and violent robbery valiant ielousie and false dealing godly insinuation Lord God amend them if it bee thy will for they know not what they say Salomon writeth in his sure promise and exhortation that if his spouse be a wall he will build a siluer bulwark vpon it to make it the more venerable and glorious among men Reformers in their discipline and exhortation are as ready to steale his siluer worke away by a false plea as he was to set it vp by a good conscience they are ready to rob the Church for loue they now with all blasphemous impudencie professe it openly set a price on it as the malecious men in in old time did on Ioseph and Iudas in later time on Iesus himselfe and souldiers cast lots on his owne garment Gen. c. 37. v. 27. Math. c. 27. v. 5. and some care not in their madnesse if he were stripped from top to toe such is their lunacie and so are they puffed vp with pecuniary logick which Verres a worthy teacher hath taught thē making more account of monie then of men teaching other men how to buy the best princes aliue of their owne men but shal this Iugurth say of you relatiuely ô angliam venalem si inuenerit venditorem shall he thus vilely dishonor the iudges of this age with such proffers as if they were for his tooth maligning secretly our gracious blessed prince and deuising how to blot hir Royall immaculate glory in this hir mercifull and right Christian raigne by some such villanous desperate act whereby shee might be stained in all posterities and records by pleasuring Martinish malcontents once and displeasuring all learned men for euer euen for loue they would worse then that excessiue tyrant Richard the third play an enemies part to the Church for the loue they haue to God they wish the decay of Gods tēple these Antidauids and Antichrists haue not loued the habitation of his house nor the place where his honour dwelleth as their S. Dionysius to whom the hotter wittier they are the liker they are robbed the church of his god whome he worshipped because hee would tast of the goodnesse of his God but we see what sorow came on him euen by deriding that religion which was bad or as mad men and fooles and drunkerds cōdemne their own soules for mony and loose the blessings and ioyes of Gods kingdome to win the transitory goods of the earth by mischieuous waies being misled of an ignorant wil and vnaduised resolution blinded with a fond desire of innouation onely and presuming to rule the wheele which themselues neuer made or knew Salomon saith in the aboundance of that wisedome which God gaue him that if his sister and spouse be a dore as Christ metaphorically calleth himselfe a dore by which we enter into heauen as by his Church wee enter vnto him he will keepe hir in with the best wood he can come by euen with the boordes of Cedar wood which is a wood euer good of greatest continuance of fairest bewtie of noblest worthinesse insomuch that yong grāmarians can say prouerbially Cedro digna of a thing that deserueth immortality and the renowne of all posterity that preserueth it selfe and other things that are in it from corruption but these supposed gentlemen as far from gentlenesse as the goates be from sweetnes these courtiers as farre from curtesie as diuels are from goodnesse these shrewde reformers of Moses and Ioseph Salomon I pray God if it be possible they may once proue reformers of themselues and learne to be ruled by their rulers had rather that preseruation that future renowne that immortalitie of name those cedar bords should only or chiefly be giuen to the temporall scholler then the spirituall teacher to the easie hearer then the painefull speaker to the externall ruler the image of God then the internall ruler the other image of God then to the kings of all kings euen God himselfe or to his house for his owne sake that giueth all goods only for his houses sake as he blessed Pharao for Iofephs sake and the poore widdow of Sarepta for Elias sake and Laban for Iacobs sake where his blessed name is called vpon where his eares are open out of heauen to our praiers where the bottomlesse graces and immeasurable benefites and all happines begin where his owne word is once and for euer sent from aboue where in a better imitation of heauenly harmonie then Macrobius mentioneth l. 2. c. 3 Satur. the nightingale and the larke and al sweet birds for so I may well name them sing Iesus Gloria all the yeare where Gods owne worde is in mans phrase that men may vnderstand it a thousand times more worthy of golden couer and golden deske then the furious Iliads and fraudulent Iliads then the lion and fox of Homer were in the iudgement of Great Alexander according to the like cōparitiue argument of the kingly prophet Dauid who thinketh it no reason that himselfe should dwel within cedar walles and the Arke of God should abide in tentes and be carried vpon cart wheels in a more penurious and simple manner then was eyther lawful or expedient 2. Kings c. 6. v. 3. c. 7. v. 2. For Dauid did not make such a conclusiō as our deformers doe he was not so headstrong a gentleman or so presumptuous a man of worship as this great mender thus counselling all before he be called and cancelling that he neuer had with a metrapolitanisme of his owne making and fashion he said not that the arke of Gods couenant should stay on a cart still in other ages after him because in the primitiue necessitie it was first caried vpon cart wheeles as these seniors in rayling and iuniors in obeying say that the church must stand for euer as she stoode in her apodemicall mobilitie at the first in trauaile in trouble in sorow in persecution like the first churchmen and if that were granted yet euen at those dayes the true christians of the laytie layd downe their goods at the churchmens feete and they did not the like only that were infidels and very pagans Acts c. 4. v. 32. which bounty shewed in the dreadful time of persecution when themselues might haue neede shoulde teach our men to doe the like in time of peace and liberally supply the wants of the clergie which by vngodly Martinish vnreasonable absurdest meanes are beyond a meane very grieuous and many and if christian patience were not most intollerable ô yee diuelish cormorāts reade the 83. Psa v. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. repent make restitutiō of those church lands goods so lewdly and vngratiously gotten and kept and spent in pride and lecherie vnlesse with your other hellish paradoxes yee will make the time of peace in a setled state more niggardly and rauenous then that time of affliction in a moueable wandring common-wealth so that they may as readily protest and maintain this with Wall and
within vs and coole faith by continuance maketh vs stiffe and halfe dead with sinne and altogither vnfit to be our owne martirs in affection or other mens in example let vs beloued stirre and raise vp our fainting soules to a liuely zealous faith let vs good Countrymen quicken our senseles senses with good woords and good workes as effects of good faith that we be not starke dead in sin and rather seeke the saluation both of our soules senses that lasteth for euer then the delight pleasure of either that vanisheth away like a smoke that wasteth like a snaile that withereth like grasse and neuer continueth in one stay Then where shall we seeke this saluation but in the booke of life and in which part of that booke is it sooner found then in the gospel the law of grace what guide or teacher in the gospell can shewe vs a better pathway then Iohn-baptist who was sent frō God as the forerunner of the Christ saith S. Marke in his gospell c. 1. v. 2.3 to tell vs the way the truth and life the eternall word Iesus Christ For Iesus is the way because his doctrine and precept telleth vs the right and ready way to euerlasting life Iesus is the truth because without error he may alwaies and in truth must alwaies be followed in all our iudgements and consultations that we may walke in the light not in darknes Iesus is the life of our liues because without him we are as dust in the winde and straw in the fire and by him we passe through the greatest difficulties and euen the very seas of all deadly dangers and temptations which S. Iohn speaketh by a metaphore metonimy of the effect for the efficient c. 14. v. 6 in him we passe safely from the first day in the beginning of all yea before all measure of times euen vnto this day as S. Augustine writeth largely to Deogratias against Porphyrius in his 49. Epistle Wherefore in these and other respects heare and read I beseech you beloued Christians what the blessed and right honourable Prophet that most noble preacher Iohn-baptist hath taught vs of Iesus Christ in the gospell according to S. Iohn c. 1. v. 29. The next day Iohn seeth Iesus comming to him and saith Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the world This text is short but sweete and weighty as the sunne in heauen seemeth little but is great and mighty in operation all bodies die without the sunne and all soules and bodies perish without the effect of this Scripture Philosophers thinke that the sunne and a man maketh a man but diuine philosophy wil thinke speake and conclude that this sonne of God the sunne and light of mankind maketh and saueth and crowneth man with glory in that he wipeth out and washeth away the sinne of the world the sunne is the hart of heauen the captaine of the stars the eye of the world this worde is the hart of the Bible the cheefe of al words to which our eares must giue eare and on which our eyes must alwaies looke For in this verse are cōtained the lawes of Moses and Israël with the prophecies of all prophets both great and small in that Iohn calleth Iesus the lambe of God and the fruit of the new Testament both in the Euangelists Apostles springeth and groweth from this ground in that he is said to take away the sinne of the world Then was Simplicius but a hellish iudge to count the tales of Aegypt and the tables of Moses alike and Galen was but a prophane humorist and Lacuna his shadow little better to mislike the creation of man and misreport the wonders of the red sea ignorantly then are the Pelagians peruerse and miserable disputers which denie and euacuate the baptisme of infants because Christ alone washeth and purgeth thē like them which would hinder the beginning of a thing because it shall at last be made perfect or say you must not vse an instrumēt because there is a principall or warme your self at a fire because the sun is the chiefest workemaster of heate warmnes But to let passe all dilating cōparatiue amplifications of words sentēces togither with other necessary occasiōs of discourse Marke beloued what is here written with the finger of God pen of the holy ghost the next day Iohn seeth Iesus cōming to him and saith and tell me if euer you heard a more louing a more gratious and cōfortable saying behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the world O bountifull Iesu ô sweete Sauiour ô mercifull annointed of God the Father what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the sonne of mā that thou so regardest him our bodies are brim full of sinne wickednes as the stables of oxen asses ouerladen and ouercharged with dunge and filthinesse the goodnesse of our soules is like a mēstruous rag as Esay witnesseth c. 64. v. 6. whose word is as an inuiolable seale a sure bond What is then within vs worthy of thy loue ô Christ or what is without vs worthy of thy liking ô son of Dauid ô son of God ô sunne and light of heauē earth we looke vpon thee with Iohn-baptist ô that we could alwaies looke vpō thee we see thee come to vs as did Iohn-baptist ô neuer turne thy backe vpon vs but euer come to vs stay with vs euer we reioyce in thy name that thou art a lambe to vs and a lion of Iuda to the enimies that thou dischargest the debts of the righteous and leauest the wicked in the debtbooke to be arrested and imprisoned till they haue paide the vttermost farthing we looke on thee with ioyfulnesse ô Iesu as infants looke vpon a light the wicked see thee with dazeled eyes as the Sodomites groped in the darke Genesis c. 19. v. 11 we walke in thy sun-light and are comforted we are blacke and sunburnt with walking we are black ô Iesu but louely before thee the wicked are parched with thy beames thy heat maketh their heads to ake their harts to pant their spirits to faile them that they may as it were call for butter out of a lordly dish milke out of a bottle with Sisara or some other delight which their sensuall soules long for and afterward be nayled to the earth with the hammer of one deceitfull Iahel or other close enimie in their sleepe and securitie or come to such like sudden and vile death And this in effect is the generall summe and chiefe purpose of this text Of the ioyfull estate of the godly by seing Christ and The wofull fall of the wicked by turning frō him Now to proceede in the playner exposition of euery portiō and particularity of this verse we see in it both a briefe History and a blessed Doctrine The History is that when Iohn saw Iesus comming to him he gaue out among the people his iudgement of
Concerning the proposition or prophecie of Esay c. 35. v. 5 6. it must need be true in both parts because it came from God himself as may euidently appeare by the distance of time betweene him and Christ No man could tell afore by any possible art of men what should come to passe 800. yeares after vnles he had withall bene supernaturally and incomprehensibly inflamed and informed by the diuine influence and breath of Gods holy spirit As prognostical sciences may foresee and stand vpon probable grounds necessary too sometimes so God can by his omnipoteÌ„cy turne the adiuuant mediat causes as he turneth the waters in the south hath the hartes and thoughts of kings and gouernaunce of all things in his hand to throw them at his pleasure on euery side yea and ouerthrow them when he thinketh best euer still holding his woord vpright making it infallible as himselfe So that not all the impudent lies of Mecha Mahomets countrey or of Medina Talnabi the place of his Sepulchre not all the magicall feates of other men reckoned in Picus Mirandula in Cardane and other such can once preuaile against this argument seeing that as some men in phisicke haue wrought some like cures yet neuer any one performed them with a word of his mouth only as our Messias did in most wonderfull maner incomparablie whereupon that old prouerbiall verse was rightly made Christus vim verbis vim gemmis vim dedit herbis Verbis maiorem gemmis herbÃsque minorem Christ gaue a power to the stone and the flower in works of physicke but his almightie word is more powerable then all herbes and stones And this is one of the three corner stones of our building and faith for that antichristian fabulous report of Vespasians miraculous cure is but a dreaming deuise in honor of the idol Serapis it is answered in it self and euen iudged by the Autors Suetonius owne words a very toy vix fides ne auderet tentauit by the words of Tacitus irrideri aspernari metuere or a delusion of Satan the fire of deceites like that in Pharaos Magicians Exod. c. 7. v. 11. and that in the counterfette cranke at Saint Albons in Hartfordshire deluding many with fayned woonderments til Humfrey the good Duke of Glocester descryed him neither doubt I but that Cythraeus Mone-alethia of Suetonius is most false herein and the rather because Tacitus in his 20. lib. Annal. as forward and more hote in Antichristianisme then Suetonius telleth the strange healing of one man blinde and another withered of one hand by Vespasian but Suetonius of a blinde bodie and a lame of one legge neither doeth his manu aeger and this debili crure agree better or preuaile more with an aduised Reader for trusting their report which besides disagreeth with it selfe in the agent not onely in the patients while Suetonius saith nicely how hee healed the legge with an only touch of his heele calce contingere but Tacitus grosly with stepping and treading vpon it pede vestigio calcaretur then the witnesse of the two false Elders against Susanna preuayled with Daniel the Israëlites when one Elder accused her of whordome committed in her garden vnder a Lentiske tree the other telling the same tale answered that shee lay with the young man vnder a Mirtle tree and by dissenting from themselues were iudged to die the death which was appoynted for her and were iustly stoned To leaue this common place of comparisons the second proofe and groundworke may be squared and fastned in this sort That the Prophetes word foretelleth which is Gods owne word when it proueth true must be reuerenced as the trueth for God is only true and in him is no maner or shadow of falshode But the Prophets word foretelleth which is Gods owne word that the Messias shall come within a time appointed this proueth true for Daniel c. 9. v. 25 26. writeth thus After 69. weekes that is 483. yeares the Messias shal be cut off reckoning a week not of seuen daies but of seuen yeares as it is vsed in Genesis c. 19. v. 27. and in Leuiticus more plainly c. 25. v. 8. in which time thus definitelie appointed shortly after Christ came in the flesh and liued died in the flesh as is easily proued in this or the like computation from the second yeare of Darius Longimanus when the kings commandemeÌ„t went forth to bring againe the people and to buylde Ierusalem Esdras c. 4. v. 24. Agge c. 1. v. 1. to the beginning of Alexanders Monarchie were 144. yeares according to the account of Metasthenes the Persian from the beginning of Alexanders raigne to the incarnation of Christ were 309. yeares by the iudgement of Iosephus and from Christs incarnation to his baptisme were about 30. yeares c. 2. v. 23. of S. Luke so in all from the prophecie of Daniel to Christs baptisme are 483. yeres after which time for by the text it must bee after not then as some great Clarkes haue iudged amisse Christ was cut off from his people and suffered death vpoÌ„ the crosse Therefore Christs comming in a time appointed must be reuerenced for a trueth and vnlesse the Iewes will obstinately and peruersly both against their owne knowledge and conscience resist the authority of trueth in this agreement of Daniels weekes Christs yeares which is inuincible they must by force of al reason be constrained euen against their selfe-willes with shame and confusion to confesse acknowledge that their and our and the worlds Messias is come in the flesh For who cannot see that this prophecie of Daniel is most infallibly true in the effect seeing Christ liued and died among men in the compasse of the yeares of this diuine prophesie in some sort prefigured by Ieremias 70. yeares c. 29. v. 10. After which time God promised deliuerie to his people and not vnfitly resembled by our sunday called septuagesima which is about 70. dayes before the passion of Christ the true Easter Lambe after which passion we were deliuered from bondage Besides these two apparant proofes there is a third which for trueth may goe with the first and is grounded vpon the foundation of Gods owne word Genes c. 49. v. 10. and spoken by Iacob to his sonnes vpon his death-bed where wonderfull wordes are heard otherwhile When the Scepter shall be taken from Iuda then the Shiloh commeth and bringeth all felicitie in his name and acts But at Christes comming the Scepter was taken from Iuda and geuen by the Lords Romans to Herod a Proselite who vexed them and slue them most greeuously 30. yeares before his comming abrogated their lawes made them woful and miserable captiues so that a man could not say the Scepter of Iuda or the lawgeuer of Iudaea therefore Christ is that Shiloh because the effects of the Iewish thraldome and the effectes of Christ comming are so ioynty mette together according to Iacobs prophesie But this argument is
thy faith and thy church vnlesse their apostasie heresie and Martinisme preuaile and those goods which as thy Apostle S. Iames teacheth vs came from aboue by former good instruments be rauened and bribed and pulled away by these wicked instruments these mad dogs these infamous libellors from our feet and heads from our tables and studies from our mouthes and hearts to feede hounds to dresse whores to multiplie helhound and whore-hound ruffians swearers harebraines vnlesse we be desolate and forsaken without our owne patrones without tutors of our own without our owne Iudges as other men haue all of their owne without the possession and fruition of our own or rather of thy goods to the derision of thy omnipotent power to the contēpt of thy reuerend word to the ouerthrow of thy catholicke and apostolick church of thy faithfull and true bishops and priests which haue authority euen frō the great commission of thy holy spirite to be chargeable to the hearers and professors of the faith 2. Thessal c. 3. v. 8 9. in the dayes of this life and haue a more singular praeeminence then any other in the life of the resurrection Dan. c. 12. v. 3. which are the chiefest pillars in thy common-wealth that being in honor and reputation and enuironed with many godly Centurions defenders with many louing Dauids meeke Mosees and liberall Salomons the whole glorie and euery part thereof shall redound to thee ô father of heauen now in the last times and yeares of the world and continue euermore by thy mightie will as it did in the beginning of the law and the dayspring of the gospel when true zeal was earnest in enriching thy flock and tyrannie onelie occupied in empouerishing it when it was true religiō to confirme the estate of thy preachers and execrable atheisme to enfeeble them when it was esteemed for right diuinitie to obey God more then man for prophane Iudaisme to serue God and Mammon much more to serue Mammon and God after the Iewish cōstruction and antichristian manner that triumpheth in the name of bloud which is but aërie of seede which is but fierie of elementarie and minerall accidents which are but earthie and watrie of those bodilie blunt and sharpe properties and casual endowments which make the life tedious vnto men of this world and odious to thy maiestie in the world to come vnlesse they be consecrated to thy blessed lambe and dedicated to the vse of thy holy Church whose internall prosperitie first then externall is regarded of all good men howsoeuer these new putfoorths dronken textuals brainsick templaries monstrous protesters play the verball sophisters throughout their whole generations Now deere Christians let vs labour continually to bee deere to God let vs not vndoe the whole bodie for the faults of some parts let vs not for a worldly hope lose a heauēly certainty for accidentall shadowes essential substāces for indifferent ceremonies necessary lawes the good wheate for the cockle in the fields the fruitful trees for the fruitles hawty brāble in the woods for the fraile loue of a man the endles loue of our God his lambe that teacheth vs only to flie from the sin not the goods of the world but vse them godly and canonically Let vs I beseech you dulie consider the word of the Lord of hostes vnto Zachary his prophet which biddeth vs Execute true iudgement and shew mercy and compassion and that none imagine euill against his brother in his heart cap. 7. vers 9. Let vs daily and instantly pray vnto God to illuminate our knowledge with his heauenly empireall light to establish our faith to multiplie his gifts and graces vpon vs that wee sing with the spirit and with the vnderstanding as S. Paul our great doctor hath said If God be on our side who can be against vs who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all as a lambe to death how shall he not with him giue vs all euen all things also Rom. c. 8. v. 31 32. Let not vs make our selues worse then the heathen or reuerence our religious fathers bishops lesse then they did their holy men accounting their priests and pastors for nobles princes and their princes nobles for priests pastors of the people as Homer nameth metaphorically Agamēnon the prince of Graecians the pastor of the people Hector the prince of Troians the bishop of men as Sophocles and the other graue and sententious Tragedians call their prophetes princes and namely blinde Tyresias for being a prophet is called a king euen of a king as Virgil familiarly knowne to yoong schollers calleth Anius a king and a priest or as Moses rather telleth vs in his diuine iudgement that Melchisedech was the prince of Salem and the priest of God Genes cap. 14. v. 18. and S. Paul to preuent glossary cauils nameth him king plainely by the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the ground or foundation of the people whereon they build their cōfidence and strength Iesus being the corner stone Heb. c. 7. v. 1. and who hath not heard of the kingly prophete Dauid of Hermes that was a philosopher a priest a king and therof was among other Aegyptian princes named Trismegistus or thrise excellent Let not vs English men make our selues worse affected towarde Gods Church then our forefathers haue beene before vs whereof some leauing their crownes some their royalties some their riches deuoted themselues wholy to the orders of the Church and bestowed their liues and liuelihoods vpon Gods ministrations and seruices as some readers know very well besides diuers examples of other forraine chronicles iudging the name of a diuine better then of a man and the title of Gods priest as ioyfull and honorable with men and Angels as that which is the very best of all titles Let him that is taught in the word minister vnto him that teacheth in all good thinges who goeth a warfare at his owne cost who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruite thereof who feedeth a flocke and suffereth another to deuour the milke saith S. Paul the mightie Apostle and Bishop of the Gentiles Galat. cap. 6. vers 6. what true Christian man will once doe otherwise vnto an other then he would in that others place á paribus causis should be done to him saith Christ the almightie Sauiour Math. c. 7. v. 12. Let vs not follow Aërius the hereticke whose opinion concerning the equalitie of Bishops and Priests Epiphanius confuteth l. 3. haer 75. but rather satisfie our selues with the confutation thereof in that place then seeke new shifts for him and starting holes for that sentence of S. Ierome pronounceth a bishop to be a priest because they are diuers orders as a man might say in that phrase without confounding the degrees the same man which is a doctor is a maister but it doth not by conuersion iudge a priest to be a bishop a maister to bee a doctor Or if the