that necessity that neither the immutability of Gods decree Dan. 9. 1. nor the 〈◊〉 of the promises 〈◊〉 36 37. 〈◊〉 the effectuall 〈◊〉 of our Lord Christ who 〈◊〉 his Disciples to pray 〈◊〉 with us for not doing it The Jews accounted it an abomination of desolation when the daily Sacrifice was intermitted and suspended as under Antiochus Our Saviour perfumed his whole course 〈◊〉 his crosse with this incense and thereby purchased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 priviledge paved us this new and living 〈◊〉 to the throne of grace 〈◊〉 16. 4. a sure and safe way to get mercy 〈◊〉 23. The Ark was never separated from the Mercy-seat to shew that Gods mercy is neer unto such as affect his presence Some 〈◊〉 he hath reserved to this duty that will not otherwise be yeelded Psal. 〈◊〉 23. Ezek. 22. 30. As when he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ruinate a people or person he silenceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forbids them to sollicite him any further as he did Samuel interceding for Saul and Jeremy for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not as the 〈◊〉 Who pretend to pray much but indeed can do nothing at it because destitute of the spirit of grace and of supplication without whose help we know neither what 〈◊〉 how to pray Nay Peter James aud John will be sleeping when they should be praying in the very hour of temptation There may be good words and wishes found in a worldlings mouth Who will shew us any good But none but a David can with faith 〈◊〉 and fervency say Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon me c. Balaam may break forth into wishes and woulds 〈◊〉 let me die the death of the righteous c. But can he 〈◊〉 as David in like case Psal. 26. 9. Oh take not away my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor my life with bloudy men An hypocrite may tell a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for himself in earthly regards or howl upon his 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of outward comforts 〈◊〉 in extremity as a 〈◊〉 at the 〈◊〉 as a pig under the knife or importune God 〈◊〉 grace as a bridge to lead him to heaven not for any beauty he 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 he findes in it But will he pray alwaies will 〈◊〉 light 〈◊〉 in God saith Job 〈◊〉 27. No surely he neither doth 〈◊〉 can do it When God defers to help at a pinch as 〈◊〉 when 〈◊〉 and vexations encrease he frets and meddles non ore with calling upon God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him because he handles him not 〈◊〉 his own minde and be taketh himself to 〈◊〉 other course If God will not come at his call and be at his beck away to the witch of 〈◊〉 with Saul to the god of Ekron as 〈◊〉 to Baalim and Ashteroth with the revolted 〈◊〉 Wherein he is like to those barbarous Chinois that 〈◊〉 their gods when they answer them not or that resolute 〈◊〉 that profanely painted God on the one side of his shield and the devil on the other with this inscription Si tu me nolis 〈◊〉 Or that desperate King of Israel 〈◊〉 saith he this evil is from the Lord and what should I wait for the Lord any longer Loe this is the guise of a godlesse 〈◊〉 Either he calleth not upon God which is the description David giveth of him but is possest as it were with a dumb devil both in Church and chamber Or if by reading or otherwise he have raked together some good petitions and strive to set some life upon them in the utterance that he may seem to be well-gifted yet he doth it not to serve God but meerly to serve himself upon God He draweth not nigh with a true heart Heb. 10. 13. uprightly propounding Gods service in prayer and not only his own supply and satisfaction He is not brought into Gods presence with love and desire as Psal. 40. 8. He labours not with strife of heart to worship him with his faith trust hope humility self deniall 〈◊〉 well content that Gods will be done however and 〈◊〉 seeking his glory though 〈◊〉 be not profited acknowledging the Kingdom power and glory to be his Matth 6. 13. Lastly Working not by a right rule from a right principle nor for a right end he cannot undergoe the strife of 〈◊〉 as Jacob who wrestled by might and sleight 〈◊〉 much the Hebrew word importeth much lesse can he continue long in it as David he 〈◊〉 soon sated soon tired If men observe him not applaud him not he giveth over that 〈◊〉 as tedious and 〈◊〉 that wherein he findes no more good relish then in the white of an egge or a dry chip And in any extraordinary trouble instead of calling upon God 〈◊〉 runs from him Isa. 33. 14 as Saul did 1 Sam. 28. 7. For they love to pray standing c. Stand they might 〈◊〉 did the Publican And when ye stand and pray saith our Saviour not 〈◊〉 the gesture It was commonly used among the Jews in the Temple especially at the solemn feasts what time there was such resort of people from all parts that they could hardly stand one by another The Primitive Christians also stood praying in their publike Assemblies betwixt Easter and Whitsontide especially in token of our Saviours standing up from the dead Whence came that Proverb amongst them Were it not for standing 〈◊〉 prayer the world would not stand Other gestures and postures of the body in praier we read of David and Eliah sate and praied Peter and Paul kneeled and praied Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and praied In secret prayer there is more liberty to use that gesture that may most quicken us and help the duty Elias put his head between his knees in praier as one that would strain every vein in his heart But in publike our behaviour must be such as may witnesse 〈◊〉 communion and desire of mutuall edification there must be a uniformity no rents or divisions and speciall care taken that our inward affection answer our externall devotion that we stand not in the Synagogues as these with desire to be seen of men as Saul was higher then the rest by head and shoulders for that is putid hypocrisie hatefull even amongst Heathens Tully taxeth Gracchus for this that he referred all his actions not to the 〈◊〉 of vertue but to the favour of the people that 〈◊〉 might have esteem and applause from them That they may be seen of men This was the winde that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 winde-mill a-work the 〈◊〉 that made the clock strike 〈◊〉 telleth us that the nightingale singeth farre longer and 〈◊〉 when men be by then otherwise If 〈◊〉 had not seen 〈◊〉 zeal that Iehu had for the Lord of hosts he had been nothing 〈◊〉 hot nor in his own conceit so happy But Christian 〈◊〉 teacheth a wise man not to expose 〈◊〉 to the fairest shew 〈◊〉 rather to seek to be good
themselves get their living by begging and subsist merrily upon alms Such beggars God hath alwaies about him Matth. 26. 11. And this the Poets hammered at when they feigned that Litae or praiers were the daughters of Jupiter and stood alwaies in his presence Lord I am hell but thou art heaven said Hooper I am a most hypocriticall wretch not worthy that the earth should bear me said Bradford I am the unmeetest man for this high office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it said sincere Saunders Oh that my life and a thousand such wretches lives more saith John Carelesse Martyr in a letter to M. 〈◊〉 might go for yours Oh! Why doth God suffer me and such other Cater-pillars to live that can doe nothing but consume the alms of the Church and take away you so worthy a work-man and labourer in the Lords vineyard But woe be to our sins and great unthankfulnesse c. These were excellent paterns of this spirituall poverty which our Saviour here maketh the first and is indeed the first second and third of Christianity as that which teacheth men to finde out the best in God and the worst in themselves For their's is the kingdome of heaven Heaven is that true Macaria or the blessed Kingdom So the Island of Cyprus was anciently called for the abundance of commodities that it sendeth forth to other Countries of whom it craveth no help again Marcellinus to shew the fertility thereof saith That Cyprus aboundeth with such plenty of all things that without the help of any other forraign countrey it is of it self able to build a tall ship from the keel to the top-sail and so put it to sea furnisht of all things needfull And Sextus Rufus writing thereof saith Cyprus famosa divitijs paupertatem populi Rom ut occuparetur sollicitavit Cyprus famous for riches tempted the poor people of Rome to ceize upon it What marvell then if this Kingdome of heaven sollicite these poor in spirit to offer violence to it and to take it by force sith it is all made of gold Revel 21. yea search is made there thorow all the bowels of the earth to finde out all the precious treasure that could be had gold pearls and precious stones of all 〈◊〉 And what can these serve to only to shidow out the glory of the wals of the new Jerusalem and the gates and to pave the streets of that City Verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn For sinne with a funerall sorrow as the word signifieth such as is expressed by crying and weeping Luk. 6. 25. such as was that at Megiddo for the losse of good Josiah or as when a man mourns for his only sonne Zech. 12. 10. This is the work of the spirit of grace and of supplication for till the windes doe blow these waters cannot flow Psal. 147. 18. He convinceth the heart of sinne and makes it to become a very Hadadrimmon for deep-soaking sorrow upon the sight of him whom they have pierced When a man shall look upon his sinnes as the weapons and himself as the traitour that put to death the Lord of life this causeth that sorrow according to God that worketh repentance never to be repented of For they shall be comforted Besides the comfort they finde in their very sorrow for it is a sweet sign of a sanctified soul and seals a man up to the day of redemption Ezek. 9. 4. they lay up 〈◊〉 themselves thereby in store a good foundation of comfort against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life as the Apostle speaketh in another case 1 Tim. 6. 19. These April showres bring on May flowers they that here so we in tears shall reap in joy they that finde Christs feet a fountain to wash in may expect his side a fountain to bath in Oh how sweet a thing is it to stand weeping at the wounded feet of Jesus as that good woman did to water them with tears to dry them with sighes and to 〈◊〉 them with our mouths None but those that have felt it can tell the comfort of it The stranger meddleth not with this joy When our merry Greeks that laugh themselves fat and light a candle at the devil for lightsomenesse of heart hunting after it to hell and haunting for it ale-houses conventicles of good fellowship sinfull and unseasonable sports vain and waterish fooleries c. when these mirth-mongers I say that take pleasure in pleasure and jeer when they should fear with Lots sonnes-in-law shall be at a foul stand and not have whither to turn them Isa. 33. 14. Gods mourners shall be able to dwell with devouring fire with everlasting burnings to stand before the sonne of man at his second comming Yea as the lower the ebbe the higher the tide so the lower any hath descended in humiliation the higher shall he ascend then in his exaltation Those that have helped to fill Christs bottle with tears Christ shall then fill their bottle as once he did Hagars with the water of life He looked back upon the weeping women comforted them that would not vouchsafe a loving look or a word to Pilate or the Priests Not long before that he told his Disciples Ye shall indeed be sorrowfull but your sorrow shall be turned into joy And further addeth A woman when she is in travell hath sorrow c. comparing sorrow for sinne to that of a travelling woman 1. For bitternesse and sharpnesse for the time throws of the new birth 2. For utility and benefit it tendeth to the bringing a man-childe forth into the world 3. For the hope and expectation that is in it not only of an end but also of fruit this makes joy in the midst of sorrows 4. There is a certain time set for both and a sure succession as of day after night and of fair weather after foul Mourning lasteth but till morning Though I fall I shall arise though I sit in darknesse the Lord shall give me light saith the Church Jabes was more honourable then his brethren saith the Text for his mother bare him with sorrow and called his name Jabes that is sorrowfull But when he called upon the God of Israel and said Oh that thou wouldst blesse me indeed and enlarge my coast c. God granted him that which he requested And so he will all such Israelites indeed as ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward going and weeping as they goe to seek the Lord their God he shall wipe all tears from their eyes as nurses 〈◊〉 from their babes that cry after them and enlarge not their coasts as Jabes but their hearts which is better yea he shall grant them their requests as him So that as Hannah when she had praid and Eli for her she looked no more sad yea as David when he came before God in a woe-case many times yet when
George Carpenter who was burnt at Munchen in Bavaria Verse 26. For what is a man profited If there could saith a reverend Divine be such a bargain made that he might have the whole world for the sale of his soul he should for all that be a looser by it For he might notwithstanding be a bankrupt a beggar begging in vain though but for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue Is it nothing then to loose an immortall soul to purchase an everliving death The losse of the soul is in this verse set forth to be 1. Incomparable 2. Irreparable If therefore to loose the life for money be a 〈◊〉 what then the soul What wise man would fetch gold out of a fiery crucible hazard himself to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a few waterish pleasures give his soul to the devil as some Popes did for the short enjoyment of the Papall dignity What was this but to win Venice and then to be hanged at the gates thereof as the Proverb is In great fires men look first to their jewels then to their lumber fo should these see first to their 〈◊〉 to secure them and then take care of the outward man The souldier cares not how his buckler speeds so his body be kept thereby from deadly thrusts The Pope perswading Maximilian King of Bohemia afterwards Emperour to be a good Catholike with many promises of profits and 〈◊〉 was answered by the King that he thanked his Holinesse but that his souls health was more dear to him then all the things in the world Which answer they said in Rome was a Lutheran form of speech and signified an alienation from the obedience of that Sea and they began to discourse what would happen after the old Emperours death Or what shall a man give in exchange He would give any thing in the world yea 10000 worlds if he had them to be delivered But out of hell there 's no redemption Hath the extortioner pilled or the robber spoiled thy goods By labour and leisure thou maist recover thy self again But the soul once lost is irrecoverable Which when the guilty soul at death thinks of oh what a dreadfull shreek gives it to see it self lanching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead and must swim naked in it for ever How doth it trembling warble out that dolefull ditty of dying Adrian the Emperour 〈◊〉 vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Qua nunc abibis in loca Horridula sordida tristia 〈◊〉 ut soles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 27. In the glory of his father with his Angels Great will be the glory of the man Christ Jesus at his second coming He shall come riding on the clouds not that he needs them but to shew his soveraignty environed with flaming fire mounted on a stately throne attended by an innumerable company of Angels for they shall all come with him not one of them left in heaven who shall minister unto him in this great work irresistibly justly speedily Rev. 15. 6. Christ himself shining in the midst of them with such an exuberancy and excesse of glory as that the Sun shall seem but a snuff to him This glory howsoever it is here called the glory of the father because he is the fountain as of the Deity so of the divine glory wherewith Christ is crowned Phil. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 3. 16. yet is it his own glory as he is one with the Father and the holy Ghost and so it is called Mat. 25. 31. Joh. 17. 5. Now if Israel so shouted for joy of Solomons coronation and in the day of 〈◊〉 espousals that the earth rang again If the Grecians so cried out 〈◊〉 Soter to Flaminius the Roman Generall when he had set them at liberty that the very birds 〈◊〉 at the noise fell down to the earth Oh how great shall be the Saints joy to see Christ the King in his beauty and bravery at the last judgment Verse 28. Which shall not taste of death The Saints do but taste of death only they do no more but sip of that bitter cup which for tasting of that forbidden fruit in the Garden they should have been swilling and swallowing down for ever Till they see the Son of man c. This verse is to be referred to the transfiguration recorded in the next Chapter where some of them had the happines to see Christ in his kingdom that is in his 〈◊〉 glory whereof they had a glimpse CHAP. XVII Verse 1. And after six 〈◊〉 LUke saith about eight daies after It comes all to one For Matthew puts exclusively those daies only that went between and were finished but Luke puts the two utmost daies also 〈◊〉 the reckoning Jesus 〈◊〉 Peter James and John So Matth. 9. when he raised the damosell he took with him these three only haply as best beloved because bold 〈◊〉 more zealous then the rest or the better to fit them for further triall great feelings oft precede great afflictions Howsoever it is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his great works and so let us take it As all Israel might see Moses go toward the Rock of Rephidim None but the Elders might see him strike it That God 〈◊〉 his Sonne before us that he fetcheth the true water of life out of the Rock in our sight is an high prerogative And no lesse surely that we are 〈◊〉 transported in prayer carried out of the body in divine meditation and lost in the endlesse maze of spirituall ravishments that we returne from the publike ordinances as Moses did from the mount with our faces shining that we are transfigured and transformed into the same image from glory to glory and that the Angell of the covenant doth wondrously during the time of the sacrifice whiles Manoah and his wife look on c. These are speciall priviledges communicated to none but the communion of Saints And bringeth them up into 〈◊〉 high mountain The name of this mountain no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by common consent it was mount Tabor which Josephus calleth 〈◊〉 whereof Hierom writeth copiously and elegantly in his commentary upon the fifth of Hosea Our Saviour when he had some speciall work to do went usually up into a mountain to teach us to soar a 〈◊〉 in great performances especially and to be heavenly-minded taking a 〈◊〉 or two ever and anon with Christ in mount Tabor treading upon the Moon with the Church Rev. 12. 1. having our feet at least where other mens heads are on things on earth Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise delighting our selves in high flying as Eagles never merry till gotten into the aire or on the top of trees with the lesser birds Zacheus could not see Christ till he had climbed the figtree Nor can we see the Consolation of Israel till elevated in divine contemplation till gotten up into Gods holy hill The people tasted not Mannah till they had left
shall wring them out and drink them up And be baptized c. Or ducked washed not drowned as St Paul was in the shipwrack or as the baptized child which shakes off the water or is dryed after baptisme Afflictions saith one are called baptisme because they set Gods mark upon us as baptisme doth that we belong to God This for outward afflictions And for desertion it is called Christs cup because we are sure to pledge him in that too and be conformed unto him as was Iob David Heman Psal. 88 c. Grace is no target against affliction but the best shall have terrours within and troubles without as sure as the coat is on their back or the heart in their belly Is not mine to give i.e. It is no part of my present office Or I have no such commission from my father to give precedencies to all that affect them Christ hereby seeks to raise up the low groveling spirits of his Apostles to things supernaturall supernall Verse 24. They were moved They were angry at that ambition in their fellows that themselves were deeply guilty of So Diogines trampled Platoes pride but with greater pride So Crassus earnestly inveighed against covetousnesse in others when there was not a more covetous caitiffe then he upon the earth So Gregory the great stomaked the title of universall Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinople which yet himself affected and his successour Boniface arrogated and usurped Verse 25. Iesus called them to him and said We must by Christs example advance cherish concord all we can amongst ministers especially by casting out those make-bates emulation and ambition Pareus was wont to say that the onely cause of all Church-dissensions was Ministers reaching after rule and preheminence as did Diotrephes And that if this evil humour could possibly be purged 〈◊〉 there would be a sweet symmetrie an happy 〈◊〉 of all hearts And they that are great The Grandees of the earth There is saith one a greatnesse Belluine and Genuine In that a beast may and doth exceed us In this we exceed ourselves and others Great men are not alwaies wise saith Elihu Iob 32. 9. And 〈◊〉 me major nisi qui justior said Agesilaus when the King of Persia 〈◊〉 himself the great King Calamitas nostra magnus est said Mimus concerning Pompey the people applauding so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 Privilegium unius conceditur in 〈◊〉 alterius saith a learned Doctour si vis esse verè 〈◊〉 ne sis instar utris 〈◊〉 tumidi sed instar uteri prole gravidi 〈◊〉 attollas inane supercilium sed exhibeas utile ministerium Goodnesse is the only greatnesse Verse 26. But it shall not be so amongst you How expresse is that against Papal primacy and Lordly prelacy When the Duke shall be damned what will become of the Bishop said the clown to the bishop of Cullen Mr Whithead refused a Bishoprick because he liked not to be Lorded And Mr Coverdale being deprived of his Bishoprick in Q. Maries daies would not for the same cause be reinvested in Q. Elizabeths but taught a school Verse 27. Let him be your servant This is the ready way to rise Neither may any think himself too good to serve the Saints to wash their feet to minister to their necessities Christ came out of the bosome of his Father to fetch them to heaven The holy Ghost disdains not to dwell in their hearts Angels are desirous to do them any good office Prophets think not much to minister to them 1 Pet. 1. 12. Paul and Apollo and Cephas are theirs publike servants to the Church accounting it a far greater matter prodesse quà m praeesse to seek mens salvation then to exercise dominion Verse 28. And to give his life a ransome A redemptory a valuable rate for it was the blood of God wherewith the Church was purchased Acts 20. 28. silver and gold could not do it 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. nor any thing else but that counter-price given by Christ 1 Tim. 2. 6. Verse 29. And as they departed from Iericho Christ cured one blinde man as he went into Iericho Luk. 18. and two as he went out for all the haste he had to go to Ierusalem Hence such multitudes followed him to make up his ensuing triumph Verse 30. When they heard that Iesus passed by Happy it was for them that though blind yet they were not d eaf For as death came in by the ear so doth life Hear and your souls shall live Isa 55. 3. a heavy ear is a singular judgement Isa. 6. 10. a 〈◊〉 ear a speciall favour Prov. 20. 12. when God strook Zaechary 〈◊〉 1. he made him dumb but not deaf When God strook Saul he made him blind but not deaf When God strook Mephibosheth he made him lame but not deaf There is a deaf devil and a deaf adder and deaf man that yet want for no ears Isa. 43 8. But he that heareth instruction is in the way of life saith Solomon These two blind beggers had heard of Christ by the hearing of the ear but that satisfied them not unlesse their eyes also might see him Iob 42. 5. They way-lay therefore the Lord of light who gives them upon their suit both sight and light irradiates both organ and object cures them of their both outward and inward 〈◊〉 at once Thou son of David They knew and acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias Few such knowing blind beggers now 〈◊〉 They are commonly more blinde in minde then body loose and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are neither of any Church nor common-wealth but as the baser sort of people in Swethland who do alwaies break the Sabbath saying that 't is only for gentlemen to sanctifie it Or rather as the poor Brasilians who are said to be sine rege lege fide without any government law or Religion Verse 31. And the multitude rebuked them In prayer we must look to meet with many rubs and 〈◊〉 but Gods spirit is heroike and gets over them all The 〈◊〉 will interrupt us as the 〈◊〉 did Paul Act. 16. 16. as the birds did 〈◊〉 Gen. 15. 11. as those Samaritans did the Jews in building the Temple Nehem. 6. Hence we are bid Strive in prayer Colos. 4. 2. and watch in prayer for Satan will be at our right hand as at Iehoshuahs Zach. 3. 1. watching his time to cast in if not a 〈◊〉 yet an impertinent thought thereby to bereave us of the benefit of our prayers besides our own naturall indevotion through hardnesse of heart heavinesse of body multiplicity of worldly distractions and 〈◊〉 All which we must break through and cry the more earnestly as Bartimaeus here did though checkt by the multitude Have mercy on us o Lord c. Daniel would not be kept from his God for any danger of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6 nor the French Protestants restrain prayer though King Henry 3. made a law to forbid them to pray with their families The sun
the better stomack to his dinner c. Verse 31. All ye shall be offended because of me Why what had that righteous one done Nothing but that his crosse lay in their way whereat they stumbled shamefully and left him to wonder that he was left alone Isa. 63. 5. Adversity is friendlesse saith one Heathen Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides saith another Job found his friends like the brooks of Tema which in a moisture swell in a drought fail Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris For it is written I will smite This our Saviour purposely subjoyneth for their support under the sense of their base deserting him A foul sinne it was but yet such as was long since set down of them not without a sweet promise of their recollection I will turn my hand upon the little ones Or I will bring back my hand to the little ones as Tremellius readeth it Verse 32. But after I am risen again c. Infirmities bewailed break no square Our sinnes hurt us not if they please us not The Church stands as right with Christ when penitent as whiles innocent Cant. 7. 12. with chap. 4. 1. 2. c. Her hair teeth temples all as fair and well featured as ever Verse 33. Though all men should be offended Peter spake as he meant but his heart deceived him as did likewise Davids Psal. 39. 1 2 3. and Orphah's Ruth 1. 10. and those Israelites in the wildernesse that were turned aside like deceitfull bowes Psal. 78. 57. They levelled both eyes and arrowes that is both purposes and promises to the mark of amendment and thought verily to hit but their deceitfull hearts as naughty bows carried their arrows a clean contrary way So did Peters here so will the best of ours if we watch them not Verse 34. Before the cock crow c. Christ mentioneth the cock quià tum strenuum pugnatorem decebat tale praeconium saith one The presumption of proud flesh never but miscaries when humble self-suspition holds out and hath favour The story of Pendleton and Saunders is better known then that it needs here to be related Verse 35. Though I should die with thee Quot verba tot absurda as one saith of Peters proposition of three tabernacles c. Sure it is he knew as little what he said here as there How much more considerately those Martyrs who both said it and did it The heavens shall as soon fall as I will forsake my faith said William Flower And if every hair of my head were a man I would suffer death in the opinion and faith that I am now in said John Ardely Likewise also said all the Disciples Misled as Barnabas afterward was Gal. 2. by Peters example The leaders of this people cause them to erre Isa. 9. 16. Our Saviour to teach us what to do in like case striveth not with them for the last word but le ts them enjoy their own over-good conceits of themselves till time should confute them Verse 36. Unto a place called Gethseman By mount Olivet stood this garden and here he began his passion as well to expiate that first sinne committed in a garden as to sanctifie unto us our repasts and recreations Here after our Saviour had prayed himself into an agony to teach us to strive also in prayer as for life and to struggle even to an agony as the word signifieth Colos. 4. 12. he was taken quasi ex condicto and led into the city thorow the sheep-gate so called of the multitude of sheep driven in by it to be offered in the Temple to be sacrificed as a lamb â—â—defiled and without spot Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder It may be lawfull therefore in some cases to pray secretly in the presence or with the privity of others so there be some good use of them Verse 37. And he took with him Peter c. He took the same that had seen his glory in the mount to see his agony in the garden that they might the better stick to him Let no man envy others their better parts or places sith they have them on no other condition but to be put upon greater temptations hotter services If we could wish another mans honour when we feel the weight of his cares as David once did of Sauls armour we should be glad to be in our own coat And very heavy To faint or fall away in his soul to be out of the world as we say He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lam. 3. 28. Verse 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowfull He had a true humane soul then neither was his Deity to him for a soul as some Heriticks fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it if he had not in soul also suffered and so descended into hell The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now undequaque tristis beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold The sorrows of death compassed him the cords of hell surrounded him Psal. 18. 4 5. the pain whereof he certainly suffered non specie loco sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something answerable to hell and altogether unspeakable Hence the Greek Letany By thine unknown sufferings good Lord deliver us Faninus an Italian Martyr being asked by one why he was so merry at his death sith Christ himself was so sorrowfull Christ said he sustained in his soul all the sorrows and conflicts with hell and death due to us by whose sufferings we are delivered from sorrow and fear of them all Tarry ye here and watch with me Yet not for my sake so 〈◊〉 as for your own that ye enter not into temptation Verse 39. And he went a little further Amat secessum ardens oratio St Luke saith he was violently withdrawn from them about a stones cast and there he kneeled down and prayd for further he could not go thorough earnest desire of praying to his heavenly father And fell on his face He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope Lam. 3. 29. This and the like humble gestures in Gods service do at once testifie and excite inward devotion Let this cup passe In the time of execution they gave the malefactour a cup of wine mingled with myrrhe Mark 15. 23. to stupifie his senses and so to mitigate his pains Hence the word Calix or cup is put here and elsewhere for death it self which being terrible to nature is therefore here with strong crying and tears deprecated by our Saviour This was naturall in him and not sinfull in us so it do not degenerate into that which is carnall fear of death Neverthelesse not as
peace Pax quasi pactio conditionum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à connectendo in unum Christ is the great Peace-maker but only to the elect called here the Men of Gods good will When he was born Cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit aut pactio Verse 15. Let us now goe even unto Bethlehem They did not reason nor debate with themselves saith Bishop Hooper Martyr in a Letter to certain good people taken praying in Bow-Church-yard and now in trouble who should keep the wolfe from the sheep in the mean time but committed the sheep to him whose pleasure they obeyed So let us doe now that we be called commit all other things to him that called us He will take heed that all shall be well He will help the husband comfort the wife guide the servants keep the house preserve the goods yea rather then it should be undone he will wash the dishes rock the cradle c. Verse 16. Found Mary and Joseph c. They though of the bloud royall yet lay obscured not thrusting themselves into observation but well content with a low condition Beata Virgo in vili stabulo sedet jacet sed quod homines negligunt coelestes cives honorant inquirunt saith Stella The humble person is like the violet which growes low hangs the head downwards and hides it selfe with its own leaves And were it not that the fragrant smell of his many vertues betrayes him to the world he would chuse to live and dye in his self-contenting 〈◊〉 Verse 17. They made known abroad True goodnesse is communicative there is no envie in spirituall things because they may be divided in solidum One may have as much as another and all alike These shepherds as those lepers 2 King 7. 9. said one to another Wee doe not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace c. Verse 18. Wondred at those things Yet made little benefit of what they heard All the world wondred after the Beast Revel 13. 3. And it was a wonder there was no more wondering at the birth of our Saviour if that were true especially that besides the Wise-mens starre Mat. 2. and the Angelicall musick in the air c. among the Gentiles a voyce was heard The great God is now about to be born And that at Rome the likenesse of a woman carrying a child in her arms was seen about the sunne c. These things are storied Polydor Virgil reports out of Orosius that on the very day of Christs nativity Augustus Caesar caused proclamation that no man should stile him Lord any longer Manifesto praesagio majoris Dominatus qui tum in terris ortus esset as presaging a greater then himself then born Verse 19. Mary kept all those things Her soule was as an holy ark her memory like the pot of Mānnah preserving holy truthes and remarkable occurrences Verse 20. As it was told unto them God to shew that he respected not persons revealed this grand mystery to shepheards and Wise-men the one poor the other rich the one learned the other unlearned the one Jewes the other Gentiles the one neer the other far off Verse 21. For the Circumcising of the Child Christ would be Circumcised and so become bound to fulfill the Law that hee might free us that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. Verse 22. And when the dayes of her purification She was rather sanctified then polluted by bearing Christ yet wrangleth not with the Law nor claimeth an immunity Now if she were so officious in ceremonies what in the maine duties of morality According to the Law This Law of Purification proclaimes our uncleannesse whose very birth infects the mother that bare us She might not till the seventh day converse with men nor till the fortieth day appear before God in the Sanctuary nor then without a burnt-offering for thanksgiving and a sin-offering for expiation of a double sin viz. of the Mother that conceived and of the Son that was conceived Verse 23. That openeth the womb This proves that Mary brought forth Christ in a naturall way and not utero clauso by a miracle as Papists would have it to prove their fiction of Transubstantiation Shall be called holy to the Lord God requireth the first-born as usually best-beloved that together with our children he might draw to himself the best of our affections Verse 24. A pair of Turtle-doves Christs Mother was not rich enough to bring a Lamb. Let this comfort poor Christians I know thy poverty saith Christ but that 's nothing thou art rich Revelations 2. 9. Smyrna the poorest Church hath the highest commendation Verse 25. Just and devout Or wary and cautelous one that takes heed and is fearfull of being deceived in that which he takes for right and currant Waiting for the Consolation of Israel That is for Christs comming This was the sugar wherewith they sweetned all their crosses this was the Dittany by tasting whereof as Harts do they shoke of all the peircing shafts of their afflictions Some Jewes conclude the Messiah when he comes shall be called Menahem the comforter from Lam. 1. 16. Verse 26. It was revealed unto him By an immediate Oracle The Idolatrous heathens made use of this word to signifie their impious and diabolicall Oracles The abuse of a word taketh not away the use of it Verse 27. And he came by the spirit c. So still the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal. 37. 23. He sets his spirit as a Tutour to direct and convince 〈◊〉 into all truth Simeon likely had done as Daniel did Chap. 9. 2. found out by diligent search that the fulnesse of time was come and is therefore thus answered from heaven Verse 28. Then 〈◊〉 he him up in his armes The blessed 〈◊〉 armfull that ever the good old man had in his life The Patriarchs saluted him but afar off Heb. 11. Verse 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant Simeon having laid in his heart saith one what he lapt in his armes sung 〈◊〉 dimitt as I fear no sin I dread no death I have lived enough I have my life I have long'd enough I have my love I have seen enough I have my light I have served enough I have my saint I have sorrowed enough I have my joy Sweet babe let this Psalm serve for a 〈◊〉 to thee and for a funerall for me Oh sleep in my armes and let me sleep in thy peace Dying Velcurio broke out into these words Pater est amator 〈◊〉 Redemptor Spiritus Sanctus Consolator quomodo itaque tristitiâ affici possim Dying 〈◊〉 said Ego 〈◊〉 Sanctorum minimus credo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christum salutem 〈◊〉 Verse 30. For mine eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A great satisfaction So it was to Job Chap. 42. 5. when he could say I have heard of thee by the hearing of the
offenders that betrayed him to lust therefore are they first pulled out and he led a blinde captive to Gaza where before he had lustfully gazed on his Dalilah It is true the blindenesse of his body opened the eyes of his minde But how many thousands are there that die of the wound in the eye Physicians reckon 200 〈◊〉 that belong to it but none like this for by these loop-holes of lust and windows of wickednesse the devil windeth himself into the soul. Death entreth in by these windows as the Fathers apply that text in leremie The eye is the light of the body saith our Saviour and yet by our abuse this most lightsome part of the body draweth many times the whole soul into utter darknesse Nothing I dare say so much enricheth hell as beautifull faces whiles a mans eye-beams beating upon that beauty reflect with a new heat upon himself Ut uidi ut perij Looking and lusting differ in Greek but in one letter When one seemed to pity a one-eyed man he told him he had lost one of his enemies a very thief that would have stolen away his heart Democritus but in that no wise man pulled out his eyes And the Pharisee little wiser would shut his eyes when he walked abroad to avoid the sight of women insomuch that he often dashed his head against the walls that the bloud gushed out and was therefore called 〈◊〉 impingens How much better and with greater commendation hid these men taken our Saviours counsel in the following verses Verse 29. And if thy right ere offend thee pluck it out That is if it be either so naturall or habituall to thee to go after the fight of thine eyes which Solomon assigneth for the source of all youthfull outrages Eccles. 11 9. that thou hadst as lieve lose thy right eye as not look at liberty out with such an eye though a right eye 〈◊〉 it out and rake in the hole where it grew rather then that any filth should remain there Pluck it out of the old Adam and set it into the new man Get that oculum irretortum that may look forth-right upon the mark without idle or curious prying into or poring upon forbidden beauties A Praetor said the Heathen should have continent eyes as well as hands And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and worthily ubraided a certain wonton that he had not pupils but punks in his eyes And Archesilaus the 〈◊〉 observing one to have wanton eyes told him that the difference was not great whether he plaid the naughty-pack with his upper parts or his nether Lot might not look to ward Sodom And Peter Martyr observeth out of Nathans Parable that lust though it once prevailed over David yet it was but a stranger to him had enough of that once for it cost him hot water His eye became a fountain he washed his bed which he had defiled yea his pallet or under-bed with tears So did Mary Magdalen once a strumpet her hands were bands her words were cords her eyes as glasses where into while silly larks gazed they were taken as in a day-not She therefore made those eyes a fountain to bath Christs feet in and had his bloud a fountain to bath her soul in Zech. 13. 1. To conclude the sight is a deceitfull sense therefore binde it to the good abearance call it in from its out-strayes check it and lay Gods charge upon it for the future Chast Joseph would not once look on his immodest mistresse she looked and caught hold on him and that when she was abed but her temptation fell like fire upon wet tinder and took not It must be our constant care that no sparkle of the eye flee out to consume the whole by a flame of lust but upon offer of wanton glances from others beat them back as the North winde driveth away rain A Kirg that sitteth in the throne of judgement and so any other man that sets seriously upon this practice of mortification scattereth away all evil with his eyes Prov. 20. 8. And this is to pluck out and cast a way the right eye that offendeth us as being an occasion of offence unto us He that shall see God to his comfort shuts his eyes from 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 For wanton and wandring eyes like spiders gather 〈◊〉 out of the 〈◊〉 flowers and like Jacobs sheep being too firmely fixed on beautifull 〈◊〉 they make the 〈◊〉 oft-times bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fruits For it is 〈◊〉 for thee that one of thy members perish An eye is better lost then a soul. For every unmortified one shall be 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up as it were and preserved for eternall 〈◊〉 and every sacrifice acceptable to God shall be salted with salt of mortification and self-deniall Mark 9 49 And not that 〈◊〉 whole body should be cast into hell As otherwise it will be For if ye live after the 〈◊〉 ye shall die c. In Barbary 〈◊〉 present death for any man to see one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for them too if when they see a man though 〈◊〉 thorow a 〈◊〉 they do not suddenly 〈◊〉 out So here a 〈◊〉 and lewd eye hazards the whole to hell fire And is it nothing to lose an immortall soul to purchase an everliving death A man would be loth to fetch gold out of a fiery crucible because he knows it 〈◊〉 burn him Did we as truly 〈◊〉 the everlasting burning of that infernall fire we durst not offer to fetch either 〈◊〉 or profits out of those flames Bellarmine is of opinion that one glimpse 〈◊〉 hells horrour were enough to make a man not only turn Christian and sober but Anchorite and Monke to live 〈◊〉 the strictest rule that can be And there is a 〈◊〉 of one that being vexed with fleshly lusts laid his hands upon hot burning coles to minde himself of hell-fire that followeth upon fleshly courses Verse 30. And if thy right hand offend thee c. By wanton touches by unclean dalliance a farther degree of this sin and 〈◊〉 greater incentive to lust as we see in Josephs mistresse when she not only cast her eyes but proceeded to lay hand upon him she became much more inflamed towards him and had not his heart been seasoned with the true fear of God there was so much the greater danger of his being drawn thereby to commit not that trick of youth as the world excuseth it but that great wickednesse as he there counts and cals it Visus colloquium contactus osculum concubitus are the whoremongers five descents into the chambers of death Off therefore with such a hand by all means cry out of it as Cranmer did of his unworthy right-hand wherewith he had subscribed And as John Stubbes of Lincolns-Inne having his right-hand cut off in Queen Elizabeths time with a cleaver driven thorow the wrist with the force of a
neither would they let the dead rest in their graves as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose bones they digd up and burnt so they raged exceedingly upon the dead body of Zuinglius after they had slain him in battle c. Now these that cruelly kill the body we must not 〈◊〉 Our Saviour saith not that can kill the body at their pleasure for that they cannot but that do kill it when God permits them to do it And then too occidere possunt 〈◊〉 non possunt as he told the tyrant they may kill the Saints but cannot 〈◊〉 them because their souls are out of gunshot St Pauls sufferings reached no further then to his flesh Col 1. 25. his soul was untouched he possessed that in patience amidst all 〈◊〉 perturbations But are 〈◊〉 able to kill the soul As they would do fain if it were in their power David oft complains that they 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 soul that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now we commit thy soul to the 〈◊〉 said the Persecutors to Iohn 〈◊〉 The Popish Priests perswaded the people here at the burning of the Martyrs that when the gunpowder that was put under their 〈◊〉 for a readier dispatch of them gave a burst then the devil fetcht away their souls When 〈◊〉 often cryed in the fire Lord 〈◊〉 receive 〈◊〉 spirit a Spanish Monk ran to a Noble-man then present and would have perswaded him that those were words of despair and that he was now entring into hell Vpon the patient and pious death of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many of the people said he died a Martyr which caused the Bishop shortly after to make a Sermon in the Cathedrall and therein he affirmed that the 〈◊〉 Marsh was an 〈◊〉 burnt like an heretick and a fire-brand in hell Of Nicolas Burton Martyr in Spain because he embraced death for Christ with all gladnesse and patience the Papists gave out that the devil had his soul before he came to the fire and therefore they said his senses of 〈◊〉 were past already But rather fear him As one fire so on fear drives out another Therefore in the second Commandment lest the fear of mens 〈◊〉 should keep us from worshipping of God great punnishment is threatned to them that worship him not If I forsake my profession I am sure of a worse death then Judge Hales had said that Martyr There is martiall law for those that forsake their captain or else under a colour of discretion fall back into the rereward They that draw back do it to perdition Heb. 10. 39. And is it nothing to lose an immortall soul to purchase an everliving death Should servants fear their masters because they have power over the flesh 〈◊〉 3. 23. and should not we fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell Biron Marshall of France 〈◊〉 the Earl of Essex his piety at his death as more befitting a silly Minister then a stout warrier as if the fear of hell were not a Christian mans fortitude as if it were not valour but madnesse to fight with a flaming fire that is out of our power to suppresse This Biron within few moneths after underwent the same death that Essex did and then if he feared not 〈◊〉 he was sure to feel it Verse 26. Are not two sparrows c. Birds flying seem to be at liberty yet are guided by an over-ruling hand they flie freely yet fall by divine dispose and not as the fowler will But we are better then many 〈◊〉 Gods providence is punctuall and particular extending even to the least and lightest circumstances of all our occurrances whatever 〈◊〉 thought to the contrary and Pliny with his Irridendum verò curam agere rerum 〈◊〉 illud quicquid est 〈◊〉 It is a rediculous thing saith he to imagine that God takes care of our particular affaires How much better St Augustine Deus sic curat universos quasi singulos 〈◊〉 singulos quasi solos Gods providence extends to every particular both person and occurance Verse 30. 〈◊〉 the very haires of your head c. As things of price and suce as God sets great store by Hence he enjoyned his Nazarites when they had acomplished their vow to shave their heads and put the hair in the fire under their peace-offering for a sacrificeto the Lord. The Ammonites paid dear for the hair they shaved off the heads and beards 〈◊〉 Davids messengers So hath Bonner I believe ere this for the 〈◊〉 beard he pull'd off part of it causing the other part 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 left his manly act should be seen to the world The three Worthies were taken out of the fiery furnace with their haires in full number not one of them singed Verse 31. Fear not therefore This is the third time in six verses that they and we are bid to banish this cowardly base passion this causelesse fruitlesse harmfull sinfull fear of men He that fears God needs fear none else Moses feared not Pharaoh nor Micaiah Ahab when they had once seen God in his Majesty 〈◊〉 will not budge or alter his tale as the Lion fiercely pursued will not alter his gate they say though he die for it Doctour Tailour Martyr when being sent for by Steven Gardiner his friends perswaded him not to appear but fly Fly you said he and do 〈◊〉 your conscience leads you I am fully determined with Gods grace to go to the Bishop and to his beard to tell him that he doth nought This he resolved to do and this he did accordingly For at his first appearance Art thou 〈◊〉 thou villain said the Bishop How darest thou look me in the face for shame Knowest thou not who I am Yes I know who you are said he again Doctour Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellour yet but a mortall man I trow But if I should be afraid of your lordly looks why fear you not God the Lord of us all How dare you for shame look any Christian man in the face seeing you have forsaken the truth denied your Master Christ and his Word and done contrary to your own oath and writing With what countenance will 〈◊〉 appear before the Judgment seat of Christ and answer to your oath c Ye are of 〈◊〉 value then many sparrows Yea then many other men as one pearl is more worth then many pibbles one little Lark then many carrion-Kites Noab found more favour with God then all the world besides The Saints are called 〈◊〉 things Golos. 1. 20. Tabor and Hermon are put for the East and West 〈◊〉 the world as if there were no world but Judaea that pleasant Land that Land of delight so stiled because in Judah was God known and there were those excellent ones in whom is all Gods delight He reckons of men by their 〈◊〉 and accounts such more excellent then their neighbours whomsoever 〈◊〉 dwell by Verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confesse me A
to Henry 2. King of France whom she had so subdued that he gave her all the confiscations of goods made in the Kingdome for cause of 〈◊〉 Whereupon many were burned in France for Religion as they said but indeed to maintain the pride and satisfie the covetousnes of that lewd woman This was in the year 1554. And in the year 1559. Anne du Bourge a 〈◊〉 of state was burnt also for crime of 〈◊〉 not so much by the inclination of the Judges as by the resolution of the Queen provoked against him because forsooth the Lutherans gave out that the King had been slain as he was running at tilt by a wound in the 〈◊〉 by the providence of God for a punnishment of his words used against Du Bourge that he would see him burnt Verse 9. And the King was sorry Iohns innocency might 〈◊〉 so triumph in Herods conscience as to force some grief upon him at the thought of so soule a fact But I rather think otherwise that all was but in hypocrisie For laciviousnesse usually sears up the conscience till the time of reckoning for all comes and brings men to that dead and dedolent disposition Ephes. 4. 19. Only this fox fains himself sorry for Iohn as his father 〈◊〉 himself willing to worship the Lord Christ Matth. 2. as Tiberius Herods Lord and 〈◊〉 would seem very sorry for those whom for his pleasures sake only he put to death 〈◊〉 Germanicus Drusus c. And as Andronicus the Greek Emperour that deep dissembler would 〈◊〉 over those whom 〈◊〉 had for no cause caused to be executed as if he 〈◊〉 been the most sorrowfull man alive Dissimulat mentis suae malitiam 〈◊〉 homicida This cunning murtherer craftily hides his malice saith St Hierom and seeming sad in the face is glad at heart to be 〈◊〉 of the importunate Baptist that he may sin uncontrolled For the oaths sake and them which sate All this was but pretended to his villany and that he might have somewhat to say to the people whom he feared in excuse for himself As that he beheaded the Baptist indeed but his guests would needs have it so because he had promised the damosell her whole desire and 〈◊〉 would not otherwise be satisfied Besides it was his birth-day wherein it was not fit he should deny his Nobles any thing who minded him of his oath c. But the oath was wicked and therefore not obligatory He should have broken it as David in like case did 1 Sam. 25. when he swore a great oath what 〈◊〉 would do to Nabal But Herod for the avoyding of the sands rusheth upon the 〈◊〉 prevents perjury by murther not considering the rule that no man is held so perplexed between two vices but that he may finde an issue without falling into a third And them which sate with him at meat These he had more respect to then to God An hypocrites care is all for the worlds approof and applause They should have shew'd him his sinne and oppose his sentence But that is not the guise of godlesse parasites those Aiones Negones aulici qui omnia loquuntur ad gratiam nihil ad 〈◊〉 These Court parasites and Parrots know no other tune or tone but what will please their masters quorum etiam sputum 〈◊〉 as one saith soothing and smoothing and smothering up many of their foul facts that they thereby may the better ingratiate Principibus ideo amicus deest quia nihil deest there is a wounderfull sympathy between Princes and Parasites But David would none of them Psal. 101. and Sigismund the Emperour cuffed them out of his presence And surely if wishing were any thing said Henricus Stephanus like as the Thessalians once utterly overthrew the City called Flattery so I could desire that above all other Malefactors Court-Parasites were 〈◊〉 rooted out as the most pestilent persons in the world Verse 10. And he sent and beheaded John Put him to death in hugger-mugger as the Papists did and do still in the bloody Inquisition-house especially many of the Martyrs Stokesby Bishop of London caused Mr John Hunne to be thrust in at the nose with hot burning needles whiles he was in the prison and then to be hanged there and said he had hanged himself Another Bishop having in his prison an innocent man because he could not overcome him by scripture caused him privily to be snarled and his flesh to be torn and pluct away with pinsers and bringing him before the people said the rats had eaten him And I have heard of a certain Bishop saith Melanchton that so starved ten good men whom he held in prison for religion that before they dyed they devoured one another Quis unquam hoc audivit in Thalaridis historiâ saith he who ever heard of such a cruelty But so it pleaseth God for excellent ends to order that all things here come alike to all yea that none out of hell suffer more then the Saints This made Erasmus say upon occasion of the burning of Berquin a Dutch-Martyr Damnari dissecari suspendi exuri decollari pijs cum impijs sunt communia 〈◊〉 dissecare in crucemagere exurere decollare bonis judicibus cum pirat is ac tyrannis communia sunt Varia sunt hominum 〈◊〉 ille foelix qui judice Deo absolvitur The Athenians were very much offended at the fall of their Generall Nicias discomfited and slain in Sicile as seeing so good a man to have no better fortune But they knew not God and therefore raged at him But we must lay our hands upon our mouths when Gods hand is upon our backs or necks and stand on tiptoes with Paul to see which way Christ may be most magnified in our bodies whether by life or by death Philip. 1. 20. Verse 11. And his head was brought c. This was merces 〈◊〉 the worlds wages to lohn for all his pains in seeking to save their soules Surely as Cesar once said of Herod the great this mans father It were better to be Herods 〈◊〉 then his sonne So saith one many Ministers have through the corruption of the time cause to think It were better to be Herods Ministrell then Minister Player then Preacher Dauncer then Doctour And given to the 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 condemned it for a detestable cruelty in 〈◊〉 Flaminius that to gratifie his harlot Placentina he beheaded a certain prisoner in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast This Livy calleth facinus saevuni atque atrox a cursed and horrid fact And Cato the Censor cast him out of the Senate for it Neither was it long ere this tyrant Herod had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from heaven For Aretas King of Arabia offended with him for putting away his daughter and taking to wife Herodias came upon him with an army and cut off all his forces Which 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 interpreted saith Iosephus as a just vengance of 〈◊〉 upon him for
thence also hath his name Verse 6. See that you be not troubled Or frighted as souldiers are by sudden alarme Quid timet hominem homo in sinu dei positus David was undaunted Psal. 3. 6. 27. 3. He looked not downward on the rushing and roaring streams of dangers that ran so swiftly under him for that would have made him giddy But stedfastly fastned on the power and promise of God All-sufficient and was safe So at the sack of Ziglag 1 Sam. 30. 6. Verse 7. For nation shall rise c. See here the wofull effects of refusing Gods free offers of grace They that would have none of the Gospel of peace shall have the miseries of warre They that loathed the heavenly Manna shall be hunger-starved They that despised the only medicine of their soules shall be visited with the pestilence They that would not suffer heart-quake shall suffer earthquake Or as that Martyr expresseth it They that trembled not in hearing shall be crusht to peeces in feeling As they heap up sinne so they treasure up wrath as there hath been a conjuncture of offences so there shall be of their miseries The black horse is at the heels of the red and the pale of the black Rev. 6. 4. God left not Pharaoh that sturdy rebell till he had beaten the breath out of his body nor will he cease pursuing men with his plagues one in the neck of another till they throw the traytours head over the wall Verse 8. All these are the beginning c. q. d. There yet remain far worse matters then warre famine pestilence earthquakes And yet warre is as a fire that feeds upon the people Isa. 9. 19 20. Famine is far worse then that Lam. 49. Pestilence is Gods evil Angel Psal. 78. 49 50. Earthquakes are wondrous terrible and destructive to whole cities as to Antioch of old and to Pleurs in Italy alate where fifteen hundred men perished together A conflux of all these abides the contemners of Christs Gospel The holy Martyrs as Saunders Bradford Philpot c. The Confessours also that fled for Religion in Q. Maries daies acknowledged as Ursinus relates that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them for their unprofitablenesse under the means of grace which they had enjoyed in K. Edwards daies When I first came to be Pastour at Clavenna saith Zanchy there fell out a grievous pestilence that in seven-monethsspace consumed 1200. persons Their former Pastour Mainardus that man of God had often foretold such a calamity for their Popery and profanesse But he could never be believed till the plague had proved him a true Prophet and then they remembred his words and wisht they had been warned by him Verse 9. And shall kill you Besides the butcheries at Jerusalem that slaughter-house of the Saints Nero orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit Nero was the first Roman persecutour saith Tertullian who therefore calleth him the dedicatour of the condemnation of Christians He is said to have made such a bloody decree as this Quisquis Christianum se esse confitetur is tanquam generis humani convictus hostis sine ulteriori suidefensione capite plectitor Whoso confesseth himself a Christian let him be put to death without any more adoe as a convicted enemy of mankinde Verse 10. And then shall many be offended As not willing to suffer How many revolted for fear in the Primitive times were abjured here in Q. Maries reigne fell to Popery in the Palatinate and other places in Germany since the troubles there as fast as leaves fall in Autumne Somewhat men will do for Christ but suffer nothing Verse 11. And shall deceive many Witnesse the Eastern and Western Antichrists those deceitfull workers that have drawn millions of souls into hell by their grand impostures The world went wondering after those two beasts which as the Panther hid their horrid heads that they may take men with their flesh-pleasing superstitions And as the serpent Scytale when they cannot otherwise overtake the flying passenger they so bewitch him with their beauty and bravery that he hath no power to passe away Verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound In these last and worst times as Bernard yoketh them and as the Scripture oft describeth them There was never but one Noah that with two faces saw both before and behinde him But loe that Ancient of daies to whom all times are present hath told us that the last shall be the loosest the dregs of time the sink of sinnes of all former ages The love of many shall wax cold Conversation with cold ones will cast a damp and make one cold as our Saviour here intimates there is no small danger of defection if not of infection by such they are notable quench-coals This both David and Esay found and therefore cried out each for himself Woe is me Psal. 120. 5. Isa. 6. 5. There is a compulsive power in company to do as they do Gal. 2. 14. Why compellest thou c. It behoveth us therefore to beware upon whom the ends of the world are come least we suffer a decay least leaving our first love and led away with the errour of the wicked we fall from our former stedfastnesse The world saith Ludolfus hath been once destroyed with water for the heat of lust and shall be again with fire for the coldnesse of love Latimer saw so much lack of love to God and goodnesse in his time that he thought verily doomes-day was then just at hand Verse 13. But he that endureth It is but a He a single man that holdeth out when Many loose their love and therewith their reward 2 Ioh. 8. Ecebolus AEneas Sylvius Baldwin Pendleton Shaxton and many others set forth gallantly but tired ere they came to their journies end Of them that verse was verefied Principium fervet medium tepet exitus alget Like the Galli Insubres they shewd all their valour in the first encounter Like Charles the 8. of France of whom Guicciarden noteth that in his expedition to Naples he came into the field like thunder and lightning but went out like a snuffe Like Mandrobulus in Lucian who the first year offered gold to his gods the second year silver the third nothing Or lastly like the lions of Syria which as Aristotle reporteth bring forth first five whelps next time four next three and so on till at length they become barren So Apostates come at last to nothing and therefore must look for nothing better then to be cast off for ever when they that hold out and hold on their way passing from strength to strength from faith to faith c. shall be as the Sunne when he goeth forth in his strength yea they shall shine forth as the Sunne in the kingdom of their father Matth. 13. 43. Caleb was not discouraged by the Giants and therefore had 〈◊〉 the place of the 〈◊〉 so those that hold
out in the way of heaven shall be sure to have heaven Thomas San-Paulins at Paris a young man of eighteen years being in the fire was pluckt up again upon the gibbet and asked whether he would 〈◊〉 To whom he said That he was in his way toward God and therefore desired them to let him goe 〈◊〉 Merchant of Paris his case was nothing so comfortable who for jesting at the 〈◊〉 was by them condemned to be hanged But he to save his life was content to recant and so he did The Friers hearing of his recantation commended him saying If 〈◊〉 continued so he should be saved And so calling upon the officers caused them to make haste to the Gallows to hang him up while 〈◊〉 was yet in a good way said they lest he fall again Verse 14. For a witnesse unto all Nations Whilest with Moses it 〈◊〉 the AEgyptian saveth the 〈◊〉 is a favour 〈◊〉 life to some of death to 〈◊〉 who shall be left without 〈◊〉 by the Gospel preached to them as those that by their obstinacy have wilfully cut the throats of their own poor souls refusing to be reformed hating to be 〈◊〉 Sure it is that the last sentence shall be but a more manifest declaration of that judgement which the Lord in this life most an end by his word hath passed upon people Verse 15. The abomination of desolution That is Antichrist say some Interpreters and hitherto may fitly be referred that of 〈◊〉 who in his 〈◊〉 of the year 964. reckning up some Popes 〈◊〉 wicked he calleth them The abomination of desolation standing in Gods Temple Others understand it of the Roman Eagles or Ensigns Others of the Emperour Caius his statue said by some to 〈◊〉 set up in the Sanctuary As others again of Titus his picture placed there which haply was that one great sin that so troubled him upon his death-bed But they do best that understand the text of those abominable authours of desolation the Roman Armies who laid waste that pleasant Land and destroy'd the Nation as besides what Daniel fore-told is set 〈◊〉 by Iosephus at large in his sixth and seventh book De 〈◊〉 Iudaico Whoso readeth let him understand Let him strive to doe so by 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 attention diligence and devotion weeping as 〈◊〉 did till the sealed book was opened digging deep in the mine of the Scriptures for the minde of God 1 Cor. 2. 15. and holding it fast when 〈◊〉 hath it lest at any time 〈◊〉 should let it slip Heb. 2. 1. Admirable is that and appliable to this purpose which 〈◊〉 relateth of the precious stone 〈◊〉 of so orient bright and sweet a colour that it both dazeleth and refresheth the eyes at once drawing together heaps of other stones by it's secret force though far distant as hives of bees c. But lest so costly a gift should grow cheap nature hath not only hid it in the innermost bowels of the earth but also hath put a faculty into it of 〈◊〉 out of the hands of those that hold it unlesse they 〈◊〉 very carefull to prevent it Verse 16. Flee into the mountains As 〈◊〉 at length did for Zoar was too hot to hold him So should Iudea be for these who were therefore to repair to Pella beyond Jordan where they were hid till the indignation was over-past as Eusebius hath it in the third book and fifth Chapter of his history Such a receptacle of religious people was Geneva in the 〈◊〉 persecution And such blessed be God our strength for his unspeakable 〈◊〉 is at this present Warwick-Castle to my self writing these things and to many others in these troublous times So 〈◊〉 and many godly people were entertained and safeguarded by that noble Franciscus a 〈◊〉 in the German warres Verse 17. Not come down to take any thing See here the miseries of war which now alas we feel and can 〈◊〉 to being glad to flee for our lives with the losse of all lest with 〈◊〉 seeking to save our goods we lose 〈◊〉 and all glad if we may 〈◊〉 with the skin of our teeth And how like 〈◊〉 our present 〈◊〉 to end in a deadly consumption Warre is called evil by a specialty 〈◊〉 45. 7. Sin Satan and war have all one 〈◊〉 Evil is the best of them The best of sin is deformity of Satan 〈◊〉 of war misery God yet offereth us mercy as 〈◊〉 did those he warred against whiles the lamp burned O let us break off our sins by repentance and be 〈◊〉 in it lest we should seem to come 〈◊〉 Heb. 4. 1. Verse 18. Return back to take his clothes The body is 〈◊〉 then raiment And although there is great use of clothes in flight especially to save us from the injury of winde and weather for we carry the lamps of our lives in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it were yet life for a prey though we have nothing else in a common calamity is a singular mercy A living dog is better then a dead lion saith Solomon The Gibeonites to save their lives submitted to the meanest offices of being hewers of wood c. Skin for skin c. Iob 2. 4. We should be content to sacrifice all to the service of our lives Verse 19. Woe to them that are with childe c. By the laws of Nations women with childe babes and sucklings maids and old folk should be spared But the bloudy sword oft knows no 〈◊〉 as Hos. 10. 14. the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children Hos. 13. 16. their infants were dashed in pieces and their women with childe ript up So at the sack of Magdeburg by Charles the fifth and of Merindol in France by Minerius where the paps of many women were cut off and their children looking for suck at their mothers brest being dead before died also for hunger Many such barbarous but cheries have been acted lately in Ireland and begin to be also now in England poor England now an Ireland as at Bolton in Lancashire lately Help Lord or thy servant perisheth Verse 20. But pray ye Christ saith not Fight ye but pray ye To fight it boots not for God hath resolved the lands ruine But praiers are Bombardae instrumenta 〈◊〉 Christianorum as Luther hath it the great guns and artillery of Christians whereby they may batter heaven and make a breach upon God himself Flectitur 〈◊〉 voce rogante Deus Something God will yeeld to the praiers of his people even when he seems most bitterly bent and unchangeably resolved against them Christ here bids them pray that their flight fell not out in the winter when the daies are short 〈◊〉 foul and all lesse fit for such a purpose Nor on the Sabbath when though it were lawfull enough yet it would be so much the more uncomfortable This they were bid to pray above thirty years before the City was besieged And they had what they praid for Their flight was not
so severe a fact he replyed I left him but as I found him Verse 43. He would not have suffered his house c. And shall the children of this world be wiser for their houses then we for our souls what are these earthly tabernacles these chair cottages to our houses from heaven All things here are terrene and 〈◊〉 nec vera nec vestra subject to vanity and violence Heaven only hath a foundation Heb. 11. earth hath none Job 26. 7. And things are said to be in heaven but on earth as ready with the least shake to fall off There is nothing of any stability or 〈◊〉 consistency in the creature It is but a surface an outside all the felicity of it is but skin-deep Seek therefore first Gods kingdom c. Verse 44. Therefore be ye also ready 〈◊〉 tells us that it was a peece of Julius Caesars policy never to foreacquaint his souldiers of any set time of removeall or onset that he might ever have them in readinesse to draw forth whithersoever he would Christ in like manner who is called the Captain of our salvation Our enemy is alwaies ready to anoy us should we not therefore look to our stand and be vigilant Solomons wisedome Lots integrity and Noahs sobriety felt the smart of the serpents sting The first was seduced the second stumbled and the third fell while the eye of watchfullnesse was fallen asleep For in such an hour c. Christ will soonest ceize upon the secure 1 Thess. 5. 3. such shall sleep as Sisera who 〈◊〉 he awaked had his head fastened to the ground as if it had been now listening what was become of the soul. See the Notes on vers 42. Verse 45. Who then is a faithfull and wise servant So every man ought to be but Ministers especially who should so far surpasse others in these good qualities as Saul did the people then whom he was higher by head and shoulders They should be faithfull in all Gods house as servants as stewards and 〈◊〉 of the mysteries of God to give to every man his demense his due measure of meat and that which is fit for him not as he in the Emblem did straw to the dog and a bone to the asse c. but to every one his portion 1 Cor. 4. 1. Verse 46. Blessed is that servant It was Augustines wish that Christ when he came might finde him aut precantem aut praedicantem either praying or preaching It was Latimers wish and he had it that he might shed his heart-blood for Christ. It was Jewels wish that he might die preaching and he did so For presently after his last Sermon at Lacock in Wiltshire he was by reasen of sicknesse forced to his bed from whence he never came of till his translation to glory I have heard the like of Mr Lancaster a precious man of God sometimes Pastour of Bloxham in Oxfordshire a man very famous for his living by faith Cushamerus a Dutch Divine and one of the first Preachers of the Gospel at Erfurt in Germany had his pulpit poisoned by the malicious Papists there and so took his death in Gods worke What would you that the Lord when he comes should finde me idle said Calvin to his friends who wished him to forbear studying a while for his health sake And such a like answer made Doctour Reynolds to his Physitian upon the like occasion Eliah was going on and talking with Elisha about heavenly things no doubt when the charet of heaven came to fetch him There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to finde us in then in a diligent presecution of our generall or particular calling Verse 47. Verily I say unto you c. A deep asseveration for our better assurance and incouragement Christ is a liberall paymaster and his retributions are more then bountifull 〈◊〉 thought much that the steward of his house should be heir of his goods Genesis 15. 2. 3 Not so the Lord Christ. Verse 48. But and if that evil servant All places are full of such evil servants and so is hell too as future their repentance and so fool away their salvation Of such dust-heaps we may finde in 〈◊〉 corner This is a depth of the devil brim-full with the blood of many souls to perswade them that they have yet long to live and many fair summers to see that there is no such haste but that hereafter may be time enough In 〈◊〉 comes grace and a few good words at last will waft them to heaven c. Verse 49. To eat and drink with the drunken Though he neither be drunk himself nor make others drunk yet to be among wine-bibbers and 〈◊〉 mongers as Solomon hath it Prov. 23. 20. to company with such as a frequent an immoderate 〈◊〉 as Peters word importeth 1 Pet. 4. 3. to drink 〈◊〉 as Bullinger 〈◊〉 it though there follow not an utter alienation of minde this is here threatned Excessive drinking is drunkennesse Ephesians 〈◊〉 18. though men be strong to bear it Isa. 5. 22. Verse 50. In a day when he looketh not c. As he did to that rich fool Stultitiam patiuntur opes who made account he had much good laid up in store for many years but heard ere morning Stulte hac nocte Thou fool this night c. Then when like a Jay he was pruning himself in the boughes and thought least of death he came tumbling down with the arrow in his side his glasse was run when he hoped it had been but new turned Verse 51. And shall cut him afunder Gr. Shall cut him in twain that is tear his soul from his body by main force Job 27. 8. throw him out of the world as it were by a firmae ejectione and hurl him into hell there to undergo most exquisite torments such as they did here that were sawn asunder Heb. 11. hewen in 〈◊〉 as Agag torn limmeal as Dan. 3. 29. 2 Sam. 12. 31. And appoint him his portion with hypocrites Hypocrites then are the free-holders of hell other sinners are but as tenants and inmates to them CHAP. XXV Verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven OUr Saviour here continueth his former discourse and sets it on by a second parable to the same 〈◊〉 not so much for the difficulty of the matter 〈◊〉 for our 〈◊〉 and backwardnesse to beleeve and improve it Moses would have men whet good things upon their childrens mindes and memories by going often over them as the knife doth over the whetstone Solomon saith good counsell should be fastened as 〈◊〉 driven home to the head Eccles. 12. 11. Paul holds it profitable to write the same things though not in the same words to his Philipians chap. 4. 1. Peter slacks not to rouse up those to whom he writes by remembring them of those points wherein they were ready and
ready to fall asleep at it Verse 44. And he left them and 〈◊〉 away again A most memorable and imitable pattern of patience toward those that condole not or that keep not touch with us we must neither startle 〈◊〉 storm but passe it by as a frailty And praid the third time A number of perfection And Si 〈◊〉 pulsanti c. Paul praid thrice and gave over 2 Cor. 12. because he saw it 〈◊〉 Gods will it 〈◊〉 be otherwis pardoning grace he had but not prevailing vers 9. So our Saviour here had an Angel sent from heaven to strengthen him that he might the better drink that cup which he had so 〈◊〉 deprecated Hence the Apostle doubts not to 〈◊〉 That he was heard in that he feared he was and he was not there 's no praying against that which Gods providence hath disposed of by an infallible order And when we see how God will have it we must sit down and be satisfied That which he will have done we may be sure is best to be done Saying the same words And they were no whit the worse for being the same Let 〈◊〉 comfort those that complain they cannot vary in prayer though that be a desirable ability The 〈◊〉 were enriched by God in all utterance and knowledge 1 Cor. 1. 5. But the businesse of praier is more dispatcht by inward groanings then outward 〈◊〉 Verse 45. Sleep on now and take your rest q. d. Doe so if you can at least But now the hour is come wherein you shall have small either leasure or list to sleep though never so drousie spirited for The Sonne of man is 〈◊〉 c. Luther readeth the words 〈◊〉 and by way of 〈◊〉 thus Ah Do ye 〈◊〉 sleep and take your rest Will ye with Solomons drunkard sleep upon a mast-pole Take a nap upon a Weather-cock Thus this heavenly Eagle though he love his young ones dearly yet he pricketh and beateth them out of the nest The best as Bees are killed with the honey of flattery but quickned with the 〈◊〉 of reproof Verse 46. Rise Let us be going To meet that death which till he had praied he greatly feared So it was with Esther chap. 4. 16. and with David Psal. 116. 3 4. See the power of faithfull praier to disarme death and to alter the countenance of greatest danger Quoties me oratio quem paenè desperantem susceperat reddidit exsultantem c How oft hath praier recruted me Behold He is at hand Behold for the miracle of the matter yet now no miracle 〈◊〉 frequensque via est per amicifallere nomen Tnta frequenque licet sit via crimen habet Verse 47. Lo Iudas one of the twelve Lo for the reason next afore-mentioned The truth hath no such pestilent persecutours as Apostates Corruptio optimi pessima sweetest wine maketh sowrest vineger With swords and staves What need all this ado But that the bornet haunted them an ill conscience abused them When he put forth but one 〈◊〉 of his Deity these armed men fell all to the ground nor could they rise again till he had done indenting with them Verse 48. Whomsoever I shall kisse Ah lewd losell Betraiest thou the Son of man with a kisse Givest thou thy Lord such rank poison in such a golden cup Consignest thou thy treachery with so sweet a symboll of peace and love But this is still usuall with those of his Tribe Caveatur osculum Iscarioticum Jesuites at this day kisse and kill familiarly 〈◊〉 occidunt as one saith of false Physitians When those Rhemish Incendiaries Giffard Hodgeson and others had set Savage awork to kill Queen Elizabeth they first set forth a book to perswade the English Catholikes to attempt nothing against her So when they had sent Squire out of Spain to poison the Queen they taught him to anoint the pummel of her saddle with poison covertly and then to pray with a loud voice God save the Queen Lopez another of their agents affirmed at Tiburn That he had loved the Queen as he had loved Jesus Christ Which from a Jew was heard not without laughter So Parsons when he had hatched that namelesse villany the powder-plot set forth his book of resolution as if he had been wholly made up of devotion Esocietate Iesu fuit qui Iesum tradidit Verse 49. Hail Master and kissed him But love is not alwaies in a kisse saith Philo the Jew nor in crying Rabbi Rabbi as the traitour here did Mark 14. 45. out of a seeming pitty of his Masters misery There are that think that he would have carried this his treachery so cunningly as if he had 〈◊〉 no hand in it and therefore kissed him as a friend and so would still have been taken Verse 50. Friend Sith thou wilt needs be so esteemed though most unfriendly Wherefore art thou come As a friend or as a foe If as a friend What mean these swords If as a foe What means this kisse Christ knew well enough wherefore he came but thinks good to sting 〈◊〉 conscience by this cutting question Laid hands on Iesus and took him By his own consent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Irenaeus hath it while the Deity rested and refused to put forth it self Verse 51. One of them which were with Iesus This was Peter who asked 〈◊〉 to strike but staid 〈◊〉 till he had it out of a preposterous zeal to his Master and because he would be a man of his word A wonderfull work of God it was surely that hereupon he was not 〈◊〉 in an hundred pieces by the barbarous souldiers Well might the 〈◊〉 say He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal. 68. 20. My times are in thine hands Psal. 31. 15. But this stout 〈◊〉 could not be found when his Master was after this apprehended and arraigned Plato hath observed That the most skilfull 〈◊〉 are the most cowardly 〈◊〉 Verse 52. Put up again thy sword See the Notes on Iohn 18. 11. For all they that take the sword Without a just calling 〈◊〉 those sworn sword-men of the devil the Jesuites whose faction as one saith of them is a most agile sharp sword the blade whereof is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every Common-wealth but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spaine Their design is to subdue all to the Pope and the Pope to themselves Verse 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot pray q. d. Need I be beholden to thee for help 〈◊〉 very boldly told his 〈◊〉 and Protectour the Electour of Saxony That he by his 〈◊〉 gained him more help and safegard then he received from him and that this cause of Christ needeth not the 〈◊〉 of man to carry it on but the power of God set a work by the prayer of faith And this way saith 〈◊〉 I will undertake to secure your Highnesses soul
body and estate engaged in the Cause of the Gospel from whatsoever danger or disaster Sive id credat C. V. sive non credat whether your 〈◊〉 believe me herein or not More then twelve legions A legion is judg'd to be six thousand 〈◊〉 and seven hundred horse And this great army of Angels is by praier dispatcht from heaven in an instant Are we then in any imminent 〈◊〉 send up to heaven for help by praier and God will send from heaven and help us We need not help our selves by seeking private revenge as Peter here or using 〈◊〉 shifts as David Ps. 34. 1. for in the same 〈◊〉 Men are exhorted to ensue peace and 〈◊〉 by private wrongs 〈◊〉 the Angels of the Lord 〈◊〉 round about them that fear him and deliver them Verse 54. But how then shall the Scriptures c. Why dost thou not then pray might they object for an army of Angels to rescue thee out of these wicked hands that now hold thee prisoner and will let out thy life-bloud How then should the Scriptures be fulfilled saith he that have fore-told my death This was his constant care even when he hung upon the crosse to fulfill the Scriptures and so to assure us that he was the very Christ. That thus it must be Why must but because it was 1. So 〈◊〉 by God 2 Fore-told by the Prophets every particular of Christs 〈◊〉 even to their very spetting in his face 3. Prefigured in the daily morning and evening 〈◊〉 this lamb of God was sacrificed from the beginning of the world A necessity then there was of our Saviours suffering Not a necessity of coaction for he died freely and voluntarily but of immutability and infallibility for the former reasons and respects Verse 55. Are ye come out as against a thief Secretly and by night with all this clutter of people and clashing of arms so to make the world believe strange matters of me whereas had your 〈◊〉 and conscience bin good you would 〈◊〉 taken a fitter time and I should have had fairer dealing ANd ye laid no hand on me Ye wanted no will but ye could never finde 〈◊〉 and which of you now accuseth me of sinne It is doubtlesse very lawfull and in some cases needfull for Christians to defend their own 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 their wronged credit as did Moses Samuel Paul 〈◊〉 I never have sought profits pleasures nor preferments saith he 〈◊〉 was I ever moved with emulation or envy against any man 〈◊〉 conscientiam aufero quocunque discedo This conscience I carry with me 〈◊〉 I go 〈◊〉 of all that ever lived might best challenge his 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 For of him it might be truly affirmed what Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates what Paterculus doth of Scipio Quod 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit that he did all 〈◊〉 well as the people testified of him and never said or thought any thingamisse Verse 56. That the Scriptures c. Which yet were no more the cause of the Jews cruelty then Ioseph was of the famine then the Astrologer is of the eclipse or Tenterton-steeple of the 〈◊〉 and flowing of the sea Then all the Disciples for sook him and fled Then when there was no such need or danger to enforce them Christ having capitulated with the enemy for their safety They had leave to go free before what staid they for then Or why flee they now This was the fruit and punishment of their former sleeping vers 43. Had they watcht and praid then they had not now thus entred into temptation Verse 57. Where the Scribes and the Elders were A full Councel then may erre See the Notes on Chap. 2. 4. and on Chap. 26. 3. Verse 58. But Peter followed First he fled with the rest and then remembring his promise followed afarre off but better he had kept him away for he sat with the servants so venturing upon the occasion of sin which he should have studiously shunned and meerly out of curiosity to see the end and issue of Christs captivity We many times tempt Satan to tempt us by our imprudence Evil company is contagious and sin more catching then the plague Israel going down to AEgypt brought a golden Calf from thence Jeroboam brought two A man may passe thorow Ethiopia unchanged but he cannot reside there and not to be discoloured Verse 59. Sought false witnesse Here Christ is convented and examined in the 〈◊〉 Court with a great deal of injustice and subornation They first sought false witnesse as if they had obey'd our Saviour who bad them ask those that heard him what he had said unto them Joh. 18. 21. Verse 60. Yea though many false-witnesses came So adultery was objected to Athanasius heresie and treason to Cranmer Also I lay to thy charge said Bonner to Philpot Martyr that thou killedst thy father and wast accursed of thy mother on her death-bed c. Q. Elizabeth wrote these lines in the window at Woodstock Much alledg'd against me Nothing proved can be Freedome of speech used by the Waldenses against the sins of those times caused Ut 〈◊〉 nefariae eis affingerentur opiniones a quibus omninè fuerant alieni saith Gerard That many false opinions were fathered upon them such as they never favoured So deal the Papists by us at this day They tell the seduced people that we worship no God count gain godlinesse keep no promises eat young children make nothing of adultery murther c. Good people these men deny Christ to be God and the holy Ghost to be God c. said White Bishop of Winchester concerning Woodman and other holy Martyrs in a Sermon Yet found they none The enemies likeliest projects oft fail These false witnesses as those 〈◊〉 builders of old disagreed in their language which God confounded and so he doth to this day Verse 61. I am able to destroy the temple Novum crimen Caie Caesar. For what if Christ had said so Could not he as easily have reared a temple as raised the dead restored the blinde c But the truth is he never said so but was misreported and falsely 〈◊〉 saith Father Latymer both as touching his words and meaning also He said Destruite Destroy ye they made it Possum destruere I am able to destroy He said Templum hoc this temple meaning his own body they added manufactum made with hands to bring it to a contrary sense c. Thus mutilando vel mutando by chopping or changing ill-minded men do usually deprave and wrest to a wrong meaning the most innocent passages and practises Verse 62. Answerest thou nothing No nothing unlesse it had been to better purpose for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the wise Heathen Either hold thy peace or say something that 's worth hearing And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To answer every slight accusation is servile Some are so thin they may be seen thorow others so grosse that they
need no refutation These hypocrites were not worthy of an answer from our Saviour who knew also that now was the time not of apologizing but of suffering therefore as a sheep before her shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth Besides he saw that his enemies were 〈◊〉 to have his blood and therefore held it more glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil hath it to choak their spite with silence injuriam tacendo fugere potiùs quam respondendo superare as another saith to set them down by saying nothing Verse 63. I adjure thee by the living God So had the devil done once before horrendo impudentiae exemplo Mark 3. 7. Sed os Caiaphae culeus Satanaein 〈◊〉 sunt praedicamento It is nothing with the devil and his to pollute and dissallow that nomen majestativum as Tertullian stileth it that glorius and fearfull name of God as Moses calleth it and to call him in at 〈◊〉 turns as an author or abettour at least of their abominable plot and practises How much better that holy man that said My heart head and tongue trembleth as oft as I speak of God Yea the very Heathen Sages had the same thoughts that men ought to be better advised then to tosse Gods reverend name upon their tongues as a tennis-ball or to wear his image for an ornament c. And surely as St Mark relateth this history one would think Caiaphas a very conscientious person For he brings him in saying to our Saviour Art thou the son of that Blessed one Mark 14 61. So he calls God by a periphrasis as if he were afraid once to name God when as yet presently after he profanely adjureth our blessed Saviour by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ c. And this he doth not out of any desire to know the truth but as seeking an occasion from his bold and free confession of the truth to put him to death so going about to entitle God himself to his villanous enterprizes See here the hatefull nature of damned hypocrisie and abandon it Verse 64. Thou hast said That is as St Mark expresseth the Hebraisme in plainer tearms I am q. d. Thou hast said it and I must second it I am indeed the promised Messias and the only-begotten sonne of God This was the naked truth without Equivocation a device that the Jesuites have lately fet from hell for the consolation of afflicted Catholikes and for the instruction of all the godly as Blackwell and Garnet blush not to professe in print Let us learn here of our Saviour to make a bold and wise confession of the truth when called thereunto although we create our selves thereby never so much danger from the enemy who shall so be either converted or at least convinced and left inexcusable Hereafter shall ye see c. q. d. Now I am in a state of abasement God having hid his sonne under the Carpenters son whom ye have now bound and shall shortly crucifie But not long hence ye shall see me in a state of advancement sitting on the right hand of power powring out my spirit upon all flesh Acts 2 33. and after that coming in the clouds of heaven as in a charet of state to judge you that are now my Judges c. Verse 65. Then the high-priest rent his clothes Which the high-priest ought not by the law to have done howsoever Levit. 10. 6. 21. 10. and here had no colour of cause at all to do no not so much as Joab had when for company and at his Lords command he rent his clothes at Abners funerall whom he had basely murthered 1 Sam. 3. 31. Verse 66. He is guilty of death Servile souls they durst do no otherwise then concur with 〈◊〉 So in popish councels and conclaves the Bishops and others those Aiones Negones 〈◊〉 have no more to do but simply inclinato capite to say Placet to that which in the Popes name is proposed unto them The Legats in the Councell of Trent were blamed for suffering the article of Priests marriage to be disputed And in Colloquio 〈◊〉 after that Beza had spoken much of the Eucharist before the young King of France the Queen-mother and the Princes of the blood a Spanish Jesuite having reproached the Protestants did reprehend the Queen-mother for medling in matters that belongd not to her but to the Pope Cardinalls and Bishops Verse 67. Then did they spit in his 〈◊〉 Condemned prisoners are sacred things and by the law of Nations should not be misused and trampled on but rather pitied and prepared for death But these barbarous miscreants not without the good liking of their Lords the Priests and Elders spare for no kinde of cruelty toward Christ who was content to be spit upon to cleanse our faces from the filth of sinne to be buffeted with fists and beaten with staves to free us from that mighty hand of God 1 Peter 5. 6. and from those scourges and scorpions of infernall fiends Verse 68. Saying prophesie unto us thou Christ This is dayly done to Christ by the children of darknesse which sin securely and say who seeth us they put it to the triall as Ananias and Sapphria did whether they shall be detected Verse 69. And a damsell came unto him A silly wench daunteth and dispiriteth this stout champion Sic Elias ille 〈◊〉 ad mulierculae 〈◊〉 minas trepidat factus seipso imbecillior What poor things the best of us are when left a little to our selves when our faith is in the wain Thou also wast with Jesus She was just of her masters minde and making We had need take heed where we set our children to service for like water on a table they will be led any way with a wet finger and as any liquid matter they will conform to the vessell whereinto they are powred Be sure to teach them Gods fear and to pray and then where ever they come to 〈◊〉 they shall do good and finde favour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the court of Babylon 〈◊〉 1. and as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 family that great Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maids coal so 〈◊〉 a thing is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 works of God 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 70. I know 〈◊〉 what thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not either her words or her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 dissembling was a true denying St 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 now the cock crew chap. 14. 68. A fair warning to so soul a sinner but he took no notice of it till Christ looked back upon him to teach us that without the helpe of divine grace no means can convert a sinner from the errour of his way God himself preached a Sermon of repentance to Cain but it prevailed not Whereas Christ no sooner looked back upon this falne Apostle but he went out and wept bitterly Christ cured him with lesse ado then he did Malchus
as the day peeped Luke 22. 66. So sedulous are the Devils servants Esau began to bustle with Jacob even in the very womb that no time might be lost Verse 2. And when they had bound him Bound he had been before this to loose the cords of our iniquities but belike they had loosed him again to try if by fair means they could make him belye himself So those Martyrs were tempted Heb. 11. 37. And this was Iulians way of persecuting the Primitive Christians as Nazianzen testifieth persecutioni suae miscuit persuasionem ideoque fuit superioribus nocentior perniciosior So Bonner after he had allowed William Hunter Martyr an half-peny a day in bread and drink in prison perswaded with him saying If thou wilt recant I will make thee a freeman in the city and give thee fourty pounds in good mony to set up thine occupation withall or I will make thee steward of mine house and set thee in office So to reduce D. Taylor Martyr they promised him not only his pardon but a bishoprick Verse 3. Then Iudas which had betrayed him Might not Iedu have sang care away now that he had both the bag and the price of blood but he must come and betray himself Whiles he playd alone he wonne all but soon after his own wickednesse corrected him and his backslidings reproved him Sin will surely prove evill and bitter when the bottom of the bag is once turned upward A man may have the stone who feels no fit of it Conscience will work once though for the time one may feel no fit of accusation Laban shewed himself at parting Knowest thou not that there will be bitternesse in the latter end But 〈◊〉 devil deals with men as the Panther doth with the beasts he 〈◊〉 his deformed head till his sweet sent have drawn them into his danger Till we have sinned Satan is a parasite when we have sinned he is a tyrant But it is good to consider that of Bernard At the day of judgement a pure conscience shall better bestead one then a full purse When he saw that he was condemned He hoped belike that Christ would as at other times he did have delivered 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 miracle Let no man flatter himself as if there were no such hurt in sinne for like dirty dogs it doth but defile us in fawning and like a treacherous Host though it welcome us into the 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 countenance yet it will cut our throats in our beds He repented That is he changed his minde from thinking well of his former actions So those miscreants in Malachi are said to return and discern c. 〈◊〉 3. 18. So 〈◊〉 Duke of Suevia when at the Popes instigation taking up arms against Henry the Emperour he had lost his right hand in the battel he sent for his Bishops and other his confederates and said unto them Loe this is that hand wherewith I swore that allegiance to my Soveraign which by your means and motion I have 〈◊〉 Videte an rectà viâ me duxeritis c Consider whether you have 〈◊〉 me on in a right way or not And brought again the thirty peeces So did Iames Abbes bring to the Bishop of Norwich his forty 〈◊〉 fastened upon him by the Bishop which when he had 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 Fox and was gon from the Bishop who had prevailed with him to recant his conscience began to throb and inwardly to accuse this fact how he had displeased the Lord by 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illusions In which combat with himself being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went to the Bishop again and there threw him his mony and said It repented him that he ever consented to their wicked perswasions in taking of his mony Hereupon the Bishop with his Chaplains laboured afresh to winne him again But he was better resolved and crying out to God for 〈◊〉 of his sinne which Iudas did not he obtained mercy and suffered 〈◊〉 Verse 4 I have sinned c. Here was 〈◊〉 Confession Restitution most men go not so far that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes of heaven there was wanting that 〈◊〉 Conversion Obedience of faith that should have completed his repentance He died in the birth as that foolish childe Ephraim He confessed to men and not to God and by his confession he sought no more then to ease his heart as drunkards by vomiting rid their stomacks So Latomus of Lovain confessed inter horrendos 〈◊〉 se contra conscientiam adver satum esse veritati roaring and crying out that against his 〈◊〉 he had persecuted the truth of God In trouble of minde all will out Conscience like Samsons wife conceals not the riddle like Fulvia a whorish woman who declared all the secrets of her foolish lover Cneius a noble Roman What is that to us See thou to that Miserable comforters Physitians of no value To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend but he for saketh the fear of the Almighty The devil and his imps love to bring men into the briers and there leave them as familiar devils forsake their witches when they have brought them once into fetters Thus the old Bethelite that had been at pains to fetch back the Prophet would not go back with him Thus the Papists burnt Cranmer recanting and the present Prelates cast off their great Antisabbatarian White when they had served their turns on him David when he was hunted from Samuel the Prophet he fled to Ahimelech the Priest as one that knew that justice and compassion should dwell in those brests that are consecrated to God But Judas met with no such matter in the Priests of his time Those mischievous men left him when they had led him to his bane Verse 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver That wages of wickednesse burnt in his purse in his conscience neither could it secure him in the day of wrath See Zeph. 1. 18. Ezek. 7. 19. Obad. 〈◊〉 Jam. 4. 1 2. Omnia fui nihil mihi profuit said Severus the Emperour when he lay a dying Most of the Emperours 〈◊〉 nothing by their advancement to the Empire whereof they were so ambitious but this Vt citiùs interficerentur that they were slain the sooner All or most of them till Constantine died unnaturall deaths Achans wedge of gold served but to cleave asunder his soul from his body and the Babylonish garment but for a shroud And went and hang'd himself If you confesse your felf to a Priest and not to God said that Martyr you shall have the reward that Judas had For he confessed himself to a Priest and yet went and 〈◊〉 himself by and by So did Pavier Town-Clark of London in Henry the eights time who had before sworn a great 〈◊〉 That if the Kings 〈◊〉 would set forth the Scripture in English and let it be read of the people by his 〈◊〉 rather then he would so long live he
And he taught them To teach us that nothing can be better and more usefull to the Church then wholsome teaching which therefore our Saviour never neglected It was grown to a Proverb at Constantinople Better the Sun should not shine then Chrysostome not preach Verse 14. And as he passed by he saw Levi Our calling is of free grace Ezeck 16. 6. Esay 65. 1. The Scribes and Pharisees are let alone and this Publican called to the work And he arose and followed him Leaving his gainfull trade and following his own ignominy ruine death Nihil hic disputat 〈◊〉 vivere debeat faith fears no famine Christ is an universall Good an All in all Verse 15. Many Publicans and 〈◊〉 sate also All at Matthewes charge and he thought it well bestowed to bring them to Christ. So Paul being himself assured of salvation could do or suffer any thing for the salvation of his poor country-men Rom. 8. 38 39. with Rom. 9. 1 2. Verse 16. They said unto his Disciples They durst not say it to Him Where the hedge is lowest the beast breaks over The Devill as the Poet quae desperat reniteseere posse 〈◊〉 What he hopes not to effect he never attempts Verse 17. He saith unto them Though not for their sakes for hee knew it was to no purpose yet for his other hearers sakes he makes Apology Jer. 3. 14 15. God oft gives a Pastour after his own heart for a few that are to be converted Verse 18. The Disciples of John and of the Pharisoes Beza notes that onely here and Matth. 22. 16. Luke 5. 24. is mention made in the Gospel of the Pharisees Disciples unhappy doubtlesse in such perverse Tutors somewhat a kin to Protagoras of whom Plato writeth that he bragged of this that whereas he had lived threescore years he had spent forty of them in corrupting of youth Verse 19. While the Bridegroom is with them Christ is 〈◊〉 in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde There cannot be but musick in his Temple Verse 20. Then shall they fast Novices are not to be tied to the austerity of Religion The Pharisees are revived in the Anabaptists qui initiatis Christo ne risum quidem mediocrem admittunt saith Calvin Capistranus the Minorite sent by the Pope into Germany and other Countries Anno 1453. to preach obedience to the See of Rome gat a great deale of credit to his corrupt doctrine by such a Pharisaicall severity Sed tales Doctores meretur mundus suo fastidio veritatis saith one they that wil not receive the truth in love are left to the efficacy of error 16 17. Verse 21. No man seweth See the Notes on Matthew 9. 16 17. Verse 25. Have ye never read Satis salse q. d. Ignorat is adhuc quod adeo notum tritum Miror ego vestram vel inscitiam vel ignaviam It s a shame for you that you are yet so stupid or so stubborn Verse 26. And to them that c. Though meaner men 〈◊〉 David Verse 27. The Sabbath was made for man That is for mans safety and advantage As he would be undone without it hee would grow wild and forget God so if it stand in the way of his safety it is not to be observed as if an enemy then assault us we may fight with him Pompey could never have taken Jerusalem but that the superstitious Jewes refused to defend themselves on the Sabbath which when he observed he then on that day most feircely assaulted them and took their City Verse 28. Therefore the Son of man This Lordship taking beginning in Christ seems to be from him derived to all that are in Christ. As Psal. 8. 4 5. compared with Heb. 2. 6 7. Whatever David speaks of man is applied to Christ and so is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ. CHAP. III. Verse 1. There was a man there c. A Fit object inciteth and should elicite our bounty Where God sets us up an Altar we should be ready with our Sacrifices with such Sacrifice God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. Verse 2. And they watched him So carnall men do still watch and pry into professors and their conversation 1 Pet. 3. 2. curiously observing what they may catch and carp at But it is a brave thing to thrattle envy to stop an 〈◊〉 mouth to deny them occasion to blaspheme as Christ did to lead convincing lives as Bradford and 〈◊〉 did whom neither their friends could sufficiently praise nor their foes find any thing to fasten on Verse 3. Stand forth That the miracle might be notified and God the more glorified It is a dishonour to a parent to hang his picture in a dark corner so here we should show forth the vertues of him who hath called us 1 Pet. 2. 9. Verse 4. To do good or to do evill Not to do good then as there is opportunity is to do evill Qui non cùm potest servat occidit Non faciendo nocens sed patiendo fuit it is said of the Emperour Claudius Not robbing only but the not releiving of the poor was the rich mans ruine Luke 16. passive wickednesse is taked in some of the Churches Rev. 2. 3. To save life Gr. soule for man and man for the body of man So Psal. 16. Thou wilt not leave my soule in the grave that is my body as Piscator senseth it Verse 5. With anger being greived A sweet mixture of sinlesse passions It is difficult to kindle and keep quick the fire of zeal without all smoke of sin Verse 6. With the Herodians Whom yet they hated in their hearts but they can easily comport and comply to do Christ a mischief as concerning that Christ pertained to Herods 〈◊〉 Verse 8. From beyond Jordan This Country by Josephus is called Peraea as Ultrajectum in Germany Verse 9. Lest they should throng him Gr. afflict him presse or pinch him as they did a peice of his passion verse 10. Verse 10. As many as 〈◊〉 plagues Gr. stripes scourgings Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth with lesser and lighter afflictions and scourgeth every sonne c. with hard and heavie judgements as plagues banishments persecutions c. Oh the bloudy wailes that God hath left on the back of his best children Verse 11. Thou art the Son c. The matter is well amended since Satans first on-set upon Christ. Then it was If thou be the Son of God The same power when he listeth can change the note of the Tempter to us Verse 13. And calleth unto him whom he would Nec volentis nec volantis sed Dei miserantis as a Nobleman after Paul gave it for his Motto It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth though he run as fast as a bird can flie but in God that sheweth mercy Verse 14. That they should be with him As his houshold servants more happy herein
son CHAP. XVI Verse 1. A 〈◊〉 rich man which had a Steward MAster 's had need look well 1. To the chusing of their servants Salomon saw Jeroboam that he was industrious and therefore without any respect at all to his Religion he made him 〈◊〉 over all the charge of the house of Joseph but to his 〈◊〉 disadvantage 〈◊〉 King 11. 28. with chapt 12. 3. 2. To the using of them Most men make no other use of their servants then they doe of their beasts whiles they may have their bodyes to doe their service they care not if their soules serve the Devill Hence they so 〈◊〉 prove false and 〈◊〉 Verse 2. Give an account of thy stewardship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putet said Cato Stewards should often account with their masters Verse 3. I cannot dig c. They that will get wisedome must both dig and beg Prov. 2. 3. 4. Verse 6. Take thy bill The scope of this parable is ut 〈◊〉 charitate erga pauperes compensemus saith Beza that we expiate as it were our prodigality by shewing mercy to the poore Dan 4. 27. Verse 8. And the Lord commended Gr. that Lord viz. the Steward Lord not the Lord Christ who relateth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we understand it of Christ as the Syriack here doth yet He herein no more approveth of this Steward 's false-dealing then he doth of the Vsurers trade 〈◊〉 5. 27. or the theeves 1 Thess. 5. 2. Or the dancers Matth. 11. 17. or the Olympick games 1 Cor. 9. 24. Because he had done wisely The worldlings wisedome serves him as the Ostriches wings to make him out-run others upon earth and in earthly things but helps him never a whit toward heaven Are in their generation wiser A swine that wanders can make better shift to get home to the trough then a sheepe can to the fold We have not received the spirit of this world 1 Cor. 2. 12. we cannot shift and plot as they can but we have received a better thing The fox is wise in his generation the serpent subtile so is the Devill too When he was but young he out-witted our 〈◊〉 parents 2 Cor. 11. 3. Then the children of light As the Angels are called Angels of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. Gods children are the onely earthly Angels have a Goshen in their bosomes can lay their hands on their hearts with dying Oecolampadius and say Hic sat lucis Verse 9. 〈◊〉 unto your selves friends quibus officia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 Testifie your faith by your workes that God of his free-grace may commend and 〈◊〉 you Of the Mammon of 〈◊〉 The next odious name to the Devill himselfe This Mammon of iniquity This wages of wickednesse is not gain but losse They may receive you That is that 〈◊〉 the Angels or 〈◊〉 riches or the poore may let you into heaven Verse 11. In the unrighteous 〈◊〉 or the uncertaine 〈◊〉 deceitfull wealth of this world which yet most rich men trust in as if simply the better or safer for their abundauce Hence 〈◊〉 derives Mammon from 〈◊〉 which signifieth to 〈◊〉 Verse 12. In that which is another 〈◊〉 Riches are not properly ours but Gods who hath entrusted us and who doth usually agssine them to the wicked those men of his hand for their portion Psal. 17. 14. for all the heaven that they are ever to look for Better things abide the Saints who are here but forreiners and must doe as they may Who shall give you that which is your owne Quod nec eripi nec 〈◊〉 potest Aristotle relateth a law like this made by 〈◊〉 That he that used not another mans horse well should 〈◊〉 owne Verse 14. And they derided him Gr. They blew their noses at him in scorne and derision They fleared and jeared when they should have feared and fled from the wrath to come Verse 15. For that which is highly esteemed c. A thing that I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottennesse There may be malum 〈◊〉 in bona 〈◊〉 as in 〈◊〉 Zeale Two things make a good Christian good actions and good aymes And though a good ayme doth not make a bad action good as in Vzzah yet a bad ayme makes a good action bad as in 〈◊〉 whose justice was approved but his pollicy punished Verse 19. There was a certaine rich man Not once named as 〈◊〉 was though never so little esteemed of men God knew him by name as he did Moses when the rich mans name is written in the earth rottes above-ground is left for a reproach Which was clothed in purple c. Gr. was commonly so cloathed It was his every-dayes weare as the word implyeth Verse 20. A certaine beggar named Lazarus Or Eleazar as Tertullian and Prudentius call him who having beene Abrahams faithfull servant now resteth in his bosome Verse 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs Many poore folk have but prisoners pittances which will neither keepe them alive nor suffer them to dye The dogs came and licked his sores When Sabinus was put to death for whifpering against Seianus his dog lay down by his dead body brought to his mouth the bread that was cast to him And 〈◊〉 Sabinus was thrown into the river Tiber the dog 〈◊〉 after him to keepe him up that he might not sinke into the bottome Verse 22. Into Abrahams bosome A Metaphor from feasts say some from fathers say Others who imbosome and hug their children when wearied with long running-about or 〈◊〉 met with a knock and come crying unto them And was carried by the Angels Thorough the ayre the Devils region doe the Angels conduct the Saints at death who may therefore call death as Jacob did the place where he met the Angels Mahanaim Genes 32. 2. For like as the 〈◊〉 man was let down with his bed thorough the tiling before Jesus Luke 5. 18. so is every good soule taken up in an heavenly couch thorough the roofe of his house and carried into Christs presence by these heavenly Courtiers And was 〈◊〉 Possibly with as much noysome stench and hurry in the ayre as at Cardinall Wolseyes buriall A terrible example there is in the book of Martyrs of one Christopher 〈◊〉 an unmercifull Courtier who suffering a poore Lazar to dye in a 〈◊〉 by him did afterwards perish himselfe in a ditch Verse 23. Being in torments Having punishment without pity misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without compassion mischeife without measure torments without end and past imagination Verse 24. And coole my tongue In his tongue he was most tortured quia plus lingua peccaverat saith Cyprian So Nestorius the heretick had his tongue eaten up with worms So Thomas Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Steven Gardiner Bishop of Winchester two notorious persecutors dyed with their tongues thrust out big-swollen and black