your time in so blessed a worke Without all suspition of flattery be it spoken vnto the praise of God and the comfort of your soule in the day of the Lord your readinesse to do good vnto all your Zeale in religion your felicity in composing of controuersies in planting of peace and in quenching of strifes and that to the contentment of all parties doth not a little reioyce the harts of all that are round about you and shall minister no small occasion to their posterity that is to come to commend the same to the euerlasting praise of God and your neuer dying fame It was Pauls reioycing that the care of all the Churches being layd vpon him yet he through Gods power fainted not vnder his burthen And surely you may well say the care both of Church and common-wealth about you lyeth vpon you but yet God doth enable you to vndergo that care Yea from what parts almost do they not repaire vnto you as vnto the common Phisition of the common-wealthes diseases and the stay of the countrey and most blessed instrument of euery mans peace and welfare when any of their matters are otherwise like to languish and fall to the ground When it was first reported that you should be employed in Embassage for her Maiesty into France although it could not be denied but that your employment that way might yea and in all likelihoods would through the blessing of God haue proued very beneficiall to the Church of God in both nations yet it grew very disputable among some whether your presence there or at home in your owne countrey had bene the more necessarie And so fast hath God vnited vnto you the harts affections of the poore commons about you yea and of all sorts that as vnwillingly they would haue parted with you if the choyce had bene in them as the young infant forbeareth the presence of the kind and tender mother I speake not this to the preiudice of any neither is there any such cause for thankes be to God you cannot in this respect say as sometime Eliah sayd of himselfe that the Lord hath left you alone but I speake it to your comfort and encouragement wheresoeuer you shall be employed whether in forren businesse or domesticall affaires For though you cannot want your crosses more then other of Gods deare children who both abroad and at home do by daily experience find that virtutis est inuidia comes and that they are enuied of the malignant no lesse for their vertues then Iacob was hated of Esaw because of the blessing yet cannot that gracious aspect of Gods louing countenance fauourable blessing which haue hitherto continually seconded al your godly indeuours but be tanquā arrha as an vndoubted pledge and testimony vnto you that whither soeuer you shall be lawfully called foorth to do him seruice in seruing your Prince and countrey he will not leaue you to your selfe nor to the malice of the enuious but will on the contrary stand by you and hedge you in with grace and mercy wherewith you shall be defended as with a shield And as he hath promised to honour those that honor him so shall you assuredly find for euer as you haue hitherto done the truth of that promise in due time performed vnto you Therefore go on still like your selfe as a faithfull friend to truth and sincerity and an vnfained enemy to the man of Belial and vaine man whose counterfeit dealings shall vanish as the smoke against the wind and the God of heauen prosper you in your goings And now no whit doubting of your willingnesse to peruse these Treatises nor of your readinesse to construe all things in the best part and to make your best vse of them to the glory of God the good of his Church the comfort of your soule and benefit of your countrey I humbly commend both your selfe and them to the blessing of God From my study this 8. of February Your worships in all good affection W. BVRTON THE I. SERMON MATH 6.1.2.3.4 Take heede that ye giue not your almes before men to be seene of them or else you shall haue no reward of your father which is in heauen Therefore when thou giuest thine almes thou shalt not make a trumpet to be blowne before thee as the hypocrites do in the Sinagogues and in the streetes to be praised of men verily I say vnto you they haue their reward But when thou doest thine almes let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth That thine almes may be in secret and thy father that seeth in secret will reward thee openly THE drift of our Sauiour Christ both in this Chapter and in the Chapter following is all one with that which he had in the former Namely to teach his followers that if they would enter into the kingdome of heauen it is necessarie that their righteousnesse do exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees onely with this difference In the former he confuteth the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees and in these two he noteth and condemneth their life and hypocrisie From which obseruation two things are to be noted First that aboue all things the Church must be purged from false doctrine For if the doctrine be not whole and sound it cannot be that the life should be ordered aright for the doctrine of the Church is the rule of mens liues if the rule be crooked then must mens liues be crooked also Secondly if the doctrine be refined and throughly purged yet is it not sufficient to the true study of righteousnesse vnlesse also the life be rightly instituted and purged too and especially from hypocrisie For if the Carpenter haue neuer so straight a rule yet if he weare it alwayes at his backe and do not thereby square out his worke the building wil go but crookedly forward And in like manner if Christian builders haue neuer so good Preachers amongst them and the doctrine that is taught by them neuer so sound yet if they cast the word behind them and hate to be reformed by the same what else are they like vnto but vnto the foolish Carpenter that put his rule at his backe and worketh altogether at aduenture to the spoiling of the whole building and vndoing of himselfe with shame inough of all that behold him Take heede c. The partes of this admonition are two negatiue and affirmatiue In the first part we are admonished what to auoide in giuing of our almes In the second part we are shewed what to do Concerning the thing that is to be auoided note we three things First what it is Secondly how to auoide it Thirdly the reason why it must be auoided For the first the thing that is to be shunned in giuing of almes is vaineglory and that hath two parts First inward desire of the same Next an outward shew of it The first is the roote the second is the leaues and the branches The first is
in going whereabout is it It may be they plie it so fast to saue some bodie that is in daunger or to visite the poore and needie No saith the Apostle Their feete are swift to shed bloud But yet it may be their trade and manner of liuing is good and profitable to the Commonwealth No saith the Apostle Destruction and calamitie are in their waies But yet it may be their life is harmlesse and peaceable amongst their honest neighbors No saith he the way of peace they haue not knowne But yet for all this they may feare God in their hearts may they not No saith he The feare of God is not before their eyes Why then we perceiue that a meere naturall man wholly vnregenerate such as Salomon calleth The man of Belial is all one mā both within and without in his life lawlesse and in his heart leude and wicked The vse of this first point is to be made against those wicked mē that being altogether sold vnto sinne and hating reformation will reason in this sort Whatsoeuer my sayings and my doings be or howsoeuer my gestures and outward behauiour be or whatsoeuer my religion be yea though I come not at Church to heare the Sermons nor take any pleasure in the Scriptures c. yet I would you should know it I loue God and I regard Gods word yea I haue as good a hart to God as the best of you But he is deceiued for if a leud heart be a good heart then so it is but a good heart sendeth foorth good things being first renewed by the spirite and grace of God but if thou be a wicked lawlesse Belial and a vaine man that walkest in froward customes c. then know for a certaine that thy heart is full of leude things from whence proceed all thy outward disorders And how can that hart be a good hart to God-ward that is stored with leud things And so much for the first point The second conclusion that ariseth from this place is this that God iudgeth of a man according to that which is in his heart whatsoeuer he be in shewe yea though a false heart may be and is commonly shrowded vnder a ciuill behauiour yet it is seene of God and iudged by him too God seeth not as man seeth saith Samuel man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh vnto the truth of the heart The hart of man is deceiptfull aboue all things saith Ieremie yet I the Lord search the heart and trie the reines to giue to euery one according to his wayes to shew that the wayes of man are in his heart and none can knowe them throughly but the Lord whose proper office is to search the heart and that he will surely do A needfull point this is for two sorts of people especially to think well vpon The first are Papistes of all sorts Church Papistes and all They are skilfull in their Popish eleuations idolatrous crossings down low duckings demure countenances holy habites and obseruations of times but they keepe their consciences to themselues and the Lord looketh vpon the leudnes and villanies that are lurking in their harts till a fit time serue for the bringing of them foorth as murthering of Princes vndermining of kingdomes and states subuerting the Gospel enriching the kingdome of Antichrist vnder colour of wilfull pouertie besides their whoredomes and other abhominations which make them now so to storme and rage because they are discouered vnto the world But let them looke vnto it God will iudge them for the leude things that are in their hearts Many ceremonies they make like Balaam with his seuen altars c. but both his and their hearts go one way and God seeth it well inough Many prayers and great deuotion they pretend but after the Pharisees fashion who when they seemed to pray most deuoutly then they deuoured most greedily and cruelly poore widowes houses Their Inquisitions are full of such prancks euen amongst their holy fathers but I will not nowe stand raking in those puddles Leude things are in their hearts and God seeth them well inough and will iudge them not so much by that which soundeth in their mouths although he will also iudge them for that but especially by that which is in their hearts This is also to be thought vpon of our politicke Protestants who say they defie Poperie but yet are not many of them very sound at the heart They are too well read and practised in Machiauell to be good Christians they will not sticke to promise to protest to say and vnsay to do any thing for profite and gaine These ciuill honest men can outwardly behaue themselues in print with kind kissings and curteous embracings with courting and saluting but in their heart God seeth much crueltie and couetousnesse deceipt prophanenesse and trecherie like a legion of Diuels in a common Inne for all that come from hell so they bring no godlinesse but gold with them They creep and crouch saith the Psalmist to make the poore fall by heapes into their nets their courtesie and kindnesse is framed rather by art then by heart yet all this artificiall dissembling is seene to God and in time to the world Wo be vnto them if they repent not for Leude things are in their hearts as in the heart of Belial Many are sicke of Amnons disease who seemed to long for cakes of his sister Thamars making but he could not be well till he had his pleasure of his sister And as Absolom inuited his brother Amnon to a great feast of purpose to murther him which he most leudly effected so can many as pollitikely inuite those to their feasts whom they meane to snare and catch at their tables of al which it may be said as it is said here of Belial Whatsoeuer is in their lippes yet Leud things are in their hearts and accordingly will God iudge of them and iudge them too for leud and wicked persons Many of our gilded Polititians and varnished Protestants at large are no whit behind their tutour Machiauel nor his brother the Pope in shrowding a leud heart vnder ciuill pollicie and politicke ciuility to no small endamaging of the Church of Christ but perhappes they thinke that God doth not note it and will not iudge them for it A man may descant vpon Machiauels name as Abigail did vpon Nabals Nabal is his name saith she and folly is with him So Macheuil is his name he matcheth all in euill and an euil match also hath he made for he hath matched a Princesse and a pesant together Christian religion and carnall pollicie together or diuellish pollicie rather who agree like the bondwoman and the freewoman that were in Abrahams house the one hating scoffing and persecuting the other so that there could be no peace in the house vntill they were parted asunder yea vntill the bondwoman and her sonne were cast out of the
God but to his owne destruction Now thē when we haue by the grace of God found out the cause of our euill to be an euill heart in our selues we may truly say of our harts as Dauid did of Doeg and prophetically of Iudas Psalm 55.12 Surely mine enemy did not defame me but it was thou my familiar friend which was bred and borne with me euen thou my heart with whom I haue bene so familiar that hast wrought me the greatest part of my woe Of the same iudgement is the Apostle Iames Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with euill neither tempteth he any man But euery man is tempted when he is drawne away by his owne concupiscence and is enticed Then when lust hath conceiued it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Erre not my deare brethren Where the Apostle plainely sheweth vs two things first that such is our impudencie shamelesse ignorance and presumptuous blind boldnesse by nature that rather then we will acknowledge our selues to be in fault and to be the cause of our owne euill we will not sticke to lay the fault vpon God and make him the cause of euill As our first parents did the woman blamed the serpent and the man blamed not simply the woman nor himselfe at all but the woman forsooth which God had giuen him Secondly that whosoeuer thinketh that God is the cause of his euill and not that his owne corrupt hart is wholly the cause thereof the force whereof is so great both to entice and draw vnto euill to conceiue and to bring foorth euill doth erre and is deceiued Hereof it commeth also that the word of God cannot enter into many it cannot fasten vpon their hearts because their hearts are full of leud things Like the Inne where Christ was borne there was no roome for him in the Inne and therefore he was faine to lye in the stable And in many though it enter yet it tarieth not but departeth away presently saying as Christ said when the Iewes sought after his life Arise let vs go hence as being vnwilling to lodge in so filthie a place and amongst his enemies And hence it is likewise that the Preachers words come out from many when they repeat a Sermon as Thamar did from Amnon when he had defiled her with her garments all rent and torne If pure wine be put into a filthy and vncleane vessell in powring it foorth againe it will appeare what stuffe was in the vessell for they come out together so if wholesome doctrine be deliuered to a leud heart in the rehearsing thereof it will appeare with what manner of vnderstanding and affection he heard it Such caskes do many bring with them to put our Sermons in that either runne out like Siues or else are defiled with ignorance or malice or preiudicate conceipts that it wold loth a man to heare it come from them For though it came to them in a princely robe yet it commeth from them like a beggers cloke yea though it came to them with a louely countenance yet it commeth from them like a filthie carrion dragged and haled in the miry streetes amongst dogges that a man would thinke the Preacher had bene out of his wits to deliuer such matter or in such manner as they vtter it or else which is the right that they wanted both wit and vnderstanding or grace or conscience or honestie or all that heard the Sermon to report it in such a leud manner But the best is the shame turneth to themselues and no bodie is so much defiled with such hearts as the owners thereof So saith our Sauiour Christ Those things which proceede out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile the man for out of the heart come euill thoughts murders adulteries fornications false testimonies slanders these are the things which defile the man meaning him that is troubled with them as if he did but vomite vpon his owne clothes that speaketh from a filthie heart And verily they are but fooles that do so for what wise man will carrie one with him still that shameth him wheresoeuer he goeth A leud vnreformed hart is such an vnmanerly companion that doth nothing else but discredite our persons deface our religion grieue our friends harden our foes aduance the Diuell prouoke the Lord marre all the good things that come neare it and alwaies annoy shame and vexe the owner Lot had much ado with the Sodomites but none did more dishonour him then his owne daughters Noah was vexed with the old world but none did him so much shame as his owne sonne Dauid had many enemies but none put him in such feare and danger as his owne Absalom Sampson had much ado with the Philistines but his owne heifter his wife ploughed vp his riddle to the aduantage of his enemies Our Sauiour Christ had many enemies yet none like Iudas who was alwaies in his companie So euery man yea euery true Christian shall haue many enemies crosses troubles and dangers but his owne heart is his greatest enemie which doth flatter him most and deceiue him soonest which for want of godlinesse cannot be content with that it hath which for want of contentation cannot be in quiet for want of quietnesse cannot haue any ioy of any thing that it enioyeth which for want of heauenly wisedome cannot deuide his times aright nor tell how to deale with all sorts of people which for want of patience cannot beare an iniurie or put vp a wrong for want of mercifull affections cannot tell how to forgiue offences for want of charitie cannot tel how to construe things well for want of the feare of God cannot haue a good vnderstanding for want of a good vnderstanding peruerteth the straight waies of the Lord which for want of humilitie cannot see the meaning of Gods wayes which for want of a lowly affection cannot tell how to seeke peace for want of Gods grace cannot acknowledge his fault and for want of remorse of conscience cannot repent him of his leudnesse Such a heart is the heart of the wicked Belial which being fraught with leud things disordereth distempereth and shameth all the life of that man that hath it and is ruled by it And so much for the third point in handling whereof we haue seene that all the cause of outward disorder and trouble is within a mans owne hart of the other three points in the next Sermon Now let vs pray THE VI. SERMON PRO. 6.14 Leud things are in his heart OVt of these words ioyned with the rest of Belials description we haue hitherto learned three excellent and worthy points of doctrine First that Belial is no better within then without Secondly that the heart and whatsoeuer is in the heart of man is knowne to God who will also iudge a man according to that which is
in his heart whatsoeuer shew he maketh outwardly Thirdly that the cause of all outward disorder and scandalous behauiour is in the wicked mans owne heart Now it remaineth that we consider of the three other points which being propounded in the former Sermon for want of time I could not intreat of Whereof the first is this that so long as the heart is vnreformed and continueth stored with leud things it is not possible to be a good man For vntill then as we may perceiue by this anatomie of Belial the affections will be rebellious and lawlesse the speech will be froward and peeuish our religion will be hypocriticall and counterfeit our prayers will be lippe-labour and cold babling our zeale will be either none at all or very bitter rash our faith will be meere historicall our loue will proue onely self-loue our anger reuengefull and iniurious our life dissolute and scandalous our repentance desperate and faithlesse and our death dreadfull and comfortlesse Therefore if any would reforme his life he must first reforme his heart from whence as from a spring floweth continually a streame of corruption and vnrighteousnesse vnto death if it be not reformed and altered or of holinesse and righteousnesse vnto life if it be well reformed and kept Therefore Salomon pointing to the right way that leadeth to the reformation of maners saith Keepe thy heart with all diligence and addeth this as a reason for thereout cometh life and thereout cometh death And out of the heart saith our Sauiour Christ proceede euill thoughts adulteries murthers fornications debate strife c. speaking of an euill and vnregenerate heart to shew that a wicked mans heart is like a filthie dunghill which both breedeth and harboureth all kind of venimous vermine and as a snake on a sunnie day commeth foorth of her hole so the wicked when fit time and occasion serue do set foorth and shew the ware and stuffe which was hidden in their heart saying in the meane time as Esau did When the daies of mourning for my father Isaac do come then I will kill my brother Iacob which agreeth with that that Dauid speaketh of his enemie in Psal. 41.6 His heart heapeth vp iniquitie within him and when he commeth foorth he vttereth it Many counterfeit holinesse deuotion sobrietie loue and kindnesse and indeede they do but counterfeit for holy and deuout and sober and louing and kind c they cannot be so long as the heart or inward man is vnreformed In vaine do we sweepe the channels of the streete except we stop the fountaines from whence they flow In vaine do we crop the weedes except we dig vp their rootes from whence they receiue their nourishment In vaine do we plaister the sore except it be searched and cleansed to the bottom So in vaine do we labour to bring forth good actions without except first we labour to beget good affections within How canst thou say that thou louest me when thy heart is not with me said Dalilah to Sampson which she vttered as a common knowne principle in nature to be denyed of none that all loue is but counterfeit and false which cometh not from the heart And therefore whosoeuer will loue indeed must beginne first at his heart and frame that to loue And the like is to be said of other affections and all the actions or effects that proceed froÌ„ them The hart among the members of the bodie is like a great commaunder among his souldiers looke which way he goeth that way go they Well may we preach and long may we heare of the reforming of our liues of mortifying our pride our strange fashions our wantonnesse our couetousnesse our malice c. the tongue will make but a iest at the matter so long as the heart is vnreformed as appeareth by the testimonie that the Lord giueth against Ezechiels Auditours They heare thee saith the Lord as my people vse to heare but with their mouths they make iests at thee and thy Sermons their hearts run after their couetousnesse to shew that there is no outward obedience to be looked for where the heart yeeldeth not to obey for all actions outward wil follow the affections of the heart On the other side winne the heart and all is wonne without which there is no rowing but against the streame A readie heart maketh a readie hand to giue a readie tongue to speake a readie eare to heare and a readie foote to goe And a holy religious heart maketh a holy and religious hearing speaking and liuing Who were they that brought so bountifull gifts to the building of the Lords holy tabernacle among the Iewes as we reade in Exod. 35.21.22 verses It is said in the 29. verse Euery one whose hearts moued them willingly to bring brought some gold some siluer some silke some badgers skinnes some stones c. yea vntill they were forced to stay by proclamation to shew that when the heart is wonne to be willing and to like of the worke the worke shall go well forward and nothing will seeme hard to a willing mind When Dauids heart was enditing or framing of a good matter then was his tongue readie like the pen of a swift writer to declare the same And whosoeuer can say with Dauid O God my heart is prepared shall follow with Dauid and say so is my tongue also I will sing and giue praise to shew that when the heart is not readie to serue God nothing is readie for all tarrie for the heart Therefore it is that the Scripture doth so much call vpon vs to reforme our harts In the three and twentieth of the Proverbs the twelfth verse Salomon saith Apply thy heart to instruction and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge But first the heart and then the eares will follow and in the seuenteenth verse Let not thy heart be enuious against sinners but let it be in the feare of the Lord continually In the nineteenth verse O my sonne heare and be wise and guide thy heart in the way And in the 26. verse My sonne giue me thy heart and let thine eyes delight in my wayes And no maruell for what shall the Mariners do if the Pilote be false at the helme of the ship What shall the souldiers do at the hold if the captaine of the hold be a traitour A false heart is like such a Pilote and such a captaine yea a false heart is like Iudas among the disciples who carried the purse and made the prouision for all the rest laying vp one groate for his maâ—ster and tenne for himselfe A bad Cater being a cunning theefe and a secret traitour So the heart is the storer if that be secretly false and trecherous it will store the bodie with leudnesse and if it chaunce to speake one word for Gods glorie he will addresse and set foorth in most braue sort a thousand for
his own Here is much ado when the Lords day cometh to reforme and decke the bodie the apparell must not haue a spot or wrinckle the house fine and euery thing neate and trimme but no care to reforme the heart and therefore the word of the Lord is vnto vs as a tale that is told which we like not in at one eare and out at the other or as water to the Blackemoore great washing but we neuer the whiter When we go to a feast and when we meete our friends we haue much care to set our gestures our words and our lookes after the ciuillest manner but the heart is still after the old fashion badde inough leude things are in that reforme that and all the rest will be well Thou wouldest serue God but thou thinkest that thou art not fine enough nay rather thinke that thou hast a proude heart and seekest thy owne selfe Thou wouldest giue to the poore but for feare of wanting for thy selfe nay rather feare that thy heart is not enlarged with the bowels of mercie and liberalitie Thou wouldest goe to thy neighbour that hath offended thee and is offended at thee but for feare that he should thinke thou art glad to seeke vnto him and so shouldst be more contemned of him but rather thinke that thy heart is not humble and peaceable Thou haddest not committed such nor such sinnes but for such and such persons thou sayest who enticed thee thereunto Nay rather say that thy heart was not well bounded with the feare and loue of God but lay open like a common field whose hedge is plucked vp to the ground for all vnchast vnpure and vile thoughts to breake in Iosephs heart was surely grounded in the knowledge of Gods will in the obeying of his word and strongly bounded with the feare of God and therfore do his mistresse what she could she could not by any meanes breake into the hold of his chastitie though she did strongly assault it Let religion be in thy heart and that will make thee serue God with the congregation of his people in such as thou hast yea through heate and cold no weather will keep thee from the publique seruice of God It will make thee with Zacheus to climbe a tree to see Christ and with the creeple in the fifth of Iohn desire some bodie to carrie thee into the poole of the heauenly waters and liuely fountaines of Gods word when the Angell Gods Minister doth stirre them So farre thou wilt be from saying the weather is too cold or too hote I am not well I am troubled with a murre and I know not what as the manner of many daintie ones is to do when they haue no loue of God or his truth in their hearts So also let loue and humilitie and mercie and zeale be in thy heart and they will cause thee to giue to forgiue and to seek peace and to speake of the Lords statutes euen before Kings and wilt not be ashamed except it be that for want of those graces thou couldest not performe those duties any sooner And so much for that point in discoursing whereof we see plainely that vntill the heart be reformed a man cannot be a good man nor an honest man and how they take a wrong course that beginne to reforme their outward partes and not their hearts first i the next place we are to consider of the piercing nature and searching power or powerfull searching of the word of God which dealeth with the heart searcheth the heart maketh lawes for the heart findeth out the leudnesse of the heart and reproueth the thoughts of the heart searching and discouering euen the most secret corners and closets of the heart to see how those lawes are kept or broken for as the Lord doth see the heart himselfe and cannot otherwise do because he maketh it and ruleth it so by his word he searcheth and gageth the same Not to be better enformed himselfe of any thing that is there for he from euerlasting at one instant had and for euer hath all the thoughts intents imaginations and purposes of all hearts in the world open before him knowing them all before they be conceiued with the meanes and maner of their entrance and all the effectes of them being conceiued but it is to shew vs his poore creatures and vnworthy children that we serue such a God and Father as doth know vs truly euen to the very heart and the most secret thoughts thereof and further that we also might hereby learne to know our selues and reforme our owne hearts which without the light of the word we could neuer do And therefore Dauid asking the question how a yong man may reforme his wayes meaning how he shall bridle his affections and order his wordes and his deedes he maketh no other aunswere but this Euen by taking heede thereunto according to thy word And to this end he hath giuen giftes vnto men Ephes. 4. euen his spirite of wisedome and of vnderstanding and of counsell and of courage Esa. 11.3 Nowe therefore whosoeuer being endued with that searching and powerfull spirite in any measure handleth and deuideth the word aright cannot choose but rifle the very thoughts of the hart Yea the faithfull Minister of God shall search the hearts of his hearers whether he will or no and sometimes shall be in their bosomes when he hath no such purpose Some say to themselues as Ieremy did when he was had in contempt and hatred for speaking against the speciall sinnes of his time They will not make any more mention of God nor speake any more in his name but the word of the Lord is in their heart as a burning fire shut vp in their bones and they are wearie with forbearing yea they cannot stay but must vtter it And then they speake so to the consciences of men that if a stranger or an vnlearned man come in in the meane time he feeleth his heart discouered and is rebuked of all men as he thinketh for he thinketh that his secret thoughts are then knowne to all men and he confesseth plainely that God is amongest them as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. 14.24 which is a very sure argument that this word which we preach is the word of God for what lawes or writings can deale so with the heart and consciences of men but onely the lawes and Scriptures of the most high who onely searcheth the heart Of this point we may make a double vse first it may teach vs for a certaine truth that there is no thought in the heart but that God is priuie to it for when he shall giue man a spirite to search and knowledge to iudge the hearts of men which aboue all thinges are so deceiptfull that they cannot be knowne as the Prophet Ieremy telleth vs meaning that no man by his owne skill can throughly sound the depth of any mans heart nor
faile in their workmanship he of malice and peeuishnesse rather then of ignorance doth alwayes faile in his imaginations for he imagineth euill continually Now then we are come to the ripping vp of Belials imaginations which are described vnto vs First by their qualitie which is bad for he imagineth euill Secondly by their quantitie which is great and vniuersall for he imagineth euill continually The euill qualitie and badde nature of Belials imaginations will the better appeare if we consider first the materiall cause of them which is leud things in his heart secondly the formall cause and that is artificiall forging and framing of them for of matter and forme doth euery thing consist and first of the material cause of his images Immediatly before he saith leud things are in his heart now he sheweth what he doth with them surely nothing but of that abundance of leudnesse which is in his heart forge and frame out euill imaginations wrong iudgements crooked conceits pestilent perswasions and false resemblances according to that which is said of man in the 6. of Genesis when he had vniuersally corrupted his wayes The Lord saw that the wickednesse of man was exceeding great vpon earth and that the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were onely euill continually to shew that imaginations proceede of thoughts and if the thoughts of the heart be euill the imaginations which come of them cannot but be euill also And further as the stuffe is bad so is the forme and fashion also of his imaginations naught for as of leud thoughts in the heart he imagineth so he imagineth nothing but that which is euill and leud And therfore these crooked conceits of his are called imaginations as if he were an image maker and they his images or idols and indeed they are the images of his mind and so they may well be tearmed in two respects first because like images they haue shew or shape put vpon them both to credit a bad matter and also the more strongly to delude the beholder for if one should take a block of wood and set it vp and say that is to be worshipped for a god no bodie would beleeue that saying And therefore idolaters and idoll makers do not go so to worke but as the Prophet Esai sheweth they hew it and frame it and make it in shape like a man or some other creature and then couer it with gold a thing which draweth loue and delight vnto it and then it is of more credit and estimation then it was before for though it be but a blocke as it was before in regard of the substance yet do not foolish idolaters so call it but they call it either a god as the Israelites did their golden calfe which they erected in the wildernesse when Moses was absent and as the Babilonians did call that image which Nebuchadnezzar set vp or else a Saint as the Papists call their images S. Peter S. Paul their Ladie c. Euen as one in base apparell of beggerly education is called a clown one of no credit but afterward being in braue aparel wearing rings of gold hauing a litle wealth about him is called a gentleman a wise man a substantial man of the parish thogh indeed he be as base rude in conditions as he was before and hath no more wit theÌ„ before So the bad wretched coÌ„ceits of Belial must haue some color or shape put vpon theÌ„ or els they wil be of no credit SecoÌ„dly they are called images because as images be false and vaine and nothing like the things they are made for I speake now of idolatrous and popish images so are Belials imaginations for shall we thinke that the Saints weÌ„t as they are painted in Popety And therfore we truly say of the one it is as it pleased the painter as truly of the other as it pleaseth the forget Now that which hath so bad stuffe for the matter and so ill fauoured a fashion for the forme must needes be of a bad qualitie but such are the imaginations of Belial for they are made of the leud thoughts of his hart and forged after a false fond and strong deluding fashion therefore for the qualitie thereof they cannot be good howsoeuer many times the wicked are so shamelesse that when they haue vttered most vile conceits of others without cause too yet will not sticke to say that they iudge charitably of them and thinke the best and will not make the worst of things And now a little by the way of Belials master for whom he worketh of these mens ware-houses where they lay their stuffe of which they make these images and of their worke-houses where these false and vaine mentall images be forged Surely the Lord created the wicked at the first though not wicked he preserueth them and prouideth for them though not to be wicked therefore they should both in bodie and soule serue and glorifie him but they do not The diuell hath bewitched them and taught them to bewitch others with his faire promises he hath inueigled them and taught them to inueigle and deceiue others And therefore God withdrawing his grace and turning Sathan loose vpon them and so iustly hardning their hearts and giuing them ouer to themselues Sathan they beleeue and not God him they obey and not the Lord. Their heart is Sathans store-house their head is his worke-house they are his apprentises and bond-slaues and do worke for the Diuell all kind of workes sauing good workes And for euery one of his apprentises and iourneymen Sathan hath a ware-house and a shoppe after the manner of Merchaunts and great occupiers for the Diuell is as great a dealer as any in the world and therefore hath neede of many shops and of many ware-houses of many factours and many seruants and of a legion of diuels He hath the greatest but not the godliest Monarkes of the world to rule for him the learnedst but not the holiest doctours of the world to teach for him he hath the craftiest but not the conscionablest lawyers of the world to plead for him he hath the vainest not the valiantest captaines of the world to fight for him he hath the most rich not the most religious Merchants of the world to trafficke for him he hath the cunningest and the cruellest vsurers and extortioners to exact for him he hath a legion yea a million of brokers to hunt for him to buy and sell for him to play the baudes for him to cousin and deceiue for him of bloudy murâ—herers to kill slay for him in euery market and shop he hath some to lie and to sweare to deceiue for him some setting false colors vpon their clothes by false lights some learning the trick with the finger some pinching others and enriching themselues by false waightes and measures and some by extreme prises exacting vpon the buyers and some purloyning from their
the mother the second is the daughter The first is the poyson the other is the signe thereof or the breaking out The first is the fountaine the second is the streame The first is the coale the second is the flame The first is the cause the second is the effect of the same The first is the theefe the second is his accessary The first robbeth God of his honour the second doth publish it Therefore both the first and the second be damnable neither the first nor the second are sinnes veniall as the Papists say but both the first and the second the mother and the daughter without faith and repentance are sinnes eternally mortall And therefore our Sauiour Christ saith here Take heede of them as if they were some dangerous enemies to the soule The first thing therefore to be taken heed of is all inward desire of vaineglory or worldly praise and that is forbidden in the first verse where our Sauiour saith Giue not to be seene of men that is with an intent purpose or desire that men should see thee and commend thee for it Publicke giuing is not forbidden for Christ saith Let your lights shine before men that they may see c. But vaineglorious giuing in publicke is forbidden and therefore he doth not simply say Do not your almes before men but addeth to be seene of them condemning that end which is first in heart though last in act So in Math. 5.16 he saith not Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie you but that they seeing your good workes may glorifie God your heauenly father who worketh both the will and the deed So then we see that it is not simply euill to do good workes in the view of men nay rather it is good so to do to glorifie God and encourage others God is much glorified when his children walke like their father being mercifull as their heauenly father is mercifull though not in that degree of mercie yet in mercy of the like nature heauenly bountifull free and harmelesse By the death of Christ he was knowne to be the naturall sonne of God and by the good life of Christians aswell as by their death it may be knowne that they are the adopted sonnes of God For when Christ died there was a strange alteration of nature the earth did shake the powers of heauen lost their power the graues opened the dead arose there was darknesse vpon the face of the earth as if day had bene turne into night which when men saw they confessed yea the very enemies of Christ himselfe confessed to the glorie of the diuine power saying doubtlesse this was the sonne of God So when Christians dye to the world and liue vnto God when they by the power of Gods spirit do crucifie sinne and quicken righteousnesse there is also a great alteration in nature their nature is refined by grace their night is turned into day and their day into night their present shame is their glorie and their former glory is their shame their dead affections are raised vp the deuowring graues of their hard harts being opened and now they speake and do and studie otherwise then they did and not like other men In a word as Christs death was not like other mens death so Christians liues are not like other mens liues Christs funerals were solemnized by the Sunne and the Moone by the powers of heauen by the graues and the dead by the earth and the stones and all the insensible creatures whereof in their kind some blushed some trembled some fainted and all mourned for the death of their Lord and feared seeing such things happen to their Soueraigne an vtter dissolution of themselues and all nature These things were not looked for in the world nor regarded at worldly mens funerals yea such as beseeme not the Princes of the nations so Christians liues and deaths too are solemnized and graced with the ornaments of the spirit and the ioy of heauenly Angels with the fruites of righteousnesse the applause of the godly things not regarded of the wicked nor beseeming the helhounds of this world But doubtlesse when men see these lights they must needes glorifie God and say God hath done great things for them and when the wicked themselues see such an alteration in them as they may stand a farre off and wonder at but neuer attaine vnto they must be enforced spite of their hearts to giue God the glorie as Achan did saying this is the truth and so it was and as the Iewes did doubtlesse these were good men the sonnes and daughters of God A man may by their behauiour know of whose bringing vp they were by their habite and spirituall attire a man may discerne them to be the Citizens of the heauenly Ierusalem Blessed be God in so much as they must go a little farther with the wicked in the book of Wisedome and say we are fooles and they are wise howsoeuer we counted their life madnesse before we are they that played the madmen and haue wearied our selues in the wayes of vnrighteousnesse And with Balam Oh that we might dye the death of the righteous and that our last end might be like vnto theirs And thus we see how for the glorifying of God in this life it is necessary for Christians to exercise workes of mercy as giuing of almes and other good workes appointed of God in his word euen before men As it is necessary for the glory of God so also is it as necessary for the encouragement of the godly And first of the painefull Pastor and Minister of the word and then of other Christians To the godly Minister it is no small comfort and encouragement when he shall see the Lords people vnder his charge fruitfull in good workes aswell as in good words For then shall he see the fruite of his labours when after his labour he seeth them fruitfull in all maner of good workes and on the other side when they receiue the word in vaine he may feare that he hath laboured in vaine in vaine I say as touching their conuersion though not simply in vaine otherwise for the word of God is neuer preached in vaine whether men beleeue it or no heare it or no being euer either a sauour of life to life or of death vnto death and comming as the raine which neuer returneth in vaine but either watereth the earth or drowneth it and maketh the ground to bring forth either corne or cockle sweet flowers or stinking weedes whereof the one shall be preserued and the other rooted vp and cast out vpon the dunghill The husbandman is encouraged to follow his husbandry when his vines are fruitfull and his haruests plentiful growing timely ripening kindly yeelding abundantly and no lesse is Gods husbandman the minister of the word encouraged by the timely growing kindly ripening and plentifull yeelding of his charge the Lords husbandrie after he hath taken
when themselues are most vaine This humour waiteth vpon vs all and maketh all that we do fruitlesse before God and therefore in all our actions ought carefully to be prayed against as we are taught by our Sauiour himselfe saying hallowed be thy name Lord and with Dauid Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but to thy name let the praise be giuen for to vs belongeth nothing but shame of faces This humor of vaineglorie doth steale craftily vpon vs and doth subtilly beguile vs therefore take heede of it saith Christ. It lurketh in the heart as dregges in their vessell if great heede be not taken it will rise vp and marre the wine It is like a faire spoken theefe at the doore who if thou take not heed of him will get in and spoile thee before thou be aware It is like a heard of Players who with their varietie of bewitching vanities do cause men willingly to be robbed of them It is like a moth that if thou take not heede of it will breede in thy soules garment and spoile it It is like leauen a litle whereof will sower the whole lumpe of dough It is like Ioab and Iudas who kill when they kisse and stab when they embrace In a word it is a disease that maketh many to die euen laughing and sometime depriueth them of their wits Therefore take heede of it saith Christ it is a very daungerous euill take heede you giue not before men to be seene of men Therefore when thou giuest thine almes thou shalt not make a trumpet to be blowne before thee c. As before our Sauiour Christ forbiddeth all inward affectation of worldly praise so here he condemneth all outward shew of vaineglorie and all ostentation of a vaineglorious mind in giuing of almes According to which rule the Apostle saith Abstaine from all appearance of euill Now this was in the Scribes and Pharisees very grosse hypocrisie and palpable For first they must haue their almes giuing proclaimed by sound of trumpet Secondly not in any priuate place but in the sinagogues the most publike and notorious places that were For their proclamation of the matter by sound of trumpet they might pretend some excuse and that reasonable in shew too as thereby to call the poore together for hypocrites are neuer without their pretences and excuses Saul he reserueth of the Amalekites beasts contrarie to Gods commaundement to offer sacrifice forsooth Adam hideth himselfe and pretendeth the cause to be his nakednesse Iudas grudgeth at the cost that was bestowed vpon his Lord and maister Christ and to saue his credite pretendeth care for the poore Absalon intendeth treason but pretendeth a vow made at Hebron But pretences are no better then couers made of fig-leaues which the Sunne will soone drie and the wind will quickly blow away Whatsoeuer those hypocrite◠might seeme to pretend for their trumpet it would not serue their turne neither before God who knoweth the thoughts and intents of the heart long before they be conceiued nor yet before men who by the light of common reason are able in some measure to descrie hypocrisie in that and the like action And doubtlesse it could not be otherwise then an euident note of vaineglorie in them for what needed they make any proclamation for the matter had they not their Elders had they not also their Deacons and ouerseers for the poore that knew well who had neede of almes might they not enquire of them or could they not trust them with their contribution or if they must needes make it knowne to all the world when they would deale their dole had they no other way to publish it by but by sound of trumpet A bell might haue bene tolled if they had any or if they had none a bill might haue bene set vp or a messenger might haue bene sent to the houses of the poore yet none of these waies would serue the turne but a trumpet must be blowne before them whereby they might be honoured and admired after a mere stately and princely manner Whereby likewise they did sufficiently bewray their ambitious humor and therein did they not a little forget themselues for they knew by the lawe of Moses which they had amongst them and was read daily in their sinagogues that trumpets were not appointed to any such end or vse as they put them vnto For in the tenth of Numbers from the second verse to the ninth it is euident that trumpets were appointed onely for the assembling of the congregation and for the remouing of the campe the manner of vsing them is more at large there set foorth to which place I referre them that are desirous to know the same more fully Againe in other places of the Scripture we shall see that they were vsed at the coronation of Princes in managing of warre and solemnizing of Princely affaires or businesse of State and not otherwise as when Salomon was proclaimed King at Gihon they blew the trumpet and cried God saue King Salomon So likewise when Athaliah was deposed and Ioash made King in her steade it is said that the King stoode by a pillar in the house of God as the manner was and all the Princes and trumpetters by the King And the Apostle commending the vse of knowne tongues in the congregation and condemning the contrarie vseth a similitude of the trumpet in warre saying that if the trumpet giue an vncertaine sound who shall prepare himselfe to battell By which both they might know and we also may vnderstand that the trumpet is an instrument of state and therefore not to be made common to euery one nor for euery thing There be certaine ornaments and dignities peculiarly belonging to certaine persons and in no wise to be made common vnto all as Coronets chaires of State cloth of State garters of Honour Trumpetters Pages Chariots c. Neither is it fit for euery obscure Gentleman neither is it seemely for euery or any base artificer or man of trade and occupation to ride in Coches to haue Pages runne by their horse side nor to solemnize the mariages of themselues or their sons and daughters with sound of trumpet as if they were some Princes or persons of State and high calling It is too intollerable pride and too manifest a note of Pharisaicall ambition whereby they which do so make themselues odious and ridiculous before God and all wise men When the malicious Iewes saw Christ in life and doctrine to excell other men they blasphemously said in derogation of both Is not this the carpenters sonne But we when we see such princely ornaments and solemnities taken vp amongst countrie clownes or other inferiour persons of base estate and meane calling may well say in defacing of such insolent fooles Is not this the Carpenter and is not that the bramble that hath so exalted himselfe aboue the trees of the forest What would these persons do and how would
them arraigne them endite them and condemne them and feare them not but still pray for prayer is flagellum diaboli as Augustine calleth it the whippe of the Diuell which he more feareth then all the coniurations of Poperie then all holy water and crossings yea more then the dog doth the whip and as when the dogge heareth the bell at the whips end he runneth out of the house so when Sathan perceiueth a Christian addresse himselfe to prayer though it be neuer so weakely and with great striuing yet he then feareth the rebuke of God and giueth place Oh then let vs pray good brethren euen then then when we are about to giue almes or to heare a Sermon or to preach the word or to reproue sinne boldly or to handle doctrine soundly or to deale roundly with the consciences of men and in all other spirituall exercises and not only in them but also in our ciuill affaires in buying and selling if thou meanest to deale truly and vse plaine and simple dealing and to be at a word Oh then pray also in inuiting thy friends and neighbours to thy house when thou entertainest the preachers of Gods word at thy table when thou art troubled in making prouision and to haue all things cleane and handsome oh then pray when thou callest foorth thy children to shew their wit their aptnesse and towardnes to learne their profiting in learning and such like oh then pray too when thou cariest thy friend to shew him thy house and thy roomes and thy riches and the workes of thine owne hands and thy fine gardens and walkes and thy fruitfull Orchards and thy fatte cattell and thy great dealings and thy daily expenses c. Oh in all these go not without thy whippe of prayer to driue away Sathan and all his theeuish suggestions and vaineglorious cogitations for euen then when thou thinkest to do all for the best thou shalt be circumuented and deceiued of thy reward before thou be aware if thou then euen then I say do not take heede Then shalt thou heare the whispering feel the tickling of a number of spirituall and inuisible theeues in thy hart Oh saith one to him that studeith for a Sermon when he readeth a trim discourse or fine simile that pleaseth himselfe Oh this will do well to grace thy Sermon withall oh men will commend thy wit and thy inuention for this and thy boldnesse for that and thy iudgement in that c. Oh here is a tickling theefe in the heart driue him out by prayer take heed of him yeeld not vnto him but pray then and say Lord none of all these come of my selfe thou art the giuer of them they are thy mercies to me ô Lord I am not able nor worthie my selfe to carrie such treasures of thy Spirite to thy people Lord be mercifull vnto me and sanctifie my heart that I may seeke thy glorie and not my owne Oh hallowed be thy name Lord hallowed be thy name not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but to thy name let the praise be giuen Lord humble my swelling heart with the feeling of my sinne and my speciall corruptions Oh Lord driue out these proud thoughâ—s these vaine imaginations these wicked and sacrilegious affections which go about thus to rob thee of thy honour both in me the speaker and in others the hearers let them not commend thy gifts in me or in any man but alwayes to thy praise and glorie And thus must we be exercised continually while we liue In like sort when thou art about to shew thy reading and discoursing veine at the table pray for then a theefe within thee will be ready to tell thee that all the company will and do admire thee for thy gift that way Yea or if thou sit still and be silent and neuer speakest but when thou art required and then very modestly too yet then watch and take heede for euen then commeth a spirituall theefe perswadeth thee to thinke with thy selfe surely men will commend me aswell for my silence and modestie as such a one for his learning wit but where is the Kings Atturney all this while to pleade for Gods right I meane the spirite of sanctification to perswade thy soule to giue the glorie to God who gaue thee those gifts and that grace with God and man where is he Oh therefore then when thou doest these things euen then I say take heede watch and pray Hallowed be thy name Lord rebuke Sathan quench these his fierie dartes humble my proud heart make it to affect thee and thy glorie aboue all things and in all things In like sort in doing the parts of a ciuill man entertaining of preachers or thy honest friends and neighbours in shewing them thy faire houses thy well contriued roomes thy wealth thy gaines thy great expences thy great reuenewes thy toward children c. doest thou not feele a theefe within thee tickling and dallying with thy false heart and telling thee that thou shalt be highly commended for these things and thy fame shall be spread farre and neare and thou shalt be spoken of for it and reuerenced and admired c. doest thou not feele such a theefe within thee speaking such things And what is all in effect but to perswade thee to rob him who hath enriched thee to disgrace him who hath graced thee and to wound him who hath healed thee whereas thou oughtest then to say I will shew these things and tell what goodnesse I haue receiued of my mercifull God and heauenly father that men may commend his goodnesse therein and spread the fame of his name farre and neare and may reuerence and admire his wisedome and power and mercifull workes towards mortall man and may both feare and loue his Maiestie for the same And to this end let vs watch pray that God in al things and for all things may haue his due praise and glorie In like manner when thou giuest thine almes or buildest anie hospitall or giuest any thing to the poore of such and such a parish c. if thou doest not take great heed and examine thy heart and stand with prayer at the doore then will Sathan be busie and a spirituall theefe will stand vp in thy hart and say Oh now this being knowne how will the poore commend me how will the world commend me I shall now get a name that I am a good man to the poore I hope to come into the Chronicles for my good deeds one day c. Oh then scourge these corrupt and diuelish affections chase them away by prayer let them not dwel in thy heart giue theÌ„ no entertainement desire to giue all the glorie to God and desire others to do the same for thee for that he hath made thee both able and willing to giue and hath made thee his steward and deputie to giue euery one his portion that his fatherly goodnesse hath appointed them The like is to be done of
to vpright harted men But what it is or how great it is or how good it is few yet do know fewer beleeue it and fewest of all do so feele it as to be moued therewith We know what we haue here say some we know not what we shall haue hereafter Now ignoti nulla cupido of a thing vnknowne there is no desire Therefore that men may desire it it is fit they should know it Others there be that hauing heard of it are desirous to see it as Philip sayd to Christ Shew vs thy father and it suffiseth so say they Shew vs the reward of sinceritie and it suffiseth Dreaming as the Disciples of Christ did awhile of some earthly and temporall preferment But as Christ sayd to Philip He that hath seene me hath seene my father because the Sonne was in the Father and the Father in the Sonne so we say to them he that hath seene sinceritie hath seene the reward of sincerity because sincerity of it selfe is the gift of God and Gods reward goeth with his owne gift according to the saying of a learned father Sua munera coronat Deus in nobis God doth crowne his owne gifts in vs. Other some there be which haue seene the reward of sincerity a good part of it that is haue knowne it and beleeued such a thing but haue bin no more moued therewith to preserue themselues against the poison of vaineglorie then they of the old world were moued with the report and sight of Noahs Arke to prepare for them selues against the floud Others there be that haue both seene it by faith and tasted of it too but afterward haue lothed the same and lusted after vaineglorie as the vnthankfull Israelites lothed Manna which did nourish them when all other foode failed and sell to lusting for the flesh pots of Egypt It fareth with those that haue left their sinceritie as it did with those that left Christ after they had heard him awhile When they heard Christ speake of eating his flesh they said this is a hard saying who can beare it and so came no more So the other hearing that sincerities men shall haue Gods reward they like that well inough but when we tell them nay when Gods word telleth them that they shall loose the worlds reward and in stead of commendations shall be condemned and hated and scorned they say this is a hard saying and so giue ouer their sincere courses But what saith our Sauiour Christ to the woman of Samaria If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith vnto thee giue me drinke thou wouldst haue asked of him and he wold haue giuen thee water yea water of life So it may be said to those that make a iest of sinceritie or preferre the glorie of the world before the reward of sinceritie If they knew the gift of God the excellent reward of sinceritie and who it is that saith Take heede of vaineglorie and who it is that will reward the embracers of sinceritie they would seeke to him for credite and aske glorie of him and he would giue them an euerlasting reward euen a crowne of glorie which neuer should end As when Dauid asked life the Lord gaue him a long life and as when Salomon asked wisedome before riches the Lord gaue him both wisedome and riches too But now all the enquiring will be what this same gift of God should be and what reward they shall haue that giue entertainment to sincerity Verily as the Church saith of Christ her beloued My beloued is white and ruddie the chiefest of ten thousands so may the louers of sinceritie say our beloued is white and ruddie that is she is like the kings daughter all glorious within she is the chiefest often thousand she hath many faire sisters but she passeth them all her sisters be patience and humility and meeknesse and zeale and courage and long suffering and contempt of the world and loue of God with faith hope and charitie and all these are glorious and beautifull vertues yea sweet children of the holy Ghost when thâ—y come from God but sinceritie and singlenesse of heart doth excell them all The Sunne doth giue light to all the starres and the Queene doth grace her Ladies of Honour with her presence So sinceritie or truth of heart doth beautifie and grace all other vertues for without that they are but naked and counterfeit She goeth before them and speaketh for them all like a foreman of a Iurie when all the rest though they be her faire sisters must hold their peace Faith is seeble and weake and loue her handmaid is lazie and careth for none but her selfe patience hath a scarre on her face giuen her by intemperancie deuotions is so frozen with cold that she can scarce go humilitie is so tired with wrestling against pride that she looketh very leane and bare and as for repentance that is so trampled vpon with custome of sinne that it is scarce to be discerned from hardnesse of heart Now all these go from vs that haue abused them into the Lords presence as Thamar did from her brother Amnon when he had enforced her with their garments of diuerse colours rent and torne with ashes vpon her head in token of sorrow and with great weeping griefe and shame For that they must come before their Lord and King their father so defaced so ragged so basely and so beastly as they are as if they had lien all their life time since they went from heauen in some stinking ditches with vermine or in vile stables amongst beastes or in the woods and fieldes of wandring cogitations amongst the euish conceipts of vaineglorie and vnwholesome affections of anger and wrath and couetuousnesse and vncleannesse for so they haue indeed But when they meet with ther sister sinceritie and vprightnesse of heart oh how glad and ioyfull are they for her sake they know they shall all fare the better Oh sinceritie sinceritie where hast thou bene all this while say they vntill thou camest we could haue no grace nor fauour no entrance into the Court gate of our heauenly Ierusalem no our owne father would not know vs but tooke vs for counterfeits vntill we fetched thee as Ioseph tooke his brethren for spies vntill they fetched Beniamin whome he loued better then they And now that we haue met with thee we are glad our hearts are comforted thou shalt be heard for vs all being altogether in Christ Iesus our Mediator But otherwise though we said we are Christians and haue professed Christianitie and offered to put in for our suretie no worse baile then the Kings owne naturall sonne Iesus Christ all would not serue we could not be heard vntill we brought sinceritie with vs. For she as respecteth God more then all the world and setteth more by his loue and anger then by the loue and anger of all the world so in Christ Iesus she is more respected and
except God did giue them repentance and work a strange alteration God deliuer me out of their handes and giue them better minds if it be his will It were a strange alteration to see some that now bring Bibles to the Church and turne to places after the Preacher one day to be instruments to burne so many Bibles as they can come by It were strange to see such as are now most attentiue in hearing the preacher and most kind in giuing him entertainment one day to throw a faggot at his head or to be a witnesse against his doctrine or to helpe to burne him Well such times haue bene and such times may come again for our sinnes and then shall the approued be knowne as the Apostle speaketh and hypocrites with their light and chaffie profession shall then be discouered blowne away with the wind Many now would answer as Hazael did to the Prophet if any should say to them as the Prophet said to him I weepe saith the Prophet to remember what thou shalt do to the children of Israel when thou art king of Aram how thou shalt burne their cities and put their young men to the sword and dash their infants in peeces and rent their women with child What said Hazael is thy seruant a dogge that I should do this great thing So would many answere now no doubt Are we dogges that we should so vse God seruants c No doubt of it in King Edwards daies he that should haue warned some persons of such things that were hearers of those reuerend Martyrs and Bishops Hooper Latimer Ridley Cranmer other faithfull Ministers D. Taylor Bradford and others they would haue bene at defiance with thē yet for al that they when time serued stood foorth to accuse these godly Fathers to persecute them to death that a man wold litle haue thought of be actors in such ttagedies Wel God blesse vs all my brethren keep vs in his holy feare and make vs vpright harted constant in the profession of religiō for I do feare greatly else that if euer time should serue which God for his mercies sake forbid if it be his will too too many would play Hazaels part though they make a faire shew now and stand at open defiance for such matters Well let no man bragge of his own strength that he will do this and he will not do that for manie good men euen sincere Christians may promise and vowe a standing for the truth with Peter and because they rely vppon their owne strength may fall with Peter but I trust God will giue them mercie and repentance to rise againe with Peter but as for hypocrites and time-seruers whose hearts are best knowne vnto God out of question they will then shew themselues in their colours Let them now pretend with Iudas neuer so much care for the poore or loue to Christ they will one day proue theeues to the poore and traytors to Christ as Iudas did and if they once fall with Iudas let them take heed that they hang not themselues with Iudas for betraying and persecuting innocent bloud For it is not the approbation of the Elders that will iustifie Iudas nor his officious kisse that will couer him nor the law of the land that will warrant him nor the siluer bribe that will enrich him nor the praise of men that wil comfort him nor his forced restitution that wil restore him nor his constrained confession that will conuert him nor his faithlesse repentance that will saue him when his money his friends his owne tongue and heart hand conscience as a thousand witnesses and God himselfe shall be against him God grant that all counterfeits and hypocrites and dissemblers in religion may in time take heede by his example There be many both honest and godly religious Christans whose desire is with all their harts to please God by doing those things which his word requireth of them And these for the loue that they beare vnto the truth and their hatred that they carry against wickednesse are by an odious name called Puritanes and if they fall at any time through occasion as oftētimes they do through some infirmity against their wils then are they condemned as hypocrites but most vniustly For though all our actions smell of hypocrisie as maister Bradford well perceiued when he desired the Lord to forgiue him all his hypocrisies and confessed a little before his death that all his prayers and all his best seruing of God were but hypocrisie meaning in comparison of that sinceritie that is required of euerie Christian yet notwithstanding are none to be tearmed hypocrites which fall by occasion through infirmitie and are onely stained with the dust of it and infected with the contagion thereof as men that draw in one and the same aire with hypocrites but onely such are to be counted for hypocrites which make a shew of that which they are not nor meane to be but with their tongues can hold men cunningly with a faire tale of religion and godlinesse while their hearts are resolued to practise all kind of mischiefe and iniquitie of such I speake and not of simple harted and well meaning Christians who haue no doubt their faults as well as other men though they make not an art of sinning as hypocrites do This secret hypocrisie of Gods children doth not a litle trouble many of them neither can many be perswaded but that all that they do is done in hypocrisie as maister Bradford writing to one of his friends in most of his letters condemneth himselfe for a painted hypocrite and being thus troubled in their tender consciences they are still afraide of that woe that our Sauiour Christ pronounceth against hypocrites But for the comforting of such tender consciences whose feare is euer that they shall not deale vprightly and sincerely inough in Gods sight we are to distinguish of hypocrisie for some hypocrisie respecteth men onely seeking only praise of men and not of God and some hypocrie there is that respecteth God also yea most of all and that stealeth in this fort vpon vs. A Christian that feareth God goeth in priuate by himselfe to call vpon God by prayer Now in his priuate prayer somtime his mind is drawne away into a nūber of by-thoughts and wandering imaginations insomuch as he oftentimes thinkes least of God when he calleth vpon him neither is throughly moued with an inward desire of obtaining those things that he prayeth for nor with a hartie loathing of those sins that he prayeth against then commeth Sathan and suggesteth thus Surely thou art an hypocrite for thou hast not prayed with all thy heart nor with all thy soule nor with all thy might Againe sometime the Christian soule prayeth earnestly with great feeling and groning of spirite and hath his mind wholy intent and bent vpon God that he is euen rauished as it were in prayer thinking of nothing but heauenly things when
is not mine but Gods counsel by the Apostle with whose words for this time I will end My brethren watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men and be strong THE III. SERMON PRO. 6.12 Walketh with a froward mouth c. WE haue heard of the names of Belial and how they do set foorth his nature Now it remaineth that we consider of his actions whereby he is also described aswell as by his names And first of those which set foorth his outward behauiour where the first member to be ripped vp is his mouth which for the qualitie is very euill for it is froward and for the quantitie is exceeding great for it is full of frowardnes as that which is accustomed to speak froward things He walketh with a froward mouth or as Tremelius translateth it ore peruerso with a wry mouth or a mouth drawne out of fashion The mouth is put here Metonymicè for that which proceedeth out of the mouth that is froward speeches and crooked constructions c. Walking is put Metaphorically for a custome and continuance in the said frowardnesse And albeit I deny not but that sometime the man of Belial may stumble vpon a good word or yeeld a good reason or vtter a wise sentence or speake to one friendly or salute courteously or discourse learnedly or determine iudicially c. all which Belial can do when he is not prouoked to anger or when he is soothed or is in his good moode as they say yet for all this he is noted for one that walketh with a froward mouth because commonly and for the most part his words are peeuish and peruerse and ordinarily like Nabal he is who was so wicked that a man could not tell how to speake vnto him And therfore because of his vsual maner of frowardnes he is said to walk not with a wise mouth nor with a courteous mouth c. but with a froward mouth for denominatio fit â maiori partè the denomination of any thing say Logitians is taken from the greatest part as the Blackmore is called blacke though his teeth be white because all his bodie is blacke That a froward mouth is a note of a wicked man shall easily appeare if we consider two things First the right vse of his tongue or the end for which it was giuen Secondly the true difference betweene the wicked and the godly in the vse and abuse of the tongue Of the first he may be instructed in diuerse places of the Scripture but especially three One is in the old Testament the other two are in the new that in the old Testament is the 45. Psalme where in the beginning of the Psalme the Psalmist calleth his toung the pen of a readie writer But what is it that he will write that is what will he declare or set foorth He sheweth in the first verse in generall tearmes first that it shall be of a good matter to shew that the tongue was made to set foorth none but good matters but what matters doth he meane He saith that he will intreat or discourse of the King meaning Salomon his Maiestie his beautie his riches his power his wisedome his vertues his ornaments his honorable mariage with the Queen of Egypt and vnder all these he meaneth to shadow out the vnspeakeable Maiestie of Christ and the excellent dignities and prerogatiues of Christ his church For otherwise he might seeme onely to set his mind to commend men and to flatter Princes which is a thing condemned by Iob when he saith Shall not my maker confound me if I giue titles vnto men But frō this place of the Psalme we may learne that our toungs are giuen vs chiefly to set foorth the glorie of God and those things that may tend to the extolling of Christ and his kingdome and to the alluring of others vnto the loue of Christ. But why doth he compare the tongue vnto a pen Surely for three causes First because as the pen sheweth what the mind thought so the tongue should expresse the zeale of the heart Secondly as the penne doth his message without blushing so the tongue must speake nothing that a man may be ashamed of but should boldly iustifie the same And thirdly to shew that there must be that consent between the tongue the heart that is betweene the pen and the mind of the writer As the toung is compared to a pen so also to the pen of a swift writer and that for three causes First to shew that as swift writing is a signe of one that is well practised in writing so the toung should not be slow but swift and well practised in the praises of God Secondly to shew that it must dispatch much in a short time and not a little in a long time as the hand of a swift writer doth Thirdly to shew that the tongue must euer be renewed and corrected as the pen of a swift writer that writeth much must be stil renewed and corrected And so much for this place of the Psalme The vse of the toung may further be learned out of two other places in the new Testament whereof the first is of S. Paul and the other is of S. Iames that of Paul is in the 4. of his Epistle to the Ephesians 29.30.31 verses Let no corrupt communication saith he proceed out of your mouths but that which is good to the vse of edifying that it may minister grace vnto the hearers and grieue not the holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed vnto the day of redemption Let all bitternesse and anger and wrath crying and euill speaking be put away from you with all maliciousnesse be ye courteous one to another To shew that our toungs are giuen vs as well for the building vp of others in goodnesse as the helping of our selues and therefore must be accustomed to words of grace and not vnto corrupt speeches For as the benefite of the one is great both to our selues and to others so is the hurt also as great of the other both to others and also to our selues To others corrupt speeches are very hurtfull for if only good speeches and words of grace serue for the vse of edifying others in grace and goodnesse as they do witnesse the Apostle in the forenamed place then corrupt speeches can serue to no other vse but to destroy and pull downe men from goodnesse and to infect them with euill Be not deceiued saith the Apostle in another place 1. Cor. 15. euill words corrupt good manners to shew that some thinke otherwise but they are deceiued There be two sorts of people that are deceiued with a wrong opinion as touching euill words First he that speaketh them next they that heare them and neither of both suspecting any hurt to grow thereby but vnto both the Apostle saith be not deceiued The wicked and prophane person
of Dauid Paule and Iames it appeareth that the end why the toung was giuen vnto man was to praise God who gaue it and to edifie others to direct the course of our liues to our owne safetie and the peace of others But farre from this vse of the tongue is Belial and Ish-auen the man of vanitie for he walketh with a froward mouth a mouth out of fashion and order not contrarie to nature but contrarie to grace All his words be from the matter all his vnderstandings be commonly wilfull mistakings all his conceits be malitious constructions all his reproofes be quarrellings all his allegations be cauils and all his reasons be vnreasonable I will because I will saith he all his censures be bitter condemnations all his admonitions be false accusations all his communications be mingled with othes scoffes and taunts all his discoursings are bitter deprauings or vaine ianglings all his mirth is foolish and ridiculous and nothing to the praise of God The most wholesome doctrine he turneth into a iest taking all with the left hand and hearing all with the left eare that is with the worst affections that he hath This is a froward mouth They are licentious saith the Psalmist and speake wickedly they talke presumptuously And of such was the Prophet Ezechiel warned They shall sit and heare thee as my people vse to do but with their mouths they will make iests of thee These are they that S. Paul saith are deliuered vp of God in his iudgement vnto a reprobate mind being full of all vnrighteousnesse and that appeareth in no one thing more then in taking all things in euill part This peruersenesse of the mouth is a true note of a wicked man and one that feareth not God The heart is secret and therefore it is the impudencie of many to outface the matter although he walke neuer so openly with a froward mouth when God hath giuen such euident notes of his prophane heart that a man cannot choose except hee will be wilfully blind but know him Out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speaketh saith our Sauiour Christ to shew that by that which commeth foorth of the mouth the heart may be discerned The righteous will speake of wisedome saith the Psalmist and his tongue will talke of iudgement for the law of God is in his heart to shew that if wisedome be in the heart it will appeare in the tongue and so will folly too To conclude this point If any seeme to be religious saith Iames and refraineth not his tongue but deceiueth his owne heart this mâ—ns religion in vaine And no maruell for he that cannot speak well can hardly do well and he is farre stept into wickednesse that can neither speake well nor do well This doctrine reproueth two sorts of persons First such as thinke they need not care what they say so that they speake the truth and speake neither fellony nor treason In which number may be ranged all froward and peruerse hearers of the word who vse to picke quarrels against the Preacher for teaching things that they like not or that they vnderstand not Also all husbands and wiues which liue in continuall frowardnesse and bitternesse one with another As also all idle gossips and Ale knights who do nothing but wet their lips with drinke and dry them againe with carying of newes lyes and tales and discoursing of euery bodies matters which belong not vnto them These are such as Dauid prayeth against in the 12. Psal. the 4. verse where he saith The Lord cut off all flattering lippes and the tongue that speaketh proud things which haue sayd with our tongue we will preuaile our lips are our owne who is Lord ouer vs Now these are such as will be carefull inough for speaking of treason or fellony or any thing that may beare any action at law although sometime through the iudgement of God they are ouerreached and taken in their owne craftinesse before they were aware But with their flattering and deceitfull lips they do much mischiefe and howsoeuer they may shift in the world yet for so much as they walke with a froward mouth the Lord hath branded them in his word for wicked men of Belial Secondly this doctrine reproueth such as will peruersly discourse of mens matters and dispute contentiously of Gods matters pro and contra and when they haue defended their popery their vsury and their vanity as much as they can then forsooth it was but for disputation sake These are counterfeit mad-braines such as Salomon noteth in the Prouerbes As he that faineth himselfe madde casteth firebrands arrowes and mortal things so dealeth the deceitfull man with his friend and saith am I not in sport I condemne not sober set disputations which are for edification but contentious frowardnesse of lawlesse libertines for the maintaining of their malice and defacing of the truth which is the practise of a man of Belial and a wickd vaine man who walketh with a froward mouth And so much for the qualitie of Belials speeches now for the quantitie of his frowardnesse it is to be noted where he saith he walketh This word walketh is a Metaphor or borrowed speech taken from those that go in a way doubling their steppes vntill they come at their iourneys end it noteth a continuance of going in them that do go and being translated vnto other actions it noteth a continuance of that thing vnto which it is applied as here it noteth vnto vs the coÌ„tinuance of Belials frowardnes and that the vaine lawlesse person doth not now and then stumble vpon a froward word but maketh frowardnes his continuall practise And this is the difference betweene the wicked and the godly for euen a good and a godly man may sometime speake frowardly hastily and vnaduisedly as Moses did once Psal 106.33 So did Iob and Ieremy too when both of them cursed the day of their birth And Saint Iames saith He that sinneth not with his tongue is a perfect man But as Dauid and Moses and Iob and Ieremy did all striue against such imperfections vnruly affections so do the godly hauing once ouercome theÌ„ by the renuing grace of Gods holy Spirit they bridle theÌ„ vp more straitly theÌ„ before I thought saith Dauid I will take heed to my wayes that I offend not with my toung I will keep my mouth bridled while the wicked are in my sight Gods childreÌ„ are far from the nature of wicked Belial which vse to say What which of you sweare not sometime which of you be not froward somtime be not moued somtime be not impatient somtime Yea indeed it is true but yet the godly may answer them againe We walk not with a froward mouth as Belial doth who vseth to alledge and recken vp the faults frailties of the godly only to iustifie themselues in their libertine courses and
their soules health in English Well let vs take heede that we continue not stil so vntoward to serue God to learne his most glorious will least God giue vs ouer againe in his iust iudgemēt to walke in ignorance to beleeue lies Popery groweth apace in many places Papists are very bold doubtlesse they see it is to be feared too much inclinatiō aptnes both in som teachers much of the people to receiue their Popish trash again that is the matter Popish pictures shew thēselues in euery shop street almost many think there is great deuotiō stirred vp by the sight of thē yea they hope of a mery world towards And doubtlesse the Papists cannot brew so fast but as they hope others will be as ready to drinke Well the Lord in mercy looke vpon vs our Christian gouernors that we may be more more forward apt to the embracing setting forth of his holy truth Gospell to our liues end Amen Now let vs pray THE V. SERMON PROV 6.14 Leud things are in his heart WE haue heard before how vaine and lawlesse the man of Belial is how froward and peeuish how counterfeit cunning in his outward behauiour now we are come to the cause of all and to the digging vp of that which is the fountaine of all his distemperature and disorder and that doth the holy Ghost here shew vs when he saith Leud things are in his heart as if he should say it is no maruell though his behauiour be so bad and barbarous so vile and full of leud actions when his heart which is the fountaine of all his actions is full of leude things Then first here let vs consider what is meant by the hart And next what profitable doctrines may be gathered from this sentence and the coherence thereof with the rest of the wicked mans description By hart in this place he meaneth not the fleshly and materiall heart which is the good creature of God but the corrupted and depraued qualities of the heart For the heart is put sometime for the whole inward man as in 1. Pet. 3.4 Let the hid man of the heart be meeke and quiet sometime for the thoughts and affections for the will and vnderstanding as in 1. King 3.9 Giue me an vnderstanding heart the prayer of Salomon That is giue vnderstanding vnto my hart mind or soule for hee had a hart before So that in the heart is vnderstanding but in the wicked it is leud vnderstanding because he vnderstandeth leude and vile things best And in Gen. 6.5 it is said The imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart were euill continually to shew that thoughts and imaginations lodge in the heart but in the man of Belial they are leude and wicked In the 23. of the Prou. 26. the Lord saith My sonne giue me thy heart that is the affections of thy heart as thy desire thy loue thy ioy thy feare thy trust thy zeale thy delight thy sorrow as if he shold say if thou desirest any thing desire me if thou louest any thing loue me if thou ioyest in any thing ioy in me if thou fearest any thing feare me if thou trustest any trust me if thou be zealous for any thing be zealous for me if thou sorrowest for any thing be sorrowfull that thou canst not do thy dutie to me as thou oughtest and these things I leaue not to thy choise but see thou do them indeed Now all these affections are in the wicked man of Belial but they are leud and not for the Lord. In the fourth of the Hebrewes 12. the word of God is called a deuider of the thoughts and intents of the heart so that in the heart lye thoughts and intents that is purposes conclusions and determinations but in the wicked they are all leud and naught So that the meaning of these words Leud things are in his heart is that the man of Belial vnderstandeth leud things he thinketh and studieth leud things he purposeth and intendeth leud things he desireth and affecteth leud things yea he deuiseth and contriueth nothing else but leud things This anatomizing and discouering of Belials hart in this sort with the rest of his behauiour in other parts of his bodie teacheth vs many excellent pointes of doctrine for our instruction 1. That the man of Belial is no better within then without 2. That whatsoeuer a man is without yet God doth iudge of him by that which is in his heart 3. That the cause of all outward disorder is in the heart 4. That a man cannot be a good man vntill the hart be reformed 5. That the word of God is of that nature that it discouereth the hidden things in the heart 6. That the same word of God which sheweth vs the corruptions of our hearts doth also shew vs to reforme the heart Of the first That a wicked and prophane man such as Salomon here speaketh of is no better within then he is without but rather worse is euident both by this and diuers other places of holy Scripture Here he saith that as he is froward in his speeches and dissolute in his outward behauiour so his heart is leud and wicked So that if the hart be naught all is naught If there be any goodnes in his heart it must be either in his vnderstanding or his will or his affections but the subiect of all these is leudnes therfore within there is no better then without but rather worse In the 6. of Gen. verse 5. it is said That mans wickednesse is great and his heart is also euill continually The Psalmist saith The foole meaning a wicked man hath said in his heart there is no God his waies are corrupt and become abhominable there is not one that doth good no not one The Apostle Paul searcheth euery part of the naturall man within and without and findeth all alike Roman 3. from verse 11. to 19. Let him be asked the question and heare his answer And first of his vnderstanding What vnderstanding hath the vnregenerate or naturall man None There is none that vnderstandeth saith he meaning the things of God How are their affections bent What do they not desire to know God No saith the Apostle There is none that seeketh God What is there none better then another No saith the Apostle They haue all gon out of the way they are made altogether vnprofitable there is none that doth good no not one But let vs make a better search it may be there is some goodnesse in some secret corner or in some of their members What say you of their throat Their throat saith the Apostle is an open sepulcher from whence proceedeth nothing but stinke and rottennesse to infect the aire How are their toungs vsed To deceipt saith the Apostle What is vnder their lippes The poison of Aspes And what in their mouths Abundance of cursing and bitternesse They are swift
dores And this rude companion Carnal pollicie who neuer had any other bringing vp or schooling then in the flesh which is altogether for it selfe is fallen grieuously at debate with Pietie and with his cruell long nailes hath almost scratched out Religions eyes and yet saith he loueth Religion wel yea and protesteth that he maketh much of her too and of all her friends And verily I do beleeue him but I beleeue withall that it is as Iudas made much of Christ who being pursebeater stole what he could frō his maister and at the last sold him right out for what he could get So this same Heliogabalus carnall pollicie I mean by purloyning and stealing from Religion and her friends the Church all that he can get doth make much of Religion and of the Church And surely not without iust cause doth true religion complaine in many places of the land that her seruants the Ministers are so shauē and curtalled in their maintenance by pollicie as Dauids embassadours were by Hanun king of Ammon that they are almost ashamed to shew their heades and so weak brought that they cannot follow her with that courage and chearefulnesse which should be in them And in most places generally the course is this to let passe those gulfes that swallow vp whole liuings of Colledges and Churches and allow their shepheard or some other smokie Sir Iohn like vnto him some twentie nobles a yeare and a cast doubler to serue the Cure in most places I say where liuings are laid to the Church the course is this If a preaching Minister be called to a place a pastorall charge I meane where great ones dwell who must pay their tithes as well as other men and they perceiue that he be but a nouice in the world then pollicie is called to counsell who doth giue him entertainement by art but not from the heart for leud things are in his heart Now sir maister Pollicie will for a time be a diligent hearer of his Sermons and with his presence and countenance draw on others to like of him inuite him to his table commend him for his giftes in courteous and familiar maner to conferre with him yet with some straunge countenances sometime among lest perhaps he grow too bold with him in reprouing his faults and demaunding of his owne due Now all this while the world imagineth that here is such a friend that he were better lose half his liuing then loose him And the poore simple man thinketh that he which pretendeth such friendship vnto him which so earnestly intreateth him so highly commendeth him so stoutly defendeth him so louingly embraceth him so zealously followeth him and so diligently heareth him will not deny him any part of his due but will let him haue all yea with the more rather then with the lesse But he is deceiued for the miserable worldling is all this while but practising by pollicie to get into his hands the spoiles of the Lords inheritance And in his heart perhaps he thinketh thus with himselfe Surely I shall so fill him with my morsels and make him so beholding vnto me for one thing or another that except he will incurre the note of an ingratefull person he shall not choose but let me haue his churchright as good cheape as Esau sold his birthright for a messe of pottage or halfe for nought if not then actum est de amicitia farewell friendship I will meete with him some other way and make him wearie of his place Verily whosoeuer practise thus haue leud things in their harts But it may be they thinke that God doth not note them neither will he iudge them for it But they are deceiued for surely he that telleth vs here that leude things are in Belials heart doth also tell vs that euen therefore his destruction shall come speedily and suddenly vpon him without recouerie And let them thinke well of this point also who in the commonwealth vnder colour of dealing well with poore men carrie a leude heart and a cruell hand against them As Achab was sicke for Naboths vineyard which lay hard by his so many rich men are sicke for poore mens liuings and commodities because they lye somewhat commodiously for them if a faire offer of some base exchange will serue so it is if not then practise his ouerthrow or by ouerburdening him with taxes and paiments or by some other deuice to wearie him and so to make him giue ouer but first speake him faire and giue him a dinner Herein they play the Lion that came to the sicke foxe and offered to lick him whole with his tongue when in his heart he purposed to teare him in peeces with his teeth which the foxe perceiuing he made him answer that his tongue indeed had a soueraigne vertue in it but it had a companie of ill neighbours meaning his teeth and vntill they be remoued quoth he I thinke your Lordship will haue but a few patients And like to the Lions Phisick is the kindnesse of vsurers in lending their money but their deuises be indeed innumerable and therefore I will not meddle with them at this time In these and such like cases it were good for poore men to remember to follow the counsell of the holy Ghost in Prou. 23.6.7 Eate not the bread of him that hath an euill eye saith he neither desire his daintie morsels For as though he thought as he saith he will say vnto thee eate eate when his heart is not with thee Thou shalt vomite vp all thy morsels and shalt loose all thy sweet words that is thou shalt be vpbraided by them and thou shalt neuer digest them well they shall do thee no more good then meat which thou art enforced to cast vp againe which doth not nourish but pine and paine the bodie And the like caueat he giueth vs in Pro. 26.24.25 He that hateth will counterfeit with his lippes but in his heart he layeth vp deceipt though he speake fauorably beleeue him not for there are seuen that is many abhominations in his heart Others there be who to spie out the libertie of their Christian brethren come with Herod that foxe pretending a desire to worship with them when they mean nothing lesse Leud things are in their hart and God seeth them Others like the Herodians Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or no So what say you to bishops what think you of the booke of Cōmonprayer Others are like Saul who encouraged Dauid to the wars in hope there to haue made him away Most men come to heare as Gods people vse to do lending very attentiue eares and sober countenances to the preaching of the word but God seeth many leud things in their hart and much bad stuffe and filthinesse which man cannot perceiue of a long time all which they must giue account for For it is a most vile thing to dissemble with his Maiestie by whom we
liue and moue and haue our being and a maruellous mercie of the most high that we are not consumed in our sinnes And let vs take heed that euen now while this matter doth sound in our eares we harbour not leud things in our hearts but pray God to giue repentance and grace to expulse them and faith in the bloud of Iesus Christ to cleanse our harts O let vs take heede I say for we are in his powerfull hands who can either smite vs as we sit before his holy presence or else harden our hearts in his iust vengeance vnto a greater iudgement As Dagon fell downe at the presence of Gods Arke so God giue grace that all leud thoughts imaginations al wicked purposes and determinations all leud vnderstanding and misconstruings if there be any may fall downe out of our harts at the presence and hearing of his word And so much for the second point which is this that howsoeuer a man may carrie himselfe in outward shew to the great admiration of the world yet God doth looke further and iudge him according to the leud things that are in his heart Now let vs come to the third point and therin consider that the cause of all that euill and disorder which appeareth in the outward parts of the bodie is in the heart For when the Lord hath ripped vp the outward parts of Belial as his mouth his eyes his fingers and his feete then he saith presently Leud things are in his heart as if he should say No maruell though his outward man be so ill occupied for there is one within that setteth him a worke and that is a leude heart which is the cause of his froward mouth c. A leude heart or a heart not regenerated is like Achan among the tribes of Israel who secretly played the theefe and brought all out of quiet for whose sake all were plagued And as Achans leude act was the cause of Israels trouble so his owne leud heart was the cause of his leud act and of his owne trouble When Israel was plagued in king Achabs daies Achab blamed Eliah for it little dreaming that himselfe was the cause thereof Achabs humour liueth still in most men though Achab be dead for euery one looketh one vpon another and saith that such and such are the causes of the troubles and stirres that are amongst them when it may be if they searched well they should find the cause most part of it if not all to be the leudnesse and coruption of their owne hearts Some set vpon the Preachers as Achab set vpon Eliah and crie out that they are troublesome and preaching hath marred all but are they not deceiued as Achab was For ask them Is it not the truth that we teach and that they are so much disquieted withall they cannot they will not deny it Oh but say some they liue not according to their doctrine Well admit that to be true as it is in many which yet is an accusation more generall then true and is more maliciously then truly or Christianly obiected yet are not they found lyers which say that preaching of the Gospell is the cause of euill For first they confesse that we preach well and that our doctrine is of God and is sound and good Then of that which is good properly can come nothing but good For qualis causa talis effectus such as the cause is such is the effect saith reason If there follow any euill effect of a good cause it is per accidens through some euill accident that came betweene or vpon as when wheat was sowed tares came vp the wheate was not the cause of the tares but an ill accident happened vpon the sowing of the wheate and that was this while the keepers slept the enuious man came and sowed tares Indeed Christ is called a rocke of offence as though he were the cause of offences which yet is not so for he is the doore of eternall life And the doctrine of the Gospell is continually matched with many offences yet it is the way to saluation For where Christ commeth and the Gospell is preached we meete with many lets which either lead vs awry out of the right way or else do stoppe vs lying in our way or giue occasion of falling and yet of all these nothing can be imputed to Christ or to the Gospell Not to Christ for first it is his office to leade vs by the hand the right way to heauen Secondly he is the light of the world by which we are guided thither Thirdly he is the path by which we come thither Fourthly he is the doore by which we enter in thither and therefore none of these lets or stumbling blockes can be imputed to Christ nor to the Gospell for it is the nature of the Gospell by taking away all lets to set vs open an easie accesse vnto the kingdome of heauen and therefore it is called glad tidings Nothing therefore is more disagreable to the nature of Christ and his Gospell then offence and disorder But this offence happeneth through the leudnes of mens hearts for as soone as Christ appeareth by and by men are wrapped in with offences or rather of themselues runne headlong into them Thus is he the stone to stumble at not because he giueth occasion of stumbling but because occasion is wilfully taken And so the Gospell which is the doctrine of vnitie and peace as Maister Caluin both learnedly and largely doth shew in his Treatise of offences is the occasion of great troubles and garboiles in the world because the wicked take occasion thereby to set all things in a broile Therefore if any euill follow the doctrine of the Gospell it ariseth from some other cause which is this Leud things are in his hart who receiueth euill by the truth And such men turne euen the best things to a bad end so soone as they touch his leud heart like the spider who being full of poison turneth euery thing into poison that she sucketh If therfore men wold leaue raking abroad in the doctrine of the Gospell and the liues of Preachers and other professours and search at home in themselues they shall find the cause of most of that hatred and contention and wilfull mistaking and rash iudging and bitter censuring and wicked liuing that is in our Christian Churches to be in some an ignorant and prophane heart in some an idolatrous and superstitious hart in some a proud and ambitious heart in some a couetous and worldly heart in some a drunken and a voluptuous heart in some a dissembling and Machiuilean heart in some a scoffing and scorning heart in some a cruell and Herodian heart in some a trecherous and Iudas-like heart Now when all these chaunce to ioyne together against the truth as Herod and Pontius Pilate did against Christ then know that the Deuill whose name is Legion is vp in armes against
he shall find that his heart is not like the heart of Belial who is still fraught with leud things and consequently that he shall not neede to stand in feare of that destruction which so speedily so suddenly and so irrecouerably shall fall vpon lawles Belial and Ish auen the man of vanitie and so much for the phisick or means restoratiue preseruatiue to purge preserue the hart from leudnes But here it will be obiected by some that I speake of things impossible Who can do all this will they say Can any man so serue God that there shall be no leudnes nor euill in his heart The heart is deceitfull aboue all things saith Ieremy who can know it if not know it much lesse reforme it And who can say my heart is cleane saith Salomon And although Dauid that man of God wished that his wayes were so directed that he might keepe the statutes of the Lord alwayes and protesteth that with his whole heart he hath sought the Lord yet by his grieuous falles it is euident that there was much leudnesse in his heart and therefore he prayeth that God would create in him a cleane heart and deliuer him from bloud-guiltinesse Was Dauid then a man of Belial or is euery one to take himselfe for a man of Belial and Ish auen a vaine person that hath any wicked imagination or purpose at any time in his heart All this is true and yet betweene the heart of Belial and of a true seruant of God there is great difference For first God speaking of Belial saith not simply leud things haue bene or may be in his heart or go and come by stealth at vnawares or annoy or haunt his hart but leud things are in his heart speaking in the time present take him when you will he hath alwayes a leud heart to shew that there is a continuall residence of leudnesse and diuels in him No man can say his heart is cleane as touching perfection of puritie No man can say but that leud things haue bin in his heart haue haunted his heart through the deceitfulnes of sin haue stolen in and gotten a lodging there awhile like the counterfeit Gibeonites which deceiued Ioshua with their old shooes bottels c. may steale vpon him vnawares as theeues do when a man sleepeth but yet the child of God regenerate may say sometimes truly through the grace of Christ I thanke God these leud motions and perswasions be now gone and put to flight sinne dwelleth not in me like a freeholder much lesse raigneth like a tyrant these leud things haue no quiet rest nor residence in me Gods Spirite keepeth the hold and Iesus Christ with his bloud and Spirite doth cleanse me from all my sinne and doth make vp the breach againe which Sathan made And comfortable is the note that Dauid giueth of himselfe in Psal. 66.18 If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not heare me to shew that though wickednesse get into the heart so we regard it not nor like it not but thinke the time long til he be gone againe all is well so cannot the man of Belial say for he is glad of such a guest he regardeth leud things delighteth in them as in those that he liueth by and is angry with euery man with euery Sermon with euery sentence with euery word yea with euery looke that seemeth to dislike of his waies or that go about to disquiet or disturb his hart or once to speake of it or to meddle withal yea for feare that any man should come neare him and touch any thing that is in his hart he will either sit far inough off from the Preacher that he shall not heare him or haue his armor of vnbeleefe vpon him that whatsoeuer is said shal not enter or wil shape him a short answer that shall seeme to meddle with him or to iudge of his heart how vile soeuer his life be saying O you must not iudge who made you a iudge my heart is knowne to God looke to your owne I thanke God I haue as good a heart to God as any of you all I loue not this pricisenes or this purenesse a man may be too holy and serue God too much what a man that wil liue must dissemble a little and play the good fellow and must haue some deuises in his head that all the world know not of c. And this is Belials reckoning cast it ouer who list set euery speech in his place and the Summa totalis wil be a compound summe like that which standeth vpon pounds shillings and pence and this is the summe of all it amounteth iust to Atheisme Epicurisme Libertinisme a Christian in name a Protestant at large and the summe of this point for an answer final to the former obiection is this He that in truth and vnfainedly studieth to please God in the part regenerate may be said to haue a good heart and a heart reformed Paul professed that in a good conscience he serued God and yet in Rom. 7. sayth I do not the good that I would I find that when I would serue God euill is present with me c. O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this bodie of sinne Then he answereth himselfe I thank God through Iesus Christ my Lord. Yet this followeth as a heauy burden of his song while he liued Euill is present with me I am led captiue to the law of sinne that is vnwillingly enough therefore to end let none thinke that no body serueth God with a good hart but he that hath no corruption in his hart as Anabaptists and Puritanes indeed say so was it not with Dauid nor Paul nor any of Gods children in this life And happie is he that now can go home and find by this Sermon leud things chased out of his heart with a stedfast purpose to serue the Lord with all his heart Now let vs pray THE VII SERMON PRO. 6.14 He imagineth euill continually Fabricatur malum saith Tremelius that is he forgeth or frameth euill IN this part of Belials Anatomie the holy Ghost alludeth to Carpenters or Smiths which do by art and skill contriue their worke and of rude stuffe shape out what they list shewing hereby that the man of Belial in like sort like an artificer doth of the rude stuffe of his heart frame and forge vnto himselfe in the shop of his owne braine what he listeth but yet this difference is betweene this artificer other artificers they of that which was bad do make something that will be good he of that which is good doth forge out matter that is naught they of that which was deformed and without shape do frame something of good forme and fashion he of that which was of forme good inough doth by his art and skill make a deformed thing they do somtime through ignorance or want of experience
nothing of that matter their owne callings are neglected they leape in and out of them at their pleasure their families and themselues without all discipline and gouernement Alas what aunswer will they make when Christ shall stay them and say vnto them What is that to you follow you me When Christ was in a heauenly Sermon against distrustfull care for the world and fainting feare of persecution there was amongst his auditours a very saucy and vnmannerly worldling whose heart was so much vppon his halfe penny as they say that he could not stay vntill the Sermon was done but interrupting our Sauiour Christ spake vnto him to deuide the inheritance betweene him and his brother but marke Christs aunswer Man saith he who made me a Iudge and a deuider of lands amongst you Shewing that it was no part of his calling and seeing that it did not belong vnto him he would not meddle with all teaching vs thereby also what we are to do in the like cases The second kind of busie headed fellowes whose intermedling in other mens matters Sathan vseth as his bellowes to blow the coales of contention are in the common-wealth Of such we haue a very liuely yet fearfull example in Absalom in 2. Samuel 15.2.3 who being a subiect would meddle in the Kings affaires and take vpon him to gouerne to heare and examine mens causes before he was called but it turned in the end to his owne shame and vtter ouerthrow but marke his vile practise He riseth vp early and standeth hard by the entring in of the gate as though he were a man that preferred the common-wealth before his owne businesse and were loth that suters should attend too long then he calleth men vnto him as they went in at the gates if they had any matter or controuersie before the King and came to the king for iudgement and then he questioneth with him in this sort Of what tribe or citie art thou then he enquireth what his suite and matter is whē he heareth it were it good or bad he telleth him that his matter is good and righteous but there is no man deputed of the king to heare thee Oh that I were made Iudge in the land that euery man which hath any matter or controuersie might come to me that I might do him iustice And when any man came neare him to do him obeisance he put forth his hand and tooke him kissed him And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the King for iudgement so Absalom stale the hearts of the men of Israel Which after grew to an open treason and rebellion against the king his father yet against his owne life through the iust iudgement of God against him In like sort at this day it is amongst vs do we not see many crafty Lawyers petty foggers and others of no calling wanting worke that can cunningly creepe into mens matters and counsell them in shew like friends of meere pitty to their cause and of meere goodwill gratis for nothing and can teach them which way to be reuenged of him that hath done them wrong and how to maintaine sute one against another when otherwise but for such vipers the parties were most likely to haue growne vnto a peace Blessed are the peace-makers saith our Sauiour Christ then cursed are strife makers And yet I deny not but that if men be lawfully called they may meddle in other mens matters as Counsellours may and Iudges the one to counsell and pleade the other to determine yea God forbid else otherwise many that are not able to followe their owne cause should haue great wrong And others also may meddle being by parties requested or by authority appointed as arbitrators to take vp or make a stay of matters and so to ende strife and make peace As euery neighbour will runne with water and buckets to quench a fire when a house burneth so euery Christian ought to do his best endeuour to make peace and to end strife when men are at oddes but he that shall be a meanes to begin strife or to enlarge the breach is like him that setteth a mans house on fire and afterward in stead of water bringeth more fire to the burning downe of that and the whole city such a one is an odious man amongst all men and counted not worthy to liue Many of tender conscience are much troubled about this point namely what to do if they see another man do euill as to sweare vainely to blaspheme Gods name or to haue any offensiue image in his house or to vse any vnlawfull recreation or to spend away the time of holy exercises as the Preaching of the word c. in profane exercises and many other things the like whether they ought to go vnto them and reproue them for their euill or no if they should not they thinke that they are accessarie to their euill and if they should much contention and hatred yea mischiefe would as commonly we see it doth follow vppon them because men vnregenerate can by no meanes abide to be reproued of their faults nor hardly the regenerate themselues except themselues haue receiued a singular measure of wisedome and patience and withall that they be wisely and louingly intreated too Surely in this case men must learne to be wise in the Lord and take heed that nothing be done in a preposterous zeale rashly and without good warrant and discretion least they do more harme then good when they thinke the contrary In this case I suppose that many circumstances are diligently to be considered but especially we are to looke before that we haue a lawfull calling or warrant from God by his word or some iust occasion which may serue in stead of a calling We will be ashamed and afraid too to go into our neighbours house and to search euery roome of his house without his leaue and consent and to examine how he came by this and where he had that and to find fault with his diet and his houshold stuffe and to mislike him because euery thing is not as we would haue it for such boldnesse were a great argument of folly want of modesty and all good nurture yea it would argue a wonderfull impudencie insolencie and shamelesse pride neither would such a one be regarded but rather thrust out of the doores by the head and shoulders and examined like a suspitious person by what commission or authoritie he doth so busie himselfe in his neighbours affaires which belong nothing vnto him But if a man be sent for by the housholder to vew his building or his stuffe or any thing that is in the house and required to giue his opinion of it and to correct that which he shall find amisse then with honesty credit and comfort he may speake freely If I come to a place as a straunger guest-wise if he shall require me to pray with him in his family and to
siluer fethers with meeknesse and lowlinesse harmlesnes godly iealousie and continuall mourning for their owne wants the faults of others which they cannot reforme And thus much in generall for the manner of contending amongst the godly wherein they differ from the wicked who care not for Christ because he is none of their head like the harlot that cared not if the child were cut in peeces because it was none of hers whose meeknesse is haughtines stern fiercenesse bitter crueltie and cruell bitternesse whose innocentie is spoile and oppression whose ielousie is only ouer their own glorie whose mourning for sin is reioycing in their owne sin and in the fall of others Now seeing as we be come thus farre it were not amisse to set down some rules in more particular manner to guide poore simple Christians in their zealous and earnest contendings and striuings in following wherof they may haue comfort to their owne consciences and others may glorifie God for their wise and godly cariage of themselues to the aduantage of the truth and the disaduantage of their aduersaries To which end we are to know that euery one that contendeth iustly standeth either for Gods matters or for mens causes In striuing about Gods matters it were good to obserue these rules following not that I would bind any man to these but let euery man as God giueth him experience impart his godly aduice and counsell for the good of others In Gods matters if the controuersie be in publike meetings before many looke to thy calling if it be in priuate betweene thee and a few looke also vpon what occasion it groweth and whether it be offred by thy selfe or by others if by thy selfe especially before thy betters looke how thou fall into it and vse great modestie crauing both leaue to speake and attention to be heard with submission of thy iudgement vnto men of iudgement patiently hearing them also with whom thou contendest as well as thou art desirous to be heard thy selfe and especially vse some words of preparation to draw the minds of the hearers to a reuerent regard of that thou sayest left it be otherwise a profane contention and do not as many do who amidst their cuppes when men are earnestly employed in other pleasant and wittie discourses chop in of a sudden with some great question of Diuinitie vsing no meane at all to diuert and turne the hearers minds from that veine of mirth whereunto they are setled vnto a matter of more grauitie and maiestie which requireth sober and aduised attention If the controuersie be occasioned by others then marke by whom it is raised and to what end if by prophane persons onely to cauill and snare thee then reproofe or silence is the best answer according to the counsell of Salomon Answer not a foole in his folly left thou be like him and yet answer to his folly that is as his folly deserueth lest he be wise in his owne conceipt If the question ariseth by those that ate sober godly then follow S. Iames his rule Be swift to heare and slowe to speake that is put not foorth thy selfe as the maner of many is but let others first speake and be thou required to speake before thou speakest By this meanes also thou shalt the better be able to speake to purpose and with mor ease to go through with the matters like him that followeth another when the ice is broken before him It is good also to looke vnto thy abilitie and not to meddle with a matter that is too high for thee as many do because they would haue men know that they can say somewhat when indeed they do but bewray their grosse ignorance and pride This is Dauids counsell in his owne practise Lord saith he I am not high minded I do not exercise my selfe in matters that are too high for me Then obserue order and auoid confusion that is speake in thy turne and let not many speake together Take for example the Apostles who being assembled in a Councell at Ierusalem about the matter of circumcision other points of Christian religion spake one after another First Peter spake and then all the multitude kept silence and then after him Barnabas spake and after Barnabas Iames and all others kept silence In the next place looke to the right end of thy contending and that is fourefold First Gods glory Secondly truths victorie to the suppressing of errour Thirdly thine owne comfort and instruction Fourthly the edification of others To this end auoid all brawling and bitternesse with vaineglorie and ostentation and let all things be done in loue Lastly if you cannot agree submit your selues to the iudgement of some learned men thy Pastour if he be in place and of abilitie to iudge or to some other Preacher with him or without him if he be not in place Let the Prophets speak two or three saith Paul and let others iudge and the spirits of the Prophets shall be subiect to the Prophets If the spirites of the Prophets that is the Ministers of the word must be subiect to the Prophets then much more in matters of controuersie must the spirits of those which are no Prophets be subiect to the learned In defending our owne causes or in pleading the causes of other men First let vs be sure that the cause be good then may we with lesse offence contend about the same if we haue good calling and iust occasion with fit oportunitie as hath bene shewed before For many complaine contend which haue done the wrong these are like dogges which first bite and then crie or like theeues which pursue true men and may be compared to the harlot who hauing killed her owne child contended with her bedfellow about the death thereof as though that she had bene the death of it Secondly if thy cause be good and iust first offer peace and agreement according to the law of warre if it be refused seeke still and with a mind still of embracing peace yea suffer much and put vp much wrong Thirdly auoid all occasions of contention as much as lyeth in thee by all possible meanes with great ones and chiefly take heed if thou be a meane person of hauing too much familiaritie with three sorts of men First thy superiours especially whose hearts are not sure and vpright towards thee Eate not the bread of him that hath an euill eye saith Salomon for as though he meant it so will he say vnto thee eate eate when his heart is not with thee Surely thou shalt vomite vp thy morsels and loose all thy sweet words And the poore saith he speake with prayers but the rich answer roughly And the rich beare rule much more whē the poore are beholding vnto thē if they borrow they must be seruants vnto them Remember an Embleme or Parable of the two pottes swimming both in one streame the one of brasse the
other of earth the brasse pot offereth great kindnesse to the earthen pot and saith come swimme close by me let vs go arme in arme so shall we the better stand against the streame the earthen pot wisely answered Not so for if we two chaunce to hit one against another as very like we shall if we be so neare then my part is like to be the worse for I shall be broken when thou art whole therefore either like vnto like or else keepe asunder Secondly take heede of such as vse to speake faire and carrie hatred in their hearts For saith Salomon he that hateth counterfeiteth with his lippes but in his heart he layeth vp deceipt though he speake fauourably beleeue him not for there are seuen abhominations in his heart that is many abhominations Thirdly auoid as much as thou canst furious angry men Make no friendship with the angry man saith Salomon neither go thou with the furious man that is haue as little to do with him as thou canst lest thou learne his wayes and receiue destruction to thy soule Lastly if thou be wise and regardest thy owne credite and quiet contend not with fooles and scorners that is with wilfull persons who will conceiue no reason For if a wise man contend with a foolish man saith Salomon whether he be angry or laugh there is no rest Many other rules besides these may the wise hearted Christian prescribe both vnto himselfe and also to others which by diligent reading or conference or experience will daily appeare good vnto him all which as he doth gather them he may if he please adde vnto these And so much shall for this time suffice to shew the difference betweene the wicked and the godly in their manner of contending Happie are ye if ye contend alwaies and as the Apostle saith be earnest in good matters for that is good and contend in a good maner for then shall ye ouercome with credit and comfort and not be ouercome with griefe and shame Now let vs pray THE X. SERMON PROV 6.15 Therefore shall his destruction come speedily he shall be destroyed suddenly without recouerie THe description of the man of Belial is past now followeth his iudgement and that is destruction speedie sudden and irrecouerable And now he standeth like a theefe at the barre who when he hath heard his enditement and is found guiltie must then heare the sentence of the Iudge according to his desert As the malefactor goeth from the barre to the gibbet so the wicked goeth from his wickednesse to destruction This is now the taile of sinne which cometh last but not without a deadly sting Sin is like the Bee that hath both hony which is pleasant and a sting which is more dangerous then the hony is profitable and whosoeuer will be so foolish and venturous as to nourish this Bee in his bosome for loue of the honie shall surely be wounded with the sting more then the other shall heale againe And therefore the pleasures of sinne are called pleasures for a season Heb. 11.25 not pleasures for euer because in the end they leaue a sting of conscience behind them which turne all the former pleasure into lothsomnesse and paine as it did to the rich and delicate glutton in the Gosdell Luk. 16.25 and as it was once said to him being in hell so shall it one day be said to all the wicked Remember ô ye wicked vngodly ye lawlesse vain persons that you in your life time receiued your pleasures the godly because they were contrary vnto you receiued paines therfore now are they comforted you tormēted Thus we see how iudgement and vengeance cometh in to the wicked like a deepe reckening after the feast to such fooles as haue called in for more then they are either able or willing to pay This reckening cometh last but it troubleth their thoughts more then all that went before did comfort them Such a reckening Salomon speaketh of in Prou. 5.3 c. The lippes of a harlot saith he drop as a hony combe and her mouth is more soft then oile but the end of her is bitter as wormewood and sharpe as a two edged sword her feet go downe to death and her steppes take hold of hell Keepe thy way therfore farre from her and come not neare the dore of her house lest thou giue thy honour vnto others and they yeares vnto the cruell left the stranger be filled with thy strength and thy labours be in the house of a stranger and thou mourne at thy end when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy body c. Such a reckening doth Dauid bring in for the wicked in Psalm 73. They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued with other men Therefore pride is as a chaine vnto them and crueltie couereth them as a garment Their eyes stand out with fatnesse they haue more then heart can wish they are licentious and speake wickedly of their oppression they talke presumptuously They set their mouth against heauen and their tongue walketh through the earth and they say how doth God know it or is there knowledge in the most high Lo these are the wicked yet prosper they alwaies and increase in riches Here is their feast past now cometh in the reckening vers 18. Surely thou hast set them in slippery places and castest them downe into desolation How suddenly are they destroyed perished and horribly consumed As a dreame when one awaketh ô Lord when thou raisest vs vp thou shalt make their image despised In the like sort doth Iob bring them in The wicked grow in wealth saith Iob their seed is established in their sight with them and their generation before their eyes their houses are peaceable without feare and the rod of God is not vpon them Their bullocke gendreth and faileth not their cow calueth and casteth not her calfe They send foorth their children like sheepe and their sons daunce they take their tabret and harpe and reioyce in the sound of the organes they spend their daies in wealth There is one banquet past now cometh in the reckening and that is this Suddenly they go downe to the graue Then to it againe they go which are left behind and They say vnto God depart from vs for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies Who is the Almightie that we should serue him and what profit should we haue if we should pray vnto him Now followeth their iudgement Often shall the candle of the wicked be put out and God shall deuide their liues in his wrath they shall be as stubble before the wind and as chaffe that the storme carieth away God will lay vp the sorrow of the father for his children when he rewardeth him he shall know it his eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drinke of the wrath of the Almightie Oh that the wicked the diuels guests did or could consider this
the Anatomie of Belial that is loose lawlesse prophane vaine froward leud surmising suspitious and contentious let them seeke vnto the Lord by timely and vnfained repentance let them embrace righteousnesse and true holinesse and so mercie shall embrace them let them forsake their loosenesse their prophaneness their leudnes and their vanities and by a liuely faith working by loue take hold of Christ as of the hornes of Gods altar and and so assuring themselues of Gods loue in the merites of Christ they may escape this irrecouerable destruction or else not for otherwise my text saith that they shall be destroyed speedily suddenly and without recouerie Many vses may profitably be made of this doctrine but before we come to them I thinke it not amisse to meet with certaine obiections that may be made by Atheists and scoffers against this that hath bene said yea and which do many times arise in the minds of Gods deare children through the weaknesse of their faith in extremity of grieuous temptations sore afflictions Which obiections forasmuch as I find them moued and sufficiently answered by many learned and godly but especially by that excellent learned noble man of France Mornay du Plessy in his booke of the trunesse of religion I wil put them downe euen as he hath done and for answere vnto them will briefly shew you the substance and effect of his answeres supposing them to be so full and sufficient to the purpose that nothing can well be added vnto them to more purpose or of more sufficiency surely whatsoeuer others can I freely confesse my ignorance I see not what I can The first obiection is this if God be iust in his threatnings and that the wicked shall be destroyed and haue such a portion of plagues as hath bene shewed out of Iob. 20 and other places of Scripture then why haue they so much good and the godly so much euill here To this his answere is that if by good we meane riches honour health c. the question is absurd for godlinesse and vertue is the true good The pouerty of Lazarus being a vertuous man is better then the wealth of the rich man the sicknes of a wise man with his wisedom is better then the health of a foole What goods soeuer a man hath he cannot be a good man so long as he him selfe is euil and these outward things are common to good and bad If a man must be termed a good man for hauing these goods then a foole may be termed a wise man in a rich gowne All these false goods are meanes to the wicked to make them worse and worse and riches to corrupt them and others authoritie to do violence health doth make them lustie to do mischiefe so the euils which men terme euils are meanes to the good to make them better as pouertie serueth to bridle lust basenesse to humble them incumbrances to driue them to God and to teach them to succor others But why are these goods common Surely because God cannot be but good insomuch as he maketh his raine to fall and his Sunne to shine vp all A father that keepeth his heritage for his sonne will not apparell him like a slaue in his seruants liueries Princes make their pay common to al souldiers but the garland is giuen to the valiantest Kings cast their largesse at all aduenture among the people but their honors and dignities they bestow on them whom they do specially fauour So God for his honor will not reward the trauels of his seruants with trifles God being liberall and iust will reward thee according to his honour and not according to the basenes of thy heart and that for two causes First because he regardeth not thy workes but his owne in thee Secondly because the reward is not giuen according to thy desert but according to the worthinesse of him that bestoweth it Alexander the great told a seruitour in his warres that a hundreth crownes were inough for him to receiue but not for the Emperour to giue Corne and foode and rayment and money c. are things common to all not peculiar to his children therefore beg not these as the best giftes But what are the goods then that good men haue in this life Many and excellent first they haue grace to make their life allowable to God that knoweth them Secondly in him they repose themselues Thirdly they haue peace in their consciences for if God increase not their present estate they abate their desires Their foes commend their vertues all the world bemoneth their wants those which haue the distributing of goods and honours are blamed for not considering them Lastly the very asking of that question be thou a Christian or a Heathen is vnto them an inestimable treasure If God would not giue me more why haue I forgone those which I had Surely because he saw that if he had not taken them from thee they wold haue taken thee frō him We pluck kniues frō children when they cry to haue them we suffer the Phisition to take from vs our meats which we loue and to abridge vs of our pleasures yea and our of bloud too because he hath seen our water or felt our pulse And shal not God that made vs and gouerneth vs and knoweth best our state what is good for vs haue that honor liberty ouer vs which Phisitions haue Another obiection is this if it be true that the wicked shall be destroyed speedily sodainly and without recouery how is it true that Salomon saith in his booke of the Preacher Chap. 7.17 I haue seene a iust man perish in his righteousnesse and a wicked man continue long in his malice And to this agreeth in shew the complaint of the Prophet The righteous perisheth and noman regardeth it in heart and mercifull men are taken away It should seeme that this plague threatned against the wicked taketh place vpon the godly for they perish and are taken away in their righteousnesse The answere to this is not hard for death is but the common passage and what skils it whether we passe it by sea or by land by our own corruption or by the corruptnes of common weales And if God bring his children to that point for one fault and the iudge for another what iniustice is in God Oh what a thing were it if we could see what fruite the Lord draweth out of their death The child that seeth his father tread grapes blameth him for it thinking they should be kept not conceiuing to what end the treading serueth but the father who knoweth the goodnesse of them better then the child considereth that within two moneths they would wither and drie away and therefore to preserue the vertue of them treadeth them when the child commeth to discretion he museth at his owne folly and yet as then he thought himself wiser then his father After the same maner doth the child when
TEN SERMONS VPON THE FIRST SECOND THIRD and fourth verses of the sixt of Mathew Containing diuerse necessary and profitable Treatises viz. A Preseruatiue against the poyson of vaine-glory in the 1. 2. The reward of sincerity in the 3. The vncasing of the hypocrite in the 4.5 and 6. The reward of hypocrisie in the 7. and 8. An admonition to left-handed Christians in the 9. and 10. Whereunto is annexed another Treatise called the ANATOMIE OF BELIAL Set foorth in ten Sermons vpon the 12.13.14 and 15. verses of the 6. Chapter of the Prouerbes of Salomon Imprinted at London by Richard Field for Thomas Man 1602. TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL RODVLPH WARCVP ESQVIRE AND ONE OF THE IVSTICES FOR THE PEACE IN OXfordshire W. B. wisheth all prosperity in this life and true felicity in the life to come RIGHT worshipfull musing with my selfe where to find a fit patron for these poore Sermons you comming to my mind I resolued to go no further for that matter as not knowing indeed where to better my selfe For things spirituall I know you to be of holy Isaaks diet who longed not so much for curious and dainty meate as for sauory meate In regard of humane variety and carnall curiosity you shall not find them very dainty or rare yet in regard of the spirituall simplicity and plainnesse which I haue endeuoured to shew therein I hope they will not be altogether vnsauory and distastfull The doctrines therein handled I presume you will grant to be most necessary for these times For first though through the abundant light of the Gospell many are both allured and enforced to speake do more good things then they could do in the times of darknesse ignorance yet considering the subtilty of Sathan the corruption of our nature we haue need to stand vpon our gard for when he cannot make vs desist from holy actions yet he will then vse all his art and skill to poyson our affections with the staine of vaineglory And such is the pronenesse of our corrupt nature to be tainted therewith that neither touch-wood or gun-powder are more capable of fire then our nature is of that poyson of vaineglory hypocrisie Againe sincerity and plaine dealing be had in so little regard that of most they be despised no lesse then the high way to beggery and misery and on the otherside that Machiuilean principle we know is too well maintained Qui nescit dissiumulare nescit viuere no dissembling no trading And further most men yea euen the better sort are as vntoward to good workes as they that do all with the left hand consulting still with flesh and bloud and calling their worst affections to counsell Now seeing these things are so what could I propound more necessary then this preseruatiue against the foresayd poyson and what more needfull to be set foorth then the commendations of sincerity taken from her beauty from her riches and inestimable reward And knowing you to be so sincere a friend to sincerity it selfe and so vnfained an enemy to fained hypocrisie and glosing vaineglory as you are what could I present vnto your Worship more suting with your so Christian and sanctified affections then these poore Treatises of sincerity and hypocrisie As for the second part of this booke it containeth as the title sheweth An anatomy of the man of Belial and vaine man who liuing only as the saying goeth by the finenesse of their wits are more vnprofitable then the smoke and for any religion or goodnesse to Godward scarce worth the ground they tread vpon Yet the onely men with most men now adayes who being very witty and expert to exalt vanity are very highly exalted themselues but it is onely of such as are as vaine as themselues Here you shall see Belial set forth by his names by his gestures by his speeches by his imaginations and by his contentions By his names you shall at first see his nature By his gestures you shall perceiue his dexterity in teaching and his facility in learning of euill By his euill imaginations and lewd affections you shall see that his hart is not so secret but it may be and wil be discouered well inough But by his delight in contentions and his maner of contending you shall easily discerne his turbulent spirite and soone iudge of what house he commeth And by his fearefull doome that is awarded him it will be no hard matter to perceiue how well he may be spared and how ill the Church of Christ will thriue where the lawlesse libertine is suffered to harbour But by all together who but the wilfull blind will not see and confesse what a monstrous monster the carnall gospeller or libertine Protestant is what dayes we are now fallen into wherein so much liberty to euill is so freely on all sides both giuen and taken to the great endangering of the whole body both of Church and common-wealth To you these Treatises I do offer in a double respect First to testifie my thankfull mind for so many Christian kindnesses and religious fauours which to my great comfort and encouragement in my poore Ministery I haue receiued from your hands And next for that by reason of that place which in your countrey you hold you haue right good experience of these things For you that are to iudge as long you haue daily you do betweene party and party betweene plea and plea cannot chuse but be acquainted with all sorts of men who in their turnes haue all of them played and do daily play their parts before you yet as Salamon by the wisedome of God which was with him that he might gouerne well could discerne the true mother from the false so can you by the same wisedome easily discerne a counterfeit from one of a sincere and simple hart though with Ieroboams wife he disguise himselfe neuer so much And as all men did then feare and râ—uerence that renowned king because they saw the Lord with him to do iustice and iudgement so I know nothing that hath so much aduanced your name and credite in your countrey and caused the sweete sauour thereof to spread it selfe like a precious ointment both farre and neare and round about you but that all men do euidently see besides your loue of learning and trauell for the same that God is with you to do iustice and iudgement to releeue the poore and distressed to encourage the vertuous and well disposed but especially to heale the breaches of the common-wealth and to bind those fast together with the bond of godly vnity which by vnkind iarres and contentions haue bene likely for euer to haue bene disioyned distracted and dismembred in mind and affection the one from the other Blessed are the peace makers saith our blessed Sauior Prince of peace And who doth not see how abundantly God hath blessed you whose heart he hath enclined and whose trauels he hath imployed and still doth employ for the greatest part of