1 John 2.2 2. In the Sanctuary there were two things 1. The Incense-Altar 2 What the Incense Altar Shew-Bread and Candlestick signified 2. Table whereon were 1. The Shew-Bread 2. The Candlestick And these were Types and Figures that signified the chiefest things in our Church as the Incense-Altar betokened the prayers of the people Psal 141.2 as the Prophet David sheweth and whereas this Altar of Incense was to be sprinkled by the High-Priest with the bloud of the Sacrifice once every year it signifieth that our prayers be they never so many and never so fervent Exod. 30.10 yet if they be not purified and perfected by the bloud of Christ they are unvaluable before God 2. The Shew-bread and the Candlestick signified the light that the people should receive by our explaining of the Word of God and the feeding of their souls by the preaching of the Gospel and blessed Sacrament of the body and bloud of Jesus Christ 3. The Court of the Temple was divided by a wall of three cubits high Joseph l. 8. c. 3 John 10.23 Acts 3.11 that the one part of it might be for the Priests and the other for the people And this Court of the people was sometimes called the Temple and sometimes Solomons Porch So you see the Jews had Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ but veiled over and we have them with open face And in this Court was their Corban or Alms-box which the Greeks termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines from the Greeks Gazophylacium the treasure and the alms that was put into this box the Hebrews called Tsedaka which properly signifieth justice to teach us that it is justice for us to relieve the Poor and that the matter of our alms and relief should be goods justly gotten and not as many do steal a Goose and stick a feather rob many and relieve a few These were the chiefest parts of the Temple and the chiefest things therein and this Temple was thrice built 1 Reg. 6.37 1. By Solomon that finished the same in seven years 2. By Zorobabel that finished it in the ninth year of Darius Hystasp Joseph l. 11. c. 4. and so from the second year of Cyrus that began it it was fourty six years in building 3. By Herod that finished the same in eight years Idem l. 15. c. ult 1 Chron. 29. v. 3. And what provision David left for the erecting of this you may read Besides this Glorious Great and Magnificent Temple What their Synagogues Typified that was answerable to our Cathedral Church they had many Synagogues that were as our petty Parish Churches for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copia lactis Goodw. l. 2. c. 2. from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to gather together doth properly signifie a Collection of any things that may be gathered together yet commonly the Synagogues are taken for the Houses dedicated to the worship of God wherein it was lawful to Pray to Preach and to Dispute but not to Sacrifice And it is likely they began to build these Synagogues when the Tribes were settled in the promised Land When their Synagogues began to be built because the Temple being too far distant from those that dwelt in the remote parts of the Land they built to themselves Synagogues to Pray to God in them instead of the Temple For so we read that Moses of old time had in every City them that preached him Act. 15.21 being read in the Synagogues every Sabboth day and David in his time findeth great fault with those wicked and prophane wretches that like our late Rebells Psal 74.8 destroyed and burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land And of these Synagogues Sigonius writeth Sigon l. 2. c. 8. de Repub. Heb. Matth. 4.23 Act. 9.2 c. 13.5 c. 13.14 Maymon in Tephilla c. 11. Sect. 1. there were four hundred and eighty in Jerusalem and in other Cities and Provinces there were many other Synagogues as in Galilee in Damascus at Salamis at Antiochia and they held him for a very good man and a lover of their Nation that built them a Synagogue where they might pray and serve God And Maymonides saith the tradition was that wheresoever ten Families of Israel were they ought to build them a Synagogue And were the Jews that were under the Law and burthened with such infinite taxes and ceremonies of their Religion as were more then they were able to bear so Zealous so Religious and so ready to part with their Wealth and the best things they had to build so sumptuous and so glorious a Temple and so many Synagogues for the service of God that were but the Types and Shadows of our Cathedrals and parish Churches that are for the Preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And shall we that are freed from all the ordinances of their Law be so cold and so careless to repair the houses of Jesus Christ But we may remember what Hor. saith Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane donec Templa refeceris aedesque labenâ—es deorum foeda nigro simulacra fumo l. 3. Od. 6.3 All that happened to the Jews are Types and ensamples for us 1 Cor. 10.11 that hath don so much for us as I shall shew you by and by Truly I am sorry to see it and I am ashamed to speak it that such a Cathedral Church as this and so many other Churches as I have seen in this Diocese should be so Barbarously demolished as they are and so little regard had of their repayring They weep for us because we weep not for their abuse But to go on and 3. As the High-Priest of the Jews was the Type of Jesus Christ and their Temple was the Type and Shadow of our Cathedral Churches so all that they did and all that happened unto them were Types and Ensamples for us that are now under the Gospel and as the Apostle saith they are all written for our admonition And so our Saviour here tells Nichodemus that As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted vp wherein you may observe these two things 1. The Type which is expressed in the Historie 2. The thing Typified which is the Mysterie signified by the Historie For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 1. For the Historie you may read it in Numb 21. v. 4. to the tenth verse and which you must well observe before you can understand the Mysterie And therein you may observe these four parts V. 5. 1. The Sin committed by the Israelites v. 5. V. 6. 2. Their Punishment inflicted upon them for their sin 3. Their Repentance and confession of their sins v. 7. V. 7. 4. The Remedie that preserved them v. 8. and 9. V. 8.9 4. Parts of the History 1 Their sin four fold 1. Their sin seems to be morbus
sin And it were well if this sin reached no farther than the children of Israel for indeed such is the nature of all men apt and prone to devise services unto God as they list every one will be independent and serve God as he pleaseth and all such devised ervice is nothing else but Idolatry saith the Apostle Col. 2.23 1 Joh. 5.21 and thereore St. John writing unto Christians concludes his Epistle with little children keep your selves from Idols which is worth our observation because they might as many do make an Idol of many things of their Pulpit of their Preachers of their Altars and of the most consecrated bread in the Eucharist when as the Church of Rome doth it to this very day they transubstantiate the same to become Corpus Domini and do orally eat that with their teeth which the Scripture teacheth us to eat sacramentally by faith which very doctrine of transubstantiation and thereupon the adoration of their host and the asportation of it as the Israelites did their Moloc I fear if it be rightly discussed will prove to be little less than Idolatry for as I will not reject that truth which the Devil uttered Mat 5.7 Thou art Jesus the Son of the most high God nor refuse the four Gospels and the three Creeds of the Apostles the Nicen and Athanasian because the Pope useth them but will believe all the truth that the Church of Rome believeth and therein joyn with them the right hand of fellowship so I will hate the errours and detest the Idolatry of any Church that committeth it And therefore How the Primitive Christians were slandered though as the Christians of the Primitive Church were most falsly traduced and charged to be the causes of all the calamities dearths wars sedition and all the other evils that happened unto the Heathens which indeed themselves were the sole causes of because they would not become Christians and therefore persecuted the Church of Christ and in all their Counsels had none other Conclusions but Christianos ad leones let us throw away these Christians to the Lyons to the fires and to the Waters so now the Enemies of the truth say we are Papists and Idolatrous and the causes of all these calamities that are fallen upon this Land How we are now slandered and therefore let them be deprived degraded and destroyed yet in very deed we are so far from those points which Jewel Cranmer Latimer and the rest of those holy Martyrs and godly Reformers concluded to be Popish and Idolatrous that as we have hitherto most learnedly refuted them so we are most constantly resolved to oppugn them while we live and rather to lose our lives than to depart from the true protestant faith and to embrace the Idolatry of any Church in the World and you must know that as the Philosopher saith Non quia affirmatur aut negatur res erit vel non erit things are not so and so because they are reported to be such as Gold is not Copper because an ignorant Artist affirmeth it nor Copper Gold because the like Ignoramus avoucheth it so a wicked man is not good nor Rebels loyal because flatterers commend them neither is a good man wicked nor faithful Subjects malignants nor true Protestants Popish because the slanderers traduce them as Christ was neither a drunkard Mat. 11.19 nor a glutton though the Jews accused him of both and we are neither Papists nor Popish though as the Apostle saith in the like case Rom. 3.8 we are slanderously reported to be such but things ought to be affirmed to be as they are indeed and men ought to judge righteous judgements and then you might see and so be assured we are so far from Popery that as I said before we lay on them little less crime than Idolatry And seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 video we see it may be derived farther and brought nearer to our selves then the Church of Rome Hier. in Jer. c. 32. Aug. l. de vera religione Col. 3 5. for so men may as St. Hierom saith erect an Idoll in their own brains as the worldling makes his Gold to be his god the Heretiques and Separatists make an Idoll of their false Religion the precise Hypocrite makes an Idoll of his dissembled purity and the very Rebels make an Idol of their seducers and leaders and their own most obstinate opinions and all these and the like do offer up Idolatrous sacrifices upon the Altar of their own folly and therefore well might St. John say Keep your selves from Idols because the children of the Church when they leave their true Leaders and take blind guides may soon fall and be filled with Idolatry And seeing we have so many such rebellious Idolaters amongst us if there be any Idolaters in the world is it any wonder that God should so abundantly poure out his indignation upon us or that he should not visit for these things Jer. 5 9. and be avenged on such a nation as this 2. Injustice was the other sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord when as the Prophet saith Ver. 7. The second sin of the Israelites Injustice they turned judgment into wormwood and left off righteousness in the earth wherein you may observe two things in the iniquity of this people 1. Generally among all the Vulgar sort 2. Jer. 5.1 Particularly among the very Judges and Princes of the Land 1. The common people left off righteousness 1 Generally and dealt most unjustly one with another oppressing the poor afflicting the just and filling themselves with thefts robberies and all other kinds of unrighteousness sins able to overthrow the whole earth The praise of Justice Pro. 25.5 Pro. 14.34 Theog p. 431. and to destroy all the Society of mankind for justice establisheth the thrones of Kings it exalteth a nation it is the sister of peace the mother of prosperity the preserver of amity and as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And on the other side injury and oppression as Solomon saith Eccles 7.7 is able to make a wise man mad and injustice is the destroyer of peace the producer of War and the bringer of whole Cities Kingdoms and Nations to confusion for as St. Aug. saith Quid sunt regna remota justitia nisi magna latrocinia What are Kingdoms if you take away justice but as our Cities are now in most parts of our Land the Dens of Thieves that enrich themselves with the treasures of wickedness Mica 6.13 and are clad with the spoiles of the poor and how is it possible that men should live one by another cum vivitur ex rapto when Pillaging and Plundering shall become our common trade and the great mens strength shall become the Law of justice and yet this is not all for 2. As the Prophet Esay saith their Princes that is 2 Particularly
Kerry the Bishop of Waterford hath Lysmore the Bishop of Laghlin hath the Bishopprick of Fermes the Bishop of Dublin hath also the Bishopprick of Glandelo the Bishop of Downes hath likewise Conner and Kilmore whose Lands and Lordships the great Lords and Gentry hold and they the names of those Bishoppricks whereof formerly each Bishopprick was sufficient to maintain an able Bishop If you say the Bishops themselves made away their Lands in Fee-farme I dare boldly and truly say as Christ doth of the like case that they who did it were thieves and robbers Joh. 10.8 and they that received them were no better but they that retain them worse When as now two or three Bishoppricks must be soddered and conglutinated together to make an honest competent means for one learned Bishop This I say sheweth he miseries of our Churches and the difference betwixt the fruits that the purity of the Gospel produceth in our times and the Piety of our forefathers that lived in the Primitive times and afterwards under the manifold mysts and several Superstitions of the Romish Church when the Lands and revenues that they gave to God to maintain the Bishop of Ossory to do him service is now * As I believe worth fifteen hundred pounds per annum and our zealour Gospellers have brought iâ— in the last Bishops time to be scarce worth two hundred pounds per annum and I believe the other Bishoppricks are not now and then much unlike it and so we and our forefathers are not much unlike those two Sons whereof our Saviour speaketh whose Father said unto the first Go work to day in my Vineyard and he said I will not but afterwards he repented and went and he came to the second and said likewise and he answered and said I go Sir and went not So our forefathers lived in the times of blindness and knew not well what was acceptable unto God yet they did to the uttermost of their endeavours and knowledge what they were able to please God and to serve him and we have his Truth and his Will his Gospel and his Mercies plentifully published and poured forth amongst us and we do all that we can to obstruct his service and to evacuate the Religion of Jesus Christ And therefore I do much fear that these blind Christians as our Gnosticks contemptuously call them The Papists shall rise in judgment to condemn our fruitless and sacrilegious Protestants shall rise in judgment to condemn the great and quick-sighted worldlings and fruitless Christians of our time who by their prophaneness and Sacriledge have so much hindered Gods Service and caused our most holy Profession to be so much blasphemed and slighted among Infidels and Pagans and the rest of the enemies of Jesus Christ Object But you will say how can that be Sacriledge or those men blamed that for the reformation of the Church took away those things that were usurped by the Pope and abused by the Monks and Friers to uphold Masses and Dyrges and to continue their Superstition to the great dishonour of God and the hazard of many thousand souls Answ I answer if a thief steals my horse wilt thou take it away from the thiefe and keep it still from me Art thou any better than the thiefe to me or any juster in the sight of God So the Pope and his Popelings took away the Tythes and Oblations the Lands and the Livings of the Church and thou tookest them from the Pope and his Friers And why dost thou not restore them to the Churches to the which they do belong For thou mayst remember that when Nebuchadnezzar had like the Pope robbed the Temple of God at Jerusalem and abused the Vessels thereof in the service of his false God and Belshazar his Son had in like manner prophaned the same by his lascivious quaffing therein with his Queens and Concubines for which he was justly punished by the revenging hand of God Dan. 5.3 25. yet Cyrus when he had taken Babylon and so robbed the thiefe that had robbed God and understood that these holy Vessels did belong to the Service of God in the Temple of Solomon he durst not meddle with them to retain them for himself but lest he should be punished for his Sacriledge as Belshazar was he commanded them to be carried to Jerusalem and to be restored to their former proprietors and for their former use in the divine Worship of Almighty God And so should Hen. 8. and those Lords and Ladies that have taken away the Revenues of the Church from the Pope have restored them to the Protestant Bishops and the reformed Ministers of our Church Cod. Theod. l. 4. C. 16. tit 44. contra Donat. And so S. Aug. sheweth all the godly Emp did Ep 50 ad bonisac militem For so you may find a Decree of the godly Emperours Honorius and Theodosius against the Montanists in these words If there be now any of the Edifices of the Montanists standing which are rather to be termed Dens of wild beasts than Churches of Christ let them with their revenues be appropriated to the Sacred Churches of the Orthodox Faith and in the said Code it is said let the Bishops Priests and Prelates that is of the Donatists be stript of all their Revenues and be banished to several Islands and let those possessions where Superstition hath reigned be annexed to the holy Catholick Church And good reason for it for as the Ark of God when it was taken and abused by the Philistines yet did it not then cease to be the holy Arke of God and therefore when it was afterwards sent home by the Philistines it was received respected and as much reverenced and to the same ends used by the Israelites as it was before as were also the Vessels of Solomons Temple after their return from Babylon So the Revenues of the Church though taken from the Church and abused by the Pope yet being restored again to the Church as they ought to be they have the same effect notwithstanding their former abuse to promote the service of God as they had before For being once dedicated for Gods service they ought never be to alienated from it as I have most fully shewed in my Declaration against Sacriledge but as those Censers wherewith the two hundred and fifty Rebels impiously usurping the Priests Office would needs offer Incense to God were hallowed and therefore God would not suffer them afterwards to be at any time employed for any common uses but commanded that they should be made into broad plates for a covering of the Altar Num. 16. and so the Brass which those Rebels had so wickedly abused should be religiously used by the true Priests for Gods service So the Lands and Revenues of the Church that were once hallowed and consecrated for Gods Divine Worship though the Idolaters did abuse them and the Lay Lords usurp them yet God cannot endure that being once in his possession and given
and domineered over most and almost all the Nations of the World that the Jews will they nill they may see that omne mundi regnum omnis mundana sapientia omnia divinae legis sacramenta testantur quia Jesus est Rex every kingdom of the earth all the wisdom of the World and all the sacraments of the divine law do bear witness that Christ is King and this Lion here spoken of in this Text. And the difference betwixt this Lion and all other Lions is that as Franciscus Vallesius de sacra Philosophia c. 55. saith Mos Leonis est sibi tantum pradam capere non Leaenae but Christ took the prey for his Church and not for himself And we finde that his kingdome by three special prerogatives excelleth all other kingdomes of the world that is 1. Preheminence of Christs kingdome threefold 1. Eternity 2. Purity 3. Largity 1. The Prophet saith thy Throne O God Psal 110. is for ever and ever and thy Dominion shall endure throughout all Ages but transibit gloria mundi all other Kings within so many years shall not govern and after so many dayes they shall not be for death spareth none but sceptra ligonibus aequat And as Nazianzen saith Constantinus Imperator famulus meus ossa Agamemnonis Thyrsitis death makes no difference betwixt the bones of King Agamemnon and base Thyrsites the Emperour Constantine and my servant but when their race is run and their glass is out we may say of each of them as Horace saith of his Friend Torquatus Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Horat. Restituet pietas But this King hath a prerogative above them all for he was Rex à seculo a King from everlasting and he shall be a King in secula seculorum world without end Luke 1.33 for so the Angel Gabriel testifieth that of his kingdome there shall be no end And this should batter down the pride of Tyrants that say with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built For mene mene tekel peres their glory is but as the grass of the field or otherwise if they were immortal they were intolerable And this should teach us to labour to become the Subjects of this King in whose kingdome there shall be Aug. l. 1 c. 10. de Trinitate as Saint Augustine saith requies sempiterna gaudium quod nunquam anferetur à nobis An everlasting rest and joy that shall never be taken from us 2. Preheminence The second preheminence of his kingdome is purity for of this King the Prophet speaketh thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousness For this King is not like Ahab that would take away Naboths Vineyard nor like Rehoboam that would oppress his Subjects with over-grievous Taxes but he is a righteous King and a most just Judge far unlike some Judges of former dayes that for a word have made a man a transgressour and for a syllable or one letter have quite overthrown a mans cause and right and so have made the Laws a nose of wax to bend and turn as they pleased and to be rete Vulcanium like Vulcans iron net to catch the poor and friendless but tela aranea like the spiders web so easie for the rich and powerful to passe through it But blessed be God for it we have few such now and we hope we shall not provoke God so far as to send such amongst us for if you suffer oppression and wrongs when as the Poet saith Mensuraque juris vis erit Then surely peaceable men shall not be able to live in the Common-wealth But the equity and justice of this King should perswade all other Kings to follow his Example and as the wise man saith Sep. 1.1 to love righteousness all they that are Judges of the earth 3. Preheminence The third preheminence of his kingdome is that God anointed this King with the oyle of gladness in all things above his fellows for their time hath an end their dominion a limitation but his time is not limited and his rule hath no marches but exivit in omnem terram it hath gone forth into all Lands because he is the King of all the earth and when as all other Kings are but Reges Gentium Kings of some few Nations he is Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of all other Kings and the Lord of all Lords And therefore Eusebius saith that the distinction or difference betwixt this true Christ and the other imaginary Christs that were anointed Kings before him may truely and very easily be discerned Euseb l. 1. c. 1. Eccl. Histor quia illi priores Christi nulli penè nisi genti propriae cogniti sunt those former Kings were scarce known to any but to their own proper people but not onely the name but also the rule power and kingdome of this true King is extended over all Nations per universum orbem terrae and through the compasse of the round world And though when the Jewes would have crowned him King Rex fieri noluit he refused the same yet to shew that this Dominus Angelorum was also Rex Judaeorum Beda l. 5. in c. 19. Luc. as Beda speaketh when he rid to Jerusalem upon the Asse he willingly permitted the people to cry Hosanna and to intitle him King of the Jewes and he confessed as much himself unto Pilat that he was a King And what meaneth this saith the Venerable Bede that he now willingly embraceth quod prius fugicudo declinavit that which before he declined and fled from it and the kingdome that while as yet he lived in the world he would not accept he now denieth not to take it when he is by and by ready to go out of the world He answereth that he formerly refused it Beda l. 3. in c. 11. S. Mar. because of the gross imagination of the Jewes that conceited him to be a temporal King like unto others but he doth now accept it to shew quod non temporalis terreni sed aeterni in coelis Rex esset imperii that his kingdome was not of this world as himself said unto Pilate but as the King of Heaven he ruled all the world Well then What we may learn from this Doctrine that Christ is our King seeing Saint Matthew doth by so many inanswerable arguments prove Christ to be a King and that he is a perpetual universal and principal King and here exprest by the Lion in this Text we may collect and draw matter both of comfort and fear both of joy and of grief For 1. Seeing Christ is King then as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.1 exultet terra let the earth rejoyce for if we will obey him and be ruled by him he will appoint over us such Viceroyes and under-rulers that will lead us sicut
be but that many and many great men will frett and chafe and be discontented at your doings though you do never so justly but it is your duty to do that which is just and in doubtful cases when evidences on both sides are in aequilibrio to encline to that which tendeth to the service of God's Church and the honour of the King's Majesty Sap. 1.1 and you ought always to remember what the Wiseman saith Love righteousness yee that be Judges of the Earth for righteousness exalteth a Nation Proverb And this righteousness you cannot preserve unless you be like Lions without fear either of threatnings or of dangers And as the Magistrates so the Ministers and Preachers of God's word should be like Lions to do their duties without fear for so the Lord saith unto Ezechiel I send thee to a rebellious Nation but thou son of man Ezech. 2.6 be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their words nor dismayed at their looks Quia timiditas Predicantis est calamitas Audientis Because the fear of the Preacher is the calamity of the Hearer when the fear of reproving mens sins hardeneth them in their sins and encourageth them to sin more and more And therefore I say that we should remember what the Lord commandeth us Cry aloud and spare not Esay 57.1 lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins And if the great men of the world threaten us to rob us of our lands or deprive us of our liberties let us look what the Lord saith I Esay 51.12 13. even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man which shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy And it is well that he saith I even I am he that comforteth you seeing it is with us as it was with Ezechiel Ezech. 2.3 4. that Bryars and thorns are with us and we dwell among scorpions a rebellious Nation that are impudent and stiff-hearted for I must humbly crave leave to tell you a story of truth and no fiction When I came first to lie in the Bishops house in Kilkeny I dreamed that the Bishops Court was full of people Citizens Souldiers and Gentlemen with Drumms Swords and Muskets and being affrighted with the sight of them before they had entred the house or done any hurt I presently awaked and looking out at the window for them I saw none then for many dayes I often mused what this meant at last I sound that the Citizens of Kilkeny on the one side the Souldiers on the other side and the Knights and Gentlemen round about came about me like Bees to rob God of his honour and the Church of her right by dividing her Revenues amongst themselves as the Souldiers did the Garments of Christ And I neither fear nor care what any man thinks of what I say my duty telling me what I should say But though they threaten to be my ruine and to cause me to spend what I intended to the repair of the flat-fallen Church to preserve the Revenues of the Bishoprick yet seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth thee and that have delivered thee from so many dangers and so many times from the hands of most mercyless Rebels and bids me not to fear I must not be dismayed but as Elias told Ahab and J. Baptist told Herod of their faults without fear so I and all others that are God's Ministers ought to be bold as Lions to reprove the sins of the people and especially those sins that are most frequently committed and are most prejudicial to the service of God and most pernicious to their souls least as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by escaping the smoak of mans anger we shall fall into the fire of God's fury when we fear men more then God And therefore my dear brethren I had rather you should blame me for my boldness then that God should punish me for my fearfulness and I know that as the Drunkard cannot endure to be told of his drunkeness or the proud man of his pride or the Rebel of his rebellion so no more can these sacrilegious persons abide to hear of their sacriledge And must we therefore hold our peace for fear of their sayings jeeres or threats By no means 2. As we should be bold as Lions without fear so we should be diligent and painful in our places like the Oxen without laziness to pray continually and to preach constantly and as the Apostle saith in season and out of season that is not so frequently as our late Fanatiques would have us to preach Sermons full of words without substance but as St. Augustine expounds it Volentibus nolentibus For to the willing hearers it comes in season and to the unwilling it comes out of season whensoever it cometh And when we do this then 2. That the Magistrates and Minist should be like the Ox painful and diligent to doe their duties as the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn should not be muzzled so ought not we to be molested nor detained and held with vexatious suits to hinder us to discharge our necessary duties lest the punishment of our neglect should fall upon the heads of them that cause it For we are sure that our God is so just that he will not punish any one for not doing that which he is not suffered to doe as for not going into his Church when the wayes are so stopt that he cannot possibly pass it 3. We should be not like the horse and mule 3. The Magistrates should be like men sober and rational and not voluptuous like Beasts that have no understanding and whose mouths must be holden with bitt and bridle lest they fall upon thee but we should be endued with reason like unto rational men that as Cicero saith Agere quicquam nunquam debent cujus non possunt rationem probabilem reddere ought never to do any thing whereof they could not yield a very probable reason And God knows how many things we do for which we can yield no reason at all For what reason had we to wax weary of our peace and of our happiness and to rebel against a most gracious King to destroy our selves And what reason have we to expect God's blessing and yet to continue sacrilegious to rob God of his dues Or is there any reason that any Common-wealth should keep Souldiers to protect them and not regard them nor countenance them nor pay them their wages Surely they are very necessary to preserve our peace and they ought not to be slighted and John Baptist saith
things of this world in our judgements rightly informed which now seem so precious in our imaginations being corrupted What the spiritual men that are like the noble Eagle should doe And therefore if we would be like the noble Eagles mounting up to Heaven then as Moses builded his tent without the hoste and far from the hoste so should we build our habitation out of this world and far above the world and as Elias when he journeyed towards Heaven in his fiery Chariot and was flying up in a whirlwinde bestript himself of his mantle and threw it down to the earth lest the weight of it should presse him downward and so hinder his ascent to Heaven even so if we desire to ascend to Heaven we must bestrip our selves of all worldly impediments that are as heavy as a talent of lead and do not onely hinder us from ascending upwards but do press many men down to the bottomless pit And as the Prophet David in all distresses comforted himself with that pious meditation saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and what is there on earth that I desire in comparison of thee so do all those that make their unum necessarium their chiefest purpose and design to go to Christ to have an everlasting house and lands satisfie themselves with the hope of obtaining their desire And this is the reason that seeing God hath given them all that they have they weigh not a straw if they be driven to spend all that they have for the benefit and good of the Church of Christ and to promote the service of God And if the wise men of the world laugh at our folly and say we shall spend ten times more then we shall ever get We may answer that for our losses and expences they are but as feathers and that shall never trouble us but our hope is that we shall attain unto our desire which is to mount up with the rest of God's Eagles unto the Kingdom of Heaven and that will countervail all our losses And so much for the peculiar and proper Description of these Beasts THE SECOND SERMON REVEL 4.8 And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him c. 2. FOR their general and common description 2. Their general and common description it is said they had each one of them six wings about him and they were all full of eyes Touching which you must observe 1. Some things about their wings 2. Some things about their eyes And 1. Of their wings 1. About their wings These two things are to be noted 1. What are these six wings 2. To what end they had these wings or what use they made of them 1. What they are 1. Rupertus and others say these six wings are the six works of mercy visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo fratres that is as our Saviour sets them down to give meat unto the hâ—ngry Matth. 25.35 drink unto the thirsty lodging to the stranger cloathe to the naked and to visit the sick and those that are in prison others understand hereby the six spiritual works of piety and mercy which are to correct the offendor to instruct and consell the ignorant to comfort the afflicted to bear patiently all injuries to forgive all trespasses and to pray for our enemies and persecutors but Balaeus and Lambert say that these six wings are faith hâ—pe charity justice mercy and truth and I think they come nearest unto the truth for by those six we shall be able to shun and flie away from all the mischeifs of the world and these six wings are able to mount us up unto our father in Heaven And they that have not these six wings are rightly said to be like the Ostrich which often spreads her wings but seldome flieth But they that have these six wings are most happy and need not fear the greatest dangers nor the malice of their greatest enemies For 1. Faith is radix omnium virtutum the root of all virtues and you know what mightie things Saint Paul setteth down to have been done through faith 2. Spes alit afflictos hope preserveth the afflicted and maketh not ashamed saith the Apostle 3. Charity covereth a multitude of sins and of all the three divine graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of them all is charity 4. Justice is such a cardinal virtue that Theognis a Heathen saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice comprehends all virtues 5. Our Saviour saith blessed are the mercifull for that they are sure to obtain mercy And 6. Truth as Zorob proveth is so great that it will prevaile against all oppositions for though that by the tricks and delayes of sutle heads it may be clouded for a time yet at last it will bud forth and appear But I fear the Lord hath a controversie with the Inhabitants of this Land because as the Prophet saith there is no truth nor mercy I may add nor justice nor knowledge of God in the Land or if these be then I am sure you will not build up Zion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity because the Lord loves neither House nor Lands that are unjustly obtained I cannot stand to examine it or to handle the particulars that might be said concerning these six points for that might require six houres to do it at least but I will proceed and say 2. If you would know to what end they had these wings 2. What use they made of their wings or what use they made of them the Prophet Esay tells you in the practice of the Seraphims that it was for these three special ends That is 1. To cover their faces 2. To cover their feet 3. To flie about For he saith that with two of their wings they cover'd their faces and with two they covered their feet Esay 6.2 and with two they did flie And this they did for these three ends That is 1. To check our curiosity 2. To shew our misery 3. To teach us industry 1. It is the nature and the foolish disposition of man to be alwayes prying and searching into every thing the secrets of God the mysteries of state and the obscurities of nature And yet the Seraphims that stand in the presence of God are fain to cover their faces not to hide their sins which they had not but because they are not able to behold the brightness of Gods glorious Majesty and if the Angels hid their faces from the brightness of Gods Glory how dares sinfull man prie into it because as the Apostle saith he dwels in the light light that no man can attain unto it 1 Tim. 6.16 Exod. 34.20 and the Lord saith himself that no man could see his face and live for though we walk in the chearfull light of the Sun yet we are not able fully and directly to look upon the Sun when he shineth in his full strength and brightness but it will dazle our eyes and
sins that is as well the great sins of the great men and the nobility of the house of Jacob as the ordinary sins and transgressions of the common people And because I know no sins that are greater Which are the great sins that do most mischief and more pernicious to the publick good and so destructive both to the Church and Commonwealth as Rebellion Sacriledge and Injustice for that Rebellion Turbabit faedera mundi shakes the foundations and ruinates whole Kingdomes and Sacriledge is the destruction of all Religion when as the props and pillars of Job's house Job 1.19 Judges 16.29 30. and so of the Philistines also being taken away the houses presently fell so the maintenance of Religion and the revenues of the Church being the only outward props and pillars of Religion Sublatis his religio perit when you take away these you may shake hands with your Religion and your Churches shall be as they are in most places here in Ireland weeping and wailing for want of roofs which is the fruit of Sacriledge of which I may truly say as St. Hierom doth against Vigilant Fatebor dolorem meum sacrilegium tantum patienter audire non possum in Epist 53. ad Riparium And Injustice especially when it proceedeth from the Seat and from the Courts of Justice and the Judges of the Law destroyeth all the duties of honesty and overthroweth all civil Societies and causeth Kingdomes to be translated from one Nation to another People as that of the Assyrians was to the Medes and Persians that of the Persians unto the Grecians that of the Grecians unto the Romans and that of the Romans unto the Gothes and Vandals when their Judges became corrupt and the companions of thieves as the Prophet Esay speaketh The Authors resolution And therefore as I hate and abhorr these sins above all other publick sins whatsoever so for Sion sake I will not hold my peace I cannot choose nor cease to cry out against all Rebels and Church-robbers and unjust Judges until they do cease to commit these sins or my mouth be filled with dust but while I am able to utter forth my voice or have means to prosecute my purpose I will never desist but do the uttermost of my power to hinder any man that hath been a Rebel and fought under the great Antichrist and the grand Usurper Cromwell against that gratious King whom they have murdered to hold the Revenues of the Church and to obstruct the Service of Jesus Christ because How to serve God day and night may be two wayes interpreted like these beasts we ought to be as Lions and to do our duties without fear without ceasing and to do it as my Text saith these beasts did it day and night And this phrase may admit a double exposition and that is 1. 1. Interpretation In the sun-shine of knowledge and the glorious light of the Gospel signified by the day or in the glimmering light of the Moon and darksome ignorance of superstition signified by the night they ceased not and gave not over to praise God and to serve him to the utmost of their abilities And they that do so Faithful ignorance preferred before proud and fruitless knowledge God will accept of their faithful service and praises of him in their invincible ignorance and the night time of superstition far better then the proud contempt and careless neglect of our duties in the height of our knowledge and the clear day-light of the Gospel when men know their Masters will and do it not in which case St. Augustines judgement is most certain that Melior est fidelis ignorantia quam temeraria scientia their zealous ignorance will find more favour at the hands of God then the others careless and fruitless knowledge unless it be the fruits of sin and iniquity Aud therefore I doubt not but our Forefathers that lived in the dayes of ignorance and superstition and in their zeal built the Churches of God and endowed them with maintenance for Gods service will rise in judgement against our Gnosticks that in the abundance of knowledge do overthrow the Churches and suppress the service of God and withal rob Christ of his garment to give it you know to whom the Evangelist saith it fell by lot I hope we will not do the like 2. This their not ceasing to praise God day and night 2. Interpretation may be understood of their constancy and perseverance in the faith and the service of God both in prosperity and adversity the Day signifying the joyous time of our prosperity and the Night signifying the sad and grievous times of our adversity And there have been alwayes too too many men How many men use to serve God John 6.26 Psal 4 8. Job 1.10 that as the Jews followed Christ not because they saw his miracles but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled so do they freely praise God while their Corn and Wine and Oyl increaseth and as the Devil falsly said of Job while God doth make an hedge about them and about their houses and about all that they have on every side and blesseth the work of their hands and their substance is increased in the land they will serve the Lord and yet as the Lord complaineth of them In tempore tribulationis recedunt à me when God putteth forth his hand and toucheth all that they have to try them as he tried Abraham then will they start aside like a broken bow deny their faith and be ready to curse God to his face Our Presbyterians like the Apostata's under the first persecutions And such were the Apostata's in the time of the first ten persecutions and our Presbyterians in the time of our late King Charles for while they enjoyed their livings they were right Episcopal men but when deprivation and persecution came they will have none of that but will rather change both their Coat and their Calling then serve God rightly in that adversity and that is to serve him and praise him in the day of our fulness and not in the night that is full of dangers But all the true Saints of God will with these beasts never cease to serve him and praise him as well in the night of adversity as in the best dayes of their prosperity Heb. 11.37 yea though they should be driven to wander like those spoken of by the Apostle in sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented for they are resolved as the same Apostle speaketh Rom. 8.35 that neither tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor peril nor sword nor any other creature shall separate them from the love of Christ or cause them to cease from the service of God day or night and such is the resolution of all Gods faithful servants which makes them to be as bold as lions to fear no man and no danger And so much for
2.4 The bloud-thirsty how detestable Which sheweth how detestable beyond my ability of expression are those bloud-thirsty men that so maliciously and wickedly do hunt after the life of man and do shed the bloud of so many Innocents no waies like that good God which made not Death nor desireth the Death of any sinner much lesse the destruction of the Righteous nor yet like Alexander that knew not God yet knew this that when his Mother Olympias that was a bloudy woman lay hard upon him to kill a certain innocent person and to that end said often to him that she carried him Nine Moneths in her Womb therefore he had no reason to deny her answered her most wisely Good Mother ask for that some other reward and recompence because the life of man is so dear Am. Marcellin l. 14. c. 10. that no benefit can countervail it and the unjust taking of it away is so hainous that it is impossible for any mortal man to make satisfaction for so great an offence Matth. 3.7 What shall we say then to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when their own most gracious King doth so often sollicite for peace do still make them ready for battel and have taken away the lives of so many thousands of men 2 Thes 2.3 truly if they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet certainly they are the sons of Apollyon the children of the Destroyer Death how terrible that without speedy repentance can receive no better reward then damnation But as life is the sweetest and the most excellent of all things that are in this world Aristot. Ethic. l. 3. c. 6. so death saith the Philosopher est omnium terribilium terribilissimum because this bringeth our years to an end finisheth our daies and puts a period to all our joyes and though there is but one way of life for all men and that one alike to all to come naked out of their Mothers womb yet Job 1.21 as the Poet saith Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Statius Thebaid l. 9. There are a thousand waies to bring any one of us unto his death And here the Prophet threatneth death unto the people of Israel many waies The Israelites how threatned Quocunque aspiciunt nihil est nisi pontus aether Ovid de Trist. For the City that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred and that which went out by an hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel that is as Remigius and Hugo say Vers 3. the Israelites shall be so plagued by the Assyrians 2 Reg. 18.10 as well in the three years siege of Samaria as also before and after the same by the Sword Famine and the Pestilence which Sicut unda sequitur undam do ever follow like Jobs Messengers one in the heel of another the sword alwaies bringing famine and the famine producing pestilence so that almost all shall be consumed and scarce ten of an hundred shall be left And as the Spirit of God saith unto Esayas Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not Esay 6.10 Then said the Prophet Lord how long and he answered until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant and the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate So now this distressed England how threatned and how miserable we are though formerly most happy Kingdom is threatned to be scourged in like manner with the worst of wars famines and pestilences Praesentémque viris intendunt o nonia mortem And as the Poet saith all that we do see say we are appointed to be destroyed and destined unto death when as S. Bernard saith Quos fugere scimus ad quos nescimus we know whom we would shun but we scarce know where or to whom we may flee to be safe and secured of our Lives for as Jeremie saith Servants have ruled over us Lam. 5.8 9. and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the Sword of the Wilderness And therefore as our Prophet saith Wailing is in all streets they say in all high-waies Amos 5.16 alas alas and they call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing Esay 34.5 6. 2 Reg. 8.1 Amos 4.10 Yet seeing the sword is the sword of the Lord and it is the Lord that calleth for Famine and the Pestilence is the scourge of God which he sendeth amongst us as our Prophet saith and that God never draweth his sword How God dealeth with his people and throweth away the Scabberd as if he never meant to put it up again never sends a famine but in that famine he can feed the young Ravens that call upon him and satisfie the hungry with good things and never powreth out any plague but that in the greatest infection he can preserve his servants that although a thousand should fall besides them and ten thousand at their right hand Psal 91 7. yet it shall not come nigh them and never sendeth any temptation but if the fault be not our own 1 Cor. 10.13 he doth with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it because he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort to them that fear him as well as the God of Justice to render vengeance to them that offend him hath the suppling Oyl of Mercy as well as the sharp Wine of Justice to powre into the wounds of every penitent sinner therefore our Prophet here joyneth to the Lamentation for Israel an Exhortation to repentance and though he threatneth Death for our sins yet he setteth down an Antidote whereby we might if we would preserve our life and though I confess the Physitians are very useful Physitians how useful and to be honoured as the Scripture speaketh to be sought after especially in the times of sickness and Mortality yet I am sure that neither Hippocrates nor Galen nor all the School of Salerne the whole Colledge of Physitians shall ever be able to prescribe a Potion so precious and so powerful to pâ—eserve your Life as I shall declare unto you for God which is truth it self hath said it Seek the Lord and you shall live wherein I desire you to observe Two parts of the Text. 1. A Precept the best work that you can do Seek the Lord. 2. A Promise the best reward that you can desire And you shall live 1. The Precept twofold 1. In the Precept you may see there are two words and so two parts 1. Seek which is the Act that all men do 2. The Lord which is the Object of our seeking wherein most men fail 1. The word seek doth presuppose that we have lost or be without the Lord and so we have indeed we lost Paradise
Isa 1.23 their chief Lords were rebellious and companions of thieves and their Judges their Sanhedrim and great Council of State afflicted the just as our Prophet saith and took bribes Ver. 12â— Jer 5 5. and turned aside the poor in the gate from their right and what a lamentable thing is this when the poor the fatherless and the widows that are oppressed shall come unto the gods to seek relief and they shall find them like Devils to add sorrows unto their afflictions and to make the remedy far worse than the disease when a man shall spend more in getting his right then his right is worth or when as the Prophet saith the judgement shall be turned into wormwood which is now with us as it was with them the very State of this Kingdom for when His Majesty called a Parliament the highest Court of Justice in our Land I may say of it as the Lord saith of Israel when he looked for grapes it brought forth wild grapes when we expected justice behold we found oppression and wrong yea such oppressions such injustice and such cruelty we found among these Judges and Princes of Israel as cannot be parallel'd among the worst of Pagans so that now indeed they have turned judgement into wormwood which by reason of its exceeding bitterness made the French Proverb Dioscorides l. 3. Apellus in Isagogico Judgment turned to wormwood two waies Fort comme à loyne ou absynte and made the Greek comicks to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is impotable And judgement may be turned into wormewood two special waies Way 1 1. When it is done as it was upon Naboth without any colour of right without any cause and in the highest degree of injustice with the greatest measure of iniquity as when Aristides was banished out of Athens justus quia justus and the Christians were persecuted and murdered only quia Christiani and the Bishops are now hated of many men only because they are Bishops that is enough though we can find none other cause in them worthy of death or of bonds And this is indeed absynthio amarius bitterer than Wormwood and is done by none but by the Sons of Belial Jer. 5.9 And shall I not visit for these things Way 2 2. When it is done as Sulpitius Gallus did with his wife because she walked abroad without her vaile or as the Elder Cato did often deal with offenders and P. Aemilius did with Rutilius inflict a punishment for a just fault but in the highest degree of severity for though sometimes severity may and ought to be used ut multitudinis furores compescantur atrocia flagitia puniantur that the fury of the wild unruly multitude may be refrained and hainous offences as Treasons and Rebellions and the like intolerable sins may by the punishment of some be prevented in others for so we find that whole Towns have been burnt to ashes and famous Cities have been utterly destroyed for the Tumults and rebellions of undutiful and disloyal Citizens yet in oâ—her cases Lib. 19 in fine as M. Cicero saith in Marcellinus when it was in my power either to condemn or to absolve ignoscendi non puniendi quaerebam causas I did rather search out the means to save them then look after the causes to punish them or as Alphonsus being advised by some of his followers ut ne nimium lenis erga suos esset that he should no be too gentle towards his people lest they might bring him into contempt answered more graciously Good men are naturally clement that he was rather to take heed ne nimia severitas conciliet invidiam lest too much severity should beget him hatred so I believe it is the nature of the best men to be least severe as holding it the better course to offend on the safer side and rather mercifully to remit somewhat of the punishment that is due than rigorously to add any thing more than is just because mercy rejoyceth against judgement and it is hardly believed that the son of Severity can be a good child of the God of Clemency because as the Poet saith Sola deos aequat clementia nobis Claud. Excess of severity condemned by God Amos 1.4 5. And the Scripture reproveth the excess of cruelty towards the greatest Enemies of Gods Church For the Lord threatneth to break the bars of Damascus and to send a fire into the house of Hazael and to devour the pallaces of Benhadad and why will the Lord do all this but because they were not satisfied with the subjection of the Gileadites but when they had vanquished them they shewed themselves so merciless that to satisfie their wrath upon them Vers 3. they thrashed them with thrashing instruments of Iron And so the Lord threatneth the Moabites that he would send a fire upon Moab which should devour the Pallaces of Kerioth and Moab should die with tumult Amos 2.2 3. with shouting and with the sound of the Trumpet and he would cut off the Judge from the midst thereof and would slay all the Princes thereof with him And why would the Lord do all this unto the Moabites but because they were not satisfied with the pyls of the Edomites but like merciless wretches triump ng in the miseries of miserable men they were so inraged against them that like bruit beasts which were void of all humanity 2 Reg 3.27 they burnt the bones of the King of Edom into lime for it is not acceptable unto the Lord that any man should insult over his enemies in the day of their destruction not speak proudly in the time of their distress and therefore we must examine quo animo as well as quo supplicio we do punish the greatest transgressours becâ—use God oftentimes is offended with the manner of that punishment whereof in respect of the matter he himself is the author And yet as in judgements and punishments you must qualifie your own Affections to do all without bitterness so you must look to the quality of the offendor for the same censure is not to be imposed nor the same punishment to be inflicted on him that sinneth through infirmity and upon another that opposeth authority and sinneth through obstinacy upon him that is seduced to rebellion and upon the seducers and leaders of the more simple Rebels All sins not alike nor the same sins committed alike for though all sins deserve punishment yet all sins are not alike neither do all commit the same sins alike but some sins are more contracted and more private and others are more publick and more spreading and therefore far more dangerous than the other because such sinners peccant docent peccare and therefore God ordereth his judgements according to the offences sins of infirmity he punisheth with pity and mixeth his punishments with Clemency but upon horrible sins he layeth terrible punishments Micah 5.15 and as he saith in Micah He will execute
visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this Yes saith our Prophet and for these things the Israelites lost the Lord and we may fear he hath left us for the same faults 2. 2. The waies whereby God is lost from us The means or waies by which we depart from God and so lose the Lord are very many I will only name unto you these three whereby Joseph lost our Saviour in Jerusalem And they are 1. Negligent security 2. Ignorant blindness 3. Obstinate opinion 1. Joseph went with Christ into the Temple but through negligence Way 1 to look after him he went homewards without him so the neglect to seek God is the only way to lose God becâ—use as Saint Gregory saith Quem tentationis certamen superare non valuit saepe securitas deterius stravit 2. Joseph knew not that Christ was left behind him and Way 2 so many men know not that they are without the Lord being like the Inhabitants of Egypt that reap the benefits of Nilus but are ignorant of the fountain from whence it springs because they are ignorant of their faith and of their own most desperate condition while they have moâ—e care of the Evidence of their Lands than they have of the assurance of their Salvation Way 3 3. Joseph thought that Christ was gone before with their friends and thereby he was deceived so many men lose the Lord by their false perswasions for Arius thought he found Christ when he denied his Deity Saint Paul thought he did God good service when he persecuted the Saints of God and so many men as those seditious Preachers and Brownists about London and many other parts of this Kingdom do think perhaps they teach the truth of God when as God knoweth they teach the people nothing else but the most desperate and damnable doctrine of devils when they perswade them to resist the ordinance of God Rom. 13. which commandeth every soul to submit it self unto the higher powers and that is the King as Saint Peter testifieth 1 Pet. 2.13 and so by these false thoughts they do uterly lose the true God and shall finally lose themselves unless they do speedily change their minds and therefore as the Emperour Antoninus was wont to say in another case so I say in this ejice opinionem si vis salvus esse cast away such false opinions and believe the truth relie not on your selves nor on your lying Leaders but as our Prophet saith Seek the Lord and you shall live And so much for the causes and the waies by which we lose the Lord. What we ought to do when we have lost God Gen. 2. Now when the Lord is lost the only remedy that we have is to seek him but alas beloved is it in our power to find him or have we any ability to seek him Can the lost sheep find her shepherd or could Adam ever seek after God if God had not sought after him and called him Adam where art thou I must answer like Athanaeus riddle a man and no man with a stone and no stone kill'd a bird and no bird that sate upon a tree and no tree that is an Eunuch with a pummy killed a bat upon a fennel so I say it is and it is not for if you speak of a man unregenerate and as yet destitute of Gods grace he can no more seek for grace than dead Lazarus could raise himself out of his grave because the Apostle affirmeth all to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.2 dead in trespasses and sins and our Saviour saith Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper de lib. arbit and Prosper calleth the grace of God Creatricem bonorum in nobis the Creator of all the good that is in us according to that saying of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his workmanship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created in Christ Jesus and you know that a creation is from nothing But when the Lord hath quickned our dead spirits and mollified our hard hearts then he looketh that we should not be quasi dormientes quasi non volentes as men asleep and negligent of our own good but that we should diligently seek the way and finding the same to walk therein Eph. 2 10â— for this exhortation to seek the Lord and our Saviours invitation to come unto him and the like do sufficiently evince Mat. 11.28 that in all Christians God worketh not sicut in lapidibus insensatis as in senseless stones or in creatures that have no reason as Saint Augustine speaketh but in men that have a freedom of will to follow after those things which do pertain unto salvation Aug in Epist 89. quaest 2. Quia liberum arbitrium non ideo tollitur quia juvatur sed ideo juvatur quia non tollitur because our free-will is not taken away because it is helped but it is therefore helped because it is not taken away as the same St. Augustine speaketh And Fulgentius hath the like saying l. 2. De veritate praedest And therefore seeing the Devil can neither forcibly compel us to any evil nor violently detain us from any good How the devil inticeth us and cannot compel us to sin but only by the proposal of seducing objects and by the subtle obscuring the beauty of the perfect good to allure us unto the one and to withdraw us from the other we ought to arm our selves with a resolution to follow the counsel of the Prophet to Seek the Lord that we might live and not die for Why will you die O ye Inhabitants of England But in this our inquisition and search after God Four things to be considered in our search for God we ought carefully to consider of these four particulars 1. To find out the cause why he left us 2. To go to the place where he resideth 3. To know the time when he may be found 4. To understand the manner how we are to seek him For 1. To know the cause why God left us Psal 147.14 1. God was amongst us as in the holy place of Sinai and then Kings with their Armies did flee and were discomfited and we of his houshold divided the spoyl and then God sent a gracious rain upon his Inheritance and refreshed it when it was weary and poured his benefits upon us he made peace in all our borders and filled us with the flower of wheat and he blessed us so that we were even envied for our happiness Job 19.11 but now he hath forsaken us and hideth his face from us and goeth not forth with our Armies but he hath kindled his wrath against us and counted us as one of his enemies Cap. 6.4 he hath made his arrows drunk in our bloud and his terrours do set themselves in array against us so that now we are a
find out the deepest Mysteries of Gods secrets in his absolute decrees and unsearchable waies of Election and Reprobation and the like but of those lighter heads that bestow their search about things of nothing as the Graecians did beat their brains to find out how many rowers Ulysses ship had and whether the Iliads or the Odysses were first written so we must know whether the ancient Monks wore their Cloaks short like the French or down to the heels like the Spaniards or whether Saint Augustine wore a white garment upon his black cloaths or a black cheimer upon a lawn surplice and a thousand such like points and ceremonies that are like the spiders web which will make no garment for them or like the banquet of a sick mans dream that will not satisfie their hungry souls and are raised up by the Devil to this only end that while we seek after these fruitless things that may hurt us much but avail us little that may best be spared and ought least to be disputed we might leave off to seek the Lord and those things that do necessarily pertain unto salvation But in universalibus later error What it is to seek the Lord general things are often dark and every one saith that he seeks the Lord but that either he mâ—keth darkness his secret place Ver. 14. his pavilion round about him with dark waters and thick clouds to cover him or else dwelleth in the light that no man can attain unto it Psal 37 27. otherwise God forbid that you should imagine saith every man that we do not seek the Lord. Therefore to take away this curtain to unvail this glorious face and to let you see that few of us do seek the Lord whatsoever we say the Prophet tells us plainly that to seek the Lord is to seek good and not evil or as he explaine h it further in the immediate Verse 15. it is to hate the evil and love the good and to establish judgement in the gate and this the Prophet David said long before eschew evil and do good and dwell for evermore Besides God is truth and God is justice therefore you must seek the truth and you must do justice for When truth shall flourish out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven Psa 85.11 12. then the Lord will shew loving kindness he will speak peace unto his people and our Land shall give her increase but while our Land flows with Lies and the father of lies rewards the Liers and spreads them abroad to uphold robberies oppressions and rebellions the Lord will not speak peace unto us because righteousness and peace have kissed each other and therefore though we should be never so desirous of peace and to procure peace be contented it should be done upon unrighteous terms it may be with the ruine of the Church yet it cannot be None can make peace but God Jer. 25.29 Psal 46.9 because it is not in the power of any man no not of the King himself to conclude a peace when God proclaimeth war for as he calleth for a sword upon the Inhabitants of a Land so it is he and he alone that maketh wars to cease in all the world he breaketh the bow and knappeth the spear in sunder and burneth the Chariots in the fire and without him it cannot be done as you may see in Ier. 47.6 And I fear and I pray God it be but my fear that as the wrath of God was never appeased for the innocent bloud of the Gibeonites that Saul most unjustly spilt untill it was revenged by bloud upon the house of Saul so the innocent bloud that hath been spilt in this Kingdom can never be expiated untill an attonement be made by bloud because that without bloud there is no remission that is of bloud unless they do with Manasses wipe away the streams of bloud with the streams of most penitent tears for he that sheddeth mans bloud that is illegally by man shall his bloud be shed that is judiciarily by the Magistrate saith God in the Old Testament and all they that take the sword that is without due authority shall perish by the sword that is by just authority saith our Saviour Christ in the New Testament and therefore if your peace may not be had with truth and according unto Justice gird you with your swords upon your thighs O you mighty men of valour and let the right hand of the most highest teach you terrible things untill as our Prophet speaketh Ver. 24. judgement shall run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream that is smoothly without any manner of opposition as Montanus and Vatablus render it Set God and his truth alwaies before your eyes and labour for that peace which may stand with the peace of Conscience and with your peace with God or otherwise you may purchase a worldly peace at too dear a rate it may be with the loss of your souls when God shall say unto you as he doth unto the Jews Shall not I visit for these things as if he said you indeed for your peace and prosperities sake for fear of danger and in hope of rest may be contented to wink at all these sins that have provoked me to wrath and perhaps to sell my truth and suffer my service to be abused and my servants to be destroyed that you may live in peace but do you think that I am such an one as your selves or that I will suffer all these things to go unrevenged No no saith the Prophet The Lord is known to execute judgement and he will be Judge himself he will kindle the fire and none shall quench it And therefore noble and religious Gentlemen that love your God better than the World and his eternal honour better than your own temporal happiness love peace and ensue it but let it be with the truth and with justice let the story of the worthy Maccabees be set before your eyes that rather than they would change their Religion or suffer the service of God any waies to be impaired and their Ecclesiastical government to be in any thing changed they sold their peace with the loss of their lives which is their everlasting praise and here I do profess I do most heartily wish for peace and would think my self most happy to see peace established as of old but rather than I should see it with the ruine of the Church with a Presbyterian Discipline that new-sprung out-landish weed of mans invention and no plant of Gods plantation I beseech Almighty God that I may beg my bread and seâ—k it in desolate places that my bloud may be poured like water upon the ground and the remainder of my years may be cut off from the Land of the Living so much do I desire to imbrace mine own misery rather than to see the Churches infelicity and the service of God so much vilified And I am confident
that all my brethren the Bishops and Prelates will say with Jonas If we alone be the cause of all this storm and if our persons by any thing that could be done to us could appease these distractions and procure the peace of the Church and State do what you will to us Non multum nos movebit Si propter nos haec tempestas if you see just cause cast us all into the sea so you save the Ship of Christ preserve the Church rent not the garment of Christ devour not the revenues of the Clergy and destroy not the government that was established by the Apostles and continued to Gods glory and the gaining of so many thousand souls to Christ from his being on earth to this very day because the dishonour that must infallibly redound to God and the detriment that must fall to the Church of Christ by the abolishing of Episcopacy troubleth us a great deal more than any loss that can happen unto our selves for did we see the same government with the same power as it ought to be setled on any other persons though our selves were degraded how justly we would leave the censure unto God you should never hear me speak much thereof So you see what it is to seek the Lord not his Essence which is incomprehensible but to do his will and to obey his Commandments which is most acceptable unto him as to love him to pray unto him to rely upon him and to do towards all men that which is just and righteous in his sight What we ought to do to live Or to set down all in a word do as the Lord directs you and you shall live and that is 1. To do your own best endeavours to preserve your lives And yet 2. Refer the preservation of your lives only unto God 1. In the time of peace and prosperity 1. To do our best to preserve our own lives 1. In the time of peace Psal 55.23 the best way for us to preserve our life is to serve God for if you honour your father and mother your daies shall be long in the Land saith the Lord himself and so the keeping of his other Precepts is the preservation of our lives But the bloud-thirsty and deceitful man shall not live out half his daies and so the drunkâ—rd the luxurious and the malicious shall by their sins diminish their years because sin is that sharp Atropos which cutteth off the thread of mans life and the great Epitomiser which abbreviates all things unto us as it wasteth our wealth it destroyeth our health it confineth our liberty it shortneth our daies and to sum all in one Catastrophe it brings us all into our graves Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. when as Trajan said unto Valens it sends victory unto our enemies and destroyeth us sooner than our enemies and therefore as you love your life so you must hate your sin and as the Heathens clipped the wings of victory lest it should fly away from them unto their enemies So we must clip our sins or else victory will fly unto our enemies 2. In the time of dangers wars plagues 2. In the time of dangers or any other distress we are commanded by God to do our best to preserve our lives for it is not enough for us to say the Lord will save us but we must do our best to save our selves So the Mariners that carried Jonas prayed unto their Gods and yet rowed their best to preserve their lives So Jehosaphat Ezechias and Josias when the Armies of their enemies came against them did put their whole trust in Gods assistance and rely upon his help for their deliverance yet they prepared the instruments of War they fortified their Cities and gathered all the strength of men that they could make to withstand the violence of their Foes and we must do the like when we are in the like danger for though the Scripture bids us cast our care upon God yet it bids us not to cast away our care or to be without care but to have a care and the best care that we can take to preserve our lives from the danger of the enemy to raise men and money and as Solomon saith 2. To rely wholly upon God to prepare the horse for the day of battel And then 2. When the horse is prepâ—red and we have endeavoured our best we must refer our lives only unto God it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but as the Prophet saith salvation belongeth unto the Lord for it is he that giveth victory in the battel and it is he that saveth our life from destruction for as his help will not preserve us without our care so all our care cannot save us without his help but when both these go together then we may be sure that our care and indeavour with his favour and assistance will so preserve us that we shall live Therefore when we lose and are put to the worst we should not be dejected which is the fault of too many of us but we should say with King David I will yet trust in God which is the help of my countenance and my God and when we gain and get the better of our enemies we should not be puffed up with pride and diminish the praise of God who gave us the better which is the fault of as many more that ascribe too much unto themselves and too little to Gods goodness but as the Poet saith of Pompey so much more should we say that are Christians Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt Or as Menivensis saith of King Alfred Si modo victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modo victus erat ad crastina bella parabat So should we do in all fortunes go on eodem vultus tenori and in all our actions rely on God and refer our selves wholly unto him and doing so we shall be sure to live 1. Because he hath promised us that if we thus seek him according to his will we shall live according as we desire and he is not as man that he should lye nor as the Son of man that he should change his mind but he is Yea and Amen he is truth it self and therefore sicut verus est in retributione malorum ita verà x est in promissione bonorum as he is most certain in the punishment of the wicked so he is as certain in his promise to the godly Reason 2 2. Because he is willing to save us and therefore cryeth unto us Why will ye dye why will ye dye O ye house of Israel For as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner and it is worth our observation to consider how pathetically and how feelingly he speaketh to this purpose Psal 81.14 15 16. O that my people would have hearkened unto me for if Israel had walked in my waies I should
soon have put down their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries the haters of the Lord should have been found lyars but their time should have endured for ever 3. Because he is able both to performe his promise and to satisfie Reason 3 our desires which our Prophet sheweth at large saying Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion Ver. 8. and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night that calleth for the waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth that is as St. Hieron sheweth Fortificare debiles seek him that is the Creator of all things that is mighty to save and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth to strengthen the spoyled Ver. 9. as Vatab. and Arias say or as Aquila turns it subridere potentiam potentium to scorn the strength of the mighty and to destroy the destroyer And therefore if God be with us though we be weak and our enemies strong we few and they many yet we need not fear them because we rely not upon our own strength but upon the assistance of our God qui dividit contritionem super fortitudinem which casteth abundance of destructions upon the mighty as the Septuagint render the words of the Prophet and though we be simple and our enemies subtle and crafty full of all politique devices to raise men and to get money and to unite their strength by wicked Covenants Oaths and Associations yet we need not fear because we relye not upon our own wit but upon the wisdom of God which can destroy the wisdom of the wise 1 Cor. 1.19 and cast away the understanding of the prudent and turn the counsel of Achitophel to his own destruction Prov. 21.30 non est concilium contra eum and therefore O my beloved Brethren seek the Lord and fear not but as Moses saith stand still that is Exod. 14.13 constant in your resolution for the service of your God and the King and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will shew unto you this day or at this time 1 Sam. 14.6 2 Chro. 14.11 For there is no restraint unto the Lord to save by many or by few as both Jonathan and Asa testifie 2. The promise 2. The promise as I told you at first is the best of all desires you shall live the former part was like the toylsome labour of the Inhabitants of Persepolis when they cut the wood with their axes but this latter is like the feast that Cyrus made unto them Justia l. 1. hist when they had finished their Labours durus labor sed merces dulcis though the labour is hard yet the reward is sweet and it never troubles us to take great pains where we shall be well paid but to labour all night with the Apostles and to catch nothing How ill some masters reward their servants durus est hic sermo this is a hard saying after a hard labour but it is not so in Gods service for though in following the lusts of the flesh and the vanities of this World excessit medicina modum the reward that the Devil gives us shall be a great deal sorer than all the pain we have taken in his service for he deals with uâ— Val. Max. l. 9. c. 3. Curtius hist l. 3. as Alexander did with Clitus Calisthenes and other of his chiefest Captains or as Darius did with Eudemus to expose him unto death when he forsook his own native Country and deâ—icated his whole life to his command yet in the service of Christ it is far otherwise whatsoever a man doth for him he shall be rewarded a hundred fold How abundantly Christ rewardeth his servants and though he gives but a cup of cold water for his sake yet for this he shall not lose his reward And therefore this should incourage us to seek the Lord because our reward doth so far exceed our work Mat. 10.42 But let us consider the nature of this promise thou shalt live that is live long live well and live for ever For 1. The seekers of God shall live long Psal 37.2 1. Though the bloud-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies and the ungodly shall be soon cut down like the grass gemit sub pondere tellus when the earth is weary to bear them on it yet if we seek the Lord our daies shall be long in the Land which the Lord our God given us and though the pestilence that walketh in darkness Psal 91.6 and the arrow that flyeth in the noon day do threaten our death at every hour yet when a thousand shall fall besides us and ten thousand on our right hand it shall not come nigh us such is the reward of serving God 2. They shall live well Isa 3.10 2. They shall not only live for a miserable life is not so good as a happy death but they shall live well and happily while they live for surely it shall go well with the righteous saith the Prophet and King David saith the Lions may want and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and the reason is rendred by the Apostle Psal 34.10 because godliness hath the promise both of this life and of the life to come And 1 Tim. 4.8 3. They shall live for ever Psal 37.27 3. If we eschew evil and do good we shall live for evermore gloriosum imperium sine fine dabit and God will give us a Kingdom without ending And therefore seeing this promise is so plentiful it is worth our labour that we should seek the Lord. Object But here it may be some will demand how doth he performe his promise for did not the Prophets the Apostles and all the Martyrs of the Primitive Church seek the Lord and believe in Christ with all their hearts and yet was not Zachary stoned in the Courts of the house of the Lord Micheas killed by Joram Amos knockt in the head with a club Isaiah sawed in pieces by Manasses John Baptist beheaded How they that sought the Lord were used in this world St. Stephen stoned James killed St. Paul beheaded St. Peter crucified St. Thomas killed with a Javelin St. Mark burned and what shall I say of Simeon Polycarpus Justinus Attalus Marcella Apollonia and abundance more of holy Saints Alii ferro perempti alii patibulo cruciati Euseb Ec. hist whereof alii flammis exusti some were burned others beheaded and all deprived of their life for seeking the Lord and confessing Christ And for any happy life the servants of God do lead doth not St. Paul say that all which will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and afflictions do wait for them in every place 2 Tim. 3.12 Acts 20.23 Psal 37.36 Luke 16. and when the ungodly flourish like
Majesty herein doing more then I desired And when I was very willing to have given 5 l. in Gold for Sir Henry Bennets Fee that most Courteous Gentleman Mr. Quod-dolphin said I should not pay one penny but Sir Henry would lay that upon the Church and my Lord of Canterburies score So fairly and so friendly was I used at his Majesties Court The Lord bless them and reward them for it and grant them alwaies the like Favour a I found with them And when I came with his Majesties Reference to my Lord Duke of Ormond I found his Grace as honourable and very gracious in his Answer and Direction to me but when his Grace referred the Petition that I drew to his Grace to do as his Majesty directed and his Majesties Reference to the Council-Table I must acknowledge that I feared the success and so it happened according to my fear for when I was called before the Council his Grace said he was no Lawyer but he left the Matter to them to inform me what was to be done according to Law and my Lord Chancellour said that both my self in my Relation and my Lawyers and Counsel confest that the Judges did act and their Proceedings were according to Law and therefore I must even begin again and it was my best course to proceed according to Law and I answered if all this in my Proceedings were Law I pray God send us a better Law for I shewed the whole Proceedings to his Majesty and to divers of the Judges of England and they said this was a fair proceeding indeed to set up a man of straw and then shoot at him to bring a false Indictment to the Court and then quash it for I proved it in the open Court by the Confession of the Clerke of the Peace that brought the true Indictment with him to the Court and acknowledged that the other was falsified either by the Clerke that he trusted to write it or by some other he knew not who that the Indictment brought to the Court was not the true Indictment that was found by the Jury and so without any more words my Lords Grace seemed to me very graciously to smile and so I was dismist But I fear that the favour which Sir Geo. Ayskue finds in every place against me may produce no good effect And then I called to mind the cause that moved me to fear the success I should have at the Council-Table not Injustice that I mean not I know that they are just but that the Justice I should have would not be to my advantage and the favour that I desired For when I still indâ—ed the forcible Enterers and still proceeded against Sir George Ayskues Tenants he preferred a Petition to the Council-Table about this Lordship of Bishops Court and I hearing of it conceived that before any thing should be done thereupon I should have the favour to be made acquainted with the same Petition that I might answer it but I could hear nothing of it until a little while after some of the Bishops by reason of the power to my L. Lieutenant and Counsel given by the last Proviso in the Act of settlement fearing that they would alter and retrench some of his Majesties Favours and Additionals granted unto them by the said Act petitioned that they would not do so but leave all things that concerned the Bishops statu quo as they are expressed in the Act without Alteration or retrenchment and my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel granted their Petition but with this only Proviso that Sir George Ayskues right might be preserved that is as I conceive against all the Bishops for that none is named and this Proviso of all the men in Ireland is but only for Sir George Ayskue and of all the Bishops in Ireland it seems by all likelihood only prejudicial to the Bishop of Ossory Which notwithstanding if the last Proviso in the Act of Settlement be well understood and rightly followed can be no prejudice to him at all as I conceive it for that the Power given to my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel by that Proviso is as I understand it a power to alter and retrench any thing in part or in whole which they shall find either contrary to his Majesties Declaration or inconsistent with Which are the very words in the Proviso or to the general settlement of the Kingdom and I conceive that the suffering of the Bishop of Ossory to enjoy his own House and Lands where the Bishops used to live and reside cannot be contrary to his Majesties Declaration not inconsistent with the general settlement of the Kingdom And therefore I humbly conceive that my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel have no power by that Proviso granted unto them to take away his Majesties Grant and Favour to the Bishop of Ossory and to settle the same upon Sir George Ayskue especially if his Majesty was deceived in his Grant to Sir George Ayskue as I verily believe he was for his Majesty grants him the Lands setled upon him for his Service in Ireland and I have searched and examined the Matter as much as ever I could and yet could never find nor understand what Service he had done in Ireland that deserved to carry away the House and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory or indeed of any Service that he did in Ireland at all either for King or Parliament And if for all this he carries the Bishops House away I will sing Mopso Nisa datur and seeing how many of the Bishops Houses and Lands that were by an Order of the House of Lords delivered to my possession by the Sheriffe of the County and were peaceably in my Tenants possession and paid me Rent ever since his Majesties happy coming in were given away while I was in London Petitioning about this Cause and could not be at Dublin to answer them that sued for them nor dreamed of any Suites against me and being not able in mine old Age especially seeing what Pains Charge and Success I have hitherto had with Sir Geo. Ayskue to follow so many Suits against so many men so powerful as they are in the Courts of Justice at the Council-Table and in all places I will like Balaams Asse so unjustly beaten lie down under my burden too heavy for me to bear and call and cry to God to arise and maintain his own Cause and the Cause of his own Son Jesus Christ Yet in this Suit betwixt me and Sir Geo. Ayskue because I have taken so much paines and spent so much Money and specially because I do hate and abhor that any man * I mean not Sir G. Ayskue but whosoever he be which hath fought under the Standard of the Beast and Long Parliament against that Most Pious King and my Most Gracious Master Charles the First should carry away the Houses and Lands that Religious Princes have dedicated for the Honoâ—r and Service of Jesus Christ for the Reward of that wickedness
I resolved once more to enter into the List to follow my alwaies very honourable Friend my Lord Chancellours Advice and try the Success with him by the Verdict of an honest Jury and Lindired 6 of the Tenants and Servants of Sir Geo. Ayskue for a forcible Entry and 5 of them now the third time and I had six Counsellours help to draw and compose the Indictment and so to review it and correct it if any thing was amiss therein that being found Billa Vera by the Jury it might so stand good and not be quashed as my two former Indictments were by the Judges of the Kings Bench. And the 6 forcible Enterers being indited for fear lest the Record should be falsified and corrupted as the former indirement of them had been I got the Clerke of the Peace to send it inclosed in a Letter sealed up by my man to his Agent in Dublin to be â—elivered into the Office which mine Adversaries presently told to my Lord of Santree and was objected as a Piaculum Meaning as I conceived by the Relation that I had printed of the former Proceedings and when the Record came to the Court my Lord Chief Justice said upon the Bench that my Lord Bishop had abused the Court to whom I replied that I had not abused the Court for that I had set down nothing but the Truth and was as Ioah as any man to offer the least Abuse to any of his Majesties Courts or Judges of his Courts And after my Lord Chief Justice and my self had conferred together I found him my very honourable Friend and I retained three of the Kings Counsel to follow the said Cause for his Majesty and the Counsellours of the Fanaticks failing to quash the Indictment my Lord Chief Justice told them they must either submit or be bound to prosecute their Traverse and they became bound in 200 l. to prosecute the same upon the 10th day of Easter Term which was the sixth day of May. And when upon that day the Jury were sworn That their children and their childrens children may understand from what I will not say Canaanites but Catharisâ—s they are sprung Who and what my Witnesses proved viz. William Baker of Ballytobin John Pursel of Lismore William Baxter of Earlstown Isaac Jackson of Kâ—lamery John Jones of Ri _____ Robert Hawford of Ballyneboly Nicholas Pharoe Thomas Tomlins of Lismoteag Chrystopher Render of Fadenarah John Nixon of Brawnebarn William Cheshire of _____ and Thomas Huswife of Gowran good men and true or neither good men nor true 1. I brought in evidence Mr. Sheriff Reigly who was the Sheriff that gave me possession and Mr. Connel and Hugh Linon that was thought needless to prove my possession given by the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords of this Lordship of Bish Court the Lands thereto belonging and of the Tenements in Freshfoord as it was expressed in a Shedule annexed to the Order of the Lords upon the 29th day of April 1662. and that the Tenants did atturne Tenants and gave pieces of money in earnest of their rents and promised to keep the possession and to continue Tenants unto me during my pleasure 2. Mr. Thomas Bulkley Mr. William Williams Thomas Davies and my self proved the multitude of persons to the number of ten or twelve that upon the 8th day of October 1662. were entred into the said Bishops Court and there forcibly kept the possession against the Bishop and some one with a sword by his side and a staff or Cane in his hand and another with a long staff in his hand threatned that they would make him repent his doings and coming there and that Sir George Ayskue would spend 500 li. before he would leese this Bishops Court and that Captain Burges said he would keep and uphold the possession for Sir George Ayskue with his life and fortune and others having shut the Iron Grate to hinder the Bishop to go out or his Servants to come in when his Servants demanded what they meant to murder their Lord And desired to come in to wait upon their Master they threatned them and said that if they offered to come in there they would beat them down and knock out their Brains 3. Mr. Richard Marshal Mr. George Farre Mr. John Murphey and Ed. Dalton that proved how he was thrust out of the house by head and shoulders proved the forcible entry with arms and weapons a Gun and a Pike and Staves into some of the Tenements in Freshford and that for nine daies they kept the same with such a company of Fanaticks Anabaptists and other Sectaries that they seemed rather to be a Garrison than the keeping of the possession of any house And after nine daies they bound George Farre and others in a bond of a thousand pounds that they should continue true Tenants to Sir George Ayskue and keep the possession for him against the Bishop of Ossory And because the said George Farre proved this point so fully and so plain that nothing could be said against it one of the Fanaticks Counsellours said what I conceive was very unfit to be spoken in so publick a place and before such honourable Judges of any of the Kings Witnesses that this man the principal of the Witnesses was a parricide which I dare justifie to be most untrue 4. For impounding the Cattle and beating and wounding them that sought to hinder it the said George Farre proved the same so fully and that one of the women that was beaten lay long sick after her beating that Sir Audley Mervin and Serjeant Gruffith would not suffer three other Witnesses that I had there at the Bar that is John Duran Barbara Marshal and another Wench to be sworn and examined and so to trouble the Court any further because said they you see the Lords Justices and the whole Court are sufficiently satisfied that I had more than abundantly proved the forcible entry and detaining of this Bishops Court but they gave way to six of the Intruders Counsel to say what they could for their Clients And when each one of them had made his Oration and spent much time and my Lord Chief Justice heard them with a great deal of patience to prove what I never denied but was ready to confess all that they said touching the large Writings and Evidences that they produced to prove the Title and Interest of Mr. Robert Shea to this Bishops Court which at this time when the question was only of the forcible entry I had no reason to contradict and which perhaps might be good and perhaps not before he forfeited the same unto his Majesty But for Sir George Ayskue that for his Service How S. George Ayskue came to have this Bishops Court. you know to whom which makes me believe it will never prosper with him had a Commission from the Usurper Crummel that for 200 li. which was due unto him for
aide and free will offering to do the same they were ready and so willing every man beyond his power to bring in their oblation in such abundance that Moses was fain to tell them they had brought enough and too much and therefore forbade them to bring in any more he like a good man and just being not desirous to make any gain of their bounty And you may read in 1 Chron. 29.3 1 Chron. 29.3 when King David resolved to have the Temple built what great provision he left for the erecting of it and how Solomon his Son did most gloriously finish the same in seven years 1 Reg. 6.37 and furnished the same with all things necessary for the service of God and after that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it the Jews under Zorobabel did most readily beyond the ability of captived men newly released contribute and offered their free-will offerings towards the re-edifying of the same which they finished in the ninth year of Dâ—rius Histaspes Joseph lib. 11. c. 4. that made it to be forty six years in building from the second year of Cyrus who began it according as the Jews say to our Saviour Christ And because these newly released Jews that had scarce taken root in the Land of Jury and were but scarce seated and unsetled in Jerusalem were not able to make this their Temple answerable in glory and sumptuousness to that most rare and admirable Temple which those two mighty Kings and Kings of all Israel David and Solomon had joyned their wealth and strength together to make it a most glorious house for the most glorious and Almighty God therefore Herod that was but an alien an Idumean knowing that great and glorious things are to be offered ascribed and dedicated to the great and glorious God re-edified and finished the same most sumptuously in eight years Joseph l. 15. c. ult as Josephus writeth and he built the same so exceeding excellent and more admirable than the Egyptian Pyramides that Cheops builded of rare Theban Marble so that for the rareness thereof the Disciples shew it our Saviour Christ saying Master see what manner of stones Mar. 13.1 and what buildings are here And the Jews generally were so zealous of Gods service and so ready to build and erect houses for his service that besides this glorious great and magnificent Temple they had many Synagogues that is other lesser houses like unto our Parish Churches dedicated and consecrated for the worship of God and he was counted a very good man and worthy of all love and respect that had built one of these as they tell Christ that the Centurion was worthy to have that favour shewed him by Christ as to heal his Daughter Luk. 7.5 because he had loved their nation and had built them a Synagogue that is a house for the people to meet in it to pray and to serve their God in it And it is most likely they began to build these Synagogues when the Tribes were setled in the Land of Canaan because the Ark that remained in Shilo and afterwards the Temple that was erected in Jerusalem Why the Synagogues of the Jews were built were so far distant from them that dwell in the remotest parts of the Land that they could not come so often as they would unto it therefore they built to themselves Synagogues to pray to God and to serve him in them instead of the Temple for so we read that Moses of old time probable I say from their very first beginning of their settlement Acts 15.21 had in every City them that preached him being read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day where by the way you may observe that of old time contrary to the conceit of our new Fanaticks the reading of the holy Scriptures was accounted the preaching of Gods word though I deny not but after it be read and so preached Luk. 4.18 it may be further explained as Christ did that place of Isa 61.1 And you see they had these Synagogues in every City so they must have as many Synagogues as there were Cities in all their Land The number of their Synagogues and Sigonius writeth that there were four hundred and eighty of these Synagogues in Jerusalem and the Scripture sheweth that in other Cities and Provinces there were many other Synagogues as in Galile in Damascus in Salamis and in Antiochia and Maymonides one of their prime Doctors saith the tradition of their Elders was that wheresoever ten Families of Israel were they ought to build them a Synagogue And shall the Jews that were under the Law and burdened with such infinite Taxes and Ceremonies of their Religion as were more than they were able to bear Acts 15.10 as the Apostle testifieth be so zealous so religious and so ready to part with their wealth and the best things they had to build so sumptuous and so glorious a Temple and so many Synagogues to perform those services that God required of them which notwithstanding were but the types and shadows of that true Religion which we have and do profess to embrace it and shall we that have the substance of those shadows which they had and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which they never had but in aenigmate preached so clearly and so amply among us and are freed from all the legal Ceremonies and Ordinances of the Law be so cold and so careless as we are to repair the houses of Jesusr Christ I fear then that these Jews shall rise in judgment against us Nay more than this if you look into the stories of the Gentiles Grecians or Barbarians that knew not God but knew that there is a God which all men ought to worship you shall find how zealous they were to build Temples and Oracles to their unknown Gods that were no other than the devils as the Oracle of Delphos Amphiaraus Hamonium Dodonaeum the Temple of Diana at Ephesus of Vesta Ceres Minerva and other Goddesses of the Gentiles and the many many Temples that the Romans and other Nations built to Jupiter Apollo Mars and the rest of their false and faigned Gods and Goddesses that were indeed but very devils Quia dii gentum daemoâ—ia and how sumptuously they erected and gloriously adorned and beautified those houses of these deceitful Oracles and were so exceeding bountiful almost beyond belief in their oblations and donations to these holy places as they deemed them as it appeareth in Herodotus Herodotus l. 1. by the large gifts of inestimable value that Cresus sent to the Temple of Delphos and other Temples of those Gentile gods And because they knew no otherwise but that these infernal devils were Celestial Gods and so worshipped them as gods with Temples Altars Sacrifices Prayers and Oblations dedicated unto them which do only and properly belong to the true and eternal God therefore Horace saith to them that neglected the erecting and beautifying of these
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other