my Lords although the one of you is known to me but Ex auditu but being such as John gives of Demetrius I may speak to you both as I concluded my speech to you the last yeare that you may say with that worthy Judge of Israel Whose oxe have we taken and to whom have we wittingly done any wrong or at whose hands have we received any bribe to blind our eyes therewith Now as Plutarch writes of Garlick and Rue that being planted besides Rose-trees they make the Roses smell the sweeter So the corruptions of evill men set by the vertues of the good make them more pleasant in the nostrills of all good men The condemnation of evill is a secret commendation of them The threatning of judgment to the evill implies a promise of reward to them that are good Goe on in the name of God and the Spirit of the Lord even the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of Counsell and fortitude the Spirit of Knowledge and the feare of the Lord rest upon you and guide you in all your Consultations Proceedings and Judgements that Justice and Equity may be advanced Vice suppressed Religion and Piety established Gods name glorified Peace maintained your Duties discharged and your Soules saved through Christ Jesus c. The fourth Sermon LVKE 12. 32. For it is your Fathers good pleasure c. WEe have in it observed four things 1. The Granter your Father 2. The thing granted a Kingdome 3. The grantees not all Adams sons but the Sheep of this little flock 4. The consideration or cause impulsive and that is nothing in man but the love and will and good pleasure of Almighty God your father is wel pleased The last time I supplied this place I spoke of the first I will now follow the words as they lie in order and leaving that which I noted in the second place to the last as it lies in my Text I will conclude the other two in this one Proposition Our heavenly father bestows upon the members of his little flock eternall life in his Kingdome of glory not for any merit either of Faith or of Works but meerly of his good will and pleasure We do not now dispute whether any being come to yeares of discretion can be saved without faith and new obedience I grant none can these and others be media ad salutem and fruits and effects of predestination to life but the question is which is the Sola causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which internally moves God to do this Here we exclude both faith and works yea predestination in Christ yea and Christ himselfe in whom as in the head this little flock was elected to a Kingdome and ascribe all those to the good pleasure of his will This is the little inward wheel which sets all the rest on work it 's the Primus motor which carries all the inferior orbes Election to Salvation the death and merits of Christ Vocation and the rest with and under it Election to glory is the first link in this golden chain it 's the Primum mobile that carries all the rest with it and for this and so consequently for all the rest we find no praevision either of faith or works or of any other thing for what could he foresee to see in man that is good but what from eternity he decreed to bestow upon him for his prescience in order of nature follows his decree that is he did not decree because he did foresee but he fore-saw because hee decreed things to be thus or thus but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure and will of God And surely this we may see as in a pure glasse as Austin well notes in the very head of the Church Mortal man is conceived of the seed of David by what works by what vertue did this mortall flesh merit that it should be united unto the Divinity that in the very Virgins womb he should be made the head of Angels the glory of the Father the only begotten sonne of God the righteousnesse light and salvation of the world Surely he was not made the Son of God by living righteously but it was the Fathers good pleasure that he should be dignified with this honour that he might make his little flocke partakers of his gifts But because we are now about divine mysteries in which we can know no more then the Lord hath revealed in his word let us follow this word as the Israelites followed the cloud which indeed shews the way to the promised Land and as the Wise men followed the Star which led them to Christ and it will bring us into the Kings chamber as a Father speaks Where are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid that we should be holy c. And all this according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. here almost every word is an argument 1. He hath chosen us From whence did he choose us Out of that masse of corruption in which all mankind was drowned and was become sonnes of wrath and bond-slaves to Satan Well then as there could be no merits in them which he past by for if they had merited they had been elected so neither did wee merit why we should be elected but from his good will and pleasure have we obtained this grace 2. Before the foundation of the world Ergo from eternity Ergo not for works 3. That we should be holy Ergo not because we were holy and so the Apostle speaks of faith God had mercie on me Vt fidelis essem not because I was faithfull 4. According to the good pleasure of his will There is the ground and cause of all Our fathers good pleasure Even so O father because thy good will and pleasure was such Adde unto this that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace Where to our works hee opposeth Gods purpose and grace And not to trouble you with other places that in Rom. 9. where speaking of Gods free election of some and rejection or if you like the word better praeterition of others he sends us to the prine cause of all the pleasure and will of God 1. He instanceth in Ishmael and Isaac both begotten by faithfull Abraham yet one is elected the other left out but because the Jews might object that there was not the same reason of Ishmael and Isaac the one being begotten of a bond-woman the other of a lawfull wife Sarah to whom he was promised before he was conceived Therefore hee brings another instance in Esau and Jacob who though they were both children of Isaac and discended from faithfull Abraham to whom the promise was made In thy seed c. and were Twins of one Birth and in all things like save that Esau was the Elder
fulfilled the Commandements of God yet wantest thou one thing for that work which must merit must be Opus indebitum Now obedience to every branch of Gods law is a debt which we are owing to God by the law of creation and God may say to every one of us as Paul said to Philemon Thou owest to mee even thine owne selfe Doth a Master thank that servant which did that which he was commanded to do I trow not so likewise When yee have done all things which were commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have but done that which was our duty to do Inutilis servus vocatur saith Austin qui omnia fecit quia nihil fecit ultra id quod debuit And Theophylact upon that place The servant if he work not is worthy of many stripes and when he has wrought let him be contented with this that he hath escaped stripes 3. That work by which thou must merit must be thine own but thy good works if thou look to the first cause are not so Quid habes quod non accipisti 1 Cor. 4. It s God that worketh both the will and the deed Phil. 2. 13. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 13. So then put case thou couldst fulfill the law and it were not a payment of debt yet is no merit due to thee but to him whose they are Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Every good and perfect gift comes from above even from the father of lights And Deus sua dona non nostra merita coronat 4. Admit it were in thy power to fulfill the law that it were no debt that thy works were wholly thine and God had no part in them this is not enough there must be some proportion between the work and the reward or no proper merit Now between thy best works and the Kingdome of heaven promised to Christs little flock there is not that proportion that is Inter stillam muriae mare Aegeum as Tullie speaks between the light of a candle and the light of the Sunne between the least grane of sand that lies on the Sea-shore and the highest heaven as shall presently appear 5. Last of all that thy work may merit at Gods hands some profit or honour must thereby accrue to him But my goodnesse saith David O Lord reacheth not unto thee but to the saints that are on the earth If thou be righteous saith Elihu what givest thou to God or what receiveth he at thine hand Job 35. Who hath given unto him first Rom. 11. 35. All these five things are requisite for the merit of works but not onely some but all of them are wanting to our best works and therefore we must with the Scriptures ascribe our whole salvation to the grace of God and acknowledge nothing inherent in us to be the prime cause of all his graces but his owne good will and pleasure I count the afflictions of this world not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. And in another place he tells us That wee deserve hell for our evill workes The wages of sinne is death but not heaven for our good deeds and sufferings but of Gods bounty and mercie Eternall life is the gift of God Rom. 6. Not by the works of righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie he saved us Tit. 3. And ye are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. And how doth he prove that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works because Ei qui operatur merces non imputatur secundū gratiam sed secundum debitum And if Abraham had been justified by works he had wherein to rejoyce but not with God Rom. 3. These are places of Scripture and let me build upon this occasion to produce an assertion which once I brought upon another point which some that I see here present were pleased to except against as savouring of blasphemy though the words excepted against were none of mine but of Justin Martyr who lived above 1400. years agoe and confidently brought by him in his discourse with Tryphon a Jew if any I will not say Pelagian or Arminian or Papist but if all the Fathers of the Primitive Church if all the ancient Councels if Moses and all the Prophets if Paul and all the Apostles if an Angel from heaven nay if God himself these are the words of Justin the Martyr should deliver any doctrine repugnant to that which is contained in this booke I would not believe him Agreeable unto these places of Scripture was the doctrine of the ancient Church Gratia evacuatur si non gratis donatur sed meritis redditur Aug. Epist 105. Non dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo And in a third place Non pro merito quidem accipimus vitam aeternam sed tantum pro gratia Tract 3. in Ioh. And thus have I confirmed my proposition by reason by Scriptures and by the testimonie of the Church and Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus contra scripturas nemo Christianus senserit as a Father saith Unto all these might be added if it were needfull the confession of the learnedst of our Adversaries let our Enemies be Judges who cry down this blasphemous doctrine of Merit God saith one of them doth punish Citra condignum but rewards Vltra condignum and Scotus as Bellar confesseth holds that Bona opera ex gratia procedentia non sunt meritoria ex condigno sed tantum ratione pacti acceptationis divinae And of the same opinion saith he were other of the old Schoolmen and of the new Writers Andreas Vega. Ferus as in many other points between us the Pontificians so in this he is as sound a Catholique and as good a Protestant as Calvin himselfe or any that hath written on this subject in Math. cap. 20. vers 8. Gratis promisit gratis reddit si dei gratiam favorē conservare vis nulla meritorum tnorum mentionem facito And in Acts 15. Qui docet in operibus confidere is negat Christi meritum sufficere Both which places many others of the same Author their Index Expurgatorius hath wiped out using him the ancient fathers as Tereus dealt with Progne who cut out her tongue lest she shold tel the truth Yea and Bellarmine himselfe after he hath spent seventeen leaves in defence of merit of works and scrapt and catcht and drawn in by the shoulders whatsoever he could out of the Scriptures or ancine Fathers for colouring that Tenent at length brings this Orthodoxall conclusion with which I will conclude this point Very Orthodoxall indeed if two letters be transposed Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae let it be Propter certitudinem propriae injustitiae propter periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate
attribute being more proper and essentiall unto God then any whatsoever That Tyrian proved the wisest in the end who having concluded in the Evening with his fellowes that he which could first in the next morning behold the Sun which they worshipped as a God should be King looked not toward the East where he riseth but towards the western mountains where his rayes did first appear We will follow his Example and seeing we cannot seek into the fountain at which the Cherubs did cover their faces let us behold it in the mountains that is the Prophets and Apostles as Jerome expounds the word or the mountains that is the creatures and works of God in all which it doth most clearly shine there is no work of God in which there do not appear such manifest Characters of his mercy that he which runneth may read them Those benefits intended towards his children as namely Election before all time creation in the beginning of time Vocation Redemption Justification in the fulnesse of time Glorification after all time c. To prove them to be so many rivers of the bottomlesse Ocean of Gods never dying mercy it were but to busie my self about a principle which I hope none of you will call into question Gods almighty power is manifested unto us in that he hath created the world of nothing and made all the hoast of heaven by the breath of his mouth and it is a property in describing of which Gods Secretaries do strive to be eloquent Job to shew it faith that hee spreadeth out the heavens like a Canopie and walketh upon the height of the Sea that he maketh the starres Arcturu and Orion and Pleiades and the climates of the South Elihu sets it forth under Behemoth whose taile is like a Cedar and his bones like staves of brasse yet the Lord leadeth him whither soever he will and under Leviathan which makes the depth to boile like a pot and the sea like a pot of ointment and yet the Lord can put a hoâ—k in his nose and pierce his jawes with an Angle David to shew it faith that he maketh the mountains to skippe like Rammes and the little hils like young sheep Esay to expresse it saith that all nations before him are as a droppe of a bucket and are counted as the dust of the ballance that hee taketh away the Isles as a little dust that he hath measured the waters in his fist and counted heaven with a span comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a weight and the hils in a ballance and yet his mercy goeth beyond his power in that his omnipotency hath made nothing but what his mercy moved him to create and it comes after too in preserving and guiding and protecting by his heavenly providence a branch of his mercy whatsoever his powerfull hand hath made if he should but once stop the influence of his mercy all the works of his hands should presently be annihilated The earth is full of the mercies of the Lord saith the Psalmist hee saith not the heavens saith Austen Quia non indigent misericordia ubi est nulla miseria they needed no mercy where there is no misery and yet in another place hee addeth the heavens too thy truth an other of his attributes goeth unto the clouds there it stayeth but thy mercy goeth further it reacheth unto the heavens in fewer words It is over all his works But my text leads me to entreat of his mercy as it hath reference unto his justice where you shall finde that of two infinites one doth infinitely surpasse an other to bee called a mercifull God and the father of mercy is a title wherein God especially delighteth but he is almost never called the God of judgement here how hee proclaimeth himself The Lord the Lord strong there is one Epithete of his power merciful gracious slow to anger abundant in goodnesse and truth reserving mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin there are six of his mercy Then comes his justice in punishing of offences not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there he confines his justice hee saith unto it as he doth unto the seas in Job Hither shalt thou goe and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy raging waves it shall not passe the fourth generation and that is more then Ordinary if it come so farre it is but as a high spring upon such as hate him but his mercy flowes like a boundlesse Ocean upon thousands of those that love him Nay the Prophet tels us that to punish is with God a rare and extraordinary work The Lord saith he shall stand as in mount Perazim hee shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon that hee may do his work his strange act This is an act of judgement where you see that to punish with him is an uncouth and strange work an act indeed unto which without compulsion of justice hee could not be drawn he is more loath to put out his hand for to inflict a judgement then ever was Octavius to subscribe his name to the execution of any publike offender whose usuall speech was this Vtinam nescirem literas I would to God I could not write How oft doth miserable man offend against his maker surely if the just man fall seven times then the wicked falleth seventy times seven times and yet he maketh his Sunne to shine upon them both he makes his rain to fall upon them both still almost he containeth the sword of his justice within the sheath of his mercy If in case he be enforced to draw it he is as it were touched with a feeling of that which the wicked suffer hear himself speak Therefore thus saith the Lord of hoasts the holy one of Israel ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies it is a kinde of ease to be avenged of thine enemie and therefore God when the Jews continue still to provoke him to his face will ease himself by inflicting his judgements upon them I will ease me of mine enemies but it comes with an ah or alas it is pain and grief to him he is wounded to the very heart his bowels are rolled and turned within him a few tears might have made him sheath his sword and deferre his punishments the history of Ahab will prove as much who was one that had sold himself to work wickednesse that provoked the Lord more then all the Kings of Israel that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin therefore the Lords sends unto him the Prophet Eliah telling him that in the field where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth they should lick his blood also and that he would wipe
away his posterity as one wipeth a dish when it is wiped and turned upside down Ahab hath no sooner rented his clothes at the Prophets words then God repenteth him of what he had threatned Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me a simple humiliation God wot only in outward shew and yet shall suffice to revoke part of Gods judgements against him because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his dayes upon his house Nineve had multiplyed her transgressions as the sand upon the sea shore she had by her sins blown upon the coals of Gods anger against her but yet he will not come upon her as a thief in the night to destroy her she shall have fourtie dayes warning and if in the mean time she will turn her playing into praying and her feasting into fasting and by covering her self with sack cloth hide from his eyes her broad sails of pride he will make it known unto her that he was not so ready before to lend a left ear of justice to her crying sins as he is now to afford a right ear of mercie to the cry of her sinners he will repent of the evil that he had denounced against her and will not do it The old world had so defiled the earth with her cruelties and the smoak of her sins did so fume up to Heaven into the Nostrils of God that he was sorry in his heart that ever he had made man yet he will not presently destroy this wicked generation there shall be an hundred and twenty years for repentance before he will purge this Augaeum stabulum with a deluge of waters Nay such is the never drying stream of his mercies that for the righteous sake the wicked though they do not repent shall fare the better God is not like to the Emperour Theodosius who for the offence of a few put all the Thessalonians to the sword but rather if without offence the Potter may be compared to the clay like to that Persian General who spared Delos because that Apollo was born there or Caesar who made the Cnidians free men for Theopompus his sake it was an opinion of the Heathen that for one evil mans sake many good men were put to the worse Pallas exurere Gentem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Pallas overthrew the whole navie of the Argives Vnius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei for the sin of one man by name Ajax the son of Oileus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God punisheth a whole City for one mans sin and sends upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famine and plague for the sin of some particular it is not so God never punisheth one man for anothers offences if thou object unto me that the Israelites were plagued for Davids trespasse I answer Davids sin did occasion that punishment which the Israelites did justly deserve for their own iniquities for howsoever David in respect of himself who deserved more called them sheep yet indeed they were Wolves in sheep-skins and verily in this particular we have an evident demonstration of his mercies for first of three several punishments he gives him leave to chuse which of them he would When David had chosen the Pestilence for three dayes indeed he sent his destroying Angel but before his sword was half drawn he puts it up again and repenteth him of the evil and abridgeth the time Now we know that every substraction from his judgements is a multiplication of his mercies and how far he is from punishing the righteous with the wicked let Sodom witnesse a sink of the filthiest sins a cage of the uncleanest birds a den of the wickedest theeves that ever the earth bred yet he will not rashly come upon her but first he will go down and see whether they have done altogether according unto that cry which was come unto him and if there can but fifty righteous men be found in five Cities which was but for every City ten nay if but fourty nay if but thirty nay if but twenty nay if but ten can bee found amongst them all which was but for every City two he will not destroy the Citie for those mens sake when none can be found save just Lot he will not subvert Sodom before he be brought out of the City nay he will spare the whole City of Zoar for Lots sake if good Paul be in the ship all that are with him even the barbarous Souldiers shall for his sake come safe to land But of all others that I may end this point where I began it Jerusalem in my Text is most famous whom the Lord doth so tenderly compassionate that if within her spatious walls amongst so many millions of souls one righteous man could have been found either among the Nobles or Magistrates or Priests or people he would have spared Jerusalem for that mans sake And is this true be not then dismayed thou fainting and drooping soul whom the burden of thy sins hath pressed down to the brink of hell is there such a thunder-threatning Cloud of Gods justice set before thine eyes that thou thinkest it impossible that the Sun of his favour should pierce through it into thine heart deceive not thy self where sin aboundeth there grace super-aboundeth thou aâ—t a fit Subject for God to work upon where should the Physitian shew his skill but where the greatest maladies do reign and where can God better shew his mercie then where is the greatest aboundance of mans misery the desperatest diseases that can befall the soul of man dead Apoplexies unclean Leprosies dangerous Lethargies remedilesse Consumptions whatsoever they be God can as easily cure them as the smallest infection and as he is able so is he most willing to do it because his mercy as I have already proved is his chiefest attribute and every attribute of God is the Essence of God so that he can no more cease from his works of mercy then the eye being well disposed from seeing or the fire from heating or the Heaven from moving or the Sun from shining he that denyeth this is a Traytor to the King of Heaven because he gain-sayeth that stile wherein God especially delighteth There is no sin of it self 〈◊〉 but God can wipe it away he will forgive 〈…〉 as welâ— as righteous Abraham ten thousand talents aâ— one peny Suppose that all the sins that ever were committed from the murther of Cain to the treason of Judas laid upon thy shoulders there is no more proportion between them and Gods mercie then between stillam muriae mare Aegaeum betwixt a drop of brine and the Aegean nay the great Ocean the snuff of the Candle and the light of the day or a mote in the Sun and the Globe of the high Heaven Flie unto the throne of grace and though thy sins were bloody like Scarlet he will make them as Wool and
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth