for it Num. 14.19 Moses prayed unto the Lord and said Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy so when Sennacherib came against Hierusalem 2 Chron 32.20 Hezechiah the King and Isaiah the Prophet prayed and cryed to heaven And his prayer is set down 2 Reg. 19.15 and when the Moabites and Ammonites in a huge multitude came against Jehosaphat he set himself to seek the Lord saith the Text and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah and made an excellent prayer to God 2 Chron. 20.6 usque ad vers 13. which I desire you to read and observe it well so Daniel after he had made confession of the sins of the people makes an earnest and most fervent Prayer to God for the remission of their sins so David saith unto God Dan 9.16 usque ad 20. ver look upon mine adversities and miseries and forgive me all my sins and Christ biddeth us to ask and we should have Mat. 7.7 And if we thus unfainedly confess our sins Psal 25.17 and fervently beg pardon and constantly forsake our sins God is faithful saith the Apostle that is faithful because he promised 1 Joh. 1.9 to forgive us our sins 2. As we are to seek the Lord externally with all the parts of our bodies so we are to seek him internally 2. With all the faculties of our souls with all the faculties of our soul and as David concludes this manner to his Son Solomon it must be with a perfect heart and a willing mind for otherwise to seek the Lord with outward profession and not with inward obedience is but meer hypocrisie 1 Chro. 28 9. like the Religion of the Jews that were ever handling of holy things but without feeling and drew near unto God with their mouths and honoured him with their lips Isa 29.13 when they called upon him and prayed unto him but removed their hearts far from him And therefore God abhorred their devotion and said I hate I despise your feast daies and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies though you offer me burnt offerings Amos 5.21.22 Isa 1.11 and your meat offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat Beasts and as the Lord saith in Jerem. When they fast I will not hear their cry Jer. 14.12 and when they offer burnt offering and oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence Outward profession what it is like because this outward profession is none otherwise than a shadow that is something in show but nothing in substance or like Zeuxis and Parhasius Pictures whereof Zeuxis deceived the birds with his counterfeit grapes and Parhasius deceived his fellow Painter with the Picture of a Sheet But let not us deceive our selves with a sheet or a shadow of holiness and think that currant which is but counterfeit for we must seek the Lord with all our hearts or otherwise if we offer Sacrifice with Cain and pray with the Pharisee and fast with the Jews to strife and debate or with the Rebels to plunder and murder Isa 58.4 and hear as many Sermons as the precisest Hypocrite and yet forsake not our sins and obey not Gods Ordinance to submit our selves to the higher powers but Rebell against Gods Anointed we may with Esau hunt for a blessing but catch a curse and seek the Lord for mercy but find him in his justice when he shall say unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know you not whence you are Luke 13.27 depart from me all ye that work iniquity 2. We are to seek the Lord most diligâ—ntly 2. As we are to seek the Lord totally with all the parts both of our bodies and of our souls so we are to seek him not frigide coldly and carelesly but with all diligence as the woman that lost heâ— gâ—oat lighted a candle Luke 15.8 and swept the house and sought diligently till she found it and therefore St. Chrysostome writing upon these words of the Apostle work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling saith he doth not barely use the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2.12 work it out but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as the Father doth interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately precisely and with a great deal of care and study even as Saint Paul saith the twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 26.7 instantly saith our Translation day and night and surely not without great cause for as in the civil policie salus populi est suprema lex the safety of King and People is principally to be regarded so in the life of a Christian hoc est unum necessarium this ought to be our chiefest care to seek the Lord for as Seneca saith of Philosophy sive aliquid habes O jam Philosophare sive nihil hoc prius quaere quam quidquam so much better may I say with the Prophet whether thou hast somewhat or nothing yet seek the Lord before thou seekest any thing 2. The object of our seeking the Lord. 2. The Object of our seeking is the Lord a Subject much farther exceeding the former than the Coelestial globe is larger than the Center of this earth and therefore he might easily be found if he were but carefully sought for Jupiter est quodcunque vides and the Spirit of the Lord filleth all places being not far from every one of us Acts 17.28 seeing as the Apostle saith in h m we live and move and have our being how then can we miâ—s to find him without whom we cannot choose but lose our selves But such is our misery that we seek him not for as the swine do eat the acorns yet never look up to the tree from whence they fall so do we deal with the blessings of God we gather them and yet are ignorant of him and do sacrifice with the Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore we thank him not because we know him not and we know him not because we seek him not but many of us seek our Lady and not the Lord What men do seek after and pray to her and offer sacrifice to the Queen of heaven more and better than to the Lord of heaven otherâ— seek to neither Lord nor Lady but to their servants that here on earth are commonly prouder than their Masters to the Saints and Angels others mounting not their thought any higher than the earth do only seek for the things of this world quaerenda pecunia primum some for riches some for honours and some for revenge which is the worst some of all and others seek knots in a bulrush great doubts in needless points for I will not touch on those overwise men How many men search for trifles that seek to
some care of a Godly life and to repent them of their wickedness And therefore well did Moses and we with Moses wish that men would consider their latter end And yet this is not the end of all for after death comes judgement And so Secondly 2 Judgment and that two sold This judgement is either 1 Particular or 2 General 1. As soon as ever the soul is parted from the body 1. Particular before the body is laid in the grave the soul of the wicked is fetched by the Devils and carried into the place of torments and the soul of the godly is received by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Luke 16.22 23. as our Saviour sheweth most plainly in the story of Dives and Lazarus And 2 Because the whole world 2. General both of men and Angels might see and approve the just judgement of God and that the whole man both body and soul might receive the full reward of their due deserts the Lord hath appointed a day saith the Apostle in the which he will judge the world in righteousnes Act. 17 31. that is by Jesus Christ And this is that day which Christ and his Apostles and all the faithful preachers of Gods word would have all men always to remember and to set it before their eyes For so Saint Hierom saith Whatsoever I doe whether I eat or drink or whatsoever else I am about me thinks I hear that dolefull voice of the Arch-angel sounding in mine eares and saying surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement saith the Holy Father I tremble all my body over and so Felix though he was but a Heathen trembled Act. 24.25 as Saint Paul reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come And so indeed it should make any heart to tremble that would seriously consider but these two things Two things to be considered concerning this judgment 1 The manner of Christ his coming For 2 The terror of his proceeding For First in that day there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars The Sun shall be darkned the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from the skies and all the powers of heaven shall be moved the Elements shall be dissolved with heat and the earth shall be consumed with fire Whereby you may see what a dreadful thing is sin for what have these senseless creatures deserved that they should be thus severely punished and thus travel in sorrow and pain but because they rose not up against us when we rose up against God He will therefore fight against them because they did not fight against us when we doe fight against him And what a fearful contagion of sin is this that subjecteth the very heavens unto vanity And therefore most wretched are we in whom dwelleth nothing else but heaps of sin and iniquity But to go on The distress of Nations how great Then the distress of nations shall be great and men shall wither away for fear saith our Saviour for when destruction shall be dispatched as a whirlwind and God shall burn the earth as Holophernes did the Countrey of Damascus what fears think you shall then affright the hearts of men and what heapes of perturbations shall run upon the damned sort when they shall see all these things playing their last act upon the fiery stage of this world And then they shall see the son of man cloathed with the clouds as with a garment riding upon the heavens The glorious manner of Christ his coming as upon an horse and coming flying as upon the wings of the wind in the glory of his father with his Angels and what manner of glory is that Moses tells you that the Lord our God is a God of Gods Deut. 10. and a Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible that accepteth no person nor taketh reward and Daniel describing the great Majesty of God saith that his garments were as white as snow the haires of his head like the purest wool his throne like the fiery flame and his wheeles like burning fire Dan. 7.9 10. and there issued forth a fiery stream and went out from before him a thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him And it is recorded of the Angels that one of them slew all the first-born of Egypt in one night and that another of them made such a havock in the army of the Assyrians that a hundred fourescore and five thousand of them were all slain in one night and were laid on the ground as corn by a sickle And if one Angel could do such Tragick feates The great power 〈◊〉 the Angels what shall become of the enemies of God and wicked men when Christ like a man of warr shall buckle his harness unto his side and come in the glory of his Father with so many myriads of heavenly Angels attending him Eusebius Emysenus demandeth Si talis tantus sit terror venientis quis poterit terrorem sustinere judicantis if his coming be such and so terrible who shall be able to endure the terror of his judgement And if the Israelites durst not abide his Majesty when he came to deliver the Law how shall the wicked abide and stand before him when he cometh to render vengeance unto them for transgressing his Lawes And yet they must endure it And it will be very terrible unto them For 2. In that day saith our Saviour He i. e. God shall send his Angels with the sound of Trumpets and with a mighty cry to raise the dead and to gather together the Elect from the four windes and from the one end of the world to the other and to bring all men before the judgment seat of Christ for I have sworn by my self saith the Lord the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness Esay 45.23 and shall not return that every knee shall bow unto me and not one man shall be hidden from my presence Alas beloved if all the bodies of one Army did lie naked upon one heap what a ruthfull sight would it make And what a spectacle then will that be when so many myriads of men like the sand of the Sea shall stand quaking and trembling before the face of Christ For Then their eyes shall be opened and what shall the wicked see but all things crying vengeance against them for above them shall be an angry Judge beneath them Hell like a boyling furnace ready to receive them on the right hand their sins accusing them How the wicked shall be encompassed with miseries on the left hand the devils ready to torment them within them a guilty conscience like Prometheus vulture continually gnawing them without them all damned souls bewailing and on every side the world burning O good God what will these wicked wretched sinners do being thus enclosed with
giving unto them which by continuance in well doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life he sheweth himself most gracious and merciful in bestowing upon them what they could not challenge from him and in rendring vengeance to them that obey not God and in plaguing them both in this life and in the life to come he doth but what is most just and upright and therefore the Prophet Esay after he had set down many of Gods Judgements against the wicked addeth That the Lord of Hosts should be exalted in judgment Esay 5.16 and the holy God should be sanctified in justice that is that he should be acknowledged by all men to be most pure and holy and commended for his justice in punishing the wicked according to their deserts And this doctrine of Gods holiness and purity should put us in mind of our duty to be not as the Devil corrupt and unjust but as God commandeth us to be holy as he is holy and to be as he is if we desire to be where he is where no impure thing shall ever come And so much for the first Attribute here expressed 2. Attribute is Gods rule and authority 2. The next Attribute is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord and he is said to be the lord of any thing Qui jus autoritatem dominium habet in aliquam rem which hath right authority and rule over any thing and whose own proper thing is that of which he is said to be lord for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Authority Zanc. de nasura dei l. 1. c. 17. saith Pasor and the Latine word Dominus dicitur à domo saith Zanchius because the Master of the house was wont to be called the Lord of it And this name Lord saith he in the Writings of the Apostles is ascribed to Christ idque millies about a thousand times because he ruleth and governeth not only the little house of his Church Heb. 1.2 3. but also the great house of this whole World as the Apostle sheweth Reason 1 Why the Father is stiled God and the Son Lord. And the reason why the name of God is usually attributed to the Father and the name of Lord commonly ascribed to the Son is twofold 1. Because the Father is the fountain of the whole Deity therefore is he usually termed God and the Son is termed Lord because he is appointed of his Father to be Lord of all things John 17.2 and all power is given unto him over all flesh Reason 2 2. The Father is called God most usually because that in the mystery of our redemption the Father remained still in his Majesty and gave his Son only to be our Redeemer and the Son though he was in the form of God yet was he content not to remain with his Father in that equal Majesty Phil. 2.7 which he had with him from all eternity but He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and so with the laying down of his Glory he laid down also the Name of God and by taking unto him the form of a servant he took also the name of a servant that is in respect of his Father to whom as a servant be became obedient in all things unto death and therefore the Father calleth him his Servant saying Ecce servus meus Behold my servant Esay 42.1 Matth. 12.18 Whom I have chosen whom I uphold which is interpreted of Christ But in respect of us the Son is said to be our Lord and so he is called every where because we are given unto him for his inheritance that we should serve him and acknowledge him for our Lord and Master and so as he is made our Lord the name of Lord is given unto him of his Father And therefore though Christ indeed remained alwayes God and in the form of God wherein he was from all eternity yet because he was appointed by the Father Christ laid aside the Name of God and took two other names The first in respect of his Father and contented himself to be the Saviour of all mankind he humbled himself unto death and unto death he laid down the Name of God and took unto himself two other names As 1. The name of a Servant in regard of his Father to whom he was made obedient as a servant and for which cause he alwayes calleth upon him as a servant calleth upon his Master and referreth all things unto him as to his Lord and Master 2. He took upon him the name of Lord The second in respect of us in regard of us and that is due unto him in a foursold respect that is By right 1. Of Inheritance Christ is our Lord in four respects 2. Of Redemption 3. Of Wedlock 4. Of Creation For 1. He is the Lord our God 1. By right of Inheritance and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands and the Father said unto him Psal 2.8 Dabo tibi gentes in haereditatem tuam I will give the Gentiles for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And therefore St. Peter saith Let all the house of Israel know for certain or assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus Act. 2.36 whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ And in this respect also he is Lord of the wicked Reprobates though they will not obey him for the Prophet David saith Psal 8.5 6. Heb. 2.8 Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet and the Apostle saith this was spoken of Christ And again the same Prophet speaking of him Psal 110.1 saith that the Lord said unto him Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Yea more then this he is the Lord of all things whatsoever for Him hath God appointed and made heir of all things Heb. 1. as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews teacheth and our Saviour himself saith Matth. 28 18. John 18.15 All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth And again All things that the Father hath are mine Whereby you may see that Jure haereditario by right of inheritance as his Fathers Heir he is the Lord 1. Of the Elect. 2. Of the Reprobates And 3. Of all the things in the world 2. By right of purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2. He is our Lord by right of redemption or of purchase for so the Apostle saith You are not your own because you are bought with a price And St. Peter sheweth what price it was that redeemed us and was paid for us No corruptible thing as silver and gold but the pretious bloud of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing Christ hath bought us and redeemed us out of the hands of our enemies he may
justly challenge us to be his servants and himself to be our Lord and Master for so the men of Israel said unto Gideon Judg. 8.22 Rule thou over us and so be our Lord and Governour for that thou hast delivered us out of the hand of Midian 3. By right of marriage 3. He is our Lord by right of marriage because he is the Husband of his Church and the Church is the Spouse of Christ for so the Lord professeth Hosea 2.19 20. I will betroth thee to me in faithfulness and I will betroth thee to me for ever and the Husband is the head of the Wife and so is Christ of his Church saith the Apostle and therefore Ephes 5.23 as Sarah obeyed her Husband and called him her Lord so Christ being our Head and the Husband of every faithful Soul we acknowledge him for our Lord and be subject unto him as to our Lord and Master 4. He is our Lord by right of creation 4 By right of Creation John 1.2 because all things were made by him as St John testifieth And he hath made us and not we our selves saith the Prophet David and therefore he must needs be our Lord. And no man can deny it for the Prophet saith The earth is the Lords and all that therein is Psal 24.1 the whole world and they that dwell therein And why so He answereth immediately Because he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods And so St. Paul saith God that made the world and all things therein Acts 17.24 he is Lord of heaven and earth And this point of doctrine The former Doctrine teaches us a threefold lesson 1 Lesson in respect of the godly that Christ in all these respects is our Lord and Lord of the godly and of the wicked and of all things else it should teach us this threefold Lesson 1. In regard of the godly it should teach them humility obedience and comfort 1. Humility because they are but servants and the Comique saith Non decet hominem servulum esse superbum It is a very unseemly thing to see a proud servant of an humble master 2. Obedience because the servant ought to be obedient to his Lord and Master and to be afraid to offend him for A son honoureth his father Mal. 1.6 and a servant his master saith the Prophet If Christ then be our Lord and Master where is our reverence our fear and our obedience to him May not he say to us as he doth unto the Jews Why call you me Lord Lord and do not what I say Luk. 6.46 For to say that Christ is our Lord and not to do what he commands us is but meer hypocrisie and with the Jews to say Hayl King and spit in his face 3. Comfort because they serve such a gracious Lord as taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants and will case them when they cry unto him that they are weary and heavy laden Matth. 11. as himself doth promise 2. Lesson in respect of the wicked 2. In regard of the wicked it should teach them to be ashamed of their pride and arrogancy to neglect their obedience and to flight the Rule and Authority of this their Lord and Master For as of old when Moses came unto Pharaoh in the name of the Lord he proudly answered Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice And Nebuchadnezzar when the three children were brought before him did most arrogantly demand Exod. 5.2 Who is that God which can deliver you out of my hands So now we have too many that in words profess to be the servants of this Lord Dan. 3.15 Titus 1.16 sed factis negant but as the Apostle saith they deny him by their deeds which they ought to be ashamed to do 3 Lesson in respect of Gods creatures 1 Cor. 4.7 3. In regard of the creatures seeing he is Lord of all things and as the Apostle demandeth What hast thou that thou hast not received from him 1. We ought to be thankfull for what we have and be contented with whatsoever we have be the same little or much for Is it not lawfull for him to do what he will with his own and to dispose of them at his pleasure to give what he will to whom he will but thine eye must be evil because he is good 3. We ought to imploy all that we have for the honour and service of this our Lord and Master for we are but his Stewards and we must give an account how we expend our Masters goods he allows us food rayment and having that the Apostle saith we should be therewith contented And truly for mine own part I do here on this good Day and in this holy Place prosess before you all I am sufficiently contented and fully satisfied and very thankfull to this my Lord and Master for what I have having farr more then I deserve or could expect and therefore whatsoever I sue for to recover from any other it is not to enrich my self or any of my relations wise children or friends but I do it for the service of this my Lord and Master and I will wholly and fully bestow whatsoever I recover for the repairing of this Church so that recovering it I shall be not one peny the richer but this Church shall be the better and not recovering it I shall not be the poorer but the Church shall want so much as I should recover and this is my resolution and if I fail in one tittle of what I say Let these my words be a witness against me in the last Day 3. The next Attribute is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Damascen saith The third attribute is Gods knowledge and providence Three significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Signification there be two principal Names of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is or I am as he saith unto Moses and God and he giveth three special significations or Etymologies of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Curro ambio of running and compassing about the world to order and to dispose of all the things that are therein and this declareth the providence of God over all even the least things of this world whereof not any thing not the lighting of a Sparrow upon the ground happeneth as our Saviour sheweth Matth. 10.29 without the providence of God and the Wise man saith the Wisdom of God Attingit à fine usque ad finem disponit omnia suaviter Sap. 8.1 reacheth from one end of the world to another mightily and ordereth all things sweetly and so the Apostle saith that God Portat omnia verbo virtutis ejus beareth up all things with his mighty word or the word of his power which is Jesus Christ and in this sense both Proclus and Plato do interpret the word 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the Providence of God Hebr. 1.3 and to shew that nothing cometh to pass without the will of God and all things that do come to pass by the wil of God are in respect of God most holy just and good for as in the creation all that he made was exceeding good so in the ordering disposing and governing of them all that he doth is exceeding just and the very evil that he suffereth to be done he turneth to good for his own glory and the benefit of his Church as he did the crucifying of his Son to the saving of all his servants For so great is his goodness saith S. Augustine that he would never have suffered Sin or any other evil to be done unless his power and wisdom were able as he drew light out of darkness so to draw a greater good out of our evil though not to them that commit the evil Rom. 6.1 because we should not sin that grace might abound as the Apostle sheweth 2. Signification Deut. 4.24 2. The foresaid Father and others say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is adurere accendere to burn and to kindle and enlighten and so Moses saith Our God is a consuming fire either because of his wrath against sin and sinners 1 John 1. or because of the brightness of his Majesty even as S. John saith God is light in whom there is no darkness at all Ezek. 1.27 and therefore he appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire in the burning bush and in his vision to Ezekiel he manifested himself in the appearance of fire which should make all sinners to be afraid to offend him lest this terrible fire should consume them 3 Signification Hebr. 4.13 3. The said Damascen saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he seeth all things and all things are patent and open in his sight as the Apostle sheweth and no Creature no word no thought can be hid from him and therefore the Wise man adviseth all discontented persons to beware of murmuring which is nothing worth because the eare of jealousie heareth all things and the noise of your muttering is not hid Sap. 1.10 11. neither is there any word so secret that it shall go for naught These be the Etymologies and significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Damascen giveth Curro uro cerno to run to burn to see and to these the Latine Writers do add another and say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be derived à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by changing the asperate Δ into Θ and that signifieth fear because all nations should fear the Lord our God And so the Greeks shew us Qualis sit Deus what manner of God he is that seeth and governeth all things and the Latines shew us Quid sit nostri officii what our duty is to be afraid to offend this great and glorious God and so the Prophet Jeremiah demandeth Who would not fear thee O King of nations and God himself saith Fear ye not me and will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it that is which have bridled and tamed that unruly Element by the small and silly Sands and though the waves toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over these poor and feeble things 4. The next Attribute here expressed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fourth Attribute is of Gods power which is omnipotent in three respects 1. Respect Psal 135.6 that is Almighty or that can do all things and he is said to be almighty in three special Respects 1. Because he can do whatsoever he would do and he can hinder whatsoever he would not have don for whatsoever pleased the Lord that did he in heaven and in earth in the sea and in all deep places saith the Prophet and so the Creation of the World makes this manifest And Solomon saith Prov. 19.21 that many devices are in man's heart but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and all their devices without his counsel shall come to nought as the Gyants that thought to build the Tower of Babel to scale the Walls of Heaven were soon confounded and their devices suddenly destroyed Gen. 11. Gen. 19. so the men of Sodom thought to press upon Lot and the Angels that were with him but the Lord presently blind-folded them so Absolon conceited to make himself King but God brought him to the bough where he was hanged and so our late Vsurpers and Rebells had brave devices and projects in their hearts to destroy us all and to make themselves Lords over all but you see how easily the Lord overwhelmed them and brought them to shame and confusion 2. He is said to be Omnipotent 2. Respect because he bringeth all things to pass so easily without any difficulty in the world for he did but speak the word and they were made Psal 148.5 he commanded and they stood fast And he doth all things either without means or with the weakest means in the world and sometimes contrary to the nature of the proper means as when he made the world out of nothing he did but say Let there be light and it was so Psal 77.20 Josh 6.20 Judg. 4.21 Judg. 7.2 and what weak instruments were Moses and Aaron to bring Israel out of Egypt Or Rams horns to batter down the strong walls of Jericho or a silly woman to be the death of General Sisera or Gideon with three hundred men to overthrow the mighty Host and the innumerable Army of the Midianites And with what improbable strength hath this Almighty God brought our gracious King to his Crown and Kingdoms again It was the Almighty God that did it And so in the Spiritual work of our Redemption by what weak means hath he loosned and overthrown the work of the Devil 2 Cor. 12.19 and delivered his Prisoners out of captivity For blessed be this strong Jehovah we see how his power is made perfect through weakness as the Apostle speaketh and how Christ that seemed a worm and no man as the Prophet speaketh in becoming poor hath made us rich and in becoming a curse hath made us the heirs of blessing 2 Cor. 8.9 1 Pet. 3.9 and after his Ascention into heaven with what weak instruments hath he converted the world from Idolatry and Infidelity to imbrace the Christian Faith Through the foolishness of Preaching saith the Apostle of a few poor Fisher-men and us that are their successors this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eye But it is more marvellous that he should do what he will not only without means and by weak means but also contrary to all means John 9.6 as with Clay that is
none was healed from the stinging of the fiery Serpents but they only that looked up on the Brasen Serpent so it is impossible for any man to be healed from the poyson of sin but by a lively quick-sighted Faith in Jesus Christ and him crucified because Christ tells us plainly that none cometh to the father but by him Joh. 14.6 4 Resemblance 4. As all that were bitten by the fiery Serpents were cured by looking upon the Brasen Serpent whether they were before it or behind it on the right hand or the left if they turned their eys to the Brasen Serpent they were healed so all that went before Christ as Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and the rest of the holy men of the Old Testament and all that lived from the beginning of the world before he was lifted up and all we that now live long after his lifting up and all the men that were since or that now are in the East or in the West in the North or in the South if with the eys of Faith they look to Christ and believe in this lifted up Son of Man that is their Crucified Saviour they shall be saved from all their sins for so Christ himself here testifieth to Nicodemus that he was to be lifted up that is to be Crucified and like this Serpent fastened to his Cross Joh. 3.15 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life And therefore away with them that do abridg and abbreviate the great mercie and favour of God towards his people as if he were a respecter of persons and sent his Son to die for some chosen men that he pleaseth to elect out of all the rest of the relapsed posterity of Adam No no beloved God is no such niggard of his Graces but as he openeth his hands and filleth all things living with plenteousness Ps 145.16 and here caused the Brasen Serpent to be lifted up on high in the open Wilderness and not in a secret corner where all and not a few might look up unto it so he gave his Son to be born in the Stable of a publick Inne where all travellers may boldly and justly challenge a room to lodg in and he was lifted up and Crucified not in the walled City where the enemies as we were all enemies unto God may not enter but without the gates as the Apostle noteth it and upon Mount Calvarie where every man might come and see him and so he calleth all men to come unto him and never denied or refused any man that came as he ought to come unto him And therefore if any man receives not the grace of Christ culpa non est vocantis sed renuentis the fault is in our selves and not in God that desires not the death of a sinner not taketh any pleasure in the miseries of his creatures but tells us plainly Perditio tua ex te because we will not look up to him 5. As this Brasen Serpent was first moulded and made 5. Resemblance and then hung up and fastened on a pole and exposed to all winds and weathers not for its own good nor any evil that it had don but for the good and benefit that redounded to others and for the evil that others had committed and could no other way be helped but by looking up to this harmless and innocent Serpent so the Son of man was contented to be made Man and then to be lifted up and Crucified or fastened to his Cross not for any benefit unto himself who was in the form of God equal to his Father from all eternity nor for any evil that he had done who by the confession of his enemies was a just man and did all things well but exinanivit se ipsum he emptied himself of all his Glory and was made Man for us and for our benefit as the prophet Esay sheweth Esai 9 5. Vnto us a Son is born and unto us a Son is given Dan. 9 76. and he underwent that shameful death and suffered those bitter paines not for himself saith Daniel but for our sins saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 that we by his stripes might be healed and our sinful souls cleansed by his blood which could not otherwise be redeemed with a thousand Rams and ten thousand rivers of Oyl And yet I must tell you how unlikely in the judgment of the world both the one and the other was this way to be effected For It is affirmed by some Naturalists that if one be poysoned with the Sting and Venom of a Serpent the very looking upon shining Brass is present death unto him that is stinged and how then should it be likely to be believed that the looking upon the brazen Serpent should or could be the only means to save these peoples lives from the venom of the fiery Serpents Even so when Christ told the Jews that If he were lifted up from the earth John 12.32 he would draw all men unto him that is if he were put to death his death should give life or at least be sufficient to give life to all men the people answered We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou That the Son of man must be lifted up and so by his death restore life unto the world This is a riddle to us not possible to be believed that thy death should preserve our life Esay 55.8 But you must know That Gods wayes are not as our wayes nor his thoughts as our thoughts for we say with the Philosopher that Ex nihilo nihil fit but God made heaven and earth and all the things that are therein out of nothing and he drew the light out of darkness and the beauty and well-composed frame of this universal World out of a rude unshapen Chaos And therefore when God hath appointed and commanded any thing to be done and promised it should produce such and such effect it is not for us to doubt or to examine whether such a cause can bring forth such effect or to consider whether it be likely or unlikely to do the same but we ought to do what God commandeth us whatsoever it be and to believe whatsoever he saith and be sure of whatsoever he promiseth how unlikely soever it be to be effected for so when God said unto Abraham that Sarah should have a Son that is Isaac and that she should be the mother of nations and Kings of people should be of her which should spring from Isaac and afterward bad Abraham to sacrifice his Son Isaac which made the former promise very unlikely and in mans judgment altogether impossible that he should be sacrificed and killed and yet be the father of so many Nations yet seeing God commanded him to do it Abraham neither doubted of Gods promise nor disobeyed his command but presently carried him to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed So when God commanded Moses to
and domineered over most and almost all the Nations of the World that the Jews will they nill they may see that omne mundi regnum omnis mundana sapientia omnia divinae legis sacramenta testantur quia Jesus est Rex every kingdom of the earth all the wisdom of the World and all the sacraments of the divine law do bear witness that Christ is King and this Lion here spoken of in this Text. And the difference betwixt this Lion and all other Lions is that as Franciscus Vallesius de sacra Philosophia c. 55. saith Mos Leonis est sibi tantum pradam capere non Leaenae but Christ took the prey for his Church and not for himself And we finde that his kingdome by three special prerogatives excelleth all other kingdomes of the world that is 1. Preheminence of Christs kingdome threefold 1. Eternity 2. Purity 3. Largity 1. The Prophet saith thy Throne O God Psal 110. is for ever and ever and thy Dominion shall endure throughout all Ages but transibit gloria mundi all other Kings within so many years shall not govern and after so many dayes they shall not be for death spareth none but sceptra ligonibus aequat And as Nazianzen saith Constantinus Imperator famulus meus ossa Agamemnonis Thyrsitis death makes no difference betwixt the bones of King Agamemnon and base Thyrsites the Emperour Constantine and my servant but when their race is run and their glass is out we may say of each of them as Horace saith of his Friend Torquatus Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Horat. Restituet pietas But this King hath a prerogative above them all for he was Rex à seculo a King from everlasting and he shall be a King in secula seculorum world without end Luke 1.33 for so the Angel Gabriel testifieth that of his kingdome there shall be no end And this should batter down the pride of Tyrants that say with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built For mene mene tekel peres their glory is but as the grass of the field or otherwise if they were immortal they were intolerable And this should teach us to labour to become the Subjects of this King in whose kingdome there shall be Aug. l. 1 c. 10. de Trinitate as Saint Augustine saith requies sempiterna gaudium quod nunquam anferetur à nobis An everlasting rest and joy that shall never be taken from us 2. Preheminence The second preheminence of his kingdome is purity for of this King the Prophet speaketh thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousness For this King is not like Ahab that would take away Naboths Vineyard nor like Rehoboam that would oppress his Subjects with over-grievous Taxes but he is a righteous King and a most just Judge far unlike some Judges of former dayes that for a word have made a man a transgressour and for a syllable or one letter have quite overthrown a mans cause and right and so have made the Laws a nose of wax to bend and turn as they pleased and to be rete Vulcanium like Vulcans iron net to catch the poor and friendless but tela aranea like the spiders web so easie for the rich and powerful to passe through it But blessed be God for it we have few such now and we hope we shall not provoke God so far as to send such amongst us for if you suffer oppression and wrongs when as the Poet saith Mensuraque juris vis erit Then surely peaceable men shall not be able to live in the Common-wealth But the equity and justice of this King should perswade all other Kings to follow his Example and as the wise man saith Sep. 1.1 to love righteousness all they that are Judges of the earth 3. Preheminence The third preheminence of his kingdome is that God anointed this King with the oyle of gladness in all things above his fellows for their time hath an end their dominion a limitation but his time is not limited and his rule hath no marches but exivit in omnem terram it hath gone forth into all Lands because he is the King of all the earth and when as all other Kings are but Reges Gentium Kings of some few Nations he is Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of all other Kings and the Lord of all Lords And therefore Eusebius saith that the distinction or difference betwixt this true Christ and the other imaginary Christs that were anointed Kings before him may truely and very easily be discerned Euseb l. 1. c. 1. Eccl. Histor quia illi priores Christi nulli penè nisi genti propriae cogniti sunt those former Kings were scarce known to any but to their own proper people but not onely the name but also the rule power and kingdome of this true King is extended over all Nations per universum orbem terrae and through the compasse of the round world And though when the Jewes would have crowned him King Rex fieri noluit he refused the same yet to shew that this Dominus Angelorum was also Rex Judaeorum Beda l. 5. in c. 19. Luc. as Beda speaketh when he rid to Jerusalem upon the Asse he willingly permitted the people to cry Hosanna and to intitle him King of the Jewes and he confessed as much himself unto Pilat that he was a King And what meaneth this saith the Venerable Bede that he now willingly embraceth quod prius fugicudo declinavit that which before he declined and fled from it and the kingdome that while as yet he lived in the world he would not accept he now denieth not to take it when he is by and by ready to go out of the world He answereth that he formerly refused it Beda l. 3. in c. 11. S. Mar. because of the gross imagination of the Jewes that conceited him to be a temporal King like unto others but he doth now accept it to shew quod non temporalis terreni sed aeterni in coelis Rex esset imperii that his kingdome was not of this world as himself said unto Pilate but as the King of Heaven he ruled all the world Well then What we may learn from this Doctrine that Christ is our King seeing Saint Matthew doth by so many inanswerable arguments prove Christ to be a King and that he is a perpetual universal and principal King and here exprest by the Lion in this Text we may collect and draw matter both of comfort and fear both of joy and of grief For 1. Seeing Christ is King then as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.1 exultet terra let the earth rejoyce for if we will obey him and be ruled by him he will appoint over us such Viceroyes and under-rulers that will lead us sicut
a fervent prayer for us so Esay 53.10 when it pleased the Lord to bruise him as the Prophet saith he offered up his bloud in a sweating fervour and his body to be broken for our sins 2. He offered up his body to be broken and his bloud to be shed for our sins Levit. 17.11 Heb 9.22 and as the Angel whose name was secret kindled the fire upon the Altar and at length the flame increasing himself also ascended in the same so here in this agony of Christ our Saviour kindled the fire of his love and then as a faithfull high Priest he offered up himself as a sweet smelling sacrifice unto God And seeing bloud must make an attonement for the soul and as the Apostle saith without shedding of bloud there is no remission therefore this our Priest shed his own bloud to procure the forgiveness of our sins the bloud of his head when he was crowned with thornes the bloud of his heart when he was pierced with a speare the bloud of all parts when he was whipped and the bloud of his whole body when he sweat the drops of bloud not a watry dew but nimbus sanguinis a bloudy showre when as totus sudore defluit it passed through and through his garment and trickled down to the ground Ps 130.7 as Saint Luke testifieth that there might be as the Psalm saith plenteous redemption And as Eleazar the high Priest was to take the bloud of the heyfer with his finger and sprinkle of her bloud directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation seven times Num. 19.4 Levit. 8.11 so Christ our Priest shed his bloud seven times to purge away our sins 1. In his Circumcision 2. In the Garden 3. When he was crowned with thornes 4. When he was whipped 5. That Christ shed his bloud seven times to cleanse us of our sins When his hands were nailed 6 When his feet were fastned to the Cross 7. When his side was pierced with a speare And then as the sin of man was maledictio terrae the curse of the earth so this bloud of Christ is medicina terra the medicine of the world And therefore the Apostle faith Heb. 12.24 that the bloud of Christ speaketh better things then the bloud of Abel for by the shedding of Abels bloud Gods wrath was kindled but by the shedding of Christs bloud Gods wrath was appeased the bloud of Abel gave life onely to himself but the bloud of Christ gives life to all beleivers the bloud of Abel cryed for vengeance against his brother but the bloud of Christ cryeth for mercy unto his enemies and the bloud of Abel cryed a while and then ceased and then it was no more availeable but the bloud of Christ still cryeth and never ceaseth and is available for us for ever And so you see how Saint Luke proveth Christ to be the Priest which is to be the Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck and therefore he is here understood by the calf that was the chiefest sacrifice of the Priests 3. By him that had the face of a man 3. St. Mark is understood by him that had the face of a man Mark 6.3 John 10.33 the fathers do understand Saint Mark because his principal aime was to shew that Christ was a true and perfect man the son of a poor Carpenter and in all things like unto us sin onely excepted And this truth was so manifest that his very enemies confest it and would have stoned him because that he being a man made himself a God for their eyes saw that he had flesh and bloud like other men and that he did hunger and thirst and was weary and touched with all the blamelesse passions and affections of other men and therefore Saint Mark is very short in his Gospel not above sixteen Chapters in all because he needed not to use many Arguments when as all that saw him did readily confess it 4. 4. Saint John understood by the flying Eagle By the flying Eagle all the old Interpreters do understand Saint John because that when Ebion and Cerinthus two Jewish Proselites denied the Deity of Christ he purposely wrote his Gospel for that main end to confute that damnable errour as Eusebius and others testifie and therefore in the very Frontispiece of his work he mounteth up like an Eagle and saith in the beginning was the word John 1.1 and the word was with God and the word was God and so throughout his whole Gospel you may easily perceive his chiefest aime is to prove that the son of Mary is the son of the eternal God coeternal and coequal with his father and especially because he proveth him 1. To be the Creator of all things c. 1. 2. To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knower and searcher of the secrets of our hearts c. 2.25 3. To be the worker of such miracles as the raising up of Lâ—zarus and the like which none could do but God And it was requisite that the mediator betwixt God and man should be God and man Man because man had sinned and therefore meet that man should make satisfaction and not Ziba make the fault and Mephibosheth bear the punishment which should be very unjust and God because our nature should but could not bear the burthen which was the weight of Gods wrath for our sins But God as God could but ought not and therefore seeing the one ought but could not and the other could but ought not God and man must be joyned together in one person that man might do what he ought to do and suffer what he ought to suffer and so goe thorough the work of our redemption And therefore as Saint Mark had proved Christ to be a man so Saint John proveth him to be the true and eternal God And so you see that by these four Beasts we are primarily to understand the four Evangelists Secondly all the good Magistrates and Ministers are understood to be like these four beasts 1. Like the Lion Jos 1.7 Secondly As the four Evangelists are in the first place to be understood by these four Beasts for the reasons before shewed so likewise all Magistrates and all Ministers ought to be like these four Beast As 1. Like the Lion for courage without fear Confidens ut leo absque terrore for so the Lord commanded Joshua to be strong and of a good courage saying Onely be thou strong and of a most valiant courage and so Jethro tells Moses That his Judges should be men of courage and undaunted Quia timiditas Judicis est calamitas innocentis So when the Jews told Pilat if thou lettest this man go Thou art none of Caesar's friend he was afraid and through that fear he condemned the Son of God And so doth fear cause many others to wrong the Innocents And therefore to you that are the Judges to settle the disturbed Estates of this Kingdom I say that it cannot
be but that many and many great men will frett and chafe and be discontented at your doings though you do never so justly but it is your duty to do that which is just and in doubtful cases when evidences on both sides are in aequilibrio to encline to that which tendeth to the service of God's Church and the honour of the King's Majesty Sap. 1.1 and you ought always to remember what the Wiseman saith Love righteousness yee that be Judges of the Earth for righteousness exalteth a Nation Proverb And this righteousness you cannot preserve unless you be like Lions without fear either of threatnings or of dangers And as the Magistrates so the Ministers and Preachers of God's word should be like Lions to do their duties without fear for so the Lord saith unto Ezechiel I send thee to a rebellious Nation but thou son of man Ezech. 2.6 be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their words nor dismayed at their looks Quia timiditas Predicantis est calamitas Audientis Because the fear of the Preacher is the calamity of the Hearer when the fear of reproving mens sins hardeneth them in their sins and encourageth them to sin more and more And therefore I say that we should remember what the Lord commandeth us Cry aloud and spare not Esay 57.1 lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins And if the great men of the world threaten us to rob us of our lands or deprive us of our liberties let us look what the Lord saith I Esay 51.12 13. even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man which shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy And it is well that he saith I even I am he that comforteth you seeing it is with us as it was with Ezechiel Ezech. 2.3 4. that Bryars and thorns are with us and we dwell among scorpions a rebellious Nation that are impudent and stiff-hearted for I must humbly crave leave to tell you a story of truth and no fiction When I came first to lie in the Bishops house in Kilkeny I dreamed that the Bishops Court was full of people Citizens Souldiers and Gentlemen with Drumms Swords and Muskets and being affrighted with the sight of them before they had entred the house or done any hurt I presently awaked and looking out at the window for them I saw none then for many dayes I often mused what this meant at last I sound that the Citizens of Kilkeny on the one side the Souldiers on the other side and the Knights and Gentlemen round about came about me like Bees to rob God of his honour and the Church of her right by dividing her Revenues amongst themselves as the Souldiers did the Garments of Christ And I neither fear nor care what any man thinks of what I say my duty telling me what I should say But though they threaten to be my ruine and to cause me to spend what I intended to the repair of the flat-fallen Church to preserve the Revenues of the Bishoprick yet seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth thee and that have delivered thee from so many dangers and so many times from the hands of most mercyless Rebels and bids me not to fear I must not be dismayed but as Elias told Ahab and J. Baptist told Herod of their faults without fear so I and all others that are God's Ministers ought to be bold as Lions to reprove the sins of the people and especially those sins that are most frequently committed and are most prejudicial to the service of God and most pernicious to their souls least as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by escaping the smoak of mans anger we shall fall into the fire of God's fury when we fear men more then God And therefore my dear brethren I had rather you should blame me for my boldness then that God should punish me for my fearfulness and I know that as the Drunkard cannot endure to be told of his drunkeness or the proud man of his pride or the Rebel of his rebellion so no more can these sacrilegious persons abide to hear of their sacriledge And must we therefore hold our peace for fear of their sayings jeeres or threats By no means 2. As we should be bold as Lions without fear so we should be diligent and painful in our places like the Oxen without laziness to pray continually and to preach constantly and as the Apostle saith in season and out of season that is not so frequently as our late Fanatiques would have us to preach Sermons full of words without substance but as St. Augustine expounds it Volentibus nolentibus For to the willing hearers it comes in season and to the unwilling it comes out of season whensoever it cometh And when we do this then 2. That the Magistrates and Minist should be like the Ox painful and diligent to doe their duties as the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn should not be muzzled so ought not we to be molested nor detained and held with vexatious suits to hinder us to discharge our necessary duties lest the punishment of our neglect should fall upon the heads of them that cause it For we are sure that our God is so just that he will not punish any one for not doing that which he is not suffered to doe as for not going into his Church when the wayes are so stopt that he cannot possibly pass it 3. We should be not like the horse and mule 3. The Magistrates should be like men sober and rational and not voluptuous like Beasts that have no understanding and whose mouths must be holden with bitt and bridle lest they fall upon thee but we should be endued with reason like unto rational men that as Cicero saith Agere quicquam nunquam debent cujus non possunt rationem probabilem reddere ought never to do any thing whereof they could not yield a very probable reason And God knows how many things we do for which we can yield no reason at all For what reason had we to wax weary of our peace and of our happiness and to rebel against a most gracious King to destroy our selves And what reason have we to expect God's blessing and yet to continue sacrilegious to rob God of his dues Or is there any reason that any Common-wealth should keep Souldiers to protect them and not regard them nor countenance them nor pay them their wages Surely they are very necessary to preserve our peace and they ought not to be slighted and John Baptist saith
They should be content with their wages but they should therefore have their wages and how should they have their wages if the Superiour officers defraud the inferiour Souldiers or the close-handed people detain their taxes I know not where the fault is if there be any but I know his Majesty and his Immediate Governours would have all things done with uprightness and according to the Dictate of right reason But to leave these and the like unreasonable men that do these and the like things without reason 4. They should be endued with the properties of the Eagle 4. We should all be like the flying Eagle and the chiefest properties of the Eagle are 1. A sharp sight 2. A lofty flight And both these are expressed in the Book of the Righteous Job 39.32 where the Lord demandeth of Job Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high She dwelleth and abideth en the Rock 1 The sharp sight of the Eagle upon the crag of the Rock and the strong place there is her lofty flight then he proceedeth and saith From thence she seeketh the prey and her eyes behold afar off there is her sharp sight and of this sharpness of sight Saint Augustine saith How sharp our sight should be in spiritual things that being aloft in the clouds she can discern Sub frutice leporem sub fluctibus piscem Under the shrubs an hare and under the waves a fish Even so should we that profess Religion especially we that are the Ministers of God should have Eagles eyes to see the Majesty of God in a bramble-bush Exod. 3.2 like Moses to discern the presence of Christ with us in the fiery furnace Dan. 3.25 like Abednego to behold an Army of Angels ready to defend us in our straightest siege 2 Reg. 6.17 like Elizaus and to consider the assistance of God to help us when we are molested and compassed with the greatest heaps of afflictions Rom. 8.18 like the holy Apostle St. Paul The worldly mans quick sight But this the children of this Generation cannot doe for though the understanding of the worldly man which Nazianzen calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eyes and lamp of reason be piâ—rcing sharp and cunning enough to make a large shekel and a small Epha Amos 8.5 Luke 12.56 and very well able to discern the alterations of the skyes as our Saviour witnesseth yea and to enter like Aristotle into the secrets of nature and the deepness of Satan to finde out the plots and practices of his craftyest instruments yet being but a meer natural man he cannot perceive the things that be of God 1 Cor. 2.14 as the Apostle sheweth neither can his understanding reach any further then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as may be manifested by demonstration as St. Clement saith For If you talk of Christ's conception in the wombe of a pure Virgin without the help of a man then the Heathen His dimness and blindeness in spiritual things like Sarah laugheth at it and the wise Philosopher as being in darkness stumbleth at it and cannot conceive how this thing can be If you talk of Christ's death and say that our God should dye and by his death procure to us eternal life then the Jews will storm at our folly and the Grecians count it a meer madness and a great reproach to our Religion And if you talk of his glory and power that being dead and buryed he should raise himself again and now reign as a King of Kings in Heaven then the children of infidelity deem it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feigned thing The reason of the worldly mans blindeness And the reason thereof is rendred by St. Augustine that as the eye of man if it be either blinde or purblinde cannot thereby discern the clearest object even so saith he animus pollutus aut mens turbata a soul defiled with sin or a minde disturbed with worldly cares can neither see God that is present with him nor understand the things of God that belong unto him Yet the spiritual man that hath the Eagles eyes The spiritual mans quick sight which Philo calleth fidem oculatam faith enlightened by Gods spirit can discern all the deep things of God even the most excellent mystery of godliness which is as the Apostle saith God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels 1 Tim. 3.16 preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory For in the unspeakable birth of Christ the Eagles eye doth behold a divine miracle in his accursed death it seeth a glorious victory and in his return from death it conceiveth an assured hope of everlasting life 2. The lofty flight of the Eagle 2. The next Property of the Eagle is her lofty flight for the Poets feign that the Eagle fled up to Heaven and laid there her eggs in Jupiter's lap and the Prophet Esay alludeth to her lofty flight when he saith that those which wait upon God shall renew their strength Esay 40. ult and shall lift up their wings as the Eagles Jerem. 49.16 but Jeremiah goeth on further and saith that the Eagles do build their nests on high and yet Ezechiel goeth beyond them both for he saith that the great Eagle with great wings long-winged full of feathers which had diverse colours came unto Lebanon Ezech. 17.3 and took the highest branch of the Cedar where you see she takes first the highest tree and then the highest branch of that tree I know it was a Vision that shewed the state of Jerusalem but yet you may see thereby the lofty flight of the Eagle So St. John flew as high as Heaven to begin his Gospel and so we considere debemus in coelis ought to have our mindes set not on the fooleries and vanities of this world Ephes 2.6 but on heavenly things and heavenly places that Esay 58.14 being mounted up super altitudines terrae above all the high places of the earth as the Prophet speaketh we may behold all the things of this world to be tanquam muscas but as gnats and flyes or like the spiders web that though it be never so curiously woven yet will it make no garment for us and so all the titles of honour to be but folia venti the windy blasts of a fleshly pair of bellows too weak an air to carry up a noble Eagle How to deem of all worldly things all the pleasures of this world to be but lilia agri like the lilies of the field that are more delectable in shew then durable for continuance and all the allectives under heaven to be but vanity of vanities and altogether vanities For thus by a contemplation and continual consideration of heavenly things it would appear unto us quam abjecta sunt que jam alta videntur how base are all the
things of this world in our judgements rightly informed which now seem so precious in our imaginations being corrupted What the spiritual men that are like the noble Eagle should doe And therefore if we would be like the noble Eagles mounting up to Heaven then as Moses builded his tent without the hoste and far from the hoste so should we build our habitation out of this world and far above the world and as Elias when he journeyed towards Heaven in his fiery Chariot and was flying up in a whirlwinde bestript himself of his mantle and threw it down to the earth lest the weight of it should presse him downward and so hinder his ascent to Heaven even so if we desire to ascend to Heaven we must bestrip our selves of all worldly impediments that are as heavy as a talent of lead and do not onely hinder us from ascending upwards but do press many men down to the bottomless pit And as the Prophet David in all distresses comforted himself with that pious meditation saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and what is there on earth that I desire in comparison of thee so do all those that make their unum necessarium their chiefest purpose and design to go to Christ to have an everlasting house and lands satisfie themselves with the hope of obtaining their desire And this is the reason that seeing God hath given them all that they have they weigh not a straw if they be driven to spend all that they have for the benefit and good of the Church of Christ and to promote the service of God And if the wise men of the world laugh at our folly and say we shall spend ten times more then we shall ever get We may answer that for our losses and expences they are but as feathers and that shall never trouble us but our hope is that we shall attain unto our desire which is to mount up with the rest of God's Eagles unto the Kingdom of Heaven and that will countervail all our losses And so much for the peculiar and proper Description of these Beasts THE SECOND SERMON REVEL 4.8 And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him c. 2. FOR their general and common description 2. Their general and common description it is said they had each one of them six wings about him and they were all full of eyes Touching which you must observe 1. Some things about their wings 2. Some things about their eyes And 1. Of their wings 1. About their wings These two things are to be noted 1. What are these six wings 2. To what end they had these wings or what use they made of them 1. What they are 1. Rupertus and others say these six wings are the six works of mercy visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo fratres that is as our Saviour sets them down to give meat unto the hâ—ngry Matth. 25.35 drink unto the thirsty lodging to the stranger cloathe to the naked and to visit the sick and those that are in prison others understand hereby the six spiritual works of piety and mercy which are to correct the offendor to instruct and consell the ignorant to comfort the afflicted to bear patiently all injuries to forgive all trespasses and to pray for our enemies and persecutors but Balaeus and Lambert say that these six wings are faith hâ—pe charity justice mercy and truth and I think they come nearest unto the truth for by those six we shall be able to shun and flie away from all the mischeifs of the world and these six wings are able to mount us up unto our father in Heaven And they that have not these six wings are rightly said to be like the Ostrich which often spreads her wings but seldome flieth But they that have these six wings are most happy and need not fear the greatest dangers nor the malice of their greatest enemies For 1. Faith is radix omnium virtutum the root of all virtues and you know what mightie things Saint Paul setteth down to have been done through faith 2. Spes alit afflictos hope preserveth the afflicted and maketh not ashamed saith the Apostle 3. Charity covereth a multitude of sins and of all the three divine graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of them all is charity 4. Justice is such a cardinal virtue that Theognis a Heathen saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice comprehends all virtues 5. Our Saviour saith blessed are the mercifull for that they are sure to obtain mercy And 6. Truth as Zorob proveth is so great that it will prevaile against all oppositions for though that by the tricks and delayes of sutle heads it may be clouded for a time yet at last it will bud forth and appear But I fear the Lord hath a controversie with the Inhabitants of this Land because as the Prophet saith there is no truth nor mercy I may add nor justice nor knowledge of God in the Land or if these be then I am sure you will not build up Zion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity because the Lord loves neither House nor Lands that are unjustly obtained I cannot stand to examine it or to handle the particulars that might be said concerning these six points for that might require six houres to do it at least but I will proceed and say 2. If you would know to what end they had these wings 2. What use they made of their wings or what use they made of them the Prophet Esay tells you in the practice of the Seraphims that it was for these three special ends That is 1. To cover their faces 2. To cover their feet 3. To flie about For he saith that with two of their wings they cover'd their faces and with two they covered their feet Esay 6.2 and with two they did flie And this they did for these three ends That is 1. To check our curiosity 2. To shew our misery 3. To teach us industry 1. It is the nature and the foolish disposition of man to be alwayes prying and searching into every thing the secrets of God the mysteries of state and the obscurities of nature And yet the Seraphims that stand in the presence of God are fain to cover their faces not to hide their sins which they had not but because they are not able to behold the brightness of Gods glorious Majesty and if the Angels hid their faces from the brightness of Gods Glory how dares sinfull man prie into it because as the Apostle saith he dwels in the light light that no man can attain unto it 1 Tim. 6.16 Exod. 34.20 and the Lord saith himself that no man could see his face and live for though we walk in the chearfull light of the Sun yet we are not able fully and directly to look upon the Sun when he shineth in his full strength and brightness but it will dazle our eyes and
make them to see a thousand colours And as a pure chrystal glass cannot indure the strong working of the fire but it will break all to pieces even so the weakness of mans mortal nature though it liveth by the enjoying of Gods presence yet it cannot bear nor comprehend the glory and brightness of Gods Majesty but that in looking upon so clear an object the eyes of his understanding shall be dazled and he shall fall and be swallowed up into a thousand errours For seeing as the Apostle speaketh our knowledge of God in this life is but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 like the beholding of a man suddenly passing by us when we can look upon nothing but onely his back parts it is impossible for any man in this mortality to know perfectly and exactly the being and wayes of the most highest And therefore this checketh the curiosity and reproveth the boldness of those men that like Phaeton will flie and mount up too high to search into the Heavenly mysteries for as the wise man saith who can number the sand of the sea the drops of rain Ecclas 1.2 and the dayes of time who can measure the height of Heaven the breadth of the Earth and the depth of the Sea Who can find out the wisdome of God which hath been before all things For if we consider either the nature and essence of God or if we look into the counsels and works of God we shall easily perceive that they are all incomprehensible Danaeus Isag Et si quid facit Deus naturae nobis assuetae repugnans nihil tamen facit rationi repugnans And if God doth any thing that seemeth repugnant to our accustomed nature yet we may be sure he doth nothing that is repugnant to reason And though all that God doth be exceeding good yet we cannot always perceive many of them to be good and yet this makes them not to be unjust Gregor in Job c. 9. because we understand them not to be just for as St. Gregory saith Qui in factis Dei rationem non videt He that seeth not the reason of Gods doings let him consider his own infirmity and blindness rationem videat cur non videt and he shall soon see the reason why he seeth it not and if we seek to know more then we are able to understand we shall understand less then we do And therefore Solomon gives good counsell to these Gnosticks saying Eccles 7.18 be not thou just overmuch neither make thy self over-wise For the mystery of the Lords commanding Adam that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge was very great because the knowledge that he should get thereby would not onely cause his present fall That we ought not to be too curious to search into divine mysteries Gen. 3.5 V. 7. but also make both him and all his sons for evermore to fall And therefore the subtle Serpent that aymed at the readiest way to destroy them promised unto Eva and he kept his promise that if they would eat of the tree of knowledge their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and so it was for the text saith that their eyes were opened and they had the knowledge both of good and evil the good that they had lost and the evil that they had fallen into for they knew that they were naked And so this knowledge did but direct them a way to run away from God and teach them the art to sowe fig-leaves together to cover their shame and to hide their wickedness and themselves from the sight of God which they could never do And therefore happy Adam hadst thou been if thou never hadst had this knowledge for this knowledge made thee to full and so the Prophet Esay saith of Babylon Esay 47.10 thy wisdom and thy knowledge have caused thee to rebel or to turn away and so Ovid saith of himself Ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo My wit and my knowledge hath undone me And I fear that many other men will cry out that their too greedy a desire inconcessae scientiae of unlawful knowledge and prying too far into hidden mysteries hath hurried them into most desperate conclusions for though it be very true that no other creature upon earth hath reason and understanding but onely man yet it is as true that no other creature goeth so far from reason as man alone And therefore I do not say happy are the beasts that want reason but I say unhappy is that man qui cum ratione insanit that runneth mad with the reason that God hath given him and by aspiring to get unlawful knowledge doth fall into unavoidable mischief And therefore the Devil could wish that all his servants were as knowing as Berengarius and as subtle as Dunâ— Scotus because he hath more excellent execrable service from one of them then he can have from a thousand others for it is a true saying That inferiour conceits have inferiour sins non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores and the great errors never came but from great wits such as Arius Pelagius and the rest of the great Hereticks had And as it was the Giants and Lucifer that highly rebelled and warred against God and as it was the Princes and the Kings of the earth that stood up and took counsel against the Lord and against his Anointed So it is the great Lords that were the great rebels and the mean men that were infirmiores in exercitu are but as the tayle of the Dragon which the great men drew after them And so it is the curious wits the pryers and searchers after unsearchable knowledge and secret mysteries that hatch the cockatrice eggs and produce the most desperate errours And therefore seeing the ambitious desires of attaining more knowledge then beseemeth us and the knowledge of those secret things Deut 29 29. that as Moses saith belong unto the Lord our God are the Devil 's splendida peccata his glistering sins generosa scelera his noble projects his jewels and most honourable stratagems which have caused many men not onely to fall away The Seminary Priests and Presbyterians the most dangerous people in the Church of God but also to run away from God we ought to take the counsel of Saint Augustin Magis metuere cum in intellectu habitat diabolus quaem cum in affectionibus to fear more when the Devil dwelleth in the understanding then when he corrupteth our affections when as a Pestilent Heretique or a Seminary Priest or a Fanatique Non-conformist doth more mischief then either a dissolute drunkard or a covetous merchant And when we can not comprehend the Majesty of God we should say with our selves it is no marvel because he dwels in the Light that none can attain unto it so when we can not understand his ways nor dive into the depth of his counsels and his decrees of election and
he have done it Yet this man sold his God that had done such great things for him and brake his Commandment for an Apple What moved Adam and Evah to offend God Ambition And what moved him to doe this but that which moveth all his children ever since to destroy themselves and all the Kingdoms of the earth Ambition That he might be as Lucifer desired to be before him similis Altissimo like Gods knowing good and evil And this infernal weed that first took life in Lucifer's breast hath poysoned all his Posterity ever since and especially all the great men of this world that desire to be greater and affect and contend for honour and greatness above measure For as Eudoxus the Philosopher desired of the Gods that he might behold the Sun very near to comprehend the forme greatness and beauty thereof and afterwards be burnt of it as the Poets say Phaeton was so Ambition is the boldest and the most disorderly passion of all those desires which trouble mens mindes and fills their heads with an unsatiable greediness of obtaining those things which they should no wayes desire and by that means as Adam did they undoe themselves and many thousands more for so Mar. Crassus the richest man in Rome M. Crassus burning with ambition and an excessive desire of new triumphs presumed at sixty years of age to undertake the warr against Arsaces King of the Parthians and therein his whole Army was discomfited himself miserably slain twenty thousand of his men killed C. Marius and ten thousand taken Prisoners So Caius Marius weakened with old age but strengthened by Ambition to continue in sovereign authority would undertake the warr against Mithridates King of Pontus and thereby he was the cause of his own utter overthrow and of that great slaughter which imbrued all Italy and Spain with the deluge of bloud that Sylla by his extreme cruelty brought upon them Spurius Melius Marc. Manlius Hen. 5. And the like may be said of Spurius Melius the Roman Senator of Marc. Manlius of Henry the Fifth whose ambition deprived his own father from the Empire and caused him to dye miserably in Prison and indeed of those threescore and thirteen Emperours that within the space of one hundred years dyed all of them excepting three that dyed of sickness in their beds by violent deaths And as the ambition of the Triumvirate Octav. Antonius and Lepidus had well-nigh ruinated the Roman Empire Pet. de la Primauday fr. accad pag. 223. so Peter de la Primauday saith that the ambition of the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy had almost utterly consumed the Kingdom of France and was the occasion that more then four thousand men were slain within Paris in one day and so I may say that this wilde plant and bitter root of Ambition that first sprang up in Paradise and afterwards grew worse and worse in the accursed earth was the cause that moved the late Vsurper and many others of those Traytors and Rebels that followed him to bring all the calamities that we have both seen and felt in these Dominions And therefore we ought to detest this cursed Plant that brought forth such bitter fruits of undutifulness unthankfulness and rebellion to be rendred unto God for all the great good that he had done for man But now after that man had fallen and thus disloyally sinned against God Non dignus est peccator panc quo vescitur nec lumine coeli quo illuminatur The sinner even the best of us all that are Adam's seed is not worthy of the bread that he eateth or the light of the Sun that shines unto him for if before his being he deserved no good how much evil doth he now deserve when he hath so fouly defiled himself and so highly offended his God And yet Vtinam saperent How graciously God dealt with Adam after he had sinned I would to God we would cast our eyes behinde us to behold and see the goodness of God and what wonders he hath done for the children of men for he pittyed Adam when he was naked and made them coats of skin to hide and cover their nakedness and to preserve their bodies from the storms of winter and the scorching heat of summer And when all the World had corrupted their wayes before God he saved Noah and his family And with the seed of Adam when the deluge destroyed all other flesh and afterward he snatched away Abraham out of the very flames of Idolatry that was begun to be kindled in his father Terah's house and then he delivered him out of Egypt and preserved him out of all his troubles And for the seed of Abraham The Israelites the children of Israel Moses tells you what God hath done for them for when he divided to the Nations their inheritance Deut. 32.8 9 10 11 12 13 14. he took Jacob for the lot of his own inheritance and though he found him in a desart land and in the waste howling wilderness yet he led him about he instructed him and kept him as the apple of his eye and he made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the encrease of the fields and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the flinty rock butter of kinc and milk of sheep fat of lambs and ramms of the breed of Basan and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and to drink the pure bloud of the grape And the Prophet Ezekiel doth amplifie the great goodness of God towards this people more at large saying that their birth and their nativity was of the land of Canaan their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite i. e. an accursed people and in the day that thou wast born thy navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water nor salted nor swadled at all no eye pittyed thee to have compassion upon thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person and when I saw thee polluted in thine own bloud I said unto thee live and I washed thee with water and anointed thee with oyl I cloathed thee also with broydered work and shod thee with badgers skin and I girded thee about with fine linnen and I covered thee with silk I decked thee also with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chain on thy neck even as our fine Ladyes have in these dayes and I have put a jewel on the forehead and ear-rings in thine eares and a beautiful Crown upon thy head and thou didst eat fine flower Ezech. 16.3 ad v. 15. and honey and oyl and thou becamest exceeding beautiful and perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God How unthankful and undutiful they were to God And what reward did this people render unto God and what requital have they made unto him for all these
great benefits that this good God had done unto them First Moses tells you They waxed fat and then they kicked as we lately did and forsook God that made them and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation They provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and moved him to anger with their abominations They sacrificed to Devils and not to God to Gods that they knew not that came newly up whom their fathers feared not which was and is the fruit of every new Religion as of late dayes we have fully seen amongst us And then as they forsook God that formed them so presently they rebelled against his servants they muttered and murmured and rejected all their Governours and as the Psalmist saith They angred Moses in their tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord for these two to forsake God and to rebel against their Governours do always go together And if you look into the foresaid sixteenth Chapter of Ezekiel you shall see how the Prophet sheweth their wickedness and how they have multiplied their abominations above measure and as many of us over-wickedly and unjustly seeking to make our children great in this world do bring them unto the Devil in the world to come Ezech. 16.21 so did they slay their children and cause them to pass through the fire and as the Psalmist saith Ps 106.37 They offered their sons and their daughters unto Devils and the Lord himself assureth us that Sodom had not done so wickedly as they had done Ezek. 16.48.51 and Samaria had not committed half of their sins And what an intolerable ingratitude was this The most monstrous thing that ever was not possibly to be described quia dixeris maledicta cuncta cum ingratum hominem dixeris because thou sayest all the evils that can be said when thou namest an ungrateful man especially to God that hath done such great things for us For we read of many bruit beasts that for small benefits have been very thankful unto men as of the Dog that for a peice of bread will follow and be ready to die for his Master and the Lion that for pulling a thorn out of his foot preserved the slave that did it from all the beasts of the forrest and afterwards his life on the Theatre in Rome and Primauday tells us of an Arabian infidel that being taken prisoner and afterwards set at liberty by Baldwin King of Jerusalem in token of his thankfulness for that favour Pet. Prim. c. 40. p. 431. he went to him by night into a Town where he was retired after he had lost the field and declared to him the purpose of his companions and conducted him until he had brought him out of all danger And when bruit beasts and Pagans are thus thankful unto us shall man be unthankful unto God No no He should be truly thankful And Seneca saith there be four special conditions of true thankfulness 1. Grate accipere to receive it thankfully 2. Nunquam oblivisci Never to forget it for he can never be thankful that hath forgotten the benefit 3. Ingenue fateri per quem profecerimus Four conditions of true thankfulness ingeniously to acknowledge by whom we are profited 4. Pro virili retribuere to requite the benefit received in the best manner that we are able But this people scarce observed any one of them I am sure not the second and therefore not possibly the third and fourth for the Prophet David tells us plainly that after the Lord had shewed his tokens among them and his wonders in the land of Ham and had brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and had given them the lands of the Heathen Is 105.42 43 so that they did as many have done amongst us to take the labours of the people in possession Ps 106.13 Yet within a while they did as we do forget his works and would not abide his counsel V. 21. yea they forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham and fearful things by the Red-sea But to let this people pass that were destroyed for their unthankfulness let us look unto our selves and have our eyes behind us to behold and see First What God hath done for us And What God did for us the people of these dominions Amos 3.2 Secondly What we have done for the honour and service of God And First As the Lord said of the Jews You onely have I chosen of all the families of the earth so I believe the Lord may justly say of our Kings dominions that he shewed more love and favour unto them then he did to any other Kingdom of the World for whatsoever good he did to others he did the same to us And he shewed two more signal favours to us then he did to any other Kingdome of all Christendome As I. He raised the good Emperour Constantine the Son of Helen out of Britaine to close up the days of persecution and shut the doors of the Idol-Temples II. When the mysts of ignorance and errors and superstition had covered and overshadowed almost all the Church of Christ God sent successively no less then five such excellent Protestant Princes King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the I. and II. as no other Kingdom had the like to protest against all the Popish errours and superstition and to make such a perfect reformation of Religion that both for Doctrine and Discipline no Church in Christendom is so purely and so perfectly established as these Churches of our Kings dominions are such love and such mercies of God to us as exceeded all the blessings of the earth and shewed to no other Nation of the world in such a measure but to this And what reward I pray you What requital have we rendred unto God have we and our people rendred unâ—o God for those great unparalell'd benefits that he hath done unto us I do profess I have been a man ever faithful to my King and ever fearless of all the dangers of the world and therefore I must say the truth as Saint Steven told the Jews though I should fare as Saint Steven did that as they were a stiff-necked people that have always resisted the Holy Ghost and persecuted the Prophets and been the traytors and murderers of Christ so have the major part of us shewed themselves a rebellious Nation that confederated to assist the Devil to requite Gods extraordinary signal favour to us with extraordinary signal contempt of Gods service and signal malice to all his servants above any other nation of the World by raising out of us and bringing in amongst us the great Anti-Christ that is the great enemies of Christ you know whom * The Long Parliament to slay the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which were Cohors Magistratuum Chorus Prophetarum 1. the best and blessed King Charles the First that
the first part of the practice of these beasts which is their constancy in the service of God day and night 2. Of the harmony of these beasts 2. For the harmony of these beasts I told you that it consisted of six parts whereof the first is concerning the mystery of the Trinity Touching which before I proceed any further I must say with St. Augustine Vbi trinitas unitatis unitas trinitatis Aug. de Trin. lib. 1. Of the true knowledge of the mystery of the blessed Trinity Patris Filii Spiritus sancti quaeritur nec periculosius alieubi erratur nec laboriosius aliquid quaeritur nec fructuosius aliquid invenitur we cannot any where erre more dangerously we cannot seek for any thing more laboriously neither can we find any thing more profitable then the knowledge of this holy mystery and therefore as he saith Non pigebit me sicubi haesito quaerere nec pigebit me sicubi erro discere it irketh me not to inquire where I stumble neither will I be ashamed to retract and to learn where I erre And so to proceed The holy Evangelist in this harmony of these beasts setteth down these two principal things Two things set down 1. 1 Of the Trinity of Persons The Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of Gods Essence 2. The Vnity of Gods Essence in the Trinity of Persons For the first To declare the Trinity of persons the Evangelist saith these beasts cry three times Holy holy holy as if they should have said Holy Father holy Son and holy Spirit and yet they say not holy Gods but holy God and to shew the same truth the very phrase and loquution or the like manner of expressing this mystery is used in divers places of the holy Scripture as where Moses saith Creavit Elohim coelum et terram God created the heaven and the earth where the Verb singular creavit doth manifestly declare the unity of Gods Essence and the Noun plural Elohim doth as plainly shew the Trinity of persons And again where he saith Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram let us make man in our Image where the Verb plural faciâ—mus declareth the plurality of the Persons and the Pronoun singular nostram sheweth the unity of the Essence even so here the word sanctus three times repeated doth manifestly declare the Trinity of persons and the word Deus God in the singular number doth as plainly shew the unity of Gods Essence And so the whole sum of all is 1. Quod Deus sit unus quoad essentiam that God is one That God is but one Essence and three persons and but one in respect of his Essence 2. Quod Deus sit trinus quoad subsistentiam that in the Vnity of that Essence there are three Persons in respect of their subsistence or manner of being And this will appear most evidently if you do compare together the 6. Deut. 6.4 Matth. 28 29. of Deut. and the 4. ver and the 28. of St. Matthew and the 19. ver For in the former place it is said Dominus Deus tuus Deus unus est the Lord thy God is one God and in the later place our Saviour commandeth his Disciples to go and to baptize all Nations in the Name and not in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therefore there is a Trinity of persons that is the Father the Son and the holy Ghost in the divine Nature Et una est numero essentia and yet there is but one Essence because no diversity can be given whereby these persons differ in regard of the Essence And therefore in regard of this identity and unity of essence in the three Persons our Saviour said Ego sum in patre et Pater est in me I am in the Father and the Father is in me and yet as St. Cyril saith Non est dicendum Pater est à filio vel in filio continetur we may not say the Father is from the Son or contained in the Son Nec est filius in patre ut nos in Deo esse et vivere dicimur Neither is the Son in the Father as we are said to be and to live in God Quia de ejus essentia nos non sumus because we are not of the essence of God but in and by the vertue grace and power of God But here it may be some will demand from whence have we the name of Trinity About the name of Trinity when as we cannot find the same in all the Scripture I answer that we have the word three from whence the word Trinity is derived for St. John saith There be three that bear witness in heaven and therefore as unity is derived ab uno from one so Trinity may as justly be derived from three and the Church of God Penes quam usus et forma loquendi to whom the phrases and forms of speech are committed hath power to use such words as may best express the Truth and confute the Hereticks so the same be not contrary to the sense and meaning of the holy Scriptures Now the difference between essence and person is this The difference betwixt the Essence of God and the Persons in the Godhead that the essence is the nature which is indivisible and common to the three Persons but a person Est subsistentia in natura divina as the Schools speak a subsistence or the manner of the persons subsisting in the divine Nature when the one person is distinguished from the others distinguished I say and not divided because there is no division in the divine Nature And the difference betwixt each Person is twofold The difference betwixt each Person and the others twofold 1. Difference internal 1. Internal and 2. External 1. The internal difference between the Persons is and consisteth in their internal operations and proprieties whereof the Divines say that Opera Trinitatis ad intra sunt divisa The internal operations of the Trinity are severed and divided because as St. Augustine saith Hoc est proprium patris quod solus est pater et quod ab alio non est nisi à seipso It is proper to the Father that he only is Father and that he is not from any other but from himself Et hoc est proprium filii quod do patre genitus est solus à solo coaeternus et consubstantialis genitori And it is the property of the Son that he is begotten of the Father the Son alone from the Father only coeternal and consubstantial to his begetter Et proprium est Spiritus sancti quod nec genitus nec ingenitus est sed à patre et filio aequaliter procedens It is proper to the holy Ghost that he is neither begotten nor created but equally proceeding both from the Father and the Son And this difference is not essential because the Essence of all three is the same
and all one but personal and yet real and incomprehensible 2. 2. Difference external The external difference is taken from the external works and operations of these three Persons as that the Father sent the Son the Son is sent to be our Redeemer and the holy Ghost sent to be our Sanctifier and Comforter and as in the Apostles Creed the Father is discerned from the Son by ascribing unto him the creation of Heaven and Earth and the Son is discerned from the Father by ascribing unto him his Incarnation of the Virgin Mary and the holy Ghost is discerned from them both by working that Conception of him in the Virgins Womb and afterwards by his appearing in form of a Dove Matth. 3.16 Act. 2.3 and like cloven Tongues of fire A special observation about the outward works of the Persons And here you must observe that although these operations are thus ascribed to each of the three Persons of the Deity yet the self-same God did work all and each one of these works because as the Schools say most truly Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa the outward works of the Trinity cannot be separated from any one of the three Persons but are common unto all three and may be ascribed to each one of them for the Son is the Creator of all things as well as the Father John 1.3 for All things were made by him saith the Evangelist and both the Father and the Son sanctifie us and are our Comforters as well as the holy Ghost And therefore it is most truly said by Nazianzen that in these operations Non possum unum cogitare quin trium fulgore confundar nec tria possum discernere quin subito ad nuum referar I cannot think of one of these three Persons but I am dazled with the brightness of all three neither can I discern the three but presently I shall be referred and carried to one That the persons are distinguished two wayes And it is further observed by the Divines that the Persons are distinguished in the Trinity two wayes 1. By the Relations of the Persons 2. By the Properties 1. Of their Effects Effectorum 2. Of their Offices Officiorum 1. By the relation of the Persons 1. The incommunicable Relation of the three Persons are the Father the Son and the holy Ghost proceeding for the Father is not the name of the Essence but of relation unto the person of the Son so the Son is not the name of the Essence but of relation to the person of the Father and so the holy Ghost proceeding is not the name of the Essence but of relation both to the Father and the Son from whom he doth proceed 2. They are distinguished by the proprieties of the persons 2. By the proprieties of the Persons as 1. By the effects that is by the form of speech 1. The effects which the Scripture useth as when it speaketh of the Father it saith commonly 1. A quo velut à principio rerum omnium 2. Ad quem velut ad finem omnium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Of whom as of the beginning of all things and 1 Cor. 8.6 Rom. 11.36 To whom as unto the end of all things And when it speaketh of the Son it saith commonly 1. Per quem tanquam per Mediatorem et dispositorem omnium 2. In quo velut in materia omnia sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Through whom as through the Mediator and disposer of all things and In whom all things are contained and do subsist as in the proper place and matter And when it speaketh of the holy Ghost it saith commonly 1. Ex quo tanquam ex motore et agente 2. Quo velut sustinente fovente et efficiente rerum omnium causa That is From whom as from the mover and doer of all things and By whom as by the sustainer cherisher and efficient cause of all things As when Moses saith That the Spirit of God moved upon the waters that is to sustain it and to preserve the same together Gen. 1.2 2. By the Offices of the Persons that is in the work of Creation and Redemption 2. Their Offices for though the Son creates all things as well as the Father for By the Word all things were made and without it nothing was made that was made John 1.3 yet properly it is attributed unto the Father as it is set down in the Apostles Creed and though the Father redeemed us as well as the Son yet properly it is attributed unto the Son and though the Father and Son do comfort us and sanctifie us as well as the Holy Ghost yet properly it is ascribed to the Holy Ghost to be our comforter and therefore the Father is commonly described by the Name and Title of Creatour the Son by the name of Redeemer and the Holy Ghost by the name of Sanctifier and Comforter Whereby it cometh to pass that although there be an unity in the Essence of the three Persons yet in the works of our redemption each one of them hath his proper operation which is not communicable unto the others for the Trinity or three Persons was not born of a Virgin it was not crucified it was not buried but onely the Son the second person of the Trinity so that it is the proper office of the Son to be made man to suffer death and to rise again for our redemption and not of the Father or of the Holy Ghost so the Trinity said not Matth. 3.17 and c. 17.5 Luke 1.35 Tu es filius meus dilectus Thou art my well beloved Son but the Father onely said it and so the Trinity did not overshadow the blessed Virgin but the Holy Ghost alone overshadowed her And yet we must observe that as the Trinity of persons is infinite and inseparable so he worketh communiter that is both equally The outward works of the Godhead and inseparably in all the works which are called opera ad extra and therefore both the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost do the same things ratione effecti operis in respect of the work done but they do it not eodem modo after the same manner so that here in their operations there is a distinction but no diversity And so much shall serve for the distinction of the Persons both in respect of their relation and proprieties And now 2. Of the unity of the Essence of the Trinity of Persons 2 Having shewed unto you that for their works ad extra the Trinity in all and every thing equally and together always worketh in community and especially having set down for distinction sake how his own proper operation is ascribed to each person it resteth that I should declare the Vnity of the Essence of this blessed Trinity to which I must say with S. Augustine that In summa Trinitate tantum
able to make any man blind to make a blind man to see and with Fire that burns every thing else to preserve the three Children in the Fiery Furnace and to make the raging Sea that swallows down and drowneth man and beast to be a Wall of defence unto the children of Israel 3. Respect 3. God is said to be Omnipotent and Almighty because he is able to do what he will not do that is more then ever he did or ever will do for he is able of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Math. 3.9 And he saith to St. Peter Think you that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more then twelve legions of Angels Math. 26.52 and so he can do many thousand things that he doth not and will not do Titus 1.2 2 Tim. 2.13 Aug. de Trinitat l. 15. c. 15. But it is objected that the Apostle saith He cannot lie and again He cannot denie himself to which St. Augustine answereth that Magna est Dei potentia non posse mentiri it is an argument of Gods great power that he cannot lie or deny himself because that to lie is the sign of weakness and imbecillity when the lyer is not able to do what he saith or to perform what he promiseth And he that desireth further satisfaction in this Point let him look into my Best Religion See the Best Religion where I have handled the same more at large So you have seen how and in what respect God is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almighty and that should teach us a twofold Lesson 1. The one of Fear Two Lessons to be learnt 2. The other of Comfort For 1. God threatneth to â—unish and plague wicked sinners 1. Of fear and he that blesseth himself when he heareth the curse the Lord saith he will not spare him Deut. 29.19 but will blowout his name from under heaven and again he saith Levit. 26.23 if you wa k stubbornly and contrary unto me I will also walk contrary unto you and plague you seven times more for your offences and do not you think that God is able to make good his threatnings Therefore we ought all of us to humble our selves and to fear the Almighty God and as our Saviour saith Math. 10.28 to fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul 2. This Doctrine of the almighty power of God 2. Lesson may afford us a great deal of comfort against the Devil our afflâ—ctions and all Tyrants For when we see Satans army and consider his stratagems against us we may well cry out with Elizaeus servant Alas what shall we do 2. Reg. 6.15 But when we remember what our Saviour saith I give to my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand John 10.28 because my Father which gave them me is greater then all and none is able to take them out of my fathers hands 1 Pet. 1.5 we may comfort our selves and be assured that as St. Peter saith the godly that do serve the Lord shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation because he that is in us is greater and more powerful then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 5. The last Attribute here set down is which was and is and is to come and this crowneth all the other Attributes of God for without this to be Lord to be a God and to be Almighty would avail little or nothing but to be so and to be so for ever Esai 43.10 Psal 90.2 is all in all and only the honour and prerogative of the Almighty God And so God saith Before me there was no God formed neither shall be after me and the Prophet David speaking to him 1 Tim. 1.17 saith Before the mountains were made and before thou hast formed the earth or the world thou art God from everlasting Exod. 3.14 and world without end and St. Paul calls him the king of ages or the everlasting King and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Esai 57.15 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as he saith unto Moses I am is his name that is an Eternal being and which inhabiteth eternity and as here these Beasts do say which was that is Lord God almighty and therefore the Maker and Creatour of all the things that are What the former point should teach us and which is that is Lord God Almighty and therefore the ruler and governor of all the things that are and which is to come that is to be as he is Lord God Almighty therefore the rewarder of all men as their works shall be And this Eternal being of God should teach us all to labour for eternity for that which is vain and vanisheth is of nothing worth but the truth is that we shall all be Eternal and for ever either in felicity or misery in joy or in torments and therefore our study and care should be so to live and to serve this Eternal God that we may live with him in Eternal happiness and avoid those Eternal torments wherein the wicked shall be chained for ever For you shall find that as the same Father saith Praeterit jucunditas non reditura manet anxietas non peritura And therefore I advise you all and my hearts desire is that you would be all like these four Beasts as I have explained them in their description and their practice that so with these Beasts you may for ever live with him which was and is and is to come To whom be all Honour and Glory and Praise and Thanks for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE ONLY VVAY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN A SERMON Preached before the Duke of Ormond's Grace and the two Houses of Parliament in Dublin By Griffith Lord Bishop of Ossory LONDON Printed for the Author Anno Dom. 1664. THE FIFTH SERMON MATH 6.33 and LUKE 12.31 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you I Have not long since began to treat of this Text before the most Religious and most Honourable Person here And what then the time prevented me I shall now endeavour by Gods help to conclude unto you yet with an abstract and an abreviation of the particular Points and Heads I then handled that so you may the better understand the whole And as St. Paul saith Though to us it is troublesome yet for you it is profitable to hear the same things again Quia labilis memoria hominis and good things will soon slip out of our minds And I said then that the Angel Vriel tells Esdras 2 Esdr 8.2 3. the man of God That as the earth hath more dust and clay for earthen vessels then Ore and Mines for gold so this present world hath more men
that is himself upon Earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetual custom in the race of the Ottomans and Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend to succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom to do so but it is the practice of most of them that are bewitched with this inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like for Plutarch writeth that Deiotarus having many Sons and being desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Phrahartes the Son of Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his Bretheren that he might reign and rule alone And the Sacred Storie sheweth that the very people of God the Sons of Israel were not free from this fault Judges 9. but were pestered with this disease for Abimelech the Son of Gedeon slew seventy of his Bretheren in one day and played many other Tragical parts that he might make himself a King and the furious ambition of Absolon did let him on to play the Parricide 2 Sam. 15 16. and to end his Fathers days that he might reign in his place And not to go from our own home did not Henry the Fourth put by Richard the Second his own King and Cozen German that himself might be the King And did not Richard the Third cause the true King and his own Nephews the Sons of his own Brother Edward the Fourth to be done to death that he himself might be King And did not that arch-Rebel and Traytor now of late amongst our selves play the like Tragical parts that he might gain the rule of these Kingdoms And so did many others in many other Kingdoms for there is not any thing so Sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not violate and spare neither King Father Brother or Friend to bring themselves unto advancement and to be the rulers of the People and to have the command and power over their Goods and Lives as the proof hereof is seen in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had murthered his own Brother Geta in his Mothers lap and betwixt her arms and being advised by some of his friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him among the Gods to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a wretch sit divus modo non sit vivus let him be a God among the dead so he be not alive among Men Camerar quo supra so great an enemy is the inordinate desire of bearing rule to all Piety and right saith mine Author Therefore our Saviour doth not stop when he had said seek a Kingdom which he knew most men would be ready enough and some too ready to do without bidding but he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of this world nor the Kingdom of the Antichrist nor of sin but the Kingdom of God And the Kingdom of God is taken many waies but especially The Kingdom of God three fold 1. For the Kingdom of Nature 2. For the Kingdom of Grace 3. For the Kingdom of Glory 1. The Kingdom of nature The first is all the world Heaven Hell Sea and Earth and all men good and bad are the subjects of this his Kingdom for he is Rex universae terrae super omnes nationes mundi whom he ruleth with his mighty power and by his wisedom disposeth all things sweetly even when he permitteth the wicked to flourish and chasteneth his own children every morning our King doing herein as the Husband-man doth with his Oxen mactandus liber ibit ad pascua servandus jugo premitur that which is appointed for the slaughter shall freely run to the best Pasture but that which is to be preserved shall be pressed under the Yoak 2. The Kingdom of Grace 2. The Kingdom of Grace comprehendeth not all creatures nor all men but the elect only that is the good and godly men in whose hearts this King writeth his holy Laws and ruleth them by his Spirit that guideth and directeth them to observe his Laws 3. The Kingdom of Glory 3. The Kingdom of Glory is that which the Apostle describeth whose joyes passeth all understanding whose subjects are the Saints and Angels and whose King is Jesus Christ the King of kings The first of these was established by power when the Almighty God created all things by his powerful Word or the Word of his power which is Jesus Christ but it shall be finished through its weakness when languishing Nature that still groweth weaker and weaker can hold out no longer The second was begun in weakness when Christ the Son of God began the same in the the infirmity of our flesh and to gather his Church by the preaching of a few Fisher-men but it shall end in power when after he hath put all his enemies under his feet he shall by the power of his Deity absolve the same and deliver it as the Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 15. unto God his Father but The third shall begin in power and continue in power without ending when as the Poet saith Gloriosum Imperium siue fine dabit Cui nec metas rerum nec tempora ponit God shall give us a glorious Kingdom without ending and eternal happiness unto his Saints where there shall be no fight because they have no enemie no tears because they can recieve no hurt no fear because there is no danger and no grief because there is no evil but all peace all joy all felicity because God will be all in all And of these three Kingdoms we ought to submit our selves with all contentedness unto the first and with all care and diligence to seek the second that so to our everlasting comfort we may attain unto the third Which kingdom we shall never come unto unless we seek the second which is the kingdome of grace as we ought to do for as among the Romans none came to the Temple of Honour but by the Temple of Virtue so none shall come to the Kingom of glory but the Subjects of the Kingdom of grace and therefore we must seek for that as we ought to do and that is 1. Generally that the Church of Christ may be enlarged by the preaching of the Gospel and by all other ways that we can to convert men to the faith of Christ and not to pervert them by wicked errours or the evil examples of an ungodly conversation 2. Particularly that the Spirit of God and not the Spirit of Satan the grace of Christ and not our fleshly lusts or any other sin might reign in us and rule our hearts to do all things according to Gods Laws that so we our selves might be members of his Church and subjects of this kingdom And as I told you before our seeking for this kingdom must not be as children seek for their
unjust to himself as all covetous men and the prodigal persons are when as the one hath the blessings of God and hath not the heart to use them and the other doth abuse them to the shame and destruction of himself profusely wasting them in feasting and drinking or as some do in beautifying their Tiaras and some others in sweeping the streets with Si ks and Velvets which are vanities that I know not how they shall answer when they come to appear before Almighty God and yet we that are the Preachers shall be but laught at for reproving of these vanities and telling them how it is far from that justice which we should render unto our selves besides the abuse that they offer to Gods creatures And thus I have shewed you what is just and righteous and directed you the right way to the Kingdom of God God give us grace to walk therein But you will demand Where is justice without partiality now to be found among Neighbours or in the Courts of Justice or in the Parliament House I cannot and I dare not say you shall not find justice therein yet this I dare say I have seen faction and friends contrary to justice to have carried things in all these places and therefore seeing that Injustice and Oppression do make wise men mad especially if they see the servants of Rebels and Traitors favoured and countenanced against the most faithful servants of their King and the Ambassadors of the living God And seeing that as Solomon saith Eccles 3.16 I saw the place of judgement and wickedness was there and the place of righteousness and iniquity was there My advice to you all is to follow our Saviours counsel If any man will sue thee at the Law Matth. 5.40 and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also for in so doing in your patience you shall possess your souls and walk in the right way to the Kingdom of God And then secondly what is here promised shall be undoubtedly performed All these things shall be administred unto you through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory and honour and thanks and praise for all his mercies and favours for ever and ever Amen THE SIXTH SERMON JOHN 3.14 And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up THe Holy Apostle Saint Paul speaking of many things that befell the Jews while they wandered in the Wilderness saith 1 Cor. 10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things happened to them in a Figure Heb. c. 8. c. 9. and c. 10. and so were Types of things to come for our ensamples saith our Translation and so the Apostle proveth at large in his Epistle unto the Hebrews As 1 Aaron whose type he was Exod. 28. 1. Aaron their High-Priest was a Type of our High-Priest Jesus Christ and he ascending into heaven left his Apostles and they the Bishops to be his Substitutes to govern his Church here on earth in the place of the High Priest and the Priests and Levites were Types of our Priests and Deacons and his holy garments and most glorious ornaments which the Rabb called Bidge Zahab golden vestments as were the Ephod the Breast-plate with precious Stones the Vrim and Thummim the robe of the Ephod set with golden Bells and Pomgranates the plate of the Miter and the embroydered Coat all so exceeding glorious that when Alexander saw the High-Priest Simeon the just thus attired coming to meet him he was ready to adore him saying That God had thus appeared unto him the night before And so indeed he was the Type of our true God Jesus Christ and his glorious apparel signified the honour glory and respect that should be yielded to the ministery of the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.7 and the servants of Jesus Christ for so the Apostle reasoneth that if the ministration of death i. e. of the Law written and engraven in stones were thus glorious and this glory was to be done away then how shall not the ministration of the Spiririt i. e. of the Gospel which is to continue be much more glorious For as Kings and Princes and great Lords if they have no means nor servants to uphold their estate and to maintain their greatness with great power when there is need they shall not be respected nor secured against rebellious spirits so if the Ministers of Christ be poor Pauper ubique jacet and no great regard will be had of their words for all the brethren of the poor do hate him how much more do his friends go far from him And though Solomon tells you that the poor wise man delivered the City that was besieged by a great King Prov. 19.7 yet he saith no man remembred this poor man but his wisdom is despised Eccles 9.15 16. and his words are not heard And therefore it is no wonder that the poor Vicars preaching brings such poor fruits of charity when the great men of the Countrey carry all the great Livings from them or that poor Bishops can do no great good when those that have been great offenders Bene nota shall carry away the greatest Lordships from them 2. As Aaron the High-Priest of the Jews 2 The Tabernacle what it typifieth and what the Temple typified was a Type of our High-Priest Jesus Christ so the Tabernacle that Moses made in the Wilderness and the Temple that Solomon built on mount Moriah where Abraham was to sacrifice his Son Isaac and which was one of the three hills which were in the same tract of ground Sion Moriah Calvary were types and figures of the Christian Churches that should be erected under the Gospel For As in their Temple there were three things considerable First the Sanctum Sanctorum Secondly the Sanctum Vide Goodwin and thirdly the Atrium answerable to our Cathedral Churches that have 1. The Quire 2. The Body of the Church and 3. The Church-yard and In the Holy of Holies were the golden censer and the Ark of the Testament wherein were 1. The pot of Manna Heb. 9 4. 2. Aarons Rod. And 3. the Table of the Law signifying that the Christian Bishops that have the charge of the Sanctum Sanctorum must always preserve these three things first the Manna to feed the flock of Christ secondly the rod of Discipline to correct them and thirdly the Law to keep them within the bounds of their obedience And there was a covering of the Ark What the Propiriatory signified which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Propitiatory or mercy-seat because it covered and hid the Law that it might not appear before God to plead against and accuse sinfull man for the transgression of this Law Rom. 3.25 and this signifieth our preaching of Jesus Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Propitiatour as the Apostle calleth him and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Propitiation as S. John calleth him
to fight with Devils and do hope by the help of the same Jehovah Yet in the end of this Treatise you may see how one of these Daimons before I printed the same dealt with me Ephes 6.14 15 16. to escape their fiery darts and to be freed from them if not to foil these foul spirits and S. Paul saith that when we go about to wrastle with these Principalities and spiritual wickedness we must put on the whole armour of God and he names them Shield Sword Helmet and all Cap-a-pe and I will follow his counsel but principally insist upon these two principal weapons which our Saviour here nameth and are the fittest to combat with those Devils that I am here now to strive withall and they are Prayer and Fasting for this kind of Devils goeth not out but by prayer and fasting To begin then you must understand that Christian Profession is resembled unto a Race and the Runners in this Race are the Professors of the Christian Religion 1 Cor 9.24 Heb. 12.1 men women and children nobles gentles and beggers all Christians and all run in this Race Hierom. Epist ad Eustach for so S. Hierome saith Stadium est haec vita mortalibus hic contendimus ut alibi coronemur this life is a Race for all mortal men and here we especially that are Christians do strive that we may be crowned elsewhere and our striving our fighting and our running must be Non pedum celeritate not by the swiftness of our feet were we as swift as Asahel or Atalanta the swift sed morum sanctitate fidei probitate contendimus but we must contend by the holiness of our life the sincerity of our actions and the purity of our faith and the prize that we run for is a prize most pretious and invaluable no less than a Crown and a Crown neither of Olive nor of Oak neither of grass nor of gold which Aul. Gellius saith Aul. Gellius l. 5. c. 6. the Romans used to give unto their Victors for these are contemptible and corruptible things but our prize that we strive and fight for is a Crown of eternity which S. Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.4 a Crown of glory that fadeth not and Saint Paul calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 9.25 an incorruptible Crown Now the place where we run and strive and fight for this incorruptible and never-fading Crown is civitas hujus mundi the great city of this whole Universe via lata via laeta a broad way and a merry way to them that never intend or seldom think to come to the end of this way but via aucta via anxia a narrow way and a bitter pensive way to them that long to come to a period of their journey because as S. Hierom saith Hierom in Ep. ad Eustach Hi magnis inimicorum circumdantur agminibus illis hâ—stium plena sunt omnia these are encompassed about with whole troops of enemies and all things are full of hostility against them and S. Augustine saith Aug. in Serm. ad Alippum that omnes qui ad Paradisum redire desiderant oportet transire per ignem aquam all that desire to return and pass into Paradise must pass through fire and water through many letts many hindrances and many afflictions that like the flaming sword in the hand of the Cherubims do stand in our way Gen. 3.24 to stop and hinder our passage unto Paradise And the chiefest obstacles and greatest Enemies that do hinder us are these three sworn covenanting friends and forsworn enemies of our souls that in our Baptism we have promised and vowed to fight against that is 1. Mundus 2. Caro. 3. Daemon 1. The World The thâ—ee chiefest enemie that do fight against us 2. The Flesh 3. The Devil And though Haec tria pro triuo numine mundus habet the wicked and ungodly men deem of these and adore them as if they were three Gods yet we that strive for the incorruptible Crown must be resolved 1. To despise the world and to trample all the vanities thereof under our feet and as the Apostle saith Not to fashion our selves like unto it 2. To subdue the flesh and to mortifie all the deeds and lusts of the flesh which are fornication idolatry covetousness and the like and as S. Paul saith by no means to suffer sin to reign in our mortal bodie 3. To withstand the Devil most manfully to resist his temptations and to expel all his wicked motions out of our souls And because the Devil à principio from the beginning was primitivus peccator the first sinner and now likewise is the primus motor the first mover the chief doer of all the damnable plots that plague us and the chief undoer of every man he being the agent and the other two his Assistants he the Author and they the instruments he the grand Captain and the others his fighting Souldiers against our souls therefore I thought it our best course now first to set upon this first and worst of all our enemies and to set down the best way to destroy him by destroying his plots that seeketh the destruction of us all and to that purpose I know no better way then the right understanding and the due performance of that direction which our Saviour for that end setteth down in this parcel of Scripture Hoc autem genus Daemoniorum saith Beza non ejicitur non egreditur saith Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Greek word and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Pasor signifieth egredior to go out so this kind of Devils goeth not out but through prayer and fasting In which words you shall find not parvum in magno such as we find in earthly minerals a little gold in a great deal of unprofitable earth but you shall find magnum in parvo as it were the whole world in a little Map abundance of matter in few words and an incredible store of pure substance in each particle of this short and most comfortable sentence that teacheth us to cause and make the very Devils to go out and run away from us for these two words Prayer and fasting rightly done will make the Devils flie and hasten away from us when they dare not stay any longer for so S James saith Resist the Devil James 4 7. that is by prayer and fasting and he will flie from you Well then to proceed that most famous and most excellent Philosopher Aristoteles Stagarites the light of Nature and the Pen-man of her secrets who like a most skilfull Architect doth so compose his work ut nihil desit addendum nihilque sine vitio se offerat demendum Faber Stap. in Praesat Aethic Arist Epist Joh. Relico saith Faber Stapulensis that nothing can be added to it nor any thing taken from it without blame doth most plainly conclude that of all natural
things there can be nec plura nec pauciora Arist Phis l. 1. c. 6. sed tria tantummodo Principia neither more nor less but only three Beginings that is 1. Matter 2. Form 3. Privation Of which I intend not now Philosophically to discourse but I only name them as a pattern of my method in this succeeding Sermon of the driving away of Devils which I may rightly term the first of the three beginnings of a Christian the beginnings I say non constitutionis sed renovationis not of his being and creation but of his well being and regeneration where by inverting the Philosopher's method the first of these must be Privation For as the Weeds of a Garden must be first rooted out before the delightsom Flowers are pâ—anted The first beginning of a Christian 1 John 3.8 so the first beginning of a Christian must be destructorium vitiorum an ejection of the Devils and the destruction of all Vices for which purpose Saint John saith The Son of God was manifested and came into the world that he might destroy the works of the Devil then the second beginning of our renovation The second beginning of a Christian is adificatorium virtutum to be just and upright and to behave our selves honestly filled as many of the very Gentiles were with all moral virtues and the third is gratiarum repletorium the replenishing of our souls with all divine graces as Faith The third begining of a Christian These three waies are the faiâ—est waies for us to assuâ—e our selves of our Christianity Hope Charity Patience and the like and these two last do depend upon and succeed the first for as in Nature nullus locus corpore caret sed semper aliquod corpus continet no place wants a body but it alwayes holdeth some one body or other as when one body departs and gives place another body fills that place immediately as when your vessel of Wine is emptied it is filled with Ayr ne detur vacuum in natura lest there should be a vacuity which Nature alwayes abhorreth even so when the Devil is expelled and our hearts cleansed 2 Cor. 7.1 as the Apostle saith from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit then virtues will begin to spring in us and our souls shall be fitted as clean vessels to receive the graces of Gods holy Spirit Sap. 1.4 5. which as the Wise man saith flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin And therefore touching this expulsion of Satan and his suggestions which is the first step to God and the sum and substance of my Text I shall desire you to observe these three things The division of the Text. 1. The Matter 2. The Form 3. The Privation 1. The Matter or the sum and substance of the work which is the ejection or casting out of Devils hoc genus ejicitur 2. The Form Manner or Means by which they are cast out and that is Prayer and Fasting and no ways else for non ejicitur nisi per orationem jejunium they go not out by any other means then by Prayer and Fasting 3. The Privation which followeth their ejection and casting out Aristot Metaphys l 5. c. 22. and is as the Philosopher teacheth absentia prioris formae cum aptitudine materiae ad aliam recipiendam the abscence of the former conditions that we had with an aptitude or fitness of our souls to receive far better qualities and therefore must consist 1. In Remotione mali the removal and rooting out of all evil thoughts words and deeds 2. The Reception and planting in our hearts all good virtues and graces of Gods spirit Or if you please you may consider in these words 1. Actus 1. The Act which is the casting out of Devils 2. Modus 2. The Means by which we cast them out which are Prayers and Fasting 3. Effectus 3. The Effect or Successe which followeth their casting or going out and it is a freedom from Satans tyrannie and a blessed fruition of liberty to be prepared to receive Gods holy Spirit and his graces for the saving of our souls And touching the first point which is the casting out of these Devils I shall desire you to consider with me these three things That is 1. The Ingredients 2. Their Ingression 3. Their Ejection 1. The Ingredients 1. Of the Ingredients or those that enter into a man to take possession of his heart and Soul are said to be genus Demoniorum a kind of Devils and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sciens a word derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scio disco signifieth a knowing-One whomsoever he be whether he be from heaven or from the earth or from hell But use and custom hath most commonly appropriated this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the worser kind of knowing ones or intellectual creatures that is the infernal Angels which we call Devils or else the most wicked men which are termed Devils incarnate and which oftentimes do shew themselves Devils indeed and to do as much mischief as the Devils of hell as the experience we have had of the cruelty and wickedness of our late Rebels doth sufficiently testify unto us Whereby you may perceive that there are two special kinds of Devils 1. The Devils of Hell which are Spirits That there are two kinds of Devils or spiritual Devils 2. The Devils of the Earth which are Men or carnal Devils and of these I shall treat last And for the first kind of Devils I shall only speak of these three things Of the first kind of Devils Consider three things 1. Their Nature 2. Their Names 3. Their Number And 1. Touching their Nature you are 1. Of the nature of the Devils Observa ∣ tion 1 1. To understand that they are not Chimera's of apprehensions Danaeus Isagog c. 4. de Angelis Damasc l. 2. de Orthodoxa Fide but true real substances for though some men deny them to be any substances but rather to be motus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain inward motions and vehement passions of the mind whereby men are tossed and caried away to do this or that thing as Danaeus writeth yet not only the most ancient Fathers as Damascen Tertullian and others and so the School-Divines as Thomas and the rest of them Zanchius deoperibus Dei l 2. c. 2. and so likewise all the modern Writers as Zanchius doth by eight special Reasons prove them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things really existing but also the most sacred Scripture which is veritatis omnis regula the rule of all truth doth most plainly shew unto us that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Substances for they are said to talk with Christ to obey Christ to enter into the Swine to be tormented to be tied in chains to reside in everlasting
cannot do any thing nor will any thing Isidorus l. 1. c. 10. Aug. de fide ad petrum c. 3. contrary to the Will of God as both Isidorus and Saint Augustine do most fully and excellently declare Error 2 2. For that a vail or covering cannot be sufficient to keep any thing from the sight of a Spirit who doth so perfectly penetrate into all inferiour objects as that he knoweth them quantum cognoscibilia sunt so far as they are knowable And therefore touching this first opinion of their fall and sin as this Inference is insufficient so the foundation of it is not firm Zanch. de operibus Dei l. 4. c. 2. and I will not say with Zanchius that this opinion is nimis stulta and the Authors of it nimis stupidi as Theodoret in his forty seventh Question upon Genesis because that should be sermo nimis durus The double reason against the error of this first opinion too rigorous a censure upon those worthy men that held it But I say they were mistaken in a double respect 1. Because that there is no mention in the Scripture of this sin of carnal Concupiscence or fleshly Lusts until almost a thousand years after the Creation of the World but it is Reason 1 most certain that there were many other sins both of the Angels and Men long before this sin For the â—cripture teacheth us saith Saint Chrysostome that before Adam was formed the Devil fell away from his dignity And the Wise man saith That by the envy of the devil death entred into the world Therefore he sinned before Adam sinned for otherwise if he fell not before man was made how could he remaining in so great a dignity in Heaven envy man here on Earth It is not likely but it is against all reason to think that an Angel incorporeal placed in the height of glory and in the sight of God should envy man that bare a body of earth about him and lived here on earth but he being cast down from Heaven and to be chained in extream ignominy and seeing man in such great dignity then his malice saith Saint Chrysostome Non potuit non graviter ferre aliorum foeâ—icitatem could not endure the sight of others happiness without envy 2. Because that the Lord God himself saith Gen. 6.3 My Spirit Reason 2 shall not alwayes strive with man for that he is but flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years At natura incorporea carnes non habet But the Spirits have no flesh neither have the Angels a life defined or determined by time Theodoret q. 47. in Gen. seeing they are immortal saith Theodoret. Therefore the sin of these foul Spirits could not be any carnal Lust 2. Opinion is of them which say 2. Opinion of their fall Eccles 10.13 That pride caused them to fall That the first sin of Satan was Pride according to that of Syracides Initium omnis peccati est superbia Pride is the beginning of sin and the beginning of pride is to depart from God when the heart turneth away from his Maker Whereupon Saint Augustine saith Aug. in vet Test That the Devil elatione inflatus puffed up with pride would needs be counted and so taken for God And so Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysostome in Isai ad hom 3. That Satan Per superbiam factus est Diabolus qui antea Diabolus non erat by his pride was made a Devil which before he became proud was no Devil A good Lesson for proud fantastical men to think on what their pride will bring them to which brought the Angels of Heaven to be Devils in Hell Hierom in c. 28. Ezek Ambros in Psal 118. Ser. 3. Nazian Orat. 1. de pace Fulgent ad Monimum l. 10. Esay 14.13 14. 1. Reason to prove pride to be their sin Job 41.34 Ezek. 28.2 14.15 And this was the opinion of St. Hierom and of St. Ambrose and of St. Nazianzen Fulgentius Athanasius Theodoret and many more And this their opinion may be confirmed both out of the Old and New Testament For 1. In the old Testament it is said Cogitavit apud semetipsum He thought with himself to exalt his throne above the stars of God and said I will ascend above the height of the clouds and I will be like the most High The like whereof we find in Job under the name of the Leviathan who is said to be the king over all the children of pride And the very like in Ezekiel under the title of the Prince of Tyrus whose heart was lifted up and he said I am a god and I sit in the seat of God and the Prophet in the person of God saith of him Thou art the annointed Cherub that covereth and I have sâ—t thee so thou wast upon the holy mountain of God thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire and thou wast perfect in thy wayes from the day that thou wast created until iniquity was found in thee For though I am not ignorant that the place of Esay is literally to be understood of the King of Babylon and that of Job of the Whale and the other place of Ezekiel is spoken of the King of Tyrus yet this can be no hinderance but that mystically these places may signifie the Devil who is the head and the grand Captain of all the children of pride Rupertus de victoria verbi Dei 2. Reason to prove it Luke 10.18 as Rupertus Tuitiensis doth most excellently declare 2. The same may be proved out of the new Testament where our blessed Saviour for the repressing of this detestable sin of pride alledgeth the fall of Satan saying I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven and therefore take heed of being proud that the foul Spirits are subject unto you lest you fall likewise even as he did And so Saint Paul sheweth That he which is puffed up with pride 1 Tim. 3.6 falleth into the snare and judgment or condemnation of the devil that for his pride was adjudged and condemned to hell And let all proud Gallants take heed of the like judgment and condemnation 3. Opinion is of them which say 3. Opinion of their fall That the first sin of the Devil was Envy when he saw man that was formed of the dust of the earth to be made in the Image of God and to confirm the same they alledge Athenagoras Petrus Alexandrinus and especially that place in the Book of Wisdom where the Wise man saith That Per invidiam Diaboli Sap. 2.24 mors intravit in mundum through the envy of the Devil death came into the world But this saith Zanchius crosseth not the truth of the former opinion but may well agree with it and proceed from his pride seeing as Aquinas saith Thom 12. q. 84. ar 20. 22. q. 77. art 5. Envy is a branch of pride Quando bonum
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
all But though it be not amiss to make known the injustice and the faults of Great men that there may be a redress of them yet who dares complain and speak of the Vices of their Superiours An tutum est scribere in eos qui possunt proscribere I have read how the Mice held a Consultation The Fable of the Mice how they might escape the fury of the Cat and one wiser than the rest said it might easily be done if there were but a Bell tied about the Cats neck for so they might heare her coming and they might get away and all liked well and applauded the device but to this day they could never agree which of them should tie the Bell about the Cats neck So all the poor and inferiour Clergy all sigh and groan and complain of their Taxes and Pressures and Oppressions by the Bishops and Archbishops and Archdeacons and their Suffragans and all that come to Censure them but not one of them all dares tie the Bell about the Cats neck and complain of these Great Powers unto the Higher Powers to have their abuses redressed for fear of a worser consequence no less than to be crusht and torn all to pieces Yet I remember what Seneca saith that he which is careless of his own life may when he will be Master of another mans life so he that is careless of his own state or promotion and regards not the confluence of wealth and worldly things may without fear do things that other timorous men dare not venter to do The manifold deliverances of the Author And truly I must confess that since the great Jehovah my continual deliverer hath delivered me from that multitude of those malicious Enemies that sought after my life when I was scarce budded in the world and ever since hath preserved me so many times from such great and so unimaginable dangers as from Captain Flaxen when I was carried Prisoner to North-hampton from Captain Beech when I was taken prisoner at Sea from the drunken Captain that would have delivered me to the Power of the Parliament hard by Aber-ystwith from Sir John Carter and Courtney that would have clapt me in prison when I preached for his now Majesty at Conway from the wicked Committee of plundered Ministers that said I deserved rather to have my head cut off than to have any Articles performed with me from so many desperate Sea-voyages and Land journeys that I passed through and from Captain Wood when I was under his hands in the Parliament Ship from the Great Antichrist the Long Parliament and especially from the devil himself when he threw me down at West-Wickham and God said unto him as he did of Job He is in thy hand but save his life I never feared what man could do unto me but as the Prophet David said the Lord delivered me from the mouth of the bear and of the Lion and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine So I say the Lord that preserved me so many times from so many dangers will still preserve me while with a sincere heart I endeavour to discharge my duty especially seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that art affraid of a man and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth and hast feared every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy Therefore as I have been alwaies resolute and in a manner desperate in the judgment of the timorous as it appeareth by the three Books that in the behalf of our late King I printed in Oxford and the three Books that I writ of the Great Antichrist while the Long Parliament and the false Prophet were in their greatest prevalency and by the Sermons that I preached at St. Nicholas and other Churches in Dublin at Conwey before the Judges at Llaâ— Sannan and in all places So now in mine old age when I am so near my grave I have less reason to fear and more cause to be resolute to say the truth to discharge my duty and to implore my most honourable Friends my Lords Grace of Canterbury my Lord of London and my old familiar Acquaintance my Lord of Winchester whom God hath placed so near his Majesty and hath raised to that eminency of dignity pre consortibus above their brethren not so much for their own sakes as for his honour and service and the good of his Church and like so many religous Josephs to relieve their distressed Brethren to joyn in mine assistance most earnestly to beseech and most humbly to petition to his Sacred Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to relieve and help the Church of Ireland in those threefold grievances that I have foreshewed as that 1. Seeing the Lands and Revenues of the Church were I am sure in many places of my Diocess given for their reward that fought against his late Majesty and that by reason of their wealth and great friends to uphold them therein they do possess them and we that would erect our Churches therewith are disinabled to do it without our means that are so forcibly with strong hands and by such friends detained from us his Majesty would be pleased to cause them or some others some waies and by some means to have the Churches of God for the service of Jesus Christ to be erected and repaired * Especially the Bishops Cathedral Church in Kilkenny and not to the scandal of our Religion which the Jews Turks and Gentiles would not do to suffer our very Cathedrals and so many other Parish Churches to lie so ruinous and so rooted up as they are 2. That seeing so many great and goodly Impropriations are taken away from the Church of Christ and from the service of God and are held in the hands of such great persons and powerful men that will not part with them as I shewed to you before and the poor Vicars of such Rectories impropriate have scarce so much means belonging to the Vicaredges as will put bread into their mouths whereby they are constrained for the relief of their Families to take Farms and other Lands to occupy like Lay men and to neglect their duties and the service of Gods Church and to suffer the poor people either to be instructed and to have their children baptized married and buried by the Popish Priests or to have no Priests at all and we that are the Diocessans by reason of the small values of those Vicaredges can find no men that are worthy and able Ministers that will come and accept of those slender maintenances and those that do accept them we cannot make them by reason of their smalness to discharge them And seeing as I said the Churches are down and the Lands Livings and Revenues of the Church are thus as I
and malicious slanderer and false accuser of his Brethren which can be neither true wisdom nor honest pollicy to please men and to offend Almighty God And now to conclude our sad condition when after all my many years sufferings and had spent above four hundred pounds to repair the Quire and Chancel of S. Kenny and about six hundred pounds in Law against Sir George Ayskue for the right of the Church and did perceive the success like to be fruitless I once thought to present this Petition to his Majesty To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory THat wheras your Petitioner hath seen how highly your Majesty hath been abused and how slowly and scantly righted by one Jury and how much both your Majesty and your Petitioner have been wronged by another Jury and how mightily he is obstructed to gain your Majesties gracious Grant and the right of the Church where your Petitioner is but the Sollicitor and aymeth at no benefit not so much as one penny for himself Your Petitioner that desireth nothing but that Justice which establisheth the Thrones of Kings may be done to God to your Majesty and to himself he humbly prayeth that the whole matter betwixt him and Sir George Ayskue may be heard at the Council Table or tried by an honest Jury here in Ingland And your Petitioner shall pray c. But considering my years full 78 and mine infirmities and especially how heavy the Seas are alwaies to me and perceiving the impossibilities of prevailing contra stimulum calcitrare when such greatness doth so visibly oppose me I conceived that till God should otherwise dispose of things Sat mihi posse pati and pray to God that he would arise and maintain his own cause Et dot mihi velle mori and let them that detain the Right of the Church and them that maintain and uphold them in it remain under the prayer of Moses Deut. 3â— 8 9 10 11. Psal 84.10 11 12 c. and the Prophesie of David and the judgment of God betwixt me and them Jamque opus exegi and with the two-edged sword of truth I smote at the impieties and corruptions both of the Clergy and Layty of Church and Commonwealth and of the great men and rich men without fear In me convertite ferrum and I doubt not but I shall attrict unto my self the malevolency detraction and persecution from many men but I have alwaies armed my self with the resolution to endeavour to do my duty and discharge a good conscience and as Queen Hester said so say I if I perish I perish having published my own funeral Sermon in the Sermons I made for others and commiting my self as I have done ever Jehovae Liberatori In Impios Sacrilegos HEu mala progenies fatis servata nefandis Gensque inimica deo dominans voraxque sacrarum Quid fuer as quid fisque vide tua prima propago Sancta fuit sobolemque petet lues atra secundam Cum leo terribilis virgineis editus oris Flammiferam ex orco pellagique plangentibus undis Educens aciem magnos urbesque virosque Sternet antiquis solem lunamque movebit Sedibus ille etiam patrio jure infima summo Reddet oppressos in coelum mittet inermes A Prayer of the Author O Sweet Jesus Christ as thou art God in Heaven and hast a care of thy Church here on Earth I beseech thee suffer not thy Servants that stand for thee to be cast down and trampled under feet and those that have fought against their King to bring thine anointed Vicegerent to be murdered to carry away the Inheritance of thy Church and the Lands that were dedicated for thy Service to be enjoyed for the Reward of that transcendent wickedness lest thy Servants should be too much dejected and disheartened to stand for thine honour and thine Enemies encouraged to proceed on in the like malicious wickedness but rather let them feel the power of Moses Prayer for Levi and Davids Prophesie against them that will rob thee and thy Servants of their Houses and Possessions and be thou a just Judge betwixt us and them Amen FINIS
of all Seek ye first the Kingdom of God 1. The act injoyned is Seek ye 1. The act that is injoyned and if Christ had said no more but seek ye all men would have readily obeyed his command for all men seek And now they say we have a Sect of Professors that are called Seekers but as those silly women whereof the Apostle speaketh That they are ever learning 2 Tim. 3.7 and yet never come to the knowledge of the truth So our Saviour saith That many men will seek but they shall not find because they seek amiss and that is Either Why men find not what they seek for 1. What they ought not to seek Or 2. When they should not seek it Or 3. Where it is not to be found Or 4. Not so carefully as they ought to seek it 1. What we ought not to seek for 1. The worldlings seek indeed But what do they seek Quaerenda pecunia primum and for the wealth of this world Currit mercator ad Indos And so the Lawyer seeks the Physitian seeks the Divine seeks and every man seeks for something and too many seek for that which should not be sought for for revenge or for their neighbours goods and therefore they shall not find this Kingdom of God 2. When it is too late to seek 2. Others seek for what they should seek for i. e. the Kingdom of God and yet they find it not because that with those foolish Virgins whereof our Saviour speaketh they seek to enter when the door is shut Matth. 25.10 for as it is too late to shut the door when the steed is stollen so many times it is to no purpose to knock when the door is shut or to seek when it is too late for so Dives Qui negavit micas interris rogavit guttas in poenis which denied the crums to Lazarus on earth desires a drop in hell but he is denied and so shall all they be denied Qui quaerunt salutem in medio Gehennae quae operata est in medio terrae which seek for salvation and help in the midst of Hell or of Purgatory which was wrought in the midst of the earth and should be sought after while we live on earth And therefore the Prophet Esay biddeth us To seek the Lord while he may be found and that is now in the Church Esay 55.6 and not hereafter in Purgatory for now is the time acceptable now is the day of salvation 3. Others seek it and find it not 3. Where it is not to be found because they seek it in the place where it is not to be found for as they that seek for counsel among Fools and honesty among Knaves and truth among Hereticks may seek long enough and yet miss to find them so they that seek for the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of Christ in the Dominion of Antichrist or among unrighteous Rebels shall hardly find it And therefore we must seek it where it may be found and that is in the true Church of God and in his Holy Scripture and not in the Synagogue of Satan or in the Fanatique Conventicles of our upstart Sectaries or in any Popish and absolete Traditions of the Church of Rome 4. Others also seek the Kingdom of God and yet find it not 4. When they seek it so carelesly because they seek it so coldly and so carelesly as they do for great things cannot be had without great labour And therefore Solomon saith he that would find Wisedom must search for it as for Silver Prov. 2.4 and seek for it as we seek for hidden Treasure And you see the worldling cannot get a little wealth without labour the Lawyer cannot understand the Law without study and do you think with our foolish Enthusiasts that we shall understand the Holy Scripture without paines-taking Surely How no great nor good thing can be had without labour they that cannot understand Terence without a Comment shall never be able to expound the deep Mysteries of the Scripture and to reconcile the repugnant Texts thereof without Books and without Labour for as St. Aug. speaketh Quidquid est crede mihi in Scripturis illis altum divinum est Whatsoever is in those Scriptures believe me it is high and Divine and though in some places it is like a shallow Foord wherein a Lamb may wade and the meanest man may understand what he should do and the main points of his belief yet in many other places you shall find it like the deep Ocean wherein the greatest Elephant may swim and the best Wits fail to understand it And if the Câ—tizen cannot get his Wealth nor the Scholler his Learning without labour and pains do you think to find and to attain to the Kingdom of God by a â—old and careless seeking after it No no that cannot be Quia non dormientibus sed pugnantibus adveniet regnum Dei the Kingdom of God falleth not into the Sleepers lap but they that strive for it shall obtain it and therefore our Saviour bids us Luke 13.24 strive to enter in at the narrow gate and he saith that the Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it away And so you see how we ought to seek for any thing that we would find when and where and how it may be found that is with such pains and care as it ought to be sought Now 2. The thing that we ought to seek for 2. Our Saviour thinking it not enough to bid us seek lest we should mistake the thing that we should seek and passing by all other things that are scarce worth the seeking or much looking after he setteth down that Vnum necessarium and that Pearl of invaluable price which we ought to seek that is the Kingdom of God And who would not seek a Kingdom Truly if Christ had said no more but seek a Kingdom I think enow would have been ready enough to seek it for it is strange saith Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. to consider of the inordinate desire that men have had to reign and to rule as Kings what Villainies they have committed to become Kings and what Execrable things they have don to continue Kings The ambitious and inordinate dâ—sire of men to reign as Kings for Amurath the Third caused five of his younger Brethren to be strangled in his presence and Ismael the second Son to Techmas King of Persia did put to death as many of his Bretheren as he could find and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might reign and rule without fear and Soliman mistrusting his own Son Mustapha when he returned Victorious from the Persian War and was received with such general applause caused him presently to be strangled and Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in Heaven and one Emprour