Iosue sha and hang them vp vpon siue trees vntill the Euening Abraham Iosue al that feare God must set themselues agaynst idolaters Gods enemies In like maner if we bee liuely members vnder our head Christ Iesus let vs not onely haue a care but the same care with them Wherefore it is most honorably done of her Maiestie while the Pope and Spaniard and all the Leaguers bend themselues against our neighbour king because he hath set himselfe to seeke the Lord and to aduaunce his trueth to assist that Iosue and we as members are to pray that the Lord may abate the edge of the enemies sword and graunt him victorie in the daie of battell In the first of Iudges Iudah sayd vnto Simeon his brother Goe vp with mee into my lot that wee may fight against the Chananites and I will goe vp with thee into thy lot also as if hee should confesse themselues being seuered to bee vnable to match the Chananites but if either would take care of other eyther helpe other in his lot that then there were hope of happy victorie O that those things might take deepe roote in our hearts that Iudah would helpe Simeon in his lot and Simeon helpe Iudah in his lot if Christian princes abroad and wee as brethren at home would helpe one another wee should with ease ere this haue subdued all the Chananites If ye of the laitie would fauour the ministerie If we of the ministerie would painfully preach to and pray for you of the laitie If we would helpe you in your lot and you helpe vs in our lot surely Gods glory would be much more promoted and our comfort on both sides farre the greater where this care taketh place all things prosper It is truly said of him Concordia res paruae crescunt discordia maximae dilabuntur by concord small things increase by discord the greatest are soone wasted Seneca reporteth in an epistle of his that M. Agrippa a famous man was woont to say that hee did owe much to this sentence Hac se aiebat fratrem amicum optimū factum for that hereby he said he was made the best brother and the best friend If an heathen learned thus much by the light of nature and humane philosophie what ought wee to say who haue bene taught as the trueth is and haue tasted how sweete the Lord Iesus is This may teach vs as the Apostle saith one to support and helpe another one to edifie and build vp another if it be possible and as much as lieth in vs to haue peace with all men one to beare anothers burdens that so we may fulfill the law of Christ S. Augustine in his booke of 83. questions and in the 71. questiō expounding these words Beare one anothers burden citeth out of Plinie a storie of the Hartes which when they passe ouer the sea to any Island to pasture doe on this sort order themselues that they beare the burthen of their heads by reason of the weight of their hornes one vpon anothers backe so as euery one that commeth behinde doeth thrust out his necke and laie his head on him that goeth before and because hee that leadeth the rest hath none vpon whom hee may rest his head Vicibus id agere dicuntur c. they are said to do it by courses so as that he being wearied with the weight of his hornes doeth cast about and commeth after all into his place the next succeedeth whose head he did beare when hee led so one bearing anothers burthen they passe the sea vntill they come to firme land If nature haue thus taught wild beasts what ought not naturall men or philosophers but Christians who haue after another sort learned Christ to doe If Harts doe so agree and so one support and beare anothers burthen and that in the middest of the sea among the raging waues if there one forsake not another but all alike the greatest as well as the least yeeld to those mutuall seruices and that onely for a litle pasture sake what ought we to doe who floting in this sea of miseries yet looke for a citie hauing a foundation for better foode the ioyes prepared for the iust in the land of the liuing Thus it succeedeth euery where not onely among Christians and naturall men but euen among the beasts of the field while there is a common care one for another I might here take iust occasion to speake against ciuill dissention where none careth for other but euery one seeketh to destroy and supplant another While the two eyes of Greece Athens and Lacedemon were either agaynst other neither caring for other they both felt the smart and Greece became a praie to the enemie While Hanno and Hanibal enuied either other neither caring for the good estate of Carthage Carthage came to her confusion While the two brethren Etheocles and Polinices contended about the kingdome of Thebes neither regarding the one the other nor the good state of the kingdome they both lost themselues and that they fought for While Aristobulus and Hircanus contended for the kingdome of Hierusalem forgetting that they were brethten or that it was the holy citie or that there was the holy temple the temple of the Lord Hierusalem is made a praie to the Romans power Iosephus reporteth that not the famine within which was such that Marie the daughter of Eleazar did eate her owne child nor the sword without did so much harme to them and good to the enemies as the contentiō of the brethren the mutinie of the multitude It is notablie sayd of Plutarch In praeceptis politicis Nullum in medio reliquit fortuna certaminis praemium There is an excellent storie in Liuie lib. 1. decad 1. to this purpose woorth the marking There was between the Romans and the Albans deadly fued such as no way might bee ended but by dint of sword on both sides great preparation and whē both armies had now as it were pitched the field and set their battell in order and were now not farre distant the one from the other euen readie to ioyne battell and to encounter together whereof was sure to follow much bloodshed that might threaten the ruine of both kingdoms Metius Suffetius generall of the Albanes goeth to king Tullus to whom he speaketh on this wise Let Tullus king of Romans vnderstand thus much that the Hetrurians a people mightie by sea and land enuie vs both and onely looke while wee spoyle one another Vt nobis bello exhaustis Roma Alba potiantur that when we shall haue dispatched one another they may make a praie of Rome and Alba. Let vs therefore thinke of some other way that so great a slaughter may not happen to both nations Tullus receiueth the condicion and by chance there were in either armie three brethren three of Rome three of Alba three Horatians three Curiatians neither vnlike in age or abilitie The condition is that these three of either side
A SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLES CROSSE THE IX OF NOVEMBER 1589. By WILLIAM IAMES D. of Diuinitie and Deane of Christes-church in Oxford 1. Ioan. 4. Ne cuiuis spiritui credatis sed probate spiritus an ex Deo sint Queniam multi pseudoprophetae exierunt in mundum Beleeue not euery spirit but prooue the spirits whether they are of God or not For many false prophets are gone out into the world Iacob 1. Si quis videtur religiosus esse inter vos qui non frenat linguam suam sed aberrare sinit cor suum huius vana est religio If any man among you seemeth religious and refraineth not his tongue but deceiueth his owne heart this mans religion is in vayne Hieron ad Pammachium Foelices inquit Faebius essent artes side ijs soli artifices iudicarent Happy saith Fabius were the Arts if they onely who are skilfull in them might iudge of them IMPRINTED AT LONDON by GEORGE BISHOP and RALPH NEWBERIE 1590. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY ESPECIALL GOOD LORD AND MASTER Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON lord Chancellour of England Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and Chancellour of the Vniuersitie of Oxford c. IT pleased your good Lordship to require a Copie of my sermon which I preached lately at Paules crosse which albeit I had denied to my lord of London diuers others before yet seeing it pleased your good lordship at your leasure to vouchsafe the reading of it I haue now at my returne hither put it downe as neere as I could and I thinke almost verbatim as I vttred it VVherein as my chief purpose was to asswage if it might bee and for my small measure I endeuoured it the contentions stirred vp amongst vs so haue I not kept backe my opinion nay my conscience touching the man that troubleth vs and the matter by him entended VVherein I protest before God that as I flattered not the Church gouernment of I owe to no bishop therein for any benefite receiued any thing farther then dutie and good will so if it had bene my last speach that euer I should haue had euen for the dutie I owe to Gods Church either this or what so euer God should haue giuen to this sence should haue bene sayd I am sory and it grieueth mee to see the heapes of Nouelties that in her Maiesties most gracious raigne and in so plentifull a light of the Gospell our inconstant Islanders haue brought into the world It argueth that the enuious man sleepeth not but hath sowed tares and that they fructifie and laboureth by all meanes by sea and land to make Proselites There was a time when a learned ministerie a thing much to be desired as also your Lordships great care in bestowing the liuings in your gift and the regard which they haue whom your Lordship putteth in trust by preferring learned men and Graduates of the Vniuersities doeth testifie to all the world that your Lordship doeth seeke the like was by the wisest and most zealous thought sufficient But if our brethren in zeale thinke that this can not be done but by extinguishing the ancient names and functions of Bishops in the Church a calling begunne and continued from the Apostles time vnto this day and ouerturning the estate established I will say with the Apostle zelum habent sed non secundùm scientiam It is no way to bread a learned ministerie either to pull downe the reward that should encourage them or the meanes to maintaine them when they are bred If any Bishops haue transgressed in their callings especially in admitting of insufficient Ministers as it must be confessed they haue done be it that he were an eie though blind in this that is a chiefe one or but a hand or a foote that is of a lower place surely it is ill physicke for this bleard eye or for this sore hand or foote to choppe off the head or kill the body It is hard that nothing can please these men vnlesse the Church possessions in deede their mothers bowels be pulled out and the cause why they begin with vs is this they must first haue a footing somewhere and here they see the hedge is lowest It is pitifull to see howe to this purpose in many places of this land he is thought the onely zealous learned and godly preacher that can finde most faults pretend most wants neuer giuing God once thankes for the aboundance of his blessings vpon this Church and nation which for these 32. yeeres hath bene yea euen at this day is a nurse nay rather a mother to all the Churches almost in all Christendome And whereas we ought to teach repentance amendement of life faith to God obedience to superiors and charitie one to another to rebuke pride couetousnes wantonnes newfanglednes slaunderings backbitings and the like if none of these be once named but our spirituall Pastors torne and traduced our owne vices not once touched but the Church and Church-men paid home then is he in many mens iudgements a zealous man a childe of God neuer man spake on this wise In this simple sermon I did cast in my mite if it perswaded I haue my hearts desire and God I trust hath the glory if it but a litle staied any but to make a pause some Apollos may water it and some others may build vpon it If it offended I knowe the trueth doth not alwaies purchase friendes and that nulla medicamenta tam faciunt dolorem quà m quę sunt salutaria Surely as my meaning was not to sowe pillowes vnder any mans elbowes so was it not to grieue any or to be contentious For my owne part Liberaui animam meam This I here haue sent submitting it and my selfe wholly to your Lordships good pleasure humbly beseeching Almightie God to guide your Lordship to the glory of his name the good of his Church and Common wealth and of this Vniuersitie not the meanest member thereof From Christes-Church in Oxford the 17. of December 1589. Your Lordships Chaplaine humbly in the Lord to be commanded W. IAMES 1. Cor. 12. 25 Least there should be any diuision in the body but that the members should haue the same care one for another 26 Therefore if one member suffer all suffer with it if one member be had in honour all the members reioyce with it 27 Now yee are the body of Christ and members for your part THe Apostle S. Paul hauing planted a church at Corinth and now labouring with the glad tidings of the Gospel to lightē the hearts of the Philippians or as some thinke the Ephesians who sate in darkenesse and shadow of death absent from Corinth in bodie though present in spirite in the meane time it is not credible what tares the enuious man sowed in the Lordes field among the Lordes wheate neither how many rauening wolues entred not sparing the flocke Hence there arose in their religion in some Apostasie and falling from God starting a side like a broken
them to reade wanton comedies and to sing filthie rimes and peraduenture such as they maintaine with the Church reuenewes Eli the Priest was himselfe an holie man but because he brought not vp his children in discipline with due correction he fell backward and brake his necke And a litle after in the same place If the Apostle require of the Ephesians of Laye men and of such as were conuersant in the affaires of the world to bring vp their children in discipline and in the feare of the Lorde what may wee thinke he requireth at the Bishops and Priestes hands of whome he writeth to Timothie that their children must be brought vp in obedience and all honestie and repeating the same to Titus he saith A Bishops children must be faithfull not riotous not disobedient and as though the childrens offences were to be imputed to their fathers he addeth coniunctionem causalem a coniunction causall oportetenim Episcopum c. For it behoueth a Bishop to be without crime as the steward of God and concludeth thus Non est ergo sine crimine Episcopus cuius filius non fuerit subditus aut in accusatione luxuriae The Bishop therefore is not without fault whose sonne is either disobedient or dissolute Be it that some such there are that feede themselues and not the flocke some wicked irreligious accompting gaine godlines that haue made the house of God a denne of theeues that are but spots in our feastes yet the Lord be praised the Lord hath his that watch ouer Sion day and night that weepe for her that pray for her that preferre Hierusalem in all their mirth that goe in and out before Gods people that giue due foode in due season that care for the soules committed to their charge as men that must giue a strict accompt to the searcher of hearts and reines This land had some times euil Iudges and Iusticers that turned iudgement into wormewood and iustice into gall There was at Rome a proude Tarquine for their king yea this nation hath had tyrants what then Liuie saith of Rome regale ius non regni sedregis vitijs ademptumest the kinglie power was not taken away for the fault of the kingdome the manner of gouernment but for the kings faults Tertullian de praescriptione aduersus haereticos Quidergo si Episcopus c. What then if a Bishop if a Deacon if a widowe if a virgine if a Doctor if a Martyr fall from the faith shall heresies seeme to haue the victorie ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas Doe we approoue the faith by the persons or the persons by the faith let them flie away chaffe of light faith with euery blast of tentation the Lordes corne shal be put vp farre the cleaner into the Lordes garner Iudas the Treasurer became a traitor Philetus and Hermogenes Phigellus and Hymeneus forsooke Saint Paule S. Augustine saith well in Psal 131. Nonperijt fraternitas propter eos qui profitentur quod non sunt the brotherhood perisheth not for them that professe that which they are not Chrysostom hom 4. de verbis Esaiae Vidi Dominum QuuÌ„ videris Sacerdotem indignum ne traducas sacerdotium Iudas proditor fuit verùm ob id non accusatur ordo Apostolicus nec crimen est sacerdotij sedanimi When thou shalt see an vnworthie Priest accuse not his calling Iudas was a traitor yet was it not the fault of the Apostles order it is the fault of his minde not of his ministerie As water that runneth through a woodden or a leaden pipe neither washeth away the furrednes of the pipe nor defileth it selfe but watereth the garden whither it goeth and maketh it fruitfull and as the Sunne beames shine through many lothsome places and yet neither can purge the place nor the place pollute them euen so the word of God may be fruitfull to others when it is fruitlesse in him that teacheth others it may be a whetstone to giue an edge or a trumpet to stirre vp when yet we may be as dull as stones as heauie as lead and therefore the Apostle praieth that when he hath taught others he may not him selfe be found blame worthie Good corne is not the woorse for a patched sacke nor bad wine the better for a golden cuppe No man refuseth golde for the drosse that is mixed with it nor roses for the thornes that growe among them What if Saule be among the Prophets What if Iudas be among the Apostles If the like measure might be vsed against any estates against the nobilitie of this land the iudges gentlemen and you the Citizens of this citie for the pretended faultes of some fewe to ouerturne the state of all who might promise him selfe one howers securitie and we are some part of the bodie But I doubt not but as England hath heretofore had many notable men most worthie martyrs whom not England onely but all Europe doth for many excellent giftes of God admire so I doubt not but at this day there are many Abrahams Phineeses Noahs Loths Peters Paules euen seuen thousands that is to say innumerable who neuer bowed knee to Baal and would notvvithstanding all those calumniations accompt all as drosse to vvinne Christ and let them enioy Gods blessings in his Church I am sorie that I haue occasion to carrie you thus along vvith this discourse but I must ansvvere as Tertullian in another case said Conditio praesentium temporum prouocat hanc admonitionem nostram the estate of these times prouoketh this our admonition The second part The second thing that I noted in the Apostâ—â—s words was that there should be a mutuall care Let the members haue the same care one for another Al the members in the bodie haue one and the same beginning all one and the same substance and none can doe well if any one doe amisse if one perish or putrifie it infecteth first the next and so in time anoieth all or if any one in a common calamitie deny helpe to another all thereby are brought into danger euen so among Christians let no man suppose that his brethrens cause appertaineth not vnto him but as the meÌ„bers of the bodie the inferior serue the superior rule euery one careth for and regardeth another so in the Church so in the common wealth let the highest and lowest and all agree and consent to the good of all As in the bodie without the mutuall consent of the members neither all neither any of them can be long in health or continue without griefe so in the Church without a mutual care a mutual concord nothing can succeede to the good of the Church or the increase or aduancement of the cause or kingdome of Christ or any member thereof Let the members haue the same care A speech of great Emphasis euery word carying his iust waight First the name of the members teacheth obedience to the head care for all the rest loue to all the rest Let the members care Let