Singers Porters Nethinims or Ministers of the House of God Ezra 7.55.24 it shall not be lawfull to impose tole tribute or custome upon them and Jezabel that painted harlot could have so much shew of piety as to feed four hundred Prophets at her own table yet now What Bishops lands are not sold and taken from them What Priest or Church man is free from taxes and contribution and not more heavily taxed than any others And therefore if any Jew Pagan or Infidel were demanded Whom he thought to be the more religious and the better lover of God either Pharaoh that preserved the Priests-lands or they of the long Parliament that took away and sold the Bishops lands Either Artaxerxes that freed all the Church-men from all taxes and Jezabel that fed so many Prophets at her own Table or they that now over-load the poor Ministers with such unreasonable contributions as they are scarce able to provide bread for their own Table What answer would he make think you or whom would he think the better Saints and most acceptable unto God Judg you that are the Parliament men But letting these men thus dealt withall in their patience to possess their souls some man that is moved to see oppression and the oppressors flourishing and to behold villanies committed and no justice executed will say perhaps Should not the Magistrate the King punish their villanies and revenge the wrongs of Gods servants or Have not some of them you speak of neglected their duties and others committed strange out-rages and should these be loved and helped and not rather stripped of their estates and punished in their persons as these men are To this I answer 1. That for the Magistrates punishing in due measure both the Omission of just duties or the Commission of unjust offences in all men of what calling quality or condition soever they be the law of God commands it every Common-wealth requires it and no wise man speaks against it And if the Magistrate neglects it as Saul neglected the punishment of Agag or cannot do it for some just reasons that do hinder him as Zedekia for the Rebellion of his Lords and Commons had not the power to do justice and to hinder the wrong and indignities that were offered to the Prophet Jeremy and as our good King for the same reasons cannot hinder the wrongs of Gods Messengers and others of Gods servants Collos 3.25 then I say with S. Paul He that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done and there is no respect of persons with God Deut. 32.35 et deinceps for the Lord hath said it and he will perform it Mea est ultio ego retribuam To me belongeth vengeance and recompence and their foot that is the foot of the oppressors and wrong-doers shall slide in due time that is when God shall see the time fit for the Lord shall judge his people and he will judge righteously and then he will repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and that there is none shut up or left but as it were all begger'd and destroyed by their oppressors and he shall say where are their gods their rock that is the Saints which did eat the fat of the sacrifices and drink the wine of the offerings and so got all the best of all the land unto themselves let those gods and those holy saints in whom they trusted rise up and help these Tyrannicall oppressors of my servants For I even I am he and there is no god with me that kill and make alive that do wound and heal that is my servants for it is I that have wounded them and killed them for offending me otherwise you that are their enemies could never hurt them and I will heal them and make them alive again and I will avenge the blood and wrongs of my servants Vers 43. for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever and I will whet my glittering sword and my hand shall take hold on judgment Deut. 32. from the 35. vers to the 44. v. I will render vengeance to mine adversaries and the oppressors of my servants and be mercifull unto my people In all which excellent expression of Gods just judgments you may plainly see both the relief and deliverance of Gods corrected and dejected servants and the punishment of their proud and flourishing oppressors And our Saviour Christ Luke 18.7 in like manner saith Shall not God avenge his own Elect that cry day and night unto him though he beareth long with them Yes I tell you that he will avenge them speedily And though as Plutarch saith There be certain Rivers that do suddenly hide themselves under ground as the River Nigar doth in the Abissins Country Abbats pag. 184. yet eò perferuntur qâ—ò tendunt they go thither where they intended So though the wrath of God against wicked oppressors and other transgressors of his Laws lieth hid for a time and his judgements seem to be forgotten yet in extremas calamitates aufert aliquando nocentes He will at sometime or other punish them severely enough with iron hands though he comes on leaden feet as he did the Amalekites for the wrongs that their forefathers did to the Israelites four hundred years before And therefore seeing God Almighty challengeth vengeance was a peculiar right and properly belonging to himself and promiseth that he will avenge the blood and all the wrongs injuries and oppressions of his servants I say with Moses Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people Levit. 19.18 And with Solomon Say not thou I will recompense evil but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Prov. 20.22 And as our Saviour saith Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also Math. 5.39 Or if you cannot do this yet as S. Paul saith See that none of you render evil for evil or revenge wrong with wrong For as the son of Sirach saith He that revengeth 1 Thes 5.15 shall find vengeance from the Lord and he will surely keep his sins in remembrance And therefore the only way for us is to follow the counsel of the son of Sir ach Ecclus. 28. Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee so shall thy sins also be forgiven thee when thou prayest for otherwise That we should be ready and willing to forgive al wrongs done unto us one man beareth hatred against another and doth he seek pardon from the Lord he sheweth no mercy to a man which is like himself and perhaps not so bad as himself and doth he ask forgivenesse of his own sins Alas alas saith the Heathen
that we might fear him and he addeth which brought thee out of the land of Egypt that we might love him And in lege precandi he teacheth us to say Our Father that we might love him and he addeth which art in Heaven that we might fear him And in lege credendi we are taught to say I believe in God the Father that we might love him and to add Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth that we might fear him And besides all this we find that these two Graces Fear and Love 1. Are injoyned by the same Law 2. Do proceed from the same Cause 3. Do produce the same Effects And 4. Shall obtain the same Reward For 1. Moses that was faithful in all Gods house saith And now Israel What doth the Lord thy God require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to love him Where you see fear and love so equally required that whosoever neglecteth the fearing of him though he should love him or omitteth the loving of him though he should fear him if he could do the one and not the other yet he is a transgressor and liable to the breach of this Commandment 2. As none denieth but mercy should procure love therefore Moses after he had rehearsed the great mercies of God towards the Israelites Deut. 10.11 21 22. Josh 23.9 11. Psal 130.4 addeth Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God And Joshua doth the like so David after he had considered his own vileness saith With thee there is mercy therefore shalt thou be feared Where you see the mercy of God is the foundation of this fear of God as well as of the love of God And as the mercy of God so the justice of God produceth both â—ffects the one as well as the other For my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith the Prophet And though justice seems as oil to continue the burning of this lamp of fear and as water to quench the fire of love yet as lime which is naturally cold doth notwithstanding retain a fiery quality ex aqua incenditur ex qua omnis ignis extinguitur and is inflamed by water which doth extinguish all fire So the love of the Saints is kindled by the judgements of God Therefore the Prophet saith Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements Psal 119.164 Psal 119.52 And again I remembred thy judgements of old and have received comfort 3. As love inflameth the desire to do what is acceptable unto God so fear hateth to do what is abominable unto him and as love keepeth his Precepts so fear loatheth to break his Commandments and as love mitigateth the sorrow which fear causeth so fear qualifieth the joy which love produceth And as S. John saith God is love so Jacob calleth him the fear of his father Isaac And as S. Paul saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law Gal. 6.2 Eccles 12. So Solomon saith The end of all things is the fear of God and the keeping of his Commandments 4. As the mercy of God is shewed upon thousands of them that love him Exod. 20. Luke 1.50 and keep his Commandments So it is no lesse upon them that fear him But as the Psalmist saith Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord he shall be mighty upon earth Gloria divitae in domo ejus And as the son of Sirach saith Timor Domini gloria gloriatio laetitia corona exultationis Because as the Prophet saith Dat haereditatem timentibus nomen suum Yea Psal 61.5 Psal 145.19 he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him and look whatsoever they do it shall prosper And as eternal life is promised to them that love God So eternal death shall never seize on them that fear God And in brief whatsoever attendeth the one becometh a follower of the other and no marvel because that in love fear is included and in fear love is implied And while we are in this world both grow together in the heart of every true Believer And as the Poet saith of another kind of love so I may more truly say of this Divine love Res est soliciti plena timoris Amor. This love of God is full not of distrustful but of careful fear Quia timentes Deum non erunt incredibles verbo Illius saith the son of Sirach Ecclus. 2. But the wicked have neither true fear nor perfect love For though Cain Esau and Judas had a kind of fear yet was it false because it wanted love And though the Pharisees and Simon Magus had a kind of love yet was it but counterfeit because it wanted fear for if the former had had love they would have desired favour and should have obtained grace and if the other had had fear they would have aimed at Gods glory and not have sought their own praise which did work their own confusion And therefore well might S. Peter enjoyn every Saint that loveth God to fear God And as the love of God so the fear of God is sometimes put for a part of Gods Service and sometimes for the whole Service of God and so it is in this place as in the first of Job and in Luke 1.50 and in the Psalms in many places As where he saith Come ye children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord where the fear of God signifieth the whole Worship of God to honour him obey him trust in him pray unto him and what duty soever else we owe unto him And thus the fear of God is the rarest Jewel and the most excellent thing in the World No riches no honour no preferment like unto it No evil shall happen to them that fear the Lord but God shall preserve them in temptation liberabit eos à malis Ecclus 33. saith Siracides And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation but mischief and unhappinesse and all evil shall continually attend and overtake them that fear not God to bring them to shame beggary and confusion as you may see it manifested in the Story of the sons of Israel who while they feared God were replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes and delivered out of the Egyptian slavery by a thousand prodigies the Lord dividing the Sea to make way for them and closing the same again to destroy their enemies Drawing waters out of the Rocks to quench their thirst and feeding them with the food of Angels But when they did cast off the fear of God then God sent flying Serpents and stirred up enemies and powred down his vengeance upon their heads still plaguing them more and more untill they should be either quite consumed or happily reduced to embrace the fear of God again And not to search farre for any further presidents How happy weâ—e
flor aliâ— faedera regni And yet when God and nature and Scripture and all the wise men in the world and our own reason and experience tells us it is better for us to honour the King then Kings to obey one then many when as the wisest of men tells us plainly that for the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 28.2 but by a man of understanding the State shall be prolonged Shall we be so mad as to rebell against our King whom God commandeth us to honour and chuse unto our selves 400. Kings which God never appointed over us and never advised us to obey them which if you do I say it is not vanitas vanitatum but it is the folly of follyes but and iniquity of all iniquities and therefore deserveth justly to be punished with the misery of all miseries Wherefore I beseech you my brethren to follow the counsell of the Apostle and to obey the Precept of God to honor the King the King which he hath placed over you and leave the other Kings the usurping and imaginary Kings to their own shame But 2. As we are to honor the King and not Kings so we are to consider among other things 1. Quem and 2. Qualem Regem Both what King and what manner of King we are bound to honor for we are to waigh in every King 1. Modum assumendi 2. Normam gubernandi 1. The manner or the waies how any King cometh to his Kingdom 2. The rules by which he governeth and guideth the people that shall be under his charge 1. Hos 8.4 God saith of many Kings They have raigned but not by me As many men do Preach whom he hath not sent these are Vsurpers and come to their government without right And therefore we are not to honor them because though they should govern justly yet they have unjustly attained unto their government and I know not where we are commanded to be voluntarily obedient to Usurpers Others there are that do attain unto their Dominions and yet not all the same way for 1. Some come by the Sword 2. Others by the peoples choice 3. Others by the right of their birth And though the last is best and most authentick yet we may not reject the other two so far forth as they are from God for when rightfull Kings become with Nimrod to be unjust Tyrants God many times disposeth their Crowns as pleaseth him as he did the Kingdom of Saul unto David and Belshazzars unto Cyrus and the like and this Right is good as it proceedeth from God Who giveth victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith victrix causa Deo placuit And as Daniel saith he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2.21 and Job 34.24 And when Kings neglected their duty so far that the people knew not that they had any King or who had any right to be their King or when the people were so miserably handled by such foes as invaded them that they could not tell how to withstand them then as Herodotus saith of the Medes that chose Deioces which is the first elective King that I read of to be their Protector the people made choice of the chiefest man amongst them to be their King Or as we read of Abimeleck when he that had no right unto the Crown would cloak his Vsurpation by the election of the people this popular choice was held for a good way to maintain that Vsurped Authority And though I deny not the right of some Elective Kings because God out of his infinite lenity to our Human frailty rather then his people should be without Government doth permit and it may be approve the same when it is orderly done as he did the Bill of Divorcement unto the Jews yet if we should justly waigh the case of Abimeleck and as some say of Jeroboam who of all the Kings of Israel and Judah were only made by the suffrage of the people how unjustly they entred how wickedly they raigned and how lamentably the first that was without question the creature of the people ended both his life and his raign it would shew unto us how unsuccessefull it is to admit any other makers of our King then He that is the King of kings And the time will not permit me to set down the great and many mischiefs that happened to the children of Israel by these Elective Kings no less then at all times to cast off the service of God and in the end utterly to destroy themselves when by Salmanazar they were carried Captives unto Assyria never to return again to this very day But against all this the brood of Anabaptists will object as they do now positively teach that to be a King is but an ambitious intrusion into Authority when as Nimrod rather by humane violence Gen. 10.8 then by any Divine Ordinance became to be the first King that ever was in this World and therefore S. 1 Pet. 2.13 Peter calleth the establishing of Kings to be the ordinance of man I answer that the Scripture shall determine this question for Solomon saith Hearken O ye Kings hear ye that Govern the Nations Sap. 6.1 2 3. for power is given unto you by the Lord and principality by the most high And S. Paul saith There is no power but from God and whosoever resisteth the power Rom. 13.5 resisteth the Ordinance of God And Daniel saith to Nebuchadnezzar O King thou art the King of kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Dan. 2.37 Power Strength and Glory and the Wisdom of God saith Prov. 18.15 Esay 45.1 Per me reges regnant And the Lord saith as much unto Cyrus and no less to Nebuchadnezzar And to make the point more plain by Examples I would demand Jer. 27.5 6. whether Moses his government over Israel was by his own intrusion or by the Ordinance of God And what shall I say of Saul when he sought his father Asses and of David when he fed the flock of Jesse was it their desire or Gods design that made them Kings And you may see how little Jehu dreamed of a Kingdom when Elisaeus sent one of the children of the Prophets To annoint him from the Lord to be King over Israel 2 King 9. Therefore S. Augustine saith Aug. de Civit. Dei that the greatness of Empires cometh neither by chance nor by destiny by chance he understandeth as he saith the things that happen beyond our knowledg of their causes or without any premeditated order of reason assisting their conception and birth and by destiny he understandeth as the Pagans deemed what happeneth without the will either of God or men by the inevitable necessity of some particular order which opinion is most injurious to Gods providence but we must certainly believe that Kingdoms are constituted and established simply and absolutely by the Divine Providence of God and in another pâ—ace he saith
his sheep and not to flea them that is The duty of a good Shepherd two-fold 1. Negative what he should not do to his sheep 1. Not flea the sheep to clip and shear the wooll and not to cut and teare the skin with the wooll and therefore Christ bids S. Peter feed my sheep and not feed thy self upon my sheep which is the property of too too many Shepherds both spiritual and temporal to seek rather the wealth of their people unto themselves and not to provide for the health of their souls but this covetousness is a vice so palpable which hypocrisie is not that the people may soon discern it in their Pastor and being truly discerned they may fear the same to be rather an hireling then the true Shepherd but let them take heed how they judge John 10. Then the good Shepherd is not to be harsh and rough but gentle and meek unto his sheep for the sheep are gentle creatures and therefore they must be gently used 2 Not prove too harsh unto them and gently led and not forced for so the Psalmist saith Duxisti populum sicut oves non traxisti God led his people like sheep and drove them not like horses And therefore when Esan would have Jacob to drive his flock so as to keep him company in his hunting pace Jacob that was a skilful sheep-master answereth him not so Sir for it is a tender cattle that is under my hands and must be softly driven Gen. 33. so as they may endure or if one should over-drive them but one day they would all die or be laid up for many dayes after Indeed Rehoboam left ten parts of his flock behind him only for his rough driving of them and his harsh carriage towards them for when in a barbarous manner he chased his sheep before him and told them what yokes he would make for them a far unmeet occupation for a Prince to be a yoak-maker they all shrunk from him and ran away presently and so clean falsified his Prophesie for whereas he told them seriously that his little finger should be as big as his Fathers body it fell out clean contrary for his whole body proved not so big as his Fathers little finger But the good Shepherd whether you mean Prince or Priest will come down amongst his sheep as the Prophet David sheweth not like haâ—l-stones on the house top but like the dew into a fleece of wooll that is gently and mildly without any noise or violence at all for otherwise the wrangling Shepherd the contentious Priest that still falls out with one or other of his parishioners and turns them onely to satisfie his own humour as unworthy from his communion can never do much good unto his people but tires them rather then feeds them 2. For the affirmative or positive duties of a good Shepherd 2 Affirmative what he should do to his sheep they are especially these four 1. To provide for his sheep sweet and fresh pasture 2. To foresee and to take care how they should feed in that pasture that is when and how much they should eat thereof for if the sheep be not warily looked unto in a fresh pasture instead of being fatted they may very easily be spoiled when the eating of too much sweet grass stayeth not in them but scoureth away all their fatness and soundness from them 3. To protect and defend them from the fury of their Foes Wolves Dogs Foxes and the like ravenous Beasts that do continually seek to disturb and destroy them 4. To watch over them lest by their wandring they should miscarry and be lost or otherwise perish out of the way And in all these respects besides many others our Saviour Christ hath approved himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that good Shepherd which excelled all the best Shepherds of the world For 1. 1 How Christ performed the negative part of a good Shepherd Touching the negative duties of a Shepherd Christ came not to gather wealth with Craesus nor to enlarge his dominions with Alexander but to save our souls and so Saint Paul saith I seek not yours but you and so every faithful Minister of Christ should not so much hunt after the wealth of their flocks as the health of their souls though this denieth not but as the Sheep should yield her fleece unto her Shepherd so should the people pay all dues and duties unto their Minister for as S. 1 Cor. 9.7 Paul saith Who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock And as he came not to enrich himself by his people so he was no wayes harsh and severe unto his people Num. 12.3 but as Moses was the meekest man upon earth and carried the children of Israel in his bosom as a nursing Father beareth a sucking Child to use Moses his own words Num. 11.12 so was Christ meek and lowly in heart and never denied any that sought unto him nor failed any man that trusted in him And so he willeth all his Ministers to be gentle and courteous unto the people for as the very heathen saith Peragit tranquilla potestas Quod violenta nequit We may sooner win men by perswasion then by compulsion rather by fair meanes and a sweet language then by foul means and rough terms as it appeareth by that parable which Damascen setteth down of the contestation betwixt the Sun and the Wind which of them was most powerfull to make the traveller cast off his cloak who the faster the wind blew the faster he held his cloak about him but the Sun with the influence of his first sweet and then piercing beams made him quickly to cast off both his cloak and his coat And therefore such a Shepherd of Christ his flock as the Poet speaks of Non pater est Aeacus that is not the gentle Child of this meek Father but Te saxum te genuere ferae such as the churlish and rough hewn Nabal was to David is fitter to drive wild Horses then to lead the harmless sheep and they do rather chase men like Nimrod from the Lord then win them with S. Paul by all fair means to our Saviour Christ as you may see how he seeks to lead the Romans unto Christ saying I beseech you brethren Rom. 12.1 by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Which makes me wonder at those rough collectors of Churches out of the Church of Christ by receiving some and rejecting others into their flock as if the day of judgement were now come Mat. 11.28 to separate the sheep from the goats and to cast off the tares from the wheat when as our chief Shepherd and this good Shepherd saith Come unto me all ye that are weary and â—eavy laden and I will ease you 2. 2 How Christ performed the affirmatâ—ve part of a good Shepherd 1. Christ provideth food
because this our City is built upon a Rock and the gate of hell shall never be able to prevail against it not only because that being upon a Rock it can never be undermined but especially because as S. Cyprian saith Cyprianus Non plus valet ad dejiciendum terrena paena quam ad erigendum divina tutela And this good Shepherd which is the Lamb that standeth upon Mount Sion to defend it is more powerful to save it then the Roaring Lyon which is the Prince of darkness to destroy it 2. The same Prophet David saith The Lord is my Shepherd 2 From wants Psal 23.2 therefore I shall want nothing he shall feed me in a green pasture and lead mo forth besides the waters of comfort And in the Propher Ezekiel this good Shepherd saith Ezek. 34.14 The best food for Gods sheep what it is I will feed my sheep in a good pasture and upon the high Mountains of Israel shall their Fold be there shall they lye in a good Fold and in a fat Pasture shall they feed upon the Mountains of Israel where you must observe that this Fold is the Church of Christ and the fat Pastures are the Lilies Violets and the sweetest of all pleasant flowers especially the three leaved grass that as Aristotle saith is most delight some unto the sheep for this is the food of the Shepherd even as he professeth in the Canticles Cantic 2. that he feedeth among the Lilies and that is as Psellus doth interpret it where he seeth the graces of Gods holy Spirit and the virtuous examples of the Saints these are as meat and drink unto him and so they are unto his sheep For as S. Ambrose saith the Pastures of Gods sheep are the blessed Sacraments the holy Scriptures heavenly Sermons pious books and holy meditations of heavenly things and especially the three leaved grass which is the understanding of that great mystery of godliness that our God which is but one God in Essence is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the waters of comfort The waters of comfort what they are are those plentiful streams of milk and honey of Divine Consolation wherewith the Spirit of God doth as it were inebriate the souls of his servants for the Church of Christ is the Land of Promise which floweth with milk and honey it is the Wilderness where the Lord raineth Manna the bread of heaven to fatisfie the fouls of his children it is the Spouse of Christ whose loves are better then Wine and it is the House of God Cantic 2. whereof the Psalmist speaketh that the sheep of Christ shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house and he shall give them drink of his pleasure as out of a River that is alwayes running Psal 36.8 and yet never dried up And Christ being our Shepherd his sheep shall not only have the spiritual food of their souls and be satisfied with these heavenly juncates but they shall have also whatsoever is necessary for the sustentation of their temporal life For as S. Paul saith Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come And our Saviour saith that if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and so to become the sheep of this good Shepherd Matth. 6. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other things that you seek as food and rayment shall be given unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things therefore he that feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him will much rather feed you that are the sheep of Christ if you relye upon him And they shall not only have sufficient for themselves but also to help and to relieve many others as the poor and their children and their childrens children for the blessing of the Lord saith Solomon maketh rich and a good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 10.22 Prov. 13 22. Psal 112. v. 2 3. Iob 22.23 for riches and plenteousness are in his house and his Seed is blessed And Eliphas the Temanite saith If thou return to the Almighty and put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles then shalt thou lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks Yea the Almighty shall be thy Defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver even as the Lord blessed Abraham that he became very rich in cattel Gen. 13.2 c. 12.16 in silver and in gold and had sheep and oxen and he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and Camels Or were it so that God did not thus bless us with outward wealth but suffer the world to frown upon us and to bring us to some want and poverty as he did to Job Lazarus and others either for the tryal of their faith patience and constancy in his service or for some other causes best known unto himself yet if we be the sheep of Christ what need we care or fear any such want so long as we want not the Wedding Garment and the spiritual food of our souls Quia major est suavitas mentis quam ventris because the garment of righteousness is of more worth then any Imperial Robe and the satisfying of our Souls is a great deal better then the filling of our bodies whose food be the same never so dainty is compared with the other nothing but ackorns and husks and other like vanities that are as soon done and gone as they are begun whereas a good conscience is a continual feast and the food of our souls Iohn 6.50 54. which our good Shepherd giveth us never perisheth but feedeth us to everlasting life as our Saviour sheweth O then beloved Brethren What a blessed and a happy thing it is to be the sheep of Christ to be thus innobled with such a Master thus protected from all evil and thus satisfied with all good though therefore the Proverb tells us and it is very true if thou make thy self a sheep the Wolfe will eat thee yet it is far more excellent and to be chosen rather to be a sheep of Christ then a wolfe of the world and to be a Lamb of God rather then a Lyon of the devil when at the last we shall find it far better to be devoured then to devoure and to be spoiled then to spoil our Neighbours 3 The duties and properties of Christ his sheep Two special points Iohn 10. v. 5. But then 3. If you would be the sheep of Christ you must be qualified with these two special properties 1. To hear the Voice of Christ 2. To refuse the hearing of a strangers voice For So our Saviour saith My sheep hear my voice but a stranger will they not follow but will fly from him because they know not the voice of strangers So
Copy hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza translates Non norunt vocem alienorum they know not the voice of strangers as our English translation hath it very right Therefore I conceive that by the stranger Whom doth Christ mean by the stranger and who by the strangers he meaneth that foolish Idol Shepherd whereof the Prophet Zachary speaketh that should come in the time of Christ to be the type of the great Anti-christ that should be manifested in our time and by the other strangers he meaneth those many Anticks that S. John speaks of the Hereticks and false Prophets that from time to time and now more then at any other time Ier. 14.14 c. 23.21 do intrude themselves into the Sacred Function of the Ministry and as the Prophet Jeremy saith do run when Christ hath not sent them and do speak what he hath not commanded them but do preach the lying inventions of their own heads to seduce the sheep of Christ to follow the Anti-christ and to relinquish the true received worship of the living God But the true and right sheep of Christ will hear none of these nor follow after any of them for they know that as they which are not lawfully called or allowed to be the lawful Ministers of Gods Word should not preach and cannot do it without great offence to God that may justly say to them as he doth to the Jews by his Prophet Quis avobis requisivit hac Who hath required these things at your hands So they cannot hear them without the like offence to God yea though they should preach the truth and nothing but the truth unto them for as Christ reproved Satan and bad him hold his peace when he spake the very truth that he was the Son of God because he had no Commission to be the Embassador of Christ to publish that truth unto his people so shall they be sharply censured by God though they preach the very truth when they are not lawfully called and have no Commission from God to do the same 2 Chro. 26.21 I think the fearful Judgement of God upon King Uzzia for invading the Priests office and upon Uzza for doing that which appertained to the Levites to do 1 Chron. 13.10 and upon King Saul for offering Sacrifice to the Lord should be a sufficient warning for them to take heed how they thrust themselves into the Ministry for King Uzzia presuming to burn Incense unto the Lord which appertained to the Priests the sons of Aaron to do the Lord suddenly smote him with Leprosie and so he continued a Leper to his dying day And Uzza putting forth his hand to hold up the Ark when the Oxen shook it which belonged only unto the Levites to carry it the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza that he smote him dead in the very place and Saul lost his Kingdome for his intrusion into the Priests Office and how date these men to intrude themselves into this Sacred Office to be the Embassadors of Christ to declare his will and to expound his meaning without Commission And if they should dare to preach how dare the sheep of Christ hear their voice when as Christ tells us plainly his sheep will not hear the voice of strangers and the Lord commands them by his Prophet not to hearken to those whom he hath not sent And Solomon saith Ier. 27.14 c. 29.8 Cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Prov. 19.27 Surely none would do it but that we love to shew our selves to be the children of Adam and to stretch forth our hands to the forbidden fruit and as the Poet saith Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata We long to do what we are forbidden and will the rather do it because it is forbidden like the man that for some just impediment never went out of his house but being for some offence injoyned to keep his house he was so moved for the debarring of his liberty that to cross the command of his Superiours and to become liable to his censure he would needs presently walk abroad and so with Shimei 1 Reg. 2.46 Our wilfulness to do what we are forbidden bring himself to death And so it is with us we will not hear when we are commanded to hear and we long to hear those that we are forbidden to hear as if God envied our good when he forbad us when as he forbids nothing but for our good as when we forbid a man to drink poyson that it might not kill him 2. Having heard how the sheep of Christ are called Secunda pars I know them it followeth that I should shew how they are justified in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I know them that is I do acknowledge them for my sheep and do own them for my people for my servants and for my children for there be very many that go under the shape and shew of Gods sheep and are indeed the Foxes Wolves and Lyons of Satan of whom Christ never saith I know them but rather Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity Yet these subtil Foxes and these Wolves in sheeps cloathing The wicked and the hypocrite not acknowledged by God to be his sheep Gen. 34.23 The Sichemites how served for their deceitful hypocrisie V. 26. that profess themselves to be the only Saints and are indeed the destroyers of Gods servants may easily blind the eyes of men but they cannot beguile the all-seeing God for as the Sichemites whereof Moses testifieth that they came with dissembling hearts to deceive Jacob and his children were contented to be circumcised and take upon them the habit of Gods children in hope that all theirs should be their own if they were circumcised as themselves confess yet the Lord that knew the◠to be hypocrites doth not acknowledge them for his children and therefore their dissembling of Religion brought on their destruction and their Circumcision which they thought would be the means to inrich them became the means to destroy them for while they were weak and sore by reason of their Circumcision the sons of Jacob fell upon them and slew all that were male which was a just judgment of God for the dissembling of their Religion And as the Gibeonites with false hearts and a dissembling shew of a religious desire of communion with Gods children came to the children of Israel and through their lies and dissimulation made a league with them and so freed themselves from the Sword of Joshua and deceived the Israelites Josh 9.15 yet they could not deceive the Lord who knew their hypocrisie and knew them not for any of his people and therefore made them slaves and drudges to draw water carry wood V. 27. The Gibeonites how served for their dissimulation and do all manner of servile work for the sons of Israel So amongst us in
aut per maria ambulare Aug. de bonis Câ—njugal c. 37. Non in quantum sil dei sed in quant filius hominis Id. de sanctitat Virginit c. 27. aut coecos illuminare but learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart Therefore The second sort of the Acts and Doings of Christ are such as he did as man and are imitable to be imitated by us that are men and would be counted the Sheep and Servants of Christ and herein we should follow him And therein also we are to follow him 1. In respect of the Manner 2. In respect of the Matter For 1. What vertuous or pious act soever we desire to do 1 Sincerely 2. Totally 3. Diligently 4. Constantly 5. Humbly Diabolus dux nobis fuit ad superbiam Aug. ho. 12. Phil. 2.7 and to imitate Christ therein we must strive to do it to the uttermost of our power Modo forma in the same manner as Christ did it and that is 1. In sincerity without hypocrisie 2. For Gods glory and not for our own commodity 3. In a discreet knowledge and not in a blinde zeale Without the observation of which rules the Acts that we do may be good in themselves and yet quite spoyled from yielding any great good to us by our ill manner of doing them As 1. To fast and pray and to pay Tythes of Mynt and Annyse 1 Boni videri volunt sed non esse Bern. in cant Ser. 66. 1 Chr. 28.9 Prov. 21.1 Psal 51. Ad novercae tumulâ—m flere Hieron in Esa l. 6. How horrible it is to do villanies under the pretence of Piety Erasm in simil were very good deeds commended and commanded to be done by God himself yet because the Scribes and Pharisees did them in hypocrisie to be seen of men and to make the world believe they were Saints and the onely religious men our Saviour denounceth many a bitter woe against them and tells us that they have their reward and that is as Saint Hierom saith Gloriam mercenariam supplicia peccatorum So they that proclaim dayes of Humiliation and practise nothing but Oppression that pray to God to blesse them and prey upon the poor that curse them do but as the Greek Adage saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to weep for the death of our Stepmother and double their sin in the sight of God Quia levius est in alium aperte peccare quam simulare sanctitatem because the professed thief that robs by the high-way-side is not so bad as the holy Saint that under the shew of Religion takes away mine Estate saith Saint Hierome for as Wine mingled with Water doth sooner provoke vomite then either Water alone or pure Wine Ita intolerabilior est nequitia pietatatis simulatione condita quam simplex aperta malitia so any wickedness that is covered with the Cloak of Religion is a great deal more intolerable then if the same were plainly committed without any pretence of Piety saith Erasmus So horrible a sin it is to cloath Sin in the garment of Holiness as to put the Coat of Christ upon Judas his back 2. As it was an acceptable service unto God 2 Many doe Gods work for their own end as to subdue the rebels to get their lands for themselves The continual course of all worldlings in the service of God and a very good work to root out the house of Ahab for his Idolatry and prophaning Gods Service yet because Jehis did it rather to get the Kingdom unto himself and destroyed all the Kings children the better to secure himself in his Kingdome then to satisfie Gods justice for Ahabs Impiety the Lord saith that he will require the blood of Ahab on the house of Jehu even so they that destroy any Offenders root out the Transgressors of Gods Lawes and punish the Corrupters of Gods Worship be they whom you will the Work may be good and just yet if the doers thereof do it not so much to execute Gods Will as to satisfie their own Malice to suppress whom they hate or according to their ambition to make themselves great and to get their Estates and Possessions to themselves and their Posterity God will never accept of this work for any service done to him but will most severely punish it at the last And I think that the making of themselves great as Jehu did by the service that men pretend to do to God doth sufficiently cause many others to doubt whether they have done those things onely for Gods glory or for a conjuncture likewise of their own profit and I conceive you may be sure the jealous God will not regard that service which is done to him with a sinister aspect and respect to our own profit because he will not give his glory unto another he will not yield any part of his service to any of them that do the service but though he will certainly reward every man that doth him service yet as our Saviour explaineth the words of Moses it is written The shalt worship the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him onely shalt thou serve and not thy self with him in the service that thou dost to him so he will neither accept nor reward that service which thou dost to thy self as well as to God or rather to thy self then to God And therefore I would advise all those that in doing service unto God by pulling down the Transgressors of his Lawes have raised themselves to such great Polsessions I would the Rebels would consider this to look well to their intention progression and execution of their work lest that for the service they believe they do to God they receive the reward of the Scribes and Pharisees or of Jehn that pulled down King Ahab to make himself King of Israel 3. 3 Many do good in a blind zeal Num. 11.28 2 Sam. 16.9 The love of Joshna to Moses when Eldad and Medad prophesied was good and so was the love of Abishai to David when Shimei cursed him and of James and John to Christ when they would have called for fire out of heaven to destroy the Samaritans for not receiving Christ but the love of them was in a blind Zeal without knowledge and therefore instead of being commended they were much reproved for their indiscretion even as Saint Paul persecuted the Saints when his blind zeal perswaded him that he destroyed Gods enemies And as Aiax in his frenzy is reported to have slain his own children by taking them for Ulisses and Agamemnon so many men in their blind Zeal destroy the true Ambassadors of Christ and the Pastors of Gods people by taking them for Popish Prelates Origen in ep ad Rom. Zelus ad mortem Amb. in Ps 119. and therein think they do God good service as the Jews thought when they crucified Christ for as Origen saith Putant se zelum Dei habere sed quia non secundum
and other places round about and that only for Religion and not for worldly Dominion which is the suffering of the Christians under the Turk that permitteth any profession so they yield themselves to his subjection He must ingenuously confess this truth of Isidorus that the greatest of all Persecutions is that which is prosecuted by the Ministry of Antichrist that now raigneth in the world But if you would desire to know who is this Antichrist that now reigneth and thus rageth in the world I answer VVho is the Great Antichrist divers opinions That although many good Arguments are produced to prove the Great Turk to be that Great Antichrist and Constantinople to be that Babylon which is the Throne of that bloudy beast and as many good Arguments are alleadged by Powel Whitaker Downham Thompson and others of our Protestant Writers to prove that series paparum from Boniface in Phocas time to this present Pope is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by St. Paul 2 Thes 3. and that Rome is his proper seat and so called Babylm by St. Peter Yet divers others of no small Learning do avouch That as Ecclesia credentium corpus cum capite the whole Catholick Church of Christ head and members is said to be and is so termed unus Christus one Christ as in Joh. 3.13 And Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he persecuted his Church So Ecclesia malignantium the Congregation of the wicked or especially Senatus consultus the great Sanedrim of the people the supream Counsel A pack of wicked men is termed the Antichrist and the highest Court of any Nation which is the representative mystical body of that dispersed and nefarious Synagogue is oftentimes for their unanimous consent in all wickedness spoken of quasi unus homo as if they were but one man because they all have but one head one will and one end to destroy the truth and the true Church of Christ And this supream stool of wickedness that establisheth mischief by a Law 2 Thes 3.8 doth now appear to many men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man of sin and the child of perdition whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming because they say First There is neither Note Argument Saying nor Testimony of holy Scripture that doth competere antichristo and is sutable unto Antichrist but it is most properly found to agree with that Cumulus Senatorum the representative Council of all wickedness As 1. They have seated themselves in a mystical Babylon the Amsterdam of all confusion where you may easily find almost all Heresies maintained that have been invented and any Religion used but the true Religion that dares not be professed 2. They do sit in the Temple of God as God that is they do possess the truest Church of God that we know to be on earth and as God they establish Worship and Religion and ordain Laws for the Government of that Church and root out that Worship and Government which God himself hath ordained 3. They exalt themselves above all that is called God i.e. Above Kings This point of the Great Antichrist is fully and at large handled in my Book of The Great Antichrist revealed of whom the Scripture most properly saith Dixi Dii estis I said you are Gods because they are in Gods stead and do exercise Gods Power here on Earth and yet this grand Council of the Great Synagogue would not only be worshipped themselves as Kings but will suppress Kings deny any service to be done to them and suffer none to do them Worship which is properly to exalt themselves above Kings when they keep Kings so low 4. When by their false assembled Prophets they deny the Notions whereby we understand the Father and the Son to be the true God as they plainly do by the cashiering of the words Essence Person Trinity and the like words which the Church of God penes quam norma loquendi hath ever used to bring her Children thereby to some sure knowledge of that great mystery of godliness and to inable them to confute those wicked Hereticks that denied the same they do manifest themselves to be that Antichrist who as St. John saith denieth the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 which neither Turk nor Pope as yet ever did 5. The unfolding of that great mystery of the Beast Aug de Civitat Dei l. 20. c. 9. 14. which Beast St. Augustine understandeth of the Society of wicked Christians and the City of Satan that is signified by that Beast and the mystery which the Holy Ghost setteth down to be observed as the most proper Note of the Beast is that it containeth 666. touching which if you omit one thousand which is a full and perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in the Scripture to do to make the other the more mystery and consider that in 646. this great Sanedrim or superlative Council demanded the Militia or soveraign rule over the King for twenty years which being added to 646 do make up the just number of 666. This they say is a strong Argument to prove the grand Council to be that Great Beast 6. And lastly The unspeakable unparalelled persecution of this Antichrist above all the persecutions that preceded it either of Pope Turke or heathen Tyrants do plainly prove them to the judgment of some men to be the greatest Antichrist that as yet is revealed unto the world though some think that a greater may yet come before Christ does come to judgment which I do not believe But though I say as St. Augustine doth in the like case Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt Divers men have divers opinions about the time place and person of Antichrist which neither my Text nor my time will give me leave either to discuss or to disprove any of the same now Yet thus much I dare boldly say that letting pass the persecutions of the Preachers not to be paralelled in any History if you consider first the number of them all the Reverend Bishops all the Deans all Prebends and all the best Divines in the whole Kingdom And 2. the misery that is imposed upon them worse than death Quia dulce mori miseris To be spoyled of all their means banished from all their friends wife children and Parents and exposed to all wants and contempts so that neither Nero Domitian Dioclesian nor Julian brought such a storm upon the Church of Christ as is now brought upon the body of the whole Clergy within these five years and omitting the many thousands of good Christians No Historian can shew me any king that hath suffered more indignities at any â—nchristian hand than King Charls hath suffered from the Long Parliament that for their Religion and good conscience have lost their lives livings and liberties I say letting
then the Children of Israel did unto Pharaoh that is till they saw all Opportunity to be delivered from it And as the Apostle saith You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord how the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more then his beginning so may the Lord do with us for as the Lord saith unto Cain Sin lyeth at the door and is ready like a Serjeant to attach every cruel blood-thirsty and wicked Sinner and so the Lord knoweth best both how and when to deliver his Servants out of all their troubles and his will be done let us still wait on him and stay his time and we shall not miscarry Amen CHAP. III. THirdly touching the Irish Rebels that are now either killed banished or enslaved I say the world may see in them as in the clearest Cristal glass the just Judgement of God and should learn by their example Obadiah vers 15. Jer. l. 15. to fear to offend his great Majesty for as the Prophet Obadiah saith concerning the Edomites who came of Esau Jacob's brother and so were brethren unto the Israelites As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee the reward shall return upon thine own head and as Jeremiah saith the like of Babylon Take Vengeance upon her and as she hath done do unto her so we finde the Lord dealeth with the Irish measuring unto them the same measure that they measured unto their brethren the English and those brethren whom they pretended to be dearer unto them the Britains And how I pray you have they dealt with these their dear brethren surely the heynousness of their cruel and most wicked doings can hardly be exprest though by a far better Oratour then I am that never had any other stile but plain yet so near as I can according to my plain manner I will set it forth in these four respects that is The Suddenness and unexpectedness of the Irish Rebellion 1. The Suddenness of it for 2. The Subtlety of it for 3. The Cruelty of it for 4. The Generality of it for First When a dark Cloud appears and when the Windes do blow and the Waves of the Sea do roar before a mighty tempest of Lightning and Thunder and a storm of Hail-stones doth fall upon us men foreseeing thereby what is like to ensue may either wisely prevent the danger or resolvedly prepare themselves with Patience to sustain all their ensuing miseries which will not be so terrible unto them when they are expected before they fall upon them quia tela praevisa minùs nocent because foreseen evils do least hurt us and as Horace saith Levius fit patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nefas because Patience lightens the maladies that we cannot mend Gen. xix 24. but when the Sun doth shine upon the ground and the Lord suddenly raineth Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven as he did upon Sodom and Gomorrah there is no evasion of such a sudden Destruction and yet the Irish Insurrection was not much unlike the Sicilian Vespers or the French Massacre that came like a Thief in the night and rushed upon the poor Protestants like an armed man against whom there is no resistance and as Joab shed the blood of War in Peace Reg. ii 18. so did the Irish Rebels shed the blood of their harmless Neighbours that behaved themselves most peaceably amongst them and as the Israelites by the command of God borrowed Jewels of Silver and Jewels of Gold of the Aegyptians to depart from them so did the Irish contrary to the commandment of God borrow Gold and Silver and all the Arms and Weapons not of those that oppressed them as the Aegyptians did the Israclites but of many that had often times relieved and protected them and this they did not with Israel to go out of Aegypt but as Mithridates slew all the Romanes that were in Pontus so did they intend most suddenly to destroy all the English and Britains that were in Ireland and that while they seemed to be most friendly with them And this very Circumstance the Suddenness of their iniquity is so far from the Possibility to be excused or extenuated that it must needs be acknowledged to be a most horrible Impiety Secondly The subtle Carriage of their Rebellion The palpable Forgery and inexcusable Perjury of the first Rebels and Murderers of our men sheweth their Subtlety and the height of their Iniquity for they most falsely pretended that whatsoever they did to unarm the Protestants and to expel the English they did it for the King and by the King 's special Command and Commission under his Great Seal and therefore they termed themselves the King's Souldiers and the Queen's Army that were thus authorized by his Majesty to rob expell and destroy all the English and British Protestants out of Ireland and hereby they seduced many thousands of the simpler Irish that otherwise meant no evil unto their Neigbours to joyn with them in their Rebellion and they stopped the mouths and weakened the hands of those loyal Protestants that otherwise would have laboured more strongly to have resisted their un-Christian Violence and so in thus carrying on their design they most impudently slandered God's Anointed and with faces no less shameless then the Devils How impudently the first Irish Rebels belyed our most gracious King they belyed the good King that was further from those thoughts then the worst of them were from all goodness yet they did hereby give colour to the ill-affected and the Enemies to the King in Parliament to lay those things often in the King's dish and to tax him openly with these forged lyes of those false Rebels as you may obviously finde it as I believe in their Remonstrances and Declarations And as that is most abominable with God when a Thief Murderer or Adulterer Psal l. 21. thinketh wickedly that God is such an one as himself or regardeth not those things so was this gross traducing of his Majesty a most horrible impiety to perswade the world that so just and so gracious a King was so unjust so cruel and so bloody as these butcherly Rebels were But Menander can tell them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they should not think that a lying Perjurer can hide himself from the All-seeing God and the very Heathens knew that God would be just though for a while his Justice were oftentimes deferred for upon the Trojans Lies and perfidious Perjuries Agamemnon could say as Homer testifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though the God of Heaven avengeth not the same presently yet surely he will punish it at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For I am sure of this To pay for all these lies and â—eâ—juries and do know it very well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There will be a day when stately Troy shall be overthrown Nam licet haud sontes praesenti puniat ira Sera tamen punit Deus
Punishment which should be a warning to all Transgressors to fear the Vengeance of Allmighty God Thirdly The Lord Brooks The next Member of the Long Parliament that I shall set down in my Catalogue of disloyal Subjects is the Lord Brooks a man whose former life and Conversation which I knew by his own penitent Epistles and Letters that from beyond the Seas he wrote to his Unckle Sir Fulk Grevil afterwards Lord Brooks who shewed them unto me was very loose and dissolute and how in a short time by some strange Conversion far unlike Saint Paul's he passed from one extream to another Four remarkable things concerning the Lord Brooks from a very dissolute Youth to a most resolute Saint I know not but out of many remarkable things written of him immediately after his death I shall onely set down here these few particulars First That as in his former looseness he wholly neglected the Commands and grave Counsels of his Unckle Sir Fulke Grevil that was his Governour loco Parentis his Maintainer and upon my Knowledge a very bountiful Maintainer of him too so afterwards in his too much preciseness he did in like manner wholly reject his Duty and Obedience to his King that was Pater Patriae and a very gracious King to him too yea he became a very obstinate violent and a most virulent Opposer of his King as if he could not be a Saint in the Service of God except the became as a rebel to oppose his King but so it is most commonly seen that they which are undutyful to their Parents and Governors will seldom prove faithful to their Kings or Princes Secondly I observed that our of his superabundant zeal which he pretended to God's Honour he extremely hated and persecuted the Governours of God's Church and the chief Upholders of God's Service the reverend Bishops and and all the grave and learned Doctours of God's word and he was no less a Profaner of God's House which is the material Temple and the place where God's Honour dwelleth while the Saints are Pilgrims in the Wilderness of this World Thirdly It is not unknown to most that knew him that he could not endure to have this Epithete and Title of Saint to be given either to Evangelist or Apostle and especially to any other departed Saint or Servant of God as Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose and the like though he could not deny them to be with God in Heaven as if the Saints in Heaven for fear of Idolatry or Superstition were not to be acknowledged for Saints now on earth but that this Sanctity must be appropriated onely to themselves that are such furious Zelots against the reverend esteem we bear to the Saints in Heaven though we neither invocate them for help nor adore the best of them with the Church of Rome no more then they but knowing that not one is in Heaven but he is a Saint we give this Title of Saint to them of whom we doubt not of their being blessed with God Fourthly He had another property no less injurious to himself and the Servants of God on earth then the former was to the Saints in Heaven for that excellent Prayer in our Letany and the holy desire of God's Servants that it would please God to deliver them from sudden Death which all good Divines and faithfull Servants of God did ever acknowledge for a temporary Judgement of God and therefore prayed that whensoever it pleased him to call for their Souls out of this earthly Tabernacle he would be pleased to grant them some time and space to call upon him for the forgiveness of their Sins and to commend their Souls into his Hands and so forth Yet this Lord could not away with the Prayer nor abide to hear of this Petition but would have every man at all times to be so prepared for death that he needed not at any time to pray against sudden death and we say likewise that every man ought to expect death in every place and to do his best endeavour to be prepared for death at all times yet that neither this Lord nor the best Saint on earth can be so well prepared at any time but that he ought as he hath need to pray for pardon of the Defects and Imperfection of his Preparation and therefore to pray for time to make that Prayer and then as for time to dispose and fit himself for God and to make his peace with him through Christ so to set his House in order as the â—rophet saith to Ezechias and to settle his Estate among those that depend upon him which hath been ever held to be as it is indeed a Blessing and a great favour granted from God to preserve love and to continue peace and amity amongst a man's Children and the rest of his Friends and Posterity But here in this Lord we may behold and adore the Judgment of the just God how that as Goliah's Head was cut off with his own Sword so Judicium suum super caput suum this man's Judgment and his practice fell upon his own head and the Stone that he threw at another lighted upon his own Pate for in the Prosecution of his hate against his King as a just reward of that Service his Lordship being in Litchfield on Saint Chad's day the Founder of that Church while he viewed the College or Close as they tearm it and Church of Saint Chad to batter them down with his Canons for the Fideliy and Allegiance of that Fraternity unto their King being all harnessed Cap-a-pâ— from top to toe as he lifted up his Helmet to see the same more clearly behold you and see the just hand of God directing the hand of a youth that was a Prebend's Son with a Fowling-Piece to hit him just in the eye that as formerly he could not see the truth so now he could see nothing but fell suddenly dead and never spake word no not so much as Lord have mercy upon me so the Lord God shewed himself just and righteous in his Judgments and holy in all his ways and let all the Sons of men acknowledge the same and all wicked men fear his Justice Fourthly The next man Fourth Man that I shall bring upon the Stage to answer at the Bar of Justice is Master John Pym a man that was in an Office of great trust and of much profit and gain under the King and because as the Proverb goeth Much would have more his Covetousness egged forward by his Ambition to be great snatching at more then was just laid him open to lose what was due and to be deprived of his place that was so good Then he like the unjust Steward spoken of in the Gospel took unjuster Courses against his Master for he not onely advised with himself to detain more of his Master's goods in his hands and to deceive him of so much as might well enable him to live well and in good sort as his false fellow-Steward
that Christ speakes of had shewed him the way before but as after Ages grew more subtle so they became more wicked then the former times even so this unjust and unthankful Servant became more wicked then before for now he layeth up such hatred and malice against his King and sealeth it in the depth of his Heart wherein the same boyled like new Wine that wanted vent so that it was like meat and drink to an hungry Stomach for him to finde any Opportunity to broach the same against the King And the Long Parliament that consisted of very many discontented Persons and men both disaffected to his Majesty and distasting his present Government made him a fair way to lay open all his Malice and what he formerly vented in his private Discourse by retail he doth it publickly now in gross and he doth it to the full and having a tongue apt to speak and not unskilful in the art of Rhetorick he begins first to make his Oration against the Earl of Strafford as knowing that whatsoever evil was proved or conceived against him the same reflected most upon the King then after the taking of this great Earl and prudent Counsellour of the King out of the way making more bitter Invectives against his Majesty then ever Cicero's Philippicks were against Marcus Antoninius or his Actions against Verres he so still passed on till he had poysoned the greater part of that House and the seditious vulgar that understood his Proceedings with an evil conceit against the good King And now seeing himself back'd with the wilde part of the House and the strength of the rude multitude no mean revenge will serve his turn but with his Rhetorical Orations and Speeches filled with Gall against the King though as yet somewhat obliquely he labours to disrobe and rob the King of all his chief Friends under the Notion of evil Counsellours and withall secretly complies with the Scots to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majesty But the King having full intelligence both of his and his partners vile practice against his Majesty laboured to bring them to their Tryal in the usual legal way for their underhand Treachery and Confederacy with the Scots to bring a foreign Army to invade his Dominion and then to save himself and the rest they fly to the City of London and in a short space drew the Citizens and with them the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate civil War against their lawful Sovereign Then the King found himself too weak to bring this strong Rebel to any trial yet the hand of God was not to short to fetch him out of his guarded Palace for he is the Lord of Hosts and hath as well his great Army of little ones as the Rats and Mice that devoured Popiel the second King of Polonia in anno 830. for his treacherous poysoning of his Unckles the Moales that undermined a City in Thessaly and the Worms that destroyed Herod the King as also his strong Army of great ones as the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram the Sea to overwhelm Pharaoh and all his Hoast the Stars in their Order too fight against Sisera and his Angels to be at his Command to overthrow his enemies And therefore he sent his Serjeant to arrest him and to fetch him out of his strong hold that he should do no further Mischief against his Anointed And how he died I leave to the Report of them that knew the manner of his death better then I can set it down I did intend further to shew unto you the just Judgment of God upon Colonel Hamden that for his disloyalty to his King was shot whereof he dyed on the same Plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against his King even as the Lord threatened the like Judgment against Ahab And upon the Mayor of York that on that day twelve-Moneth that our King lost his life made a Bone-fire for joy that the King had so lost his life but on the same day twelve-Moneth after hanged himself And especially upon Colonel Axtel that hath been the ruine of so many Churches and the Suppressour of so many honest conformable Ministers and other good Protestants and plaid so many Tyrannical parts about Kilkenny and in my Diocess of Ossory as I am not able in a short time and with few words to express it and upon divers others but my Occasions at this time will not give me leave to perfect what I have begun And therefore I must now here make an End and commend us all to God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all glory and honour for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori The Authour's Prayer after he had finished the Reparation of the Chancel and Quire of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny OEternal Almighty and most merciful Lord God that hast created all things by thy Power governest them by thy Wisdom and preservest them by thy Goodness and hast disposed all thy Creatures to be for the Service of man the Sun to give him light by day and the Moon by night the Earth to feed him and the Angels of Heaven to attend him that he dash not his foot against a Stone for all which great love and bounty of thine towards man thou requirest no more but that he should be thankful unto thee and praise thee for thy goodness and declare the wonders that thou doest for the Children of men and as Moses saith what doth the Lord our God require of us but to fear the Lord our God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and to keep his Commandments and Statutes which he commanded us for our good for the discharging of which duties and the performance of our Service unto the Lord our God though as Saint Stephen saith the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands when as the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him which is above the heavens and below the earth and filleth all places and beyond all places with his Presence yet our fore-Fathers most religiously according to the President that King Solomon left us and the good Examples that the Primitive Christians gave us have erected Oratories and built Temples and Churches where the Saints and Servants of God might meet to praise the Lord for his manifold mercies to beg his favour and graces to help and to supply their wants and necessities to understand his Will and to know his Commands and to do all other the best Service that they could do to the Lord their God and to that onely end they have set them apart and alienated them from all secular and prophane uses dedicated them wholly for God's Service and consecrated them by Prayers to be Sanctuaries for them and their Posterities to serve and to honour God in But O Lord our God we confess and
honoured and that so their own proper vertues only and not their Ancestors makes them glorious I had rather be as Juvenal saith the son of Thyrsites a base coward and to imitate the exploits of Achilles the most valiant Heroick than to be the son of Achilles and to behave my self like Thyrsites And I would choose sooner to be a faithful Jonathan the son of persecuting Saul than a rebellious Absolom the son of godly David But as Horace saith and we have seen it true that Aetas parentum pejor avis Horat. 3. Carm. 6. tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem The Progeny is worse than the Progenitors our Fathers worse than our Grandfathers and we far worse than our Fathers and our children like to be worse than we are a Progeny most vitious Earipides in Heraclid generatim bane sententiam ad omnes mortales retulit when as the off-spring still proves worse and worse and as Euripides saith Thou shalt scarce find one son amongst many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not worse than his father which made a certain poor Widow most earnestly to pray for the long life of her oppressing Landlord that was a most wicked Tyrant and her grievous persecutor and being demanded the reason why she did so zealously pray for him that never did her any good The poor womans prayer for her cruel Landlord but had heaped upon her very many intolerable wrongs she answered It was because she knew his Grandfather and he was a very bad man and an unjust Oppressor of his poor Neighbours and his Son this mans father proved worse than he and This man is far worse than them both and if he were dead I fear his son will be the Devil himself So these Jews though they were originally descended from Abraham the friend of God yet the posterity of Abraham degenerating How children degenerate from their Parents and the Progeny still growing worse than the Progenitors angring God in the Wilderness forty years together and killing his Prophets when they enjoyed the promised Land S. Stephen tells them they were now the children of Persecutors and of murderers and our Saviour saith John 8.43 They were the children of their father the Devil because he was a murderer from the beginning And as then it happened with the posterity of Abraham the Jews to grow worse and worse from Gods friends to be the Devils children So I fear it is now with the whole World and with all the posterity of the first good Christians to grow worse and worse and instead of being a faithful people to become a faithless and a stubborn generation a generation that setteth not their heart aright and whose spirit cleaveth not stedfastly unto God For in the Primitive times the Christians continued with one accord in the Temple praying and praising God and had Cor unum animam unam Acts 4.32 but in the suceeding times they degenerated and the love of many did wax cold and iniquity so far and so fast incrased that Linacrus reading the 6. What Linacrus did and 7. chapters of S. Mat. threw away his Testament and said Certè aut hoc non est Evangelium Christi aut nos non sumus Christiani Certainly either this is not the Gospel of Christ or we are not Christians that are so far from doing what he teacheth and commandeth us to do But when we find our Fathers to have degenerated from their good Fathers and instead of being faithful Christians and good Subjects to become Rebels and Murderers or Idolaters and the like to rob their neighbours and to resist their King to renounce their Baptism and to prophane the Chuches to countenance the wicked here on earth and to despise the Saints that are in Heaven as some of our Fathers lately did all these things and did much more horrid acts than any of these then ought we not to imitate them and to walk in the wayes of our Fathers as these Jews did and as the Prophet Jeremy saith have done worse than their Fathers Jerem. 16.12 for we ought not to observe the Statutes of Omri nor walk in the wayes of Jeroboam nor do the wickedness that our Fathers did but we ought to do as the Lord adviseth us by his Prophet Ezechiel saying unto us as he said unto the Jews Walk yee not in the Statutes of your Fathers neither observe their judgements Ezech. 20.18 nor their ordinances nor defile your selves by walking in their wayes and doing the like wrongs as they have done or confirming and continuing those injuries which they acted against their neighbours But What good children ought to do if they have made any Laws and given any Judgements to take away the goods or the lands and possessions of any man unjustly be he of what Nation or of what Religion soever when he hath done nothing worthy of censure and much lesse of disinheriting as I am sure and you may be sure of it they have done to very many in these Dominions and especially in this Kingdom Then do not ye justifie those doings and make good their judgements and continue the wrongs and oppressions that they have done and so sin with your Fathers and worse than your Fathers by making your selves not only the partakers of their sins but also the Patrons and Protectors of all their unjust proceedings But do ye confess the iniquities of your Fathers and say with the Prophet That they have done amiss and dealt wickedly and so do ye shew your selves sorry for their sins and recede from their unjust doings and rectifie what they have done amiss And if we thus return unto God Zach. 1 2. Malac. 3.7 then God promiseth that He will return unto us and he will blesse us But when we have Abraham to our father and are the sons of Jacob the children of such fathers as feared God and walked in his wayes relieved the poor and built and beautified Churches and spent their dayes in praying and doing all other pious deeds and wronging no man either in word or deed then ought we not to say with our new Saints They were superstitious and ignorant and walked in darkness by thinking to merit heaven by their works What good children ought not to do and have therefore merited to be sent to hell which is a most ungodly and uncharitable censure of most ungracious children that delight rather to spit in their fathers faces than to commend and to imitate their Vertues But we ought to honour the memories of our forefathers that have most faithfully served God and procured the blessings of God to those children that will serve God That God blesseth the good children for their godly fathers sake Gen. 26.24 as they have done because God loveth and hath promised to blesse the good children that will walk in the wayes of their godly fathers for their fathers sake that had formerly served him and