there needs no more to be said herein Amongst Christians most acknowledge a purging rather then abolishing by taking off the corrupt qualities onely not the substance Divers of the Fathers were of this minde and most of the Schoolemen whom most new writers of all sides follow But against this refining of these visible celestiall bodies for the vtter abolishing of them there are 12 pressing Texts of scripture urged by Conradus Vorstius which are seconded by the consent of many Fathers and Iesuites In locum who herein make bold to vary from their owne consorts The time will not giue me leaue Serrarius A Lapide to examine all differences I shall goe no further therefore then our Apostles owne arguments that are premisses to my Text. For is it not punctuall in the 7. verse that the heavens and the earth which are now are reserued vnto fire against the day of iudgement Doth hee not descend to particulars in the 10. and 12. verses that the Heavens which are now shall passe away with a great noyse that the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth and workes thereof shall be burnt vp Doth he not infer therevpon in the 11. that all these things shall bee dissolved And in the words of my Text that wee are to looke for New Heauens and a New Earth Dissolution mends not a fabrique as Serrarius well vrgeth against Suarez Henriquez and Pineda his fellow Iesuits but destroyes it rather And how may that which passeth away be said to be reserued and let stand The same passing away is prophecied of the Heavens as of the Elements why should these therefore be annihilated and the others bettered by the change Surely if S. Peter had thought of this refining only some words of his would haue intimated so much Now I had rather beleeue one Peter affirming this totall Abolishing In Math. 24. as Maldonate saies in this very case then many disagreeing juniors denying it especially where other places of scripture concurre for this Exposition The Sea shall be no more Time shall be no more The New Hierusalem shall haue no need of Sunne or Moone as the scripture instructs vs. The end that they were created for was for mans vse and man vsing them no more to what end should they bee reserved To say for a Monument what hath beene or an Out-let for the Saints descending sometime froÌ„ Heauen for their recreation to solace themselues or to be an Habitacle for the beasts restored or a receptacle for Infants or other honest Heathens as Socrates Plato and Aristotle that had not deserued hell nor Heauen as Catharinus and Salmeron the Iesuite Sixtus senensis l. 6. annot 340. with some other pittifull Divines amongst vs would haue vs beleeue are but groundlesse surmises These Heavens and Earth then which we see being vtterly taken away as a stage removed when the Pageant is finished the new Heavens and new Earth we are to expect can be no other but that Heaven of Heavens and place of fulnesse of ioy wherein once being setled we shall never be remoued Now these Heavens are here termed New not in regard of their New making but of our New taking possesioÌ„ of them by a most happy change for our new habitation and heavens they are said to be in the plurall and earth in the singular number because they come in stead of that covering and that earthly habitation which we now inioy but there vpon our finall remouall shall be vtterly abolished So that the Text then may well beare this paraphrase We looke for New Heavens that is the supreme Court of Gods presence And a New Earth that is a New habitation for vs which shall infinitly exceed the commodities and happinesse of these Heavens and Earth which wee now enioy but then with our Translation shall be dissolved And this is that which our Apostle maintaines if the Recognitions of Clement bee true against Simon Magus whom Hyppolytus Irenaeus Hilary and divers others follow Nay Aquila and Symmachus make the Text to speake for it according to S. Hierom's Testimony the heaven and earth comminuentur in Nihilum shall be battered into nothing Isay 51.6 11. This takes off then that ancient errour of the Chiliasts or Millenaries which many of our moderne writers are so diligent to set on foot in these our dayes againe Of which some talke of a first Resurrection of the Martyres who shall bodily rise and raigne with our Saviour in heauen a thousand yearâ—s before the generall Resurrection of others Others say this raigne shall bee with our Saviour here vpon Earth and set downe the beginning of it to bee about some 60 yeares hence All these men agree that these 1000 yeares are yet to come wherein three things must concurre The binding of Satan The nationall calling of the Iewes and this millenary raigne vpon earth And all before the last day of iudgement But now if these new heavens and new earth which we are to looke for be only the place of the blessed in heauen If these are onely now to be looked for but possessed hereafter not by the bodily prepossession of some a 1000 yeares before the rest of their fellow members but by all together after the last sentencing of the sheepe and the goates It will bee most requisite for vs to provide our selues and take comfort in a constant expectation of that which vndoubtedly shall come to passe and not humour our security with such groundlesse fancies wherein the further wee wade our satisfaction will proue the more intricate Two difficult places as I conceaue they especially stand vpon The first Romans 8. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an earnest expectation is attributed to all other creatures besides man at length to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God The second is Revelat. the 20. where after the ouerthrow of the Beast false Prophet with their followers and the casting of them into the lake burning with Brimstone that is as most interpret the finall destruction of Antichrist in the 19. Chapter the binding of Satan first Resurrection and raigne of a thousand yeares as things succeeding are described in the 20. Chapter But in the first place no immortall being of the bruit creatures is promised for that were to make them equall with their Masters and happier then most of their fellows that had done as much service before them but a simple deliuerance and dismission from the servitude they were in to vngratefull men So Birds Beasts and Fish must suffer for our diet Horses other beasts of like nature groane vnder burdens for our necessities and pleasures They were created of God for that purpose and to no further degree of happinesse Their Annihilation therefore to them must needs be a kinde of deliuerance And therefore when it is promised they shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God the Text will well
Davids practice Ieremies Lamentations and our Saviours weeping for Lazarus and over Ierusalem are warranted to be Heroicall We haue more sinnes Beloued to bewaile but fewer teares to shead greater occasion to hide our faces but lesse contrition to doe it many Physitians shall bee first fee'd before this remedy bee thought vpon that Hezekiah prayed vnto the Lord. 6. Hee prayed Simon Magus had not the grace to pray himselfe but the face to intreat others I make no doubt but here the Prophet Isaiah prayed the Priests prayed the Courtiers and people prayed all were good helpes and it was their dutie yet this sufficeth not Hezekiah except hee pray himselfe hee could best plead his owne cause and commence his owne suit and haue the better audience But to whom doth hee pray Popery was not then on foot to pray to Saints departed before their images or buying Masses or applying reliques Isaiah had instructed them better that Abraham was ignorant of them and the Brazen Serpent was broken downe by the Kings command and called Nehushtan that no such praying should be vsed vnto it Hee prayed therefore as the text hath it vnto the Lord and none other him hee had onely offended his mercy hee had ever found ready his power hee was assured of he alone throughly knewe his wofull case and therefore not as much as dreamed of the mediation of any other The forme of his prayer is set downe in the twentieth of the 26. of Kings and Esay the 38. in the same wordes to teach vs to regard that the more which the Holy Ghost vouchsafeth so precisely to repeat From whence if our Puritans hope to drawe any instance for their extemporary brabbling and brawling against our set formes of prayer the text will shew them as repugnant to Hezekiah herein as commonly they are otherwise to all their lawfull Superiours For his prayer here was on his bed vpon his particular and extraordinary necessity they must vent theirs in the Church where no such occasion is offered to the excluding of better formes then their best premeditation can affoord vs. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall that this particular request of his might not bee heard or disturbed The gift of these men is vnder-valued if their proselytes be not about them to applaud and admire it More tolerable therefore it were that they troubled not the Church more by their prating then they helpe it by such praying In this case if their conceits were not too fleeting they might consider that prayer is of two sorts Publique or private Publique may be either solemne in the Church or more retired in a familie or some other occasioned assembly Now to thrust in here with sudden and vnconcocted flashes were not only to crosse Scripture Fathers and the continuall practice of all Christian Assemblies that euer deserved the name of Churches but also to abuse such Holy meetings by hindring the concurrence of devotions in knowne petitions wherein they ought to joyne and the saying Amen to that they must be sure is warrantable Private prayers I confesse are of another nature wherein divers notwithstanding may bee holpe what to say and directed what to aske by publike formes though such particulars may often fall out in regard of personall grievances sinnes or benefits that may dictate as it were an ejaculatory prayer as the occasion shall bee offered Such was Hezekiah's here and such were to be wished more rife among all sorts of people Notable examples herein wee haue of Iacob O Lord God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaack Gen. 32.9 The Lord which saidst vnto me Returne into thy Countrey and to thy kinred and I will deale well with thee I am not worthy of the lest of all thy mercies all the truth which thou hast shewed vnto thy servant For with my staffe I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands Deliuer me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I feare him So Sampson vpon his resolution to dye O Lord God saith he remember me Iud. 16 28. I pray thee and strengthen me onely this once O God that I may bee at once avenged of the Philistims for my two eyes And what are the most part of Davids Psalmes but a contexture of such heavenly wishes aptly composed for his owne vse and the direction of others that expect the same protection O how would it become the conversation of Christians in stead of corrupt communication and blasphemous oathes and cursings to haue their mouthes filled with such Prayses and Prayers How well doe such speeches sound from the mouthes of good subiects God saue the King or Giue the King thy Iudgements O Lord and thy righteousnes vnto the Kings Sonne In the warlike raigne of David wee haue a large description in Scripture of Captaines and Worthies but in Solomons succeeding Peaceable government of stately buildings notable examples of Iustice flourishing of the Arts trafficking with forraine Nations and the like All which are the extraordinary blessings of God and by his disposall haue their turnes and periods which most commonly are found in the body as the head is affected Where a King therefore makes the Lords Prayer the best Prayer the subject of his meditations with what face may subiects be backward in following such directions Hezekiah as wee all know wanted not titles nor treasure nor friends nor any other good parts that might grace a man and yet heere wee see in the vpshot of extremity his onely refuge is Prayer And this brings him to the speech of the Physitian which recouered him For when he had prayed vnto the Lord the Lord spake vnto him and hee gaue him a signe Where we haue the last words of my Text and third member of my division pointing at the Physitian and the course he tooke 7. And he spake vnto him and hee gaue him a signe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners hath it pleased the Lord of heaven to speake to men here vpon earth by his Sonne by his servants by Angels by men internally externally in dreames by open visions as Suarez vpon Aquinas's third part quest 30. Peucer in his commentary of the divers kinds of divination Mencelius in a peculiar tract of the knowledge of God doe at large declare This speaking here to Hezekiah was by Isaiah the Prophet as the text 2. Kings 20. clearely sheweth And as the extremity was great and vrgent so this speaking was quicke and comfortable in these most gracious tearmes Turne againe and tell Hezekiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captaine of my people Thus saith the Lord the God of Dauid thy Father I haue heard thy prayer I haue seene thy teares Behold I will heale thee on the 3d day thou shalt goe vp vnto the house of the Lord. Could there be better newes to a dying man Yet this is not all I will adde saith he vnto thy
thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption As our Saviours soule triumphed ouer the powers of darknesse so his flesh was to be free among the dead from the least taynt of corruption B. Bilson For his body and soule saith a Reverend writer were appointed to be superiour to al contrary powers that is the soule to hell the flesh to the graue and from both was Christ to rise as subduer of both That he might sit in his heauenly Throne as Lord over all not by promise onely as before but by proofe also as appeareth in his Resurrection Some would haue this to be only a repetition or reason of that which went before David was to be freed from the graue because Christ saw no corruption which sense howsoeuer it bee true in it this Text will not beare as proper Wee must repaire therefore to S. Peter in the second of the Acts and to S. Paul in the 13. and thence learne the right meaning Who both disproue the common errour which vnderstood it onely of David by this one sensible demonstration All the world might see by looking into Davids sepulcher that his body was turned to dust through corruption it could not therefore be said that hee was that holy one who was to see no corruption It must needs therefore be some other This could bee no other then the Messias whose Resurrection the third day before his body could be corrupted they had reason to bleeue seeing David had so distinctly foretold it Whence wee may plainely gather that all the Immunities that David here standeth vpon as his free-hold came to him but at the second hand This holy one then was Christ this priviledge not to see corruption was peculiar only to his sacred body All the faith full hold it of him in Capite when it is attributed to David it is no way to bee vnderstood or his person but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fruit of his loynes as S. Peter speaketh Take therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all our Translatours following Peter and the 72. render Holy one either for corpus sanctificatum as the Interlineary Glosse or for a Favorite whom it pleaseth God especially to grace as Beza or for one that being al-sufficiet in himself most bountifully dispenseth his fauours as Piscator It will come all to one that his body in the graue saw not that is felt not tried not endured not any corruption Corruption I meane of putrifaction or turning into dust not dissolution of soule and body as Athanasius well distinguished For where the Soule triumphed ouer powers of darknesse the body slept in the graue in expectation of its speedy returne which accomplished the third day there ensued vpon it immediatly this victorious Resurrection which our Prophet so much reioyceth here to fore-see we on this day doe thankfully celebrate 13. And now what belongeth to us Beloued but to let passe all vnnecessary trifles as what became of the bloud that was spilt on the ground at our Sauiours circumcision and the opening of his side at the crosse and seriously to fasten vpon that comfort which here is proposed vnto vs. O Lord saith S. Bernard I haue but two mytes my soule and my body with these I dare not trust my selfe and therefore I cast them into thy treasurie as knowing then they shall be in safe custody That which was proposed in a vision concerning IESVS the sonne of Iosedeck who by interpretation is the Iust one of the Lord in the 3d of Zachary is here fully accomplished according to S. Hieromes application on that place The filthy garments wherewith he was clothed for our sakes are taken from our Saviour And now he sheweth himselfe a King hath put on glorious apparell 2. Sam. 23. Among the Worthies of David we read of one Benaiah that went downe slew a Lion in a pit in the time of snow But this is but a cold Modell of that victory of the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah ouer that roaring and devouring Lion in the pit of Hell and the Graue There are none I suppose that heare me this day but are or after may be vexed with discontentments and feele a necessary decay of this earthly Tabernacle But alas beloued what remedy may serue vs in this world Looke further therefore with our Prophet whosoever thou art that expectest true comfort and take these grounds with thee which shall never fayle thee Christs soule hath conquered and triumphed ouer the sorrowes of Hell that thou shouldest neuer be enthralled to them and his body hath shaken off the shackles of the graue that thine in its due time might enioy the same freedom Beloued we were al in worse case in regard of eternall death then Peter was in the 12. of the Acts bound with two chaines and lying betweene two souldiers with a guard before the prison dore surely to be executed the next day after But our Saviour comes in stead of the Angell and rayseth vs vp the chaines fall off the Iron gate which was held impregnable opened of its owne accord and the way of life which leadeth vnto the fulnesse of ioy is chalked out vnto vs. And are not our lots now falne vnto vs in a good ground and is not this a goodly heritage Let vs thanke the Lord therefore for giuing vs so often this effectuall warning and set him at our right hand and then we shall never be moued So leaning with good old Iacob vpon the top of our staues and giuing vp the last gaspe wee may confidently conclude with our Prophet in the end of Psal 4. I will lay me downe in peace take my rest for it is thou Lord only that through the victory of thy son over hel the graue makest me dwel safely Which God grant of his mercy we may constantly doe for his sonne Christ Iesus sake to whom with the Father the blessed spirit be all Honour and Glory now and evermore AMEN THE CHRISTIANS EXPECTATION A SERMON PREACHED AT THE COVRT BY IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exceter Colledge His MAIESTIE'S Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of OXFORD OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. 2. PET. 3.13 Neverthelesse we according to his promise looke for new Heauens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 1 THe first word of my text Neverthelesse sends vs backe for the fuller meaning to some what that went before That was a serious caveat of our Apostle to beware of fiue sorts of people who would turne vs out of the good way the preaching of the Gospell had prescribed Those Cap. 2. Y. 1.2.3 in the beginning of the former chapter ye shall finde to be First false Prophets or teachers who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them And many shall follow their pernitious waies by reason of whom the way of truth shall be ill spoken of and through covetousnesse shall they with fained words make
Merchandise of you Secondly Presumptuous and selfe-willed detractours that despise government Ib. 10.12 are not afraid to speake ill of Dignities and as naturall brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speake evill of the things they vnderstand not Thirdly sensuall Epicures that count it pleasure to riot Ib 13.14 hauing eyes full of Adultery that cannot cease from sinne Fourthly false-hearted vndertakers like Balaam the sonne of Bosor who loued the wages of vnrighteousnesse tampering much Ib. 15. and performing nothing not so wise as the Asse he rode vpon and this whole messe we haue in the former chapter But the fift sort followes in this more desperate then any of the former for these are Scoffers and Atheists 3.3 that mocke at Religion and bend all their learning and wit to dispute against it Tell them of the end of the world the resurrection of the dead or the comming of Christ to Iudgement these will reply for ought they can perceiue V. 6. things stand as they did at the beginning and so are like ever to continue For since the Fathers fell asleepe the sonnes haue followed in the same trace and in the revolution of so many thousand yeares there hath appeared in that behalfe no great shew of change Now against such miscreants our Apostle binds his maine forces and stirreth vp his dispersed countrymen to sticke close to the holy Prophets and Apostles For assure your selues saith hee that as the world had a beginning and once perished by water so hereafter it shall haue an end V. 6. and whatsoever these mockers prate be consumed with fire Neither thinke you this time long a comming V. 7. for though it seeme so to vs it is otherwise with God to whom one day is as a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares V. 8. are as one day It is his long suffering as it were that puts backe the clocke that we might take the opportunity to repent and be the better provided But come it shall and that suddenly as a thiefe in the night V. 9. Appeare it shall and that most terrible V. 10. when the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise the elements melt with fervent heat this earth and all the stately buildings and workes therein shall be vtterly burnt But howsoever this vniversall combustion shall ruine the fabricke of this world and involue those desperate wretches in it that set their hearts vpon it yet you it shall not touch at all to procure you the least trouble Let the foundations of the earth sinke away vnder our feete our habitations totter about our eares the aire faile our nostrills the Heavens aboue to cover vs or to giue vs light Neverthelesse we shall not be vnprovided of a better habitation For wee according to his promise looke for a new Heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 2 My Text therefore sets forth the helpes and hopes that every good Christian may depend vpon when all this world failes him In which may it please you to obserue 1. His Exemption in these words Neverthelesse we 2. His Evidence he hath to shew for this Exemption Gods promise According to his promise 3. The Tenure or Manner of holding this his evidence it is not in possession but expectation Wee looke for 4 The contents of this Tenure New Heavens a New earth 5. The excellency of those Contents wherein dwelleth Righteousnesse What can the heart of every true Beleeuer more desire then here is put home vnto it What can be more firme assurance then here is laid before vs The Horrors of the last Assises be they never so terrible thy vnquestionable Evidences shall quit thee Let this worlds vncertainties be never so dangerous thou canst not be put by thy Expectation for future possession This Possession is no lesse then the perpetuall inheritance of New Heauens and a New Earth not liable to quarrelling or Law suites which this world is full of because in that dwells righteousnesse without shadow of change or interruption Of these Particulars as they lye as God shall assist me and your Christian patience with the time giue scope And first of the first which is the true Christians Exemption included in these words Neverthelesse we 3 The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Originall for which we haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Syriacke is not here so much continuatiue as adversatiue opposed to the dangers before mentioned Notwithstanding though all the world be in Combustion and the wicked in the vtmost despaire cry to the mountaines to fall vpon them and the Hills to cover them yet with the followers of the Lambe it shall goe well they shall then be exempted both from troubles and terrours which sheweth the vnspeakable priviledge of Gods servants aboue all the world besides Iust as in the hideous storme of fire and Brimstone vpon Sodome and the cities of the Plaine God remembred Abraham saith the text and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow So in this vniversall and finall destruction the children of God shall be remembred As Daniel in the Lions denne they shall be rescued not a haire of their heads shall bee sindged nor smell of fire passe vpon them as happened to the children in the Babylonish fornace David in the 91. Psalme triumphantly sings out this Priviledge Who so dwells vnder the defence of the most highest shall abide vnder the shadow of the Almighty His wings shall protect him his feathers shall cover him his faithfulnesse and truth shall be his shield and Buckler The snare of the Hunter the noysome Pestilence the Noone Divell as both the 72. and the vulgar giue it or as the Chalday Paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemon Meridianus the whole company of Divels when thousands shall fall besides him and ten thousands at his right hand shall not come neare him Lions and Adders and Dragons shall be securely trampled vnder his feete For he shall giue his Angels charge over them to keepe them in all their waies And howsoever worldlings thinke and speake contemptuously of this sort of people yet the Apostle giues them their due that they are a chosen Generation a Royall Priest-hood a holy Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Pet. 2.9 a purchased company by no lesse then the dearest bloud of our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus If these mourne they shall be comforted when they weepe Math. 5. God will wipe off their teares Rev. 7. They startle not or shrinke at any evill tidings Though they walke in the valley and shadow of death Psal 112. Psal 23. there is a rod and a staffe that frees them from disasters when all worldly protection and supersedeas'es proue out of date Titles of all civill honour haue their period Lawes and statutes of men may no longer priviledge then this Exemptio clericorum will bee of perpetuall force and retaine his full power strength
and virtue Neverthelesse 4 Clemens Alexandrinus out of this doctrine dehorteth all from vnseemely carriage Orat. adhort ad Gentes as detracting much from such priviledged persons whom the Lord hath graced with these excellent immunities And how should earthly greatnesse exalt it selfe saith S. Hilary when this greater dignity is slighted In Psalm 18. wherein all Gods people are sharers Our kingdome is saith Saint Ambrose that Christ In locum with the father and the holy Ghost should reigne in vs. If we by this meanes are Kings why make wee our selues slaues to our inordinate desires If Priests where are the sacrifices of a troubled spirit of a broken and contrite heart of prayer and praise and thankesgiuing of almes deeds and other good works that we should offer continually vnto him that hath made vs so Servaunts freed through ingratitude say the Lawyers may be plucked backe to their former condition and priviledges we know abused may be soone forfeited O how stiffe and peremptory we stand for any temporall Immunity and how little notice is taken of this protection and exemption which in the last and terriblest Parliament will only passe for current Hee that is wise will ponder these things and thankfully frame in his heart these or the like pious meditations Lord what sawest thou in vs to preferre vs before so many others That when all the world shall be dissolved our estate shall be bettered How commeth it to passe that among so many nations wee should haue the light of the Gospell amongst vs as at this day so long so peaceably vnder so constant and gratious Defenders of the faith What virtue of ours hath effected this that of those which professe Christianity we should enioy it purged from Idolatry and superstition wherein so many of our neighbours ly so dangerously intangled You might make out the rest Beloued by descending to more particulars At hearing the same Sermon why is Lydia's heart opened when others remaine obdurate The Greeke Areopagite beleeues when the Roman Gallio cares for no such matter Certainely somewhat there will be found to come from a higher and more effectuall operation then is likely to rise from our naturall dispositions Last of all what comfort can be more cordiall or animating then this In the midst of extreamest dangers to know our case to be exempted with a Neverthelesse In the violence of the greatest storme to find our building founded on the rocke so that we may conclude with David Psalme 46. God is our hope and strength a very present hope in trouble therefore will we not feare though the earth bee moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountaine shake at the tempest of the same Neverthelesse Christs little flocke shall finde shelter his vineyard shall be guarded his chosen be provided for according to his promise Which brings in the Evidence for this Exemption in the second place to be opened According to his promise 5 Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Practise promises and prophecies like the foure rivers of paradise streame out of the fountaine of holy writ and compasse all that therein is contained Precepts are the Law-givers imperiall decrees which how they haue bin obserued by those to whō they belonged Practise sheweth in particular examples Promises set forth a patterne for the mending of that which in examples hath beene found amisse And Prophecies of future events forewarne both good and bad what they are to expect those Reward the other Punishment Thus we see in the old Testament the law of Moses is attended with the Historicall bookes of Iosua Iudges Kings Chronicles and the rest to represent vnto posterity how it hath bin observed or broken Exhortations and Promises in generall succeede in Iob David Solomon and the rest of the Hagiographi to sharpen the Churches industry for the stricter fulfilling of the law To which the predictions in the greater and lesser Prophets are laid to lead men to the Messias who should perfect that which was defectiue and bring in everlasting righteousnesse of faith spoken of by Daniel which wee now proclaime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 9.24 in the glad tidings of the Gospell So in the New Testament the Evangelists giue vs the precepts mixed with Practise The Acts Practise interlarded with precepts The Epistles Exhortations Precepts and Promises common to all The Apocalyps Prophecies in more particular events Precepts command Practise leades Promises assure and incourage Prophecies prepare before hand Nothing in Gods booke is omitted that may make the man of God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3.16 as Paul tells Timothy perfect throughly furnished vnto all good works without the supply vnwritten Traditions Our Apostle in this place tēders no worse Assurance then Gods promise But where this promise is registred particularly he mētioneth not Oecumenius with the Greeke fathers referres vs to the 14. of St Iohns Gospell verses 2. and 3. to that promise of our Saviour In my Fathers house are many mansions If it were not so I would haue told you I goe to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also This promise must needs be meant of our Saviours second comming and is somewhat to the matter in hand But whether this be that which our Apostle meant is more then can be iustified A Translation only there is assured but New Heavens and a New earth are no way mentioned The latter writers therefore send vs rather to Isaiah cap. 65. and the 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a New earth and the former shall not be remembred and the New heaven and the New earth which I make shall remaine Cap. 66.22 Here we haue the words but the sense according to most Interpreters reacheth no farther then the times of the Gospell in the new Testament wherein all things being made new a new creature a new lumpe a new man a new Covenant a new spirit a new heart a New and liuing way by a Metonymicall Emphasis import the qualification of those who shall attaine to this Newnesse but in such sort as though with the persons contained the things contayning were Innovated Now then what Isaiah prophesied of the first comming of Christ and Christ of the second S. Peter takes for one and so hath relation to both To the first as a type of the second which driue to the same Issue citing neither in particular vpon supposall that these evidences of so speciall importance were so well knowne to the faithfull that the mentioning only of them needed no farther direction where to find them 6 This might shame our Negligence in hearing Gods word and not obseruing or remembring it as we ought There is scarce any evidence that pertaines to our temporall estate wherein wee are not very conversant and punctuall If any promise vs ought we may get by we will bee
our vndertakings It will be taken better from the mouth of that King-preacher Solomon in whom all these met and yet all these together gaue never content I haue seene faith he all the workes that are done vnder the Sunne Cap. 1.14.15 and behold all is vanity and vexation of the spirit That which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred I returned and saw as it were by a second survey vnder the Sunne that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong Cap. 9.11 neither bread to the wise nor riches to men of vnderstanding nor favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all When King David 2. Sam. 18. invited old Barzillai the Gileadite that had done him good service at a pinch to follow him to the Court for a recompence how wisely doth the good old man excuse himselfe I am this day saith he fourescore yeeres old and can I discerne betweene good and evill Can thy servant tast what I eat or what I drinke can I heare any more the voice of singing men or singing women Let thy servant I pray thee turne backe againe that I may dye in mine owne citty and be buried in the graue of my Father and of my Mother My sonne Chimham perchance may be fitter for these courtly imployments other matters belong vnto me to looke after And least this Expectation should be turned off to old men only as though younger had no such thing to looke for The Apostles instancing in Moses may bee taken for a patterne Heb. 11. By faith Moses saith he when hes was come to yeares and throughly vnderstood himselfe refused to be called the sonne of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God then to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt And the maine reason is there added for he had respect vnto the recompence of the reward How then should the wise man vainely glory in his wisdome or the mighty in his strength or the rich in his wealth Ier. 9. or the advanced in his honour These are eminent blessings we must confesse if they come by good meanes and are managed accordingly But if any of these or all together could giue content it cannot much affect by reason of its shortnesse nor constantly in the times vncertainty nor fully in the midst of troubles nor sincerely amongst many supplanting emulations nor safely in regard of the after reckoning That which therefore must satisfy the vnderstanding fulfill the desire ioy the heart is not here to be had but hence to be looked for which are New Heavens and a New earth the fore-mentioned inheritance for the fourth place 9. New Heauens and a new Earth Heavens we haue herein the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and earth in the singular which casteth vs vpon the distinction of Heavens which is two fold according to the Mathematicians and according to Divines Of the Mathematicians some hold no difference of Orbes at all but these are of the newer stampe and are not yet so fully receaued as the others The other agree not vpon the number of Orbes For Aristotle puts but eight Ptolomie nine Purbachius with his followers tenne Maginus eleuen by reason of the distinct motions they haue obserued in the wandring and fixed starres Yet aboue all these they grant an Immoueable Heauen in which Aristotle saies there is neither place nor emptinesse nor time that makes it grow old but the Inhabitants thereof are inalterable impassible immortall hauing sufficient in all things in the height of happinesse De caelo l. 1. t. 100. And this Hee relates as the opinion of the Ancients before him But Philosophers and Mathematicians herein must not bee our guide Men may dispute vpon these things according to that of Ecclesiastes in the vulgar edition Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum cap. 3.11 And one may speake more probably then another But that which followes in the same Text may curb them No man may finde out the worke of God from the beginning to the end We are yet here learners in the lower forme and out of doubt shall knowe more hereafter when wee come to the higher Divines from Scripture acknowledge but 3 heauens The first in the space ascending frō whence we are as farre as the course of the Moone which they call the heauen aeriall The second which they name syderiall from thence to the vtmost convexity of the first moueable in which are al the revolutions of the Planets and fixed starres which we see and obserue here below The Third aboue all these is that which the Schoolemen call Coelum Empyraeum But in Scripture I finde it to haue nine other names 1. The third Heauen 2. The Heauen of heavens 3. Paradise 4. The house Habitation and Throne of God 5. The seat of blessed Angels and Saints 6. Abrahams bosome 7. The new Hierusalem 8. The heauenly Country 9. The Citty that hath foundations A reverend and learned Bishop of ours in his Survey of Christs sufferings Bilson Pag. 441. for that Christ is said to haue ascended aboue all heauens Ephes 4.10 But that may be vnderstood aboue all heauens seene So that this fourth heauen shall only make the eminent'st place in the third and so no difference will be from the Ancients Thus wee see some ground for the plurality of heauens mentioned in the Text where the earth is notwithstanding one admitting the water into it's concavities to make vp one entyre globe of which there is no controversie But what these New Heavens New Earth should be that here are promised and to bee looked for that will aske some further discouery 10 New as we know is opposite to old the old heavens that are now are mentioned before by our Apostle ver 5. New are here to be look'd for Two things then will come in question First what shall become of the Old secondly what these New heavens shall be and how supply their places For few I thinke will imagine Heb. 10. that both shall stand together but rather conclude as the Apostle doth in another case He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Now concerning the abolishing of these Heavens and Earth which are subject to our view there are two opinions some contend that they shall remaine Others that they shall be quite annihilated They shall remaine for euer say the Peripateticks as they never had a beginning But this tenent as it had birth among heathen Philosophers so it found among the same the Stoicks Epicureans Poets Sybils and all the Ancients as S. Hierom witnesseth to refute it In Isaiam 51 who generally held this world should perish at length by sire Nay the Turks in the Alcoran and Bannians of the Moguls country are of the same perswasion therefore
beare it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God that is when such a deliuerance comes of men these shall be freed from their seruitude by being not at all hauing done the businesse they were ordained for For the second place of the Apocalyps wherein the binding of Satan is related after the destruction of the Beast This concludes not that it must bee done afterward Which briefly may be thus made plaine In the 12. Chapter we haue the dragon pursuing the flying woman but in the 13. ver 2. This Dragon hauing done his worst to drowne her and foyled in his project he resignes his authority and power to his Vicar the Beast who vnder a pretext of Religion might doe more hurt then he could being loose by heathenish-persecution How this beast behaued himselfe in his Vicar-ship we haue from the 13. to the end of the 19. Chapter where his ruine is related Then the Apocalypt returnes to relate how Satan was bound in particular which hee had formerly mentioned onely in generall How I say bound how loosed and what he did after with Gog and Magog This the very ordering of the Text intimates For in the beginning of the 18 and 19. Chapters we haue this note of continuation with that which went before And after these things but in the 20 no such connexion appeareth the text only running And I saw an Angell As though he should haue said Thus much concerning the destruction of the Beast Now I returne to relate what shall become of the Dragon that resigned his authority to this Beast mentioned before in the 13. Chapter Out of which exposition that for ought I perceaue may passe with greater probability then any Chiliasticall will clearely follow that the 1000 yeares of Satans binding and raigne of the Saints which all grant to be the same time are not now to be looked for in New Heavens and a new Earth or a Heaven vpon Earth as some haue fancied but are expired and past already which may be further thus briefly evidenced 12 For we may conceit of a foure-fold binding of Satan intimated by our fourefold deliuerance from his fourefold Tyranny The first from terrifying vs by his right and might over vs which hee had gotten when by the Apostasy of our first parents in whose loynes wee all were all became his vassals The deliuerance from this was by our Saviours Incarnation who in the nature of man bound the strong man that we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serue him without feare The second was from vrging the hand writing that was against vs whereby hee claimed vs as it were his villaines or apprentises The deliverance from this was by our Saviours passion whereby this hand writing that was against vs was blotted out and nailed to the crosse and so taken vtterly out of the way The third was from burdening vs with the killing letter and Ceremonies of the Law A yoake that neither wee nor our fathers were ever able to beare This some convèrted Iews euer presse to haue oblieged in equall commission with Christianity But from this wee were fully acquitted at the destruction of Ierusalem ruine of the Temple whereby was also remoued that stumbling blocke The last was from the mercilesse persecution of heathenish tyrants which continued as 't is well knowne vntill Constantine the great who attaining the Empire being a Christian put a period also to that Now then if from these foure bindings of Satan we account a 1000 yeares downeward the foure loosings will fall out neere about this reckoning from the Incarnation the thousand yeares are expired about Sylvester the seconds time from the passion in Benedicts the 9th from the Destruction of Ierusalem in Hildebrands from the raigne of Constantine the great in the time of Boniface the eight and the rising of the Ottoman family Now what Monsters these Popes were and what prodigies then appeared in the world and what exclamations there were of good and learned men That Satan was then loosed the histories of those times approued by all sides at large declare which I may not stand vpon Three things are here vsually opposed The twofold Resurrection The temporall felicity of the Church here vpon Earth and the Nationall calling of the Iewes to Christianity which these thousand yeares reckoned as past leaue no place nor space for hereafter after But the two first are taken by judicious Interpreters spiritually For we haue but one resurrection of the body in our Creed This first then in the Revelations may be wel expounded of the rising of our soules by grace and faith to a liuely apprehension of the manner of our saluation For the second our Saviour professeth that his kingdome is not of this world he calleth his followers to crosses and afflictions who raigne notwithstanding and triumph in the midst of oppositions by the inward testifying of their consciences and haue alwaies the better of their Adversaries in the end And therefore last of all by ought that hath been before delivered the calling of the Iewes which S. Paul reveales as a mystery Rom. 11. may hereafter take its place when it shall please God to bring it about That after the plucking downe of Antichrist with his horrible superstitions and Idolatries which I take to be the greatest stumbling blocke that yet keepes them back from imbracing Christianity they may thinke vpon the evidence of truth which the fulfilling of the Old Testament in the New most apparantly suggesteth so at length see their obstinate blindnesse and bee converted From all which premisses may be concluded that New Heavens or New Earth are left to be expected here of vs before the day of Iudgement but after that to be inherited eternally in the highest estate of our soules and bodies with God and his blessed Angels in the highest Heavens In which dwelleth righteousnesse The excellency of this inheritance my last part to conclude with 13. Wherein or in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwelleth righteousnesse There is here a double reading Beza and Serrarius the Iesuite intimate it in this sense We in whom dwelleth the righteousnesse of faith looke for a New Heaven and a New Earth Others as our Translation hath it we the children of God looke for a New Heaven and a New Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which new heauen and new earth dwelleth righteousnesse Here it only soiourneth there it dwels Here it hath only a moueable tabernacle there a mansion Here it is mixed with manifold imperfections there entyre and in the greatest eminency Here among some there in all Here for a time or flash there eternally What vse then should we better conclude with Beloued then with that which our Apostle here vrgeth both before and after my Text Seeing that all these things shall be dissolued these better are to bee only looked for what manner of Persons ought we to be
bee therefore no other as the Monke sayd truely but perversly applyed then God foreses wee shall bee yet we foreseeing not what God foreseeth may rather resolue that he foresees rather the good he hath alotted for vs then the harme we haue deserued Last of all it is a poore excuse Beloued for our perversnesse or lazinesse to say wee haue not free-will by nature when we haue a freed will by grace or to complayne of an eventuall necessity that particularly involueth not vs. Necessary it is that scandalls should come but that they come by thee or me it is not to our knowledge necessary So if heresies must needs bee must we therefore be the men to bring them in Nay may wee not rather bee the men to stoppe and oppose them or turne them out againe This will the easier bee brought about if we obserue their connection with Schisme how the one makes way for the other The second circumstance that followes heeresies necessity 8. For there must bee also Heresies Many Interpreters of good note will haue divisions in the former verse and heresies in this to be all one But the words are diverse in the originall and the things may bee differenced And the connection of the text giues ground for the difference I heare sayth our Apostle there be divisions amongst you and I partly belieue it then hee goes further For there must bee also heresies which is somewhat more and worse then Schisme Mervaile not therefore at Schismes in a Church when there may be must bee also heresies It will bee the comfort and credit of those that constantly stand to the truth whosoeuer bee in the fault to keepe themselues blamelesse It is a knowne policy of Satan from small sparkes to rayse combustions and vnder a pretence of zeale to goodnesse to convey in the greatest evills To what a plunge were the Apostles themselues put by the Iewes converted to Christianity who remayned notwithstanding zealous for the obseruing of Moses law And most commonly it falleth out that they which beginne in Schisme end at length in heresies And the reason is not obscure They hugge and applaud their owne conceipts without reference to the vnity of the Church the approbation of their lawfull superiours or advise of their brethren perchance of more experience and riper iudgment then themselues And so become their owne teachers which he that relies too much vpon may happily at length perceiue that he hath gotten a foole to his Master 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9 The manifold heresies which haue pestered God Church ever since our Saviours ascension howsoeuer other rang thē otherwise may be reduced as I conceiue conveniently to these 4. heads Pelagianisme Manicheisme Arianisme and Donatisme The first opposeth Gods word the 2 his essence 3 his grace and the 4 his Church To all which Schismes more or lesse haue ever beene the harbingers Manicheus tooke vantage of the distractions that Phylosophy bred amongst Christians Arius would needes be an heretique to vent his spleene against Alexander Bishop of Alexandria Pelagius had a conceipt that too much dependance vpon Gods grace might disparage his wit by reason whereof afterward he oppugned the calling of Bishops And who knowes not how the Donatists sprung and spred from a paltry Schisme Heresis est schisma inveteratum August Vid. Par. in locum about chusing of Cecilianus Bishop of Carthage But to let passe these remote matters may we not obserue and come nearer home how Schisme hath begotten heresies heresie vnchristian hatred hatred open war warre depopulations and combustions that whole Christendome at this day groaneth vnder How seldome shall wee finde a rent in the Church that stayeth where it began much lesse closeth together of its owne accord Our new Donatists proue quickly Anabaptists or Enthusiasts Our new Manichee's Atheists Our new Pelagians somewhat worse then old Arians beginne to incorporate themselues with the Socinians These put together what former heretiques held in severall and vent it vnderhand amongst vs to the staggering and scandall of the weaker The greater ought to be your piety wisdome and vigilancy Beloved whom God hath set at the sterne to see that the ship doe not miscarry For a litle hole neglected may drowne the greatest vessells a litle sparke fire a whole City and a litle leaven corrupt the whole lumpe S. Augustine in his 1. tract vpon Iohn Pag. 12. hath a story of a conference by a catholique troubled with flyes whom a Manichee thus takes the vātage of Who doest thou think sayd the Manichee made these flyes that so molest thee The fly-bitten honest-man being angry and waspish would not say God made them whatsoeuer he thought Well sayth the Manichee if God made them not who then The Divell I thinke sayth the other If so sayth the Manichee who made the Bee he could not chuse but grant the same workeman for the affinity of the worke From a Bee then hee brings him a Locust from a Locust to a Lizard from a Lizard to a bird from a bird to a sheepe from thence to an oxe thence to an elephant at last to a man and so perswaded a man from such a triviall beginning that God never made him Let not therefore Beloued these matters of religion seeme petty in your eyes which may giue way at length to such dangerous consequences It is not for Sampson to sleepe when the Philistines be vpon him Ier. 7.4 nor for vs to cry the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord our doctrine and discipline is vnquestionable our peace and prosperity vnder so Orthodoxe and Gratious a King vnalterable the Lord hath made our Hill so strong For it will not be amisse to take this caveat by the way That the Serpent made a shift to get into Paradise Gen. 3. Satan to present himselfe among the Sonnes of God Iob 1.6 Iudas to hold a Bishoppricke amongst the rest of the Apostles Acts 1. Churches Altars and sanctuaryes may priviledge some offenders but not keepe out the offences of factions and heresies For there must be heresies as well as schismes not onely abroad among others but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also among you in the heart of the Church Which points to the nest or seat of heresies my third circumstance 10 There must bee heresies also among you corruptio optimi pessima great men or learned men or good men once falling from their integrity proue worse most commonly then other who had never a tincture of any such eminency Where shall we looke for tares but where they may doe most hurt and where may that bee rather then in the midst of the good seed my heritage is to me sayth God by his Prophet Ieremiah as a freckled bird Ier. 12.9 the birds round about her are against her The like complaint was taken vp before by Isaiah Heare O heaven Is 1.2 and hearken O earth for the Lord hath spoken I haue
paterfamilias saith Saint Augustine The Lord of the vineyard is not alwaies in the Market to set thee a worke and no maruaile saith Saint Gregory if at the last gaspe he forget himselfe Ser. 1. de sanctis who in all his life neglected to remember God Let vs attend therefore to open when it pleaseth him to knocke And not as Felix did Paul so answer his messengers Goe thy way for this time Act. 24.26 and when I haue convenient time I will call for thee againe but rather with David to be ready when hee saith Come presently to reply Lo I come When he saith Psalm 40.7 Seek my face to eccho immediatly againe Psalm 27.8 Thy face Lord will we seeke Samuels answere must bee ours at the first call Speake Lord for thy servant heareth 1. Sam. 3.10 and that not onely quickly but also when we are in the way which is my fourth and last circumstance before obserued and commeth now briefly in the conclusion to be considered 12. Agree with thine Adversary quickly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all translate whiles thou art in the way with him Alluding perchance to countrymen saith Illyricus who came some distance for judgement from their houses into the city in which they had fit opportunity betweene themselues to discusse and take vp all matters But citizens in my opinion haue no lesse they dwell neere together and may more conveniently meete and daies of hearing come not so fast but space and place may bee had to compose in good sort such businesse But figuratiuely in Scripture this word Way hath three especiall significations First it is taken for doctrine as Psalm Psalm 23.3 23.3 Shew me thy waies O Lord and teach me thy paths Which Hebraisme the Schoolemen haue taken from the Arabians when they put viam Thomae or viam Scoti for Thomas or Scotus doctrine Secondly it signifieth the manner of liuing counsels behaviour or endeavours of men so Gen. 6.12 Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his way that is their manners and the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Psalm 1.6 Psalm 1.6 that is the counsels actions or endevours of the righteous or wicked Lastly it is taken for a mans life as Ioshua 23.14 This day I enter into the way of all the world Iosh 23.14 and so in this place whiles thou art in the way with him that is in the dayes of this thy pilgrimage whiles thou art aliue Which directeth vs especially to this conclusion that After this life there remaineth no place for repentance or reconciliation 12 For alia est saith Musculus on this place praesentis alia futurae vitae conditio The condition of this life and the next are not both alike Here there may bee had a composition but there the Iudge will proceed according to law as the next words following my text doe sufficiently confirme thou shalt be cast into prison and thou shalt not come out vntill thou hast paid the vtmost farthing Here is no mention at all of pardon but all of payment pay or stay infinite hath beene thy offence and so must be thy punishment not a dogge to licke a sore not the tip of a finger dipt in water to coole a tongue can be there obtained with an Ocean of teares How much lesse Indulgences or pardons or Masses or Pilgrimages or any Intercession of the liuing can alter the estate of the dead But of this hereafter in the reason when we come to speake of the prison which the Papists imagine to bee their Purgatory Now a word or two by the way for applying this doctrine taken from the way mentioned in my Text and so I will commit you to God 13 This may serue Beloued to hasten that speedy conversion which in the point before I so earnestly vrged For if this life bee the appointed place and no other wherein this quicke reconciliation is to be sought and wrought then all excuses are cut off whatsoeuer the Divels sophistry or mans backsliding tergiversations can imagine Otherwise some peeuish conceit might humour it selfe with such an idle contemplation There is a great space betweene Heauen and Earth Gods judgement seat and the place wee goe from and can this bee passed in a moment Besides who can tell whether my judgement shall bee immediate vpon my departing May not others bee first examined May not I bee repriued till the last day of judgement and hauing that respit to bee reconciled so sue out a pardon But our Saviour meeteth with all such humane fancies and earthly cogitations No saith hee this agreement must not only bee quickly in regard of the time but also in this life whiles thou art in the way and thy adversary with thee both together in respect of the place Iust as that noble Romane Popilius dealt in his ambassage with King Antiochus the history is recorded by Liuie hee maketh a circle with his rod Decad. 5. l. 5. and passe wee must not the compasse thereof till we haue fully resolued on an absolute answere Such a circle wee are all in at this present Beloued and behold an vrgent ambassage from the King of Kings Peace or warre life or death hell or heauen are to bee determined on of vs in this instant and place and therefore let vs bethinke vs I beseech you what to doe Wee finde here no certaine habitation But onely as my Text intimateth a way to passe this passage hath all the dangers and more then can bee imagined The Divell as a theefe the world like a bawd the flesh like a false brother to assault entrap vs and leade vs into vtter darknesse every breathing we make is the shortning of our life euery step we goe is the hastning to our graue Sands of the Sea or Gnats in Summer or leaues in Autumne are not more innumerable then the heapes and swarmes mountaines of calamities which are every moment ready to fall vpon vs. And yet we like those outragious Sodomites Gen. 19.9 Gen. 19.9 wil not suffer our brethren to host quietly by vs but will haue them out to quarrell and deale worse with them though fire and brimstone fall on vs the next day after Good Lord that man should so hardly be brought to consider himselfe and remember thee and yet so quickly to joyne with his enemy and maligne his brother to forget whose he is whence he is where he is and which way he tendeth Wee account him an idle-headed fellow that will be building in every Inne where he may not dwell a foolish Pilote that will bee anchoring in every creeke where his businesse lies not and a most desperate and impudent thiefe that will stabbe when hee passeth along from the prison to his triall Our practise is the like but wee will not thinke of it Wee build where wee may not inhabite anchor where wee may not harbour quarrell and fall out in that very way nay in the very
made himselfe strong against the Almightie Iob. 15.25 This will further appeare by conferring but the backe parts of Gods Maiestie with mans vnworthinesse and the severitie of the Iudge with the respectlesse presumption of the offender For seeing that every sinne is to bee esteemed according to the worth of the partie against whom it is committed as the same injurie offered to a pesant and a Prince standeth not in the same degree hence it followeth that the disobeying of an infinite Commander is an infinite offence and consequently deserueth a correspondent punishment And howsoeuer an vnwise man doth not well consider this Psal 92.6 and a foole doth not vnderstand it yet certainely that is most true which is obserued by one out of Saint Augustine that in every sinne wee commit as also in all other elections there is ballanced as it were in the scales of our reason here an Omnipotent Lord commanding for our eternall good and there a deadly enemie alluring to our vtter destruction Where notwithstanding such is our damnable ingratitude and malicious stupidity wee will fully reject the Lord of life and preferre a murderer Act. 3.14 Lam. 1.12 Haue yee no regard all yee that passe this way behold and see whom yee dayly pierce and then tell mee what disgrace may bee viler then this or punishment too heavy for such a contempt The incomprehensible Ancient of daies Almighty Iehovah who made all things of nothing by his Word and by the same can reduce them to worse then nothing againe whose looke drieth vp the Deepes and whose wrath maketh the Mountaines to melt the Earth to tremble the Rocks to rent the Heavens to shiuer Divels and Angels to quake before him Before whom all Kings are as Grashoppers all Monarchs as Molehils all beauty base all strength feeble all knowledge vaine all light dimme all goodnesse imperfect in such a case with such an opposite by such a creature as man is so extraordinarily graced by him to bee weighed as Belshazzar Dan. 5.27 in the ballance and found too light This is that which vrgeth his mercy and kindleth his Royall indignation Sometimes as it were passionately to expostulate Ier. 2.32 What iniquitie haue your Fathers found in me Or haue I beene a wildernesse vnto Israel or a land of darknesse Then to exclaime Heare O heauens and hearken O earth for the Lord hath said I haue brought vp children Esay 1.2 and they haue rebelled against me And goe to the Iles of Chittim and behold and send to Kedar Ier. 2.10.11 hath any nation changed their gods which yet are no Gods But my people hath changed their glory for that which hath no profit Last of all if a man will not turne hee will whet his sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ezehiel ingeminateth A sword a sword both sharp four bished Chap. 21.9 and the strings of his Bow make ready against the face of the rebellious Psal 21.12 Thus saith the Lord God of Hosts the mighty one of Israel Ah Esaiah 1.24 I will ease me of mine adversaries avenge me of mine enemies All which doth iustifie God in his saying and cleare him when he is iudged Psal 51.4 Mat. 10.30 For as his Providence numbreth our haires so doth his Iustice our sinnes whereof as none is so waighty without finall impenitency that may not be forgiuen So none so slight if hee once enter into judgement that waigheth not downe to hell 5 This may be a caveat for vs Beloued first to beware of the leauen of the Romish Synagogue who frame indulgences for Gods law come with peace peace when death is in the pot Which that we may the more vnderstandingly deeme of it shall not be amisse to touch a little on the positions of their chiefest patrons In which I intend to bee exceeding breefe as ayming rather at our owne reconciling with God then quarrelling with such obstinate adversaries Lib. 1. c. 2. Laethalia quae ho minem planè avertâ—nt à Deo Venialia quae nonnihil impediunt cursum ad Deum non tâ—men ab eo avertunt facili negotio expiantuâ— c. Lib. 1. de Amission grat statu peccat cap. 14. Bellarmine de amissione gratiae statu peccati besides other foure divisions of sin which hee there relateth hath this for the fifth which hee onely standeth vpon throughout that whole booke Of sinne saith hee some are deadly and divert a man wholy from God others veniall which hinder him onely a little and those hee tearmeth not so ab eventu with Saint Ambrose and Augustine because it pleaseth God in mercy vpon repentance through Christ to pardon them as Wickliffe Luther Calvin most strongly ever maintained against the Schoolemen but ex natura sua ratione peccati being such as crosse not charity so in their nature vt si vellet Deus non condonare it is the very vpshot of the booke before cited that if God would not pardon them but as it were in iustice doe his worst Poenom temporalem tantùm non autem sempiternamexigere possit hee could punish them no further then with temporall afflictions They stand with perfect charity saith a In 4 sent dist 17. Scotus Remitted they may be without any infusion of grace as Gregorius de Valentia the Iesuite peremptorily defineth they make vs not spotty or odious b Tom. 4. disp 7. in the sight of God according to the gentle c Censura Colomienfis censure of the Divines of Collaine therefore deserue not hel but Purgatory if d In quartum sent d. 21. q 1. Aquinas may be beleeued And to make it yet more plaine how bold they can bee with Gods Iustice Wee need not repent for them saith Andradius with Bonaventure in his fift book of the defence of the Councel of Trent neither say to God Forgiue vs our trespasses as the Rhemists would father on Saint Augustine at the 8. verse of the 7. chapter of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans When God had giuen a Command to Adam Gen. 2.17 Of the Tree of knowledge of good evill thou shalt not eate for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Cap. 3.4 the Serpent comes with a couÌ„termand Yee shall not dye at all as though Gods meaning and his words had beene cleane contradictory And is not this the dealing of our Adversaries in this present controversie For if every one be accursed that fulfilleth not all the Commandements Levit. 26.14 all his ordinances Deut. 28.15 whatsoeuer is written Gal. 3.10 if hee violate the first and greatest Commandement Mat. 22.37 who loueth not God with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his minde And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Ioh. 3.4 every the most insensible staggering as Calvine soundly vrgeth commeth within the compasse of one of these circumstances what presumption is it then in any
a tried experience extorting couertousnesse of a carefull providence and damnable dissimulation of a notable headed polititian How many of our greener yeares affect not rather the name of a good fellow then of a good Christian come at Sermons as at plaies to censure rather then to practise and take vp all new fashions both in garb and complement except that newnesse of life which our Saviour commendeth But I tell thee my good Christian brother these leakes are not so little but they may quickly sinke thee the very touch of this pich is sufficient to defile and thou tread but on the egges of this wily cockatrice thou shalt presently perceiue that there lurketh a serpent Were the Angels punished eternally for sinning once and thinkest thou to stand out in iudgement with so many transgressions must our thoughts be scāned shall our words escape or our words bee condemned and yet our actions pardoned Bee not deceiued God is not mocked Inclinations motions intentions our most secret and lightest sinnes are as Eli's sonnes they will breake our neckes if wee breake not off them Gods Word is a two-edged sword which must kill our faults or vs and if we stumble and dash against the Corner stone Mat. 21.44 it will fall vpon vs and grinde vs to powder For as one sparke of fire may burne a whole City and one naked place in an armed man saith S. Chrysostome giue way to a deadly wound Jn Matth. Homil. 35. Vid. August in Johan tract 12. so the least graine of sinne vnrepented may draw such mountaines of miseries vpon vs which all that wee can doe or say without Gods infinite mercy shall never bee able to remoue O that we would therefore deale with these vanities as Ioseph did with his Mistris and breake out at the first assault into this or the like contemplation Thus and thus hath the Lord done for me he brought me into this World to overcome this world that by contemning this I might enioy a better Doe not all creatures serue me that I should serue him and haue I ought of mine owne but only by his bounty how then should I doe any wickednesse and sinne against him who beholdeth my least backslidings and will surely punish them He spared not the naturall branches and shall I haue an indulgence hath his Sonne suffered to redeeme his enemies and shall his enemies escape that contemne his Sonne No certainely Beloued hee is just as well as mercifull if thou turne from his statutes thou shalt bee overturned In a day that thou lookest not for Math. 24.50 Psal 18. and in an houre that thou art not aware of the snares of death shall overtake thee and paines of Hell shall compasse thee round about Thine Adversary shall not onely deliver thee to the Iudge but the Iudge deliver thee to the Sergeant which is the second circumstance I before proposed followeth to lead furthery your judicious considerations 7 The Iudge shall deliuer thee to the Sergeant This Iudge all consent vpon to bee Christ to whom the Father hath committed all Iudgement Ioh. 5.22 For though the Apostles are said also to iudge Luk. 22.30 and the men of Niniveh Aquin. supplem q. 89. art 1. Lomb. lib. 7. c. 18. Math. 12.41 yet this is but by way of assession or approbation as the Schoolemen expound the former or exemplarily as produced to convince others who haue lesse profited by greater meanes as Beza and Piscator intimate of the latter none hauing absolute authority Jn 12. Mat. but the to whom all power was given Math. 28.18 Next Luk. 12.58 what this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signify for which Saint Luke hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Remists and our last Translation Officer Vid. Bell. lib. 1. de Purg. c. 7. D. Fulke Minister some old translations Doomesman and we here Sergeant there is some small difference S. Ambrose S. Augustine would haue it to be the good Angels because these are said to minister to our Saviour in the former Chap. at the 11. verse to come with him chap. 16.27 to gather the tares Chap. 13.30 But Chrysostome Gregory Theophylact Hugo and Abulensis together with the Ordinary glosse doe thinke it rather the Divels office Ibid. For these are the cursed Iaylers of the damned which must accompany them eternally in everlasting fire Math. 25.41 Both opinions are probable saith Bellarmine Piscator joynes them together In hunc locū and Buccasenus shewes the reason The Goates saith he are deliuered to the good Angels to be separated from the sheepe and from thence to the evill to bee tortured for ever Whence I gather in stead of many this one generall observation That there shall be a Iudgement hereafter wherein every man shall receiue according to his workes 8 I need not to be curious in prouing this point which is receiued as a principle in the Articles of our faith That Sadduce which denies it denies also God and shall sooner feele it then haue time to prevent it 1. Cor. 15.22 In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the terrible sound of the last Trumpet the sonne of man shall come in the clouds of heauen Math. 24.30 with all his holy Angels in power and great glory when the Sunne shall be blacke as sackcloth of haire Rev. 12.5 the Moone like bloud the Starres fall vnto thee earth as a figtree casteth her leaues the heauens depart as a scroll roled and every mountaine and I le moue out of their places when the earth melteth the sea roareth the elements dissolue nations howle all the world flasheth with the terrible and all consuming flames mentioned by the blessed Apostle S. Peter 2. Pet. 3.40 then shall we all appeare before the Iudgement seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 that every mā may receiue according as he hath done 2. Cor. 5.10 And here beloued in a matter of so serious importance it should be idle for me to breake out into the mazes and vagaries of the Schoole-men as to determine with the master of the Sentences 4. Sent. dist 47. Ibid. that this last fire shall as the first floud rise iust fifteene cubits aboue the tops of the highest mountaines or with Nicholas de Orbellis that the materiall Crosse whereon our Saviour was crucified should bee carried as a Mace before him when hee cometh to Iudgement In supplem q. 88. art 4. or with Aquinas and the rest of that side that the place of this Iudgement shall bee in the ayre right against mount O liuet over the valley of Iehoshaphat Well saith Artemidorus in his Oneirocritiques No dreames of a private man may haue a publike interpretation For what should we speake in such obscurities 4. Sent. dist 47. Epist 24. ad Hieronym that the Lord putteth not into our mouthes That which Lombard hath of the authority of Angels in this
natures against Eutyches confusion vnited notwithstanding in one and the same person against Nestorius distraction Alex. ab Hales Sum. Theol part 3. q. 7. m. 1. art 1. This person the Schoolemen more nicely pronounce to bee one not by that incomprehensible vnitie which excludeth all multitude or multiplicitie for that belongeth onely to the persons in the Deity but by an vnion which requires a composition In 3. Sent. d. 6. q. 3. not huius ex his as Durand speaketh but huius ad hoc not a framing of a third thing out of divers parts vnited for so the Godhead and the manhood must not bee said to concurre as parts for the making vp of this person but such an adjoyning of the things vnited the one vnto the other that the natures remayning distinct as a Lib. 3. ca. 10. Agatho rightly teacheth and all their properties and operations the subsistence notwithstanding is but one and in this case according to Athanasius one not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the manhood into God The Fathers haue much laboured to expresse this popularly b Lib. de recta fidei Confess Iustine Martyr and c In Symbol Athanasius bring the similitude of the Soule and body Saint d Ep. 99. Augustine and e In 3. sen d. 1. Scotus of two accidentall formes in one subiect as of the sameman who is both a Lawyer and Physitian f Peri Archon lib. 2. cap. 6. Origen g Orat. in Nativit Basil and h Ortho. fid lib. 3. cap. 11. Damascene of a piece of glowing Iron to which the fire is incorporated and this is best approued by Brentius and Kemnitius i Ibid. l. 3. c. 5. Damascene againe and k In vigil Natal serm 3. Bernard compare the mystery of the Incarnation with that of the Trinitie that as there we beleeue three persons in one nature so here we should acknowledge three natures of flesh Soule and Dcitie as Saint l De Trinitat l. 13. cap. 17. Augustine speaketh in one person But the most expressiue is that of a tree and a Siens ingraffed to it which becommeth one with the stocke yet retaineth it's owne nature and fruite Thus m In 3. sent dist 1. Lib. 3. de Incarnat cap. 8. Aquinas Bonaventure and with them most of our orthodoxe writers all which notwithstanding as Bellarmine in this point truly sheweth come short of the thing Wherein our Lutherans are farthest out by grounding the hypostaticall Vnion on the transfusion of the proprieties from one nature into another and not as they ought to doe on the communication of the subsistence from the Deity to the Manhood This only is sufficient to make good these harder speeches in appearance God hath purchased the Church with his owne blood Acts 20.21 And where the Sonne of man being vpon earth is affirmed to be in Heaven Ioh. 3.13 for subiects of a looser composition afford in a manner the like Synechdochicall praedications in the concrete to speake with Logicians not the abstract So a Philosopher dyeth saith Saint Augustine but not Philosophy in his 89. Epistle The Man Christ is every where but not the manhood and with these generalities wee rest informed of the manner of this conception The efficient succeedeth which is the Holy Ghost Matthew 1.20 Much remaineth to be spoken and the time weareth I can but touch therefore at matters and so away The action of the Incarnation being opus ad extra or externall Vid. Turrecrem in vigil Nat. Dom. q. 4. belongeth as you know by a receiued rule in Divinity to all the three persons in the Trinity though it bee terminatiuely in the Sonne as the Schooles speake and appropriated here to the Holy Ghost To the Holy Ghost saith Saint Augustine by reason he is the conveier and distributer of all the boundlesse graces and mercies that flow to vs from the Deity among which a greater then this of the Incarnation cannot be conceiued Some haue laboured to open this more plainely by this obvious comparison Three sisters say they concurre to the weauing of one seamlesse coat which the Second onely weareth and the third immediatly setteth on So mans nature was assumed onely by the Sonne vnited by the Holy Ghost though wrought by all three But in such profundities it is dangerous ventring farther then the text inlightens vs. This we haue expressed by an Angell concerning the secret of this conception Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come vpon thee as for a worke that goeth beyond all substitution of any created Excellency And the power of the most high shall overshadow thee either as a shelter to free the sacred Embrio from originall infection to which Adam's flesh was liable and actuate it in the wombe by an vnconceiveable operation or as a cloud to overshadow it from our ambitious prying as Calvin and Stella take it who neglecting and loathing that wee are bound to learne 1 Sam. 6. will endanger our selues with the Bethshemites to looke too farre into the Arke 5. Thus farre of the Conception of our Saviour being the dawning as it were of the day of his power which hath brought vs to the Nativity wherein this Sunne of Righteousnesse appeares aboue the Horrizon Here the natiuity must bee said to be with Damascene and Aquinas of the person Lib. 3. part 3. q. 35. art 1. Actiones sunt suppofitorum non naturarum and not of the humane nature as some will speake vnadvisedly For the humane nature is onely the terme of this action the Person the subiect who was borne of a Virgin that yet ever remained a Virgin Maria virgo ante partum in partu post partum erat porta clausa Augu. ex Ezech 44. vid. Turrecrem in vigil nat Dom. q. 3. howsoever Helvidius dream't the contrary and that by opening the wombe not vtero clauso as the Papists imagine to make way for their poeticall transubstantiation for not the bearing of a childe but the knowing before of a man is opposite onely to virginity as true philosophy and sence might teach them Now in this blessed Nativity of this Virgins sonne wee are briefly to take notice of these foure circumstances the time the place the manner the manifestation For the time we need not trouble our selues with the differences of Chronologers Hebrew and Greek Vid. Sleidan de 4. Imper. lib. 1. Genebrard l. 1. Chronolog Greeke and Latine old and new wherein two scarce meet in one reckoning either for the yeere or moneth much lesse for the day as divers haue laboriously shewed but rest our selues on the generall certainties which the Scripture affords vs. When the Scepter therefore was departed from Iudah according to Iacobs prophecie Gen. 49. when the first Temple was destroyed and the second was yet standing foretold by zacharie and Aggai Hâ—g 2.7 vnder the last Monarch in the last of Daniel's weekes which
strengthning him against his martyrdome being the first of the Apostles that was to suffer Acts 12. To the eleven Disciples vpon a mountaine in Galilee to make good that he had promised by the women Matt. 28. To more then fiue hundred brethren at once mentioned here by our Apostle And to all those last of all that were present at his ascention from the mount of Oliues Actes 1. To which eleuen Apparitions before his Ascension if wee ad that to Saint Paul Actes 9. it will make vp the full dozen or Iury to quit our cause and cast opposers But if apparitions should seeme to any too subiect to counterfeiting we haue a cloud of witnesses besides to confirme it From heauen of Angels Hee is risen hee is not here satisfie your owne eyes come see the place where the Lord lay Matth. 28. From women in earth who were vnlike in such a case to vent a gull because they scarce beleeued it themselues They haue taken away saith Mary Magdalen who little thought of his rising the Lord out of the sepulchre and I know not where they haue laid him Iohn 20. From the Disciples who had eyes enow vpon them to trippe them for fayling in the least circumstance whereupon they esteemed the first relation of the women Luke 24.11 as idle tales before experience had taught them that the Lord was risen indeed and had appeared to Simon Luk. 24.34 These things were so sifted so evident so manifest on all hands beyond exception that impudency it selfe might stand amazed not daring in any sort to disavow it It was made apparant to Iewes and Gentiles of both professions to Disciples and Souldiers Clergy and Laity to men and women both sexes were satisfied in the Evening and Morning no time excluded In the garden vpon the way in the Citty at the sea vpon a mountaine in Galiley vpon another overlooking Ierusalem within doore without no place ever shunned They could not bee deluded by heare-say for their eyes saw him a mist was not cast before their eyes for their eares heard him As neere as might be he came to their smelling Luke 20.22 if such a sence were fit to discerne in such a case for hee breathed vpon them they beheld him eate and drinke with them of such meate as was by miracle provided for them wherein tast might haue his portion in the discouery But more then all the rest he shewed them his hands and his side Luke 24.29 told them that a spirit could not haue flesh and bones as he had wished them to handle him caused Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound in his side for his owne and the fuller satisfaction of them all It were strange therefore that touching and handling the sense of seeling so often so freely by so many admitted to make experiment about it's proper obiect should in so maine a point bee deluded Out of all which promises you see the Apostles conclusion and the ground of our faith inferred in the very words as my text hath it Now is Christ risen from the dead which I haue laboured so fully to declare not so much to convince apposers as to confirme the weake beleeuers 7 For here I make no doubt B. but all good Christians will bee forward for application to themselues Some vpon the consideration of Satans absolute overthrow hells harrowing deaths swallowing vp in victory will follow the conquerours triumphs with their heartyest acclamations Others in a sort deiected with the meditation of his former passion will now cheere vp their thoughts in this glorious amends As the Israelites for their escape from Pharoah Deborah for the defeating of Sisera the Israelitish women for the overthrow of Golias expressed their exceeding joy in set songs and thankes-giuings Much more every one in this case should turne sacred Poets and make holy Anthems to their owne soules and consciences to celebrate the solemnity of this Festivity O what joy must it needs be to a good heart to recount that when the Devill and his complites had spit all their venome against the only meanes of our Redemption when they had as they supposed taken the Lion in a trappe deliuered him to the Iaylour Death if I may so speake without bayle and mainprise shackled him sure with bolts and seale for ever stirring to disturbe them againe That then the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe and like as a Giant refreshed with wine Psalme 7.5 He smote his enemies in the hinder parts put them to a perpetuall shame Then the huge Stone was rolled away the Seales broken the Guard frighted the whole plot spoyled What ayled thee O thou Earth that thou so trembledst and thou Stone that thou wast so driven backe yee Souldiers that yee fled like cowards and yee graues of the Saints that yee could not keepe in your dead It was the Lord that returned from the slaughter leading captivity captiue and now hauing drunke of the brooke in the way lifted vp his head to be Ruler in the midst of his enemies Long was it before his dearest Followers could bee possessed with this truth but hauing once the hynt how their hearts burned within them to impart it to others Mat. 28.8 Mary ranne to bring the Disciples word Peter and Iohn ranne to see whether it were truth or no. Ioh. 20.3 Luk. 24.33 The two Disciples could not rest in Emmaus howsoever like to be benighted but backe they must the same houre to Ierusalem to acquaint their fellowes what had befalne them in their walke Luk. 24.34 Their fellowes prevented them with the same newes before they could haue time to speake Amongst all which congregations no doubt but the blessed Virgin his mother bare the most affectionate part which notwithstanding is no where here mentioned to shew that this spirituall Iubile was beyond the taking notice of the neerest earthly relation No B. we need not faine the Suns dancing or Hermes vision or Paschasinus holy well that was filled of his owne accord every Easter day or the annuall rising as vpon this day of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Aegypt which some frivolously maintained to amplifie the glory of this Resurrection p. 3. q. 53. art X. Aquinas giueth fiue reasons of it The commendations of Gods Iustice which was to recompence so great humiliation with the like exaltation the strengthening of our faith the assurance of our hope the reforming of our liues the complement of our Salvation Hee might haue added for a sixt out of the blessed Apostle Hi mightily declaring himselfe to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 1. But all these are in a manner comprised in the part of my text that followeth being the effect and fruit of Christs Resurrection surrection which succeedeth now in this place to be likewise discussed 8. And become the first fruits of them that slept I cannot more fitly enter vpon this second part of my text then with the words of
whereof by no triumphs laud and thankesgiuing can bee sufficiently expressed O thou therefore that of stones canst raise vp children vnto Abraham and reviued'st Lazarus when hee stanke in his graue make our dead hearts sensible of the vertue of thy Resurrection that seconding thy first fruits with a serious awaking to righteousnesse wee may triumphantly meete death in the face with this happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting ô graue where is thy victory Heare vs ô Lord for his sake who died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification to whom with thee and the blessed Spirit be all praise and glory both now and ever Amen Gowries Conspiracie A SERMON PREACHED AT St MARIES IN OXFORD the fifth of August By IOHN PRIDEAVX Doctor of Divinity Regius Professor and Rector of Exeter Colledge OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. GOVVRIES CONSPIRACIE 2. SAM 20.1 And there happened to be there a man of Belial whose name was Sheba the sonne of Bichri a Beniamite and hee blew a trumpet and said Wee haue no part in David neither haue wee inheritance in the sonne of Ishai Every man to his tents O Israel THere is no state so setled vnder the Sunne but subiect it is to manifold alterations St Ambrose giues the reason in his sixt booke and 39. Epistle because true Rest and security keepe their residence in heaven onely and not here on earth and therefore as Saint Augustine writes to Celestinus in his 63. Epistle in this world are not any way to bee expected If any might presume to speed better then others Kings might plead their Prerogatiue but being in the same ship with their inferiours they are forced to runne the hazard of the same tempests So generally that old verse falleth out to be true Interdum pax est pacis fiducia nunquam Aboue many others a man would haue thought King David a King of Gods owne making a man after his owne heart so beloued at home so feared abroad so compassed on every side with inward and outward blessings had at length beene sufficiently guarded from any extraordinary attempts of traitours or treason Hee had so miraculously escaped Saul subdued the Philistims recouered Ierusalent from the obstinate Iebusites the finger of God appeared in all his actions and victories he wanted not friends and kindred his Captaines and Souldiers were terrible his sonnes many and towardly his treasure boundlesse and his owne valour and experience famous amongst his subiects and borderers so that desperatnesse it selfe might haue trembled to haue giuen him the onset Yet the text here sheweth that as the best men haue their faults so Gods dearest children want not their crosses In the matter of Vriah David in three respects had beene scandalously to blame in murder adultery and the vnder hand betraying of a poore Innocent The first where of God repayed by the murder of his owne sonne Amnon and the death of the childe begotten in adultery The second by the deflowring first of his daughter Tamar by her owne brother and then of his owne wiues by his incestuous son Absalom whom as he raised out of his own bowels to turne traytour against him as appeareth in the fiue former chapters so here he ordereth the malice of Sheba to rayse another commotion justly punishing sinne by sinne and working his owne ends by such perverse instruments The brand therefore of Absalom is scarce here quenched whē Sheba steps forth to blow new coales of rebellion Of which treacherous attempt of a disloyall false hearted subject against his most religious lawfull Soueraigne I haue taken in hand vpon this day and occasion especially to treat of 2. Where not to burden you attentions with vnnecessary curiosities obserue I beseech you with me in the generall These three circumstances 1. The occasion giuen by a contention betweene the Israelites and the men of Iuda in the former Chapter and here accidentally embraced by a treacherous disposition And there happened to be there 2. The traytour liuely deciphered in his colours a man of Belial whose name was Sheba the sonne of Bichri a Beniamite 3. The treason it selfe first confusedly breaking out in the doubtfull sound of a Trumpet And he blew a Trumpet Secondly distinctly vttered in expresse rebellious termes hee said We haue no part in David nether haue we inheritance in the son of Ishai Euery man to his tents O Israel The occasions advantagious the traytour malicious the treason perilous As the occasion vnexpectedly drawes on the traytour so the traytour violently sets on foot the treason Whence wee may easily gather the danger of occasions the rancour of disloyalty and the vnconstant leuity of an incensed multitude And for memory we may thus connect it When occasion is offered howsoever they otherwise striue to appeare good subjects traytours will be ever ready to vent their treasons Of all which whiles I shall plainely discourse according to my tumultuous provision I trust my occasions shall priviledge mee from those sinister censures which passe vpon matters without due notice of circumstances But bee the manner of propounding taken as it may bee the doctrine I am sure will not bee gaine said being occasioned by this dayes celebration against Traytours and Treasons of which my Text containeth a notable example with the occasion intimated in the first words 3. And there happened to be there Casu saith Iunius with the Chaldy paraphrase Accidit saith Castalio Forte fortunâ saith Vatablus The Greekes haue a double rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called hither as it were by chance as some would haue it which others expresse by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occurrit as being an adventure which was occasionally met with Whether this Sheba were a party in Ahsaloms rebellion and then came in with Amasa vpon the ouerthrowe in the wood of Ephraim Chap. 13. or that afterward hee thrust in among the tenne Tribes at Gilgal to congratulate the Kings victories to conduct him backe with honour vnto Ierusalem the Text expresseth not and I hunt not after conjectures Once this is manifest that here hee was for so runne the words in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibi evenit vel casu erat there he happened to be as Arias Montanus with Pagnine expresseth it word for word which intimates that his being there was meerely accidentall And howsoeuer Saint Augustine mislike in his writings the name of chance and fortune in regard it might bee offensiue by a customary heathenish interpretation Yet the Scripture applied to our capacities often hath it forasmuch as things most certaine by Gods disposition and providence in respect of mans circumspection may be termed casuall God out of doubt here had a purpose as Brentius and Peter Martyr well obserue either to make a further triall of Davids fayth and patience or to curbe him from being too presumptuous vpon the strange recouery of his state and Kingdome or to lesson him
in the variable ficklenesse of a wauering multitude and teach him to depend wholly on him and none other As on the other side who seeth not that Sheba's inveterate malice was ordred to be dis-vizord and punished by such a publike attempt and shame Howsoeuer this we may build vpon by the connection of these words with the latter end of the former Chapter that the heate betweene Israel and Iuda who should seeme most officious to their King gaue the hint to a false-hearted traytour to rayse a new rebellion Whence I inferre That hypocriticall traytours watch their times and are readie to vent their villanie vpon the least advantage 4. So Cain sets vpon his brother Abel when hee had seuered him from his parents and they two were alone in the field together Genesis 4.8 Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquitie take their time to murder the Sichemites when they were sore of their Circumcision Gen. 34. Dalilah knewe well enough that there was no shauing of Sampson till he was througly lulled asleepe Iudg. 24. But the most vnnaturall treason that a man in this kinde shall ever light on was that of Adramelech and Sharezar Senachribs sonnes who tooke the vantage of their father at his Devotions in the house of Nisroch his God the story is set downe 2. Kings 19.37 Where in stead of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his sonnes in the originall we finde the vowels set in the Text which is somewhat strange in that tongue without their consonants Perchance to intimate closely that so many circumstances concurring otherwise for the aggravating of the offence as subiects to lay violent hands on a King and that in the Temple and that at his devotions to adde further that it was done by his owne sonnes howsoeuer it bee more vocall then the bloud of Abel yet the manner of setting it downe should shew it also to bee scelus infandum a wickednesse too monstrous to be fully exprest And yet wee neede not goe farre to find the like among the people of God so farre doth Satan prevaile with the ambitious humours of irreligious miscreants Two sonnes there were that Dauid had whom hee especially as it were doted vpon aboue the rest of his children beautifull Absalom and gallant Adoniah and both of these take their vantages as farre as in them lay to tumble their aged Father downe from his throne and bury him aliue to make way for their prodigious and preposterous purposes The former by the peoples favour which he had gotten by his hypocritical popularitie the latter by his fathers feeblenesse backing himselfe by the countenance of violent Ioab and disloyall Abiathar This hard measure receaued good King David at the hands of those of whom he best deserued He saw the law of nature violated conscience of so hainous a fact contemned his indulgence repaid with monstrous ingratitude his tryed valour outbraued by his owne subject who could not bee ignorant of it But that which touched him neerest was that in his person and through his sides Religion and the name of God was blasp hemed among the heathen in comparison of which he held the virulent raylings of damned Shimei too slight to bee take any notice of Behold Chap. 16.11 saith hee to Abishai and the rest of his servants my sonne which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Beniamite doe it Let him alone let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him Thus a broken and contrite heart standing at the barre of Gods Iustice and daunted at the multitude of it's owne inditements is willing to put vp any thing in lieu of his owne satisfaction Hee will speake for the diuellish traytour persisting in the height of his villany Intreat the young man Absalom gently for my sake He will lament his death as vntimely and vndeserued O my sonne Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But the Iudge of all the World is not subject to such passions nor satisfyed most commonly in such a sort without exemplary punishment none shall touch his Anointed for evill but evill shall hunt those wicked persons to destroy them The traytour here in my Text could not be ignorant of this For if hee had never taken notice of Corah's conspiracy and the punishment thereof Chap. 4. Baanah's and Rechab's betraying of Ishbosheth and the end of it Yet Absalom's fact and judgement could not bee vnknowne vnto him Every one of the people could haue told him how miraculously his huge army was defeated by a small number with the losse of twenty thousand how strangely the Wood devoured more people that day then the sword It must needs then be in the mouth of every one that a senselesse thicke bough'd Oake performed the part of a good subiect to apprehend the traytour that his Mule left him to the gallowes who had renounced his allegiance to his King and Father that the earth refused to reccaue him Heauen was shut against him none of all his troupe left to guard him who had in so high a nature wronged the Creatour of all in his Anointed Vicegerent Last of all I make no doubt but divers also obserued and spake of the extraordinary hand of God expressed in Ioab's violence in the speedy dispatching him notwithstanding the Kings expresse charge to the contrary accompanied with his infamous buriall in a great ditch or pit like a carrion vnder a heape of stones whereas formerly hee had ambitiously provided a stately monument for that purpose to wit a Piramis or pillar in the Kings dale Some of which expresse tokens of Gods vengeance against such Rebels at the least all joyned together so lately acted so freshly bleeding so notoriously spread abroad and knowne might haue amated this traytour in my text from ventring againe so soone if hee had had the least sparke of grace or common humanity or policie in him But malice is blind desperatnesse admits not of discourse he must needs on whom the divell violently pusheth an opportunity was giuē Sheba's false heart was tender and must needs take fire Seing he hapned to be there when such an oceasion hapned to fall out he would take advantage to vent his malice whatsoeuer became of it 5. A lesson first for Kings and Magistrats not to rely too much vpon those that are of none or a suspected religion For howsoeuer they kisse cry Master with Iudas or professe they haue somewhat to say from God as Ehud told Eglon yet they carry a two-edged dagger vnder their rayment Iudg. 3. as there he did which is too loose in the scabberd as Ioabs was and will bee the readier to strike you vpon any advantage giuen them Gedaliah was too confident on his owne innocencie and the loyalty of those that spake him fayre wherevpon when hee was truely informed by Iohanan and others that Ismael the sonne of Nethaniah was suborned by Baalis
defect then all this was of a fit House for Gods Service that which wee had being too scant for the Company and otherwise very incommodious This God put into your heart to supply before wee complained or others saw cause which resolution could scarce be so naturall to any other as to Great Sir Thomas Bodley'es Kinsman and worthy Mr Periam's Nephew They that view and consider the Worke will hardly be perswaded that it was erected at the sole cost of one Fellow of Exceter Colledge not preferred as many are and hauing two Sonnes of his owne to provide for otherwise Iohn and George Hak will But where God inlargeth the heart such difficulties restraine not the hands Promise performance founding finishing came freely on together which Wee trust in time some other of our Worthies will hereafter imitate as all are ready to commend All succeeded the better through your owne carefull presence and directions and will proue I am perswaded more auspicious in that it was contriued by you to be consecrated vpon that very Day which made England most happy and triumphant by your Noble Master Prince Charles his Returne from beyond the Seas This Sermon was over-hasty to beare any correspondency with the solemnity of a Consecration But such as it is you may claime it as your owne over-valued purchese together with the Author Whom long sithence you haue obliged vnto you by many real kindnesses Which here he thankfully acknowledgeth who desires ever to continue Exceter Colledge Novemb. 15. Your ready friend for requitall as God shall ever inable IOHN PRIDEAVX LVKE 19.46 My house is the house of prayer FEw passages in Scripture are more often pressed or precisely recorded the the words I haue read vnto you Beloued Our Saviour cites them out of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 56.7 and three Evangelists distinctly set them downe and the fourth intimates the matter of them Which harmony of both Testaments and foure Evangelists though it make not this text more authenticall then other as being of equall authority from the same Author yet well may it invite vs to a more serious consideration of them in regard that is not likely to be of ordinary consequence which it pleaseth the Holy Ghost so often to repeat and register It is obserued by most interpreters that twice our Saviour entred into Ierusalem and purged the Temple first a little after his Baptisme Joh. 2. and next not long before his passion recorded by the three other Evangelists Math. 21. Marke 11. Luke 19. Caietane thinks that this last time this purging was twice performed first as S. Mathew relates it vpon the first triumphant entrance and secondly which S. Marke mentioneth the very next day after But by conference of both Evangelists I find no ground for this assertion other Interpreters note it not we may passe it therefore as an vncertaine coniecture and observed by the way vpon better evidence first how soone corruptions grow vpon persons places manners never carefully reformed and next what zeale and resolution is to be vsed of those whom it truly concernes when Religion is prophaned Temples polluted holy things perverted by doggs and crafty Merchants to private gaine Luâ—e 2.7 with publike scandall He whose birth was the patterne of patience life the Legend of lowlinesse Math. 11.29 Philip. 2.8 Isaiah 53.7 death the most submissiue degree of humiliation and true obedience who as a Lambe was brought to the slaughter and as a sheepe before the shearer 1 Pet. 2.23 opened not his mouth who when hee was reviled Isaiah 42.3 Math. 12.18 reviled not againe when be suffered threatned not never trod so heauy as to breake a bruised reed or quench through impatience the flax that smoaketh in sacrilegious abuses Religious quarrels Churches rites and rights behold how hee looseth the raynes to an holy indignation The multitude of the offenders the might and malice of the observers the danger of the action the perill of the consequence among such a rabble and outcry of exasperated miscreants stay not his hands at all but a scourge is made of small cords to lash them Iohn 2.15 Out must the sheepe and Oxen downe must the Tables of Doue-hucksters and mony-changers where no doubt but as S. Hierome hath it on the 21. chap. of Mathew the rayes of his Divinity miraculously darting from his sacred countenance Math. 21.12 Mar. 11.15 stayed all opposition in the guilty and part-taking in the astonished beholders Notwithstanding that all might be sensible of the fault and take notice of the reason that moued him so vnexpectedly to such extraordinary severity he vpbraides them with that of Ieremy Is this House which is called by my name Cap. 7.11 become a denne of robbers in your eyes haue you no other Exchanges but Churches or Faires for your sheepe and Oxen or markets for pedling-wares and mony but such places as are consecrated to religious vses Thinke not that my earnestnesse is without ground or Zeale without knowledge you might learne of the Prophet Isaiah that I speake not without booke For there you haue it written My house not yours is and so must ever continue the house of prayer not a denne of theeues and shop for merchandice as you haue impiously made it And this I take to be the scope and meaning in generall of the few words my text consisteth of 2 In which may it please you to obserue with mee these Three circumstances 1. What God reserues to himselfe in the generall grant of all things to man A house 2. A distinctiue propriety whereby it is set apart from common vse intimated in the possessiue My. 3. The principall end of this separatioÌ„ by a Synecdoche including all other religious duties in that it is termed by an excelleÌ„cy the house of prayer The first includeth a ground for Churches and Chappell 's the second a warrant for Consecration the third a direction for the chiefest vse of both GOD will haue a House this House must appeare to bee his peculiar this peculiar must not be made common 07 as an I ld hall for playes or pleadings or a shop for merchandice or a cloyster for idle-walkers or a gallery for pleasure or a banqueting house for riot much lesse a brothell for wantonnesse or a cage for idolatrous superstitions but reserved as a sacred Congregation-house where penitent submissiue supplicaÌ„ts may learn their duty by Preaching assure their good proceedings by SacrameÌ„ts obtaine their graces by Prayer Though HeaveÌ„ be Gods Throne the Earth his footstoole his Essence infinitely aboue all through all in all beyond all yet his delight is such to be among the children of men that it liketh him to haue a place of assembling them together for his publike worship Math. 18.23 where he vouchsafeth to be in the midst of theÌ„ And this must be not a mountain a caue a groue or obscure hovel but as my text hath it a convenient house the first
recited In Apolog. ad Guliel Abbatem S. Theodorici prope finem O vanitas vanitatum saith he sed non vanior quam insanior Fulget Ecclesia in parietibus in pauperibus eget suos lapides induit auro suos filios nudos deserit de sumptibus egenorum servitur oculis divitum Inveniunt curiosi quo delectentur non inveniunt miseri quo sustententur Where vpon he concludes afterward Proh Deum Si non pudeat ineptiarum cur vel non piget expensarum By which it is cleare that vnnecessary structures superfluous charges ambitious pompe are the things they strike at where the painting of the house is the impouerishing of the houshold Otherwise they applauded the worke Sainted in a manner the Founders acknowledge the Iewes comendation of the Centurion with our Saviours approbation to bee a notable warrant and encouragement Hee is worthy for whom thou shouldest doe this for he loueth our Nation and hath built vs a Synagogue Luke 7.5 4 They are not worthy therefore to bee confuted or scarce deserue to be mentioned who in hatred of a Nation or Religion or in heat of faction overthrowe Gods houses such as were Nabuchadnezzar Antiochus Dioclesian the Maniches Messalians and Eustathius reckoned vp by n = a De cultu sanct l. 3. c. 1. Bellarmine de cultu sanct l. 3. c. 1. With whom when he ranketh the Petrobrusians Waldenses Wickleuists Taborites a man may chuse whether he will beleeue him For it is no new practise for Papists to make their opposites odious by fastning vpon thē such groundlesse calumniations Faine also to the same purpose he would find somewhat against the n = b Porro Lutherani Calvinistae admittunt Templa sed solum ad concionandum sacramento administranda reprehendunt autem quòd fiant templa adorandum quod consecrentur certoritu quod dignis sumptibus ornentur De cultu sanctor l. 3. c. 1. Lutherans and Calvinists but their innocency is so apparent and his mouth so toothlesse that hee snarleth rather then biteth He would giue vs forsooth a n = c Ibid. c. 3. modell how we should build our Churches First they must bee like Solomons Temple consisting of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Porch a Body and a quire otherwise all is out of frame and the workemen and contriuers shall bee shent Then if they point not most an end to the East for direction of our faces that way in Prayer our devotion is like to finde cold comfort It were pitty to omit those fiue pretty reasons hee brings from the depth of Schoole Divinity to proue it The first is Geographicall Paradise was towards the East though not according to the Vulgar yet according to the Septuagints Translation and therefore we should pray towards the East n = d Aq. 2.2 q. 84. art 3. I maruell whether this plot must hold also with his consorts in the East-Indies and China for if their faces likewise in prayer must be setled East-ward Paradise for ought I know will be cast at their backs The second reason is Astronomicall Because the Heauen begins his motion from the East which if the scripture confirme not Claevius vpon Sacrobosco will make it good The third is Propheticall Christ is named vir oriens n = e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zach. 6. And therefore with great reason should be looked for in the East The fourth is in some sort morall Christ vpon the Crosse looked Westward and therefore to looke him in the face wee must set our faces Eastward Also toward the East he ascended into Heauen and from the East he shall come as lightning Mat. 24.27 And is not this enough to make all suppliants in their Prayers looke Eastward His last inducement is altogether Politicall Exod. 26. The Iewes prayed toward the West should not wee therefore to crosse them pray toward the East Vt significemus as he adds eorum esse Literam occidentem n = f Bellar. de cultu sanct lib. 3. c. 3. nostrum autem spiritum vivificantem to signifie that they haue the Westerne Letter and wee the Easterne Spirit for so it must be rendred to make sense in the point he vrgeth it These are the great Cardinals reasons for Church architecture which I refute not but leaue for their conversion who affect to direct their Prayers by the Rumbes in the Compasse The thing we disallow not as in it selfe meerely indifferent yet imbrace it not on such Iesuiticall inducements but in regard of a commendable conformity Notwithstanding Tom. 1. p. 932. An. 443. n. 5. we may take notice by the way that Pope Leo the fourth as Binius and Baronius acknowledge in opposition to the Maniches praying to the Sunne East-ward made a Decree that Catholici ad occidentem conversi Deum colerent Catholickes should worship God with their faces toward the West Whom Bellarmine might haue done well to haue reconciled Durand de ritib. l. 5. c. 2. with his successour Vigilius who not long after as Durand tels vs first determined the contrary De cultu sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 2. vid. Hospinianum de Templis lib. 7. cap. 1. 6. Better are his forces imployed against the Anabaptists who though they maintaine a worse opinion against the building of Churches yet they iustifie it with more probability then Bellarmine doth their situation Arguments of the Anabaptists They vrge vs with the practise of the Patriarkes who occasionally erected Altars where they thought meetest and pleased God by their sacrifices yet never so much as dreamed of a Church They presse vs with the impossibility of the attempt and that from Gods owne mouth Isai 66.1 Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstoole where is the house you will build vnto me which they backe with these places of the New Testament Act. 7. God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as if he needed any thing Which S. Paul repeateth to the Athenians cap. 17. And had not our Saviour catechised the woman of Samaria before Ioh. 4. That Gods worship vnder the Gospell should not be restrained to the Mountaine of Samaria or Temple of Ierusalem but left free as the Apostle dispenseth I will therefore that men pray every where lifting vp pure hands without wrath or doubting 1. Tim. 2. They conclude therefore that the Iewish Temple was but a type of Christ to vanish therefore not a patterne for Christian Churches and that the light of nature taught divers Heathens that which the Stoicks delivered positiuely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answere to the first Churches for the Gods are not to bee built at all But all this is soone answered The Patriarchs case and ours is not alike their owne habitations for the most part were moueable Tents their families parochiall Congregations fixed houses therefore for
may seeme somewhat peremptory and questionable for how could they presume on the truth of a conclusion that had never learned logique or sate perchance at the feet of any Gamaliel Better it might haue beseemed them to haue consulted first with their great Rabbines what to thinke then to haue presently proclaimed this to be the promised Prophet But here wee are to take notice by the way that consequences are of two sorts some immediatly flowing from the premisses others farther remote The first are obvious to any that haue but common sence and vse of reason as when our Saviour would proue to his affrighted disciples that he was no spirit Luk. 24.39 Handle me and see saith he for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see mee haue A spirit hath not flesh and bones but I haue flesh and bones therefore I am not a spirit Naturall reason in an Infidell will approue of such a conclusion which faith ever presupposeth not opposeth non tollit sed extollit saith one it is so farre from taking reason away or abating it that it raiseth it to a higher pitch In deductions more remote from principles there will be need of a guid to point out the intervenient dependances how one truth followeth vpon another So in that of Our Saviour against the Saduces I am the God of Abraham Luk. 20.37 the God of Isaack the God of Iacob there is required much skill that every man hath not to make good the inference therefore the dead shall rise In such difficulties God hath appointed Bishops Doctors and Pastours in his Church to direct the more vns kilfull and to minde and exhort them to apply all to their edification in faith and manners They ordinarily by their calling are to interpret but the hearers to attend vnto and examine their Interpretation whether it bee consonant to the rule giuen by God in Scripture which cannot deceaue Let Saint Paul therefore vrge the Scripture never so strongly that Christ was the promised Prophet that was to come yet the noble Bereans shall be commended for examining it by the rule whether it were so or not It is the Turkes course to establish Mahumetisme Act. 17.11 by the sword the Popes to vphold superstition by fire and powder-plots and where that cannot get ground by other proiects and forgeries the Anabaptists by Enthusiasmes and the like But the Orthodoxe Christian contents himselfe wholy with the Canon that is giuen Any conclusion evidently drawne from that shall sway him out of that he himselfe may profitably collect whatsoever he finds there is warranted according to that he will censure whatsoeuer others teach him before he will submit his faith reason and conscience to follow them This too much admiring of particular Masters by a faith implicite which the Papists magnifie pinning as it were religion vpon other mens sleeues when those Masters differ amongst themselues must needs breed great distractions and those can no otherwise bee soldered then by repairing to that one rule which should keepe vs all in vnity Our Saviour appeales to no other Iudge in this controversie betweene him and the Scribes and Pharisees whether hee were the Prophet that was to come or no Luke 12. then to the people that were his Auditors v. 14. When you see a cloud rise out of the West saith he straight way yee say there commeth a storme and so it is and when yee see the South winde blowe yee say there will be heat and it commeth to passe yee Hypocrites yee can discerne the face of the heauen and of the earth but how is it that yee doe not discerne this time Yea and why of your selues iudge you not what is right Necessary is it that offences come and Heresies will ever be on foot for the triall of the faithfull wee can but propose vnto you our grounds and inferences for the maintenance of the truth and that by way of perswasion It is left to you to discerne by Scripture who goes the right way to try whether yee are in the faith to proue the spirits whether they are of God not by the deceitfull waights of mens inventions but by the ballance of the Sanctuary that the holy Ghost hath ser before Our Saviour here affordeth a true Miracle out the people act their owne part in making a due inference Of a truth This subverteth at once two mayne points of Popery The one of their Infallible Interpreters yet stood for by all The other wherein some comply with the Socinians taken vp of late by Cardinall Perone Verone and other French Iesuits who will tye vs to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bare words of the Scripture onely without admitting any consequence These things will hardly stand together for if consequences may not be admitted what need any Interpreter at all to direct them Infallibly And if there be such an infallible Interpreter what is left to the iudgement of the Auditory Might not our Saviour with St Peter and St Paul when they send vs to search the Scripture put vs into a surer way by directing vs vnto Christ's Vicar and S. Peters successour I may not stand longer to make plaine the poorenesse of either of these plots Let it be our syncere study Beloued to make vse of that wee read or heare from any not to suffer good things to slyde away without due application This was the peoples assurance here and the thing assured is this This is that Prophet that should come into the world The last circumstance left to dismisse your patience 12. That Prophet that should come into the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the pith of all that went before which my Meditations most aymed after but I perceiue the time hath surprised mee and I must comply Two things here would haue fallen distinctly to be considered of The first receiued by Instruction this people had heard before that there was such a Prophet by them to be expected The Second conceived by the present Miracle wrought that this was He. They had often read heard in the Law and the Prophets that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head that when the Scepter should depart from Iudah and a Law-giuer from between his feet that then Shiloh should come They expected according to vndoubted Prophecies the Virgins sonne of the root of Iesse the branch of Iustice the eminent Shepheard the Gouernour the King of Sion the desire of all Nations c. But the speciall promise they seeme to take notice of here was that of their Law-giuer Moses Deut. 18.15 Deut. 18.15 The Lord thy God will raise vp vnto thee a Prophet from the mid'st of thee of thy Brethren like vnto mee vnto him yee shall harken This they had heard this ranne in their minds this they now made vse of and so comparing the Prophecies with the event fell vpon the right Fuller demonstrations haue wee to
the rest of their members past the pikes they passed yet their hearts were continually glad Prov. 15.15 4. This continuall Feast a merry heart affordeth which if we relish not as we ought it argueth some great distemper Surely pleasure is most correspondent to mens nature as our Aristotle tells vs and is attained in the coniunction of the faculty Eth. lib. 7. c. 1. with his desired obiect But where may that obiect be found in this world which shall giue the heart sat is faction The Preacher was wise enough to haue fastened on it if this life had afforded it but his long experience brought him to this short issue that riches and glory and health and beauty and knowledge and applause of all the world are but so many pageants of flitting vanities which are attained most commonly with much travaile and griefe and losse before the heart can take a full survey of them O what a difference may there bee discerned betweene externall delight and this inward gladnesse This is the true Pratum spirituale the spirituall medow the Paradise of the soule that Heaven vpon earth that haven of happinesse which devout men in all ages haue felt and desired Amongst the fruits of the spirit which the Apostle recseoneth Gal. 5. This ioy of the heart is ranged in the first rowe as daughter to loue and sister to peace Corne and wine and oile may affect the labourer Psal 4. but nothing like that gladnesse of heart whih flasheth from the light of Gods countenance Psalme the 4. Meate and drinke may please the appetite of the hungry but the king dome of God consisteth not in such things but in righteousnesse and peace ioy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. Wherefore as Iehu said to Iehonadab If thy heart bee right as my heart is with thy heart let vs on together in this our Prophets chariot for a farther discovery of this hidden treasure which here is at the tongues end in the second place to be spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 And my glory reioyced As out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh so the heart shal no sooner indite a good matter but the tongue will be the penne of a ready writer Hee that shall make a doubt why I expresse this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies glory so indifferently by the word tongue may finde it not only in the 72 but also in the Apostles translation Act. 2.26 And the trope is else-where vsuall Gen. 49.6 vnto their assembly my honour or glory be not thou vnited That is God forbid that my tongue should ever approue of Simeons and Levies bloudy fact So Psal the 30.12 how can that be otherwise interpreted then of the tongue My glory shall sing praise to thee and not be silent The reason of this kinde of speech is giuen by some for that the especiall office of the tongue is to set forth Gods glory or that the inward worth of the minde is most commonly vented by speech Moller whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken by others as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of the mind the tongue being the best member and the worst according as it is imployed It is placed as the Anatomists tell vs betweene the Braine Laurent and the Heart that it should faithfully relate the conceits of both And moistened it is with a naturall glibnesse that it sticke not to the roofe of the mouth when the truth should bespoken and on the other extreame lest it should overlash it is kept within its compasse with a gard of teeth That therefore which a bit is for the guiding of a horse or a helme for the stirring a ship the Apostle maketh the tongue to be in regard of the whole body The managing well of this little member is the securing of all the rest If this be once fired from hell it defiles the whole body brings with it a world of iniquity and sets the course of nature in a combustion And how hardly it is reduced to temper when once it hath gotten a habit to be disorderly lavish the Apostle Saint Iames in plaine termes tells vs. Every kinde of beasts saith he and of birds and serpents and things in the sea is tamed and hath beene tamed but the tongue can no man tame it is an vnruly evill full of deadly poyson Therewith blesse we God and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Seeing then the tongue is so indifferent in it selfe to be abused or well employed why shouldest thou loose it rather to mischiefe saith S. Augustine then restraine it wholly to set forth Gods glory De Nat. Grat. Wilt thou bee choice of thy meates to content thy palate and carelesse of the words which thy tongue shall vtter The Heathen will tell vs that words must be sowen as seed Senec. Ep. 28. not confusedly in heapes for that were wast but distinctly scattered that they may grow and bring forth fruit A River overflowing the bankes and a tongue overlashing gather nothing but filth and durt as a Father makes the resemblance It were easy to exceed in a theme so plentifull God confounded the tongues at Babel for the separating of those Rebels but conferred the gift of tongues in the new Testament for the gathering of all Nations into one Church to glorify one God and those appeared fiery not to sindge the innocēt but to turn all carnall fuell into ashes How should we heare Gods word where there is no tongue to speake Or what communion could there be among the Saints where there wanted vtterance to expresse the hearts consent When the feet are at a stand the hands bound the rest of the members vnwealdy to doe God service happy it is for vs that the tongue is free to glorify him in our selues and expresse to the chearing vp of others what the heart thinketh 6 But it too often falleth out Beloued that this glory will be wanting when the heart is otherwise ingaged and the tongue be pratling of that which the mind never conceited Nat. Hist l. 6. c. 30. Pliny tells vs of some farre in the East that had no tongues at all And Diodorus Siculus of others Hist l. 2. c. 1. toward the South that had two tongues in one mouth so distinctly parted that at one and the same instant they could oppose and answere What credit is to be given to such relations I need not admonish but better perchance it were to haue no tongue at all then a heart and a tongue deceitefully divided and the gladnesse or griefe of the one not expressed but dissembled in the other What should I speake of the grosse flattery or virulent backbiting or open railing or corrupt communication or that which is worst of all the impudent lying and damnable swearing and blaspheaming of these degenerate times which a Christian heart trembleth to conceiue and the
these our dayes who must haue all as they will or else all is out of frame but so launceth that he may heale so openeth that hee may binde vp againe and to the severall sores discovered applieth an agreeing remedy Idlenesse therefore must be shaken off by a willing and ready minde not to famish but feed the flocke which is not so much theirs as Gods ver 2. filthy lucre must not be thought vpon when a Crowne of Glory is proposed a Crowne that fadeth not to bee receiued from the chiefest shepheard vers 4. And what a cooling card next followes against the Lording over Gods inheritance This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned ver 3. younger saith hee submit your selues vnto your elders All of you bee subiect one to another ver 5. Submit be subiect No apparell so befits an honest hearty Christian as to bee clothed with humility If he be proud hee hath God for his enemy If humble Gods grace for his erection and protection Now because this swelling of Ambition is fed with such a confluxe of no cious humours that one dressing would scarce serue and it stood the Apostle vpon not to leaue the cure vnperfect Hee addes the words of my Text as a playster to doe the deed seeing that domineering is not for your profession Mutuall subiection is your truest badge Humility your best clothing God himselfe the opposer of the proud and the most gratious protector of those that are Humble Humble your selues therefore vnder the mighty hand of God that hee may exalt you in due time 2. Which according to the expresse words implyed consequences may thus bee paraphrased You reckon your selues to be Elders and I hope you take me for no lesse Wee witnesse what Christ hath suffered and beleeue what glory he hath provided for vs. But suppose you that his flocke is committed vnto vs thereby to feed our selues let that pine through want to pretend an over-sight and intend nothing lesse Is this the example we shew the Crowne wee ayme at The Humility we should bee clothed with No certainly my Brethren Christ hath suffered for vs and the servant is not greater then his master The inheritance is his and his stewards must not convert it to their private pompe and pleasure Words Outsides may not satisfie where reall performance is required If you haue an ayme at the highest preferment the way to attaine it is by faithfulnesse in a little No entrance to his Temple of honour but by the Gate of Humility Humble your selues therefore or he will make you stoope vnder his mighty hand or it shall pluck you downe And herein you shall not be your owne factors but hee will exalt you not when or where you affect but as he shall think fit in due time And this I take in generall to bee the meaning of this exhortation The summe is A never fayling Plot for the surest attaining of the best preferment Wherein wee meet with 1. A Rule to bee observed by way of Precept Humble your selues vnder the mighty hand of God 2. The successe depending vpon an implied promise That hee may exalt you in due time The Rule includeth an Action limited to its right obiest Humble your selues But to whom vnder the mighty hand of God The successe is not doubtfull but restrayned to a certainty He shall exalt you but when in due time It were small mastery vpon so good a ground to runne division but my ayme is playnenesse which I take will be best apprehended in these 4 particulars The 1. Suiters duty or indeavour Humble your selues 2. Patrones ability vnder the mighty hand of God 3. Businesse successe that he may exalt you 4. Fitnesse of oportunity In due time Many haue the hap to apply themselues to such as little respect them or are not of ability to doe them good some are earnest and able but occasion fayles or one rub or other frustrates the indeavour A third sort speed at length and haue that they looke for but it comes so vnseasonably that it scarce quits cost Now all these things here happily concurre beyond expectation to the preventing of all exceptions No straining beyond thy power but restraining thy selfe by Humility No striuing to make friends and please many where the hand of God wil exalt No importunity needfull that others should not prevent thee where hee sets downe the time All for easier recalling may be thus connected As thou shewest thy selfe humble so God will approue himselfe mighty in effecting that for others which surpasseth thy policy though not perchance when thou wilt who art ignorant what is best for thee yet in such due sort and time as shall doe thee most good Of these in their order as the time and your patience shall giue leaue And first of the first which is the suiters taske or Indeavour in these words 3. Humble your selues therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle Therefore includeth an Inference vpon somewhat that went before which is thus deduced God is no way to bee resisted but suedvnto for grace This is done by humility Humble your selues therefore As charity makes the breadth patience the length faith the height of our spirituall building So Humility must be vnderlaid all these saith Hugo as the surest foundation De claustris Animae l. 3. whence wee may inferre that There is no admission to Gods favour without humble submission The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the originall intimates no lesse which is not so rightly rendred passiuely by the vulgar Bee yee humble as well corrected by others and our latter Translation actiuely Humble your selues Any coaction here marres the Action which must bee altogether voluntary Wherevpon Humility is defined by the Schooles to be A voluntary deiection of a mans selfe vpon a view of his owne vnworthinesse and Gods infinite bounty and power Whence the Canonists rightly distinguish betweene Humiles Humiliatos Those that are truely humble those whose stubborne stomacks are violently pluckt downe The Hebrewes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text Ps 9.13 Ps 9.13 which barely signifies poore and needy read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the margine according to the rule of their Keri and Cethib which not onely points out those who are deiected and in misery but such as are gentle modest and truely mortified Those will the Lord guide in iudgement Ps 25. and learne his way To such poore in spirit and meeke in heart our Saviour in his list of Beatitudes assures both heaven and earth Mat. 5. Math. 5. And if both Heaven and Earth be taken vp for the Humble saith Cassiodore in what place think you shall the proud be billetted Further delating in a Common place so beaten can neither be gratefull nor profitable For who hath not obserued that of the wise man How Humility vshers honour Prov. 15.33 Prov. 17.12 Prov. 15. as pride goes before destruction Prov. 17. The Publican therefore
AT THE COVRT BY IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exceter Colledge His MAIESTIE'S Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of OXFORD OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. MATTH 18.10 Take heed that yee despise not one of these little ones for I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels doe alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven THERE are no words or workes of our Saviour Christ saith S. Hierome but the causes of them are to bee religiously sought out Of these I haue read vnto you divers reasons are giuen Vpon an ambitious brabble among the Disciples who should be the greatest in the kingdome of heaven which they a longtime as the Iewes doe at this day expected in all pompe and pleasure vpon earth vers 1. Our Saviour takes a little child and sets it in the mid'st of them to make them the more sensible by an ocular demonstration of that which he would deliuer vnto them Vult desiderium gloriae saith the same Father humilitatis contentione sanare his purpose was to bring them to emulate who should be the humblest rather then the greatest See you this little one saith he that here stands before you He plots not for preferment quarrels not envies none that goeth before him remembers not an iniury speakes not what he thinks not is not much taken with those things this world accounts excellent He stands not vpon his birth riches place or Wisedome but makes as much of his poore nurse or play-fellow as of those that are of better rancke I tell you you must stoope to this submission if you take the right way to greatnesse in that kingdome you contend about Wherevpon also taking an occasion to instruct them farther how dangerous it is for man to be offensiue to these innocents whom God so dearely tenders How a woe is denounced to the world because of scandals how carefull all should be yea more then for a foot or an eye or any of their dearest members that such mischiefes should be avoided he descends to illustrate it more fully in the words of my Text which may seeme to prevent a tacit scruple to this purpose You may say perchance you intend to bee so farre from scandalizing any or offering the least iniury that you resolue not to make nor meddle with any such little ones nay you wil not as much as take notice of them or their doings either to wish them good or doe them harme But this comes not home to that our Saviour here requireth It is not sufficient to forbeare wronging thy brother by open scandals but thou shalt not despise him in thy heart thou shalt not vilifie or set light by him because thou art great and he a little one but shalt respect him according to thy opportunities and abilities to doe him good because it hath pleased God to honour him with the glorious guard of his heavenly attendance Take heed that yee despise not one of these litle ones for I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels doe alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven 2. In which words we haue 1. First a precept In the precept is set forth 1. The Manner by way of caution Take heed see 2. The Matter that yee despise not one of these litle ones 2. The reason of it For I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels doe alwaies behold the face of my father which is in heaven Vpon both these ioyned together S. Hilary playes thus the Logician Periculosè ille contemnitur c. He cannot be slighted without great danger who hath as it were the Angels his Agents in the court of heauen But such are these little ones here mentioned Ergo. Euthymius in this manner Quos servant Angeli hos despicere homines non oportet whom the heavenly Angels guard earthly men should not despise but this is the case of those little ones by our Saviours own testimony Ergo. Gorran thus Those who are not contemned of the best and greatest should not bee vndervalued of the meaner But Angels contemne not these little ones Ergo men should not It appeareth therefore how much it standeth vs vpon to be carefull and diligent and by all meanes take heed that in no sort wee despise them which is the caveat or manner of the precept and first part of my Text that calls vpon your religious circumspection 3. Take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole life of man is so subiect to mishaps that when he is securest he may be nearest a shrewd turne This as it is too too obvious in temporall occurrents so in spirituall it should be the more feared by how much it nearer concernes our everlasting making or marring And therefore in such cases especially no caution should be accounted too scrupulous This our Saviour best knewe in regard whereof he so often earnestly vrgeth his followers to take heed Take heed saith he that no man deceaue you Mat. 24. Take heed how yee heare Mar. 4. Of which nature are also the Apostles caveats See that none render evill for evill to any man 1. Thess 5. See that yee refuse not him that speaketh Heb. 12. The word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latines render by videte and in the scripture hath as it is obserued no lesse then 16 significations properly it expresseth the Act of seeing but figuratiuely it imports to consider to vnderstand to examine to take heed which is the reason that whereas our former translations had it see that yee despise not our last renders it take heed which the Syriack and Arabique also beare and is most agreeable to the Text for scandals are reckoned here no smale matters and little ones may be great in Gods esteeme To haue an eye therefore only that way to see withall without more adoe will not serue except diligent heed and circumspection be taken And should wee perswade our selues there is no danger where our Saviour bids vs so carefully to take heed Or reckon it a smal favour when hee vouchsafeth so providently to forewarne vs I will thanke the Lord saith David for giuing mee warning Ps 16. but our neglect is such that we hardly accept of it when it is giuen In matters of Temporall advantages we can be ready to put in caveats and why should these be neglected in things that more concerne vs It is not Fate or misfortune or want of opportunity or ability but want of good take-heed that most commonly is the bane of all our vntoward actions This he knew best that obserued amongst those that were neerest to him an affectatiō of a kind of a Primacy betweene themselues with an aptnesse to giue offence and vndervalue others The dangerous consequence of which swelling infirmity they little suspected what it might grow to And therefore hee wisheth them the more seriously to take heed Thus we haue heard the Manner of our Saviours precept the Matter
these protestations should be performed But what was the issue the Bryer so spread his prickles fild vp the garden that there was no accesse to him without scratching or scarse by his stopping of the passages to any of the other trees I need not adde the morall before so vnderstanding an assembly every one soone apprehends how easie it is for greatnesse to forget from whence it came which is neither from the East nor from the West nor yet from the wildernesse which comprehends North and South but perpendicularly from him that setteth vp one plucketh downe another Psal 75. A hoppe will soone start vp to overlooke the pole by which it climb'd How quickly the braine not vsed to it groweth giddy on a sudden by looking from high place What a churlish answer did Nabal giue to Davids ingenuous Messengers because hee had some pelfe about him 1. Sam. 25. and the other stood in distresse What is David and who is the sonne of Iesse And what are these little ones say our worldlings that such adoe is made about them Senselesse and forgetfull proud man these little ones belong to our Saviours little flocke they carry his Image appertaine to his Court of Wards haue his stamp vpon them therefore must not be despised where favour is expected from him that protects them Hath God made thee great to contemne that which is little Or is it wisedome to make t hem the obiect of thy disdaine who should be fauourably sheltred vnder the shadow of thy protection If all things were well in this behalfe Beloued why is there more respect giuen oftentimes to a beast rather then to our poore Christian brethren Iam. 2. or as S. Iames speaketh to gay cloathing or a whispering Sycophant rather then to a faithful admonisher High buildings had need of a firme foundation and sure buttresses Nabuchadnezzor when he vaunted he had gotten all vpon the sudden lost his wits and degenerated into a beast And wormes will tell Herod he is but a man when applauders would make him beleiue that he spake like a God All this maketh well for little ones when superiours are staued off from contemning them But is all right on the other side with these little ones who take vpon them to be such and beare the world in hand that they are so in very deed This too often is rather desired then found by the most impartiall and syncere inquisitors by reason of the bewitching hypocrisie that beares vp still in the world bids faire to be counted in the list of these litle ones These with Diogenes tread down Plato'es pride but with greater pride in a slyer way with that Abbot looke demurely on the ground till they haue gotten the keyes of the Abbey then advance as pertly as those who are most supercilious 7. Now if the case of these little ones bee so happy as our Saviour here shewes it to be and we are bound to belieue it how comes it about that most are not content with being in the happy case of these little ones but will ever bee tampering to overtop the greatest Surely there is too much of old Adam in most of his posterity For if thy lot be falne in a good ground and thou haue a goodly heritage in the station that God hath set thee what need so much casting about and farther adoe to iustle competitours aside and goe before them Every man is ready enough to censure the fore-mentioned Bryer for his overspreading prickles but who thinks on the Thistle of Lebanon that would needs haue a match betweene his sonne and the Cedar's daughter This parable is Canonicall and therefore I may propose it with the lesse offence and greater confidence it is in the 2. of Chron. the 25. and the 18. You shall haue it in the very words of the text The Thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the Cedar that was in Lebanon saying giue thy daughter to my sonne to wife and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode downe the Thistle Here you see the match was mar'd and so it often falls out with Hypocriticall little ones who will needs swell with the Toad to be as great as the Oxe and then burst in the midst of their foolish attempt Beloued let every one amend one and then all will be well Preferment may be religiously taken so it be not ambitiously affected or procured by synister meanes Ioseph Daniel and Nehemiah refused it not but improued it to the honour of their Advancers and the advancement of the Church state wherein they liued The greatest therefore in dignity may be little ones by their true humility Little ones by their submission to God though the greatest by commission from God And this is the eminency of goodnesse to be such little great ones or great little ones To compose and set all as it should be If the great may be brought to professe syncerity with David Lord I am not high minded I haue no proud lookes Ps 131. I doe not exercise my selfe in great matters which are too high for me I would not by any meanes despise one of thy little ones but I refraine my soule and keep it low like a child that is weaned from his mother yea my soule is as a weaned child Ps 131. In all humility and submission and singlenesse of heart the little ones on the other side should haue also by heart S. Pauls lesson I knowe how to be abased and I knowe how to abound every where in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need For I haue learned in what estate soever I am therewith to be contented Philip. 4.12 12. Last of all let me make but one collection more from this passage and then an end of this point If Superiours are enjoyned to take heed that they despise not one of Gods little ones then a maiori ad minus and so reciprocally a minori ad maius these little ones are likewise bound to respect honour and obey in all submission and syncerity their lawfull superiours But the antecedent is our Saviours Therefore these little ones who expect salvation should make good the consequent They haue a reason to doe it heartily willingly truly by the true faith of a Christian as God helps them and affords them the protection of his holy Angels which reason is giuen here in my text now followes in order to be discussed 8 For I say vnto you that in heaven their Angels doe alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In points of beliefe that which is extraordinary and not heard of before is not lightly to bee receiued without good ground That the Angels in heaven had such especiall charge of litle ones here vpon earth was more then was ever plainely taught before our Saviours comming For as the
mystery and wisdome of God in mans redemption was imparted to principallities and powers V. 10. by the preaching of the Gospel Ephes 3. which things the Angels desired to looke into 1. Pet. 1. So how these Angels should bee in heaven and yet minister here on earth V. 12. behold alwaies there the fathers face yet atteÌ„d hereon litle ones was more then in reason could haue soone beene belieued except wee had his word for it whose bare affirmation is as the surest confirmation This the people acknowledged at the hearing of his Sermon on the mount He taught as one hauing authority and not as the Scribes Math. 7. The officers sent to take him professed that never man spake like this man There is a foolish conceipt set a foote of late by the Socinians That as Moses was taken vp into the mount and S. Paul into the third heaven to gaine countenance to their doctrine So our Saviour immediately vpoÌ„ his Baptisme was had vp into heaven corporally there remained a whole Lent to receiue instructions from his father No marvaile therefore that at his returne also his word stands for a law But these are wild presumptions of wantons that play with the text rather then make vse of it What need this Lent ascending when the Holy Ghost descended vpon him visibly at his comming out of Iordan And the Fathers voice was audible This is my beloued Sonne in whom alone I am well pleased And if this had not gone before yet the complement of Prophecyes Math. 3. in his birth and course of life his Doctrine conformable to the law and Prophets his stupendious miracles for confirmation of his Doctrine was a commission beyond exception For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say vnto you this directs vs what we should haue recourse vnto in the controuersies of these times Auferantur de medio chartae nostrae non audiamus haec dico haec dicis nec ego Nicoenum nec tu Ariminense These are the knowne words of S. Augustine in divers places In Psal 57. de vnitat c. 3. Cont. Maxim l. 3. c. 14. Away with our papers those termes I say Thou sayest I rely not on the counsel of Nice neither shouldest thou on that of Ariminum heare what Christ sayeth heare what the truth speaketh For it is the property of a right Belieuer sayth S. Basil to dare to goe no further Bellarmine to settle a Monarchy here in the Church Militant which the Pope must needs haue by succession he would fetch it about by the plat-forme of the Church triumphant De Pontif. Rom. l. 1. c. 9. For then sayth hee vpon the fall of Lucifer Michael presently steps into his place and is advanced to bee the Prince of Angels But who told the Cardinal this that hee was certainly assured of it S. Paul comming to himselfe form the third heaven acquaints vs with no such matter Secrets concerning the Angels and affayres of an other world are sparingly imparted vnto vs as not so requisite to our calling but reserued to bee communicated when we shall come to be of that vpper house This preface of our Saviour therefore I say vnto you was necessary in this behalfe For who would otherwise haue found out in any record for these litle ones that 9 In heaven their Angels doe alwayes behold the face of my Father which is in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the maine of the reason for not despising them and remainder of my text that leades on to bee discussed And here the difficulties that present themselues at the entrance concerning the Angels might plead for a greater scantling of time then I perceiue will bee alotted me for the vnfolding of them I shall but touch therefore at some specialls and winde vp the rest in references Those that are curious in this behalfe to see much and finde litle haue the Sententiaries and Summists with Tostatus on my text together with our new Systematicall writers with their Angelographies Pneumatologies to fit them All that is amongst them diffused is commonly reduced to these 4 heads 1. the nature of Angels 2. their Properties 3. their Orders 4. their Ministry Their nature is here supposed that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 existent substances or rather subsistent Not meere imaginations or abstractions against the Saduces and Plat onicks That they are 2ly spirits not subtill or aeriall Bodyes as most of the Fathers and some others held That there is 3ly a certaine number of them indefinite to vs though finite in it selfe more curiously sought then found of the Schoole-men Some of the names of them we haue in Scripture and others inverted to wicked vses by vaine men all which we may well passe over Their properties concerning their Locality their motions their knowledge their will and affections their language whereby they expresse their intentions one to another their Persons their manner of apparition and the like would also aske more labour in discussing then bring profit in the determining So for their orders and Hierarchies more is sayd then any wayes can be proued Amongst the Ancients Theodoret hath somewhat more then the rest in his 3. Booke de curandis Graecorum affectibus Others touch at it in some passages on every text of Scripture Gregory de valentia professeth that the Shoolemen lâ—â—â—e omnia propemodum all almost that Hales and Aquinas haue spunne out through so many members questions and Articles from Dionysius Areopagita whom when he is freed from being a counterfaite wee shall more willingly giue eare vnto In the meane season wee may leaue these men fishing all night and taking nothing whiles wee stick to our Saviours words I say vnto you as the text hath it wherein wee may obserue first concerning the Angels these 3. particulars as they lye 1. How these Angels may bee conceiued to be in heaven 2. Why they are termed their Angels 3. In what manner they alwayes behold the face of God the Father And secondly concerning God 1. why our Saviour calls him here my Father 2. and last of all in what sense hee is so called 10 It is a receiued ground amongst Divines that as divers Angels cannot bee together in one proper definitiue place So one cannot-at due time bee in divers places and therefore they approue that saying of Damascene when they are in heaven they are not on earth and being imployed by God vpon earth they remaine not then in Heaven His reason for all this is in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are of a confin'd nature as all creatures of necessity must bee and therefore cannot be as the Creatour every where If then these Angels bee every very where in Heaven how guard they Gods litle ones vpon earth doe they extend their power from thence as the Sunne his Beames Or is their celerity such that they may bee sayed to bee at one instant both in earth and in heaven Or shall
wee take vp that miserable shift of the Vbiquitaries that Gods heaven is every where so that the Divels after their manner are contained in it This were to make the solution more questionable then the doubt The meaning is plaine that such keepers are deputed to Gods litle ones here on earth who haue perpetuall accesse to his glorious presence in heaven that stand before him to receiue his commands and haue his commission and beatificall aspect wheresoeuer they are imployed But why are they then termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their rather then his Angels quia assignati sunt ijs sayth Lira because they are assigned to these litle ones not exempted from his service that assignes them Vpon this place and some other sayth Maldonate are grounded those controuerted assertions de Angelis custodibus of those Angels appointed to bee our Guardians either as Presidents of severall Provinces or of particular Persons Whether every one haue not only his good Angel but his bad about him as his superiour guids not inferiour attendāts And therefore they are termed Elohim mighty ones Gods nearer servants The Romanists dare say any thing that may backe their worshipping of Angels and make way for their Invocation of Saints whereby they suck no litle advantage Hence they haue a peculiar order called the Angellicall sodality for whom Paul the 5. not long since appointed a distinct office and Masse to bee celebrated every Calends of October in honour of the protecting Angel Albertinus the Iesuite writes a Booke to make it good whereto this office is annexed But the proofes brought for all these things are exceeding wavering Wherevpon some of our later writers reiect the particular deputations of severall Angels to distinct Provinces or Persons and content themselues with that which is certaine that the Angels indefinitely haue a charge over Gods people Psal 91. That they are all Ministring spirits sent forth to Minister for them which shall be heires of Salvation Heb. 1. That they pitch their tents about them that feare him Psal 34. Howbeit seeing the streame of all the Fathers and Schoolemen that I haue met withall runne for their distinct imployment and gather it especially from the words of my text I think the moderation of Zanchius cannot bee disliked that it is very probable De operibus l. 3. c. 15. and agreeable to Scripture that both particular men and Persons ordinarily haue their particular protecting Angels but extraordinarily more as need shall require and as it shall please God to dispose But whether the same Angels keepe allwaies to the same charge or partyes or else as leiger Embassadours bee remoued from one negotiation to another others succeeding in their places is a scruple that hath beene lesse thought vpon Perchance Damascen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that created them Orthod sidei l. 2. c 3. only knowes these things and Calvins pro certo asserere non ausim I dare affirme nothing for certainty will commend their Iudgement more that determine nothing then their wits that are too busie 11 The third point followes what it is to behold the face of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in what manner these Angels are said to doe it allwaies It seemes to be a Metaphore taken from the Courts of earthly Princes who haue their attendants allwaies about them to execute their commands as Solomon had 1. Kings 10. of which the Queene of Sheba gaue this approbation Happy are thy men happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee where the Phrase of standing continually is not to bee so rackt as though they were fixt there to go no other way but only shewes that they were allwaies ready at his pleasure to bee imployed No more doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. 69. allwaies signifie Here Abulensis proposeth the question whether those imployed in the guarding of litle ones bee hindred thereby from the Divine vision and determines it negatiuely out of this place that they allwaies behold the face of the Father Moral l. 2. Aq. 1. part q. 112. art 1. And by that of Gregory Sic ad exteriora prodeunt vt ab intimis nunquam recedant so they performe this that they loose not that Pareus distinguisheth Gods glorious face In locum from his essentiall and thinks they behold his essentiall only vpon earth but not his glorious To me it seemes hard to conceiue that those Angels should loose any thing by their attendance S. Stephen here on earth saw the glory of God and the Sonne of man standing at his right hand Acts 7. And why may not Angels doe the like Their sight out of doubt is of another kind and better then ours where wee see nothing at all or very obscurely they clearely may behold their Masters glory Aq. part 1. q. 112. This iustifieth not that Schoole-distinction of assisting and Ministring Angels as though some stood allwaies before Gods throne as privy Counsellours others were sent abroad as Inferiour Agents and that these Ministring Angels never assist and those Assistants never Minister to men as being an imployment for Angels of a lower Hierarchie For all these are no lesse vnwarrantable then curious speculations depending vpon the Dreames of that Areopagita's poeticall Hierarchie whom Erasmus Valla and their owne Cajetan haue branded long sithence for a Counterfeit How much sounder is that of S. Augustine Quid inter se distant quatuor ista vocabula what difference may be pickt betweene these 4 words Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers say they that can if they can proue what they say ego me ista ignorare fateor For mine owne part I confesse I am ignorant of it The Papists haue nine orders in their Hierarchies the Rabbins ten orders downe-right without Hierarchies in subordination one to another and their reasons are pretty for it There were 4 and 5 Kings fought together say they Gen. 14. which make nine and Abraham comes vpon them for the 10th t herfore there must be ten orders of Angels as also for that our five senses foure affections with reason cast into the reckoning make another tenne therefore there are tenne orders of Angels therefore tenthes are to be payed and tenne Predicaments in Aristotle The Papists reasons for their Hierarchies are not altogether so foolish yet nothing more conclusiue Wee make no question but he that created all things in number weight and measure neglected not amongst his best Creatures the best order but whom hath he made of counsel with him in that behalfe What Paul returning from the 3. heaven hath discouered these secrets or where haue wee an I say vnto you as here that we may safely depend vpon Let it suffice vs therefore that those mighty ones haue a charge of vs who haue alwaies accesse to the Almighty and behold his face and receiue his commands to helpe vs in our necessities shield vs in our dangers cōfort vs in our sorrowes backe vs in
our Combats watch when wee sleepe and stirre when wee neglect least the enemy approach to hurt vs or the Sonne of wickednesse to doe vs any violence 12 In all this that hath beene spoken nothing makes for the worshipping of Angels that the Romanists so much stand for for what can bee more plaine against them then that Coloss 2. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which hee hath not seene or that of an Angel himselfe Rev. 16.10 see thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God wherevpon S. Augustine in Psal 96. if you would rightly worship the Angels you should learne of thē not to worship them I am not ignorant what put-offs there are for these and the like evidences but they intangle rather then resolue The time clapsed wil not beare the discussing of the point I forbeare only this by the way and by way of Caution let the Angel-worshippers or Votaries take heed of mistakes least in their vnwarrantable devotions insteed of an Angel of light they meet sometime with a worse commodity then a light Angel for they know who can transforme himselfe 2. Cor. 11. And it may perchance so fall out that when according to the Iesuite Albertinus rules they haue the familiarity of their guardian Angel they bee fitted with a familiar they would faine be ridde of But for vs Beloved in a surer course what an incouragement might this bee in all our exigents to emboulden vs to be resolute whatsoeuer befals vs when Elishah's servant cried out in the middest of the Aramites Alas Master what shall we doe 2. Kings 6.16 feare not saith the man of God for they that are with vs are more then they that are with them The Mountaines are full of Horses Chariots of fire to rescue Gods litle ones against all opposers If Pharaoh bee at the heeles of Israel to doe them a mischiefe the Angel which was before in a pillar of cloude and fire will come behinde And if Rabshakeh rayle on good King Hezechiah and his Master Zenacherib beleager Hierusalem the Lord hath an Angel to raise the seige Thou considerest not thine owne priviledges whosoeuer thou art who neglectest that comfort which this Doctrine may yeeld vnto thee Though thy Birth bee never so base thy state never so meane thy reputation never so slighted at the hands of wordlings thou hast Angels to attend thee if thou attend to Gods precepts the dogges shall not only licke thy sores but the Angels convey thy soule into Abrahams bosome Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Sonn of man that thou so regardest him haue we bin so serviceable vnto thee that thy chiefest servants must so attend to performe vnto vs such service Last of all what a motiue should this bee vnto vs Beloved that out perversenesse grieue and driue not from vs these vnspotted assistants For as there is ioy in heaven amongst the Angels at the conversion of a sinner so they sorrow in earth no doubt when they finde vs set on mischiefe or carelesse what may befall hereafter If Sampson loose his sacred lockes in a Delilah's lappe Iud. 16. no marvaile if the spirit of th' Almighty forsake him And when Saul will not doe as the Lord inioyneth him insteed of protecting Angels an evill spirit may haunt him O quantum debet tibi hoc verbum inferre reverentiam afferre devotionem conferre fiduciam What reverence devotion and confidence saith S. Bernard should this kind of Doctrine administer vnto vs Reverence for their presence devotion for their loue confidence for their protection For if the presence of earthly Potentates exclude all vncivill behauiour and the over-sight of Iehoiada a subiect 2. King 12. could keepe King Ioash in order how much more then should we respect these Celestiall Tutors least as smoake doth Bees and an evill savour Doues so the stench of our sinnes as S. Basil notes should make these blessed guides loath our company this the Father would dislike who is in heaven and oversees all that is done the remainder of my text which in a word I shall endeauour to dispatch 13 The supposall of Gods absence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or not taking notice of our actions makes most too venturous either to act that which they should not or to neglect their duty Perversenesse might wrest my text to the fauouring of such conceipts as that my Father and being in heaven might be far enough from hauing much to doe with vs. But hee whom our Saviour termeth my Father and affirmeth to be in heaven otherwise shews to be our Father Mat. 5. Luc. 12. and your Father neither his being in heauen boundeth him from being every where My Father is vsed here and elsewhere to beat downe that surmise that he might be Iosephs sonne and rayse them to acknowledge his Godhead and the pointing to his heavenly being takes them off from sticking too much as commonly we doe to things here below It was not without cause therefore that our most learned and most Iudicious King Iames of blessed memory was so sharp against the two ring-leaders of perturbation in these our wanton times Conrade Vorstius and Iames Arminius Vorstius incroached too farre vpon libertas prophetandi liberty as hee calls it with the Anabaptist of prophecying Arminius vpon the strength of his wit was too confident vpon meditation without reading which savours too strongly of a private spirit Both slight Fathers and Schoolemen and our latter Reformers whereas God hath left their directions to be thankfully considered of vs and not to depart from them rashly to get a name What a daring Blasphemy was that of Vorstius to circumscribe Gods essence from being every where Arminius for ought I finde never went so far but in his course Gods vnsearchable prerogatiue to doe with his owne as he list his operatiue grace working all in all to say no more was little beholding to him Their reasons are for the discussing of Schooles where both sides may be fully heard in sifting of all particulars Preaching calls for application to the amendment of our liues in those things which are plainely manifested The chiefe reason why we most mis-carry in that behalfe is because our great spirits hardly condescend to become Gods little ones We thinke not as we should vpon that in our Church Liturgy sursum corda lift vp your hearts wee lift them vp vnto the Lord. We are onely to seeke him here to climbe vp by that we finde and apprehend his glory which is the complement of our happinesse Doe so many blessings descend daily vpon vs from him and should not we looke vp in thankfulnesse to the place from whence they come Is heaven the mark we ayme at and shall we cast our eyes another way Vnto thee will I lift vp mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heauens for
where should we so happily finde our Elder Brother CHRIST IESVS but at the right hand of his and our Father where he makes continuall intercession for vs Let our Pater noster therefore ever goe before our dayly bread the hallowing of his name before the prosecuting of our owne designes the promoting of his kingdome before all earthly promotions That of little ones here wee may become great ones in heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the blessed company of heaven alwaies to behold his face Evermore praysing him and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory glory be to thee O Lord Father Sonne and Holy Ghost three persons one God most high AMEN AMEN IDOLATROVS FEASTING A SERMON PREACHED AT THE COVRT BY IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exceter Colledge His MAIESTIE's Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of OXFORD OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. 1. COR. 10.7 Neither be yee Idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sate downe to eat and drinke and rose vp to play THERE are no enemies more dangerous to a Christian man then those he hath within him Lactantius termeth them three Furies Divinar Instit Epit. c. 2. that set all in a combustion without respect of danger or discredit The first is Anger hot vpon revenge The second Covetousnesse eager vpon pelfe The third is Lust never satisfied with pleasures These the Stoicks would haue rooted out The Peripatetiques moderated But the good Christian set in a right course That Anger should be for breach of Gods lawes Covetousnesse for heaping vp heavenly treasures and our greatest desire should be to enioy that satisfying presence which will afford vs innumerable and everlasting felicity Our Apostle here had to doe with the Corinthians at that time an vnderstanding rich and flourishing state though now the case be altered for their humiliation and others example Those hee found supercilious in censuring scrupulous in doubting Itching for innovations Heady in abusing their Christian libertie to the scandall of their weaker brethren It was the harder taske therefore for him so prudently to deale in such points with such a people to keepe them in the right in which he had instructed them and make them sensible how insensibly they might be wrought from it Thus as he had indeavoured to doe in the former Chapter by his owne example in this he presseth more fully out of the Fathers the Church of Israel You Corinthians indeed haue great reason to stand vpon the preaching of the word and seales of the Sacraments that so gratiously haue beene afforded vnto you But Brethren I would not haue you ignorant that all our Fathers the Iewes had their Baptisme also vnder the Cloude and in the passage through the sea and the Lords Supper likewise in their Manna from Heaven and water out of the Rock But when they became Idolaters Fornicators Tempters of Christ Murmurers did these priviledges beare them out were they not slayne by their Brethren stung by Serpents destroyed by the destroyer to make them take heed from falling into further inconveniences Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evill things as they also lusted Neither bee Idolaters as were some of them As it is written the people sate downe to eat drinke and rose againe to play 2. My Text then you see falls fully against Idolatry the first begotten of lust and here comes not alone but hath fornication tempting of God murmuring attending on it wherein may it please you To take notice of 1 A Prohibition Neither be yee Idolaters as were some of them 2 A specification As it is written the people sate downe to eat and drinke and rose againe to play The first expresseth what is forbidden Idolatry The second particularizeth wherein it consisted In eating drinking playing very common things amongst vs all and we hope without offence It is a fashion now adayes and vse hath brought it at length to be little excepted against to call Heretick or Puritan on Papist at every bout when God knowes those that are fullest of those termes haue most commonly least insight how the case standeth Religion Charity and Ingenuity will first haue a sure ground before they censure and then will not runne on headlong to condemne and shew not wherefore Dixit Manicheus abiit say the word and away as S. Augustine notes of Manichee Our Apostles practise here may be a patterne vnto vs all Hee accuseth not all for the faults of some Neither be yee Idolaters as were some of them and them hee calls not so without a reason but shewes distinctly wherein they were Idolaters Neither takes he vp here vox populi the common same to make good what hee sayes or holds his owne coniecture or suspition to bee sufficient but hath a Scriptum est for his warrant as it is written to justific his Prohibition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first member of my Text which by Gods most gratious assistance and your patience according to my plaine way I intend to handle as it lyeth 3 Neither bee yee Idolaters as some of them To cleare this passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will bee requisite first to be truely informed what Idolatry is and secondly who were those that are here taxed for it Vpon a due survey of which premises our Apostles prohibition will appeare the more legall and our deductions therevpon the more applicable Idolatry is defined by the Schoolemen to be Aq. 2.2 q. 94. a kind of superstition in which Divine honour is attributed to any Creature Valent. de Idolat l. 2. c. 1. as vnto God himselfe This the Apostle termeth the changing of the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fowre-footed beasts and creeping things Rom. 1.25 where to waue curiosities which here might scrupulously be waighed May it please you to take notice that as the greate Cardinall Bellarmine fits such a definition to the Catholique Church De 3. Eccles l. c. 2. that except the Pope be head there shall be no true Church at all so the great Schooleman Gregory of Valentia in his 5 Bookes concerning Idolatry straightneth so much the extent of this superstition that none of their palpable will-worship shall come within compasse of it For where the true God saith hee is made the obiect of the worship the worshipping by Jmages or other interveniēt Mediators make it not Idolatry they are Theologi sanè simplices very simple Divines they are the termes of the forenamed Iesuite that are perswaded otherwise Lib. 1. c. 1. But 't is knowne whose censure this is better is a poore man that walketh in his simplicity as their Dowists translate the vulgar then a rich writhing his lippes Ambulans in simplicitate and is vnwise or as we read it is a foole Prov.