daies 15 yeares and I will deliuer thee and thy City out of the hand of the King of Assyria and I will defend this City for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake This was more then could be expected but thus it pleased the Lord to dispence his favours Some one perchance in Isaiah's place would haue here repined at such a message Good Lord what meanest thou by this art thou so soone changed or hast thou a double will one contrary to the other Can it stand with thy immutability so suddenly to doe and vndoe or with my reputation to vnsay that so quickly which by thy expresse command I so lately deliuered The King and Courtiers may hold me for a false prophet who vpon mine owne head spake that so confidently which now I must recall But Isaiah was no Arminian he knew it was no manners for him to make a question of Gods doings Hee was acquainted so farre with his proceedings that most commonly hee reveales not all that hee himselfe meanes to doe but so much onely as his Ministers are bound to teach and servants to learne Whence that distinction of Divines into voluntatem signi beneplaciti His revealed will toward vs and his secret in His eternall Counsell notes not two distinct wills in God as Lombard well obserues and the Schoolemen on him at the 45. Dist of the first booke of the sentences but divers formes of speaking concerning the acts and effects of the same will Hence among the Ancients there runnes a saying which is fathered on Gregory Deus mutat sententiam sed non consilium Gods revealed denunciation may bee altered but never his eternall purpose For the first may bee vttered according to the disposition of second causes or our deserts as Zanchius well gathereth out of Saint Augustine whereas the latter depends vpon eternall immutability and therefore in no respect can admit any shadow of change Now these are not opposite but subordinate the revealed to the secret as part to the whole the revealed expressing the meanes whereby the secret is fulfilled Salomons carriage in the famous cafe betweene the two harlots giues an instance of the like in men Did he intend thinke you the barbarous dividing of the infant that had no way offended Yet his words at first are Bring mee a sword divide the liuing child in two giue halfe to the one and halfe to the other But his intent which he concealed is afterward expressed Giue the true Mother the liuing child and in no wise slay it and all Israell saw that this was the wisdome of God in him His first command then included not his purpose but a tryall to finde out the truth And so God here not peremptorily sets downe what should bee but what the Prophet was to deliuer concealing both from King and Prophet what should ensue vpon it Where there is no more contrariety then in our Saviours inquiry for provision for the multitude Iohn 6. hee asked Philip as it were doubtfully where so much bread might be bought but this he said to proue him saith the text for he himselfe knew what he would doe The Prophets deadly message therefore was true in relation to the second causes referred to their proper effect yet subordinate to Gods secret purpose in reference to the end the ground of all which is closely layed in the 17. Article of our Church to which we subscribe Gods decrees for the end include alwaies the meanes and therefore such threatnings serue Gods children to stirre them vp to vse them 8 This vse David made 2. Sam. 12. The commande was peremptory The child that is borne vnto thee shall surely dy Yet the King ceased not to fast and weepe as long as breath was in it onely vpon this ground Who can tell whether God will be gracious vnto mee that the child may liue I had not dwelt so long vpon this but that the vnsetled wauering of divers learned men amongst vs had giuen iust cause Hence you may ghesse beloued how little reason the Arminians had to take part with the Papists and Lutherans to slander our Church as for many other things in this that we make God to haue two distinct wills the one dashing the other This they referre to our Crypticall Divinity as it pleaseth those Theologasters to terme it as though wee maintained any points in secret that wee dare not publikely to justify before all the World Iunius at the beginning gaue them good counsell for the peace of the Church Consilium de pace Ecclesiae Crocius hath particularly answered Bertius to this calumny in the second and third Chapter of his Parenaeticus and all of them of late by Gods providence and your maiesties especiall furtherance I trust haue met with their Masters at Dort For such imputations are no newes to those who are acquainted with the obiections of the Pelagians and Semipelagians against Saint Augustine Prosper and their followers the Bickerings betweene the Germane Bishops and the French in the cause of Godescall and Erigena Scotus the later stirres betweene Luther and Erasmus the Pseudolutherans and their opposites Beza and Castalion Peter Baro our English Divines the Iesuites and the Dominicans which contention is yet fresh on foote and the Pope for all his infallibility often vrged thereunto dares not to decide it but lets it still runne on Old Cumel tells Vasquez the Iesuite in playne termes that most commonly those that stand most vpon their sharpe wits are found in the conclusion most repugnant to grace Rispolis hath set forth a picture of Aquinas bearing downe with his Buckler and stabbing those with his pen that in any sort shall deny the whole determination of the second causes by the first or contingent effects by Gods immutable decree Nugno comes vpon them for wresting authors contrary to their meaning and addes that hee verily thinkes they will serue him so too when once he is dead notwithstanding his direct writing against them But to recall my selfe from this digression whereof I am sensible Aluarez Bannes Cabrera Ripa with the forenamed authors sufficiently shew if a man would goe no farther That the soundest Schoolemen successiuely haue ever defended in substance concerning Gods purpose and mans will his grace and our abilities that which our Church of England at this day maintaineth For in this they shew them Schoolemen as they are commonly tearmed whereas otherwise they play the schoole-boyes where the Popes decrees over-awe them Their learning generally being as an over-growne wood amongst many thornes and bushes which are good for nothing but fuell Much good ancient timber may bee found out to serue in the Lords building whereas on the other side Vorstius's Libertas Prophetandi and Arminius Meditatio sine lectione which they and their schollers practise so much and plead for without religious and discreet restraint would set all in a combustion How much better is it therefore for vs Beloued to hearken with Hezekiah
world amazed at the Prodigie would in those dayes haue yeelded some forraine Mathematicians to haue recorded it Besides the text every where insisteth vpon the shadow and but once mentioneth the Sunne and then not going back in the heauen but brought back in Ahaz his Dyall To that which is objected out of the 31. verse that notice was taken of this in other Countries seeing some were sent from Babylon to inquire of the wonder they answer out of the same place They came to see the wonder that was done in the Land whereof they might heare not of the going backe of the Sunne the dayes miraculous length which at home they had seene I am not ignorant how Mathew Toring replies on this of Burgensis If saith he the shadow should yeeld vs this miracle without the Sunne then God should be put to creare a new light which should haue a motion without a subject and bee brighter then the Sunne to obscure his shadow and make his owne apparent But to this Burgensis might answere that God might so inflect and dispose the Sunne-beames which naturally are darted out at a right line to cast a shadow forth or back from any grosse body as His wisedome should hold most convenient Howsoever a great miracle it must needs bee and no lesse perchance to finde the shadow goe backe when the Sunne keepes his course as the Sunne to change his course and the shadow to attend on it In this difference being out of my profession I take not vpon me to be vmpire Wee may make vse of both Jn the first a good King resembles that Sun that giueth life and influence to all the rest of the starres cannot haue his course stayed but by an almighty hand and leaueth darknesse and horrour whensoeuer he departeth In the second our life is a shadow euery minute mouing forward in the Dyall of our time which none can stop or set backe but he that gaue Hezekiah a signe And signes hee giueth also to vs Beloued of his extraordinary mercies and favour in another kinde if our vnthankfulnesse would but take notice of what wee fully enioy A most gracious Soueraigne a flourishing Church a peaceable Common-wealth reward for vertue punishment for vice Infinite such signes may be reckned but what reformation they worke in vs our own conscience can best informe vs. Theodoricus Archbishop of Colen mentioned by Aeneas Sylvius in the second booke of his Commentaries of the deeds of King Alphonsus when the Emperour Sigismund demanded him of the directest course to happinesse Performe saith he when thou art well what thou promisedst when thou wert sick And blessed are they that so are visited by Gods hand that they pray with Hezekiah and so pray that God may speake vnto them and so speake that signes accompany it of his mercifull favour The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the loue of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost bee with vs all evermore AMEN PEREZ-VZZAH OR The Breach of VZZAH As it was deliuered in a Sermon before His MAIESTY at Woodstocke August the 24. Anno 1624. By IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exeter Colledge His MAIESTIE'S Professor in Divinity at that time Vice-Chancellour of the Vniversity of OXFORD 1. COR. 7.17 As God hath called every man so let him walke AC OX OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE IAMES EARLE OF ARREN LORD OF EVENNA ANDINNERDALE c. all the blessings of this life and that hereafter Right Honorable GIue mee leaue to present only to your View that which you heard not long since distractedly vttered I haue ever obserued your extraordinary favours toward me which I wish I could as well deserue as thankefully acknowledge When importunity therefore had extorted from me the publishing of these troubled Meditations I could not bee to seeke of a Patron Your Heroicall disposition in generall and particular respect to mee being so fresh in memory Weake frames need the stronger supporters and often times a poore Pamphlet becommeth passable by a rich frontispice I desire this may be admitted not as an acquittance for former debts but an obligation for future payment which were I as able as ready should not bee long behind But where true Noblenesse is radicall harmelesse presumption and vngarded plainnesse for want of Court complement seldome meets with a checke This emboldens mee to depend on your tryed acceptance who am Oxford Exeter Colledge Octob. 22. 1624. Your Honours most bounden to be commanded IOHN PRIDEAVX 2. SAM 6. 6 And when they came to Nachons threshing floore Vzzah put forth his hand to take the Arke of God and tooke hold of it for the Oxen shooke it 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Vzzah and God smote him there for his errour and there he died by the Arke of God 1 MY Text intimates a kind of progresse vndertaken by King David with his Peeres and People to remoue the Arke of God from Gibeah of Kiriath-iearim 1. Chro. 16.1 where it sometimes soiourned and rest it at Ierusalem in the Tabernacle he had erected for it The least reflection on the argument of the former chapter will cleare the Connection and shew the dependence of this passage vpon that which went before After the death of Saul's sonne Ishbosheth the vnion of Israel and Iudah 2. Sam. 4.7 Ib. c. 5.1.3 Ver. 6. Ver. 17. 22. and their ioynt homage performed to David in Hebron the besieging of Jerusalem and winning it from the Iebusites with two other notable victories against their bad neighbours the Philistins The first thing this good King thinks vpon is the setling of Gods service He held it a neglect no longer to be indured that the Arke of God should want a Tabernacle or the Tabernacle bee so farre from Ierusalem his chiefe abode that he might not daily resort vnto it He considered that Abinadabs private house could not be fit for such publike worship and all the time of King Saul little harkening was there after such matters But now peace being established by the devoluing of the Scepter to him Religion began to looke out as the Sunne after a storme Esth 2. The Persians perhaps with Assuerus would haue revelled vpon such successe more then an hundred and fourescore daies together and the Romanes haue pageanted our lesse victories in many an ambitious triumph But Gods children seeke not their owne but the glory of him that protects them Impediments may sometimes hinder or distractions divert or crosses disable their best designes but their hearts are alwaies fixed on the right as here King Davids was to expresse it selfe vpon the first opportunity afforded A Parliament therefore is proclaimed and consultation had with the thousands and hundreds of the choisest Priests and People of all Israel It would doe a man good to consider the gratious speech of this religious King then had in this Parliament though here omitted yet registred in 1.
before my text But the Pharisees and Lawyers reiected the counsell of God against themselues being not baptized of Iohn For that counsell of God there reiected is the wisdome that is here iustified There it finds Pharisees and Lawyers Separatists and Canonists States-men in their owne conceipts beyond all Subordination to withstand it here it is not destitute of dutyfull and intelligent children that will make good her proceedings Herod may consult with the wisemen and pretend as much devotion to Christ as they Pilate wash his hands when hee frees a murtherer condemnes an Innocent the Kings of the earth stand vp and the rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his anoynted yet hee that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorne the Lord shall haue them in derision For there is no wisdome nor vnderstanding nor counsell against the most high Hester 6. Prov. 21.30 Zeresh his wife could tell Haman her husband that no policy could beare out a man that once began to fall before the seed of the Iewes who were then Gods vndoubted people And Gamaliels counsell was taken for good by the same Nation at the worst that howsoeuer mans proiects come to nought of themselues the designes of Gods wisdome shall neuer bee overthrowne Act. 5.38 but be accomplished in their due time 1. Pet. 5.6 5 Now those that be wise will ponder these things and they shall vnderstand the loving kindnes of the Lord Psal 107. Least they perish frō the right way Psal 2. through their owne imaginations Psal 5. O Lord our God great are thy wonderous workes Psal 40. which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to vs-ward and yet there is no man that ordereth them to thee Thy wisdome cryeth in the chiefe places of concurse and vttereth her voyce in the streets Prov. 1. but who hearkens after her she builds her a house Ib. 8. with stately pillars but who sues to be her tenant she provides her wine and victualls and furnisheth her table but who comes vpon her invitation Nay Sophistry goes so farre now adayes beyond this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my text and wilynes beyond wisdome that for one disciple of true wisdome it may number a thousand St Paul after hee had in all wisdome brought his Colossians to Christ in whom are hidde the treasures of all wisdome and knowledge Coll. 2. Immediately therevpon schooles them to beware especially of 3. things which vnder a shew of wisdome might mislead them into all absurdityes the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so highly esteemed in these our trifling times consisting in inticing and winning words without the least purpose of sincerity or performance And this I say sayth the blessed Apostle least any man should beguile you by inticing words v. 4. The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passed now vnder the habit of a reaching vnderstanding and deepe iudgment concerning which followeth in the 8. vers Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vayne deceits after the traditions of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Men may vaunt themselues how they list of their abstruse speculations in concurring atom's and exemplary Idea's and pretty notions in the imaginary spaces without the Primum Mobile as some Iesuites yet continue to vent but wisdome will manifest in the end the emptines of such foperyes and how much better it is to be a good Christian then a great Philosopher though both may well stand together if they bee rightly ranked The 3. and most dangerous Abduction followes in the 18. vers in a voluntary humility afterward called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will worship verse the last The Heathen haue yeelded Cyniques and the Mahumetans at this day want them not that put a great deale of wisdome in a Bedlem kind of garbe and fantasticke devotion But our Apostle tells vs in the words of truth and sobernesse Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seene For doth foolish man know how to please God better then God himselfe or doe Gods commandements want the patching or peecing out of the worlds Rudiments what a stirre and implacable siding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath continued these many ages in Christianity about touch not tast not handle not and such like vnnecessary catches which are all to perish with the vsing as our Apostles tells vs And haue indeed a shew in will-worship and humility and neglecting the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh but are farre wide from that true wisdome which here we are in pursuit of 6 It was a wise obseruation of ancient Tertullian That where any thing is intended where it ought not to be Ita plerunque evenit vt cum aliquid vbi non oportet adhibetur illic vbi oportet negligitur De paenit it is neglected most commonly where it should be And it is a manifest signe of the nights approaching when the shadowes grow longer then the substance God ought to be worshipped of vs saith S. Augustine not as we hold fittest but as he commandeth Thou shalt doe not that which is right in thine owne eyes Deconsens Evangelist l. 1. c. 18. Deut. 12. but without addition or diminishing only addes the vulgar edition which I giue thee in charge For this is our wisdome and vnderstanding that shall extort from all at length this satisfying Approbation surely this is a wise and vnderstanding people But this wisdome hath beene ever held too triviall with the great witts of all ages Pharaoh will be pursuing the Israelites though he sinck himselfe and all his in the prosecution That Traytor Achitophel will vnking a man after Gods owne heart David though it cost him the making of himselfe a long letter in a halter Witty Lucian will jeere at Christians till doggs serue him as they did Iezabel And what shall weethinke of the Pagans violence in primitiue times and Iulian the Apostata's sly conveyances The Popes ioyning these both together in a most mysterious politique and plausible way haue they not all beene defeated by Luther and Calvin Iewell and such downe-right men and contemptible silly soules who were learned in nothing lesse then the Circumuenting wisdome of this world These men as 't is well knowne had no pompe to beare them out or inquisitions to back them or powder-plots to make way for them but the Apostles simple resolution Consider what we say and the Lord giue you vnderstanding in all things It was somewhat that made S. Paul to mind posterity 1. Cor. 1. That not many wisemen after the flesh nor many mighty nor many nobles yet some there are that are called to this businesse But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and weake to take downe the mighty and things that are not V. 17. to
Gen. 50. Now therefore feare ye not I will bee so farre from taking revenge that I will nourish you and your little ones he comforted thē spake kindly vnto them Small amends had Iob receiued and little ease it would haue beene to his vexed heart by rayling at the Sabeans and the Chaldeans that bereft him of his Asses Camells and Oxen Iob. 1. or storming against the windes that tumbled his house vpon his children Wherefore rowsing himselfe higher in the consideration of Gods providence and that the mighty hand of God had the managing of all these matters how patiently doth he sit downe vnder the Crosses crushing him The Lord gaue Ib. 5. and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. How easily might king David haue righted himselfe vpon rayling Shimei It was but to haue given the word and Abishai would haue had off the head of that dead dogge as he termed him But the humbled King feeling Gods mighty hand vpon himselfe for his passed sinnes and assuring himselfe that that at length would guid al to the best Let him alone saith he and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him It may be that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day For want of this devout recourse to Gods mighty hand sterne Tertullian vpon some hard measure offered him by the Romane Cleargy tooke part with the Montanists Aerius as Epiphanius relates fayling to get a Bishoppricke opposed that sacred calling So one Iulian a witty man against whom S. Augustine wrote vpon the like occasion became an Advocate for the Pelagians And how many of our owne knowledge vpon the like discontent haue made shipwracke of a good conscience holding themselues vndervalued at home to work a poore reveng haue turn'd to the adversary Whereas if they had but the grace to haue lighted vpon this or the like meditation It is the mighty hand of God that disposeth all these businesses for ends best knowne to himselfe though not apparant to vs In prosperity they would haue beene more thankfull in adversity more patient for the present more cheerefull for the future more secure and never haue fretted themselues into a scandalous Apostacy vpon the crossing mutability of second causes But haue resolued in this very case with good King David It is good for me let the world goe how it will to sticke fast by God and to put my trust in the Lord God and to fit my selfe wholy Psal 73. by my faithfull constant services to him that he may exalt me Which leades to the successe of the businesse and the 3. part of my division that succeedes in order to entertaine your attentions 10. That he may exalt you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the course of our Saviour is described Philip. 2. He humbled himselfe and therevpon God exalted him The same may be the passage to all preferment which the mighty hand of God conferreth A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes before before a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow an vnder before an exaltation as you see in my text Our Saviour gaue the example and the servant is not greater then his Master Descendit vt ascendat hee stoopes to drinke of the brooke in the way Psal 110. before God lift vp his head Here we finde then no merit to challenge or plotting to compasse or thrusting to prevent or iustling to put by others or bargayning to make friends or any other Angleing of the like nature But the exalter God who doth it freely the exalted man who professeth his owne vnworthinesse And marke how the text runnes it is not he will or he shall exalt thee as though by a compact hee were tyde thereunto and could by no meanes goe from it But humble thou thy selfe vnder his mighty hand that he may exalt thee This must be thy qualification before thou maist expect his exaltation and then it comes not as due but at pleasure not by thy ambitious soliciting but his free and wise disposing Whence an Inference may bee made That exaltation in this world is not to be purposely sought for but thankefully to be accepted as it freely comes from the most mighty hand of God I say in this world first to difference this exaltation here from the state of glorification hereafter which if al faile here may make more then amends hereafter For in Gods presence is the fulnesse of ioy and at his right hand is pleasure for evermore And secondly from Adoption or spirituall son ship which hauing nothing possesseth all things and is a treasure beyond the purchase of all earthly riches Our Saviour himselfe layes downe this difference Math. 6. First seeke the kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof and all these things shall bee added vnto you Here we haue plainely distinguished Quaerenda from Addenda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things to be sought and Additions that came without seeking And therefore are to bee receiued only with thankfulnesse when they are put vpon vs. Gods Kingdome and righteousnesse are onely worth our seeking and therefore the search of thē is only inioyned Worldly advancements with their Appurtenances as honour and wealth were to Solomons wisedome come with an c. in the Additions as cast into the bargaine not as purchases of our owne but of Gods dedi gift In this case David strangely advanced to a scepter by Gods providence may be a sure Counsellour Promotion commeth saith he neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South for why The Lord is King Psal 75. he putteth downe one and setteth vp another What then may it then bee expected from the North for that seemes in the text not to bee excepted The Originall will here helpe vs which the note in our English translation in the Margine acknowledgeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greeke nequè à desertis montibus as the vulgar from the desert mountaines which lying on both sides of Canaan include both North and South as the Chalday Paraphrase expounds it and therefore from no quarter of this world a latere but perpendioularly as it were from God it is to bee only hoped for The vse of this hee forgot not at the beginning of the 123. Psal Vnto thee doe I lift vp my eyes O thou that dwellest in the heauens As the eyes of servants looke vnto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a maiden vnto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes wayt vpon the Lord our God vntill he haue mercy vpon vs. To such a song of degrees wee should tune all our ambitious thoughts if we would goe the right way to worke that should truely exalt vs. 11 But Alas Beloued wee may pipe long enough before any will dance to this tune which so long time hath beene out of request Jt was the Apostles precept to the stately Romanes in giving honour to preferre one
inflicted vpon Israel The cause is plaine in the 47. verse Because thou seruest not thy Lord with ioyfulnesse and gladnesse of heart for the abundance of all things Agreeable to this was dying Davids exhortation to his here apparant Salomon 1. Chron. 28.9 And thou Salomon my sonne know thou the God of thy Fathers serue him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde The reason he addeth is pressiue For the Lord searcheth all hearts and vnderstandeth all the imaginations of the thought If thou seek him he will be foūd of thee but if thou forsake him hee will cast thee off for euer And what need wee in this point goe further then this our kingly Prophets royall practice Good God how extaticall in this kind are the flashes of his devotions Sometimes in chearing vp his owne dulnesse Why art so vexed O my soule and why art so disquieted in me Sometimes in exciting others O clap your hands together blow vp the trumpet in the new moone in our solemne assemblies bring hither the lute and harpe The Church could never meet with the like invitations as his O come let vs sing vnto the Lord let vs heartily reioyce in the strength of our saluation Let vs come before his presence with thanksgiuing and shew our selues glad in him with Psalmes And O bee ioyfull in the Lord all yee lands serue the Lord with gladnesse and come before his presence with a song In the virgin purity of the Primitiue Churches devotion when plaine Honestie was held the best policie and formalitie without sincerity as borrowed too scandalously from the stage was denied institution and induction into the Church of God then these things were as religiously applied as now they are often repeated But the world is altred though God Heauen and the way to it remaine continually the same The more too blame are those humorous schismatiques that snarle at this and the like festiuals and are come now at length to that Iewish nicenesse as to deny the dressing of meat vpon the Sabbath day I say no more from such the pooremay expect poore Christmasses Another sort runne in opposition to take vp all such times with gourmandizing and gambols in stead of these free-will Offerings in the beauty of Holinesse but neither of these are worthy to bee further mentioned Our course must bee in the meane according to Nehemiahs direction Chap. 8. verse 10. Who when the people that returned from the captivitie wept at the reading of the Law which they had so carelesly transgressed Goe your way saith hee eat of the fat and drinke the sweet and send portions vnto them for whom nothing is prepared And his reason is remarkable For this day is holy vnto our Lord neither be yee sorry for the ioy of the Lord is your strength This course if we tooke on such and the like Holy-dayes the fruit would appeare at length in the secret increase of the Faithfull which I haue signified to be meant in that which followes 8. The deaw of the birth is of the Wombe of the morning The exact vnfolding of which words may yeeld matter enough for another Sermon but I presume not so farre to trespasse vpon your patience and therefore will onely touch them and so conclude The differences that at the first entire doe here arise are first concerning the readings then the sense In the reading there growes a diversity both in the pointing and words For some would haue the kingly accent Athnach which is here vnder the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morning to supply as vsually it doth the place of a colon or middle distinction and then the reading may be as our last translation hath it with Iunius In the beauties of holinesse from the Wombe of the morning and there stop Others take it as a note of the sentence onely inverted so Piscator Munster Moller and the most that I haue seene And Gesner giues instances of this reading which I follow without prejudice to the other The vulgar here againe is strangely besides the Text. For in stead of From the Wombe of the morning thou hast the deaw of thy birth it hath it as the Doway renders it From the wombe before he day-Starre I begate thee No colour is for it but from the Greeke I cannot stay of sift the ground of this mistake Read but onely Epiphanius in his 2d booke the 65. Heresie against Paulus Samosatenus and you shall see the inconvenience of depending too much vpon other mens references and taking vp things at the second hand That good Father in that place conferring all the Greeke copies of Aquila Symmachus Theodotion the first and sixt edition at last falls vpon the originall which he sets downe in Greeke letters with his owne interpretation word for word but his Hebrew is such that I thinke few Iewes would ever vnderstand or acknowledge For insteed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the womb he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morning or from the morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thee the deaw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One word which hee sets downe as Hebrew for deaw And last of all for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy birth hee hath put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word never heard of Which I mention not for any disgrace to that learned Father who hath so well deserued of the Church but that it may appeare how much wee are beholding to those Linguists that haue spent their labours to make these fountaines more cleare for vs. For vpon these diversities of readings grew diuers expositiōs some referring it to the person of Christ others to his members In regard of the person of Christ Tertullian and Iustine Martyr Lib. 5. advers Marcion Dialog cum Triphon vnderstand it of his Incarnatiō as if by the womb of the morning were meant the Virgins womb wherein Christ was conceiued without the helpe of man and borne in the night before the rising of the day-starre Vid. Moller Melancthon and Gualter mislike not this but deduce it in another manner Athanasius Hilary Ambrose Augustine with most of the Ancients who follow them interpret this onely of Christs eternall generation and Bellarmine with Gesner striues to make it available against the old Heretiques In which case I say no more but wee haue no need to depend vpon such deductions Part. 1. q. 32. art 1. ib. q. 46. art 2. but that Aquinas his rule is good which Calvin of some hath been taxed for following Cùm quis ad probandam fidem Christianam adducit rationes quae non sunt cogentes cedit in irrisionem infidelium credunt enim quòd huiusmodi rationibus innitamur propter eas credimus Such arguments therefore are better spared in a choyce of divers more vrgent In regard whereof I take this with the current of our later writers to bee rather vnderstood of the propagation
in the variable ficklenesse of a wauering multitude and teach him to depend wholly on him and none other As on the other side who seeth not that Sheba's inveterate malice was ordred to be dis-vizord and punished by such a publike attempt and shame Howsoeuer this we may build vpon by the connection of these words with the latter end of the former Chapter that the heate betweene Israel and Iuda who should seeme most officious to their King gaue the hint to a false-hearted traytour to rayse a new rebellion Whence I inferre That hypocriticall traytours watch their times and are readie to vent their villanie vpon the least advantage 4. So Cain sets vpon his brother Abel when hee had seuered him from his parents and they two were alone in the field together Genesis 4.8 Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquitie take their time to murder the Sichemites when they were sore of their Circumcision Gen. 34. Dalilah knewe well enough that there was no shauing of Sampson till he was througly lulled asleepe Iudg. 24. But the most vnnaturall treason that a man in this kinde shall ever light on was that of Adramelech and Sharezar Senachribs sonnes who tooke the vantage of their father at his Devotions in the house of Nisroch his God the story is set downe 2. Kings 19.37 Where in stead of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his sonnes in the originall we finde the vowels set in the Text which is somewhat strange in that tongue without their consonants Perchance to intimate closely that so many circumstances concurring otherwise for the aggravating of the offence as subiects to lay violent hands on a King and that in the Temple and that at his devotions to adde further that it was done by his owne sonnes howsoeuer it bee more vocall then the bloud of Abel yet the manner of setting it downe should shew it also to bee scelus infandum a wickednesse too monstrous to be fully exprest And yet wee neede not goe farre to find the like among the people of God so farre doth Satan prevaile with the ambitious humours of irreligious miscreants Two sonnes there were that Dauid had whom hee especially as it were doted vpon aboue the rest of his children beautifull Absalom and gallant Adoniah and both of these take their vantages as farre as in them lay to tumble their aged Father downe from his throne and bury him aliue to make way for their prodigious and preposterous purposes The former by the peoples favour which he had gotten by his hypocritical popularitie the latter by his fathers feeblenesse backing himselfe by the countenance of violent Ioab and disloyall Abiathar This hard measure receaued good King David at the hands of those of whom he best deserued He saw the law of nature violated conscience of so hainous a fact contemned his indulgence repaid with monstrous ingratitude his tryed valour outbraued by his owne subject who could not bee ignorant of it But that which touched him neerest was that in his person and through his sides Religion and the name of God was blasp hemed among the heathen in comparison of which he held the virulent raylings of damned Shimei too slight to bee take any notice of Behold Chap. 16.11 saith hee to Abishai and the rest of his servants my sonne which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Beniamite doe it Let him alone let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him Thus a broken and contrite heart standing at the barre of Gods Iustice and daunted at the multitude of it's owne inditements is willing to put vp any thing in lieu of his owne satisfaction Hee will speake for the diuellish traytour persisting in the height of his villany Intreat the young man Absalom gently for my sake He will lament his death as vntimely and vndeserued O my sonne Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But the Iudge of all the World is not subject to such passions nor satisfyed most commonly in such a sort without exemplary punishment none shall touch his Anointed for evill but evill shall hunt those wicked persons to destroy them The traytour here in my Text could not be ignorant of this For if hee had never taken notice of Corah's conspiracy and the punishment thereof Chap. 4. Baanah's and Rechab's betraying of Ishbosheth and the end of it Yet Absalom's fact and judgement could not bee vnknowne vnto him Every one of the people could haue told him how miraculously his huge army was defeated by a small number with the losse of twenty thousand how strangely the Wood devoured more people that day then the sword It must needs then be in the mouth of every one that a senselesse thicke bough'd Oake performed the part of a good subiect to apprehend the traytour that his Mule left him to the gallowes who had renounced his allegiance to his King and Father that the earth refused to reccaue him Heauen was shut against him none of all his troupe left to guard him who had in so high a nature wronged the Creatour of all in his Anointed Vicegerent Last of all I make no doubt but divers also obserued and spake of the extraordinary hand of God expressed in Ioab's violence in the speedy dispatching him notwithstanding the Kings expresse charge to the contrary accompanied with his infamous buriall in a great ditch or pit like a carrion vnder a heape of stones whereas formerly hee had ambitiously provided a stately monument for that purpose to wit a Piramis or pillar in the Kings dale Some of which expresse tokens of Gods vengeance against such Rebels at the least all joyned together so lately acted so freshly bleeding so notoriously spread abroad and knowne might haue amated this traytour in my text from ventring againe so soone if hee had had the least sparke of grace or common humanity or policie in him But malice is blind desperatnesse admits not of discourse he must needs on whom the divell violently pusheth an opportunity was giuē Sheba's false heart was tender and must needs take fire Seing he hapned to be there when such an oceasion hapned to fall out he would take advantage to vent his malice whatsoeuer became of it 5. A lesson first for Kings and Magistrats not to rely too much vpon those that are of none or a suspected religion For howsoeuer they kisse cry Master with Iudas or professe they haue somewhat to say from God as Ehud told Eglon yet they carry a two-edged dagger vnder their rayment Iudg. 3. as there he did which is too loose in the scabberd as Ioabs was and will bee the readier to strike you vpon any advantage giuen them Gedaliah was too confident on his owne innocencie and the loyalty of those that spake him fayre wherevpon when hee was truely informed by Iohanan and others that Ismael the sonne of Nethaniah was suborned by Baalis
Chron. 13. in these very words If it seeme good vnto you saith he and that it be of the Lord let vs send abroad vnto our brethren every where that are left in all the land of Israell and with them also to the Priests and Levits which are in their Cities and Suburbs that they may gather themselues vnto vs and let vs bring the Arke againe vnto vs for we enquired not at it in the daies of Saul What should not such words of a King worke with well affected subiects There wanted not in himselfe wisdome to dispose or authority to command or resolution to execute yet it pleaseth him to advise with the present and send for them that are absent and make himselfe a party by calling them Brethren and acknowledge the common fault that all might joyne for amendment Such kinde vsage leaues most commonly the greatest impression in liberall dispositions and workes often more sweetly then imperious commands Here it appeares it did in the words next following 1. Chron. 13.4 And all the Congregation said that they would doe so for the thing was right in the sight of all the people All the people therefore from Shihor to Hemah the vtmost borders of the kingdome came flocking with all alacrity to giue their readiest attendance It could be no small company when 30000 are noted for choice men of Israell and the rest left numberlesse vnder their severall Captaines and Commanders These we finde here marching from Ierusalem as it should seeme to Baalah from Baalah to Kiriath-iearim 1. Chron. 13.6 in which Citty on a hill thence called Gibeah stood Abinadabs house where the Arke had remained after its returne from the Philistines and the plague of the Bethshemites for prying into it full twenty yeares together Thence it is now taken as a man would thinke with the greatest solemnity and reverence that might be devised A new cart is made for the purpose 1. Sam. 7.2 to prevent the least suspicion of pollution or prophanenesse Abinadabs sonnes who had attended it so long in their Fathers house haue their charge continued to bee the nearest Guardians about it Achio is before Vzzah comes after the rest keepe their due distance A goodly sight it must needs be of such well ordered troupes vpon so sacred a peece of service The King reioyceth the Musicke soundeth the multitude shouteth and no doubt but that prescribed forme of prayer at the Arkes removing was then often repeated Rise vp Lord And let thine enemies be scatterd and let them that hate thee flie before thee Numb 10.35 But what more vsuall then mens surest expectations to be deceaued and their best intentions crossed Crosses and contentments take their turnes not as men would haue it but as God disposeth They that travelled here so contentedly with such variety of good company and musicke how suddenly not long after their first setting forth doe they meet with an accident which puts them all out of heart and their instruments as it were out of tune For 2 When they came to Nachons threshing floore Vzzah put forth his hand to the Arke of God and tooke hold of it for the Oxen shooke it And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Vzzah and Godsmote him there for his errour and there he died by the Arke of God Wherein may it please you to obserue in generall these three parts 1. The danger that the Arke was in The Oxen shooke it 2. Vzzah's fault he put forth his hand and tooke hold of it 3. The present punishment inflicted vpon the fact God smote him there for his errour and there he died c. The first intimates against the Papists that the most setled estate of the Church while it is here militant is not priviledged from shaking nor its chiefest vpholders from stumbling The second against the Puritans that every man in such a case is not to thrust forth his hand to be a Reformer farther then his place and calling warrant him The third against the Atheisticall Politicians that God cannot be deluded as men are hee will espy a fault and strike perchance suddenly though never so faire a glosse be set vpon the action Of these in their order as God shall enable me and your Royall patience giue way And first of the first which is the danger the Arke was in This is here prefaced vnto vs with foure circumstances 1. Of the Time when 2. Of the persons They. 3. Of the progresse Came. Lastly of the place to Nachons threshing-floore All which to discusse apart were to shew more curiosity then iudgement and to insist vpon quiddities as the manner of some is to gaine applause of wit in that the Holy Ghost never meant I came not to this place with any such intent but to discharge my duty in preaching Christ Iesus for the winning of soules Their grounds to mee are vnknowne that dare to doe otherwise May it please you therefore to beare with plainenesse and to expect no deeper speculations then this Historicall text affordeth which here in the first entrance puts vs to a stand with David and his chosen company 3 And when they came to Nachons threshing floore That which it pleaseth the Holy Ghost to register is not for man to neglect according to that of the Rabbines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not a one title of the text of Scripture but mountaines of matter may be observed in it Threshing and threshing floores are seldome mentioned in prophane Authors but in Scripture sometime yeeld illustration of God's execution vpon the wicked So Babylon is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sonne of Gods threshing floore in respect of the pressure it was to vndergoe Isaiah 21.10 Sometimes of his favour so Ephraims faire necke was not grated with the plow-yoake but appointed a more favourable taske as a Heifar to tread out the corne Hos 10.11 These threshing floores the Israelites esteemed no lesse then their stateliest mansions In the 15. of Numb we haue a heaue offring of the threshing floore and of this the Levites receiue a benefite cap. 28. And how many matters of consequence are registred to haue happened in threshing floores The great mourning of Egypt for Iacob the miracle on Gedeons fleece Gen. 50. Iud. 6. 2. Sam. 24. 2. Chron. 3. The apparition of an Angell with his sword drawne against Ierusalem then an Altar erected by David after the Temple it selfe by Solomon all in Threshing-floores Now this Threshing-floore which is here said to bee Nachon's in 1. Chron. 13. is stiled Chidon's taking that name as most Interpreters haue it from that saying of God to Iosuah V. 18. cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lift vp thy speare or shield toward Ai. But that place in my mappe lyeth too farre out of the way to haue any neighbour-hood with Nachons Threshing-floore The Chaldye Paraphrase reads it by the appellatiue Locum praeparatum and that for two respects as Caietane giues the
successe we apprehend no evidence for in the second causes the Attribute of Father Almighty is set in the forefront of our Creed as the primò creditum the first principle to bee taught and learned in religion To assure vs at the first entrance that as God is our Father and therefore willing so hee is also Almighty and therefore able to giue vs what wee want and to augment what hee hath given vs and to furnish vs further with whatsoeuer hee shall see convenient for vs. Surely as an earthly Prince will hardly afford him a kindnesse that shall question his ability or authority so much lesse will the king of kings be bountiful to those that make a doublt of the All-sufficiency of his mighty hand This appeared by his expostulation with Moses distrusting how more then 600000 should bee provided for with flesh in the wildernesse Num. 11. Is the Lords hand waxed short Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to passe Reinforced in Isaias Chap. 5. Is my hand shortned at all that it cannot redeeme or haue I no power to deliuer Math. 9. whence our Saviour indents with the blind men before he cure them Beleiue that I am able to doe this There needes no further proofes to iustify a truth so confessed Vnthankfull men may sacrifice to their owne nets Iob. 22. proud men may set their nests in the tops of Cedars and pile vp mountayne vpon mountayne with Gyants to beleiger heaven But I will stretch out my hand vpon thee sayth God and rowle thee downe from the rockes Ib. 51. The right hand of the Lord will haue the preheminence the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe Psal 118. At his stroake the heads of Dragons and Leviathans flye in peeces and what can ward the blow when this mighty hand is whirled about to take vengeance This doctrine Beloued as it is best for direction to bee sure to speed so it ministreth the like comfort to encounter any crosse that may thwart vs. S. Iames so ioyneth in one verse this submission to Gods mighty hand with our resisting the Divell as though the fayling in the first were the falling into rebellion by the second Wherevpon hee calls vpon the double minded sinners to cleanse their hands and purifye their hearts and so humble themselues in Gods sight that not only doing but speaking ill of another should be vtterly bannished from amongst Christians 8 This wee acknowledge to be true and like the Apes in the fable arrayed in mans apparell can daunce our measures at times very demurely but the least oportunity of commodity or competition for preferment as nuts cast in among them sets vs all a scrabling Ioab for ought we finde loved his cosen Amasa well enough before he had the place of Captayne of the host which he conceiued belonged to himselfe but afterward hee never rested till he treacherously layd him at his feete So far is the mighty hand of God forgotten in matters of revenge and in emulation we talke of Gods mighty hand but walke as the world leades vs. Fowre faults in this behalfe especially haue beene ever here declaimed against but yet finde continuall entertaynment sometimes by those especially who would seeme most to oppose them Flattery and Bribery to make our owne markets calumniating and supplanting to marre other mens The first most commonly passeth smoothly vnder the veile of discreet obseruance The second is either excused by equivocating or commended as a provident or civill kind of thankfullnesse The third is borne out vnder pretence of zeale to the common cause and the last is made as it were an exercise pro forma to passe from one degree to an other Thus when Gods mighty hand should lead vs and his rod and staffe direct vs we slip as much as in vs lyeth from betweene his fingers Every disciple for his vantage will outrunne Peter and rather then fayle offer with Simon Magus or driue the bargayne with Iudas whatsoeuer curse or Acheldama may be purchased by it But when all our plottings and shiftings and shewes and shouldrngs are out of breath this mighty hand of God will alwayes prevayle to the shame of those that oppose it If it appeare not in the beginning but let men runne along it will bee manifest in the end to the astonishment of all contemners O that flesh and bloud therefore would seeke no further but rest contented to bee wholly guided by this mighty hand of God! That we would bend our wits and vse all manner of effectuall policyes to be neare and deare vnto this patrone who hath every moment enough in store to furnish vs and will fit vs better then our owne hearts can imagine Ioseph by this policy only came to bee a Prince in Egypt Samuel to bee a Iudge David a King Hester a Queene In such cases the man of God told old Eli whereto hee should trust Those that honour me sayth God I will honour and those that despise me 1 Sam. 2. howsoeuer in the eye of the world they flourish for a season in the end shall bee as the grasse on the house top Psal 129. whereof the mower filleth not his hand nor the passenger wisheth them good lucke Now if experience tell vs that these are tried cases our conscience tell vs that these things are true and that other courses are but vagrant that here lyes the certayntie what vnaduisednesse wil it then prooue in vs Beloued to shunne or oversee so direct and streight a path to involue puzzle our selues in endles inextricable Labyrinths Where our vnguided ambitious designes draw on vnnecessary troubles troubles finde crosses Crosses Cares Cares discōtentmēts leaue vs to vntimely diseases or vnwelcome old age that to a disquieted cōscience that to death that to an vnauoydable reckoning And then perchance this hand of God wil be as terrible to strike as now it is mighty to doe vs good 9 Last of all this doctrine may season vs with patience to take all in good part that may befall our selues and not to murmure or repine at any advancement of others but settle at length vpon the Apostles moderation that in what estate soeuer wee are therewith to bee content It was a cutting message that Samuel brought his Master Eli 1 Sam. 3. that his ruine should not bee prevented nor his house purged by sacrifice or offerings for ever But what was the humble mans answeare It is the Lord let him doe whatsoeuer seemeth good vnto him Whatsoeuer his mighty hand disposeth wee must bee content Ioseph had the vantage to be quits with his bretheren that sold him after his fathers death and they shrewdly feared it but considering the mighty hand of God had turned their malice to his advancement what an admirable resolution haue wee from him fit to bee thought vpon of all great ones when ye thought evill against me God meant it good
approued of our reformed Interpreters For howsoeuer the inscriptions be to the Angels onely who signifie according to most not celestiall spirits but the Pastors of those Churches yet the contents concerne their * In tantum Angelorum nomine Ecclesias Catholicas voluit intelligi vt iubeat Angelos poenitentiam agere Aug. in Apoc. Hom. 2. flockes as neere as themselues and therefore in the former Chapter wee haue verse 11. What thou seest write in a Booke and send to the seuen Churches which are in Asia Not that it is all one to write to the Church and to the Head Gouernour thereof as the a Inver â—um not marg Rhemists hence would gather to scrue in and interest their Pope to dispose of all things but rather to expresse the bond betwixt the people and Pastor whose faults he is to reproue or answere for and therefore it stands him vpon to communicate what hee receiues Now this particular Pastor heere of Ephesus b In hunc locuÌ„ Comment in ver 1. Lyra would haue to be Timothy Ribera labours to refute that out of Metaphrastes but Pererius and Alcazar take Lyra's part Others name Onesimus some Tychicus Bee it either or neither it matters not the Spirit of God being silent For the best may growe remisse and need dayly inciting Vid. D. Ioach. Vadian in epitom 1. Nat. hist l. 36. cap. 14. Euseb lib. 3. Hist Eccles cap. 18. Baron Annal. anno Christi 98. ver 2. ver 3. As Ephesus here the Metropolis of little Asia and glory of Ionia famous amongst the Gentiles for her situation and Temple which as Plinie reports was 220. yeeres in building famous amongst Christians for Saint Iohns residence and Saint Paules Epistle vnto them nay which our Saviour here commends in such ample tearmes for her forwardnesse in labour for her constancie in patience for her zeale in reforming manners for her discretion in dismasking Heretiques whose constancie patience labour and that for a right end for his names sake and that without failing or fainting are ingeminated with good approbation immediately before my Text may haue somewhat notwithstanding Chap. 1. v. 14. that is out of frame their friends may over-see it themselues may scarce perceiue it which the flaming eyes of Christ will pierce through to censure Neverthelesse I haue somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first loue 3 As though with his beloued Spouse hee had thus debated the matter Thinke not Ephesus but I take notice of all thy doings and sufferings thy labours please me well I approue thy works I pittie thy patience and cannot chuse but commend thy discipline but O that this first affection were seconded with the like alacrity for doe not I perceiue thy coldnesse in devotion thy carelesnesse in Preaching thy slacknesse in performing any deed of charitie Hast thou not begun in the Spirit and now art sinking backe to end in the flesh Ephesus I loue thee and therefore may not sooth thee much good thou seest I speake of thee yet somewhat I haue against thee I remember the kindnesse of thy youth it was hearty and thorow but time hath cooled it and thou art growne remisse My left hand is vnder thy heard Cant. 2.6 Jbid. v. 5. and my right hand doth embrace thee I dayly stay thee with Flaggons and comfort thee with Apples as thou hast occasion Cant. 1.7 but thou hast turned aside to the Flocks of thy Companions so that when I come with my bedewed head Cant. 5.2 and dropping lockes in the night to finde my accustomed entertainement saying Open vnto me my sister my Loue my Doue Ibid. ver 3. my vndefiled thou tellest me thy coat is off and thou canst not put it on that thy feet are washt and thou art loth to defile them such excuses thou hast to put me off and make mee withdrawe my selfe Ibid. ver 4. Whereat though thy bowels are sometimes moued yet stirring not to giue entrance as thou wert wont to doe pretend what thou mayst say what thou wilt dissemble how thou canst it is manifest thou hast left thy first heate of affection And this I taker to bee the complaint of our wronged heauenly Salomon included in the words I haue read vnto you The summe is 4. An Inditement of Ephesus for back-sliding and security Wherein obserue the 1 Exception Neverthelesse 2 Accusation I haue somewhat against thee 3 Fault because thou hast left thy first loue A Church militant cannot bee without Exceptions where exceptions are to be taken Christ sticketh not to accuse and accuse he doth never without a fault The first sheweth our infirmity the second our Saviours integrity and the third sinnes malignity That we may bee humbled in the first and directed by the second to correct the third Within these bounds I shall endeavour by Gods assistance and your Christian patience to confine my meditations He that hath an care to heare Reve. 2.7 let him harken what the spirit saith vnto the Churches to the Churches as well of great Brittaine as those of little Asia For howsoever wee flatter our selues our defections are more deepely to be accused and perfections as subiect to a Neverthelesse the note of exception to Ephesus notwithstanding all it's good parts which falleth here in order to be first considered Neverthelesse 5. As in Arts so in Acts of morality few veritiers are so generall that admit not exception If a Church might plead immunity Ephesus might here stand vpon our Saviours testimony For are not her labours in peace and patience in trouble as Aretius well obserueth once and againe repeated and commended In hunc locum Evill men should haue little ease in her for she could not beare them Dissemblers should not deceiue her ver 2. for shee would try them 1. Cor. 15.32 Act. 20.29 and finde them lyers The beasts that assaulted her she fought with the greevous Wolues that were prophecied to enter amongst them shee endured and resisted ver 20. Chap. 3.1 ver 14. Iezabel prevailed in Thyatira Sardis had a name without life Pergamus was taynted with Baalisme and Laodicea's luke-warmenesse was loathsome to Gods stomake Ephesus notwithstanding escapes all this Chap. 3.16 ver 6. Lib. 1. cap. 27. vid. Euseb lib. 3. hist Eccles cap. 26. Theod Heret Fab. lib. 3. Ignat. Epist 9. nay her hate to the Nicolaitans for their community of wiues and promiscuous lusts as Ireneus and Theodoret obiect vnto them is registred afterwards as an especiall commendation What could a man here picke out that hee might justly censure who would not esteeme such a Church to be in the rode way to happinesse yet when Christ comes with his Fanne there is Chaffe found amongst the Wheat Much is well yet somewhat worse then it was or ought to be the good is fostered the ill excepted at Neverthelesse Many things might bee here gathered for our instruction one especially from
allusion to the name thou hast remitted thou hast diminished thou hast cooled not that thou now hast but that which thou had'st not thy loue absolutely but thy first loue Whether this happened through the instability of free-will which headlong to ill is drawne onely to good whereby as in violent motions the progresse is slower then the beginning or because Gods grace is supernaturall and resteth in man as in a strange subiect vnprepared and opposite to it 's sweet motions or that the flesh with Amalek sometimes gets ground to force the soule in jeopardy to lift vp the handes for helpe or for that our course is a race or dayly striuing against the streame where tripping or fayling in a stroke doth quickly cast vs backe or that our spirituall life in some sort is answerable to our carnall full of heate and humours in our first growth which afterward in age are cooled and dryed vp I stand now not to discusse What this first loue should here bee and wherein it consisteth some difference may bee found among Interpreters Arius Montanus fetcheth it farre In textum as though it should signifie the loue receaued in the first creation Hugo holds it a defect in preaching Are thas a neglect of almes-deeds But what need such scruples Why might it not rather bee a decaying in all the vertues before mentioned as Saint Ambrose and Richardus with our latter Writers more judiciously take it The first loue therefore that every Convert hath Heb. 6.4 is his ardent affection at his first enlightning and tasting of Gods holy Spirit whereby the joy for his freedome from sinne and Satan carrieth all his faculties to adore the Author of it The makes whereof are the renouncing all things in comparison of it Mat. 13. Ioh. 6. Colos 3.1 the induring of losses and afflictions to retaine it the reverencing of Gods Word and Ministers for increasing of it a struggling against sinne the flesh and world that they may not hinder it Luk. 19.6 1. Thess 1.9.10 a relieving of Christs needy members for the expressing of it a continuance in the powerfull meanes of praying preaching harkening meditating conference with good company for the continuall renewing and preseruing of it Heb. 10. not quenching the motions of the holy Spirit flying all occasions of back-sliding suspecting especially these foure enemies spirituall pride in the best carnall policie in the greatest worldly prosperity in the richest and abuse of Christian liberty in the gallantest In all which or in most or at least in some our Angell and Church as it should seeme had beene here defectiue They halted in their march abated their edge began to be weary of well-doing Psal 78.9 and like as the children of Ephraim hauing their Bowes bent turned themselues backe in the day of battaile Which our Saviour here taxing for a sinne not to be suffered it directs vs to this conclusion which I propose in Saint Bernards words In via vitae In Purificat B. Mariae Serm. 2. non progredit est regredi In a Christian course to bee slacke or at a stand is a falling away or a turning backe againe 14 The walke of a Christian sheweth it which must bee from strength to strength Psalme 84.7 His path as the morning light that shineth more and more vnto the perfect day Proverb 4.18 Hee runnes in the sauour of his Saviours Ointment Cant. 1.4 For as the house of David 2. Sam. 3.1 in the long warre betweene it and Saul ever grew stronger and stronger the waters in Ezechiel deeper and deeper Ezech. 47.3.4.5 Luk. 14.10 1. Tim. 1.18 the word to the humble ghest in the Gospell Sit vp higher so in this warfare vnder our heauenly Generall wee must alway fight in his vineyard Mat. 20. 1. Cor. 9.24 alwaies worke in the race hee hath appointed vs alwaies runne vntill wee obtaine the victory the penny the Crowne which is laid vp for vs in the world to come For the motion of a Christian must not bee like that of the Planets in their Epicycles now ascending then descending sometimes stationary anon retrograde but rather as the beasts mentioned by Ezechiel who passing forward returned not againe Chap. 1.9 Levit. 6.12 his charity is as fire vpon the Lords Altar alwaies kindled and neuer extinguished his grace not as a standing puddle that quickly putrifieth but as the fountaine of living water Iohn 4. that bubbleth Ver. 14. and springeth vp to everlasting life 2. Tim. 4.10 Hee revolts not with Demas disappoints not with Meroz stands not still with the idlers in the Gospell Iudg. 5.23 Mat. 20.3 nor followeth a far off with timorous Peter but thrusts himselfe forth with David into every good action Psal 108. O God my heart is ready my heart is ready I will sing and giue praise with the best member that I haue Psal 63.5 And as long as I liue will I magnifie thee in this manner and lift vp my hands in thy name For what great matter is it saith Saint Augustine to beginne well and not to hold on Like a Metcor to giue a blaze De bono Perseu c. 1. and suddainely to vanish without heat or light like a Locust saith Gregory to flyrt vp Locustarum saltus Greg. Moral l. 31. cap. 12. 1. Sam. 10.7 Act. 8.13 Mar. 6.20 1. King 21.37 Luk. 18.10 Act. 24.25 and presently to fall on the earth againe Saul at his first entrance behaued himselfe well Simon Magus beleeued Herod harkned Ahab fasted the Pharisees prayed Felix trembled and a Socrat. lib. 3 c. 1. Iulian the Apostata in the beginning made a faire shew But minime certè est bonus qui melior esse non vult good he cannot bee saith b Epist 9.1 Bernard that will not be better and si dixer is sufficit periisti say but once thou art good enough and Saint c Lib. de Cantico Novo Augustine will pronounce thee in a manner vndone For faintnesse in this case is fayling loytering leauing standing or staggering an absolute starting backe Ephesus here but trips and the spurre you see is presently in its side Thou hast left thy first loue 15 In making vse of which doctrine the time will scarce permit mee to point at particulars For how fitly would come here to bee taxed lukewarmenesse in our profession dulnesse in our calling deadnesse in our charity repining in our patience remisnesse in our discipline from many of which Ephesus as you haue heard was free What a gulfe if comparison were made would too plainely appeare betweene the first onset of our heroicall reformers and the flagging seconding of them in these our daies as also to encourage the true hearts that striue as yet amongst vs to expresse their first loue what exhortation could bee earnest enough what commendation correspondent what thanks and prayers to God sufficient for the continuance and increasing of his blessings vpon them
for flesh and bloud to plot for somewhat especially how to become great here howsoever it lose by the bargaine hereafter Thus we can obserue B. and reprooue in others but yet goe on to practise it our selues as though our estate and case were of a different nature otherwise why cannot a little content vs who shew our selues in the managing of that we haue to be worthy of nothing or why should a meane estate bee the subiect of scorne sithence our Saviours choyce hath thus graced it in the day of his power but that as Saint Augustine hath it He was humble but we are proud Should it not make vs tremble to cloath our selues with the Fleece and not feed the Flocke make it dainty to trouble our selues with winning foules which Christ hath purchased with his dearest bloud plot more for a poore preferment here then for a Kingdome hereafter take the purple robe vpon vs but turne off the Crosse to be vndergone by any Simon of Cyrene whom wee happen vpon in the way but that as S. Austin hath hit the right veine our pride looks ascue vpon our Masters humility It is this statelinesse that makes vs vnlike our Saviour and all his true Disciples that haue followed him and gone before vs. For to speake nothing of the Fathers and those men as it were of another world what is the reason wee come so farre short in learning gifts and zeale of our Reformers and Masters who haue gone as it were but yesterday day before Why is there such a sensible decay of Doctrine and Discipline among the best but for that we vye who should bee greatest and not who should bee holiest ayme more at the esteeme of men then the praise of God and still forget this lesson of our Saviours humility Hee was humble in the day of his power wee account our selues disgraced if wee bee told fully of our faults The remedy for all this is the direction which followeth Thy people shall offer thee free-will offrings with an holy worship which is the duty of the faithfull and second member of my text that followeth now in order briefly to bee considered 7 Thy people Thy implyeth a propriety People a Congregation at least a multitude except the people be Gods in vaine a holy worship is expected and singularity in this thing is not so acceptable or fit as the vnited devotions of a Congregation or people This people shall offer Here is their externall forwardnesse exemplarie to drawe on others They shall offer to Thee Not to others Saints Angells much lesse their shrines Our Prophet seemes not to bee acquainted with any such doctrine They shall offer thee free-will offrings This is the inward ground which Hee especially here respecteth that giueth to will and to doe and onely searcheth the hearts and reynes With a holy worship composed of inward synceritie and outward decency according to the first and second Commandement Thus I paraphrase the words as they lye in my translation Those that read it otherwise may frame some other deductions but in substance not much different The vulgar Latine is here wholly wide from the originall in rendring it Tecum principium which the Schoole-boyes of Doway for their childish translation out of the Latine credits them no further construe With thee the beginning The errour as it should seeme of the Greeke gaue some way to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which divers of the Ancients afterward tooke for a ground to proue the Eternitie of the Sonne of God but by a meere mistake both in the pointing of the Hebrew and then reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy people and next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may signifie principality not beginning as the vulgar for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devotionum saith Pagnine and Montanus spontancarum voluntatum according to Leo Iuda Munster Vatablus Ingenuitatum addeth Iunius and the rest different not which is sufficiently expressed in both our English translations Thy people shall bee willing or offer thee free-will offrings It may bee as Moller on my Text conjectures that the vulgar mistooke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 letters much alike and so came in the difference In hunc locum Bellarmine would faine justifie that reading by chopping and charging points and letters at his pleasure but his own men concurre not with him Such Criticismes I knowe are harsh in a Sermon but the Text must bee cleared that the ground bee sure That which followes with an holy worship some read in ornatibus sanctis referring it to the Priests Robes or garments so Moller and Piscator Others in decoribus or decorislocis Sanctuary in relation to Ierusalem and the Temple as Bucer Iunius and Calvin Saint Ierome seemes to mistake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the mountaines of holinesse all which our last translation very well compriseth In the beauties of holinesse To fasten then vpon some certaintie Two things may be hence gathered as the graces and luster of all Christian worship Chearefulnesse in the vndertaking syncerity in the performance Both which as they concerne a setled Church or congregation must be set forth vnto the world in regard of the place the Temple appointed for that purpose for the more solemnity In respect of the administration in vestures or gestures or some marke of difference which shall be thought fittest for decency edification betweene the Priest and people There may be a holinesse without externall beautie and there is externall pompe enough not grounded vpon inward holinesse But such vnlawfull divorces should not dismay vs from a ready and voluntary striuing for regaining and maintaining this belssed match of beauty and holinesse This was God owne precept three times repeated in one chapter Deut. 12. The free-will offrings and the rest of that nature must not bee huddled vp in private but brought to the place which the Lord had chosen and there must they eate before the Lord and they must reioyce in all that they put their hand vnto they and their housholds vers 7. which is againe repeated to the like purpose vers 12. And yee shall reioyce before the Lord your God you and your sons and your daughters and your men servants and your mayd servants and the Levite that is within your gates And the third time at the 18. verse and thou shalt reioyce before the Lord in all that thou puttest thy hand vnto Surely dulnesse or murmuring or coldnesse or externall formalities aiming rather to please the world or stop mens censurings then proceeding of inward willingnesse is so farre from acceptation at the hands of God that hee pronounceth it worthy of all reproch and punishment What a volley of curses are there thundred forth Deut. 28. but when or for what offences are they especially
his children Last of all all sorts may judge how to esteeme of such that vnder pretence of Religion sow the seed of flat rebellion learne of David a subject how to behaue themselues towards their Kings such as Dauid was who whē he had Saul at an advantage that against all right and Iustice sought his blood and might haue had him slayne but by a word 's speaking 1. Sam. 26. As the Lord liueth saith he the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to dye or he shall descēdinto battle perish the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anointed To which purpose he had spokē to Abishai before whose fingers itched to helpe him Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed be guiltlesse In which doctrine if Bichri had wel catechized his son Sheba it might perchance haue restrained him frō blowing a trumpet and stirring rebellion by such a damned out-cry or proclamation Wee haue no part in David neither haue we inheritance in the son of Iesse Every man to his tents O Israel Which is the treason it selfe the last member of my text wherein I will striue to recompence my former tediousnesse 8. Those whom Belial once possesseth with Iudas and winnes to bee traytours shall haue counsell crafty enough suggested by the same master which in all likely hood might bring about their diuellish designes But hee that dwelleth in heauen hath such a booke in their nostrels that he twines them in and out as hee sees most convenient So that commonly their policies stead them no farther then Achitophels by an orderly disposing of all things to hasten their shamefull execution Sheba here is not to seeke for the managing of matters to his best advantage Wherefore first hee blowes a Trumpet the vnexpected sound of which in so clamorous a tumult and bickerings as was formerly shewed to bee betweene Israel and Iuda was the onely meanes to procure him audience That being once gotten hee presently falls to a forcible perswasion sorting it to the exasperated passions of the men of Israel which notwithstanding hee groundeth vpon the harsh speeches vsed by the men of Iudah This cannot be better vnderstood then by reflecting our eyes to the 3 last verses of the former Chapter David being freed from Absalom is to bee brought backe by his subjects with honour vnto Ierusalem Cap. 19.11.12 Now hee had secretly sent to the men of Iudah that they should bee the formost The other Tribes in an afficious emulation take this vnkindly and therevpon expostulate with the King Why haue our brethren the men of Iuda stolne thee away Doe they not thinke that wee are as faithfull subjects and affect our Soueraigne as well as they They of Iudah reply The King is neere kin to vs and in that respect wee challenge a preeminence Yea say the Israelites haue not we ten parts in him and in that respect more right Why then did yee despise vs that our advice should not bee first had in bringing backe our King How the men of Iudah put this off the text mentioneth not only it followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 harder or fiercer were the words of the men of Iudah then the words of the men of Israel It might be they vsed some opprobrious speeches which the Israelites being great in number thought very disgracefull to endure Where the King holding it not safe to interpose hee being so lately shaken and the humours not throughly settled In comes this Sheba vpon the nicke and sets all againe in a combustion Doe the men of Iudah saith hee thinke so basely of vs as though we being tenne to one must giue way to them Cannot wee make good our owne parts without dependance on them for King or Counsell seeing they so arrogantly stand vpon that David is their Kinsman and therefore wholly theirs by inheritance so that our interest in him is a farre off or none at all let vs leaue him to them and let them knowe that whole Israel hath as fit men to raigne as that one Tribe of Iudah for what part may wee challenge in him who is wholly for his own kinred what was Ishai his father was he not an obscure mā yonder at Bethlem Ephrata and this David his shepheard shall wee then better descended continue to bee his vassals as though the father had beene King and the man succeeded as his lawfull heire apparent Iudah tells vs we haue no part in David and wee knowe that the kingdome of Israel was not Ishai's sonnes inheritance Every man therefore to his tents O Israel and stand vpon his owne guard wee shall quickly provide for our selues without being beholding to them And to this sense most Interpreters doe paraphrase Sheba's seditious speeches from the drift of which and effect wee may deduce this observation That there is not a more dangerous inducement to damnable Rebellion and Treason then to be possessed with a conceit that a lawfull King and his liege people may be in any case parted or that kingdomes are from the peoples choyce and not from Gods appointment made hereditary 9. This lesson of Sheba here first proposed to malecontents those men of Israel afterward in Reboboams time had gotten by heart and therefore when their young King answered them not according to their minde in the matter of taxes and subsidies which wicked Ieroboam had set on foote every one had ready at his tongues ende 1. Kings 12.16 What portion haue wee in David or what inheritance haue we in the sonne of Iesse To thy tents O Israel Now see to thine owne house David But had these men but remembred so well that which their wise King Solomon long after Shebae's destruction had left them for a better direction Prouerbes 8. where hee bringeth in the wisedome of the most High thus proclayming By mee Kings raigne Princes decree iustice By me Princes rule and Nobles euen all the Iudges of the earth they might haue found that the bond of obedience to Princes is not so loosely knit by God that subjects may dissolue it at their pleasure or vpon any discontent or injury whatsoeuer cry We haue no part and renounce our inheritance For as a head neuer so rheumatike and the fountaine of all diseases in the rest of the members may not bee therefore parted from them for feare of a worse inconvenience neither can the members vpbrayd it as the Apostle and Nature teach vs with these contemptuous termes I haue no need of thee So the head in the body politique must keepe his place howsoeuer till that highest authoritie take it off who first set it on to change it for a better The more pernitious in reformed States and Common-wealths is the wicked band of Antichrist who take vpon them to seuer those whom God hath so linked together where finding it too hard a taske against conscience and nature to perswade the
thesis That subjects may rebell against those whom God hath advanced to bee their lawfull Kings they come in with the hypothesis to inueigle the weake or malecontents that Kings excommunicated by the Pope are devested of that dignity as Sampson was of his strength by the shauing of Dalilah and therefore they may be dealt with as other men who are publique enemies to Christianitie Thus they cease not most diuelishly to spread in their slaunderous pamphlets virulent libels and secret whisperings which must goe by tradition from hand to hand to mislead simple women and worke on desperate humours who discontented that all things runne not as they would haue it assure themselues of redresse in any change whatsoeuer Now what is this in effect but to preach on Sheba's text We haue no part in David nor any inheritance in the sonne of Iesse What other conclusion doe they driue at in all their Volumes against the Kings Supremacy and subjects Oath of allegiance but to make their followers conceit that they haue no part in King Iames nor any inheritance in the lawfull Successour of blessed Queene Elizabeth This doctrine it should seeme the Earle Gowrie had learned and brought from Italy who in many things may be paraleld with Sheba to make vp the conclusion 10. As Sheba was vnus ex proceribus according to Strigelius Nobilis and celebris saith O siander Nobly and Honourably descended so was Gowrie Sheba liued in a place of note and credit amongst those of his Tribe and Countrey Gowrie herein was not much inferiour There neuer appeared other then good correspondence before betweene Sheba and King David the like was betweene Gowrie and our Soueraigne For after the just execution of his father in his Majesties minoritie he restored this traytour his sonne his lands and dignities advanced two or three of his Sisters to wait on the Queene in her privie chamber vsed that wretch Alexander graciously who so wretchedly was the chiefe actour in the plot But fauours rather exasperate then winne where a poysoned heartturnes all to the worst For as Sheba as it should seeme ever bore a secret grudge to David for a wrong conceaued offered to the house of Saul So did Gowrie to the King for the death of his Father Thus both played the hypocrites both watched but the opportunity both violently tooke it being offered both attempted and both by the providence of the King of Kings were wonderfully defeated Sheba is set down in my text to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dissolute son of Belial moulded in gall and venome without conscience to vndertake any villany And what can we make better of Gowrie a meere Atheist without any sense or touch of Religion as Sprott afterward confessed at his arraignment 1608 his complices Rashtiltaig Bowre of the same stamp his recourse to Necromancers and inchanted characters found at his death about him testifie no lesse So that Sheba here comes behind him for ought we finde as being not linked to Belial in so firme a band Last of all as Sheba sped afterward so Gowrie had his due at the first onset King Iames being deliuered as David to magnifie the Deliverer in the imitation of David which he there did presently vpon his knees in the midst of his owne servants they all kneeling round about him in the place of his deliuerie and hath celebrated this day ever since for a thankfull remembrance And now Beloued what remaineth for vs but to vnite our hearts and prayers in a thankfull congratulation David will well helpe vs to expresse our selues as in most of his Psalmes of thanksgiuing so most compendiously for this purpose in the 21. The King shall reioyce in thy strength O Lord exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation His honour is great in thy salvation glory and great worship shalt thou lay vpon him And why Because the King putteth his trust in thee O Lord and in thy mercy we trust he shall never miscarry Let all his enemies O Lord feele thy hand let thy right hand finde out them that hate him Make them like a fierie ouen in the time of thy wrath Thou Lord shalt destroy them in thy displeasure and the fire shall consume them Their fruit shalt thou root out from the earth and their seed from among the children of men For they intended mischiefe against thine Anointed imagined such adevice as they were notable to performe Therefore hast thou put them to flight and the stringes of thy bow were made ready against the faces of them Bee thou therefore exalted O Lord in thy own strength that wee may ever sing and prayse thy power To whom three persons in one Deity Father Sonne and Holy Ghost bee ascribed all Honour and Glory Might Majesty and Dominion both now and evermore Amen Higgaion Selah FOR THE DISCOVERY OF THE POWDER-PLOT A SERMON PREACHED AT St MARIES IN OXFORD the fift of November By IOHN PRIDEAVX Doctor of Divinity Regius Professor and Rector of Exeter College OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. HIGGAION ET SELAH PSALME 9.16 The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which hee executeth the wicked is snared in the worke of his owne hands Higgaion Selah THere is no man that compares the words of my text with the occasion of this dayes assembly but-will straight-way acknowledge the fitnesse of this acknowledgement as at all times never to bee forgotten so especially vpon this day and occasion with an Higgaion and Selah to be remembred The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which hee executeth the wicked is snared in the worke of his owne hands This perchance will receiue the more life when it snall appeare that David in this whole Psalme may well bee made our spokes-man as composing it for a celebration of some extraordinary deliuerance and leauing it to the Church as a patterne for imitation And so much may bee collected from the title it selfe that in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our last Translators as you may see frame to the chiefe Musician and his instrument Iunius to the tune of treble or countertenor an excellent applying of such faculties which now most commonly are abused But others either by disioynting the words or straining the poynts or taking vantage of inversion of letters and divers significations of the same roote as n = a In hunc locum Moller and Lorinus at large informe bring it about either to be a thankesgiuing for Pharaoh's destruction and the first borne of Egypt or Goliah's overthrow or Nabals fall or Hanun's discomfiture for abusing Davids messengers or according to Saint Hierome and Aquinas expressed in the vulgar edition out of the Septuagint pro occult is filij for the discouering and punishing of the secret plots of Absalom his sonne For those that expound it of Christs Victory over death and Satan mistake an application for an interpretation as Burgensis well taxeth Lyra And others obserue not the
difference in the genders that would make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify the Florishing estate of the Church luventutē candidam so gratify their mother by a broken title Out of all which differences this consequent may be picked for our purpose that for any notable deliuerance either from tyrants as Pharao or terrible invaders as Goliah or Churlish neighbours as Nabal or open truce-breakers as Hanun or bosom traytors as Absalom the Church is to expresse her ioy and thankefulnesse in an extraordinary manner as receiuing herein an earnest that the time at length shall come wherein the overthrow of Antichrist by the Lambe shall be celebrated in heaven with everlasting Halleluiah's This the Papists themselues cannot complaine to be wrested for whereas we translate according to the Originall the last verse of this Psalme Put them in feare O Lord that the heathen or nations may know themselues to be but men they say according to the vulgar out of the seventy Interpreters which n = a In hunc locum Bellarmine takes vpon him to make good Appoint Lord a Law-giuer over them And this Law-giver their Doway Divines with the Interlineary glosse acknowledged to be Antichrist the heathen to be men of heathenish conditions Gentiliter vinentes saith the Glosse So that to make by way of application the Pope this tyrannicall law-giuer the Gentiles his seduced assasinates this deliverāce the powder-plot or a treason of the like nature is but to take the hint that they themselues haue giuen and the insisting on a notorious instance included in the generall It would set an edge on our devotions and excellently direct our meditations but to take a view in the passage of our Prophets carriage in the whole frame of this thankesgiuing how heartily he begins to vow prayses and reioycing and singing and every kinde of setting forth Gods marvelous workes in this behalfe how syncerely he acknowledgeth his iustice his vprightnesse his care of his chosen his curbing of the adversary For when he ascendeth his throne to make inquisition for bloud out-goe the names of the wicked their destructions haue a period downe they sinke into the pit turned they are into hell their owne Law-giuer shall play the tyrant to set them onward with a mischiefe so that wofull experience at length shall teach them to know themselues to be but men whereas the innocent on the otheiside shall be wonderfully deliuered to shew forth all Gods prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion and reioyce in his salvation Of all which my text is as it were the morall comprizing the pith of all The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which hee executeth the wicked is snared in the workes of his owne hands Higgaion Selah 2 The words include in them without forcing three parties The Lord the wicked and the godly with their severall attributes Execution punishment and triumphing Which connected together as they ly yeelde vnto vs three points especially at this time to be stood vpon The 1. Iudgement of God 2. Successe of traytors 3. Churches applause both for the one and the other The Iudgement knowne the successe fit the applause tuned to the highest key So that in the first we haue Gods Iustice in the second his Wisdome in the third his Mercy presented to our considerations in a most heavenly order All which if it please to haue in one word and conceit as an arraignement the awe of the Iudge will commaund attention who first takes his place to execute his authority in these words 3 The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which he executeth The wonderfull events which the ignorant attribute to fortune the superstitious to Saints and Idoles the politicians to their plots some to their owne worth most to the meanes and the extraordinary concurrence of second causes the Penmen of the Holy Ghost ascribe ever vnto the Lord they held it the best Analytiques to resolue all such effects into their first principle In describing of the like matters among other writers you shall finde Alexander did this or Caesar thus behaued himselfe Nestor gaue this counsell and such effects ensued vpon it But when Moses and Ioshuah handle their weapons more valiantly then any of these Abiah and his sonne Asa overthrew greater forces then ever any of these incountred Chusai for counsell and Salomon for wisedome had never their paralels among any of the nations The text most commonly thus expresseth it Deut. 1.2 and 3. Iosh 10.42 The Lord delivered Sihon and Og into the hands of Israel Israel overcame because the Lord fought for Israel The Lord smote that huge army of a thousand thousand Ethiopians 2. Chro. 14.12 before Israel and Iudah And howsoever Chushai playd his part yet the Lord is sayd to defeat the counsell of Achitophel 2. Sam. 17.14 1. Kings 3.28 and Salomons famous decision betweene the two harlots is said to be the wisdome of God Such prevention is vsed against selfe-conceit and vaine-glory and simplicity in referring honour to it's proper obiect that wee should not assume to our selues that which belongs to him that made vs but in all such blessings and favours endeavour with all alacrity that the Lord may ever be knowne to bee the first mouer and principall effector Now as the Lord is knowne to be omnipotent by his workes of creation mercifull in our redemption infinite wise and provident in composing and disposing all to his owne glory and the good of his Church So his Iustice can be never more conspicuous then by the iudgement that he executeth Men may be oftē wronged by their carelesse security or prevented by celerity or mistaken in the carriage or overtaken through ignorance or seduced by flattery or deluded by equivocation or perchance abused by credulity or outfaced by bravery or terrifyed for feare of a worse inconvenience But when the Lord ariseth to execute Iudgement and when his glory shall appeare the fiercenesse of man shall turne to his prayse and the fiercenesse of them shall he refrayne The drowning of the old world the burning of Sodom the rooting out of so many nations to plant his chosen Israel sufficiently makes in the execution that many things which escape in this life mans controule finde at length a Iudge that will bee knowne in their punishment If Pharao will not know the Lord at the mouth of his servants hee shall feele him at length to his cost in the bottome of the water and if Herod so forget his Commission as to rob God of his honour such a iudgement may presently seise on him as to make his chiefest flatterers to loath him All the world almost is a mappe of instances in this kinde it were but following of a common place to repeat them and to cloy your Christian attention with that you know 4. Bonaventure distinguisheth of two sorts of iudgements the first in this World 1. Sent. d. 18. which hee calls iudicium Poenitentiae inflicted especially
Davids practice Ieremies Lamentations and our Saviours weeping for Lazarus and over Ierusalem are warranted to be Heroicall We haue more sinnes Beloued to bewaile but fewer teares to shead greater occasion to hide our faces but lesse contrition to doe it many Physitians shall bee first fee'd before this remedy bee thought vpon that Hezekiah prayed vnto the Lord. 6. Hee prayed Simon Magus had not the grace to pray himselfe but the face to intreat others I make no doubt but here the Prophet Isaiah prayed the Priests prayed the Courtiers and people prayed all were good helpes and it was their dutie yet this sufficeth not Hezekiah except hee pray himselfe hee could best plead his owne cause and commence his owne suit and haue the better audience But to whom doth hee pray Popery was not then on foot to pray to Saints departed before their images or buying Masses or applying reliques Isaiah had instructed them better that Abraham was ignorant of them and the Brazen Serpent was broken downe by the Kings command and called Nehushtan that no such praying should be vsed vnto it Hee prayed therefore as the text hath it vnto the Lord and none other him hee had onely offended his mercy hee had ever found ready his power hee was assured of he alone throughly knewe his wofull case and therefore not as much as dreamed of the mediation of any other The forme of his prayer is set downe in the twentieth of the 26. of Kings and Esay the 38. in the same wordes to teach vs to regard that the more which the Holy Ghost vouchsafeth so precisely to repeat From whence if our Puritans hope to drawe any instance for their extemporary brabbling and brawling against our set formes of prayer the text will shew them as repugnant to Hezekiah herein as commonly they are otherwise to all their lawfull Superiours For his prayer here was on his bed vpon his particular and extraordinary necessity they must vent theirs in the Church where no such occasion is offered to the excluding of better formes then their best premeditation can affoord vs. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall that this particular request of his might not bee heard or disturbed The gift of these men is vnder-valued if their proselytes be not about them to applaud and admire it More tolerable therefore it were that they troubled not the Church more by their prating then they helpe it by such praying In this case if their conceits were not too fleeting they might consider that prayer is of two sorts Publique or private Publique may be either solemne in the Church or more retired in a familie or some other occasioned assembly Now to thrust in here with sudden and vnconcocted flashes were not only to crosse Scripture Fathers and the continuall practice of all Christian Assemblies that euer deserved the name of Churches but also to abuse such Holy meetings by hindring the concurrence of devotions in knowne petitions wherein they ought to joyne and the saying Amen to that they must be sure is warrantable Private prayers I confesse are of another nature wherein divers notwithstanding may bee holpe what to say and directed what to aske by publike formes though such particulars may often fall out in regard of personall grievances sinnes or benefits that may dictate as it were an ejaculatory prayer as the occasion shall bee offered Such was Hezekiah's here and such were to be wished more rife among all sorts of people Notable examples herein wee haue of Iacob O Lord God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaack Gen. 32.9 The Lord which saidst vnto me Returne into thy Countrey and to thy kinred and I will deale well with thee I am not worthy of the lest of all thy mercies all the truth which thou hast shewed vnto thy servant For with my staffe I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands Deliuer me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I feare him So Sampson vpon his resolution to dye O Lord God saith he remember me Iud. 16 28. I pray thee and strengthen me onely this once O God that I may bee at once avenged of the Philistims for my two eyes And what are the most part of Davids Psalmes but a contexture of such heavenly wishes aptly composed for his owne vse and the direction of others that expect the same protection O how would it become the conversation of Christians in stead of corrupt communication and blasphemous oathes and cursings to haue their mouthes filled with such Prayses and Prayers How well doe such speeches sound from the mouthes of good subiects God saue the King or Giue the King thy Iudgements O Lord and thy righteousnes vnto the Kings Sonne In the warlike raigne of David wee haue a large description in Scripture of Captaines and Worthies but in Solomons succeeding Peaceable government of stately buildings notable examples of Iustice flourishing of the Arts trafficking with forraine Nations and the like All which are the extraordinary blessings of God and by his disposall haue their turnes and periods which most commonly are found in the body as the head is affected Where a King therefore makes the Lords Prayer the best Prayer the subject of his meditations with what face may subiects be backward in following such directions Hezekiah as wee all know wanted not titles nor treasure nor friends nor any other good parts that might grace a man and yet heere wee see in the vpshot of extremity his onely refuge is Prayer And this brings him to the speech of the Physitian which recouered him For when he had prayed vnto the Lord the Lord spake vnto him and hee gaue him a signe Where we haue the last words of my Text and third member of my division pointing at the Physitian and the course he tooke 7. And he spake vnto him and hee gaue him a signe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners hath it pleased the Lord of heaven to speake to men here vpon earth by his Sonne by his servants by Angels by men internally externally in dreames by open visions as Suarez vpon Aquinas's third part quest 30. Peucer in his commentary of the divers kinds of divination Mencelius in a peculiar tract of the knowledge of God doe at large declare This speaking here to Hezekiah was by Isaiah the Prophet as the text 2. Kings 20. clearely sheweth And as the extremity was great and vrgent so this speaking was quicke and comfortable in these most gracious tearmes Turne againe and tell Hezekiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captaine of my people Thus saith the Lord the God of Dauid thy Father I haue heard thy prayer I haue seene thy teares Behold I will heale thee on the 3d day thou shalt goe vp vnto the house of the Lord. Could there be better newes to a dying man Yet this is not all I will adde saith he vnto thy
that for the tryall of her patience the credit of her constancy the exercise of her humility the quickning of her faith hope and charity the killing of her carnall desires and encrease of her longing for a place of better settling 6 What shall we say then of those Beloued who make temporall felicity a note of the Church Bellarm. de Eccles li. 4. ca. 18 paint her alwaies in pompe to deceiue the credulous gazers and perswade them to beleeue that the Church was never there where shee shewed not alwaies a glorious out-side The world can witnesse what a stirre the Romish factors haue kept of late to justify their whore of Babylon not by faith I warrant you but by this externall visibility and discard all other Congregations from being Churches which oppressed heretofore especially by their tyranny in the eyes of the world haue not beene so conspicuous This point so often so throughly by so many discussed on our side to the confusion of all apposites and satisfaction of the vnpartiall they reinforce now againe as a new invention never heard amongst vs before in most of their pamphlets and parlies not for any hold I am perswaded they finde in it themselues but as the last cavill to hold out plea before their seduced proselites who if it were not for some such goodly retentiues would be alwaies flitting from them For what can bee more impertinent and praeposterous then when the question is concerning Doctrine and Discipline whereby a true Church may be discerned from a false to intangle the businesse with personall circumstances and knots of storie and Chronology which either for want of certaine evidence may proue vndeterminable or cleared to the vtmost make nothing to the purpose For suppose we had no certainty of our predecessours before Luther as our opposites haue alwaies taken the strictest course that we should not is it not sufficient wee finde by the vndoubted word of God wee are in the right from which all Churches had their originall as their owne Marinarius tells them roundly in the Councell of Trent and must be reformed when corruptions grow intollerable Now they that reforme according to this Rule erect not a new Church but correct enormous novelties or inveterate deformities in the old 2. Chron. 29.16 When good King Ezkiah purged the Temple from all vncleannesse in the Olde Testament and our SAVIOVR from buyers and sellers in the New May they bee said to haue set vp a New Temple or rather reduced the Olde to its ancient lustre The reforming of Romish Missals Pontificals Ceremonials and Breviaries according to Trent-Constitutions hath not hatched vs I trow a new masse of Catholicisme For if Bellarmines position be passable Ipsa Christi Ecclesia non fuit nova respectu Iudaica sed solum mutatio quaedam statûs Ecclesiae De notis Eccles l. 4. c. 5. Christianity changed not the Churches substance but the condition only from that which it had in the Jewish Synagogues why may wee not rather tell them vpon the same grounds that our present Church compared with that of our forefathers before Luthers Reformation Non est nova sed tantùm mutatio quaedam statûs Ecclesiae The place the same the case altered the good graine reserued in the same floore the chaffe and darnell onely fanned away Were it not peevishnesse here to imagine that one Arke should become two because here it is shaken by the beasts that drew it but afterward convayed more staidly on the shoulders of the Levites Forged suppositions are poore grounds to make men see their errours First let them convince vs that our Church is new and essentially different from that of our predecessors before Luther and then we shall cast about to frame her a genealogy accordingly 7 This one answere might suffice to stop the monthes of the clamorous and giue satisfaction to the vnpartiall of either side Yet to cleare our proceeding from the least suspicion of factious novelty wee farther make plaine vnto them that the idolatrous and tyrannous additions which they for their glory and gaine haue patched to the common grounds of Christianity and wee now protest against haue beene ever withstood at their first entrance or reproved as they grew on by the most eminent and honestmen in every age according to the hint that it was possible for them to take These groaned after the Reformation which wee now enioy but overborne as it was fore-prophecied by an impetuous maior part which commonly proues the worst could never bring it about They haue had Catalogues vpon Catalogues of such names and witnesses which they never haue offered solidly to answere but by catching at some extravagancies and suppressing alwaies the maine bearing their proselites in hand that no such matter could be ever shewed Haue they not among their owne Professours Alvarez Pelagius Nicolaus Clemangis Theodoricus à Niem and divers other of the same freedome whose complaint of the abominations of those times haue never beene refuted or redressed What is the cause that the workes of William de sancto amore Peter de Vineis Thomas Gascoine Robert Grosthead Iohn Wicliffe with others haue beene suppressed so carefully but that they were too free against Friers fopperies Popes tyrannies and Romes vnsufferable purloynings and superstitions Why satisfied they not the greivances of the Emperour Maximilian French and Germans which their owne Orthuinus à Graies hath bundle vp together in Fasciculo rerum expetendarum When wee read in their owne Cardinals Bellarmine of the tenth age Chrono p. 256 anno 907. Ecce seculum infelix no writers no Councells no Popes tooke care for the publike good Baronius of the same Baron ad ann 912. n. 8. Potentissimae aequeè ac sordidissimae meretrices impetuous and debosht Curtezans had gotten a hand to Pope and vn-Pope their Paramours as their fancies led them Peter de Alliaco in a booke for Reformation offered to the Councell of Constance wherein the sticketh not strangely to averre that the Church was then in that case that it was worthy to bee governed only of reprobats we conceaue that in our moderate reformation we haue hit the marke that these men aimed at And can this be censured for setting vp a new Church or Religion No no Beloued if Romes Rocke and Peters Chaire they vant of had not bin subiect to shaking Fascicul rerum expetend p. 172. as the Arke here was why did Pope Adrian the sixt acknowledge their grosse corruptions and promise the Germans by his Legate Cheregatus that they should haue a reformation Why did the Trent Fathers assigne especiall Deputies to enquire into abuses if the Church should loose her being by an orderly Reformation 8 And here because they sleight these instances wee bring ad of disunited particulars and require visible congregations that taught as we doe from Luther vp ward in this also their owne men shall furnish vs and cleare vs from being Novelists to the
so wayward never so ill deseruing to be tender ouer them and procure their good by this deauenly example In this good way these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these promiscuous Observers haue entred vs. The manner of their observation followes now in the third place 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing or when they had seene It is almost as good nay perchance better to see nothing at all then to be an idle spectator and learne nothing God hath giuen vs our outward senses to informe our vnderstanding our vnderstanding to direct our will our will to carry a hand over our rebellious and sensuall appetites And if we make not this vse of them the divell will quickly cut out worke Greg. l. 7. ep 5.3 Nam quem Diabolus non invenit occupatum ipse occupat saith one therefore it is very commendable in these meaner and plainer people that they were not so wanting to themselues or disordered in their sudden concourse but that they tooke a care to see what was done They saw the barrennesse of the place the impossibility of supply the time passed their returne troublesome and dangerous the night drawing on And from the poore disciples what could they expect who had scarce provision for their owne necessities They tooke notice out of doubt of the little Ladde with his course and poore pittance of their owne great number of our Saviours conference with Philip and Andrew of their vncomfortable answere of his resolute command to haue them sit downe of the distinct ordering their sitting that all might see what was done that the least suspition might not remaine of any collusion In all this Seeing here were no evill eyes wandring eyes wanton eyes envious eyes proud eyes covetous eyes flattering eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sand blind hypocriticall winking eyes 2. Pet. 1.9 staring one way and squinting another or the like And it were to be wished and it is to bee religiously endeavoured that no such eyes may bee found amongst vs He that opened so many eyes of the blinde invites vs to come to him for eye salue Rev. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of mee gold tryed in the fire that thou maiest be rich and white rayment that thou maist be cloathed that the shame of thy nakednesse doe not appeare and annoint thy eyes with eye salue that thou maist see The reason of this is giuen by the best Oculist The light of the body is the eye Mat. 6.22 Luk. 11.34 If therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evill thy body shall bee full of darknesse The eye therefore must be constantly directed to the scope we ought to aime at it must not glance aside to be too prying into things that belong not to vs or with watermen to looke one way and row another for this will bring in the end darknesse discontent confusion These plaine men as it should seeme regarded not to looke after at that time any other thing then was before them but fixed their eyes wholy on that and that was the Miracle which Iesus did the thing obserued in the third place 6 Miracles are vnvsuall events wrought aboue the course of nature saith Salmeron Salmer Tom. 6. Tract 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To bring in all what the Schoolemen and latter popish writers haue heaped vpon this point would be too tedious I shall take therefore only that my text here occasioneth and so passe along S. Augustine puts a difference betwixt Miracula Miranda Miracles and Wonders Things that we wonder at are often performed by Divells Magicians and Impostors because not on a sudden wee conceiue the causes of them and in true miracles there is a reason giuen by Aquinas of their divers appellations 2.2 q. 178. art 1. they are termed Miracles in regard they exceede the bounds of nature Signes because somewhat else is signified besides what is done Prodigies for their excellency Portenta for intimating somewhat to come Virtues because Gods power is seene in them extraordinarily This wee haue here is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a signe A signe to be seene to manifest the omnipotency of him that did it and the truth of his teaching Two other ends of such signes are eminent in Scripture The one to convince perverse and obdurate men with whom no reason is prevalent so Moses convinced hard-hearted Pharaoh with his Magitians Exod. 8.19 and brought them at last to this acknowledgement This is the finger of God Elias droue the Baalites to the like confession by obtaining fire from heauen to consume not only the Sacrifice and wood but the stones dust and water about it 1. King 18.39 The Lord is the God the Lord is the God The second is to vindicate his people or particular servants from the hands of their enemies So the Sunne stood still and great hailestones were cast downe from heauen to giue a full overthrow to the Kings of Canaan Ioshua 10. that had banded themselues against Ioshua his followers and two shee Beares came out of the wood 2. Kings 2.24 and woried those forty and two children that mocked reverend Elisha But this difference betweene the Miracles of Christ and those of his Apostles or the former Prophets is to be obserued They wrought them not in their owne name and power So Elisha in a Miracle of the like nature to this when he fed a hundred men with twenty loaues and some full eares of corne 2. Kings 4.42 Giue the people that they may eate saith he For thus saith the Lord They shall eate and shall leaue thereof Acts 9.34 So S. Peter cures Aeneas Iesus Christ maketh the whole But our Saviour comes in a higher straine to the dead Damsell Talitha Cumi I say vnto thee arise to the stormy winds and seas peace and be still Mark 5.41 Ib. 4.39 Ib. 9.25 Luke 4.35 v. 10. to the raging divell in the possessed hold thy peace and come out of the man as here make the people sit downe and no more adoe He blesseth they eate and the little pittance served them with an overplus of fragments voided more then the whole was at first 7 The Divell finding it his best plea to be Gods ape in every thing he may haue scope and take vantage hath never neglected in all ages to furnish his followers with his miracles to winne himselfe credit and make them obstinate Iannes and Iambres 2. Tim. 2.8 Act. 8. are opposed to Moses Simon Magus to Peter Elymas to Paul and if that story of Prochorus be not counterfeit Tom. 1. in vita S. Iohannis ca. 28. 29. which they of Collaine haue set forth in the last edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum Cynops that dogs face coniurer for so the name signifies to the blessed Apostle S. Iohn Nay to disgrace the miracles of our Saviour which neither Iews nor Heathen durst doe
depend vpon Beloved for the establishment of our Eaith the animating of our hope the raising of our thanksgiuing by the addition of the Gospell which assureth vs that this Prophet is come and what hee hath done for vs. S. Mathew fets him forth especially as a man of the seed of David and Abraham and proveth that he was the Prophet that was to come by 22 Prophecies at least fulfilled in him S. Marke aymeth further to demonstrate that this man was both our King and Lord by insisting especially vpon his power and this hee justifieth by aboue twenty of his powerfull Actions S. Luke the Physitian more fully stands vpon that he was not only Man and King and Lord but the Saviour of the World and the Physitian of our soules And to make this cleare he more particularly vrgeth the circumstances of his humble birth gentle conversation zeale to winne soules arming them against all offences his teares over Ierusalem his dolorous passion his victorious and triumphant resurrection S. Iohn that liued longer then the rest and knewe of some Heretiques that opposed our Saviours deity beginnes in a lofty straine to proue his Godhead which by the Arians heretofore and now by the Socinians is eagerly and perfidiously opposed In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst vs. This he continues to proue by nineteene arguments and then at last concludeth in his 20 Chapter These things are written that yee might beleeue that Iesus is the Sonne of God and that beleeuing yee might haue life through his name what life of grace here of glory eternall hereafter All that these foure Evangelists haue said may bee contracted into this one argument He that was to be promised seed of David and Abraham to be King and Lord to be a Saviour and the Physitian of our soules and to bee the Sonne of God and God equall to the Father was the Prophet that was to come into the World But in Iesus the Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary all these things are fulfilled therefore he was that King that Lord that Saviour that God that Prophet who was to come into the world Let vs goe on therefore Beloued with confidence chearefulnesse and thankfulnesse as the time approaching invites vs to celebrate the Advent of this Prophet that was to come into the world and now is certainely come and hath performed the worke of our Redemption There haue beene and now are divers that tell vs of a second Advent wherein hee shall come and raigne with the raised Martyrs a thousand yeares here vpon earth before his last comming againe to iudgement The reason is out of the 20. of the Revelation because that Satan was to bee so long bound and after wards to bee loosed which 1000 yeares they are confident are yet to come But for mine owne part I thinke without prejudice to any that these 1000 yeares are past already that Satan hath beene long since loosed and so yet continues And that no other personall comming of our Saviour is hereafter to be expected but only at the day of iudgement The Angels intimate no other personall comming Act. 1.11 Wee finde no other such comming in our Creed besides his first But from thence he shall come to iudge both the quick and the dead Beloued the time is at hand wherein according to the custome of our Church wee are to celebrate the memory and benefits of his first cōming into the flesh Let vs not forget to prepare our selues for his second advent There is a time to dye an account to be made a Iudgement to be passed and hee that shall come will come how soone or how long hence no man knoweth let vs not neglect therefore seriously to thinke vpon this in the midst of our worldly contentments Life is short the account certaine the state hereafter immutable good Lord dispose of vs here so that in that comming we may be found at thy right hand hereafter and haue that happiest doome pronounced vpon vs come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world And this O mercifull Father grant vs for thy Sonne Christ Iesus sake to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory might maiesty and dominion both now ever AMEN REVERENCE TO RVLERS A SERMON PREACHED AT THE COVRT BY IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exceter Colledge His MAIESTIE's Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of OXFORD OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. ACTS 23. v. 5. Then said Paul I wist not Bretheren that hee was the high Priest For it is written thou shalt not speake evill of the Ruler of thy People 1_THe first word of my text Then intimates a dependance on somewhat going before that dependance may be thus gathered After many hazards runne and great extremities past of our blessed and most laborious Apostle in his long and troublesome peregrination for the Gospell sake at large set forth in the precedent story here drawing as hee thought neere home a Cap. 9. and casting Anchor as it were in the hauen amongst his owne Countreymen he found himselfe neerer shipwracke then in all the stormes he had before escaped At Ephesus he fought with beasts after the manner of men 1. Cor. 15. At Ephesus here he falls amongst men worse then any beasts Agabus had prophecied before whereto hee was to trust when once he came to Hierusalem Chap. 21. and hee quickly found it true vnder the two great chaynes wherewith the Roman Captaine caused him to be bound Chap. 21. But as his resolution before was heroic all what meane you to weepe to breake my heart vers 13. for I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Hierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus So his performance here was every way answerable The vproare of the people vpon the point to kill him his sudden apprehending by the Captaine wrong imprisonment torturers standing ouer him to lash him like a slaue so abated not his spirits but that hee tooke heart of grace to defend himselfe before his owne Countrymen in an admirable apologie in their own tongue and to plead the priviledge of a Roman to quit himselfe from the Captaine so true is that of the wisest King Prover 28.1 that howsoeuer the wicked fly whē none persueth him yet the righteous continues alwaies bold as a Lion With the same confidence in his innocency hurried as it were to hold vp his hand before the Priests his heavier Adversaries he hangs not downe the head but resolutely bespeakes them as they sate in Councell Men and brethren I haue liued in all good conscience before God vntill this day v. 1. Now what could be pick't out of this most respectiue and religious exordium that might giue the least offence was it for that he seemed to be too sawcy in
thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption As our Saviours soule triumphed ouer the powers of darknesse so his flesh was to be free among the dead from the least taynt of corruption B. Bilson For his body and soule saith a Reverend writer were appointed to be superiour to al contrary powers that is the soule to hell the flesh to the graue and from both was Christ to rise as subduer of both That he might sit in his heauenly Throne as Lord over all not by promise onely as before but by proofe also as appeareth in his Resurrection Some would haue this to be only a repetition or reason of that which went before David was to be freed from the graue because Christ saw no corruption which sense howsoeuer it bee true in it this Text will not beare as proper Wee must repaire therefore to S. Peter in the second of the Acts and to S. Paul in the 13. and thence learne the right meaning Who both disproue the common errour which vnderstood it onely of David by this one sensible demonstration All the world might see by looking into Davids sepulcher that his body was turned to dust through corruption it could not therefore be said that hee was that holy one who was to see no corruption It must needs therefore be some other This could bee no other then the Messias whose Resurrection the third day before his body could be corrupted they had reason to bleeue seeing David had so distinctly foretold it Whence wee may plainely gather that all the Immunities that David here standeth vpon as his free-hold came to him but at the second hand This holy one then was Christ this priviledge not to see corruption was peculiar only to his sacred body All the faith full hold it of him in Capite when it is attributed to David it is no way to bee vnderstood or his person but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fruit of his loynes as S. Peter speaketh Take therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all our Translatours following Peter and the 72. render Holy one either for corpus sanctificatum as the Interlineary Glosse or for a Favorite whom it pleaseth God especially to grace as Beza or for one that being al-sufficiet in himself most bountifully dispenseth his fauours as Piscator It will come all to one that his body in the graue saw not that is felt not tried not endured not any corruption Corruption I meane of putrifaction or turning into dust not dissolution of soule and body as Athanasius well distinguished For where the Soule triumphed ouer powers of darknesse the body slept in the graue in expectation of its speedy returne which accomplished the third day there ensued vpon it immediatly this victorious Resurrection which our Prophet so much reioyceth here to fore-see we on this day doe thankfully celebrate 13. And now what belongeth to us Beloued but to let passe all vnnecessary trifles as what became of the bloud that was spilt on the ground at our Sauiours circumcision and the opening of his side at the crosse and seriously to fasten vpon that comfort which here is proposed vnto vs. O Lord saith S. Bernard I haue but two mytes my soule and my body with these I dare not trust my selfe and therefore I cast them into thy treasurie as knowing then they shall be in safe custody That which was proposed in a vision concerning IESVS the sonne of Iosedeck who by interpretation is the Iust one of the Lord in the 3d of Zachary is here fully accomplished according to S. Hieromes application on that place The filthy garments wherewith he was clothed for our sakes are taken from our Saviour And now he sheweth himselfe a King hath put on glorious apparell 2. Sam. 23. Among the Worthies of David we read of one Benaiah that went downe slew a Lion in a pit in the time of snow But this is but a cold Modell of that victory of the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah ouer that roaring and devouring Lion in the pit of Hell and the Graue There are none I suppose that heare me this day but are or after may be vexed with discontentments and feele a necessary decay of this earthly Tabernacle But alas beloued what remedy may serue vs in this world Looke further therefore with our Prophet whosoever thou art that expectest true comfort and take these grounds with thee which shall never fayle thee Christs soule hath conquered and triumphed ouer the sorrowes of Hell that thou shouldest neuer be enthralled to them and his body hath shaken off the shackles of the graue that thine in its due time might enioy the same freedom Beloued we were al in worse case in regard of eternall death then Peter was in the 12. of the Acts bound with two chaines and lying betweene two souldiers with a guard before the prison dore surely to be executed the next day after But our Saviour comes in stead of the Angell and rayseth vs vp the chaines fall off the Iron gate which was held impregnable opened of its owne accord and the way of life which leadeth vnto the fulnesse of ioy is chalked out vnto vs. And are not our lots now falne vnto vs in a good ground and is not this a goodly heritage Let vs thanke the Lord therefore for giuing vs so often this effectuall warning and set him at our right hand and then we shall never be moued So leaning with good old Iacob vpon the top of our staues and giuing vp the last gaspe wee may confidently conclude with our Prophet in the end of Psal 4. I will lay me downe in peace take my rest for it is thou Lord only that through the victory of thy son over hel the graue makest me dwel safely Which God grant of his mercy we may constantly doe for his sonne Christ Iesus sake to whom with the Father the blessed spirit be all Honour and Glory now and evermore AMEN THE CHRISTIANS EXPECTATION A SERMON PREACHED AT THE COVRT BY IOHN PRIDEAVX Rector of Exceter Colledge His MAIESTIE'S Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of OXFORD OXFORD Imprinted by LEONARD LICHFIELD Anno Salutis 1636. 2. PET. 3.13 Neverthelesse we according to his promise looke for new Heauens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 1 THe first word of my text Neverthelesse sends vs backe for the fuller meaning to some what that went before That was a serious caveat of our Apostle to beware of fiue sorts of people who would turne vs out of the good way the preaching of the Gospell had prescribed Those Cap. 2. Y. 1.2.3 in the beginning of the former chapter ye shall finde to be First false Prophets or teachers who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them And many shall follow their pernitious waies by reason of whom the way of truth shall be ill spoken of and through covetousnesse shall they with fained words make
Prophets prophecy falsely and the Priests beare rule by their meanes and my people loue to haue it so and what will yee doe in the end thereof What shall I doe O blessed Prophet Marry follow the advice of thy brother Hosea in his last Chapter O Israel turne vnto the Lord for thy wisdome hath misled thee thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie Take vnto you words and turne vnto the Lord say vnto him take away all our iniquities and receaue vs gratiously and wee will render thee the Calues of our lips Let vs provide then before hand with that steward in the Gospell who though otherwise vniust in that Luke 16.8 hee is said to haue done wisely that when all the world fayles wee haue somewhat to trust to This is the care and practise not in shew but in good earnest not of the favorits of this world but All wisedomes children the residue of my Text I haue left only now to conclude with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Of all her children It was not for nought our Saviour interserts this Item in his sermon on the Mount Mat. 5.18 one jot or one title shall in no wise passe from the law till all be fulfilled Iots and titles then in the law are not superfluous curiosities but such as the right vse of them may make to cleare the Text and are worthy of exactest scanning A notable instance hereof we haue here in the Pronoune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her Which if wee passe without an aspiration as Valla Castalion would haue it it may be referred to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generation in the former 31. verse and make this sense Wisdome is iustified even of the children of that perverse generation which will neither dance to her piping nor weep to her mourning neither by fayre or rougher vsage be brought to any goodnesse Yet shall they be so convinced by wisdomes exact proceeding that they shall not be able to disgrace that which they shunne to follow but bee forced to bring in evidence for her Iustification though it necessarily reflect vpon their own condemnation And haue we not had long since Balaam with this kind of acknowledgement O let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his How common is that conviction of Iulian the Apostata Vicisti Galilaee thou Galilean speaking of Christ at length hast overcome me It was a sad Epitaph that Platina relates was put vpon Pope Adrian the 6. his tombe That he had beene a happy man indeed if he had neuer knowne the happinesse of that seat But the surliest confession of all in this kind seemes to be that of an Italian Lawyer with whom Bellarmine was at his departing as he relates in his tract de arte benè moriendi And hauing with much adoe perswaded him to craue mercy at Gods hands for his sinnes could bring him no further then this I I pray thee O Lord take compassion on my wife children for my selfe I desire thee not any thing for I goe directly to Hell and so departed saith the Cardinall as if one went from one towne to another Thus the children of Darknesse giue testimony to the light as the Divell was forced to doe of our Saviours Deitie 12. But the Text will not beare this exposition though the doctrine be otherwise most true and vsefull for here we haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspirated and therefore is to be ioyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next to it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foure verses before it as Beza notes giues this sense expresly wisedome is iustified not by its perverse opposers but the docible beleeuers not of some straggling disagreeing strangers but of all her owne children For this exposition makes the Syriack which according to Tremelius on the 11. of Matthew is thus rendred wisedome is iustified of all her worshippers according to Guido Fabritius of her Servants according to S. Hierome but without any ground in the Originall ab operibus of all her workes And therevpon he addes sapientia non quaerit vocis testimonium sed operam Wisedome stands not so much vpon words as deeds All which circumstances laid together make it without controversie that wisedomes children here meant are not all those that make themselues so or would haue the world to take them to be so But her naturall children indeed who heare her instructions follow her directions and justifie the vprightnesse of all her actions 13. It was an old exploded course by all good men heretofore but now reviued too much againe to the scandall of all wisedomes children to pretend one thing and intend another And so far to iustifie Gods wisedome as it might serue to iustifie our vnwarrantable designes But my Text here hath three markes of these iustifying children to iustify them in this place Of which if but one faile it may be iustly presumed that all is not right Those are 1. Vnity 2. Naturall affection to their mother and 3. submissine obedience to those commands that shall be iustly inioyned them to follow Wisedome is iustified of All therefore no backslider no schismatique no headlong Innovator must be accounted of the number Of all Her Therefore All out landish Incendiaries murmurers detractors All vnderhand Ingineers All blowers vp of states and massacring miscreants must be referred to the lists of Bastards and generation of vipers Of all her children then Refractory prescribers to their mother proscribers of their brethren must not offer to put in here for a childs portion O that men therefore were wise as Moses told the Israelites then would they lay these things to heart and not runne headlong in such wild and irreligious courses which are no way iustifiable but precipitate in the broad rode that hastneth violently to apparant destruction Then the detractor would bee ashamed of his base suggestions the male-content of his causelesse murmurings the oppressour of his inhumanity the proud of his histrionicall hautinesse the Luxurious of his loosenesse the Hypocrite of his shewes the Machiavilian of his shifts For what are all these kickshawes to solid wisedome but as a spiders webbe which intangleth some few flies a while till the beesome come and then all the worke is marred and the worker perchance ruinated and forgotten I must end Davids description of a man in honour may bee a lesson to great ones what wisedome they cannot safely depend vpon but what they must trust to in the end Psalm 49. and Solomons the sonnes instance in a poore man that by his well guided wisedome deliuered a little citty from the beleagring of a great King Ecclesiastes the 9. instructeth vs all sufficiently how much godly wisedome is better then vnblessed strength and stratagems and to be hearkened to more in quiet then the outcries of fooles Let vs remember therefore with the wise virgins to bee provided alwaies before hand with this lasting oyle in our lampes and cast about with
also Heresies Thirdly their seat and nest where they are hatched and reside In the midst of the church There must be also heresies amongst you Must implyeth a necessity Necessity hath no law no law Rom. 4.15 1. Iohn 3.4 no transgression sayth the Apostle no transgression no sinne By this reckoning then it will come to this that heresies are no faults as proceeding rather from Gods appoyntment then mans perversity Chrysostom Theodoret. Oe cumenius The Greeke Fathers answere that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportet which wee render Must imports not any determination of God what shall be Gemina necessitas 1. judicij Dei seu disponentis 2. ex qualitate seu dispositione eorum qui in illa Ecclesia conveniebant Musculus in locum but a foretelling what would bee that notes the event not the efficient cause This necessity therefore sayth Salmeron the Iesuite is not to be taken simply but vpon supposall of mans perversnesse and Gods permission Hee might haue added the Divels setting on mens negligence and infirmityes and naturall propensity to novelty Which causes alwayes remaining the effects must needs follow except God of his infinite grace and power please to stop them which oftentimes he doth when and where and in what measure he holds it fit Not alwayes nor absolutely because his wisdome hereby takes the hynt to turne all to the best for his Church and Children So that Heresies which in regard of men are frailtyes and faults in respect of God are a tryall or punishment shall there be evill in the city Amos. 3.6 and the Lord hath not done it sayth the Prophet Our Saviour turnes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportet Math. 18.7 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necesse est Necessary it is that offences come but woe vnto the man by whom the offence commeth Doth it come of necessity and yet bring a woe with it Our Saviour sayth it and we must beleiue it And all this will stand well together For as this is to bee taken for an infallible ground that all things come to passe by God certaine eternall appoyntment otherwise his infinite wisdome providence power and prescience might be prophanely cald in question So this is ever to bee conceiued withall that all things come not to passe as proper effects of his appoyntment but some as necessary consequences The consideration of which difference well vnderstood would satisfy divers scruples and make that evident which many hold most perplexed For that is not alwayes the cause sayth Cicero that goes before but that which goes before effectually Would any man say that the absence of the Sunne is the cause of darknesse as its presence is the cause of light Darknesse is but the consequence of his absence light the effect of his presence In like manner all good is the effect of Gods appoyntment all ill a consequent So heresies here then are not by any act of God but by his sufferance they follow They are effected necessarily by their proper causes the Divells malice and mans perversnesse which God hindereth not but ordereth to sort that to good which was meant ill Vid. Aqu. in locum Encheirid For God is so good it is a known saying of S. Augustin that by no meanes hee would permit any evill except he were also so wise and powerfull that out of that very evill he could picke good 7. It but agravates therefore our faults to cast them vpon God and to excuse our selues by necessity when we doe that which is wicked Wicked man vnderstand this that Gods revealed will in his word is the rule of thy actions and not his secret decrees which thou knowest not before they take effect David was told by Nathan the Prophet 2 Sam. 12.14 that his child borne in adultery should surely dye notwithstanding he fasteth and prayeth and lyes vpon the earth for hee knew these were the revealed meanes for pacifying Gods anger And afterwards instructs his servants that wondred at his carriage in that businesse while the child was yet aliue Vers 22. saith he I fasted and wept for I sayd who can tell whether God will be gratious vnto me that the child may liue but now he is dead it is past remedy Gods will is manifested wherefore should I fast It is one thing Beloued to consider how reverently wee are to thinke and beleiue of Gods infinite attributes and another thing what we are to doe according to his ordinance He by his prerogatiue may doe what he pleaseth but wee by our duty must performe what hee commandeth vs. When S. Peter commanded to follow our Saviour Iohn 21.21 would needs know what should become of Iohn who also followed hee receiued from his Master this checke for his curiosity If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow that me I would to God sayth a good interpreter this saying were so ingrauen in all mens minds Vtinam haec sententia omnium animis insculpta esset vt vnusquisque disceret in suam vocationem respicere Brentius apud Marlorat Deut. 30.29 Iohn 15.15 that every one would haue an eye to their owne calling and not be impertinently prying into things that belong not to them Secret things belong to the Lord our God it was one of the cheife proviso'es of Moses law but those that are revealed to vs and to our children that wee may doe all the words of thè law The servant knoweth not what his Lord doth It is not for vs to runne on in our wickednesse and to say with that desperate Monke in S. Augustine De hono perseu l. 2. c. 15. whatsoeuer I am now Talis ero qualem me Deus futurum esse praesciuit I shall be hereafter as God foresees I shall be He sayd true sayth that good Father but ended like a dogge in his own vomit For it is the Divells method to set a man on a pinnacle Math. 4. and bid him cast himselfe downe headlong Luke 14.10 but our Saviour directs vs to beginne at the lowest seate that thence we may heare Friend sit vp higher We must ascend then from the survay of our owne fayth and workes to the most comfortable perswasion of Gods immutable decrees and favour towards vs not beginne with predestination and end in desperation For would it not proue a mad kind of Logicke to make an inference vpon premisses which can be no way knowne How can wee coniecture that wee are elected or reiected but by that We belieue and doe If then our hearts be good and hands cleane and our intent sincere then God hath decreed to doe vs good for our encouragement But if otherwise we are not yet altogether past hope seeing it is impossible for vs to know any such perēptory decree which is past against vs but haue the meanes left to better vs the Iudge mercifull examples many of convertants receiued into favour If we can
these our dayes who must haue all as they will or else all is out of frame but so launceth that he may heale so openeth that hee may binde vp againe and to the severall sores discovered applieth an agreeing remedy Idlenesse therefore must be shaken off by a willing and ready minde not to famish but feed the flocke which is not so much theirs as Gods ver 2. filthy lucre must not be thought vpon when a Crowne of Glory is proposed a Crowne that fadeth not to bee receiued from the chiefest shepheard vers 4. And what a cooling card next followes against the Lording over Gods inheritance This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned ver 3. younger saith hee submit your selues vnto your elders All of you bee subiect one to another ver 5. Submit be subiect No apparell so befits an honest hearty Christian as to bee clothed with humility If he be proud hee hath God for his enemy If humble Gods grace for his erection and protection Now because this swelling of Ambition is fed with such a confluxe of no cious humours that one dressing would scarce serue and it stood the Apostle vpon not to leaue the cure vnperfect Hee addes the words of my Text as a playster to doe the deed seeing that domineering is not for your profession Mutuall subiection is your truest badge Humility your best clothing God himselfe the opposer of the proud and the most gratious protector of those that are Humble Humble your selues therefore vnder the mighty hand of God that hee may exalt you in due time 2. Which according to the expresse words implyed consequences may thus bee paraphrased You reckon your selues to be Elders and I hope you take me for no lesse Wee witnesse what Christ hath suffered and beleeue what glory he hath provided for vs. But suppose you that his flocke is committed vnto vs thereby to feed our selues let that pine through want to pretend an over-sight and intend nothing lesse Is this the example we shew the Crowne wee ayme at The Humility we should bee clothed with No certainly my Brethren Christ hath suffered for vs and the servant is not greater then his master The inheritance is his and his stewards must not convert it to their private pompe and pleasure Words Outsides may not satisfie where reall performance is required If you haue an ayme at the highest preferment the way to attaine it is by faithfulnesse in a little No entrance to his Temple of honour but by the Gate of Humility Humble your selues therefore or he will make you stoope vnder his mighty hand or it shall pluck you downe And herein you shall not be your owne factors but hee will exalt you not when or where you affect but as he shall think fit in due time And this I take in generall to bee the meaning of this exhortation The summe is A never fayling Plot for the surest attaining of the best preferment Wherein wee meet with 1. A Rule to bee observed by way of Precept Humble your selues vnder the mighty hand of God 2. The successe depending vpon an implied promise That hee may exalt you in due time The Rule includeth an Action limited to its right obiest Humble your selues But to whom vnder the mighty hand of God The successe is not doubtfull but restrayned to a certainty He shall exalt you but when in due time It were small mastery vpon so good a ground to runne division but my ayme is playnenesse which I take will be best apprehended in these 4 particulars The 1. Suiters duty or indeavour Humble your selues 2. Patrones ability vnder the mighty hand of God 3. Businesse successe that he may exalt you 4. Fitnesse of oportunity In due time Many haue the hap to apply themselues to such as little respect them or are not of ability to doe them good some are earnest and able but occasion fayles or one rub or other frustrates the indeavour A third sort speed at length and haue that they looke for but it comes so vnseasonably that it scarce quits cost Now all these things here happily concurre beyond expectation to the preventing of all exceptions No straining beyond thy power but restraining thy selfe by Humility No striuing to make friends and please many where the hand of God wil exalt No importunity needfull that others should not prevent thee where hee sets downe the time All for easier recalling may be thus connected As thou shewest thy selfe humble so God will approue himselfe mighty in effecting that for others which surpasseth thy policy though not perchance when thou wilt who art ignorant what is best for thee yet in such due sort and time as shall doe thee most good Of these in their order as the time and your patience shall giue leaue And first of the first which is the suiters taske or Indeavour in these words 3. Humble your selues therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle Therefore includeth an Inference vpon somewhat that went before which is thus deduced God is no way to bee resisted but suedvnto for grace This is done by humility Humble your selues therefore As charity makes the breadth patience the length faith the height of our spirituall building So Humility must be vnderlaid all these saith Hugo as the surest foundation De claustris Animae l. 3. whence wee may inferre that There is no admission to Gods favour without humble submission The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the originall intimates no lesse which is not so rightly rendred passiuely by the vulgar Bee yee humble as well corrected by others and our latter Translation actiuely Humble your selues Any coaction here marres the Action which must bee altogether voluntary Wherevpon Humility is defined by the Schooles to be A voluntary deiection of a mans selfe vpon a view of his owne vnworthinesse and Gods infinite bounty and power Whence the Canonists rightly distinguish betweene Humiles Humiliatos Those that are truely humble those whose stubborne stomacks are violently pluckt downe The Hebrewes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text Ps 9.13 Ps 9.13 which barely signifies poore and needy read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the margine according to the rule of their Keri and Cethib which not onely points out those who are deiected and in misery but such as are gentle modest and truely mortified Those will the Lord guide in iudgement Ps 25. and learne his way To such poore in spirit and meeke in heart our Saviour in his list of Beatitudes assures both heaven and earth Mat. 5. Math. 5. And if both Heaven and Earth be taken vp for the Humble saith Cassiodore in what place think you shall the proud be billetted Further delating in a Common place so beaten can neither be gratefull nor profitable For who hath not obserued that of the wise man How Humility vshers honour Prov. 15.33 Prov. 17.12 Prov. 15. as pride goes before destruction Prov. 17. The Publican therefore
more famous then that for goodnes and Integrity And in what haue wee read in succeeding age of the like abominations Who more proud then some of their Popes and Cardinalls and who more stupidly deboisht then some of their Friers Anachorites Few haue generally more learning then the Iesuits and commonly few more Ignorance then their common Masse Priests Their Cleargy and Monkes must not marry to avoid pollution yet concubines and somewhat worse shall finde Advocates to plead for them and Indulgences to allow them A Nunnery and a stewes the silent Carthusian with the Capuchine an frollick Iacobine the Neat Iesuit and the nasty Franciscan shall finde a ioynt entertainement in the large lappe of Mother Church The Souldier shall haue his sword the Melancholy his Cell the Superstitious his Beades and bayre cloath the dissolute his pardon and absolutions the incestuous his dispensation the Scholler his Library and the Ambitious his preferment Every humour shall be pleased to giue all content that all may speake for them So that I may well conclude as the Oratour did of Catiline Cic. pro Coelio There had never beene that advantage gotten vpon the Common-wealth of Rome as it then stood Nisi tot vitiorum tanta immunitas quibusdam facilitatis patientiae radicibus niteretur And so it was impossible that the Pride incroaching and Tyranny of the Pope and his Complices should haue put the Church of God to such a plunge but that they masked all their villanies with a varnish of devotion and humility 6 But this is not that humility which the Apostle makes the groundworke for true exaltation The Prophet David advanced from a sheephooke to a scepter hits right vpon it Lord I am not high minded Psal 131. I haue no proud lookes I doe not exercise my selfe in great matters which are too high for me but I refraine my soule aad keepe it low as a child that is weaned from his mother yea my soule is even as a weaned child Such a child our Saviour set in the midst of his disciples Math. 18. that contended for superiority and lesson'd them vpon it Mat. 18. Verily I say vnto you except ye be converted and become as litle children ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven S. Augustine discussing the poynt why simple people in primitiue times were more forward to receiue Christianity then the learned Phylosophers renders this for the apparant reason Quia Christus humilis Illi autem superbi Because Christ was humble and meek but they supercilious and presumptuous This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil termes it haughty and contemptuous carriage in Augustine the Monke Epist 10. when he came to treat with our playner Brittish Bishops Bed Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 2. breakes off all Christian communication betweene them to the great distraction and almost destruction of the poore Church in this I le And I pray God the like causelesse strangenesse and statelinesse of some so different from Apostolicall humility to their meaner and weaker brethren haue not made more Schismatiques and as we call them Puritans then all the vantages that could bee evertaken against gainst the sacred order of our Reverend Bishops or any part of our Church-discipline or ceremonies Tell yee the daughter of Sion Behold thy King commeth vnto thee meeke and sitting vpon an Asse Zach. 9.9 but now most of this meeke Kings followers will stomacke to be so meanly mounted Pride makes vs ashamed of our humble Masters lowlinesse we like well of the promised Crowne but shunne the burden and yoke that leads vnto it Enter wee would willingly into the heavenly mansions but had loth striue and stoope to contract our selues and bow at the streight gate But alas Beloued what finde we in our selves to make vs proud or obserue in others that we should much envy or despise them Our roote taynted our birth lamentable all the dayes of our Pilgrimage few and evill not assured so much of any thing as of infinite vncertaintyes Those that haue most may quickly part with it and those that know most vnderstand not their own ignorance we forget that which is past stagger at the present and ambiguously expect that which is to come What a presumption therefore is it to talke of merits supererrogation naturall abilityes to doe all or more then is required or the like No Beloued our approches to Gods tribunall must be by humble Petition with feare and trembling in regard of our owne vnworthinesse Abraham hath taught the way Gen. 18. Behold now I haue taken vpon me to speake vnto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Come let vs worship and fall downe kneele before the Lord our maker Iacob treads the same path O God of my father Abraham God of my father Isaac I am not worthy of all thy mercyes and all the truth Gen. 32. which thou hast shewen vnto thy servant Deut. 26. Moses hath a forme for it A Syrian ready to perish was my father and he went downe into Egypt and soiourning there with a few there was evill intreated thence was with a mighty hand deliuered now brings vnto thee O Lord the first fruits 2 Sam. 15. which thou hast given me David most Pathetically practised it in his flight from Absolon If I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord thus and thus will he doe as it there followes But if hee say thus I haue no delight in David behold here I am fiat voluntas tua let him doe to me as it seemeth good vnto him Such bruised reedes such smoaking flaxe such broken and contrite hearts Humbling and prostrating and begging and by such meanes offring violence to the kingdome of Heaven the bowells of the tender compassion of the most highest will not breake quench or despise But shew his strength in their weaknesse by extending his mighty hand which assureth the Patrones ability in the next place to be considered 7 Humble your selues therefore vnder the mighty hand of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it abateth our presumption to finde our selues vnderlings so the mighty hand of God must needes make vs confident This Might appeareth in a twofold manner first in plucking downe those who proudly exalt themselues next in exalting the humble against all oppositions Whence God is said by some to haue two hands the one to depresse the other to lift vp Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezar felt the first and the Church distressed by them the second The Bush may bee on fire but consumeth not the heat of the furnace seaven fold augmented yet sindgeth not the vpper garments of the children cast into it whom the mighty hand of God protecteth Whence we may safely gather that God hath inough in store to guard and supply all suiters to their full content To make this good vnto vs who are too much bent by nature to dote vpon our owne plots and to distrust any
our Combats watch when wee sleepe and stirre when wee neglect least the enemy approach to hurt vs or the Sonne of wickednesse to doe vs any violence 12 In all this that hath beene spoken nothing makes for the worshipping of Angels that the Romanists so much stand for for what can bee more plaine against them then that Coloss 2. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which hee hath not seene or that of an Angel himselfe Rev. 16.10 see thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God wherevpon S. Augustine in Psal 96. if you would rightly worship the Angels you should learne of thē not to worship them I am not ignorant what put-offs there are for these and the like evidences but they intangle rather then resolue The time clapsed wil not beare the discussing of the point I forbeare only this by the way and by way of Caution let the Angel-worshippers or Votaries take heed of mistakes least in their vnwarrantable devotions insteed of an Angel of light they meet sometime with a worse commodity then a light Angel for they know who can transforme himselfe 2. Cor. 11. And it may perchance so fall out that when according to the Iesuite Albertinus rules they haue the familiarity of their guardian Angel they bee fitted with a familiar they would faine be ridde of But for vs Beloved in a surer course what an incouragement might this bee in all our exigents to emboulden vs to be resolute whatsoeuer befals vs when Elishah's servant cried out in the middest of the Aramites Alas Master what shall we doe 2. Kings 6.16 feare not saith the man of God for they that are with vs are more then they that are with them The Mountaines are full of Horses Chariots of fire to rescue Gods litle ones against all opposers If Pharaoh bee at the heeles of Israel to doe them a mischiefe the Angel which was before in a pillar of cloude and fire will come behinde And if Rabshakeh rayle on good King Hezechiah and his Master Zenacherib beleager Hierusalem the Lord hath an Angel to raise the seige Thou considerest not thine owne priviledges whosoeuer thou art who neglectest that comfort which this Doctrine may yeeld vnto thee Though thy Birth bee never so base thy state never so meane thy reputation never so slighted at the hands of wordlings thou hast Angels to attend thee if thou attend to Gods precepts the dogges shall not only licke thy sores but the Angels convey thy soule into Abrahams bosome Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Sonn of man that thou so regardest him haue we bin so serviceable vnto thee that thy chiefest servants must so attend to performe vnto vs such service Last of all what a motiue should this bee vnto vs Beloved that out perversenesse grieue and driue not from vs these vnspotted assistants For as there is ioy in heaven amongst the Angels at the conversion of a sinner so they sorrow in earth no doubt when they finde vs set on mischiefe or carelesse what may befall hereafter If Sampson loose his sacred lockes in a Delilah's lappe Iud. 16. no marvaile if the spirit of th' Almighty forsake him And when Saul will not doe as the Lord inioyneth him insteed of protecting Angels an evill spirit may haunt him O quantum debet tibi hoc verbum inferre reverentiam afferre devotionem conferre fiduciam What reverence devotion and confidence saith S. Bernard should this kind of Doctrine administer vnto vs Reverence for their presence devotion for their loue confidence for their protection For if the presence of earthly Potentates exclude all vncivill behauiour and the over-sight of Iehoiada a subiect 2. King 12. could keepe King Ioash in order how much more then should we respect these Celestiall Tutors least as smoake doth Bees and an evill savour Doues so the stench of our sinnes as S. Basil notes should make these blessed guides loath our company this the Father would dislike who is in heaven and oversees all that is done the remainder of my text which in a word I shall endeauour to dispatch 13 The supposall of Gods absence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or not taking notice of our actions makes most too venturous either to act that which they should not or to neglect their duty Perversenesse might wrest my text to the fauouring of such conceipts as that my Father and being in heaven might be far enough from hauing much to doe with vs. But hee whom our Saviour termeth my Father and affirmeth to be in heaven otherwise shews to be our Father Mat. 5. Luc. 12. and your Father neither his being in heauen boundeth him from being every where My Father is vsed here and elsewhere to beat downe that surmise that he might be Iosephs sonne and rayse them to acknowledge his Godhead and the pointing to his heavenly being takes them off from sticking too much as commonly we doe to things here below It was not without cause therefore that our most learned and most Iudicious King Iames of blessed memory was so sharp against the two ring-leaders of perturbation in these our wanton times Conrade Vorstius and Iames Arminius Vorstius incroached too farre vpon libertas prophetandi liberty as hee calls it with the Anabaptist of prophecying Arminius vpon the strength of his wit was too confident vpon meditation without reading which savours too strongly of a private spirit Both slight Fathers and Schoolemen and our latter Reformers whereas God hath left their directions to be thankfully considered of vs and not to depart from them rashly to get a name What a daring Blasphemy was that of Vorstius to circumscribe Gods essence from being every where Arminius for ought I finde never went so far but in his course Gods vnsearchable prerogatiue to doe with his owne as he list his operatiue grace working all in all to say no more was little beholding to him Their reasons are for the discussing of Schooles where both sides may be fully heard in sifting of all particulars Preaching calls for application to the amendment of our liues in those things which are plainely manifested The chiefe reason why we most mis-carry in that behalfe is because our great spirits hardly condescend to become Gods little ones We thinke not as we should vpon that in our Church Liturgy sursum corda lift vp your hearts wee lift them vp vnto the Lord. We are onely to seeke him here to climbe vp by that we finde and apprehend his glory which is the complement of our happinesse Doe so many blessings descend daily vpon vs from him and should not we looke vp in thankfulnesse to the place from whence they come Is heaven the mark we ayme at and shall we cast our eyes another way Vnto thee will I lift vp mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heauens for
behalfe And I may not let slip one instance which he hath not and I meet with in the argument in hand One Francis Monceius as I mentioned before excuseth Aaaron here from Idolatry and sayes the golden Calfe had the forme of a Cherub The Sorbon Doctor Visorius that confutes him sayes that all the Fathers are of a contrary opinion To whom Monceius replies that it is not to be heeded so much what the Fathers wrote as what they would or should haue written if they had liued in these times or had better thought vpon the matter by which you may guesse of the Fathers credit with these men 8. Thus farre we haue insisted vpon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of them that tooke the wrong course All this while there hath beene little intimation of the overborne some that misliked and withdrew themselues from this Idolatry Now those we finde to haue beene the Levites These fell off from Aaron and would by no meanes ioyne with him in his grosse designe though he were their high Priest by Gods peculiar appointment How comes this to passe The High Priest an Idolater Levites against him Not protesting onely by way of appeale but resolutely taking part with Moses their Magistrate to reforme that which was amisse by Civill authority What marvaile then Beloued if that in the Christian Church there haue beene a falling away of the maior part to the like Idolatry That the Chiefe Priests and Fathers by their standing and places haue beene chiefe actors in it That some notwithstanding of the sonnes of Levi good and learned men such as Luther and Calvin with their adherents and others by their good example haue ever protested against it though they were long kept vnder as a number not considerable and forced to giue way to that which they could not redresse That at length there hath come a Reformation as here by Moses who put his owne hand to it and sets the vntainted Levites a worke to vindicate Gods glory and rectifie their disordered Brethren Here if any there be so dim-sighted and vnsatisfied as to aske where this Church of Israel was before Moses reformation most I thinke will answere That it was by Mount Sinai attending Gods further commands by his servant Moses In an excellent way and orthodox when Moses left it but suddenly fell to Idolatry in his absence was reformed by his returne not by making a new people or bringing new Commandements but by taking away Idolatry and reducing the Congregation to the purity of that worship they had so perfidiously contemned and forsaken And what hath bin done more by Protestants in reforming Romish Idolatry Let them never aske therefore where our Church was before Luthers time where was this Church of the Iewes when the Chiefe Priest called the Calfe Iehovah made a holy-day for it which all the people celebrated was it not in the same place though not in the same case it was before Idolatry extinguished it not but polluted it not in al its members but the maior part which reformation cleared againe not by setting vp a new Church but freeing the old from drosse retaining stil the good metal that it ever had continued Good ground therefore had Wickliffe before and Luther afterward to distinguish inter Ecclesiam Remanam Curiam Romanam the church of Rome and the Court of Rome And had not our Saviour so distinguished before betwene the good doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees and their leaven Mat. 23. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chaire and therefore whatsoeuer they bid you obserue according to Moses grounds that obserue and yet take heed and beware of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees Not the doctrine then but the Leaven is here protested against So when hee whips out the buyers and sellers hee erects not a new Temple Ioh. 2. nor alters their warrantable worship or Ceremonies but cleares it from those Theeues Cheaters that had made it a house of Merchandize By the waters of Babylon the best of our fore-fathers sate downe wept when they remembred thee O Sion But by the waters of Shiloah we inioy the peace of Sion purged a Fastu Astu from the tyranny and treachery of those that beare ill will vnto it vnder the most gratious conduct of our mildest Moses But where are our thankfulnesse devotion prayers prayses to the most mercifull King of Heaven for it How shall wee free our selues from the aspertion that followes 9. As it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people sate downe to eat and drinke and rose vp to play This includes the specification wherein this Idolatry consisted and whereby it is described The Apostle chargeth them with no more then that he hath ground for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it is written nor with more particulars thē are comprised in their feasting and playing For these two daughters of peace and Idlenesse may clayme kindred with most of any vice whatsoever Now where there is no religion at all this scriptum est must plant it where it is overgrowne with superstition this scriptum est must reforme it where there is any doubting this must settle it where doubling this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this scriptum est rightly taken wisely applyed constantly vrged will discover it Iust as the pillar of smoake and fire did direct the Israelites so this scriptum est is our safest iournall to carry vs through this wildernesse of sinne And if in the hurry of the Citty or businesses of the Court we perchance sometimes may loose the sight of it as the wise men did of the starre Mat. 2. whiles they were in Ierusalem yet in lifting our eyes vpward we may finde it againe to direct vs to the place and stand right over it where wee shall be sure to finde our Saviour For further proofe hereof we need seeke no further then how our Saviour himselfe in person hath led the way before vs. For how confounded he the Divell himselfe in that inexplicable incounter in the wildernesse but by the sword and buckler of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scriptum est it is written Man shall not liue by bread only It is written Mat. 4. thou shalt not tempt thy Lord thy God It is written thou shalt worship thy Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue How stopped he the mouthes of those sacrilegious Hucksters whose stalles he overthrew in the prophaned Temple but by this scriptum est It is written My house shall be called the house of prayer Luk. 19. but yee haue made it a denne of theeues The Scribes Pharisees grumbled at the applauding Hosanna of the harmelesse children But how doth he put them to a non plus Haue yee never read out of the mouthes of Babes Mat. 21. and Sucklings thou hast perfected praise Who can deny but the testimony of Iohn Baptist The voice of the Father from Heaven the