therefore conceiued no need of repentance and redemption by an other Sauiour Thus he generally affirmeth of the Iewes whose eares and hearts were by custome growne more then as all men naturally are so obstinately hardned in contempt against the word of truth that Mat. 11.21 had the signes and wonders that were done amongst them beene done in Tyre and Sydon nay in Sodom they would haue repented in Sackcloth and Ashes as the Nineuites did at the preaching of Ionas onely And this is that obstinate opposition of some against the ordinary meanes of mans saluation that caused not onely the Prophets to mourn but our Sauiour Christ to sit down and to weepe ouer Ierusalem when he saw that shee would not bee gathered to her Redeemet as if Christ should haue said as God by our Prophet What could I haue done more for my Vineyard which I haue not done 3 After the consideration of this so exceeding great cost and care bestowed vpon the Lords Vineyard wee are in the third place to looke vnto the end of these his labours and husbandry bestowed on his Church that is the same which euery man which plāteth a vineyard doth expect of his plants fruits I looked for grapes fruites naturall and proper to a Vine proper to a Christian that receiueth the nature the sappe the spirit of the roote Christ Why the good workes and fruites of Christians are compared to grapes and themselues to vines I partly shewed before For as nothing is created for it selfe so the poorest creature that GOD hath made is inabled with some gift to imitate the bounty and goodnesse of the Creator and to yeeld somthing from it selfe to the vse and benefit of others and this is their naturall worke thus the Sun and Moone and Starres as they are indued with light vertue so they restlesly moue to impart their light and influence to the inlightning and quickning of the inferiour world Thus doe the cloudes flie vp and downe emptying themselues to inrich the earth of which notwithstanding they reape no haruest Thus doth the earth without respect of her priuate profit liberally yeelde her riches and fatnes to the innumerable armies of creatures which all sucke her brests and hang on her for maintenance as on their common mother and not to depart frō our Parable thus doe all fruit-bearing trees spend themselues and the principall part of their sappe and moisture not on the increase of themselues but in making some pleasant fruit or berry of which neyther they nor their young springs shall taste and this when it is ripe perfect they voluntarily let fall at their masters feet thus neither doth the Vine make her selfe drunke with her owne grapes nor the Oliue annoint her selfe with her own oyle and yet they striue to abound with fruites For the more euery thing furthereth the common good of the world the higher is the excellency of the nature thereof and the greater resemblance it hath to the Creators goodnesse Now when heauen and earth are fruitfull in their kinde when neyther beast nor tree are idle but are alwaies bringing forth something to the good of others when not onely the creatures vnder man but the blessed Angels of heauen are ministring spirites perpetually and willinglie seruing for our good when God the father himselfe with the Lord our King are yet working and diuiding the streames of their goodnesse to the best behoofe of the world how can it bee allowable that when all the Armies of heauen and earth the Creator with the creatures are thus busied in bringing forth fruit onely man should remaine vnfruitfull his faculties and graces idle himselfe a burthen to the earth It cannot be for not onely the Church of God for the gathering of her children the propagation of truth and piety amongst them but the world it selfe for the vpholding of her estate doth necessarily require mans fruits for seeing we grow together as members in a body and branches in a tree the life and sappe strength and helpe of the root and head cannot be deriued to vs vnlesse it be conuaied by ioynts and by sinewes by armes and by boughes by the mutuall ministery of man by the works of iustice and mercy from one to another and therefore vnlesse the Pastor yeelde the fruit of his light and knowledge vnlesse the Magistrate do yeelde the fruit of his iustice and authority vnlesse euery priuate man doe yeeld forth the fruite of those faculties graces which they receiue not for themselues but for the good of the body they are no parts of Christs body neyther haue they the spirit of the head the spirite of loue in them but they are theeues and murtherers enemies to Christ and to his Church they starue his body and purloine from their fellow members those good things which the mercifull head hath so intended by them to vs that the benefite might be ours and the thanks theirs and al might grow by the naturall fruits of loue But here ordinarily ariseth in the mind of man a vaine shift which much hindreth his fruitfulnes and maketh him draw in all to himselfe and recall his sappe from the fruits into the roote againe and that is a false reasoning with himselfe that because doe he the best he can yet his fruits will bee earthly and sowre and neuer perfect and kindely ripened because were they neuer so perfect and abundant yet they cannot merite lifes eternity to him that beareth them and because that which is wanting is fully supplied in the all-sufficient fulnesse and superrogatiue merits of the head and therefore it is but lost labour to spend himselfe in bringing forth such vnperfect fruites so helpeles in the worke of his owne saluation thus doth iniquity lie vnto her selfe and turneth the truth of God into a lie for though those three promises are all true yet the conclusion we inferre vpon them is altogether vncoherent True it is that though wee bee ingrafted into the eternall Vine Christ yet wee retaine something of the nature of the olde stocke whence wee were taken which giueth to our best fruites an earthly taste and some relish of the olde man True it is that though we are planted with the best heauenly plants of piety yet they grow in a forraine soile and in a colde clime farre from the Sun and our fruites are not concocted and perfect euen our most spirituall fruits our prayers haue not a pleasing taste vnlesse they haue some sweetning But this defect is supplyed by the great Angell of the couenant who when he presenteth these our fruits to God the great husbandman addeth to them of his owne precious incense which helpeth their infirmity and harshnes and maketh them acceptable Renel 8.4 Again true it is that these our fruits were they neuer so abundant and as excellent as mans perfectly restored perfection can afforde yet can they not merite those crownes and kingdomes and the eternity of that glory but
same kingdome though hee be gone first through Gods mercy you shall shine as starres together and therefore seeing good my Lord he sleepeth but you are waking he is in heauen and you on earth what part or parcell of his writings can challenge as of right protection frō any man that liues saue only your self who haue so truely loued him in his life and so redoubled your affection vpon him in his since his death which his religious constant and truly sorrowfull widdow with her fatherlesse children doe finde and freely confes powring out incessāt praiers to almighty God for you and yours And how can you want the blessings of heauen which haue the widdow and fatherlesse to intercede for you vpon earth Oh giue mee leaue to say of your Lordship concerning this without suspition of flattery as Saint Hierom writes of Origen in his preface before his booke vpon the Canticles In ceteris libris omnes alios vicerit in Cantico Canticorum seipsum vicit So in other of your paynfull works you goe beyond others but in this worke of piety you exceede your selfe But not to trespasse too far vpon your Lordships patience seing thus the God of mercy hath moued your heart sincerely to affect the Author of this Sermon and next vnder God to regard his widdow and fatherlesse children let me presume to make this sute further vnto you in the behalfe of this the liuing Image of his soule the first fruit of his published labours that you being a Reuerend father of the church would giue it your blessing before it goe abroad yea that blessing which Iacob sent with his sonnes into Egypt Gen. 43.14 God Almighty giue you mercy in the sight of the man in the sight of the proud man that you may make him humble in the sight of the poore man that you may make him content in the sight of the stubborne man that you may make him yeeld in the sight of the penitent man that you may binde vp and powre wine and oyle into his wounds in the sight of the barren man that you may make him fruitfull in the sight of euery man that you may touch their consciences and winne their soules but especially in the sight of our Ioseph our Iesus who euer so blesse your Lordship that your waies may bee prosperous your sorrowes easie your comforts manie your vertues eminent your conscience quiet your life holie your death comfortable your election sure and your saluation certaine Amen Your Honours humbly deuoted Hamlett Marshall GODS LOVE TO HIS VINEYARD ESAY the 5. VERSE 2.3 Now therefore O Inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iudah Iudge I pray you betweene mee and my Vineyard What could I haue done any more to my Vineyard which I haue not done vnto it Why haue I looked for grapes and it bringeth forth wilde grapes WHereas the beginning of mans saluation the spur and goad which driueth him to Christ is the sence of his owne imperfections and terror of his owne sinnes Strange it is how auerse wee are by nature from this first meanes of our conuersion strange how blinde how partially how corruptly we iudge in our owne causes eyther not once considering or not faithfully acknowledging our own transgressions which forceth God in the ordinary courses of mans saluation sometimes to deale by policies and deuises and to propose his owne case to him not as his owne but in Parables and in the person of others that drawing him from himselfe he might also draw from him an vnpartiall sentence against himselfe Thus God dealt with Dauid when he lay asleepe in the sinne of Bershebah and would not awake himselfe to consider of his owne estate that when Dauid had giuen a seuere sentence against the rich man that slew the poore mans lambe and had pronounced death against him with an oath As the Lord liueth hee shall surely die The Prophet might strike him to the heart with the sentence of his owne mouth Thou art the man Thus and thus hast thou done And to omit the manifolde examples in Scriptures of this kind thus doth our Prophet in this place deale with the people of Iudah he proposeth to them a Parable and because it should bee taken vp in euery mans mouth he setteth it downe in verse and maketh a song of a Vineyard which after the infinite care cost of the husbandman in planting fencing weeding watering pruning it could not bee wonne to bring forth any thing but wild vnwholesom as the word signifieth stinking grapes wherin hauing euery mans secret iudgement that such an vnprofitable vine-yard were to bee left desolate and neglected hee concludeth out of this their owne seueritie against themselues Verse 7. Surely this Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel the men of Iudah are his pleasant plants and he looked for iudgement and behold oppression for righteousnes and behold a crying And first by the way for the Parable it self God hath iudged it profitable thus to teach his Church sometimes by parables which though they be vayles and shadows do hide vnder them spiritual mysteries yet when they are opened and vnfolded they giue a great light to the thing which they shadowed and by their sensible similitude proportion they breed a sensible conceit of things remoued from sense Now to discourse of this whole Parable time will not permit I haue made choice of that one part onely in which the case of the Vineyard is put to the iudgement of the people that is their owne cause is referred to their owne arbitrement Now therefore O inhabitants c. Iudge I pray you c. In which wordes is comprehended the summe of the whole 1. The Church of Israel is proposed vnder the figure of the Lords vineyard 2. Is set downe the Lords care of prouision for his Vineyard What could I haue done for my Vineyard which I haue not done 3. The end of Gods care and benefites fruits good works I looked for grapes 4. The Churches vnthankefulnes It bringeth forth wilde grapes 5. and lastly the iudgement which passed on it Iudge I pray you First for the Church of Israel thus figured by a vineyard As there is one Creator both of heauen and earth so wonderfull are the similitudes and resemblances of one order of his creatures to another of things sensible to things intelligible whereby in earth wise men do beholde a shadow of heauen it selfe but of earthly things which represent spirituall nothing doth more liuely expresse the nature of the visible Church then doth a Vineyard A certaine householder saith our Sauiour Math. 21. planted a Vineyard And Iohn the 15. I am the Vine and yee are the branches and my Father is a husbandman For what property can wee finde in the one which is not in a sort answered in the other Both Church and Vineyard neither of them doe as selfe-sowne things naturally spring and multiply out of the earth both are to bee planted by
vnto God but what is in the eye if man may iudge whose tongue wil not confesse but that as God spake of Iudah Ezec. 16. that shee had iustified her elder sister Samaria by her sinnes so wee haue iustified our eldest sister Iudah by these our sinnes and in steade of grapes haue brought forth oppression vniustice couetousnesse wild grapes full of poyson and the gall of Aspes our peace our plenty the richnes of our soyle in which we liue our want of seuere pruning hath brought forth a luxurious haruest of pestilent weedes in the Vineyard which haue in a manner ouergrowne and choaked piety righteousnesse and all hearty deuotion I know the Lord hath reserued vnto vs a seede a small remnant also but look on the general face of our land how hath this hatefull sinne of vniustice ouergrowne all for the roote thereof couetousnesse and selfe-loue hath got deepe rooting and all men now in a manner doe turne the sappe and the blessings of God their wealth their labors not into clusters of fruits according to their vocation but into their own armes and branches euery one striueth not to bee a good but to be a great tree the bramble wold grow to be of the bignes of the maple and the maple would be strong and tall like vnto the oake ouerdropping and by getting ground starueth another some by an vnsensible soaking from them some by violent and open wrong some vnder colour of right pretence of loue so that in euery quarter and ranke of the Lords Vineyard there is oppression and from oppression there ascendeth a cry to the Lord of the Vineyard But what doe I speake of priuate vniustice betweene men and men when there is found in our Vineyard a kinde of oppression not heard of amongst the heathen Christians in their greedinesse to lay hands vpon their God and father and vnnaturally to seeke to rob him of that which the bounty of his better children had bestowed on him for the maintenance of his worship amongst men Doth any man rob his gods sayth the Lord Malachy 3.8 yet this people robbeth their God and they aske wherein euen in tythes and offerings This is one maine roote of vnnaturall impiety a principall cause of all our corruption when the branches of the Vine doe not onely sucke and draw one from another but doe intercept that also which should maintaine the principall roote on which wee all grow euen Christ his seruice in his Church When God sent his sonne vnto the Iewes Come said they let vs cast him out of the Vineyard kill him and the inheritance shall be ours The Lord our life hath yet some inheritance and patrimony in his owne Vineyard amongst vs for the maintenance of his labourers which should plant Christ amongst vs and in graft vs in him vnto his inheritance how many couetous men doe cast their greedy eyes and put to their hands also that first the Labourers might bee cast out and the inheritance may be theirs What is this but by consequence to cast out Christ himselfe out of his owne Vineyard and as much as in vs lieth to kill Religion and Piety to kill Christ himselfe within our hearts For it is not the losse onely of earthly liuing and the dayly diminishing of the maintenance of his Labourers which is to bee lamented though when you mussell the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out your corne and detract from the ordinary allowance of your labouring beast you shall find the want therof in their hartles trauell and in your own empty haruest but the greatest cause of lamentation complaint herein is the corruption of the Ministery of Christ whilst Patrones and such as deale in the disposing of Church liuings doe shut vp all the ordinary wayes for the Labourers to enter into the Lords Vineyard but onely by the dore of Simonie by which men of good conscience will not enter Thus is the Lords worke and tillage of his vineyard vnfruitfully followed whilest men of corruptest minds and the basest of the people take vp the places of should bee plentifull among vs crying I haue looked for righteous dealing as amongst brethren who should rather suffer then offer wrong and behold a crying I haue heard a voyce saith Moses Exod. 32. when hee descended from the Mount the noise neither of them that haue the victory nor of them that haue the worse for the people had sate downe to eate and were risen vp to play But where there is oppression and wrong there is a kind of warre some haue the better and some haue the worse and therefore amongst them there is alwayes heard the noise of them that haue the worse the noise of Oppression the noise of complayning and of crying A dangerous thing to haue any crying heard in the family of God amongst brethren a fearefull thing that the complaint of the oppressed should come to his eare Omne sub Regno grauiore regnum est Euery Court is subiect to a higher Court. That there should be no wrongs it cannot bee prouided but for redresse there is refuge to Gods officers and ministers of Iustice vpon earth and if they by righteous iudgement do take away the cause of crying God is satisfied but if the wronged party can find no ease in those inferiour Courts but that in griefe of soule hee appealeth to the supreme Court when hee cryeth after the Iudge of the world as Dauid Psalme 10. Arise O Lord lift vp thy arme forget not the poore wherefore doe the wicked contemne and say thou wilt not regard thē the righteous God the refuge of the fatherles prouoked with those often appeales taketh iudgement into his owne hands and as Psalme 12. Now for the oppressing of the needy and sighes of the poore I will rise vp sayth the Lord for seeing Deut. 15.9 hee chargeth vs not to harden our hearts from giuing to our wanting brother lest he cry vnto the Lord and it bee sinne vnto vs How much more certainely will hee performe that which he protesteth Exod. 22. If thou trouble or vex the widdow or fatherles so they call cry vnto me I will surely heare their cry and my wrath shal be kindled and I will kill thee with the sword thy wife shall bee a widdow and thy children fatherlesse Oh my beloued as there is much vniustice in euery estate cōtrary to Pharaohs dream the fat doe feed vpon the leane the stronger vpon the weaker as the fishes doe in the sea so let no man presume vpon the weakenes of the Plainetiffe or vpon his own means to beare out his cause in the world for though men should be silent in their owne wrongs the stones shall cry and the dumbe creatures shall make complaint the detained hire of the labourer though it lie in our chest yet it sendeth vp a crie into the eares of the Lord of hostes Iacob 5. The stone that lyeth in the wall of our owne buildings crieth