Christ as though God did beseech you through us wee pray you in Christs stead that ye be reconciled unto God For hee hath made himselfe Iustification upon remission of sinnes and Christs righteousnesse imputed sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God through him Remission of sinne is the first part of Reconciliation whereby the guiltinesse and punishment of our sinnes is removed from us by Christs sufferings For thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise againe the third day that Repentance and Remission of sinnes might bee preached in his name to all nations And Hee through Death hath destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Divell and that hee might deliver all them which for feare of Death Hebr. 2. 14 15. were all their life time subject to bondage Yea it is Christ alone That Apoc. 1. 5. hath washed us from our sinnes with his bloud Yea His bloud it is that cleanseth us from all sinne 1 Iohn 1. 7. Imputation of righteousnesse is the other part of Reconciliation whereby by Christs righteousnesse being imputed unto us we appeare just and blamelesse before God our Father For by him wee have received the attonement And as by the offence of Rom. 5. 11 16. one the fault came on all men to condemnation So by the justifying of one the benefit abounded towards all men to the justification of life And Hee hath now reconciled us in the body of Col. 1. 22. his flesh through Death to make us holy and unblameable and without fault in the sight of God his Father Now againe of Remission and Imputation spring Iustification and Adoption For Being justified by Faith wee have Peace Rom. 5. 1. towards God through our Lord Iesus Christ For when the fulnesse of time was come God sent foorth his Sonne made of a woman and made under the Law that hee might redeeme them which were under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of Sonnes Iustification is that wherby we being delivered before God of the guiltinesse of sin are accounted just For Who shall lay any thing Rom. 8. 33. to the charge of Gods chosen It is God that justifieth who shall condemne As by one mans disobedience many are made sinners so by the obedience Rom. 5. 19. of one shall many also bee made righteous Adoption is that whereby wee are accounted Sonnes and heires of God For yee have not saith Paul received the spirit of Rom. 8. 15. bondage to feare againe but yee have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we crie Abba Father And hee further affirmeth That we are all the Sonnes of God by Faith in Christ Iesus From these two wee obtaine these two blessings First that all crosses turne to us to the best so saith the Apostle All Rom. 8. 28 things worke together for the best â—o them even them that are called of purpose For though hee visit 〈◊〉 sinnes with rods and our offences with scourges yet his loving kindnesse will hee never take from us nor suffer his truth to faile Secondly by Iustification and Adoption wee obtaine a chiefety or rule over all Creatures except Angels For so saith David Thou hast made him little lower than Angels and crowned him Psal 8. 5 6. with glory and worship Thou hast made him to have dominion in the Workes of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feete And the Sanctification in Mortification and viyification Sanctification imperfect in this life same also the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrewes affirmeth Now for Sanctification whereby God beginneth in us holinesse that hath two members Mortification to sinne and Resurrection to righteousnesse Mortification is the first part whereby the power of sinne is killed in us and of this Mortification Paul speaketh thus Our old man is crucified within that the body of sinne might bee destroyed that henceforth wee should not serve sinne And againe That Rom. 6. 6. Gal. 2. 19. I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ Resurrection unto righteousnesse is whereby sanctity holinesse is really inherent and begun in us and is increased dayly more and more For Wee are buried with Christ by Baptisme unto his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of his Rom. 6. 4. Father So wee also should walke in newnesse of life These parts of Sanctification referred unto the Soule are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but referred to the Body they are called frustus seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fruits This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a renewing of all the faculties of the Soule a converting them from evill to good A bringing foorth of fruits worthy amendment of life And Luke 3. 8. this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath his Initium beginning comitem and his companion His beginning is is godly sorrow for whose heart Gods spirit doth touch is sorry for his sinnes committed against so mercifull a Father His Companion is a spirituall combate for the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5. 17. This Sanctification being the second principall part of our Redemption is the quallity whereby Gods spirit doth renew us and begin in us newnesse of life but it is not perfect absolute in us Paenitentia amor sequuntur noticiam nostram Repentance and Love follow our Knowledge but our knowledge is 1 Cor. 13. 9. but in part And this I note against the blasphemy of Osiander who saith that the essentiall righteousnesse of Christ is in us but the righteousnesse of Christ is without us not within us and is apprehended by Faith And therefore Pauls care was to bee found in him that is in Christ Not having saith Paul mine Phil. 3. 9. own righteousnes which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ even the righteousnesse which is of God through Faith For the righteousnesse whereby wee are justified is the meere imputation of Christs worke unto us and therefore this word Imputation is tenne times recited in one Chapter When a friend Rom. 5. of his owne goods and not of mine payeth debt that I owe that payment or satisfaction is mine it is imputed to mee when as yet it is the worke of my friend and none of mine After the same manner the righteousnesse of Christ is ours This righteousnesse therefore whereby wee are justified is Grace and not Nature Imputation not Essence it is a Communication of the benefit of Christ not a commixion of essence it is Holinesse is said in diverse senses an effect of the proper worke of Christ non substantia ipsa Christi not the very substance of Christ The other righteousnesse wherewith he sanctifieth us is but begun onely it is not absolute For as the Sunne shineth and as the fire warmeth us and yet doe not transferre their essence into us
fell from Angels to Divels For their sinne of Apostacy was great it cryed to God for vengeance The Lord Iesus noteth this Apostacy in them to shew that their sinne was not by creation but by wilfull corruption Hereupon saith our Saviour to the Iewes You are of your father the divell and the lusts of your father doe yee he abode not in the truth It followeth then that Iohn 8 44. he was once in the truth and that he was not created evill This Apostacy in some case joyned with wilfulnesse and malice is not to be prayed for So saith Saint Iohn the Disciple whom Iesus loved If any man see his brother sin a sinne that is not unto death let him aske and he shall give life for them that sinne not to death There 1 Iohn 5. 16. is a sinne unto death I say not that thou shouldst pray for it Some Apostacies cannot be renewed For it is impossible that they which have been once lightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were Heb. 6. 4 5 6. made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good Word of God and of the powers of the world to come If they fall away should be renewed by repentance seeing they crucifie againe to themselves the Sonne of God and make a mocke of him For certainely they that are Apostataes and sinne against the Holy Ghost hate Christ crucifie and mocke him but to their owne destruction and therefore fall into desperation and cannot repent Indeed there is no sin but by repentance may be forgiven but they that sinne against the Holy Ghost which some affirme to be Apostasia aut negatio Christi Apostacy or the denying of Christ it shall not be forgiven â—â—â—lla in Luc. 12. 10. Quia directè obviant principio per quod fit remissio peccatorum because they are directly and plainely opposite and contrary to that whereby remission of sinnes is obtained that is unto repentance And this is the cause saith Augustine why God hath redeemed men and not Angels for that they sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from within and of themselves maliciously and rebelliously man sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from without and by provocation And this is Christs death saves only men not Angels the cause saith Augustine why Moses wrote nothing of the fall of Angels he named not their wound because he would not name their medicine Sed hominis vulnus medicinam narravit but he hath shewed man his wound and medicine also for that Aug. lib. de mirab Script cap. 2. God would restore him againe Humanam ergo naturam non Angelicam sumpsit Christus quoth Athanasius therefore he tooke the nature of man not the nature of Angels according to that of Athanasius the Apostle He in no sort tooke the Angels but hee tooke the seed of Abraham Quia Angeli per se defecerunt à Deo because the Angels of themselves fell from God Therefore the promise of the Messiah was made onely to man not to Angels The grace of GOD that Tit. 2. 11. bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared Grace saveth men not Angels For these Angels that fell have no benefit by Christs death he came not to save them for their sinnes are not pardonable But the cause of mercy I leave to God onely the father of mercies These are but conjectures of Augustine and Athanasius In the meane time Dorbels reasons are too weake to prove that men shall bee punished in hell more deeply than these Angels that fell His first reason is Quia Deus nunquam pro illis passus est ut pro nobis that God never suffered so much for them as for us His second reason is Quia Angeli pro uno tantum peccato puniuntur nos saepe deliquimus the Angels fell by one sinne only man by many sinnes hee offendeth oft His third reason is Quia daemones sunt spiritus tantum nos autem corpore anima peccamus that the bad Angels the Divels be spirits onely but men have both bodies and spirits But these reasons are vanishing as the untimely dew unsavoury as the white of an egge brittle as the webbe of a spider Hee spake as Phormio spake before Hannibal Rem magis delirantem nunquam legi I never read a more doating thing But to proceed my meaning is not that all Apostacy is sinne against the Holy Ghost for every Apostacy is not uncurable every fall of man is not damnable as the fall of Angels yet it is dangerous for he that settetb his hand to the plough and looketh back Luke 9. 62. is not fit for the Kingdome of God And Christ said to the sicke man Behold thou art made whole sinne no more lest a worse thing happen unto Iohn 5. 14. thee Thus all Apostacy is dangerous though not damnable for if damnable what shall become of the godly themselves for they often fall from the Lord slide backe and decrease in the graces of God They keepe not their first estate which was the sinne of the Angels Ephesus lost her first love but I would our Church were like it for Ephesus hated the evil wee hate the good Apoc. 2. 4. they examined the false Apostles wee examine none they suffered Luke 12. 45. persecution we persecute others we smite our fellow servants Iulian the Christian is become Iulian the Apostata and Simon Peter is become Simon Magus Ioseph is become Pharoah grapes are turned into thornes figs into thistles Lambes into Lions and Doves There must be a perpetuall growth in grace and goodnesse into Serpents We are fallen from our first love every day lesse and lesse zealous lesse and lesse loving lesse and lesse religious than heretofore we have been Memento Anglia memento Norfolcia unde excideris Remember England remember Norfolke whence thou art fallen Revertere revertere Returne returne saith the Lord Ier. 3. 14. for I am your Lord and will bring you to Sion Let us follow the counsell of the Wise man In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening Eccles 11. 6. let not thine hand rest that is increase in goodnesse doe good in Gal. 6. 6. thy youth doe good in thine age yea doe good at all times be not weary of sowing be not weary of working the seed-time is nothing the harvest is all in all To doe good in youth is nothing to doe well in middle age is nothing but to continue in old age to the last gaspe is piety indeed When a righteous man saith the Prophet turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth Ezech. 18. 26. iniquity he shall even dye for the same hee shall even die for his iniquity that he hath committed aswell may we drowne in the Havens mouth as in the middest of the boisterous Sea aswell may wee fall through the peevishnesse of age as through the lusts and concupiscence of youth Of many it may be
cut from the body of his Country This envy is compared in some respect by some learned men unto the Sunne for as the nature of the Sunne is to obscure and darken things which be cleare and manifest and likewise to lighten and to illustrate that which is obscure so envy endeavoureth to obscure the glory of those which are famous and in the gifts and graces of the spirit excell others for none are more subject to envy than those which for vertue and religion are renowned but let them envy the good and maligne them to the uttermost Rumpanturilia Codro yet let us lay aside all maliciousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and all envy The eye of envy lookes ever upward who is above who riseth who prospereth who is well spoken of well thought of or favoured of God and asmuch grieved is an envious man at the good of another as at the harme of himselfe which Diogenes noted when he saw a knowne envious knave looke sad no man can tell quoth he whither harme hath happened to this fellow or good unto his neighbour for both vexe him alike Envy was the first venome which the Divell powred forth against mankind Hinc periit primus perdidit by this the first Cypr. man perished himselfe and destroyed others what was the cause that Caine slew his brother his onely comfort in that new borne world was it not envy when he saw the gift of his brother accepted of God and his owne rejected he was very wrath And his countenance fel down as not able to endure the sight of his brother Gen. What was the cause why the Patriarkes sold Ioseph to the Ismalites Envie theroot of all mischiefe and then came and told their Father That a wicked beast had devoured him Surely it was because they envied him for his dreames Gen. 37. Because the women sang in the streets Saul hath slaine his thousand and David his ten thousand therefore was Saul exceeding 1 Sam. 18. wroth and had envy to David ever after It was saith the King of Preachers a venimous mischievous eye such as the burning eyes of Witches or the Basiliske or Gorgon that he cast towards him The elder brother when he understood of the entertainement that his father gave to his prodigall brother and with what joy and rejoycing he was entertained Hee was angry at the matter and would not goe in he envied it Examine the reason why Innocencie it selfe was hunted and followed unto death with Crucisie him crucifie him hee is not worthy to live Was it not Mat. 27. envy Let Pilat be judge He knew that for envy they had dilivered him Doe wee looke that envy should favour the honour and welfare of men when it favoureth not the life of a man No not the life of the Lord himselfe Poyson they say is life to the Serpent death to a man and that which is life to a man his spittle and naturall humidity is death to a Serpent I have read it thus applied Vertue and Felicity which is life to a good man is death to the envious and that which the envious live by is the misery and death of a good man for envy endevoreth either that men may not live at all or that they may live miserably And therefore amongst other fruits of a reprobate minde these two are joyned together Envy and Murther and likewise Rom. 1. Gal. 5. amongst the workes of the flesh they are in the same combination as if they were twinnes growing in one body and could not be separated Envy is the roote of all mischiefe in the World this is that Troiane horse that Pandora's boxe full of all deadly poyson that Hydra not with seven heads but with seven hundred heads of mischiefe We marvell that there is so much evill in the world but cease to marvel at it seeing there is so much envious pride in the World For envy commeth from this master sinne Pride which is as a master-pock and cannot be healed Pride is a liking of our selves and envie is the hatred of another mans felicity where the first is there is the second Superbia est metropolis omnium vitiorum Pride is the chiefe or mother sin of all sins Minores despicit majoribus invidet ab aequalibus dissentit She scorneth her inferiors envieth her betters and dissenteth from all equals as was said of Caesar and Pompey the one could not abide a superiour the other an equall Two things be in the Lord Glory and justice the proud man robbeth God of the one as Herod who would not give the glory to God and the malitious envious of Act. 12. the other For he revengeth whereas all men should give roome to vengeance for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will reward The etymology of envie it implying to be in the eye saith the Lord. Envy is as the dung of swallowes which put out the eyes of Father Tobias our pride and envie is infinite wee would be Kings nay wee would bee Gods The Bactrians said of Alexander that if his body were answerable to his heart Rom. 12. 19. He would touch the East with one hand the West with another hee would set one foote in the Land and the other in the Sea the same may be said of many of us for truely wee envie the Aire Fire Water to others If wee could stop the Sunne or inclose the waters into one fist or draw up all the Ayre into one mouth we would doe it to hinder others The Poet describeth envy thus First with a pale face without bloud Secondly with a leane body without any juyce in it Thirdly with squint eyes Fourthly with blacke teeth Fiftly with an heart full of gall Sixtly with a tongue tipped with poison And last of all with a countenance never laughing but when others weepe never sleeping because he studieth and thinketh continually upon mischiefe Invidia dicitur quiavel non videt Cypr. vel nimis intuetur It is câ—lled Envy either because it will not see at all that which in the blessings of God is to bee seene or because it prieth too deepe Envious men are like Mermaides which never sing but in a tempest and mourne in a calme so they rejoyce at the hurt of their neighbours and sorrow at their welfare The housholder said to his servant that murmured at his bounty to others is thine eye evill because I am good enviest thou me because of my liberality Even so is thy eye evill because thy neighbour is wealthier than thou his wit sharper than thine his learning more than thine his credit greater than thine we would have no man fare well but our selves Like Nero who when he died wished that all the world might dye with him Me mortuo Coelum terra misceatur Ier. 6. 10. Psal 120. 3. Psal 14. Esa 1. 5. Phil. 3. 17. Esa 59. 2 Pet. 2. said Nero. Divers sinners have divers properties The
quà m anima dissimulans coram Deo Angelis A dead dogge sauoureth lesse in our noses then a dissembling soule an hypocrite doth in Gods and therefore Let death seaze upon them let them goe downe quicke into the grave for wickednesse is in Psal 55. 15. their dwellings even in the middest of them But in that he compareth us to trees it is to teach us that God will come take an account of our fruit A grievous day it will be when he shall say to these hypocriticall professors Where is prayer knowledge godly conference meditation instruction of your families education of your children love of religion The greater part of Christians hypocrites zeale of my glory When hee shall say Why stand these vineyards and yeeld no grapes why hangeth this ivy-bush here and there is no wine why stand these trees and yeeld no fruit what doe these starres in heaven and yeeld no light why doe these husband-men occupie my farme and pay no rent He will command the clouds to raine no raine upon these vineyards he will Esa 5. 7. Luk. 13. cut downe these trees and burne them he will destroy these husband-men let out his vineyard to other husband-men which shall deliver him the fruits in their seasons When God shall aske for fruits we may say as the woman said of her accusers Lord they are gone either wee never had any or else they are lost Mat. 21. 41. either our brests never had milke or else like dry nurses we have lost our milke either our candles never had light or else are out Iohn 8. 1 Pet. 2. Hebr. 12. either we never had any birth-right or else with Esau wee have sold our birth-right either we never had zeale or else it is quenched like the fire on the Altar in the Babylonicall captivity We heare the word we communicate but where is private praier private conference private meditation private instruction of our families We professe Religion we come to the Church we heare the Word for shew only for fashion only of custome not of conscience Dagon of the Philistines and the Arke of God is all one to us the temple of Salomon and the temple of Rimmon is all one the service of God and the worship of Diana is all one Sion and Samaria Ierusalem and Ierico the Gospeland the Masse to us are both alike Satan may say to us as he did unto the Monke who had his portise in one hand and his harlot in the other Parùm refert atraque enim via ducit ad interitum it is no matter both wayes lead to hell and to destruction so it is not matter whether we professe the Gospell or not so long as wee professe it so coldly and so carnally so hypocritically so dissemblingly both are naught both damnable Our carnall gospelling first tooke King Edward from us then Queene Elizabeth from us then King Iames I pray God at the last it take not the Gospell from us and our Soveraigne from us It is monstrous for trees to stand seven and seven yeeres yea forty fifty nay sixty yeeres and more and to yeeld no fruit For us to live long in the Church and to doe no good Devide the world into an hundred parts scarce one is Christendome and that one devide into tenne and scarce one is sincere voide of hypocrisie Oh remember that yee are washed with the water of Baptisme that yee have God for your Father the Church for your mother that yee have beene fedde with the milke of the Gospell instructed in the Word of God fed with the bread of Angels with sacramentall bread and will yee yet live like Ethnicks like Pagans like Turkes like infidels and like hypocrites yet most men so live For what forbidden fruit will they not eate Iudgements denounced against hypocrisie with Adam What Babylonish garment will they not take with Achan What usury with Zacheus and what Naboths vineyard will they not covet with Ahab what sinne is there which they can commit but they have committed they bee trees indeed but bad trees without fruit and therfore two things hath God prepared for them a sharp axe and a quicke fire For every tree Mat. 3. that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewne downe and cast into the fire And Saint Iude tells us that these trees be twice dead and plucked up by the rootes dead in worke and deed and inword dead tam in ramis bonorum operum aswell in the boughes of good workes quà m in radicibus fidei as in the rootes of faith twice dead because according to the flesh they be most corrupt and according to the soule most perverse twice dead dead to God dead unto the world both in this world and in the world to come Augustine maketh three deaths the death of the soule the death of the body the death of both body and soule called the second death the first death is here meant But to draw unto a Conclusion If hypocrisie be a sinne so odious and seeing that hypocrites be as clouds without raine as starres without light as trees without fruit and shal be sharply Apoc. 20. 1. punished and pulled up by the rootes Let us stedfastly cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart and let us abandon hypocrisie that we may please the Lord and let us reject dissimulation that we may be blessed and let us not presume to carry the name of Christ without sincerity and godlinesse of conversation THE FOVRE AND TVVENTIETH SERMON VERS XIII To whom is reserved blacknesse of darkenesse for ever Hell torments set out by divers names YEE heard before of their sinnes as namely of their Epicurisme in that they did eate and drinke without feare feeding themselves then of their pride in that they were like the waves of the sea swelling high lastly of their hypocrisie in that they were as cloudes that promise raine and had nothing but drynesse in them in that they were as trees that promise fruit and yet they had nothing but leaves And now in these words hee commeth to their punishment and their punishment is that blacknesse of darkenesse is reserved for them for evermote Whereby hee meaneth Hell fire Hell paines For there the Sunne never shineth the Moone and Starres never give light Hell is diversly called by the holy Ghost who taketh great paines in this matter and all to drive us from sin and wickednes He calleth Hell A place for divels Mat. 25. Mat. 18. 8. Mark 9. 2 Thes 1. 8. Psal 11. Vnquenchable fire A worme that ever gnaweth Flaming fire Fire and brimstone A river of hot brimstone All sufferings here but shadowes and beginning of sorrowes A Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone A second death The wine-presse of Gods wrath Damnation of body and soule Esa 30. Apoc. 19. 20. Apoc. 20. Apoc. 14. 19. Mat. 10. 2. 9. Cap. 22. 13. Vtter darkenesse And here in
Tim 3. Mar. 10. Iohn 8. Iudg. 3. Iudg 15. words and in workes this is both to have a shew of godlinesse the power of godlines this is to have both leaves fruit this is to be a true child of Abraham We read of the strength of Shamgar who slew six hundred men with an Oxe goad of Samson who slew a whole Army of the Philistines with a jaw bone of David who smote down a Giant with a pibble stone of Hercules 1 Sam. 17. who overcame a Lion and a Beare and threw downe the birds of Stinphalida and put downe an Amazon a mighty warrior and cut off the head of Hydra but as Lactantius said Lib. 1. cap. 9. these are nothing hee is a stronger man who overcommeth his wrath than hee that overcommeth a Lion he that treadeth under his desires than hee that casteth downe Birds and ravenous fowles he that suppresseth his lust than he that suppresseth the Amazons Hercules for all his strength was a slave to Omphale and sate spinning in a womans attire at her feete with a Rocke and a Distaffe He that is slow to anger is better than a mighty man and hee that ruleth his owne minde is better than hee that winneth a Prov. 16. 32. Citie We are desirous to know the state of our Salvation our Election and Glorification Let us then beginne where God beginneth at the renouncing of our lusts For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation to all men teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and Tit. 2. 12. worldly lusts None can looke for the blessed hope but they that have denyed ungodlinesse worldly lusts None can say There is layd up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse but such as can say I have fought a good fight except they have striven against 2 Tim. 4. 7. their lusts Election is a thing revealed by steps As therefore it is madnesse to a man that climbeth a ladder to labour to set his foot at the first step on the highest step of the Ladder but to beginne at the lowest and so goe to the highest Paul maketh these steps Vocation Iustification Sanctification Glorification Rom. 8. so that if I would come to Glorification the highest step and is in Heaven with God then must I beginne at the lowest step But to prosecute this worthy point farther If I be called of God then am I justified if justified then am I sanctified if sanctified now then shall I be glorified hereafter Paul saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus Yea but who Rom. 8. are those Which walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit So then if I would know whether I be in Christ Iesus or no I must looke how I walke how I tame the flesh and the lusts of it If I finde that God in mercy hath wrought in me a change a hatred of sinne a love of vertue a zeale to his Gospell a care of his Glory a quenching of my lusts and concupiscence then is the conclusion inferred I am in Christ Iesus I am elected Thus wee If no sanctification no assurance of glorification make our election sure to our selves as the Apostle counselleth us Make your election and calling sure by good works it is known to God before the foundations of the World were laid but it is knowne to us by the effect of it so that still our rule holdeth Rom. 8. 2. 2 Pet. 1. 10. If we will know whether wee bee elected to live in Heaven with God we must ever looke how we lead our lives in earth with men Wee must give all diligence joyne vertue godly manners with our Faith and with Vertue Knowledge and with Knowledge 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8. Temperance and with Temperance Patience and with Patience Godlinesse with Godlinesse Brotherly kindnesse and with Brotherly kindnesse Love For if these things be among us and abound they will make that wee shall not bee idle nor unfruitfull in the knewledge of our Lord Iesus Christ If these things bee then are wee happy if God hath changed us from carelesse to careful men and women from drinking riot whoredome prophanenesse to holinesse of life then are wee Gods then Heaven is ours Now live like a Christian among men and ever live like a Saint among the Angels of Heaven But now live in sinne in lusts and pleasures follow the flesh and then rot in the reward of it goe to the Divell and his angels the end of these thing is death I pray you Rom. 6. therefore as you love your life with God another day and assurance of it to your soules in this world Give your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God and fashion not your selves according Rom. 12. 1 2. to this World but bee yee changed by the renewing of your minde and whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whosoever things are pure whatsoever things pertaine to Phil. 4. 8. love whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue or if there bee any praise thinke on these things This desire is the fruit of our life and there is not in the world a better portion This we have chosen and in this we will dwell untill the fulnesse of time that we shall say in our course Nunc dimittis Lord now let thy servant depart in peace These shall assure us that we are the Lords cared Luk. 2. for heere and elected else-where to live with him for ever THE THIRTIETH SERMON VERS XIX These are makers of Sects naturall men having not the Spirit Sectaries cause division in the Church AS before in the former verse he called them Mockers walkâ—ng after their owne ungodly lusts so here he calleth them Sectaries not keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace not remembring that there is Ephes 4. 3 4. but one body one Spirit one faith one God and Father over all which is above all and in us all But these Sectaries set Altar against Altar and cut in sunder Christs seamelesse coate they divide Christ Such were the Corinthians one said I am Pauls another I am Apollos a third I am Cephas a fourth I am Christs Is Christ divided This dividing of Christ 1 Cor. 1. 12. is a signe that men are carnall unregenerate so reasoneth the Apostle Yee are carnall for whereas there is among you envying and 1 Cor. 3. 3 5. strife and divisions are yee not carnall and walke as men Who is Paul And who is Apollos but ministers by whom yee beleeved There was a rough Altar in Ierusalem to note the imperfection of the law and there was but one Altar to note the unity of the Church Well Exod. 27. said Ierome Meum propositum est antiquos legere singula probare tenere Iorome quae bona sunt à fide Ecclesiae Catholicae non recedere My purpose is to
amaenitas Veris abundantia Autumni Bern. requies Hiemalis There shall bee the fairenesse of Summer the sweetenesse of the Spring the pienty of the Autumne and the Winters rest Nay God shall bee all in all unto us Heaven is described in the Apocalyps that the walls are of precious stones 1 Cor. 13. the gates pearles the porters Angels the streetes payed with gold the City Interlaced with crystall rivers the bankes set with trees of life which beare fruit monethly and the leaves cure the Nations Their Sunne is the countenance of God their day never endeth their felicity never decayeth their state never altereth You have beene in mount Horeb where you saw thunderings and lightenings now are yee called to mount Thabor where yee shall injoy the glory of Christ Iesus and say with Peter Bonum est hic esse It is good to bee here Let them make account of this life who make their Lusts their guides their Belly their god their Kitchin their faith the World their Friend and are not onely in it but of it But our Countrey is Heaven our friends Angels our companions the Saints our Father God our mother the Church our brother Christ our guyde the holy Ghost our inheritance Ierusalem that is from above The Saint by loving another as himselfe hath as many joyes as fellowes and for that they all love God more than themselves they take more pleasure of his blisse than all their joyes besides the damnation of their friends grieveth them not because it standeth with the glory of God which is more to them than all their blisse And thus yee see the joyes of life and yet all that I have said of Heaven where wee shall leade a life eternall and possesse a Paradise of infinite pleasure is nothing it is but stilla mari a drop of water to the whole sea scintilla igni comparata as a sparke compared to the great fire of Aetna it is nothing there In Heaven no decay or damping of ioy needeth no Sunne to shine no Moone to give light no porters the gates of it are open continually there is food better than the Mann that fell from Heaven apparell finer than Aarons Ephod Ecclus. 18. 9. Exod. 16. Exod. 30. Psal 133. 2. Mat. 24. Apoc. 2. Hebr. 12. 22. Mat. 17. Esa 11. perfume sweeter than the perfume of the Tabernacle a building more stately than Salomons Temple there is Paradise without any Serpent to tempt us Mount Horeb without any Thunder to feare us Mount Thabor without any change to greeve us Libanon without any Wildernesse to rent us there is mirth without mourning and such joyes and delights that if all the plants of the Earth were Pennes if all the Earth were Paper if all the Sea were Inke if every Man Woman and Childe were a good Pen-man yet they were not able to expresse the thousandth part of these joyes Hic in terris omnium rerum est vicissitudo here in earth all things alter and change after Day commeth Night after Winter Summer after Sickenesse Health after Life Death after Youth old Age after Pleasure Paine but there is Day without Night Summer without any Winter Health without any Sicknesse or Sorrow Life without Death Youth without old Age Pleasure without any Paine there is the Beauty of Absolon without Deformity the Strength of Samson without any Debility the Wisedome of Salomon without any Folly We shall come from Faith to Sight Aug. Epist. 121. Proâ—e Viduae from the Glasse to the Face from Aenigma to a plaine Truth Hic enim ambulamus per fidem non per aspectum here wee walke by Faith and not by Sight Nunc in spe â—unc in re Now in Hope then in Deede Nuncforis tunc domi Now abroad then at home For when this earthly house of this Tabernacle shall bee destroyed wee shall have an house not made with hands but eternall in Heaven For 2 Cor. 5. 1. as the Father said Quid ibi deesse potest ubi Deus est cui nihil deest What can there bee wanting where God is to whome nothing is wantings O beati visio videre Regem Angelorum Sanctum sanctorum Deum Coeli Rectorem terrae Patrem viventium O blessed sight to behold Aug. lib. despir c. cap. 57. the King of Angels the Holy of holies the God of Heaven the Ruler of the Earth the Father of the Living Woe to mee miserable creature quoth August which am not where the holy Saints bee for your life is without all gunne-shot and danger of death your knowledge without errour your love without offence your joy without any annoy I alas am in the region of the shadow of death I know not my end I would depart hence but I know not when I would dye and this haply shall bee my last day But many have no regard at all of this life they looke too much to the pleasures of the world which makes them not to looke into the powers of the life to come not to looke to eternity It is said of Moses that he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the Hebr. 11. 25. people of God in Aegypt then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season The wicked the Infidels have made a Covenant with death and are Divers errors concerning eternall life with Hell at an agreement they beleeve not eternall life they hold with the Sadduces that there is no resurrection nothing maketh us loth to dye but unbeliefe Withipoll wished to live five hundred Esa 28. 15. Mat. 22. yeers though but in the shape of a toade Paulus tertius said at his death Nunc tria experiar Now shal I trie three things Num sit Deus whether there bee a God num anima sit immortalis whether the soule bee immortall num sit vita post mortem and whether there be a life after death The Borussians and the Irish cry to their dead Quare mortuus es Why diddest thou dye Thou hadst wife children corne cattell oh why didst thou dye They have no hope But brethren things present will bee past and things future will 1 Thess 4. bee present and last for ever this life is no life It were long to rehearse all the errors that Satan hath troubled the Church withall in this point I will name but some of many first the Libertines erre who say that all men shall be saved all shall goe to Heaven contrary to that which our Saviour saith Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter the Kingdome of Heaven And Mat. 7. 14. againe Many shall come in that day and shall say Lord Lord have not wee prophesied in thy name cast out Divels in thy name and done many miracles in thy name But he shall answere them Depart from me for verily I know you not And the Prophet telleth us That though the Esa 10. 21. number of the children of Israel bee as the sand
saith he cōmeth Prov. 6. 15. speedily hee shall bee destroyed suddenly without hope of recovery all these three bee fearefull The wages of sinne is death yea sudden death We pray in the Letany to be delivered from sudden death Rom. 6. 23. but our prayer is nothing except our life be godly that shall give a rest to Gods children No sickenesse no death commeth suddenly Esa 28. 12. to the childe of God for hee prepareth himselfe ever hee is a childe of light and of the day therefore hee will not sleepe as other men doe but he will watch and be sober Gods children have oyle in their Lampes that is Faith and Repentance 1 Thess 5 5 6. Mat. 25. they have made their reckonings their loines be girt and their lights burning and let us bee like unto these servants that wait Luk. 14. 28. for their master when he commeth from the marriage that when he commeth koncketh we may open unto him immediately Luk. 12. The troubles that came upon Iob were not sudden he looked for them long before they came Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra many things happen betweene the cup and the upper Iob 1. 25. lip but not to the godly for they stand alway in awe of God and are affraid to offend him for which cause Salomon counteth them blessed saying Blessed is the man that feareth alway And againe hee saith A prudent man seeth the plague and hideth himselfe Pro. 28. 14. Prov. 22. 3. that is the punishment that is prepared for the wicked and flyeth to God for succour hee seeth his wants he suspecteth himselfe hee daily asketh God mercy whereas the wicked feareth nothing like the Amalekites who eating drinking 1 Sam. 30. 16. playing dansing and even in the middest of all their sport and pastime were suddenly slaine For the wicked say Come I will bring wine and wee will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow Repentance and godly life must not bee deserted till death shall bee as this day and much more abundant but God saith Hac nocte repetent animam tuam This night shall they fetch away thy soule from thee when some are eating some drinking some stealing some whoring some building buying selling Esay 56. 12. Luke 12. 45. 1 Thess 5. 2 3. then shall God come For the day of the Lord shall come even as a theefe in the night for when they shall say Peace peace sudden destruction shall come upon them as sorrow commeth upon a Woman travelling with childe and they shall not escape and therefore the counsell of Augustine is good Vitam emendare dum tempus habenius to amend our lives while wee have time Operari dum dies est to worke Aug. Ser. 4. de sanctis while it is day Pulsare dum aperitur ostium to knocke while the doore is opened falcem mittere dum messis durat to thrust in the sickle while the harvest lasteth Negotiari tempore nundinarum to buy and sell while the Faire or Market lasteth Misericordiam implorare ante diem justitiae to crave mercy before the day 2 Cor. 5. 2. of justice approcheth For now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation Begge mercy then to day thou knowest not whether God will give thee time and grace to doe it to morrow To this saying of Augustine I might adde the saying of Ierome upon his death-bed as saith Eusebius Cremonensis Cur moraris miser de die in diē converti ad Deum O miserable and wretched man why doest thou deferre from day to day to bee converted unto God Cur te jam malorum nonpoenitet Why doest thou not now repent thee of thy sinnes and wickednesse Ecce mors properat ut te conterat Behold death approcheth to teare thee and kill thee the Divell plyeth him to receive thee the wormes expect thee daily to devoure thee wit and strength and all beginne to faile thee But thou wilt say I will repent in articulo mortis at the very point of death O vana suspitio oh falsa meditatio O vaine suspition oh false meditation Looke and see if thou canst finde one of an hundred nay one of a thousand that have obtained this grace and mercy of God that his end should bee happy whose life was unhappy his death good whose conversation hath beene bad Ignis est ira Dei Gods wrath is fire Nos sumus stipula wee are as stubble and straw devoured of the fire wherefore let us worke while it is day the night commeth when as no Iohn 9. man can work And as Noah built the Arke in faire weather and Ioseph laid up graine and corne in the seven plentifull yeeres and Gen. 6. as the Ant that hath neither Master Ruler nor Guide provideth in the plentie of Summer for the dearth of Winter so let us Prov. 6. like good Noahs build the Arke of a good Conscience before the judgement overflow like provident Iosephs let us lay up the graine of godliness in the barnes of our hearts before the dearth of Mercy come and like painefull Ants provide food for our soules before the Winter of justice doth approach And whatsoever Eccles 11. we put our hands unto let us doe it quickly For there is neither worke nor invention nor wisdome nor understanding in Ministers save the soules the grave that wee go unto Save them with feare in plucking them out of the fire he saith Save them with feare Christians are said to save men when God useth their speech and exhortation to doe good on men they are said to winne soules which is the greatest gaine in the world For all the gold in the world laid in one ballance and the soule of a man in another will not countervaile one soule they cost more then so for We are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold 1 Pet. 1. 18. but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe undefiled and without spotte Salomon gained gold and silver and had it in abundance Alexander gained men for he subdued whole hosts Augustus gained 1 Reg. 10. Luk. 2. Countreyes for hee taxed the world but good men gaine soules this is most of all For he that winneth soules is happy happy indeed For they that turne many to righteousnesse shall shine as the Prov. 11. 30. Dan. 12. 3. starres for ever and ever Wee are said to convert a sinner because God useth our ministery in it and this should be our chiefe care to convert one another from sinne to sanctity from Sodom to Sion from Babylon to Ierusalem from the power of Satan unto God For hee which hath converted a sinner from going astray out of the Iam. 5. 20. way shall save a soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes And our Saviour saith If thy brother trespasse against thee go and tell Mat. 18. 15. him his
of the riches and wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearcheable are his judgements and his wayes past finding â—ut Yea so wise a God is hee that deprehendit astutos in astutia that hee taketh the wilie and subtill in their craft and subtiltie nay there is no Wisedome there is no understanding there is no Counsell against the Lord. Let us Prov. 21. alwayes then submit our selves to this onely wise God who knoweth how to deliver us out of temptation and trouble and to 2 Pet. 2. punish the wicked for with him is wisedome and strength hee hath counsell and understanding Iob 21. 22. I am come unto the second title and that title is that hee calleth him a Saviour yea our Saviour a title of great comfort hee is able to save us hee is willing to save us what now is wanting to our full consolation There is power there is will in him to save us upon these two pillars resteth our faith So Saint Peter comforted the dispersed Church for having shewed how that through the aboundant mercy of our God wee are elect and regenerate to a lively hope and how faith must bee tried hee commeth at last to this salvation here spoken of and telleth them that they shall one day receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their soules The which salvation in Christ is no new thing but a thing prophesied of old salvation is the thing that wee all long for for there is none so wicked but he would bee saved and no salvation but in Christ There is no other name given unto men by which they shall bee saved save onely by the name of Act. 4. 12. Iesus hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour so called at his birth This day is Luke 2. 11. borne a Saviour which is Christ the Lord so named before his birth Thou shalt call his name Iesus for bee shall save his people from their Mat. 1. 21. sinnes And thus called after his birth and Ioseph called his name Iesus a title knowne in Heaven honoured in Earth and feared in Hell He is a Saviour a powerfull Saviour when he Mat. 1. 25. was weakest then did he the greatest works that ever were done hee was powerfull in his life in doing miracles in giving sight Christ is properly called the Saviour to the blind eares to the deafe tongues to the dumbe legges to the ame life to the dead O but more powerfull at his death in saving the world For then the Sunne was darkened the earth trembled the stones clave in pieces the graves opened the dead raised his death reached to Heaven to earth to Hell the Angels rejoyced the Divels trembled and all men were comforted Let Satan boast like Rabsache that God cannot deliver Ierusalem out of his hands that God cannot deliver the elect from his power he is a lier the God of peace shall tread him under our feete shortly our Michael hath cast downe the Dragon we may sing the â—o Paean the joyfull triumph with the Saints Now is salvation in Heaven and strength and the Kingdome of God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is throwne downe which accused them day and night before God and they overcame him with the blood of the Lambe For indeed Christs death was our life his sacrifice our satisfaction Lact. his labour hath eased our burthens his wounds our curing his stripes our healing his curse our blessing his damnation our absolution Finely saith one Thou art sicke hee is the Physician of thy soule yea dead in sinne hee is thy Saviour and reviver thou art starved through sinne hee is the bread of life thou art thirsty hee is the water nay dead with thirst hee is the ever-springing well the River of Paradise one drop whereof is more than all the Ocean The Graecians for an earthly deliverance by Flaminius cried so loud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the earth gave an Eccho and a rebound that their cry made the Fowles of the ayre to fall downe dead their voice and shoute was as the sound of a thunder how much more cause have wee to reioice in the Lord Iesus who saveth both body and soule and delivereth from dangers of this life and the life to come The Angels sung at his birth Glory be to God on bigh Luk. 2. in earth peace good will towards men No tongues of men or Angels are able to expresse this benefit it is a greater my stery than so for so the Apostle confesseth saying Without controversy great is the mystery of godlines which is God is manifested in the flesh justified 1 Tim. 3. 16. in the spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentils beleeved on in the world and received up in glory Moses saved Israel from Pharao Christ saveth us from the Divell hee from Aegypt Christ from hell hee brought them into the land of Chanaan Christ will bring us Exod. 12. Col. 1. into heaven hee sprinkled the dore posts with the blood of the Lambe Christ our hearts with his owne blood The Papists are injurious to Christ and breake in upon his titles and offices making him either no Saviour or else but a little Saviour in ascribing salvation to Agnus Dei to the blood of Martyrs to Crosses Masses Papists doe as much incroch upon Christ as the Turkes doe they will not acknowledge election justification to come from grace as a right Popish doctrine tends to the disgracing of Grace Father but from workes a stepmother all their doctrine savours of pride blaspheming grace and the worke of grace Note their doctrines de igniculis virtutum insitis à natura of sparkes of vertue grafted in us by nature de gratia operante cooÌ„perante of operating and cooÌ„perating grace de puris naturalibus of pure naturals they will not suffer any body to call God Father and yet is hee the Father of Mercies and God of all 2 Cor. 1. 3. comfort The Church of Rome saith That all the actions of men unregenerate bee not sinne that originall sinne needeth no repentance that a man by meere naturals may love God feare God and beleeve in Christ that a regenerate man may fulfill the whole Law as said the Trident Councell that wee may doe works of supererogation Et quid nunc relinquitar Christe Iesu And what is now left for Christ Iesus The Iesuites aske Why is it not as honorable for God as great glory to powre in an inherent righteousnesse into us as to give us a reputed or imputed righteousnesse But so they may aske Why God kept not Adam from falling Had it not bene as honorable to have kept him from falling No no for then wee had not knowne the sweetnesse of the Messiah So it may seeme as honorable Gen. 3. 15. for God to have kept us from sicknesse but then we had not knowne the goodnesse of the Physician
heart is as the kitchin wherein things are prepared for God the vessell is at tilt when dregs and lees wanton and filthy speeches bee drawne from the heart the quiver is empty when never an arrow can bee drawne out never a word that savoureth of goodnes but all our speeches are for our profit or our pleasure wee are men of polluted lippes CHRIST is the fountaine of the water of life and Esa 6. Esa 35. faith in the heart is as the leads or pipes that receive it and hold the water and confession is as the cocke of the conduite Rom. 10. the spowte that lets out the water to all commers Earthly men seldome talke of CHRIST but wee have not so unfruitfully learned CHRIST nor so unhappily given witnesse of his trueth but better things belong to us in better wayes wee will runne our course in a better hope lay downe our bodies Let them talke of the world that make it their portion wee looke for a City whose builder and maker is God Let the Aegyptians talke of their walled The godly talke of God and praise him Cities Nabuchaduezzar of his buildings the foole of his barnes the voluptuous of his hawks and hounds wee will speake of God and our care shall bee to glorify him hee is a God of glory and his is glory to him will wee give glory and honour and thanks for evermore THE ONE AND FORTIETH SERMON VERS XXV To God onely Wise and our Saviour bee Glory Majesty Power and Dominion How Majesty is ascribed to God THere bee six Attributes here in this verse of God Wisedome Salvation Glory Majestie Dominion and Power Wee have handled and heard of three of them that is of his Wisedome Salvation and Glory and I am to speake of the other three Majesty Dominion and Power Majestie is his incomprehensible greatnesse which worketh wonders and bringeth forth most excellent and rare workes to ascribe therefore unto God a power and an incomprehensible might whereby hee doth the workes of wonder is to render majestie to God Hereupon said David Blessed bee the Lord God even the Psal 72. 18 19. God of Israel which onely doth wondrous things and blessed bee his glorious name for ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory so bee it Therefore is David so earnest with the tyrants and great men of the world to give this Majesty to God and addeth often Vno oris halitu that the voyce of the Lord doth all Give unto the Lord O yee mighty give unto the Lord glory and strength give unto Psal 29. 1 2 3 4 10. the Lord glorie due unto his name worship the Lord in his glorious Sanctuary Miracles admired for the the rarenesse The voice of the Lord is upon the Waters The God of glory maketh it to thunder the Lord is upon the great Waters the voice of the Lord is mighty the voice of the Lord is glorious c. The Lord sitteth upon the floud and the Lord doth remaine King for ever Hee repeateth one thing often over for wee passe over all the workes of God without consideration like horse and mule that have no understanding and they are buried in the grave of oblivion Wee Psal 22. will not confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sonnes of men They that dwell in darknesse and in the shadow of death being bound in miserie Psal 107. 8 10 14 15. and yron hee brought out of darkenesse and shadow of death and brake their bands asunder Let them therefore confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sonnes of men The like hee saith of the sicke whose soule abhorreth all manner of meate and they are hard at deaths doore and of the mariners which goe downe to the Sea in ships and fee the wonderous workes of God and to all these one and the same conclusion is repeated Let them confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sonnes of men Wee see many wonders but wee give not God praise in them a wonder lasteth but nine dayes Vilescunt omnia Dei miracuâ—â— all Gods miracles are vile and are not regarded Augustine said God doth not now miracles ob duas causas for two causes First Ne vilescant miracula as I said before Secondly Ne terrena semper Aug. lib. 9. de civitate Dei quaeramus that wee should not alwayes seeke after earthly things it is as great a miracle to governe the World as to feed Iohn 6. five thousand men with five loaves and two Fishes Et tamen illud ownes mirantur hoc nemo yet all men wonder at that none at this Non quia majus sed quia rarum not because it is the greater but because it is rare it is as great a miracle to raise a barley kernel as to raise a dead body out of the grave Vilescit tamen 1 Cor. 15. ob assiduitateÌ„ yet this is not respected because of assiduity whereas the other is thought impossible The Israelites saw the light of Aegypt turned into darkenesse the waters into bloud the dust into lyce the bitter waters of March into sweete the Psal 105. Heaven open to give them Manna the rocke open to give them drinke the flint stone turned into a well yet doubted of Gods Psal 78. Majestie in giving them bread The Pharisees saw and perceived the blind to see the deafe to heare the dumbe to speake the lame to walke the dead to live yet blasphemed God The Luke 7. Iewes saw the fiery and cloven tongues yet railed on the Apostles as men not full of the Spirit but full of new wine Wee Act. 2. in England have seene wonders in Heaven as strange starres never seene before blazing Comets at other times and wonders in Anno 16. Eliz. the Sea as fishes at the I le of Tennet two and twenty yards long and wonders in the Earth as trees to remove in Dorset-shire and Hereford-shire yet have wee ascribed to God no Majestie Nay God reveales himselfe six wayes greater wonders than these have we seene for God did restore to us the light of the Gospell in the greatest darkenes of the world hee did unhorse the Pope in the time of King Henry the eighth and increased the light of it as the noone-day in the dayes of Edward the sixth and after it was eclipsed hee restored the light of it in the daies of Queene Elizabeth he hath put down the Northerne tumults hath drowned the Spanish Navy Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that hee doth for the sonnes of men But alas we have eyes but wee see not eares and heare not wee have hearts like mules and understand not wee see no more than beasts wee are as stockes and blockes what folly hath Ier. 5. 21 23. wrapped up all our
excellent of all vertues 413 All vertues vaine without love ibid. Many excellent properties of Love 414 Little love in this age ibid. Love makes men of one heart 415 Many men implacable cruell like Wolues or Divels ibid. An exhortation to love 416 Foure properties of love that it be holy just true constant ibid. The love amongst Atheists and impious condemned 417 The excellency of Love ibid. Atheists agree like a kennell of dogs 418 Most love for lucre ibid. Gods love to us infinite 419 Gods love to us diversly distinguished ibid. Gods loue set out by all the dimensions yet transcendent and unmeasurable ibid. No love comparable to Gods Love 420 Gods love to us the cause of our love to him and the godly ibid. Foure reasons or motives to incite us to love God 1. à mandato 2. ab aequo justo 3. à commodo 4. ab officio 421 The manner how God is to bee loved 422 Love a debt that all owe to God and man but few poy it ibid VVe must shew our love to God by keeping his commandements and serving him 423 An honorable and happy thing to love God ibid. Sermon 34. THe hope of eternal life allays the hardnesse of Gods Commandements 425 Hope of reward makes men endure labours and dangers 426 The blessed estate of the Saints in Heaven 427 Christ and the Saints in their sufferings had an eye to the reward ibid. The joyes of Heaven unspeakable incomprehensible 428 The glorified bodyes shall have spirituall and heavenly qualities namely clarity agility subtility unpassibility and immortality 429 The principall points wherein the glory and joy of the glorified soule and whole Saint consist 430 Earthly mindes regard not Heavenly joyes 431 Divers errours concerning eternall life 432 The joyes of Heaven eternall and infinite ibid. Heaven compared with the wombe of the world 433 An exhortation to seeke after eternall joyes ibid. Eternall life onely the free gift of God 434 Merit end mercy gift and desert opposite ibid. Papists works many of them merit death 435 Merit three-fold Congrui Digni Condigni ibid. None can merit ex condigno but Christ 436 Our works cannot merit because finite and unperfect ibid. Christs righteousnes ours 437 Our works merit not jointly with Christs ibid. Grace threefold Praeveniens Subsequens Consummans ibid. Many Papists renounce their merits and fly to Gods mercy 438 Our election vocation justification sanctification all from grace 439 We must not trust in our works but confesse our sinnes ibid. Sermon 35. DIscretion necessary for distinguishing sinnes and sinners 441 Ministers must use discretion not deale alike with all sinnes and sinners ibid. How to restore with mâ—ekenes them that are fallen 442 VVee should pitty and pray for sinners and not despise them ibid. Many men more compassionate toward their beasts nhan brethren 444 Wee must tak away sinnes with mildenesse and mercy if possible ibid. Reproofe though not pleasing yet profitable 446 Compassion must be shewed especially to the soule 447 The Saints bewaile the estate of the wicked ibid. Threats of judgement belong to the wicked 448 The obstinate must be terrified not soothed ibid. Iudgements denounced against soothing false prophets 449 Reproofes more profitable than soothing flattery 450 Excommunication a grievous censure ibid. Excommunication three-fold 451 Two uses of Excommunication ibid. Sermon 36. THe sinner alwayes in danger 452 The fickle estate of the wicked set out by divers resemblances 453 No estate permanent 454 Sudden destruction waite on the wicked ibid. Death comes not sudden to the Godly 455 The Godly prepare by repentance and godly life for death while they have time 456 Repentance must not be deferred ibid. The saving of soules a most blessed worke 457 Though God save yet both Grace and Faith and Ministery concurre 458 Tho Ministrie being Gods ordinance to save soules is not to be slighted though the World despise them ibid. Foure faculties in the soule whereby it converts the food of the Word and Sacraments to nourishment of the spirituall life 459 The necessitie and excellent fruits of the Ministery set out by divers resemblances 460 The happy estate of them that have means of knowledge 461 Salvation and the misery of them that want it ibid. Sermon 37. NOt onely evill but all appearance of evill is to bee avoided 462 Sinne must bee hated not sported at if if wee love our owne soules ibid. No communion to be holden or society with the wicked 463 Wicked men must be avoided in respect of God and ourselves ibid. Sinne as contagious as the plague and more dangerous 464 Wee must hate sinne because the whole Trinity detest it 465 Wee must hate sinne because Satan is the author being enemie to God and our soules ibid. Sinne must bee hated because it dishonours God not our selves 466 Wee may not hold amity with the wicked boing Gods enemies 467 The amity of the wicked treachery ibid. Sinne onely is hated of God and man and not the person except reprobate 468 Two judgments the one of Faith the other of Charity 469 Wee must leave sinne of conscience not for other respects 470 The punishment of sinne ought to deterre from sinne ibid. Earthquakes an evident signe of Gods anger and a forerunner of judgement 471 Many earth-quakes in many places and much hurt 472 Christians not to be prophaned 473 Sermon 38 VVE are not sufficient to doe any good of our selves without grace 476 Exhortations do not shew what we can but what we should doe 477 Grace both preserves from falling and raiseth us being fallen 478 Our enemies many and powerfull 479 Prayer the best meanes to repell Satan and his temptations 480 All sorts of men have fallen even the Saints ibid. All have the Seminarie of all sinnes in them 481 Grace worketh all in all ibid. Wee walke in the middest of snares 482 God suffered Adam and doth still suffer the Saints to fall for divers reasons 483 Difference betweene the sinnes of Saints and Reprobates ibid. Whether and how the Church may erre 484 The best have erred ibid. The Pope may erre and many of them have erred 485 The distinctions about the erring of the Pope nice and frivolous 486 Sermon 39. HOw wee are said to bee blamelesse notwithstanding we are full of sin 487 Two kindes of righteousnesse 488 Our righteousnesse consists rather in the remission of sinne than perfection of vertue ibid. How we are said to be perfect and yet imperfect 489 The Iesuits and latter Popish writers the worst 490 The Church and members of it impure in it selfe but perfect and pure in Christ 491 Our service may be sincere not perfect 492 Iustification by workes confuted how justified by faith explained 493 Papists flye to the mercy of God and merit of Christ 494 No true joyes and pleasures in this world but all in Heaven ibid. The Saints in Heaven shall have fulnesse of joy undique 495 Heaven the land of the living and Earth land of dead men 496 God shall be all in all to the Saints in Heaven ibid. Worldly minded men desire not Heaven 497 Our life nothing to eternall life ibid. All honours and pleasures on earth nothing to them in Heaven 498 The World fraudulent turbulent momentary 499 Christ the onely comfort to the elect both in this life and that to come ibid. Many hindred from Heaven by pleasure Sermon 40. PRayer and praise the two chiefest parts of Gods worship must follow one another 501 The glory of God hath beene celebrated by all Saints 502 Wee slauld not thinke of the mercies of God in Christ without praising him 503 God described by many attributes yet none can sufficiently set him out ibid. God onely wise all men ignorant and foolish 504 Wee have no true wisedome till infused by God ibid. All wisedome and Knowledge hid in Christ 505 Destinction betweene Science and Sapience ibid. Worldly wisedome folly ibid. Gods Wisedome seene in creation and disposing of all creatures and governing the Church 506 Christ a mercifull and powerfull Saviour in life and death ibid. No Saviours comparable to Christ 507 The Papists derogate from the power and merit of Christ ibid. The imputative righteousnes of the Saints more set out Gods glory than the inherent 508 Mans worke cannot merit ibid. What it is to glorifie God 509 Thankefulnesse the onely sacrifice that God requires ibid. We pray in our wants and doe not praise God when we are releeved 510 Thankesgiving and the praise of God the end of our creation ibid. They thrt doe not glorifie God here shall not be glorified of him hereafter ibid. Two theeves that rob God of his glory and justice 511 A powerfull exhortation to praise God and give up our selves in thankefulnesse ibid. If no praise of God in the mouth no thankfulnesse or grace in the heart 512. Sermon 29. VVHat it is to ascribe majestie to God 514 Miracles are admired for the rarenesse 515 All Gods ordinary workes wonderfull 516 Our dulnesse in ascribing to God majestie in regard of his workes ibid. God reâ—eales himselfe sixe wayes ibid. Gods judgement do not worke Repentance ibid. Wherein Gods dominion standeth 517 Gods three-fold kingdome of power grace glorie ibid. Wee ackowledge our selves subjects of Christs kingdome of grace and yet are rebellious 518 Three properties in the Angels Obedience Libentissime Citissime Fidelissime Obediunt 519 Notorious sinners Satans bond-slaves ibid. Wee must be pure in soule and body that Christ may dwell and rule in us 520 Gods power omnipotent ibid. Christ every where present by his power though not corporally ibid. Christs omnipotenty gives comfort to the Christian 521 Gods incomprehensiblenesse set out by comparison ibid. Christ all in all to us 522 God cannot doe those things that imply contradiction or defect ibid. How attributes are ascribed some time to the whole Trinitie sometime to particular persons 523 All Gods attributes are eternall ibid. God must bee praied and praised for all things temporall and eternall 524 Amen the diverse significations thereof and the efficacie thereof in the conclusion of our praiers ibid. Note that the folio's are mistaken at fol. 425. where you shall finde this marke 〈◊〉 FINIS
and the merits of Christ Iesus and here he confutes the errour of the Papists holding justification by works either of themselves or joyned with Christs merits discovering the error and discoursing the point largely and learnedly and shewes that both election vocation justification sanctification and salvation are all of grace and mercy The Contents of the five and thirtieth Sermon HAving shewed the summe of the Apostles exhortation to be that they should use discretion he teacheth the necessity thereof in all sinners that they and all should bee compassionate over the soules of them that are in danger to perish comforting the weake and terrifying the obstinate and hee admonishes all to suffer not onely the words of exhortation but reprehension also Lastly expounding the Apostles phrase of saving by feare to be the endevouring to save by excommunication the chiefest discipline of the Church he sheweth how fearefull a thing it is to bee cast out of the Church by excommunication and distinguisheth of the kinds thereof and describes thevses and ends thereof The Contents of the sixe and thirtieth Sermon FRom Saint Iudes phrase of saving by pulling 〈◊〉 of the fire he observeth first the fearefull estate of the wicked by that and many other resemblances used by the holy Ghost and especially that they are subject to sudden destruction whereas the godly are provided against sudden accidents or death secondly in that he exhorts to save such hee takes occasion to set out the excellency and necessity of the Ministery being Gods ordinance to save soules and confutes the conceit of them that vilifie this function as unnecessary and sheweth that it is the greatest happinesse that can come unto a people to have a godly and learned Ministery seeing they have thereby light life and salvation The Contents of the seven and thirtieth Sermon VPpon Saint Iudes Caveat Hate the garment spotted by the flesh c. he sheweth that wee must bee so farre from sinne as weâ— must abstaine from all appearance of evill and avoid evill company both in respect of God â—hose enemies they are and of our selves both in regard of our outward and inward estate Further he sheweth that we must hate sinne first because the whole Trinity hates it secondly because Satan the enemy of God and our soules is the Author of it yet so as we must hate it as it dishonours God not as it dishonours us and hate the sinne it selfe not the person except a knowne reprobate and hate it for conscience sake not for by respects and he reproves those that are so farre from hating sinne as they will not be drawne to leave sinne And here taking occasion of a fearefull earthquake hapning on Christmas Eve 1601. whilest hee was in the Pulpiâ— preaching he discourses first of the fearefulnesse of this presage of judgement as if the earth trembling under sinne threatned to swallow up sinners or that some fearefull judgement was at hand Secondly for the time being Christmas Eve he applyes it as a Caveat given of God that the solemne Feast following might not be prophaned The Contents of the eight and thirtieth Sermon HE commeth to the conclusion of the Epistle wherein the Apostle commending them to Gods grace to keepe themselves from falling he observes two things 1 Mans weaknesse ready to fall 2 The power of God able to keepe him First he sets out mans weaknesse shewing that he can doe nothing of himselfe without Christs grace and therefore though he be exhorted to stand and keepe himselfe yet God workes in him the will and the deed otherwise he would not stand among so many powerfull enemies and temptations and therefore wee should continually pray He sheweth that our pronenesse to fall came from our fall in Adam yet by grace wee are either preserved from falling or raised being fallen That the Saints are sometimes suffered to fall it is for the further manifesting of Gods grace and mercy yet they never fall totally nor finally Not onely particular men but the whole Church may erre though not totally and finally And the Popes have erred shamefully The Contents of the nine and thirtieth Sermon PRaying for them that they might bee preserved blamelesse hee shewes how this can be not for that they should have no sinne but for that none should be imputed for our righteousnesse stands rather in the remission of our sinne then in the perfection of vertue and he confutes the opinion of the Papists and divers others that vaunt of perfect purity and expounds those places of Scripture that ascribe purity or perfection to the Saints and sheweth how they are so called namely Imputative Comparative or Inchoative Non perfective Distinguisheth of the degrees of perfection in the Church and confuteth the opinion of Papists concerning justification by workes Lastly praying for them that in the life to come they may behold his presence with joy he setteth out the joyes of the life to come both simply and comparatively and exhorteth to seeke to attaine to them and contemneth the glory and joyes of the world in respect of them The Contents of the fortieth Sermon HEre he enters upon the last point in the conclusion of the Epistle namely Praise and thanksgiving to God sheweth that the Apostles concluded their Epistles with it and often upon the mentioning of Gods abundant mercy in Christ breakes out into it that David is very frequent in it and so are all the Saints and wee ought to imitate them and praise God according to all the Attributes whereof Iude mentioning sixe viz. Wisdome Salvation Glory Majesty Dominion Power he insisteth in this Sermon in three of them namely Wisdome Salvation and Glory and sheweth first that onely God is wise all men are either ignorant or have but naturall worldly wisdome not true wisdome untill God infuse it That Gods Wisedome appeareth in creating and disposing all things but especially in preserving and governing his Church and exhorts to submit unto it Secondly he proceeds to the second Attribute of Saviour and shewes that this is the most comfortable to us and that he saves by Christ yea that the name of Saviour is proper to Christ who purchased salvation for us by his death that we must therefore bee thankefull to him not derogate from his glory as the Papists doe minsing Christs merits and mixing with it their owne and ascribing too much to nature and free will He proceedeth to the third Attribute of God namely Glory that this is an acceptable Sacrifice to God but neglected by us we pray in our wants not praise God when they be supplyed that wee ought to performe this duty continually and if we doe not glorifie God here we shall not be glorified with him hereafter He reprooves two sorts that rob God of his glory the Proud and the Envious We must not imitate them but praise God alwayes in all things with all the parts of our bodies and powers of our soule The Contents of the one and fortieth Sermon HEre
with the milke of wilde beasts If Iacob sorrowed so for Ioseph if David would have dyed for Absalom if Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Let the death of Christ Gen. 37. 35. 2 Sam. 17. Mat. 2. Luke 1. 75. Luke 7. Mat. 26. Psal 51. pierce our hearts and move us to holinesse and let us serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life The Lord sustaine our hearts that with Mary we may wash his feet with our teares and with Peter wee may weepe bitterly Create in us Lord a cleane heart and renue in us a right spirit Another reason is taken from our Salvation for without holinesse we cannot be saved For though wee be not saved for it yet we are not saved without it Hereupon saith the Apostle Follow peace with holinesse without the which yee cannot bee saved A Heb. 12. 14. sore a fearefull speech like the thunder in Mount Horeb which I adde the rather because men mocke at holinesse Oh say they you are holy men you are men of the Spirit you are Saints you are Sermon-men The Bastard Ismael flowted at Isaac Gal. 5. 29. 2 Sam. 6. Ier. 18. Michol skorneth at Davids dancing before the Arke the men of Anathoth did smite Ieremy with their tongue the Adversaries of Iuda jested at the people But if thou beest not holy if thou beest not a Saint thou art a divell and know that if ye Esra 4. Rom. 8. 13. Gal. 6. 8. live after the flesh ye shall dye for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption As Naomi said Call me not Naomi but Mara So call not these men Christians Gospellers but call them swine dogges that tread pearles under their feet call them Adders that will not be charmed call them Wolves that heare Mat. 7. Psal 58. Iohn 10. Hebr. 12. Iohn 6. not their shepheard call them Bastards and not sonnes yea call them divels as Christ called Iudas and say unto them as Christ said to Peter Come behind me Satan thou understandest not the things that bee of God but of man I marvell that the Sunne that is witnesse of these villanies standeth in the heavens that the heavens raine not downe fire and Brimstone as Gen. 19. 23. that the earth swallow them not up as Numb 16. that the creatures put not on their harnesse as Ioel 1. Lastly wee are sanctified wee must therefore be holy that our names and our natures our calling and conversation may be correspondent if then we will have part with Christ we must live after the example of Christ if wee will have Communion Causes of Sanctification The whole Trinity sanctifie with the Saints on Earth wee must bee Saints on Earth if wee will have the company of Saints in Heaven our conversation on Earth must bee heavenly Partly Wee are chosen in Christ that wee should bee holy and without blame before him and partly because the heavenly Court receiveth none but such as are pure Ephes 7. 4. Apoc. 21. 27. holy innocent David saith holinesse becommeth thy house for ever If holinesse become Gods house much more us which are the servants of his house Wel the God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your Spirits Soules and Bodies may bee holy and harmelesse untill the comming of the Lord Iesus For all our sanctification and holinesse is from the Lord as it appeareth plainely by the words of my Text Sanctified of God the Father Causa efficiens sanctitatis the efficient cause of holinesse is God the Father Instrumentalis causa fides the instrumentall cause is Faith for Fides cor purificat Faith purifieth the heart Materialis causa the materiall cause est energia sanctitatis quae est in Act. 15. 9. Iohn 1. 16. Christo for of his fulnes we have all received even grace for grace Formalis causa the formall cause est nostra renovatio ab impuris qualitatibus ad puras integras is our renewing from impure qualities to pure and sound Finalis Dei cultus the final Gods worship to the honour of God and the edifying of our neighbour But yet observe with mee that though sanctification bee attributed to the Father yet the Sonne and the holy Ghost are not excluded for wee hold the principle of the Schoolemen Opera Trinitatis quoad extra sunt indivisa the outward workes of God are common to the whole Trinity and so are we sanctified by Father Sonne and holy Ghost yet sanctification is here ascribed to the Father as being the ground and first author thereof For the Son ne sanctifieth by meriting sanctification the holy Ghost sanctifieth by working it but the Father sanctifieth both by sending his Sonne to merit it and also by giving the holy Spirit to worke Thus Opera Trinitatis the outward workes of God are common to the whole Trinitie Sed opera Trinitatis quoad intus esse singularia the inward workes of God are singular and proper to some persons of the Trinitie Vt patri potentia filio redemptio spiritu sanctificatio tribuitur as power is ascribed to the Father redemption to the Sonne sanctification to the holy Ghost and yet these three now and then bee attributed to all the three persons Quod Vrsinus servato ordine agendi for as the Father and the holy Ghost doe redeeme and yet mediately by the Sonne so the Father and the Sonne doe sanctifie yet mediately by the Holy Ghost The proper or incommunicable workes of the Trinity are the inward eternall and hypostaticall properties as thus Pater generat the Father begetteth the Sonne is begotten and the holy Ghost proceedeth Distinction of persons in the Trinitie and yet the Father is not the Sonne nor the Sonne the Father nor the holy Ghost either Father or Sonne The other workes of the Trinity are indivisible how soever sometimes distinct as Creation to the Father Redemption to the Sonne Sanctification to the holy Ghost Peter Martyr sayth thus Pater ut fons filius ut flumen spiritus ut rivus ab utroque procedens The Father as the Fountaine the Sonne as the flood the Spirit as the River proceeding from them both The fountaine is not the flood nor the flood the fountaine nor the river either fountaine or flood and yet all these bee one water So the Father is not the Sonne nor the Sonne the Father nor the Spirit either Father or Sonne and yet but one God Et hi tres sanctificant and all these three sanctifie quoth Lactantius Ab uno omnia per unum omnia in uno omnia a quo per quem in quo omnia unus a se unus ab uno unus ab ambobus una tamen eadem operatio All things from one all things by one all things in one from whom by whom and in whom are all things one of himselfe one from one one from both and yet one
of his little Mat. 18. 10. ones saith The Angels of his little ones doe alwaies behold the face of his Father which is in Heaven Miraculously doth hee keepe us untill the day of our death Therefore saith David Thou hast shewed mee great troubles and adversities but Psal 71. 18. thou wilt returne and revive mee and wilt come againe and take mee from the depth of the earth Miraculously doth he continue his benefits towards us Therefore saith the sweet Singer of Israel Cast me not away in the time of my age forsake me not when my strength Psal 71. 8. faileth me let it be our Prayer If God had not aswell preserved us and kept us it had beene to small purpose to call us and sanctifie us This Doctrine then is a Doctrine of comfort that God preserveth us it is as Davids Harpe which rejoyced Saul in his melancholy God hath not onely made us but also preserved us in a wonderfull mercy He telleth all our steps He numbreth Iob 14. Psal 56. Psal 38. Psal 139. Psal 34. Mat. 10. our teares He counteth our dayes and times He telleth our members He reckoneth our bones Yea he telleth our haires Our steps our teares our dayes our members our bones our hayres are told and yet all these are but little a steppe is but a little space a teare is but a little water a member is but a little flesh a bone a little substance our dayes a little time our haire a little exerement yet all these are kept of God he that keepeth these little things will keepe our bodies and soules As Paul prayed for Thessalonica Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit soule and body may 1 Thes 5. 23. bee kept blamelesse untill the comming of our Lord and Saviour â—esus Christ. God therefore is continually to be praised quoth Ambrose The Saints though afflicted yet delivered In prosperis quia consolamnur in adversis quia corrigimur in prosperity because we are comforted in adversity because we are corrected before we were borne because he made us after we were borne because he saveth us in our sinnes because hee Ambr. in ora fu nebri in Theodosium Apoc. 2. 10. pardoneth us in our conversion because hee helpeth us in our preservation because he keepeth us and crowneth us But some will say doe we not see good men take harme sometime breake an arme a legge yea and sometime their necke Where is Gods providence how are they preserved I say that GOD sometime throwes them down and leaveth them to themselves that they may the better see their weakenesse and Gods power and being delivered glorifie him in it according to that precept of the Almighty call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mee Hereof come all those tragicall Psal 50. 15. speeches of the Saints that God maketh them as Buts and all his arrowes sticke deepe in them that hee feareth them with Iob 7. 12. 14 19. dreames and astonisheth them with visions and will not give them so much rest as to swallow their spettle that their heart panteth that their strength faileth the light of their eyes is Psal 38. 5. 8. 10. gone that their wounds are putrified and corrupt that they are weakened and sore broken and doe rore for the very disquietnesse of their hearts that they are as water powred out that all their bones be out of ioynt that their heart is as waxe melted Psal 22. 14. in the middest of their bowels that God bruiseth them as a Lion like a Crane or Swallow so God maketh them to chatter and to mourne like Doves True it is that they bee often Esay 38. 12 13. 14. in perill for a time Iacob lyeth in the Fields Gen. 30. 1 Sam. 24. Psal 125. Ier. 20. Dan. 3. David in the Wildernesse Ioseph in Prison Ieremy in the Dungeon The Three Children in the Oven Iohn in the hot Oyle at Ephesus Elias among Crowes Moses among Sheepe 1 Reg. 17. Exod. 2. Mat. 12. Dan. 6. Luke 16. Acts 27. Ionas among Fishes Daniel among Lions Lazarus among Dogges Paul among Snakes But at last commeth the yeere of Iubile and they are freed the cloud is dispersed and the Sunne shineth the clay is removed and the water runneth the ashes is scattered and the fire burneth the snare is broken and the Birds are delivered It is God that preserveth all things that he may have the glory Psal 174. 7. He kept the old world many yeeres from perishing and when it was destroyed he reserved a seed of 8. persons He will keep Gen. 8. this new World in the great burning For there shall bee a new God hath preserved his Scriptures God preserves Bodies and Soules Heaven and a new Earth Hee kept the primitive Church from ten great persecutours when the rivers were dyed with bloud when five thousand died every day except the Calends of Ianuarie hee kept the Scriptures from Antiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Dioclesian the one made monthly Inquisition for the Bibles and 2 Pet. 3. beheaded them that kept them the other commanded all to bee burnt yet Ezra and they continue to our good hee kept the knowledge of his Name in all the darkenesse of the World For as Iosephus saith Adam made two tables of stone or pillars Euseb lib. 1. in the one hee wrote Hominis lapsum Mans fall In the other Promissionem de Messia the promise of the Messiah and so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continueth to this day hee kept the Religion in the dayes of Queene Mary as hee kept the Law in the dayes of Manasses and Amon two or three Berries were left on the top of the tree some grapes after the vintage some eares of corne after the gleaning Hee kept our late blessed Queene when Stephen Gardiner bad Hew at the roote and when some others used her roughly when the plot of her death was layd Let our Soules praise the Lord and Psal 103. all that is within us praise his holy name God preserved the Fathers Aegypt received Athanasius from exile having beene seven yeeres in a Cisterne at Treveris France received Hilary returning from battell Antioch received Chrysostome from the malice of Arcadius and Eudoxia Italy welcomed Eusebius from exile and Millaine entertained Ambrose from the rage of Valentinian and Iustina God preserveth the World and all men in it and this preservation of the World is greater than the Creation of the World greater than the Ios 10. Iohn 2. John 6. drying up of the redde Sea greater than the standing of the Sunne and Moone in Aialon greater than the turning of Water into Wine greater than the feeding of five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes Et tamen haec omnes mirantur non quia majora sed quia rariora Vilescunt miracula
combined together therfore live wee well but if there bee a jarre among them that one overcome another the body then perisheth by and by What shall I say then of these brawling sewing wrangling spirits they are like the Salt pillar that Lots wife was turned Gen. 45. unto they bee of a salt and fierie humor like the seven blasted Motive to true Peace eares that consumed the full eares like the seven leane kine that eate up the fat like the worme that smote Ionas wilde gourd they hurt themselves and others also they strive in the law like the mouse and the frogge for the marish ground till the kite sweeâ—s them both away till the Lawyer eate them both up they are like Fooles that bore holes in shippes to let out the water and to let in the whole Sea so to gaine six pence they will spend six pounds and at last die beggars As the Friers of old lived of the ignorance of the people so the Lawyers now live of the sinne and malice of the people they as the Locusts eate up all Wherfore if yee love your wealth Seeke peace and insue Psal 34. 14. Rom. 12. 18. it and if it be possible as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men Remember that our God is the God of peace Christ the Prince of peace Angels the messengers of peace the Ministers the preachers of peace the Magistrates defenders of peace and that we are the children of the God of peace Let us have therefore peace amongst our selves not polluted peace such as was anong Davids enemies which laide waite for his soule and tooke Psal 71. 10. 2 Sam. 13. 28. counsell together against him nor counterfeite peace as was betweene Absalom and Ammon for Absalom prepared a feast for Ammon his brother but caused him to be murthered in the middest of the banket So the Spaniards in 88. treated of peace but prepared themselves to warre nor inordinate peace for of this peace saith our Saviour I came not to bring peace into the world but a sword nor peace with sinne the world and the flesh For this is the Divels peace Of every of these kindes of peace I say with a Father Melior est talis pugna quae proximum facit Deo quam illa pax quae separat a Greg. Nazian Deo Better is that fight and conflict which maketh a man draw neere to God than that peace which separates a man from God such agreement is not union but conspiracie Our peace therefore must bee a Christian peace and this peace hath for her elder sister Righteousnesse So saith David Iustitia pax osculatae sunt Righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other Psal 85. 10. As Augustine upon the place fiat justitia habebis pacem if thou wilt have peace worke righteousnesse so peace shall be within thy walls and plenteousnesse within thy palaces Secondly peace is taken for the quietnesse and peace of conscience betwixt God and man and of this peace the Apostle speaketh thus Being justified by Faith wee have peace with God This Rom. 5. 1. peace passeth all understanding the tongues of men and Angels cannot utter it the goodnesse of this peace cannot be perceived by the eye nor received by the eare nor conceived by the heart yet the eare can heare much as Saul asleepe heard David and 2 Sam. 24. Sap. 1. 10. The eare of Iealousie heareth all things The eye can see further for Moses saw Canaan from the top of Pisgah The tongue can utter more than the eye can see so Achitophels mouth was as an Oracle Peace of conscience most excellent of God The heart can conceive more than the tongue can utter so Salomons heart is said to be large like the sands of the Sea yet cannot our eyes nor eares nor hearts comprehend this peace It passeth all understanding It is nothing to have all peace and to Phil. 4. 7. want the peace of God the peace of conscience It is nothing to have 900. chariots of Iron with Sisera to have stately buildings Iudg. 4. Dan. 4. Act. 4. with Nabuchadonezer to have the applause of the people with Herod to plant orchardes to digge fountaines to water gardens to heape and gather gold to provide men singers with Salomon to have all pleasures with Xerxes and to want this peace For Sisera died miserably Nabuchadonezer was turned into a beast Herod was eaten of lice Salomon called all delights vanities and Xerxes promised reward to him that could finde him out a new pleasure Quá tum inventâ non fuit contentus Which being invented yet he was not contented Hath God given thee house and lands wife and children men-servants and maid-servants Hast thou thy coffers full with Croesus thy purse full with Dives thy barnes full with the Epulo thy grounds full with Iob thy stable full with Salomon and thy table full with Balthazar yet all is nothing without this peace and therefore looke into thy heart Is there peace betweene God and thee as he said finely Is it peace Iehu is there not Intus vermis a worme within byting thy conscience if there 1 Reg. be looke to thy selfe suffer not thine eyes to sleepe nor thy eye-liddes to take any rest untill thy peace be made with God and thy pardon sealed O pray pray that thou maist have this peace it is the peace of peace and without it there can be no peace The name of peace between man and man is sweet like the precious oyntment upon the head of Aaron that ranne downe unto his beard and from his beard unto the skirts of his clothing but this peace of conscience is farre sweeter Iuge Convivium a continuall Pro. 15. 15. Feast a daily Christmas unto a good man This peace the godly seeke so saith David marke the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but the transgressors shall be destroyed Psal 37. 37 38. together and the end of the wicked shal be cut off The comparison is inter pium impium between the godly and the ungodly man the end of the godly man is peace when he goeth to bed he saith I will lay mee downe in peace and take my reste When he Esa 4. 2 Pet. 3. 14. Luke 2. riseth He is carefull to be found in peace When he is sicke he saith Lord let thy servant depart in peace Let us then be diligent to be found in peace then shall we see hell abolished death troden under feete the first sorrow cast out into shame immortalitie shall lengthen our dayes and the glorie of God shal be before us as in a glasse This testimonie is true the Heavens have sealed unto it and the living God hath spoken it of the Sons of men and blessed are we if we doe beleeve it There is more happinesse in one day in Gods service than in tenne thousand dayes of vanities
unto mee there saving that the holy Ghost Act. 20. 24. witnesseth in every Citie saying that bonds and afflictions abide me but I passe not at all neither is my life deare unto my selfe so that I may fulfill my course with joy and the ministration which I have received of the Lord Iesus c. And how desired hee it in the Iewes Brethren Rom. 10. 1. my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved And he biddeth Timothy lay hold on it saying Fight the good 1 Tim. 6. 12. fight of Faith lay hold on eternall life whereunto yee are also called c. And when the Church would triumph it is in this Now is Salvation in Heaven and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the Apoc. 12. 119. power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast downe which accused them day and night before God And this was the earnest Psal 67. 1 2. prayer of the Church God bee mercifull unto us and blesse us and cause his face to shine among us that thy way may be knowne upon earth Tit. 2. 11. thy saving health among all nations not a bodily health but a spirituall heavenly health When Paul will commend the grace of God and make way for it in the Gretians hee calleth it a saving grace The Physitian can give thee but health as the Ier. 9. Physitians of Gilead did The Lawyer can but pleade for thee as Many regard more vaine pamphlets than found doctrine Tertullus did for the Iewes The Magistrate can give thee but thine owne as Salomon did to the two harlots The musitian can give thee but pleasure and tickle thine eare a little as the Sonnes of Asaph did The historiographer can give thee but the knowledge of the times But the Divine offereth thee salvation Act. 24. 1 Reg. 3. 2 Sam. 23. 1 Tim. 4. 16. he writeth and speaketh of salvation Hereupon saith Paul to Timothie Take heed unto thy selfe and unto thy doctrine and continue therein for in so doing thou shalt save thy selfe and them that heare thee If one should come from the Prince and offer to every one of you an acre of Land how would you heare him as they heard Paul at Troas till midnight But wee from God offer you an inheritance in heaven and yet yee regard it not Pausanias wrote of Act. 20. Nettles Erasmus of Foolishnesse Demosthenes of the shadow of an Asse Musonius of the wooll of a Goate Virgil of Gnats but Iude wrote of salvation If Alexander slept alwaies with Homers Iliades under his pillow If Lepta forgot to sleep reading Tullie de oratore If Cyprian read daily Tertullius Apologiticon If Chrisippus read Logicke so that he had perished but for Melissa his mayd how should the Church read this Epistle There be many that follow the Apostles diligence in writing but then it is in foolish filthie bawdie matters To this purpose wee have gotten our songs and sonnets our palaces of pleasure our unchast fables and tragedies Our fathers had their spirituall inchantments as Gui of Warwicke Bevis of Hampton Arthur of the round table and a number of such vanities as Garagantua Howleglasse Frier Rushe the Fooles of Gotham strong illusions of the Divell to keepe them from reading the Scriptures And we like new borne Moabites that wallow in our vomit have gotten the Court of Venus the Castle of love Perce-pennylesse c. But if he was so carefull to write of salvation wee must be as carefull to heare and learne salvation The Iaylor made inquirie after it saying to Paul and Silas Sirs what must we doe to be saved And let us also search and enquire after salvation For many never Act. 16. 29. looke in what state they stand whether in the state of grace and salvation or in the state of death and damnation But as it was said of Bonosus the Emperour That he was borne not to live but to eate to drinke and to scrape in the ground like molles or to play like the dormise of India that sleepe all winter and play all summer There are none but must have a care of salvation except they be Reprobates The scoffing Iewes cried Da Iohn 6. nobis semper hunc panem give us evermore of this bread The man in the Gospell would eate of the bread of heaven and therefore cryed Happie is he that eateth bread in the Kingdome of Heaven Balaam prayed to die well O that my soule might die the death of the righteous Luk. 14. Numb 23. 10. and that my last end might be like unto his There is none so wicked but he would be saved but if that wilt be saved examine thy Every man to be carefull to know in what state he stands in selfe and aske thy soule whether thou beest a dogge or a Lambe a Citizen or a stranger a sheep or a goate to stand on the right hand or the left All men know their state saving Christians the Merchant can tell whether he gaineth or loseth the Mariner can tell his Mat. 25. 40. course whether he be right or wrong on the sea the Husbandman knoweth his times for earing and reaping the Physitian knoweth his body whether it bee in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consumption or in good estate But we looke not whether we be saved or damned but looke into thy selfe as thou doest into the world whether thou beest even with God whether his debt-booke bee discharged whether thy sinnes bee forgiven or no whether God hath given thee Faith to apprehend his promises whether the fruites of Faith appeare in thee or no. A prisoner will looke unto himselfe before the Assises and looke into thy selfe before the Iudgment day empanell a Quest on thy selfe and let thy heart bee the Foreman of the Iurie And note that he calleth it Common salvation not proper to Abraham Isaak Iacob David Peter c. but common to all 1. First hee calleth it common salvation First to admonish all men to lay hold of it So saith Paul to Timothie lay hold of eternall life And also to admonish Ministers to neglect no sheep of God not the very least Paul said that he was a debter both to the Grecians and Barbarians both to the wise and vnwise that hee was not Rom. 1. 14. 16. ashamed of the Gospell of Christ for it was the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth to the lew first and also to the Grecian And further he saith that hee made himselfe a servant unto all men that he might winne the more that unto the Iewes he became as 1 Cor. 9. 20 21 22. a Iew that hee might winne the Iewes to them that were under the law as though he were under the law that hee might winne them that were under the Law to them that were without law as though he were without law that he might winne them
man hath made to be esteemed but the bloud of Christ was so precious that as a Father saith Tanti quid valet what is Aug. of equall price with it The least drop of Christs bloud was of such value in regard of the person that it was able to redeeme tenne thousand worlds but lesse than Christs bloud could not redeeme one Soule And there were divers and sundry effusions of his bloud The first bloud he shed was at his Circumcision when hee was but De passione Dom. cap. 36. eight dayes old which S. Bernard cals Maturum martyrium a timely martyrdome to which end hee further addeth Vix natus est Coeli gloria Coeli divitiae deliciae dulcis Iesus ecce recenti ortui crucis dolor copulatur Scarce was sweet Iesus come into the world who was the Glory the Riches the Delight of Heaven but he underwent the painefulnesse of the Crosse The second effusion of bloud was in his Agony whereof Saint Bernard speaketh thus Ecce quam rubicundus quam totus rubicundus Behold how red and how wholly red hee is For Saint Luke affirmeth that his sweat was like Drops of bloud trickling downe to the ground The third effusion was at his whipping O cum quanta quantitate put as illum sanctissimum sanguinem è conscisso corpore flagellato distillassein terram Oh in what abundance thinke yee did the most sacred bloud of his powre downe from his torne and scourged body even to the ground The fourth effusion of bloud was when the crowne of thornes was despightfully clapt upon his head Nec hicputo defuisse rivos sanguinis saith Bernard nor can I thinke that at this time there wanted rivers of bloud The fifth and last effusion of bloud was upon the Crosse where his Hands and Feete and Side were pierced Quis unquaÌ„ tam gravia tam pudenda passus fuit who was ever thus cruelly Bern. and shamefully handled Contendunt passio charitas illa ut plus ardeat ista ut plus rubeat his passion and love did strive together that that it may be hotter this that it may bee the redder O suavissime universorum Domine c. O blessed Iesus the most gracious Lord and Saviour of all thy chosen how can I render thee As Christ gave himselfe for us so should we give our selves to him sufficient thankes For thy garment is dipt in bloud and the chastisement of my peace hath beene upon thee from the beginning of thy dayes unto thy death yea and after thy death Thus Christs bloud was often shed to redeeme us Heare this you that Apoc. 19. 13. make so small account of your soules and learne to esteeme them at a greater price Heare this you that are so carelesse of your sinnes and learne to shunne them as Hell heare wee this all of us and learne to be more thankefull to Christ for his benefits Persius wept when he saw a Toade and being asked why he wept hee answered that hee bewailed his ingratitude who served not the Lord that had made him a Man and not a Toade Christs face was buffeted his eyes were blinded his hands nayled his feet pierced his side launched that wee may give our eyes hands feet heart to Christ in his service that as wee have given our members weapons of unrighteousnesse unto sin so Rom. 6. 13. we should give our selves unto God as they that are alive from the dead and give our members as weapons of righteousnesse unto God Finely saith one O stulti cur Satanae in membris vestris servitis O yee fooles Why serve ye Satan in your members Ille non creavit non redemit non sanctificat nos non pascit nos hee hath not created us not redeemed not sanctified us nor feedeth us Quae haec insania Christum relinquere à quo omnia bona Diabolo servire qui est homicida what madnesse is this to leave Christ from whom we receive all good and to serve the Divell who is a murtherer Iohn 8. 44. Stultum est servire Diabolo qui nullo placatur obsequio It is a foolish thing to serve the Divell whom no obedience no service will content But the wicked shall one day curse these members that have served the Divell Vae vobis inquient pedes maledicti qui per gressus saltus illicitos me ad infernum traxistis woe to you shall Greg. they say cursed feet which by unlawfull leaping and dancing have drawne me to Hell Vae vobis manus rapaces woe to you ravenous hands Vae tibi cor maledictum woe to thee cursed heart which seldome or never thoughtest of God O cursed tongue which hath uttered so many obscene and filthy words O cursed eye which never sheddest teare for thy sinne and therefore many thousand yeares shalt thou weepe and no man shall pitty thee God challengeth both heart and body My sonne give mee thy heart Whereupon one descanteth very finely fili mi Mat. 22. 13. per creationem fili mi per redemptionem da mihi cor tuum per dilectionem Pro. 23. Holcot devotionem My Sonne by Creation my Sonne by Redemption give mee thy heart by Love and devotion And the same Author compareth Christ to a Falcon and hee saith thus Falconi volanticor datur pro mercede to the flying Falcon the heart of the Fowle shee taketh is given her for her reward this Falcon is Christ Ipse volavit de Coelo in uterum hee flew from Heaven into the Wombe of the Virgin out of the Wombe into the Manger out of the Manger into the World from the Christs passions ought to move us to dutifulnesse and thankefulnesse World unto the Crosse from the Crosse into the Grave from the Grave to Heaven againe Ergo cor vendicat pro praeda therefore hee challengeth â—hy heart for his prey And Saint Chrysostome that golden-mouthed Doctor bringeth in Christ thus speaking Ego propter vos factus sum homo propter vos ligatus propter Chrysost vos in patibulo mortuus ecce precium sanguinis quod pro vobis dedi ubi est ergo servitus vestra pro tanto pretio for your sakes I became man for your sakes was I bound for your sakes dyed I upon the Crosse Behold the price of bloud that I payed for you where is therefore your service and dutie for such a price your service to him that gave himselfe for you that hee might redeeme you Vide quid pro te patior vide dolorem cum Angelus venit de coelis ad consolandum vide clavos quibus confodior ad te clamo qui pro te morior See what I suffer for thy sake see my sorrow which was so great that an Angel from heaven was made to come to comfort mee See the nailes wherewith I was pierced and thrust through I crie to thee which died for thee c. A most elegant Prosopopeia What heart of flint
which are given by our Pastour that is God the word of God is the water of life the more it is waved the fresher it runneth it is the fire of Gods glory the more it is blowen the clearer it burneth it is the bread of heaven the more it is broken the more remaineth as it did in the five loaves and two fishes wherewith Christ fed five thousand men in the wildernes the more it is repeated the more knowledge it breedeth the more faith it begetteth the more consolation it affordeth Therfore Paul rubbeth the memories of the Corinths in the things 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. 9. 19. that they knew doe yee not know that the Saints shall iudge the world know yee not that we shall iudge the Angells know yee not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God know yee not that your bodies are the temples of the holy Ghost As if he should say yee know these things yet I helpe your memories otherwise yee may forget even that yee know This order Paul as a carefull master prescribeth to Timothie a painefull Scholler saying If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister 1 Tim. 4. 6. of Iesus Christ c. The Ephesians where Paul had preached three yeares day and night knew much yet Paul would have them put in remembrance and thereupon he chargeth them to Watch and Act. 20. 31. to remember that by the space of three yeares he ceased not to warne every one of them So said S. Peter of the Iewes seeing his race was at an end his life short and his tabernacle ready to be laid downe I will not saith he be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. these things though that yee have knowledge and be established in the present truth For I thinke it meete so long as I am in this tabernacle to stirre you up by putting you in remembrance Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepè cadendo Sic homo fit fidelis non vi sed saepè audiendo As the drops of water make a hole in the stone not by force but by often falling so man becommeth faithfull not by force but by often hearing Et idem audiendo in hearing the same we are like flint or marble that is not easily pierced like sieves which in the water are full but out of it are empty So in the Church our eares are full of doctrine but it is scattered in the Church-yard by and by wee are emptie Ne apicem tenemus we carry not a tittle home But as to eate meate and not to keep it in the stomacke is a signe of the death of the body so to heare and not to remember that argueth the death of the soule For whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God but hee Variety delighteth but the same thing repeated profiteth that continueth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son Remember then how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent Let no man say I wil not come to the Sermon I know the man I know his gifts I know what hee will say though wee doe 2 Iohn 9. Apoc 3. 3. yet may we be remembred The incarnation of Christ was revealed to Marie by an Angell and yet afterwards it was revealed by the shepheards If Marie had beene curious shee would have said Dic quod nescio tell me that I know not I have heard this Luk. 1. Luk. 2. already why tell you me it againe here is Cooleworts twice sodden Crambe bis posita mors est t is as bad as death to heare a thing twice repeated Wee cannot abide to heare one doctrine twice wee surfet of preaching as Israel did of Manna Numb 11. 2 Tim. 4. 3. we have itching eares many cannot abide wholesome doctrine but after their owne lusts get them an heape of teachers Wee come to the Church as the Athenians did ad forum Iulium to heare newes like Perillus that would not heare one sound of musicke Act. 17. twice like Heliogabalus that fed of nightingales tongues provided that he might not eat twice of one meate like Xerxes which propounded great rewards to them that could devise new pleasures and therefore wee crie out unjustly of vaine repetitions idle Anaphoraes and Tautologie We come to the preacher as men come to a minstrell to have our eares tickled So saith God to his Prophet They come unto thee as people use to come and my people sit before thee and heare thy Words but they will not doe them Ezech. 33. 31. For with their mouthes they make jests and their heart goeth after their covetousnesse It is no Sermon except there bee some new and strange thing in it that wee never heard before that may bring us into a wonderment of that we understand not Then the preacher hath with Esay a learned tongue with Peter a fiery cloven tongue and with Apollo a fine eloquent tongue or else hee is Esa 50. Act. 2. Act. 18. but a plaine man an English Doctor a Dunce c. But wee say with Paul That we have cast from us the cloakes of shame and walke not in craftinesse neither handle we the word of God decetfully The oft preaching of the word serveth to put us in remembrance of all things that concerne God and our dutie to him otherwise wee soone forget all as the Israelites did Who made a Calfe in Horeb Psal 106. 19 20 21. and worshipped the molten Image thus they turned their glorie into the similitude of a bullocke that eateth grasse and forgat God their Saviour The Israelites in forty dayes forgat God so bee you forty dayes absent from a Sermon and you will forget God Come therefore to be put in remembrance A number say Sermons are too oft wee heare too many Communia sordent Common things waxe vile they must come as strawberries once a yeare Rara praeclara seldome things are excellent things But I wonder that any blasphemous mouth dare say that there is too much preaching once a quarter or once a The preaching of the Word alwayes necessary moneth is enough but this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach in season and out of season Paul did not so Hee night and day for the space of three yeares ceased not to warne every one Moses was but forty dayes absent and the people that had tasted 2 Tim. 4. 2. Act. 20. 31. Exod. 32. so lately and miraculously of Gods goodnesse fell to Idolatrie To prosecute this point If men could indent with the Divell to tempt but once in a moneth or once in a quarter preaching once in a Moneth were sufficient but if hee tempt continually wee must preach continually and you must heare continually and wee all must be sober and watch so long as our adversary the Divell goeth about
his feet Hee rebuketh the Sea drieth it he drieth up all the rivers The mountaines tremble for him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his sight yea the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his wrath if his wrath be kindled yea but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him God telleth the Idumaeans Though thou exalt thy selfe like an Eagle and make thy nest among the starres thence will I bring thee downe saith Obadiah vers 4. the Lord. Paul applieth the example of Gods justice on Israel to the Church of Corinth and all Churches I would not have you ignorant quoth he that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed thorough the Sea c. but with many of them God was not pleased for 1 Cor. 10. 1. 5. 6 7 8 9 10 11. they were overthrowne in the wildernesse Now these are examples to us to the intent that wee should not lust after evill things as they lusted neither be yee idolaters as were some of them As it is written the people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed fornication and fell in one day three and twenty thousand neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted him and were destroyed of serpents neither murmure yee as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things came unto them for examples and were written to admonish us upon whom the ends of the world are come The continuance of Gods mercy for a long time doth not assure us of perpetuall safety but of greater destruction if we beleeve not Quantò gradus altior tantò casus gravior the higher we are in dignity the more grievous our fall and misery as was said of the whore of Babylon Inasmuch as shee glorified herselfe and lived in pleasure so much give yee to Apoc. 18. 7. Mat. 11. 23. Ier. 18 18. 21. her torment and sorrow And so Capernaum that was lift up to heaven was threatned to bee throwne downe to hell The Iewes thought that the dignity of their Priesthood should have continued for ever and therefore they said The law shall not perish from the priest nor counsell from the wise nor the word from the Prophet Therfore saith God deliver up their children to famine and let them drop away The higher exalted the lower dejected if impious by force of the sword and let their wives be robbed of their children and be widdowes and let their husbands be put to death and let the yong men be slaine with the sword in the battell They bragged of Moses that he was their teacher they boasted of Abraham and a succession from Abraham but Iohn answereth them saying Say not to your selves wee have Abraham to our father For God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham of them came the Fathers of them came Luk. 3. 8. Christ yet were they not all Israel that came of Israel neither are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham This augmented the punishment of Israel that God had beene so good unto them for every blessing is as good as a bill of enditement preferred against us at the great Assise-day for listen what God himselfe saith O my people what have I done unto thee Michea 6. 3. 14 15. or wherin have I grieved thee testify against me surely I brought thee up out of the land of Aegypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants I have sent before thee Moses Aaron Miriam And thus the Lord goeth on intimating unto them that hee never hurt them but bestowed infinite blessings and benefits upon them but because they misused them God threatneth them That they shall eate and not be satisfied and thy casting downe shall be in the middest of thee meaning that they shall be consumed with inward griefe and evill and further he threatneth them saying Thou shalt sow but not reape thou shalt tread the Olives but thou shalt not annoint thee with oyle and make sweet wine but shalt not drinke wine This also augmented the punishment of Eli's house that whereas God did chuse him out of all the tribes of Israel to bee his Priest and to offer upon Gods Altar and to burne Incense and to weare an Ephod before God yet because he honoured his children more than God God 1 Sam. 2. 28. 31. threatned to cut off his arme and the arme of his Fathers house and that there should not be an old man in his house for ever Esay and Michah prophesied unto Iuda sixty yeares Hosea and Amos in Israel seventy yeares yet God sealed neither the one nor the other an obligation of perpetuall mercy The one was carried into Assyria a captivity irreturnable the other into Babylon where they 2 Reg. 17. 6. Psal 137. Amos. 8. 10. could not sing the Lords songs in a strange land God turned their songs into mournings and their feasts into lamentations The Papists speake of our overthrowes in Ireland as the Syrians said that God was the God of Israel in the mountaines but not in the vallies So they say he is our God in England but not in Ireland they say that hee was a God in the beginning of the Queenes raigne but not now Zidkia of Rome the Iesuites have made them hornes of iron as 1 Reg. 22. 11. saying that they will push England Herod of Rome hath sent us word of our destruction but if wee repent we may answere him as Christ did Herod Goe yee Luk. 13. 32. Mat. 9. 15. and tell the Foxe c. Wee are the children of the wedding and therefore cannot mourne yet The arrow of our deliverance is as yet in the Kings hands against the Aramites the Papists If wee Where God spareth long he punisheth more if impenitent repent all our enemies shall be but the Thistles of Lebanon but if we bring not forth the fruits of the Gospell wee may rather weepe with Elisha to thinke what evill Hazael the Papists will doe to the Church of God Surely God will do to us as to Israel God bare long with them but afterwards he destroyed them 2 Reg. 14. 9. 2 Reg. 8. 11 12. God hath hands of iron and feere of lead hee commeth slowly but when he commeth he payeth surely Deus tardus est ad iram sed tarditatem gravitate poenae compensat God is slow to anger but he recompenseth his slownesse with grievousnesse of punishment Hereupon saith Paul But thou after thy hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heape unto thy selfe wrath against the day of Rom. 2. 5 6 7 8 9. wrath and declaration of the iust iudgement of God who will reward every man according to his works To them which by continuance in wel-doing seeke glory and honour and immortality eternall life but unto them that
and from noone unto night In the day Ios 10. of Ezechia the Sunne went tenne degrees backward In the day of Christs passion the Sunne waxed darke and the Moone lost her light the 1 Reg. 20. earth quaked the graves opened the stones brake the dead rose but in the day of Christ there shal be no Sunne no Moone no Heaven no earth For the Heavens shall passe away in manner of a tempest the Element shall melt for fervent heat the 2 Pet. 3. earth and all that is therupon shall burne and yet this burning shall not be a consuming of the substance but only a purging of the creatures from the drosse of those alterable qualities wherunto they are now subject And therfore finely to this purpose saith venerable Bede Per imaginem transeunt per essentiam subsistunt praeterit figura hujus mundi non substantia their image Beda faileth their essence remaineth the figure of this world passeth away not the substance For if the day of Christs humiliation was so glorious what shal be the day of his glorification Where then will appeare those that make the world and the things of the world their stay when the world and all the wealth and substance of the world must passe away And wher ewill the penny-father and covetous person appeare who like the serpent is ever licking up the dust of the earth and scraping up gold and silver that red and white earth when silver and gold and earth shal be no more Where will the proud ones appeare that fold themselves in silkes and loade themselves with pearles and Iewels when Iewels and pearles shal be no more Where then shall appeare the greedie oppressour whose throate hath beene an open sepulcher When he shal not find a man to oppresse any more Where shall the whoremonger appeare whose body hath beene as the Oven of a Baker when he shall find none to defile any more Where shall the slanderer appeare whose tongue hath cut like a sharpe rasor when he shall not finde any to slander any more where will the drunkard appeare that hath washed his soule with wine and strong drinke when there shal be no liquor any more Where will these magnificent and stately builders appeare when building and state shall fall all to the ground Where shall the usurer appeare who is worse than Hell for Hell torments only the bad but the usurer crusheth and oppresseth both good and bad I say where shall he appeare seeing his house here is the banke of the Divell and his purse Os diaboli the mouth of the Divell Surely he with the Divell must abide in Hell and torments surely all these and The fearfull estate of all sinners at the last judgment all other that have sowen in sinne shall reape miserie for these that have plowed wickednesse shall reape iniquitie Vanitie was their traffique and griefe will be their gaine Detestable was their life and damnable shall be their death For as they have sowen Hos 10. 13. so shall they reape they have sowen in the flesh and of the flesh they Gal. 6. 8. shall reape corruption Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soule of every one of them when this great day shall be Let us pray therfore that in this great day Christ his wisdome may answere for ourfollie his humilitie for our pride his meekenesse for our crueltie his righteousnesse for our sinnes that this Lambe that was without spot may answere for us who like Iacobs Lambes are full of spots Ostende patri latus vulnera Shew the father thy side and wounds that thy side and wounds may heale us from these sinnes that like the blood of Abel crie against us Amen THE FOVRTEENTH SERMON VERS VII As Sodom and Gomorah and the Cities about them which in like manner as they did c. Sodomesfinne all kind of uncleanesse WEE are come to the third example of Sodome and Gomorah Wherin also he noteth their Sinne. punishment Their sinne was uncleanesse Fornication whordome Incest Buggerie their punishment hell fire the second death the burning lake fletus stridor dentium the horrour of conscience torments unspeakeable Now for their sinne it appeareth how filthy it is seeing that Paul would not have vs eate with whoremongers If any 1. Cor. 5. 11. saith he that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a rayler or a drunkard or an extortioner With such see yee eate not And in another place he would have us to be so far from this sinne that he would not have it to be once named amongst us much lesse committed For so runne his words But fornication and all uncleannesse or covetousnesse let it not be once named amongst you Ephes 5. 3. The name as it were darkeneth the Ayre and polluteth the earth the Lord Iesus condemneth the very intent of the heart even lusting after a woman though the act be not done you have heard Mat. 5. 27. 28. saith he that it was said unto them of the old time thou shalt not commit adulterie but I say unto you whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adulterie with her alreadie in his heart Whordome is one of the manifest workes of the flesh For the Apostle reckoning up the workes of the flesh nameth adulterie Sodoms sinne all kind of uncleanesse first and placeth is as Vrias in the forefront of the battell The workes of the flesh saith he are manifest adultery fornication uncleanesse wantonnesse c. Yea this sinne brings with it horrible dishonour If a theefe saith Salomon steale to satisfy his soule because Gal. 5. 9. he is hungry men doe not so despise him but he that committeth adultery with a woman is destitute of understanding he shall find a wound Pro. 23. 27. and a dishonour that shall never be put away for a whore is a deepe ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit Yea this sinne will make a man make shipwracke of innocency and honesty A man may aswell Pro. 6. 27. take fire in his bosome and not be burnt or goe upon coales and his feet not be burnt as goe into his neighbours wife and be innocent Pro. 23. 28. The strange woman increaseth the transgressors among men so that it is impossible to be incontinent and honest It is a sinne Hos 4. 11. Pro. 9. 18. Pro. 18. Pro. 6. 26. of which a man or a woman can hardly repent For whordome and wine as the Prophet notes take away the heart The Guests of a strange woman art most of them in Hell For the wiseman further avoucheth Surely her house tendeth to death and her pathes unto the dead This sinne will bring Gods curse upon a mans estate many a man by it is brought to a morsell of bread For fornication is a fire that will devour to destruction and roote out all a mans increase
hold of Hell And Chrysostome saith Vncleanenes harply eschew ed wee have so many motives to it Quid moecharis quid semen jaces in aquas unde nihil es messurus aut si metes ad ignominiam futures est fructus Ex adulterio enim nascitur Nothus qui te vivo carebit honore te mortuo extabit ad ignominiam monumentum Why doest thou commit adultery Why doest thou cast thy seed upon the waters where nothing is to bee reaped Serm. de non sectando concupiscentias carnis or if thou reapest any thing the fruit will turne to thy ignominy and dishonour A Bastard is borne of Adultery who as long as thou livest will deprive thee of honour and being dead hee shall be as a monument erected to thy reproach and infamy And as some say it shall bee a fire brand in Hel to burne the parents Quot nothi tot taedae ardentes in inferno ad comburendum parentes How many Bastards so many burning torches to burne the parents in Hell Bernard goeth further Qui scortum osculatur pulsat inquit inferni januam Hee that Bern. kisseth or imbraceth an harlot rappeth and knocketh at Hell gates to bee let in For her feet goe downe to death and her steps Prov. 5. 5. take hold of Hell Moechus Vt Sus plus amat lutum quà m lectum Eburnium The Adulterer loveth to wallow in the dirt and clay more than in a bedde of Ivorie hee burneth Apoc. 21. 8. in the fire of Leachery and hee shall burne in Hell fire Now because this temptation of uncleanenesse is one of the strongest in the world and most hardly resisted under Heaven the enemy that wee carry in our bosome being so strong that is Lust and our flesh so weake to resist it Mat. 26. 41. Gen. 3. Chrysostome cryeth out against all Adulterous Women and saith that the adulterous Woman is Acutum telum diaboli the sharpe dart of the Divell Per mulierem Adamus foelicissimus 2 Sam. 11. 1 Reg. 11. Iudg. 15. Mat. 14. perdidit Paradisum per mulierem David piissimus homicidium perpetravit per mulierem Salomon prudentissimus in idolatriam incidit per eam fortissimus Sampson vinctus est per eam mundi lucerna Iohannes Baptista decollatur By a Woman Adam the happiest lost Paradise by a Woman David the holiest perpetrated Murder by a Woman Salomon the wisest fell to Idolatry by a Woman Sampson the strongest was fettered and bound and by a Woman the light of the World John the Baptist was decollated beheaded I speake onely against wicked Women For good Women shall bee Heires with men of the grace of life and shall see thee goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the Living To conclude this point let us learne to keepe our vessels in holinesse and not to bee of the number of the defilers of 1 Tim. 2. 15. the flesh as bee Whoremongers Adulterers Fornicators Wantons c. and let us shunne the occasion of this sinne which is surfetting and drunkennesse For Sine Cerere Baccho friget Venus without Corne and Wine Venus starveth and where Ceres and Bacchus is there Venus reigneth And take idlenesse Surfeting and drunkennesse occasion of Whoredome away and Cupids bow will soone decay Let us make a Covenant with our eyes as Iob did Let us meditate upon the Word of God which is a forcible meane against this sinne It shall keepe us from the bad Woman which flattereth Iob. 31. Prov. 6. 22. 24. with her lips forsaketh the husband of her youth and breaketh the Covenant of thy God THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON VERS VIII And despise government and speake evill of them that are in authoritie The Divell the first rebell and author of all rebellion THis is the third vice objected against the wicked They despise government A vice objected to the like men by Saint Peter who seemeth to have drawne his water from this fountaine and his words from this Apostle hee saith The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation 2 Pet. 2. 9 10. and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to bee punished and chiefely them that walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanenesse and despise governement These men as they rebell against God like the old Giants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So they resist man ordained of God Gen. 11. Luke 8. they are like the unrighteous Iudge that neither cared for God nor man And no marvell For the Divell their master-head Captaine and father rose against God and cast off his obedience whereupon Paul calleth pride the sinne of the Divell noting both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reatum condemnationem The guilt and the 1 Tim. 36. punishment Thus hee set upon Christ For being come unto him he said If thou bee the Sonne of God command these stones to bee made bread Thus hee warred with Michael and his Angels I saw saith Iohn a great battell in Heaven Michael and his Angels fought Christ and his Apostles taught and preached obedience to heathenish Princes with the Dragon and the Dragon and his Angels fought and prevailed not He is the Dragon that opened his mouth To blaspheme against God to blaspheme his name and his Tabernacle and they that dwell in heaven He is the beast that shall goe out To deceive the people which are in the foure quarters of the earth even Gog and Magog to gather them together to battell whose number is as the sand of the Apoc. 12. 7 Apoc. 13. 6. Cap. 28. 8. Iohn 8. 44. Sea As Christ said of the Pharisees that they were like their father the divell in lying So say I of the wicked that they are like their father in rebellion hee inspired them with the spirit of pride and rebellion For he worketh in them It was well said of Samuel Hath the Lord as great pleasure in burnt offrings and sacrifice as when the voyce of the Lord is obeyed Behold to obey is better than sacrifice Ephes 2. 2. 1 Sam. 15. 22. 23. and to hearken is better than the fat of rammes but rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft and transgression is wickednesse and idolatry which words may extend aswell to the civill as celestiall government I know that obedience to God is obedience to man and on the contrary disobedience to God disobedience to man haec tamen conjungi magis quà m confundi velim quoth Calvin I had rather conjoyne these than confound them Calvin The Lord Iesus performed all obedience to Rulers even then when they were heathen and knew not God note his precept note his practise note both his precept was Da Caesari give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Mat. 22. 21. Gods his practise was that he paid to Caesar tribute and to that end willed Peter to goe to the
aside saith the Apostle all maliciousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envy and all evil speaking as new borne 2 Pet. 2. 1. Babes desire the sincere milke of the Word that yee may growe thereby Among all the indignities that were offered unto Christ this was not the least they nipped his cheekes they buffeted his face they blinded his eyes they nayled his hands they peirced his feet they lanced his heart but especially they rayled on him saying He saved others let him also save himselfe if he be the Christ the Luke 23. 35 36. chosen of God The Souldiers also mocked him and came and offered him vynegar mixt with myrh and gal to hasten his death and said if thou be the King of the Iewes save thy selfe Therefore wee are willed to thinke upon him that endured such speaking against of sinners Heb. 12. 3. As an image is not seene in water that is troubled no more is truth in a mind that is malitious but it sendeth forth with violence all manner of evill speakings A soule mouthed an evill tongued man is worse than the divell not simply but in respect For a man may avoid the divell Resist the divell and hee Jam. 4. 7. will flye from you but we cannot resist a slanderer a rayler And albeit the Apostles charge is Speake not evill one of another brethren he that speaketh evill of his brother or he that condemneth his brother Iam. 4. 11. speaketh evill of the Law and condemneth the Law Yet the world is as full of evill speakers as Nilus of Crokadyles as Sodome of Sulphur and Egypt of Lice In conviviis rodunt in circulis vellicant maledico dente omnia carpunt It is salt to their meat to rayle on men in feasts and bankets A good name is a pretious oyntment and woe to them that bereave a man of it many mens tongues walke at randome and speake evill of the things they know not Can the wound be cured so long as the iron remaine in it Can the iron be cold so long as it is in the Smiths forge Can the River cease running so long as the Fountaine floweth And can the tongue refraine from evill speaking so long as hatred boileth in the heart Of the abundance of the heart the mouth Luke 6. 45. speaketh And as the water turneth the wheele so the heart the tongue Boetius saith Si irâ fremis Leo es si fraude inniteris Vulpes es si inconstans Camaeleon es si luxuriaris porcus es si convitiaris Canis es if thou beest greatly moved with anger thou art a Lion if thou delightest in fraud thou art a Fox if thou beest unconstant thou art a Camaeleon if lecherous a Hog if foule-mouthed or evill-tongued a dogge and Beware of dogges saith the Phil. 3. 2. Apostle they are alwayes barking and biting and snarling One resembleth a foule-mouthed man an evill speaker to the Basiliske for as the Basiliske killeth the Bird that flyeth in the ayre with his breath so doth the evil speaker kil men with his tongue I will say of these foule-mouthed men as Hierom sometime said Brownists raile on our Church doctrin and Ministery of Iovinian Tacere nesciunt maledicere non cessant nunquam enim bene loqui dedicerunt they cannot hold their peace they cannot cease from evill speaking they never yet learned to speake well There is an art in speaking as well as in writing for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right speaking as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right writing and both necessary Iudge now of what spirit our Brownists be as Christ said of his disciples that would have fire come downe from Heaven and Luke 9. 35. destroy Samaria Yee know not of what spirit yee are So they know not of what spirits they be of for all their eloquence standeth in biting speeches that our Church is Babylon Sodome as Apoc 11. 8. that our ministers have the marke of the beast as Apoc. 13. 16. that our people are swine and dogges as Mat. 7. 6. that our Communion cup is Calix diaboli the cup of the Divell that Mensa Christi is Mensa diaboli the table of Christ is the table of the Divell as 1. Cor. 10. 20. our pulpits bee tubs our Geneva Psalmes Gehenna Psalmes But I will say to them as one said Hoc genus hominum ridere soleo non odisse I am wont to laugh at these kind of men not to hate them they thinke much to be touched in doctrine but I will answere them as Erasmus answered Longolius deponant gladios nos scuta abiiciemus removeant venena nos antidoto uti cessabimus cessent maledicere nos non regeremus in hoc illis consentire non possumus ut pareamus schismaticis Let them lay away their swords and wee will throw away our shields Let them remove their poyson and wee will cease to use any Antidote Let them refraine from evill speaking and we will not taunt againe In this wee cannot consent unto them in their schismes I but say they wee are willed To come out from Babylon yea and To separate our selves and to touch no uncleane thing I 2 Cor. 6. 14. confesse Schismatikes interpret this discession locally but the Fathers understand it mentally and morally The Prophets and Apostles proclaimed Touch no uncleane thing but how Contactu cordis non corporis Doth hee that commit sinne displease thee thou touchest no uncleane thing Hast thou charitably rebuked him thou art come out from him yet they cry out we have no Ministers no Sacraments no Church at all What is their reason our lives are not answerable to the doctrine of the Gospell Be it so yet this is no reason why they should make discession from us How corrupt was Ierusalem so corrupt that Esay compareth her to Sodome and Gomorah yet hee erected Esa 1. not new Altars whereupon to offer sacrifice apart but entred into the same Temples and celebrated the same Sacraments with them while Moses received the Law in the mount the people made a Golden Calfe below in the valley God shewed Exod. 32. their idolatry to Moses making an offer to destroy them and to multiply him to a greater and better nation Had not Moses now a faire occasion of departing from them lest hee should No men perfectly pure no state totally corrupt touch any uncleane thing yet he leaves them not but goeth unto them reproveth them and maketh intercession to God for them How desperate was the impiety of the Pharisees in the dayes of our Saviour Yet for all that Christ our Saviour frequented their Temple and would not forbeare their religious exercises The Church of Corinth was defiled with many sinnes and horrible out-rages both in life and Doctrine they were deriders sectaries incestuous prophaners of the Lords supper denyers of the most essentiall Article of the Resurrection yet so long as the Ministery of the Word
chiefe commander one chiefe Iudge of a Province one governour of all in the Ship one master in an house in an army be it never so great the Ensigne of one is specially regarded and attended on In the body of Man though the Lims and parts thereof be many yet they all obey one head Secondly most fit for cutting off seditions and rebellions and therefore the Romanes in all their greatest dangers had recourse unto this Tanquam ad anchoram sacram as to their shot-anchor as to their best and last refuge as Livie witnesseth for when Hannibal pressed the Romanes Ad Dictatorem dicendum Remedium jam diu desideratum Civitas confugit The City went to the pronouncing of a Dictator which was the remedy they long expected because as in another place he writeth Dictatoris edictum pro numine semper observatum est the proclamation of the Dictator was esteemed to be the voyce of God Thirdly The government of one doth seeme to resemble most lively the image of Gods Power and Majestie For as in the Firmament the Sunne Moone and Starres doe as it were represent some image of the glory of the eternall Majestie So the rule of Monarchs in their severall Kingdomes upon the earth doe call to our considerations the government and rule of the Almighty But whether the government of one or many be best I dare not define but this I say that it is a most singular token of the mighty Power and Providence of God that so many severall Nations over the face of the World are upholden and maintained by so many severall sorts of government that Quemadmodum non nisi in aequali temperatura elementa inter se cohaerent Ita hae Regiones sua quadam in aequalitate optimè continentur As in bodily essences the foure Elements doe cleaue together by unequall temperatures as it were by a certaine inequality all the several Countries are holden together Nay which of all these governments is the best Otiosum est disputare it is a very idle thing to dispute but most yeeld to this that a Monarchy is the most perfect and the blessing of God seene in that chiefly Perme Reges regnant By me Kings raigne Noble men beare rule saith Wisedome He therefore that resisteth Resisteth not man but God also True it is that man was made to rule not to serve he was Rebellion brings destructiō to Rebels themselves made to rule over fowles fishes cattell but not men At the first men were pecorum pastores potius quà m Reges hominum feeders of cattell than rulers over men that we might discerne the order of creation from the merit of sinne So we reade not of any servant Gen. 1. 20. Gen. 9. Gen. 3. before Cham saith Augustine For as sinne brought in the first death the first sorow the first nakednesse the first flood So it brought in the first service If man had not sinned Moses had not needed in the kingdome nor Aaron in the Church the one to rule the bodies the other the soules of men Rebellion of all sins is unnaturall for what can be more unnaturall then the child to rebell against the father the wife against the husband the servant against the Master and no lesse unnaturall is it for the subject to rebell against his Soveraigne Rebellion God never prospered hereupon saith Salomon My sonne feare God and the King and keepe no companie with the seditious for their destruction shall Pro. 24. 21 22. arise suddenly c. The seditious Israelites were destroyed somtime with fire from Heaven sometime with fiery serpents somtime by Numb 21. the earth For the earth hath opened and swallowed them quicke to Hell Seditious Miriam was strooken with leprosy seditious Absalon Numb 12. was hanged by the haire of the head on an oke as one spewed out of heaven and vomited out of the earth seditious Achitophel for want of an hangman a convenient servitour for such a Rebell went and hanged himselfe seditious Sheba was arrested by a woman Sam. 20. 22. who cut off his head and sent it to Ioab seditious Zimri burnt himselfe in the kings house which he had set on fire Hereupon 1. Reg. 16. 9. said Iezabel Had Zimri peace that slew his Master seditious Shallum 2 Reg. 15. 16. perished in Samaria being slaine by Menahem the sonne of Gadi Never Rebell went unpunished For though God oftentimes doth prosper just and lawfull enemies which be no subjects against forraine enemies yet did he never prosper Rebels who have taken armes against their Prince were they never so great in authority or many in number In Genesis we reade that five kings with their armies could not prevaile against Chodorlaomer unto whom they Gen. 14. promised loyalty and obedience but they were all overthrown and taken prisoners by him but Abraham with his family kinsfolkes an handfull of men in respect owing no subjection to Chedorlaomer overthrew him and his hoast in battell Thus God prospereth in battell some few against many thousands but he never prospered Rebels against their owne Prince were they never so great or noble so stout so politick but alwayes they were overthrowne and came to most shamefull ends And to instance but upon a few One Brennus captaine of the Gaules besieging Ephesus had the City betraied into his hands by a treacherous woman for the greedy desire of a Iewell that a Captaine wore but when she had plaied this tteasonable part he overwhelmed her with gold A certaine traytour offred Fabritius the Romane to poison his enemy Pyrrhus but worthy Fabritius sent God hath confounded Rebels in all ages the traytour bound to Pyrrhus who was enemy to the Romane Empire In Anno 1381. in Rich the 2. his tyme sixty thousand rebelled whose Captaines were Wat Tiler Iack Strawe but they were overthrowne and brought to nought In Anno 1275. Lewellin prince of Wales rebelled against Edward the first but he prospered not but was overthrowne and his head strooken off and set on London bridge In the raigne of Henry the 4. divers noble men and kings rebelled and came every one of them to a miserable end The persidious and treacherous part of Bannister servant to the Duke of Buckingham is most odious the Duke had brought him up of nought but fleeing from the face of usurping Richard to Bannister for succour this wicked man for hope of one thousand pounds betrayed his Master the Duke but never had one penny For said usurping Richard he that will betray so good a Master will betray any other and in his old age the wretch was accused of Murther In the raigne of Queene Elizabeth were many treasons conspired but God ever delivered his worthy Servant but executed his just judgements upon those trayterous conspirators All men know the miserable ends of the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland the one beheaded at Yorke the other fled the land and left his house to destruction Many of
of the law as judgement and mercie that they make cleane the out-side of the cup and platter but inwardly are full of briberie and excesse One saith that hypocrisie is the Greg. l. 8. moral cloaking of a secret vice under the shew of vertue and that the life of an hypocrite is nothing else but Quaedam visiâ— phantasmatis the shew of an imaginary matter which appeares some thing and is nothing and compares the hypocrite to Simon of Cyrene that bare Christs Crosse but dyed not with Christ so every hypocrite professeth to live to Christ but will not dye to sinne and the world and Saint Chrysostome likens the hypocrite to Herod Super Mat. 12. that promised devotion and performed persecution he saith that a sincere man is like to a faire woman that needs no external ornaments but hath naturall beauty but the hypocrite is like Hom. 57. a filthy deformed harlot which useth many meretricious colourings that cannot cover her filthinesse but the neerer any drawes vnto her the more hee mislikes her And againe hee saith that an hypocrite is like a Woolfe clothed in a sheeps skin Super Mat. 7. but that he is found out by his voyce and by his doing for the sheepe bleats and lookes toward the earth and eateth grasse which is a signe of humility but the Woolfe howles and looks towards heaven which is a signe of pride and cruelty the hypocrite hath Iacobs voyce but the hands of Esau that is hee talketh religiously and zealously but hee walkes impiously and prophanely the hypocrite is like the statues of Mercury that were wont to be set in high wayes to direct travellers to some Citie or Towne but did not travell nor move themselves the Hypocrisie hath many woes denounced against it hypocrite is like the Stage-player that when he cried O heaven he pointed with his finger to the earth when he cryed O earth hee pointed with his finger to Heaven and therefore the wise Polemon gave him no reward being Iudge of the Actors saying Hic manu Solaecismum fecit he hath spoken false Language and committed an errour with his hand And to conclude the hypocrite is like a deafe and hollow Nut which hath no kernell within but is wasted with the worme and fit for nothing but the fire Heereupon it came to passe that Christ dealt not so hardly with any sinners no not with Atheists that denied the Resurrection and Gods power nor with Temporizers that are alwayes of the same Religion that the company is that can blow hot and cold with one breath as with hypocrites for having to deale with Sadduces he shaketh them off as damned creatures as vessels of destruction children of wrath whose judgement was just and their damnation slept not hee telleth them that they erred Ye erre saith hee not knowing the Scriptures neither Mat. 22. 29. the power of God but when hee hath to doe with Pharisees with Hypocrites he doubleth and redoubleth and tripleth and multiplieth woes and curses hee thundereth like Iames and Iohn his zeale stayeth not with a little O woe to you Scribes and Pharisees yee Hypocrites and so the second the third the fourth the fift the sixt time Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees yee Hypocrites as though all the woes and curses in this life and in the life to come were not ynough for them And it is not to bee forgotten that God calleth it blasphemie to speake one thing and to doe another with man it is hypocrisie but to doe so with God it is blasphemy the sinne increaseth as the dignity of the person increaseth as for example speake a word against a common person and hee hath but his action of the Case against thee speake against a noble man it is Scandalum Magnatum against the Prince it is death against God it is damnation of body and soule double and dissemble with men it is hypocrisie halt with God counterfeit with him it is blasphemy Therefore saith Christ to the Church of Smyrna I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Apoc. 2. 19. Iewes and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan And it is further to be observed that Christ speaketh of hypocrites as if Hell were onely prepared for them for intreating of the evill servant that said in his heart My master will defer his Mat. 24. 51. comming he saith that he will cut that servant in pieces and give him his portion with hypocrites there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth And Christ our Saviour asketh them how they shall escape Hell O yee Serpents and generation of Vipers how shall yee escape Mat. 23. 33. the damnation to come And to shew the certainty of their damnation besides this interrogation how shall yee escape the damnation to come As if he should say It cannot bee but yee must Hypocrites make a shew of Religion being irreligious be damned For the interrogation implieth an affirmation He saith of the wicked that They shall have their portion with Hypocrites to shew that the condemnation of hypocrites is most surely sealed And this aggravated the sinne of Corazin and Bethsaida and Mat. 24. 51. Capernaum that they pretended Religion but in painted boxes they did hide deadly poysons in beautifull sepulchers rotten bones and under Iezabels painted face a whores behaviour Woe therfore to thee Corazin woe to thee Bethsaida for if so be the miracles Mat. 11. 21 23. that had beene done in thee had beene done in Tyre and Sidon they bad repented long agoe in sackloth and ashes And thou Capernaum which art lifted up on high shalt be brought dowue to hell And verily of all sinners the hypocrite is the worst he is ovis habitis vulpis actu crudelitatelupus Eern. a sheep in shew a fox in deed and a wolfe in cruelty for an hypocrite hath vulpem in cerebro a Fox in his braine milvum in manu a kyte in his hand lupum in corde and a woolfe in his heart a fox in his braine subtill and crafty to insnare hee hath a kyte in his fist to hold fast and when hee hath caught hold he hath a wolfe in his heart to devoure and therefore saith our Saviour Christ Beware of false prophets which come to Mat. 7. 16. you in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening woolves beware of them they are like Swannes that have white feathers black flesh and one thinkes the Swanne was forbidden to be eaten of the Iewes to shew that God abhorres all hypocrisie But in that he compareth hypocrites to clouds that have no raine in them to trees that have no fruite to starres that have no light and some others doe compare them to the raine-bow that hath many colours and yet never a colour to broken glasses that have many faces and yet never a face to Copper that resembleth gold and is nothing lesse We have to note that none make greater shewes of
quà m cogitentur No man can tell or imagine the miseries of hell as they for they are worser than may bee conceived O brethren let us therefore feare hell before wee feele hell For hell is a lake without bottome broad without measure deep without sounding full of incomparable burning intolerable stinch and unspeakable sorrow quoth Hugo If the theefe feare the Assise day and moment any paines how ought we to feare eternall torments so exactly noted by Christ Ter uno oris halitu thrice with one breath saying If thy hand cause thee to offend cut it off it is better Mar. 9. 43 44 45. for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to goe into Hell into the fire that never shall bee quenched where the worme dyeth not and the fire goeth not out Likewise if thy foote cause thee to offend cut it off it is better for thee to goe halt into life than having two feete to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where the worme dyeth not and the fire never goeth out If thy eye cause thee to offend plucke it out it is better for thee to goe into the kingdome of God with one eye than having two eyes to bee cast into Hell fire where the worme dyeth not and the fire goeth not out Common fire is quenched with water wilde fire with vineger and milke Hell fire cannot be quenched Let us therefore feare hell before we feele hell All creatures feare that which may hurt them Elephas timet murem Leo ignem Feare of hell torments should worke repentance Lupus lapidem ceruus canem columb a accipitrem canis baculum ovis lupum avis laqueum piscis hamum latro patibulum An Elephant feares the mouse a Lion fire the Wolfe a stone the Hart a dogge the Pigeon an Hawke the Dogge a cudgell the Sheep a Wolfe a Bird the net a Fish the hooke a theefe the Gallowes and shall not we feare hell but many neither feare nor beleeve there is a hell Heu viuunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Et velut infernus fabula vana foret Men live now as though no death should follow and hell were but a tale We lie downe in sinne wee sleep in sinne wee rest in sinne we live in sinne and we dye in sinne for what sinne is there that we could have committed but we have committed What Bethsabe have we not defiled with David what forbidden fruit have wee not eaten with Adam What Babylonish garment have we not stollen with Achan what usury have we not taken with Zachee what vineyard have we not coveted with Ahab If a man were at a table of dainties and his friend his deare friend should say unto him Eate nothing Touch nothing Meddle with nothing there is poison in these delicates he would not taste nor touch them nor meddle with them yet in sinne there is poison there is mors in olla and yet we will venture upon it Hell and damnation and blacknesse of darkenesse which is the reward of sinne cannot make us leave sinne and clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit And though we heare that the paines of hell be intolerable and that a man may say of them as Aeneas said in another case Non mihi si linguae centum sint or à que centum c. Had I an hundred tongues mouthes to hold them a mouth of iron yet can I not uphold them We heare this all of us but we know not how long we shall heare it Many that heard this since this day twelve-moneth yea since this day moneth are gone to give an account of their life either to God or to the Divell where their state is unchangeable We use to say that he that dieth this yeere is excused for the next But away with this vile proverbe for he that dieth this yeere and not in the Lord is excused never but dieth for ever for there is a second death Death is foure-fold there is a death in sinne a death unto sinne a death of the body and a death of body and soule As the Iudge telleth the prisoner You shall goe from hence to the place of execution and there hang till you be dead So God saith unto the wicked You shall goe from hence to the place from whence yee came that is to the earth and from thence to the place of execution in hell and there thou shalt hang in torments intolerable and perpetuall prepared for the Divell and his angels Feare and terrour shall bee dealt for thy dole and the curses of the people shall follow thee to thy grave and brimstone shal be scattered upon thy habitations thy roote Nothing so hard as the impenitent heart shal be dried up beneath and above thy branch shall bee cut downe thy remembrante shall perish from the earth and thou shalt have no name in the streets c. Thou shalt not depart out of this place of hell till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing that is thou shalt never bee Iob 18. 14 15. Mat. 5. 25. delivered from thence O brethren marke this doctrine and feare hell that I may say of this towne as Christ said to Zachees house Salvation is happened unto it For hell is as the Lions denne O mnia adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum there is an ingresse but no egresse Facilis est descensus Averni the descent into hell is easy we goe to hell as a boule runneth downe the hill What hearts have we then of flesh or of flint of folly or of madnesse that this moveth us not O caeci ad videndum propriam miseriam ô ignari ad intelligendum proprium damnum ô corda Adamante duriora quae non contremiscunt audire haec O blind men that cannot see their owne misery ô ignorant men that cannot understand their owne danger ô hearts harder then the Adamant that cannot tremble to heare these things Granatensis said Nil tam durum quà m cor hominis nothing so hard as a mans heart Omnia dura metalla igne liquescunt all hard metals are softned with fire the iron is dissolved in the furnace the Adamant broken with the blood of a Goate the congealed ice and snow molten with the Sunne the hard marble pearced with droppes the hard rocks rent asunder with strokes At cor humanum durius petra durius ferro durius Adamante but the heart of man is harder than the rocke harder than the iron harder than the Adamant nec amor Deite mollat neither can the love of God mollify thee nec sanguis Christi te frangat nor the blood of Christ breake thee nec ignis inferni te moveat nor the fire of hell move thee For vile men savour nothing either of the ioyes of heaven or paines of hell they are as men without taste whose palates are corrupted with humours that they are not able to discerne betweene hony and gall they
which is written in Ieremie I will put my Lawes in their minds and in their hearts will I write them And they alledge the saying of Ier. 51. Paul Yee are our Epistle written not with inke but with the Spirit of the living God Nay they say further that the Apostles went beyond 2 Cor. 3. yond their Commission when they did write the Scriptures for they were commanded to preach not to write But the Apostle Mat. 28. 19. to the Hebrewes while he doth write the doctrine of the new Covenant alledgeth the forenamed sentence of Ieremy and Paul had already written two Epistles to the Thessalonians and the former Epistle also to the Corinthians when as hee said Tee are our Epistle witten not with inke c. But as Carpocrates Cerdo Manes rejected the bookes of the Law and Cerinthus all the Gospell except Mathew and Severianus and Paulinus the Epistles and Actes of the Apostles so Papists doe accuse the whole Scripture of imperfection and ambiguity Paul being ready to finish his course and to bid a farewell to the world as appeareth in his second Epistle to Timothie when as already the bookes of the New Testament were written saith thus unto Timothie The whole Scripture is given by inspiration and is 2 Tim. 3. 16. profitable to teach to improve to correct and instruct in righteousnesse All things necessary to salvation contained in Scripture where hee bringeth the whole Scripture unto foure heads doctrine redargution correction instruction doctrine is occupied about the chiefe points of faith and religion Redargution confuteth errours in faith and religion instruction comprehendeth information of manners correction is occupied in reproving and punishing delinquents If the Word of God be a two-edged sword to wound the Divell If it bee the hatchet to cut off the head of all hereticks If the Word be mighty in operation entreth thorow even to the dividing asunder of the soule and of the spirit of the ioints and of the marrow If it bee a lanterne unto our feeâ— and a light unto our paths If Christ used no other weapon to repell the Divell but the Word saying It is written If Apollo confuted the Iewes openly proving by the Scriptures Iesus to be Christ If Christs proofes were Scriptum est and his demands Quomodo legis How read you and his Apologies Scrutamini Scripturas search the Scriptures certainly in the Scriptures is contained alone all things necessary to salvation I will therefore conclude this point with the saying of Augustine Neither will I alledge the Councell of Nice neither shalt thou August lib. 3. cap. 14. aduers Maxim alledge the Councell of Arimine against me by the authority of the Scriptures Let us weigh matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason There is no cause therfore why Papists should take the wings of the morning and fly from the written Word unto unwritten verities that the fathers of Colen should call the Scriptures A nose of waxe that Pighius should tearme it The Leaden rule of the Lesbian building that other Papists should tearme it A shipmans-hoase A black Gospell Inken divinity If any will adde or Apoc. 22. detract from it let the curse be pronounced upon him and let all the people say Amen It is false that we have the Baptisme of infants the celebration of the Sunday the distinction of the persons in the Trinity the number of the bookes of the Scripture by tradition not by the written Word God hath kept his law in the Arke and all Popish Philistines could not keep the Arke 1 Sam. 5. Iohn 20. from us These things are written that yee may beleeve Traditions are gathered of an evill egge digge the Papists never so deep they shall not find the myne nor spring of them in the Primitive Church they labour to put life into a dead carcasse of them but it will not be Avant therefore yee Anabaptists with your revelations Avant yee Montanists with your new comforter Avant yee Iewes with your Cabal and Talmud Avant Trent Councell and Papists with your Traditions our salvation is Christ for There is no other name given unto men whereby they shall be saved save only by the name of Iesus The way to salvation is faith the guide Act. 4. 12. to this way is the Scripture Hereupon saith Paul Yee are no longer forenners and strangers but Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and There is a foure-fold iudgement Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone So much for the Author cited Enoch the seventh from Adam Now to the thing prophesied which is judgement and therein Ephes 2. 19 20. first we have to observe that there shall be a iudgement There is a fourefold judgement The first judgement was that that was accomplished of man and Angels at their first fall The Angels that fell were judged and throwne out of Heaven Adam that fell was judged and throwne out of Paradise Gen. 3. Secondly There is a middle judgement and so God judgeth the wicked and the godly every day Visiting â—â—eir sinnes with Psal the rod and their offences with the scourge There is a third a particular judgement in the day of every mans death of Lazarus and good men to Heaven of Dives and bad men to Hell and of this particular judgement the Author Luk. 16. of the Epistle to the Hebrewes speaketh thus It is appoynted for all men once to dye and then commeth the Iudgement Hebr. 9. 27. Fourthly there is generall judgement of quicke and of dead whereof Enoch prophesied here saying The Lord will come with thousands of his Saints to give iudgement c. But some will say Why should God judge man after death since hee hath his judgement at his death I answere that in death wee have a particular judgement but God will also have his generall Aug. judgement Secondly In death we have the judgement of the soule But God will judge both body and soule Thirdly In death wee have a secret Doome But God will have an open Assise a publike Sessions and a manifest Iudgement Concerning which generall Iudgement I could produce a cloud of Scriptures to avouch it both out of the old and new Testament Ezechiel saith An end is come an end is come it is looked for Behold it is come Moses also prophesied of this Iudgement Deut. 32. and David Psal 50. and Salomon Eccles 11. 9. and Daniel Cap. 7. 13. and Ioel Cap. 3. and Malachy Cap. 4. So did Christ himselfe Mat. 24. and Paul the Apostle of us Gentiles 2. Thes 5. and Peter 2. Pet. 3. and Iohn 9. Apoc. 20. Neither is this assurance of the judgement to come warranted by the words of Gods servants onely but the Lord hath left many workes of his own to teach us that hee will once at length for all judge the whole
jury into the world Ex multis iâ—ramentis perventum est â—andem in peâ—iuâ—ia in multilâ—quio non deest peceatum From many oathes men Chrysost came at last to perjury and in much speaking there is sinne with much water there goeth some gravell with much fire some smoke and with many words some lies as among many wounds some skarres Aquinas saith that we must use an oath as we use physicke which is not used but in necessity in diseases So an oath is to be used in necessity when the trueth otherwise cannot appeare Parcè utenda medicina parcè iur amentum A medicine Aquin. is to be used sparingly and an oath sparingly yet a number cannot talke but they must sweare As the girle said of Peter Thou art of Galilee for thy speech bewrayeth thee So these Mat. 26. swearers that thus speake against God are of the Divell By thy barking I know thee to bee a dog by thy hissing to bee a serpent and by thy swearing to bee a vile man Shall I call that a sweet fountaine that sendeth out nothing but brine salt water and sulphurous Shall I call that good earth that yeldeth nothing but briers and brambles And shall I call him a Christian The generall Iudgement most certaine that cannot speake five words but one shall bee against God one shall be an oath by God and by God As she said Call me not Naomi but call me Mara So call not these Christians but beasts monsters Divels as Christ called Iudas These men Iohn 6. 70. as S. Iohn said have the hornes of the Lambe but they speake like the dragon they have a shew of religion but they sweare like reprobates they speake by the mouth of a greater beast Apoc. 13. then themselves These men are like belles that hang in the steeple but they are not seene but heard so these men though they be nor seene they may be heard in the Ale houses and Tavernes as men passe by there they roare and sweare and speake against God and count it a gentlemenly quality In times past Gentlemen were knowne by three properties Learning Armes and Gentlenesse but now by swearing wantonnesse and taking of Tobacco I speake not of all God hath his number Lord how are men degenerated from that they have beene What a Metamorphosis is in the world Have men drunke of Circes cup or are they changed with Hecuba for railing at the siedge of Troy into dogges that they barke thus against God Well they shall come to Iudgement one day for this Christ will come and we expect it To give iudgement against all men and to rebuke all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deeds that they have committed and of all their cruell speakings which ungodly sinners have spoken against And Come Lord Iesus come quickly Apoc. 22. One thing further let me observe unto you that he saith Behold the Lord commeth with thousand of his Saints to give iudgement against all men c. That hee speaketh in the present tense not in the future tense to note the certainty of his comming So Esay Esay 9. said of Christ Vnto us a Child is borne yet was he not then borne but five hundred yeeres at the least after So Iohn spake Ecce venit Apoc. 1. 7. in nubibus Behold he commeth in the clouds and yet hee is not come but to note the trueth of his comming he affirmeth that he commeth The Apostle saith That Faith overcommeth the World and yet we are striving with the world as yet wee are in the 1 Iohn 5. 1. mayne battell as yet the plowers plough long furrowes on our backs as yet we strive unto bloud and yet he saith We have overcome the world because wee shall overcome it The Shepheards said that the words of the Angell were come to passe yet had they Luk 2. 15. Rom. 3. Numb 23. 19. not been a Bethelem Let God be true and all men liers He is not a man that hee should lye neither as the Sonne of man that hee should repent hath be said and shall he not doe it and hath he spoken and shall he not accomplish it Heaven and earth shall passe before one iot or tittle of his Luk 16 17. Word shall passe As for him that thinkes that the Lord will never come to iudgement nor that this body shall rise againe Let him remember that he who bringeth the Sunne out of his Chamber daily who reneweth the dead hornes of the Moone Psal 19. Psal 104. every moneth who dried up the sea in one night who caused None so vile but sometime feareth iudgemeÌ„t inwardly Aarons withered rod in one night to beare ripe Almonds who quickened Sara her dead wombe who revived the dead corne in the ground can raise againe this body and howsoever the Exod. 14. Gen. 18. 1 Cor. 15. wicked seare up their consciences with a hot iron yet I am perswaded there is none so wicked but sometime trembleth at the iudgement That the Lord shall come with thousand of his Saints to give Iudgement on all flesh c. None so riotous but sometime he saith Esca ventri venter escis Meate for the belly and the belly for 1 Cor. 6. 13. meate but God shall destroy both it and them None so covetous but sometime saith The rust of these things will be a witnesse against me None so blasphemous but at one time or other Iam. 5. 3. saith The plague departeth not from the house of the swearer None so adulterous but saith I may not make the Ecclus 23. 12. members of Christ the members of an harlot I may not make the 1 Cor. 6. temple of God the stable for the Divell And to conclude none so past all feare of God but sometimes saith This geare will not last alway what shall become of me when I stand before Gods iudgement seate Foelix trembled when he heard Paul preach of Iudgement and Adrian the Emperour said at his death Animula Act. 24. vagula blandula quo nunc vagaris O my little wandring tender soule whither doest thou now goe Thou wouldest not have the conscience of a damned creature to gaine tenne thousand worlds and to bee the Monarch of them for so many thousand yeers Well yee see there shall be a Iudgement yee see the person that shall be our Iudge The Lord he shall come in his owne person to iudge us and what a comfort will this be that hee shall come for us that went up to send the Comforter unto us Yee see the manner of his comming with thousand of his Saints The end of it to rebuke all the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all the cruell speakings that wicked sinners have spoken against And now to make some use of all this that hath been spoken concerning this Iudgement The use of it is triple 1. For terrour 2. For comfort
earthly If wee doe beleeve that God doth forbeare and forgive us our sinnes and not deale with us according to our deservings if he sanctify us with his spirit and make our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost if he turne us unto himselfe working our conversion which is as great a worke as at the first to create us we may bee well assured that he will deliver our soules from death and preserve us from famine For if he spared not his owne Sonne but hath given him Psal 33. 19. Rom. 8. 32. Luk. 12. 32. for us all to death how shall he not with him give us all things also Murmure not then for the want of outward things which perish with their use For it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome This is the way to represse murmuring Yet men many times are murmurers yea Gods children themselves sometime fall into this sinne but this is to let us see our infirmity and Gods mercy not to excuse this sinne True it is that Iob did passe the bounds Iob 3. 3 4 5. 11 12. of patience saying Let the day perish wherein I was borne and the night wherein it was said that a man child is conceived let the day bee darkenesse Let not God regard it from above that is let it be put out of the number of dayes Neither let the light shine upon it but let darkenesse and the shadow of death sustaine it and let the clouds remaine upon it Let them make it fearefull as a bitter day Why died I not in the byrth and why died I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees prevent me and why did I sucke the brests And so Ieremy Cursed be the day wherein I was borne and let not the day wherein my Ier. 20. 14 15 16. mother bare me be blessed Cursed be the man that shewed my father saying A man child is borne unto thee and comforted him and let that man be as the Cities which the Lord hath overturned and repented not and let them he are the cry in the morning and the shouting at noone day The Ion. 4. 8. like may be said of Ionas who wished in his heart to die and said It is better to die then to live And the same may also be said of Elias It God never failes the faithfull is enough Lord take away my life I am no better then my Fathers These are examples to make us beware not to bee followed In multis peccavimus omnes in many things we sinne all when the water is Iam. 3. troubled it is not cleare nor good to drinke of When mens minds are troubled their speeches are passionate and grievous but God shall strengthen them if they pertaine to him premimur sed non opprimimur We are pressed but not oppressed wee 2 Cor. 4. 8. fall but we rise againe Let us chide our soules as David did Why art thou so heavy ô my soule why art thou so disquieted within me Waite Psal 42. 14. on God relent not murmure not though troubles bee long and great dic animae tuae Quid tumultuaris say unto thy soule Why doest thou make tumult why doest thou fret and storme Art thou hungry God will feed thee as he did Elias by Ravens that brought him meate morning and evening Art thou weake God will strengthen thee as he did Shamgar with his Oxe goad Art thou shut up close in prison God will deliver thee as hee did Peter the brazen gates of their own accord shall open unto thee Pharao may pursue Israel but he shall be drowned in the red Sea Ieroboam may stretch out his hand but it shall wither Abraham may lift up his hand to smite Isaac but Gods Angell shall stay him and a ramme in a bush shall be present to bee sacrificed in the roome and stead of him The Arrians may lie in waite for Ambrose but he shall passe thorow the middest of them without hurt A lion shall feed Macarius A Hart shall bring meate to Aegidius A wild Asse shall carry Haebaenus over the sea A whale shall receive Ionas safely The Duke of Savoy may besiege Geneva sed providebit Deus quoth Beza God shall provide Ne desis Deo in fide non deerit tibi in ope Be not wanting to God in faith and hee will not bee wanting unto thee in help Trust thou in the Lord and doe good dwell in the land and thou shalt bee fed assuredly Psal 137. 3 4 5. and delight thy selfe in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire Commit thy way unto the Lord and trust in him and he shall bring it to passe Sed hoc facile dictu sed arduum factis This is soone spoken but not so soone done few will in patience possesse their soules scarce one of a thousand will beare his Crosse patiently without murmuring Let us but want any corporall food by and by wee breake out What meanes the Lord to kil us with famine What greater sinners are we then such and such that have the world at will Would God hee would either amend these things or make an end of us who can endure such an hard time better to dye any way then to dye of Famine But away with this murmuring and let us rely upon God and say with Iob Though hee killme yet will I put my trust in him There is murmuring also against man grudging either at their wealth or at their love and favour or at the credit and preferment wherein they goe before other men So the Pharises murmured against Iesus and against his Disciples because the One man repines ordinarily against another people followed them and thus the Grecians murmured against the Disciples of Christ because their widowes were neglected in their daily ministring a fault whether more bad or common Act. 6. 1. among us it is hard to say For what more ordinary among men than murmuring If he be our superiour in wealth or in honour or in credit wee murmure against him as too great to dwell so neere us and if he bee our equall wee grudge that hee should thrive and prosper aswell as wee if he be our inferiour wee disdaine him Thus among all sorts there is murmuring so that whereas all things should bee done without murmuring nothing is done without murmuring one man repines against another We say as Peter said Lord what shall this man doe We grudge like the men of the vineyard Nemo sua sorte contentus Iohn 21 21. Mat. 21. No man resteth contented with his lot It was wont to be a proverbe Homo homini Deus One man is a God unto another but now Homo homini Daemon One man is a Divell to another to repine disdaine and hurt another yet are wee commanded to bee patient and to settle our hearts not to grudge one against another Iam. 5. 8 9. lest we be condemned The people murmure
Ier. 20. 3 4. Balaam say Moriatur anima mea Let my soule dye the death of the righteous and let my last end bee like unto his Iulian tooke his bloud Numb 23. 10. in his hands being strooken with an arrow from Heaven and threw it up into the Ayre saying Vicisti Galilaee O man of Galile thou hast gotten the victory Calvin writing upon the hundred and fifteenth Psalme verse sixteene telleth a notable story how God suddenly shut up the mouth of a Blasphemer and made him dumbe who derided God saying Coeli coelorum Domini The Heaven of Heavens unto the Lord and the Earth hath he given to the children of men as though men in Earth might live at randome Thus Esay traverseth the scorners of Ierusalem saying Heare the Word of the Lord yee scornefull men because yee have Esa 28. 14 15. said Wee have made a covenant with Death and with Hell are wee at an Scoffers and mockers punished agreement though a scourge runne over and passe thorow it shall not come at us for wee have made falshood our refuge and under vanity are wee hid But saith God I will lay Iudgement to the rule and Righteousnesse to the ballance and your covenant with Death shall bee disannulled and your agreement with Hell shall not stand now therefore bee no mockers lest your bonds increase So heare this yee scorners of Norfolke God will meete with you one day Hee will wound the head of his enemies and the hairie scalpe of him that walketh in Psal 68. 21. Psal 21. 8 9. his sinnes and his right handshall finde out all these mockers that hate him Hee shall make them like a fiery Oven in the time of his anger The Lord shall destroy them in his wrath and the fire shall devoure them These mockers shall not alwayes doe him this dishonour but God will draw his hand yea his right hand out of his bosome and consume them Psal 74. 11. Foure notable scoffers I knew in my time that held of one ging the first dyed mad the second hanged himselfe the third is a begger and yet was richly left the fourth is strooken blind Let men take heed if God be God they shall not goe unpunished for they open their mouth against Heaven David cryeth out that hee was a worme and not a man a shame of men and Psal 22. 6. 7. the out-cast of all people that all that saw him had him in derision they made a mow and nod the head at him but yet hee gathereth heart and insulteth over these his enemies saying Let the wicked be put to confusion and to silence in the grave and let these lying lips bee made Psal 31. 17 18. dumbe which cruelly proudly and spightfully speake against the righteous Herod and Pilate scoffed at the Lord Iesus his simplicitie made a May-game of him the rascall souldiers flouted Iuke 22. him but hee left the vengeance to his Father who met with them all One saith that the scoffers shall bee punished in Hell in their tongues quoting Luke 16. 24. for said hee In quo membro peccamus in codem plectemur In what member wee sinne in the same must wee be punished as the Envious in their eyes the Gluttons in their throats the Lecherous in their bodies the Malicious in their hearts the Covetous in their hands the Scoffers in their toungs but this is but a speculation a quiddity for surely the damned are tormented in all parts but yet chiefely in that part that hath offended paena peccato respondet the punishment is answerable to the sinne The World is full of these mockers for men are come to a wonderfull height of sin and are growne to be most notoriously wicked and ungodly so it is said that cursed Cham mocked his Father Noah I smael mocked godly Isaac because it is like I smael Gen. 2. 22. Gen. 21. seeing godly Isaac performing some duties of Religion Prayer Thankesgiving or the like hee laughed him to scorne The Athenians mocked Paul What will this babbler say So the Scribes Act. 17. Mat. 26. 68. and Pharisees mocked our Saviour saying Haile King of the Iewes The Iewes mocked Saint Peters Sermon saying These Scoffing a kind of persetion men are ful of new wine they are possessed with the spirit of the Buttery The children of Bethel mocked Elisha saying Goe up bald pate This was the complaint of godly Ieremy O Lord I am in 2 Reg. 2. 22. Ier. 20. 7. derision dayly everie one mocketh me and as it was so it is still and shall bee the World is full of such lewd and wicked men as Nilus of Crocodiles such mockes-God that mocke and mow at all good duties scoffing and scorning all Religion flowting and misusing all Gods faithfull Ministers raile upon them and revile them yea if any man feare God and worke righteousnesse attend to reading exhortation and doctrine pray evening and morning and at noone-day instruct their families with Abraham and will not sweare with the swearer drinke with the drunkard nor runne with the prophane in all excesse of riot this man shall bee derided mocked scorned jested at and railed upon branded with many odious names but let these mockers take heed God will come in judgement hee will bee a swift witnesse and a sharpe Iudge against them Looke on that cursed Cham and scoffing Ismael behold Gods vengeance upon those fortie two boyes that mocked Elisha What became of them that mocked and misused the Prophets of the Lord What became of them that mocked and misused Christ Iesus our Saviour and yee shall see none of them escaped unpunished This mocking is a kinde of persecution these mockers are persecutors Ismael did but gybe and fleere and flout at Isaac yet Gen. 21. Gal. 5. 29. Mat. 27. 39. Paul calleth it persecution those that railed on Christ despited him as much as they that crucified him with their hands as those that ranne him to the heart with a speare The wicked now persecute the Saints and laugh and gybe and fleere at them to the full but God shall laugh at them another day hee will yee mockers Hee will laugh at your destruction and mocke you when Prou. 1. 26 27. your feare commeth like suddaine desolation and your destruction shall come like a whirlewind when affliction and anguish shall come upon you c. The rich mans tongue burned in Hell and could not have a spoonefull of water and shall not these tongues fry in Hell Luke 16. that raile that jest that mocke at Honesty and Religion Who say that they will beleeve their hound before a Preacher for hee will not hunt counter God will burne one day these tongues For if that tongue that mocketh his earthly Father and Mother shall bee pulled out As Agur said The eye that mocketh Prov. 3. 17. his Father and despiseth the instruction of his Mother let the Ravens in the valley pick it
were all damned for so must they bee if they savour not of Gods Spirit For the Wisdome of the flesh is death the Wisdome of the Spirit is life and Rom. 8. 6 8 13. peace and againe They that are in the flesh cannot please God and againe If yee live after the flesh yee shall dye but if yee mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit yee shall live and againe Whatsoever a man soweth that shall hee reape hee that soweth Gal. 6. 7 8. to his flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption and hee that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting Now temporall and eternall are opposite The things that are seene are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall But not 2 Cor. 4. 18. Temporall and Spirituall But this was the policy of the Papists to name themselves spirituall that they might withdraw themselves from the Magistrate as though they pertained to God only not to Caesar Secondly they called their The regenerate onely have the Spirit of God in them lands and livings spirituall to exempt them also from the Magistrate and yet Paul calleth all these earthly commodities carnall as in his Epistle to the Corinthians If wee have sowne unto you spirituall things is it a great thing if wee reape 1 Cor. 9. 11. your carnall things And againe If the Gentiles bee made partakers Rom. 15. 27. of their spirituall things their duty is also to minister unto them in carnall things And to the end to defeate Caesar they set the Image of the Church upon their Coyne not Caesars Image Thirdly to make the more gaine they tooke to the punishment of Adultery Incest Drunkennesse Vsury Perjury Simony Sorcery under the colour of spirituall things and so they caught Testaments Legacies Marriages Dowries Ierome calleth the people Secular men but Temporall no man calleth them as though their hope reached but unto this life only whereas they are to bee saved aswell as Church-men To whom wrote Paul but unto the people For whom else prayed hee His words are plaine Brethren my hearts desire for Israel is that they might bee saved Well They have not the Spirit not the Spirit of Regeneration and sanctification but they have the Spirit of illumination but Gods children they have Gods Spirit of regeneration they are led by Gods Spirit and the Spirit of God certifieth Rom. 8. 16. their Spirits that they are the sonnes of God and he that hath not the Spirit of God is none of Gods it is the Spirit of God that worketh in us all in all The bath of regeneration and the renovation of the Spirit saveth us Wee are justified sanctified and Tit. 3. 1 Cor. 6. Gal. 5. 22. washed by the Spirit All good works are the fruits of the Spirit untill Gods Spirit hath renewed us wee are stables for the Divell Si durus sit hic sermo as the Disciples said Iohn 6. Luk 11. 21. blame him that spake it O there is No medium betwixt these two either Gods Spirit dwelleth in us or Satan Know yee 1 Cor. 6. 16. not that yee are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The Spirit is the same in the Church as the soule in the body it is it that quickneth us hee leadeth us into all Iohn 16. 3. truth hee sealeth up all graces in our hearts hee applieth all the mercies of God all the merits of Christ Iesus unto us hee worketh all graces and giveth all spirituall gifts unto us The Apostle making the comparison betweene the 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Cor. 13. 3. 8. Gal. 5. 2. flesh and the Spirit resembleth it to a tree that yeeldeth all manner of good fruits like the apple-tree of Persia or like the Tree of life Let us then intertaine Gods Spirit make much of him nourish every good motion that is wrought in us by him and every sparke will bee a fire flaming out of us every drop will bee a river issuing out of us to eternall life if wee nourish it but let us not quench the Spirit All grace and goodnesse flowes from Gods Spirit nor grieve the Spirit lest Saint Iude his Prophesy bee verified of us that wee are naturall men fleshly not having the Spirit but let us stirre up the gift of God in us blow at the coale and put spurres to this horse 1 Thess 5. 19. THE ONE AND THIRTIETH SERMON VERS XX. But yee beloved edifie your selves in your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost The godly and the wicked every way opposite STill hee proceedeth in the comparison betwixt the godly and ungodly the elect and the reprobate the lambes on the right hand and the goates on the left hand of the Lord Iesus noting that the godly remember the words of the Lord they are peaceable without sects spirituall they increase in faith they pray in the Holy Ghost they keepe themselves in the love of God they looke for eternall life but on the contrary the wicked remember nothing they scoffe at Religion they be scorners they bee unquiet they be meere naturall men they decrease in goodnesse they pray not they love not God they cannot looke for life but death and destruction Tribulation and anguish shall bee upon the soules of them Vpon Rom. 9. Psal 11. 6 7. them God will raine snares fire and brimstone storme and tempest this shall be their portion to drinke A Lion out of the forrest shall slay them and a Woolfe in the wildernesse shall destroy them a Ier. 1. 5 6. Leopard shall watch over their Cities every one that goeth out shall bee torne in pieces because their trespasses are many and The Church and Saints as houses must be edified or builded dayly their rebellions are increased Sed but yee beloved but this Conjunction discretive here is emphaticall Sed vos autem dilecti but you beloved as if hee should have said You must not be like the wicked they be mockers they walke after their ungodly lusts they are makers of sects fleshly having not the Spirit but you must not doe so but you must turne over another leafe learne a new lesson This teacheth all Christians to live like Christians not as miscreants the true Christian turnes away his eyes from vanity as Iob the miscreant applies his senses to folly as Holofernes The Iob. Iudith 10. true Christian setteth a watch before his mouth and keepeth the doore of his lips the miscreant gives liberty to his tongue to speake evill and raile like Rabshakeh the true Christian is alwayes doing good as Abraham the miscreant alwayes doing 2 Reg. 18. evill as Achab the one loveth goodnesse the other badnesse the one setteth Gods judgements before his face the other puts them from his sight the one kils sinne in the thought the other suffers it to raigne in the heart the one knowes the end of his sinne
our selves and take up our crosse and follow Christ Againe Iude here nameth vestem maculatam the spotted garment so the sinne must bee haâ—ed not the person that sinneth the person must bee loved the sinne hated For the person is made after the Image of God and Gods Image must not be hated the person is redeemed with Christs blood and seeing hee Gen. 9. loveth them wee must love them Againe hee can make of Woolves Lambes Exvasisirae vasa misericordiae of vessels of Reprobates not to bee loved or prayed for wrath vessels of mercy therefore seeke thou to save him and instruct them with meekenesse proving if God at any time will give them repentance Quis potest odisse hominem cujus naturam similitudinem videt in humanitate Christi Who can hate a man whose nature 1 Tim. 1. 15. 2 Tim. 2. 25. August and similitude he may behold in the humanity of Christ Deum odit qui hominem odit he hateth God that hateth man therefore amorem cum hominibus odium cum vitijs have love with men hatred with their vices so it is said of Ephesus that they hated the deeds of Apoc. 2. Gen. 49. the Nicolaitans not their persons but their errors so Iacob cursed the wrath of his sonnes but blessed their persons so Paul having bitterly enveighed against the Corinths yet loved the men and spake it not to shame them for so hee himselfe saith I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved children to admonish you 1 Cor. 4. 15. thus would hee have us deale with a bad man with an excommunicate man not to account him an enemy but admonish 2 Thess 3. 15. 1 Cor. 5. him as a brother hee would have his body punished that his soule may be saved But yet in some cases the wicked may bee hated and cursed when they shew open signes of a reprobate mind such God hateth so saith the Prophet Thou art not a God that loveth wickednesse Psal 5. 4 5. neither shall evill dwell with thee the foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all them that worke iniquity Such must not bee prayed for The Church therefore prayed not for Iulian but against him they knew him to bee a reprobate For there are two Iudgements the judgement of Faith and Love The first is in God the second is left to us Multi enim lupi sunt intùs there bee many woolves within if wee respect the first Et multaeoves foris many sheep without if wee respect the latter and yet wee may judge when men give signes of reprobation and hate such persons thus David hated the wicked bade them be packing Away from mee yee wicked I will keep the Commandements Psal 119. 115. of my God And againe I have not haunted with vaine persons neither kept company with the dissemblers I have hated the assembly of the evill Psal 26. 4 5. and have not companied with the wicked But to leave this Againe it is not inough to leave sinne but wee must leave it with a conscience with a hatred of it many leave it to get credit and some lest they suffer losse by it but not of conscience to God and of many it may bee said they leave not sinne but sinne leaveth them the drunkard leaveth drinking because his stomacke is decayed the Adulterer whoredome for that the strength of nature faileth him the quarreller leaves sighting for that hee is crooked and lame hee cannot bestirre him as in times heretofore the covetour leaves oppressing because hee can oppresse no longer but all this is nothing For the body must not onely leave the act of sinne but the heart must leave the desire of sinne Abhorre that which is evill and cleave unto that Sinne must be hated for conscience which is good And againe wee must cast away the works of darkenesse and put on the armour of light Thus must wee leave sinne of conscience with an hatred of it else it is nothing But many hold Rom. 12. 9. Rom. 13. 12. sinne as Cinegerus the Athenian held the ships of his enemies loden with the rich spoiles of his Countrey and now ready to hoise saile and to be gone First hee held them with his hands till his hands were cut off then with his stumpes till his armes were cut off then with his teeth till his head was cut off and when all was done still he held them in desire So many when God hath cut off all occasions of sinne yet they hold it in heart the old man is sorry that he cannot be young to play the wanton the prisoner that he cannot be abroad to steale and robbe the sicke man that hee cannot revell nor rowte among his companions the disgraced man that hee hath not authority to oppresse the envious man that hee cannot revenge if they might live ever they would sinne ever they are sorry they cannot offend God any more like Iulian who sorrowed at his death because hee could not bee revenged of the Galilaean but wee must leave our sinnes and be angry greeved and displeased with our selves for our sinnes Thus Paul was angry with himselfe with his flesh with his spirit and cals himselfe Wretch Yea miserable miserable wretch for thus he saith Miserable wretch that I am who Rom. 7. 24. shall deliver me from this body of sinne Hee speakes in the excesse hee cals himselfe the first the greatest sinner but when he nameth 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 15. his vertue hee speakes in the defect that hee is the least Apostle the first and greatest sinner but the last and least Apostle Note his zeale against sinne If men could weepe teares of blood for their sinne if they could die a thousand times in one day for very griefe yet could they not bee greeved enough if thou knewest sinne and the reward of sinne in the damned thou wouldest not sinne willingly for ten thousand worlds for the wages of sinne is death not onely the death of the body temporall Rom. 6. 23. death but also the death of body and soule everlasting death when men shall alwayes be a dying and never dead For there men shall seeke for death shall not find it We hate Iudas Herod Pilate Apoc. 9. But hate thine owne manners thy sinnes with theirs were the nayles the speares the thornes that pearced the Lord Iesus All Hebr. 10. say that Christ died for sinne that hee was wounded for our sinnes and smitten for our transgressions yet all make him a Esay 53. patrone of their sinnes the theefe makes him the receivour the murderer his sanctuary the whoremonger his bawde they live in sinne and yet they say Christ died for sinne kill sinne Caluiâ— in Gal. 6. 1. and kill the Divell kill sinne and kill death the first and second death Hee that will encounter with Samson must cut off his lockes hee that will encounter with a
serpent must pull out his sting Now death is a serpent and his sting is sinne one may put a serpent in his bosome when his sting is out and wee may Earth-quakes upon extraordinary occasions let death into our bosome when sinne is gone the venim and poison gone But to draw us to a greater hatred of sinne let me apply this late judgement of the earth-quake unto you These judgements Anno Domini 1601. Decembr 24. have never beene but upon great and rare occasions and for horrible and notorious sinnes to note the wonderfull power of God and to presage some rare events some strange plagues to fall upon the world When God gave the Law the earth shooke God did it in fearefull manner to teach Israel that if the earth shooke when God spake much more should their hearts shake The like earth quake was at the restoring of the Law in the dayes of Elias And indeed to whom is the Word of God powerfull 1 Reg. 19. Esay 66. 25. profitable but to him that trēbleth at it Of these former judgements David speaketh O God when thou wentest forth before the Psal 68 7. 8. people when thou wentest thorow the wildernesse the earth shooke and the Heavens dropped at the presence of God even Sinai was moved at the presence of God even the God of Israel Againe in the horrible rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. the one in the Church the other in the Commonwealth the one against the Lords Priest the other against the Lords Magistrate there was an earthquake to teach that hell shall swallow us as it did them if we rebell so Of all judgements these most manifest the power of God and foreshew his great anger so David spake The earth trembled and quaked the foundations also of the mountaines moved and shooke because hee was angry smoke went out of Psal 28. 7 8 9. his nostrils and a consuming fire out of his mouth coales were kindled thereat he bowed the Heavens and came downe and darkenes was under his feete c. When Vzziah would usurpe the Priests office and Zach. 14. ◠confound Church and Commonwealth and make a Chaos of all religion and goodnesse God shooke the earth and when Iericho fell it is thought by the learned to have bene by an earth quake Iosh 6. And when the wicked Iewes crucified the Lord of glory all creatures Mat. 27. shewed their disliking the Sunne was eclypsed the Heavens lost their light the starres were moved the vaile of the Temple rent asunder the graves opened the dead rose the earth quaked O dura obdurata indurata corda hominum quae non contremiscunt O durate and obdurate and indurate hearts of men that cannot tremble David speaketh of the rare Iudgement of God in this case and thereby stirreth up all men to feare God Shall the wildernes quake and shall not our hearts quake Absit The voice of the Lord maketh the wildernes to tremble and shall not Psal 26. 5. wee tremble In the great persecution of the Church S. Iohn speaketh of an earthquake Let us not thinke that these judgements Apoc. 6. 12. bee ordinary and rise altogether of naturall causes for great hurt hath ensued The three famous Cities of Asia Laodicea for wealth Hierapolis for learning and Colossos for strength were all overthrowne with earth-quakes Constantinople was tormented with shaking a whole yeere together In the dayes of Boniface Earth-quakes fore-runners of fearefull Iudgements there happened an Earth-quake and after followed such a plague of scabbes and botches as a man could hardly tell his owne dead from other mens Burdeam was mightily shaken with Anno. 741. an earth-quake And in the yeere of our Lord 1171. the City Tripolis a great part of Damascus in Antiochia and Halapre the chiefe City of Loradin and other Cities of the Saracens either perished utterly or were wonderfully defaced And An. 1539. in divers places as at Venice Florēce there were great earth-quakes which did much hurt In Anno 1579. April the 6. an earth-quake tolled the great bell at Westminster and threw downe a piece of Dover Castle and part of Sutten Church in Kent to note unto us that our sinnes overburden the earth the earth grones and would be eased God shakes his hand the earth trembles man is carelesse beware it gapes not and swallow thee up quicke When Arrius heresy was entertained in Antioch God punished it with earth-quakes to give a Caveat how wee admit of heresy and six great Cities in Greece in the dayes of Tiberius and twelve Cities of Campania in the dayes of Constantine And wee all now might have beene swallowed up if Gods mercy had not bene the Anno. 1601. greater Blessed bee God who kept us and hee keepe us evermore But surely this earth-quake prognosticateth that God is comming to Iudgement As the City of Rome was never shaken but it presaged some strange event The yeere before the Carthaginian warre there were 57. earthquakes at Rome but there presently followed a lamentable warre After an earth-quake in Venice there followed a famine and upon the necke of that a plague which beginning farre North spred over the whole earth but so raged at Venice as scarcely one lived of an hundred but as a wonder lasteth but nine dayes so this earth-quake will be forgotten of many When Ananias fell downe dead suddenly Act. 5. at the feete of Peter all the Church trembled and this should make us all tremble For in my judgement it is a forerunner of Christs comming or else of some fearefull judgement of warre Mat. 26. 7. Pliny or famine or of pestilence For an heathen man could say that earth-quakes portend and foretell fearefull matters ensuing And note that God sent it at this time to begin our Christmas with it so mis-spent of all men The Heathen had their Floralia Bacchanalia Cerealia they went naked surfeted and were drunken and they light torches to Proserpina going naked and what else doe wee Wee eate and drinke and rise up to play and goe up and down showting and revelling Hath the grace of God appeared to Tit. 2. 11. this end Brethren hath the Lord Iesus gotten twelve dayes of his Father for prophanenesse swearing revelling c I am ashamed that the Turke the Iew the Persian should know this Propter nos male audit nomen Christi The name of God is blasphemed Rom. 2. 24. among the Gentiles through us The heathen had their Cerealia Fearefull earth-quakes and comets warne to repent as I said before wherein they surfeted to Ceres and their Bacchanalia wherein they were drunken to the honour of Bacchus they had their Floralia wherein they were idle and gave themselves to lust and Venerie Wherein differ our Christmas feasts from theirs it being spent only in eating drinking nay gluttony and drunkennes riot cards dice swearing swaggering toying fooling and what not
God imputeth righteousnesse but yet in the righteousnesse of Christ not in an inherent righteousnesse of our owne as hee is said to have paid the money to his creditour who paid it by another though himselfe was not able And unto this end the Apostle saith that wee are justified freely by his grace through the redemption Rom. 4 5 6 7 8. that is in Christ Iesus To the place in the Romanes where Paul saith But to him that worketh not but beleeveth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousnesse even as David declared the blessednesse of that man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works saying Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not the sin Bellarmine answereth that Paul setteth not downe a full definition of justification For sinne is not remitted saith he except righteousnesse bee infused but yet inchoated onely not perfected and yet the comparison holdeth not betwixt the infusion of light into the ayre and the infusion of righteousnesse into a man similia illustrant non probant similies doe illustrate a thing but prove not Bellarmine argueth from the comparison betwixt Adam and Christ Per Adae peccatum inhaerens peccatores sumus By Rom. 5. the inhaerent sinne of Adam we are sinners therefore per infusionem inhaerentis justitiae justi sumus by infusion of inhaerent righteousnesse wee are righteous I answere that the argument followeth not the comparison holdeth not in the inherence of sinne or righteousnesse but in the adoption or getting From Adam wee have gotten sinne naturally but from Christ supernaturally by faith by which the righteousnesse of Christ is imputed unto us Bellarmine reckoneth up many things which be necessary to salvation out of the second Epistle of S. Peter the first Chapter as how we must joyne Vertue 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7. with Faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience godlinesse and with godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and with brotherly kindnesse Good works the way not the cause of the Kingdome of Heaven love But hee doth detorquere writhe and bow the question another way and to another end For wee doe not exclude good works simply from the obtaining of salvation sunt enim via regni non causa regnandi they are the way to Gods Kingdome not the cause of our ruling and reigning in Gods Bern. Kingdome but from the obtaining of righteousnes For it is onely Christs righteousnesse that maketh us righteous before God for hee is our wisdome and righteousnesse and holinesse and redemption wisdome to instruct us righteousnes to justify us holines to sanctify us and redemption to free us Hee reasoneth thus Faith without Love doth not justify Therefore faith alone doth not justify for faith worketh by love Gal. 5. I deny the Confequence For though faith bee not alone without other vertues yet it justifieth alone as the hand of the writer is not alone but hath other members adjoyned unto it yet it writeth alone as the eye is not alone and yet it seeth alone and the eare is not alone and yet it heareth alone and yet to speake properly faith doth not justify it is a Metonymicall speech for to speake properly the righteousnes of Christ apprehended by faith justifieth us faith as the principall cause doth not justify us sed ut causa instrumentalis but as the instrumentall cause non per modum dispositionis sed per modum apprehensionis not by the manner of disposition but by the manner of apprehension For although it doth dispose unto good workes yet it doth not justify in respect of that but in respect of the object which is Christ For the blood of Iesus 1 Iohn 1. 7. Christ Gods Sonne clenseth us from all sinne But Iustification saith hee is motus à peccato ad justitiam a moving from sinne to righteousnesse as illumination is a moving from darkenes to light I grant sed non adjustitiam inhaerentem not unto inherent or infused righteousnesse but imputative Hee argueth that things are denominated from the internall not the externall forme as we call an Aethiopian blacke though he have a white garment on him quia nigredo est illi insita because blacknes is naturally graffed in him Ergo nos justos dici à justitia intra nos non extra nos Therefore wee are said to bee righteous of the righteousnesse that is within us not without us I answere This is true in Philosophy but false in Divinity Here we may say with Paul Beware lest there bee any man that spoile you through Col. 2. ◠philosophy Philosophy may bee used so as shee be content to be a servant not a mistris but when men measure all doctrine by humane reason and philosophicall positions as Bellarmine here doth then Philosophy is to be taken heed of Howlet in the fifth part of his resolution confesseth that works are not the causes of salvation but the path that leadeth Papists at death fly to Gods mercy in Christ and not to merit to salvation the fruits and effects of faith as Christ saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorify your Father which is in Heaven That Paul speaking of the cause of Iustification saying wee conclude that Mat. 5. 16. Rom. 3. 18. a man is justified by faith without the workes of the Law is not contrary to Iames speaking of the notes and signes of Iustification saying Yee see then how that of workes a man is justified and not of faith onely This truth God extorted from him as also Iam. 2. 24. from Stephen Gardiner who confessed this at his death but would not have it preached to the people Open that doore quoth hee and then farewell all Hee would bee wiser than God Mounser also granted it and cried Solus Christus solus Christus Christ alone Christ alone And so Sherwin a seminary Priest executed for treason with Campian and others at Tiborne when hee was in the cart ready to dye though he held himselfe a martyr for the Catholike faith acknowledged nowithstanding ingenuously the miseries imperfections and corruptions of his owne vile nature relying wholly upon Christ cried out at his death O Iesus Iesus Iesus bee to mee a Iesus And Bellarmine cites often in his workes out of Augustine Domus Dei credendo fundatur sperando exigitur diligendo perficitur the foundation of Gods house in our soules is faith the walles hope the roofe charity If faith bee the foundation of all other vertues as himselfe affirmes and if it bee our safest Lib. 1. de Rom. Pont. cap. 10. De Iustificatione lib. 5. Cap. 7. course to repose our whole trust in the onely mercy of God Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae tutissimū est fiduciam totam in
sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere For the uncertainty of our owne righteousnes and danger of vaine glory it is the safest way to repose all our confidence in Gods only mercy and bounty Then is it not as hee disputes Lib. 1. de justificatione cap. 4. wrought by charity but contrariwise charity doth arise from faith I will conclude with Bernard Omnia merita Dei dona sunt ita homo magis propter ipsa Deo debitor est quà m Deus homini all our merits are the gifts of God so man is rather a debtour to God for them then God to man So much as touching this life Touching the other life hee commends them to God that they may behold the presence of his glory with joy for in the life to come wee shall have plenitudinem gaudy fulnes of joy Here all Psal 16. joy is at an ebbe it is mixed with some sorrow light with darkenesse heate with cold health with sicknes life with death glory with ignominy but there is joy and nothing but ioy no change no alteration day without night light without darkenesse summer without winter youth without age life without death there we shall have all teares wiped away from our eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow neither crying neither shall Apoc. 21. 4. there bee any more paine but they shall have perpetuall ioy death The ioyes of Heaven fill all powers of soule body and Hell shall bee cast into the lake of fire and shall bee destroyed for ever The second death shall have no power upon them that be in heaven but they shall bee the Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeeres That is for ever We looke too much to Apoc. 20. 6 5 14. Hebr. 6. the pleasures of this world which maketh us care lesse for Heaven but looke into the powers of the world to come vide intùs extra supra infra circumcirca ubique erit gaudium Looke within and without above and beneath and round about and yee shall find ioy every where within shall be ioy for the glorification of the body and soule for our Saviour even The Lord Iesus shall change our vile body and make it like his glorious body according Phil. 3. 21. to the working whereby he is able to sub due all things unto himselfe It is much to have our bodies changed more to have our vile bodies changed but to have our vile bodies so changed that they shall be facioned like the glorious body of the Lord Iesus is most of all and must needs fill us with ioy Wee shall have ioy without by reason of the company of the blessed Angels for wee shall inioy not onely the celestiall Ierusalem but also the company of innumerable Angels which shall glad us and reioice us exceedingly Wee shall have ioy above in the sight of God for wee shall bee like God and see him as hee is Wee shall have ioy beneath of the beauty of Heaven and of the world for 1 Iohn 3. 2. Wee looke for new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3. 13. Wee shall have ioy round about of the delight of all our senses when God shall bee the obiect of them all for he shall be a glasse unto our eyes musicke unto our eare hony to our taste a flowre to our hands and sweet Balsamum to our smell there shall be the fairenes of the Summer the sweetnes of the Spring the plenty of the Autumne the rest of the Winter yea God shall 1 Cor. 13. bee all in all unto us This life is as a seed-time in teares as the travell of a woman as a weary prentice-hood as a tedious iourney but the harvest is in the life to come there shall we reape joy there Psal 126. 5. are wee delivered of our child birth and forget our sorrow for ioy that salvation is come our sorrow shall be turned into ioy A Iohn 16. 21 22. woman when shee travaileth hath sorrow because her houre is come but as soone as shee is delivered of her Child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is borne into the world In this world wee have sorrow but in Heaven joy there wee shall rejoice and our joy shall no man take from us Looke to Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith and let the same animate us that did him hee for the joy that was set before Hebr. 12. 2. him endured the Crosse and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the Throne of God Let us so doe and wee shall follow the Lambe and be partakers of the price of our high calling which is in Christ Iesus tantum gaudebunt quantum amabunt tantum amabunt quantum cognoscunt Deum sic cognoscunt ut cogniti Rom. 8. sunt so much shall they reioice by how much they love and so The land of the living cōpared with the land of the dead much shall they love by how much they know God and they so know as they are knowne The situation and height of Heaven may teach us the quantity and quality of the glory of heaven Coelum Empyraeum is 1 Cor. 13. higher greater and more excellent than all Heavens the Scripture calleth it The land of the living as if the earth which we inhabit were the land of dead men and indeed Wee are dead and Psal 116. 9. our life is hidde with Christ in God and when Christ which is our life Col. 3. 3. shall appeare then shall wee also appeare in glory Now if in this land of dead men the creatures bee so precious what shall they bee hereafter in the land of the living In this dead land see the greatnesse of the heavens the brightnesse of the Sunne and Moone and starres the beauty of the earth how pleasant is it to see the height of the mountaines the plaines of the fields the greenenesse of the vallies the fountains of waters the current of the streames and rivers which like veines runne thorow the earth the mines of gold and silver pearle the mines of metals If all these bee in the land of the dead what is in the land of the living There shall bee a new Heaven and a new earth and new creatures 2 Pet. 3. 15. Againe there be three places in this life The first is in the wombe from our corruption The second is in the world from our birth The third is in Heaven after death Betwixt these three there is a proportion looke how much the world is bigger and pleasanter than the wombe so much is Heaven bigger and fairer than the world as well in length of time as in beauty Touching durance the first life in the 2 Mathab 7. wombe is not above nine moneths the second life is foure score yeeres at the most the third is infinite and