his life Et sevis inter se convenit ursis and the very Devils will not kill one another 2. It is against reason which saith That every man should do unto others as he would be done unto himself 3. It is a devillish sin and a sin of the Devill who though he be not termed an Idolater or Adulterer yet he is said to be a Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 because it was he that murdered our first Parents and he taught Cain to kill his brother and this Zimri to slay his Master 4. It is a beastly sin quia ferina rabies est sanguine vulnere laetari it is a point of savage cruelty to delight our selves with wounds and blood saith Seneca 5. It is not only one but it is also the first and the greatest one of those four crying sins that are only so called in the Scripture for the other three Sodomie Oppression and detaining of Servants wages are but parts and par cels of this great crying sin Because that in Sodomie that seed is spilt which might have been the matter of humane flesh and blood and by the other two i.e. Oppression and detaining of the Labourers wages the life is made to languish and to be shortned by little and little for want of means because the life of man and the means to maintain that life may like Ens Bonum Good and Being be very well said to be voces convertibiles And therefore the Wise man saith The bread of the needy is their life he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood but in murder root and branch and all the tree is wholly destroyed all at once 6. It is a sin which produceth such an irregularity that although the murderers should truly repent and have their sin pardoned by God which is but seldom seen yet they cannot promoveri be advanced or proceed on in Gods savour and be so acceptable unto God as other sinners may be upon their repentance as it appeareth plainly by what the Lord saith to David that otherwise was a man according to Gods own heart and had heartily repented him of his murder Thou shalt not build an House for my Name 1 Chron. 28.3 because thou hast been a man of War and hast shed blood 7. It is a sin which seemeth by the punishment thereof to be greater at least wise in some respects than any other sin whatsoever except only the sin against the Holy Ghost for when Cain slew his brother the Lord said unto him The voice of thy brothers blood cryeth unto me that is Vox sanguinâ—m The voice of the bloods which thou hast spilt i. e. of all the blood that should have sprung from Abel to have replenished the earth if thou hadst not spilt it doth require that I should take vengeance of thee and therefore Thou art cursed from the earth And this curse was so great and of so large extent that it reached to the very earth that bare him up and therefore the Lord addeth When thou tillest the ground it shall not benceforth yield unto thee her strength a fugitive and a vagaboud shalt thou be in the earth Gen. 4.11.12 Which seems to be a far heavier sentence inflicted upon him for killing his brother than that which was imposed upon Adam for offending Gods own Majesty though there was a straight command and prohibition given to Adam that he should not eat of the forbidden Tree and as yet no Precept given to forbid the shedding of mans blood For 1. He doth not say to Adam Thou art cursed for thy sin but How Cains punishment seems heavier than Adams Cursed is the ground for thy sake but unto Cain he saith Thou art cursed from the ground As if he had said The curse shall not fall unto the ground but it shall light upon thine own head 2. He doth not say to Adam When thou tillest the ground it shall not yield her strength unto thee but Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to thee That is naturally and of it self the earth which if thou hadst not sinned would of it self have brought thee all pleasant fruits shall now bring thee nothing else but weeds But unto Cain he saith When thou tillest the ground and manurest it and usest all the art and skill that thou canst to make it fruitful yet it shall not yield her strength unto thee So that the sterility and the unfruitfulness of a well-tilled and manured ground is the punishment of Guin's murder and an additional curse to that which was formerly imposed upon Adam 3. He doth not say to Adam that he should have no resting-place upon the earth but that he should eat his bread in the sweat of his face Gen. 3.2 until he should return to the earth But unto Cain he saith A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth And therefore Cain that knew well enough his fathers censure before and now hearing his own sentence so far exceeding it cryed out My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.12 Why the punishment of Cains sin seems greater than Adams punishment And no marvel that the punishment of this sin seems greater than the punishment of Adam's for in nature let Reason shew you who doth offend you most he that disobey eth your voice and breaks your command or he that seeks to take away your life And in Adam's sin and in all other sins there seems to me a leaving of the Being of God to be a God as in the great sin of Idolatry though we make an Idol a thing that hath no being in the world to be our god and fall down to worship that no-Being with that worship that belongs to the true God yet we do not thereby seek to annihilate the Being of the True God we rob him of his Honour but take not away his Life we leave him still to Be though we serve him not But in murdering or killing of a man we do what lieth in us to destroy and bring to nothing the very Essence or Being of God because we deface the Image of God God himself being invisible and in nothing of all the things that God made so plainly seen to us as in the face of Man And therefore of all creatures Man alone is principally said to be the Image of God and in that respect chiefly to be respected and cherished and not to be murdered or killed Because in the Image of God made he Man and therefore he that killeth man doth his very best to kill God because he destroyeth his Image when he can see nothing of God but his Image And if as our adversaries do say the service done to a dead image which is no wayes commanded by God to be done doth presently redound ad prototypon to the thing or person represented by the image then how much surer are we that the defacing of God's living-Image which God doth so
judge de actionibus mediis quaevel in malo vel in bono animo fieri possunt of such actions as may proceed and come either from an evil mind or from a good heart or else de futur is contingentibus of future things what may happen to any one because that in all these things we may easily be deceived as we see some man like unto S. Paul de quo desperamus subitò convertitur fit optimus of whom we despaired is suddenly converted and as he was from a persecuting wolfe became a holy Saint so is this other man from a deboist drunkard become a devout Christian and we see other men like King Saul and Judas and Simon Magus de quibus multum praesumpseramus defecerunt facts sunt pessimi of whom we conceived much good have suddenly relapsed and became most wicked so that nec timor noster certus est nec amor neither our fear of the one nor our hope of the other can have any certainty at all And on the other side he would have us to strive and study to the uttermost of our power by the ways and means that are left unto us to know the truth of outward things and to search for the understandiug of those things that God hath revealed unto us Of what thing â—ve may judge and so to judge righteous judgement in those things wherein we are allowed to judge and that is de praesentibus externis apertis of things present or past and the things that are manifest and externall as to discern white from black light from darknesse good from evill and a sober man from him that is drunk or a true subject from a false Traytor and the like so far as their outward actions do appear Which may be done without entring into the hearts and thoughts of men or diving to deep into the secrets of God for our Saviour tells us that as the tree is known by his fruit that is cujus generis sit of what kind it is an apple or a crab The words and works of every man do testifie whâ—t he is Judg. 12.6 John 10.25 a fig tree or a thistle so we may know men by their words and by their works whether they be therein good or bad the blessers of God or the blasphemers of God for as the damsell said to Saint Peter Thy speech bewrayeth thee and the pronouncing of Shiboleth discovered who was an Israelite and who not who a Gileadite and who an Euphraimite And our Saviour saith The works that I do do bear witnesse of me so the words and works of every man else do sufficiently testifie what he is for the present good or bad But though I do know by the fruits of what kind the tree is yet I know not thereby whether the tree be rotten at the root or not so though I know by the words and works of men whether they be therein vertuous or vitious Saints or sinners yet I cannot judge thereby what kind of hearts they have good or bad or what will become of them for the time to come For you know what the Prophet saith Many give good words with their mouths but curse with their hearts and the Israelites drew near unto God with their mouthes and honoured him with their lips but their hearts were farre from him and therefore seeing that virtus consistit in actione vertue consisteth in action in our works rather then in our words our Saviour tells us Matth 7.21 Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven and Saint Paul saith directly Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the Law though you should hear a Sermon every day in the week but the doers of the Law shall be justified because our works do more fully and more certainly shew what we are rather then our words for quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta to what purpose shall I hear good words Our words like the leaves and our works like the fruit while the tongue like Joab saith Iâ— it peace my brother and the hand stabs us to the heart they will avail us nothing being like the Spiders web that will make no garment for us because our words are like the green leaves that make a fair shew upon any tree and our works are like the solid fruits whereby we discern the sweetnesse and the goodnesse of the tree And yet I told you how far we may judge of the fruits and works of men so far as 〈◊〉 see and no further because we may as easily be deceived by the specious works of the hypocrite as by the scandalous deeds of the transgressors which perhaps for ought we know may have better hearts towards God then the others that have far more glorious works in the sight of men And therefore I say that we ought not to make a distinction among Christians and gather Churches unto our selves to be a congregation of Saints separated from the rest of the wicked as the Apostles gathered Churches from the unbelieving Jewes and the Idolatrous Gentiles Because all those that are baptized and are received as the children of the Church and do professe the Faith of Christ are comprehended in this Brotherhood and is not to be rent in pieces like Jeroboams garment but ought to be kept intire like the Coat of Christ and to be loved and and cherished as this our Apostle adviseth us But then seeing this brotherhood which we are thus chiefly to love is not the brotherhood of society which reason perswadeth nor of consanguinity which nature teacheth nor of our Election and Adoption to be the Sonnes of God which we know not but of the profession of the faith of Christ and receiving of the signes and badges of Christianity which are visible to our eyes of flesh and credible to the judgement of charity Quest it is much questioned and of too many men very unjustly resolved whether all that are baptized and do thus professe the Christian Religion and are not cut off from the Communion of the Church for some detected and apparant iniquity are comprehended in this brotherhood and are thus specially to be loved To which our rigid Saints do absolutely deny it because we see so many Sects and so many kinds of men that do thus professe Christianitie and say They do all believe in Christ and do wear his badge and do him service as Papasts Puritans Brownists Anabaptists and the like And therefore if this be true that all these are contained and united within this bond of fraternity and with a Christian love to be imbraced you will make the way to heaven very broad and this bond of brotherhood of a very large extent But I answer that I must not shut the gate of heaven against those Sol. to whom Christ hath opened it nor make the way thither narrower then God hath made it
he devised the way to depose her and to set the Crown upon the right Heirs Head whose example we ought all to follow when opportunity serveth Or were I not so that we must renounce usurped power how shall we protect and maintain the just and lawful authority 2 Sam. 15 16. surely the people that followed Abso lon when he had the power to trample Justice under foot to possesse the royal City and to drive the lawful King to flie from place to place and the followers of those perfideous Rebels of Killkenney that so barbarously massacred the poor Protestants and so foully so falsely deluded both the good King and all the Kings friends and have now as themselves pretend the great power in this Kingdom may well be justified not to have offended if this doctrine may be defended that usurped authority is not to be resisted but to be obeyed when its power is most prevalent But the Apostle tells us plainly Rom. 14.2 that whatsoever is not of faith is sin and with what faith I pray you can I obey that power and submit my self to that authority which my conscience tells me to be against truth and without Justice But Tertull. ad Scapulam makes this most clear where he sheweth how tender the Christians were to preserve the right to the lawful Emperours and therefore though Albinus was most powerful in the West and Pisen Niger in the East yet the Christians would be nec Albiniani nec Cassiani nec Nigriani Yet this much I must tell you that where the right heir is not apparent as it was not amongst many of the Primitive Emperours who were often lifted up to that royal dignity by none other right than the Sword of the tumultuous Souldiers and unconstant cohorts and were therefore obeyed by the good Christians because they knew not of any other that had any better right unto the Empire the same as yet being unsetled to continue in any hereditary line or when the just Title to the Crown is not cleered as perhaps it was not to all the Subjects in the time of Hen. 4. Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. and the like doubtful claimes then it is not for every private mechanick or ignorant Rustick to determine the right to the Crown and decide the equity or the iniquity of such powers but as the Apostle saith and as it was most learnedly handled by a most Reverend and a most learned Prelate of our Church not long since in this place they ought to study to be quiet to follow their own Trades 1 Thes 4 11. and to do their own business and not to polupragmatize in matters so transcendent and so metaphysical to their Mechanick and Rustick capacities And in this qualified sence you must understand and not mistake the meaning of the same most Reverend Prelate in this place upon our last Kings day that when it is doubtful to whom the right of the Soveraign Power should belong or who hath right unto the Soveraignty then all ignorant and private men are excused though they resist not the Government that hath the present power over them but do obey the same especially by their passive obedience and likewise by their active obedience in all honest and lawful demands All which with all that I said before I say to clear the integrity of the said Reverend Prelates intention from any sinister apprehension of misunderstanding hearers But where the right is indubitable and the soveraignty not to be questioned whose it is as it is with our most gracious King whom all the Irish Rebels of Kilkenny and all the other Rebels of these three Kingdoms deny not to be their lawful Soveraign I say that what Power soever exalteth it self above him or against him which the Parliament of England doth not when it challengeth only a kind of co-ordination with him we are not to yield any obedience unto the same especially if the same command or require any thing contrary to his commands because as the Son of Syrach saith We are to stand with the right and in the truth and as our Saviour saith To continue faithful therein unto death if we desire to enjoy the Crown of life And therefore though the dumb devil may hold my tongue Rev. 2.10 so that I shall be able to say nothing of what truth should be delivered yet all the power of hell shall never open my mouth and cause me to say that untruth which my conscience telleth me cannot be justified because this love to the truth of Scripture is a singular Testimony of our love to God 3. The next sign of the love of God is to love the honour of God without which we cannot be said to love God 2 To love Gods honour 4. The next sign is to love Gods Image that is Man 5. To observe Gods Precepts 6. To hate Sin 7. A longing desire to be with God to have an Union and Communion with him for it is an impregnable property of a person loving to desire to be united to the person loved and therefore Pyramus loving Thisbe cries out to the wall that hindered them to meet together Invide dicebat paries quid amantibus obstas Many other signs of Gods love I should shew unto you and the impediments that hinders us to love God such as are 1. The ignorance of the incomprehensible sweetness and unspeakable goodness of God 2. The too much love of our selves and of our carnal desires 3. The bewitching allurements of the pleasures profits and other vanities of this present world and the like that do hinder blind and suffocate our love to God And then last of all I should shew unto you the helps and furtherances to beget and to nourish the love of God in us such as are 1. The continual meditation of Gods goodness towards us and his excellencies in himself 2. The daily reading and hearing of Gods Word and the reading of other godly Books that do incite and invite us to love the Lord above all the things of this World 3. Continual Prayers to God for Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit to encline our hearts to love him 4. Often discourse and conference with good and holy men about the goodness of God and heavenly things and the like All which I should more fully and amply inlarge unto you but that the time binds me to defer the same to a fitter opportunity and in the interim to pray to God for grace to abandon the love of this World and to love God and to encrease in our love to him more and more through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be Glory and Honour and Thanks now and for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE DECLARATION OF THE Just Judgments of GOD. THE Man that was according to God's own heart the best Subject that ever we read of and the greatest Ring that ever Israel saw David the Son of Jesse saith that the LORD is righteous in
good fruit and to cast it into the fire And it is the duty of every faithfull Steward to give to every one his own portion in due season that is mercy to whom mercy belongeth and judgment to whom judgment appertaineth and not to give that which is holy unto dogs or to proclaime peace and pardon to them to whom the Lord professeth there is no peace but saith peremptorily He will not pardon them And therefore I hope your honorable patience will bear with me that as the Prophet David saith My song shall not be of mercy alone nor of judgment alone but of mercy and judgment together especially upon Zimri and all such that like Zimri will slay both their King and their Master which is the first thing mentioned in this Text that is Zimri's Murder And For murder you may observe that the same may be committed three manner of waies 1. With the heart 2. With the tongue 3. With the hand 1. The heart killeth a man four speciall waies 1. By desire 2. By anger 3. By envy 4. By hatred For 1. The Prophet saith Psal 5.6 The Lord abborreth the blood-thirsty and the deceitfull man i. e. him which desireth and longeth for my death as he that is thirsty desireth drink 2. Our Saviour saith Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause Math. 5.22 he shall be in danger of judgment 3. The Apostle speaking of the wickedness of the Gentiles saith Rom. 1.29 They were full of envy murder debate And the wise man saith Alius alium per invidiam occidit One man slayeth another through envy Sap. 14.4 as Cain through envy slew his brother Abel and the Jews our Saviour Christ Qui igitur periêre quia maluerunt invidere quà m credere who therefore perished because they had rather to envy him then to believe in him Cypr. in Ser. de livore saith Saint Cyprian 4. Saint John saith that Whosoever hateth his brother is a man slayer 1 Joh 3.15 Lev. 19.17 and therefore the Lord saith Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart for as he that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart so he that hateth his brother hath killed him in his heart 2. The tongue killeth many men yea Plures linguâ quà m gladio periêre Jam. 3 6 7. The tongue hath slain more then the sword for the tongue is a fire and a world of wickedness it is an unruly evill full of deadly poyson And the son of Syrach saith It hath destroyed many that were at peace Eccl. 28.13 And the tongue killeth two waies 1. By flattery 2. By detraction 1. Saint Augustine saith that Plus nocet lingua adulatoris quà m gladius persecutoris And Antisthenes was wont to say It was better for a man to fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among ravens then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among flatterers 2. The Prophet saith Ezech. 22.8 Viri detractores fuerunt in te ad effundendum sanguinem In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood and Job saying unto his friends that slandered his integrity Why do you persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh doth intimate thereby that detractors are like cruell Canibals that eat mens flesh and drink their blood Nam qui aliena detractione pascitur proculdubiò alienis carnibus saturatur for without doubt whosoever feeds himself with detraction doth satisfy himself with mans flesh saith S. Gregory And I doubt not but this Zimri and all other the like Zimries that killed their Masters had killed Elah in all these waies before he slew him with his hands because all these murders of the heart and of the tongue are but steps stairs and progesses to the murder of the hand For first we begin to distast and to dislike a man then we grow angry with him for some things that displease us and if he hath any virtue in him or any honorable place or preferment or any love or good opinion from the people we will presently envy him and then hate him and so hate him more and more and then the tongue will begin to play his part and though in presence it will flatter him whom the heart detesteth yet in his absence it will lay loads of scandalous imputations upon his person and upon his actions Camerar l. 6. c. 2. even as Absolon did upon the government of King David and the forecited example of Maion against William King of Sicily and abundance of such Varlets that I could relate unto you And when they have proceeded thus far to envy his happiness and to hate his person as Cain hated his brother Abel and the way is thus made by scandalous aspersions there wants nothing but the stroke of the hand to effect the tragicall murder of the man whom they desire to destroy So Zimri did when he found his opportunity slay his Master Elah so the servants of King Amon slew their Master So Phocas did slay his Emperor and his Master Mauritius So Artabanus Captain of the guard killed his own King and his Master Xerxes Diodorus l. 11. after he had retired out of Greece So Brutus and Cassius with their associates murdered Julius Caesar And so you know who murdered their Master and King Charles the First And this is the greatest mischief that one man can do unto another to take away his life with bloody hands for though he take away my goods yet I may get more as Job did after all was taken from him if he cast me into prison yet at last with Joseph I may be set at liberty and if I be banished my Country yet with the Israelits I may live to return out of Captivity as Henry Bullingbrook Duke of Lancaster did but when he hath taken away my life and killed me there is an end of all hope and that is an evill that can expect no remedy and a wound that cannot be cured nor any waies paralleled by any other mischief And therefore Num 35.33 seeing as the Lord saith that blood defileth the Land and the land can not be cleansed of the blood that is thus shed but by the blood of him or them that have shed it I will here to perswade the blood-thirsty men to quench that thirst and the Magistrates by no means to neglect to punish that sin and especially to induce those Magistrates and all those that transcend the power of the Magistrates that have like Zimri slain their King and their Master or defiled themselves with the blood of their brethren to a sad and serious repentance set down eight speciall things that do shew unto us the horrible odiousness and haynousness of this sinne of murder and you may find them all set down in lib. 3. cap. 2. of the true Church p. 385. and in the Great Antichrist revealed l. 1. p. 81. 1. It is a sin against nature because every creature loves
rebellion and disobedience of the people as here because Zedechia was not suffered by these stubborn and disobedient people to follow the advice of this our Prophet therefore they were all delivered into seventy years Captivity And as the Lord is extream angry with those rebellious people that disobey and labour to displace the Kings and Governours that he sets over them So he sheweth abundance of his love and kindnesse to them that submit themselves to his ordinance and behave themselves dutifully and loyally towards those Kings whatsoever they be that God placeth over them as you may see it in the whole course and Story of King David and Saul for as he was the most dutiful and most faithful subject that ever we read of so God was pleased to raise him to be the best King that ever reigned over Israel for his King and his Governour was Saul the very first of that Order among the Jews and he was an hypocrite a persecutor a murderer a tyrant and a mad man yet when David whose life he thirsted after had him at his mercy and could as easily have taken off his head as to cut off the lap of his garment he said The Lord forbid 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Annointed to stretch forth my hand against him and his heart smote him because he had cut off his skirt And when he had him again in the like trap he said unto Abner Art not thou a valiant man and who is like thee in Israel wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King this thing is not good that thou hast done As the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords Annointed and his oath As the Lord liveth sheweth 1 Sam. 26.16 that he spake it in good earnest and jested not And if they be worthy to die that defend not and protect not such a wicked King especially in going about so vile an action as the murdering of so good a man and so dutiful a subject as David was then what shall become of them and what are they worthy of that murmur and grudge and plot against the life of such a â—ood King as maintained peace and jâ—stice amongst his people and offered no special injury to any particular man of us all Surely if I had the wisdom of Solomon and the eloquence of Demosthenes I were not able to expresse the odiousnesse of their sin that conspired against the person and proceedings of such a King as is inoffensive before God and all good men But to go on to shew unto you how faithful this good subject was to this bad King when the young man that was an Amalekite and none of Saul or Davids subjects came of his own accord to bring tidings unto David of Sauls death and of the good service that he thought he had done unto Saul at his own request to put him out of his pain David presently caused him to be put to death 2 Sam. 1.15 because he durst presume to offer any violence though that violence seemed to be a favour unto the Ruler of the people whom we are straightly forbidden to revile Exod. 22.28 or to speak evil of him So dutiful and so loyal a subject was David to so evil a Governour and so wicked a King as Saul And this his loyalty and fidelity unto Saul was one of the chiefest vertues that we find commendable in him before God had according to his fidelity to his King raised him to the Rule and Government of his people And I wish that all and every one of us would strive and study to imitate this good man in our obedience fidelity and loyalty to our King and Governours that God hath placed over us But here it may be some troubled and discontented spirit will say I could willingly yield all due respect and obedience unto our Kings and Governours could I be satisfied that God appointed them to be the Kings and Governours of his people Jeremy 23.21 but as the Lord saith of the false Prophets They run and I sent them not So he saith They have set up Kings but not by me Hosea 8.4 and they have made Princes and I knew it not And should we be obedient and faithful to such Kings and Governours that ambitiously set up themselves and are not righteously set up by God To these men that stumble at this block I answer 1. That the Prophet speaketh there as I shewed to you before not of any Soveraign Monarch but of the Aristocratical government of many men that will all be as Kings and Princes ruling and domineering over the people for so you see the Prophet speakes in the plural number of many Kings that in all the whole Scripture you shall never find to be either appointed or approved by God to be the Governours of his people for indeed those many Kings and Governours of equal authâ—rity are none of Gods Governours neither are they set up by God nor as I find approved by God in any place of all the Scripture But as God is One and the only Monarch of all the World so he ever appoints one Monarch only to be his Deputy to govern the people or nation that he committeth under his charge 2. I say that this Monarch and Governour whom God raiseth to govern his people attaineth unto his Throne and right of Government even by the ordination of God divers wayes as 1. Sometimes by Birth which is the most usual best and surest way and most agreeable to Gods will 2. Sometimes by Choice and the election of the people as Herodotus saith the Medes chose Deioces to be their King and the Princes of Germany now chuse their Emperour and they commonly chuse him that is by Birth the eldest son of the deceased King 3. Sometimes by the power of the Sword as God gave the Monarchy of the Medes unto Cyrus and the Kingdom of Darius and of many others unto Alexander and the Empire of the Romans unto Augustus and many other Kingdoms unto others that had no other right unto their Dominions but what they purchased with the edge of their Sword Which right though it be nothing else but Vsurpation and Intrusion in these ambitious hunters after rule and dominion yet notwithstanding it must needs be a very good right as the same cometh from the just God who is the God of war and giveth the victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith Victrix causa diis placuit And he having the right and power Paramount to translate the rule and transferre the dominion of his people to whom he will he hath oftentimes for their sins thrown down the mighty from their seat and translated the government of his people unto others whom some waies he thought fitter to effect his Divine will as he did give the Kingdom of Saul unto David and of Belshazzers unto Cyrus and
observe these three things 1. Their renunciation The Lord doth not accept them 2. Their compensation or reward which is two fold 1. Privative in the discussion of their deeds He will remember their iniquity 2. Positive which is an infliction of punishment He will visit their sins 3. The time of their judgement which is very near for he will now remember their iniquities and visit their sins 1. 1 Their Renunciation The not accepting of them is a most fearfull judgement against them and one of the heaviest conditions that can be incident to any man for when the Lord doth not accept the person of any one the actions of that person whatsoever they be can never be acceptable unto God for so the Scripture testifieth that the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering No work is acceptable when the person is not accepted that is the Lord seeing Abel to be just and honest he accepted and approved of his work but to Cain and his offering he had no respect that is seeing he was but an hypocrite and his service was rather to deceive men then to please God the Lord had no regard to any thing that he did nor respected any offering that he brought unto him So he tels the Jews that their incense and their sacrifices their burnt-offerings and the fat of sed beasts Esay 1.13 were an abomination unto him because the doers thereof were abominable and wicked All the best deeds of the wicked are abominable before God which is a very fearful thing that the very prayers and preaching the fasting and the Alms-deeds and all other things that hypocrites oppressors and unjust men do to please God are most hateful in Gods sight And if it be a lamentable thing that God refuseth their prayers and hateth the zeal of the hypocrites and abhorreth their pretences to do Him service O then how doleful a thing is it when God not only refuseth their service but also renounceth their persons For as non datur vacuum in natura there can be no vacuity or emptinesse in Nature but when one body passeth away another presently supplyeth the place so man cannot be without a Master but when God refuseth him the devill presently seizeth upon him Mâ—n cannot be without a Master as you may see in Judas who no sooner parted with Christ but he was immediately possessed by Satan And this is the first part of the Tragedy of this people that for their abuse of Gods service their disobedience unto their Governours and the wrongs they did unto their neighbours one to another the Lord doth not accept them but gives them a Writ De justa abdicatione and a bill of divorcement that he will be their God no longer and they shall be no longer his people And if this were all it were bad enough but here is somewhat more For 2. 2 The remuneration or reward of their wickedness two-fold 1 The deniall of his reward Here is the reward of their wanderings and the wages of their iniquity expressed unto us and that in a double form 1. He will remember their iniquity And 2. He will visit their sins And The first of these I call a Privative punishment because the Lord intimateth hereby the denial of his reward that is the reward that he would have given them if they would have faithfully served him for as he saith unto those hypocrites that fasted and prayed and gave almes and pretended to be the only Saints that so they might be seen and be so taken of men for the only true servers of God Matth. 6. 2. they have their reward that is habent mercedem suam sed amiserunt meam they have the reward which they aimed at the applause of men but they lost that which I intended to bestow on them that is eternal life so here when he saith that he will remember their iniquity he plainly inferreth they shall have none of those good things which he prepared for those that truly serve him though they seem not so among men And what a fearful note of Gods hatred against these men is this that he will remember their iniquity For the first argument that our Church heretofore used to invite sinners to repentance and to return to God is that whensoever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart the Lord hath promised to put out all his wickednesse out of his remembrance and howsoever the late wise Reformers of Gods service have now cast off that godly course yet was it the first request that the true Protestant testant Church made to God in their Liturgy saying 〈…〉 stateqâ—ther our Chuâ—ch makes to God Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our fore-fathers neither take thou vengeance on our sias because vengeance must then presently light upon us when our sins are called into Gods remembrance and the Lord saith unto us as he doth unto the Israelites Are not these things laid in store with me Deut. 32.34 and sealed up among my treasures And therefore as for God to remember his holy Covenant that he made with Noah and with Abraham and with all his faithful servants that he will be mercifull to them that fear him and blot their sins out of his remembrance is the greatest comfort of the godly The good Thiefs prayer Luke 23.42 Nâ—hem 13.14 which made the good Thief to say no more to Christ but Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome And N hâ—miah for all the good service that he did to Gods Church to say no more to God but Remember me O my God concerning this so the Lords threatning that He will remember the iniquity of the wicked should be â— mighty terrour unto them for this is the inference that the Prophet Amos maketh of this doctrine when after he had told the Jewes that the Lord had sworn by the excellency of Jacob saying Amos 8.7 8. Surely I will never forget any of their works he presently addeth Shall not the Land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein And so I conclude this point against the prephaners of Gods service and the oppressors of their neighbours as Nehemiah doth in the like case saying Remember them O my God because they have defiled the Priest hood and instead of the true Prophets and Reverend Fathers of the Church Nehem. ult 29 and Reverend Fathers of the Church have with Jeroboam entertained Priests without Orders and Prophets without learning which have caused the people to wander out of the way and of whom the Lord professeth They run but he sent them not 2. The Lord saith that he will visit their sins 2 The inslicting their punishment and a visitation is either for the consolation of the distressed as when Zachary saith God hath visited and redeemed his people or for the correction of the delinquents as here when the Lord
nolle and the Scripture sheweth how good and joyful a thing it is for to see such brethren to love one another and to live together in unity yet the Brother-hood whereof the Apostle speaketh and is to be loved above all other Brother-hoods whatsoever Christians ought to love one another better than natural brethren that are not Christians is to be understood de fraternitate Spiritus of our spiritual Brother-hood whereby we are regenerated and made all the sons of God and so Brethren by adoption and grace For this fraternity of the Spirit unites men more and tyeth them better to love one another than the fraternity of flesh and blood Because as S. Augustine saith The natural Brother-hood similitudinem corpor is refert sheweth the likeness and coherence of the body but this Brother-hood of the Spirit unanimitatem cordis demonstrat declareth the unity and unanimity of the heart and that is interdum sibi inimica sometimes breaking out to deadly hate as it did betwixt Cyrus the younger and Artaxerxes But this is sine intermissione pacificâ alwayes remaining in perfect love And therefore ut Religio derivatur à religando as Religion is so termed because Religion tyeth all that are of the same Religion to love one another it tyeth and knitteth men together by fervent love among themselves and by a constant faith to God So we find that men of the same Faith and Religion have loved and relieved one another and stuck together better and firmer than any other kind of men whatsoever And so they are here required and commanded to do by the Apostle Love the Brother-hood that is love them especially and above all others that are of the same faith and do profess the same Religion of Jesus Christ as you do For you see all Hereticks and Sectaries and the professors of false religions do so and why should not you that are true Christians and do professe the true Religion of Christ much rather do the same But here we ought to be very careful A special Observation and to take special heed that we be not too censorious and too rash judges to set down the bounds of this Brother-hood and so straighten the extent and diminish the number of the Brethren by our determining who be those sons of God in Christ which we may and ought to love and relieve rather than the rest of men which we suppose we are not to love so well For you must know which our precise Saints will not know that the Brother-hood which the Apostle meaneth here Who are here understood by this Brother-hood and those that S. Paul termeth the houshold of faith and in other places the Saints of God is to be understood of all Christians and doth comprehend all those that were baptized and did professe the Gospel of Jesus Christ And these might then as they may also now be easily discerned and distinguished from the rest of the Pâ—gans and Infidels that did not believe the Gospel of God Because the one sort had the Fathers name written in their foreheads when they were baptized and so received the outward sign and badge of Christianity Revelat. 14.1 which they professed and were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1. And the other sort refused the profession of Christ and would not embrace the Gospel and receive the badge of Christianity but either persecuted the Christians or at best slighted and rejected the Faith of Christ But where all men are baptized and do professe to believe the Gospel and to do service unto Christ to distinguish the sound branches of the true Vine and the faithful members of Christs body from the rotten boughs and hypocritical professors and so to determine which are the Brother hood and which not is such a presumption of men as can no wayes be warranted by the Word of God for Conscientiae latebras hominibus scire non permissum est We cannot search into the hearts of men and God suffereth not men to know the thoughts of other men and the secrets that are lurking in their consciences which is the proper work of God who only is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierom. epist 5. The searcher of the heart and reins saith S. Hierom. And therefore we must confesse that as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord only knoweth who are his and can discriminate the lively branches from the rotten boughes and the truly regenerated Brother-hood from the soly outward professors of the Faith of Christ And we can judge no otherwise of any men than by their fruits that is by their actions and outward appearance We are often deceived by the outward appearance of things and that appearance when we judge of inward things by the outward doth oftentimes deceive us when as Multa sunt quae non videntur ita multa videntur quae non sunt Many things are which are not seen so many things are seen to be which are not As the falling-Stars seem to be Stars and yet are not And the hypocrites that like Water-men do row one way and look another way seem to be good Christians and yet are not So many men have the fear of God in their hearts and do love God and are the true children of God though these graces are not seen but are as we see the Sun is sometimes over-clouded with those sins that proceed from the frailty of the flesh And therefore our Saviour bids us not to judge according to the outward appearance that is not to judge of the inward things by the outward John 7.24 but to judge righteous judgement But you will say How can that be Quest or how can we judge righteous judgement if we can judge no further than the outward appearance or if Interiora non cognoscuntur per exteriora The inward things may not be known by the outward signs I answer That many times indeed Respon the inward things do cohere with the outward appearance as the heat sheweth there is a fire which we see not but this is not alwayes and therefore not infallible And I say that when our Saviour bids us to judge righteous judgement he meaneth not hereby that we should enter into the hidden things of the heart How we ought not to judge of our Brethren or search into the secrets of God and so positively and rightly to determine and judge as our Gnostick Sectaries seem to do who are Gods chosen Saints and who are wicked Reprobates Who are the Brother hood that are to be loved and who are the limbs of the Beast that are to be rejected which we cannot do But he meaneth that we should not judge of inward hidden and secret things by the superficial shew of outward things Or that we should not judge of the secret intention of the heart when we see but the outward action of the hand or as Saint Augustine saith he willeth that we should not
that the same true God which giveth the Kingdom of Heaven to his children only giveth the Earthly Kingdoms both to the good and to the bad as he pleaseth yet alwaies justly And for Nimrod I say the words bear no more then he became mightier then other Kings or began to Tyrannize more then all the other Kings And for S. Peters words I say he means it only of Elective Kings Which in another place I shewed more fully than the time will now give me leave in what sense he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore I say the calling of Kings is the proper Ordinance of God as it is fully and most learnedly shewed by a most Reverend Prelate of our Church lately published and intituled Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas Howsoever as I said we condemn not as unlawfull the right of all Elective Kings yet we ought to acknowledg how much more bound we are to God that himself in a rightfull line of succession hath appointed our Kings to raign over us so that we need not fear the error of our Election if there be no error in our submission 2. As we are to consider quem whom so we ought to remember qualem what manner of King we are commanded to honor for as the unjust Vsurper may govern the people justly as they do sometimes and in some places so they that have just Titles to their Crowns may prove unjust in their Governments as too too many both of the Kings in Israel and Judah and I fear many other Kings have been And yet if they be our lawfull Kings be they what they will Cruell Tyrannous or Idolatrous or if you will put all together I say we are bound to honor them and no waies to Rebell against them for if thy Brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter Deut. 13.6 or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pity upon him but for the son to rise up against the Father the wife against her Husband the servant against his Lord or the subject against his King here is not a word and we are not to do what the Lord doth not command as Tostat well observeth upon this place Therefore though Jeroboam made Israel to sin by setting up his calves to be adored Nâ—buchadnezzar commanded all his people to worship his Golden Image Ahab Manasses Nero Julian and the rest of the persecuting Emperors did most impiously compell their Subjects to Idolatry and exercised all kinds of cruelty against Gods servants yet you shall never find that either the Jews under Jeroboam or Daniel in Babylon or Elias in the time of Ahab or any Christian under Julian or the rest of those bloody Tyrants did ever rebell against any of those wicked Kings for they all considered the law of God and I beseech you all to consider it likewise 1. Exod 22.28 Moses saith Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people yea though he should be evil yet must thou not speak evil of him for as thou art to honor thy Father not so much because he is good as because he is thy Father and therefore the son of Noah was accursed because he despised his Father when his father sinned so we are to honor our King and to speak no ill of him though he should be never so ill for Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked And to Princes Ye are ungodly Job 34.18 2. 2 Not to do the least indignity unto our King As we are to bridle our tongues so much more ought we to refrain our hands from offering the least violence unto our King When the Lord saith peremptorily Touch not mine annointed where he doth not say Non occides or ne perdas the worst that can be but ne tangas the least that may be neither doth he say Sanctos meos my holy ones but Christos meos my annointed ones whether they be holy or unboly good or bad therefore though Saul was a wicked King and a heavy persecutor of David without cause hunting him like a Partridge upon the Mountains and seeking no less then to take away his life yet when the men of David said unto him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee what seemed good unto him Truely no waies to hurt him nor to do the least indignity unto him for his heart smote him because he had cut off the skirt of his robe and therefore he said unto his men 1 Sam. 24.4 5 6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth my hand against him And why so because he is the annointed of the Lord that is not because he is a good man but because he is my King Nay we are not only forbidden to offer violence That we are to protect our King with the hazard of our lives but we are also injoyned to give our best assistance to protect the persons of our most wicked Kings for David not only staid his servants with the former words and suffered them not to rise against Saul but when Saul lay sleeping within his trench and David and Abishai took away his speare and had the power to destroy him What saith David unto Abner Art not thou a Valiant man And who is like thee in Israel Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth 1 Sam. 15.16 ye are worthy to dye because you have not kept your Master the Lords annointed And if this thing is not good and David jesteth not but sweareth As the Lord liveth they are worthy to dye that preserve not the life of their King be he never so wicked then certainly this thing is not good and they are more then worthy to die that not only refuse to assist but also rise in Arms to persecute and to take away the life of a most Pious and a Gracious King So you see the person whom we are to honor the King whatsoever he be good or bad 2. The Honor that we are to exhibite unto him is to be considered out of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word so significant that it not only comprehendeth all the duty which we owe to our Father and Mother but it is also used to express most if not all the service of God when he saith If I am a father Malach. 1.5 where is my honor And therefore when Ahassuerus asked Haman What should be done unto the man Whom the King would honor he answered let the Royall apparell be brought which the King useth to weare and the Horse that the King rideth upon
the onely good Shepherd and in all other respects whatsoever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good Shepherd and indeed the onely Shepherd that is simply and absolutely good For Though Abel was a good Shepherd and Jacob was another good Shepherd Gen. 31.40 so carefully watching over his flock that in the day the drought consumed him and the frost by night and his sleep departed from his eyes and Moses was such another Psal 77.20 of whom the Prophet saith that God led his people like sheep by the hands of Meses and Aaron and so David was an excellent Shepherd that ventured his life to save his sheep and to pull it out of the Lions teeth and when God took him away from the sheep-folds that he might feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance the Spirit of God tells us that he fed them with a faithful and true heart Psal 78.73 Esay 44.28 and ruled them prudently with all his power And of Cyrus the Lord said He is my Shepherd and Homer calleth Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd of the people and so not onely the Apostles and Bishops but also Constantine Theodosius King James and King Charls and all other religious Kings and pious Princes as Nehemiah the good Lieutenant of Jury under Artaxerxes King of Persia to whom if it were not for suspicion of flattery which is one of the basest of all vices and the worst kind of Scotization you may see what Minshaw meaneth by that word I might truly parallel his Excellency our Lord Lieutenant The now Duke of Ormond and many more have been very good Shepherds of Gods sheep Yet they were all and put them all together very very far short of this Shepherd in my Text which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that good Shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcendently and which in all the foresaid respects and in all other respects whatsoever excelleth all the most excellent Shepherds in the world And so much shall serve to be spoken at this time of the good properties of this good Shepherd 2. As the children of God are termed Sheep in respect of Christ 2 Gods people are termed Sheep in respect of themselves Geminianus de exemplis l. 5. c. 46. 1. In respect of their innocency 2 Sam. 24.17 which is their chief Shepherd so they are likewise stiled Sheep in respect of the Analogie and resemblances betwixt them and Sheep which as Geminianus saith are in these six speciall points 1. Innocency of life for as nature gave the sheep neither horns to hurt nor claws to scratch nor teeth to bite so the children of God do nothing to the hurt of any other they neither hate their neighbour in their hearts nor strike him with their hands nor traduce him with their tongues nor think any evil or wish any hurt to him in their thoughts and therefore when David saw the Angel that smote the people in Hierusalem he said Lo I have sinned but these sheep what have they done as if he should have said these poor men that are like sheep so harmless and so innocent what hurt could they do either in themselves or to any others Et haec vera innocentia est quae nec sibi nec aliis nocet and that is the true innocency saith S. Aug. which hurteth neither himself nor his neighbours 2. 2 In respect of their patience They are resembled unto Sheep for their patience in suffering all kinds of injuries and indignities for as the Prophet sheweth and Gods people findeth it For thy sake are we killed all the day long Psal 44.22 and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain Where you may see 1. Where observe 1. The Cause The cause of their sufferings is expressed not for theft murder adultery or the like wicked acts but Propter te for Gods cause for obeying his will and being loyal to our Superiours and not treacherous unto our lawful Governours and so for being faithful in Gods service by publishing the truth and not carried away with every new form of service and every wind of false doctrine this is cause enough to suffer and this is propter te for thy sake O God which is our onely comfort 2. 2 The Sufferings Here is the sufferings of Gods sheep and servants specified we are mortified or killed And that is 1. By our selves in our repentance and contrition for our sins every day or all the day long that is throughout our whole life according as the Apostle saith we die daily that is to sin and for our sin And then 2. We are killed by others when with the rest of the Martyrs we are as we have been not long since throughout all this Kingdome robbed of our good names filled with reproach plundered of our estates banished from our dwellings clapt up in prisons and then led as sheep unto the slaughter In all which and in all other sufferings I know no better remedy then what our Saviour prescribeth to us in our patience to possess our souls which may be lost for want of patience but will be supported and eased if we will be like sheep patient and silent in our sufferings Quia levius fit patientia Horatius quicquid corrigere est nefas because the more we struggle when we are in the briars the more we shall be scratched and intangled and the less able we shall be to bear our indignities and the less we murmure the less will be our sufferings and the more favours we shall finde at the hands of God and therefore the Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought to suffer patiently whatsoever God layeth upon us and so the Saints of God do suffer whatsoever is laid upon them as you may see in the said 44 Psalm from the 10. v. to the 22. 3. 3 In respect of their obedience C. 10. v. 4. Damase l. 3. c. 4 They are resembled to Sheep in respect of their obedience to do the commands of God for as the Sheep do follow the Shepheards whistle and do know his voice so do the servants of God obey the voice of Christ listening to his words with their ears Unde veteres dicebant obaudio pro obedio imbracing it in their souls Quia obedientia est voluntatis propriae subjectio preceptis Dei which they are most ready to peform to say with him in Plautus Plaut trin Adsum impera quidvis neque tibi ero in mora neque latebrosè me abs tuo conspectu occultabo For Aug. in Gen. l. 9. habetur 33. q. 5. c. est ordo as S. Aug. truly saith Est ordo naturalis in hominibus ut serviat foeminae viris filii parentibus quia in illis haec est justitia ut majori serviat minor it is the order of nature among men that the women should serve the men children their parents servants their masters and subjects
Copy hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza translates Non norunt vocem alienorum they know not the voice of strangers as our English translation hath it very right Therefore I conceive that by the stranger Whom doth Christ mean by the stranger and who by the strangers he meaneth that foolish Idol Shepherd whereof the Prophet Zachary speaketh that should come in the time of Christ to be the type of the great Anti-christ that should be manifested in our time and by the other strangers he meaneth those many Anticks that S. John speaks of the Hereticks and false Prophets that from time to time and now more then at any other time Ier. 14.14 c. 23.21 do intrude themselves into the Sacred Function of the Ministry and as the Prophet Jeremy saith do run when Christ hath not sent them and do speak what he hath not commanded them but do preach the lying inventions of their own heads to seduce the sheep of Christ to follow the Anti-christ and to relinquish the true received worship of the living God But the true and right sheep of Christ will hear none of these nor follow after any of them for they know that as they which are not lawfully called or allowed to be the lawful Ministers of Gods Word should not preach and cannot do it without great offence to God that may justly say to them as he doth to the Jews by his Prophet Quis avobis requisivit hac Who hath required these things at your hands So they cannot hear them without the like offence to God yea though they should preach the truth and nothing but the truth unto them for as Christ reproved Satan and bad him hold his peace when he spake the very truth that he was the Son of God because he had no Commission to be the Embassador of Christ to publish that truth unto his people so shall they be sharply censured by God though they preach the very truth when they are not lawfully called and have no Commission from God to do the same 2 Chro. 26.21 I think the fearful Judgement of God upon King Uzzia for invading the Priests office and upon Uzza for doing that which appertained to the Levites to do 1 Chron. 13.10 and upon King Saul for offering Sacrifice to the Lord should be a sufficient warning for them to take heed how they thrust themselves into the Ministry for King Uzzia presuming to burn Incense unto the Lord which appertained to the Priests the sons of Aaron to do the Lord suddenly smote him with Leprosie and so he continued a Leper to his dying day And Uzza putting forth his hand to hold up the Ark when the Oxen shook it which belonged only unto the Levites to carry it the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza that he smote him dead in the very place and Saul lost his Kingdome for his intrusion into the Priests Office and how date these men to intrude themselves into this Sacred Office to be the Embassadors of Christ to declare his will and to expound his meaning without Commission And if they should dare to preach how dare the sheep of Christ hear their voice when as Christ tells us plainly his sheep will not hear the voice of strangers and the Lord commands them by his Prophet not to hearken to those whom he hath not sent And Solomon saith Ier. 27.14 c. 29.8 Cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Prov. 19.27 Surely none would do it but that we love to shew our selves to be the children of Adam and to stretch forth our hands to the forbidden fruit and as the Poet saith Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata We long to do what we are forbidden and will the rather do it because it is forbidden like the man that for some just impediment never went out of his house but being for some offence injoyned to keep his house he was so moved for the debarring of his liberty that to cross the command of his Superiours and to become liable to his censure he would needs presently walk abroad and so with Shimei 1 Reg. 2.46 Our wilfulness to do what we are forbidden bring himself to death And so it is with us we will not hear when we are commanded to hear and we long to hear those that we are forbidden to hear as if God envied our good when he forbad us when as he forbids nothing but for our good as when we forbid a man to drink poyson that it might not kill him 2. Having heard how the sheep of Christ are called Secunda pars I know them it followeth that I should shew how they are justified in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I know them that is I do acknowledge them for my sheep and do own them for my people for my servants and for my children for there be very many that go under the shape and shew of Gods sheep and are indeed the Foxes Wolves and Lyons of Satan of whom Christ never saith I know them but rather Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity Yet these subtil Foxes and these Wolves in sheeps cloathing The wicked and the hypocrite not acknowledged by God to be his sheep Gen. 34.23 The Sichemites how served for their deceitful hypocrisie V. 26. that profess themselves to be the only Saints and are indeed the destroyers of Gods servants may easily blind the eyes of men but they cannot beguile the all-seeing God for as the Sichemites whereof Moses testifieth that they came with dissembling hearts to deceive Jacob and his children were contented to be circumcised and take upon them the habit of Gods children in hope that all theirs should be their own if they were circumcised as themselves confess yet the Lord that knew the◠to be hypocrites doth not acknowledge them for his children and therefore their dissembling of Religion brought on their destruction and their Circumcision which they thought would be the means to inrich them became the means to destroy them for while they were weak and sore by reason of their Circumcision the sons of Jacob fell upon them and slew all that were male which was a just judgment of God for the dissembling of their Religion And as the Gibeonites with false hearts and a dissembling shew of a religious desire of communion with Gods children came to the children of Israel and through their lies and dissimulation made a league with them and so freed themselves from the Sword of Joshua and deceived the Israelites Josh 9.15 yet they could not deceive the Lord who knew their hypocrisie and knew them not for any of his people and therefore made them slaves and drudges to draw water carry wood V. 27. The Gibeonites how served for their dissimulation and do all manner of servile work for the sons of Israel So amongst us in
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when
that Christ speakes of had shewed him the way before but as after Ages grew more subtle so they became more wicked then the former times even so this unjust and unthankful Servant became more wicked then before for now he layeth up such hatred and malice against his King and sealeth it in the depth of his Heart wherein the same boyled like new Wine that wanted vent so that it was like meat and drink to an hungry Stomach for him to finde any Opportunity to broach the same against the King And the Long Parliament that consisted of very many discontented Persons and men both disaffected to his Majesty and distasting his present Government made him a fair way to lay open all his Malice and what he formerly vented in his private Discourse by retail he doth it publickly now in gross and he doth it to the full and having a tongue apt to speak and not unskilful in the art of Rhetorick he begins first to make his Oration against the Earl of Strafford as knowing that whatsoever evil was proved or conceived against him the same reflected most upon the King then after the taking of this great Earl and prudent Counsellour of the King out of the way making more bitter Invectives against his Majesty then ever Cicero's Philippicks were against Marcus Antoninius or his Actions against Verres he so still passed on till he had poysoned the greater part of that House and the seditious vulgar that understood his Proceedings with an evil conceit against the good King And now seeing himself back'd with the wilde part of the House and the strength of the rude multitude no mean revenge will serve his turn but with his Rhetorical Orations and Speeches filled with Gall against the King though as yet somewhat obliquely he labours to disrobe and rob the King of all his chief Friends under the Notion of evil Counsellours and withall secretly complies with the Scots to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majesty But the King having full intelligence both of his and his partners vile practice against his Majesty laboured to bring them to their Tryal in the usual legal way for their underhand Treachery and Confederacy with the Scots to bring a foreign Army to invade his Dominion and then to save himself and the rest they fly to the City of London and in a short space drew the Citizens and with them the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate civil War against their lawful Sovereign Then the King found himself too weak to bring this strong Rebel to any trial yet the hand of God was not to short to fetch him out of his guarded Palace for he is the Lord of Hosts and hath as well his great Army of little ones as the Rats and Mice that devoured Popiel the second King of Polonia in anno 830. for his treacherous poysoning of his Unckles the Moales that undermined a City in Thessaly and the Worms that destroyed Herod the King as also his strong Army of great ones as the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram the Sea to overwhelm Pharaoh and all his Hoast the Stars in their Order too fight against Sisera and his Angels to be at his Command to overthrow his enemies And therefore he sent his Serjeant to arrest him and to fetch him out of his strong hold that he should do no further Mischief against his Anointed And how he died I leave to the Report of them that knew the manner of his death better then I can set it down I did intend further to shew unto you the just Judgment of God upon Colonel Hamden that for his disloyalty to his King was shot whereof he dyed on the same Plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against his King even as the Lord threatened the like Judgment against Ahab And upon the Mayor of York that on that day twelve-Moneth that our King lost his life made a Bone-fire for joy that the King had so lost his life but on the same day twelve-Moneth after hanged himself And especially upon Colonel Axtel that hath been the ruine of so many Churches and the Suppressour of so many honest conformable Ministers and other good Protestants and plaid so many Tyrannical parts about Kilkenny and in my Diocess of Ossory as I am not able in a short time and with few words to express it and upon divers others but my Occasions at this time will not give me leave to perfect what I have begun And therefore I must now here make an End and commend us all to God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all glory and honour for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori The Authour's Prayer after he had finished the Reparation of the Chancel and Quire of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny OEternal Almighty and most merciful Lord God that hast created all things by thy Power governest them by thy Wisdom and preservest them by thy Goodness and hast disposed all thy Creatures to be for the Service of man the Sun to give him light by day and the Moon by night the Earth to feed him and the Angels of Heaven to attend him that he dash not his foot against a Stone for all which great love and bounty of thine towards man thou requirest no more but that he should be thankful unto thee and praise thee for thy goodness and declare the wonders that thou doest for the Children of men and as Moses saith what doth the Lord our God require of us but to fear the Lord our God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and to keep his Commandments and Statutes which he commanded us for our good for the discharging of which duties and the performance of our Service unto the Lord our God though as Saint Stephen saith the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands when as the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him which is above the heavens and below the earth and filleth all places and beyond all places with his Presence yet our fore-Fathers most religiously according to the President that King Solomon left us and the good Examples that the Primitive Christians gave us have erected Oratories and built Temples and Churches where the Saints and Servants of God might meet to praise the Lord for his manifold mercies to beg his favour and graces to help and to supply their wants and necessities to understand his Will and to know his Commands and to do all other the best Service that they could do to the Lord their God and to that onely end they have set them apart and alienated them from all secular and prophane uses dedicated them wholly for God's Service and consecrated them by Prayers to be Sanctuaries for them and their Posterities to serve and to honour God in But O Lord our God we confess and