inventions as the phrase is Psalm 106. 37. For indeed it is spirituall whoredome and it is an exalting of our wisedome above Gods It is vaine-service and therefore cannot please God It is will-worship and of no account with God It is a service that is so farre from bringing us to Heaven that it will beguile us of Heaven This then is to serve God to serve him according to his own way both for matter and manner Now if you aske me What is that way wherein God would have us to serve him I answer briefly He that would serve God so as to please him must mingle 10. Ingredients in his service And indeed this very act of Ioshuah in choosing such a master as Iehovah and in choosing to stand under such a relation as a servant unto Iehovah doth necessarily imply First That Ioshuah did not onely choose to serve God but to serve him undividedly to serve God and none but God For in all Elections those whom we do not choose we refuse And therefore Ioshua's choosing to serve the Lord doth imply that he did refuse all other Lords and masters This is plaine in the beginning of this verse And if it seeme evill to you to serve the Lord choose ye this day whom ye will serve whether the gods c. As if he should have said Ye cannot serve the God of the Israelites and the god of the Amorites together Ye cannot serve God and Idols No man saith Christ can serve two Masters c. 2. Ioshua did not only choose to serve God undividedly but also Everlustingly This appeares because he chose an everlasting Master And for this purpose he tells the Israelites verses 19. 20. You cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God and a jealous God c. If ye forsake him he will consume you c. As if he should have said If you intend to serve God you must never reuolt but keep your selves constant for ever to his service for else he will turne and doe you hurt and consume you after he hath done you good 3. Ioshua did not only choose to serve God undividedly and Everlastingly but also Faithfully and sincerely And this appeares because he chose such a Master that is the heart maker and the heart searcher This is the difference betweene the serving of God and the serving of man Man can but see the outside and punish the outside and judgeth of the inside by the outside But God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth and judgeth of the outside by the inside And therefore Ioshua tells the children of Israel vers. 14. Now therefore feare the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth As if he should have said If you intend to serve him you must serve him in uprightnesse or else ye doe not serve him at all For God requires good aimes as well as good actions and he abhorres that service though never so good if the aime of him that serves him be not good If a Wife should dresse her selfe in fine apparell to please an Adulterer this aime of hers makes her action most abominable Even so all those that serve God though never so exactly in outward shew if their aime be to please men or to get their own ends the Lord abhorres them and their services God abhorres an hypocrite more then a Sodomite and therefore Hell is provided on purpose for hypocrites 4. Ioshua chose to serve God zealously And this appeares because he chose to serve the living God he did not choose to serve Idols but to turne from dead Idols to serve the living God Now the living God expects not only living but lively service 1 Pet. 2. 5. A man may be a living man and yet not lively but God expects lively service and such as are active and lively in his service such as are fervent in spirit as serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. As if he should say You are not fit to serve the Lord unlesse you be fervent in spirit boiling hot in spirit as the word signifies 5. Ioshua chose to serve God Reverently and respectfully And this appeares because he calls himselfe a servant of God not a sonne not a friend Now you know it is a necessary ingredient in a servant to keep his distance and to carry himselfe respectfull of his Master to serve him with reverence and godly feare Heb. 12. 28. 6. Ioshua chose to serve God Chearfully and freely For this is another property of a good servant Psalm 100. 1. Serve the Lord with gladnesse Deut. 28. 47 48. We must make it our meate and drinke our Heaven upon Earth to serve God Seventhly To serve him diligently and laboriously This is another property of a good servant It is said of the 12. Tribes That they served God instantly day and night The word in the Greeke is They served God with an outstretched neck Eighthly To serve God Vniversally in all things At all times and in all places and with all our faculties First In all things though never so irrationall to flesh and blood though never so dangerous though never so costly Such a servant was David that fulfilled all the wills of God 2. As in all things so at all times In time of prosperity as well as adversitie and in time of adversitie as well as prosperity For the God whom we serve is the same in all times he alters not no more must his servants 3. In all places in private as well as publike For God is a Master that filles all places If thou canst find out a place where God doth not see thee there it shall be lawfull for thee to serve the Devill 4. With all the faculties of thy soule and body This note of universality though it be a plaine one yet is of marvellous consequence and it is both {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is the best divisive difference to divide a Sheepe from a Goate And constitutive to constitute a faithfull servant of God who is one that in all things at all times and in all places with all his faculties gives up himselfe to Gods service That can say as that Dutch Minister Baldazzar did to Oecolampadius Veniat verbum Domini submittemus ei sexcenta si nobis essent colla Let God speake and though we had six hundred necks yet we will make them all stoope to the obedience of him Ioshua chose to serve God Absolutely and Inconditionally For God is a Master that cannot erre in his commands and therefore he must be obeyed without examining of what he commands with blind obedience Sufficit pro universis rationibus Deus vult This is reason sufficient the unerring God will have it so This is the best sighted obedience Man may erre in his commands and therefore is to be served with limitations and examinations They doe
times to know what Israel ought to doe It is wisedome to observe times so as to know our duty But it is damnable wickednesse to serve the times and not the Lord to ring changes as the times change 3. To reprove such that choose to serve themselves and not the Lord That set up themselves as God and doe whatsoever is good in their own eyes and make their wills their Scripture This is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This is selfe worship and selfe Idolatry which is the greatest Idolatry of all It is the greatest curse under Heaven for God to give a man over to himselfe to live as he list Psalm 81. 11 12. Rom. 1. 26. I have read of one given over to the Devill for his good but never of any given over to himselfe but for his damnation And therefore Austin prayeth Lord deliver me from my selfe Let it be our prayer Lord give me not over to my selfe Fourthly I am to reprove such that choose to serve sinne and not the Lord It is one thing to be a sinner another thing to be a servant of sinne A servant of sinne is one that gives himselfe over to the service of sinne that is bound apprentise to sinne Observe the difference betweene Paul and Ahab Paul was sold under sinne but it was against his will But Ahab sold himselfe willingly to worke wickednesse Many such Ahabs that serve sinne as the Centurion servants served him If sinne bid goe they goe Such a slave was Herod to his Herodias Felix to his Drusilla Such servants are swearers and drunkards that are at the service of their Oathes and Cups There are many men that are slaves to the Mammon of iniquity That doe not only possesse money but are possessed of money that are had of money that with Iudas will sell Jesus Christ himselfe for 30. peeces of silver There are many that are slaves to their preferments that say with Agrippina concerning Nero Peream ego modo ille imperet That sell their part in Heaven to get a little honour here upon earth And to speake my mind plainely there are two sinnes which are as two mighty Loadstones to draw hundreds from the Parliaments side Covetousnesse and Ambition Could the Parliament feed these sinnes as well as they are fed at Oxford our miserable distractions would quickly be at an end What made Baalam goe to Balak At first he said If Balak would give me his house full of gold and silver I cannot goe beyond the word of the Lord but yet afterwards being mad after the wages of iniquity he went and did much hurt to Gods people but it was to his own ruine at last and this will be the end of all those that are the servants of sinne The Apostle speakes excellently For when ye were servants of sinne ye were free from righteousnesse What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death In which words the Apostle teacheth us that the service of sinne is both shamefull and damnable First it is shamefull For to serve sinne is to serve the Devill Ioh. 8. 44. Oh that the world would beleeve this that when they serve pride and covetousnesse and ambition c. they serve the Devill And therefore Cyprian brings in the Devill upbraiding Christ Ostende mihi tot servos qui tibi c. Shew me if thou canst so many servants that have served them so diligently and so willingly as I can shew that have served me If the Devill should appeare in humane shape you would think it horrible Idolatry to adore him and yet when you obey sinne you doe this and worser then this for sinne is worser then the Devill The Devill is Gods creature but sinne hath nothing of God in it Sinne is the Devils excrement as Barnard saith And it must needs be a loathsome service to be servant to so vile a thing Secondly It is a cursed and damnable service for the wages of sinne is death How comes it then to passe that sinne hath so many servants Because sinne deales with sinners as the Philistims did with Sampson First it puts out our eyes that we should not see the vilenesse and cursednesse of sinne and then it puts us in the mill to grind as sinnes slave And therefore Christ sent Paul to the Gentiles to open their eyes c. Acts 26. 18. This was his first worke The Lord open our eyes to see the shamefulnesse and damnablenesse of sinnes service 2. To reproove those that make Ioshuas choise but not with Ioshuas ingredients That choose to serve God but doe not serve him undividedly everlastingly sincerely zealously reverently c. We live in an age wherin God had never more servants and yet never lesse service as one saith There are many Divines but few that live like Divines So God hath many servants but few that doe him service There are some that divide betweene the service of God and the service of sinne like the false Mother that would have the child divided As Cambden reports of Redwald King of the East-saxons the first Prince of this Nation that was baptized yet in the same Church he had one Altar for Christian Religion another Altar for Heathenish religion So there are many such false-worshippers of God that divide the rooms of their soules betweene God and the Devill that sweare by God and by Malcham Zeph. 1. 5. that sometimes pray and sometimes curse that sometimes goe to Gods house sometimes to a Play-house that are of a Mungrill-religion halting betweene God and Baal Heteroclites in Religion but God cannot endure this division This is to set thy threshold by Gods threshold Ezek. 43. 8. This is to set the Arke and Dagon together which God will never endure God cares not for one halfe of thy heart if sinne and the Devill hath the other halfe There are others that serve God but their service is but as a morning cloud and as an early dew it quickly vanisheth of whom I may say justly that which Nabal did unjustly of David There are many servants now a dayes that breake away every man from his Master Many now a dayes and more in our dayes then in former dayes We live in an Apostatizing age wherein there are many falling Starres but few fixed Starres Many that were once whiter then milke as Rubies and polished Saphires in regard of their glorious profession but now they are blacker then acoale they are withered and become like a stick That were yesterday Gods people but to day are turned enemies To these I say as S. Peter doth Better they had never known the way of righteousnesse c. 2 Pet. 2. 20. This relapse makes thy condition the worse as relapses in all kinds are most dangerous And it is also a signe thou esteemest the service of sinne
THE NOBLE-MANS PATTERNE Of true and reall Thankfulnesse PRESENTED In a SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable House of LORDS At their late solemne day of thanksgiving Iune 15. 1643. For the discovery of a dangerous desperate and bloody designe tending to the utter subversion of the PARLIAMENT and of the famous City of LONDON By EDMUND CALAMY B.D. Pastor of Aldermanbury in LONDON Published by Order of that House LUK. 1. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life LONDON Printed by G. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.XLIII TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of LORDS Assembled in PARLIAMENT IF all Noble-men were as good and religious as they are presented to the World in the Epistles prefixed to the Books that are dedicated to them we should not have so much cause to complaine of great mens Iniquities or of poore mens flatteries S. Augustine in his Booke of Retractations Retracts it as a great fault that when he dedicated a Booke to Mallius Theodorus he praised him more then he deserved though he confesseth that he was doctus vir Christianus a Learned and Christian man It is none of the least miseries of great men that they want faithfull friends to tell them their vices as well as their vertues King Ahab had 400. flattering Prophets who were the cause of his ruine Hence is that old Proverbe that there are onely two things that never flatter great men Death and Horses For Death seizeth upon great as well as small And a Horse will cast downe a great man as well as any other if he rides not well This Sermon speakes plaine language and this is the only Reason for ought I know that it received such kind acceptance for otherwise it wants that neatnesse of phrase and eloquence of speech which such Noble Auditors are accustomed unto I have often heard of Great men that complained upon their Death beds that none would tell them of their faults but never of any that complained hee was told too much Theodosius the great Emperour confesseth of S. Ambrose notwithstanding his severe carriage towards him Solum novi Ambrosium dignum Episcopi nomine That he knew none worthy of a Bishoprick but Ambrose It is a custome to send Sermons out unto publike view under the Patronage of some Noble-man or other This Sermon hath this preheminence That it comes forth under the Patronage and by the commands not only of one Lord but of a House of Lords The Lord make it to obtaine that end for which it was preached That you my Lords may make Joshua's choise your choise The subject matter of the Sermon is very common and ordinary But herein I follow the example of Chrysostome who when he was made Patriarch of Constantinople the first Sermon that he preached before the Emperour Arcadius and the great Courtiers was a Sermon of Repentance This is the message that I have received saith Chrysostome from my Master Christ to deliver unto you Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand Haec autem non dubitabo vobis assiduè revocare in memoriam Haec neminem reverentes neque potentes aut divites timentes ad vos loquemur The Lord bestow this great grace of Repentance upon you and inable you to serve God with all the ingredients mentioned in the following Sermon Two things I would desire your Lordships alwayes to remember 1. That the best way of thankfulnesse for mercies received is to serve the God of those mercies and to serve him with the mercies we receive from him 2. That the best way for the House of Lords to prosper is to indeavour earnestly and faithfully to reforme the Lords House your own houses and first your selves Some things I have added which were not preached which relate to all men in generall as well as great men which I then omitted for brevity sake but have here interserted I hope without offence that so this Sermon which is printed for a generall good might have somethings in it tending to the good of all men as well as great men The Great God make the House of Lords as the House of the Lord wherein service may be done to God and for Gods cause So prayeth Your Honours much obliged Spirituall servant Edmund Calamy A THANKS-GIVING SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the House of Lords Iosh. 24. 15. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord WE are here met this day to keepe a day of Thanks-giving to keepe a Heaven upon Earth to doe that for a day which is the worke of Angels and arch-Angels to all eternity We have had many dayes of Hosannah's and now we are to keepe one day of Hallelujah's It hath pleased God of his great goodnesse to discover a dangerous and desperate Plot tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament of the famous City of London of the Army of the whole Kingdome and which is above all to the utter ruine of the true reformed Protestant Religion We are here assembled to give God the praise of this Deliverance Now that this duty may be performed after a pious and Christian manner to the praise of that God whom we come to praise I have chosen this Text For I am clearely of this opinion that as there is no duty more excellent then this of Thanks-giving For it is the duty of Heaven and not only so but the preferment of Heaven It is a duty that honoureth God and it is the highest honour that God can put upon us to give us leave to performe this duty It is a duty that Adam should have performed though he had never fallen It is a duty that shall last for ever and ever It is a comely duty It is a pleasant duty It is the highest expression of our love to God It is the surest evidence of our election For that man that loves the worke of Heaven upon earth shall certainely goe to Heaven when he leaves the earth Now the worke of Heaven is to praise God It is the only rent penny which God requires for all the blessings hee bestowes upon us And yet notwithstanding all this I conceive there is no one duty wherein God is more dishonoured or his name more prophaned then in this duty The world is full of Thanking of God blessed be God praised be God But I beseech yetell me Are we not formall in this duty Doe we not content our selves with the bare Carkasse and outside of praises Doe we not take Gods name in vaine while we are blessing his name Doe we not content our selves with a drop of praises for a sea of mercies Do we not praise him with our lips while we dispraise him with our lives Are we not like unto Actors upon a stage that now play one part and by and
befoole themselves saith Lactantius that follow the judgement of their leaders without judgement which is the propertie of Sheepe rather then of reasonable men It is a good saying of Sir THOMAS MORE I will not pin my salvation upon any mans sleeve because I know not whither he will carry it But God must be obeyed without an If with absolute in conditionall unexamined subjection this is to serve God as God 10. Ioshua chose to serve God transcendently and Angelically To doe his will on earth as it is done in Heaven For he is Iehovah that gives being to all the great God of the whol earth and therefore is to be served with super superlative super transcendent service {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} These are the 10. Ingredients of Ioshuas choice these are as a ten stringed Instrument to make our services melodious harmony in Gods eares Let us strive to remember them because they are the foundation to the building that followes We live in an age wherein every man will professe that he serves God But I beseech you remember that unlesse you adde these 10. Ingredients ye doe not serve him but grieve him Ye dee not serve him but doe him disservice unlesse ye serve him undividedly everlastingly sincerely zealously c. Before I leave this point I must adde one thing That there are 2. properties of a servant that must not be in Gods servant First a servant serves his Master with a slavish feare but we must serve God with a godly feare Heb. 12. 28. Secondly a servant loves his Master with a mercenary love he serves his Master as a hireling for his wages But Gods servant must serve God with a filiall love He that serves God only for Heaven fells his service to God as Parisiensis saith Et est inter illum Deum negotiatio quaedam Not but that a true servant of God may have an eye to the recompence of reward as Moses had but he must have but one eye upon the reward not both and the left eye too For our chiefe and last aime must be at Gods glory And the reason is because Gods servants are also his sonnes and heires and therefore as we must serve him with the subjection of servants so we must serve him with the affection of sonnes Let us remember that we are his servants that we may serve him with reverence diligence and exact subjection but remember also that we are his sonnes to serve him with filial feare love hope and faith And this is the right serving of God to serve him with a servant-like subjection and with a sonne-like affection The second thing propounded in the Explication is to shew the necessity that lies upon all men as well as great men to serve God and to serve him with all these Ingredients For though Ioshua did freely choose to serve the Lord yet it was not free for Ioshua to choose whether he would serve God or no For we are all bound to doe God homage and service This is primum and totum officium hominis This is the chiefe and the whole of man Eccles. 12. last We are all bound to this service by a 6. fold bond First by the bond of Creation It is a fundamentall errour to think that we are borne chiefely and ultimately to seeke our own happinesse God made man to serve him and to seeke his owne happinesse in Gods happinesse and his owne glory in Gods glory It is God that hath made us and not we our selves we are his workemanship and therefore it is our duty to improve all our parts and gifts to the service of that God from whom we have received all As all Rivers returne to the Ocean from which they first came And as Aulius Fulvius said to his sonne when he found him in the conspiracie of Catiline Now ego te Catilinae genui sed patria So doth God say to every man I did not give thee a soule and body to serve sinne withall but to serve me withall Quot membra tot ora so many members of our bodies so many faculties of our soules so many mouthes to call upon us to serve God withall Secondly It is our duty to serve God not only for our own creation but for the creation of the whole world For God made all the world to serve man and man to serve him with all the world and for all the world He made the Sunne the Moone the Fire and the Water c. to be serviceable to man and therefore man must serve God because he hath given all these to his use and he must serve God with all these improving them all to his service Quot creaturae tot ora so many creatures as there are in the world so many mouthes to call upon us to serve God and to serve him with all the Ingredients before named Thirdly We are bound by the bond of Redemption For we are therefore delivered out of the hands of our enemies by Iesus Christ that we should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Quot inimici tot ora So many enemies as we are freed from by the death of Christ so many mouthes to call upon us to serve Jesus Christ And in this sence the very Devill himselfe and Hell it selfe as we are redeemed from them doe call upon us to serve God and to serve him faithfully c. Fourthly We are bound by the bond of Sanctification For this is the end of our sanctification That we might have grace to serve him so as to please him Heb. 12. 28. Quot gratiae tot ora so many graces as God hath planted in thee so many mouthes to call upon thee to serve God For who goes to warfare at his owne charge saith the Apostle Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock If God hath planted the graces of his Spirit in thy soule he lookes to reape the fruit of his own plantation and husbandry by thy holy serving of God Fifthly We are bound by the bond of Gratitude Quot beneficia tot ora so many mercies as we have received from God so many mouthes to call upon us to serve God For every mercy is as a needle saith S. Austin to sow God and Man together Man and God are seperated by disobedience but mercy is as a needle to sow God and Man together againe by obedience And therefore God makes the deliverance out of Egypt to be a forcible motive to the keeping of the ten Commandements I am the God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Therefore thou shalt have none other gods but me Therefore thou shalt keepe holy the Sabbath day c. So must the deliverance wee celebrate this day It must be as a golden Cord to tye us to serve God more devoutly more resolvedly then ever Every Deliverance binds
better then the service of God For he that first served sinne and then turned to the service of God and afterwards falls againe to the service of sinne proclaimes to all the world that he esteemes the service of sinne better then the service of God which is an affront to God of an high nature There are others serve God but it is all in hypocrâ—sie We live in a complement all age our mouthes are full of service It is an ordinary phrase Your humble servant My humble service and yet it may be we intend no service at all but hate them in our hearts Even so we deale with God Many like the Souldiers that bowed to Christ and mocked him That give their outsides to God and their insides to all uncleannesse That as Luther saith of Cain give opus personae Deo but not personam their cap and knee to God but themselves to sinne and iniquity And indeed this is the capitall and crying sinne of this age Religion is that which is pretended on all hands The defence of the Protestant Religion this newes we heare daily from Oxford And for this purpose there is an Army of Papists raised to defend the Protestant Religion And in this horrid Conspiracy for the discovery of which we are here met to blesse God there was a Declaration framed to assure the people that the chiefe cause of their insurrection was to maintaine the Protestant Religion Just as the Gun-pouder Traitors that would have blowne up the Parliament for the good of the Catholick Religion Tantum Religio poterat suadere malorum the Lord lay not this great sinne of hypocrisie to the charge of this Nation For my part I am confident that the Popish Army and the plundering Army will fight no otherwise for the Protestant Religion then a Theefe doth for a true mans Purse which is not to preserve it but to take it away There are a fourth sort that serve God but it is so coldly as if God were a dead Idoll Where shall we find a man fervent in spirit as serving the Lord Where is our ancient zeale Oh the cold Prayers frozen Sacraments c. It is possible to find a living Christian but where shall we find a Christian lively and active in Gods service Remember God will spue out of his mouth a lukewarme Laodicean which is a remarkeable place For that which we spue out we doe it with delight we choose some dirty corner to ease our stomacks in and we never reassume what we once spue out And all this to signifie That God will for ever cast off with delight and with shame and confusion a cold dead lukewarme Christian especially in these active times Others serve God but it is with such horrible irreverence and negligence such sleepinesse such lazinesse as that we would account it a great indignity to be so served by any of our own servants I read that Caesar spake to one that was afraid to give him too much respect Hic homo timet timere Caesarem This man is afraid to be afraid of Caesar So there are many that are afraid to be too reverent in Gods service And indeed a man may be too reverent with superstitious reverence which is irreverence in Gods esteeme But to be Reverend with Scripture Reverence both inward and outward this is so necessary as that God will not accept of our service without it Augustus spake to one that entertained him with homely entertainement Who made you and I so familiar We must so serve God as to remember our distance Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently There are others that serve God and enter into Covenant to serve him as you have lately done but it is with so many limitations qualifications reservations and distinctions that God connot but abhorre it Some will serve God with an If If they can keepe their promotions Some will serve God in some things and not in others such was Herod that did many things but still reserved his Herodias Such was Ananias and Saphira that kept back halfe Hundreds say with Naaman In this the Lord pardon me Some will serve God at some times and not at others in some places and not in others But the Lord abhominates all thy services if it be not universall in all things at all times in all places with all thy faculties Others serve God but it is according to their own fancies that are more zealous for one superstitious invention then for all Gods commandements You shall know such by this marke They that are so much for superstitious formes of godlinesse doe most hate those that have the true power of godlinesse The Pharisees were the deadliest enemies Christ had And the Iewes stirred up the devout women to persecute Paul Acts 13. 50. By all this that hath bin said you may perceive the reason 1. Why God hath so many servants and yet so few servants that he delights in because there are so few that serve him undividedly everlastingly inconditionally zealously Or 2. Why God abhorreth all our fastings and prayers and Sacraments or why God saith to our services as he did to the Iewes To what purpose is the multitude of your services I am weary of them c. Because we serve God with lip-service onely and knee service we serve him negligently and partially and coldly Or 3. Why so few goe to Heaven because so few make Ioshuas choice with Ioshuas Ingredients For unlesse we indeavour to serve him here with those fore-named Ingredients we shall never be saved hereafter But now I shall apply my selfe in particular to great men and yet not excluding others This Text reproves those that are advanced by God into great places of Honour and wealth and that thinke themselves priviledged by their greatnesse to be greater in iniquity then in greatnesse that make no other use of their greatnesse but to sinne without controule That are Great men and Great swearers Great adulterers Great Atheists Great scoffers and mockers at Godlinesse Let these men know if any such here That the great God is greater then the greatest Gods lawes are not like unto Cobwebs as it is said of mans Lawes to catch little flies and let the great flies escape but God will especially punish great men if they be great transgressours And therefore Elijah tells Ahab The dogs shall lick thy blood thine even thine And Obed tells the Princes of Iudah Are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God God made great Nebuchadnezzar to graze like an Oxe Great Agag was hewed in peeces God hath his hand-writing upon the wall to make the great Belshazzars of the earth to tremble whilest they are carousing in their sacrilegious cupps Great Herod to whom the people cryed It is the voice of God not of man was eaten up of wormes repeating these words in the midst of his torments as Iosephus reports Behold ye me