commanded from heaven to heare saith That without him we can do nothing That those to whom Power is given to be the sonnes of God are not borne of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1. They are not borne of blood that is they come not by naturall propagation for by this nativity wee are children of wrath 2. They are not of the will of the flesh This may be referred to them which are borne of faithful Parents yet begotten carnally For as the wheat is sown without chaffe but when it grows the chaffe comes up with it Or as the Hebrew Males which were circumcised begat children which were uncircumcised so the most holy and spiritual man begets a carnal sonne the reason is Quia ex hoc gignit quod adhuc vetustum tenet inter filios seculi non ex hoc quod in novitatem promovit inter filios dei as Austin He begets according to that corruption which hee retains amongst the sonnes of men not according to that perfection which he hath attained unto amongst the sons of God 3. They are not borne of the will of man That is the will of man doth not co-work with God at his regeneration to receive grace and convert himselfe Let the Papists and Pelagians and Semi-pelagians busie their braines and confederate themselves and joyne their forces against Christ and his Apostles maugre their beards it shall stand which is confessed by an honest Frier that there is not in the whole world of natural men vel mica virium so much as a dram or crum of power whereby he may convert himselfe and become a sonne of God Thus then first he is our Father not only by grace of adoption but by grace of regeneration he regenerates and begets us a new by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost 2. To his children thus begotten and born anew he gives new names Thou shalt be called by a new name Isa 62. 2. To him that overcometh I will give a white stone and in the stone a new name Rev. 2. 13. I will write in it my new name Rev. 3. 12. Old things when they are renewed have new names given them So old Byzantiū renewed by Constantine was called after his name So a son of the old Adam who of himself Is a child of wrath a firebrand of hell Gods enemy and an alien from the common-wealth of Israel being renewed and regenerate and having given his name to Christ is called a Christian This is a new name received from him who after he had spoyled Principalities and Powers and like a triumphant Conqueror shewed them openly in his Chariot of triumph so Origen calls it the Crosse hath received a name above all names that are named not in this world only but also in that which is to come The name also we receive in our Baptisme when we are admitted into Christs Church is a new name and may put us in mind of our new and spirituall estate as the other which we receive from our Parents and Ancestors is a mark of our natural state we received from them So that whensoever we think of our names given us in our baptisme we should think of our new birth and be more and more renewed according to that of the Apostle Old things are past behold all things are become new Therefore as many as are in Christ let them be new creatures New names and old natures are like new wine in old vessels or like new cloath in an old garment 3. He feeds us 1. with corporall food for the sustenance of our bodies The greatest Prince of the world hath not so much de proprio as a morsell of bread to put in his mouth but what he receives from him who hath Heaven for his throne and Earth for his foot-stoole who opens his hand and gives to all creatures that wait upon him their meate in due season For which cause Christ sends us to heaven gates to begge our daily bread viz. not only the substance of bread but baculum panis as the Scripture calls it the power and strength to nourish us without whose benediction be our tables furnished with never such variety of dishes wee shall be but like Caligula's guests at his golden banquet we may well feed our eyes but not our stomacks Or like to him that eates in a dreame and when he awakes behold his soule is empty 2. He feeds us with spiritual food that which was figured by the tree of life and the waters that flowed out of the stony rock as some of the Fathers expound it the bodie and blood of Christ unto eternall life 3. He cloatheth us as the Kings daughter with a vesture of gold the robe of Christs righteousnesse which we must put on as a wedding garment that our filthy nakednesse may not appeare in his sight and withall by degrees makes us glorious within with the habite of sanctification and inherent righteousnesse 5. He protects us against all dangers as hath been already shewed 6. He corrects us for our offences as a father doth his child in whom his soule delighteth 7. He provides for us an Inheritance immortall and undefiled in the heavens For it is your fathers good pleasure to give you a kingdome The next thing that comes to be handled But let us first by way of use and inference reflect upon the point we have in hand Is God Almighty a Father of his little flock and such a father as doth not only regenerate but feedeth and cloatheth and protecteth and directeth and hath in a readinesse a Kingdom for the meanest of them that be his Here then let us take notice of the dignity and worth and happinesse of the meanest Christian above all the sonnes of Adam be they never so great swell they never so high with a conceit of their owne worth The greatest of heathen Philosophers tells us that felicity consists in a cumulation of moral vertues Others place it in worldly pleasures The common sort of men in worldly honours and preferments and the higher a man is advanced the more worthy the more happy they repute him But alas what great felicity is it for a base fellow to act a Kings part upon the Stage and when the Play is ended to be contented with a ragged coate far lesse to be a King in this world and then to be cast into Hell fire Here is the state and condition of the greatest Potentates on Earth that have not Christ for their Brother and God for their Father when they have acted their parts upon the stage of this world downe they must goe into the infernall lake The Spider thinks her selfe no base creature when she hath got her selfe into the roofe of a Princely palace and there woven her webbe and rests there secure as shee thinks from all danger but anon when
disgorge and cast up whatsoever lies on his stomach I doubt not but their apish tricks will in time move the heart and stomach of our gracious and merciful Coeur de Lion and other Magistrates in their places to cast up and shew such tokens of their inward grief as they shall have just occasion to conceive against them and to purge the body politick from these noxious humours wherewith it is endangered And without this there is no assurance of peace For as Jehu said unto Jehoram when he went against the house of Ahab is it peace Jehu said Jehoram What peace said the other while the whoredoms of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are in great number So say I what peace can be expected as long the whoredoms of the Romish Iezabel and her witchcrafts and inchanting cups wherewith she withdraweth the people from their obedience to their Soveraign and stealeth their hearts from him as did Absolon the hearts of the Israelites from David his father are in great number As long as the Pope can set any foot-hold in Britain he will bestir himself to molest the peace of our Sion Et si non aliquâ nocuisset mortuus esset But enough if not too much of this subject It is a point which I vowed to handle not out of any spleen to any particular person whosoever he that seeth the thoughts of my heart knowes that I lie not but for the love of the truth the zeal of Gods glory the integrity of my conscience and the discharge of my duty And herein liberavi animam meam look ye unto it The third proposition followeth 23 Ye shall die What mettal other creatures were made of whether immediately of nothing or of some preexistent matter I finde no expresse mention in Gods book This I finde that man was made of a matter and that not gold nor silver pearl or pretious stones but of earth the basest and vilest of all the elements yea of the dust of the earth even of dry dust which is good for nothing that if he shall with proud Phaeton in the Poet boast that Apollo God is his father he might presently call to mind that poor Clymene the earth is his mother that he was made of dust that he is but dust and that he shall return to dust And yet I know not how it comes to passe but I am sure it is true that many in authority resemble the dust in no property better then one that as the dry dust in the streets is with every blast of winde blown aloft into the air so are their hearts blown aloft and swelled up with a windie tympanie of their own greatnesse But let them climbe as high as they can God will one day send a shower and lay this dust They are but natural men and the threed of nature as a Poet feigneth is tyed unto the foot of Jupiters chair he can loose it when it shall please him Though Adams wit was such that he could give names unto every creature according to their natures yet he forgot his own name He did not remember that he was called Adam homo ab humo by reason of that affinity that was between him and the earth These sons of Adam are very like their old grand-father they are witty in seeking out the names and properties of other creatures but they forget their own names and their natures too And this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and overwhelmed with cruelties They will with Nebuchadnezzar strive to advance themselves above the stars of God and to match their old grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of earth yet with the wings of pride and arrogancie would needs soar up into heaven and care little for resembling their elder brother the second Adam who took upon him our weaknesse that we might be strengthened our poverty that we might be inriched our nakednesse that we might be clothed our basenesse that we might be exalted our mortality that we might be invested in the robe of immortality and was contented to descend from heaven to earth that he might make a way for us to ascend from earth to heaven But let them secure themselves as much as they will their hour-glasse is continually running the tide of death will tarry no man Our father hath eaten a sowre grape and his childrens teeth are set on edge Our grand-father for eating of the forbidden tree had this sentence denounced against him that he should return to dust And his children are liable unto it till heaven and earth be renewed and there be no more death Those great and mighty Gods of the earth which clothe themselves in purple and fine linnen and dwell in houses of Cedar and adde house to house and land to land as if the way to heaven layd all by land have a time appointed them when their insatiable desires shall be contented with a Golgotha a place of dead mens skulls a little portion of the great potters field as much as will serve to hide and cover a dead carkasse in it You which sit on the seat of judgement whom the Lord hath so highly extolled as to be called Gods you have your dayes numbred your moneths determined your bounds appointed which ye cannot passe It is not the ripenesse of your wits nor the dignity of your places nor the excellency of your learning nor the largenesse of your commission that can adde one inch unto the threed of your dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres Deaths arrow will as quickly pierce through the strong castle of a King as the muddie wall of a countrey swain Were ye wiser then Solomon stronger then Samson richer then Iob mightier then the greatest Monarch of the earth faithfuller in your places then Samuel that faithful Judge of Israel Ire tamen restat Numa quò devenit Ancus This must be the conclusion Ye must die as men and yeeld your bodies to deaths Serjeant to be kept prisoners in the dungeon of the earth till the great and general assizes that shall be holden by our Saviour Christ in the clouds of the skie at the last day The conclusion is most certain howsoever the premises be fallible and doubtful Alexander when by his followers he was called a God forgot that he was to die as a man till by a poysoned arrow he was put in minde of his mortality and then he confessed the truth Vos me Deum esse dixistis sed jam me hominem esse sentio You said that I was a God but now I perceive I am but a man And shortly after he perceived it with a witnesse when he was poysoned by Antipater and then inclosed in a small parcel of ground whose aspiring mind the whole world could not fil Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modò sufficit
Goliath like give him a sword for the cutting of our own throats Againe Is it so that in the regenerate so long as he remaineth in this earthly Tabernacle there remain not some few reliques but many fragments of the natural man so that there is a combat between the flesh and the spirit where then be the Papists which maintain justification by works Can a clean thing come out of that which is unclean saith Job and can our minds wils and affections wherein the flesh and the spirit are mixed together produce any effect which is not impure and imperfect and therefore farre short of that perfection and righteousnesse which is required by the Law I do not say that they are sinnes that is but a slander of the Papists but they have some degrees of sins and imperfections joyned with them the best come that groweth in our fields hath some grains blasted the best fruits that we can bring forth are in some part rotten the best gold that we can show is much mixed with dross and cannot abide the touchstone it is an easie matter I confesse for a sinfull and unregenerate cloysterer to say somewhat for the dignitie of workes in justifying a man but when we enter into an examination of our own consciences and find so many sins and imperfections lurking in every corner of our hearts it will make us crie out with Bernard meritum meum miseratio domini my merit is the Lords mercie and again sufficit ad meritum scire quod non est meritum Nay if we look up unto God and consider him not as a mans brain considereth him but as his word describeth him unto us with whose brightness the stars are darkned with whose anger the earth is shaken with whose strength the mountains melt with whose wisdom the crafty are taken in their own nets at whose pureness all seem impure in whose sight the heavens nay the very Angels are unclean we must needs confesse with Job that if we should dispute with God we could not answer him one for a thousand and confesse that he found no stedfastness in his Saints yea and when the heaven is impure in his sight much more is man abominable and filthy which drinketh iniquitie like water and therefore pray unto him with David that he will not enter into judgement with us because in his sight shall no man living be justified but I must leave this point and come unto the second All the dayes of my appointed time c. Every man hath an appointed time by God which he cannot passe Though Adams wisdome was such that he could give names to everie creature according to their nature yet he forgate his owne name because of his affinitie between him and the earth the sons of Adam are like their father they are witty enough about the creatures but they quite forget their own names and their natures too and this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and over-whelmed with crueltie they wil contend with Nebuchadnezzar in Isa to advance themselves even above the stars of God and to match their Grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of the earth would with the wings of pride soare into heaven and care little for being like their elder brother the second Adam which from Heaven came unto earth and took upon him our infirmities and miseries but let them secure themselves never so much the tide will tarrie for no man for their Father eat sowre grapes and his childrens teeth are set on edge their Father for eating a grape of the forbidden Vine had this sentence pronounced against him Unto dust thou shalt returne and his children shall be lyable to it till heaven and earth be removed and there be no more death The tender and dainty women which never adventure to set the sole of their feet upon the ground for their sofness and tenderness as Moses speakes have a day appointed when their mouthes shall be filled with mould and their faces which they will not suffer the sun of the Firmament to shine upon lest it should staine their beautie shall be slimed with that earth which they scorned to touch with the soles of their feet those rotten posts which spend themselves in whiting and painting as though they would with Medea recal their years or with the Eagle by casting their old bill renew their youth have a day set them in which deaths finger shall but touch them and they shall fall in pieces and returne to their dust those which cloth themselves with linnen and build them houses of Cedar and add house to house and and to land as though they should continue for ever or at the least as if their journy to the heavenly Canaan lay all by land and nothing by Sea have a determinate time when their unsatiable desires shall be content with a Golgotha a place of dead mens souls a little part of a potters field asmuch as will serve to hide and cover their earthen vessel Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modo sufficit octo pedum Are not his dayes determined saith Job the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe it is not nobility of Parents nor wisdom nor comelinesse of person nor strength of bodie nor largenesse of dominions that can lengthen the thred of a mans dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauporum tabernas regumque turres Deaths Arrow will as soon pierce the strong Castle of a King as the poor cottage of a Countrie Swain be thou more zealou then Moses or stronger then Sampson or beautifuller then Absalom or wiser then Solomon or richer then Job or faithfuller then Samuel Ire tamen restat Numa quo devenit Ancus This is the conclusion of all flesh at the time appointed thou must dye yield thy body to deaths Serjeant to be kept Prisoner in the Dungeon of the earth till the great Assises which shall be holden in the clouds at the last day the conclusion is most certain howevsr the premises be most fallible and doubtfull I say not that the time of our lives are equally lengthened or that the dayes our life consist of like houres some see but a winter day and their breath is gone some an â—quinoctial day and they live till their middle age some a long Summers day and live till old age all of them with the Beast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be sure to dye at night the course of mans life is like the journy of the Israelites from Aegypt to Canaan some dye as soon as they are gone out of Aegypt some in the midle way some with Moses come to the edge and borders of Canaan some indeed with Caleb and Joshua enter the promised Land alive such as shall be living at the last day but this is without
Heathen knowledge of his Laws he that prohibits to cast Pearls before Swine and to give that which is holie to Doggs he that brings a drought upon one City when he makes it raine upon another he that commands Paul to Preach in Macedonia and forbids him to Preach in Asia shewes plainly that he is not tyed in any obligation to offer so much as the internall meanes of Salvation to all but of those many that are called few are chosen Matth. 20. Will ye have a type of it six hundred thousand are called out of Aegypt but onely two of them enter into the promised Land Three and twenty thousand are called to fight against Midian but onely three hundred are chosen Jud. 7. Gideons Fleece is wet when the whole Earth is dry Eight persons are saved in the Ark when the whole World that would not hearken unto the Preacher of righteousness is drowned five Cities are burned only three Soules that believed God and fled unto the Hills were preserved The Seed falls foure waies out of the Sowers hand some amongst Thornes and that is choaked some amongst stones and that is withered some by the way side and that is devoured scarce the fourth part falling into good ground is preserved Christ hath a little Flock but the Devill hath a Kingdome nay a world of Kingdomes All these are mine He lyed but in some sort his speech was true he is the Prince of this World he drives the whole World in a drift before him as a Butcher doth his Flock to the Shambles Christ catcheth here a Sheep and there another out of Satans Drove to make up to himselfe a little Flock he hath the Vintage Christ hath the Gleanings as the scattered Grapes when the Vintage is ended and as the after shaking of an Olive Tree here a Berry and there a Berry on the outmost boughs Isa 24. 13. For this cause as if it were too much that Christs Church should be called a Flock it is elsewhere called a Houshold Eph. 2. Gal. 6. This is too large a name and therefore is it limited in a House there be Vessels of honour and Vessels of dishonour the former onely are Christs the other he leaves to Satan there be Sons in an house and there be Servants Christ makes challenge to none but Sons and Daughters the reason is plaine the way to Hell is a broad way they may go by thousands to it there is roome for Foot and Horse and Cart and Coach and all it is plaine and pleasant no hedges to keep passengers in no mire to withhold them no blocks to stop and hinder their passage But the way to Heaven like that described by Livie to Tempe in Thessalie is but one single narrow craggy path all that go that way must as neer as may be tread in the footsteps of him that is gone before Viz. Christ There is the sharp thorny hedge of the Law to pale them in and the fiery Cherubs to affray them and the blade of a Sword shaken to discourage them and the mire and clay of tribulation to keep their legs as it were in the stocks and many blocks and stops doth Satan cast before them to bring them to the ground and when thou art come to the gate it is but like a needles eye If thou be puffed up with luxury and drunkennesse thou must empty thy selfe If thou bee swelled with pride and ambition thou must humble thy selfe If thou be loaden with the drosse and trash of this world thou must disburthen thy selfe thou must pull downe thy top-mast and strike saile and become slender and little and nothing in thine own eyes or thou shalt never finde entrance This being thus I much wonder why either Bellarmine or the most impudent and brazen-faced Divine that ever the Roman Church bred should not blush to place multitude and a glorious visibility of Professors amongst the infallible marks of the true Church which if they prove I will not say to be proper and inseparable marks the mark which Bellarmine aimes at but to carrie so much as a shew of probability I dare boldly inferr that neither Abraham nor any of the Patriarchs nor Elias nor any of the Prophets nor Athanasius nor any of the Orthodoxall Bishops of that time nor Christ nor any of his Apostles were of the true Church all of which had multitude and glorious visibility of Professors as strongly against them as the Romanists can prove it to be on their side Where was this multitude and visibility when Abraham and his Wife were Pilgrims in Aegypt and Canaan and had not so much as a child to leave behind them where when Elias complained that he was left alone that small remnant which God had reserved to himselfe being so hid that they were unknown to Elias himself though a principall member of the Church Where when the Prophet complained that not a righteous man could be found in Jerusalem Jer. 5. 1. Where when Christ first began to preach and made choise of 12. Apostles for this purpose one of which proved a thief Where in the time of the Arian persecution when to use Hieroms words the whole world groaned and wondered to see her selfe become an Arian When this plague spread over the whole Christian world and infected two Bishops of Rome and was strengthened by ten severall Councels in which the decrees of the Nicene Synod were repealed When whole burthen of the Church in respect of men lay upon the shoulders of Athanasius and a few other forlorn Bishops which endured either imprisonment or banishment or otherwise hid themselves and durst not shew their faces By this which hath been spoken as it is evident that this note of multitude notes nothing or if any thing the contrary to Bellarmines note So is it also as cleare that that glorious shew of visibility of which these Thrasoes make such great boast neither makes their cause good nor hurts ours Where was the Protestants Church for divers hundreds of years before Martin Luthers dayes many there were not of that Church true there needed not Christs flock is little gloriously conspicuous it was not true for neither was that needfull Where was this great multitude of Believers and glorious splendor of Professors when the Prophet complained that he was left alone When Esay exclaimed That from the sole of the foote to the crowne of the head there was nothing but bruises and putrified sores Isa 1. When all Jerusalem was troubled about the birth of Christ when the Christians groaned under the ten bloody persecutions inflicted by the Pagans and under the eleventh caused by the Arians As in those times so in the times before Martin Luther the western Church was at a low ebbe and the Moon did suffer almost a totall Eclipse No marvail seeing it was foretold that there should be an apostacy 2 Thes 2. And that the second Beast should cause all both great and small rich and poor free and bond