grosse and filthie that if it were not that custome from old time had so preuailed and diuerse of our countrimen did yet so hold it in their blindnesse and it is our dutie to seeke to win them I should thinke my self very idle and should partly be ashamed to speake of it in this place The fasts in Scripture are pure abstinence men eate nothing and drinke no water but here they may eate and drinke and be full and yet fast too This is one of the grossest Paradoxes which the blind beast of Rome that deceitfull whore of Babylon doth broach vnto her followers 13 And yet poore soules they see it not nor the fondnesse of that doctrine that such and such dayes should be fasted not for lawes sake and pollicie but for religion and deuotion I do maruell what sound warrant they can haue for that conclusion for no such thing can be deriued from any place of Scripture Heare S. Austens iudgement vpon that matter If you aske my opinion in this point I reuoluing it in my mind do find that in the writings of the Euangelists and the Apostles and in all that instrument which is called the new Testament fasting is commanded But what dayes we should not fast and what dayes we should I see it not defined by the precept of the Lord or the Apostles And in the auncient Church they had another custome then is kept at this day Origene vpon Leuiticus saith that they had the fourth sixth day of the weeke wherein they solemnely fasted Now to tye this or the alteration from it to be a case of religion is a seruitude of all seruitudes and a Babylonian bondage The time of Lent I confesse is a very auncient custome but so farre from being found a point of faith and saluation that the most approoued auncient histories tell how diuersely it was kept one day or two dayes or seuen dayes and by some for twenty dayes and by some other for fortie by some coniunctim by some diuisim some abstaining from this foode some from that but that the Apostles left it for so Socrates doth speake to the liberty of the Church nay to euery mans mind and will I would that our people vndestood this euery where that they might take things aâ—ight ciuill orders to ciuill orders and customes which were indifferent for nothing else but indifferent and not to put heauen and hell vpon superstitious obseruances True fasting is not of custome but vpon an especiall purpose by the good motion of the mind 14 Yet these are not the onely errours in the fasts of the Church of Rome but this may be added to them that commonly they respect the externall worke alone But the Apostle telleth vs that if there be nothing else bodily exercise profiteth little There must be a directing faith and an vnderstanding knowledge which must make all acceptable The end why it is done doth much make or marre the matter if it be to humble the body to worke in it more obedience so to practise spirituall things if it be to testifie true deuotion if to seeke to abate the Lords fury this sheweth that all is right but these other being for the most part ignorant do thinke the thing barely done to be a deseruing worke a meritorious action And this thought being once receiued multiplieth euill on it selfe so far that many in their superstition do not feare to spill their body that they may merite the more and so macerate the flesh that they make themselues vnfit to performe such Christian duties as otherwise they might do They procure diseases to themselues and impotency by reason of sicknesse whereby they make their body which is the house of their minde to sinke downe on their soule and to lade it ouer heauily Then that mind which with alacrity might many wayes haue serued God with impatiency peraduenture but assuredly with much griefe doth grone vnder the body And so in steed of increasing they diminish true deuotion Hierome as it is easie to be gathered alludeth to this when he sayth that a little meate and a belly vvhich is euer hungry is preferred before fasting three dayes And againe Do thou impose on thy selfe such a measure of fasting as thou art able to beare Let thy fasts be pure and chast and single and moderate and not superstitious And he addeth fully to that point which I mentioned a little before What doth it profit not to eate oyle and to seeke out such troubles and difficulties of meates carrets pepper nuts and dates fine cakes and honey and baked things So Fulgentius giueth an item for fasting moderatly A temperature is in such sort to be added to our fasts that neither saturity do stirre vp and prouoke our body nor immoderate abstinence vveaken it But some other of the auncient haue not only dehorted it but haue perstringed it with right seuere censures and written against it As namely Athanasius If thy enemy the Diuell do suggest into thy mind great exercises of deuotion that thou mayest make thy body vnprofitable and vveake do thou on the other side see that thy fasting haue a measure He reputeth it for no better then a temptation of the Diuell if it be excessiue Saint Basile speaketh to this matter most soundly and with much reason I do not so beate downe my body that I vveare it out vvith immoderate vvounds and make it vnprofitable for seruice but that is my onely cause of chastising my body that I may subdue it to seruice and make it rightly obedient to his maister But he vvho bringeth his seruant so vnder by hunger that not onely he is vnprofitable for the ministery of his maister but is not sufficient for himselfe vvhat else doth he then make himselfe a seruant to his seruant For it must needs be that the body being vnable to serue and by infirmitie vvaxing faint his maister must novv serue him vvhile he must stand amased about the curing of the infirmity of the other So farre Basile who esteemeth the mind as the maister and the body as the seruant Vnto these I will onely adde the iudgement of Saint Bernard who vttereth a most godly and sober doctrine Watchings fastings and such like do not hinder but helpe if they be done vvith reason and discretion Which things if by fault of indiscretion they be so done that either by the spirit fayling or the body faynting spirituall things be hindered he vvho so doth hath taken away from his body the effect of a good vvorke from the spirite a good affection from his neighbour a good example from God his honour he is a sacrilegious person and guilty of all these things toward God Not that according to the meaning of the Apostle this seemeth vnfit for a man and be not decent and iust that the head should sometimes ake in the seruice of God vvhich hath aked oft before in the
long felt the sweetnesse of the Lords distilling grace prosperitie peace and plentie which maketh men forget the authour of their felicitie They with the Oxe haue tasted the fodder that lieth before thē but they haue not thought of the giuer Oh the blockishnesse of our nature who returne to God little loue for his great loue vnto vs. Our neighbours of Fraunce and Flaunders haue drunke of another cuppe and haue taken another course Some yeares now past religion and true faith hath bene oppugned in France Edicts haue bene made that the Protestants or Huguenots as they call them should get them out of that countrie within such a time or such a space vnder perill of their liues Thousands of them haue fled and left their natiue countrie but not the care of their countrie for although they were elsewhere wishing still good to Sion they haue harkened after the aduentures of that Church and commonwealth and haue found both to be in hazard Many inuasions and great slaughters and ciuill warres in that land wherein those that haue bene the pillars of religion in that countrey haue bene oftentimes shrewdly shaken This hath caused them as London doth well know to assemble thēselues together in their Churches with solemne fasts and prayers which of likelyhood they had not done but that they saw themselues to be fallen into most perillous times These assemblies and these fasts being many more then we haue had did argue that more affliction was on them then on vs which made them so to cry I would that we might learne by their example to be wise before that we be stricken But if peace do lull vs asleepe the rod it is which can awake vs. That we find by our Prophets case in whome the next thing which I obserued is the greatnesse of his calamitie The greatnesse of his misery 19 In the last place I haue noted that misery mindeth God vnto vs. Then the greater our miserie is the more is our mind on our maker If this be true our Ionas might well cry to the Lord for great and exceeding troubles were at this time shewed vnto him He saith that he was in hell yea in the belly and midst of hell and in the third verse plainer that he was throwne into the bottome in the very heart of the sea for so it is in the Hebrew that all the flouds had passed ouer him all the surges and all the waues What can be expressed more horrible then this was vnto Ionas The word which is vsed here is Sheol which sometimes doth note the graue vnto vs and other some times hell and that double signification together with the like in some few other words doth cause that question so oft handled of the manner of Christs descending into hell But partly because I loue not to extrauagate from my text although occasion be here well offered by the nature of the word bearing so plaine a difference but especially in a desire of vnitie in our Church least some by contradiction should gainesay whatsoeuer is vttered in this argument so apt are we to be iarring which I wish were otherwise I passe ouer that point in silence onely obseruing vnto the weake that we all do hold the Article of Christs descense into hell but the disagreement is in the manner of his descending and how that should be expounded The Prophets words here import that he was in the fishes belly as a mā might be in his graue without light without sight in darknesse and discomfort neuer hoping more to liue then a man who was dead and buried Or else that he felt in himselfe such anguish of his conscience because Gods wrath did follow him and because he knew that himselfe had deserued euerlasting torment that now he was so tortured with an Hyperbole speaking of it as if he had bin in hell The Chaldee Paraphrase here hath a word signifying a bottomelesse pit which intendeth to vs that the sea was very deepe wherein he was as if he had bene drowned And this may be an argument that the sea was very deep there that the whale which deuoured him was there whose greatnesse was such and so huge that it would require much water The whale swimmeth not in the shallowes neither can remaine in the foords 20 The greatnesse of this danger so amplified by the Prophet in many parts of his song first could not chuse but much dismay him and fright him home for the present for what could he thinke of himselfe that drowned he was and not drowned eaten vp and not deuoured and yet for euery moment in case to come to his end besides the pangs of his soulefearing eternall death Secondly when afterward he had by the mercie of God escaped from destruction it might be a great remembrance and testimonie to him of the fauour of the Lord. For the greater was his daunger the greater was his deliuerance Neither doth that man euer know what it is to be freed from miserie who was neuer like to feele it To be brought to the pits brinke and then and there to be stayed nay to be in the midst of death and there to be kept from dying must needes vrge in the patient a meditation of thankfulnesse That consideration of Ammianus Marcellinus in his storie is very good that although it be a matter exceedingly to be wished for that fortune would continue in flourishing state vnto vs yet that quality of life hath not that feeling with it as whē frō a desperate very hard estate we are recalled to a better fortune We better know what health is when sicknesse hath much broken vs. We know what it is to haue store of clothing and competent foode if hunger and thirst and nakednesse do for a time assaile vs. It is a prety reason although the practise thereof were bad which Herodotus saith that the Samian tyrant Polycrates did vse to make He very much exercised piracie and robberie as well by land as sea and his custome was to spoile his friends as much as his enemies whereof he assigned that cause that when he shold vnderstand afterward that his friend was robbed of any thing he might gratifie that friend more in restoring what he had lost then if he had taken nothing from him I do not commend his thieuing but his reason had wit meaning God knoweth that whē himselfe taketh from vs such things as are not ours we are but his disposers or as tenants at will vnto him he maketh vs so much the more embrace his mercie who hath sent grace in wretchednesse and present comfort in extremitie Our Prophet in his suffering had good experience of these things which maketh him the rather breake forth into a song of thankesgiuing 21 Thou hadst cast me into the bottome in the very midst of the sea as if he should haue said now it is otherwise and the more am I beholding to thee Where also obserue his speech
be it the ancient Donatist or Rogatian in times past so peeuishly bent who abstained from the assemblies of all other men whatsoeuer which were not of his opinion and tied to a small corner in Africa that Catholike Church which is so farre diffused ouer all the face of the earth Vincentius one of their company is iustly reprooued by Saint Austen because when the Lord had sayd that all the earth should be filled with his maiesty Amen Amen so be it so be it for so it is in the Psalme he would sit at Cartenae some meane place belike in Africa and with ten perhaps of his Rogatians which yet remained with him would say Non fiat non fiat that it should not be so Or be they our new Barrhoists sprong from the seede of the Donatists who because they conceiue that some spots spotted men do yet remaine within the Church of England they single themselues from vs by a schismaticall rent They forget that the spouse is blacke while she remaineth on earth that in the field where the best seede is said by Christ to be sowne tares spring vp as well as wheate and both must grow together vntill the day of haruest That in the wombe of Rebecca which was a good figure of the Church is Esau as well as Iacob which cannot be discerned vntill the time of their birth And this birth is the iudgement What a holy and wise saying is that which Austen hath in this behalfe We suffer many in the Church whom we can neither correct nor punish But yet for the chaffes sake we do not forsake the threshing floore of the Lord nor for the bad fishes sake do we breake the nets of the Lord nor for the goates which are to be seuered in the end do vve leaue the flocke of the Lord nor for the vessels made to dishonour do vve flit out of the house of the Lord. Let the spirite of singularitie carie these meÌ„ in our time headlong while it will but let vs loue the publike meetings of the faithfull the sacraments duly administred the word sincerely taught the deuotions vttered here Let vs hold it our ioy and crowne that we may so come together that we may not onely with our Prophet here looke toward the temple but that if we will our feet may stand in the gates of Ierusalem We do sinne against our soules when by a fancie we debarre our selues from the fellowship of the faithfull and communion of Gods Saints And so now leauing this let vs come vnto the third thing which was at the first proposed by me and that is the grieuous conflict which Ionas here sustained The combat of the Prophet 13 And what can be straunger to a man at first sight then that he who late before was the Prophet of the Highest and therefore much in his grace acquainted with his counsels and purpose concerning Israel where he had long preached one neere about his God should now with such a horrour as a despairing person be vp and then downe be at the first so distrustfull although afterward resolued But the remembrance of that fauour which he before enioyed doth deiect him the more that after so large measure of Gods bountifulnesse toward him he shold be vnthankfull For now his conscience cryeth out against him that he was most vnworthie to haue any part in the Redeemer who had turned from him so wilfully Now he breatheth out displeasure and indignation against himselfe So fearefull a thing is sinne it doth so wound the soule Hence great fights do oftentimes arise vnto the faithfull where the flesh armed with desperation layeth on loade euen to destruction but faith holdeth out a buckler wherewith she wardeth the blowes Notwithstanding betweene the one and the other there is a combat hardly fought out much ebbing and much flowing much rising and much falling that the waues are not so various as the thoughts of this sufferer are disputing pro and con acquiting and condemning Whereunto at the last a victorie commeth but it is with great difficultie in the meane while the inward man and the outward the spirit and the flesh most vehemently wrastling Now as Saint Iames hath told vs Blessed is the man that endureth temptation he that striueth and standeth and in the end coÌ„quereth shall not loose his reward But in the meane time it maketh the weake one the tender and sickly conscience to droope and be discouraged so that being heated violently he thirsteth after comfort In which case since God himselfe is so farre from despising the broken and contrite heart that in very truth he doth loue it and Christ for his part came for that purpose not to breake the brused reed nor to quench the smoking flaxe we are in exaÌ„ple of theÌ„ both the father the word to bind vp the broken to seeke out that which is perishing 14 Then to speake to this argument whosoeuer thou art that gronest vnder this heauie burthen strengthen thy feeble knees resume thy decaying spirits If the motions of thy mind be fearefull beyond measure yea vnfit to be spoken and vttered by thee so that thou art ashamed euen to name them as that Gods being is not certaine that the Scriptures may be doubted of that Christ was not the Messias Sauiour of the world that thy sins shal not be forgiueÌ„ thee that thou beloÌ„gest not to Gods electioÌ„ that the promises of his mercie appertain to other meÌ„ but are not true in thee that thy best way were to dispatch thy selfe of thy life by some fall or a knife or by drowning or otherwise since thou art but a forlorne person and a castaway in Gods sight which is a most fearefull and vncomfortable thought yet vnderstand that these suggestions and a thousand more of that kind are but attempts of thine enemie who would willingly rush vpon thee but know that thou herein art not alone such coâ—flicts are very common The Prophets and the Apostles the best Saints of God haue endured them How great was Iobs extremitie when he cursed the day of his birth and being vnpatient and vnruly he satisfieth not himselfe againe and againe to curse it In what a case was Dauid when he seemed to feare vtter perdition Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me He speaketh as if he doubted of his election It was not well with him when he distrusted God in his promises daring to say vnaduisedly in the midst of his distresses that all men were lyers that was euery one of them who did tell him and that from the mouth of Samuel the true Prophet of the Lord that he should be the king ouer Israel How was Ieremie on his knees when he cursed and fretted bitterly and wished that he had neuer bene or would that he had bene slaine at his first entring into the world How was
write not these things to shame you but as my beloued children I do warne you The Apostle would not of purpose shame those whom he saw comming willingly inough to God but the matter it selfe will shame yet with a bashfulnesse to good purpose the man who is intelligent when he shall see another who is greater then himselfe to be calme when he is troubled yea more more to be calme when he seeth another troubled when himselfe is surprized with heate to behold his better to stand vnmoueable no more but to heare him and be silent or onely to looke vpon him or to turne away to be gone vntill the storme be past or if there be a speaking onely to say as God sayth here without further prouocation Doest thou well to be angry He who is wise and prudent hath learned to pity those who are blind and deafe or distracted in wit and not to study to be like such but those who are impatient are for the time no better Blind in that they see not what is commodious deafe from heating any reason yea possessed with a frensie to speake and do things vnlawfull Where although flesh and bloud would suggest that as one noyse is best of all beaten backe with another noyse or one woodden pin with another so violence with violence and great words with great speeches are soonest done downe and appeased yet Christian imitation of the best and patience fit for Saints biddeth treade another path of quietnesse and of softnesse 15 I know not to whom this precept may rather be commended then to the Ministers of the Gospell who should not be ouer readie to take knowledge of such censures as their people do passe vpon them for those things which they preach when it is not of any malice or pretended thought to disgrace but of idle curiosity and because men haue their fancies Into what flames do these matters breake forth whē heate cā hold no longer but on the next Sabaoth day to sound out of the pulpit an inuectiue declaration against such carping iudges when perhaps the words were mistaken perhaps increased and aggrauated by the carier of the tale But the end is that whereas before the party was a brother and a hearer now he prooueth to be an enemy and forbeareth to heare the Sermons from whence he onely looketh to be galled the congregation is disquieted and in steed of one speaking before now each mans mouth is open and the pastour himselfe being now torne and rent on euery side is troubled in his mind and discouraged in his calling How much safer were it here if it could not be auoided but knowledge must be taken in priuate thus to appease the thing which is not right Do you well to be angry or do you well thus to say But if it be a thing possible the way were to heare and not to heare to auoide all notice of it There was neuer man wiser then Salomon and he taught much to that purpose The glory of a man is to passe by an offence And in his Ecclesiastes Do not giue thy heart also to heare all vvords that men speake lest thou heare thine owne seruant cursing thee These precepts are true in all therefore much more in the pastour who should shine before other men and should be more obseruant because if it be not in the matter yet in manner or circumstance he possibly may erre And blessed is the man that feareth alway sayth Salomon To which sence may be applied the beginning of ano-speech of his A vvise man feareth Yea the first point of wisedome is to distrust himselfe And so much of Gods mild reproofe Let vs pray to him so to guide vs that we may walke aright while we be here in this world and acknowledging him the giuer and sender of life and death submit our selues in both to his most holy will vnto whom with his Sonne Christ and their most blessed Spirite be glorie and praise for euer THE XXVII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. The whole Prophecy of Ionas is not to be applied to Christ. 3 Reasons why Ionas went out of Niniue 4. Christians are to flie danger 6. Reasons why he sate on the East side 8. We should grieue at the ruine of others 9. Gods seruants are oftentimes meanly entertained in this world 10. Therfore none should murmure at their want 11. We may vse any of Gods gifts of foorded vs. 12. Reasons why Ionas waited neare the city 13. Sathan is the authour of all doubts which are against Gods word Ionah 4.5 So Ionah vvent out of the city and sate on the East side of the city and there made him a booth and sate vnder it in the shadow till he might see vvhat should be done in the city HOw some of the ancient fathers of the Primitiue Church haue by allegorizing laboured to apply the greatest part of the whole Prophecy of Ionas to the person of Christ may easily appeare to those who are conuersant in the volumes of those reuerent writers And I feare that to a iudicious and sober reader it will too plaine appeare that those excellent lights and great pillars of the Church haue somewhat troubled their owne wits and forced the text also to make that good in Iesus which is onely true in Ionas For although there be some thing which by the open witnesse of our Sauiour himselfe hath good place in him that as the Prophet vvas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the vvhale so the sonne of man should be three dayes and three nights in the belly of the earth and some things more besides which not vnfitly may resemble him yet it is most apparant that very many matters are as far from him in the one whereof and other he may quickly be satisfied who listeth to looke but on the obseruations of Mercerus vpon the booke of this Prophecy But if any would be refractary and stand stiffe for that which is past in the Chapters fore-going yet here he must needes yeeld or be mightily ouertaken For how fitly shall this going out and expecting what shall become of the city be applied vnto Christ What shall the gourd be which is spoken of in the next verse and the worme which did destroy it Shall the one be his flesh and the other his death or some thing farther fetched The gourd brought ease to Ionas and delight and contentment but Christs flesh brought him none but rather sorrow and much anguish The Prophet grieued to leaue the thing which shadowed him but Christ willingly died gaue vp the ghost But aboue al this messenger which now was at Niniue was offended with God and did chide and chafe at him and when the Lord disliked that as it is in the ninth verse and asked him whether he did well to be angry for the gourd which was destroyed he most furiously and testily foorthwith replied that he did well to be angry
well enough when so often they end their sentences with these words Thus saith the Lord. Saint Paule writing to the Corinthians doth take this course in the matter of the Sacramēt I receiued of the Lord that which I also deliuered vnto you Otherwise as he is a traytour to his Prince who taketh on him to coyne money out of base mettall yea although in the stampe he for a shew doth put the image of the Prince so he that shall broch any doctrine that commeth not from the Lord whatsoeuer he say for it or what glosse soeuer he set vpon it he is a traitor vnto God yea in truth a cursed traitor although he were an Angell from heauen as Saint Paule telleth the Galathians Earthly kings are offended if their subiects shall do from them or in their names such messages as they send not or if their Ambassadours being limited by aduertisements what they shall do and what not should entreate of contrarie causes Then should the Minister be carefull in a verie high degree that he speake not but according to his commission least he offend a Lord of more dreadfull maiestie who is more iealous of his glorie and more able to punish The visions are now ceassed reuelations are all ended such dreames are past and gone as did informe in old time Now it is Gods written word which must be to vs as the threed of Ariadne to leade vs through all laberinths The Law of the Lord is perfect conuerting the soule the testimony of the Lord is sure and giueth wisedome to the simple saith Dauid Tertullian could say of the written word I do adore the fulnesse of the Scripture This full Scripture this perfect Law of God is it which must be the guide and as the loade-starre vnto vs. Vincentius Lyrinensis in his litle booke against heresies speaketh elegantly to this O Timothy do thou keepe fast thy charge What is it that is thy charge That which thou hast receiued not that which thou hast deuised that which is cōmitted to thee not vvhat is inuented by thee a matter not of thy wit but rather of thy learning wherein thou art no author but onely a keeper not a leader but a follower And a litle after Do thou so teach that vvhen thou speakest after a newe maner yet thou do not speake new matter Thy order may be new thy method may be newe but the substance of that which thou speakest must be old This is an argument very copious to be handled and thereunto may be ioyned the iust reprehension of some fantasticall Anabaptistes who haue taken on them in our time to crosse this written word by illuminations and reuelations of their owne But I leaue the one and the other till God send further grace to wade more into this Prophecie That which I rather gather here is this that if Ionas would not go from one place to another without the expresse commaundement of God who is Lord ouer heauen and earth and ruleth all at his pleasure and that also the other Prophets did euermore obserue this rule that then in the examples of Gods auncient seruants there is no protection or warrant for such men who sometimes in our Church do flit from place to place without staying in any It is one thing to be sent and for a man then to go another thing to runne first and not at all to be sent Feede the flocke saith Peter but it followeth in the text which doth depend vpon you or which is committed to you for so the best translate it although to the letter it be the flocke which is among you The Apostles indeede did go throughout all the world but they had their passe-port for it Go ye and teach all nations But besides that the immediate presence of Gods Spirit did still attend them and told them what they should do and againe what they should not do so that they were not at their owne libertie When they were let go by the Spirit they came vnto Seleucia And they would haue gone to Bithynia but the Spirit would not suffer them These men of whom I speake are not Apostles that dispensation is ceassed as all Gods Church doth know It were rather to be wished that they did not come much nearer to the name of Apostataes for reuolting from the approued rule of the Christian faith while they vse that profession which is sacred in it selfe but as pretenced pietie to couer vnhappie shifting yea sometimes an vngodly life I do not speake of all among bad may be some good and circumstances oftentimes do make whole causes differ But for many of them I could wish that experience had not taught vs to the slaunder of the Gospell that such fond admiration as they procure in the pulpit among the ignorat multitude who are easily deceiued is quitted with some infamy which from town to towne doth follow them and from countrey vnto countrey or with some actuall cosinage or with lustfull carnalitie or one bad tricke or other 11 Their calling in the meane time is not warranted in the word although Ionas went to Niniue Ours is a stable profession it is no gadding ministerie And yet I doubt not but that we who are children of the Prophets and haue a home in this place and therefore are different from them to exercise our selues against such time as God shall send vs charges or especially to win men to Christ may sometimes in this towne and sometimes in the villages which are here about adioyning euen with a free-will offering bestow our litle talents By writing we learne to write by singing men learne to sing by skirmishing we shall learne to fight the Lords great battels The people in the meane time are wonne to Iesus Christ the faithfull are increased ignorance is well expelled idolatry is defaced Satan and sinne are conquered The very crummes of our tables would keepe many soules from staruing the lost houres of our idlenesse would helpe many poore to heauen God graunt that the burying of those talents in the ground which he in his great loue hath giuen vnto vs be not layd to our charge in that dreadfull and terrible day If ignorance or idolatrie or iniquitie did not rage if the enemies of the Gospell to hold vp their Romish Antichrist were not busie to peruert we might keepe our selues in our cloisters but if all these do fret and dayly consume like a canker let vs sometimes looke about vs. Theodoret reporteth in his Ecclesiasticall storie that when Valens the Emperour with his Arrian opinions had bee-postered much of the world by that meanes the flocke of Christ stood in great danger Aphraates a Monke a holy man of that time contrary to his order and vsuall profession came foorth out of his Monasterie to helpe to keepe vp the truth And being asked by the Emperour who was offended at him what he did out of his cell I would
speaketh not Some thinke not at Hierusalem the place then onely appointed for sacrifice to the true God but wheresoeuer they first landed Arias Montanus thinketh that they offered it at Hierusalem which thing was sometimes done by the Gentiles as by the Chamberlaine to Candace the Queene of Aethiopia The Chaldee Paraphrase hath that they said they would offer sacrifice Hierome thinketh that what they did was at sea and not at land They made such spirituall sacrifice as the inner man could affoord thankes giuing and supplication and repentance and such like The Prophet Osee doth call these the calues of our lippes And Dauid he speaketh of them saying the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirite Howsoeuer it is not much to the historie whether it were the one or the other The holy Ghost doth let vs know that the motiue which they saw in this action was so mightie that it wrong from them a remorse and so possessed them for the time that compunction and deuotion was within them and without them as men throughly mortified they refused to do nothing which was any way religious They either fell to their praiers which is a spirituall sacrifice or offered something else when they came to the land or at least they professed that they would do it But it is a case without controuersie that they made vowes to the Lord. A thing common among mariners and passengers at the sea when they feare any shipwracke If they can ouer-stand that iourney and escape well from that daunger they will fast or giue almes or dedicate some great thing to the Lord. They spare not to speake in the fit although they neuer meane it Yea and it may be that in the extremitie they resolue to perfourme their vow but the daunger being once past and gone if they should be vrged to accomplish it they would thinke themselues as il vsed as those two were by Caligula of whome Dion reporteth that when the said Caligula was sicke they thinking to get much mony as a reward for their great loue to the Emperour vowed that on condition he might liue they themselues would dye to excuse him When indeede he was recouered afterward he tooke them at their word and put them to death least they should breake their vowe and prooue periured persons Of likelyhood these thought themselues to be vsed but vnkindly and so would these vowing shipmen if they should be forced to performance But he that will see more of this let him reade Erasmus his Dialogue which he calleth by the title of Naufragium What the Scripture thinketh of vowes and what our Church maintaineth which is a better argument to be handled against our Popish Votaries I may touch hereafter when I come to the ninth verse of the second Chapter For at this time my meaning is to discourse another matter 17 It is a great controuersie whether this exceeding feare do intend a true conuersion from Gentilisme to the Lord from idolatrie to true pietie and in this also the best Expositors do very much dissent Some thinke them to be become earnest Proselites and men turned to the Iewish faith that their feare was sincere from the heart and perseuerant in them vnto the end and that their sacrifices were accepted and all this so much the rather because the text doth say that they feared the Lord Iehouah not an idole but the true God Some other put a condition that if the heart were iustified with a purifying faith then their vowes and sacrifices were acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. If otherwise then it was but a vizard put on for a little time and so throwne off afterward A third sort are of opinion that their repentance was onely temporary like the seed which is mentioned in the parable of Christ to be sowen on the stony ground which tooke roote for a little time and afterward did wither away I do approue this last sentence thinking that although they feared and tooke vpon them some religion yet this was not sufficient to apprehend true grace for they had not heard by the Prophet of the Messias Christ in whom is all remission and washing away of sinne Onely the wrath of God in punishing is made knowne vnto them which is inough to put the vnbeleeuer into a trembling feare as we know that Felix did quake to heare Saint Paule speake of righteousnesse of temperance and of the iudgement to come and yet Felix was an hypocrite Neither is this opinion crossed by that where it is said that they feared Iehouah for the reprobates do quake at the true God with a kind of seruility as the diuels of hell do likewise The awe wherein Pharao stood when he let the people go was to the God of Moses Ahab hearing the threatning of Elias did humble himselfe to the Lord but it was not with due continuance The feare of the God of Sidrach of Misach and Abednego was fallen on Nabuchodonosor when beholding the deliuerance of those three children out of the fiery fornace he gaue forth a proclamation for the seruice of their Lord. And yet it is not to be doubted but these men were reprobates 18 These sea-people in like sort might well thinke of the Lord and yet not leaue their idolatry The people placed in Samaria were by the Lions which destroied them enforced to serue the Lord yea the text doth say that they did feare him but they worshipped their idols also and so it had bene as good not at all as to be neuer the neerer to him The Romanes would haue had Christ to be in the number of their Gods placed in their Pantheon but they cannot away to leaue their old Gods whom they had before Such halfe-seruice could not profit these mariners in this place This was an insufficient comprehension of the Lord without sound application in particular by a true faith which teacheth that God alone is to be adored by his creatures and that with a single heart and an vnderstanding knowledge and perseuerance vnto the ende Which because the wicked do want howsoeuer vpon occasions of afflictions and strange wonders they seeme humbled for the time yet afterward with the dogge they returne to their vomit and with the sow which was washed to their wallowing in the mire And this recidiuation is more dangerous then the sicknesse this relapse then the first fall For those to whom this happeneth are they whom Iude calleth trees twise dead and rotten and good for nothing else but to be plucked vp by the rootes The knowledge which such men haue doth make against themselues their thoughts against themselues the motions of their owne mind when they haue thought vpon goodnesse shall witnesse hardly against them 19 We do here-out learne two lessons First that hypocrites and dissemblers besides their internall motions which they haue oft times to goodnesse in outward and
separated from the bodie and that it commeth to an account and if it haue so deserued suffereth punishment and great torment yea he mentioneth such a iudgement as wherein the good are set on the right hand and the euill on the left as if he had perused the bookes of the sacred Bible The French Prophets those Druides as Pomponius Mela noteth did both beleeue and teach the immortalitie of the soule which was a good inducement to inferre the resurrection For when they held this vndoubtedly that the better part doth not die and by a consequent that the soules of them which had done well for their good life in this place should come vnto felicitie they might haue easily bene perswaded that by a good congruitie the instrument and copartner and sister of the soule I meane this flesh of ours being ioyned in all actions should in vprightnesse of iustice be ioyned in the reward whether it be good or euill 20 How much to blame are the Atheists and Epicures of our time who come not so farre as this but as they depriue our bodies of all future reuiuing so they teach that our soules in nothing are different from the beasts but that in the dissolution the spirit shall be dissolued as well as the exteriour man in which thoughts they shew thēselues to be worse then many Ethnicks They little conceiue the dignity and simplicity of that spirit the single in compoundnesse of that self-moouing soule for so I may well call it in comparison of the flesh For as Chrysostome maketh his argument If the soule can giue such life and beautie vnto the bodie with what a life and fairenesse doth it liue in it selfe And if it can hold together the bodie which is so stinking and so deformed a carcasse as appeareth euidently after death how much more shall it conserue and preserue it selfe in his owne being So pregnant is this reason that an infidell may conceiue it and very well apprehend it but we which are Christian men may remember a farther lesson That our Sauiour hath dyed for vs and payed a price very great his owne most precious bloud For whom or what was this for our body which liueth and dieth and rotteth and neuer returneth againe for our soule which is here this day and too morrow spilt and corrupted How vnworthy were this of him to endure so much for so little Shall we thinke him so vnwise or repute him so vnaduised No he knew that this soule of ours must stand before his throne and this rottennesse must come foorth by a fearefull resurrection And if this should not be so if there should be no accompt no recompence for ill deedes no retribution for the good to what end should men serue the Lord or what difference should there be betweene the iust and the vniust the holy and the profane nay betweene man the best creature that mooueth vpon the ground and the basest and vilest beast which hath little sence and no reason Because it were impiety to think this of our iust Lord that so slenderly he disposeth things let vs with an assured faith conceiue our immortality and the hope of a resurrection 21 As this hath bene deduced from the example of our Prophet by this or the like sort Ionas was in the fishes belly so was Christ in the graue Ionas came forth from thence so did Christ rise againe his rising doth bring our rising his resurrection ours because he was the first fruits of all those that do sleep So to cōclude this doctrine by making vse of it very briefly if this be determined ouer vs the houre shal one day come that all that is in the graue shall arise heare Gods voice neither the mountains nor the rocks can couer vs frō the presence of the Lambe what ones then how perfect shold we study to be how shold we prepare our selues against that day of reckning that our iudg may acknowledge vs to be his friends his brethren vnspotted vndefiled that so we might not trēble to see him heare his iudgement But alas how far are we from it indeed frō thinking of it For as Chrysostome speaketh some do say that they beleeue that there shal be a resurrectiō a recōpēce to come But I listen not to thy words but rather to that which is done euery day For if thou expect the resurrectiō a recōpence why art thou so giuē to the glory of this present life why doest thou daily vexe thy self gathering more mony then the sand I may go a little farther applying it to our time why do we bath our selues in folly as in the water why do we drinke in iniquitie bitternesse in such measure why hunt we after gifts and thirst after rewards why seeke we more to please men then labour to please the Lord Briefly why doth security in inward sort so possesse vs as if with Hyminaeus Philetus we did think the resurrection past Why do we as that man of whome Saint Bernard speaketh that is eate and drinke and sleepe carelesse as if we had now escaped the day of death and iudgement and the very torments of hell So play and laugh and delight as if we had passed the pikes and vvere now in Gods kingdome Who seeth not this to be so although he could wish it to be farre otherwise 22 The remembrance of this accompt should be as a snaffle to vs or as a bridle to keepe vs backward from profanenesse enormitie And in these euils let them take their portiō who are incredulous and vnbeleeuers of whome it is no maruell that they do hotely embrace them and egerly follow after them For take away an opinion of rising vnto iudgement and all obseruance of pietie falleth presently to the ground and men will striue to be filthie in impietie and in sinne But because we professe Christ Iesus and the hope of immortalitie let vs liue as men that expect it And since that it is appointed that all men shall die once and after it commeth the iudgement and since the day of death is as vncertaine to vs as it euer was to Isaac let vs furnish our selues before hand that with the oyle of faith and of good life in our lampes we may go to meete the bridegroome If Christ as our head be risen from the dead let vs arise from the vanities and follies of this earth which are not worth the comparing with eternitie in the heauens If he as the chiefe of his Church be ascended and gone before let vs who wish to be members wrestle to follow after him Let it be enough that hitherto with Ionas we haue fled from our dutie which we owe to our maker and that we haue lyen not dayes but yeares oft three times and three ouer not in the fishes belly but in the belly of sin And let vs beseech the Lord that since
booke of God prayer is both commended and commanded to vs and not any way for his profit who is to be sought too but for ours who are to cry Aske and it shall be giuen you knocke and it shall be opened to you Watch and pray saith our Sauiour Christ. Continue sayth Paule in prayer Is any of you afflicted let him pray sayth Saint Iames for the prayer of a righteous man preuaileth much if it be feruent The faithfull euermore haue had recourse to this in their necessity as when Iacob feared Esau he called on the name of the Lord that he would send him safety When the Israelites were driuen to that extremity that nothing in mans reason but present death did remaine for them behind them being Pharao and their enemies to slay them before them the red sea a fit place to drowne them then Moses being troubled in his spirit although he sayd neuer a word hauing his heart as bleeding within him cried vnto the Lord. When it went hard with that people fighting against the Amalekites what did Moses but pray for them when he held vp his hands from which when by wearinesse he did cease they sped ill but while he continued it they did conquer What are the Psalmes of Dauid but recourses in his passions vnto the highest God Did not Ieremy in the pit and bottome of the dungeon fall to calling vpon the Lord And our Prophet in worse case then euer was any of these had nothing else to comfort him but to addresse himselfe to his prayers When all other helpes do faile yet this is neare at hand we neede not runne farre to seeke it And blessed is the reward which oftentimes doth follow these requests either the hauing of that which we desire or a contententednesse to leaue it 5 The Church of God and the faithfull haue euermore retained the vse hereof somtimes men which haue bene infidels haue bene glad to seeke to them for it When the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had almost lost his army in Germany for want of water a legion of the Christians which were then in his seruice had recourse vnto this remedy and by vehement inuocation did begge raine at Gods hands which he sent them in great abundance to the amazing of the Emperour but the safety of all his army That noble and mighty Constantine knowing that one in heauen is the true Lord of hostes and all victory commeth of him that the ioyning of a battell is the loosing of a kingdome vnlesse he do assist would neuer enter fight but that first himselfe and his forces with knees bended vpon the ground would desire the Lord to blesse them When his enemies on the other side and Licinius aboue other would begin with incantation and seeking to the Diuell But the good Emperour hauing many things of great waight still vpon him which he knew not how to weild without the helpe of the Highest and that was to be had for asking did so delight in prayer that in memory thereof not as the dissembling Pharisee but in true feare to his God and the better to instruct his people in it by his owne example he ordained that his image which we know that Princes do vse to coine vpon their money should be stamped with the resemblance of him praying The example of Theodosius is in this case not vnfit Being in a battell which was hardly fought on both parts but at length his men being put to the worse and now apparantly ready to flye he throweth himselfe on the ground and with all the powers of his soule he desireth the Lord to pity him and to prosper him in that daunger God heard the voice of his seruant and in miraculous manner did graunt to him the victory To this comfort he found that of Origene to be true One holy man preuaileth more in praying then innumerable sinners do with their fighting For the prayer of a holy man doth pierce vp to the heauen I need not vrge other examples of other in latter ages who haue euermore made this their refuge in daungers and extremities to flye with speede vnto the Lord. For Diuinity buildeth vpon it Christianity doth enforce it no faithfull man maketh doubt of it very Ethnickes in their seruices to their Gods continually did frequent it and openly did practise it 6 In the meane while the supine security of our age shall I say cannot be inough rebuked nay cannot be inough lamented of which it may be sayd as one speaketh of the Monkes that their fasts are very fat but their prayers exceeding leane for if we will compare matters that be in secret with such things as are open and iudge the one by the other how cold are all our prayers If we looke into our Churches we shall find many of our Pastours to go through their common prayers with very small deuotion little mooued and little moouing The people that is not onely young ones who are of-ward inough from God and whose feeling is not so passionate as the Lord in time may make it but the elder sort very slowly do repaire vnto the tabernacle euery light occasion doth keepe them away halfe-seruice doth serue the turne and for that which is it were as good to be neuer a whit as not to be the better they sit there as in a giddinesse neither minding God nor the Minister but rather obseruing any thing then that for which they come thither If it be thus in publicke what may be thought of those prayers which in secret are powred forth betweene God and our selues in our closets or our studies when we rise vp or lye downe It is to be feared that they are few and those which be are very sleepy rather perfunctory and customary then warmed with zeale of affection And how shall God know what we say when we our selues do not know how shall he heare that prayer which we our selues do not heare Let vs brethren stirre vp our selues and be feruent in this if in any thing and the tutour for his scholers the parents for his children the maister for his family the Magistrate for his people the Minister for his flocke pray euery day that the Lord will blesse them in their inward man and their outward in their businesses and their studies in their piety and their safety Remember how holy Iob did sacrifice for his children least in vanity of their youth they should forget the Lord. 7 And let euery man for himselfe giue no rest to his God but begge of him oftentimes to double and multiply his gracious spirite on him For how dangerous are these wayes wherein we here do walke What perils and great hazards are euery day about vs What drawings on are there to sinne what entisements to iniquity How is the Diuell more ready to swallow vs into hell then the fish was to swallow Ionas What Atheisme doth increase what worldly lusts
we not learned that lesson to distinguish men from God the inspired workes of the one from the doubtfull words of the other We hold nothing for Canonicall but the writ of the holy Bible It is God which cannot lye but euery man is a lier Heare Saint Austen himselfe here I hold not the Epistles of Cyprian for Canonicall but I try them and examine them from the Canonicall Scripture So to Fortunatianus We are not to esteeme the disputings of any yea although Catholike cōmēdable men to be as the Canonicall Scriptures so that sauing the honour which is due to those men we may not dislike and reiect any thing in their writings if we find that they haue thought otherwise then the truth hath as it shall by Gods helpe be vnderstood either by other or our selues Thus do I in the writings of others and such vnderstanders of mine would I haue other men to be Whatsoeuer then they shall teach which hath not his foundation vpon the rocke of Gods truth we leaue it and passe by it and among other things inuocation of Saints or of any other creature But yet this may be sayd farther that from diuerse of the writings of the Auncient it may be shewed that this was by some of them held vnlawfull Among the workes of Saint Ambrose is found a certaine Commentary on Paules Epistle to the Romanes and therin there is setdowne for an obiection the reason of the Romish Church that none dare to approch the persō of an earthly Prince for any sute but by the intercession of some courtier or other about him therfore it should be so of our part toward God vnto whose mighty Maiesty we must vse the mediatiō of some which are in his fauor The absurdnesse of this comparison is answered there in a word that the reason is most vnlike because Princes are men know not of themselues to whom to commit the common-wealth He meaneth that they haue their power and presence and vnderstanding limited they must be helped by the information of such as are knowne vnto them but to God nothing is secret himselfe doth take notice of it His conclusion at the last is that to win God vnto vs from whom nothing lieth hid but he knoweth the deserts of all men we need not any to speake for vs or to helpe vs in our prayer but only a deuout mind Ioyne hereto the witnesse of Origene When Celsus had obiected that first the Iewes and then the Christians did worship and pray to Angels Origene in his first booke against him doth disclaime it but much more in the fifth booke telling plainely that God alone was to be prayed to and not Angels We are not bid to adore the Angels or worship them with diuine honour although they bring the gifts of God vnto vs. For all vowes all requests prayers and thankesgiuings are to be directed to God who is the Lord of all things by the chiefe Priest vvho is greater then all Angels that is the liuing vvord and God And hauing adioyned something of the vnknowne nature of the Angels that we cannot comprehend it he addeth that this should restraine vs that none should dare to offer prayers but only vnto the Lord God who alone is abundantly sufficient for all through our Sauior the Son of God He that listeth to read the place shall find yet farther matter making for my present purpose Lactantius sayth that those Angels whose honour is in God will haue no honour giuen to them Yea Austen himselfe denieth that to Angels to Martyrs and to Saints which might as well be done as to seeke to them in prayer We build no Churches to Angels And elsewhere sayth he Who euer heard the Priest to say at the altar I offer to thee a sacrifice Peter or Paule or Cyprian And is it more to build a materiall Church to them then to offer to their seruice our bodies which are the spirituall temple of the holy Ghost Or to offer corporall sacrifice then to offer spirituall sacrifice of prayer and inuocation I wil end this whole matter with a saying of Chrysostome Let vs still flye vnto God who is both willing and able to ease our miseries If we were to intreate men we must first meete with the doore keepers and perswade parasites and players and oftentimes go a great way But in God there is no such thing Without a mediator he is to be intreated without mony without cost he yeeldeth to our prayers Since then that men are so doubtful but God himselfe is so peremptory that nothing but the Trinity is to be sought vnto by sacred inuocation let the Church of Rome in this be distinguished from the Church of God and let vs learne here of Ionas when misery ouerwhelmeth vs to pray only vnto the Lord. And thus farre of the Preface Affliction maketh men godly 15 The prayer it selfe is long and offereth much doctrine to vs but in these two former verses three things may be obserued First that affliction is the meanes to beate men vnto piety I cried in mine affliction Secondly that the misery of the Prophet was very great from the belly of hell I cried and all thy waues did go ouer me And thirdly that when he cried the Lord did heare his voice Thou heardest my voice To touch them briefly as they lye He that was contented before quite to renounce his maister he that was so farre forgetfull as that when he should haue gone for his Lord to preach at Niniue would take a course vnto Tarshus about businesse of his owne he that before was so hardened that he could sleepe most soundly when he had more neede to awake he that could giue leaue to the mariners to pray to a God whom they knew not but he himselfe was not so holy being now in the fishes belly so lashed whipped with iustice thinketh it not inough to pray but he crieth out with great vehemency in earnest harty maner not coldly or at all aduentures as the hypocrites who somtimes do slubber vp a few praiers but with the soule and the mind and with all the powers of his spirit Oh the true force of the crosse of calamity and of misery which maketh vs remember that whereof else we should neuer thinke God saith by his prophet Osee that his people in their affliction would seeke him diligently So when by his seruant Esay he had threatned the crosse before At that day sayth he shall a man looke to his maker and his eyes shall looke to the holy one of Israel So in the time of the Iudges Thus was Israel exceedingly impouerished by the Madianites therefore the children of Israel cry vnto the Lord. The Scripture is very copious in examples of this kind but yet hath none fitter then this of our Prophet For he whō fauour could not mooue to stand when he was vpright the rod did force him to labour
way to their blessednesse they account this in greatest difficulties as the first step to a conquest as the first linke of a chaine which being plucked will bring on much more with it 5 In the two and fortieth Psalme Dauid complaineth thus My God my soule is vexed within me but yet he addeth for his comfort therefore I will remember thee In the seuentie and seuenth Psalme In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ranne and ceased not in the night my soule refused comfort But I did thinke vpon God What a ioy was it to Iob when after losse of all after his biles and botches and scraping them with a pot-sheard after his wiues temptation after his friends reproching him that he was a sinfull hypocrite else God would not haue so plagued him he found that grace with his maker as to grow to this resolution to say Lo though he slay me yet will I trust in him For it is the only rocke of contentment the best and sole assurance which languishing soules can haue to runne vnto the Lord all-sufficient for his power and mercifull in his loue Ionas was past the pikes and now entring vpon a victory when after his deiection and discouragement in his suffering he beginneth to remember God whose amiable countenance he had seene so oft before and whose fauour he had enioyed And that is a great matter vnto a wounded soule whereby he may close againe with the Highest and gather in with the Iudge to haue had former experience of his loue as of a father This experience bringeth hope and hope will neuer cease to begge and vrge for a pardon God is my king of old saith the Church of God in affliction it resteth it selfe on that When Habacuc had complained of those who in his time did grieuously persecute the faithfull his refuge is the remembrance of the Lords foregoing fauour which euermore had sustained him Art not thou of old sayth he my Lord my God my holy one Therefore we shall not dye 6 The siliest soule among vs may hence deriue some comfort to himselfe that is when any fearefull waues of temptation do grow on vs to drowne vs then to thinke on the mighty Iehoua who alone can rid vs out If â—â— can speake against vs what matter is it if God be for vs If our sinnes within vs be great yet is the Lords mercy greater What blacknesse can be so filthy as that Christs bloud cannot wash it I cannot owe so much but my God can forgiue it I cannot want so much but my Sauiour can supply it If I looke vpon my selfe behold wo and damnation but if I looke vp to heauen there I haue a strong redeemer Now as for earthly matters and these corruptible trifles with which we haue to do they are to the regenerate man farre lighter then the other If penury or pouerty come God hath inough for all he can releeue in abundance If sorrow oppresse the mind it may endure for a night but ioy commeth in the morning If sicknesse do vexe the body what Phisition is like to the Lord If Achitophel should take counsell God can turne it into foolishnesse if Doeg should lay snares he can destroy and breake them And all this may be soundly warranted to me by those former experiments which I haue had I haue liued so many yeares and haue euer bene preserued I haue slipped oft but neuer fallen or fallen but risen againe I haue bene much bruised but neuer broken in aduersity he hath helped me in temptation he hath succoured me he is the same God euer most gracious and most kind him will I serue in weale him will I seeke too in wo. 7 Well fare this good remembrance and flying to the Lord vnto whoÌ„ the holy men of all ages haue had recourse the Patriarks the Prophets euery grieued soule And whither could they better go then to the spring of grace then to the well of power No fishing vnto the sea no seruice to a king where most is most may be gotten No seeking like to that which is to the king of kings who is more then a sea of bounty But in remeÌ„bring him remember this withall that it be with a liuely faith with a confident apprehension of the sweetnesse of his loue For in this the elect do differ from the wicked both of them are in distresse and both remeÌ„ber God but the one of them with a hope the other with a horror the elect firmely beleeuing that his God doth thinke vpon him that although the beames of his countenance for a time be shadowed from him yet they will breake forth againe that he smiteth but not to death he striketh but not to kill Whereas on the other side the vnbeleeuing sinner be he hypocrite or idolater doth thinke that his God or Gods haue vtterly forgotten him or if they do remember him it is but for to plague him to vexe him or torment him by which meditatioÌ„ he breaketh into wrath most impatieÌ„t fury somtimes raging with heat somtimes despairing for feare euermore quaking with horror So the one of these liueth recouereth daily approcheth more neare to the Lord the other sinketh fainteth as the melting yce doth in the sun-shine or else fretting he blasphemeth not vnlike to a stroke of thunder which ratleth and maketh a great noise but presently dissolueth and goeth away vnto nothing 8 We find such in the Scripture In the eighth Chapter of the Prophecie of Esay God threatneth thus vnto Iuda then he that is afflicted and famished shall go too and fro in it and vvhen he shall be hungry he shall euen fret himselfe and curse his King and his Gods and shall looke vpward Here is a thinking vpon those which were but supposed Gods but it is with indignation When Samaria was besieged and famine did shrewdly pinch it Ioram that wicked king thereof had God in his memory but to murmure and fret at him His message vnto the Prophet shewed that when he durst to say Behold this euill commeth of the Lord shall I attend on him any longer As if he should say that he would no longer waite the Lords pleasure His words before shew as much when in steed of making his prayer to the Almighty God he doth curse and ban himselfe if he did not that very day take off the head of Elizeus the Prophet of the Lord. In the sixteenth of the Reuelation of Saint Iohn is is reported that a great haile did fall euery stone as bigge as a talent but it is added withall that men blasphemed God because of the plague of the haile for the plague thereof vvas exceeding great Among heathen men the wisest haue herein fowly fallen being deiected to desperation vpon euery great occurrent I would pray to the Gods for these things sayth Tully ad Quintum Fratrem but that the Gods haue
they assented thereunto that they would neither drinke wine nor sowe seede nor plant vineyeard nor dwell in any house but onely remaine in tents that so they might the better remember themselues to be strangers in the land where they inhabited and of likelihood moreouer that they were but pilgrimes vpon the earth And he who maketh such vowes vnder these fore-named conditions is now bound to obserue them For although at the first and in themselues they were things indifferent yet now they are become otherwise because an oath is passed vpon them He who was free is made bound by a voluntary offering and therefore hath lost his liberty Then these three positions may be gathered thus in briefe Euill things ought not to vowed at all and if they be rashly spoken yet they should not be kept Some good things we must vow as especially those in Baptisme and when we haue vowed we must performe them Other matters which are indifferent may be vowed or not be vowed as I haue shewed aboue by circumstances but being once vndertaken they are not to be broken 17 Here the pretences of Popish votaries may be in a word examined Their common vowes are of such things as be not absolutely euill neither are they of such matters as being simply good do lye vpon vs by a duty of necessity but they may much rather be accounted indifferent although by their vsage of them they make them to be otherwise they make them to be wicked A great part of their vowes is the going to places farre distant in pilgrimage as they call it to Rome or to Hierusalem or Saint Iames of Compostella or to the three kings of Coleyn their keeping of the great Iubilees their abstaining from all flesh and feeding rather on fish as their Carthusian Monkes do their wearing of a haire-cloth or sack-cloth next their bodie and other things of like stampe All which as they do vse them may well be accounted in the number of those wil-worships that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against which Saint Paule doth inueigh and concerning which the Lord may aske vvho required this at your hands They do faile in diuerse circumstances which should make their vowes to be lawfull as first they cannot be warranted to them as assuredly holy by faith which is grounded vpon the word of God Secondly they put a great deale of superstition in them while they account them meritorious Thirdly they tye themselues rather to the externall thing then to a sound reformation and bettering of the minde It were better therefore that such vowes were omitted then made by them Their vow of wilfull pouertie is a thing of their owne deuising Rich Abraham and king Dauid and Iob with his multitude of cattell knew how â—o serue the Lord in the abundance of their riches and did not thinke that religion onelie was in them who begged And although our Sauiour Christ and other of his Apostles had little of their owne yet they left vs no such precept nay they rather did teach the contrary saying that it is more blessed to giue then to receiue And it is sayd that a Bishop of whom it is presumed that he should be a man of religion should be hospitall that is an entertainer of strangers which implyeth a set kind of maintenance When the Gospell was first preached miraculous meanes were vsed to bring men to the faith and this was one that God could mightily prouide for those who were the messengers of his will and releeue them from day to day although they had nothing of their owne His purpose also was to shew his power that by meanes most contemptible in the eye of the world he could settle his kingdome and withall he would leaue their wants as an example to encourage his children in succeeding ages that they should not be dismayed if sometimes they were driuen to penurie and necessitie since his deare seruants and his sonne were in that case before them But these times now are past and miracles are ceased and such extraordinary feeding as the Apostles had is not wilfully to be sought lest we tempt God and liue without a lawfull calling The Church now hath an established gouernement and therein the Ministers which are needefull are to be prouided for And the word hath inioyned this that where spirituall things are sowed there temporall should be reaped as knowing that in the end of the world mens charity would waxe cold and they who liued of almes oftentimes should haue hungrie bellies The liuing then of their Friers in a voluntary beggery is a worship of their owne and he who voweth therunto doth vow to that wherein his conscience can neuer haue good warrant 18 They stand as much vpon chastity that their religions men should vow a single life wherein although I might shew by good proofe from the Scripture and from the auncient Church that Bishops and Priests did marry yet omitting that I will rather speake of the qualitie of their vow Virginity without controuersie is an excellent gift in him to whom the Lord doth giue it Christ himselfe was borne of a virgin and did leade a virgins life and both he and Saint Paule haue commended it vnto vs that we ought to striue for it But who is he that so farre hath power of his owne flesh as that before hand he can sweare to quench the lust of concupiscence so that it shall not burne I suppose that no man on earth who is in his strong age and in good health of his body can promise that to himselfe then how much lesse their young ones their Nouices or Nunnes of lesser age who before the time that themselues come to experience are put into the monastaries by their parents or their friends or are inueigled by others to take their rules vpon them which hath bene a great occasion of much vile fornication and the killing of many infants besides the enduring of such vntamed affections as haue boyled in their bodies It is a good lesson of Salomon that we should not suffer our mouth to make our flesh to sinne he meaneth in vowing that which is not in our power He had commaunded before that we should pay our vowes intending it in those things which we haue promised to the Lord but lest thereby we should take occasion to promise any thing whatsoeuer he giueth a restraint downe with it that we should be aduised that we vow not that which our flesh afterward cannot make good For want of this wholesome caueat they were put to much extremitie who were votaries first in monasteries but afterward by the true light of the Gospell did shake off the heauie yoke of Antichrist and became great setters out of Gods truth in this last age They had entred a rash vow in their minoritie and young yeares which afterward they found themselues not able to performe and therefore they did marry Against which although our Campian and his
of God did a second time send his seruants to bring light to the world and furnishing one with this talent and another with that good thing he brought life againe to the dead and sun-shine in the middest of darknesse A great token of his gracious and bountifull inclination to the age wherein we liue It must be imputed to his loue it must be ascribed to his mercy 6 So must that which we enioy so abundantly at this time God hath sent twise to our nation in a speciall manner as he did to Niniue In the time of good King Edward and in the dayes of our Queene The difference is in this that those which were sent to vs did come indeede and did not like Ionas and besides it was not one but many seruants of the Lord which shewed themselues But herein is the likenesse that as when the first serued not he sent the next time to Niniue so hauing here appointed that so many should be sealed and marked in the forehead as belonged to his election so many thousands or millions which number in those sixe yeares of king Edward was in no sort completed and God forbid for our sake and our posterity that it should haue bene he stayed not at that stop which was made in Queene Maries dayes but went on with his purpose The conspiring against the Gospell the striking of the sheapheards the burning of the professours the yeelding of all to the Pope the confederacie with the Spaniard which were things of farre greater moment then the turning backe of one Prophet did not so restraine his affection but that a second time we should heare from him more at large to the building vp of his Church and dilating of his kingdome but to the eternall blessednesse of vs both in soule and bodie If any thing may deserue it this deserueth at our hands a thankefulnesse and gratefull consideration I would that our liues and our contempt of the world could testifie that so we do thinke of it But we must impute this to his loue as also the other that he would send againe to Niuiue 7 Which Citie as I do now leaue so I may not leaue that argument of the kindnesse of the Lord for the messenger yet giueth farther occasion to magnifie that For he who had but lately runne away from his maister and cast his word behind him he who for some carnall reason had despised his commaundement he who had so transgressed that a punishment neuer heard off before was inflicted for his labour is once againe put in trust as the Prophet of the Highest to go to a King and a Citie with threates which are so terrible Why would not he who is Lord of all things rather make choyse of some other to bee vsed in this seruice who was vntainted and vntouched vnstayned and vnreprouable This may seeme at the first blush to bee more for the senders honour and againe hee that should bee sent might reprooue the sinnes of other with a freer conscience when he knew himselfe to bee innocent The Lawyers would haue sayd Semel malus semper malus Once euill and euer euill he may not bee admitted Perhaps the Elders of the Church or the grauer sort of men might haue receiued him againe into the congregation vpon his testification of sorrow for his fault but to honour him as a Prophet or to esteeme him as in former time that doth not stand with discipline that were no safe example The Gibeonites were suffered by Iosuah to come into the Tabernacle but they came without preferment nay it was with great disgrace they serued but for wood-cutters and drawers of water Such as in the Primitiue Church being Clergy men before had notoriously fallen were permitted vpon repentance to come to the Eucharist but it was to the lay-mens Communion not as Bishops or Priests who might consecrate and minister to other but as men of the congregation who were to receiue at the hand of another And thus Cornelius Bishop of Rome serued a Prelate who layd hands foolishly vpon Nouatus at his consecration The Brutij were the first of all Italy who reuolted from the Romanes to Hannibal But for that tricke the Romanes would neuer trust them afterward although vpon their humble submission they tooke them into their protection yet they reckened them not as fellowes neither mustered they any souldiers out of their countrey but appointed them to attend on such Deputies and Lieutenants as they sent into their Prouinces Thus would worldly and carnall wisedome haue dealt with this man he may be held for an Israelite but in no sort for a Prophet no gracing no aduancing no honouring yet a while Let him bite vpon the bridle that knowing how he hath fallen he may be wiser afterward But the Lord who knew his heart and saw it now quite broken waiteth not for more experience or for yeares of probation but as fully satisfied with his sorrow and putting the greatnesse of his errour out of memory he setteth him once againe in his old place and old honour without disgrace or diminution He doth not so much as vpbrayd or cast him in the teeth as an vngracious seruant that thus or thus he had serued him but shutting vp all together he employeth him as before This is a lesson to the Ministers and pastours of the flocke that by Gods owne example they should not be too rigorous vpon such as haue gone astray euen in the greatest crimes but when conspicuous tokens of repentance shall be giuen to open the lap and bosome of the Church to receiue them Not euery slight acknowledgement but yet pregnant signes may be taken and better it is that he be an hypocrite then thou an hard hearted father God will not the death of sinners but that they should turne and liue The very Angels reioyce for one repenting sinner When the prodigall child came toward his father did runne and meete him and kissed him and embraced him Let not the seruant be hard vnto his fellow seruant when the maister is so easie 8 The more cruell in the meane while was the doctrine of Nouatus who barred not for a time but for euer from the Communion and accesse into the Church such as in the bloudy persecution of Decius the Emperour had by infirmitie offered vnto idols teaching that God if he would might take them to mercy but man might not deale with it no not although they did implore it with sobbes and continued teares He had forgotten that Peter denying Christ three times yet continued an Apostle and was afterward martyred for Christ. That the spirit may be willing and yet the flesh may be weake That to endure the fierie triall is onely the gift of God who graunteth it when he listeth and giueth it where he pleaseth That he that standeth or at the left thinketh that he standeth may take heede left he fall That the souldier who now â—lieth
may afterward fight againe as Demosthenes once could say And as Eusebius sheweth many Christians which renounced Christ for the feare of cruell torment returned to him againe and made a good confession Oftentimes saith Cypâ—ian both adulterers and murtherers and drunkards and those vvho are guiltie of all vvickednesse finding occasion of a fight and being conuerted haue deserued to come to a palme of martyrdome How much more then may a weake brother The example of Bishop Cranmer is very well knowne vnto vs who was a great pillar of Gods Church a great light of the Gospell but yet first denied but afterward repented and purged it with teares But as the scholers do oftentimes say more then their maisters so the Cathari and Nouatians who were the Disciples of Nouatus did giue a more bloudy sentence then euer their teacher did For they held that not onely to deny Christ was so haynous but whosoeuer after Baptisme had done any mortall sinne such as we find in the Scripture that death is threatned to was cut off from the Church and hee might haue no portion in the Eucharist or Communion howsoeuer afterward he did behaue himselfe He must stand a man sequestred and excommunicate to the death 9 A hard saying to all men for who is he that sinneth not in that sort since euerie â—â—nne is deadly vnlesse the Lord do pardon it Circumcision was to the Israelites as Baptisme is to the Christians an admission into the flocke and a testification to the conscience of euery beleeuer that he was in Gods fauour but Dauid circumcised was an adulterer and a murtherer yet vpon his true repentance both the Lord and the congregation receiued him to mercy The righteous man sayth Saloman falleth seuen times and riseth againe Whereof although Hierome doth aske if he be iust then hovv falleth he if he fall hovv is he righteous yet he aunswereth himselfe that he looseth not the name of a righteous man because he riseth by repentance And this is the hope of the best for who otherwise should not perish When Acesius a Bishop of the Nouatians at the Nicene Councell did shew Constantine that holy and blessed Emperour the strictnesse of their opinions and how precisely a man must liue without sinne after Baptisme if he would attaine saluation the Emperour maketh him aunswer If this be so Acesius then get thy selfe a ladder and clime alone into heauen giuing his censure of it so that scant any man should be saued if that ground were maintained No maruell if for the comfort of wounded consciences at the first Saint Cyprian and Cornelius Bishop of Rome and Dionysius of Alexandria so hotely did impugne this heresie and after them Chrysostome who so farre did dislike this hard lacing of Nouatus that he spake thus against it If thou haue fallen a thousand times and dost repent thee of it enter into the Church that is if thy repentance bee true I will not seclude thee from the fellowship of Gods children We do teach the selfe same doctrine not to stirre men vp to sinne for that were to fall of presumption vnto which many times God denieth the benefite of repentance but that we may seeke out that which is lost and bind vp that which is broken and raise vp that which is fallen and saue some out of the fire Gods Church is made of sinners Christ Iesus did dye for sinners Our verie Creede doth teach vs that the Communion of Saints and the forgiuenesse of sinnes must be ioyned and go together He who will haue part in the one must haue his fellowship in the other He cannot come to the first but he must tast of the latter We cry to the man lamenting his iniquities as Ambrose writing vpon Luke crieth Let no man distrust let no man being priuie to his old faults despaire of a reward from God God knoweth how to chaunge his sentence if thou know how to change thy fault We testifie with Saint Bernard It seemeth vnto God that he doth more slowly giue pardon to the sinner then it doth vnto the other that he doth receiue it For the mercifull God doth so hasten to acquite the guiltie man from the torment of his conscience as if the suffering of the wretch did more grieue the pitifull God then his owne suffering did the man which is in miserie For he who truly repenteth and earnestly sorroweth without doubt without delay shall receiue a pardon Let the weake then raise vp his heart and strengthen his feeble knees Sinners which call for grace do belong to the adoption Noe swarued and yet he was a Patriarke Lot fell yet he is said by Saint Peter to haue had a righteous soule Peter himselfe had a guiltie conscience and yet was a great Apostle Ionas became a mightie trespasser and yet still remained the Lords Prophet It was Gods gracious bountie whose fauour originally euer commeth for nothing but being once setled it is not lost for a little And thus haue you his loue both to Niniue and to Ionas 10 There is yet another matter which in this former verse is worthie of consideration that the word of the Lord is said here to come to Ionas The Creatour of all things might haue vsed many other wayes to reclaime that offending citie In old time he did call and warne men by visions and by dreames as it is in Iob or his benefits might haue allured or if those had but choked and pampered them vp with fatnesse his rods might haue beat them to it famine might breede remorse or the sword of the enemie or some deuouring pestilence Or if he would saue all their liues such iudgements might haue frighted them as were shewed at Hierusalem at the last destruction of it For as we find in Iosephus a Comete like to a sword did long hang ouer the citie and troupes of armed men were seene to fight in the aire What terrour would this haue wrought what heart would not this haue rented and driuen it into mourning and calling to God for pardon But the great Lord who in his wisedome hath ordained another way as the ordinarie course to winne men to himselfe that is by his most precious word and his ministerie doth here commend this his ordinance for the instrument of their good He hath made this word more sharpe then is any two edged sword This is it which doth pierce the marrow and breake the bones in sunder which entreth into the diuision of the soule and of the spirit of the heart and of the reines which wresteth sighs from the mind and wringeth teares from the eyes and maketh a whole man as it were to melt and dissolue into water This is it to which especially he hath promised to giue a blessing that it shall not returne in vaine but as the rayne commeth downe and the snow from heauen and returneth not thither but
Pastour hath his vexations and grieuances at his heart The vntowardnesse of his people doth make him fret like Moses so the wilinesse of the serpent in deuising new kinds of euill or the stubburnnesse of Recusants or the circumuentings of heretickes or the deriding of enemies may disquiet him and afflict him The father and the housholder may be grieued and disturbed by the vnrulinesse of his children and the infamie which is vpon them as was vpon the sonnes of Eli or Samuel or by the falsenesse of his seruants and treacherie of his people by whom he sustaineth harmes or losses or by malicious neighbours The faithfull man who is in any vocation may be tormented in his spirit by an vndermining Ziba or by an oppressing Pharao or by a deriding Ismael or by a contemning Haman or by a reuiling Shimei or by a slaundering Doeg The tender and troubled conscience may be frighted and molested by recounting his iniquities against so high a maiestie and so seuere a iustice There is no one of these but being followed pursued as with waue after waue must needes sinke grow faint vnlesse there be some remedie He that should onely feed vpon this in his thought and as one who made much of the humour should increase it and maintaine it might fret himselfe to peeces and if his bones were iron or if his sides were brasse might consume them and dissolue theÌ„ Therefore our respectiue father knowing wherof we are made remembring that we are but dust doth take this order for vs that as sometimes he intermingleth ioy with sorrow like the night with the day and faire weather with cloudie and peace with warre health with sicknesse so otherwise in our troubles he sendeth such varietie and vicissitude of disturbances that this businesse is driuen away and remooued with that as a nayle is forced with a nayle or one woodden pin with another that the mind may not haue time to gâ—aw or leisure to wast it selfe with sorrow This dutie or that necessitie or the comming in of a friend or feare of euill to come or hope and expectation or watchfulnesse to preuent or labouring to escape or one thing or another is set by God as a stay that we shall not with Iob onely sit downe and mourne or with Ieremie yeeld our selues wholly to lamentation We shall haue some thing or other say to vs as to Ionas arise I am assuredly perswaded that this was the estate of Saint Paule aboue all other men who ranne through so many difficulties in watching and in fasting in imprisonment and in beating in preaching and in writing in comforting the weake in combating with the enemie in taking care of all Churches God did not affoord him time to greeue at his perplexities but choked one with another and gaue him grace for all Euerie man may apply this to himselfe as he pleaseth But to the end that our Prophet might not be steeped and quite dissolued with sorrow the word of the Lord commeth to him No more Ionas of this heauinesse Arise and go to Niniue that great citie 15 No maruell if this did awake him to send him in such an errand Now he is not to go as vpon any priuate businesse from one man to another but he must go from God and he must go to a citie and that as I thinke the greatest which then was on the earth which might very well vrge him to looke about him with all his wit and vnderstanding I shall haue more occasion in the third verse to speake of the hugenesse of this place because there it is said that Niniue was a great and excellent citie of no lesse then three dayes iourney It shall suffice for that purpose which I now intend to follow out of these words of my text that Niniue was a great citie to contemplate with reuerend admiration the sound force and effectuall operation of the word of God and the ministerie that one man and a stranger without pompe without traine without any one to grace him should be sent to such a multitude and being sent should preuaile See whether some secret vertue power which cannot be expressed be not in this liuely word when it is taught See whether the mightie finger of the Lord himselfe be not with it that he should depute one mouth to speake vnto a million and to mooue them and perswade them and sometimes to erect them and sometimes to depresse them with promises and with threatnings to make so many hearts as would not feare an armie of the old Greekes or Aegyptians to quake and with a quauering to tremble in all the bones That he should appoint one Moses to aduise and giue precepts to sixe hundred thousand men which were able to fight in battell besides women and children That Peter at one Sermon shold not only speake to so many but should winne three thousand soules That in a great congregation where hundreds or thousands be a man of the selfe same qualitie as those to whom he doth preach clothed with many weaknesses and bringing this most precious treasure but in an earthen vessell should stand betweene the Lord and the consciences of the people and with memorie coÌ„stancie shold speak boldly to the best and rebuke them reprooue them and thunder out Gods iudgements And that the toung of this man a little peece of flesh and nothing in comparison should talke of God and Angels of the mysteries of the Trinitie of the benefits of the Redeemer of the power of the holy Ghost of euerlasting ioy and of the paines of hell of saluation and damnation and with this speech so vttered should conquer preuaile incite men vnto fasting weeping lamenting yea to suffering of affliction yea to martyrdome it selfe 16 It sheweth that this word is truely likened to the mustard seed which being small in the sowing groweth to great branches afterward And to leauen which being put in meale farre greater then it selfe yet doth season and sauour it all So it is fitly compared vnto a little sparke or coale of fire which lighting vpon apt matter prooueth soone a burning flame and hath in it such power as that cities or forrests or whole realmes may be wasted with it This word hath endlesse encrease when God giueth a blessing to it By how few in respect of a multitude was the Gospell propagated in all the coasts of the earth Their sound went out into all lands They were but a few Apostles and a small number of their scholers neither rich nor learned nor eloquent yet India and Armenia and Greece and Rome and Spaine were filled with their deuotions the base were heard by the noble and fishermen and their followers catched Caesars and mightie Emperours The Eâ—nuch of Candaces had but a little parley with Philip the Euangelist yet he so planted Christs doctrine in the countrey of Ethiopia that it
how they haue bestowed themselues yet because many thousands are more then one soule the accompt for their charge shall more strictly be stoode vpon 5 Inferiour Magistrates may herein take instruction that it is not for themselues that they are hoissed to their places but to the good of other Be they neuer so eminent for sanctitie or synceritie it is not enough vnlesse they whom they rule do sauour like to themselues God expecteth of each of them that they and their houses as Iosuah said should serue him euen so many as they rule ouer And that if a blessing come vpon them it should like Aarons ointment droppe from the beard to the skirts of their clothing that the low valleis may haue the benefite of that fruitfull raine which falleth vpon the mountaines And if plagues and woes should come that then the rest should be retired from the daunger of the shot as well as the fairest That there should be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and naturall affection to all that be in their custodie principally to saue them from the wrath which is to come and afterward to encourage them that they go with an vpright foote to quell that which is rebellious to take pitie vpon the weake to rectifie the vntoward to thinke that to be the field wherein God hath bestowed them and they will striue to make it like the Paradise of the Highest by planting choise plants in it by pruning them by watering it by fencing it and hedging it by keeping out the boare to take comfort in the beautie and prosperitie thereof and to delight in all happinesse which shall befall vnto it Thus the faithfull steward doth being alwaies pleased best when the common good doth flourish not thinking himselfe a bodie besides the publike bodie and so as two substances to be contradiuided things and all well which is scraped and scratched away from the members but a head vnto that bodie where and in whom he liueth and so to haue a fellow-feeling of the sufferings of other This doth well in all things but in nothing so much as vrging them to ayme at things celestiall to beg of God the continuance of his graces vpon them or to intreat him to be pleased to turne away that furie which is comming out against them And in this last case the king of Niniue may well be proposed as an example very singular who thinketh not his dutie to be discharged at all vnlesse besides the subiecting and debasing of himselfe he do stirre vp his people to a liuely apprehension of the state wherein they stoode that they as the followers he as the leader but both they and he he as well as they like humble suppliants might make intercession to recouer Gods fauour or at least to be pardoned He sheweth himselfe a man worthie to beare a scepter worthie to weare a crowne who is so considerate as to thinke that since they should haue part of the punishment he might do well to bring them to part of the penance 6 Now as this in generall is gathered of that act which is imported to vs by the scope of this verse the next so I iudge that some farther matter is naturally yeelded in this that he put foorth a precept or mandamus an imperiall Edict and an vrging Proclamation that euery one should fast And this is that Princes by the prerogatiue of their dignitie haue vnder God a power not onely to animate and encourage and exhort but by commaundement to constraine and by lawe to enforce their people to the performance and practise of those religious proceedings which they warranted by the word shall thinke fit They may ordaine lawes in Ecclesiasticall causes as we commonly terme them and vse compelling meanes to bring men to God He who should dispute this against the Church of Rome may easily declare out of the Scriptures both in particular and sufficiently concerning all the circumstances whereupon they do stand that it is holy iust which our Princesse doth claime and our Church doth maintaine And this most plentifully hath beene shewed in excellent workes extant to the view of the world Therefore it shall be enough for me now to touch and go Wise Salomon deposed Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Sadoc in his roome Therefore Princes may depriue their Bishops of their dignities if they deserue it and place other in their steede Iehoash doth call the Priests to an accompt for their negligent carelesnesse in repairing the Temple Good Iehosaphat Hezechiah and Iosiah do make lawes for the recalling and exercising of the seruice of God they restore it and renew it according to the lawe and therefore Christian Princes by their example may do the like And if we will looke lower how great was Constantines care for setling the faith of Christ how did he labour both in the Nicene Councell and otherwise Doth he not call himselfe as Eusebius reporteth a Bishop out of the Church Others were Bishops within the Sanctuarie because they were to preach and administer the Sacraments but himselfe one without by reason of his care to discharge that dutie which was imposed on him How many lawes did he make in causes of the Church and Theodosius after him yea this prerogatiue was retained vntill the time of Charles the Great and Lodouicus after him as appeareth by so many decrees extant to this day These and many other knowing more fully then the Niniuite spoken of by Ionas did that God had appointed them to beare the sword not in vaine made Edicts and put out Proclamations to commaund men to the exercise of Christian deuotion Yea some of them went farther and by lawes repressed diuerse heresies and enforced men to an embracing of the Orthodoxe Catholike faith 7 A matter which may seeme most straunge and improbable vnto such as in truth mistaking the issue of this question do much vse that Maxime Fides non cogitur faith cannot be enforced It is very true that faith is an assent of the inward man which indeede cannot be extorted if we will speake of the actuall and complete apprehension in beleeuing for in that there must be a willing framing of the mind it selfe from within But the meanes whereby men get faith are visible and externall as the hearing of the word the receiuing of the Sacraments the repairing to the Churches where religion is set foorth the flying from the Synagogues of heretikes and schismatikes lest other should be infected the forbidding of their assemblies and these things Princes may not onely vse and set on foote but they are bound by dutie to the highest Lord to exercise and execute them Iosiah in his feruent zeale compelled all in the land or bound them as other translate it to serue the Lord their God And his deed is commended Doth not Christ in the Parable shew that he who made the banket bid his seruants go foorth and enforce them vnder the
hedges to enter into his house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compell them to come in out of which text Thomas of Aquine doth conclude and resolue that men are to be enforced vnto faith Theodosius tooke this course as we reade in Sozomen when he made most seuere lawes put foorth Proclamations against all those who crossed the streame of the Christian religion and yet many of those lawes were as the same authour obserueth but onely in terrorem And that so much the more argued his religious affection that he rather sought by frights and threats to winne them then by rigorous seueritie vnlesse against his will he should be constrained to chastise them by their obstinacie and intemperate behauiour Neuer any of the Fathers of the Primititiue Church did more ponderously consider of this question then Saint Austen did and accordingly without any scruple he giueth his opinion resoluing this doubt In one place The Kings of the earth may serue Christ in making lawes for Christ. And in another The Emperours when they commaund good it is none but Christ who commaundeth by them Againe God doth not looke for the helpe of worldly warfare when he rather bestoweth it as a benefit on kings when he inspireth into them that in their kingdome they should take order that the commaundement of their Lord should be done For vnto whom was it said And now you Kings vnderstand be learned ye that are Iudges of the world And when some disliked this position in another place he speaketh fully to them They do maruell because the Christian powers are stirred vp against the detestable dissipatours and scatterers of the Church But should they not be mooued And how should they yeeld an accompt of their gouernment to God Let your charitie obserue what I speake because this pertaineth to the Christian Kings of the world that they should be willing that in their times that Church their mother of whom they are spiritually borne should be peaceable I deny not but some of the auncient who liued a little before Saint Austens time and had not experience so much in this behalfe as he had were of a different opinion and therefore they spake otherwise As Lactantius There needeth no violence and iniurie because religion cannot be enforced the matter is rather to be dealt in by words then by stripes that so there may be a will So Athanasius speaking against the Atrians who by stripes and imprisonment did seeke to draw men to their opinion It is the propertie of holy religion not to enforce but to perswade For the Lord not enforcing but leauing libertie to the will said openly to all If any of you will come after me And to his Apostles will you also be gone And so Gregorie Nazianzen I do thinke it fitter to perswade then to compell This was the iudgement of them who liuing not in times altogether so setled as God sent afterward could not haue that in-sight into this case as Saint Austen who was purposely consulted in it and more industriously did â—ift it and discusse it And that causeth him to shew that many were drawne from the Circumcellians to be good Catholikes by violence which was offered them by the Magistrates But he there requireth that there should be teaching ioyned to terror and not most grieuous punishment to be inflicted without instruction But to my point He who bindeth a frantike man and rowzeth him vp who is sicke of a lethargie although he be troublesome to both yet he loueth both And elsewhere If any lawes be made against you speaking of the Donatistes who obiected that it was not in any man to enforce their wils to his religion you are not by them compelled to do well but you are forbidden to do ill For no man can do well vnlesse he choose to do so vnlesse he loue it which consisteth in free-will but the feare of punishments albeit yet it hath not the delight of a good conscience yet at the least it restraineth euill lustes within the closet of the thoughts And once more When God will stirre vp the Magistrates against heretikes against schismatikes against wasters of the Church against such as would blow off Christ against blasphemers of Baptisme let them not wonder because God raiseth them vp that Agar may be beaten by Sara If any man would yet see farther in this learned Father concerning that opinion he may find in his Retractations that wheras once himselfe had beene minded that it did not belong to the Magistrate to compell men to the communion of the Orthodoxe vpon sounder experience and more aduised consideration he doth plainly retract it VpoÌ„ all which we hold for an vndoubted truth that the Prince hath a power in commanding proclaiming for God Gods religioÌ„ all exercise of the same which as you haue heard I haue gathered from that act of the king of Niniue imposing vpon his a fast by open Proclamation 8 Then to returne to him in the next place it is said that the Edict which was made was by aduise of his Nobles As that which was said before doth import vnto vs his zeale so this implieth his wisedome that to direct himselfe he refuseth not good counsell to purchase the more authoritie he ioyned in his stile his counsellers and great officers And in ciuill affaires what can be more iudicious then to hearkeÌ„ to the wise then to listen vnto many Many eyes see more then one many eares heare more theÌ„ one many minds coÌ„ceiuing diuersly do vtter most of vnderstaÌ„ding where counsel is not saith SalomoÌ„ there the people shal fal but health is where are many counsellers And without counsell thoughts come to nothing but in multitude of counsellers there is stablenesse And againe Thoughts are strengthened by counsels and by counsels are warres to be taken in hand The impression of this matter hath wrought with all men of worth with Dauid with Salomon whose Nobles and great captaines were at hand with their instructions yea hath had place in all estates as the Ephori in Sparta the Areopagites in Athens the Senatours in Rome did make manifest in old time and in our age there is not the Russe but hath his solemne Senate not the Turke but hath his Bassas who at all turnes may informe him Now as that land is happie where the Princes eate in time for strength and not for drunkennesse that is are sober and temperate so blessed is that Prince who hath such men about him as may be right hands not left hands men faithfull and fearing God wise persons and hating couetousnesse otherwise himselfe and all doth easily run to ruine Ahaziah the king of Iuda had a mother and other kinsfolkes who were of the house of Ahab for his counsellers which turned in the end to his destructioÌ„ Ioas is ill aduised by the great men of his kingdome which
the great point which naturally ariseth from my text I haue therein sayd lesse because I debated this question at large vpon the twelfth verse of the first Chapter of this Prophecy and in the opening of this booke I haue euer aymed at that not to repeate the same things oft in manner or in matter Yet one word more before I leaue this and that is that in the Primitiue Church it was somewhat a strange kind of opinion that men confessing Christ might make away themselues to withdraw their bodies from torments which their persecutours would offer to them and they knew not certainely whether their strength were able to sustaine Eusebius in his historie telleth that in the bloudie time of cruell Diocletian there were diuerse who for the reason named did procure death to thēselues by throwing their bodies from floores and lofts high places And he addeth farther there that a certaine Chistian mother her two daughters being taken and fearing lest she or they should be defloured which of all things she detested stepped aside from their keepers threw themselues into the riuer and so perished in the water Afterward the same Eusebius speaketh of another matrone who going into her chamber as it were to attire her selfe while the officers of the Emperor expected her returne thrust her selfe through with a sword And these matters Eusebius doth not onely historically relate but by an insinuation doth little lesse then commend them but of certainty he euidently approoueth them Now true diuinitie doth maintaine that this praise is not good but such deeds are very vnlawfull God who simply forbiddeth all murther on our selues doth also forbid this because he giueth no exception in this point or case either directly or indirectly The Prophets and the Apostles and our Sauiour Christ himselfe did with humilitie expect that the will of God should be wrought vpon them by others they did not make themselues guiltie by laying violent hands on their owne flesh That were not patience but impatiencie and breaking away from the crosse imposed on them By occasion of the example of Razias mentioned in the second booke of the Machabees and there sayd to destroy himselfe Saint Austen very excellentlie disputeth this against the Donatistes whose treatise who so listeth to reade shall see that he plainely and substantially prooueth that this is not to be liked in any Christian. Hierome vpō the first of Ionas desirous as it seemeth to make excuse for such facts giueth thus his iudgement on this matter It is not our part to hasten death to our selues but vvillingly to receiue it being layd vpon vs by other Whereupon euen in persecutions it is not lawfull for vs to perish with our owne hands vnlesse it be vvhere chastity is indangered but to submit our selues vnto the striker In generall he condemneth it and that particular exception where our chastity is indangered may verie well be left out for violence which is offered to the bodie of man or woman and cannot be resisted doth not make the partie sinfull It is consent which staineth vs with transgression and not that force which we cannot auoide and which we approoue in no sort He who liued in a deeper time of darknesse and superstition that is Sarisburiensis in the fifth of his Policraticus could see definitely and positiuely to determine all this doubt His words are plaine and direct and therefore I thinke good to cite them None of them who haue layd hands on themselues are sufficiently excused by me although the Ecclesiasticall storie vvith great commendation doth extoll some who hastened their owne death because they had leyfer that their temporall life should be indangered then their chastitie His iudgement therein is sound although the faults of those who were surprized and deceiued with such an opinion should be couered with silence and left to Gods secret iudgement Now to come to my third circumstance 11 Ionas being full of errours yet knoweth that it is the Lords part to giue life and take it away and he is not ignorant that to vse violence on himselfe were a very grieuous sinne but yet he goeth so farre as to wish himselfe dead he prayeth God to end his life and concludeth it to be better for him to dye then to liue Here is a double fault in the Prophet one that the cause which did mooue him to such vehemency of thoughts was a matter much vnbeseeming for all his anger was that the Lord would spare the Niniuites which he thought was against his credit and the esteeme of a Prophet and Ionas by a consequent is in this case growne bloudy But of this before in this Chapter The second fault is that in this his mad and raging anger he doth wish himselfe dead For this in him proceeded from a vexed vnquiet heart possessed with impatiency and not from a sanctified resolution We deny not but in some cases a man who is here on earth warfaring and in a combat with his spirituall enemies may wish himselfe out of life As when there is a meere and feruent desire to be ioyned with his head to be with the blessed Trinitie and the Angels about the throne as accoūting that glory to be the garland for which we must sigh and grone And this doth Saint Paule teach vs by his euident example where he professeth of himselfe that he longed to be dissolued and to be with Christ. And this loue hath filled the minds of many of the martyrs who thought all to be dung in comparison of that heauenly celestiall beatitude which is aloft with God And therefore they feared not to presse on to that marke by fire and sword and racking And is these dayes of the Gospell that is one of the consolations wherein we do abound that we see many of our Christian brethren and sisters when in the extremitie of their sicknesse they lye vpon their death-beds to embrace our Sauiour Christ and thirst for their dissolution to thinke each houre a yeare before they be in heauen Againe when there is truly in vs a setled hate against sinne which ariseth from a seruent loue to the Lord whom we grieue to displease not for feare but for kindnesse toward so gracious a father then it it is a good desire soberly and with ripe iudgement to wish our selues out of this body where dayly we prouoke him whom we loue so entirely And in this also we haue the steps of holy Paule to treade and to walke in who considering the great burthen of sinne which was vpon him and how it did euermore disturbe him doth cry out passionatly O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of death Where certainely he intendeth so much as that in this consideration he could wish himselfe from this earth But on the other side if they be but froward thoughts and werying perturbations which distemper vs too much or if it be for some
had thereof let vs learne another lesson first to try all spirits that we be not deceiued in taking errour for truth that so we may not yeeld to each suggestion of appearance or probability for that is not Christian wisedome but to harken what the Lord doth say of vs and of all men But secondly when we see by the assurance of the word and the motions of Gods spirit that this or that he would haue then with constant resolution with patience and obedience let vs yeeld our selues vnto it not with humming or standing like Lots wife who desired very faine to be safe in the mountaines yet wold she be in Sodome too God loueth a cheerefull obedience a ready resolued submission to take well what he would haue And although we misse of our minds as Ionas did here in his yet if we renounce our selues and will be led by him the end shall still be with comfort But no kicking against the prickes no spurning against heauen no wrastling against God but obey and liue for euer The Lord direct vs so with his grace that making vse of such lessons as the word in euery petty circumstance doth yeeld vnto vs we may serue him with alacrity neuer swayed aside by our will till we come vnto his kingdome to the which the Father bring vs for his owne Sonne Christ his sake to both whom and the holy Spirit be praise for euermore THE XXVIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. It hath bene controuersed what greene thing it was which grew vp vnto Ionas 5. What it was in truth 6. Gods power in helping his seruants 7. His prouidence disposeth smallest things 8. in our griefe God refresheth vs one way or other 9. The vnwise ioy of Ionas for the gourd 10. Our mind runneth too much on worldly things as children 11. beauty and long hairâ— 12. Hastie matâ—ers are soone gone 13. All things here are vnconstant 14. God in his loue taketh many of them from vs. Ionah 4.6.7 And the Lord God prepared a gourd made it to come vp ouer Ionah that it might be a shadow ouer his head and deliuer him from his griefe So Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourd But God prepared a worme when the morning arose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered OVr Prophet being earnest on euery thing saue that which he ought to do for therein he is slow inough as appeareth in the first Chapter with a burning desire to see Niniue desolated sitteth him downe neare the city thinking euerie minute long before that was effected Albeit these people were farre more yet he doth not for them as Abraham did for Sodome that is double and triple a passionate request that they might be forgiuen but hauing a desire that himself might seeme no lyer he doth wish could willingly put to his hand to helpe it forward that all were ouerthrowne But when he taketh notice that without his motion God would spare that multitude he fretteth and rageth at it and in exceeding discontentment remaineth not farre off euen hoping beyond hope that some euill would befall them Being thus in his anguish because he might not haue his will for so the most do interprete it and the literall proceeding and going on of the story do seeme to enforce it or being troubled otherwise as some other would haue it with the scorching heate of the Sunne while he remaineth there expecting what should be the end God raiseth vp a certaine plant or growing kind of creature to yeeld some reliefe to this angry person that so consequently some little comfort might accrew vnto him Whether this were prepared at the first when he came out of the city that he made his booth onely with that or whether hauing cut downe some other boughs and enioyed them in manner of a sommer-house and those now being dried the other did spring vp as a better sort of succour more naturall and more fresh it is not much to our matter but by Gods speciall worke he had it and sate vnder it There is a double drift which is aymed at by the sending of this greene thing to the Prophet one to teach him by a parable and demonstratiue instruction that he was much to blame that himselfe louing such a trifle would haue had no reckening made of such a city as Niniue But of that I shall haue occasion to speake in the end of the Chapter where the Lord himselfe apparantly deduceth it in that manner 2 The other thing to be considered by vs for the present is the plaine direct narration wherein we are let to know that Ionas to comfort him and appease him for the time hath a little tree raised vp vpon the sudden out of the ground which the Lord of purpose stirred vp so that it had not bene there but only vpon that occasion Which when it had brought vnto him a delicate pleasing shadow fitting to his oportunity he tooke as much ioy in it as if it had bene some great treasure But when he was more proud of it then a wise man would haue bene the glory and beauty of it was dashed quite on a sudden There commeth a little gnawing worme which destroyed the life of this greene thing so that it prooued to be dry and withered and the couer was now as nothing the shadow was cleane ceassed Then he who very lately thought himselfe a happy man in hauing somewhat to refresh him is now as farre to seeke as euer he was before That you may the better conceiue this whole case of the Prophet so plentifully teaching vs as it doth may it please you to note with me those three things which the text doth orderly offer to vs. First the prouision here made for him of purpose by the Lord and therein we may obserue the thing it selfe which was sent and then by whom it came and afterward the vse of it My second part is the hasty contentment which the Prophet too violently and greedily receiued by the comming of this to him And the third is the dissolution ending of all his ioy by taking his pleasure from him The instructions arising hence shall be mingled with the doctrine The Lord God prepared a gourd 3 What that was which is here spoken of hath not onely bene doubted in the auncient primitiue Church but it hath caused some stirre also The Septuagint expressed it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English translation doth apparantly follow and nameth it to be a gourd The later Greeke interpreters to wit Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion not liking of that word did render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as Iuy When Hierome afterward tooke on him to translate the old Testament out of the Hebrew into Latine he following those later ones put it hederam that is Iuy And his translation now in his owne time growing to be read and that commonly in Churches it seemed
more then conuenient to the bodie which receiueth it doth more hurt and destroy then cherish and preserue In this fitly resembling the prosperitie of the world which so long as it is so moderate as that mens minds can weild it it incourageth vnto good and stayeth from many fals which necessitie would enforce but when it is heaped vpon vs with such a waight as is beyond our supportation we sinke vnder the burthen of plenty and abundance The wise man saw this well when he made request to God Giue me neither riches nor pouertie but feede me with conuenient food lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poore and steale and take Gods name in vaine Then it is ordinarie that as too much heate doth faint vs so too much wealth doth choke vs while the Lord doth not giue to euery man the mind of Iob or of Abraham or of Salomon while he stoode vpright that is with thankfulnesse and tēperance to dispose of great things well Oftentimes great wealth giueth great spirits and so puffeth the possessours vp to pride maketh men despise their maker and contemne their brethren it bringeth also much idlenesse and so inflameth the lust and maketh a God of the belly it bringeth great store of care and worldly perturbations and so doth choake the seede of the word What brought Haman to the height of his arrogancie and folly but the plentie which he had What brought him in the Gospell to yeeld his soule to securitie but that his ground brought foorth much fruite Of prosperitie saith Lactantius cometh luxurie of luxurie grow all vices yea impietie against God So Hierome writing on the Prophet Ieremie Plentie breedeth securitie and securitie neglect and neglect breedeth contempt The heathen Poet Horace alludeth to this by naming his Eutrapelus who when he meant to do hurt to any would giue him gay clothes for together with them he knew that he would alter his counsels and his hopes from the better to the worse as there he doth exemplifie I would that this were not true in very many other men that as their state encreaseth so doth encrease their sinne 7 This hath made some dispute I say not that a competent measure but penurie and necessitie and aduersitie and the crosse are rather preseruers of pietie and dutie then plentie and prosperitie illustrating their intent by that Parable in Plutarke so well knowne to euery man of the Sunne and the wind who were at strife whether of them two should sooner put a man beside the cloke which he had vpon him While the wind blew he held it the harder but the Sunne with the strength of his beames made him throw it from him Prosperitie maketh many lay aside that cleane vesture of puritie and innocencie which they buckled hard to them while they were duly exercised in carying the crosse Peraduenture this point hath too often bene verified in the Church They who in the auncient persecutions loued one another fell to discord and dissentions and shameful stirres each with other when the Emperours once grew to be Christians peace shined in the world Hath it not bene too true that some who in the time of bloudie persecutors haue liued admired liues in exile beyond the seas yet haue scant retained their first loue and kept their auncient zeale but haue thought that to be fence enough to shield off some not commendable actions that they might say that the time was when for Christs sake they left their countrey How fitly may men in such a like case be compared to the ice which hangeth downe from the house in frosty weather which is able to endure the sharpe blast of the Northrē wind but when the Sunne once breaketh foorth it melteth and falleth away Againe were there neuer such who when in this place they were maisters but of small things the greatest part of their maintenance so depended vpon Gods prouidence that in the beginning of the yeare they could not make account to reape one halfe of that which would satisfie and yet God sent it in vnto them were then studious and diligent and laborious in their calling but afterward when they came to more eminent and noted preferments in the Church and common-wealth haue bene dumbe as the fish and go the Church as it will go neither toung nor pen shall once mooue to ruinate the forts of Antichrist or to build one foot for Christ. Shall I say that they haue left the net because they haue that for which they fished Or shall I rather liken them to the Adamant stone although peraduenture you will say that that is too seuere whome no cold nor hammer can dissolue yet as Solinus writeth a warm thing maketh it yeeld and flye in peeces But that is the bloud of a goate and these men touch not bloud I could wish that bloud did not touch them and that the bloud of better things then goates Their idlenesse in aboundance and aboundance in their idlenesse is stained with the bloud of the sheepe of Gods pasture who perish for want of foode How much better had it bene for these persons to haue liued still priuate men to haue pleased God by consecrating their little to Christ Iesus which doubtlesse they would haue done if they had risen no higher thē to haue so much as by their vsage of it extinguisheth both the fire and sparkes of deuotion Shall God the more he sendeth vs be the lesse honoured for it Shall we in our small wealth pay him much and flie off from him in the greater It was a fault both noted and condemned in the Carthaginians that whereas they were sprung from Tyrus and vsed yearely to send the tenth or tith of their incomes to Hercules the peculiar God of the Tyrians which custome they obserued while their commodities were small they neglected afterward when they grew to be maisters and possessours of greater matters to send at all and so by little and little came to contemne that Hercules In the seruice of the true God let this neuer be said of Christians of learned men and Ministers that they so forget themselues Whē we thinke that we are at the highest let vs not then indeede be lowest most knowledge and best place may do the Lord best seruice But no man while he is on earth is at the highest of his desires there remaineth yet one steppe to heauen before the obtaining of which if any settle his thoughts it is no better then in the depth of folly My conclusion of this point is that we should take heede of prosperitie as a most entising thing it was too much heate that brought Ionas to his last enormous crime Let vs know who it is that sendeth all and let vs still be thankfull vnto him let vs know that worldy felicitie must be reckened for in the day of great account in the height thereof let
not beate the ayre nor spend our spirits in vaine but although our selues be weake yet we shall make others strong and although we our selues be poore yet we shall make others rich We shall raze the forts of ignorance and ouerturne the holds of sinne we shall bring persons and places as stubborne and as stoute as euer was mightie Niniue to compunction and remorse to fasting and lamentation For the force of that word is great which commeth from the most high maiestie of the Almightie and especially when it is vttered with a zeale which is mixed with sober discretion and when Gods honour is principally shot at by the speaker and his omnipotencie is throughly sollicited with frequent and holy prayer to giue a blessing to the labour And what a ioy is it to be an instrument not contemptible in sauing the soules of men to haue had a peece of a finger in completing that for which Christ Iesus came from heauen Lord send vs thy best direction that we may make conscience of our calling that nothing do abash vs or detaine vs in the exercise of our vocation but that with an vpright foote we may crosse the way of this pilgrimage that so we may be admitted to raigne with thy Sonne Christ Iesus to whom with thee and the euerlasting Spirit be glory and praise eternall Soli Deo honor To the Reader CHRISTIAN Reader hauing learned this lesson that a Minister of the Gospell is to do good in and to the Church of Christ so farrefoorth as possibly he may while he liueth in this world I do not refuse to publish to the view of many men these small labours of mine that either learned or vnlearned may reape some profite from them And if in the perusing of them thou do find either directly or by circumstance that mention is made of some things which were done or suffered now some yeares past vnderstand it for a truth that I first aduentured on the handling of this Prophecie in the yeare 1594 and brought it to an end in 99. For it is the manner of our Vniuersitie that no one man doth continually keepe and reade our English Lectures or Sermons as it is in diuerse other charges in this Realme but in as much as there be among vs many who are furnished with great gifts and graces from aboue our exercises here are supplied by sundry persons who when they haue perfourmed any of these solemne ones are not immediatly called againe but haue a conuenient space left to employ their talent in other Churches of the citie or countrie adioyning or in their priuate Colledges or where else it pleaseth God to offer them oportunitie But among other the most holy religious and fruitfull exercises in our assembly there is none in my opinion more honorable to the Almightie nor more profitable to our brethren among vs then those Lectures which with solemnitie are kept both winter and sommer on the thursday mornings early where sometimes before day-light the praises of God are by preaching sounded out in the great congregation For there euen on the working dayes not only our youth which are sent hither for good education from most places of this land are trained vp in the knowledge of godlinesse which maketh them afterward the more deuoutly able to do seruice and performe a dutie in Church and common-wealth but the elder and strongest sort by fresh and various remembrances are quickened to go forward in the way of righteousnesse the weak are comforted the straying are recalled the obstinate are conuinced and all kinds of men which will repaire thither are duly instructed It were great pittie therefore but that the reuerend godly Vice-chauncellers and chiefe gouernours of this body shold from time to time take faithfull care to perpetuate this holy seruice and businesse by stirring vp the spirits of many of their brethren with alacritie and chearefulnesse to continue this free-will offering to the Lord which he himselfe certainly will requite and alreadie in his mercie hath not left vnrewarded in many of them who haue taken paines this way There is no man that in the end loseth but gaineth by the true seruice of our Almightie maker In the turnes of this voluntarie Lecture haue the most part of these Sermons vpon Ionas bene preached which hath bene the cause that I haue bene forced to be so long in perfecting and consummating this worke But yet now that I am resolued to communicate it farther I thinke it not vnfit therein to recount those things which vpon speciall occasions of the times had their first and most direct vse before in as much as I haue warrant thereof by examples of holy Scripture where there be plentifully recorded to vs matters past and in the Sermons and Homilies of the auncient Fathers of the Primitiue Church we at this day reade mētion made of famines or pestilences or warres or vnseasonable weather or such other like occurrents from which great vtilitie may now be reaped as to teach the people for their comfort in miserie or warning in prosperitie that God dealeth by men in this age as in former times and the Minister that he shold not be blind but quick-sighted to make application to his auditorie of such benefites or punishments as are sensibly represented to his congregation The same or the like vse we may make of hearing that good or euill which lately before befell our selues or our brethren that so by things which are past as well as by the present Gods name may be glorified and our consciences religiously edified As for the most part of matters handled here be they either exhortations or applications or doctrines or refutations of any opinions Popish or otherwise erronious they haue their perpetuall commoditie and somewhat may euermore be sucked out of them In the reuoluing whereof if any man shall take profite I shall be right glad and account it a blessing of God on me that he maketh my weaknesse the meanes and instrument to build any thing be it but little in his spirituall house The Lord direct vs aright in our knowledge and vnderstanding the Lord guide our waies that we may euermore walke in his feare that passing ouer the dayes of this pilgrimage with comfort we may in the end dwell in ioyfull and euerlasting habitations Amen FINIS Hieron ad Paulinum Breues pariter longas breues in verbis longas in sententijs Luk. 11.32 Math. 12.40 Hieron in Ion. 1.3 Ionas propheta non absque periculo interpretantis totus referri ad Dominum poterit 2. Reg. 14.25 1. Reg. 17.17 Lyra in Ion. 1. Isidor in 7. Etimolog Epiphan de vitis Prophe Hieron in Praefat. in lib. Ion. In vulgata editione Iosuah 19.13 Luk. 4.25.27 1. Reg. 17 9. Ioseph Anti. lib. 8.9 Iosua 19 28. 1. Reg. 17.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Hieron in Proaemio commētarij in Ionam Epiphanius Haeresi 29. Lodou Viues de Veritate fidei lib. 3. Lyra in Ion. 1.