disgorge and cast up whatsoever lies on his stomach I doubt not but their apish tricks will in time move the heart and stomach of our gracious and merciful Coeur de Lion and other Magistrates in their places to cast up and shew such tokens of their inward grief as they shall have just occasion to conceive against them and to purge the body politick from these noxious humours wherewith it is endangered And without this there is no assurance of peace For as Jehu said unto Jehoram when he went against the house of Ahab is it peace Jehu said Jehoram What peace said the other while the whoredoms of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are in great number So say I what peace can be expected as long the whoredoms of the Romish Iezabel and her witchcrafts and inchanting cups wherewith she withdraweth the people from their obedience to their Soveraign and stealeth their hearts from him as did Absolon the hearts of the Israelites from David his father are in great number As long as the Pope can set any foot-hold in Britain he will bestir himself to molest the peace of our Sion Et si non aliquâ nocuisset mortuus esset But enough if not too much of this subject It is a point which I vowed to handle not out of any spleen to any particular person whosoever he that seeth the thoughts of my heart knowes that I lie not but for the love of the truth the zeal of Gods glory the integrity of my conscience and the discharge of my duty And herein liberavi animam meam look ye unto it The third proposition followeth 23 Ye shall die What mettal other creatures were made of whether immediately of nothing or of some preexistent matter I finde no expresse mention in Gods book This I finde that man was made of a matter and that not gold nor silver pearl or pretious stones but of earth the basest and vilest of all the elements yea of the dust of the earth even of dry dust which is good for nothing that if he shall with proud Phaeton in the Poet boast that Apollo God is his father he might presently call to mind that poor Clymene the earth is his mother that he was made of dust that he is but dust and that he shall return to dust And yet I know not how it comes to passe but I am sure it is true that many in authority resemble the dust in no property better then one that as the dry dust in the streets is with every blast of winde blown aloft into the air so are their hearts blown aloft and swelled up with a windie tympanie of their own greatnesse But let them climbe as high as they can God will one day send a shower and lay this dust They are but natural men and the threed of nature as a Poet feigneth is tyed unto the foot of Jupiters chair he can loose it when it shall please him Though Adams wit was such that he could give names unto every creature according to their natures yet he forgot his own name He did not remember that he was called Adam homo ab humo by reason of that affinity that was between him and the earth These sons of Adam are very like their old grand-father they are witty in seeking out the names and properties of other creatures but they forget their own names and their natures too And this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and overwhelmed with cruelties They will with Nebuchadnezzar strive to advance themselves above the stars of God and to match their old grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of earth yet with the wings of pride and arrogancie would needs soar up into heaven and care little for resembling their elder brother the second Adam who took upon him our weaknesse that we might be strengthened our poverty that we might be inriched our nakednesse that we might be clothed our basenesse that we might be exalted our mortality that we might be invested in the robe of immortality and was contented to descend from heaven to earth that he might make a way for us to ascend from earth to heaven But let them secure themselves as much as they will their hour-glasse is continually running the tide of death will tarry no man Our father hath eaten a sowre grape and his childrens teeth are set on edge Our grand-father for eating of the forbidden tree had this sentence denounced against him that he should return to dust And his children are liable unto it till heaven and earth be renewed and there be no more death Those great and mighty Gods of the earth which clothe themselves in purple and fine linnen and dwell in houses of Cedar and adde house to house and land to land as if the way to heaven layd all by land have a time appointed them when their insatiable desires shall be contented with a Golgotha a place of dead mens skulls a little portion of the great potters field as much as will serve to hide and cover a dead carkasse in it You which sit on the seat of judgement whom the Lord hath so highly extolled as to be called Gods you have your dayes numbred your moneths determined your bounds appointed which ye cannot passe It is not the ripenesse of your wits nor the dignity of your places nor the excellency of your learning nor the largenesse of your commission that can adde one inch unto the threed of your dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres Deaths arrow will as quickly pierce through the strong castle of a King as the muddie wall of a countrey swain Were ye wiser then Solomon stronger then Samson richer then Iob mightier then the greatest Monarch of the earth faithfuller in your places then Samuel that faithful Judge of Israel Ire tamen restat Numa quò devenit Ancus This must be the conclusion Ye must die as men and yeeld your bodies to deaths Serjeant to be kept prisoners in the dungeon of the earth till the great and general assizes that shall be holden by our Saviour Christ in the clouds of the skie at the last day The conclusion is most certain howsoever the premises be fallible and doubtful Alexander when by his followers he was called a God forgot that he was to die as a man till by a poysoned arrow he was put in minde of his mortality and then he confessed the truth Vos me Deum esse dixistis sed jam me hominem esse sentio You said that I was a God but now I perceive I am but a man And shortly after he perceived it with a witnesse when he was poysoned by Antipater and then inclosed in a small parcel of ground whose aspiring mind the whole world could not fil Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modò sufficit
hangeth over your heads like Damocles his sword for our iniquities flatter your selves no longer in your own sinnes but turn unto him by speedy and unfained repentance that he may repent him of the evill and turn away his plagues from you let the wanton leave his dallying and the drunkard his carrowsing and the Usurer his biting and the swearer his blaspheming and the oppressor his grinding and every one amend one in time before the Lords wrath be further kindled then will the Lord be mercifull unto this land he will quickly turn the sowre looks of an angry and sinne-revenging Judge into the smiling countenance of a milde and gentle Father Hee will take the rodde which he hath prepared for you and burn it in the fire These plagues which do hang over you for your iniquities he will blow away with the breath of his nostrils as he did the Egyptian Grashoppers into the red-sea hee will command his destroying Angel to put up his sword into the sheath he will open the windowes of heaven and powre down a blessing upon you without measure Then shall you be blessed in the City and blessed in the field blessed at your going out and blessed at your comming in and whatsoever you put your hands unto shall be blessed your sons shall grow up as Olive branches and your daughters shall bee as the polished corners of the Temple Your grounds shall so abound with grane that the tillers shall laugh and sing your garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store your presses shall abound with Oyle and wine your sheep shall bring forth thousands and tenne thousands in your fields Every thing shall prosper nothing shall stop the current of Gods blessings there shall be no decay nor leading into captivity and no complaining in your streets and which is better then all these he will give you faithfull and painfull Pastors to feed you his spirit to comfort you his word to instruct you his wisdom to direct you his Angels to watch over you his grace to assist you and in a word He will be your God and you shall be his people thus shall it be done unto all those whom the King of heaven shall honour so that all the world shall wonder at your felicity and say Blessed be the Lord which taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants and happy are the people that be in such a case yea blessed are all they which have the Lord for their God thus will he be with you and direct you in the desert of this world till he bring you into a faire and goodly place the promised land a land that floweth with better things then abundance of Milke and Honey the celestial Paradise the heavenly Canaan the kingdome of glory prepared for you from the beginning of the world even that kingdome where the King is verity the Lawes charity the Angels your company the Peace felicity the life eternity To this kingdom the God of all mercy bring us for his sake that bought us with his own blood to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons in trinity and one God in unity be ascribed all honour and glory power and Majesty both now and for evermore Amen TO THE Right reverend father in God the Lord Bishop of CARLILE RIGHT REVEREND WHen I preached at Carlile at the last Assises I made no other account but that my sermon should like Aristotles Ephemeron have died the same day that it took breath Since which time I have been intreated by divers to make it common to whom I would not yield the least assent as doubting that their desires proceeded rather from affection towards the speaker then from a sound judgement of the things spoken But when I perceived how distastfull it was to some that beare Romish hearts in English breasts I resolved as David did when Michal mocked him for dancing before the Arke to be yet more vile by publishing that unto their eyes which before was delivered to their eares hoping that the more it displeaseth them the better acceptance it shall finde with the true Israelite Which now at length I have effected So as that before they heard it or at least heard of it so now they may read it And if I have evill spoken let them beare witnesse of the evill but if I have said well why doe they smite me It seems to them a meere calumniation to say that there is no probability that a Papist shall live peaceably with us and performe true and sincere obedience towards our Prince To whom I might returne the short answer of the Lacones to their adversary Si if it were so my speech was not to no purpose because not only rebels to the King but much more to God and his true worship and service are to be rooted out of a Christian commonwealth And if those be worthy a sharpe censure which agreeing with us in the fundamental points of Divinity cannot away with the carved worke of our Temple but cut it downe as it were with Axes and Hammers how much more those Sanballats and Tobiahs that strike at the foundation thereof and say of it as did the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem down with it down with it even to the ground But I rather say O si I wish it were so and that there were no feare of danger by their meanes and devises But this I doubt cannot be effected unlesse there be I will not say with the Oratour a wall but a sea between them and us Till then there is as great probability of peace between us as there was of old time between the Catholicks and the Donatists the Orthodoxall and the Arians the Hebrewes and the Aegyptians the Iewes and the Samaritans Immortale odium nunquam sanabile vulnus And for true loyalty and faithful obedience there is as great probability as that the two poles shall meet The King and the Pope are two contrary masters none can truly serve them both Either he must hate the one and love the other or he must leane to the one and despise the other The obedience which either of them requires is so repugnant that they cannot lodge within one breast This loyalty which our adversaries do outwardly pretend is but equivocal no more true loyalty then a dead hand is a hand it wants the very forme and soule if I may so speak of true dutifulnesse which is to perform obedience voluntarily and with a free heart for Gods cause as to Christs immediate Vicar over al persons within his dominions It is with some secret reservation till their primus motor the man of sin upon whom their obedience depends shal sway them another way rebus sic stantibus the state standing as it doth donec publica bullae executio fieri possit untill they may have power and strength to resist So that I may use the same words unto them which
as an asse may be known by his long eares and as the bignesse of Hercules might be gathered by the print of his foot And though some of them to make it lesse hainous call it a particular fact of a few and that temerarious too as though forsooth it had been farre from their hearts to have attempted any such cruelty against the Lords anointed yet it may be truly said of them all as Tullie said of the Catilinarians aliis facultas defuit aliis occasio voluntas profectò nemini And he that in outward shew seems most against it would have lent both heart and hand and put to the very match so that he might have effected that matchlesse treason And why should it be otherwise For what I pray you is any Prince in the world if he do not adhere to the Apostatical Sea of Rome shall I define him unto you out of their Logick books A woolf devouring the sheep an Ahab or Jezabel destroying the Lords Prophets an Holofernes a professed enemy to the true Israelite a Goliath reviling the host of the living God a seducer and deceiver of the people as our Saviour was called by their old grandfathers And must not such a one be made away by one means or other by open hostility or secret conspiracy it makes no matter dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirit Shall not the shepheard do well to kill a wolfe shall not Judeth be highly extolled if she can kill Holofernes though sleeping in his bed And if David kill Goliath deserves he not to be met with the two women of Israel with timbrels instruments of joy singing thus Saul hath killed his thousand but David his ten thousand In a word is it not their assertion that Princes must not be suffered to reign when they draw the people into heresie but must be made away yea by all means possible And therefore I lesse marvel why that reviling Rabshakeh that brasen-faced fugitive Parsons who blusht not to say any thing in his younger years in his old age took upon him a kind of modesty and durst promise no more for his fellowes then this that there was no impossibility for Papists to live in subjection and dutiful obedience unto the king of great Britain For possibility it is not the question but for probability it is no more then that the wind and the sea light and darknesse the Arke and Dagon God and Mammon the unbeliever and the infidel shall be together For what I pray you is it which knits men as it were with chains of adamant in love amongst themselves and in loyalty and obedience unto their Prince Is it fear of punishment Oh no for malus est custos diuturnitatis metus He never reignes long whom every man feareth Caveat multos quem timent singuli let him beware of a multitude whom every particular dreadeth Is it hope of reward not that neither For that is often frustrated and then followeth an alteration in the affections It is neither of these It is religion and the true fear of God This this is it which knits the heterogeneal parts of the same kingdome unto the Prince as the several parts of mans body are by arteries knit and united unto the heart and as the lines of a circle though they be farre distant about the circumference yet concurre in one middle point so must it be with them Though they be different about the circumference of worldly affaires yet must they concurre in one common center of religion A good Christian common-wealth is like unto Peters sheet wherein were all manner of four footed beasts and creeping things and fowles of the heaven There are in it all sorts of men There are nobles flying aloft like the fowles of the heaven there are of the baser sort creeping as it were below and there are of a middle sort men of all conditions and callings But this sheet is knit together as that was a the four corners the most distant and remote parts thereof with the unity of religion 22. This is so plain that Aristotle gives it as an especial rule for a Tyrant if he mean to continue his government to make an outward shew of Religion For such kings saith he as seem to be religious are in least danger of treacherous practises by such as are under them Now where this unity of religion is wanting as wanting it is seeing we differ from the Papists not in a few circumstances but in sundry fundamental points of Divinitie how can this knot be made fast Nay seeing they are so far from counting any Protestant Prince religious that they count him an heretick and the more diligent he is in cleansing and refining his kingdom from the dregs of Romish superstition as our Saviour Christ was in purging the law from the absurd glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees the greater persecutor he is holden with them to be of the Catholick faith Verily I see no probability I had almost said no possibility that they will hereafter prove true and dutiful subjects to the King of Great Britain They may well make protestations and outward shewes of love and duty and obedience towards the Prince but Lupus pilum non ingenium mutat a wolfe is a wolfe though he be clothed in a sheep-skin well may he cast his old hair but still he keeps his own nature Shall their fair speeches make us believe them Sic notus Vlysses Is the craft of the Romish foxes no better known unto us Timeo Danaos dona ferentes I fear their fawning far more then their frowning it was but a frivolous tale which the people of Alexandria told Timothy etsi non communicamus tecum tamen aâ—mamus te although we do not communicate with thee yet we love thee For how can a man love him in his heart with whom he cannot finde in his heart to communicate I am in a field in which I might course at large but I am mindful of the time and will not presume too long upon your patience Some of our worthies do stoutly with their pens oppose themselves against these men and I pray God every Magistrate in his place would be as careful in unsheathing the sword of justice against them Habemus in eos Senatusconsultum satis 〈◊〉 grave we have an act and statute strong enough 〈…〉 but daily encreasing makes me almost say as it followeth in the Oratour habemus inclusum in tabulis tanquam gladium in vaginâ reconditum It is closed in the book as a sword in the scabbart or as Goliaths sword was wrapt in a cloth behinde the Ephod The best that I can say in this case is to use the Prophesie of the Crow in Suetonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all will be well Est benè non potuit dicere dixit erit Pliny writeth that the tricks of an ape will so vex and move a Lion that he will
and lusts of the flesh as the Hebrews by little and little rooted out the Cananites it seeketh to represse this rebellion as David did the plots of his son Absalom Experience we have in the main pillars of the spirituall Temple David a man after Gods owne heart so moved at the prosperity of the wicked that he begins to say that certainly he hath cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocencie there is a carnall David which make his feet almost to goe and his steps well-nigh to slip but when he goeth in the Sanctuarie of God then he understandeth the end of these men there is spirituall David which makes him condemn his former thoughts and speeches so foolish was I and ignorant even as it were of a Beast before thee Peter who sometime was so confident as to continue true unto his Master that he made protestation that if all should deny him yet he would never doe it presently after he begins to follow afarre off and anon after the rock of Peters faith is so shaken with the voice of a damosel that he begins to curse and sweare that he never knew him but presently again at the crowing of a Cock the spirit is awakened and goes about to take some avengement of the flesh he went out and wept bitterly who more strong in the spirit then Paul was in zeale fervent in labours abundant in nothing inferiour to the chief Apostles and yet he hath given him a prick in the flesh the Messenger of Sathan to buffet him which makes him say when he would doe good evill is present with him and that he finds a Law in his Members rebelling against the law of the mind and carrying him captive to the law of sinne and good reason it should be so for if the spirit should so domineer over the flesh then there were no resistance and reluctation then would we not have an earnest and longing desire to be out of this world we would not with the faithfully say Come Lord Jesus come quickly we would not desire to be cloathed with our house which is from Heaven but would say as Peter did Master it is good for us to be here To end then that wee should long after our future perfection when corruption shall put on incorruption and mortallity shall be swallowed up of immortallity we find this conflict in our own bowels that we may be wearie of this present state and say as Rebecca did when Esau and Iacob strugled in her womb if it be so why am I thus Only here is our comfort that though the flesh be still lusting against the spirit and we have more flesh then spirit for flesh is like to Goliath the spirit is like to little David yet the spirit shall be in the end sure to prevaile as David prevailed against Goliath for though it be little in quantity yet it is fuller of activity as a little fire hath more action though lesse resistance then much earth for it fareth with these two as with the house of Saul and David the spirit like the house of David waxeth stronger and stronger but the flesh like the house of Saul waxeth weaker and weaker it is with them as it was with John Baptist and Christ I must decrease saith John but he must increase the flesh which like John is before it must decrease but the spirit which like Christ comes after whose shoe latchet the flesh is not worthy to loose it must grow and increase and this is plain and of this place for whereas the flesh objecteth that man is sick and perisheth and where is he and again If a man dye shall he live again the Spirit replyeth and puts the flesh to silence All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my changing shall come Is it true beloved Christians That the Children of God yea even in such as have obtained the greatest perfection that a meer man hath obtained in this life there is reluctation between the flesh and the spirit Oh then let as many of us as long after life and desire to see good daies even life everlasting and daies which never shall have an end Let us I say labour to subdue this Rebel and bring it into subjection to the Spirit for it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh will profit nothing The flesh is like Caligula who as Tacitus saith of him was a good servant but an ill master It will be a good servant if we keep it in subjection to the spirit but it will be an exceeding bad master if it once get the upper hand and it will use the spirit as the Scythians servants dealt with their masters who when their masters had for many years warred in the Southern parts of Europe and Asia in the mean time married their wives and got possession of whatsoever they had and therefore we must use it as these Scythians used their servants who when they could not prevail against them with open war at length handled them like servants and slaves took rods and beat them and so recovered their ancient possessions We must not proceed against the flesh as against an equal enemy but we must use rods and scourges we must chasten and correct it and so bring it again in subjection to its lawful commander It is like the dumb divel which could not be cast out but by prayer and fasting we must implore the assistance of Gods spirit being of our selves unable that we may be strengthened and enabled to overcome it we must by fasting withdraw its food wherewith it is nourished I do not mean only our meat and drink but all worldly delight and enticing allurements to sin wanton and idle spectacles they be food of our carnal eyes these we must withdraw away and with Job Make a covenant with our eyes that we will not look upon wantonness foolish and undecent speeches be the delight of the tongue those we must remove away and pray with David Set a watch O Lord before our mouthes and keep the dore of our lips In a word whatsoever will be an incitement to sin and is like to strike fire in the tinder of our corrupt affections that must be debarred and kept from them Let us then use the flesh as the enemy useth a besieged City observe and watch the by-wayes that there be no intercourse or secret compact between it and Sathan that there be no provision carried by Sathan and his vassals into it that so it may be inforced to yeild it self or as the Hunters use Mole and Foxes in the earth stop the passages that through hunger it may be at last inforced to come out and leave its habitation otherwise if by excessive eating and drinking we nourish it if by gorgeous and costly attire wee deck it if by epicureous and voluptuous delights wee pamper it what doe we but arme our enemies against us and
time will I waite till my changeing shall come Whence this note doth naturally arise That in this life in the regenerate man there is a combat and conflict betwixt the flesh and the spirit A naturall man of himselfe is like a heavie bodie which in a well disposed medium moveth downwards of it self without resistance he goes downwards without violence nay praecipitat non descendit he throwes himselfe downe as Sathan would have perswaded Christ to cast himself downe from the Pinacle of the Temple and doth not descend downe by staires but a regenerate and spirituall man as he cannot easily fall downe being holden up with the two wings of saith and hope so can he not easily ascend being pressed down by a weighty burthen too heavie for him to beare he is like to the Gyant under Sicily Nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe Dextrae sed Ausonio manus est subjectae Peloro Laeva Pachine tibi Lylibaeo crura premuntur Aetna caput Upon his right hand lye presumptuous sins upon his left honour and feare upon his feet and thighs the lusts and affections of the flesh upon his head blindness and ignorance doubting and unbeliefe so that oftentimes the good which he would that he cannot doe but the evill which he would not that he doth or he may be compared to a man that swims against the stream with much ado he gets upward but if he misse the stroke the streame carryeth him back again or to one which ascendeth up to the top of a Hill with a but then on his back much panting and sweating hath he before he can get up and if his foot chance to slip so heavie is the load on his back that he will hardly recover himself without a fall the spirit strives against the streame to swim up to the fountaine of goodnesse and the flesh strives to beat him back and as it were with an easie tyde to carrie him down into the Ocean of sin and iniquitie the spirit strives to creep up the hil upon hand and foot as Jonathan and his armour bearer did between the two rocks Bozez and Seneh when they went against the Philistims but the flesh striveth to beate him backward and to tumble him down like Nebuchadnezzars stone from the top of the mountain so that it fareth with a regenerate man as it did with Rebecca when she was with Child the flesh and the spirit fight and strugle one with another as the Children did in her womb so saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another so that wee cannot doe the thing which we would which is not so to be understood as though the body fought against the soule or that these two the flesh and the spirit were locally separated for as the flesh is partly spirituall so the spirit is partly carnall these two are mingled and joyned in both body and soule and in every part and facultie thereof In the understanding there is knowledge mixed with ignorance and blindness there is spirit mixed with flesh in the Will there is a willing and a nilling in the affections there is a desiring and forsaking of that which is good as Medea in the Poet had between naturall reason and carnall appetite Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor The reason is manifest For as a Child becomes not a perfect man in an instant but groweth by little and little So after our regeneration when we are new born of water and the spirit wee become not presently strong men in Christ Jesus but wee grow dayly in perfection wee ascend as it were up Iacobs ladder wee climb from one degree or staire of perfection to another till all imperfections be removed from us For howsoever justification be actus individum simul totus as judicious writer truly aver-Justification is an individuall act and admits of no degrees yet sanctification comes by parts and degrees for it fareth with him as it doth with cold water when it is made hot by fire as the cold is by degrees expelled so is the heate brought in by degrees omnis remissio est per admissionem contrarii In like manner as the old man which like the earth is cold perisheth so the new man heated by the fire of the spirit quickneth and reviveth and again as there is a strugling and mutuall conflict and encountring betwixt the the contrary qualities Frigida cum calidis pugnant humentia siccis One indeavouring to captivate and destroy the other so it is betwixt these two the spirit indeavoureth to conquer the flesh but like a naturall agent agendo repatitur it suffereth blows of the flesh which rebelleth against it and leadeth it captive to the law of sinne only here is the difference that two contrary qualities may be so tempered as that a mean consisting of both and not specifically distinguished from both may be produced of them but the flesh and the spirit will never make one and therefore the spirit saith to the flesh as Alexander did to Darius who offered him half of his kingdome so that he might quietly enjoy the other half but as one world cannot have two suns so one kingdom must not have two kings and therefore 't wil endeavour utterly to dispossesse the flesh and depose it from its estate which it holdeth in man as Alexander did to depose Darius from his kingdom it can no more live in agreement with the flesh then Sarah could with Hagar and her sonne and therefore it saith as she did to Abraham Cast out this bond-woman and her sonne for the sonne of the bond-woman may not be heire with my sonne Isaac Of heate and cold may be made one individuall quality which wee call luke-warme but the flesh and the spirit cannot be mixed no Christian may be luke-warm for such will Christ spue out of his mouth Thus you see that so long as a Christian remaineth in this world so long there is a contention betwixt the regenerate and carnall part the flesh which like a Zopyrus keeps within the wals of the City is ever ready to betray him unto his enemies hands it is to him as the Canaanites were to the Israelites thorns in their eys and pricks in their sides so that a Christian may say of it as David did of Absalom Even my sonne which comes out of my bowels seeks my life or take up that complaint which the Prophet doth elswhere it is not my open enemie that doth me this dishonour for then peradventure I could have borne it neither was it mine adversarie that did magnifie himselfe against me for then peradventure I could have hid my selfe from him but it is thou my guide and mine own familiar friend my flesh which eatest my bread that liftest up thy heele against me on the other side the spirit seeks to root out the earthy affections