upon his Regall Seat To this same people from time to time he sent Prophets to reduce them to the right way of their God from the which oftentimes they declined by Idolatry And albeit for their stubborne contempt of Justice he was compelled to give them into the hands of their enemies as before he threatned by the mouth of Moses Insomuch that the holy City was destroyed the Temple burnt with fire and the whole land left desolate the space of seventy yeeres yet of mercy did he reduce them again to Ierusalem where the Citie and Temple were reedified and they against all temptations and assaults of Satan did abide till the Messias came according to the promise VI. Of the Incarnation of Christ Iesus VVHen the fulnesse of time came God sent his Sonne his eternall Wisdome the substance of his own Glory into this World who took the nature of manhood of the substance of a woman to wit of a Virgine and that by the operation of the holy-Ghost and so was born The just seed of David The Angel of the great councell of God The very Messias promised whom we acknowledge and confesse Emanuel very God and very man two perfect natures united and ioyned in one person By which our Confession we condemne the damnable and pestilent Heresies of Arrius Martion Eutiches Nestorius and such others as either denie the Eternitie of his God-head or the Veritie of his humane nature or confound them or yet divide them VII Why it behoveth the Mediatour to be very God and very man VVE acknowledge and confesse That this most wondrous conjunction betwixt the God-head and Man-hood of Christ Jesus did proceed from the eternall and immutable Decree of God whence also our salvation springeth and dependeth VIII Of Election FOr that same eternall God who of meere grace elected us in Christ Jesus his Sonne before the foundation of the world was laid appointed him to be our Head our Brother our Pastour and great Bishop of our soules But because that the enmitie betwixt the justice of God and our sinnes was such That no flesh by it self could or might have attained unto God It behoved that the Son of God should descend unto us and take himself a body of our body flesh of our flesh and bones of our bones and so become the perfect Mediatour betwixt God and man giving power to so many as beleeve in him to be the sons of God as he himself doth witnesse I passe up to my Father and your Father to my God and unto God By which most holy fraternity whatsoever we have lost in Adam is restored to us again And for this cause are we nothing afraid to call God our Father not so much in that he hath created us which we have common with the reprobate as for that that he hath given to us his onely Sonne to be our Brother and given unto us grace to imbrace him for our onely Mediatour as before is said It behoved further the Messias and Redeemer to be very God and very Man because he was to suffer the punishment due for our transgressions and to present himself in the presence of his fathers judgement as in our person to suffer for our transgression and disobedience by death to overcome him that was Authour of death But because the onely God-head could not suffer death neither could onely the Man-hood overcome the same he joyned both together in one person that the imbecilitie of the one should suffer and be subject to death which we had deserved and the Infinite and Invincible power of the other to wit of the God-head should triumph and purchase unto us life libertie and perpetuall Victory and so we confesse and most undoubtedly beleeve IX Christs Death Passion Buriall c. THat our Lord Jesus offered himself a voluntary Sacrifice unto his Father for us That he suffered contradiction of sinners That he was wounded and plagued for our transgressions That he being the clean and innocent Lambe of GOD was condemned in the presence of an earthly Judge that we might be absolved before the Tribunall Seat of our God That he suffered not onely the cruell death of the Crosse which was accursed by the sentence of God but also That he suffered for a season the wrath of his Father which sinners had deserved But yet we avow That he remained the onely welbeloved and blessed Sonne of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment which he suffered in body and soule to make the full satisfaction for the sinnes of his people After the which we confesse and avow That there remains no other sacrifice for sinnes which if any affirme we nothing doubt to avow That they are blasphemous against Christs Death and the everlasting purgation and satisfaction purchased unto us by the same X. Resurrection VVE undoubtedly beleeve That in so much as it was impossible that the paines of death should retain in bondage the Authour of life that our Lord Jesus Crucified Dead and Buried who descended into hell did rise again for our Justification and destroying him who was the authour of death brought life again to us that were subject to death and to the bondage of the fame We know that his Resurrection was confirmed by the testimony of his very enemies By the Resurrection of the dead whose sepulchres did open and they did arise and appeared to many within the City of Ierusalem It was also confirmed by the testimonie of Angels and by the sences and judgements of his Apostles and others who had conversation and did eat and drink with him after his Resurrection XI Ascension VVE nothing doubt but that the self-same Bodie which was born of the Virgin was Crucified Dead and Buried and which did rise again did ascend into the Heavens for accomplishment of all things Where in our names and for our comfort he hath received all power in heaven and in earth Where he sitteth at the right hand of the Father enthronized in his Kingdome Advocate and onely Mediatour for us which glory honour and prerogative he alone amongst the Brethren shall possesse till that all his enemies be made his foot stoole as that we undoubtedly beleeve they shall be in the finall judgement to the execution whereof we certainly beleeve that the same our Lord Jesus shall visibly and apparantly returne as that he was seene to ascend And there we firmely beleeve that the time of refreshing and restitution of all things shall come insomuch that those that from the beginning have suffered violence injury and wrong for righteousnesse sake shall inherite the blessed immortality promised from the beginning But contrary wayes the stubborn cruell inobedient oppressors filthy persons adulterers and all sorts of unthankfull men shall be cast into the dungeon of utter darknesse where their worme shall not die neither yet their fire bee extinguished the remembrance of the
The dead shall not live saith he neither shall the tyrants or the dead arise because thou hast visited and scattered them and destroyed all their memory From this 14 verse unto the end of the 19 it appeareth That the Prophet observeth no order yea that he speaketh things directly repugning one to another For first he saith The dead shall not live After he affirmeth Thy dead men shall live Secondly he saith Thou hast visited and scattered them and destroyed all their memory Immediately after he saith Thou hast increased thy Nation O Lord thou hast increased thy Nation They have visited thee and have poured forth a prayer before thee Who I say would not think that these are things not onely spoken forth of good order and purpose but also manifestly repugning one to another For to live and not to live to be so destroyed that no memoriall remaineth and to be so increased that the coasts of the earth shal be replenished seem to import plain contradiction For removing of this doubt and for better understanding of the Prophets minde we must understand that the Prophet had to do with divers sorts of men he had to do with the conjured and manifest enemies of Gods people the Caldees or Babylonians even so such as professe CHRIST JESUS have to doe with the Turke and Sarazens He had to doe with the Seed of Abraham whereof there were three sorts The ten Tribes all degenerate from the true worshipping of GOD and corrupted with Idolatry as this day are our pestilent Papists in all Realms and Nations there rested onely the Tribe of Iudah at Ierusalem where the form of true Religion was observed the Law taught and Ordinances of God outwardly kept but yet there were in that body I mean in the body of the visible Church a great number that were Hypocrites as this day yet are among us that do professe the Lord Jesus and have refused Papistrie not a few that were licentious livers some that turned their backe to God that is Had forâ—aken all true Religion and som that lived a most abominable life as Ezekiel saith in his vision and yet there were some godly as a few Wheat Cornes oppressed and hid among the multitude of Chaffe Now according to this diversitie the Prophet keepeth divers purposes and yet in most perfect order And first after the first part of the complaint of the afflicted as we have heard in vehemency of spirit he bursteth forth against all the proud enemies of Gods people against all such as trouble them and against all such as mock and forsake God and saith The dead shall not live the proud Giants shall not rise thou hast scattered them and destroyed their memoriall In which words he fighteth against the present temptation and dolorous state of Gods people and against the insolent pride of such as oppressed them as if the prophet should say O ye troublers of Gods people howsoever it appeareth to you in this your bloody rage that God regardeth not your crueltie nor considereth not what vioâ—ence you do to his poor afflicted yet shall ye be visited yea your Carcases shall fall and lie as stinking Carrions upon the face of the earth ye shall fall without hope of life or of a blessed resurrection yea howsoever ye gather your substance and augment your families ye shal be so scattered that ye shall leave no memoriall of you to the posterities to come but that which shall be execrable and odious Hereof have the Tyrants their admonition and the afflicted Church inestimable comfort The Tyrants that do oppresse shall receive the same end that they did which have passed before that is They shall die and fall with shame without hope of resurrection as is foresaid not That they shall not arise to their own confusion and just condemnation but that they shall not recover power to trouble the servants of God neither yet shall the wicked arise as David saith in the Councell of the Just Now have the wicked their Councells their Thrones and finally handling for the most part of all things that are upon the face of the earth but the poor servants of God are reputed unworthy of mens presence envyed mocked yea they are more vile before these proud Tyrants then is the very dirt and mire that is trodden under foot But in that glorious resurrection this state shall be changed for then shall such as now by their abominable living and crueltie destroy the earth and molest Gods children see him whom they have pierced they shall see the glory of such as now they persecute to their terrour and everlasting confusion The remembrance hereof ought to make us patient in the dayes of affliction and so to comfort us that when we see Tyrants in their blinde rage tread under foot the Saints of God that utterly we despaire not as if there were neither Wisdome Justice nor Power above in the Heavens to represse such Tyrants and to redresse the dolours of rhe unjustly afflicted No brethren let us be assured that the right hand of the Lord will change the state of things that be most desperate In our God there is Wisdome and Power in a moment to change the joy and mirth of our enemies into everlasting mourning and our sorrows into joy and gladnesse that shall have no end Let us therefore in these apparent calamities and marvell not that I say calamities apparent for he that seeth not a fire begun that shall burn more then we look for unlesse God of his mercy quench it is more then blinde not bee discouraged but with unfained repentance let us return to the Lord our God let us accuse and condemne our former negligence and stedfastly depend upon his promised deliverance so shall our temporall sorrows be converted into everlasting joy The doubt that might be moved concerning the destruction of those whom God exalteth shall be discussed if time will suffer after that we have passed thorowout the Text now proceedeth the Prophet and saith Thou hast increased the Nations O Lord thou hast increased the Nations thou art made glorious thou hast inlarged all the coasts of the earth Lord in trouble c. In these words the Prophet giveth consolation to the afflicted assuring them That how horrible soever that desolation should be yet should the Seed of Abraham be so multiplied that it should replenish the coasts of the earth yea that God should be more glorified in their affliction then he was during the time of their prosperitie This promise no doubt was incredible when it was made for who could have been perswaded That the destruction of Ierusalem should have been the meanes whereby the Nation of the Iews should have beene increased seeing that much rather it appeared That the overthrow of Ierusalem should have been the very abolishing of the seed of Abraham But we must consider to what end it was that God revealed himself to Abraham and what is
sat downe upon his knees and rose againe And thrice he said these words O thou Saviour of the world have mercy on me Father of heaven I commend my spirit into thy holy hands When he had made this Prayer he turned him to the people and said these words having obtained leave to speak a little I beseech you Christian brethren and sisters that ye be not offended at the Word of God for the affliction and torments which ye see already prepared for me But I exhort you that ye love the Word of God for your salvation and suffer patiently and with a comfortable heart for the Words sake which is your undoubted salvation and everlasting comfort Moreover I pray you shew my brethren and sisters which have heard me oft before that they cease not nor leave off to learne the word of God which I taught them after the grace given unto me for no persecutions nor troubles in this world which last not And shew unto them that my Doctrine was no wives fables after the constitutions made by men And if I had taught mens doctrine I had gotten greater thanks by men But for the Words sake and true Gospel which was given to me by the grace of God I suffer this day by men not sorrowfully but with a glad heart and minde For this cause I was sent That I should suffer this fire for Christs sake Consider and behold my visage ye shall not see me change my colour This grim fire I fear not and so I pray you for to do if that any persecution come unto you for the Words â—ake and not to fear them that slay the body and have no power afterward to slay the soul. Some have said of me That I taught that the soul of man should sleep untill the last day But I know surely and my faith is such That my soul shall sup with my Saviour this night ere it be six hours for whom I suffer this Then he prayed for them which accused him saying I beseech the Father of heaven to forgive them that have of any ignorance or else of any evil minde forged lies upon me I forgive them with all my heart I beseech Christ forgive them that have condemned me to death this day ignorantly And last of all he said to the people on this manner I beseech you brethren and sisters to exhort your Prelats to the learning of the Word of God that they may be ashamed to do evil and learn to do good And if they will not convert themselves from their wicked errour there shall hastily come upon them the wrath of God which they shall not eschew Many faithfull words said he in the meane time taking no heed or care of the cruell torments which were then prepared for him Then the Executioner that was his tormentor sate down upon his knees and said Sir I pray you forgive me for I am not guilty of your death To whom he answered Come hither to me When he was come to him he kissed his cheek and said Lo here is a token that I forgive thee my heart do thy Office And then by and by the Trumpet sounding he was tyed to the stake and the fire kindled The Captain of the Castle for the love he bore to M. Wischarde drew so neer to the fire that the flame thereof did him harme he wished M. Wischarde to be of good courage and to beg from God the forgivenesse of his sins to whom M. Wischarde answered thus This fire torments my body but no wayes abates my spirit Then M. Wischarde looking towards the Cardinall said He who in such state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my torments within few dayes shall be hanged out at the same window to be seen with us much ignominy as he now leaneth there in pride Then with this the Executioner drawing the Cord stopt his breath presently after the fire being great he was consumed to powder The Prelats would not suffer any prayers to be made for him according to their Custome After the death of Master Wischarde the Cardinall was cryed up by his flatterers and all the rabble of the corrupt Clergie as the onely Defender of the Catholike Church and punisher of hereticks neglecting the authority of the sluggish Governour And it was said by them That if the great Prelates of latter dayes both at home and abroad had been so stout and zealous of the credit of the Catholike Church they had not onely suppressed all hereticks but also kept under the Lay-men who were so froward and stubborne On the other side when that the people beheld the great tormenting of that innocent they could not withhold from piteous mourning and complaining of the innocent lambs slaughter After the death of this blessed Martyr of God began the people in plaine speaking to damne and detest the cruelty that was used yea men of great birth and estimation and honour at open tables avowed That the blood of the said Master George should be revenged or else it should cost life for life and that in a short time they should be like hogs kept for slaughter by this vitious Priest and wicked Monster which neither minded God nor cared for man Amongst those that spake against the Cardinalls cruelty Iohn Lesley brother to the Earle of Rothes was chief with his Cozen Norman Lesley who had been a great follower of the Cardinall and very active for him but a little before fell so foule with him that they came to high reproaches one with another The occasion of their falling out was a private businesse wherein Norman Lesley said he was wronged by the Cardinall On the other side the Cardinall said he was not with respect used by Norman Lesley his inferiour The said Iohn Lesley in all companies spared not to say That that same dagger shewing forth his dagger and that same hand should be put in the Cardinalls brest These brutes came to the Cardinalls ears but he thought himselfe stout enough for all Scotland For in Babylon that is in his new Block-House he was sure as he thought and upon the fields he was able to match all his enemies And to speak the truth the most part of the Nobility of Scotland had either given unto him their Bands of Manred or else were in confederacy and promised amity with him and so he gave his bastard eldest daughter in Marriage to the Earl of Crawford his eldest son and heir and caused the Wedding to be celebrate with such State as if she had been a Princes lawfull daughter He onely feared them in whose hands God did deliver him and for them he laid his nets so secretly as that he made a full compt that their feet could not escape as we shall after hear And something of his former practices we may recompt After Easter he came to Edinburgh to hold the Seingnye as the Papists termed then their unhappy Assembly of Baals shaven sort It was bruted that
confession neither yet did I for that purpose adduce the History But onely to let us see how constantly God kept his promise in increasing of his people and in augmenting of his true knowledge when that both they that were the seed of Abraham and that Religion which they professed appeared utterly to have been extinguished above mens expectation I say he brought freedom out of bondage light out of darknesse and life out of death I am not ignorant that the building of the Temple and reparation of the Walls of Ierusalem were long stayed so that the work had many enemies But so did the hand of God prevail in the end That a decree was made by Darius by him I suppose that succeeded to Cambises not onely that all things necessary for the building of the Temple and for the Sacrifices that were to be there brent should be ministred upon the Kings charges but also That whosoever should hinder that work or change that decree that a balk should be taken out of his house and that he should be hanged thereupon yea that his house should be made a dunghill and thereto he addeth a Prayer saying The God of Heaven who hath placed his Name there root out every King and People O that Kings and Nations should understand that shall put his hand either to change or to hurt this house of God that is in Ierusalem And so in despight of Sathan was the Temple builded the walls repaired and the City inhabited and in the most desperate dangers it was preserved till that the Messias promised the glory of the second Temple came manifested himself to the world suffered and rose againe according to the Scriptures And so by sending forth his Gospel from Ierusalem did replenish the earth with the true knowledge of God and so did God in perfection encrease the Nation and the spirituall Seed of Abraham Wherefore dear brethren we have no small consolation if the state of all things be this day rightly considered we see in what fury and rage the world for the most part is now raised against the poor Church of Jesus Christ unto the which he hath proclaimed liberty after the fearfull bondage of that Spirituall Babylon in the which we have been holden captives longer space then Israel was prisoner in Babylon it self For if we shall consider upon the one part the multitude of those that live wholly without Christ and upon the other part the blinde rage of the pestilent Papists What shall we think of the small number of them that do professe Christ Jesus but that they are as a poor sheep already seized in the claws of the Lyon yea that they and the true Religion which they professe shall in a moment utterly be consumed But against this fearfull temptation let us be armed with the Promise of God to wit That he will be the Protector of his Church yea That he will multiply it even when to mans judgement it appeareth utterly to be exterminate This Promise hath our God performed in the multiplication of Abrahams Seed in preservation of it when Sathan laboured utterly to have destroyed it in deliverance of the same as we have heard from Babylon He hath sent his son Christ Jesus clad in our flesh who hath tasted of all our infirmities sin except who hath promised to be with us to the end of the world He hath further kept Promise in publication yea in the restitution of his glorious Gospel Shall we then think that he will leave his Church destitute in this most dangerous age Onely let us stick to his Truth and study to conform our lives to the same and he shall multiply his knowledge and encrease his people But now let us hear what the Prophet saith more Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them The Prophet meaneth that such as in the time of quietnesse did not rightly regard God nor his judgements were compelled by sharp corrections to seek God yea by cryes and dolorous complaints to visite him True it is That such obedience deserveth small praise before men for who can praise or accept that in good part which cometh as it were of meer compulsion and yet rare it is that any of Gods children do give unfained obedience untill the hand of God turn them For if quietnesse and prosperity make them not utterly to forget their duty both towards God and man as David for a season yet it maketh them carelesse insolent and in many things unmindefull of those things that God chiefly craveth of them which imperfection espied and the danger that thereof might ensue our heavenly Father visiteth the sins of his children but in the rod of his mercy by the which they are moved to return to their God to accuse their former negligence and to promise better obedience in all times hereafter as David confesseth saying Before I fell in affliction I went astray but now will I keep thy Statutes But yet for the better understanding of the Prophets minde we may consider how God doth visite man and how man doth visite God and what difference there is betwixt the visitation of God upon the reprobate and his visitation upon the chosen God sometimes visiteth the reprobate in his hot displeasure pouring upon them his plagues for their long rebellion as we have heard before that he visited the proud and destroyed their memory Other times God is said to visite his people being in affliction to whom he sendeth comfort or promise of deliverance as he did visite the seed of Abraham being oppressed in Egypt and Zachary saith That God had visited his people and sent unto them hope of deliverance when Iohn the Baptist was borne But of none of these visitations speaketh our Prophet here but of that onely which we have already touched to wit when that God layeth his correction upon his own children to call them from the venemous Breasts of this corrupt world that they suck not in over-great aboundance the poyson thereof and doth as it were wean them from their mothers Paps that they may learn to receive other nourishment True it is That this weaning or spaning as we terme it from worldly pleasure is a thing strange to the flesh and yet it is a thing so necessary to Gods children that unlesse they be weaned from the pleasures of the world they can never feed upon that delectable Milk of Gods eternall verity For the corruption of the one doth either hinder the other to be received or else so troubleth the whole powers of man that the soul can never so digest the truth of God as that he ought to do Albeit this appeareth hard yet it is most evident For what liquor can we receive from the Breasts of the world but that which is in the world what that is the Apostle Iohn teacheth saying Whatsoever is in the world is either the lusts of the eyes the lusts