person by himselfe the same he doeth by his Ministers making them more watchfull to build vp the Synagogue of Antichrist then they are to build Gods house and more zealous for a temple of idoles then they are zealous for the Temple of God None doeth faint or fall among them none slumber nor sleepe neither is the girdle of their loines loosed nor the latchet of their shooes broken Esa 5.27 Wherefore it is that though our case be neuer so good and our enemies case desperate yet hee will bee in hope to ouercome vs if by no other meanes yet with his importunities And to this as to all other his attempts against vs he is much incouraged and set on by our owne corruption which giues him no small hope while wee cary that about vs which is as ready to open the gate as hee to enter For as Bernard noteth very well Quot quot degimus in regione vmbrae mortis c. As many of vs as liue in this shadow of death in this infirmitie of body as it were seat of temptations we haue our inconueniences we are easie to bee seduced faint to doe good weake to resist euill Whereby it commeth to passe that when we would iudge betweene good and euill wee are deceiued when wee would doe good wee cannot and when wee would resist euill we yeeld vnto it This the Apostle Saint Paul calleth the Law in our members rebelling against the Law of our minde and leading vs captiue to the Law of sinne Rom. 7.23 A Law of such force and spite against vs while wee dwell in this earthly house that wee need no other enemie to maintaine battell with vs and to keepe vs this way doing Therefore seeing we haue so many causes to seeke a thing which for it selfe is so worthy seeing also our auncient enemie besets vs with so many occasions and so much skill and diligence going so farre beyond vs in his aduantages to our spoile and vtter destruction how should these things moue vs to be well appointed at all assaies to take heede to our Christian state and particularly as followeth to our walking That yee walke c. Albeit wee are to take no small heed to our Christian state that it stand vpon matter of sound doctrine so that not onely we beleeue nothing contrary to the Word but beleeue whatsoeuer is conteined in it yet are we so to looke to it that we fashion our walking to it and so to beleeue that we liue there-after And therefore where we are willed to take heed of false Prophets that come in Sheepes cloathing and to trie the Spirit because some that seeme of God may prooue Sathanicall we are taught to know false Prophets by their fruits and lying Spirits by their Doctrine and the Apostle who exhorteth Timothie to looke to his Doctrine exhorteth the same Timothie also to looke to himselfe For true it is that as our eyes desire light to the end they may see and yet withall desire it that by seeing they may receiue and giue direction to the body so the eye of the soule the vnderstanding desires the Doctrine as it were light of the will of God that it may know and yet so should desire to know that good affections may follow and knowledge so gotten may direct our life Also as it is said of Christ that hee knew no euill when it is meant hee did none so may hee truely be said to know the will of God that doeth it For in vaine doe we keepe his Commandements in our heads if wee keepe them not in our liues And here the Prophet Dauid that hee might stirre vs vp to the deeper study and meditation of the Law pronounceth them happy not that are learned but that are vndefiled in the way not that know the Law but that walke in it Afterwards hee calles the Law a Lanterne not vnto our eyes but vnto our seete and a light not to our mindes but to our pathes Which hee doeth that wee might vnderstand that fruitlesse knowledge and an idle profession of the Law without fulfilling it is a damnable both knowledge and profession And if any shall thinke that obedience to the Commandements was so required vnder the Law as that it was abrogated with it which is the opinion of many Atheists at this day that by it they may cloake their libertie of life and of some Professours that yeeld too much to their lusts let them know that Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it Math. 5.17 and that hee was so farre from taking any edge of rigour from it that he whetteth it to a seuerer exposition adding more quicknesse to it then the Pharises would confesse to bee in it in restraining the naturall Man For where the Law forbad to commit murder he expounded the Law rightly to forbid anger and where it forbad to commit adultery he expounded it to forbid all looking vpon a woman to lust after her Math. 5.27 28. Where it forbad forswearing he expounded it to forbid swearing at all to wit vainely and in common talke Math. 5.33.34 and where it commanded to loue our neighbour hee expounded as a commandement to loue our enemies Math. 5.43 44. So hee laid more weight vpon the Law rather then tooke off any for hee himselfe was to fulfill it How much the more iniury doe our aduersaries the Papists to vs and to our Doctrine while they goe about to perswade the ruder multitude that our Doctrine of faith takes away good workes and brings in a greater liberty or rather license of life then is to bee found among the Turks and Infidels For where we say that faith alone doth iustifie we doe not require that faith should be alone because it iustifies alone but confesse with the Apostle that faith without workes is dead Iam. 2.17 And so grant him any thing rather then faith that can speake as though hee hated vice and yet liue as though he hated vertue It is the saying of our Sauiour Christ not euery one that saith vnto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heauen Math. 7.21 For the fig-tree in the Gospel made a faire florish by leaues but hauing nothing but leaues of seeming withered Math. 21.19 after Christ had said neuer fruit grow on thee any more The foolish Virgines had Lampes of a glorious profession as well as the Wise but lacking the Oile of faith and a good conscience therein were shut out Matth. 25.1.3.10.11 The Pharise had the Law of God in his mouth and in the skirts of his garments no man oftner or more and yet when hee went into the Temple to pray the silly Publican was preferred before him for he went to his house more iustified rather then he Luk. 18.14 By all which wee learne that it is not enough to come neere to God with our lips except our hearts come neere him and our hands touch
Abraham Mat 3.9 and he made them that were Gentiles no longer Gentiles that is strangers but sonnes and those that were vncircumcised in the flesh circumcised in the spirit and the old men of sin the new borne of God and those without Christ the very members of Christ and those heires of promise that had no hope and those that were aliens from Israel partakers with Israel of the couenant of life and strangers Citizens and farre of neere and without God in the world Gods children and no people a glorious people Yet because he is not a Iewe that is outwardly one and because many that are called few are chosen therefore we that are Citizens must liue as Citizens not the worlds Citizens but Citizens with the Saints Ierusalem is builded as a Citie that is compact together Psal 122.3 this was spoken of the earthly and may well be applied both to the spirituall Ierusalem the Church of Grace and the heauenly which is the Church in glory for we must not thinke that Gods delight was any way set vpon timher and stone or at any time vpon faire and well compacted buildings but this was rather to admonish the Citizens then to praise the Citie teaching them that if God be pleased with such an vniformitie and compactednesse in materiall buildings much more will he respect in them his owne building by grace spirituall order and compactednesse of minde And so if the Citizens at Ierusalem must be in order to God shall the Citizens in the Gospel breake order and liue in no conformity to him Are we then Citizens of God we must keepe Gods order and not what rule we list in his Citie we must honour his person and word reuerence his name and Sabbaths bow to him onely and to no creature with him keepe his ordinances and obserue his lawes The Magistrates that watch his gates must see that no prophanenesse be either practised or countenanced within them they must see that the good be encouraged and the euill taken away or reformed also that all within their authoritie as it were gates serue the Lord or be made to serue him The Ministers must faithfully execute their charge in the watch of this Citie they must not be blinde guides nor sleepie watchmen and they must eate the roule and goe and speake to the house of Israel Ezech. 3.1 they must warne the people of their danger with the trumpet at their mouth Ezech. 33.3 6. and feeding them with good and sound teaching lead them to the pure streames and riuer of life The people the Citizens must be ruled by the good word of God and by humaine ordinances and lawes agreeable to it not resisting gouernment and giuing honour to God by honouring those powers that are of him Thus if we be Citizens we must liue as they that dwell in Gods Citie and not in the worlds forest So if we be of the houshold of God we must liue as his houshold seruants and sonnes and not as seruants of sinne and sonnes of Belial and so shame our Masters house and discredit our Masters seruice or we must liue that is holily liue as his seruants and sonnes Now holinesse becommeth Gods house Psal 93.5 and they that are of his houshold must be holy Many get in that are not so but they shall be turned out as hee was that had not on his wedding garment Mat. 22.11.13 for God cannot endure that any vncleane person that any Moabite Cananite Ismalite or other sonne of Belial should be witnesse of his praise The gates of the Lord are gates of righteousnesse and the righteous shall enter into them Psal 118.19 His house is the house of his honour and they that be of his houshold must doe him seruice which dogges and swine cannot doe and therefore though such be sometimes in the house yet they are but strangers and none of the houshold which is true in all that prophane rabble of swearers drunkards filthy adulterers and other notorious offenders and in all hypocrites of whom the Apostle Saint Iohn speaketh thus they went out from vs but they were not of vs 1 Iohn 2.19 and generally in all contemners and despisers of God who though they liue in his house haue no inch of priuiledge neither any allowance therein Gods houshold is the houshold of faith and of faithfull men or it is the Church of Gods Saints and not a stable of beasts or cage of vncleane birds In a word Gods house it is the house of good people and of goodnesse and will ye steale murther and commit adultery and sweare falsely and burne your incense to strange Gods and come and stand before the Lord in the house whereupon his name is called though ye commit all these abominations Ier. 7.9 10. If ye be of the houshold of God ye must not conspire against him in his owne house as a houshold of rebels and increase of sinfull men and ye must be ruled by him and doe reuerence to him that hath the key of the house of Dauid Some liue in his house that both dishonour him and his house and many arme themselues with the name of the Church when yet saue for name the Church hath no greater enemies then they are therefore least in stead of the Arke of the Church we fall into a ship of Pirats and in stead of the Lords house vpon a den of theeues we must as followeth see that our Christian outward calling haue a good and sure foundation VERS 20. Built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and Iesus Christ himselfe the chiefe corner-stone THat is grounded by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles vpon Christ The Rhemists in their annotations vpon the new Testament would wrest this which is here spoken of the foundation in Christ to the persons of the Prophets and Apostles his seruants But besides that it makes flatly against the supremacy of Peter to haue that giuen to all that they would appropriate to him it seemes to haue no shadow of that that they would haue it in substance to be for whether by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles be meant as some vnderstand it that the vocation of the Gentiles had the same ground which the Prophets and Apostles had or which seemeth to be neerer to the Apostles minde that the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets was the foundation of their calling in Christ in neither can it any way fauour their absurd opinion or if there had bin any respect of persons in this recitall of names the Apostle might as well haue mentioned the Patriarks to whom the promise was made and the worthy Kings by whom it was continued as the Apostles and Prophets by whom it was but spoken And here first he nameth them that were last to wit the Apostles not that they preached any other doctrine then was agreeable to that of the prophets which were before them but because they witnessed that to be done which before was
benefits of God are so much more then we can deserue or conceiue not to receiue so great grace in vaine nor to thinke where we can deserue nothing we can serue more or better then wee ought or to play the vnthrifts with so rich a treasure committed to our keeping and vse He that hath committed to vs our life and his money to be recalled at his pleasure and hath diuided amongst vs his blessings and his talents to occupie till hee come will one day most certainely require againe his coine of life that he lent vs and reckon with vs particularly for the seuerall peeces of his stocke of grace both which we haue ill imployed and which we haue not imployed to their best end which is his glory then neither the hiding of our talent in the ground by an vnprofitable life shall be able to deliuer vs from our account to damnation nor the smalnesse of his gift and of our receit as it were the single talent excuse vs if we haue bin vnfruitfull in the least matters nor others ill vsing of greater graces be a cloake for vs but the secrets of all hearts as it were the bookes of the Lords accounts shall be laid open euery leafe of them and hidden thing in them and a iust I doe not say equalitie but proportion of increase shall be exacted at our hands according to the measure of grace which wee haue receiued for as it is in the fift of the second to the Corinthians ver 10. We must all appeare before the iudgement seat of God that euery man may receiue the things which are done in his body according to that hee hath done whither it be good or euill and therefore they doe not a little deceiue themselues who hauing a greater measure of grace dealt vnto them and more of the Lords money in their hands then others doe abuse all that bountisulnesse of the Lord and turne his grace into wantonnesse and yet thinke they shall as easily passe their accounts as they who haue receiued smaller summes both of time and spirituall riches to answer for as if to receiue much were rather a priuiledge to greater securitie then the charge of a greater burthen But it fareth not with the heires of heauen as it doth with the Lords of the earth who because they are borne to greater rents and possessions then others are thinke they may liue more idlely then others and as they vse the matter more wickedly but the more that euery one receiues here the more will be required of him and the better his calling is the more seemely must his walking be in it for wee are all of vs vnprofitable seruants euen the best of vs when we haue done our best are so and if wee were many degrees better then we are we were many more degrees worse then we should be And in this respect we are called stewards of God not owners of his gifts and therefore not to abuse them to our pleasures but to answer for not vsing them in his sernice But as we are to take heede to our Christian life that it be godly and righteous in respect of the causes that should moue vs so to doe so in regard of the many occasions that stand in our light and way to withdraw vs from a good course we should take this paines for the ordering of our Christian life much more for how many are they and how many wayes offered I would we were as willing to preuent them as wee are sure they doe daily nay euery houre and moment of our life circumuent vs for who can open his eyes and not see his eares and not heare occasions of euill in all places who can thinke and not amisse walke and not walke in death or which is lesse but steppe out of doores and not steppe into a great puddle of sinne Not onely by the corruption of our vile nature by which we are carried to all euill but also by the subtile inticement of our old enemie who hath spred his nets of deceit ouer all the world and baited his hookes with euery part of our flesh and hath so many lures of imposture for our eyes charmes for our eares vaine thoughts for our hearts and by-wayes for our feet we are so engirt and beset daily on euery hand and side of vs that wee are easily caught and no sooner assailed then taken neither is he sure that thinkes hee commeth into this field of assaults best appointed for them the world what is it but a Sea which swelleth with pride fometh with lust boileth with desires and hath many contrarie tydes and tempests to turne vs from the port to which wee saile Our life what is it but a life of battels and a perpetuall warfare in the which we are to strine against the world and the Prince thereof yea against our owne flesh and the lusts therein and not to haue one minute of truce with them but in a calme to looke for a tempest and to be most distrustfull when the enemy seemeth most quiet and still for besides those many weapons which Sathan hath to assault vs the many occasions that he hath to withdraw vs his skill in vsing his weapons his policie in applying and taking his occasions he is well acquainted with the humours not of euery age onely but of euery estate also and therefore can fit euery one with and in that to which hee is most inclined He tempteth young men with beautie middle age with glory and old age with money he stirreth vp contempt in superiours enuie in inferiours and malice in equals If any be strong in faith hee will teach him to presume and if any be weake he will driue him to despaire He cloatheth his foule practises with tolerable names making lust but a tricke of youth ambition a spur to vertue desire of money honest prouision and whatsoeuer is of it selfe euill and for it selfe hatefull a thing meerely indifferent yea where he cannot hinder the course of godlinesse he will so aduance it in the followers that hee will make them proud of that they doe And to be short when he perceiueth that hee cannot worke so grosely in the children of light as to perswade them that darknesse is light and light darknesse hee fetches about vnder hand to perswade them that though they may not doe as the wicked doe yet it is no harme to keepe them company and though they be ashamed of many things in the light yet in the darke they neede not seeing no man sees them Further to this his skill and policie hee addes no lesse diligence and for this hee is said to be a Dragon that neuer sleepeth and Lyon that neuer lyes still seeking whom he may deuoure hee sowes tares in the night and attendeth their growing in the day he gaines the time that we loose and where we are carelesse he workes what wee scatter he gathers and what opportunities wee giue hee takes And what hee doth in
him Math. 15.8 9.20 To be hearers of the Law and not doers is to deceiue our selues Iam. 1.22 For so wee shall make our eares to accuse vs and our owne mouthes to speake against vs. And they who like Monsters haue longer tongues then hands that is can say more then they will doe are not vnfitly compared to leaues without fruit lampes without oile clouds without water hauing a shew of godlinesse but denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 To these as Gregory noteth in his moralles it commeth to passe in the iust iudgement of God that by the wickednesse of their liues they loose the opinion of their faith For though we are to confesse with the mouth as wee doe beleeue with the heart Rom. 10.10 Yet as Cyprian saith in his booke de Duplici Martyrio efficaâ—ius est vitae quà m linguae testimonium more speaking is the Testimony of our life then the witnesse of our tongue And in the same booke further habent opera suam linguam habent suam facundiam etiam tacente linguâ Our workes can speake and that eloquently for vs though we hold our peace In the end hee concludes that as our good workes professe God so our euill doe say for vs that wee thinke there is no God It cannot be denied but that the Word of God is like vnto fire and therefore as able to worke in vs not onely the knowledge of Gods will but obedience to the same as fire giues vnto water not onely heate but motion making it not onely hote but to boile ouer Yet as fire it selfe though neuer so hote doeth not burne the hand that lightly toucheth it passing quickely through the flame so neither doeth the Word worke where it is little regarded or passeth presently through vs. And here their negligence commeth to bee reprooued who though they acknowledge the Doctrine of Christ and can be content in their manner to giue their names to the trueth doe not much trouble themselues in shewing it foorth by their deedes how so euer other wayes they will be wary enough to doe nothing directly against it But though they thinke it good to sleepe in a whole and warme skinne and to passe through this life as a Ship through the Sea that leaueth no signe of her being there yet they shall finde how so euer they can reasonably cleare themselues of doing no euill that they shall answere for not doing of good and further for not doing as much good as they might And therefore let them that liue in no particular vocation flater themselues as much as they list because in doing nothing they doe no euill though indeede it be euill to doe nothing and idlenesse bee as Bernard proueth as well the mother of vice as the step-mother of vertue they shall heare one day that sentence of condemnation read against them I was hungry and ye gaue me no meate I thirsted and yee gaue me no drinke I was naked and yee cloathed me not Math. 25.42.43 It is not said that when Christ in his poore members was hungry yee tooke away his bread but it is said yee did not feede him nor that yee tooke away his drinke when hee was thirsty but that yee gaue him no drinke neither that yee vncloathed him but that yee cloathed him not when hee was naked So Saint Augustine but as wee must walke so wee must so walke that wee bee circumspect Walke circumspectly c. Because there is but one way right and the same narrow Mat. 7.14 where there are many by-wayes and broad withall it is necessary and required that in our walking we bee circumspect looking about vs and to our feete where we set them and that as well in respect of our selues that we doe not erre as in respect of others that we doe not offend For our selues we shall not doe amisse if as the Sailor hath alway the North pole and the Archer his marke in his eye so we euer haue in the eye of our minde the end at which we should aime in our whole course euen that which is the North pole of our Christian Nauigation and white or leuell of our best and holiest endeuours here And therefore if wee did well consider to what end we were created and since the image of God was defaced in vs to what end wee were redeemed it would moue vs to take that course that could best bring vs to that end and to thinke all that labour lost that is bestowed to the contrary or impertinently thereunto The rather also should wee so doe because it is not in our power or choise to propose to our selues in our Christian walke what end and manner wee list but haue the same pitched and set vnto vs by the will of God whose will in his Word is our sanctification and that euery one of vs should know how to possesse his vessell in holinesse and honour 1 Thes 4.3 4. Now this holinesse of life being the chiefe end or white at which the regenerate should aime and bend vnto in their Christian conuersation doeth set a price vpon it and all other things else which though lawfull and needfull in our mortall life we should much lesse esteeme then it and it being chiefe much more then them all For this cause it behoueth vs to bee very circumspect that seeing temporall blessings are necessarily and may lawfully in a sort be desired we bee not caried away with the tide of our affections to set our hearts vpon them or to esteeme them either for themselues or for any other end and with any other minde then for the exercise of godlinesse For as the Moone is darkened and Eclipsed when the Earth doeth come betweene her and the Sunne so the mindes of the godly suffer and are in a certaine Eclipse of Pietie when earthly cogitations come betweene them and the Sunne of Righteousnesse Christ Iesus Therefore well was it noted by Gregory in his Morals that solus in illicitis non cadit qui se aliquando a licitis cante restringit that is that hee onely doeth not offend in things vnlawfull that now and then restraines himselfe from things lawfull And now if wee must bee so circumspect in things indifferent and lawfull as not to desire them either more or other wayes then we should how much more circumspect ought we to be in those things that of themselues are vnlawfull and wicked There is no fellowship betweene light and darkenesse betweene the workes of the Spirit and the deedes of the flesh 2 Cor. 6.14 If we will liue in the Spirit wee must walke in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 And if we bee Christs wee must crucifie the flesh with the affections and the lusts Gal. 5.24 One saith well if wee would bee of the minde before we sinne of the which wee commonly are when we haue sinned and did marke our pleasures as Aristotle doeth aduise not as they come but as they goe away wee would not commit such
good by occasions of the haruest how did he prouide and speake for his fathers spirituall haruest Mat. 9.37.38 And by occasion of leauen how did hee warne his Disciples of the leauen of corrupt doctrine and corrupt men Mat. 16.11 And what is this but to teach vs to redeeme time by his example that lost none And if filthy persons can take all occasions of filthy talke and doings shall wee that are Saints by calling loose any occasion of speaking well and doing good to the edification of our selues and others so much the rather as it followeth in the last place because The dayes are euill No day considered in it selfe is euill and all dayes considered in their Creator and first creation are good Gen. 1.31 Here then we must confesse a trope and that the dayes are not properly but by a figure euill that is euill for the euils in them or because they are infected with the pitch and canker of the world that lieth wholly in wickednesse 1 Iohn 5.19 So the daies here are said to be euill because the men in them were euill And this is reason enough to perswade the children of God to be good husbands of their houres and to take heede into what places and companies they come least they take the infection as a man may comming into a plaguy-house for no plaguie aire can so soone infect the body as the aire of euill company may the soule This is plaine by the examples of Lot and Ioseph and of Dauid among the Philistims Lot learned to drinke liberally in Sodome and did so out of Sodome Gen. 19.33.35 Ioseph in the Court of Pharaoh courted it with dissembling and swearing by the life of Pharaoh Gen 42.15 and Dauid who suffered much and learned great obedience by the things which he suffered being but a while among the vncircumcised Philistims learned to lye and to dissemble 1 Sam. 27.10.11 Seeing therefore the dayes are so euill that is the men in them how circumspectly should good men walke and wisely passe their time least they be circumuented seeing so many thornes are about them how wary should they be both what they touch and how they goe The world will say because the dayes are euill let vs be euill for company but the spirit saith not so but redeeme the season because the dayes are euill that is though others be naught and starke naught yet be you good and very good good your selues and meanes to make others good and some say the dayes are euill therefore as the dayes are so be yee but the spirit saith the dayes are euill therefore take heede ye be not as they are that is naught as they be But were the dayes euill when the Apostle wrote then what should let vs to call them euill now or were they then in the positiue euill they are now in the suparlatiue worst for that that was full then runnes ouer now iniquitie I meane that hath gotten the vpper hand and workes with both hands At the reformation of the Gospell by the zeale of blessed Queene Elizabeth one diuell was cast out but seauen haue returned since Luk. 11.26 we haue seene the growth of spirituall Esau among vs Gen. 25.27 the euill men and deceiuers waxe worse and worse deceiuing and being deceiued 2 Tim. 3.13 but we grow not as Iacob from good to better we are turned from Poperie but are we turned to the liuing God and not turned rather from him to Atheisme that is from the false God to no God the furnace of strange lusts as that of Nabuchodonosor in Babylon is it not come from one heating to be heated seauen times more in our dayes then in any age before vs Dan. 3.19 that is is not lust the furnace seuen times more lustfull Pride seauen times more proud Wantonnesse seauen times more wanton Adulterie seauen times more adulterer Drunkennesse seauen times more drunkard and euery sinne is it not seauen times more sinfull and doe we grow as Iacob or rather doe we not grow as Esau from euill to worse Gen. 25.27 What treasons in Court What poisonings at Court What vnwonted prophanenesse in Court and Countrey In our Sauiours dayes men sold and bought in the Church in our times Churches themselues are bought and sold Iohn 2.24 In the Apostolike and first times of the Gospell the Heathen onely persecuted Christians in our age of it Manasseh Ephraim Ephraim Manasseh and both against Iudah Esay 9.21 Iesuites and Priests one against another and both against the Gospell nay which is a warre more vnnaturall Iudah against it selfe and the diuisions of Rubin haue bred great thoughts of heart Iud. 5.15 I cannot containe to remember what mischiefes this bitter warre of brethren hath already and is like further to bring forth and what Christian heart can abstaine from sighes and lamentations to see so many graue wise and learned Christians to molest one another The Shepheards to be at variance the poore Sheepe for whom the Lord Iesus shed his most precious bloud to be so turned out to Wolues spoile the common people to be so distracted errours and Atheisme so to abound and get head the cause and glory of the Gospell so to be weakned and men also discouraged by them by whom they should be lured and begotten to the truth that it may truely be said in our dayes which was spoken long since Quae modo mater erat formam capit illa Nouercae quos lacte aliut conficit illa flagris that is She that was a mother becomes stepmother and whom once she suckled with milke shee torments with stripes Our contention is hotter and hotter our enemies increase that trouble vs they that hate vs laugh but the Church weeps that should be comforted by vs and though she bleede in a veine of ignorance through our common distraction yet no man saith to his brethren at variance Why striue yee why doe ye wrong one to another Acts 7.26 O! that it were considered what great losse the Church daily suffereth by this plague of dissention O! that we had betimes or would yet in time remember How good a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie If wee did or had done so the storme that waxeth thicker and thicker had bin scattered and we should haue seene a faire calme of peace in the Churches of England at this day but our breach is as the Sea and these euill dayes know nothing of the wayes of peace But to goe on in the Apostles dayes and neare them what running to the Gospell now what running from it then what plainenesse in teachers now what equiuocation then what obedience to heathen Caesar now what practising against Christian Caesars then what strengthning of the Gospell now what vnder-mining it by the builders themselues It were infinite to speake euen of generall euils that are infinite and therefore I will come to an issue with you and draw to an end Seeing the dayes are thus euill the
blessings and here was a goodly Bay-tree but how soone they vanished and it was gone they saw and therefore hee addeth that suddenly they went downe to the graue verse 13. their bodies to the earth and their soules to hell And therefore though their prosperitie were as great as that of that famous Polycrates among the Grecians of whom it is written that all things went so well with him that when in despight of that which they called Fortune he cast a Ring of no small account into the Sea it was brought againe vnto him in the belly of a fish which was presented to him by a poore fisher-man yet the curse of God is in the meane while digging at their root and their house with all that they hold precious shall suddenly fall vpon themselues and of that house it shall be said the fall thereof was great Mat. 7.27 For further proofe in this point we shall not neede to goe farre Let vs but consider what hath bin done at home lately and it cannot but be fresh in our memories how that some great in fauour at Court and greatly feared for their Princes fauour in the Countrie though they were nestled among the Eagles and gat vp into the sides of the North with that Sonne of the morning though they ioyned land to land as if they would liue alone and builded houses as if they would liue euer making no conscience by the commodious lying of Naboths Vineyard to their owne faire demaines to take it from him 1 King 21.1 yet came downe suddenly and their nests with them in one day one day in the Court of prosperitie and the next day in the prison of sorrow or hand of death In the worlds opinion very strong and spreading very farre when in Gods doome they had their MENE written vpon the wall and their TEKEL told them in their eare Daniel 5.5 25. And how suddenly came they downe like Ionahs Gourd which grew in one night and withered in another Ion. 4.6 7. when their flatterers thought them eternall And no maruell for what was their strength and in whom were they strong in whose account With what armes spred they and from what root their strength it was not the strength of stones Iob 6.12 and they trusted in flesh and fooles onely thought them happy their armes were but armes of worldly largenesse and their root rottennesse their bagges were stuft with stolne wares their houses built vpon a ruinous soundation of violence and they enlarged their lands with spoile they flew to honour vpon wings of a proud and ambitious heart and rode poste as vpon some Pegasus or winged horse to promotion and in them the Prouerbe proued true soone ripe soone rotten for the poore they grinded their faoes that is they vsed them as cruelly as if they had taken a poore mans face and ground it vpon a grindle-stone and for the rich they fed vpon him as beasts in a fat pasture till all was bitten bare also as if they had learned of Neuissan a better Lawyer then honest man that he that will not venture his body shall neuer be valiant nor he that will not venture his soule be rich they made spare of neither for wicked greatnesse and execrable wealth They sought outward things but sought not the Lord in them which made them to thinke no way so neare and ready as by the steps of wickednesse to ascend vnto them and so as by euill they grew to be great so by greatnesse the childe of euill they grew to be worse Not content to be strong they must spread like a greene Bay or as some render it like a tree that groweth of it selfe hauing forgotten that root of princely grace out of which they first came How can such looke for any other end then some sudden cutting off though they be as strong as the strong Oakes of Bashan and as tall and spreading as the Cedars of Libanus how can it be but the Lord must needes destroy their fruit from aboue and their root from beneath and leaue them worth nothing as hee tooke them with nothing when hee first aduanced them Among these there are some ambitious Church-men who continually and altogether studie a rising by Ecclesiasticall dignities either shamefully begged or Simoniacally bought but when they are with Sathan vpon the pinacle of the Temple they tarrie not there long but downe they come not orderly by the staires but suddenly some other way Mat. 4.5 6. And so in their highest pitch of worldly increase Tolluntur in altum vt lapsu grauiore ruant they are lifted vp for a while but to their greater fall while that sweet morsell of greatnesse is in their mouthes the wrath of the Lord is kindled against them Psal 78.30 31. as it is against all who by such staires of pride will needes climbe to promotion Into the heart of this consideration if wee would indeede enter and impartially compare the vanitie of these things with the which they so swell with the sudden and vnlooked for losse and departure of them when they take them to their wings we would be so farre from enuying that we would rather pitie their prosperitie seeing that for the same abuses God will runne vpon them as with more furie because they haue couered their face with fatnesse and haue collops in their flankes Iob 15.26 27. That which we read in the Booke of Wisedome that the mightie shall be mightily tormented Wisd 6.6 can giue them but poore and small comfort if they dye without confession in their mouth and repentance in their hearts though they dye neuer so great and mightie And that we may not doubt of their fickle estate in these outward vncertaine things the Prophet therefore addeth VERS 36. Yet he passed away and loe hee was gone I sought him but he could not be found VVHere he sheweth both what his eyes saw and his experience got namely how hee found that the man who trusted to the weake staffe of worldly Pompe and greatnesse was suddenly gone and before hee could be knowne and vtterly so as he should neuer after bee remembred For howsoeuer that little time which was lent vnto him to slorish and spread in seemed so long in the iudgement of worldly men that they counted it answerable to the greenenesse of the Bay yet was it so short indeede and in the iudgement of wise men so quickly gone that it was liker I said it before and I say it againe liker to the greene grasse and the greene herbe that is mowen and suddenly withereth or as the corne that is blasted before it be growne 2 King 19.26 For this cause the wicked are compared in the Scriptures with things of smallest continuance as to the sat of Lambes which is cleane consumed and suddenly as smoake Psal 37.20 to waxe before the fire Psal 68.2 to a dreame when one awaketh Psal 73.20 and in Esa 41.11 to nothing The reioycing of the wicked saith Iob is short