that we might fear him and he addeth which brought thee out of the land of Egypt that we might love him And in lege precandi he teacheth us to say Our Father that we might love him and he addeth which art in Heaven that we might fear him And in lege credendi we are taught to say I believe in God the Father that we might love him and to add Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth that we might fear him And besides all this we find that these two Graces Fear and Love 1. Are injoyned by the same Law 2. Do proceed from the same Cause 3. Do produce the same Effects And 4. Shall obtain the same Reward For 1. Moses that was faithful in all Gods house saith And now Israel What doth the Lord thy God require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to love him Where you see fear and love so equally required that whosoever neglecteth the fearing of him though he should love him or omitteth the loving of him though he should fear him if he could do the one and not the other yet he is a transgressor and liable to the breach of this Commandment 2. As none denieth but mercy should procure love therefore Moses after he had rehearsed the great mercies of God towards the Israelites Deut. 10.11 21 22. Josh 23.9 11. Psal 130.4 addeth Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God And Joshua doth the like so David after he had considered his own vileness saith With thee there is mercy therefore shalt thou be feared Where you see the mercy of God is the foundation of this fear of God as well as of the love of God And as the mercy of God so the justice of God produceth both â—ffects the one as well as the other For my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith the Prophet And though justice seems as oil to continue the burning of this lamp of fear and as water to quench the fire of love yet as lime which is naturally cold doth notwithstanding retain a fiery quality ex aqua incenditur ex qua omnis ignis extinguitur and is inflamed by water which doth extinguish all fire So the love of the Saints is kindled by the judgements of God Therefore the Prophet saith Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements Psal 119.164 Psal 119.52 And again I remembred thy judgements of old and have received comfort 3. As love inflameth the desire to do what is acceptable unto God so fear hateth to do what is abominable unto him and as love keepeth his Precepts so fear loatheth to break his Commandments and as love mitigateth the sorrow which fear causeth so fear qualifieth the joy which love produceth And as S. John saith God is love so Jacob calleth him the fear of his father Isaac And as S. Paul saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law Gal. 6.2 Eccles 12. So Solomon saith The end of all things is the fear of God and the keeping of his Commandments 4. As the mercy of God is shewed upon thousands of them that love him Exod. 20. Luke 1.50 and keep his Commandments So it is no lesse upon them that fear him But as the Psalmist saith Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord he shall be mighty upon earth Gloria divitae in domo ejus And as the son of Sirach saith Timor Domini gloria gloriatio laetitia corona exultationis Because as the Prophet saith Dat haereditatem timentibus nomen suum Yea Psal 61.5 Psal 145.19 he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him and look whatsoever they do it shall prosper And as eternal life is promised to them that love God So eternal death shall never seize on them that fear God And in brief whatsoever attendeth the one becometh a follower of the other and no marvel because that in love fear is included and in fear love is implied And while we are in this world both grow together in the heart of every true Believer And as the Poet saith of another kind of love so I may more truly say of this Divine love Res est soliciti plena timoris Amor. This love of God is full not of distrustful but of careful fear Quia timentes Deum non erunt incredibles verbo Illius saith the son of Sirach Ecclus. 2. But the wicked have neither true fear nor perfect love For though Cain Esau and Judas had a kind of fear yet was it false because it wanted love And though the Pharisees and Simon Magus had a kind of love yet was it but counterfeit because it wanted fear for if the former had had love they would have desired favour and should have obtained grace and if the other had had fear they would have aimed at Gods glory and not have sought their own praise which did work their own confusion And therefore well might S. Peter enjoyn every Saint that loveth God to fear God And as the love of God so the fear of God is sometimes put for a part of Gods Service and sometimes for the whole Service of God and so it is in this place as in the first of Job and in Luke 1.50 and in the Psalms in many places As where he saith Come ye children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord where the fear of God signifieth the whole Worship of God to honour him obey him trust in him pray unto him and what duty soever else we owe unto him And thus the fear of God is the rarest Jewel and the most excellent thing in the World No riches no honour no preferment like unto it No evil shall happen to them that fear the Lord but God shall preserve them in temptation liberabit eos à malis Ecclus 33. saith Siracides And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation but mischief and unhappinesse and all evil shall continually attend and overtake them that fear not God to bring them to shame beggary and confusion as you may see it manifested in the Story of the sons of Israel who while they feared God were replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes and delivered out of the Egyptian slavery by a thousand prodigies the Lord dividing the Sea to make way for them and closing the same again to destroy their enemies Drawing waters out of the Rocks to quench their thirst and feeding them with the food of Angels But when they did cast off the fear of God then God sent flying Serpents and stirred up enemies and powred down his vengeance upon their heads still plaguing them more and more untill they should be either quite consumed or happily reduced to embrace the fear of God again And not to search farre for any further presidents How happy weâ—e
scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
saith Lex non justior ulla est Quam necis Artifices arte perire sua There cannot be a juster Law 2 In retaliation of good for good then for him that diggeth a Pit to fall into it himself or that he that loveth War should perish in the War and he that sheddeth mans Blood should have his Blood shed by man so in the retaliation of good for good the same Law holdeth most just and more especially 1. In Giving 2. In Suffering 3. In Loving For For 1. 1 In giving Is it not just that we should give to him that hath given all to us And what have we that we have not received from God Why then should we think much either to give the Tenth to God or our Almes unto the Poor when the Lord himself professeth he that giveth unto the poor lendeth unto the Lord and whatsoever you do to these you do to Him 2. 2 In suffering Is it not as just that we should be ready to suffer for him that hath suffered so much for us The Apostle saith that Christ exinanivit seipsum though he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.6 yet he emptied himself of all his Royal Dignities and suffered all the Indignities that could be laid upon him for our sake and shall we grudge to suffer the Losse of a little Worldly Trash or the bearing of some Light Affliction for him and for the Defence of his Truth and True Service that hath suffered all Sufferings for us No no when we suffer any thing for the Faith of Christ or our Loyalty to our King let us but consider what Christ hath suffered for us and what our good King hath suffered for the Defence of our Faith because he will not yield to deface the Church of Christ and to destroy the True Service of God and this will support us in all our Sufferings we suffer a little for him that suffered much for us 3. Because all men have not wealth to give 3 In loving and all men have not the patience to suffer yet all men have hearts to love God and they can have no excuse if they love him not because he hath so dearly loved them for if you consider all the Motives and procurements of Love which are very many as Beauty Benignity Bounty Wisdom Valour and the like yet there is none of these nor all these nor any other thing in the world so powerful to beget Love as Love it self neither is there any thing so available to encrease or to continue Love as Love it self Therefore the Poets feign that when Venus the Goddess of Love brought forth her first begotten Son she called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love and when she saw he thrived not but was still lean meager and bloodless How Venus consulted with Themis about her son Eros she consulted with Themis the Goddess of Justice which was Mother to Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom to know the reason of the sad condition of her Son and she told her that she must bring forth another Son which she did and called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Love for Love and then both her Children prospered and became exceeding beautiful and lovely So among men when we prosecute any one with Love it is impossible that Love should be lasting if at no time in no measure it should be requited with Love again for as the Coales Conjoyned will preserve the heat but when they are scattered will be soon extinguished so debet amor laesus irasci love when it is deserted and forsaken or left alone will be soon lost And therefore if we desire the Love of God to continue towards us we must resolve to shew our Love to God again for I will love them that love me and shew mercy unto Thousands of them that loue me saith the Lord Prov. 8.17 And so the Apostle saith we love him because he loved us first that is seeing he hath loved us therefore we are bound to love him where you may observe 1. The Persons We. We love him 2. The Act Love We love him 3 Parts 3. The Object Him We love him 1. The persons here said to love God are not the Angels 1 The persons that love God We. though they do exceedingly love him when as the Script saith He maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire where you may see three most admirable and transcendent excellencies of the Angels as 1. Purity of substance because they are Spirits 2. Readiness of obedience because they are his Angels and his Ministers Three excellent properties of the Angels and such as for their swift execution of Gods commands are compared to the wings of the wind 3. Ferventness of charity or burning love not only of one towards another but especially towards God because they are flames of fire but the persons here meant are men we love him i.e. we that are the sons of Adam do love him seeing mans love to God is but Radius divini amoris erga homines in deum reflexus a beam of Gods love towards man reflected from man to God again as Zanchius saith and seeing that where so powerfull a cause doth exist the subsequent effect must needs follow Therefore seeing God loveth all men it must needs be that all men How all men do love God Acts 17. in some measure do love God again that is as God is their Creator Preserver and Cause in whom they live and move and have their being and from whom they have and do receive all the good that they have so the Jews Turks and Heathens Worldlings Rebels and Traytors and all the wicked men in the world doe love God But seeing this love is too general and too base for all Christians scarce worthy of the name of love it will not serve the turn to make us happy but will deceive and destroy those lovers that have none other love to God but this poor confused general love Therefore 2. To proceed unto the stricter discussion of the act or the affection of love 2 The act love The Original cause of love twofold 1. General We love him you must note the same to be according to the original cause and ground thereof And that is two-fold 1. General as the many manifold benefits that we continually receive from God as he is the faithful Creator a wise Preserver and a bountiful Bestower of abundance of all good gifts upon his Creatures So the Reprobates love God 2. Special and in this respect the very Reprobates as I told you cannot chuse but love the Lord that is their Creator and Preserver 2. Special as the serious apprehension of our own infinite wants and miseries and of those Miracles of Love and Mercies which God hath performed to cure our souls from those Miseries Thus the Saints only love God by sending his only Son to
save us from all our sins And thus the true Saints that do hate their sins and lay hold on Christ do only love the Lord and the wicked that delight in sin and perceive not the sweetness of their Saviour cannot be said to love God for as the whole have no need of the Physitian and give no thanks for his Physick so they that feel not the sense of their own miseries and perceive not their Obligation to their Deliverer can have no love to God their Saviour Therefore seeing as the Poet saith Quod latet ignotum est ignoti nulla cupido And as S. Bern. saith non potes aut amare quem non noveris aut habere quem non amaveris we cannot love whom we know not nor enjoy whom we love not it behoveth us to search into our spirits to look into our own states to consider the multitude of our own sins and to bethink our selves in what need we stand of a Deliverer to see if this will not bring us in love with God our Saviour And then I beseech you Two special Points to be considered let us consider 1. What manner of Love we ought to have 2. How great a love it ought to be towards him And 1. I presume theâ—e is no man in this Assembly but he would think himself much injured 1 What manner of Lovewe ought to have if it were but imagined that he did not love God his Saviour and iâ— is not my desire to dishearten any when I wish from my heart that every the least sparke of your love to God might prove a Glorious Flame Yet I fear there be very many men that come into the world they know not why and live therein they care not how and go out of it again they cannot tell where but do live in it without a God and then die without any hope And others there be that dream of happiness and their hopes being but dreams they do therein but deceive themselves like those that dream they are at a pleasant Banquet yet when they awake their soul is hungry For as the Jews in our Saviours time did indeed persecute him because they were so blinded that they could not apprehend him to be the Son of God but for God himself they made full account that they alone and none but they did love him and for Moses vvhose very Name vvas the Glory of their Nation they professed to love him beyond measure so that vvhosoever spake any blasphemous vvords against Moses vvas thought vvorthy to be stoned to death Acts 6.11 John 5.42 V. 45. And yet our Saviour tels them I know you that you have not the love of God in you and that Moses in vvhom they trusted should accuse them before God So many Christians at the last day shall profess that they have prophesied in Christ's Name cast out Devils done many wonderful works in his Name rebelled against their ovvn King and killed their own Brethren and starved their own Shepherds and hazarded their own Lives for his sake and yet he shall protest unto them I never knew you i. e. to love me or to do these things for my sake but for your own ends and to satisfie your own desires and therefore depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And the reason is Two sorts of the Lovers of Christ 1. Formal 2. Real that there are two sorts of the lovers of Christ and two kinds of professors of Christianity 1. General 2. Special That formal this real that in shew this in deed that ingendred by Education by Country by Custome by conformity to the Laws and Fashions of them with whom they live and by a common sence of Gods outward favours for Christ his sake unto them and this infused by an inward operation of Gods Spirit in the heart in all sincerity and truth and is continually preserved and encreased by a lively sence of Gods special favour unto them through Jesus Christ And you know that S. Paul tells us he is not a Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that which appeareth outwardly in the flesh i.e. which is but only born and bred a Jew of the seed of Abraham of the visible Synagogue and partaker of all the external Covenants of grace but he only is the right Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly in the secrets of the heart so he is not a Christian that is but only born a Christian and doth but outwardly profess Christianity to come to the Church to hear Sermons to receive the Sacraments Who is the true Christian and to accustome himself to all the outward formalities of Christianity but he is the true Christian that is so made by his second birth and by that internal grace which is indeed invisible unto others but most sensible unto himself and who as the Evangelist saith John 1.13 is born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And therefore seeing God is not mocked and that he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kind of love that can be imagined let us not mock our selves by any presumptuous conceits of our love to God and so deceive our own hearts and betray our own souls which is the usual practice of too too many men for if we love God as we ought then our love must be as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in purity in simplicity or as the word signifieth in incorruption i.e. such as neither the most honourable nor the most profitable nor the most delectable things in this world can ever be able to lessen or diminish the least jot of our love to God when with the Apostle we disesteem our preferments and our honours and whatsoever else the world could confer upon us and account them all but as dung in comparison of our love to God and the discharging of that duty which we owe unto him for so Abraham forsook his Country neglected his honour and was ready to facrifice his only Son in obedience to the commands of God and so will all they do that do truly love the Lord as they out to love him 2. For the extent and quantity of our love to God S. Augustine saith Aug. de moribus Ecclesiae that Modus diligendi Deum est ut diligatur quantum potest diligi quanto plus diligitur tanto est dilectio melior And St. Bernard saith that Modus diligendi Deum est sine modo The measure of our love to God should be beyond measure so much that we should prefer his Love his Honour and his Service before our Father or Mother or Wife or Husband or Children or Pleasure or Profit or any other thing in this World yea before our own life which we should be ready and willing to lay down for the love of him and the defence of his truth and service Qui
the Lord and then to set up the service of Baal to persecute the true Prophets and then to magnify the false teachers 400 of them must be royally fed on Jezabels table when she would not entertain one true Prophet 1 King 18.19 And when as the Prophet saith corruit in platea veritas truth is fallen and shall be troden down as mire in the streets then lies and falshoods errors and heresies and all blasphemies shall be generally apprehended and the broachers thereof not worthy the name of Preachers shall be liberally maintained as they were by Queen Jezabel and are now by our Parliament-governours in every place Therefore though the Prophet saith It was a wonderfull and a horrible thing Jer. 5.30 that the Prophets should Prophesy falsly yet I think it was a greater wonder for the people to love to have it so to hire them so dearly and maintain them so bountifully for Prophesying falsly and teaching lies unto them For if Ahab and Jezabel had not magnified and so bountifully maintained those false Prophets and the people had not loved to hear them Prophesying lies and falshoods unto them it is like enough they would not have been so ready to broach so many errors and heresies unto them But what wonder is it for men to wander when they love to wander and to erre when they desire to erre for as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So we may as truly say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as another saith Quisquis amat ranam ranam putat esse Dianam He that loves a Black-moore thinks her to be as fair as Venus he that loves an Idol makes it his good god and he that loves lies errors and heresies embraceth them for divine verities But is it not a wonderful and a horrible thing that men endued with reason and understanding and men that pretend and seem to be wise and religious should notwithstanding be so brutish and sottish as to love to wander and love to be deceived and guided out of the service of God to follow after the vain fancies of the false Prophets Yet you see our Prophet tells us it is so with this people Why the people love to follow their false teachers rather then the true Preachers and you shall find it so with many more for as the wicked love the world better then the godly do love the Lord so the Schismatick and Heretick the Quaker the Anabaptist the Presbyterians the Independants and the Papists are more ready to maintain and more affectionate in their love to the false teachers then the true Protestants are to relieve the true and faithful Preachers And the reason hereof is two-fold 1. Because the false Prophets are more sedulous to gain Proselytes Reason 1 then the true Preachers are to make Christians for so our Saviour tells us that while the husband-man slept the envious man sowed tares Matth. 13.25 and while the faithful disciples slumbered the traytor Judas was very watchful and ran from Christ to the high Priests and from them back again into the garden and never rested untill he had finished his intended treason and delivered the King of heaven into the hands of his own sinfull subjects to be crucified And the second reason of this their more eager desire Reason 2 and more earnest love to errour then love to truth is because as our Saviour saith The children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light For though as our Prophet saith This people were foolish and sottish children that had no understanding to do good yet they were wise to do evill Je. 4.22 And so are all the children of this world and that makes them more secret in their plots more studious in their doings and more subtle in all their actions then are the children of God and when they have done any foul fact and committed some great offence then as the Tragedian saith Scelera sceleribus tuenda their horrible acts are upheld by far more horrible projects and as thieves to conceal their robberies do commit murder and lyars to justifie their lies will forswear themselves so will all wicked men uphold and maintain their wickedesse by greater wickednesse and as Medea saith Quae scelere pacta est scelere rumpatur fides the covenant which they have wickedly made they will as wickedly break and the faith which they have deceitfully given they will as readily frustrate And thus as Demodicus said of the Milesians that they were no fools but they did the very same things that fools did so the wicked politicians and the hypocritical Saints of this world they are no Jews but they do the verie same things that those Jews did they wander and erre from the truth because they love to wander And I would to God we would take as much pains to go to heaven as they do to run to hell and that we would as zealously love the true service of God as they love to wander from this right worship of God 3. For the manner of their doings it is set down in the word thus 3 The manner of their doings or after this sort and it is likewise implyed in this word wanders for he that wanders stands not still but still goeth on from the thickets unto the briers and from the briers unto the bogges and so from one errour unto another So you see we are here in a wilderness where this people went astray and I must follow them with the best Method I can to declare unto you their wandring courses but as Moses sets down only their principal stations and not every step that they made in the wildernesse of Sinai so will I follow his example and shew you only their principal aberrations in the wilderness of sin and because their sin is morbus complicatus a twisted and a decompound wickednesse containing many severall branches I will rank them into these three heads 1. Their aberrations principally consisted in three things Their abuse of Gods service 2. Their rebellion against their Governours 3. Their injuries unto their neighbours The which threefold sin is circulus diaboli the very circle of the devil wherein he driveth the wicked to run their round 1. 1 The abuse of Gods service Their abuse of Gods service was in their idolatry and idolatrous worship of God for so the Prophet saith According to the number of thy Cities were thy gods O Juda and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem Jer. 11.13 have ye set up altars to that shameful thing Where you may observe That as there is but one God so this God should be served in every City and in every street of every city and as God is the same in every place That the same God should have the same worship in all places in every city and in every street of the city so should his service be the same in every place And to
nolle and the Scripture sheweth how good and joyful a thing it is for to see such brethren to love one another and to live together in unity yet the Brother-hood whereof the Apostle speaketh and is to be loved above all other Brother-hoods whatsoever Christians ought to love one another better than natural brethren that are not Christians is to be understood de fraternitate Spiritus of our spiritual Brother-hood whereby we are regenerated and made all the sons of God and so Brethren by adoption and grace For this fraternity of the Spirit unites men more and tyeth them better to love one another than the fraternity of flesh and blood Because as S. Augustine saith The natural Brother-hood similitudinem corpor is refert sheweth the likeness and coherence of the body but this Brother-hood of the Spirit unanimitatem cordis demonstrat declareth the unity and unanimity of the heart and that is interdum sibi inimica sometimes breaking out to deadly hate as it did betwixt Cyrus the younger and Artaxerxes But this is sine intermissione pacificâ alwayes remaining in perfect love And therefore ut Religio derivatur à religando as Religion is so termed because Religion tyeth all that are of the same Religion to love one another it tyeth and knitteth men together by fervent love among themselves and by a constant faith to God So we find that men of the same Faith and Religion have loved and relieved one another and stuck together better and firmer than any other kind of men whatsoever And so they are here required and commanded to do by the Apostle Love the Brother-hood that is love them especially and above all others that are of the same faith and do profess the same Religion of Jesus Christ as you do For you see all Hereticks and Sectaries and the professors of false religions do so and why should not you that are true Christians and do professe the true Religion of Christ much rather do the same But here we ought to be very careful A special Observation and to take special heed that we be not too censorious and too rash judges to set down the bounds of this Brother-hood and so straighten the extent and diminish the number of the Brethren by our determining who be those sons of God in Christ which we may and ought to love and relieve rather than the rest of men which we suppose we are not to love so well For you must know which our precise Saints will not know that the Brother-hood which the Apostle meaneth here Who are here understood by this Brother-hood and those that S. Paul termeth the houshold of faith and in other places the Saints of God is to be understood of all Christians and doth comprehend all those that were baptized and did professe the Gospel of Jesus Christ And these might then as they may also now be easily discerned and distinguished from the rest of the Pâ—gans and Infidels that did not believe the Gospel of God Because the one sort had the Fathers name written in their foreheads when they were baptized and so received the outward sign and badge of Christianity Revelat. 14.1 which they professed and were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1. And the other sort refused the profession of Christ and would not embrace the Gospel and receive the badge of Christianity but either persecuted the Christians or at best slighted and rejected the Faith of Christ But where all men are baptized and do professe to believe the Gospel and to do service unto Christ to distinguish the sound branches of the true Vine and the faithful members of Christs body from the rotten boughs and hypocritical professors and so to determine which are the Brother hood and which not is such a presumption of men as can no wayes be warranted by the Word of God for Conscientiae latebras hominibus scire non permissum est We cannot search into the hearts of men and God suffereth not men to know the thoughts of other men and the secrets that are lurking in their consciences which is the proper work of God who only is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierom. epist 5. The searcher of the heart and reins saith S. Hierom. And therefore we must confesse that as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord only knoweth who are his and can discriminate the lively branches from the rotten boughes and the truly regenerated Brother-hood from the soly outward professors of the Faith of Christ And we can judge no otherwise of any men than by their fruits that is by their actions and outward appearance We are often deceived by the outward appearance of things and that appearance when we judge of inward things by the outward doth oftentimes deceive us when as Multa sunt quae non videntur ita multa videntur quae non sunt Many things are which are not seen so many things are seen to be which are not As the falling-Stars seem to be Stars and yet are not And the hypocrites that like Water-men do row one way and look another way seem to be good Christians and yet are not So many men have the fear of God in their hearts and do love God and are the true children of God though these graces are not seen but are as we see the Sun is sometimes over-clouded with those sins that proceed from the frailty of the flesh And therefore our Saviour bids us not to judge according to the outward appearance that is not to judge of the inward things by the outward John 7.24 but to judge righteous judgement But you will say How can that be Quest or how can we judge righteous judgement if we can judge no further than the outward appearance or if Interiora non cognoscuntur per exteriora The inward things may not be known by the outward signs I answer That many times indeed Respon the inward things do cohere with the outward appearance as the heat sheweth there is a fire which we see not but this is not alwayes and therefore not infallible And I say that when our Saviour bids us to judge righteous judgement he meaneth not hereby that we should enter into the hidden things of the heart How we ought not to judge of our Brethren or search into the secrets of God and so positively and rightly to determine and judge as our Gnostick Sectaries seem to do who are Gods chosen Saints and who are wicked Reprobates Who are the Brother hood that are to be loved and who are the limbs of the Beast that are to be rejected which we cannot do But he meaneth that we should not judge of inward hidden and secret things by the superficial shew of outward things Or that we should not judge of the secret intention of the heart when we see but the outward action of the hand or as Saint Augustine saith he willeth that we should not
her will No force can prevail against the will and actual sins have so much dependency upon the hearts approbation as that the same alone can either vitiate or excuse the action and no outward force hath any power over mine inward mind unless my self do give it him as all the power of the Kingdome cannot force my heart to hate my King or to love his enemies they may tear this poor body all to pieces but they can never force the mind to do but what it will And yet such is the deceit of our own flesh that if the devil should be absent from us our own frailties would be his tempting deputies and when we have none other foe we will become the greatest foes unto our selves as Apollodorus the Tyrant dreamd that he was flead by the Scythians and that his heart thrown into a boyling caldron should say unto him That it was the cause of all his miseries and so every man that is undone hath indeed undone himself for Perditio tua exte thy destruction is from thy self saith the Prophet yea the very best men Hos 13.9 by whomsoever wronged yet wrong themselves as now it is with our gracious King for as Valentine the Emperour when he cut off his best Commander and demanding of his best Counselour what he thought of it had this answer given him That he had cut off his own right arm with his left hand so when the good King seduced and over-perswaded gave way though against his will to make an Everlasting Parliament he then gave away the Sword out his own hand So I could tell you of a very good man that is brought to very great exigency by parting with his owne strength and giving his sword out of his own hand and when he excluded the Bishops out of the House of Peers he parted with so much of his own strength and brought himself thereby to be weaker then he was before and so it will be with every one of us and it may be in a higher misprision then with our King if we look not well unto our selves and take heed lest in seeking to preserve our bodies we destroy our own souls or to save our estates we make shipwrack of our faith or especially to uphold an earthly Rule or Kingdome we expose to ruine the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church of God as you know how the Parliament do it at this day And therefore the Spaniards prayer is very good Dios mi guarda mi de mi O my God defend me from my self that I do not destroy my self and Saint Augustine upon the words of the Psalmist Deliver me from the wicked man demanding who was that wicked man Answ it was a seipso and so the wisest Philosophers have given us many Precepts to beware of our selves And he that can do so Latius regnat avidum domando Spiritum Horatius quam si lybiam remotis Gadibus jungat uterque paenus Serviat uni doth more and ruleth better then he that reigneth from the Southern Lybia to the Northern Pole so hard it is for man under all the cope of Heaven to find any one that truly loves him But God is Verax veritas true and the truth it self and as Hugo saith Veritas est sine fallacia faelicitas sine miseria he is Truth without Deceit that neither can deceive not be deceived and as this our Apostle saith God is love and the Fountain of all true love and he is sweet he is wise and he is strong 1 John 4.8 How God loveth us and how sweet and gracious his love is therefore S. Bern. saith that he loveth sweetly wisely and strongly Dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit sweetly because he was made man to have a fellow-feeling of our miseries wisely because he did avoid sin that he might be able to help us and strongly because his love was as strong as death when rather then he would lessen his love unto us he would lose his life for us And therefore of all that pretend to love us God alone is the onely pure and truly perfect lover 2. For the affection it is love for God loved us and love 2 The affection Love comprehendeth three things as it is in the creatures is a passion better perceived by the lover then it can be expressed by any other and it comprehendeth three things 1. A liking to the thing beloved 2. A desire to enjoy it And 3. A contentment in it as when the Father saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as others think of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to be fully and perfectly satisfied in the thing loved as Phavorinus testifieth And so though the affection of love is not the same in God as it is in us because he is a Spirit most simple without passion and we are often-times transported and swallowed up of this affection yet in the love of God we finde these three things most perfectly contained 3 Things contained in the love of God 1. An Eternal benevolence or purpose to do good unto his creatures 2. An Actual beneficence and performance of that good unto them 3. A Delightful complacency or contented delight in the things beloved as the Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness that is he taketh delight and pleasure in all righteous livers and as he hateth the ungodly so he loveth the righteous and taketh delight in them and in their just and righteous dealing But because love is an inward affection that can hardly be discerned without some outward demonstration of the same and that as S. Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis the trial of our love is seen by our actions which testifie our love far better then our words How God imanifesteth his love many wayes when we see too too many that profess to love us when they labour to destroy us as the rebels pray for the King when they fight against him so finely can the Devil deceive us therefore God manifested his love by many manifold arguments As 1. Way 1 By screating things of nothing and making them so perfectly good that when himself had considered them all he saw that they were all exceeding good 2. Way 2 By preserving all things that they return not to nothing Quia fundavit Deus mundum supranihilum ut mundus fundaret se supra Deum because God laid the foundations of the world upon nothing that the world might wholly rely upon God who is the basis that beareth up all things with his mighty word and more particularly in preserving not onely the righteous but even the wicked also from many evils both of Sin and Punishment for did not God withhold and restrain the very reprobates even
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more and above all other his creatures whatsoever And here you must observe also that amongst men as the glory of all Starres or the beauty of all Flowers is not the same when as every Star is not a Phoebus and every Flower is not a Lilly so the love of God doth not appear alike to all men for I love them that love me and I will shew mercy on them that love me and keep my commandements saith the Lord but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickedness doth his soul abhor And thus not onely the Elect are beloved better then the Reprobates and the Saints better then Sinners but among the very chosen Saints God loveth some better then others for every like loveth his like and therefore God embraceth them with a greater love whom he vouchsafeth to make and findeth them willing and most yielding to be the more like unto himself and so he loveth those that are the better more then those that are less good as the more we excell in Vertue and Goodnesse the more dearly doth God love us so he loved Abraham among the Patriarchs Moses among the Prophets David among the Kings and this beloved Disciple among the Apostles more as it seemeth then any other and so the blessed Virgin whom all generations shall call blessed was highly beloved and loved more then any of all the daughters of men And of this gradation of Gods love S. Aug. saith Omnia diligit Deus quae fecit God loveth all that he made and among them he loveth rather the reasonable creatures and of these he loveth them more which are the members of his Son and most of all his onely begotten Son And this greater love of God to some men more then to others besides those internal graces of Faith Hope Love Patience and the like which he giveth to the Elect Mark 4.11 and not to the Reprobates Quia vobis datum est because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven but to others not because they will not accept of them when they are offered God manifesteth the same to all men by two outward infallible demonstrations 1. The donation of his graces 2. The preservation of their persons For 1. There is no man but might consider how God hath bestowed more excellent gifts and graces on himself 1 God giveth his Gifts and Graces severally and differently then he hath done to many others as either Health or Wealth or Honour or some other gift that the meanest man hath which many others have not or if not yet seeing God out of his greater love to some men more then to others bestoweth on some five Talents when he bestoweth on others but two or but one and maketh some men Princes and others Peasants or indueth some men with Learning and Knowledge when he leaveth others ignorant and foolish and so maketh some men rich when as many others are very poor Why should our eyes be evil because he is good For Cum huic fit misericordia tibi non fit injuria when as herein he doth but shew mercy unto one and injury unto none Why should we not rather consider that he may love whom he will and shew mercy on whom he will have mercy and so do what he will with his own especially seeing we know not why he doth what he doth 2. God doth guide some men with his counsel that they run not with the wicked Ps 37.24 Rom. 1. into the same excess of riot as they do for seeing by nature we are all equally indifferent and equally inclined to all sins Repleti omni injustitia saith the Apostle How comes it to pass that some men abstain from odious Rebellions and other impious abominations and abominable impieties that many wicked men do perpetrate Is it from out selves and from the goodness of our Natures or the sweetness of our dispositions No no it is from God that giveth his grace and holy Spirit unto some that are willing and ready to receive it when God offereth it unto them rather then to others that refuse to answer when he calleth and to accept his gifts and graces when he offereth the same unto them so God preserved Noah from partaking with the wickedness of the old world Lot from following after the abominations of the Sodomites Joseph from consenting to the lewd inticements of his Mistress and the like and so he doth preserve them that he loves from imitating the wicked in their odious sins because these men love God again are ready and willing to be preserved by God for did not the blessed God work this happy change in our souls and the Father of Lights illuminate our minds with a more distinct knowledge of his grace we might have groped and flumbled in a thicker mist of stupidity then now befools our unnurtured brethren and whatsoever is either odious or ridiculons in them might have beene farre more prodigious in us And so S. Aug. doth most excellently confess it saying tentator defuit Satan was away and time and place was wanting to do the deed but this was thy doing to preserve me the Tempter came in time and place convenient Aug. Soliloqu L. 16. but then thou withheldest me from consenting So when I had a will I wanted ability and when I had ability I wanted opportunity and all this was from thy blessed Spirit that preserved me And this preservation of us from evil Prov. 1. is offered by the goodness of God unto the wicked but that they refuse it as the wise man sheweth and the Scripture testifieth in many places And as God preserveth those that he loveth from the sins so he delivereth them also from the punishments of sin for though misfortune shall slay the ungodly yet as the Prophet saith God preserveth the righteous And though the plagues of God shall range and rage so far against the wicked that thousands of them shall fall besides the godly and ten thousands on his right hand yet it shall not come nigh him because God giveth his Angels charge over those that he loveth and they do preserve them in all their wayes that they dash not their foot against a stone And here in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the persons on whom God shewed so many testimonies of his abundant love to some more then to others I may and must put our selves before many thousands of others that perhaps deserved the same far better then we do For whereas all other places that had the truth of the Protestant Religion amongst them have now their Candlesticks removed and the true publick service of God metamorphosed and corrupted with lyes heresies and blasphemies we alone of all our Kings Dominion have the true light and the publick service of God shining in the right Candlestick and with Authority maintained And I humbly beseech Almighty God that our sins unthankfulness and unworthiness do not ere long deprive us
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when
this Text seems to me to be The lively picture of these lewd times Which must needs be a sad fulfilling of it to all good men The Principall points to be considered are these four Four Points to be considered 1. A Message thus or this which followeth 2. The Author or sender of the message the Lord. 3. To whom it was sent unto this people 4. The Messenger by whom it was sent or shewed viz. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah Touching which points as Christ saith in another case so I will do herein begin with the last and so proceed unto the first And 1. I told you the Messenger 1 Point the Messenger by whom this message was sent unto this people is the Prophet Jeremy and he was 1. A Man and no Angel 1 The Messenger was a man like themselves 2. A Jew and no Gentile 3. A Lover and no hater of this people And yet for all this we find that he was mightily hated and exceedingly persecuted by them 1. When God delivered his Laws upon Mount Sinai he was pleased to be his own messenger Exod. 20.1 to write them with his own hands and to utter them with his own mouth Heb. 12.29 but our God being a consuming fire as the Apostle saith and if he doth but touch the mountains they shall smoak saith the Psalmist therefore his descending to deliver that Law was so terrible that Moses himself said Heb. 12.21 I do exceedingly fear and quake And they that saw the Mount burning and the blackness darkness and tempests and heard the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of the words intreated That the word should not be spoken to them any more Vers 19. that is by God himself because they were not able to endure the great and glorious Majesty of the deliverer And yet in very deed God being an Infinite incomprehensible spirit that hath neither hands to handle Gal. 3.19 Heb. 2.2 nor mouth to speak this delivery of the Law was ordained by Angels and the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast saith the Apostle And therefore it being above our Capacity to understand the Language of the Angels The Language of the Angels we know not what it is which the great Angelicall Doctor the best of all the Schoolmen could not yet determine what it is and it being likewise beyond the ability of our weakness to indure the sight of those Celestiall spirits God was pleased out of his great goodness to condescend unto the infirmities and to yeeld unto the request of this people and to send his messages unto us by such as dwell amongst us i. e. men like our selves that we need neither to fear their faces nor to shun their presence So that now The Hearers condition safer then the Preachers condition Galat. 4.16 as S. Augustine speaketh Tutior est conditio audientis quà m dicentis the hearers are in a safer condition then the speaker and the fear is only of the Teacher's side who must now take heed what he saith and is oftentimes become your enemy for saying the truth as S. Paul sheweth when as you may freely hear whatsoever is spoken without fear as you do many times without faith when our words though never so true shall yet be received but as Cassandra's Prophesies that were ever true but never regarded Esay 53 1. so that we may justly cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report 2. 2 He was their own Country-man Act. 19.24 25. This Messenger that God now sent unto the Jews was himself a Jew and no Gentile no Grecian no Barbarian and it is naturall for all men to love those of their own Countrey Even as we see Crafts-men love those of the same Trade as you may find in Act. 18.3 Therefore that they might the more readily imbrace him the Lord saith A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your brethren like unto me in countenance in favour in faithfulness and in all meekness and gentleness Him shall you hear in all things Deut. 18.15 and you ought the more readily to hear him and the more undoubtedly to believe him and to love him because he is of your brethren for though the Schools have determined that there is no love in hell nor charity among the damned yet for his own sake Dives seems to have a care of his brethren Luk. 16.28 that they should not come into that place of torment Act. 22.2 and though the Jews hated Saint Paul yet when they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew Tongue which was their own native Language they kept the more silence And for this cause the sooner to gain favour and to win the more good-will Act. 22.25 this prudent Apostle tels the Roman Captain that he was a free-born Citizen of Rome Act. 23.6 That men of the same Countrey should love one another and he tels the Jews he was a Jew and a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin and so accordingly when the men of Israel were angry with the men of Juda for receiving David and conducting of him home again to his Throne after he was driven out of his Royal City by the rebellion of Absolon the men of Juda answered most justly that they had very good reason so to do not only because he was their King but also because he was near of kin unto them and of their own Tribe the Tribe of Judah 2 Sam. 19.42 therefore why should they not receive him and love him that was of their own Country and of their own flesh and blood Which sheweth unto us what a shame it is for a Prophet to be without honour among his own Countrymen and in his own Country where he should be honoured most of all And what an abominable thing it is for a Prince or a Prophet to be treacherously betrayed and sold into the hands of their enemies by their own Countrymen and their own familiar friends But as our Saviour Christ coming amongst his own as the Evangelist saith and his own receiving him not but slandering persecuting and betraying him unto death saith If a stranger had done me this dishonour I could well have born it but I think very much that I should be thus used by my Countrymen and by mine own familiar friends So this holy Prophet going not to the Persians and preaching not to the Grecians but to the Jews his own native Countrymen and his own kindred could not choose but be exceedingly troubled to be so used as he was amongst them For that it is a greater shame and a more intolerable sin for the servants of God to be persecuted and rejected by their own Countrymen and those that professe and seem to serve the same God and to believe in the same Saviour as they do than if they were expelled and deprived of their means or persecuted unto
death in any other Country where they should be but like Jonas among the Ninivites meer strangers Yet thus was Jeremy used and thus are we 3. This our Prophet was not only a Jew preaching unto the Jews 3 He was a dear lover of them for so many a man as Cateline among the Romans Vortigern among the Britains Speed l. 7. c. 4. and Simon Jason and others among the Jews and some others nearer home have betrayed their own Country 2 Machab. 4. the trust that their Country reposed in them but he was a faithful Patriot a hearty lover and no hater of his people Tertullian noteth how dearly Moses loved this Nation of the Israelites when rather than God should destroy them he earnestly requested that his own name might be blotted out of the Book of Life S. Paul sheweth the like love unto the Jews when he saith he could wish himself accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 for his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh And this our Prophet sheweth no lesse love unto them than the other as you may easily see by this his Prophesie and his Preaching to them and his Lamentation for them Yet all the love of these men and put all together was not comparable to the love of Christ who gave himself for them and prayed for them when they Crucified him And therefore well might he say Greater love than this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends which none of all the Prophets nor of the Apostles nor of the Martyrs that died all for themselves and suffered death for their own sins did lay down their life for others as our Saviour Christ did lay down his life not for himself but for his enemies and yet they loved them very much and very dear as I shewed to you before And so must all the Messengers of Christ and Preachers of God's Word How the Ministers and Preachers of Gods Word should love their people imitate these holy men to love Gods people for that the people can hardly reap any good from them whom they perceive not to love them but as we suspect the gifts of an enemy to be as the Belt of Ajax was to Hector and Hectors Sword to him in like sort the death of each other So we dis esteem and regard not the words of them that love us not But you see how the true Prophets and Servants of God loved this people and laboured all that ever they could for the good of the people to bring them unto God and to turn away Gods anger from them And what reward did this people render to these and to the rest of Gods Messengers and Teachers for all the love that they shewed unto them and the pains they had undertaken for them The very Heathen tells us that Amor amoris magnes durus est qui amorem non rependit Love is a Loadstone to draw love again and if we will do nothing else yet we can do no lesse than love them that do so dearly love us The very publicans and sinners do the same Yet behold The ingratitude of the Jews O Heavens and wonder O Earth at this ungrateful people who rendered to Gods Messengers evil for good and instead of loving them stoned them For they murmured against Moses rebelled against David persecuted Elias beheaded John the Baptist and as our Saviour saith they killed the Prophets Luke 13.34 and stoned them that were sent unto them And it is no strange thing for us to find many men walking in the same wayes and treading in the same steps as these Jews have done but it were very strange that we should be used any better than those better Messengers that were sent before us Luke 10.3 For our Saviour tells us with an Ecce Behold and consider it well I send you forth as lambs into the midst of wolves And you know the Fable how the silly lamb procul infrà bibens for drinking far enough below the wolfe was notwithstanding torn all to pieces by that cruel wolfe upon pretence that he stopt the current which was impossible for him to do 2. 2 The parties to whom this Message was sent The Parties to whom the Message was sent are shewed in these words this people and that is the people of the Jews that were then flos florum medulla mundi the choisest and the noblest of all the people of the world for You only have I known that is acknowledged for mine own people Amos 3.2 and mine own peculiar inheritance of all the families of the earth saith the Lord. And God shewed his great love towards them by the wonderful works that he had done for them For as the Prophet saith He eased their shoulders from their burdens Psal and their hands from making the pots and he delivered them out of that Egyptian-bondage and from the tyranny of cruel Pharaoh The great favours of God unto the Jews Then he gave them such Laws so holy and so just as neither Solon nor Lycurgus nor any other Nation of the World had the like And he fed them in the Wildernesse 40. years together with Manna that was the bread of Heaven and the Angels food and after that he thrust out 7. other Nations to make room for them and he gave them the labours of the people in possession and planted them in Canaan which was a Land that flowed with milk and honey and there he hedged them about as we were of late hedged here with all kind of blessings beneficia nimis copiosa most ample benefits And as the Schools say Privativa positiva for they had plenty in peace and victory in war and what was it not that this people had not And yet this people this peculiar people of God must hear this hard Message and they must undergo this sharp censure For as the Lord saith of Coniah Jeremy 22.24 were he as the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence and give him into the hands of those that seek his life So will he do with this people and with any other when they do prevaricate and offend him He will cut them off and cast them from him were they formerly never so precious in his sight How God dealeth with his dearest children when they depart from his service for no priviledge no prerogative no former piety can prevail with God to prevent his judgements when with this people they love to wander and refrain not their feet from their evil wayes But as these his dearly beloved people the Jews were cast off when they did cast off the true service of God and as those seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea that were planted by the Apostles and watered with the blood of Martyrs had their Candlesticks removed and themselves delivered up to groan under the Turkish tyranny
rebellion and disobedience of the people as here because Zedechia was not suffered by these stubborn and disobedient people to follow the advice of this our Prophet therefore they were all delivered into seventy years Captivity And as the Lord is extream angry with those rebellious people that disobey and labour to displace the Kings and Governours that he sets over them So he sheweth abundance of his love and kindnesse to them that submit themselves to his ordinance and behave themselves dutifully and loyally towards those Kings whatsoever they be that God placeth over them as you may see it in the whole course and Story of King David and Saul for as he was the most dutiful and most faithful subject that ever we read of so God was pleased to raise him to be the best King that ever reigned over Israel for his King and his Governour was Saul the very first of that Order among the Jews and he was an hypocrite a persecutor a murderer a tyrant and a mad man yet when David whose life he thirsted after had him at his mercy and could as easily have taken off his head as to cut off the lap of his garment he said The Lord forbid 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Annointed to stretch forth my hand against him and his heart smote him because he had cut off his skirt And when he had him again in the like trap he said unto Abner Art not thou a valiant man and who is like thee in Israel wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King this thing is not good that thou hast done As the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords Annointed and his oath As the Lord liveth sheweth 1 Sam. 26.16 that he spake it in good earnest and jested not And if they be worthy to die that defend not and protect not such a wicked King especially in going about so vile an action as the murdering of so good a man and so dutiful a subject as David was then what shall become of them and what are they worthy of that murmur and grudge and plot against the life of such a â—ood King as maintained peace and jâ—stice amongst his people and offered no special injury to any particular man of us all Surely if I had the wisdom of Solomon and the eloquence of Demosthenes I were not able to expresse the odiousnesse of their sin that conspired against the person and proceedings of such a King as is inoffensive before God and all good men But to go on to shew unto you how faithful this good subject was to this bad King when the young man that was an Amalekite and none of Saul or Davids subjects came of his own accord to bring tidings unto David of Sauls death and of the good service that he thought he had done unto Saul at his own request to put him out of his pain David presently caused him to be put to death 2 Sam. 1.15 because he durst presume to offer any violence though that violence seemed to be a favour unto the Ruler of the people whom we are straightly forbidden to revile Exod. 22.28 or to speak evil of him So dutiful and so loyal a subject was David to so evil a Governour and so wicked a King as Saul And this his loyalty and fidelity unto Saul was one of the chiefest vertues that we find commendable in him before God had according to his fidelity to his King raised him to the Rule and Government of his people And I wish that all and every one of us would strive and study to imitate this good man in our obedience fidelity and loyalty to our King and Governours that God hath placed over us But here it may be some troubled and discontented spirit will say I could willingly yield all due respect and obedience unto our Kings and Governours could I be satisfied that God appointed them to be the Kings and Governours of his people Jeremy 23.21 but as the Lord saith of the false Prophets They run and I sent them not So he saith They have set up Kings but not by me Hosea 8.4 and they have made Princes and I knew it not And should we be obedient and faithful to such Kings and Governours that ambitiously set up themselves and are not righteously set up by God To these men that stumble at this block I answer 1. That the Prophet speaketh there as I shewed to you before not of any Soveraign Monarch but of the Aristocratical government of many men that will all be as Kings and Princes ruling and domineering over the people for so you see the Prophet speakes in the plural number of many Kings that in all the whole Scripture you shall never find to be either appointed or approved by God to be the Governours of his people for indeed those many Kings and Governours of equal authâ—rity are none of Gods Governours neither are they set up by God nor as I find approved by God in any place of all the Scripture But as God is One and the only Monarch of all the World so he ever appoints one Monarch only to be his Deputy to govern the people or nation that he committeth under his charge 2. I say that this Monarch and Governour whom God raiseth to govern his people attaineth unto his Throne and right of Government even by the ordination of God divers wayes as 1. Sometimes by Birth which is the most usual best and surest way and most agreeable to Gods will 2. Sometimes by Choice and the election of the people as Herodotus saith the Medes chose Deioces to be their King and the Princes of Germany now chuse their Emperour and they commonly chuse him that is by Birth the eldest son of the deceased King 3. Sometimes by the power of the Sword as God gave the Monarchy of the Medes unto Cyrus and the Kingdom of Darius and of many others unto Alexander and the Empire of the Romans unto Augustus and many other Kingdoms unto others that had no other right unto their Dominions but what they purchased with the edge of their Sword Which right though it be nothing else but Vsurpation and Intrusion in these ambitious hunters after rule and dominion yet notwithstanding it must needs be a very good right as the same cometh from the just God who is the God of war and giveth the victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith Victrix causa diis placuit And he having the right and power Paramount to translate the rule and transferre the dominion of his people to whom he will he hath oftentimes for their sins thrown down the mighty from their seat and translated the government of his people unto others whom some waies he thought fitter to effect his Divine will as he did give the Kingdom of Saul unto David and of Belshazzers unto Cyrus and
man Si quoties peccant homines sua fulmina mittat Jupiter c. which I may well render in the words of the Prophet If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Or as the Apostles demand Who then can be saved But the Lord beareth long and forgiveth much iniquities transgression and sin Upon what condition God forgiveth our sins Math. 6.14 15. and yet he forgiveth nothing but upon this condition that we ask forgiveness of our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us for if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses As you may see it plainly exemplified and shewed in the Parable of the unmerciful Steward And every Talent is 375. l. for when his Lord forgave him a thousand Talents and he would not forgive his fellow-servant a hundred pence his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Math. 18.34 So that he which remitteth not the offences done unto him must never hope to have his offences remitted unto him by God saith our Saviour Christ Verse 35. And what then shall we do shall we be like James and John that when the Samaritans would not receive their Master would presently have called for fire out of Heaven to have destroyed them all Or shall we be like their Master that when the Jews like so many Cannibals were about him to â—ear him and to crucifie him and to lay such loads of abuses and indignities upon him as the like were never laid on any other man yet was he so far from being incensed against them that although the least breath of his mouth could in an instant have blown them all to be destroyed yet his only revenge was Luke 22.34 Father forgive them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they know not what they do And his servant S. Stephen imitating him when he was stoned to death desired none other revenge but kneeling down Act. 7.60 cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge And if notwithstanding all this that I have said men will be still transported with the spirit of Revenge I shall only wish them to remember what Erasmus saith for a worldly counsel seeing they refuse the counsel of God that some remedies are far worse than the disease yea so far worse Vt satius sit oppetere mortem quà m his aucupari salutem Better to suffer wrongs than to repell them with far greater damage That it is better to suffer the Patients to die than to go about to compasse their health and recovery Veluti sugere sanguinem è vulnere recenti gladiatorum morientium As when we go about to save their lives by sucking the blood from the new-made wounds of the dying Gladiators And so saith he Melius est ferre pacem etiamsi parum commodam quà m bellum cum immensis malis suscipere It is sometimes better to conclude a peace or accept of peace though with some disadvantage than to undertake a war with far greater inconveniencies As it was better for David to bear a while with the sons of Zervia than presently with the hazard of his Kingdom to go about to punish their insolencies And so likewise Satius est aliquando ferre injuriam quà m majori incommodo ulcisci It is sometimes far better for a man to take some wrong and injuries than to revenge his wrongs with the suffering of far greater mischiefs And therefore touching fore-past injuries and wrongs done unto us I say with Juvenal minuti Semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Juven l. 5. Sat. 13. Vltio câ—ntinuò sic collâ—ge quòd vindiciâ Nemo magis gaudet quà m foemina Revenge is the badge of a Coward and the argument of a feeble-mind befitting rather weak women than any man of a Heroick spirit especially such as are endued with the Spirit of God whose Precept is to forgive and whose language is peace as the Prophet testifieth He will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints that they turn not again that is to revenge to war and fight again but to forget all former injuries and to honour all men and therefore not to revenge our selves upon any man And according to this Precept of S. Peter to honour all men S. Paul to inforce this Duty a little further Heb. 12.14 and to shew the meaning of it somewhat clearer biddeth us to follow peace with all men Wherein you may observe 1. The large extent of our peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all men Two things to be observed 2. The great desire that we should have to get peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace that is just as the Psalmist saith Seek peace and ensue it 1. It must be with all men for it were a strange thing 1 The large extent of our peace with men and love to men that men should not live in peace with good men with Christians and with the Saints of God but that as in Moses time an Israelite fell out with an Israelite about the bricks and strawes of Egypt So we that professe the same Faith live under the same Head and dwell in the same Kingdom or perhaps in the same City must for the toyes and trifles of this world go to Law one with another or for some mistaken conceits and different opinions in our Faith fall out and war and rob and spoil and kill one another When as the Apostle bids us to honour all men and to follow peace with all men good or bad Jews or Gentiles For as Lot served God and lived in peace among the Sodomites and Joseph did the like among the Egyptians and Daniel likewise served the true God in Nebuchadnezzars Court and lived peaceably among the Idolatrous Chaldeans and all the true Saints and servants of Christ do keep themselves undefiled in the midst of a crooked and a froward generation So should we endeavour to live in peace and to honour and love even those that professe themselves enemies unto peace and to be of a different Faith and Religion from us that is not only the Papists Puritanes and the like Sectaries but also with the Jews Infidels and Pagans and as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all men Because we are bound to love our enemies and to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that persecute us And therefore much more bound are we to be at peace with them and yet not to be corrupted or seduced by them but still to retain the true Faith The praise of Gods servants is to live holily among the wicked and to serve our God aright as we ought to do otherwise What thanks to them that live holily in heaven among
this world better than Peace for as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent All things do prosper in the time of peace And as the Prophet saith Our garners are full and plenteous with all manner of store our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets our oxen are strong to labour and there is no decay no lâ—ading into captivity and no complaining in our streets Psal 144.14 but our houses are repaired our Cities inlarged our Fields tilled and the poor are relieved which the Souldiers cause to starve and to die at their doors which have nothing to help them And therefore the very heathen man could say Cicero Iniquissimam pacem justisfimo bello antefero that he preferred the worst peace before the best and justest war and the onely outward blessing that comprehended all the other blessings which the Israelites desired was peace their onely salutation was Peace be unto you John 20.19 when Christ arose from the dead the first word that he spake to his disciples was Peace be unto you and when he was to leave the world the chiefest Legacie that he left to his Apostles was My Peace I give unto you and so the Apostolical wish to all Saints in all their Epistles is Grace and Peace be unto you and the most frequent Counsel most principall Precept that is given 2 Cor. 13.11 Colos 3.15 Phil. 4.7 Luc. 10.3 To love one another to honour all men to live in peace with all men the same thing in effect Which was Cromwels that Arch-souldier's Motto and is to be earnestly urged to be observed in all the New Testament by all the Ministers of Christ is to love one another to honour all men and to live in peace with all men which are the very same things in effect though exprest in divers forms and where this bond of peace is broken our Saviour saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be termed and called the children of God which is the God of Peace And what think you then of the souldiers that fight and war and break the bands of peace and the golden chain of unity and concord all to pieces whose children be they and may they not fear to be accursed Yes certainly and therefore they pretend that Pax quaeritur bello they make war to purchase peace To whom I may justly answer as Cyneas did to King Pyrrhus when the wise Oratour demanded of him what he would do when he had conquered Italy and Sicilie and Africk and Macedon c. Pyrrhus answered we will then be quiet and make peace and eat drink and be merry to whom Cyneas replyd And what letteth us my good Lord but that we may do so now before the shedding of so much blood as must be spilt in these enterprises So I say if you make War to procure peace why will you disturb the peace and not rather now when men do live in peace embrace it and suffer it to continue before you purchase it with the slaughter of so many men as must be killed in war But would you know the reason All the graces of Christ without the this grace will availe us nothing why they are so blessed that do procure peace and do embrace it and why we are so earnestly so often and in so various terms sollicited by Christ and his Apostles to observe this duty Saint Augustine telleth us it is because all the graces of Christ without this grace of loving all men and living in peace with all men will avail us nothing at all Namsicut spiritus humanus nunquam vivificat membra nisi fuerint unita ita Spiritus sanctus nunquam nos vivificat nisi sumus in pace conjuncti For as the Soul and humane spirit doth not quicken and give life unto our members unlesse they be joyned together so the Spirit of God will never quicken us to become members of Christ unlesse we be united together with love and in the bond of peace as the same Father speaketh and Saint Paul plentifully proveth the invalidity of all graces 1 Cor. 13. per totum without this grace of love and charity towards all men and what love can be in them that kill their neighbours And therefore not onely of our peace and reconciliation with God or the peace and tranquillity of our consciences but even of this peace among men Esay 52.7 the Prophet saith How beautifull are the feet of the Embâ—ssadours of peace and our Saviour doth so earnestly perswade us to embrace this peace without which we can never attain unto any peace with God or to any quiet mind for as Saint John saith he that loveth not his brother and I may adde 1 John 4.20 and is not at peace with his neighbour whom he hath seen how can he love God and be at peace with God whom he hath not seen And therefore The piety of our Liturgy and Letany howsoever they that think themselves to be the holy brethren and yet are the incentives of war do exclaim against our Liturgy and cannot endure the Letany yet our Church doth most piously pray Give peace in our time O Lord and again That it may please thee to give unto all 〈…〉 peace and concord 〈…〉 the first part of that honour which we owe to all men that is to do 〈◊〉 wrâ—ng to shed no blood to hate no man in our heart to traduce no man with our tongues and to smite no man with our hands but to love and to live in peace with all men 2. As we are no wayes to hurt or to wrong any man so we ought 2 Every way to assist and help them that need our help to the uttermost of our power to be always ready to relieve help and succour every one that is oppressed and that standeth in need of our help nihil est tam egregium tam liberale tamque munificum quà m opem ferre supplicibus excitare asfâ—ictos dare salutem homines à periculis liberare and there is nothing more royall more liberal and more munificent then to help the poor supplicants and distressed Petitioners to raise up the afsticted and to free the oppressed out of the hands of their oppressours saith the Oratour Câ—cero Orat. 1. and in his Oration for Ligarius he saith Homines ad Deos nulla re propiùs accedunt quà m salutem hominibus dandâ— men can by no way be made more like unto God than by doing good and by yielding health and deliverance unto men Therefore Solomon saith with-hold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it and say not unto thy neighbour Prov. 3.27 28. Go and come again and to morrow I will give it thee when as thou hast it by thee because as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celeres Gratiae dulciores sunt
suppress sin Prov. 3. Chap. 15. Chap. 16. so we may know where the fear of God resideth by the fruits that it bringeth I will name but only two that are the inseparable effects of the fear of God 1. Per timorem Domini declinat omnis à malo The fear of the Lord expelleth sin which can no more stand with the fear of God than light and darknesse can agree together or the Ark and Dagon can stand upon the same Table for sin is like a deluge and the fear of God is like the bank of a River which hindereth sin to overflow in any man Or sin is like drosse or stubble and the fear of God is like the flames of fire for so the very Pagans depainted fear like unto love invironed about with fiery-flames because all fear as well Divine as Humane scorcheth and consumeth us as long as it remains within us And therefore as the fire consumeth all drosse rectifieth the crooked and purifieth all Mettals so the fear of God driveth away all unlawful lusts cleanseth our hearts and maketh straight all our wayes For so Joseph saith he would not wrong his Brethren because he feared God And so Job would not injure the fatherless and the widow because he feared God Wherefore if with their tongues the Rebels have used deceit if their feet are swift to shed blood and if they have not and will not know the way of peâ—ce but refuse all the fair offers of a most gracious King then I may truly conclude with the Psalmist and I have S. Paul to justifie it that there is no fear of God before their eyes let them pretend to do what service they please unto God 2. Qui timet Deum facit bona mandata Dei observat nihil negligit 2 To do all good Ecclus. chap. 15. Chap. 12. Chap. 7. The fear of God doth all good saith the son of Sirach Because as S. Gregory saith Timere Deum est nulla mala quae fugienda sunt facere nulla quae facienda sunt bona praeterire The fear of God doth none of those evil things that are to be shunned but doth all and neglecteth none of those good things that are commanded And what are those good things that are commanded which the fear of God neglecteth not I answer They are very many and yet the fear of God will have a special respect unto them all As the Prophet David testifieth I have respect unto all thy Commandments Psal 119.6 For he that feareth God must not do as Agrippa did almost to become a Christian or as Herod did to hear John gladly and in many things to follow his counsel But as Moses when Pharaoh yielded the children of Israel should go to sacrifice unto God so they would leave their cattel behind them answered That one hoof should not be left behind He would not condition to omit the least jot of Gods Precept or to leave the least Command unobeyed So he that feareth God will not purchase peace nor compasse his own desire though it were with the Israelites to be freed out of bondage or with David to gain a Kingdom with the least transgression of Gods Will or the connivence with the least breach of Gods Precepts or the least alteration in Gods own Ordinances And therefore if these men fear God they will prefer his wayes before their own and they will have a special care to all his Precepts I will only name those that are contained in my Text. Honour all men Love the Brother-hood which I have already handled And Honour the King Which I shall by Gods help treat of by and by and without which we cannot be said to fear God because these are as inseparably joyned together to make a Christian-man as the soul and body are to make a natural man as you may see in Hos 10.4 where the people say We have no King because we fear not the Lord. Therefore as S. John saith He cannot love God which be hath not seen that loveth not his neighbour which he seeth So he cannot be said to fear God who is the King of kings that doth not honour the King who is the Vice Roy and the Livetenant of God And now I demand how they have performed these things For if that to rob pillage imprison and kill be to Honour men and to love the Brotherhood and if to rail slander rebel and fight against our Soveraign be to Honour the King then do they truly fear God if otherwise I may truly conclude with the Psalmist They are corrupt and become abominable and there is no fear of God before their eyes But it may be they will object Ob. that they are commanded to love God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind and S. Math. 22.37 1. John 4.18 John saith There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear and he that feareth is not made perfect in love Therefore these perfect Saints that râ—b their neighbours kill their brethren and fight against their King for the great love they bear to God and because the King will not suffer them to have what they list they need not fear God's wrath nor be afraid of his judgement I answer Sol. That some Divines say the true love of God casteth out the servil-fear which is only the fear of punishment but doth not cast out the filial reverence and the awful fear of losing Gods favour But I think rather the time is to be distinguished and not the fear because the Apostle saith Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgement and then addeth that perfect love casteth out fear But our love is not nor cannot be perfect until the Day of Judgement We may strive and labour for perfection but cannot possibly attain unto it while we are in this vale of misery otherwise then that which is termed Perfectio viae and which is indeed but imperfecta perfectio therefore our love cannot be without fear as well the fear of his wrath and vengeance as the fear of losing his love and favour For if I lose his favour I may fear his wrath and where there is a commission of any sin there must need be a diminution of love and where there is an extenuation of love there must of necessity follow an occasion of fear But as it was said of old that Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem So we may say That sin bringeth forth the fear of Gods judgements and the fear of Gods judgements doth in all the godly prevent and cast out sin And therefore not only to the wicked but also to his dearest servants God doth usually expresse himself by those titles and epithets which might work in them as well a fear of his Majesty as a love to his goodness as in lege operandi in the Decalogue he saith I am Jehova thy God
because this our City is built upon a Rock and the gate of hell shall never be able to prevail against it not only because that being upon a Rock it can never be undermined but especially because as S. Cyprian saith Cyprianus Non plus valet ad dejiciendum terrena paena quam ad erigendum divina tutela And this good Shepherd which is the Lamb that standeth upon Mount Sion to defend it is more powerful to save it then the Roaring Lyon which is the Prince of darkness to destroy it 2. The same Prophet David saith The Lord is my Shepherd 2 From wants Psal 23.2 therefore I shall want nothing he shall feed me in a green pasture and lead mo forth besides the waters of comfort And in the Propher Ezekiel this good Shepherd saith Ezek. 34.14 The best food for Gods sheep what it is I will feed my sheep in a good pasture and upon the high Mountains of Israel shall their Fold be there shall they lye in a good Fold and in a fat Pasture shall they feed upon the Mountains of Israel where you must observe that this Fold is the Church of Christ and the fat Pastures are the Lilies Violets and the sweetest of all pleasant flowers especially the three leaved grass that as Aristotle saith is most delight some unto the sheep for this is the food of the Shepherd even as he professeth in the Canticles Cantic 2. that he feedeth among the Lilies and that is as Psellus doth interpret it where he seeth the graces of Gods holy Spirit and the virtuous examples of the Saints these are as meat and drink unto him and so they are unto his sheep For as S. Ambrose saith the Pastures of Gods sheep are the blessed Sacraments the holy Scriptures heavenly Sermons pious books and holy meditations of heavenly things and especially the three leaved grass which is the understanding of that great mystery of godliness that our God which is but one God in Essence is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the waters of comfort The waters of comfort what they are are those plentiful streams of milk and honey of Divine Consolation wherewith the Spirit of God doth as it were inebriate the souls of his servants for the Church of Christ is the Land of Promise which floweth with milk and honey it is the Wilderness where the Lord raineth Manna the bread of heaven to fatisfie the fouls of his children it is the Spouse of Christ whose loves are better then Wine and it is the House of God Cantic 2. whereof the Psalmist speaketh that the sheep of Christ shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house and he shall give them drink of his pleasure as out of a River that is alwayes running Psal 36.8 and yet never dried up And Christ being our Shepherd his sheep shall not only have the spiritual food of their souls and be satisfied with these heavenly juncates but they shall have also whatsoever is necessary for the sustentation of their temporal life For as S. Paul saith Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come And our Saviour saith that if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and so to become the sheep of this good Shepherd Matth. 6. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other things that you seek as food and rayment shall be given unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things therefore he that feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him will much rather feed you that are the sheep of Christ if you relye upon him And they shall not only have sufficient for themselves but also to help and to relieve many others as the poor and their children and their childrens children for the blessing of the Lord saith Solomon maketh rich and a good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 10.22 Prov. 13 22. Psal 112. v. 2 3. Iob 22.23 for riches and plenteousness are in his house and his Seed is blessed And Eliphas the Temanite saith If thou return to the Almighty and put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles then shalt thou lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks Yea the Almighty shall be thy Defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver even as the Lord blessed Abraham that he became very rich in cattel Gen. 13.2 c. 12.16 in silver and in gold and had sheep and oxen and he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and Camels Or were it so that God did not thus bless us with outward wealth but suffer the world to frown upon us and to bring us to some want and poverty as he did to Job Lazarus and others either for the tryal of their faith patience and constancy in his service or for some other causes best known unto himself yet if we be the sheep of Christ what need we care or fear any such want so long as we want not the Wedding Garment and the spiritual food of our souls Quia major est suavitas mentis quam ventris because the garment of righteousness is of more worth then any Imperial Robe and the satisfying of our Souls is a great deal better then the filling of our bodies whose food be the same never so dainty is compared with the other nothing but ackorns and husks and other like vanities that are as soon done and gone as they are begun whereas a good conscience is a continual feast and the food of our souls Iohn 6.50 54. which our good Shepherd giveth us never perisheth but feedeth us to everlasting life as our Saviour sheweth O then beloved Brethren What a blessed and a happy thing it is to be the sheep of Christ to be thus innobled with such a Master thus protected from all evil and thus satisfied with all good though therefore the Proverb tells us and it is very true if thou make thy self a sheep the Wolfe will eat thee yet it is far more excellent and to be chosen rather to be a sheep of Christ then a wolfe of the world and to be a Lamb of God rather then a Lyon of the devil when at the last we shall find it far better to be devoured then to devoure and to be spoiled then to spoil our Neighbours 3 The duties and properties of Christ his sheep Two special points Iohn 10. v. 5. But then 3. If you would be the sheep of Christ you must be qualified with these two special properties 1. To hear the Voice of Christ 2. To refuse the hearing of a strangers voice For So our Saviour saith My sheep hear my voice but a stranger will they not follow but will fly from him because they know not the voice of strangers So
aut per maria ambulare Aug. de bonis Câ—njugal c. 37. Non in quantum sil dei sed in quant filius hominis Id. de sanctitat Virginit c. 27. aut coecos illuminare but learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart Therefore The second sort of the Acts and Doings of Christ are such as he did as man and are imitable to be imitated by us that are men and would be counted the Sheep and Servants of Christ and herein we should follow him And therein also we are to follow him 1. In respect of the Manner 2. In respect of the Matter For 1. What vertuous or pious act soever we desire to do 1 Sincerely 2. Totally 3. Diligently 4. Constantly 5. Humbly Diabolus dux nobis fuit ad superbiam Aug. ho. 12. Phil. 2.7 and to imitate Christ therein we must strive to do it to the uttermost of our power Modo forma in the same manner as Christ did it and that is 1. In sincerity without hypocrisie 2. For Gods glory and not for our own commodity 3. In a discreet knowledge and not in a blinde zeale Without the observation of which rules the Acts that we do may be good in themselves and yet quite spoyled from yielding any great good to us by our ill manner of doing them As 1. To fast and pray and to pay Tythes of Mynt and Annyse 1 Boni videri volunt sed non esse Bern. in cant Ser. 66. 1 Chr. 28.9 Prov. 21.1 Psal 51. Ad novercae tumulâ—m flere Hieron in Esa l. 6. How horrible it is to do villanies under the pretence of Piety Erasm in simil were very good deeds commended and commanded to be done by God himself yet because the Scribes and Pharisees did them in hypocrisie to be seen of men and to make the world believe they were Saints and the onely religious men our Saviour denounceth many a bitter woe against them and tells us that they have their reward and that is as Saint Hierom saith Gloriam mercenariam supplicia peccatorum So they that proclaim dayes of Humiliation and practise nothing but Oppression that pray to God to blesse them and prey upon the poor that curse them do but as the Greek Adage saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to weep for the death of our Stepmother and double their sin in the sight of God Quia levius est in alium aperte peccare quam simulare sanctitatem because the professed thief that robs by the high-way-side is not so bad as the holy Saint that under the shew of Religion takes away mine Estate saith Saint Hierome for as Wine mingled with Water doth sooner provoke vomite then either Water alone or pure Wine Ita intolerabilior est nequitia pietatatis simulatione condita quam simplex aperta malitia so any wickedness that is covered with the Cloak of Religion is a great deal more intolerable then if the same were plainly committed without any pretence of Piety saith Erasmus So horrible a sin it is to cloath Sin in the garment of Holiness as to put the Coat of Christ upon Judas his back 2. As it was an acceptable service unto God 2 Many doe Gods work for their own end as to subdue the rebels to get their lands for themselves The continual course of all worldlings in the service of God and a very good work to root out the house of Ahab for his Idolatry and prophaning Gods Service yet because Jehis did it rather to get the Kingdom unto himself and destroyed all the Kings children the better to secure himself in his Kingdome then to satisfie Gods justice for Ahabs Impiety the Lord saith that he will require the blood of Ahab on the house of Jehu even so they that destroy any Offenders root out the Transgressors of Gods Lawes and punish the Corrupters of Gods Worship be they whom you will the Work may be good and just yet if the doers thereof do it not so much to execute Gods Will as to satisfie their own Malice to suppress whom they hate or according to their ambition to make themselves great and to get their Estates and Possessions to themselves and their Posterity God will never accept of this work for any service done to him but will most severely punish it at the last And I think that the making of themselves great as Jehu did by the service that men pretend to do to God doth sufficiently cause many others to doubt whether they have done those things onely for Gods glory or for a conjuncture likewise of their own profit and I conceive you may be sure the jealous God will not regard that service which is done to him with a sinister aspect and respect to our own profit because he will not give his glory unto another he will not yield any part of his service to any of them that do the service but though he will certainly reward every man that doth him service yet as our Saviour explaineth the words of Moses it is written The shalt worship the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him onely shalt thou serve and not thy self with him in the service that thou dost to him so he will neither accept nor reward that service which thou dost to thy self as well as to God or rather to thy self then to God And therefore I would advise all those that in doing service unto God by pulling down the Transgressors of his Lawes have raised themselves to such great Polsessions I would the Rebels would consider this to look well to their intention progression and execution of their work lest that for the service they believe they do to God they receive the reward of the Scribes and Pharisees or of Jehn that pulled down King Ahab to make himself King of Israel 3. 3 Many do good in a blind zeal Num. 11.28 2 Sam. 16.9 The love of Joshna to Moses when Eldad and Medad prophesied was good and so was the love of Abishai to David when Shimei cursed him and of James and John to Christ when they would have called for fire out of heaven to destroy the Samaritans for not receiving Christ but the love of them was in a blind Zeal without knowledge and therefore instead of being commended they were much reproved for their indiscretion even as Saint Paul persecuted the Saints when his blind zeal perswaded him that he destroyed Gods enemies And as Aiax in his frenzy is reported to have slain his own children by taking them for Ulisses and Agamemnon so many men in their blind Zeal destroy the true Ambassadors of Christ and the Pastors of Gods people by taking them for Popish Prelates Origen in ep ad Rom. Zelus ad mortem Amb. in Ps 119. and therein think they do God good service as the Jews thought when they crucified Christ for as Origen saith Putant se zelum Dei habere sed quia non secundum
for judgement against the Bishops that were the Authours of these evils and so as all the Mariners were tossed for Jonas his sin so all the Bishops must suffer for the offence of few And though as Eusebius saith all the malice of the world and all the persecution of Tyrants and all the Stratagems of that old Serpent could not darken the glory of Christ his Church while the Bishops and the rest of the Priests and Preachers of God's word held together and kept the Unity of Faith in the Bond of Peace yet when the Bishops fell together by the ears and dissented in their opinions the one from the other the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that held the faith of one Substance which is the right Catholick faith from them that maintained the faith of the like Substance which was and is the Arrian Heresy and when the Priests banded against the Bishops and the Bishops did therefore seek to suppress those Priests then the Lord darkened the glory of the daughter of Sion and the Church that formerly triumphed sate then as a Sparrow that is alone mourning upon the House-top even so now in our days when they that ought and had promised and vowed most solemnly when they were admitted to Holy Orders to reverence their Bishops and to be advised by them and obedient to them began to spurn with their heels to spit in their faces and to bark against them in their Pulpits our Saviour's words must hold true that A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and much less the Hierarchy when the Priests and Bishops are at such ods and so contrary to themselves And this division of Reuben with the aforesaid distempers was a great presage of their present fall yet I believe not all the cause that moved God to permit the Devil to stir up Enemies to throw them down but the true cause was greater sins if I judge right then either of these for the former might be the aspersions of Enemies and but onely the allegation of ill-willers without any sound ground for their Justification or if true but the Acts of some few of the inferiour Bishops and the Divisions of the Clergy might lessen our repute and weaken our Authority but not utterly to overthrow our Hierarchy as all the contentions of the Primitive Church never did And therefore the true causes of our ruine must needs be of an higher nature and they might be besides the forenamed and some others that we know not of these three main faults that can neither be denied nor excused 1. The misguiding of the good King before the Long Parliament The three great saults of the Bishops 2. The neglecting of him in the Parliament 3. The evil Counsel they gave him with the Parliament First The King having a reverend opinion of the Bishops Fault was perswaded to second and to set forward the Designs of the Bishop of Canterbury in many things that brought him the ill opinion and so diminished the love of the people as in the matter of Saint Gregory's by Saint Paul's and especially in sending the newly amended Liturgy unto the Scotish Church and the Prosecution of that business so eagerly to the great prejudice of the King which was to speak what I conceive to be truth without flattery such an Episcopal offence as cannot be expiated with words nor could be defended with the power of the King as the Scots alleadged Non omnibus unum est Quod placet hic spinas colligit ille rosas and which I conceive to be the Original and the Seed of all the King's troubles and misfortunes and the Bishop's overthrow mittere falcem in alienam messem to busie themselves out of their own Diocess especially among the Scots that were bewitched with the love of the Presbytery and hated all forms of Liturgies but such as was without form or beauty like Christ at his Passion that was then as the Prophet saith without form or beauty for had they rested quiet without raising up those Northern blasts and those Spirits that they could not lay down they might no doubt in my Judgement have remained quiet to this very day but they throwing these stones into the Air they fell into their own fore-heads and they verified the old Proverb Qui striut insidias aliis sibi damna dat ipse he that diggeth a pit for another shall fall into it himself for by troubling the Scots with the new service they pull'd an old house upon their own heads and an unspeakable trouble upon the King and this Kingdom as they soon felt it afterwards and all the people smarted for it Secondly Great fault of the Bishops When they had troubled these unsavory waters and raised up these foul Spirits that they could not binde and had engaged the good King in this bad cause they neither justified the King with their pens nor assisted him with their purses near so much as so good a Patron both of them and of their Churches had deserved but as men stupified with that storm that the Parliament had raised they were tongue-tied in his Cause and hand-bound for any great help or assistance they afforded him against his and their own enemies And what a neglect was this of so good a King by wise men to save their Wealth and to lose both their King and themselves I would they had remembred Ausonius his Epigram 55. Effigiem Ausonius Epigt 55. Rex Croese tuam ditissime regum Vidit apud manes Diogenes Cynicus Constitit utque procul stetit majore cachinno Concussus dixit Quid tibi divitiae Nunc prosunt regum Rex O ditissime cumsis Sicut ego solus me quoque pauperior Nam quaecunque habui mecum fero cum nihil ipse Ex tantis tecum Croese feras opibus But they skulked to escape the storm I could name the men that had and let abundance of Wealth and ready Coin behind them and yet did nothing to relieve the King and suffered their King to suffer Ship-wrack a fault not unworthy to be punished by the Judges and an unthankfulness yea and such unthankfulness as exceeded all their former defects and faults to do so little for him that did so much for them and was contented to lose his life as he did rather then he would consent that they should lose their honour and be degraded of that Calling to which Christ had called them I am sure it is our duty and we ow it unto our King as I have fully shewed in my Book Of the Right of Kings to hazard our lives for our King and to spend all that we have in the defence of our King and I think this King well deserved if ever any King deserved at the Bishops hands that they should hazard their lives and expose all that they had in the just defence of so just a King and therefore God dealt most justly with us to suffer all our Bishops to