Noble Ancestors in Nobleness that is in Piety and Vertue the very Heathens will tell us our springing from them is worth nothing but rather a shame then a credit unto us because as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is the great Glory which never perisheth and therefore Juvenal saith as I have shewed to you before in my first Treatise Malo pater tibi sit Thyrsites Juven Sat. 8. dum modo tu sis Aeà cidae similis vulcaniaque arma capessas Quam te Thyrsitae similem producat Achilles I commend the son of a Clown that is vertuous and carrieth himself nobly more then the son of a Prince that is vitious and behave himself like a Clown And Codrus Urceolus saith Sis licet ingenuis clarisque parentibus ortus Urceolus in Epigrammatibus Sint tibi divitiae sit larga munda supellex Denique quicquid eris nisi sit prudentia tecum Magna quidem dico bestia semper eris Though thou beest born of never so noble Parents and hast never so much Wealth and Lands and what thou wilt and hast no Wisdome nor understanding to be vertuous thou art but a very beast for so the Prophet saith Man being in honour and without understanding is campared to the beasts that perish and the Poet saith Ovid de Ponto Nam genus proavos quae non ferimus ipsi vix ea nostra voco Hieron ad Celan Non Census nec clarum nomen avorum Sed probitas magnos ingeniumque facit And therefore S. Hierom tells Celantia that Sola apud Deum libertas est non servire peccatis summa apud deum nobilitas est clarum esse virtutibus he is the onely Free-man that serves not sin and followeth not his own lust and he is the true Noble-man that is truly vertuous and godly And Palingenus saith Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus hac nobilis Hector Alcidesque fuit And the Prophet saith He had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God that is to be a Porter and to have the meanest office that is in the Service of God then to have the greatest honour in the world in the Courts and palaces of the ungodly and the meanest man that serveth God is more honourable then the greatest Potentate that serveth his own lust for as Abraham is said to be Pater sanctorum the Father of the faithfull though he was Filius peccatorum the off-spring of sinners and the son of Terah that was an Idolater because his Fathers Idolatry was not able to obscure his Glory so all the Indignities and Contempts that this world can cast upon the servants of God can no wayes blemish their worth or diminish their reputation in the sight of God To serve God truly is to be truly noble And therefore I had rather be a sheeep of Christ that is a simple Christian that deceiveâ—h no man and hurreth none but suffereth much than to be a Fox of this world to beguile the simple or a Lion to crush my neighbours all to pieces for so I be with John Baptist Magnus coram Domino great in the sight of the Lord that is of good esteem with God as he is said to be I shall never greatly care how meanly I shall be accounted of in this world but as Constantine rejoyced more in that he was Filius Ecclesiae a Son of the Church and a Member of Christ then in being Caput imperii the Emperour of the whole world so I will be more glad and take it for a greater Honour to be one of Christs simple sheep of what condition soever my Earthly Father be then to be the Son of the Noblest Father in the world and to be as the Jews were and all other our wicked ungodly and unrighteous men though termed Saints are the children of their Father the Devil 2. 2 The security and safety of all good Christians As the servants of God are truly noble in being Christ his Sheep so being his sheep they are and may be secure and free from all fear either 1. Of Injuries or 2. Of Wants For 1. 1 From wrongs the Prophet David saith The Lord is on my side therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me for though the Idol sheperd whereof Zechary speaketh and I told you before of his ill properties Zech. 11. and the Hiveling shepherd that our Saviour speaketh of Qui lanas plus quam oves diligunt which love the Wages better then the Work and the Fleeces better then the Flock will flie away that is from his Duty and do any thing that is enjoyned him when the Wolf cometh that is when the Devil or the Tyrant or the Heretick commandeth any other Service to be observed or any other Faith to be professed yet Christ that is the good Shepherd as he neither left his sheep nor forsook them but gaue his life for them to deliver them from eternal death What the false shepherds and covetous of timorous Preachers do so he will strengthen his Under-shepherds and their sheep that are his sheep likewise by his Grace against all fear either of want of Necessaries or loss of Life so that none of these shall make them flie away from the performance of their Duties because they know that this their good Shepherd is both able and willing to protect them from all evil And therefore Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruat ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet let Tyrants threaten us and let the world rage against us as much as they will 1 Tyrants cannot prevail and let them do as much as they can take away our Churches rob us of our Estates banish us from our dwellings cast us into prison and deprive us of our lives yet if we still continue Christ his sheep and retain the innocency and simplicity of sheep and obey the voice of this our good Shepherd we need not fear the face of any man nor the rage strength and malice of any Wolfe but we may comfort our selves sufficiently with what the Angel saith unto the Church of Smyrna Revel 2.10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer but be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and so turn the evils that thine enemies shall do thee to thine eternal good And the striving of the Hereticks to corrupt the Faith 2 Hereticks cannot prevail and to suppress Gods service and the strugling of the Wolves to devoure the Sheep and to destroy Gods servants is but as Christ saith to Saul when he breathed slaughters against the Church to kick against the pricks or as the Poet saith Coelum ipsum petere stulstitia most foolishly and madly to fight against Heaven it solf which is a harder task then the twelve Labours of Hercules or to take the City of Troy that endured ten years siege
and made a simple conversion of White to Black and of Good to Evil. For As I shall answer for what I say at the Dreadfull day of Judgment I do here profess that in all mine Observation of what I saw and what I heard of the Lords and Gentlemen of His Court in so many years as they know I lived therein which was ever since King James died till the Wars began I knew neither Lord nor Knight nor Gentleman nor any other man whatsoever neither have I read in any Historie Greek or Latine of any Emperour or King I will not except Constantine nor Theodosius nor St. Edward of Ingland that was a juster King a wiser Governour and a better man then King Charles that was so Pious in his Devotions so just and upright in all His Actions so sweet in His Disposition so loving to His Friends so mild to His Servants so ready to forgive His Enemies and so free from all revenge for His greatest wrongs that when His own Subjects and Servants so Undutifully and Maliciously Rebelled and Warred against Him and bespotted His Innocent Conversation and pure Life with most false and venomous Aspersions I heard him say I thank God I can freely forgive all my Enemies and I pray God that God would forgive them and I dare boldly affirm it and can justifie it that He was as good a Protestant if not the best Protestant in all the Christian World and I am sure the best Protestant King or Prince that ever England saw who when I came unto Him immediately after Edg-Hill-fight and said that whatsoever otherwise we wanted in our Abilities yet our Prayers should never be wanting to beseech the Almighty God night and day to bless Him and to protect Him from all His Adversaries He answered that He thanked us for our Prayers and desired us to continue our Prayers still as He hoped we would do for Him because He suffered all this War and whatsoever else should betide Him for our sake and for the defence of the true Protestant Religion as it was Established in the Church of England and for the preservation of the known Laws of these Kingdoms and all the while I lived in His Court I never saw the man Clergy or Laity that shewed himself so punctually professing the Protestant Religion and so zealously and regularly observing the true service of God as His gracious Majestie What other Character I should give to this most excellent Prince for a loving faithfull Husband to His Queen and for a dear indulgent Father to all His Children His goodness therein is very very far beyond my ability of Expression as it is indeed in all the other particulars so that the praise and Eulogie which Homer gave to Achilles and Ulysses Virgil to Aenaeas Xenophon to his Cyrus Eusebius to Constantine and Osorius to Emmanuel King of Portugal I may truly ascribe to Him or rather what the Prophet Jeremy and the Son of Sirach saith of the good King Josias or the Scripture of King David that he was a man according to God's own heart so I hope and believe that I may say with out mistake without offence that King Charles the First was a man according to God's own heart and though as Christ non dimidiavit dies suos so God did soon bring this good King to His death that He might be soon delivered from the contradictions of Sinners and soon brought to enjoy the glorious Crown of Eternal life yet was He most blessed both in His life and death as hereafter I shall more fully shew unto you And therefore I had rather say no more then to say too too little as I shall when I say my best of this most gracious and now most glorious King Charles the First And though he was so good so gracious and so pious a King yet this good gracious and incomparably pious Protestant King the gentlest meekest and of the sweetest disposition of all the men I ever saw was as you well know most rebelliously Warred against most Judas-like sold most treacherously betrayed and most maliciously Barbarously and for the spiteful mischeivous manner thereof most Jewishly and unexpressably Murthered and many more Noble-men and Gentle-men Clergy and Laity Murthered in like manner onely for His sake and for the truth of their Loyalty unto Him and their Fidelity unto God as I have Mystically and yet fully shewed in my Book of The great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Treatises following And can any thing so fowly defile the Land and so highly provoke the Wrath and Indignation of God against his people as the shedding of so much Innocent Blood or shall we think that the just God will rest satisfied and contented to have his Wrath appeased especially if we consider what he saith to the three sons of Noah Gen. ix 5 6. and of the Bloody sins of Manasses 2 King xxiv 4. and to Ahab for letting Benhadad to escape 1 King xx 42. when he seeth the pretious Blood of so Good so Gracious and so Pious a King His own Vicegerent and the Blood of so many faithfull Christians Noble-men Gentle-men and other loyal Subjects that have lost their lives for their constancie in professing the true service of God the right Faith of Christ and their duty and loyalty to their true and lawfull King left unexpiated and according to the Law of justice unrevenged and unpunished The truth of God saith Not so therefore His now gracious Majestie lest His filiall affection of so good and so loving a Father and His anger and indignation against such monstrous Murtherers might seem to transport Him with Passion to be over-partial too rigid and too severe in His censure against these Murderers did most wisely religiously and Christian-like transmit the Judgment and Punishment of these transcendent Malefactours to his Parliament who as he knew had infinitely suffered most unspeakable Detriment and Dammage as well though not near the like nor so much as himself in the loss of their so good a King And the late Parliament that was The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland by the Authority of our Parliament and you may compute what Number of Arithmetical Letters this name contained and had very many of the King's Enemies in it and therefore likely not to do all things so well as they should do yet hath it most gallantly religiously and justly sentenced many of them to death and the just God without Question doth most propitiously accept and approve of all those their doings which are just according to his own Precepts But though herein they have done very well yet do you think that they have done sufficiently well I will not presume to teach them that in State Affairs are better able to be my Teachers then I to advise their Wisdoms what they ought to have done yet as I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must humbly crave leave to set down what I conceive to be the just Will of God
because they sought to preserve them from ruine so were this people mad against Jeromy and cast him into the dungeâ—n and adjudged him to be put to death because he sought to stop them in their Pegâ—sine race unto their own destruction And therefore seeing they were so impatient to be reproved and so violent against them that sought their preservation there was no means used to prevent and hinder their evil deeds and the progress of their transgressions for as our Prophet sheweth 1 Their Prophets and Preachers flattered them 1 Their Preachers were flatterers and reproved not their wicked waies but they sowed pillows under their elbows so strengthened them in their wickedness And those other Prophets that did not flatter them yet were they silent for fear of them following the counsell of the Poet Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori Difficiles aditus impetus omnis habet To give place unto their fury to prevent their own calamity Which notwithstanding was but to escape the smoak and fall into the fire but to avoid mans anger by not reproving them and to be liable to Gods wrath for not reproving them 2. 2 Their judges were corrupt The Judges and Magistrates did not execute the laws against them for though the Lord commandeth them to execute true judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother Zech. 7.9 and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless nor the stranger nor the poor yet as our Prophet testisieth Jer. 5 28. they judged not the cause of the fatherless and the right of the needy did they not judg and the Prophet Esay saith Their Princes were rebellious and companions of theeves every one loved gifts and followed after rewards and judged not the fatherless neither did the cause of the widow come unto them Ezay 1.23 but they suffered oppressions robberies and murders to go unpunished and so the Laws lay as dead because the execution of the law is the life of the law and I fear not I care not to be condemned by the Law so I be freed by the Judg and saved from the Execution of the Law And this twofold remisseness and double error of the Magistrates and Minislers did exceedingly multiply the sins of the people and as highly provoke the wrath of God The sin of one man doth often bring a plague upon many not only against the offendors but also against the whole Nation and especially against those that were so slack in the punishing of these offences and performance of their duties For if you search the Scriptures you shall find that the sin of one man which is left unpunished brings a plague upon many and the execution of justice upon a transgressor doth avert Gods judgment from a multitude As when Achan sinned Josh 7.21 1 Chr. 2.7 Numb 25.8 all Israel was troubled and he was called the troubler of Israel who transgressed in the thing accursed And when Zimri and Cozbi offended the whole people suffered so that twenty four thousand of them died but when that Phineas executed judgment then the plague ceased Psal 106.11 saith the Text and when Achan suffered the wrath of God was pacified And therefore Moses very often Numb 35.31 and in many places exhorteth the children of Israel that whensoever any man committed Idolatry or Murder or Sodomy or any other haynous crime Deut. 17.12 they should take no satisfaction for his offence but the transgressor should be put to death The not punishing of transgressors incourageth others to transgreâ—s their eye should not spare him neither should they have pity upon him so should they turn away evil from Israel For it is most certain as the wise man saith that because sentence or judgment against an evil work is not speedily executed but deferred though not pardoned yet the heart of the children of men is altogether or fully set in them to do evill and it is the greatest incouragement that can be for wicked men to proceed on in their wickedness Eccl. 8.12 to see other wicked persons pardoned and not punished And I pray God the judgments of God as sicknesses death wars and the like may not proceed on us for our not proceeding to the execution of justice against Prophane oppressors the Kings murderers and other like wicked offendors the murderers of the Kings Loyall subjects For we know how Saul spared Agag that was destined by God for his wickedness to be put to death and how for sparing him he lost both his life and his Kingdom and had all his posterity rooted out and we know how the Israelits spared the Canaanits whom God commanded to be slain and how for sparing them they became thorns in their eyes and briars unto their sides And I beseech you to consider what the Prophet saith unto Ahab Thus saith the Lord because thou hast let go out of thy hand and so pardoned a man whom I appointed to utter destruction that is to death therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people 1 King 20.42 So hatefull it is to God that we should pardon such transgressors as he will not pardon And it is no wonder that God should thus deal with them that thus spare the transgressors for as he Qui non prohibet peccare cum possit jubet which doth not hinder a man to sin when he can hinder him spurres him on to sin saith Seneca so Qui justificat impium he that justifieth the wicked and spareth a transgressor whom he ought and can punish is partaker of his transgression and is as abominable before God as he is Prov. 17.15 that condemneth the innocent saith Solomon And these are the two chiefest sorts of evil The two things that God chiefly hateth in the doings of men towards other men that the Lord hateth in the doings of men towards men that is 1. To oppress condemn and wrong the good and godly men 2. To promote justify and free the wicked men and suffer them to flourish notwithstanding all their bloody sins and transgressions And against these evils we the Preachers of Gods Word are injoyned still to denounce the judgments of God and if we tell not the people of their faults and reprove them not for these doings they shall die in their sins and their blood shall be required at our hands as the Lord saith unto his Prophet And therefore as S. Clement saith Nos quod vobis expedire novimus Clement recognit l. 1. tacere non possumus We cannot but we must tell the people of their doings and the more abominable we see their doings the more bound are we to cry aloud and spare not to cry against their wickedness And so much for the doings of this people 2. In the doome and due desert of this people for their doings 2 The doome and judgment of this people for their wickedness you may
herein and that is that all and every one that had any hand or finger in that good King's Death or in the death of any of those His good Subjects that were unjustly and illegally sentenced to death I do not speak of them that were killed in the War because as the Poet Lucan saith Pharsal lib. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni And as the Prophet David saith The Sword devoureth the one as well as the other but of those that in cold blood by usu ping Judges under the Colour of Law were contrary to the Laws both of God and of the Land most unjustly condemned unto death should for that their unjust Proceedings be justly questioned and legally tryed for their former Offence the same being of so high a Nature as I shewed to you before But you will say many of them as blinde Bartimaeus might easily see that acted very highly against the last King and as it is conceived had their hands deep in his death were as active as any others and most special Instruments to bring His now Sacred Majesty unto His Right whereby they have fully expiated their foul offence and deserve rather to be well rewarded and honoured as some say they are then any ways questioned as their Adversaries would have them to be I answer that His Majesty is wise as the Angel of God and knoweth best what he should best do and the Policy of State is far beyond the Sphere of mine Intelligence and their doings therein ought highly to be commended and deserve not meanly to be rewarded though as Will. Sommers told King Henry the Eight that such a Gentleman threatned to kill him and the King answered that if he killed him he would have him hanged for it Will. Sommers replied Nay good King let him be hanged before he kills me or else his death will not preserve my life and his hanging will do me no good so I heard some say that they would have had the Enemies of the last King first punished for their Rebellion and the Murder of Him and then rewarded for their good Service to His now gracious Majesty or else reward them well for their good Service done to our now gracious King and then question them and punish them answerable to their Deserts for their Disloyalty and Treachery to our late King as I read it in the Turkish History and in some other Historians of some very wise Kings that did so to the like Offenders because we may believe it for a truth that they which have proved false to their own true just and lawful Prince will scarce ever prove faithful to any Prince nor seem to be but either for hope still to reap the fruit of their Subtlety to turn when the Winde turns or for fear to be dash'd in Pieces if they turn not their Sayls to escape those Rocks which they cannot otherwise avoid and no thanks to such men for any good they do when they do it perforce and therefore should be trusted perchance And it may be many of the very Murderers both of the good King and of his loyal Subjects have robbed and spoyled not the Aegyptians of their Jewels but the Israelites their Brethren of their Goods Lands and Possessions which they have gotten into their own hands and thereby became exceeding rich and enabled themselves to match their Sons and their Daughters to great Families and to bestow large Gifts that do blind the eyes of the wise on others to make to themselves Friends of their unrig hteous Mammon to preserve them from ther just deserts and to pull down the Wrath and Vengeance of God on others for this their obstructing of the straight rule of Justice that teacheth us to do otherwise Or if it were not so many men do wonder how so many men as were conceived to have been active and most of them to have their hands embrued in the good King's Blood and were likewise guilty of the death of His innocent Subjects should escape uncensured and so few of them sentenced to expiate and appease the Wrath of God for such horrible unparallebd and transcendent Murthers for I knew eight persons executed at Dublin for the Murther of one ordinary Traveller and is it not strange that we see no more brought to their Trial for such a Sâ—aughter as was done upon our good King and His innocent Subjects so judicially and yet so illegally and altogether unjustly sentenced to death or shall we think that no more were guilty then were condemned or not rather that the guilty Murtherers by their Wealth Subtlety and Friends made many others guilty of God's anger and the pulling down of God's vengeance upon many more for their excusing covering and clearing such abominable Transgressours for I would have all men to consider duly how destructive Murther is to mankinde and how odious and hatefull it is to God above all other sins whatsoever especially when an innocent man is judicially and illegally Murthered as you may rightly finde the truth hereof fully proved in the fifth Chapter of the first Book of The Great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Sermons following And I would the Protectours of the King's Murtherers would rightly weigh what the people sayd to King David that His life was worth ten thousand of the lives of the common people and how the Lord punished the whole house and posterity of Saul and all the Kingdom of Israel until his wrath was satisfied for the innocent death of the Gibeonites that were but a poor contemptible people but killed without cause 2. Sam. xxi and especially that there be not any more but two sins that I can finde in the whole Book of God that the Lord saith cannot be pardoned and obliterated without their due punishment and they are 1. The high Abuse of God's Messengers and Publishers of his Will 2. The unjust shedding of innocent Blood For Of the First the Spirit of God saith that when the Lord God sent his Messengers unto the Children of Israel and they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets the wrath of the Lord arose against his People until there was no Remedy as if he had said For other sins of these Israelites some ways and remedies might have been found out as Moses and Aaron by their prayers and censers appeased the wrath of God to turn away the Punishment of them and David and Ezra did the like from the Jews but when they mocked his Messengers despised his Word and misused his Prophets which were the onely Sâ—â—ve or Medicine that could heal their sickned Souls when they refused and cast away these Remedies from them then there was no Remedy in the World for them to preserve them from their just deserved Punishment and therefore saith the Text The Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in thâ— House of their Sanctuary and had no Compassion
right when they do the greatest wrongs and do commit such horrid murders as to murder their own King 3. For the Judge our Saviour seemeth tacitly to yield 3 The Judge was corrupt that by the permission of God not his Commission Pilate through the power of the sword and according to the Laws of the Conquerors had power and authority granted unto him to be the Judge both of life and death but according to the Laws of the Romans that had then subdued the Jews and committed this power unto Pilate none were to be condemned to death except he were proved guilty of the Crimes that should be laid to his charge And this Judge ingenuously and openly confesseth that although like a good Judge herein he had examined the matter throughly John 18.38 and sifted him and his cause ad amussim to the uttermost yet he could find no fault in him worthy of death and therefore being desirous to free him whom he found so innocent by a fair excuse and to quit himself from pronouncing so unjust a sentence against a just man he advised his adversaries to take their King and to judge him according to their Law that is if they had any Law to crucifie their King that was so just and had offended no Law because the Romans thought such proceedings of Subjects against their King very strange and therefore had no such Law neither in their 12. Tables nor in any of the Acts and Decrees of their Senate whereby he might justly condemn him and justly answer it if he were questioned for it And herein also this Judge by this fine device shewed himself witty and his counsel honest as it aimed at a good end that is to free the party accused but afterwards becoming the Judge of Christ not by the Roman Law which as himself confessed gave him no authority to condemn any innocent person but by the importunity of the rebellious Subjects and malicious enemies against their King that thirsted after his blood he forgets his duty and contrary to his own conscience So was King Charles condemned to death to satisfie the Parliament and the people that still cryed Justice Justice Mar. 15 15. Luke 23.24 and contrary to the Roman Law and to all other Laws he doth most unjustly condemn that Just King to death And both the Evangelists S. Mark and S. Luke tell us He did it to content the people and to satisfie the High Priests and the Elders that had over-perswaded him to become his Judge and over-ruled him to adjudge him unto death And therefore the Charge laid against this King being unjust the witnesses being both false and disagreeing and his Judge thus corrupted and compelled and so as it were newly made by the clamor of the people condemning him contrary to the Roman Law which was then the Law of their Land to please the people it is apparent to all the World as I conceive that both the Judge and Witnesses and all the Complotters and Contrivers of this Kings death and all the whole Parliament and Council of the Jews that approved and rejoyced at his death yea and all the people that cryed to have him put to death are justly meant by S. Stephen and by him here rightly termed murderers because as I take it the Law saith that in murder there can be no accessary but all and every one that hath any hand in it are deemed principalls And how far murderers are to be pardoned I leave it to him that pardoneth all sins to be determined But if God will pardon murderers I wish he would not prefer them to places of Trust and Authority lest the Woolf lett-go still continue a Woolf to vex the Lambs And as it is said of the Devil Daemon languebat monachus tunc esse volebat Daemon convaluit mansit ut ante fuit 2. 2 Of whom these Tâ—â—ytors were murderers Having spoken of the style and denomination of these Persecutors of the Prophets that they were traytors and murderers we are now to confider of whom they were the traytors and murderers and the Martyr tells us it was of that Just One and I told you that we find him to be 1. 1 Of a King proved 1. By his Birth A King and so proved to be divers wayes as 1. At his birth when the Wise men that came from the East worshipped him as King while he was in his swadling clouts and they are by the constant course and order of the Church annually on the twelfth day after the day of his birth commemorated and commended for it 2. 2 By the ministration of his Office In the ministration of his kingly office when he entred Jerusalem as Kings use to do in a Royall and a pompous manner and his disciples and a great multitude of his followers did him obeysance and gave him royall honour as to their King by cutting down the boughs and spreading their garments under his feet and crying Blâ—ssed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord Luke 19.38 Matth. 21.15 and the childrens crying Hosanna as we use to do God save the King and when the chief Priests and Scribes were displeased at this acceptation of him for their King and bad him to rebuke his disciples for this attempt Christ told them plainly that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out that is to proclaim him King and to do him all Royal homage 3. 3 At his arraignment At his arraignment when he was to lay down his soul to be a ransome for our sins he avouched himself to be a King for Pilate demands the question Art thou a King and Pilate understood not any kingdome in this question but of a temporal kingdome when as in his conception to speak of a Spiritual King or kingdome was but a vain fancie and a meer Chimaera and therefore ad mentem interrogantis to satisfie the demand of Pilate Christ answereth without dissimulation aequivocation or mental reservavation Mark 15.2 that he was a King Matth. 27.11 or if he did not so he made no answer unto Pilate which as the Evangelist saith he did 4. 4 At his death At his death he had it written upon his Crosse who he was Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews so that when they took away his life they could not deprive him of his right unto his kingdome 5. 5 At his burial At his burial he had his grave sealed as a King 2. 2 â—hey were the murderers of their own King We find this just one whereof this Martyr speaketh to be not only a King but also the King of these Jews that murdered him for he was not a King of Egypt that oppressed them nor the king of Syria that sought to subdue them but their own King the King of the Jews for so the wise men testifie Where is he that is born king of the Jews And so Pilate the
gave life to man Joh. 19.10 Therefore when Pilate said to Christ that he had power to Crucify him and power to Release him our Saviour answereth directly Vers 11. that he could not have This power against him Except it were given him from above And so S. Paul plainly saith that This power of the Sword which is in the King Rom. 13.1 as Supream as S. Peter saith is from God and so this is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether you place it in the Jew or in the Gentile in the hand of a Godly Constantine or a Bloody Dioclesian but it is the Immediate Ordinance of God and can not issue or flow from man but from the Living God that is the Author and hath the Soveraign power both of Life and Death And therefore in the Restauration of the World after the flood God Almighty 1. Re-iterates the Blessing and favour which formerly he had bestowed upon Adam and Eve Gen. 9.1 in bidding them to Increase and Multiply and so to produce and continue the Life of man 2. He confirmeth that Former Soveraignty which he had granted unto Adam Vers 2. 3. over all the inferior creatures 3. He establisheth the Civil Government that was to be Observed amongst all the future Generations of Noah and therein as if he now called to mind the Murder of Innocent Abel to prevent the like he doth Explicitely and plainly challenge to himself the Power of punishing the shedding of mans blood to death Vers 5. saying Surely the blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man Where you see the Lord three times repeats I will require it and prefixeth the word Surely that you should not doubt it And lest any man should think that God meant to punish that sin Immediatly by his Own hand and not rather by his Substitute and Vice-roy the Lord addeth Vers 6. Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed again which is the right reading of the words fuller then the Vulgar Translation that saith no more but Quicunque effuderit sanguinem hominis fundetur sanguis illius and plainer then the Septuagint that saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Maxw pag. 50. as the Learned Arch-Bishop of Tuam sufficiently proveth And the words being Thus as our English Translation rightly hath them you see the Soveraignty of the punishing the Slayer of man is immediatly invested in Gods Deputy by God himself that is in Him whom God Appointeth to do it and in none other For I hope no man will conceive it so that Any man whatsoever is invested with This power to shed the blood of him that sheddeth mans blood because this would be such a Disorder and produce such confusion as that nothing could be more destructive and pernitious to humane kind and more repugnant to Gods Nature that is the God of Order as well as of justice And therefore as this Soveraign Power of Life and Death doth Principally and Properly belong to God so God Gives this power not to the Community to all nor to Every one that will or would have it but to some Particular Deputy whom he doth Immediately invest therewith to punish death with Death And as this Soveraign power over life which is the Head and chiefest part of Civil Government is Immediatly given by God unto his Deputy to be executed So all the Parts of Governments when as all are Homogenous that is In indivisibili posita things Indivisible in their nature such as can no more be distracted and severed then a Crown can be a Crown when any part thereof is taken away they must be in like manner granted to be Immediatly from God and not from Man 3. Were the Kingly office an Humane creature that is Sol. 3 of mans Ordinance yet the Person of the King is Gods creature and therefore were their false Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True yet could they not infer any more from thence then the dethroning of Him whom they had exalted and not the killing of Him whom God had created But Quo jure quâque injuriâ let others look and let him be whose Creature he will and his Kingly Office be from Whom you will of God or of men they are resolved to Kill him And yet they will as the Evangelist saith do it most Subtilly and seem to give him a Fair Triall that the Vulgar people which know no more then what is put into their heads and as the Centaures embraced a cloud for Juno so do they take Shadows for the Substance might believe he was Justly and legally condemned and not as he was indeed Maliciously murdered But Why will they Murder Him and draw his Innocent blood upon their wicked heads For they had Him in their Own hands He was their Prisoner and they could have Him and hurry Him where they would from Pilate to Herod and from Herod to Pilate again Why might they not have sent Him and detained Him with S. John the Evangelist in the Isle of Patmos or secure his Person still in Prison with S. John Baptist It may be answered Nefandum scelus majori scelere adimpletur Quae scelero pacta est scelere rumpatur fides Senec. in Medea every haynous offence secures it self by a More haynous crime as Seneca well observeth as the Thiefe that Robs for love of money will often Murder the poor Traveller for fear to be Discovered and the Lewd woman that fears to be Shamed for her lewdness will not fear to Murder her own Child so the Cevetous desire of having what we have no right unto Why the wicked never leave persecuting their King till they kill him as it worketh a Great care and sedulity how to get it so it begets a Great fear and jealousy to lose it therefore seeing there may be an Escape or reprisall from prison and a Return from exile as it was in Henry Bullingbrook afterwards King Henry the fourth they that fear to lose their Vsurped Possessions or to feel the Revenge of their Treason and Rebellion never think themselves Secured or their usurpation Setled untill their unjust titles be sealed in the blood of the right Owner and their own Wicked lives secured in the Vnmerited death of their Innocent adversaries And this is the Reason that these Wicked murderers of their Own King never left to persecute Him till they had Killed Him I should now proceed to the Last point to discover the Murderers of this Just One their own Pious and Religious King but that before I proceed to that point I hold it requisite First Six Speciall circumstances to be observed to shew unto you these six Speciall Circumstances about the Murder of this King which Are most Exactly delivered unto us by the Evangelists and which very-very
I would fain know if these four things were not the very causes that made the Rebels to being King Charles unto death this covetousnesse to get what is none of our own hath been the death of many Kings of many men for what made Caracalla slay his brother Geta in his mothers lap and between her armes but this inordinate desire to raign What made Phraharers son of Horodes King of Parthia kill his own Father and 29. of his brethren but the like desire to raign And what made Abimelech the bastard son of Gedeon slay 70. of his brethren in one day and Jehn to slay his Master even as Zimri had done the like before him and Absolon attempt to do so to his own Father but only this ambitious desire of bearing rule And if you look into the 8. c. of the 5. Book of Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. his historical meditations you shall find a Catalogue of such wicked murderers that have bin the death of many Kings that they might raign as kings themselves and therefore let the pretences of these murderers of their King be what you will change of Religion Arbitrary Government great Tyranny or loss of liberty yet all these are but forged and fained to blind the World and to deceave the people and the true Cause indeed is this Haereditas erit nostra This Profit is the point that doth the deed And as the desire to raign makes the regicides Cant. 2. so this inheritance of the Church which is signified by the Vineyard brought the doctrine of killing deposing and depriving into the Church of Christ and it is as truly Esay 5. as wittily said by one that Quid vultis mihi dare is the Jews question in this case Omnia haec tabi dabo is the Devil's answer to the Church-robber And such a dialogue betwixt the Devil and the Jew for the inheritance of the Church is powerfull enough to bring any King even Christ himself the King of Kings unto his death so I do assure my self and all the World may be assured of it it is not the calling or the office of the Bishops or of Deans Prebends which neither they nor their grand Master was ever able to disprove to be Divine that they so much detest but it is their Lands and inheritance that they so greedily gape for and as this made Naboth to lose his life so this makes our calling detestable and this was the cause the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that brought Charles our King and one speciall cause that brought Christ the King of kings unto their deaths because they would not betray the trust that God reposed in them nor surrender up this their rightfull Inheritance unto the greedy Usurpers but shewed themselves faithfull shepherds that were ready to lay down their lives for their sheep rather then to betray the laws and liberties of the people and the happiness that God had determined for their subjects and for this as we owe to our Saviour Christ our selves our souls and our bodies to honor him and serve him to praise him and to magnify him for ever as our only Saviour and preserver from everlasting death and destruction so this good King this just magnanimous King King Charles that rather suffered an ignominious death then to give away the inheritance of the Church or annull the highest calling in the same the Calling of the Reverend Bishops deserves to be everlastingly Loved indelibly Chronicled and universally Published like Mary Magdalen for a faithfull Martyr a true Protector and a nursing Father unto the Church of Christ which here I vow for mine part ever to do whensoever opportunity offers it self to do it But as I said before they had their King in their hands Ob. they had him their Prisoner so they had his Kingdom in their power and possession already what needed they therefore to kill him that they might have that which they had For if Ahab had had the Vineyard questionless Naboth had not died Saint Mark answereth fully that they kild the Heire Sol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might hold it and continue in it An answer specially to be observed for covetousness is a sin of Retention and never thinks of Restitution and the sin of forcible entrance can not endure to be put out of Possession thereforelest if he lived he might use some means to Regain it there is no surer way for them to hold in Peace what they unjustly got by the sword but by the death of the Just Owner And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I conceive signifieth not only that we may hold what we have but also that we may have more then we hold as if they should have said Some-what we have while we have him our prisoner and in our hands but more we shall get when we get him dead for then we shall have all as much as we can or will desire Therefore seeing ambition is like the daughters of the Horseleëch that still crieth more and more these murderers are like the Whore in the Apocalyps that having tasted the blood of the Saints will never give over till she be drunk with blood so will they never be satisfied with any less than the blood of their King Apoc 17. the death of the right Heir that they may hold what they have and have whatsoever they desire So you see the true Causes why these wicked murderers have put their King to death Now 3. 3 The patient and silent demeanor of this King Esay 53. Act. 8.32 When his adversaries most maliciously illegally and falsly accused him and laid many things to his charge contrary to all truth yet he answered not unto their charge but this good King being reviled reviled not again and being smitten smote not again but as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so opened he not his mouth The Reason The Reason of not answering to their charge four fold why he answered not is not expressed by the Holy Evangelists therefore we may not curiously prie into that which is concealed nor Positively conclude the Reason that is not revealed unto us Yet with Modesty it may be conjectured that he would not answer 1. Reason 1 Lest his wise and satisfactory Answer might convince Pilate that was a rational man and seemed to bear no malice against him and being satisfied to let him go freed from the accusation of his enemies and so the Counsell of God which he knew and came to fulfill it touching the Redemption of mankind by his death might thereby be frustrated So far did he prefer our good before his own life A most gratious King 2. Reason 2 He answered them not lest his answering might have ministred an occasion to these malicious miscreants to suborn more perjurers to bear false witness against him so carefull was this good King of the good of his enemies that they should not heap
King 21.8 false Prophets at her own Table and she vowed to be the death of Elias 1 King 18.4 and made a wicked King to become far more wicked by her continuall instigation of him to wickedness and therefore she was a very wicked woman vers 19 and the more inabled to be wicked because she was so Noble and so Witty when as there is no wickedness so great and so unavoydable as armed wickedness which is invented by Subtilty perpetrated by Power and defended by Authority for And how inabled to be wicked as Non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores Great Heresies never spring from mean Schollers and great oppressions could never be acted by petty Landlords or mean Gentlemen so Jezabel could never have gotten Naboth's Vineyard if she had not had the wit to device this plot and the learning to write these letters for so the Text saith 1 King 21.8 That she wrote letters in Ahabs name and the power as being King Ahabs wife to seal them with his seal and send them as from him to the Nobles and Elders to execute her wicked will neither could she have maintained 400. false Prophets at her own Table if she had not had the wealth and power for to do it and so if Irene had not been an Empress she had never perswaded a whole Council to set up the worshipping of Images And therefore great Schollers ought earnestly to beg and to pray to God for grace to sanctify their learning that they may be retained within the sphere of truth and not to start aside like Arius Eutyches Nestorius and the like learned Hereticks that thought so well of themselves that they disdained to walk in the troden paths of Orthodoxall Divinity and therefore invented most wicked Heresies and so as the Lord saith of proud Babylon their Wisdom and their knowledge caused them to fall which hath been the practice of our Presbyterians and Jesuits in these very daies And in like manner Kings and Princes Magistrates and Judges Landlords and Great men ought to be very carefull of their actions and more carefull then any other men that are of a lower station because they are more inabled to do more wickedness For if a mean man wrong me I may perchance be able to right my self but if a Judge decree against me or a mighty man oppress me I must with patience be resolved to bear it or by strugling in all likelihood to be much more damnified And the Devill laboureth more to get a subtile Scotus or a learned Origen to become an Heretick a powerfull Nero to become a Tyrant and an Assembly of Senators and a choise Parliament to become Rebels and to bandy against their King as the Senators of Rome conspired the death of Caesar and the Jewish Sanhedrim the death of Christ and the grave Judges to become such Judasses as to sell the Truth or like the Judges of Susanna to condemn the Innocent and the rich Landlords to turn miserable Oppressors I say the Devill laboureth more and rejoyceth more to have one such than twenty other poor Snakes that want the abilities of Wit Learning Power and Authority to become his Instruments of wickedness And therefore I say to all such men of good parts and great power as the Prophet saith Psal 2â— for the same cause Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be Learned all ye that are the Judges of the Earth And do you follow the known common troden path of truth all you that are good Schollers And so much for the speaker Jezabel that was a noble witty and wicked woman 2. For the Speech of this wicked-wicked woman 2 The speech of Jezabel it is a most Excellent Speech worthy to be set in Letters of Gold inter dicta sapientum among the Aphorisms or Parables of the wise As I shall make it manifest unto you when I come to explain the same In the interim you may observe How that many wicked men and wicked women Hereticks and Tyrants have had many times some Excellent sayings and sometimes most worthy Acts have proceeded from them As the Papists and Presbyterians have made many good Sermons and written many Excellent Books and Treatises of Divinity full of Learning and great Piety and who better then Bellarmine his Meditations upon his Gemitus columbae How many wicked men have said and done many things well Soliloquies De ascensione animi in coelum per scalas rerum creatarum Septem verba Christi in cruce And his Comments upon the Psalms and the like And so Ferus Granatensis Drexelius and many more have done the like and we find divers others that have been great Hereticks to have done so likewise And in like manner we do read that many wicked men have done some speciall Acts of Virtue and Piety As Herod that sought the Life of Christ yet did he as Josephus relates it most Magnificently re-edify and beautify the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and the other Herod the husband of Herodias hearkened to John Baptist in many things and Pilate that condemned Christ to death did many things exceeding well as in the strict examination of Christ his Cause and justifying his Innocency when he delivered him to be Crucified and Claudius Lisâ—as though he would not release S. Paul from his bands yet he preserved his Life and delivered him out of the hands of his enemies and the unrighteous Judge that as our Saviour saith Luk. 18.5 feared not God neither regarded man yet did he once justice to the importunate Widow and Am. Marcellinus tels us that even fulian the Apostate and the bitterest persecutor of the Christians was adorned with many singular properties as being an Excellent Schollar bred in Athens at the same time with Greg. Nazian and writing many Epistles Orations and Morall sayings and behaving himself most mildly and courteously towards all men but the Christians and so we read that Vespasian Titus Nerva Trajan Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius and many others of the Roman Emperors had many good parts in them and did many singular acts of Virtue though they were no Christians but some of them very Evill men and great persecutors of the Christians And I could instance in many Tyrants and other great Oppressors of Gods people and wicked men even in our own Kingdom that have done some Acts of Virtue and Piety And I could name you the men that have been very Turbulent in Gods Church and mis-led abundance of the people and yet have made some good Sermons and written some good Treatises of Divinity And what then Shall we therefore adore them and follow them in their factions and evill waies because they do or have done some good By no means For as thou shouldest not drink the Wine that is mingled with some Poâ—son though the Wine be never so good so it is not safe for thee to hear that Sermon that leads thee to Sedition though
were noâ— took to gather those evill examples to evill ends for we are to live by Lawes and not by Examples and especially by the Lawes of God or otherwise you may live as you list and you may do whatsoever you please for if a King means to play the Tyrant That we are to live by Lawes and not by examples he may have examples enough to justifie his Tyranny if he be an adulterer he may alledge King David that was a man according to Gods own heart and 100. more that did commit adultery and if thou pleasest to be a drunkard thou hast the examples of righteous Noah and of Lot and 1000. more that may justifie thee for being drunk or to be brief if thou wouldst be an oppressor or a robber and a Rebel and a Traytor to depose thy King or to kill him thou hast a Jeroboam and a Zimri and Jehu too though he had a speciall warrant for it and an infinite other examples that may be produced to shelter thee from blame for committing the greatest Treason or any other execrable villanie if the producing of examples might serve the turn But the truth is whatsoever other men whatsoever Councils Kingdoms or Commonwealths have done contrary to the will and Lawes of God we ought not to imitate them therein because their Examples be no excuse for us that should have recourse to the Law and to the Testimony Esay 8.20 as the Prophet speaketh to direct us what we ought to do And therefore no Precedents no Examples in the world though you should produce ten thousands of them can excuse Zimri nor any other Zimries in the whole Universe for killing their King but 2. Here is another relation betwixt Ela and Zimri 2 A Servant that should more strictly have tyed and ingaged Zimri to be true and faithful unto Elah for he was his servant and his menial servant in ordinary which all other subjects could not be and this is rightly observed by Jezabel and therefore she saith not Had Zimri peace that slew his King but Had Zimri peace that slew his Master And a Master that gives meat drink and wages means and maintenance unto his servant is loco parentis instead of a Father unto him and therefore he should be respected and honoured of his servant next unto his Father and we find that many true and faithful servants have done so indeed I cannot well remember where for I remember I read it in Appian that when Scipio had gained Carthage or some other opulent Town he gave a strict charge that none of the Citizens upon pain of death should hide any of the wealth or treasure of that rich City yet one of the wealthiest Merchants having a great store of Gold and inestimable Jewels hid a great deal thereof so secretly that no man could find it but the Servant that helped him to hide it and that Servant like a false Judas went and revealed it to the General who making a strict search for the Merchant another of the Merchants servants seeing how his Master if he were taken should be condemned to death for that fact goeth unto Scipio and protesteth unto him An excellent story of a most faithful servant that it was he which did hide that treasure altogether unknown unto his Master and therefore desired that his innocent Master might be freed and let him lay what punishment he pleased upon himself that had offended but the other servant stood stiffely to his former accusation that it was his Master and not the Servant that had hid it then Scipio would needs find out the Merchant who being found confest the truth that he himself with the help of his accuser had conveyed away that treasure and that altogether unknown to his other servant who to preserve his Master was so ready to sacrifice his own life whereupon Scipio like a brave Commander and a Heroick indeed seeing the fidelity of the one servant and the treachery of the other pardons the Master for his faithfull servants sake and puts the accuser to death for his treacherie and infidelity and we read of many other servants that have so dearly loved and been so truly faithful unto their Masters that they have hazarded their own lives to save their Masters as you may read the servants of King David have done and as it is recorded that Mauricius Duke of Saxony being in a battle thrown to the ground his servant casting himself upon him covered him and so defended him from his enemies untill he was rescued by his friends and so with his own death he saved his Masters life And it is written of Eros servant to Antonius that when his Master was overcome by Augustus and would have him to dispatch his life he drew his sword and killed himself rather then he would kill his Master for as a Master next to his own children is to respect provide care for his servants above all other friends or kinsfolks whatsoever according to the saying of the wise man Hast thou a faithful servant let him be unto thee as thine own soul so the servant next to his Father and Mother ought to honour and to preserve his Master before all other men whatsoever And therefore Zimri can no waies be thought any other than a most Villanous Traytor to slay his Master worse then Ditalcon and Minuro that were corrupted by Capio Appian p. 112. Of the Roman wars with the Spaniard 3. A servaut in an honourable setvice to kill their Master Viriatus that brave Spaniard that gave work enough to the Romans eight years together Especially if we do confider 3. Qualis servitus in what manner of service he was under his Master Elah for though the Romans and many others used most of their servants that were their slaves like dogs which produced that proverb Of so many servants so many enemies which ever feared but never loved their Masters as the Romans found it most true to their cost when they made the servile War that proved so hazardous unto them Yet Elah did not so with Zimri but he preferred him to a very honorable place and made him Captain of halt his Charrets and so a Master to keep many servants under him as you see all Captains have The three fold impiety of Zimri and therefore for a servant to kill such a Master that had thus advanced his servant is a note beyond Elah and doth exceedingly aggravate the offence of Zimri and makes it to ascend higher and higher or rather to descend lower and lower even to the bottomless pit of hell To commit murder as hainous as any murder can be to kill his King his Master and a Master that was so lâ—ving and had so honorably preferred him which was a three fold cord to bind him in Obedience but is soon snapt asunder by this wicked Traytor that was a Traytor just like Judas of whom the Prophet in the person of Christ
death in any other Country where they should be but like Jonas among the Ninivites meer strangers Yet thus was Jeremy used and thus are we 3. This our Prophet was not only a Jew preaching unto the Jews 3 He was a dear lover of them for so many a man as Cateline among the Romans Vortigern among the Britains Speed l. 7. c. 4. and Simon Jason and others among the Jews and some others nearer home have betrayed their own Country 2 Machab. 4. the trust that their Country reposed in them but he was a faithful Patriot a hearty lover and no hater of his people Tertullian noteth how dearly Moses loved this Nation of the Israelites when rather than God should destroy them he earnestly requested that his own name might be blotted out of the Book of Life S. Paul sheweth the like love unto the Jews when he saith he could wish himself accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 for his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh And this our Prophet sheweth no lesse love unto them than the other as you may easily see by this his Prophesie and his Preaching to them and his Lamentation for them Yet all the love of these men and put all together was not comparable to the love of Christ who gave himself for them and prayed for them when they Crucified him And therefore well might he say Greater love than this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends which none of all the Prophets nor of the Apostles nor of the Martyrs that died all for themselves and suffered death for their own sins did lay down their life for others as our Saviour Christ did lay down his life not for himself but for his enemies and yet they loved them very much and very dear as I shewed to you before And so must all the Messengers of Christ and Preachers of God's Word How the Ministers and Preachers of Gods Word should love their people imitate these holy men to love Gods people for that the people can hardly reap any good from them whom they perceive not to love them but as we suspect the gifts of an enemy to be as the Belt of Ajax was to Hector and Hectors Sword to him in like sort the death of each other So we dis esteem and regard not the words of them that love us not But you see how the true Prophets and Servants of God loved this people and laboured all that ever they could for the good of the people to bring them unto God and to turn away Gods anger from them And what reward did this people render to these and to the rest of Gods Messengers and Teachers for all the love that they shewed unto them and the pains they had undertaken for them The very Heathen tells us that Amor amoris magnes durus est qui amorem non rependit Love is a Loadstone to draw love again and if we will do nothing else yet we can do no lesse than love them that do so dearly love us The very publicans and sinners do the same Yet behold The ingratitude of the Jews O Heavens and wonder O Earth at this ungrateful people who rendered to Gods Messengers evil for good and instead of loving them stoned them For they murmured against Moses rebelled against David persecuted Elias beheaded John the Baptist and as our Saviour saith they killed the Prophets Luke 13.34 and stoned them that were sent unto them And it is no strange thing for us to find many men walking in the same wayes and treading in the same steps as these Jews have done but it were very strange that we should be used any better than those better Messengers that were sent before us Luke 10.3 For our Saviour tells us with an Ecce Behold and consider it well I send you forth as lambs into the midst of wolves And you know the Fable how the silly lamb procul infrà bibens for drinking far enough below the wolfe was notwithstanding torn all to pieces by that cruel wolfe upon pretence that he stopt the current which was impossible for him to do 2. 2 The parties to whom this Message was sent The Parties to whom the Message was sent are shewed in these words this people and that is the people of the Jews that were then flos florum medulla mundi the choisest and the noblest of all the people of the world for You only have I known that is acknowledged for mine own people Amos 3.2 and mine own peculiar inheritance of all the families of the earth saith the Lord. And God shewed his great love towards them by the wonderful works that he had done for them For as the Prophet saith He eased their shoulders from their burdens Psal and their hands from making the pots and he delivered them out of that Egyptian-bondage and from the tyranny of cruel Pharaoh The great favours of God unto the Jews Then he gave them such Laws so holy and so just as neither Solon nor Lycurgus nor any other Nation of the World had the like And he fed them in the Wildernesse 40. years together with Manna that was the bread of Heaven and the Angels food and after that he thrust out 7. other Nations to make room for them and he gave them the labours of the people in possession and planted them in Canaan which was a Land that flowed with milk and honey and there he hedged them about as we were of late hedged here with all kind of blessings beneficia nimis copiosa most ample benefits And as the Schools say Privativa positiva for they had plenty in peace and victory in war and what was it not that this people had not And yet this people this peculiar people of God must hear this hard Message and they must undergo this sharp censure For as the Lord saith of Coniah Jeremy 22.24 were he as the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence and give him into the hands of those that seek his life So will he do with this people and with any other when they do prevaricate and offend him He will cut them off and cast them from him were they formerly never so precious in his sight How God dealeth with his dearest children when they depart from his service for no priviledge no prerogative no former piety can prevail with God to prevent his judgements when with this people they love to wander and refrain not their feet from their evil wayes But as these his dearly beloved people the Jews were cast off when they did cast off the true service of God and as those seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea that were planted by the Apostles and watered with the blood of Martyrs had their Candlesticks removed and themselves delivered up to groan under the Turkish tyranny
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. in Meleagro Fearfull men are of none account in the war but are absent while they are present which is the cause saith Cicero Cicero pro Aul. Caecinna Quod exercitus maximi saepe pulsi ac fugati sunt terrore ipso impetuque hostium sine cujusquam non modo morte verum etiam vulnere Fear destroyed great Armies great Armies have been overthrowen with this vain fear not only without the death but also without the hurt of any man and therefore reason it self perswadeth us to cast off all fear and to arm our selves with courage when we go against our enemies for though as the Comick saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many evils spring out of rashness Yet Fo rs juvat audentes prisci sententia vatis Claud. ad probinum And as old Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Odyssâ—x Omnibus in rebus potior vir fortis audax Sit licet hospes è longinquis venerit oris The stout couragious man is best in all affaires when as the timorous man omnia tuta timet doth oftentimes fear his own shadow and there is no receit against fear But though fear is an ill companion male cuncta ministrat and ordereth all things very ill It is sometimes good to fear dangers and how yet sometimes this fear of dangers is of an excellent use especia ly when it is joyned with a provident care to prevent it for it is a point of great wisdom in doubtfull things to fear the worst when the best will save it self we see many men have been suddenly destroyed because they feared not the dangers that were imminent over their heads whereas he Qui insidias timet in nullas incidet nec cito perit ruina qui ruinam timet quia semper metuendo sapiens vitat malum inimicum quamvis humilem docti est metuere he that feareth the snare falleth not into the snare and he that feareth ruine is not suddenly ruin'd because a wise man avoideth evil by fearing it and a learned man will not be fearless of the hurt that may happen unto him from his meanest enemy when according to that of the Poet Parva necat morsu spatiosum viper a taurum A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper Causa pusilla nocet sapiensque nocentia vitat A small thing may do much mischief Yet this fear of danger without a care joyned with it to prevent the danger or at least to lessen it is rather a vexation to be avoided than a vertue to be embraced Therefore this fear is only good as it makes us wary to prevent the evil as the fear of the Thief makes the good man of the house watchful to defend his house saith our Saviour And as this humane frailty The humane Fear hath driven many meâ— to great sins and the fear of future dangers hath been the ruine of many a man and the losse of many great Armies so the like fear hath driven many men to great sins As Pilate for fear of the people and of their complaint against him to Caesar condemned to death the Lord of Life Judges for fear of the rich and powerful men do many times decree unjust judgement And the Preachers of Gods Word do sometimes pervert the truth and preach placentia for fear of dangers either losse of Livings or of Liberties And in many other men this humane fear is the cause of many inhumane acts Therefore the holy Ghost prohibiteth this fear in every place Moses injoyneth Judges to be men of courage Luke 12. Jerem. 1. Esay 51.7 Ezech. 2.6 Our Saviour bids his Disciples not to fear them that kill the body and after that can do no more And the Lord often commandeth his Prophets not to fear the faces of men nor to be afraid of their threatnings As the Prophet Esay saith Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is my Law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wooll And the Angel biddeth the Church of Smyrna Revel 2.10 to fear none of those things that they should suffer that is neither poverty nor sicknesse nor reproach nor imprisonment nor yet death it self And the reason why we should not fear these things is set down by the Lord himself saying Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine when thou passâ—st through the waters Esay 43.1 2. I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Rom 8.31 because God is with us and if he be with us Who can be against us Nâ—m quid timet hominem homo in sinu Dei positus Aug. de verb. Dom. For why should any man that is in the bosom of God and upheld there by Gods hand be afraid of any man or of any thing Tu de illius sinu noli cadere quicquid ibi passâ—s fueris ad salutem valebit non ad pernitiem Do thou continue in Gods favour and thou shalt not need to fear any mans fury And so you see how the humane fear of all worldly evils is as much as we can to be shunned and no wayes to be embraced But 2. 2 The Divine fear God the object of this fear in two respects The Divine fear is that which we are commanded here and in all other places of the holy Scripture to seek for it and to embrace it And though as I said before the proper object of fear is said to be evil yet God which is the chiefest Good may be said to be the object of this fear in two respects 1. Respect 1 As the body feareth the parting of the soul which is the life of the body so the soul feareth the departing of Gods favour which is the life of the soul and that parting of Gods favour from us is the greatest evil that can happen unto us 2. As a Malefactor feareth the good and just Magistrate lest he punish him for his evil deeds so every sinner doth or should fear God lest he should render vengeance unto him for his sins And from these two respects springeth a twofold kind of Divine fear 1. The servil-fear which is a fear of punishment 2. Filial-fear which is a fear to lose the love and favour of God which grieves them more to lose it than to suffer all the punishment that they can endure And both these fears are wrought in our hearts by the finger of Gods Spirit when as the wicked neither respect Gods love nor fear his justice
that we might fear him and he addeth which brought thee out of the land of Egypt that we might love him And in lege precandi he teacheth us to say Our Father that we might love him and he addeth which art in Heaven that we might fear him And in lege credendi we are taught to say I believe in God the Father that we might love him and to add Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth that we might fear him And besides all this we find that these two Graces Fear and Love 1. Are injoyned by the same Law 2. Do proceed from the same Cause 3. Do produce the same Effects And 4. Shall obtain the same Reward For 1. Moses that was faithful in all Gods house saith And now Israel What doth the Lord thy God require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to love him Where you see fear and love so equally required that whosoever neglecteth the fearing of him though he should love him or omitteth the loving of him though he should fear him if he could do the one and not the other yet he is a transgressor and liable to the breach of this Commandment 2. As none denieth but mercy should procure love therefore Moses after he had rehearsed the great mercies of God towards the Israelites Deut. 10.11 21 22. Josh 23.9 11. Psal 130.4 addeth Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God And Joshua doth the like so David after he had considered his own vileness saith With thee there is mercy therefore shalt thou be feared Where you see the mercy of God is the foundation of this fear of God as well as of the love of God And as the mercy of God so the justice of God produceth both â—ffects the one as well as the other For my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith the Prophet And though justice seems as oil to continue the burning of this lamp of fear and as water to quench the fire of love yet as lime which is naturally cold doth notwithstanding retain a fiery quality ex aqua incenditur ex qua omnis ignis extinguitur and is inflamed by water which doth extinguish all fire So the love of the Saints is kindled by the judgements of God Therefore the Prophet saith Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements Psal 119.164 Psal 119.52 And again I remembred thy judgements of old and have received comfort 3. As love inflameth the desire to do what is acceptable unto God so fear hateth to do what is abominable unto him and as love keepeth his Precepts so fear loatheth to break his Commandments and as love mitigateth the sorrow which fear causeth so fear qualifieth the joy which love produceth And as S. John saith God is love so Jacob calleth him the fear of his father Isaac And as S. Paul saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law Gal. 6.2 Eccles 12. So Solomon saith The end of all things is the fear of God and the keeping of his Commandments 4. As the mercy of God is shewed upon thousands of them that love him Exod. 20. Luke 1.50 and keep his Commandments So it is no lesse upon them that fear him But as the Psalmist saith Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord he shall be mighty upon earth Gloria divitae in domo ejus And as the son of Sirach saith Timor Domini gloria gloriatio laetitia corona exultationis Because as the Prophet saith Dat haereditatem timentibus nomen suum Yea Psal 61.5 Psal 145.19 he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him and look whatsoever they do it shall prosper And as eternal life is promised to them that love God So eternal death shall never seize on them that fear God And in brief whatsoever attendeth the one becometh a follower of the other and no marvel because that in love fear is included and in fear love is implied And while we are in this world both grow together in the heart of every true Believer And as the Poet saith of another kind of love so I may more truly say of this Divine love Res est soliciti plena timoris Amor. This love of God is full not of distrustful but of careful fear Quia timentes Deum non erunt incredibles verbo Illius saith the son of Sirach Ecclus. 2. But the wicked have neither true fear nor perfect love For though Cain Esau and Judas had a kind of fear yet was it false because it wanted love And though the Pharisees and Simon Magus had a kind of love yet was it but counterfeit because it wanted fear for if the former had had love they would have desired favour and should have obtained grace and if the other had had fear they would have aimed at Gods glory and not have sought their own praise which did work their own confusion And therefore well might S. Peter enjoyn every Saint that loveth God to fear God And as the love of God so the fear of God is sometimes put for a part of Gods Service and sometimes for the whole Service of God and so it is in this place as in the first of Job and in Luke 1.50 and in the Psalms in many places As where he saith Come ye children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord where the fear of God signifieth the whole Worship of God to honour him obey him trust in him pray unto him and what duty soever else we owe unto him And thus the fear of God is the rarest Jewel and the most excellent thing in the World No riches no honour no preferment like unto it No evil shall happen to them that fear the Lord but God shall preserve them in temptation liberabit eos à malis Ecclus 33. saith Siracides And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation but mischief and unhappinesse and all evil shall continually attend and overtake them that fear not God to bring them to shame beggary and confusion as you may see it manifested in the Story of the sons of Israel who while they feared God were replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes and delivered out of the Egyptian slavery by a thousand prodigies the Lord dividing the Sea to make way for them and closing the same again to destroy their enemies Drawing waters out of the Rocks to quench their thirst and feeding them with the food of Angels But when they did cast off the fear of God then God sent flying Serpents and stirred up enemies and powred down his vengeance upon their heads still plaguing them more and more untill they should be either quite consumed or happily reduced to embrace the fear of God again And not to search farre for any further presidents How happy weâ—e
that we fail not to observe his Commandment ne rapiat fiscus quod non capit Christus lest the Rebell should take all because we will not part with what is fit both to defend our selves 2 To the hazard of our lives and to assist our King 2. If we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren as Saint John saith much rather ought we to do it for our King and I could shew you many worthy examples of many Jewes and Gentiles that are made famous throughout all generations for what they sustained in the defence of their Kings You may read that when David was assailed by a mighty Gyant named Ishâ—benob which was of the sonnes of Rapha the head of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brasse Abishai the son of Servia with the danger of his own life ran betwixt him and the King and for this faithfulness to his Master 2 Sam. 21.17 God assisted him so that he killed the Philistine and it is recorded in our Annals to his eternall praise that Sir Hugh Sincler at the Siege of Bridg-north seeing an arrow that was shot at his Master King Henry the second stepped betwixt the shaft and his Soveraign How freedily subjects ought to assist their King and not to 〈…〉 till it be too late and so receiving the arrow into his own body was therewith shot to death that he might thereby preserve the life of his King And as you see how far we are to aid and assist our King to the uttermost of our abilities with the hazard of our lives so we ought to consider the time when this assistance is to be yielded unto him for the School-rule is most sure Gratia ab officio quod mora tardat abest That aid is not good when it doth no good but doth a great deal of ill because we depended on it and were disappointed of it And this hath been the losse of many Armies and the destruction of many men that have perished in the expectation of their relief as the debates and delayes of the Carthaginians to send aid unto Hannibal lost him Italy and thereby lost themselves and many the like examples I could produce to you Therefore when Metius Suffetius promised aid unto the Romans and yet deferred the performance untill he could perceive which was most likely to prevaile of both parties the Romans more incenst against him that thus subtilly deceived their expectation then against their enemies that were in open rebellion tore him in pieces betwixt wild horses and the Poet saith to him that thought it a hard censure At tu dictis Albane maneres It was but very just because he was so false and the Merozites for the like faults were most fearfully cursed by God himself Judg. 5.23 And therefore Tolle moras semper nocuit differre paratis Let them that mean to aid their King take off delayes for as God loveth a cheerful doer so he loveth a speedy doer of any good and therefore he saith To day if you will hear his voice hearden not your hearts and put not off his service till to morrow But wise Counsellers will tell us that great bodies do move slowly and many matters cannot suddenly be concluded it is true yet the deferring of such duties as may be a weakening to one part and a strengthening to the other and the delayes that may be purposely protracted should be as wisely prevented as they are craftily intended I am no States-man neither will I presume to prescribe Rules for Counsell but as we daily pray O God make speed to save us O Lord make haste to help us so let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would speedily assist and send aid unto our King and set an end to our vexations and compose all the differences of these poor distracted Kingdomes that so we might joyfully serve him and praise him without end Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum cui Laus Honor Gloria in secula seculorum Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SIXTH TREATISE John 10.27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me THe blessed Apostle Saint Peter saith that Jesus Christ while he lived here on earth went about doing good that is Acts 10.38 not good to himself for so all worldlings and all ambitious men go about continually to do themselves that which they conceive to be good but he went about to do good to all others as strengthening the feeble comforting the broken hearted and healing all that were oppressed of the devil and as Saint Matthew saith he gave sight to the blinde he cleansed the leapers and raised the dead Mat. 11.5 all good deeds indeed And yet the doing of all these good deeds to all men that had need of them and were capable of good could not move all men to speak good of him All speak not well of Christ that did good to all nor to give him good words for all the good works that he did unto them but though some said he hath done all things well and he could neither make the lame to walk nor the blinde to see if God were not with him yet others and they were the major part and the nobler part of the people the Scribes and the Pharisees said he was a grand Impostor a Seducer of the people a Sabbath-breaker a drunkard a glutton and a wine-bibber a man possessed of the devil a friend of Publicans and sinners Neque enim Jupiter neque pluens omnibus placet neque abstinens Theog 25. and what not good God! Quid Domini facient audent cum talia fures What shall good men doe when such wicked men dare say such things of the Son of God But you may see and you ought to consider it that as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alius tibi male alius melius dicet bonos alius valde vituperat alius laudat God himself that made all things exceeding good and doth all things exceeding well cannot please the never satisfied will of all men but when one would have peace another would have war when some desire rain some others desire to have faire weather and so one will speak ill of thee another well and one will exceedingly dispraise the good another will as much praise them and commend them So different are the mindes of men And therefore how is it possible that either I Go how we will or doe what we will we shall never please all men or any man else either in our Sermons or in our Prayers though we preach nothing but truth and pray as Christ commandeth us to pray should notwithstanding satisfie all our hearers but that the Sceptick blameth what the charitable man commendeth and though our intentions be never so straight yet their expositions will be found often crooked And this cannot be helped neither is he the wisest that otherwise expecteth it but
will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
CHARLES for you know it is not long since the Word of God was had in our native language but it was locked up in the Greek and Latine Tongues which none but a few scholars understood and since it is vulgarly published you may consider how many Bibles are now printed to furnish every Prentice maid and boy in comparison of the small number that the best men had in former times and for Sermons how rare were they in our fathers times and how generally you may hear them now at all times in most places and the Angel foretells the Prophet Daniel it should be thus before the end of the world for saith he Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be encreased as now it is I think ten times more then ever it was Dan. 12.4 And therefore the Prophet saith The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Hab. 2.14 And yet notwithstanding all the multitude of our Bibles all the volumes of divine Treatises all the frequent Sermons that are made and all the knowledge that is profest from the learned scribe to the City-tradesman the Country plough-man our Saviour tells us that when he cometh Iniquity shall be encreased the love of many shall wax cold and he shall scarce finde faith upon the earth And if any man demand with Nichodemus How can these things be I answer That the more good wheat we sowe in the field of Gods Church the more tares will Satan sow amongst it and the more we strive to enlarge the true faith the more errours and heresies will his instruments spread amongst the people and for knowledge he knoweth enough and too much himself and is very well pleased that all his servants should be knowing men The Devil would have all to be knowing men and be as skilful in the Scriptures as he is himself for as one crafty knave can do ten times more mischief then ten silly fooles so one learned heretick will broach more errours and defend and maintaine them far better then many meaner scholars can do and it is a true axiom that Non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores the great errours never sprung and the strange heresies could never have been maintained but by men of some good parts and of great knowledge And therefore I may justly say with S. Augustine that Melior est fidelis ignorantia quam temeraria scientia it were far better for men to be humbly ignorant then proudly filled and rashly erring with knowledge for as the Apostle saith Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.1 Esay 47.10 and many times produceth many errours and much evil even as the Lord saith of Babylon Thy wisdome and thy knowledge have perverted thee and caused thee to turn away from the right way And as the rash proud and unsanctified knowledge of men doth breed many errours and much evil so it bringeth no good at all for as S. Paul saith that not the hearers of the law Rom. 2.13 but the doers of the law shall be justified so not the knowers of the Scriptures could they repeat it all at their fingers end but they that understand it right apply it as they ought believe in Christ and lead their lives according to the Scriptures shall receive the reward promised in Scripture otherwise as he that knoweth his masters will and doth it not so he that knoweth the Word of God and is most skilful in the holy Scriptures and yet neither applies them right nor believes nor lives according to the Word of God is worthy to be beaten with many stripes And therefore Christ enjoyneth us to give unto his sheep their own due portion of knowledge and spiritual food that may edifie them and not destroy them and that is such a proportion as every one is capable of and is requisite for him to know And 2. As we are to give to every one his own due portion of this spiritual food 2 In due season both in quality and quantity so we are to give it them in due season because as Solomon saith there is a time for all things as a time to speak and a time to be silent a time to feast and a time to fast a time to preach and a time to pray which I fear is now cut shortest of all times if not persecuted to hide it self in corners and private Chappels when as many of our Churches are scarce acquainted with the Lords prayer the prayer that our Saviour commanded us to use Horrendum dictu And as Christ our grand Shepherd hath commanded us to give to every one his own portion in due season so he hath warned and instructed his sheep not to take what they list but to be satisfied with what is given them and to expect it in the due time and not to exact it whensoever they please because God cannot endure that every man should be his own carver and stretch forth his hand with Adam to any forbidden fruit God would not have men to be their own carvers when as every one should be contented with what is given him and should pray to God as Christ hath taught us saying Give us this day our daily bread and therefore when Christ blessed the five Loaves and two Fishes he did not as many of our new Divines teach the people now to take what they list of the blessed bread in the Eucharist but as S. John saith he distributed them to the Disciples John 6.11 and the Disciples to them that were set down But alas here is our misery and the iniquity of these times The misery the iniquity of these dayes that our dispensers shall not dispose this spirituall food and God himself shall not distribute his own gifts but as the Poet saith Vivitur ex rapto what God hath most graciously bestowed upon one man another will most wickedly snatch it from him and men must and will have the Word of God expounded extorted and multiplied as Christ multiplied his loaves when where how and by whom they list which is the cause of our calamities and like if not prevented to bring destruction unto the sheep of Christ And therefore 3. Christ the good Shepherd doth not onely feed his sheep and bid S. Peter and in him all us three times to feed his sheep that is to feed them three manner of wayes 1. Pascere verbo 2. Pascere cibo 3. Pascere exemplo 1. With the Word of God 2. With Almes-deeds 3. With good examples but he doth also expose himself to all dangers even to death it self to save and to protect his sheep from the fury of those that any wayes labour to destroy them even as he saith I lay down my life for my sheep therefore he must needs be the good Shepherd and none can deny him to be a good Shepherd that layeth down his life for his sheep And he requireth of
bond or free Nahum 1.7 so God knoweth them that trust in him saith the Prophet and he shall say of them I know them and I will acknowledge them to be mine my sheep and my servants wheresoever they are and in what state or condition soever they be And therefore they follow me and study to be holy as I am holy which is their sanctification and the third part of these words 3. Christ told his Apostles at the first that if any man would be his Disciple Tertia part they follow me Luke 9.23 The following of Christ twofold 1. In suffering Esay 53.3 and so his sheep to hear his voice and to learn of him he must take up his cross and follow him And this following of him as you see by these words must be twofold 1. In patiendo in suffering as he suffered 2. In agendo in doing as he did For 1. Our Shepherd Christ was vir dolorum a man of sorrows as the Prophet calls him that had experience of infirmities and his whole life from his Cradle to his Cross was but a life of suffering the scornful reproofs of the wealthy and the despitefulness of the proud who did all that either tongues or hands could do against him and yet as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth V. 7. but forgave them all their indignities and prayed for them that crucified him which was an example of suffering without example and beyond all examples And our Saviour tells us the Disciple must not be above his Master he must not look to walk on flowers when his Master walks through the bryars but where the Master goeth before the servant should follow after And yet we may justly say with S. Bernard Quam pauci O Domius Jesu post te ire volunt cum tamen ad te pervenire nemo sit quinesit hoc scitutibus cunctis qua delectationes in dextratnausque ad finem How few O Lord Jesu there are which will come after thee when as to come unto thee there is no man but is willing because where thou art and in thy right hand there is fulness of joy and abundance of pleasures for evermore Et propterea saith that Father Volâ—â—t omnes te frai at non ita intitari conregnare cupiunt sed non compati And therefore all men would enjoy thee but not so as to follow thee they would Reign with thee but they will not suffer with thee they can be concented with the Apostle to build Tabernacles and to abide with him on mount Tabor where he was transfigured in Glory but they can all forsake him on mount Calvarie when he was overwhelmed with sorrow and confusion went over his face This is the common course of the world to follow him close in prosperity and to seem zealous of his honour and of his service Cum benefecerit illis when as the Prophet David saith Their corn and wine and oyle encreaseth and they prosper in their successes but if they should be ejected suppressed and persecuted for serving him then will they start aside like a broken bow and like the children of Ephraint that being harnessed and carrying bowes and so being enabled by their learning wealth and friends to do God good service do turn their backs to him in the day of battel when there is most need of their help and they could most chiefly follow him But the true sheep of Christ and the faithfull servants of God will follow him Per mare per saxa per ignes and will say Who shall separate us from the love of Christ or withdraw us from the service of our God and following after our Shepherd or shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No sure in all these things they are more then Conquerours through him that loved them so that neither Death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present Rom. 8.35 v. 38.39 nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God and from following their Master Jesus Christ our Lord. And they that cannot truly say thus or they that love Father or Mother or Son or Daughter or any other thing in this world even their own life more then Christ they are not worthy of Christ Mat. 10.37 as Christ himself doth testifie And therefore seeing that to suffer with Christ and for Christ his Service is an especial gift and grace of God Phil 1.29 1 Pet. 3.14 Mat. 5.11 as the Apostle sheweth and that they are happy and blessed that suffer persecution for righteousness sake and when men shall revile them and say all manner of evil against them falsly for Christ his sake I say with the Poet Componite mentes Lucan Phars Ad magnae virtutis opus magnosque labores And as our Saviour saith when you suffer all that can be suffered and all that your enemies can impose upon you Mat. 11. v. 12. rejoice and be glad yea and be exceeding glad because your reward shall be great in heaven and let not your sufferings trouble you Nec enim fortuna querenda Ovid Met. l. ulâ— sab 44. Sola tua est similes aliorum respice casus Mitius istaferes For this is not your case alone but if you look what happened to other men you shall finde that as our Saviour saith So persecuted they the Prophets that were before you and so are many of your brethren persecuted as well as you and perhaps more then you which should teach you Mitius ista ferre to follow Christ in his sufferings the more patiently and contentedly without any manner of muttering 2. 2 In Doings As we are to follow our Shepherd Christ in his Sufferings so we are to follow him in his Doings that is to imitate him in our actions and to make him the Exemplar and the Pattern of all our doings for though we should live by Rules and not by Examples yet the Example of Christ is beyond all Rules Et validior est vox operis quam oris Bern in Cant. Ser. 59. and morall operations are more forcible then all the logicall demonstrations in the world But you must understand that the Acts and Doings of Christ are of two sorts 1. Unimitable 2. Imitable And The first he did as God to approve his Office and to confirm our Faith that we might believe him to be the Son of God and the Messias that should come to be the Saviour of the world for so he saith himself The works that I doe do testifie and beare witnesse of me And herein we are not required to follow him and we are not able to imitate him neither should we attempt to doe it for when he saith Learn of me he meaneth not saith Saint Augustine that thou shouldst learn of him Aut mundos fabricare aut mortuos suscitare
scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
her will No force can prevail against the will and actual sins have so much dependency upon the hearts approbation as that the same alone can either vitiate or excuse the action and no outward force hath any power over mine inward mind unless my self do give it him as all the power of the Kingdome cannot force my heart to hate my King or to love his enemies they may tear this poor body all to pieces but they can never force the mind to do but what it will And yet such is the deceit of our own flesh that if the devil should be absent from us our own frailties would be his tempting deputies and when we have none other foe we will become the greatest foes unto our selves as Apollodorus the Tyrant dreamd that he was flead by the Scythians and that his heart thrown into a boyling caldron should say unto him That it was the cause of all his miseries and so every man that is undone hath indeed undone himself for Perditio tua exte thy destruction is from thy self saith the Prophet yea the very best men Hos 13.9 by whomsoever wronged yet wrong themselves as now it is with our gracious King for as Valentine the Emperour when he cut off his best Commander and demanding of his best Counselour what he thought of it had this answer given him That he had cut off his own right arm with his left hand so when the good King seduced and over-perswaded gave way though against his will to make an Everlasting Parliament he then gave away the Sword out his own hand So I could tell you of a very good man that is brought to very great exigency by parting with his owne strength and giving his sword out of his own hand and when he excluded the Bishops out of the House of Peers he parted with so much of his own strength and brought himself thereby to be weaker then he was before and so it will be with every one of us and it may be in a higher misprision then with our King if we look not well unto our selves and take heed lest in seeking to preserve our bodies we destroy our own souls or to save our estates we make shipwrack of our faith or especially to uphold an earthly Rule or Kingdome we expose to ruine the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church of God as you know how the Parliament do it at this day And therefore the Spaniards prayer is very good Dios mi guarda mi de mi O my God defend me from my self that I do not destroy my self and Saint Augustine upon the words of the Psalmist Deliver me from the wicked man demanding who was that wicked man Answ it was a seipso and so the wisest Philosophers have given us many Precepts to beware of our selves And he that can do so Latius regnat avidum domando Spiritum Horatius quam si lybiam remotis Gadibus jungat uterque paenus Serviat uni doth more and ruleth better then he that reigneth from the Southern Lybia to the Northern Pole so hard it is for man under all the cope of Heaven to find any one that truly loves him But God is Verax veritas true and the truth it self and as Hugo saith Veritas est sine fallacia faelicitas sine miseria he is Truth without Deceit that neither can deceive not be deceived and as this our Apostle saith God is love and the Fountain of all true love and he is sweet he is wise and he is strong 1 John 4.8 How God loveth us and how sweet and gracious his love is therefore S. Bern. saith that he loveth sweetly wisely and strongly Dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit sweetly because he was made man to have a fellow-feeling of our miseries wisely because he did avoid sin that he might be able to help us and strongly because his love was as strong as death when rather then he would lessen his love unto us he would lose his life for us And therefore of all that pretend to love us God alone is the onely pure and truly perfect lover 2. For the affection it is love for God loved us and love 2 The affection Love comprehendeth three things as it is in the creatures is a passion better perceived by the lover then it can be expressed by any other and it comprehendeth three things 1. A liking to the thing beloved 2. A desire to enjoy it And 3. A contentment in it as when the Father saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as others think of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to be fully and perfectly satisfied in the thing loved as Phavorinus testifieth And so though the affection of love is not the same in God as it is in us because he is a Spirit most simple without passion and we are often-times transported and swallowed up of this affection yet in the love of God we finde these three things most perfectly contained 3 Things contained in the love of God 1. An Eternal benevolence or purpose to do good unto his creatures 2. An Actual beneficence and performance of that good unto them 3. A Delightful complacency or contented delight in the things beloved as the Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness that is he taketh delight and pleasure in all righteous livers and as he hateth the ungodly so he loveth the righteous and taketh delight in them and in their just and righteous dealing But because love is an inward affection that can hardly be discerned without some outward demonstration of the same and that as S. Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis the trial of our love is seen by our actions which testifie our love far better then our words How God imanifesteth his love many wayes when we see too too many that profess to love us when they labour to destroy us as the rebels pray for the King when they fight against him so finely can the Devil deceive us therefore God manifested his love by many manifold arguments As 1. Way 1 By screating things of nothing and making them so perfectly good that when himself had considered them all he saw that they were all exceeding good 2. Way 2 By preserving all things that they return not to nothing Quia fundavit Deus mundum supranihilum ut mundus fundaret se supra Deum because God laid the foundations of the world upon nothing that the world might wholly rely upon God who is the basis that beareth up all things with his mighty word and more particularly in preserving not onely the righteous but even the wicked also from many evils both of Sin and Punishment for did not God withhold and restrain the very reprobates even
all these things pass I dare appeal to any impartial Reader that neither Eusebius nor Socrates nor Thuanus nor Chammier nor any other Hystorian Ecclesiastical or Prophane that have written of Persecutions or of the cruelty of Antichrist can shew me any King since the King of the Jews that by his own Subjects and for no vice of his own that malice it self can tax him but only in reality whatsoever is otherwise pretended for the defence of Christ his faith and the true service of God the protection of all faithfull Preachers and the upholding of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom hath or could suffer more unkingly indignities by any Antichrist than our gracious King hath done by his own ungraciaus Subjects of these three Kingdoms But stay and let us consider that although these Persecutions be exceeding great yet our sins and transgressions are far greater and God in all this is most just and as Ezra saith Ezra 9 13. Punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve for certainly we must confess what the world seeth that we have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly and therefore as Eusebius confesseth the iniquities of the Primitive Christians to have pulled upon them those Heathen Persecutions so must we acknowledge this Antichristian Tyranny to have most justly fallen upon us And not only so but seeing we have so justly deserved it let us submit our selves under the mighty hand of God repent and be sorry for whatsoever we have done amiss and pray to God for grace and strength to suffer what shall be laid upon us either for the punishment of our sins or the trial of our Faith to God and our Loyalty to our King not only the loss of all worldly things but even of our life it self because that in so suffering unto death we shall be sure to have the Crown of life which the Lord grant unto us for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen I have spent two hours in treating of this one verse already and because here is magnum in parvo abundance of treasure in this little mine I must crave leave to spend one hour more and with that I hope I shall finish all that I have to say on these words You may remember I told you the words contain 1. Gods love to Man 2. Mans love to God The first I handled in my first Sermon And In the second I shewed you three parts that is to say 1. The Persons We 2. The Act Love 3. The Object him We love him 3 The Object of our love God The two first in my last Sermon And now because I love neither Tautologies nor to stand long upon repetitions I will proceed unto the object of our love where the Apostle saith We love him that is God And I would to God that we did all love him quia actus distinguitur per objectum because it is not our love that doth hurt us but the object of our love maketh or marreth all for as St. Augustine saith Duas civitates duo faciunt amores our love to God buildeth up Jerusalem Aug. super Psal 64. the Church and City of God and our love to the world and these worldly things buildeth up Babylon the Synagogue of Satan And therefore this is the errour of the sons of men The errour of men not that we are subject unto Passions and endued with the affections of Fear Hate Love and the like but that we misguide our Passions and misorder our affections by misplacing them where they ought not to be setled for we may fear so it be him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire we may hate so it be the thing that is evill and we may love so it be what we ought and as we ought to love But this is that which God cannot endure that we should fear men more than God or fear temporal losses goods or lands more than the loss of our souls and the wounding of a good conscience or that we should hate our brethren and not their sins which we cherish in our selves though we detest them in all others or that we should love the world and not God or any thing in the world more than God or so much that it should any waies lessen our love to God And therefore here I may stop my course and stay a while to reprove those many millions of men that are as the Philosophers said The Citizens of the world and do freely bestow their loves not on God but either upon the vain pleasures The love of vain things choaketh our love to God or the vile profits of this wicked world And it is a strange thing to see how one affecteth Honour another Beauty a third Authority and most of us some one kind of vanity or other that either drowneth or driveth away and so lesseneth much our love to God And above all things the love of Riches choaketh this divine love in all worldly men For as Apolonius Tyanaeus saith That he hath seen a stone called Pantaura which is the Queen of all other stones and hath in it all the vertues that are to be found in all the other pretious stones So to this stone do some men compare riches Kiches what they are like because they suppose riches to contain in them the force and vertue of all other things and are able to bring mighty things to pass as the fiercest beasts are made tame by them the fairest Ladies are won by them as Jupiter prevailed with Danae What great things wealth and riches have done when as the Poets feign he came unto her in a golden showre The greatest Kings are subdued by them when as no weapons can overcome the shields of Gold and Rome it self might have been bought if Jugurth had had wealth enough to purchase it as he said when he passed out of Rome And you see the Fishes of the Sea that are overwhelmed with water and drowned in the Deep cannot escape the force of Riches and the Fowls of the air though of the swiftest Wings yet can they not fly from their Empire yea what Altitudes have not Riches abated What difficulties have they not vanquished What improbabilities I will not say impossibilities have they not facilitated And what things have they desired that they have not obtained Therefore St. Augustine shewing the folly of the Pagans about their selected gods Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 7. c. 3. wondreth that if wise men were their Selectors why Venus was preferred before the Lady Vertue or if Venus deserveth her enhansement because more do affect her than those that love vertue then why was not Lady Money more famous than Minerva seeing that in all sorts of men there are more that love coyn better than knowledge and all Trades aime at Money and say with the Poet Quaerenda pecunia primum est virtus
he devised the way to depose her and to set the Crown upon the right Heirs Head whose example we ought all to follow when opportunity serveth Or were I not so that we must renounce usurped power how shall we protect and maintain the just and lawful authority 2 Sam. 15 16. surely the people that followed Abso lon when he had the power to trample Justice under foot to possesse the royal City and to drive the lawful King to flie from place to place and the followers of those perfideous Rebels of Killkenney that so barbarously massacred the poor Protestants and so foully so falsely deluded both the good King and all the Kings friends and have now as themselves pretend the great power in this Kingdom may well be justified not to have offended if this doctrine may be defended that usurped authority is not to be resisted but to be obeyed when its power is most prevalent But the Apostle tells us plainly Rom. 14.2 that whatsoever is not of faith is sin and with what faith I pray you can I obey that power and submit my self to that authority which my conscience tells me to be against truth and without Justice But Tertull. ad Scapulam makes this most clear where he sheweth how tender the Christians were to preserve the right to the lawful Emperours and therefore though Albinus was most powerful in the West and Pisen Niger in the East yet the Christians would be nec Albiniani nec Cassiani nec Nigriani Yet this much I must tell you that where the right heir is not apparent as it was not amongst many of the Primitive Emperours who were often lifted up to that royal dignity by none other right than the Sword of the tumultuous Souldiers and unconstant cohorts and were therefore obeyed by the good Christians because they knew not of any other that had any better right unto the Empire the same as yet being unsetled to continue in any hereditary line or when the just Title to the Crown is not cleered as perhaps it was not to all the Subjects in the time of Hen. 4. Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. and the like doubtful claimes then it is not for every private mechanick or ignorant Rustick to determine the right to the Crown and decide the equity or the iniquity of such powers but as the Apostle saith and as it was most learnedly handled by a most Reverend and a most learned Prelate of our Church not long since in this place they ought to study to be quiet to follow their own Trades 1 Thes 4 11. and to do their own business and not to polupragmatize in matters so transcendent and so metaphysical to their Mechanick and Rustick capacities And in this qualified sence you must understand and not mistake the meaning of the same most Reverend Prelate in this place upon our last Kings day that when it is doubtful to whom the right of the Soveraign Power should belong or who hath right unto the Soveraignty then all ignorant and private men are excused though they resist not the Government that hath the present power over them but do obey the same especially by their passive obedience and likewise by their active obedience in all honest and lawful demands All which with all that I said before I say to clear the integrity of the said Reverend Prelates intention from any sinister apprehension of misunderstanding hearers But where the right is indubitable and the soveraignty not to be questioned whose it is as it is with our most gracious King whom all the Irish Rebels of Kilkenny and all the other Rebels of these three Kingdoms deny not to be their lawful Soveraign I say that what Power soever exalteth it self above him or against him which the Parliament of England doth not when it challengeth only a kind of co-ordination with him we are not to yield any obedience unto the same especially if the same command or require any thing contrary to his commands because as the Son of Syrach saith We are to stand with the right and in the truth and as our Saviour saith To continue faithful therein unto death if we desire to enjoy the Crown of life And therefore though the dumb devil may hold my tongue Rev. 2.10 so that I shall be able to say nothing of what truth should be delivered yet all the power of hell shall never open my mouth and cause me to say that untruth which my conscience telleth me cannot be justified because this love to the truth of Scripture is a singular Testimony of our love to God 3. The next sign of the love of God is to love the honour of God without which we cannot be said to love God 2 To love Gods honour 4. The next sign is to love Gods Image that is Man 5. To observe Gods Precepts 6. To hate Sin 7. A longing desire to be with God to have an Union and Communion with him for it is an impregnable property of a person loving to desire to be united to the person loved and therefore Pyramus loving Thisbe cries out to the wall that hindered them to meet together Invide dicebat paries quid amantibus obstas Many other signs of Gods love I should shew unto you and the impediments that hinders us to love God such as are 1. The ignorance of the incomprehensible sweetness and unspeakable goodness of God 2. The too much love of our selves and of our carnal desires 3. The bewitching allurements of the pleasures profits and other vanities of this present world and the like that do hinder blind and suffocate our love to God And then last of all I should shew unto you the helps and furtherances to beget and to nourish the love of God in us such as are 1. The continual meditation of Gods goodness towards us and his excellencies in himself 2. The daily reading and hearing of Gods Word and the reading of other godly Books that do incite and invite us to love the Lord above all the things of this World 3. Continual Prayers to God for Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit to encline our hearts to love him 4. Often discourse and conference with good and holy men about the goodness of God and heavenly things and the like All which I should more fully and amply inlarge unto you but that the time binds me to defer the same to a fitter opportunity and in the interim to pray to God for grace to abandon the love of this World and to love God and to encrease in our love to him more and more through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be Glory and Honour and Thanks now and for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE DECLARATION OF THE Just Judgments of GOD. THE Man that was according to God's own heart the best Subject that ever we read of and the greatest Ring that ever Israel saw David the Son of Jesse saith that the LORD is righteous in
Homer saith Iliad Ï€. but as God useth to do in the like case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Annuit hoc illi Divum pater abnuit illud that is to give them what he thought fit for them and to deny them what he conceived them unworthy of Yet because that was not satisfactory to their expectation when they beheld as Ovid saith Fertilior seges alienis semper in agris better Corn and a more plentiful Harvest in the Bishops Fields then in their own they taught their Proselytes to invent new Oaths and Covenants to call new Synods and they made Seditious and Schismatical Sermons and defended Perjuries Forgeries Treacheries Equivocations Rebellions and the like and they altered the whole frame of the Government of the Church and of the Service of our God And so as Solomon ascended to the Throne of Majesty per sex gradus by six steps so these men descended to the depth of their Iniquity by these six ugly sins And though as Reusner saith Formicae grata est formica cicada cicadae Et doctus doctis gaudet Apollo choris one Ant Disscidia inter aequales â—ut fratres pâ—ssima and one Grashopper loves another and as Plinie saith Serpens Serpentem non laedit one Serpent will not bite nor hurt another and as our Saviour saith If Satan cast out Satan his kingdom cannot stand yet these men worse then Serpents and foolisher then Flies do that which Satan will not do destroy them of their own Profession their fellow-Servants and those worrhy men that made them the Ministers of Christ Proud envy so their virtues doth deface And makes these foes to them they should embrace And therefore as their Pride Covetousness and Ambition either through ignorance or else which is worse against their Consciences if they were not ignorant have made them to envy the Bishops and to hate the King and thereupon omnem movere lapidem to use all their best wit and to imploy their whole strength like the brood of Vipers to gnaw out the bowels of their Mother-Church and like cursed Cham to discover and to deride their Fathers supposed nakedness and to spur on the Parliament never to give over to prosecute their design to degrade the Bishops to put down the Hierarchy Root and Branch so the just God whose Judgements are true and righteous altogether Psal 19.5 to recompense this their wickedness to their bosom suffered the Devil to stir up as spiteful and as malicious a generation of Vipers as themselves a brood of Independents that sprang from among themselves and that became as outragious against them as they had been injurious against the Bishops and these were not afraid to jear Jack Presbyter as they termed him to his face to set out his last Will and Testament and to proclaim it to the World that these Presbyterians were far more insolent more intolerable more inconsistent with Monarchy and their Government every way more unjustifiable and further from the Apostolical Rule then the Government of the Prelates and if the Presbytery should be established whereas before we had but twenty six Bishops in all England So many Popes in England as there be Parishes we should then have not a Bishop but a Pope in every Parish throughout this Kingdom and a Pope more arrogant and presumptuous and more tyrannical and injurious to the people of God then ever any Bishop or Pope attempted to be for whereas neither Pope nor Bishop excommunicated any Christian but either for contempt of his Court or upon sufficient proof upon the Oath of good Witnesses to make good the Allegation alledged against him every Presbyter upon his own dislike and his own supposal that such an one is unworthy and a scandalous liver will presently excommunicate the same person and cut him off from the Body of Christ heu scelus nefandum an offence beyond expression And so by these and the like bold attempts And another saith Hic jacet in cineres quem deflent hae mulieres Presbyter Andreas qui vitiavit eas Cujus luxuriae meretrix non sufficit omnis Cujus â—varitiae totus non sufficit orbis and constant Allegations of the Independents the dissembling and Hypocritical Assembly of Presbyterians were disliked divers of them imprisonned some of them executed others fled and all of them discarded and discharged from their new devised Presbyterial Tyranny and one that best knew them makes this Epitaph of them Presbyter hic jacet jam dedecus urbis orbis Qui nostrae aetatis magna ruina fuit Hic est si nescis qui nobis certe paravit Excidium pestem funera bella famem Contemptor sacrum blasphemus publicus hostis Perfidus ingratus raptor iniquus atrox Ex ista tandem migravit urbe Tyrannus Quo pejor pestis nullus in orbe fuit And as there were under the Law four great Prophets Esay Jeremiah Ezechiel and Daniel and in the time of the Gospel four Evangelists St. Matthew St. Mark St. Luke and St. John and in the Primitive Church four famous Greek Fathers St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzene St. Chrysostome and the like four in the Latine Church St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustine and St. Gregory and in the Popish Church four great Schole-Doctors Aquinas Scotus Antoninus and Bonaventur So these Independents have nominated four Arch-Presbyters Marshall Case Calamy and Edwards to be the four Bearers of the Presbyterial Assembly to his Grave and appointed Sibbalds to teach their Funeral-Sermon upon that Text in Psal 89.44 The days of my youth hast thou shortned and covered me with dishonour and Burges and Sedgewick were to be the close Mourners then Gouge to throw it like an Ass into the pit with these few words Ashes to ashes dust to dust And rise thou when others must And thus their own Proselytes have jeared the Presbytery out of his life The whole Tryal of Mr. Love pag. 68. And that which is more worthy your observation Mr. Christopher Love who confesseth that he was the first Scholar that he knew of or ever heard of in Oxford that did publickly refuse in the Congregation-House to subscribe unto those Impositions or Canons imposed by the Arch-Bishop touching the Prelates and Common-Prayer for which he was expelled the Congregation-House never to sit amongst his Brethren so he was the first of the Presbyters that suffered death for the defence of the Covenant and the Presbyterian Cause And this was as I conceive some part of the inchoative Judgement of God upon them in this life what more shall be imposed on them either here or hereafter it is not for me to imagine but leave it to him that is the Judge of all the World But hereby we may all see How justly God hath dealt and dealeth with the Presbyterians how just is God in all this to throw them down that sought to raise themselves by throwing their Fathers down And who then considering these just Judgements of Almighty God and his