So that this may teach us to extoll and magnifie Gods goodnesse towards us who layeth not so much upon us as he laid upon them but proportions his trials to our infirmity and weaknesse And thus much likewise for the second difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the party that must offer this sacrifice Abraham Isaac a father his sonne difficulty third The third difficulty is in regard of the manner how he must sacrifice his son he must offer him to God in holocanstum for a burnt-offring The manner how they were to offer their burnt-offrings in the old Law is prescribed by God unto Moses in the first of Leviticus where we finde that the burnt-offring that was to be offered was to be killed to be cut in pieces or quartered and every part to be laid upon the fire till it were wholly consumed Whether Abraham when he had killed his son was likewise to quarter him and to hew him in pieces I will not determine but yet it is probable For howsoever the manner of offering these offrings was specified long after this Commandement was given yet Abel and others had offered burnt offrings long before which no doubt they had done as God himselfe had taught them But this is certain that when Abraham had killed his son with his own hands he was likewise to lay him upon the fire till he were wholly consumed and burnt to ashes for so much the word holocaustum signifies And therefore Musculus saith upon this place Non simpliciter immolare filium jubetur Abraham sed offerre in holocaustum hoc est c. Abraham is not commanded simply to sacrifice his son but to offer him for a burnt-offring that is saith Musculus after that he hath imbrued his sword in his sons bloud with his own hands to lay his body in the fire and when one side is burnt to turn the other and so to let it burn till it be consumed to ashes which is all one as if his body were to be consumed to nothing So that this is more horrible then all the rest For how is it possible for a father to endure when he hath bathed his sword in his sons bloud to take him up in his armes and to lay him upon the Altar to see his bowels fry and crackle in the fire and to turn him upside down till every part be consumed and burnt to nothing What death can be imagined so horrible as this If God had commanded Abraham either to have strangled or smoothered his son yet his body ye know would have remained whole he might have entombed him if God had commanded him to cast him down headlong from the top of the mountain so that every member had been dashed asunder yet some part of his body would have been remaining Nay if God had commanded him to take his son and cast him to the wilde beasts that they might devoure him yet at least-wise ye know his bones would have been left and so Abraham might have had some relique of his son but this is such a death as doth utterly consume every part of the body and brings all to nothing But besides this Abraham knew very well that God could not away with humane sacrifices and therefore that Abel Noah and the rest had never offered the like in any of their offrings It is true indeed that many years after the Children of Israel had learn'd of the Gentiles as we see Psalm 106 to sacrifice their sons and their daughters to divels Psal 106.37 but therefore saith David The wrath of the Lord was kindled against them so that he abhorred even his own inheritance Psal 106.40 Nay this is so monstrous and abominable an act that many of the heathen did utterly condemne it We read of the Carthagincans that they were wont to sacrifice their children to Saturne Plutarch in Reg. Apophth as thinking that this would be acceptable to their God because they had heard the fable that Saturne was wont to devoure his children But therefore when Gelo the King of Sicilia had subdued Carthage he forbad this custome as thinking it monstrous that the gods should be worshipt with such cruell sacrifices And therefore when Agesilaus Plutarch in vita Agesilai as Plutarch records was admonished in a dream to sacrifice his daughter to Diana as Agamemnon had done he made this answer that he would not imitate Agamemnons folly but he would offer such a sacrifice as was fit for a goddesse How then could Abraham think that God would be pleased with such a sacrifice and that he who is the father of mercies and would not so much as the death of a sinner should delight in cruelty and in the slaughter of innocents so that when God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son here is a further temptation then all the former which seems not so much to impugne his affection as to confound his faith in that God here seems contrary unto himselfe And indeed beloved the conflict which Abraham sustained in his affection was nothing to that which his faith sustained For how should he believe the promises of God concerning his son being now commanded by God to kill him God had promised Abraham as we heard before that him seed should be called in Isaac that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven Gen. 26.4 and that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his feed after him Abraham believed according to Gods promise that the Saviour of the World should spring from his Sonne and that so all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed in him and yet now he commands him to sacrifice his Son and so to burn as it were the bond of his own salvation For if Isaac must die how can Abraham look for the Messias from him and if no Messias what remaines but Gods wrath and vengeance to be powred upon all men so that this Commandement seemes quite to overthrow Gods former promise and yet such was Abrahams faith and obedience that he both performed that which God had commanded and withall believed that which God had promised For howsoever it might seeme as impossible to flesh and blood that seed should be raised from Isaac being dead as that a Tree should budde forth when the root is withered yet he knew there was nothing impossible with God and therefore though Isaac were wholly consumed and burnt to nothing yet that God was able even out of his ashes to raise up seed unto him Doct. 3 Now whereas God commands Abraham here to offer his Sonne in holocaustum for a burnt-Offring so that no part of his body may be kept but that it must wholly be consumed and burnt to nothing The Doctrin that might be gathered from hence is this That as God makes tryall of our Obedience in that which of all other is deerest unto us so he requires that we keep nothing thereof unto our selves but
Adam Gen. 3.17 Gen. 3. Thou hast eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life c. For as there is nothing in the World but onely sinne that dishonours God so there is nothing but sinne that is displeasing and offensive unto him And this is so offensive that at first when it began to spring up in Heaven among the Angels God presently pulled up this weede by the root and cast the Angels out of Heaven afterwards when it began to take root in Paradise among our first Parents God weeded it from thence and thrust them out of Paradise afterwards again when it began to increase and to spread it self all over the earth God to cleanse the earth from this pollution did send the deluge and drowned all the world except eight persons and still to shew how it doth displease him even those whom he loves he chastens for sinne and doth not spare it in his own Children A second Reason why God doth afflict us for his own glory is to make manifest his power in our weakness that when we are sufficiently humbled by affliction and past all recovery of our selves he might shew his power in our deliverance and provoke us to thankfulness when he hath delivered us Thus he suffered Daniel to be cast among the Lions the three Children to be thrown into a fiery furnace and the Israelites to be so hotly pursued by Pharoh that they were faine to flie through the read Sea with Moses that when they were delivered they might ascribe the glory thereof unto God and say with the Prophet David This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And these are the reasons which concern Gods glory Secondly God doth chasten and correct us for our good Si bonus est qui patitur in bonum desinit quodcunque patitur If he be good that suffers it is for his good whatsoever he suffers For howsoever afflictions seem evill to us yet God like a skilfull Physitian that will make good use of poyson turnes them to the good and benefit of his Children and that divers wayes First To withdraw us from the love of the World and to draw us nearer to God for when we are visited with any affliction we are more ready to seek unto God for help as the sick man repaires unto the Physitian While we live in health and prosperity we are more prone to forget God as having lesse feeling of the want of his help and we commonly take such a liking of this World that we are loath to leave it but when we are afflicted then we seek unto God for help and comfort which because we cannot find in the World we grow weary of it Plutarch reports of a Souldier of Antigonus that having a Disease which was irksome unto him it made him wearie of his life insomuch that he would adventure upon any danger and there was no so desperate a piece of service but he would alwayes be the foremost in it The Generall much affecting him for his great valour was at great expences to have him cured of his Disease but when he had got him cured looking that he should be as valorous and resolute as he was before he found him far otherwise and unwilling to put himself into any danger whereof when the Generall asked him the reason he gave him this answer That when his Body was diseased he was weary of it but seeing that now it was whole and sound he was loth to loose it As it was with this Souldier so God seeth it to be with many of us when we are in adversity we grow weary of this life and can say with Jonah Jonah 4.8 It is better for me to die then to live but when we are in prosperity the case is altered we take such a liking of this present World that we are loath to leave it but can say with Peter Master it is good for us to be here and are of the same mind as the Cardinall was who prosest he would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise And therefore as a Nurse when she would weane the Child from sucking the dugge will annoint her teates with some bitter thing to the end that the Child may begin to mislike them So God to withdraw us from the pleasures of this World sends us afflictions to reclaime us from our pleasures and to make the same more unsavory unto us For as the Children of Israel would never have thought of leaving Egypt and coming into Canaan if they had not been afflicted in the Land of Egypt So many will never renounce the pleasures of this life untill they be distasted thereof by affliction And therefore God chastens and afflicts his Children because affliction is a meanes to weane them from the World and to draw them unto him Tentatio quasi interrogatio A second Reason why God doth afflict them is to make manifest those gifts and graces which lie hidden in them For as showers in the spring time cause the budds to appear which before were not seene so afflictions make manifest many virtues in Gods Children which before lay hidden If Abraham had not been commanded to have sacrificed his Sonne he had not had that occasion to have testified his obedience and if Job had not been so grievously afflicted as he was he had not had occasion to have declared his patience Many virtues lie hidden in the Children of God while they are in prosperity but when adversity comes then they break forth like starres in the night and do shew themselves I might alleage other Reasons why God doth chasten us as to make us conformable to Christ our head to shew us how weak we are of our selves without Gods assistance to stir us up to prayer to teach us humility and to exercise our patience all which may hearten us in the time of affliction because it is for our good that God thus afflicts us We are much dejected when we are afflicted we count our afflictions to be long and grievous for the time but the Apostle teacheth us to make another account where he calles our afflictions both short and light our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 saith he which is but for a moment Some indeed are afflicted longer then other yet their afflictions are but short that continue longest Acts 9.33 Mat. 9.20 We read of one Acts 9. that was sick of the Palsie and kept his Bedde 8. years St. Matthew tells us of a Woman that was diseased with an issue of blood for 12. years St. Luke tells us of a Woman that had a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 and was bowed together and could in nowise lift up her self for 18. years St. John tells us of a Man that had been diseased 38. years The time no doubt seemed long
are kept out by Porters yet they have free liberty to come into Gods House and though they have not accesse to rich mens tables yet they may have accesse to the Table of the Lord as well as the richest And though here the poor toile and take great pains to supply their wants yet this may be their comfort That God hath provided them if they serve him a place of rest hereafter and that the time is but short that they shall live in want and be forced thereby to toile and take paines for when they die they shall be freed from their wants and shall rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 And in the mean time though the poor do live in want yet as that holy Martyr said when some threatned to famish her Elizabeth Young If you saith she take away my meat I trust that God will take away my hunger So if the poor depend upon God for that which they want instead thereof he will give them contentment by taking away their desire of that which they want that they shall not need it And these things if the poorer sort considered it would make their poverty lesse evill to themselves and lesse hurtfull to others And as Agur here prayes That God would not give him poverty so likewise that God would not give him riches Give me saith he neither poverty nor riches To pray against poverty which many so fear is no more then the most will do but to pray against riches which the most so desire may be thought a Paradox But Agur here desiring rather to be good then great and fearing that riches would make him worse he praies that God would not give him riches Though riches be not evill in their own nature yet they may be as we heard before of poverty occasions of evill occasions of evill to him that is rich and of evill to others through his being rich First Of evill to him that is rich For riches do often make men proud and to forget God This Agur implies in the next verse by giving this reason why he desired that he might not be rich Least saith he I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord For none are so prone to forget God as they commonly are whom he hath blest with riches though their riches should make them the more to remember him as gifts call to mind the givers of them Therefore Moses gave a speciall Caveat to the Children of Israel to beware they forgat not the Lord when he had enricht them in the Land of Canaan Deut. 6.10 When the Lord thy God saith Moses Deut. 6. shall have brought thee into the Land to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not and wels digged which thou diggedst not vineyards and olive-trees which thou plantedst not when thou hast eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord. Deut. 8.11 And again Deut. 8. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast builded goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy heards and thy flocks do multiply and when thy silver and gold and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord implying that then they would be most prone to forget him For riches by the fair shew they make do steal away mens hearts from God 2 Sam. 15.6 Psal 62.10 as Absolon by his fair shews to the people did steal away their hearts from David Therefore David gives rich men this counsell Psal 62. If riches increase set not your hearts upon them because if the heart be set upon riches then not upon God For no man saith our Saviour can serve two Masters Mat. 6.24 ye cannoâ— serve both God and riches no more then the eye as St. Augustine saith can both look up to heaven and down to the earth at the same time And as riches do steale mens hearts from God and make them not to regard him so sometimes they steale mens hearts from themselves that they regard themselves lesse then they do their riches and therefore toyle continually to get Wealth and yet are not satisfied though they have more then enough And therefore Agur in the 15. and 16. ver of this Chapter compares the covetous rich-man to those things that are the most insatiable of all other as to the Horse-leach which is ever crying give give which sucks the blood untill she be filled and then she fals off and yet presently after she fals to it a fresh and is as hungry of it as she was before To the grave that never cries it is enough but though it receive never so many dead bodies yet it consumes all and is still gaping as it were and opening the mouth that it may receive more To the earth that cannot be satisfied with water but though sometimes it be so glutted with raine and made as it were drunken so that it vomits it up againe that a man would thinke that it had taken such a surfet that it would brook rain the worse for a long time after yet ye know if it be but without showers for a while it will begin to chappe and chaune and be as thirsty thereof as it was before And so likewise to fire which is of so insatiable a nature that it cannot be exstinguisht with adding fewell unto it but the more fewell it has the more greedy it is catching hold of all that is round about it first of the chimney where it was first kindled then of the roof of the house then of the whole building and yet it will not stay there but will presently take hold of the house that is next it and so will still go further further till it have devour'd and consumed whatsoever is nere it Now as these are insatiable as the Horse-leach is not satisfyed with sucking blood the grave with the dead the earth with water nor the fire with fewell no more can a covetous rich-man be satisfied with riches though he have never so much Hence it is that such do make themselves drudges to the world to get wealth and yet grudge themselves any part thereof as unwilling to lessen that which they have For the more they have Viri divitiarum the more they desire their riches which should be a medicine to cure them of covetousnesse increasing their disease and making them more covetous and lesse willing to spend any thing upon themselves For Mammon doth commonly use his servants as Gardeners use their Asses in some Countries loading them to the Market with good herbes which are a burden to them and food for others and turning them when they have done to feed upon Thistles And thus doth Mammon deale with his followers loading them with wealth and not suffering them to injoy the benefit thereof but makes them to fare
the day of judgement 2 Pet. 3.3 Know this saith Saint Peter that there shall be scoffers in the last dayes Walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue say they as they were from the beginning of the creation And thus many because the World hath continued so long a time in the same state do perswade themselves that it shall continue so for ever and that there shall be no end of the World nor day of judgement These Saint Peter in the same place confutes by this reason That though the World have continued in the same state for a long time yet it followes not from thence that therefore the World should continue so for ever for it wa a long time from the Creation of the world till the coming of the floud yet the world was then destroyed by one of the elemente whereof it was made namely by water and so though it seems a long time till the end of the world yet in the end it shall be destroyed by another element namely by Fire And as they who lived in the time of Noah would not be perswaded that the world should be drowned till the floud came suddenly and swept them away so the end of the world and Christs coming to judgement shall as suddenly come upon unbelievers while they think not of it Christ indeed doth deferre his coming in divers respects As that the number of the elect may be fulfill'd whom God hath decreed from all etermity to call in all ages by the preaching of the Gospel till the end of the world that the patience of the faithfull who waite and long for the coming of Christ may be tried and exercised and that the wicked may be left without excuse being forborne so long and having had so large a time of repentance In these respects Christ defers his coming but though his coming be deferr'd for a time yet in the end he will not faile to come as the Scripture assures us by evident testimonies by visible signes and by invisible reasons The testimonies are divers The Prophesie of Enoch which is alleadged by Saint Jude is plaine and evident Jude 14.15 Enoch saith he the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deads Where ye see the world was no sooner made but that the end thereof was presently fore-told for Enoch was but the seventh from Adam and yet he prophesied of Christs coming to judgement and that so plainly as if he had seen him coming Ecce venit Behold saith he he comes Dan. 7.9.10 So Daniel prophesied of the day of judgement I beheld saith he till the thrones were prepared and the auncient of dayes did sit there issued forth a fiery stream and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened I saw saith Saint John the dead both small and great stand before the Lord Revel 20.12 and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged c. Where to shew the certainty of Christs coming to judgement he speaks ye see thereof as if it were past because he shall come at the time appointed as certainly as if he were come already I might alleadge many other places wherein the coming of Christ to judgement is plainly fore-told And as the Scriptures have fore-told Christs coming to judgement so to assure us the better thereof it hath likewise given us many signes which go before it whereby we may know that it will not be long before he come When the King ye know is come to a Town he commonly sends his harbingers before him and when they see his harbingers they say the King is coming because they know by the coming of his harbingers that it will not be long before the King himselfe comes Christ hath given us many signes of the end of the world and his coming to judgement which are as his harbingers sent before his coming and these signes which go before his coming are of two sorts either such as go longer before his coming and are further from it or such as go but hard before and shall be nigh unto it Of the former sort are divers signes as the preaching of the Gospell all over the world foretold by our Saviour Mat. Mat. 24.2 Thes 2. Rom. 11. Luke 17. 24. The revealing of Antichrist that man of sinne and sonne of perdition fore-told by the Apostle 2 Thes 2. The calling of the Jews fore-told by St. Paul Rom. 11. The great security want of faith which shal be found in many foretold by Christ Luke 17. And many other signes which the Scripture mentions many whereof are already past and are fore-runners of the end of the world and shall continue and prolong their course till the very day of Christs coming to judgement Of the second sort are those fearfull signes which the Scripture mentions in divers places as that the earth shall tremble and move out of her place Mat. 24.29 Acts 2.20 that the seas shall roare and make an hidcous noise that the powers of heaven shall be shaken that the starres shall fall from heaven that the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into bloud before that great and notable day of the Lord come These things shall come to passe at the end of the world and when these things come to passe they are evident signs that the end of the world is then hard at hand For like as it is in the body of man when the eyes waxe dimme and the sight failes when all the joynts waxe weake and the whole body trembles it is a signe of old age and a manifest token that he in whom these signes are to be seen is very near his end and cannot hold out long So it is likewise in the great Body of the world when the eyes of the world the Sunne and the Moon begin to wax dim and their light failes when the heavens shall be shaken as it were with a palsie and the earth shall tremble and move out of her place as the Scripture speaks it is a manifest signe that the world is ending Lastly As the Scripture hath foretold the end of the world Christs coming to judgment both by evident testimonies and visible signs so likewise by divers invincible reasons For first all other things which the Scriptures have fore-told are come to passe as namely of Christs first coming in the flesh of the destruction of Jerusalem of the dispersion of the Iows of the coming of Antichrist all which and many other as they have been fore told so they have been likewise accomplisht and therefore the
full resolution to sacrifice his Sonne as God commanded he concealed his purpose from his wife and his Servants lest they should have hindered him from the execution of it Doct. 5 The Doctrine that may be gathered from hence is this That God the better to sound the hearts of his Servants makes often tryall of their obedience and after that one tryall is past and over he layeth another upon them for their further exercise If any man saith our Saviour will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Crosse every day and follow me Luke 9.23 Where we see two things 1. The generality of these crosses and tryalls which are laid upon us in that every Christian must be content to bear them If any man Will come after me let him take up his Crosse 2. The multitude of these tryalls Let him take up his Crosse every day and follow me Every day to shew that the tryalls which the faithfull undergo are many in number and that they come as it were thick and threefold one after another Job had no sooner heard that the Sabeans had taken away his Oxen as they were ploughing and his Asses as they were feeding in their places but presently there comes another and brings him worse tydings that the fire fell from Heaven and consumed his Servants and presently after he heares worse newes then the former that while his children were together at a banquet the house fell upon them all so that not one of them escaped And this is the condition of Gods servants many are the tryalls which they are to endure and the end of one tryall is many times but the beginning of another For we serve not God with this condition that after he hath laid one tryall upon us and we have borne the same we should crave as it were a pasport and seek to be discharged from any-further service but whatsoever it is that God requires at our hands and how often soever yet we must be ready with Abraham to performe obedience The comfort is this that though the tryalls which God layes upon us be never so many yet God will enable us to bear the same 1 Cor. 10. For God is faithfull saith the Apostle and will not suffer us to be tempted above our power but will give an issue with the temptation that we may be able to bear it and when we have borne it he hath promised to reward us and that infinitly for it Blessed is the man saith Saint James James 1.12 that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that Love him FINIS The Second SERMON MAT. 13.23 But he that received Seed into good ground is he that heareth the Word and understandeth it which also heareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred some sixty some thirty THese words are the conclusion of an excellent Parable Coherence which our Saviour did first propound to the People and afterwards expound unto his Disciples Wherein the word of God is resembled to seed The Preacher of the Word to the Sower of Seed and the Hearer of the Word to the ground whereon the Seed is sowed The ground proportionable to the diversity of Hearers is distinguished by our Saviour into four severall kindes whereof three are unprofitable and one onely fruitfull To note unto us that we need be very carefull how we hear the Word considering that the greatest part of Hearers do but heare in vaine as three parts of the ground were fruitless and barren where the seed was sowen and onely one part was fruitfull and good and this is that ground which is here described wherein we may observe these two things First The meanes of a good ground And Secondly the signes of a good ground The meanes of a good ground are two First the receiving of Seed or the hearing of the Word And Secondly the receiving in of the Seed or the understanding of the Word But he that received Seed into good ground is he that heares the Word and understands it The signes of a good ground are likewise two First The bearing and bringing forth fruit which also bears fruit and brings forth Secondly The quantity of fruit which it brings forth Some an hundred some sixty some thirty And these are the severall parts of these words whereof God willing I will speak in order And first of the first meanes of a good ground the receiving of seed or the hearing of the Word The Word of God is resembled to divers things in divers respects Psal 19.10 Sometime to the most refined gold and that for the perfection and purity of it Hebr. 4.12 sometime to a sharpe two-edged Sword and that for the power and efficacie of it sometime to a treasure hid in the field Mat. 13.44 and that for the value and excellency of it and sometime to bread to raine to seed and that for the use and necessity of it For seed is no more necessary to make the earth fructifie and give her increase then the seed of Gods Word to make us fruitfull in all good Works Ye know if the Earth do not give her increase there followes a Famin if seed be wanting and the Earth not sowen it cannot give her increase And thus where the seed of Gods Word is wanting there followes a dearth of all spirituall graces And therefore as we read Gen. 47. of a dearth or famine for want of seed Gen. 47.19 Amos. 8.11 Mat. 4.4 so likewise we read Amos 8. of a dearth or famine for want of the Word for man cannot live by bread onely but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God God is able indeed to make us fruitfull without the preaching of the word as he made the Earth fruitfull at the first Creation Gen. 2.5 without the sowing of seed he is able to save us when his word is wanting by some other meanes as he preserved the Israelites with Manna from Heaven when they had not the ordinary meanes of tillage but the ordinary meanes to make the Earth fruitfull is the sowing of Seed and the ordinary meanes to make us fruitfull is the preaching of the Word And therefore in those places where the People are not taught or the word is neglected we may see them abound in superstition and ignorance and all the unfruitfull works of darkness even as Salomon passing by the field of the sluggard he saw it all over growen with thornes and nettles Prov. 24.30.31 whereas on the contrary where the seed of Gods word hath been sowen and received John 4.35 Phil. 1.11 we may see the Regions even white unto Harvest and filled as the Apostle speaks with the fruits of righteousness Therefore David describing the godly man First brings him in meditating upon the Law of God Psal 1. and then bringing forth fruit in due season as our Saviour here
of my goods First then in that he calles them his goods it confutes the Anabaptists who hold that all things ought to be common and that no man hath a right and propriety in any thing but if this were true how could Zacheus here give of his own And the Scripture doth every where confute their opinion We are forbidden by Gods Law to steale but what needed a Commandement to inhibit stealing if all things were common for if nothing were more proper to one then another then no man could properly be said to steale Deut. 27.17 They are accursed by God that remove the ancient bounds and markes but if all things were common to what end should there be bounds in mens Lands and possessions The wise man saith withdraw thy foote from thy Neighbours House Prov. 15.17 least he be weary of thee and hate thee but how should any man have a house of his own which might more properly be called his house if all things were common The Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. Charge them which are rich in this World that they be rich in good works ready to distribute and willing to communicate but how should one man be richer then another or why should we be commanded to give to the poor if no man had more right then another in any thing We see that the Scripture alloweth of Contracts and bargains in buying and selling as Abraham bought a field to bury his dead Gen. 23. And Lydia is recorded to have been a seller of purple Acts 16. But how should it be lawfull either to buy or to sell if all things were common and nothing proper to any man And we see that Zacheus here gives of his goods by all which it is plain that it must needes be an idle conceit of the Anabaptists in holding that no man hath a propriety in any thing Secondly from the example of Zacheus in that he gives away part of his goods we may learn this lesson that when God doth increase our wealth and riches we are not to keep them private to our selves but to make others partakers of them like a conduit which being fed from a Fountain with water retaines not the water within it felf but as freely bestowes it on those that want it Let every one saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 4. As he hath received a gift so let him minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God So that we are but as Stewards to lay out Gods blessings and to dispose them among others For as God hath given light to the Sun not only that it should be lightsome in it self but that it should give light unto other Creatures as God causeth the rain to fall from Heaven to make the earth fruitful not that it should retain the fruit within it self but that it should bring forth herbes for the use of man So when God powres down his blessings upon us it is for the good and benefit of others We see in the body when the stomack receives any meat or nourishment it imparts the same to the rest of the Members and so must we because we are fellow-Members of the same body God gives severall gifts to severall Members as to the eye to see to the eare to heare to the hand to work to the feet to walk and to the tongue to speak yet they have not these gifts to themselves onely but the tongue speakes the eare heares the handworks and the rest do imploy their severall faculties for the good and benefit of the whole body So it must be with us for those gifts which God bestowes upon us we must not keep them private to our own use but make others also partakers of them as well as our selves And so doth Zacheus who imparts the goods which God hath given him to the benefit of others But let us see now to whom he imparts them I give saith he the half of my goods to the poor not to his kindred or friends that love him nor to the rich that are able to requite him but he gives his goods to the poor that want them Plutarch in Cato Majore Cato dividing the prey among his Souldiers which he had got in the Warres he gave saith Plutarch unto all alike as thinking it better that many should return from the Warres with silver then some few with gold and that all should have something rather then some few should have all and all the rest nothing But God deales otherwise in the distribution of his gifts though he gives something to every man yet he gives not alike unto all men but to some he gives more and to some lesse thereby to exercise them in severall virtues that the poor might be moved to pray unto God for the supply of their wants the rich to thankfulness to God for his blessings and that the poor might labour and take paines for their livings and that the rich might help to relieve them of their superfluity and abundance And therefore Zacheus knowing that God hath given him riches not so much for himself as the good of others he imparts them here to the poor that want them Our giving of Almes is compared by St. Paul 2 Cor. 9.6 To the sowing of seed Now ye know when the Husbandman sowes his seed he soweth it on the ground which lieth bare and naked and not not on the ground which hath already Fruit upon it and thus when we give we must not give unto them that have enough of their own but to those that have nothing Luke 3.11 He saith John the Baptist that hath two coats let him part with the one of them to him that hath none The Widow was counselled by the Prophet Eliseus 2 King 4. To poure her oyle into empty vessels 2 King 4.3 not into vessels that Were full and Would run over but into empty vessels that would hold the more And our Saviour wils us Luke 14. When we make a feast not to invite the rich thereunto Luke 14.12.13 but those that are poor It is said of the Eagle that when she seeks her prey she is commonly attended by the lesser foules upon whom when she hath filled and satisfied her self she bestowes the remainders And thus the poor are commonly waiting at rich mens doors that when the rich are satisfied the poor might be fed with their leavings It is worth the observing how the rich man Luke 16. is left by the Evangelist vvithout all excuse and hath nothing left to alledge for himself why he was so hard-hearted to poor Lazarus If he say that he was not of ability to relieve the poor and that he had but sufficient for himself and his family the Evangelist answers That he was a rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linnen and that he fared sumptuously every day If he reply that though he were wealthy yet there were so many of the poor
that it vvas not for him to relieve them all the Evangelist ansvvers that there vvas but one If he reply again that though there vvas but one yet he vvas such a one as needed not to have begged but vvas able enough to have laboured for his living the Evangelist answers That he could not labour for he was full of sores If he reply again that though he were full of sores yet he was not in any great want and necessity the Evangelist answers that he was so hungry that he would have been glad of the very crums which fell from his Table In a word if he reply again that though he was hungry yet he would not stay till he might be served and that he might have been served if he would have stayed the Evangelist answers that he stayed long enough for he lay at his Gates And as he is left without all excuse so are all they that turn avvay their ears from the cries of the poor For first lest any man should imagine That giving to the poor is no matter of necessity but left to every mans ovvn discretion God hath given strick charge and command for the performance of this duty Deut 15.11 Because there shall ever be some poor in the Land therefore I command thee saying thou shalt open thy hand unto thy brother to the poor and needy in the Land Charge them saith Saint Paul 1 Tim. 6.18 that are rich in this world that they do good and be rich in good works and that they be ready to distribute and willing to communicate Least any man should think again that this is a duty which is imposed only upon those that are of ability and that it concerns not those that have but sufficient to maintain themselves Ephes 4.28 the same Apostle tels us That though we have not of our own to give yet we must labour and work with our hands that we may have to give unto him that needs Least any man should think again that so he himself may come into want by giving to others God hath given us his promise that while we supply the wants of others he will give us this blessing Prov. 28.27 that we shall not want our selves He that gives unto the poor he shall not want he shall be like unto a garden that is watered Esay 58.11 or like unto a spring of waters whose waters faile not Thus the widow of Sareptha 1 King 17. while she imparted her meale and her orle to the Prophet God gave such a blessing to that little which she had that whatsoever she spent yet it decreased not and thus while we supply the wants of others we shall have this blessing that we shall not want our selves Prov. 19.17 He that gives unto the poore he lends unto the Lord and the Lord will recompence him that which he hath given Is not the poor then worthy that we should give him almes yet God is worthy that requires it at our hands Hath not the poor deserved that we should give him any thing yet God hath deserved whatsoever we can give him Is not the poor of ability to pay us again yet God is able and he hath promised to pay us for him O saith Saint Basil upon the 14th Psalm Wouldst thou not have the Lord of heaven and earth be indebted unto thee If any wealthy man saith he in the City should promise to pay thee for an other thou wouldst take his word and art thou afraid to take Gods word when he hath bound himself by promise to pay thee for the poor Indeed Evaegrius the Philosopher as we read of him being exhorted by Synesius the Bishop of Alexandria to give some part of his goods to the poor and that God would repay him an hundreed sold for it he could hardly be brought to believe this doctrine and therefore before he would give any thing to the poore he took a Bond of the Bishop for Gods payment of it But is not God to be credited without a pawne and shall we doubt of Gods payment for that which we lend him Deus in paupere absconditur saith Chrysostom panper quidem porrigit manum sed Deus Juscipit donum God lyeth hidden in the poore man It is the poor man indeed that stretcheth sorth his hand to take thy almes but it is God that takes them And therefore we may well be assured that what we give to the poore God will ' pay it us againe One writes of St. Thomas the Apostle that he being commended to Gnodophrus the King of India Rom. 15.20 Gal. 2.18 for a skilfull builder as the Apostles are compared in the Scripture to builders he was appointed by the King to build him a sumptuous and stately pallace St. Thomas having received a great summe of mony of the King for the same purpose distributed the mony among the poor The King being therefore incensed against him caused him presently to be apprehended and clapt him in prison It happened in the meane time that the Kings brother fell sick and died and afterwards being carried forth to be buried he revived upon the suddain and was brought back againe And coming to the King he told him what he had seen and heard in Heaven that he had seen a very goodly Pallace which was newly erected and that he had heard it was built by St. Thomas for the King of India but that the King had made himself unworthy of it whereupon St. Thomas was set at liberty and the King by hearing the Apostles doctrine was soone after converted to Christianity The History it self may well be but a siction but this is most certaine that whatsoever we give to the poore upon earth is rewarded in Heaven Come ye blessed of my Father will Christ say at the day of Judgement Math. 25â— inherite the Kingdom prepared for you For when I Was hungry ye gave me to eate when I was thirsty ye gave me to drink c And when the godly who are unwilling to justifie themselves shal say unto him Lord when saw we thee hungry and gave thee meate When saw we thee a stranger and provided thee harbour c. Verily will Christ say in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it to me Thus he counts that what we give to the poor we give it to him and he wil reward us as if he himself had received it But it may be demanded what kind of poor are to be relieved For answer whereof we must distinguish of such as are poor For some become poor and fall into want through their own fault and that especially two wayes First by unthriftiness as by gaming drinking keeping ill Company and unnecessary mispending that portion of goods which God hath given them These howsoever the World accounts them good-fellowes yet God reputes them no better then the theeves and no doubt without their repentance and
like a sweet perfume is pleasing to every man Lucri bonus est odor exâ—re qualibet and though many are much affected with pleasure and delight yet the hâ—ost are most affected with gaine and profit What makes the Husbandman to toile all his life-time but hope of gaine What makes the Merchant to venture his life and his whole Estate but hope of gainâ— This is that which the most so affect that they can never find any arietie in it but the more they have the more they desire and the greater the gaine the more it affects them But here you see is the gaining of the whole World a whole world of gaine that if a man will part with his soul for any thing he can hardly part with it upon a better bargaine If it were but for the gaining of one Kingdom in the world what would a man hazard and venture for it Judges 9.5 Rather then Abimilech will not raign over Israel he will put seventy of his Brethren to death together Rather then Herod will stand in fear of losing his Kingdom Mat. 2.16 Macrob. Satur lib. 2. cap. 4.2 Sam. 15.10 thousands of innocents shall lose their lives though his own son be one of them Rather then Absalon will not raigne he will rise up in Armes against his own Father and seek to deprive him of life and Kingdom And rather then Nero shall not raigne his own Mother will be content to be murdered by him Ocâ—idat modò imperet Let him kill me saith his Mother so he may get the Empire A Kingdom can hardly be valued at too high a rate For if we consider the state of a King there is scarce any thing that may seem to make a man happy that can be wanting unto him His word for the most part is a sufficient warrant for the effecting of his pleasure and his intreatie a most forcible kind of command for the obtaining of his desire so that if he would have any thing he may have what he likes and no man deny him if he would do any thing he may do what he please and no man oppose him If therefore a King be so mighty how mighty should the Monarch of the World be If he hath such command that hath but a Kingdom What command should he have that should have the whole World under his Dominion If King Assnerus his Dominions were so large that he raigned over an hundred and seven Provinces Hester 1.1 if his magnificence and bounty were such that he made a feast royall for all his Princes and Servants which continued for an hundred and fourescore daies If King Salomons yearely revenues were so great that he had six hundred threescore and six talents of Gold Ester 1.4 1 Kings 10.14 and Silver as plentifull as stones in the street If King Xerxes his power was so unresistable that Rivers and Mountaines could not stand before him 2 Chro. 1.15 but he was able to turn and overturne them at his pleasure then what might not he do that were Monarch of the World and had all Kingdoms and Nations to do him service A King howsoever his power be great yet he hath his equals in other Countries and though his command reach very far yet it reacheth no farther then his own Dominions But he that were Monarch of the whole World command where he would and he should be obeyed for all the Princes of the earth should be his Subjects A King though he may have whatsoever his Kingdom affords yet every Kingdom affords not every thing and those things do commonly most affect us which other Countries do yield and are not to-be had in our own But he that were Monarch of the whole World whatsoever any Kingdom in the World could afford he should be sure to have it and happy were he that should first present it A King though he may greatly advance his favorites yet he hath but one Kingdom for himself and them and if with Herod he should promise unto one the half of his Kingdom Mark 6.23 and after promise as much to another were he taken at his word he might leave himself nothing But he that were Monarch of the whole World he should have severall Kingdoms for his severall favorites ' and yet leave himself more when he had inriched them all then ever Alexander had after all his conquests It is said of Cyrus that to perswade the Lacedemonians to follow him in the warres he made them this promise They saith Cyrus Plutarch in Reg. Apophtheg that will be my followers if they be Footmen I will give them Horses if they be Horse men I wil give them Chariots if they have houses and tennements of their own I will give them Villages and if they have Villages I will make them Lords of Townes and Cities This was a great advancement of his followers But he that were Monarch of the whole World where King Cyrus left there might he begin They who were his favourites and Lords of Towns he might make them Princes and give them Kingdoms if they were Kings he might make them Emperours and if this were not enough he might double their Dominions For a Kingdom in comparison of the whole World is no more then a town in comparison of a Kingdom then what would not a man do for so great a gaine And therefore the Devill when he tempted our Saviour in the fourth of Matthew knowing that there is not any more forcible argument to perswade a man to any thing then the gaining of the World like a cunning Orator he reserved this temptation for the last of all and when he had shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and had given him his promise Mat. 4.9 That he would give him all if he would fall down and worship him and saw that all this would not prevaile with him it was high time for him to be gon he thought it to no purpose to tempt him any longer and so presently left him For he that will not stoop to so faire a lure he that will not be moved with so great a gain he will be moved with nothing But now howsoever this gain be great yet withall it hath divers inconveniences which do lessen and diminish the value of it And therefore as he that would purchase a house he will not only know what commodities it hath but he will likewise be informed of the inconveniences of it So having heard of the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world we are further to enquire of the discommodities of it And they especially are these three First That whatsoever the world can afford us yet it is but short and of small continuance For were a man Monarch of the whole World and had he all that his heart could desire yet when he dieth he must leave all that he hath and all that he hath can neither deferre the comming of death nor
men are living there is great difference among thent some are of high place some of mean condition some wise some simple some rich some poore some of one complextion some of another but being laid in their graves and consumed to ashes Agamemnon cannot be known from Thersites the rich glutton in the Gospel cannot be known from Lazarus but all are so like that we can see no difference Respice sepulchra saith St. Augustine et discerne si potes Jrum a Rege fortem a debili pulorum a deformi Look into mens Sepulchers and distinguish if thou canst between the King and the beggar the strong and the weak the faire and the deformed Therefore we read of Diogenes the Philosopher that when Alexander the Great as he was passing by saw him looking very wisly into Tombs and Sepulchres and demanded of him what he was looking for Diogenes answered That he was looking for the bones of King Philip Alexanders Father who had been the terrour of all Greece and that he could not distinguish them from other mens bones nor finde any difference To note unto Alexander that even he notwithstanding all his pomp and bravery after all his conquests must in the end be laid in the dust and then there would be no difference between him and others We see then briefly how man is like the grasse and the flowers of the field and wherein this resemblance between them consists That they are like for their beginning like for their continuance and like for their end But that which the Prophet David here specially intends is the second of these that they are like for their short continuance For he saith That the dayes of man are as grasse not reckoning our life-time by years or by moneths but only by dayes to signifie how soon our life passes even as the grasse and the flower which doth not continue from one year to another but as it comes up soon so it soon withers And he saith That man slourisheth as the flower of the field Sient slos agri non horti As the flower of the field not as the flower of the garden for garden-flowers ye know are more carefully lookt to the Gardiner keeps them standing as long as he can because they make a faire shew and are a grace to the gardens but for field-flowers they are subject ye know to many more dangers they lie open to passengers that pull them up and to the beasts that either crop them or tread them under foot and if they escape all dangers yet the time they flourish is very short they come up later then the grasse and yet stand no longer for when the grasse is cut down they are cut down together Here then in that we are resembled to grasse and the flowers of the field we may observe from hence two things The certainty of our death and the shortnesse of our life First The certainty of our death That we shall as certainly die as we are sure that the grasse and flowers of the field shall fade and wither Death indeed is uncertain in some respects as in respect of the time in respect of the place and in respect of the mâ—â—â—ner thereof because we do not know either when or where or how we shall die Death is uncertain in regard of the time for we do not know when death will arrest us whether by day or by night whether in the morning at noon or in the evering whether at the cock-crowing or in the dawning For when we lie down we do not know whether we shall rise again and when we are risen we do not know whether we shall lie down again Death is uncertain in regard of the place because we do not know where death will arrest us whether when we are in company or when we are alone whether in the Field or in the Town whether abroad or at home for when we go forth we do not know whether we shall return again and when we are returned we do not know whether we shall go forth again And death is uncertain in regard of the manner because we do not know how death will arrest us whether we shall die a naturall or a violent death whether a painfull or an easie death whether a lingring or a sudden death In these respects death is uncertain yet nothing again more certain then death For though we know not as I said either where or when or how we shall die yet we know for certain that either here or else-where either sooner or later either by one means or other we are sure to die Therefore David propounds this question What man is he that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 because death is common to all men and no man by his greatnesse strength or wisdome or any other means can avoid the same And this the Heathen knew very well and therefore though they worshipt the Sunne the Moon and all the Host of heaven though they offered sacrifice to stocks to stones to men to divels and to all manner of creatures whom they worshipt as Gods yet among all their sacrifices there was never any that offeted sacrifice to death as knowing that death will never be appeased and therefore that their sacrifices should have been to no purpose Contra omnia aliquid inveniri potest contra mortem nihil One remedy or other may be found against every thing but no remedy can possibly be found against death Galen Hipocrates and other skilfull Physicians have found out many remedies against the most diseases and have prescribed many rules how to preserve our health and to keep us from sicknesse but how to preserve and keep us from death there was never any that could invent any remedy And though Paracelsus had such considence in his knowledge that he professed himselfe able to keep a man by physick in so perfect a temperature that he should never die of any disease whatfoever yet he could not prescribe any physick against death For though we diet our bodies and use all preservatives to keep us from sioknesse and though we live all our life time without any disease yet either casnality or age will bring us to our graves Therefore the grave is called by Job Job 30.23 the house appointed for all the living I know saith Job that thou Wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living it is appointed and therefore cannot be avoided it is appointed for all the living and therefore none are exempted but all that live upon the face of the earth are subject unto it In severall Kingdoms there are severall Lawes whereunto they are not bound in other Kingdoms Now in the whole world there are three Kingdoms where the Laws concerning death are divers In heaven they have a Law that they shall live for ever and never die Mat. 19.17 Therefore heaven is called by the name of life If saith our Saviour thou wilt enter into life
that is into heaven keep the Commandements And heaven is called Psal 25. the land of the living I should saith David have utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living that is in heaven for there they live eternally and never die In hell there is a quite contrary law that they die eternally Therefore it is said of the wicked Psal 49. They lie in hell like sheep and death gnawes upon them because there they suffer the second death which is everlasting And here upon earth there is a third law between them both Heb. 9.27 That every one living shall once suffer death Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 9. It is appointed unto all men that they shall once dye not live here for ever as they do in heaven nor die for ever as they do in hell but once they must die and this is a law which all that live on the face of the earth are subject unto God hath given great priviledges to many of his servants and hath miraculously preserved them from many dangers Exed 34.28 1 King 19.8 Dan. 3.25 Mat. 14.29 Josh 10.12.13 some he hath preserved without any nourishment for many weeks together as Moses and Elius some he hath preserved in the midst of fire as the three children in the furnace some he hath inabled to walk upon the waters as Peter did some he hath inabled to stay the course of the Sun as Joshuah did but to stay and hinder the course of death and to free men from the same this is a priviledge which God never gave to any of his servants Therefore even they that lived before the deluge though some of them lived seven hundred years some eight hundred some nine hundred years and upwards yet they died in the end nature delaying more and more in them till it were quite spent as a candle being lighted wastes by little and little till it quite goes out Seeing then it is certain that we shall die this may therefore teach us to fit and prepare our selves against the coming of death by frequent meditation and remembrance thereof The oftner a man bethinks him of death the better he will be prepared for it as a man that foresees and expects a storm he will provide himself the better against it come And herein the Heathen themselves may be patterns unto us who though they knew not God nor the punishment of sin in the world to come yet knowing they should die they used many strange and memorable devises to put them in mind of their mortality Ortelius writes of a Countrey in the World where the people do use the bones of dead men in stead of their coin which being continually before their eyes they cannot but continually remember their ends Plutarch writes of Ptolomie the King of Egypt That alwayes when he made any sumptuous feast among the rest of his dishes the skull and bones of a dead man were brought in a platter and set before him and one was appointed to say thus unto him Plutarch in Conviv Sept. Sapientum Behold O King and consider with thy selfe this president of death that he whose skull and bones thou now seest was once like thy selfe and the time will come when thou shalt be like unto him and thy skull and bones shall be brought hereafter to the Kings table as now his are to thint Isodore writes That it was a custome in Constantinople that alwayes at the time of the Emperours Coronation among other Solemnities this was one A free Mason presented the Emperour with divers sorts of marble and asked him of which of them he should make his Tomb that so he might remember even then when he was in the height of his glory that he was but mortall Dion writes of Severus a Roman Emperour That while he lived he caused his Hearse to be made and was often wont to go in into it adding these words Thou O Herse as small as thou art must contain him whom now the whole world is searce able to contain If these who were Heathen were so mindfull of their ends what should we that are Christians We know that God hath made the end of our life the manner of our death and the place thereof to be unknown and uncertain that we might alwayes have it in expectation So saith Saint Augustine Latet ultimus dies ut observentur omnes dies Augustine Hom. 13. The last day of our lives is hidden from us that that day might be expected all the dayes of our lives And indeed the reason why we are not prepared for the comming of death is because we seldom or never think of dying for who of us almost have any thought thereof till either sicknesse or age the two Serjeants of death do come to arrest us or if at any other time we bethink us thereof it is only then when we hear the Bell to ring out for any or when we see some of our neighbours to lie upon their death-bed and past recovery Then it may be we think of our ends and that it is high time for us to prepare our selves for death that we may be in a readinesse against God shall call us But these meditations are but for a fit and they presently vanish I have seen somtimes when a Fowler coming to a Tree where there were store of birds and hath killed any one of them all the rest have immediately flown away but presently after forgetting the danger wherein they were before they have all of them returned to the same Tree And do not we resemble these silly birds when death comes to our houses and takes away any one of us we are all amazed and we presently think that the next course may be ours and therefore that it behooves us to reform our lives but presently after when the remembrance of death is out of our minds we return again to our former courses But he that will be provided against the coming of death must alwayes have death in his remembrance Tota vita sapientis debet esse meditatio mortis The whole life saith Gregory of a wise man ought to be a meditation of death That as the birth of sin was the death of man so the meditation of death may be the death of sin And as David here by comparing us to grasse and the flowers of the field implyeth thereby the certainty of our death that we shall as certainly die as we are sure that these shall fade and wither So he implyeth hereby the shortnesse of our life that we shall not live long but shall die soon as the grasse and flowers do fade and decay in a short time Theodorus Gaza tels us of a father that had twelve sons and each of those brethren had thirty children yet every one of them expired soon The father expired within the compasse of a year never a one of his sons but expired in a moneth and
the Lord Deut. 32. kill and make alive I wound I heal Therefore he wils us to call upon him in the time of trouble and he will deliver us Deut. 32.32 For howsoever by our sins we provoke him to afflict us yet if we call upon him for mercy and grace he hath an ear to hear us an eye to behold us a heart to pity us and an hand to help us And thus much concerning the first point the Agēt or party afflicting That it is God that chastens I come now to the second namely The Patient or party afflicted the beloved of God he chastens whom he loves Doct. God though he love whatsoever he hath made yet among all his creatures he loves man best and among men especially those who are of the houshold of faith which is his Church These he loves with an everlasting love he hath given his only Son for their redemption and hath adopted them in Christ Jesus to be his children And yet howsoever he loves them so dearly yet many times he doth afflict and chasten them for so we see here whom he loves he chastens The Doctrine that we may gather from hence is this That they who are in the love and favour of God are neverthelesse afflicted In the 11th of Saint John Behold Lord John 11.3 he whom thou lovest is sick Christ loved Lazarus and yet did not free and exempt him from sicknesse Dan. 9.23 Daniel was greatly beloved of God as the Angell Gabriel told him yet Daniel was cast into the Lions den The Virgine Mary was freely beloved of God as the same Gabriel told her Luke 1. yet a sword was to pierce through her heart Luke 1.28 Luke 2.35 1 Sam. 13.14 Job 1.1 as old Simeon prophesied David was a man according to Gods own heart yet David was often and many wayes afflicted Job was a just and an upright man yet Job was extraordinarily afflicted Saint Paul was a chosen vessel of God yet after he was converted his whole life was nothing but a continued affliction In a word Acts 9.15 all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and all the beloved children of God even from the beginning of the world to this present time have suffered affliction Therefore Christ saith Revel 3. As many as I love Revel 3.19 I rebuke and chasten Read over the Scriptures and ye see examples hereof almost in every leafe Gen. 39.20 In one place ye shall see Joseph cast into the dungeon Dan. 3.20 in another the three children into a fiery furnace 1 King 22.27 here ye shall see Michea fed with the bread of affliction there David washing his couch with tears in one place ye shall see Steven stoned to death Psal 6.6 in another ye shall finde John the Baptist beheaded Acts 7.59 To be short as it was said of Rome heretofore Mark 6.27 that a man could not step into any part thereof but he should tread upon a Martyre so a man can hardly read any part of the Scripture but he shall light upon the affliction of the children of God either one or other affliction being common to every one of them and more common then any thing The floud that overspred the whole face of the earth in the days of Noah was common generall yet eight persons ye know were freed frō the flood Gen. 6.18 preserved in the Ark Death is more cómon general then the flood Gen. 5.24 seizing upon the whole of-spring of Adam and yet two persons Enoch and Elias have been freed from death a King 2.,11 and were taken up into heaven while they were living upon the earth Sin is more common and generall then death and yet one person even Christ and he alone was free from sin but affliction is more generall then any of them all which hath lighted upon all men without any exception for even Christ himself though he were free from sin Esay 53.3 yet he was vir dolorum as the Prophet Esay calls him a man of sorrows as being subject through the whole course of his life to much sorrow affliction For this is the condition of all Gods children that first they must wear a crown of thorns before they receive a crown of glory first they must suffer with Christ in this life before they reign with him in the life to come Therefore Christ wills us if we will be his disciples to take up his crosse every day Acts 14. and follow him And the Apostle tels us That through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven Vse 1 The use to be made hereof is two-fold First Seeing Goddeth visit his own children with the rod of affliction then much lesse shall the wicked escape Gods judgements if God chasten the godly whom he loves and is loved of them much lesse will he spare his enemies those that hate him Prov. 11.31 Therefore Solomon Proverbs 1◠Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner And therefore Peter 1 Epist 4. Chapter If judgement saith he 1 Peter 4.17.18 first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear For if God chasten the one much lesse out of doubt will he spare the other You will say but it is ordinarily seen in the World that the wicked are not subject to the like afflictions that the godly are Their houses as Job in his 21. Chapt. Job 21.9 saith of the wicked are peaceable without fear and the rod of God is not upon them and as the Prophet David saith of the ungodly they prosper in all their wayes and flourish like a green bay-tree It is true indeed and cannot be denied that the godly many times do suffer in this World more crosses and afflictions then the wicked but therefore we must remember that the punishment of the wicked is kept and reserved till the World to come Lazarus was farre more afflicted in this life that lay full of sores at the rich mans gates and would have been glad of a morsell of bread then the rich man was that fared so sumptuously and lived in pleasure but therefore what saith Abraham to the rich man Sonne saith he Luke 15.25 remember that then in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now is he comforted and thou art tormented Whensoever therefore we see the godly to live in affliction and misery and the wicked in prosperity and hearts-ease yet it need not trouble us because there will come a time when the wicked shall be punisht and the godly comforted When the godly shall have all their teares wiped from their eyes Revel 7.17 and the wicked shall suffer Gods wrath and vengeance for if God afflict and chasten such as he loves much lesse
yet because they are such as hate to be reformed and will not leave their sins God abhors all their service and will rather plague them for praying unto him then accept their prayers For so long as they refuse to obey his lawes he holds them for rebels and professeth himself an enemy to them as they are unto him So that the wicked can have no peace with God because they are his enemies and he theirs only the godly have this peace as being assured by faith that they are reconciled unto God in Christ Jesus as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Christ our Lord. They therefore that would be at peace with God they must have faith for like as our faith is so is our peace a true saith a true peace an hypocriticall faith an hypocriticall peace a temporary faith a temporary peace and look where there is a weak or no faith there is likewise a weak or no peace And so the wicked having no faith to believe that God is reconciled unto them they cannot have any peace with God but still look upon him as upon an angry Judge and expect nothing from him but wrath and vengeance for their sin and wickednesse Secondly As the wicked have no peace with God so likewise they have no peace with the creatures which are at enmity with them that are Gods enemies Therefore we see how all the creatures from the greatest to the least have opposed themselves against the wicked and have armed themselves against those that have disobeyed God Therefore God is called the Lord of Hosts as having all creatures as souldiers under him and ready as it were in battail-aray to fight against them that do not serve him If God be offended with the old World for their sins he need not march against them in his own person but the Windows of heaven the Springs of the earth will conspire together to send forth their water to overwhelm them For all the creatures both in heaven and earth do take Gods part to execute vengeance upon his adversaries The Angels destroyed the Army of blasphemous Zenacherib slew the first-born of Egypt and smote Herod 2. King 19.25 The fire from Heaven consumed the Sodomites the two hundred and fifty that offeredincense and Ahaziahs two Captains with their fifties Acts 12.23 Gen. 19. 24. Num. 16.35.2 King 1.10.11 Judges 5.20 Josh 10.11 Exod. 14.28 Num. 16.32 Num. 21.6.2 King 2.24.1 King 13.24.2 King 9.35 Acts 12.23 The Stars in their courses fought against Sicera hailstones from heaven destroyed the Amorites the Waters covered Pharaoh With his whole Army the earth opened and swallowed Corah and his complices Fievy Serpents stung the Israelites that murmured Beares slew the children that derided the Prophet a Lyon the Prophet that disobeyed the Lord the dogges did eat Jezabell and the wormes Herod Humane Authours are full of the like examples how the creatures have been enemies unto the wicked It is very memorable which they report of Ibicus the Poet That being robbed by some ruffians and haled through a field and murdered by them he seeing none by while they were thus haling him but a company of Cranes flying over the field he cried to the Cranes you Cranes shall bear witnesse what they do unto me The murderers were not known for a long time but at last there being a great Solemnity kept in the same field whereat two of the murderers of Ibicus were present suddenly a great noise of Cranes was heard over the field Heark saith one of the murderers to his fellow these are the witnesses which Ibicus said should disclose his death which one over-hearing and knowing that Ibicus had been murdered began to suspect them and telling the Magistrate what he had heard they were sent for and examined and confessed the fact and were condemned and executed It were endlesse to instance in all the particulars how the creatures have set themselves against the wicked to revenge the Lords quarrels and to bring them to confusion that have refused to serve him So we read of Ha to Bonosus the Archbishop of Mentz who was a great enemy to the poor and was wont to call them mise and vermine that when any poor came to him for relief in a dear year he appointed them to go into a barn pretending that he would send them relief thither but when they were there he shut up the doors and set the barn on fire and so burnt them all to death together but afterwards by the just judgement of God he was haunted and assaulted and pursued by mise which could not by any means be kept from him but swam after him through the River Rhene and there devoured him So we read of Hadrian that proud insolent Pope who made the Emperour stoop and hold his stirrop how he was afterwards stifled and choaked by a gnat God shewing by these and the like examples that he hath all creatures at his beck and command to do him service and that he can pull down the pride of the greatest even by the basest creatures The creatures were made for the service of man as man was made for the service of God God giving man soveraignty over the creatures and restoring to himself the Soveraignty over man but because that man rebelled against God the creatures began to rebell against man God making the creatures to become our enemies that were our servants because we that were made to be his servants were become his enemies Therefore though the creatures be at enmity with the wicked yet they are at peace with the godly Psal 34.7 Gen. 19.15 Acts 12.11 Acts 27.23 24. Johsh 10.13 1 King 17.6 Exod. 14.22 Dan. 3.17 Dan. 6.22 Acts 28.5 even from the highest to the lowest The Angels do pitch their tents about them to preserve them from danger freeing Lot out of Sodom Peter out of prison comforting Paul in his dangerous voyage The Sun the Moon will stay their course till Joshuah be fully avenged of his enemies the ravens will minister food to Elias the waters will give way to the children of Israel when they are pursued by the Egyptians the fire will not burn the three children that are cast into the furnace the Lions will not do any hurt to Daniel nor the viper to Paul For the creatures are in league and at peace with them that are at peace with God they do service to them that are Gods servants which because the wicked are not they therefore can neither have peace with God nor yet with the creatures Thirdly the wicked have no peace with men Therefore it is said here in the former verse The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters do cast up mire and dirt For the wicked are turbulent of their own nature but if they be stirred or moved never so little they begin like the sea when it is moved with winds to swell and
Dioclesian a grievous persecutour when he had used all the means that ever he could for the utter abolishing of the Christian profession when he had sent out his Edicts for the burning of the Scriptures for the torturing of Christians and putting down their Churches and saw in the end that he could prevail nothing for very spight and anger he gave over his Kingdom I might further shew you this by the miserable ends of all those who have professed themselves enemies unto the professours of that Doctrine which the Scriptures teach Pharaoh the first persecutour of the Church that ever was was overwhelmed in the red-sea with all his host Dathan and Abiram the first Scismaticks that ever were were swallowed up of the earth with all their Consederats and such have been the ends of such as have succeeded them To passe over the examples which the Scriptures alledge Pilat Pilat who had unjustly condemned 〈◊〉 Saviour Euseb lib. 2. cap. 7. fell afterwards into such misery that he slew 〈◊〉 and so of an unjust Judge became a just Executioner Nero. Nero after that he had made havock of the Church of Christ he fell in the end into such extreamity that he would have accounted it for a favour of any man that would have slain him Ergone saith he nee amicum habeo nee inimicum as complaining that he could find neither friend nor foe that would vouch safe to kill him in the end he grew desperate and stabbed himself Maximinus Maximinus as great a persecutour as ever Nero was was struck by God with a strong disease an invisible fire as Eusebius writes inwardly eating and consuming his flesh and leaving him nothing in a short time but skin and bones his eyes burnt out of his head through the extreamity of his torments and he cried out before he died that now Gods vengeance was lighted 〈◊〉 him for his former persecutions Valerian Valerian the Emperour another persecutour was first taken captive and led in triumph in his Emperours robes afterwards by the command of Sapores the King of Persia he was flead alive and so was tortur'd himself as he had tortur'd the Christians Julian Apostata Julian the Apostata in his wars against the Persians was wounded on the suddain he knew not how nor by whom Theoderet thinks he might be smote by an Angell Callistus that was present saith he was struck by the Devill whosoever he was he was sent by Christ by Julians own confession for casting up some of his blood towards heaven he cried out against Christ Vieisti Galilee Thou hast got the victory thou Galilean and thus he died raving Nay when he was dead the earth opened saith Nazianzen and swallowed it down as not vouchsafing to bear so accursed a burthen It were endlesse to instance in all those particulars whom God for their persecuting his truth in the Scriptures hath made fearfull examples unto all others The same may likewise be said of Hereticks who seeking by their false impious doctrins to corrupt the truth have miserably perished in all ages Simon Magus Simon Magus the father of all Heresies as Eusebius calls him having gotten great credit by his sorcery and Magick persvvaded the people that he vvas God but through Peters prayers as he was flying in the aire his god-head failed him and he vvas fetcht dovvn head-long Olympius vvho blasphemously denied the Trinity Olympius vvhile he askt contemptuously hovv three could be one and one three vvas smote with three fiery darts from Heaven the points of these three joyning all in one Arrius Valent. Manes Montanus Nestorius Lucian Arrius while he was doing that which nature requires his bowels gusht out and he miserably perisht Valens the Arrian was burnt by the Gothes Manes was flead alive by the Persians Montanus became his own hangman like Judas Nestorius had his tongue eat a sunder with wormes Lucian was worried and torne in pieces with Doggs In a word God hath alwayes been so zealous in the defence of his truth that they who have opposed it have not escaped unpunished but howsoever he hath let them go on for a time yet in the end he hath payed them home bringing vengeance and destruction like a whirlewind upon them which evidently shewes that God is both the Author and Protector of the Scriptures Are the Scriptures then the word of God 1. Vse this therefore first serves te condemn the Papists who vilifie the Scriptures and magnifie traditions giving more then they should do unto traditions and less◠〈◊〉 Scriptures by making traditions to be more then they are and 〈◊〉 Scriptures lesse Which put me in mind of a certain Epitaph which one made of Erasmus and when he had made it he shewed it to his friend and willed him to read it The Epitaph was this Hic jacet Erasmus qui quondam bonus erat mus Rodere qui solitus roditur a vermibus Out upon 't saith his friend why what have you done be in bonus is short and you have made it long true saith the maker but therefore I hope ver in vermibus is long and I have made it short and so have made amends for the former fault And so do the Papists they give more then they should do unto traditions but therefore lesse to the Scriptures seeking to cover one fault with another and so double their fault and make it the greater Secondly 2. Vse This serves to condemn those who believe not the Scripture to be Gods word as they shew they do not who are not carefull to conforme their lives unto it For do they who securely go on in their sins believe what God threatens in his vvord against sinners Doth the profane swearer who can hardly speak a word but an Oath must follow it believe this for certain that God as he threatens will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain Exod. 20.7 Doth the common Drunkard believe this 1 Cor. 6.10 that no such shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Doth the Adulterer believe this that Whoremasters and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 Doth he that withholds the Labourers hire believe this James 5.4 that the hire of the Laborers doth crie in the eares of the Lord of Hosts Doth he that deferrs and puts of his repentance and yet presumes upon Gods mercy believe that to be true that they who despise the riches of Gods bounty and abuse his patience Rom. 3.5 treasure up wrath to themselves against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God In a word doth any wicked liver believe this to be true Rom. 2.9 2 Thes 1.8 that tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soule that doth evill and that the Lord in flaming fire shall render vengeance to those that obey not the Gospell For if they believed these things it would strike such a terror into their soules that they
if he please so visite us with sicknesse that like the woman in the Gospell We may spend all that we have upon the Physicians Nay he can Luke 8.43 Deut. 28.23 if he please make the earth as iron and the heavens as brasse and send a famine as he did in the time of Elias and then what would all that we have do us good if we were debarred from the fruits of the earth which should sustaine and preserve us And therefore we must not ascribe what we have to our selves or our friends but unto God who gives as Agur saith both poverty and riches Secondly Seeing it is God that gives them this may therefore teach us Vsc 2 To be content with that portion which God hath given us whether it be more or lesse Though we have a lesse portion then many others have yet we must remember that we have it of God of his free-gift and therefore ought to be contented with it and not to murmure that we have lesse then others lest we provoke him by our murmuring to lessen that portion which he hath given us The Jews in their Talmud have an Apologue to this purpose That the Moon upon a time did murmure and complaine that God had not appointed her for so good a use as he appointed the Sun because the Sun shines in the day and she in the night time and that God therefore for her murmuring did as they say diminish her light and lessen her shining Which though it be but a fable yet it hath a true morall that if we be not content with that portion which God hath allotted us we do provoke him thereby to make it lesse The Lord saith Job hath given and the Lord hath taken Job 1.21 blessed be the name of the Lord. If we should fall into poverty by the hand of God as Job did yet we are not to repine and murmure against him because whatsoever he takes from us he takes but his own which he gave us before of his free-gift and not of our deserving And indeed if we consider our own deserving though we have but little yet even he that hath least hath more cause to wonder that he hath so much then that he hath no more because we have more then we do deserve though we have never so little For that which we have is of Gods free-gift as Agur here acknowledges Give me neither poverty nor riches Thirdly Seeing riches are from God Vse 3. it may therefore teach us to use them well and to imploy them to good uses For God hath given them that we might use them to the glory of God the maintenance of our selves and the good of others which if we do not we abuse his blessings Mat. 25.28 The servantâ—which imployed not the talent well which his Master had given him had it taken from him and was cast besides into outer darknesse What then may we think shall become of those that imploy them ill and abuse the blessings which God hath given them to surfetting drunkennesse and voluptuous living These God will call to a fearfull account at the day of judgement for abusing wasting and mispending his gifts And in the mean time God many times suffers them to want that which they have carelesly wasted that they may see their fault what it is to waste by their want of it I have read of a Duke in another Countrey who seeing through his window a company of young Gallants that were a hunting and ridde up and down over the corn-fields and tread down the corn he sent to bid them the next day to dine with him And when they were come he made them great cheere but took order that no bread except a manchet for himselfe should be set on the Table One of the Gallants spake to a Servitour to bring in some bread he went out as if he would fetch some but came not again another spake to another who likewise went out but came in no more at last they told the Duke that they wanted bread And well saith the Duke do ye deserve to want bread with your meat who so trampled down the corn under your horse-feet And thus doth God many times deal with those that do waste his blessings causing them to want what they have formerly wasted as the Prodigall did Yet many that live wastefully will excuse themselves and think their fault the lesse both because as they will say they have enough to spend and are able to do it and because it is their own and not anothers which they spend But will this excuse them Though thou hast enough mayest thou therefore use it at thy pleasure and is it no fault to waste and mispend it If thy Cook that dresseth thy meat for thee because thou allowest him to have salt enough alwayes lying by him should therefore put too much salt in the pot or cast too much on thy meat and when thou reproovest him he should excuse himselfe and say that he did it because he had salt enough and therefore need not to spare wouldest thou take this for a sufficient answer And will God take this as an answer from thee That because that he hath given thee enough thou mayest spend it wastefully and though it were thine own as indeed it is not for thou art but a steward to use what thou hast as God hath appointed yet if it were thine own and not anothers mayest thou therefore mispend it as thou pleasest mayest thou not say as well that thy tongue is thine own and mayest thou therefore speak what thou listest but as thou shalt answer for the words which thou speakest so for the goods which thou spendest because thereby thou doest wrong unto him who is the giver of them Lastly Vse 4. Seeing riches are the gift of God therefore we are to be thankfull to him for them Qui serit benesicium metere debes fructum He that sowes a benefit great reason he should reap some fruit of it the fruit of thankfulnesse for the use of his benefits Therefore they were commanded in the old Law To offer unto God their first-fruits that so they might acknowledge that they had them from him and therefore were to return them to him from whom they had them as the rivers saith Solomon return to the sea from whence they came and as Hannah did dedicate her Son Samuel to God Eccles 1.7 1 Sam. 1.27.28 from whom she received him FINIS The Thirteenth SERMON PSALM 32.6 Therefore shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found THe Prophet David having committed two hainous sins Coherence one upon the neck of another adultery and murder and having continued a long time secure and impenitent at the last as we read 2 Sam. 12 Chapter God sent Nathan the Prophet to him to denounce the judgements of God against him by reason of his sins which when David heard he
therfore our Saviour excused his Disciples for not fasting by an argument drawn from the time Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them Mat. 9.15 as long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast Giving of almes is another duty which is much commended in the Scripture unto us yet giving of almes hath a limitation of persons for all are not injoyn'd to give almes but onely such as are of ability and they that are of ability are not injoyned to give almes unto all but onely to such as are in want and necessity but as every one is injoyn'd to pray so to pray for all men I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men So that if we put all these together That every one is injoyn'd to pray to pray for all persons to pray at all times to pray in all places and to pray with all manner of supplications and prayers This must needs be a very necessary duty because it is so generally and absolutely injoyn'd us And indeed there is great reason why prayer should have no limitation because every man may easily performe the same If God had commanded us to offer goats and bullocks unto him the poore and the needy might have excused themselves for want of ubility if God had commanded us to go a pilgrimage into faâ—re Countries and there do him service the blinde and the lame might have excused themselves by reason of their impotencie But no man can pretend any just excuse why he should not pray because every man may easily performe this duty And thus much briefly for the necessity of prayer The Object of prayer Object of prayer ye see is God Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee He doth not say shall pray to Saints or Angels or the Virgine but unto thee For this is the Title which David gives unto God That he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65.25 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For prayer is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be given to no other but God Therefore God commands us to pray unto him Call upon me faith God in the fifty Psalm Christ teacheth us to pray unto God Our Father which art in heaven c. The Spirit teacheth us to pray unto God For God saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father So that if we would be instructed to whom we must pray can we have better instructers then these the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghest who teach us to pray unto God onely Therefore if we search all over the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation among all the prayers which are registred therein among all the Psalmes one hundred and fifty whereof two parts at the least are prayers yet we finde not one prayer among them all which was ever made to Cherubin or Seraphim to Raphael Gabriel or any of the Angebs to Abraham or Isaac or any of the Patriarchs to Moses or Samuel or any of the Prophets to Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles to the blessed Virgine or any of the Saints but onely to God Thus if we would have presidents of prayer can we have better presidents then these which the Scripture records and which have been made by the faithfull in all Ages And the reason is plain because they had no warrant out of Gods word to pray to any other but God and they knew besides that God and no other hears our prayers and sees our wants Indeed the Papists who pray to Saints and Angels hold that they cannot but see our wants and hear our prayers For How say they should not they see all things who sea the face of him that seeth all things as if by seeing God they must see all things that God sees which if it were true their knowledg ye know must needs be infinite as God is And besides this is plainly confuted by Christ for Christ who tells us Math. 18. Mat. 18.10 Mar. 13.32 That the Angells do alwayes behold the face of his Father in Heaven He likewise tells us Marke 13. That the Angells are ignorant of the day of Judgement And for the Saints departed the Scripture tells us That they know no more what is done upon the earth and have no understanding of the affaires of the living So Solomon tells us Eccles 9. That the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a portion for ever Eceles 9.6 in any thing that is done under the Sunne If any of the dead should have any knowledge of the state of the living then questionlesse Princes of the state of their Subjects and Fathers of their children But that Princes after they are departed have not any knowledge of their Subjects we see by Josias where God gratiously promises to take him away 2 King 22.20 that he might not see the evill which he would bring upon the Jewes And that Fathers have no knowledge after their departure of the state of their children Job plainly tells us in his 14. Chapter the 20. verse speaking of a Father that is dead and leaves children behind him His Sonnes saith he come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceives it not Nay Abraham the Father of the faithfull to whom God promised that he would multiply his seed as the Starres of Heaven yet he had no knowledge after his departure what became of them And therefore the Israelites Esay 63.16 ver acknowledge that Abraham and Jacob that were dead had no knowledge of their miseries Doubtlesse say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Jacob know us not yet thou O Lord art our Father and Redeemer thy name is for ever Si tanti Patriarche c. If saith St. Augustine so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of the people that came from their loines How shall the dead have ought to do in the knowledge or aide of the affaires and actions of their dearest survivers But suppose they did know our affaires and actions yet our hearts they cannot know for this is proper to God onely who is the searcher of the heart Now our hearts ye know are the seate of our prayers the lips do but vent them to the eares of men And therefore Solomon in the 1 of the Kings the 8. Chapter useth this as an argument why we are to pray to no other but God because God and no other can hear our prayers because he onely knows our hearts Hear thou saith he 1 King 8.39 in Heaven thy dwelling place and do and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men So that he
the King of Navarre died both for the suddennesse and violence of it who feeling great anguish in all his nerves was by the advice of his Physicians to be close wrapped in linnen cloth which had been well steeped in Aquavitae and the cloth to be sowed strait all about his body one having sowed it not having a knife ready to cut the thread took the candle to burn the thread in sunder and the thread flaming to the cloth took sudden hold of the same and the Aquavitae that the King in this flame was burnt to death before he could be helped by any And many come to such fearfull ends and yet we cannot judge of them by the kind of their death because even the godly whose death is precious in the eyes of the Lord howsoever they die do sometimes die a violent death and that suddenly So did old Eli that was a good man vvho hearing that the Arke of God was taken 2 Sam. 4.18 fell backward from his scate his neck brake and he dyed So Job's Children no doubt were holy persons having had godly education and their Fathers prayers laid up in Heaven for them yet While they were feasting together in their elder brothers house Job 1.19 the house on the sudden fell down and killed every one of them If therefore we judge of men by the kinde of their deaths we shall condemn the generation of the righteous and may bring on ourselves the like censure from others For we do not know by what kinde of death we shall glorifie God whether we shall die an easie or a painfull death whether a naturall or a violent death whether a lingring or a sudden death The times have been God grant the like times may never come again when there have been so great persecutions in the Church that the faithfull have been put to all manner of deaths whether God hath reserved us to the like times or no we do not know we know we have no promise to the contrary and therefore ought to prepare our selves for the like times that if they come we may constantly maintain the profession of Christ though it cost us our lives as here it did Steven And thus much likewise for the second point the kinde of his martyrdom And so I come to the third by whom he was thus martyred namely by the Iewes They stoned Steven Ye all know that the Iewes were the people whom God had chosen to himself above all other Nations Behold saith Moses Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords Déut. 10.14 and the Earth and all that is therein notwithstanding he hath set his affection on thy Fathers to love them and hath also chosen their seed after them Even you saith he hath he chosen above all people For as for all other Nations God counted them strangers and left them to themselves and did not vouchsafe them his Statutes and Ordinances but suffered them to walk in their own wayes But as for the Iewes he first taught them himself and delivered them his Law from his own mouth and because they desired to be instructed rather by men like themselves and therefore spake to Moses Loquere tu nobiscum et audiemus c. Speak thon say they with us and we will hear Exe. 20.19 but let not God speak with us lest we dye God yielded to their request and first taught them by Moses afterwards by the Prophets Luke 19.26 of whom Abraham said to the rich-man They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But the Iewes were so far from hearing these that Steven could here upbraid them Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And Christ complaine of them O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee as here they did Steven Their sinne then is aggravated in regard of the persons by whom it was committed They were not the Gentiles or any Heathenish people that knew not God for then their sin had been the less but they were the Jewes Gods chosen people who commonly if they were offended with any upon every occasion were ready to stone them If they be offended with Moses Exod. 17.4 because they were thirsty and had no water to drink they are presently ready to stone him for it If they be offended with Caleb and Joshua Numb 14.10 for contradicting the spies that were sent into Candan and for giving a good report of the Land they are likewise ready to stone them for it And how often in the Gospel did they take up stones to have stoned our Saviour And here they stone Steven for bearing witnesse unto him And this vvas a greater sin in them being the people of God then if they had been heathen The heathen shall rise up in judgement against them for they reverenced their Priests though they were Idolaters The Marriners that were so tender-hearted to Jonas shall rise up against them for they hazarded their lives to save the Prophet though it were for his sinnes that they vvere in danger to perish but these mercilesse Iewes did stone him to death who sought to bring them to eternall life And therefore as the voice of Abels bloud did cry aloud in the eares of the Lord against Cain that shed it and was vox sanguinum a voice of blouds as the Scripture calls it as being not onely the voice of his bloud but of all the bloud that might have come of that bloud if it had not been shed So here the bloud of Steven did cry aloud against the Iewes that shed the same and the bloud of all those that might have come from him nay upon them was laid all the righteous blood that was shed before him Mat. 23.34 for so our Saviour told them Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise-men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and Crucifie c. that upon you saith he may come all the righteous bloud shed upon the earth from the bloud of righteous Abel to the bloud of Zacharias Sonne of Barachias whom ye slew betweene the Temple and the Altar We read of Tomyris the Queen of the Scythians that because Cyrus the King of Persia had slain her son she gathered an Army and made War upon him and having vanquisht the Persians she took Cyrus and cutting off his head she cast it into a barrell that was filled with bloud thus insulting over it Thou that wast so thirsty and insatiable of bloud that thou slewest my son shalt now have thy fill till thou be glutted vvith it And thus the Jews vvho vvere so insatiable of the bloud of the Prophets had in the end their fill of bloud vvhen the bloud of all the righteous vvho had been slain from Abel to Zacharie vvas laid upon them And that may fitly be applied unto them vvhich the Angell saith Revel 16. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus
we have Pest-houses provided for such as are infected and we have Goales and prisons for theeves and robbers but for such as are a thousand times more mad infectious for such as daly rob God of his glory by profaning his Name without any occasion there is no place of restraint nor punishment appointed And therefore God who is jealous of his honour hath taken the cause into his own hands and threatens that howsoever they that abuse his name do escape before men yet he himselfe will not hold them guiltlesse And thus much for the second condition of an oath that we must swear in judgement And so I come to the last condition Thou shalt swear in righteousnesse I will speak but a word or two of it This condition requires that the matter whereof we take an oath be just and lawfull And hereunto are contrary all wicked oaths vvhich are taken for the performance of any unlawfull actions Such an oath was that vvhich vvas taken by Herod Marke 6. Marke 6.26 Acts 23.21 when for the saving of his oath Iohn the Baptist was beheaded Such an oath was that which vvas taken by the Iews Acts 23. that they would neither eate nor drink still they had killed Saint Paul And such are those oaths which have been taken by the Iesuites for the murdering of Princes and for the concealing of their conspiracy and treason Thus vvhen they vvent about the most horrible treason that ever vvas their Gunpowder-plot the memory vvhereof vvil continue for ever to their perpetuall shame they swore by the blessed Trinity and by the Sacrament vvhich they vvere then to take that they vvould never disclose it A most horrible sinne while they could not be content to be Traytors themselves but God must be made an actor in their treasons his name must help to settle them forward therein Non ad hoc institutum est juramentum ut sit ini juitatis vinculum an oath was not ordain'd to this end that it should be the bond of iniquity much lesse of Treason Such oaths are better broke then kept And therefore David vvith vvhich I vvill conclude when he had sworn in a passion to kill Nabal 1 Sam. 25.32 yet afterward he spared him upon Abigails intercession and blessed God for sending Abigail to intreate for him Juravit David temeré saith St. Augustin August in Ser. de decollat S. Johan Bap. sed non implevit jurationem majore pietate David swore rashly but he performed I not his oath with greater Pietie FINIS The Sixteenth SERMON JONAH 3.1 c. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying Arise go to Nineveh that great City and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh THey that dig into the Mines of the earth for silver or gold or the like mettals they find faith the Philosopher parvum in magno a little in a great deale but little good substance among a great deale of drosse but small store of mettal in a great compasse But they who search into the Mines of the Scripture they finde on the cōtrary magnum in parvo a great deal in a little great store of matter in few words and much excellent treasure in a small compasse This Prophecy of Jonas is very short yet as St. Jerom faith of some the Epistles in the New Testament that they are Breves pariter et longoe both short and long short in words long in substance the same may be said of this Prophecy of Jonas it is short in words but yet very full of excellent matter and among the rest it containes in the compasse of foure short Chapters three memorable examples of the riches of Gods mercy upon heinous sinners The first upon the Marriners The second upon Jonas And the third upon the Ninivites The Mariners and they that were in the ship with them were all of them Idolaters they worshipt feign'd Gods of mens devising but as for the true God that made Heaven and Earth there was not one among them all that either served or knew him Yet God who would as the Apostle faith have all men to be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 and to come to the knowledge of the truth by his providence brought Jonas into the ship among them that he that was then flying from the true God might be a meanes to bring them to the knowledge of him and that they who were in danger by his meanes to perish might by his meanes be kept from perishing The second upon Jonas whose sinnes were more hainous and offensive to God then the sinnes of the Mariners because he was a Prophet and knew Gods will and yet disobeyed it and the Servant that knoweth his Masters will as Christ faith Luke 12.47 and doth it not that Servant shall be beaten with many stripes God Commanded him to go to Nineveh he refused to go and resolved to take ship and to flee to Tarshish God was so offended with him for it that he presently sent a Pursevant after him he pursued him with a tempest and would not suffer the Sea to be quiet till he were cast into it yet such was Gods mercy that when Jonas was cast into the Sea God would not suffer him to perish according to his desert but wrought his preservation after a strange sort by causing him to be devoured that he might not be drowned and making his devourer to bring him safe to Land and so saved his life even then when he was in the very jawes of death The third upon the Ninevites who were so hainous sinners that their wickednesse was come up before God and cried up to Heaven unto God for vengeance and God was so provoked that the sentence was already gone out of his lips that Nineveh should be overthrown after forty dayes yet upon their Repentance and Humiliation God that is infinitely rich in mercy did spare the City and repented of the evil which he had intended against them Nay when Jonas to whom God had been so gracious was offended that God would be so gracious to the Ninevites as to spare them when he had proclaimed their destruction God took upon him the defence of the Ninevites and pleaded for them All these examples plainly verifying that which God faith by the Prophet and confirmes it with an Oath Ezek. 33. As I live Ezek. 33.11 faith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live The two former examples of Gods mercy upon the Mariners and Gods mercy upon Jonas are set down before in the two former Chapters and in this Chapter and the next it set down especially Gods mercy upon the Ninevites though the beginning of this Chapter containes his mercy to Jonas For in the words of my Text we may observe these 3 things First Gods gracious renewing of Jonas his Commission when he had so
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So saith Zachary Luke 1. That God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets because they spake onely that which God put into their mouthes Therefore we see in the Old Testament that every one of the Prophets from the first to the last have still in their Sermons Verbum Domini or haec dicit Dominus The Word of the Lord came unto me or Thus saith the Lord to shew that they were but Gods Messengers to deliver that which God appointed them and that the Message which they delivered was not theirs that brought it but his that sent them 1 Cor. 15.3 1 Cor. 11.23 So Saint Paul in his Epistles I delivered saith he that which I received and I received from the Lord that which I delivered unto you This was that which Christ enjoyned his Apostles Mat. 28.20 Mat. 28. Teach them saith he to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you this is that which God here enjoyns Jonas Preach saith he unto it the preaching which I bid thee And so leaving the Charge which God gave Jonas I come to the last point Jonas his execution of Gods Charge which containes his obedience to Gods Command So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh When God commanded Jonas the first time to go to Nineveh he was disobedient unto God and refused to go but he paid so dear for his disobedience that he would have no more of it God hath so schooled him by affliction that now he is become another man ready to go whithersoever God would send him and to do whatsoever God would command him like Paul who being struck to the ground from heaven was content to do any thing that Christ would have him Acts 9.6 Doct. Lord saith he what wilt thou have me to do Observe then from hence That affliction is a very forcible meanes to reclaime us when we do go astray and to bring us to ebedionce This David acknowledges of himselfe in particular Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now saith he have I kept thy word and this Esay testifies of others in generall in his 26. chap. 9. verse When thy judgements saith he are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousnesse For Gods judgements are his Messengers which he sends to reclaim us like Officers which are sent after fugitive Servants to bring them home to their Masters So hunger ye know reclaimed the Prodigall affliction Manasses and a tempest as Gods Pursevant reclaimed Ionas and made him ready to execute that vvhich God commanded vvhich before he would not Before he thought it a very hard Commandement that he should leave his own Countrey to go to Nineveh leave the place vvhere he had been bred and borne to preach among strangers leave the people of God to preach among Infidels He thought it vvould be very dangerous for him to carry so unwelcome a Message to the Ninevites that Nineveh should be overthrown after forty dayes He remembred besides that God was so gracious that though God had sent him to proclaim their destruction yet if the Ninevites should repent he would spare the City and so he should be counted a false Prophet among them And many other scruples no doubt came in his mind for which he thought it a very hard Commandement but now he stands not upon any difficulty but goes readily about it His example then may teach us this lesson that when Gods will is made known unto us we must readily yield obedience thereunto and do that which God Commands though it seeme never so difficult never so dangerous It might have seem'd unto Noe a very hard Commandement when God Commanded him to make the Ark and there were many difficulties which might have taken away the edge of his obedience and discouraged him from taking such a work in hand He might have been discouraged with the tediousnesse of the work that seeing God would have him make it so large and so great it would hold him a long time before he could finish it He might have been discouraged by the great cost and charges which he was to be at in making the Arke For besides his extraordinary paines and labour it must needes be an excessive charge unto him The sending up and down to provide such a World of stuffe and timber the felling sawing and squaring of it the bringing it to the place where the Arke was to be made the vvorkmens daily vvages for so many years and the great store of food which vvas to be provided and laid up in the Arke for the preservation and susterance of all the living Creatures vvhich vvere to abide in the Arke for a twelve-moneth and upwards must needes be a matter of excessive charges He might have been discouraged by the continual taunts of the vvicked vvho vvould scoffe and deride him for making the Arke and make him a common by-word among them vvhile he vvas about it But Noe having respect unto Gods Commandement his disobedience brake through all these difficulties and he took the vvork in hand and accordingly finisht it so it might have seem'd unto Abraham a very hard Commandement vvhen God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac and there vvere many difficulties vvhich might have discouraged him from the doing of it and hindred his obedience He might have alleadged that Isaac was his onely Sonne and that he had no other to be his Heire to inherit the goods vvhich God had given him that God had given him Isaac to be a comfort unto him in his old age and had promised that all the Nations of the earth should be blessed in him that he and Sarah his vvife vvere old and so not like to have any more Children He might have pretended that it was a most barbarous and unnaturall Act for a Father to kill his own Sonne that it would make him odious among his Neighbours and be a foule disgrace and reproach unto him vvheresoever he came and many pretences he might have alledged vvhy he should not do it but having Gods Commandement he stood not upon any difficulty therein but vvent readily about it For vvhatsoever it is that God Commands us though it seeme never so hard unto flesh and bloud yet we are bound to yield him obedience because he hath absolute power and Command over us The Command of a Father over his Sonne is very great and vvhat will not a Sonne do that lieth in his power vvhen his Father Commands him Nihil quod pater jubet grave nisi sitimpossibile Nothing is grievous that a Father Commands unlesse he Commands an impossibility We see how the Rechabits Jer. 35. were commanded by Jonadab their Father that neither they themselves nor their Sonnes nor their Daughters nor their Children and Posterity for ever after them should ever drink any wine or build any houses or sow any seed or plant any Vineyards or have any but
the upright for the end of that man is peace and in the next verse But the end of the wicked shall be cut off For God being the just Judge of the world it cannot be otherwise but that between the end of the godly and the end of the wicked there must needs be great difference Therefore when Abraham prayed for Sodom that it might be spared for the righteous sake that were therein Gen. 18.23.25 wilt thou saith he Gen. 18. destroy the righteous with the wicked that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be farre from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right to shew that it cannot stand with the justice of God to respect them alike and to make no difference between the godly and the wicked We see many times that the wicked do flourish and prosper in the world and live in great credit and estimation the godly on the contrary are many times vilified and privily slander'd whereby their good name which is the godly mans Heire is much called into question but God who never failes to help them to right that do suffer wrong at one time or other brings the wicked to shame and makes the innocency of the godly known This is that which God promises Psal 37.6 Psal 37. He shall bring forth thy righteousnesse as the light and thy judgement or just dealing as the noon-day the meaning is that though thy innocency and just dealing may be obscured and hidden for a time as the light in the night yet God will bring it forth like the light in the morning and make it more and more to appear like the Sun at noone whereby both thy innocencie and the falshood of those that unjustly accuse thee shall be openly known This we see by the example of Daniel who was cast by his accusers into the Lyons Den Dan. 6.16 Dan. 3.21 and by those who were cast into the fiery furnace yet God miraculously made known their innocency and brought those that accused them to shame and destruction It is very memorable which we find recorded to this purpose in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Three grace leâ—e Companions accused Narcissus a holy Bishop of an hainous crime and used fearfull imprecations against themselves if the thing were not true whereof they accused him The first wished that if it were not true he might be burnt The second that he might die of some grievous Disease And the third wisht that he might lose his sight And not long after God was reveng'd on every one of them in the same manner For the first had his house set a fire in the night where both himself and his houshold were burnt to death The second fell sick of a fearfull disease and died of it And the third seeing what 〈◊〉 befallen his Companions confessed how they had wrongfully accused the Bishop and with weeping and mourning lost his sight Whereupon the Bishop who had been deposed upon their accusation was restored unto his Bishoprick God having thus made his innocency known and brought them to shame that so falsly accused him And thus much for the former part of these words the description of an impenitent sinner who is described as you have heard both by his property that he covers his sinne and by his condition that he shall not prosper The penitent person is described by a double property he confesseth his sinnes and withall forsakes them and his condition is that he shall have mercy I will speak briefly of them in a word or two Those words of St. John 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse are as it were a commentary upon my Text and the one place may serve well to explain the other St. John names onely our confessing our sinnes If saith he we confesse our sinnes implying under confessing our sinnes our forsaking of them because as St. Ambrose saith Confessio peccati est professio desinendi our confessing of sinne is a profession of leaving the same Solomon in my Text doth name them both who so confesses and forsakes his sins and so expresses what St. John implies And Solomon addes that he shall have mercy but what mercy he doth not shew St. John therefore shewes what this mercy is that God will forgive him his sinnes and will cleanse him from all unrighteousnesse which you know is the greatest mercy For if we consider how highly God is offended with sinners how deeply we are indebted unto God by our sinnes or the great benefit we reape by Gods forgiving us we cannot but see Gods infinite mercy in forgiving our sinnes upon so easie a condition and requiring no more of us for the forgivenesse of our sinnes but that we confesse them If a Creditor should require no more of his Debtor that were indebted in a great summe unto him but to acknowledge the debt he would freely forgive him would not every man magnifie the Creditors bounty in releasing his Debtor upon so easie a condition but thus deales God with us he requires no more of us but to confesse our sinnes and promises to forgive us If saith St. John we confesse our sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes faithfull and just and so we need not make any doubt thereof because his faithfulnesse and justice are ingaged upon it But some may say it may seeme that seeing God is just he should rather punish us then forgive us our sinnes because his justice requires that we make him satisfaction and that he reward us according to our deserts We are therefore to remember that confession of our sinnes and faith in Christ for the pardon of them do alway go together so that we cannot truly confesse our sins but we must needes have an eye unto Christ for the forgivenesse of our sinnes God therefore cannot but forgive us our sinnes because he is just for otherwise he should be unjust to his Sonne who hath made satisfaction to God in our roome and by his active and passive obedience hath merited for us that our sinnes should be forgiven And herein appeares the admirable wisdome and goodnesse of God in so contriving the work of our redemption that his justice should plead for the forgivenesse of our sinnes which pleaded before for our condemnation For if ye aske why God should condemn us for our sinnes the Reason is because he is just and justice requires that having offended him we should make him satisfaction And yet if ye aske why he should forgive us our sinnes the reason is here given by St. John because he is just and justice requires that Christ having made satisfaction for us we should be forgiven And so we see what mercy it is which he shall have who confesseth his sinnes namely the
their own dayes might have found life but would not seek it so then in his day they shall seek death but shall not find it And as here it is called the day of the Lord Acts 2.20 so elsewhere it is called the great notable day of the Lord Joel 2.11 and the the great terrible day of the Lord because on that day more great terrible things shall come to passe then ever came to passe in the World before The Prophet Esay was shewed a vision which did so greatly astouish him that he saith his heart panted and fear came upon him Esay 21.3 that it made him to stoop when he heard of it and dismayed him when he saw it What was that vision which was able to affright so great a Prophet He saw the fall of Babylen how that mighty City the glory of Kingdoms as the Scripture calls it should be overthrown and all the stately buildings thereof should be brought to ruine But on this day which is here meÌ„tioned there shal be a matter which is far more fearfull not the desolation of one City or Kingdom but the finall overthrow and utter ruine of all the Kingdoms and buildings in the World together For on that day the very foundation of the earth shall be shaken so that all the buildings thereof from the least to the greatest shall be shivered asunder and quite overthrown Though our walls were as strong as the walls of Nineveh which as Authors write of them were made of that thicknesse that three Carts might go side-long together upon them though our Turrets were as high as the Spires of Egypt or the Tower of Babell whose top they would have made to have reacht up unto heaven though our houses were as sumptuous as the Pallace of Alcinous where the walls were of brasse the entries of silver and the gates of gold yet on this great day if they continued so long they should all be overthrown For what shall be able to stand on that day when there shall be earthquakes on the one side and fire on the other which shall overthrow and consume whatsoever is before them On that day there shall be so great an earthquake as Saint John tells us Revel Rev. 6.12.14 6. That all mountains and istands shall be moved out of their places On that day there shall be so great a fire all overthe World that Saint Peter tells us 2 Pet. 3.10 The heavens being on sire shall be dissolved the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and all the works therein shall be burut up On that day there shall be the greatest number assembled together that ever were For then heaven and earth as it were shall meet together on the one side Christ and his Angels shall come from heaven thousand thousands shall attend upon him and ten thousand thousands shall minister unto him on the other side shall be Adam and Eve with their whole of-spring even all that have lived from the first to the last in all ages from one end of the world to the other in all Countries they shall all appear on that together Gen. 13.16 God promised Abraham the father of the faithfull that his seed should be as the starres of heaven Gen. 15.5 in number like the sand on the sea-shore which ye know is innumerable yet all these in comparison of that infinite multitude which shall be assembled together at the day of judgement are no more then an handfull For then all without exception both Jewes and Gentiles beleevers and infidels even every one in his own person shall appear on that day and not one shall be wanting Therefore saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done whether it be good or evill All and every one to shew the generality that none are excepted and we must appear to shew the necessity that it cannot he avoided When the King in the Gospell invited many to the marriage of his Sonne Luke 14. they pretended excuses for their not coming one saying that he had bought a piece of ground another that he had bought five yoke of oxen another that he had married a wife and could not come so that of those which were invited there were many wanting But no excuse shall be taken at the day of judgement but as all shall be summoned to appear on that day so none shall be absent There shall not any be permitted to appear by his Atturney but all must come in their own persons and none be suffered to put in sureties We see many times that such as are to come before earthly Judges do break out of prison and escape the judgement that should passe upon them but there can be no hope for any to escape at the day of judgement for indeed the whole World is as it were Gods prison-house every part whereof on that day shall bring forth their prisoners Rev. 20.13 The Sea saith Saint Iohn Revel 20. did yield up her dead that were therein and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to his works Lastly On that day there shall a finall separation be made between the godly and the wicked While we live in this world the good and the bad the elect and the reprobate do live ye know promiscuously together And therefore the Church is compared in the Scripture sometime to a floor sometime to a field and sometime to a fold to a floore wherein is both come and chaffe to a field wherein is both wheat and cares and to a fold wherein are both sheep and goats Mat. 25.32 But on this great and notable day of the Lord they shall be distinguisht and an everlasting sepâ—ration shall be made between them For then Christ shall place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his lest the wheat and the corn shall be carried into his barn the chaffe and the tares shall be cast into the fire the godly shall be taken up into heaven the wicked thrown into hell And in these respects it is called the great and notable day of the Lord because so great and notable things shall come to passe on that day And thus much concerning the day it selfe The second thing to be considered is the coming of this day and therein two things are set down that it is certain this day will come For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes And that it is untertain when it will come It comes saith he as a thiefe in the night Whose coming is uncertain and not known when he comes And first concerning the certainty of the coming of this day Saint Peter tells us of some that make but a mock of Christs coming or