Go saith he and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Were people now to be called and converted to the Gospel then not onely this kinde of preaching but miracles also were needfull but as S. Augustine saith When all the world beleeveth what need miracles and what need is now of Apostles and Evangelists and 70 Disciples Lastly when much needlesse and some unsound teaching by tract of time had sued into the ark of Christs Church by the prelates and priests thereof then in the 19 yeare of King Henrie the 8 began licenses to be granted by the court of Starre-chamber to preach against the corruptions of the time like to that of King Jehoshaphat But now thanks be to God the corruptions are removed and the ancient and true doctrine of the primitive Church by settled articles is restored therefore this extraordinarie kinde is not now so necessarie except it be upon some notorious crimes breaking in upon our people or some exorbitancies of green heads broaching the froth of their own brains which will hardly be reformed untill many of these be unfurnisht of their licenses and those that are permitted be restrained to certain times and seasons For better were it for our Church and people to have but one sermon well premeditated in a moneth which is insinuated by the Canon then two upon a day proceeding from a rolling brain and mouth without due preparation Such sermons are abortive like cast calves coming out of the wombe before the time and they runne into the curse of the Prophet Jeremiah Maledictus qui facit opus Domini negligenter Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Many of these men partly to serve the expectation of others and partly to seek their own applause after they have been in the high place and saluted after the descent take it upon them as though they were young prophets and new apostles to preach a new Gospel to the world as our Puritanes Brownists and other Novelists have done I reade in Socrates Scholasticus l. 5. c. 20. that at Alexandria the inferiour priest did not use to preach but that order first began when Arius turned upside down the quiet estate of the Church But we have so many inferiour and young priests preaching among us that all the Bishops in the land can hardly keep down their wrong and unseasoned doctrine if Vox populi may be judge Such are work-makers and not finishers of work See Calvine upon 1. Cor. 1. 17. Sed cùm paucorum esset docere pluribus autem baptizare datum fuerit And S. Paul saith Are all teachers 1. Cor. 12. 29. Having shewed this kinde of preaching to be extraordinarie for speciall men speciall times and occasions it followeth that the preaching by reading proved out of Acts 15. and other places of scripture is the ordinarie preaching ordained by God himself in his Church as you may see in the 4. chapter of the epistle to the Colossians and 16 verse where S. Paul writeth thus And when this epistle is read of you cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also and that ye likewise reade the epistle from Laodicea This was the ordinarie preaching in our Church before king Henrie the eighth and this was the ordinary preaching in the synagogues of the Jews as you may see in Acts 13. 15. and by the division of the three Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew Bible And by this demonstration of the extraordinarinesse of the kinde person and time we may answer all objections made of confused and undistinguishing wits out of 2. Tim. 4. and all other places of scripture because particular precepts do not binde all persons and confine all times For who can expect those gifts in the ordinarie Ministers of our dayes which God bestowed upon the extraordinarie Ministers and times of the first preaching of the Gospel And as for our large-carving professours in their way of preaching and knowledge this I finde that they which professe least live more justly then they which professe and know most because as my text directeth me knowledge puffes them up and upon their knowledge they presume for the more they know the lesse they fear and the lesse they fear the more they offend Who are more bold then they which know most and fear least The skilfullest captain he most hazardeth the cunningest physician he kills most and the ripest wits runne into greatest oversights Why because they presume so much of their knowledge and presuming draws carelesnesse Wherefore they which know lesse are the more industrious Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth Now to conclude with thee which runnest after this extraordinarie kinde where thou thinkest best I will shew the inconvenience First thou breakest the Church-canon and when thou fallest on breaking of Canons then follows nothing but confusion disorder Secondly thou discreditest thine own Minister though he hath better parts and gifts then the men that thou runnest after Thirdly thou troublest thy neighbours seats in a strange church Fourthly thy servants and children will no◠come to catechizing because thou art absent the hatchet flies one way and the helve another thou gainest and thy family loseth Fifthly when thou shouldest help thy neighbours in singing psalmes to Gods praise then thy trumpet is abroad in another parish Lastly if all the rest should follow thee some would fall short under hedges and there pray lewd parts The Lord open thine eyes to give thee more discretion that thou mayst give a better example Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth HAving spoken of the first part of my text now I must proceed to the second in which I must as much extoll Charitie as before I disabled unformed knowledge for it was never the Apostles minde nor mine to speak any thing against well qualified knowledge which belongs to perfect men as the learned have noted nor yet against moderate and sober knowledge fit for all sorts of men taught by the forenamed preachers but onely to withstand the immoderatenesse and misgovernance of it in the vulgar who know no better how to use it then a mad man doth a sword If thy knowledge be greater then thy charitie then it will do more hurt then good but if thy charitie exceed thy knowledge then that by its government makes all good because charitie is the master and governour of knowledge You may surfet with knowledge so you cannot with charitie Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth The word but signifieth a difference between charitie and knowledge because the conjunction is discretive And indeed the difference is great as the Apostle expresseth because charitie is to use the School phrase an act giving life and perfection it edifieth among the vertues theologicall and morall but knowledge without charitie is a matter of vanitie because it puffeth up it is like a bladder or bubble which have
sacrifice of the old Law And according to this our Church-service enjoyneth us to come fasting and not full-gorged to holy feasts because as the book of Wisdome teacheth the body is heavy to the soul and thâ—â—â—ller it is the heavier it is Therefore S. Chrysostome saith that fasting and almes are to the soul wings to mount it up in prayer and contemplation to heavenly things Experience teacheth that the stronger the body is the weaker the spirit and grace is and that by the bodies delicates the soul becometh carnal and so adversary to things spirituall The ninth office is To sing holy psalmes and hymnes to Gods honour in his house and this is taught Ephes. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the Spirit Speaking to your selves in psalmes and hymnes and spirituall songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And again Coloss. 3. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in psalmes and hymnes and spirituall songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. In which words is signified not onely the spirituall edifying of the soul in knowledge and understanding but further the speciall grace of holy singing in stirring up all our powers to praise God and to petition unto him with greater fervencie and alacritie By this trumpet of heart and mouth the devil is put to flight we encouraged to the spirituall warre and our sacrifice of praise pierceth the clouds And here by the way I am put in minde of the exceeding commendation which the ancient Divines give to the book of Psalmes above other Scriptures The tenth office respecteth Gods Ministers First in putting on the holy vestments for it is not fit that the maker of heavens ornaments should be served with common garments Gods house is a house of holinesse therefore holy vestments set apart for so high service best beseem it These intimate to all sorts in what a reverent manner God is to be served When the great Alexander the worlds conquerour came to Judea the holy nation to win it Josephus reporteth that the high priest Jaddus went out of Jerusalem to meet him wearing about him his priestly robes with which he served God in the Temple whom when he beheld in this solemne and sacred habit the storie sheweth that he reverenced him as Gods Minister fell prostrate on his face before the name of God which he bore on his breast-plate gave him his hand offered sacrifice to God according to his direction and granted what immunities and priviledges he would request for his nation It is likewise credibly reported by historians of no mean note and renown that Attilas king of the Hunnes in Germany who was called too truely as the Christians of those times by wofull experience testified THE SCOURGE OF GOD and TERROUR OF CHRISTIANS he having now made havock of the most part of Italy by sacking their towns burning their cities wasting their countrey demolishing their temples and savagely massacring â—â—ose primitive Saints in all furie and madnesse marches to Rome utterly to rase down that Metropolis of Europe At which time Leo firnamed for his pietie the GREAT being Pope came out in ornaments truely pontificall to meet him but after a pious and learned oration little prevailing yet the storie affirms Pontificali indutus ornatu ipsam religionis majestatem conspicuè arguente non precum pondere sed vultu gravi habitúque sanctimoniam indicante venerandam nè Roman vastatum iret benignè persuasit Apparelled in his priestly vestments which plainly proved the very majestie of religion not with the fervencie of entreaty but with gesture grave and habit declaring his reverend sanctitie he gently perswaded him not to lay waste Rome And were our Churches and Priests naked of this ornament when Turks and Ethnicks should enter them would they not say Is the God of Christians so mean that he is no better served By this is signified the principall robe of Ministers fit for this house and service which is righteousnesse signified by the Urim and Thummim on the high priests breast-plate and rehearsed in Psalme 132. 9. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousnesse For that Minister who liveth innocently towards his neighbours and holily towards God alwaies beareth about with him his Urim and Thummim one signifying the light of knowledge and the other the perfection of charitie The second and principall part of the Ministers office is not onely to be clotheâ— with righteousnesse and to be an honest and just man but it is further the true understanding distinct reading and decent ministerie of the Church-service contained in the book of Common prayer This is the pith of godlinesse the heart of religion the Spina or Vertebrae the backbone of all holy faculties in the Christian body Which way soever you turn you here you shall finde the saying of our Saviour fulfilled Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousnesse Desire you new life here is Baptisme to give it Are you gone from it here is the Baptisme of tears and penance to restore it Want you weapons for the spirituall warre here is the Catechisme and Confirmation Need you food for the new life here is the bread and wine of Christs body and bloud Want you supply of vertuous young souldiers here is Matrimonie and Christian education Need you leaders and governours here are Christs Ministers Want you provision for the journey to the high Jerusalem here is the viaticum of the heavenly Manna expressed in the Communion of the sick After this a wise and discreet Sermon not made by every Minister but by a man of reading and discretion right well beseemeth this holy place Preaching is Gods mouth to his people therefore great care must be had that it be not abused either with false doctrines or unsavourie speeches In this case S. Paul makes his exclamation Who is sufficient for these things How this is regarded none but the learned see Not how well but a Sermon of the vulgar is expected But would you know what Sermons are fit for our holy assemblies they are such as are suitable to our book of Common Service and the two heads of religion faith and good life If you would know what faith we are to follow it must be that which S. Paul calleth the one faith As there was but one Tabernacle and one Temple in the old Law to preserve the unitie of their religion so here must be but one faith amongst us Christians to keep us from diversitie of opinions all the world over This one faith Titus 1. 4. is called the common faith and of Divines it is called the Catholick faith to shew that they which hold not it cannot be of the Communion of saints And this faith is contained in the three Creeds of the Apostles of Nice and Athanasius And the false faith is that which is contrary to this
hearest carrie it home with thee and with the noble Bereans search in Gods word whether it may not stand with it and further because thou art a private man and S. Peter teacheth that no scripture is of any private interpretation therefore thou art not to rest in thine own sense but thou must go further to the preachers fellows and to them whose authority is prevalent in the Church and require their judgement because S. Paul saith The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets and if the matter be too hard for them then thou must go to the Bishops who are Gods high priests and ask of them as we are directed in Deut. 17. Devotion as hath been said is the soul to prayer and the rest of Gods service because it is the daughter of the mother-vertue Charitie and this is a cheerfull and free giving of our selves to Gods service as his houshold servants Therefore this is the speciall act of religion And this devotion is derived à voto from a vow and is a frank gift and free binding of our selves unto it and a simile of this we have in Mephibosheth who when king David had awarded his lands to be divided between him and his servant Ziba gave all from himself for Davids sake saying Let him take all seeing my lord the king is come home in peace According to this when we consider what God hath done for us as Mephibosheth remembred what king David had done for him when we remember that he hath not onely made us but after this redeemed and saved us when we were but dead men before him as Mephibosheth and his fathers house were before king David and when we remember further that in his Sonne Christ he hath taken us as his own sonnes to be at his own table therefore now we are willing to forsake all for his sake to let the world and Ziba take all and to give our selves wholly to his service A second motive to this devotion is the consideration of our own defects For when we finde our selves too weak to persist in this purchased grace without his speciall aid we relinquish our own strength and providence to betake us to his protection and so we turn to be his household servants And because prayer is the principall mean to lay hold on Gods help therefore herein specially our devotion in Gods house is occupied And for that many after they have made good vowes by the worlds avocations are called off therefore my Text tells me that this holy service must not be for a time but for ever Holinesse becometh thy house O Lord for ever God is alwaies the same as saith the Psalmist Thou art the same and thy yeares fail not The proverb is Semper idem Wherefore if we be not the same alwaies to him as he is to us if we fail to serve him he will fail to save us because he is alwaies the same as well just as mercifull S. Jude teacheth that the angels which kept not their first habitation God hath reserved in everlasting chains to the judgement of the great day Of how much more punishment shall they be worthy which fall upon fall and finally fall away The angels fell but once and were immediately cast down but loose and carelesse men fall from God twice first in Adam whereby we have all warning and secondly in themselves in which if without repentance they persist then is grace contemned and their falling from God confirmed The devout Anna leadeth us a better example for she being a widow of about fourescore and foure yeares departed not from the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day She would not go out of it but many of us will seldome come at it especially upon Saints dayes and fasting dayes when God should be served with greatest humiliation and strongest devotion because then the Saints in heaven joyn with us Joyn with us will you say how know you that Thus because in Wis. 3. 1. it is said The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God but Gods hand is ever in action therefore the souls departed must be so too What are they doing because they are of our body which is Christs Church they are in continuall care for us because S. Paul saith that the members should have the same care one for another What is their care in action it can be nothing but prayer for us because they themselves are past danger therefore all their desires are for us And this is represented after some manner by Gods ordinance towards the holy nation in getting the earthly Canaan for God would not give to the two tribes and half the land of Gilead but upon condition that they should aid the rest of their brethren and go armed with them into Canaan untill they were in as quiet possession as themselves Now if the Saints in heaven after their manner aid us with their prayers shall we be so base-minded as not to pray with them O ingratitude neither fit for heaven nor earth The Church our mother hath ordained holy-dayes to God for them to acknowledge their pains and labours which they took for Gods glory and our good before they went from us then let us upon these dayes blesse and praise God for them These dayes are the Saints obsequies their feast dayes their dayes of triumph O let us rejoyce with them let us reverence their memories let us imitate their vertues let there be a holy necessitude between them and us let us not be strangers We are all of the holy bloud and the bloud-royall we are all of Christs body therefore let us joyn together that God may be served of us the stronger In Cathedrall and Collegiate churches they serve God every day in the week this is the continuall burnt-offering commanded Exod. 29. In our countrey-churches we are commanded to serve God so too specially adding every Wednesday and every Friday the holy Letanie on Wednesday in memoriall of our Lords arraignment and on Friday in remembrance of his precious death And although in our particular churches we have not the people to attend the continuall burnt-offering in regard of secular businesse yet the priest is to do it and for the people This serveth to teach us that though we be not alwayes in the Temple as Anna was yet the Altar of our hearts should never be cold towards God nor the fire of his love at any time go out but alwaies burn in prayer and meditation and holy desires as God gave in charge by the figure Levit. 6. 12. The fire shall ever burn upon the Altar and never go out And according to this in the new law S. Paul saith Pray continually or without ceasing that is to say upon all occasions offered and again Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit In the old law were two principall sacrifices Juge
veniunt qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lectores habeat judicio graves Non praejudicii quos malesana mens Raptos turbine latura per invias Ignotas aliis sibi sit vias Non hîc quae metuat saxa Capharea Erroris scopuli per mare turbidum Incertis animi fluctibus appetens Coelestem trepidus navita patriam Hîc sincera Patrum dogmata veritas Non fucata suis nuda coloribus Hîc Templi decor hîc unica numine Summo relligio digna per improbam Gentis sacrilegae saepius ô scelus Subnervata fidem Non neglecta Fides spreta Scientia Spes calcata trias nobilis inclyta Quin hîc ut decuit regia Charitas Primas obtinuit Caetera non loquar Quae fundata sacris omnia literis Sustentata Patrum munific â manu Felici liber hic praebeat alite Rich. Watson Caio-Gon Ad eos qui Authorem pro novatore sunt habituri NOn nova fert veterum satur at provectior annis Scit veterum facies queis fuit esse nova Idem De conjunctione amoris fidei in Tractatu de charitate piè vindicata QUae bis quina fuêre priùs praecepta feruntur Ad duo lex jubet haec haec facit unus amor Quin ergò quid summa fides cluet una triumphat Servit amor fidei nec comes esse queat Justificat beat una fides facit omnia quid non Credam ego factura haec si siet una fides At fidei nisi juncta foret dilectio fallor Aut haec vana foret si foret ulla fides Quae dum dissociant alii Shelforde beato En tuus in patriam foedere junxit amor In patriam dixi felix Ecclesia nexu Hoc quae per duo sic juncta fit una simul Idem ¶ To the Authour concerning his learned and pious Treatise of Gods house RIch soul and blest for so I dare go on To voice that man whose life 's religion Who fears not to be good gives God his due In this our age and in the Temple too Who scorns these lothsome times and dares learn us To be lesse bold lesse superstitious Not to make God a man joyn heav'n with earth Use him familiarly who gave us birth Nor man a God by following praising such Who neither pray nor preach yet teach they much Lord when I view our Temples which now be Ruin'd by time beauties worst enemie Or rather by neglect crumbling to dust Can I perswade my self or may I trust Those ancient Fathers those pure Saints should then Fables or fruitlesse stories write ev'n when They praise yea blesse their founders and condemne Their puft up Catharists those chair-preaching men Can I conceive S. Pauls expression weak Not like himself when thus I heare him speak Ye are Gods Temples Did th' Apostle mean Our clay-like houses should be kept unclean All cobwebd o're with vices that a lust Should there inhabit and that it should rust The Berill Jasper Amethyst those three Celestiall graces Faith Hope Charitie Or when the Priest the soul must sacrifice A comely Altar should he then despise A pure well furnisht heart must not the place Be hung with well knit vertues where blest grace Resides Yes sure and he whoe're hath done The contrary dilapidation Of that Temple shall to his charge be laid Because his body Gods house thus decayd Now as these walking churches must be drest And purg'd from filth by all as well as Priest So must the other that 's Gods Temple too Though made with hands which carelesly if thou Profane demolish or perhaps abridge That of its honour 't is proud sacriledge Reader no more That God may have his due Turn o're this book and it will teach thee how E. Gower Coll. Jesu Soc. Raptim De hoc opere verè Orthodoxo in Novatores DOgmata qui fingunt novitatis rara supremae Quà m facili applausu nullóque examine cudunt Quin si fortè Patrum sancita ad prela propinquant Dente Theonino lacerant probrisque lacessunt Rodere sic solitus maledictis Zoile castum Relligionis opus calcans mysteria coeli Antiquanda doces veterum monumenta cremanda Tu Shelforde tuum noli curare libellum Novimus hoc omnes te posse problemata sacra Edere non virus malesanae effundere linguae Hinc mea si tantum possint mandata valere I liber invidiâ major victórque triumpha Intimi amoris ergô exoptat R. LONDON A SERMON Shevving How we ought to behave our selves in Gods house PSALME 93. 6. Holinesse becometh thy house O LORD for ever OUt of this Text I must undertake three great tasks The first to shew what Gods house is because this is the subject of my Text. The second to shew what God is because he is the owner of it The third to shew what is that holinesse and behaviour which becometh this house and the owner For the first I must follow holy Scripture in describing of it Gods house began with an Altar as all creatures arise from small seeds built in the place where God appeared to Abraham the father of the faithfull Gen. 12. 7. And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said Unto thy seed will I give this land and there builded he an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him In the eighth verse following it is said that he built another and called upon the name of the Lord. With this consent were our churches built where God appeareth to us by his word read and preached Secondly by the Sacrament of the Altar as it is called by the fathers and styled so in our own statute laws in which the sacrifice of our Lord Christ is remembred and represented unto his Father Thirdly by promise of salvation and the kingdome of heaven And lastly by prayer in which God is called on according to that of Isaiah 56. 7. My house shall be called the house of prayer From hence appeareth that the Altar is the principall part of Gods house as being the cause and originall of all the rest Secondly Gods house is described in Gen. 28. by a stone of which in the plurall number an house is made and by a ladder whose top reached up to heaven as Jacob upon the stone dreamed the angels went up and down by it and from thence the Lord spake to Jacob and when Jacob awoke he said This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven From whence we are taught that seeing Gods house is both Scala coeli and Janua coeli The ladder of heaven and the gate of heaven and that the angels use it therefore we also should use and respect it as the ordinarie and beaten way to that blessed place Thirdly as Gods house is here described by a dream so in Exod. 3. it is described by a vision the second mean of Gods appearing to the holy nation according to that of Joel Your old
not these texts But they are not delivered out of the pulpit If the pulpit make a sermon then where dost thou reade that Christ and his Apostles at any time made sermons Didst thou ever reade of a pulpit in the scripture But tell me thou man all for sermons what is a sermon is it not a speech of God and heavenly things and then is not the divine service this But thou wilt shift out further and say This is not after the manner of our preachers who make divisions answer objections lay open the scope of the text and amplifie it by divers theses and uses to the purpose Then what sayest thou to the Churchsermons which for the more honour from the Greek tongue are called Homilies are not these framed just after the manner of your preachers I but thou wilt say These are dead sermons because they are onely read in which reading there is little or no life Then why hath the Church made them why hath the Church commanded them to be read would the Church have mens souls to be fed with dead things But tell me what difference is there between a sermon read the same sermon spoken by memorie and by heart there is the same pronunciation the same sense the same invention But I will prove to thee out of Gods word if thou wilt beleeve Gods word that the very reading of it is preaching and not onely preaching but lively and working preaching working upon mens souls to grace and goodnesse And that Gods word read unto us is preaching you shall finde it expressed in Acts 15. 21. where it is thus written For Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him seeing he is read in the synagogues every sabbath-day Where the reason why Moses that is to say the Law of Moses was preached every sabbath to the Jews is rendred to be this Because it was every sabbath-day read unto them Next that this reading is no dead preaching but lively and working see 2. Kings 22. 10 11 and 19 verses There you shall finde that the bare reading of the Law by Shaphan the Chancellour did so work upon good king Josiah that he rent his clothes and wept and his heart melted before the Lord. Secondly the bare reading of the roll from Jeremies mouth caused the people to fast and pray and fear and to return from their evil way as you may reade in Jeremie 36. Thirdly the bare reading of Baruchs book made the governour the kings sonne and all the people to weep fast and pray and fear and to return from their evil way as you may reade in the first chapter of that book Whose preaching can work better effects Fourthly by Gods word written and read faith is procured as you may reade in John 20. 31. These things are written that ye may beleeve that Jesus is that Christ the Sonne of God and that in beleeving ye might have life through his name If men may have life eternall by reading holy writingâ— then what wretches are they which seek to discredit this Again this is proved from Christs command in John 5. 39. Search the scriptures that is to say Study them by your reading for they are they which testifie of me From all which I conclude that they which deny reading of the scriptures to be a lively and effectuall kinde of preaching and disable it from begetting faith and other spirituall vertues make Jeremiah a false prophet Baruch a false historian the second book of Kings false scripture John a false apostle and our Saviour a false Christ for all these affirm it Further if there be no life in reading then what is in the Psalmes which are sung in the church to Gods praise for they are not preached is there no edifying in them neither then why doth the Apostle say Coloss. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing your own selves in psalmes and hymnes and spirituall songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord But to come nearer to thee when our commissioners of justice under the King send their warrants to our cities and villages and they are read to thee by our under-officers dost thou not understand them dost thou not prepare thy self to perform them Now canst thou understand beleeve the warrants of men when they are read to thee and canst thou not understand and beleeve the warrants of Almighty God when they are read by his Ministers Cannot God as significantly expresse himself unto thee as a Lieutenant a Justice or a chief Constable If thou takest exception at Gods greatnesse and his high style know thou that he spake to men And though he once wrote his law with his own finger and spake it with his own mouth yet ever since he hath spoken all his divine precepts and written all his divine warrants by such men as we our selves are and used too our own words and dialects If thou objectest the deep revelations of S. John or the hard things of S. Paul then I will tell thee of our Church-tenet against Papist and Puritane that all things necessarie to salvation are so plainly written and so easie of digestion that as Fulgentius writeth there is abundantly both for men to eat and for children to suck Then whosoever thou art if thou canst not here be satisfied the fault is thy own For as the children of Israel loathed the heavenly bread of manna so thou loathâ—st the divine food of the soul because it is as common to thee as manna was to them As our horse and kine in the Spring having tasted of the fresh grasse will eat no more hay so our Puritanes after the taste of fresh sermons will touch no more the common service but blow upon it though there be the root and substance of all their sermons Such dainty and queasie stomacks were in S. Chrysostomes time who was the most famous preacher of the Greek Church His words are these in his third homilie upon the 2. Thess. where he brings in the Puritane thus speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore do I enter the church except I may heare one preaching then he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This hath marred and corrupted all And afterward answereth the Puritane in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What need is there of a preacher by our negligence this necessitie is made Then he sheweth the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what need is there of preaching all things are cleare and plain in the scriptures all things necessary are manifest but because you are delicate hearers hunting after pleasure in your hearing therefore ye seek these things Where you understand from this famous and judicious preacher that the besotted negligence of our delicate Puritanes is that which makes them to runne so after sermons God speaks unto thee every holy day by his own word wilt not thou understand him or canst thou not understand him If thou saist thou canst not then thou makest God but a
ex ignorantia non ex rata malitia not directly but indirectly of ignorance and not of confirmed malice In which case they travelled along with the blessed Apostle before his conversion he saying of himself I was a blasphemer and a persecuter and an oppressour but I obtained mercie because I did it ignorantly in unbelief The Doctors reasons against the Pope in that he acknowledgeth other Kings Priests and Prophets beside Christ and other means in the mysterie of mans salvation besides Christs merits are not worth the answering because these officers and means are instituted and commanded by Christ himself the officers for agencie under him and the means for application of his merits and conformitie to his life without which Christs merits can profit nothing But laying aside this wringing of scripture in denying Christ we must understand it of the direct and absolute denying of him in words because he cannot be a full opposite and Antichrist such an one as S. Paul describeth shewing himself that he is God and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped but he must denie extinguish and disable Christ as openly and as publickly as he can that he may be taken for Christ in Christs room And to effect this insinuations half speeches and oblique inferences will not serve the turn We blinde judges children in our non-age take upon us to judge before our time and who do not say as we say though they do better then we do yet we condemne them as Antichristian which is as much as Anathema Maran-atha the greatest of all censures And wherefore judge we so eagerly For holding of errours And are any without them The Prophet David saith Who can understand his errours cleanse thou me from secret faults Some errours we may bear with because they distermine not from the head no more then a wound or maladie extinguisheth the life of the bodie Again errours of ignorance and not of affected malice commonly finde mercie as S. Paul sheweth I was a blasphemer a persecuter and an oppressour but I was received to mercie for I did it ignorantly in unbelief Thus charitie teacheth me to judge errours of Christians are errours of ignorance and not of intention or affected malice For I beleeve that wittingly and willingly neither Papist Protestant nor Lutheran would wrong their Head Christ whom they daily professe and therefore let us brethren pray for one another and help one another and not envie and hurt one another Fourthly to return again to argument None is to be held for the great Antichrist before the Church which onely hath power to determine of hereticks and to judge malefactours hath declared him so to be But the Church hitherto hath neither declared the Pope nor any other to be the great Antichrist Therefore as yet he is to come The major is proved first from Christs precept Matth. 18. 17. Dic Ecclesiae Tell it to the Church From whence it followeth that if the Pope or any other have carried themselves so badly that they have deserved to be denounced that man of sinne we should appeal to the Church and require her definition and not intrude our selves into publick magistracie which is the ruine of States Secondly this is proved from the institution of Synods and the Apostles practise Act. 15. 6. Then the Apostles and Elders came together to look to this matter Though Paul and Barnabas being Apostles had of themselves power to determine the question then raised yet they yeelded to go to the Synod the Church assembled for example sake to teach us what we ought to do in like cases Thirdly Moses Deut. 1. 17. saith Judicium Dei est The judgement is Gods With this consent the words of our Saviour concerning Synods Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Again Acts 15. 28. it is said It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But no private men though they be never so many have this authoritie of judgement therefore this is well forbidden in the ancient verses Est verum vitae doctrinae justitieque Primum semper habe duo propter scandala linque There is a truth of life doctrine and justice have thou the first two leave as scandalous Fourthly in all difficult points the law commandeth us to go to the Senate of Priests and to the Judge for resolution Deut. 17. 8 9. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement c. thou shalt come unto the Priests of the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those dayes and ask and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgement But to define of Antichrist is a difficult point and therefore King James in his book of Antichrist would not urge it pag. 51. As for the definition of Antichrist I will not urge so obscure a point as a matter of faith to be necessarily beleeved of all Christians The minor is manifestly true because no universall Synod can be found to bring forth such a definition and it is fit that such an universall enemie should have an universal sentence neither is there any such declaration to be found in the harmonie of the reformed Churches printed at Geneva in the yeare 1581. From whence I conclude that forsomuch as the Church hath not yet detected and determined the Antichrist therefore as yet he is to come And were there no other argument to free the Pope from being the Antichrist among the Fathers this is sufficient for that he maintaineth images For so jealous is Antichrist of his usurped deitie that he cannot secure himself of it so long as he sees them set up Therefore Irenaeus saith of him Idola quidem seponet c. He shall put away idols to perswade that he is God but he shall extoll himself the onely Idol And Hippolytus saith Antichristus idololatriam non admittet Antichrist will not admit idolatrie And Cyrillus hath Idola odio habebit Antichristus Antichrist shall hate idols I am not of minde that all images are idols but onely when they are worshipped for Gods This is manifest first from the word Idololatria which signifieth the worshipping of idols with divine worship which in Greek as it is used of Divines is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again this is shewed from the distich Qui sacros facit ex auro vel marmore vultus Non facit ille Deos qui colit ille facit Otherwise our Geneva bible should maintain idolatrie in picturing Ezekiels vision of God in the form of an old man Yet such is Antichrists jealousie that he will be afraid of every shadow Images statues idols all must down before him because he will admit no other God neither in substance nor in representation Antichrists warres Fourthly and lastly the great Antichrist is not yet come because the scriptures which speak of his troubles and foretell of his warres are not
the private faith or fancie rather by which men beleeve to be saved by themselves absolutely without condition or regard of the faith of the Church And this is that which is mother and nurse to vice and enemy to all good life And that this is not the catholick faith it shall appeare because that faith hath not a speciall object as a mans private self or Gods speciall favour to this or that particular man which is hopes object but a catholick object which is the whole first truth and every member of Gods word as the School teacheth This faith goeth but to the truth and esse of divine things according to that of the Apostle Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Faith gives them a subsisting and being in our minde and after this Hope layes hold of them in the will and affections and applies them to our selves and Charity goes into them Again the Apostle saith He that cometh to God must beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him not a rewarder of thee and me as if the Article of the faith were personall but of them that diligently seek him Here is the condition If thou and I seek him diligently then is he a rewarder of thee and me and not otherwise if the condition be kept the Article is just and the faith is stedfast Secondly if faith be to beleeve all the parts of Gods word then none can be absolutely sure of their salvation by faith because the threatnings against sinne which none are without do as much discourage us as the promises pull us on and the one must be beleeved as well as the other Thirdly whereas all hope of salvation depends upon the promises there is no promise but in one part of Gods word or other hath conditions tied to it as repentance after sinnes keeping of Gods law and perseverance to the end from whence it follows that none can be secure of the promises though he have all the faith in the world except he be sure of the conditions keeping of which none can be secure because no man is his own judge Fourthly if men might be saved by such a faith or by faith onely then prayer to God might sleep care of standing might stand by and good life which is the nearest bond of our conjunction with God might be forborn which God forbid Wherefore that we might preach the right way and you walk the right way we must joyn S. James justifying of works with S. Pauls justification by faith and then have we the two principalls of faith and good life observed by which the hope of our salvation is confirmed and strengthened and if you would have a breviary of good life it is to keep all the commandments of Gods law and the Canons of the Church as farre as we can it is to flie sinne to follow vertue to live justly to give to every one his own mercy to some and love and charity to all because Charity is the fulfilling of the law Thus much for Sermons fit for Gods house Where such cannot be had because such are not common there the distinct and sensible reading of the two lessons and the Churchhomilies with Sermons heard abroad sometimes upon occasions will supply this want and were these read as the Canon directeth aptly that is by just distinctions and by a sensible reader observing all the rules of reading with pronuntiation fit for the matter and with due attention of the hearer the profit and edifying would be much Thirdly and lastly to this office on the peoples part belongs attention and devotion without which the former office freezeth Attention is to separate our thoughts from all other things whatsoever and to give them onely to divine doctrine and service according to holy Ephrems counsel Cave nè aurum tuum aere vel plumbo misceas hoc est Nè animam improbis immundis cogitationibus contamines c. Take heed that thou mix not thy gold with brasse or lead that is Defile not thy soul with wicked or unclean thoughts For as a virgin espoused to an husband if she be deflowred by others becomes execrable unto him even so the soul distracted with filthy and immodest thoughts becomes abominable to Christ her heavenly bridegroom For these impure thoughts contaminate our attention which gives life to that we receive into us and devotion is the soul of that which goes out of us the one gives form to our hearing the other perfection to our praying Attention is commanded in Proverbs 5. 1. My sonne hearken unto my wisdome and encline thine eare unto my knowledge The enclining of the eare is attention without which Gods word goes in at the one eare and out at the other Attention is the souls concurrence with the eares and mouths organs What is the reason why Gods word read and the Church-service is to many so fruitlesse They attend it not they neither mark it nor respect it Wouldest thou have God to heare thee saith S. Chrysostome and thou hearest not thy self Had we a sermon preached by angels yet if we did not mark it what would it profit Gods service is common therefore it is not regarded The sunne shines daily is it therefore the worse every day we say the Lords prayer is it therefore the weaker No but Vis unita fortior Force united is stronger The sunne by its often beating upon the earth makes the greater heat so the oftener we beat upon Gods word and repeat the Church-prayers the more the Sonne of Gods light reflecteth upon us and the more heat of devotion is stirred up in us If God or the Church make a prayer for our use that is slighted but if men make an extemporarie prayer or frame a prayer of their own that is extolled For shame let us gather our wits together let us put a difference betwixt God and man and let us attend his stablished ordinance in his Church before the rolling wits of men So running is mans head that it will stay no where Should the best wits in the world make a new liturgie applauded of all yet would it not long be liked except it might roll as mens wits roll that is as continually to alter as the winde bloweth and the weather changeth People now are grown so cunning and proud in their learning that if the preacher speaks any thing which they distast they will fleere at it in the very house of God such come not to heare with attention but to sit judges on him they come to catch something from him as the Scribes and Pharisees came to take Christ in his doctrine This is contrary to sanctified attention and a vice to be shunned when thou comest to Gods house thou must not bring a chair with thee to sit down and judge but if thou canst not presently assent to all that thou
the prudent Now from this demonstration of the two beasts ariseth this argument That the Antichrist could not rise up under the first beast he was his onely let And because there are but two of these beasts therefore it is left that he must rise up under this last as Antiochus Antichrists figure rose out of one of the foure horns of the goat in the end of that kingdome Dan. 8. 23. Therefore in the sixteenth of the Apocalyps he is yoked with this beast and the dragon under the title of the false prophet where is said And I saw three unclean spirits come out of the mouth of that dragon and out of the mouth of that beast and out of the mouth of that false prophet to go unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battell of that great day of God Almighty By the Dragon is meant the Devil as S. John interpreteth by the Beast is understood the Turk which is the second and surviving beast because where the first beast ended there the second began therefore it remaineth that the false prophet in the last place should be the Antichrist that is that singular man whose name consisteth of these Greek letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whose coming as S. Paul saith shall be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders To these ends First to make the people to beleeve in him as the onely God the Turks as if their Mahomet were returned and the Jews as though their Messias were come And secondly as S. John testifieth to gather the world together to the battell of the great day of God Almightie which shall be at the worlds end Hence it is apparent that the second beast cannot be the Papacie as some have interpreted First because the Papacie rose up and to this day resideth where the first beast rose up that is out of the sea at Rome but the second beast as S. John sheweth rose out of the earth And secondly because the second beast and the false prophet conspire together but the Turk and the Pope are enemies one to another Thirdly because the blowing of the sixth trumpet and the pouring out of the sixth vial in Apoc. 9 and 16 as M. Fox and most interpreters do consent belong to the kingdome of Antichrist and is properly understood of the Turks dominions as appeareth from the circumstance of the river Euphrates where the foure angels were loosed to destroy the third part of men and the river dried up to prepare the way for Antichrists armie And if the Pope should be the second beast then we must make the Turk to be the third because he teareth more then the other and thus we should have one beast more then S. John saw So that now it lies between the Turk and the Pope who shall have the horns and let the wiser sort judge Lastly if the Pope should be the second beast or the Antichrist from him because all interpreters understand Antichrist to belong to the second beast as Doctor Whitakers writeth in his answer to Sanders then he must not arise at Rome which is the first beasts originall for that this is found contrary in Revel 13. and 11 verse being compared with the first verse But there remaineth a stumbling block to be removed which is the misapplying of the prophesie of the whore of Babylon in the 17 of the Revelation For all there understand the Whore to be Antichrist in regard of her cup full of abominations and fornications and the beast upon which she sitteth to be the citie of Rome or the governour thereof by a metonymie Verse 3. I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast full of names of blasphemie which had seven heads and ten horns These seven heads are by S. John expounded to be seven mountains in verse 9. Now it is confessed on both sides that this citie consisting of seven mountains is Rome and therefore the men which would have the Pope to be Antichrist affirm it because at this day the Pope sitteth on that seat I answer Though the Pope at this day sitteth on that citie which is called the beast because the first beast which was the devouring empire of ethnick Rome there resided yet the Pope shall not alwayes there sit except he sit beside his cushen because when the great Antichrist shall come toward the end of the world aided by the second beast which is the Mahometicall empire then shall the Pope be outed and the second beast and the Whore Antichrist shall come in where sitting by the space of three yeares and an half the Beast the Whore and the Citie for so I finde them conjoyned in this chapter as making but one bodie shall be drunken with the bloud of the saints and martyrs which they shall then shed in abundance and thus at last the second beast shall sit on the first beasts seat and so become as it were one beast as it is in the 8 verse of this 17 chapter where it is said When they shall behold the beast which was and is not and yet is The beast which was must of necessitie be understood of persecuting Rome in the time of the primitive Church That Rome at this day is not the beast is manifest because the Pope there now sheddeth no bloud Yet this first beast at this day is in his successour the second beast which is the Mahometicall empire doing all things that the first beast could as you may reade in the 13 chapter and 12 verse Thus the first beast shall be in his esse by the second beast and Antichrist the last of that wicked line in the end of the world and shall sit upon the seven-hilled Rome abounding with blasphemies spirituall fornications and bloud untill the moon be turned into bloud and the great and terrible day of the Lord be come And that Antichrist when he cometh shall sit at Rome I prove it first from S. Pauls testimonie saying that he shall sit as God in the temple of God Where by the temple of God we are not to understand the temple at Jerusalem as Bellarmine would have us for that was to cease with the old law and was long since demolished by Vespasian and Titus and when Julian the apostate would have built it again to increase the Jews and to lessen the Christians no sooner were the foundations laid but an earthquake cast them up again and fire from heaven consumed the tools of the workmen with the stones timber and other materials which is a signe that God will not have that temple to be built again But by the Temple we must understand the Temples of Christians which are our Churches because the Apostle wrote this to the Christians at Thessalonica and not to the Jews And thus Oecumenius interpreteth S. Paul saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He doth not say the Temple at
Jerusalem but the Churches of Christ. And according to this sense our Saviour Matth. 24. 15. speaking of Antichrists seat doth not say When ye see the abomination of desolation stand in the temple at Jerusalem but he saith stand in the holy place that is to say in the Church which is more holy then ever was the temple at Jerusalem by reason of the time of grace And this reason also evinceth For if Antichrist should not have his residence in the Church among Christians what opportunitie could he have to tread under foot the holy citie by the space of fourty two moneths and to compasse the tents of the saints about and the beloved citie which is the Church of Christ prophesied of in the 11 and 20 chapters of the Revelation Lastly to this cometh the prophesie of Sibylla speaking of Antichrist in the 8 book of Oracles and quoted by Jewel upon the 2 Thess. 2. where she hath these words The greatest terrour and furie of his empire and the greatest wo that he shall work shall be by the banks of Tybur And to this agree the Remenses saying Credibile omnino est Romae sessurum Antichristum It is altogether credible that Antichrist is to sit at Rome Secondly this is shewed from the Fathers S. Hierome quaest 11. ad Algas saith He shall sit in the temple of God either at Jerusalem as some think or in the Church as we more truely suppose S. Chrysostome upon 2. Thess. 2. He shall command himself to be worshipped for God and to be placed in the temple not onely at Jerusalem but also in the Churches S. Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 11. speaking of Antichrists persecution saith Haec erit novissima persecutio novissimo imminente judicio quam sancta Ecclesia toto terrarum orbe patietur universa scilicet civitas Christi ab universa diaboli civitate quantacunque erit utraque super terram This shall be the last persecution the last judgement hanging over our heads which the whole Church shall suffer in all the world that is to say the whole citie of Christ from the whole citie of the devil c. But to stop the mouth of these testimonies some perhaps may say that there is no Church at Rome To such will Calvin give answer in his fourth book of Inst. chap. 2. sect 12. Hinc igitur patet nos minimè negare quin sub ejus quoque tyrannide Ecclesiae maneant From hence it is plain that we denie not but that under his tyrannie the Churches may remain Likewise in the 11 section he hath Ut manebant olim inter Judaeos peculiares quaedam Ecclesiae praerogativae ità nec hodie Papistis adimimus quae superesse ex dissipatione vestigia Ecclesiae inter eos Dominus voluit As in time past among the Jews certain peculiar prerogatives remained so neither do we at this day take from the Papists the steps of the Church which the Lord would have to remain among them out of that dissipation Here again may some other ask why Antichrist may not as well make choice of some other Seas in Christendome as of Rome and namely among the reformed Churches I answer Of necessitie he must sit at Rome to fulfill the prophesie Revel 17. and because this was the seat of the first beast Reason also will runne with the prophesie for that conquerers will aim at the fairest as the Turk the second beast hath made choice of Constantinople as being the principall citie of the East Church The Papist and the Protestant strive about the seat of Antichrist the one would have it to be at Rome the other not In my judgement the Protestant sets the saddle on the right horse Wherefore if the Papist will be advised by me let him yeeld the horse and saddle too and save the rider Let him free the Pope amend his teaching especially whereby he shed so much Christian bloud and maintain peace and charitie with his brethren who dissent not from him in the main and let the devil and Antichrist take Rome when the time comes They had it at the first and they will have it again at the last sit the holy Father as sure as he can When the great deluge and overspreading shall come spoken of by Daniel and John then all shall down the Pope must stoup his Cardinals shall be off their hinges and his triple crown shall lie in the dust In the mean time God of his great goodnesse have mercie on us all Antichrists destruction Vers. 8. Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his coming In these words Antichrists destruction is prophesied to the great comfort of Christs little flock The overthrow is described to be given as it were by a double blow and a twofold weapon to shew the certaintie and inevitabilitie of it The Lord Christ shall utterly consume and destroy his enemie but how Spiritu oris sui with the spirit of his mouth that is as Carthusianus upon this place saith With his precept in commanding him to be killed by Michael the archangel or else in killing him by himself that is to say with his look or as Anselm hath it SPIRITU ORIS SUI id est invisibili virtute spiritûs sui c. WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH that is with the invisible vertue of his spirit which spirit is the holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne and is the power of the Godhead In short he shall destroy him not by the preaching of his Ministers as some would have it but because he is his personall opposite he shall destroy him in his own person by his divine power and command whose command is to do not in the multitude of an armie nor in the strength of souldiers nor in the aid of angels but as darknesse is banished by the sunnes presence so by the lustre of Christs coming by the look of his countenance and by the breath of his nostrils he shall destroy him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the brightnes of his presence when he shall say Ite maledicti in ignem aeternum Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Whether Antichrist be yet come I answer No because the scripture testifieth that he shall come in the end of the world for when he is come and hath reigned his three yeares and an half as is before declared then our text saith that Christ shall come to consume him with the spirit of his mouth and to destroy him with the brightnesse of his coming Some understand this of Christs spirit in his preachers by created graces but this cannot be good because the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth by the appearing of his substantiall or personall presence Secondly because the preachers of that time shall not kill Antichrist but be killed as appeareth in the prophesie of the two witnesses Revel 11. 3