ye see how all is of God by his Son Christ our Lord and Saviour Remember I say once again your Duty of Thanks let them be never to want still injoyn your self to continue in Thanksgiving ye can offer to God no better Sacrifice For he saith himself Psal 50. It is the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks that shall honor me Which thing was well perceived of that holy Prophet David when he so earnestly spake to himself thus Psal 103. O my Soul bless thou the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy Name I say once again O my Soul bless thou the Lord and never forget his manifold rewards God give us Grace good People to know these things and to feel them in our Hearts This knowledge and feeling is not in our selves by our selves it is not possible to come by it a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge Let us therefore meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit the Holy Ghost which proceedeth from our Father of Mercy and from our Mediator Christ that he would assist us and inspire us with his presence that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our Salvation For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the Name of our Mediator as St. Paul plainly testifieth 1 Cor. 12 No Man can once Name our Lord Jesus Christ but in the Holy Ghost Much less should we be able to believe and know these great Mysteries that be opened to us by Christ St. Paul saith That no Man can know what is of God 1 Cor. 2. but the Spirit of God As for us saith he we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God for this purpose That in that holy Spirit we might know the things that be given us by Christ The Wise man saith that in the Power and Vertue of the Holy Ghost resteth all Wisdom and all Ability to know God and to please him For he waiteth thus We know that it is not in Mans power to guide his goings Wisd 9. No Man can know thy Pleasure except thou givest Wisdom and sendest thy holy Spirit from above Send him down therefore prayeth he to God from the holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy Majesty that he may be with me and labor with me that so I may know what is acceptable before thee Let us with so good Heart Pray as he did and we shall not fail but to have his assistance For he is soon seen of them that love him he will be found of them that seek him for very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom In his power shall we have sufficient Abilty to know our Duty to God in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our Duty in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the Grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working And he only is present every where by his invisible Power and containeth all things in his Dominion He lightneth the Heart to conceive worthy thoughts to Almighty God he sitteth in the Tongue of Man to stir him to speak his Honor no Language is hid from him for he hath the knowledge of all Speech he only Ministreth Spiritual strength to the powers of our Soul and Body To hold the way which God had prepared for us to walk rightly in our Journey we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity That we may boldly come in Prayer and call upon Almighty God as our Father it is by this holy Spirit which maketh intercession for us with continual Sighs Galat. 4. Rom. 8. If any Gift we have wherewith we may work to the Glory of God and profit of our Neighbor all is wrought by this own and self same Spirit which maketh his distributions peculiarly to every Man as he will 1 Cor. 12. If any Wisdom we have it is not of our selves we cannot glory therein as begun of our selves but we ought to glory in God from whom it came to us as the Prophet Jeremy writeth Jerem. 9. Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me for I am the Lord which sheweth Mercy Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. This Wisdom cannot be attained but by the direction of the Spirit of God and therefore it is called Spiritual Wisdom And no where can we more certainly search for the knowledge of this Will of God by the which we must direct all our Works and Deeds but in the holy Scriptures for they be they that testifie of him John 5. saith our Saviour Christ It may be called Knowledg and Learning that is other where gotten without the Word but the Wise Man plainly testifieth Wisd 13. that they all be but Vain which have not in them the Wisdom of God We see to what Vanity the Old Philosophers came who were destitute of this Science gotten and searched for in his Word We see what Vanity the School Doctrin is mixed with for that in this Word they sought not the Will of God but rather the Will of Reason the Trade of Custom the Path of the Fathers the Practice of the Church Let us therefore Read and Revolve the holy Scripture both Day and Night Psal 1. Psal 119. For blessed is he that hath his whole meditation therein It is that which giveth light to our Feet to walk by It is that which giveth Wisdom to the simple and ignorant In it may we find Eternal Life In the holy Scriptures find we Christ in Christ find we God for he it is that is the express Image of the Father He that seeth Christ seeth the Father And contrariwise as St. Jerome saith the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ Not to know Christ Psal 19. Heb. 1. John 14. is to be in darkness in the midst of our Worldly and Carnal light of Reason and Philosophy To be without Christ is to be in foolishness For he is the only Wisdom of the Father in whom it pleased him that all fulness and perfection should dwell Coloss 2. With whom whosoever is endued in Heart by Faith and rooted fast in Charity hath laid a sure Foundation to build on whereby he may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ This universal and absolute knowledge is that Wisdom which St. Paul wisheth these Ephesians to have as under Heaven the greatest treasure that can be obtained Ephes 3. For of this Wisdom the Wise Man writeth thus of his experience All good things came to me together with her and innumerable Riches through her hands And addeth more in that same place Sap. 7.
imaginations and turn again unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And in the Prophet Hosea the godly exhort one another after this manner Come and let us turn again unto the Lord Hos 6. for he hath smitten us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will bind us up again Note It is most evident and plain that these things ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sins and wickednesses were gone away from him For we do not turn again unto him with whom we were never before but we come unto him Now unto all them that will return unfeignedly unto the Lord their God Eccles 7. 1 John 1. the favor and mercy of God unto forgiveness of sins is liberally offered whereby it followeth necessarily that although we do after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ fall into great sins for there is no righteous Man upon the Earth that sinneth not and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us yet if we rise again by Repentance and with a full purpose of amendment of Life do flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in his Son Jesu Christ there is an assured and infallible hope of pardon and remission of the same and that we shall be received again into the favor of our Heavenly Father It is written of David Acts 13. 2 Sam. 7. I have found a Man according to mine own heart or I have found David the Son of Jesse a Man according to mine own heart who will do all things that I will This is a great commendation of David It is also most certain that he did stedfastly believe the promise that was made him touching the Messias who should come of him touching the Flesh and that by the same Faith he was justified and grafted in our Saviour Jesu Christ to come and yet afterwards he fell horribly committing most detestable Adultery and damnable Murder and yet as soon as he cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 2. 2 Sam. 22. I have sinned unto the Lord his sin being forgiven he was received into favor again Now will we come unto Peter of whom no Man can doubt but that he was grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ long before his denial Which thing may easily be proved by the answer which he did in his Name and in the Name of his Fellow Apostles make unto our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said unto them Will ye also go away John 6. Master saith he to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and know that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God Whereunto may be added the like Confession of Peter where Christ doth give us most infallible testimony Thou art blessed Simon the Son of Jonas for neither Flesh nor Blood hath revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven These words are sufficient to prove that Peter was already justifyed through this lively Faith in the only begotten Son of God whereof he made so notable and so solemn a confession But did not he afterwards most cowardly deny his Master although he had heard of him Mat. 26. Mat. 10. Whosoever denieth me before Men I will deny him before my Father Nevertheless as soon as with weeping eyes and with a sobing heart he did acknowledge his offence and with an earnest repentance did flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in him whom he had so shamefully denied his sin was forgiven him and for a Certificate and Assurance thereof the Room of his Apostleship was not denied unto him But now mark what doth follow After the same Holy Apostle had on Whitsunday Acts 2. with the rest of the Disciples received the gift of the Holy Ghost most abundantly he committed no small offence in Antiochia by bringing the Consciences of the Faithful into doubt by his Example Gal. 2. so that Paul was fain to rebuke him to his Face because that he walked not uprightly or went not the right way in the Gospel Shall we now say that after this grievous offence he was utterly excluded and shut out from the grace and mercy of God and that this his trespass whereby he was a stumbling Block unto many was unpardonable God defend we should say so But as these Examples are not brought in to the end that we should thereby take a boldness to sin presuming on the mercy and goodness of God but to the end that if through the frailness of our own Flesh and the temptation of the Devil we fall into like sins we should in no wise despair of the mercy and goodness of God What we must beware of Even so must we beware and take heed that we do in no wise think in our hearts imagine or believe that we are able to repent aright or to turn effectually unto the Lord by our own might and strength For this must be verified in all Men John 15. 2 Cor. 3. Phil. 2. Without me ye can do nothing Again Of our selves we are not able as much as to think a good thought And in another place It is God that worketh in us both the Will and the Deed. For this cause although Jeremy had said before Jer. 6. If thou return O Israel return unto me saith the Lord yet afterwards he saith Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God And therefore that holy Writer and ancient Father Ambrose doth plainly affirm That the turning of the heart unto God Ambros de Vocat Gent. lib. 8 cap. 9. is of God as the Lord himself doth testifie by his Prophet saying And I will give thee an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart These things being considered let us earnestly pray unto the living God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe by his holy Spirit to work a true and unfeigned Repentance in us that after the painful labors and travels of this Life we may live eternally with his Son Jesus Christ to whom be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of Repentance HItherto have ye heard Well-beloved how needful and necessary the Doctrin of Repentance is and how earnestly it is throughout all the Scriptures of God urged and set forth both by the ancient Prophets by our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles And that for as much as it is the conversion or turning again of the whole Man unto God from whom we go away by sin these four Points ought to be observed that is From whence or from what things we must return
this manner Peter was sorry and wept De poenitentia distin I. cap. Petrus because he erred as a Man I do not find what he said I know that he wept I read of his Tears but not of his satisfaction But how chance that the one was received into favor again with God and the other cast away but because that the one did by a lively Faith in him whom he had denied take hold upon the mercy of God and the other wanted Faith whereby he did despair of the Goodness and Mercy of God It is evident and plain then that although we be never so earnestly sorry for our sins acknowledge and confess them yet all these things shall be but means to bring us to utter desparation except we do stedfastly believe that God our Heavenly Father will for his Son Jesus Christs sake Pardon and Forgive us our Offences and Trespasses and utterly put them out of remembrance in his sight Therefore as we said before they that teach Repentance without Christ and a lively Faith in the Mercy of God do only teach Cains or Judas Repentance The Fourth is an Amendment of Life or a new Life in bringing forth Fruits worthy of Repentance For they that do truly Repent must be clean altered and changed they must become new Creatures they must be no more the same that that they were before And therefore thus said John Baptist unto the Pharisees and Sadducees that came unto his Baptism O generation of Vipers Matt. 3. who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth therefore Fruits worthy of Repentance Whereby we do learn that if we will have the wrath of God to be pacified we must in no wise dissemble but turn unto him again with a true and found Repentance which may be known and declared by good Fruits as by most sure and infallible signs thereof They that do from the bottom of their Hearts acknowledge their Sins and are unfeignedly sorry for their Offences will cast off all Hypocrisie and put on true Humility and lowliness of Heart They will not only receive the Physician of the Soul but also with a most fervent desire long for him They will not only abstain from the Sins of their former Life and from all other filthy Vices but also flee eschew and abhor all the occasions of them And as they did before give themselves to uncleanness of Life so will they from henceforwards with all diligence give themselves to Innocency pureness of Life and true Godliness Ionas 3. We have the Ninevites for an example which at the Preaching of Jonas did not only proclaim a general Fast and that they should every one put on Sackcloth but they all did turn from their Evil Ways and from the Wickedness that was in their Hands But above all other the History of Zaccheus is most notable For being come unto our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 19. he did say Behold Lord the half of my Goods I give to the Poor and if I have defrauded any Man or taken ought away by Extortion or Fraud I do restore him fourfold Here we see that after his Repentance he was no more the Man that he was before but was clean changed and altered It was so far off that he would continue and abide still in his unsatiable covetousness or take ought away fraudulently from any Man that rather he was most willing and ready to give away his own and to make satisfaction unto all them that he had done injury and wrong unto Here may we right well add the sinful Woman which when she came to our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 7. did pour down such abundance of Tears out of those wanton Eyes of hers wherewith she had allured many unto folly that she did with them wash his Feet wiping them with the Hairs of her Head which she was wont most gloriously to set out making of them a Net for the Devil Hereby we do learn what is the satisfaction that God doth require of us which is that we cease from Evil Iohn 5. and do Good and if we have done any Man wrong to endeavor our selves to make him true amends to the utmost of our power following in this the example of Zaccheus and of this sinfull Woman and also that goodly Lesson that John Baptist Zacharias Son bid give unto them that came to ask Counsel of him This was commonly the Penance that Christ enjoyned sinners Go thy way and sin no more John 15. Which Penance we shall never be able to fulfil without the special grace of him that doth say Without me ye can do nothing It is therefore our parts if at least we be desirous of the health and salvation of our own selves most earnestly to pray unto our heavenly Father to assist us with his holy Spirit that we may be able to hearken unto the Voice of the true Shepherd and with due obedience to follow the same Let us hearken to the Voice of Almighty God when he calleth us to Repentance let us not harden our hearts as such Infidels do who abuse the time given them of God to repent and turn it to continue their pride and contempt against God and Man which know not how much they heap Gods wrath upon themselves for the hardness of their hearts which cannot repent at the day of Vengeance Where we have offended the Law of God let us repent us of our straying from so good a Lord. Let us confess our unworthiness before him but yet let us trust in Gods free mercy for Christs sake for the pardon of the same And from henceforth let us endeavor our selves to walk in a new Life as new born Babes whereby we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven and thereby to bear in our Consciences a good testimony of our Faith so that at the last to obtain the fruition of everlasting life through the merits of our Saviour To whom be all praise and honor for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily of Repentance IN the Homily last spoken unto you right well-beloved People in our Saviour Christ ye heard of the true parts and tokens of Repentance that is hearty contrition and sorrowfulness of our Hearts unfeigned confession in word of mouth for our unworthy living before God a stedfast Faith to the merits of our Saviour Christ for pardon and a purpose of our selves by Gods grace to renounce our former wicked life and a full Conversion to God in a new life to glorifie his Name and to live orderly and charitably to the comfort of our Neighbor in all righteousness and to live soberly and modestly to our selves by using abstinence and temperance in word and in deed in mortifying our earthly Members here upon Earth Now for a further perswasion to move you to those parts of Repentance I will declare unto you some causes which should the rather move you to Repentance The causes that should
Publican before the Proud Holy and Glorious Pharisee He calleth himself a Physician but not to them that be whole Luke 18. Matth. 9. but to them that be sick and have need of his Salve for their Sore He teacheth us in our Prayers to acknowledge ourselves Sinners and to ask Righteousness and deliverance from all Evils at our Heavenly Father's hand He declareth that the sins of our own Hearts do defile our ownselves He teacheth Matth. 12. that an evil Word or Thought deserveth Condemnation affirming that We shall give account for every idle word Matth. 15. He saith He came not to save but the sheep that were utterly lost and cast away Therefore few of the Proud Just Learned Wise Perfect and Holy Pharisees were saved by him because they justified themselves by their counterfeit Holiness before Men. Wherefore good People let us beware of such Hypocrisie Vain-glory and Justifying of ourselves The Second Part of the SERMON of the Misery of Man FOrasmuch as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God ye have heard in the last Reading how Humbly all good Men always have thought of themselves and so to think and judge of themselves are taught of God their Creator by his Holy Word For of ourselves we be Crab-trees that can bring forth no Apples We be of ourselves of such Earth as can but bring forth Weeds Nettles Brambles Briers Cockle and Darnel Our Fruits be declared in the 5th Chapter to the Galatians Gal. 5. We have neither Faith Charity Hope Patience Chastity nor any thing else that good is but of God and therefore these Virtues be called there The fruits of the Holy Ghost and not the fruits of Man Let us therefore acknowledge ourselves before God as we be indeed miserable and wretched Sinners And let us earnestly Repent and Humble ourselves heartily and cry to God for Mercy Let us all Confess with Mouth and Heart that we be full of Imperfections Let us know our own Works of what imperfection they be and then we shall not stand foolishly and arrogantly in our own Conceits nor challenge any part of Justification by our Merits or Works For truly there be imperfections in our best Works We do not love God so much as we are bound to do with all our Heart Mind and Power We do not fear God so much as we ought to do We do not pray to God but with great and many imperfections We Give Forgive Believe Live and Hope imperfectly We Speak Think and Do impefectly We Fight against the Devil the World and the Flesh imperfectly Let us therefore not be ashamed to confess plainly our state of Imperfection Yea let us not be ashamed to confess Imperfection even in all our best Works Let none of us be ashamed to say with the Holy St. Peter Luke 5. Psal 106. I am a sinful man Let us say with the Holy Prophet David We have sinned with our fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly Let us all make open Confession with the Prodigal Son to our Father and say with him We have sinned against Heaven Luke 14. and before thee O Father we are not worthy to be called thy sons Let us all say with Holy Baruch Baruch 2. O Lord our God to us is worthily ascribed shame and confusion and to thee righteousness We have sinned we have done wickedly we have behaved ourselves ungodlily in all thy Righteousness Let us all say with the Holy Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee unto us belongeth confusion We have sinned we have been naughty we have offended we have fled from thee we have gone back from all thy Precepts and Judgments So we learn of all good Men in Holy Scriptures to Humble our selves and to Exalt Extol Praise Magnifie and Glorifie God Thus we have heard how evil we be of ourselves how of ourselves and by ourselves we have no Goodness Help or Salvation but contrariwise Sin Damnation and Death everlasting Which if we deeply weigh and consider we shall the better understand the great Mercy of God and how our Salvation cometh only by Christ 2 Cor. 3. For in ourselves as of ourselves we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable Captivity into the which we are cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking of God's Commandment in our first Parent Adam Psal 50. Ephes 2. We are all become unclean but we all are not able to cleanse ourselves nor make one another of us clean We are by nature the children of God's wrath but we are notable to make ourselves the Children and Inheritors of God's Glory We are Sheep that run astray 1 Pet. 2. but we cannot of our own power come again to the Sheepfold so great is our Imperfection and Weakness In ourselves therefore may we not glory which of ourselves are nothing but sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works that we do all which be so Imperfect and Impure that they are not able to stand before the Righteous Judgment Seat of God as the Holy Prophet David saith Psal 143. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord for no man that liveth shall be found righteous in thy sight To God therefore must we flee or else shall we never find Peace Rest and Quietness of Conscience in our Hearts For he is the father of mercies and God of all consolation He is the Lord with whom is plenteous redemption 2 Cor. 1. He is the God which of his own mercy saveth us Psal 130. and setteth out his Charity and exceeding Love towards us in that of his own voluntary Goodness when we were Perishing he Saved us and provided an everlasting Kingdom for us And all these Heavenly Treasures are given us not for our own Deserts Merits or good Deeds which of ourselves we have none but of his mere Mercy freely And for whose sake Truly for Jesus Christ's sake that pure and undefiled Lamb of God He is that dearly beloved Son for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at One with Man He is the Lamb of God John 1. which taketh away the sins of the World of whom only it may be truly spoken that he did all things well 1 Pet. 2. and in his mouth was found no craft nor subtilty None but he alone may say The Prince of the World came and in me he hath nothing And he alone may also say Which of you shall reprove me of any fault John 8. He is the high and everlasting Priest Heb. 7. which hath offered himself once for all upon the Altar of the Cross and with that one oblation hath made perfect for evermore them that are sanctified 1 John 2. He is the alone Mediator between God and Man which paid our ransom to God with his own blood and with that hath he cleansed us
all from sin He is the Physician which healeth all our Diseases He is that Saviour which saveth People from all their sins To be short Matth. 1. he is that flowing and most plentious Fountain of whose fulness all we have received For in him alone are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden And in him and by him have we from God the Father all good things pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul O how much are we bound to this our Heavenly Father for his great Mercies which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesu our Lord and Saviour What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voice ever Praising and Magnifying this Lord of Mercy for his tender Kindness shewed unto us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Hitherto we have heard what we are of ourselves very sinful wretched and damnable Again we have heard how that of ourselves and by ourselves we are not able either to think a good Thought or work a good Deed so that we can find in ourselves no hope of Salvation but rather whatsoever maketh unto our Destruction Again we have heard the tender Kindness and great Mercy of God the Father towards us and how beneficial he is to us for Christ's sake without our Merits or Deserts even of his own mere Mercy and tender Goodness Now how these exceeding great Mercies of God set abroad in Christ Jesu for us be obtained and how we be delivered from the captivity of Sin Death and Hell shall more at large with God's help be declared in the next Sermon In the mean season yea and at all times let us learn to know ourselves our frailty and weakness without any boasting or cracking of our own good Deeds and Merits Let us also acknowledge the exceeding Mercy of God towards us and confess that as of ourselves cometh all Evil and Damnation so likewise of him cometh all Goodness and Salvation Osee 13. as God himself saith by the Prophet Osee O Israel thy destruction cometh of thyself but in me only is thy help and comfort If we thus Humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God we may be sure that in the time of his Visitation he will lift us up unto the Kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesu our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON OF THE Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from Sin and Death everlasting BEcause all Men be Sinners and Offenders against God and Breakers of his Law and Commandments therefore can no Man by his own Acts Works and Deeds seem they never so good be justified and made righteous before God But every Man of necessity is constrained to seek for another Righteousness of Justification to be received at God's own hands that is to say the forgiveness of his Sins and Trespasses in such things as he hath offended And this Justification or Righteousness which we so receive of God's Mercy and Christ's Merits embraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Justification For the more full understanding hereof it is our Parts and Duties ever to remember the great Mercy of God how that all the World being wrapped in Sin by breaking of the Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this World to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious Blood to make a sacrifice and satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his Wrath and Indignation conceived against us for the same The efficacy of Christ's Passion and Oblation Insomuch that Infants being Baptized and dying in their Infancy are by this Sacrifice washed from their Sins brought to God's Favour and made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven And they which in Act or Deed do sin after their Baptism when they turn again to God unfeignedly they are likewise washed by this Sacrifice from their sins in such sort that there remaineth not any spot of Sin that shall be imputed to their Damnation This is that justification of Righteousness which St. Paul speaketh of when he saith No man is Justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2. but freely by faith in Jesus Christ And again he saith We believe in Jesus Christ that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law because that no Man shall be justified by the works of the Law And although this justification be free unto us yet it cometh not so freely unto us that there is no ransom paid therefore at all But here may Man's Reason be astonished reasoning after this fashion Objection If a Ransom be paid for our Redemption then is it not given us freely For a Prisoner that payd his Ransom is not let go freely For if he go freely then he goeth without Ransom For what is it else to go freely than to be set at liberty without paying of Ransom Answer This Reason is satisfied by the great Wisdom of God in this mystery of our Redemption who hath so tempered his Justice and Mercy together that he would neither by his Justice condemn us unto the everlasting Captivity of the Devil and his Prison of Hell remediless for ever without Mercy nor by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or Payment of a just Ransom but with his endless Mercy he joyned his most upright and equal Justice His great Mercy he shewed unto us in delivering us from our former Captivity without requiring of any Ransom to be paid or amends to be made upon our parts which thing by us had been impossible to be done And whereas it lay not in us to do that he provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesu Christ who besides this Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And so the Justice of God and his Mercy did embrace together and fulfilled the Mystery of our Redemption And of this Justice and Mercy of God knit together speaketh St. Paul in the third Chap. to the Romans Rom. 3. All have offended and have need of the Glory of God but are justified freely by Grace by Redemption which is in Jesu Christ whom God hath sent forth to us for a Reconciler and Peace-maker through Faith in his Blood to shew his righteousness And in the 10th Chapter Rom. 10. Rom. 8. Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to every man that believeth And in the 8th Chapter That which was impossible by the Law inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us
fear of bodily Death Phil. 1. when it cometh but certainly as St. Paul did so shall he gladly according to God's Will and when it pleaseth God to call him out of this life greatly desire in his heart that he may be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to God's pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with our Saviour Jesus Christ to whose Gracious Presence the Lord of his infinite Mercy and Grace bring us to reign with him in life everlasting To whom with our Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory in Worlds without end Amen AN EXHORTATION CONCERNING Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates ALmighty God hath appointed and Created all things in Heaven Earth and Waters in a most excellent and perfect Order In Heaven he hath appointed distinct and several Orders and States of Archangels and Angels In Earth he hath assigned and appointed Kings Princes with other Governors under them in all good and necessary Order The Water above is kept and raineth down in due time and season The Sun Moon Stars Rainbow Thunder Lightning Clouds and all Birds of the Air do keep their order The Earth Trees Seeds Plants Herbs Corn Grass and all manner of Beasts keep themselves in order All the parts of the whole year as Winter Summer Months Nights and Days continue in their order All kinds of Fishes in the Sea Rivers and Waters with all Fountains Springs yea the Seas themselves keep their comly course and order And Man himself also hath all his Parts both within and without as Soul Heart Mind Memory Understanding Reason Speech with all and singular corporal Members of his Body in a profitable necessary and pleasant Order Every degree of People in their Vocation Calling and Office hath appointed to them their Duty and Order Some are in high degree some in low some Kings and Princes some Inferiours and Subjects Priests and Lay-men Masters and Servants Fathers and Children Husbands and Wiâ—es Rich and Poor and every one have need of other so that in all things is to be lauded and praised the goodly order of God without the which no House no City no Common-wealth can continue and endure or last For where there is no right order there reigneth all Abuse Carnal liberty Enormity Sin and Babylonical confusion Take away Kings Princes Rulers Magistrates Judges and such Estates of God's order no Man shall ride or go by the way unrobbed no Man shall sleep in his own House or Bed unkilled no Man shall keep his Wife Children and Possessions in quietness all things shall be common and there must needs follow all mischief and utter destruction both of Souls Bodies Goods and Common-wealths But blessed be God that we in this Realm of England feel not the horrible Calamities Miseries and Wretchedness which all they undoubtedly feel and suffer that lack this godly order And praised be God that we know the great excellent Benefit of God shewed towards us in this behalf God hath sent us his high gift our most dear Sovereign King JAMES with a godly wife and honorable Council with other Superiors and Inferiors in a beautiful order and godly Wherefore let us Subjects do our bounden Duties giving hearty thanks to God and praying for the preservation of this godly order Let us all obey even from the bottom of our Hearts all their godly Proceedings Laws Statutes Proclamations and Injunctions with all other godly orders Let us consider the Scriptures of the Holy Ghost which persuade and command us all obediently to be subject first and chiefly to the King's Majesty Supreme Governor over all and next to his honorable Council and to all other Noble Men Magistrates and Officers which by God's goodness be placed and ordered For Almighty God is the only Author and Provider for this fore-named State and Order as it is written of God in the Book of the Proverbs Prov. 8. Through me Kings do reign through me Counsellers make just Laws through me do Princes bear Rule and all Judges of the Earth execute Judgement I am loving to them that love me Here let us mark well and remember that the high Power and Authority of Kings with their making of Laws Judgements and Offices are the Ordinances not of Man but of God And therefore is this Word through me so many times repeated Here is also well to be considered and remembred that this good Order is appointed by God's Wisdom Favor and Love especially for them that love God and therefore he saith I love them that love me Wisd 6. Also in the Book of Wisdom we may evidently learn that a King's Power Authority and Strength is a great Benefit of God given of his great Mercy to the comfort of our great Misery For this we read there spoken to Kings Hear O ye Kings and understand learn ye that be Judges of the ends of the Earth give ear ye that Rule the Multitudes For the Power is given you of the Lord and the Strength from the Highest Let us learn also here by the Infallible and undeceivable Word of God That Kings and other Supreme and higher Officers are ordained of God who is most high And therefore they are here taught diligently to apply and give themselves to Knowledge and Wisdom necessary for the ordering of God's People to their governance committed or whom to govern they are charged of God And they be here also taught by Almighty God that they should acknowledge themselves to have all their Power and Strength not from Rome but immediately of God most High We read in the Book of Deuteronomy Deut. 33. that all Punishment pertaineth to God by this Sentence Vengeance is mine and I will reward But this Sentence we must understand to pertain also unto the Magistrates which do exercise God's room in Judgement and punishing by good and godly Laws here on Earth And the places of Scripture which seem to remove from among all Christian Men Judgement Punishment or Killing ought to be understood that no Man of his own private Authority may be Judge over others may punish or may kill But we must refer all Judgment to God to Kings and Rulers Judges under them which be God's Officers to execute Justice and by plain words of Scripture have their Authority and Use of the Sword Granted from God as we are taught by St. Paul that dear and chosen Apostle of our Saviour Christ whom we ought diligently to obey even as we would obey our Saviour Christ if he were present Thus St. Paul writeth to the Romans Let every Soul submit himself unto the authority of the higher Rom. 13. powers for there is no power but of God The powers that be be ordained of God Whosoever therefore withstandeth the Power withstandeth the Ordinance of God But they that resist or are against it shall receive to themselves damnation For Rulers are not fearful to them that do good but to them that do evil
alledgeth the words of Esay the Prophet where it is said Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knoweth us not His mind therefore is this not that we should put any Religion in worshipping of them or praying unto them but that we should honour them by following their vertuous and godly Life For as he witnesseth in another place the Martyrs and Holy Men in times past were wont after their death to be remembred and named of the Priest at Divine Service but never to be invocated or called upon And why so because the Priest saith he is Gods Priest and not theirs whereby he is bound to call upon God and not upon them John 5. Thus you see that the Authority both of the Scripture and also of Augustin doth not permit that we should pray unto them O that all men would studiously read and search the Scriptures then should they not be drowned in Ignorance but should easily perceive the Truth as well of this Point of Doctrine as of all the rest For there doth the Holy Ghost plainly teach us that Christ is our only Mediator and Intercessor with God and that we must not seek and run to another 1 John 2. If any man sinneth saith St. John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins 1 Tim. 2. St. Paul also saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and man even the man Jesus Christ Whereunto agreeth the Testimony of our Saviour himself John 14. witnessing that no man cometh to the Father but only by him who is the Way John 10. the Truth the Life yea and the only Door whereby we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because God is pleased in no other but in him For which cause also he crieth and calleth unto us that we should come unto him Matt. 11. saying Come unto me all ye that labour and be heavy laden and I shall refresh you Would Christ have us so necessarily come unto him and shall we most unthankfully leave him and run unto other This is even that which God so greatly complaineth of by his Prophet Jeremy saying My People have committed two great offences they have forsaken me the Fountain of the Waters of Life and have digged to themselves broken Pits that can hold no Water Is not that man think you unwise that will run for Water to a little Brook when he may as well go to the head-spring Even so may his Wisdom be justly suspected that will flee unto Saints in time of necessity when he may boldly and without fear declare his grief and direct his Prayer unto the Lord himself If God were strange or dangerous to be talked withal then might we justly draw back and seek to some other Psal 145. Judith 9. But the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in Faith and Truth And the Prayer of the humble and meek hath always pleased him What if we be sinners shall we not therefore pray unto God or shall we despair to obtain any thing at his hands Why did Christ then teach us to ask forgiveness of our sins saying And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Shall we think that the Saints are more merciful in hearing sinners than God David saith Psal 103. Ephes 2. that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness St. Paul saith that he is rich in mercy toward all them that call upon him And he himself by the mouth of his Prophet Esay saith Esay 51. For a little while have I forsaken thee but with great compassion will I gather thee For a moment in mine anger I have hid my face from thee but with everlasting mercy I have had compassion upon thee Therefore the sins of any man ought not to withhold him from Praying unto the Lord his God But if he be truly penitent and stedfast in Faith let him assure himself that the Lord will be merciful unto him and hear his Prayers O but I dare not will some man say trouble God at all times with my Prayers We see that in Kings Houses and Courts of Princes men cannot be admitted unless they first use the help and means of some special Noble-man to come to the speech of the King and to obtain the thing that they would have To this reason doth St. Ambrose answer very well Ambros supper cap. 1 Rom. writing upon the first Chapter to the Romans Therefore saith he we use to go unto the King by Officers and Noble-men because the King is a Mortal man and knoweth not to whom he may commit the Government of the Common-wealth But to have God our Friend from whom nothing is hid we need not any helper that should further us with his good word but only a devout and godly mind And if it be so that we need one to intreat for us why may we not content our selves with that one Mediator Heb. 7. which is at the right hand of God the Father and there liveth for ever to make Intercession for us As the Blood of Christ did Redeem us on the Cross and cleanse us from our sins even so it is now able to save all them that come unto God by it For Christ sitting in Heaven hath an everlasting Priesthood and always prayeth to his Father for them that be Penitent obtaining by vertue of his Wounds which are evermore in the sight of God not only perfect remission of our sins but also all other necessaries that we lack in this World so that this only Mediator is sufficient in Heaven and needeth no others to help him Matt. 6. James 5. Coloss 4. 1 Tim. 2. Why then do we Pray one for another in this Life some man perchance will here demand Forsooth we are willed so to do by the express Commandment both of Christ and his Disciples to declare therein as well the Faith that we have in Christ towards God as also the mutual Charity that we bear one towards another in that we pity our Brothers case and make our Humble Petition to God for him But that we should Pray unto Saints neither have we any Commandment in all the Scripture nor yet Example which we may safely follow So that being done without Authority of Gods Word it lacketh the ground of Faith and therefore cannot be acceptable before God Hebr. 11. Rom. 14. Rom. 10. For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin And the Apostle saith that Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Yet thou wilt object further that the Saints in Heaven do pray for us and that their Prayer proceedeth of an earnest Charity that they have towards their Brethren on Earth Whereto it may be well answered First that no man knoweth whether they do Pray for us or no. And if any will go about to prove it by
O thou that art desirous of this Table of Emissenus a godly Father Euseb Emiserem de Euchar. that when thou goest up to the reverend Communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats thou look up with Faith upon the Holy Body and Blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with thy inward man Thus we see Beloved that resorting to this Table we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity all distrust in Gods promises that we make our selves living Members of Christs Body For the unbelievers and faithless cannot feed upon that precious Body whereas the faithful have their life their abiding in him their union and as it were their incorporation with him Wherefore let us prove and try our selves unfeigned without flattering our selves whether we be Plants of the fruitful Olive living branches of the true Vine Members indeed of Christs Mystical Body whether God hath purified our hearts by Faith to the sincere acknowledging of his Gospel and embracing of his mercies in Christ Jesus so that at this his Table we receive not only the outward Sacrament but the spiritual thing also not the Figure but the Truth not the shadow only but the body not to death but to life not to destruction but to salvation which God grant us to do through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Worthy Receiving and Reverent Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ IN the Homily of late rehearsed unto you ye have heard good People why it pleased our Saviour our Christ to institute that heavenly memory of his Death and Passion and that every one of us ought to celebrate the same at his Table in our own Persons and not by other You have heard also with what estimation and knowledge of so high Mysteries we ought to resort thither You have heard with what constant Faith we should clothe and deck our selves that we might be fit and decent partakers of that Celestial Food Now followeth the third thing necessary in him that would not eat of this Bread nor drink of this Cup unworthily which is newness of life and godliness of conversation For newness of life as fruits of Faith are required in the partakers of this Table We may learn by eating of the Typical Lamb whereunto no man was admitted but he that was a Jew that was circumcised that was before sanctified Yea St. Paul testifieth 1 Cor. 10. that although the People were partakers of the Sacraments under Moses yet for that some of them were still Worshippers of Images Whoremongers Tempters of Christ Murmurers and coveting after evil things God overthrew those in the Wilderness and that for our example that is that we Christians should take heed we resort unto our Sacraments with holiness of life not trusting in the outward receiving of them and infected with corrupt and uncharitable manners For this sentence of God must always be justified I will have mercy and not sacrifice De Bapt. lib. 1. cap. 3. Wherefore saith Basil it behoveth him that cometh to the Body and Blood of Christ in commemoration of him that died and rose again not only to be pure from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit lest he eat and drink his own condemnation but also to shew out evidently a memory of him that died and rose again for us in this point that ye be mortified to Sin and the World to live now to God in Christ Jesu our Lord. So then we must shew outward testimony in following the signification of Christs death amongst the which this is not esteemed least to render thanks to Almighty God for all his benefits briefly comprised in the Death Passion and Resurrection of his dearly beloved Son The which thing because we ought chiefly at this Table to solemnize the godly Fathers named it Eucharistia that is Thanksgiving As if they should have said Now above all other times ye ought to laud and praise God Now may you behold the matter the cause the beginning and the end of all Thanksgiving Now if you slack ye shew your selves most unthankful and that no other benefit can ever stir you to thank God who so little regard here so many so wonderful and so profitable benefits Seeing then that the name and thing it self doth monish us of thanks Heb. 13. let us as St. Paul saith offer always to God the host or sacrifice of praise by Christ that is the fruit of the lips which confess his Name For as David singeth Psal 50. He that offereth to God thanks and praise honoureth him But how few be there of thankful Persons in comparison to the unthankful Luke 17. Lo ten Lepers in the Gospel were healed and but one only returned to give thanks for his Health Yea happy it were if among sorty Communicants we could see two unfeignedly give thanks So unkind we be so oblivious we be so proud Beggers we be that partly we care nor for our own commodity partly we know not our Duty to God and chiefly we will not confess all that we receive Yea and if we be forced by Gods power to do it yet we handle it so coldly so drily that our lips praise him but our hearts dispraise him our tongues bless him but our life curseth him our words worship him but our works dishonour him O let us therefore learn to give God here thanks aright and so to agnize his exceeding graces poured upon us that they being shut up in the Treasure-house of our Heart may in due time and season in our life and conversation appear to the glorifying of his Holy Name Furthermore for newness of Life it is to be noted that St. Paul writeth That we being many are one bread and one body For all be partakers of one bread Declaring thereby not only our Communion with Christ but that Unity also wherein they that eat at this Table should be knit together For by Dissension Vain-glony Ambition Strife Envying Contempt Hatred or Malice they should not be dissevered but so joyned by the bond of Love in one Mystical Body as the corns of that Bread in one Loaf In respect of which strait knot of Charity the true Christians in the Primitive Church called this Supper Love As if they should say none ought to sit down there that were out of love and charity who bare grudge and vengeance in his Heart who also did not profess hiâ— kind affection by some Charitable Relief for some part of the Congregation And this was their Practice O Heavenly Banquet then so used O Godly Guests who so esteemed this Feasts But O wretched Creatures that we be at these days who be without reconciliation of our Brethren whom we have offended without satisfying them whom we have caused to
that are strayed from thee This Experience was perceived to be true of that holy Prophet Jeremy Jer. 15. O Lord saith he whatsoever they be that forsake thee shall be confounded they that depart from thee shall be written in the Earth and soon forgotten It profiteth not good People to hear the goodness of God declared unto us if our hearts be not enflamed thereby to honor and thank him It profited not the Jews which were Gods elect People to hear much of God seeing that he was not received in their hearts by Faith nor thanked for his benefits bestowed upon them their unthankfulness was the cause of their destruction Let us eschew the manner of these before rehearsed and follow rather the Example of that holy Apostle St. Paul who when in a deep Meditation he did behold the marvellous Proceedings of Almighty God and considered his infinite goodness in the ordering of his Creatures he burst out into this conclusion Surely saith he of him Rom. 11. by him and in him be all things And this once pronounced he stuck not still at this Point but forthwith thereupon joyned to these words To him be glory and praise for ever Amen Upon the ground of which words of St. Paul good Audience I purpose to build my Exhortation of this day unto you Wherein I shall do my endeavour First To prove unto you that all good things come down unto us from above from the Father of Light Secondly That Jesus Christ his Son and our Saviour is the mean by whom we receive his liberal goodness Thirdly That in the power and vertue of the Holy Ghost we be made meet and able to receive his gifts and graces Which things distinctly and advisedly considered in our minds must needs compel us in most low reverence after our bounden Duty always to render him thanks again in some testification of our good hearts for his deserts unto us And that the entreating of this matter in hand may be to the glory of Almighty God Let us in one Faith and Charity call upon the Father of Mercy from whom cometh every good gift and every perfect gift by the mediation of his well-beloved Son our Saviour that we may be assisted with the presence of his Holy Spirit and profitably on both parts to demean our selves in speaking and hearkning to the Salvation of our Souls In the beginning of my speaking unto you good Christian People suppose not that I do take upon me to declare unto you the excellent Power or the incomparable Wisdom of Almighty God as though I would have you believe that it might be expressed unto you by words Nay it may not be thought that that thing may be comprehended by Mans words that is incomprehensible And too much arrogancy it were for Dust and Ashes to think that he can worthily decâ—are his Maker It passeth far the dark understanding and wisdom of a Mortal Man to speak sufficiently of that divine Majesty which the Angels cannot understand We shall therefore lay apart to speak of the profound and unsearchable Nature of Almighty God rather acknowledging our weakness than rashly to attempt what is above all Mans capacity to compass It shall better suffice us in low Humility to reverence and dread his Majesty which we cannot comprize than by over-much curious searching to be over-charged with the Glory We shall rather turn our whole Contemplation to answer a while his goodness towards us wherein we shall be much more profitably occupied and more may we be bold to search To consider the great Power he is of can but make us dread and fear To consider his high Wisdom might utterly discomfort our Frailty to have any thing to do with him but in consideration of his inestimable goodness we take good heart again to trust well unto him By his goodness we be assured to take him for our refuge our hope and comfort our merciful Father in all the course of our Lives His Power and Wisdom compelleth us to take him for God Omnipotent Invisible having Rule in Heaven and Earth having all things in his subjection and will have none in Council with him nor any to ask the reason of his doing Dan. 11. For he may do what liketh him and none can resist him For he worketh all things in his secret Judgment to his own pleasure Prov. 16. yea even the wicked to damnation saith Solomon By the reason of his Nature he is called in Scripture consuming Fire he is called a terrible and fearful God Heb. 11. of this behalf therefore we have no familiarity no access unto him but his goodness again tempereth the rigor of his High Power and maketh us bold and putteth us in hope that he will be conversant with us and easie unto us It is his goodness that moveth him to say in Scripture It is my delight to be with the Children of Men. It is his goodness that moveth him to call us unto him to offer us his Friendship and Presence It is his goodness that patiently suffereth our straying from him and suffereth us long to win us to Repentance It is of his goodness that we be created reasonable Creatures where else he might have made us brute Beasts Prov. 8. It was his Mercy to have us born among the number of Christian People and thereby in a much more nighness to Salvation where we might have been born if his goodness had not been among the Paynims clean void from God and the hope of Everlasting Life And what other thing doth his loving and gentle Voice spoken in his word where he calleth us to his Presence and Friendship but declare his goodness only without regard of our worthiness And what other thing doth stir him to call us to him when we be strayed from him to suffer us patiently to win us to Repentance but only his singular goodness no whit of our deserving Let them all come together that be now glorified in Heaven and let us hear what answer they will make in these Points before rehearsed whether their first Creation was in Gods goodness or of themselves Forsooth David would make answer for them all and say Know ye for surety even the Lord is God he hath made us and not we our selves If they were asked again who should be thanked for their Regeneration for their Justification and for their Salvation Whether their deserts or Gods goodness only Although in this Point every one confess sufficiently the truth of this matter in his own Person yet let David answer by the mouth of them all at this time who cannot chuse but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name give all the thanks for thy loving mercy and for thy truths sake If we should ask again from whence came their glorious Works and Deeds which they wrought in their lives wherewith God was so highly pleased and worshipped by them Let some other witness be brought in to testifie
that the People that will not see with their Eyes nor hear with their Ears to learn and to understand with their Hearts cannot be converted and saved And the wicked themselves being damned in Hell shall confess ignorance in Gods Word to have brought them thereunto saying We have erred from the way of the truth and the light of Righteousness hath not shined unto us and the Sun of understanding hath not risen unto us Mat. 7. John 3. we have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and perdition and have walked cumberous and crooked ways but the way of the Lord have we not known Mat. 11. b. 15. 13. a. 9. f. 3. Luke 8. a. 8. Joh. 5. f. 39. Ps 1. Mat. 7. b. 7. Luk. 11.9 Luke 16. g. 30.31 Gal. 1. b. 8. Deut. 5.32 Deut. 17. c. 14.15 c. Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Psal 118. Psal 18. 118. Eph. 5.14 1 Thes 5. a. 4.5 John 12.35.36 Jam 1. c. 17. 1 Tim. 6. d. 16. John 3. And as well our Saviour himself as his Apostle St. Paul doth teach that the ignorance of Gods Word cometh of the Devil is the cause of all error and misjudging as falleth out with ignorant Subjects who can rather espy a little mote in the eye of the Prince or a Counsellor than a great Beam in their own and universally it is the cause of all evil and finally of eternal damnation Gods Judgment being severe towards those who when the light of Christs Gospel is come into the World do delight more in darkness of ignorance than in the light of knowledge in Gods Word For all are commanded to read or hear to search and study the holy Scriptures and are promised understanding to be given them from God if they so do all are charged not to believe either any dead Man nor if an Angel should speak from Heaven much less if the Pope do speak from Rome against or contrary to the Word of God from the which we may not decline neither to the right hand nor to the left In Gods Word Princes must learn how to obey God and to govern Men in Gods Word Subjects must learn Obedience both to God and their Princes Old Men and young rich and poor all Men and Women all Estates Sexes and Ages are taught their several Duties in the Word of God For the Word of God is bright giving light unto all Mens Eyes the shining Lamp directing all Mens Paths and Steps Let us therefore awake from the sleep and darkness of Ignorance and open our Eyes that we may see the light let us rise from the works of darkness that we may escape eternal darkness the due reward thereof and let us walk in the light of Gods Word whiles we have light as becometh the Children of light so directing the steps of our Lives in that way which leadeth to light and life everlasting that we may finally obtain and enjoy the same which God the Father of Lights who dwelleth in light incomprehensible and inaccessible grant unto us through the light of the World our Saviour Jesus Christ Unto whom with the Holy Ghost one most glorious God be all Honor Praise and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Thus have you heard the Sixth Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be common Enemies as well to the truth of thy eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of ENGLAND which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of ENGLAND or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant hearts to embrace the truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thine aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted And finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of ENGLAND may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security and that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant heart and voice may thankfully render to thee all laud and praise that we knit in one godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful GOD. To whom be all laud and praise World without end Amen A THANKSGIVING for the Suppression of the last Rebellion O Heavenly and most merciful Father the defender of those that put their trust in thee the sure fortress of all them that flee to thee for succor who of thy most just Judgments for our Disobedience and Rebellion against thy holy Word and for our sinful and wicked living nothing answering to our holy profession whereby we have given an occasion that thy holy Name hath been blasphemed amongst the ignorant hast of late both sore abashed the whole Realm and People of England with the terror and danger of Rebellion thereby to awake us out of our dead sleep of careless security and hast yet by the miseries following the same Rebellion more sharply punished part of our Country-men and Christian-brethren who have more nearly felt the same and most dreadfully hast scourged some of the seditious Persons with terrible Executions justly inflicted for their disobedience unto thee and to thy Servant their Sovereign to the example of us all and to the warning correction and amendment of thy Servants of thine accustomed goodness turning always the wickedness of evil Men to the proof of them that fear thee who in thy Judgments remembring thy Mercy hast by thy assistance given the Victory to thy Servant our Queen her true Nobility and faithful Subjects with so little or rather no effusion of Christian Blood as also might have justly ensued to the exceeding comfort of all sorrowful Christian hearts and that of thy fatherly pity and merciful goodness only and even for thine own names sake without any our desert at all Wherefore we render unto thee most humble and hearty thanks for these thy great mercies shewed unto us who had deserved sharper punishment most humbly beseeching thee to grant unto all us that confess thy holy Name and profess the true and perfect Religion of thy holy Gospel thy heavenly Grace to shew our selves in our living according to our profession that we truly knowing thee in thy blessed Word may obediently walk in thy holy Commadments and that we being warned by this thy Fatherly correction do provoke thy just wrath against us no more but may enjoy the continuance of thy great mercies towards us thy right hand as in this so in all other Invasions Rebellions and dangers continually saving and defending our Church our Realm our Queen and People of England that all our Posterities ensuing confessing thy holy Name professing thy holy Gospel and leading an holy Life may perpetually praise and magnifie thee with thy only Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and the Holy Ghost To whom be all laud praise glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen FINIS
read it to comfort their Hearts and to encourage them to perform that which of God is commanded 1 Reg. 14. 2 Per. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 1 John 5. It teacheth Patience in all Adversity in Prosperity Humbleness What Honour is due unto GOD What Mercy and Charity to our Neighbour It giveth good Counsel in all doubtful things It sheweth of whom we shall look for Aid and help in all Perils and that God is the only giver of Victory in all Battels and Temptations of our Enemies Who profit most in reading Gods Word Bodily and Ghostly And in reading of God's Word he not always most profiteth that is most ready in turning of the Book or in saying of it without the Book but he that is most turned into it that is most inspired with the Holy Ghost most in his Heart and Life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth He that is daily less and less Proud less Wrathful less Covetous and less desirous of worldly and vain Pleasures He that daily forsaking his old vicious Life increaseth in Virtue more and more And to be short there is nothing that more maintaineth Godliness of the Mind and driveth away Ungodliness than doth the continual Reading or Hearing of God's Word Esa 5. Matth. 22. 1 Cor. 14. What discommodities the ignorance of God's Word bringeth if it be joyned with a Godly Mind and a good Affection to know and follow God's Will For without a single Eye pure Intent and good Mind nothing is allowed for good before God And on the other side nothing more darkeneth Christ and the Glory of God nor bringeth in more Blindness and all kinds of Vices than doth the ignorance of God's Word The Second part of the Sermon of the Knowledge of Holy Scripture IN the first part of this Sermon which exhorteth to the Knowledge of Holy Scripture was declared wherefore the knowledge of the same is necessary and profitable to all Men and that by the true Knowledge and Understanding of Scripture the most necessary points of our Duty towards God and our Neighbors are also known Now as concerning the same Matter you shall hear what followeth If we profess Christ Why be we not ashamed to be ignorant in his Doctrine Seeing that every Man is ashamed to be ignorant in that Learning which he professeth That Man is ashamed to be called a Philosopher which readeth not the Books of Philosophy and to be called a Lawyer an Astronomer God's Word excelleth all Sciences or Physisian that is ignorant in the Books of Law Astronomy and Physick How can any Man then say that he professeth Christ and his Religion if he will not apply himself as far forth as he can or may conveniently to read and hear and so to know the Books of Christ's Gospel and Doctrine Although other Sciences be good and to be learned yet no Man can deny but this is the chief and passeth all other incomparably What excuse shall we therefore make at the last day before Christ that delight to read or hear Mens Phantasies and Inventions more than his most Holy Gospel And will find no time to do that which chiefly above all things we should do and will rather read other things than that for the which we ought rather to leave reading of all other things Let us therefore apply ourselves as far forth as we can have time and leisure Vain excuses diswading from the knowledge of God's Word The First The Second Matth. 22. to know God's Word by diligent hearing and reading thereof as many as profess God and have Faith and Trust in Him But they that have no good affection to God's Word to colour this their fault alledge commonly two vain and feigned excuses Some go about to excuse them by their own frailness and fearfulness saying that they dare not read Holy Scripture lest through their ignorance they should fall into any error Others pretend that the difficulty to understand it and the hardness thereof is so great that it is meet to be read only of Clerks and learned Men. As touching the first Ignorance of God's Word is the cause of all Error as Christ himself affirmed to the Sadducees saying that they erred because they knew not the Scripture How should they then eschew Error that will be still ignorant And how should they come out of ignorance that will not read nor hear that thing which should give them knowledge He that now hath most Knowledge was at the first Ignorant yet he forbare not to read for fear he should fall into Error But he diligently read lest he should remain in Ignorance and through Ignorance in Error And if you will not know the Truth of God a thing most necessary for you lest you fall into Error by the same reason you may then lye still and never go lest if you go you fall into the Mire Nor eat any good Meat lest you take a Surfeit nor sow your Corn nor labour in your Occupation nor use your Merchandise for fear you lose your Seed your Labour your Stock and so by that reason it should be best for you to live idly and never to take in hand to do any manner of good thing lest peradventure some evil thing may chance thereof And if you be afraid to fall into Error by reading of Holy Scripture I shall shew you how you may read without danger of Error Read it humbly with a meek and lowly Heart How most commodiously and without all peril the Holy Scripture is to be read to the intent you may glorify God and not yourself with the knowledge of it And read it not without daily praying to God that he would direct your Reading to good effect And take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it For as St. Augustin saith the knowledge of Holy Scripture is a great large and a high place but the Door is very low so that the high and arrogant Man cannot run in but he must stoop low and humble himself that shall enter into it Presumption and Arrogancy are the Mother of all Error and Humility needeth to fear no Error For Humility will only search to know the Truth it will search and will bring together one place with another and where it cannot find out the meaning it will pray it will ask of others that know and will not presumptuously and rashly define any thing which it knoweth not Therefore the humble Man may search any Truth boldly in the Scripture without any danger of Error And if he be ignorant he ought the more to read and to search Holy Scripture to bring him out of Ignorance I say not nay but a Man may profit with only hearing but he may much more profit with both hearing and reading This have I said as touching the fear to read through ignorance of the Person Scripture in some places is easie and in some places hard to be
to be ever ready to give ourselves to our Neighbours and as much as lieth in us to study with all our endeavour to do good to every Man These be the fruits of true Faith to do good asmuch as lieth in us to every Man and above all things and in all things to advance the Glory of God of whom only we have our Sanctification Justification Salvation and Redemption To whom be ever Glory Praise and Honour VVorld without end Amen A Short DECLARATION OF THE True Lively and Christian Faith Faith THE First coming unto God good Christian People is through Faith whereby as it is declared in the last Sermon we be Justified before God And lest any Man should be deceived for lack of right Understanding thereof it is diligently to be noted that Faith is taken in the Scripture two manner of ways A dead Faith There is one Faith which in Scripture is called a Dead Faith which bringeth forth no good Works but is idle barren and unfruitful And this Faith by the Holy Apostle St. James is compared to the Faith of Devils James 2. which believe God to be True and Just and tremble for fear yet they do nothing well but all evil And such a manner of Faith have the wicked and naughty Christian People which confess God as St. Paul saith in their mouths Titus 6. but deny him in their deeds being abominable and without the right Faith and to all good works reproveable And this Faith is a Persuasion and Belief in Man's Heart whereby he knoweth that there is a God and agreeth unto all Truths of God's most Holy Word contained in the Holy Scripture So that it consisteth only in Believing in the Word of God that it is true And this is not properly called Faith But as he that readeth Caesar's Commentary believing the same to be true hath thereby a knowledge of Caesar's Life and notable Acts because he believeth the History of Caesar Yet it is not properly said that he believeth in Caesar of whom he looketh for no help nor benefit Even so he that Believeth that all that is spoken of God in the Bible is true and yet liveth so ungodly that he cannot look to enjoy the Promises and Benefits of God Although it may be said that such a Man hath a Faith and Belief to the Words of God yet it is not properly said that he believeth in God or hath such a Faith and Trust in God whereby he may surely look for Grace Mercy and everlasting Life at God's hand but rather for Indignation and Punishment according to the Merits of his wicked Life For as it is written in a Book Entituled to be of Didymus Alexandrinus Forasmuch as Faith without Works is dead it is not now Faith as a dead Man is not a Man This dead Faith therefore is not that sure and substantial Faith which saveth Sinners Another Faith there is in Scripture which is not as the aforesaid Faith idle unfruitful and dead A lively Faith but worketh by charity as St. Paul declareth Gal. 5. Which as the other vain Faith is called a dead Faith so may this be called a quick or lively Faith And this is not only the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a true Trust and Confidence of the Mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be received at God's hand And that although we through Infirmity or Temptation of our Ghostly enemy do fall from him by Sin yet if we return again unto him by true Repentance that he will forgive and forget our Offences for his Sons sake our Saviour Jesus Christ and will make us Inheritors with him of his everlasting Kingdom and that in the mean time untill that Kingdom come he will be our Protector and Defender in all perils and dangers whatsoever do chance And that though somtime he doth send us sharp adversity yet that evermore he will be a loving Father unto us correcting us for our Sin but not withdrawing his Mercy finally from us if we trust in him and commit our selves wholly unto him hang only upon him and call upon him ready to obey and serve him This is the true lively and unfeigned Christian Faith and is not in the Mouth and outward Profession only but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the Heart And this Faith is not without Hope and Trust in God nor without the Love of God and of our Neighbors nor without the Fear of God nor without the Desire to hear God's Word and to follow the same in eschewing Evil and doing gladly all good Works Heb. 12. Thus Faith as St. Paul describeth it is the sure ground and foundation of the benefits which we ought to look for and trust to receive of God a Certificate and sure looking for them although they yet sensibly appear not unto us And after he saith He that cometh to God must believe both that he is and that he is a merciful rewarder of Well-doers And nothing commendeth good Men unto God so much as this assured Faith and Trust in him Of this Faith three things are specially to be noted Three things are to be noted of Faith First that this Faith doth not lye dead in the Heart but is lively and fruitful in bringing forth good Works Secondly that without it can no good Works be done that shall be acceptable and pleasant to God Thirdly what manner of good Works they be that this Faith doth bring forth Faith is full of good Works For the First That as the Light cannot be hid but will shew forth itself at one place or other So a true Faith cannot be kept secret but when occasion is offered it will break out and shew itself by good Works And as the living Body of a Man ever exerciseth such things as belong to a natural and living Body for nourishment and preservation of the same as it hath need opportunity and occasion Even so the Soul that hath a lively Faith in it will be doing alway some good Work which shall declare that it is living and will not be unoccupied Therefore when Men hear in the Scripture so high commendations of Faith that it maketh us to please God to live with God and to be the Children of God If then they fancy that they be set at liberty from doing all good Works and may live as they list they trifle with God and deceive themselves And it is a manifest token that they be far from having the true and lively Faith and also far from Knowledge what true Faith meaneth For the very sure and lively Christian Faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in Holy Scripture but also is an earnest Trust and Confidence in God that he doth regard us and that he is careful over us as the Father is over the Child whom he doth love and that
are monished and warned that if we which are the chosen Vineyard of God bring not forth good Grapes that is to say good Works that may be delectable and pleasant in his sight when he looketh for them when he sendeth his Messengers to call upon us for them but rather bring forth wild Grapes that is to say sower Works unsavoury and unfruitful Then will he pluck away all defence and suffer grievous plagues of Famine Battel Dearth and Death to light upon us Finally if these serve not he will let us lie waste he will give us over he will turn away from us he will dig and delve no more about us he will let us alone and suffer us to bring forth even such Fruit as we will to bring forth Brambles Bryers and Thorns all Naughtiness all Vice and that so abundantly that they shall clean overgrow us choke strangle and utterly destroy us But they that in this World live not after God but after their own Carnal liberty perceive not this great Wrath of God towards them that he will not dig nor delve any more about them that he doth let them alone even to themselves But they take this for a great benefit of God to have all their own Liberty And so they live as if Carnal liberty were the true Liberty of the Gospel But God forbid good People that ever we should desire such Liberty For although God suffer somtimes the wicked to have their Pleasure in this World yet the end of ungodly Living is at length endless destruction The murmuring Israelites had that they longed for Numb 11. they had Quails enough yea till they were weary of them But what was the end thereof Their sweet Meat had sower Sauce Even while the Meat was in their Mouths the plague of God lighted upon them and suddenly they died So if we live ungodlily and God suffereth us to follow our own Wills to have our own Delights and Pleasures and correcteth us not with some plague it is no doubt but he is almost utterly displeased with us And although it be long ere he strike yet many times when he striketh such Persons he striketh them at once for ever So that when he doth not strike us when he ceaseth to afflict us to punish or beat us and suffereth us to run headlong into all Ungodliness and Pleasures of this World that we delight in without Punishment and Adversity it is a dreadful token that he loveth us no longer that he careth no longer for us but hath given us over to our ownselves As long as a Man doth prune his Vines doth dig at the Roots and doth lay fresh Earth to them he hath a Mind to them he perceiveth some token of Fruitfulness that may be recovered in them but when he will bestow no more such Cost and Labour about them then it is a sign that he thinketh they will never be good And the Father as long as he loveth his Child he looketh angerly he correcteth him when he doth amiss But when that serveth not and upon that he ceaseth from correction of him and suffereth him to do what he list himself it is a sign that he intendeth to disinherit him and to cast him away for ever So surely nothing should pierce our heart so sore and put us in such horrible fear as when we know in our Conscience that we have grievously offended God and do so continue and that yet he striketh not but quietly suffereth us in the Naughtiness that we have delight in Then specially it is time to cry and to cry again as David did Psal 51. Cast me not away from thy Face and take not away thy Holy Spirit from me Lord turn not away thy Face from me cast not thy Servant away in Displeasure Hide not thy Face from me lest I be like unto them that go down to Hell The which lamentable Prayers of him as they do certifie us what horrible danger they be in from whom God turneth his Face for the time and as long as he so doth So should they move and stir us to cry upon God with all our heart that we may not be brought into that State which doubtless is so sorrowful so miserable and so dreadful as no Tongue can sufficiently express nor any Heart can think For what deadly grief may a man suppose it is to be under the Wrath of God to be forsaken of him to have his Holy Spirit the Author of all Goodness to be taken from him to be brought to so vile a condition that he shall be left meet for no better purpose than to be for ever condemned in Hell For not only such places of David do shew that upon the turning of God's Face from any Persons they shall be left bare from all Goodness and far from hope of remedy But also the place rehearsed last before of Isaiah doth mean the same which sheweth that God at length doth so forsake his unfruitful Vineyard that he will not only suffer it to bring forth Weeds Bryers and Thorns but also further to punish the unfruitfulness of it he saith he will not cut it he will not delve it and he will command the Clouds that they shall not rain upon it Whereby is signified the teaching of his Holy Word which St. Paul after a like manner expressed by Planting and Watering meaning that he will take that away from them so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom they shall be no longer governed by his Holy Spirit they shall be put from the Grace and Benefits that they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the Heavenly Light and Life which they had in Christ whil'st they abode in him They shall be as they were once as Men without God in this World or rather in worse taking And to be short they shall be given into the Power of the Devil which beareth the Rule in all them that be cast away from God 1 Kings 15. as he did in Saul and Judas and generally in all such as work after their own Wills the Children of mistrust and unbelief Let us beware therefore good Christian People lest that we rejecting or casting away God's Word by the which we obtain and retain true Faith in God be not at length cast off so far that we become as the Children of unbelief which be of two sorts far diverse yea almost clean contrary and yet both be very far from returning to God the one sort only weighing their sinful and detestable Living with the right Judgment and Straitness of God's Righteousness be so without Counsel and be so comfortless as they all must needs be from whom the Spirit of Counsel and Comfort is gone that they will not be persuaded in their Hearts but that either God cannot or else that he will not take them again to his Favour and Mercy The other hearing the loving and large Promises of God's Mercy and
so not conceiving a right Faith thereof make those Promises larger than ever God did trusting that although they continue in their sinful and detestable Living never so long yet that God at the end of their Life will shew his Mercy upon them and that then they will return And both these two sorts of Men be in a damnable state and yet nevertheless God who willeth not the Death of the wicked Ezek. 18. and 33. hath shewed means whereby both the same if they take heed in season may escape The first Against desperation as they do dread God's rightful Justice in punishing Sinners whereby they should be dismayed and should despair indeed as touching any hope that may be in themselves so if they would constantly or stedfastly believe that God's Mercy is the Remedy appointed against such despair and distrust not only for them but generally for all that be sorry and truely repentant and will therewithal stick to God's Mercy they may be sure they shall obtain Mercy and enter into the Port or Haven of Safeguard into the which whosoever doth come be they beforetime never so wicked they shall be out of danger of everlasting damnation Ezek. 3. as God by Ezekiel saith What time soever a Sinner doth return and take earnest and true Repentance Against Presumption I will forget all his Wickedness The other as they be ready to believe God's Promises so they should be as ready to believe the Threatnings of God As well they should believe the Law as the Gospel As well that there is an Hell and everlasting Fire as that there is an Heaven and everlasting Joy As well they should believe Damnation to be threatned to the wicked and evil doers as Salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works As well they should believe God to be true in the one as in the other And the Sinners that continue in their wicked living ought to think that the Promises of God's Mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the Wrath and Indignation of God and his Threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over-boldly presume of God's Mercy and live dissolutely So doth God still more and more withdraw his Mercy from them and he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such Presumers many times suddenly 1 Thess 5. For of such St. Paul saith thus When they shall say it is Peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them Let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to Sin For God which hath promised his Mercy to them that be truly repentant although it be at the later end hath not promised to the presumptuous Sinner either that he shall have long Life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every Man's death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season to God's high displeasure live ungodly Wherefore let us follow the Counsel of the wise Man let us make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord Let us not put off from day to day for suddenly shall his Wrath come and in time of Vengeance he will destroy the wicked Let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God Osee 14. as Osee teacheth saying Forgive all our Sins receive us graciously And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent Heart he will receive us to his Favour and Grace for his Holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful Believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the World with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honor glory and power world without end Amen AN EXHORTATION Against the Fear of Death IT is not to be marvelled that worldly Men do fear to die For death depriveth them of all worldly Honors Riches and Possessions in the fruition whereof the worldly Man counteth himself happy so long as he may enjoy them at his own Pleasure and otherwise if he be dispossessed of the same without hope of recovery then he can no otherwise think of himself but that he is unhappy because he hath lost his worldly Joy and Pleasure Alas thinketh this carnal Man shall I now depart for ever from all my Honors all my Treasure from my Country Friends Riches Possessions and worldly Pleasures which are my Joy and Heart's delight Alas that ever that day should come when all these I must bid farewel at once and never enjoy any of them after Wherefore it is not without great cause spoken of the wise Man O Death Eccles 41. how bitter and sower is the remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth in Peace and Prosperity in his Substance to a Man living at ease leading his Life after his own Mind without trouble and is therewithal well pampered and fed There be other Men whom this World doth not so greatly laugh upon but rather vex and oppress with Poverty Sickness or some other Adversity yet they do fear death partly because the Flesh abhorreth naturally it 's own sorrowful dissolution which death doth threaten to them and partly by reason of Sicknesses and painful diseases which be most strong Pangs and Agonies in the Flesh and use commonly to come to sick Men before death or at the least accompany death whensoever it cometh Although these two Causes seem great and weighty to a worldly Man whereupon he is moved to fear death yet there is another Cause much greater than any of these afore rehearsed for which indeed he hath just cause to fear death and that is the state and condition whereunto at the last end death bringeth all them that have their Hearts fixed upon this World without Repentance and Amendment This state and condition is called the second death which unto all such shall ensue after this bodily death And this is that death which indeed ought to be dreaded and feared For it is an everlasting loss without remedy of the Grace and Favor of God and of everlasting Joy Pleasure and Felicity And it is not only the loss for ever of all these eternal Pleasures but also it is the condemnation both of Body and Soul without either appellation or hope of redemption unto everlasting pains in Hell Unto this state death sent the unmerciful and ungodly rich Man Luke 16. that Luke speaketh of in his Gospel who living in all Wealth and Pleasure in this World and cherishing himself daily with dainty Fare and gorgeous Apparel despised poor Lazarus that lay pitiful at his Gate miserably plagued and full of Sores and also grievously pined with Hunger Both these two were arrested by death which sent Lazarus the poor miserable Man by Angels anon unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest
Pleasure and Consolation But the unmerciful rich Man descended down into Hell and being in Torments he cried for Comfort complaining of the intolerable pain that he suffered in that flame of Fire but it was too late So unto this place bodily death sendeth all them that in this World have their Joy and Felicity all them that in this World be unfaithful unto God and uncharitable unto their Neighbours so dying without Repentance and hope of God's Mercy Wherefore it is no marvel that the worldly Man feareth death for he hath much more cause so to do than he himself doth consider Thus we see three Causes why worldly Men fear death One The First because they shall lose thereby their worldly Honors Riches Possessions and all their Hearts desires Another Second because of the painful diseases and bitter pangs which commonly Men suffer either before or at the time of death Third But the chief cause above all other is the dread of the miserable state of eternal damnation both of Body and Soul which they fear shall follow after their departing from the worldly Pleasures of this present Life For these Causes be all mortal Men which be given to the love of this World both in fear and state of death through Sin as the Holy Apostle saith so long as they live here in this World But Heb. 10. everlasting thanks be to Almighty God for ever there is never a one of all these Causes no nor yet them all together that can make a true Christian man afraid to die who is the very Member of Christ 1 Cor. 3. the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Son of God and the very Inheritor of the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven but plainly contrary he conceiveth great and many Causes undoubtedly grounded upon the infallible and everlasting truth of the Word of God which moveth him not only to put away the fear of bodily death but also for the manifold Benefits and singular Commodities which ensue unto every faithful Person by reason of the same to wish desire and long heartily for it For death shall be to him no death at all but a very deliverance from death from all Pains Cares and Sorrows Miseries and Wretchedness of this World and the very entry into Rest and a beginning of everlasting Joy a tasting of heavenly Pleasures so great that neither Tongue is able to express neither Eye to see nor Ear to hear them no nor any earthly Man's heart to conceive them So exceeding great Benefits they be which God our heavenly Father by his mere Mercy and for the Love of his Son Jesus Christ hath laid up in store and prepared for them that humbly submit themselves to God's Will and evermore unfeignedly love him from the bottom of their Hearts And we ought to believe that death being slain by Christ cannot keep any Man that stedfastly trusteth in Christ under his perpetual Tyranny and Subjection But that he shall rise from death again unto Glory at the last day appointed by Almighty God like as Christ our Head did rise again according to God's appointment the third day For St. Augustine saith The Head going before the Members trust to follow and come after And St. Paul saith If Christ be risen from the dead we shall rise also from the same And to comfort all Christian Persons herein Holy Scripture calleth this bodily death a sleep wherein Man's Senses be as it were taken from him for a season and yet when he awaketh he is more fresh than he was when he went to Bed So although we have our Souls separated from our Bodies for a season yet at the general Resurrection we shall be more fresh beautiful and perfect than we be now For now we be mortal then shall we be immortal Now infected with divers Infirmities then clearly void of all mortal Infirmities Now we be subject to all carnal desires then we shall be all Spiritual desiring nothing but God's Glory and things eternal Thus is this bodily death a door or entring unto Life and therefore not so much dreadful if it be rightly considered as it is comfortable not a mischief but a Remedy for all mischief no Enemy but a Friend not a cruel Tyrant but a gentle Guide leading us not to mortality but to immortality not to Sorrow and Pain but to Joy and Pleasure and that to endure for ever if it be thankfully taken and accepted as God's Messenger and patiently born of us for Christ's Love that suffered most painful death for our Love to redeem us from death eternal Accordingly hereunto St. Paul saith Col. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God But when our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Why then shall we fear to die considering the manifold and comfortable Promises of the Gospel and of Holy Scriptures 1 John 5. God the Father hath given us everlasting Life saith St. John 1 John 5. and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life And this I write saith St. John to you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have everlasting Life and that you do believe upon the Name of the Son of God And our Saviour Christ saith John 5. He that believeth in me hath Life everlasting and I will raise him from Death to Life at the last day St. Paul also saith 1 Cor. 1. That Christ is ordained and made of God our Righteousness or Holiness and Redemption to the intent that he which will glory should glory in the Lord. St. Paul did contemn and set little by all other things Phil. 3. esteeming them as Dung which before he had in very great price that he might be found in Christ to have everlasting Life true Holiness Righteousness and Redemption Finally St. Paul maketh a plain Argument on this wise Rom. 8. If our heavenly Father would not spare his own natural Son but did give him to death for us how can it it be but that with him he should give us all things Therefore if we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our Hearts wish or desire as Victory over Death Sin and Hell We have the Favour of God Peace with him Holiness Wisdom Justice Power Life and Redemption we have by him perpetual Health Wealth Joy and Bliss everlasting The Second Part of the Sermon against the Fear of Death IT hath been heretofore shewed you That there be three Causes wherefore Men do commonly fear Death First the sorrowful departing from Worldly Goods and Pleasures The Second the fear of the pangs and pains that come with Death The last and principal Cause is The horrible fear of extreme Misery and perpetual Damnation in time to come And yet none of these three Causes troubleth good Men because they stay
themselves by true Faith perfect Charity and sure Hope of the endless Joy and Bliss everlasting All those therefore have great cause to be full of Joy that be joyned to Christ with true Faith stedfast Hope and perfect Charity and not to fear death nor everlasting Damnation For Death cannot deprive them of Jesus Christ nor can any Sin condemn them that are grafted surely in him which is their only Joy Treasure and Life Let us repent of our Sins amend our Lives trust in his Mercy and Satisfaction and Death can neither take him from us nor us from him For then as St. Paul saith Whether we live or die we be the Lords own And again he saith Christ did die and rose again because he should be Lord both of the dead and quick Then if we be the Lords own when we be dead it must needs follow that such temporal death not only cannot harm us but also that it shall be much to our profit and joyn us unto God more perfectly And thereof the Christian Heart may surely be certified by the infallible or undeceivable Truth of Holy Scripture It is God saith St. Paul which hath prepared us unto immortality and the same is he which hath given us aâ— earnest of the Spirit Therefore let us he always of good Comfort for we know that so long as we be in tho Body 2 Gal. 5. we be as it were far from God in a strange Country subject to many perils walking without perfect Sight and Knowledge of Almighty God only seeing him by Faith in Holy Scriptures But we have a courage and desire rather to be at home with God and our Saviour Christ far from the Body where we may behold his Godhead as he is Face to Face to our everlasting Comfort These be St. Paul's words in effect whereby we may perceive that the Life in this World is resembled and likened to a Pilgrimage in a strange Country far from God and that Death delivering us from our Bodies doth send us strait home into our own Country and maketh us to dwell presently with God for ever in everlasting Rest and Quietness So that to die is no loss but profit and winning to all true Christian People What lost the Thief that died on the Cross with Christ by his Bodily death Yea how much did he gain by it Did not our Saviour say unto him Luke 16. This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And Lazarus that pitiful Person that lay before the Rich Man's Gate pained with Sores and pined with Hunger did not death highly profit and promote him which by the ministry of Angels sent him unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest Joy and Heavenly Consolation Let us think none other good Christian People but Christ hath prepared and made ready before the same Joy and Felicity for us that he prepared for Lazarus and the Thief Wherefore let us stick unto his Salvation and Gracious Redemption and believe his Word Serve him from our Hearts Love and Obey him and whatsoever we have done heretofore contrary to his most Holy Will now let us Repent in time and hereafter study to Correct our Life and doubt not but we shall find him as merciful unto us as he was either to Lazarus or to the Thief whose examples are written in Holy Scripture for the comfoâ—t of them that be sinners and subject to sorrows miseries and calamities in this World that they should not despair in God's Mercy but ever trust thereby to have forgiveness of their Sins and Life everlasting as Lazarus and the Thief had Thus I trust every Christian Man perceiveth by the infallible or undeceivable Word of God that Bodily death cannot harm nor hinder them that truly believe in Christ but contrarily shall profit and promote the Christian Souls which being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect Charity and in sure Trust that God is merciful to them forgiving their Sins for the Merits of Jesus Christ his only natural Son The Second Cause why some do fear death The Second Cause why some do fear death is sore sickness and grievous pains which partly come before death and partly accompany or come with death whensoever it cometh This fear is the fear of the frail flesh and a natural passion belonging unto the nature of a mortal Man But true Faith in God's promises and regard of the pains and pangs which Christ upon the Cross suffered for us miserable sinners with consideration of the Joy and everlasting Life to come in Heaven will mitigate those pains and moderate this fear that it shall never be able to overthrow the hearty desire and gladness that the Christian Soul hath to be separated from this corrupt Body that it may come to the Gracious Presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ If we believe stedfastly the Word of God we shall perceive that such bodily sickness pangs of death or whatsoever dolorous pangs we suffer either before or with death be nothing else in Christian Men but the rod of our Heavenly and Loving Father wherewith he mercifully correcteth us either to try and declare the Faith of his patient Children that they may be sound Laudable Glorious and Honourable in his Sight when Jesus Christ shall be openly shewed to be the Judge of all the World or else to chastise and amend in them whatsoever offendeth his Fatherly and Gracious Goodness lest they should perish everlastingly And this his correcting rod is common to all Men that be truly his Therefore let us cast away the burden of Sin that lieth too heavy on our necks and return unto God by true penance and amendment of our lives Let us with patience run this course that is appointed suffering for his sake that dyed for our Salvation all sorrows and pangs of death and death itself joyfully when God sendeth it to us having our Eyes fixed and set fast ever upon the Head and Captain of our Faith Jesus Christ Phil. 2. Who considering the Joy that he should come unto cared neither for the shame nor pain of death but willingly conforming and framing his Will to his Fathers Will most patiently suffered the most shameful and painful death of the Cross being innocent and harmless And now therefore he is exalted in Heaven and everlastingly sitteth on the right hand of the Throne of God the Father Let us call to our remembrance therefore the Life and Joyes of Heaven that are kept for all them that patiently do suffer here with Christ and consider that Christ suffered all his painful passion by sinners and for sinners And then we shall with Patience and the more easily suffer such sorrows and pains when they come Let us not set at light the chastising of the Lord nor grudge at him nor fall from him when of him we be corrected For the Lord loveth them whom he doth correct and beateth every one whom he taketh to be his Child What Child is
Lord's sight Holy Simeon after that he had his Hearts desire in seeing our Saviour that he ever longed for in his life he embraced and took him in his Arms and said Now Lord Luke 2. let me depart in peace for mine eies have beholden that Saviour which thou hast prepared for all Nations It is truth therefore that the death of the Righteous is called Peace and the benefit of the Lord as the Church saith in the name of the Righteous departed out of this World My soul Psal 116. turn thee to thy Rest for the Lord both been good to thee and rewarded thee And we see by Holy Scripture and other ancient Histories of Martyrs that the Holy Faithful and Righteous ever since Christ's Ascension or going up in their death did not doubt but that they went to Christ in Spirit which is our Life Health Wealth and Salvation Apoc. 14. John in his Holy Revelation saw an hundred forty and four thousand Virgins and Innocents of whom he said These follow the Lamb Jesu Christ wheresoever he goeth And shortly after in the same place he saith I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write happy and blessed are the dead which die in the Lord From henceforth surely saith the Spirit they shall rest from their pains and labours for their works do follow them So that then they shall reap with joy and comfort that which they sowed with labours and pains They that sow in the Spirit of the Spirit shall reap everlasting Life Let us therefore never be weary of well-doing for when the time of Reaping or Reward cometh we shall reap without any Weariness everlasting Joy Therefore while we have time as St. Paul exhorteth us Gal 6. Matth. 6. let us do good to all Men and not lay up our Treasure in Earth where Rust and Moths corrupt it which Rust as St. James saith shall bear Witness against us at the great day condemn us and shall like most burning Fire torment our Flesh Let us beware therefore as we tender our own Wealth that we be not in the number of those miserable covetous and wretched Men James 5. which St. James biddeth mâ—arn and lament for their greedy gathering and ungâ—dly keeping of Goods Let us be wise in time and learn to follow the wise Example of the wicked Steward Let us so wisely order our Goods and Possessions committed unto us here by God for a season that we may truly hear and obey this Commandment of our Saviour Christ Luke 16. I say unto you saith he make you Friends of the wicked Mammon that they may receive you into everlasting Tabernacles or Dwellings Riches be called wicked because the World abuseth them unto all Wickedness which are otherwise the good gifts of God and the Instruments whereby God's Servants do truly serve him in using of the same He commanded them not to make them rich Friends to get high Dignities and worldly Promotions to give great gifts to rich Men that have no need thereof but to make them Friends of poor and miserable Men unto whom whatsoever they give Christ taketh it as given to himself And to these Friends Christ in the Gospel giveth so great Honor and Preeminence that he saith They shall receive them that do good unto them into everlasting Houses Not that Men shall be our Rewarders for our well-doing but that Christ will reward us and and take it to be done unto himself whatsoever is done to such Friends Thus making poor Wretches our Friends we make our Saviour Christ our Friend whose Members they are Whose misery as he taketh for his own misery so their Relief Succor and Help he taketh for his Succor Relief and Help and will as much thank us and reward us for our goodness shewed to them as if he himself had received like Benefit at our hands as he witnesseth in the Gospel saying Matth 25. Whatsoever ye have done to any of these simple Persons which do believe in me that have you done to myself Therefore let us diligently foresee that our Faith and Hope which we have conceived in Almighty God and in our Saviour Christ wax not faint and that the love which we bear in hand to bear to him wax not cold But let us study daily and diligently to shew ourselves to be the true Honorers and Lovers of God by keeping of his Commandments by doing of good Deeds unto our needy Neighbours relieving by all means that we can their Poverty with our Abundance and Plenty their Ignorance with our Wisdom and Learning and comfort their Weakness with our Strength and Authority calling all Men back from evil-doing by godly Counsel and good Example persevering still in well-doing so long as we live So shall we not need to fear Death for any of those three Causes afore-mentioned nor yet for any other Cause that can be imagined But contrarily considering the manifold Sicknesses Troubles and Sorrows of this present Life the dangers of this perillous Pilgrimage and the great encumbrance which our Spirit hath by this sinful Flesh and frail Body subject to Death Considering also the manifold Sorrows and dangerous Deceits of this World on every side the intolerable Pride Covetousness and Lechery in time of Prosperity the impatient murmuring of them that be worldly in time of Adversity which cease not to withdraw and pluck us from God our Saviour Christ from our Life Wealth or everlasting Joy and Salvation Considering also the innumerable Assaults of our Ghostly Enemy the Devil with all his fiery Darts of Ambition Pride Lechery Vain-glory Envy Malice Detraction or Backbiting with other his innumerable Deceits 1 Pet. 5. Engines and Snares whereby he goeth busily about to catch all Men under his dominion ever like a roaring Lion by all means searching whom he may devour The faithful Christian-Man which considereth all these Miseries Perils and Incommodities whereunto he is subject so long as he here liveth upon Earth and on the other part considereth that blessed and comfortable state of the Heavenly life to come and the sweet condition of them that depart in the Lord how they are delivered from the continual encumbrances of their mortal and sinful Body from all the Malice Crafts and Deceits of this World from all the assaults of their Ghostly Enemy the Devil to live in peace rest and endless quietness to live in the fellowship of innumerable Angels and with the congregation of perfect and just Men as Patriarchs Prophets Martyrs and Confessors and finally unto the Presence of Almighty God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He that doth consider all these things and believeth them assuredly as they are to be believed even from the bottom of his Heart being established in God in this true Faith having a quiet Conscience in Christ a firm Hope and assured Trust in God's Mercy through the Merits of Jesu Christ to obtain this Quietness Rest and everlasting Joy shall not only be without
the high Powers for the putting away of Whoredom and for the maintaining of Holy Matrimony or Wedlock and pure Conversation And the Authors of these Acts were no Christians but the Heathen Yet were they so enflamed with the love of Honesty and pureness of Life that for the maintenance and conservation or keeping up of that they made godly Statutes suffering neither Fornication or Adultery to reign in their Realms unpunished Christ said to the People The Ninevites shall rise at the Judgment with this Nation meaning the unfaithful Jews and shall condemn them For they repented at the Preaching of Jonas but behold saith he a Greater than Jonas is here Mat. 12. meaning himself and yet they repent not Shall not think you likewise the Locrensians Arabians Athenians with such other rise up in the Judgment and condemn us forasmuch as they ceased from their Whoredom at the Commandment of Man and we have the Law and manifest Precepts and Commandments of God and yet forsake we not our filthy Conversation Truly truly it shall be easier at the day of Judgment to these Heathens than to us except we repent and amend For though death of Body seemeth unto us a grievous Punishment in this World for Whoredom Yet is that pain nothing in comparison to the grievous Torments which Adulterers Fornicators and all unclean Persons shall suffer after this Life For all such shall be excluded and shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Col. 6. Galat. 5. Eph. 5. as Saint Paul saith Be not deceived for neither Whoremongers nor Worshippers of Images nor Adulterers nor effeminate Persons nor Sodomites nor Thieves nor covetous Persons nor Drunkards nor cursed Speakers nor Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God Apoc. 20. And Saint John in his Revelation saith That Whoremongers shall have their part with Murtherers Sorcerers Enchanters Lyars Idolaters and such other in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death The Punishment of the Body although it be death hath an end But the Punishment of the Soul which Saint John calleth the second death is everlasting there shall be Fire and Brimstone there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth the Worm Mat. 13. Mark 9. that there shall gnaw the Conscience of the damned shall never dye O! whose Heart destilleth not even drops of Blood to hear and consider these things If we tremble and shake at the hearing and naming of these Pains Oh what shall they do that feel them that shall suffer them yea and ever shall suffer Worlds without end God have mercy upon us Who is now so drowned in Sin and past all Godliness that he will set more by filthy and stinking Pleasure which soon passeth away than by the loss of everlasting Glory Again who will so give himself to the Lusts of the Flesh that he feareth nothing at all the pain of Hell fire But let us hear how we may eschew the Sin of Whoredome and Adultery that we may walk in the Fear of God and be free from those most grievous and intolerable Torments which abide all unclean Persons Now to avoid Fornication Adultery Remedies whereby to avoid Fornication and Adultery and all Uncleanness let us provide that above all things we may keep our Hearts pure and clean from all evil Thoughts and carnal Lusts For if that be once infected and corrupt we fall headlong into all kind of Ungodliness This shall we easily do if when we feel inwardly that Satan our old Enemy tempteth us unto Whoredom we by no means consent to his crafty Suggestions but valiantly resist and withstand him by strong Faith in the Word of God Alledging against him always in our Heart this Commandment of God Scriptum est non moechaberis It is written Thou shalt not commit Whoredom It shall be good also for us ever to live in the Fear of God and to set before our Eyes the grievous Threatnings of God against all ungodly Sinners and to consider in our mind how filthy beastly and short that Pleasure is whereunto Satan continually stirreth and moveth us And again how the pain appointed for that Sin is intolerable and everlasting Moreover to use a temperance and sobriety in Eating and Drinking to eschew unclean Communication to avoid all filthy Company to flee Idleness to delight in reading the Holy Scriptures to watch in Godly Prayers and virtuous Meditation and at all times to exercise some Godly Travels shall help greatly to the eschewing of Whoredom And here are all degrees to be monished whether they be married or unmarried to love Chastity and Cleanness of Life For the married are bound by the Law of God so purely to love one another that neither of them seek any strange Love The Man must only cleave to his Wife and the Wife again only to her Husband They must so delight one in another's Company that none of them covet any other And as they are bound thus to live together in all Godliness and Honesty so likewise it is their Duty virtuously to bring up their Children and provide that they fall not into Satan's Snare nor into any Uncleanness but that they come pure and honest unto Holy Wedlock when time requireth So likewise ought all Masters and Rulers to provide that no Whoredom nor any point of Uncleanness be used among their Servants And again they that are single and feel in themselves that they cannot live without the Company of a Woman let them get Wives of their own and so live Godly together For it is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7. And to avoid Fornication saith the Apoostle let every Man have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband Finally all such as feel in themselves a sufficiency and ability through the working of God's Spirit to lead a sole and continent Life let them praise God for his Gift and seek all means possible to maintain the same as by reading of Holy Scriptures by Godly Meditations by continual Prayers and such other virtuous Exercises If we all on this wise will endeavour ourselves to eschew Fornication Adultery and all Uncleanness and lead our Lives in all Godliness and Honesty serving God with a pure and clean Heart and glorifying him in our Bodies by the leading an innocent and harmless Life we may be sure to be in the number of those of whom our Saviour Christ speaketh in the Gospel on this manner Blessed are the pure in Heart Matth. 5. for they shall see God to whom alone be all Glory Honour Rule and Power World without End Amen A SERMON AGAINST Contention and Brawling THIS day good Christian People shall be declared unto you the unprofitableness and shameful unhonesty of Contention Strife and Debate to the intent that when you shall see as it were in a Table painted before your Eyes the Evil-Favouredness and Deformity of this most detestable Vice your Stomachs may be moved to rise against it and
suffer thee although he is daily offended by thee Forgive therefore a light Trespass to thy neighbour that Christ may forgive thee many thousands of Trespasses which art every day an offender For if thou forgive thy Brother being to thee a trespasser then hast thou a sure sign and token that God will forgive thee to whom all Men be debtors and trespassers How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee if thou wilt be cruel unto thy Brother Canst thou not find in thy heart to do that towards another that is thy fellow which God hath done to thee that art but his servant Ought not one sinner to forgive another seeing that Christ which was no sinner did pray to his Father for them that without mercy and despitefully put him to death 1 Pet. 2. Who when he was reviled he did not use reviling words again and when he suffered wrongfully he did not threaten but gave all vengeance to the judgment of his Father which judgeth rightfully And what crackest thou of thy Head if thou labour not to be in the Body Thou canst be no member of Christ if thou follow not the steps of Christ Isai 53. Luke 23. Acts 7. Who as the Prophet saith was led to death like a Lamb not opening his mouth to reviling but opening his Mouth to praying for them that crucified him saying Father forgive them for they cannot tell what they do The which example anon after Christ St. Stephen did follow and after St. Paul We be evil spoken of saith he and we speak well We suffer persecution and take it patiently Men curse us and we gently intreat 1 Cor. 4. Thus Saint Paul taught that he did and he did that he taught Bless you saith he them that persecute you bless you and curse not Is it a great thing to speak well to thine Adversary to whom Christ doth command thee to do well David when Shimes did call him all to naught did not chide again but said patiently Suffer him to speak evil if perchance the Lord will have Mercy on me Histories be full of Examples of Heathen Men that took very meekly both opprobrious and reproachful Words and injurious or wrongful Deeds And shall those Heathen excel in Patience us that profess Christ the Teacher and Example of all Patience Lysander when one did rage against him in reviling of him he was nothing moved but said Go to go to speak against me as much and as oft as thou wilt and leave out nothing if perchance by this means thou mayst discharge thee of those naughty things with the which it seemeth that thou art full laden Many Men speak evil of all Men because they can speak well of no Man After this sort this Wise Man avoideth from him the reproachful Words spoken unto him imputing and laying them to the Natural Sickness of his Adversary Pericles when a certain Scolder or railing Fellow did revile him he answered not a word again but went into a Gallery and after towards Night when he went home this Scolder followed him raging still more and more because he saw the other to set nothing by him And after that he came to his Gate being dark Night Pericles commanded one of his Servants to light a Torch and to bring the Scolder home to his own House He did not only with quietness suffer this Brawler patiently but also recompensed an evil Turn with a good Turn and that to his Enemy Is it not a shame for us that profess Christ to be worse than Heathen People in a thing chiefly pertaining to Christs Religion Shall Philosophy perswade them more than Gods Word shall perswade us Shall Natural Reason prevail more with them than Religion shall with us Shall Mans Wisdom lead them to those things whereunto the Heavenly Doctrine cannot lead us What blindness wilfulness or rather madness is this Pericles being provoked to anger with many villanous words answered not a word But we stirred but with one little word what foul work do we make How do we fume rage stamp and stare like Mad Men Many Men of every trifle will make a great matter and of a spark of a little word will kindle a great fire taking all things in the worst part But how much better is it Reasons to move Men from quarrel-picking and more like to the Example and Doctrine of Christ to make rather a greater fault in our Neighbour a small fault reasoning with ourselves after this sort He spake these words but it was in a sudden heat or the Drink spake them and not he or he spake them at the motion of some other or he spake them being ignorant of the truth he spake them not against me but against him whom he thought me to be But as touching evil speaking he that is ready to speak evil against other Men first let him examine himself whether he be faultless and clear of the fault which he findeth in another For it is a shame when he that blameth another for any fault is guilty himself either in the same fault or in a greater It is a shame for him that is blind to call another Man blind and it is more shame for him that is whole blind to call him blinkard that is but purblind For this is to see a straw in another Mans Eye when a Man hath a block in his own Eye Then let him consider that he that useth to speak evil shall commonly be evil spoken of again And he that speaketh what he will for his pleasure shall be compelled to hear what he would not to his displeasure Moreover let him remember that saying That we shall give an account for every idle Word Mat. 12. How much more then shall we make reckoning for our sharp bitter brawling and chiding Words which provoke our Brother to be angry and so to the breach of his Charity And as touching evil answering although we be never so much provoked by other Mens evil speaking yet we shall not follow their frowardness by evil answering if we consider that anger is a kind of madness and that he which is angry is as it were for the time in a phrensie Wherefore let him beware Reasons to move Men from froward answering lest in his fury he speak any thing whereof afterward he may have just cause to be sorry And he that will defend that anger is not fury but that he hath reason even when he is most angry then let him reason thus with himself when he is angry Now I am so moved and chafed that within a little while after I shall be otherwise minded wherefore then should I now speak any thing in mine anger which hereafter when I would fainest cannot be changed Wherefore shall I do any thing now being as it were out of my Wit for the which when I shall come to my self again I shall be very sad Why doth not Reason why doth not Godliness yea why doth not Christ
contrary to this Commandment do make or worship any Images or Similitude which he so strictly hath forbidden And when they this notwithstanding partly by Inclination of Mans corrupt Nature most prone to Idolatry and partly occasioned by the Gentiles and Heathen People dwelling about them who were Idolaters did fall to the making and worshipping of Images God according to his Word brought upon them all those Plagues which he threatned them with as appeareth in the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles in sundry places at large And agreeable hereunto are many other notable places in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 27. Cursed be he that maketh a carved Image or a cast or molten Image which is abomination before the Lord the Work of the Artificers Hand and setteth it up in a secret corner and all the People shall say Amen Read the thirteeenth and fourteenth Chapters of the Book of Wisdom concerning Idols or Images how they be made set up called upon and offered unto and how he praiseth the Tree whereof the Gibbet is made as happy in comparison to the Tree that an Image or Idol is made of even by these very words Happy is the Tree where through Righteousness cometh meaning the Gibbet but cursed is the Idol that is made with hands yea both it and he that made it and so forth And by and by he sheweth how that the things which were the good Creatures of God before as Trees or Stones when they be once altered and fashioned into Images to be worshipped become abomination a temptation unto the Souls of Men and a snare for the feet of the unwise And why The seeking out of Images is the beginning of Whoredom saith he and the bringing up of them is the destruction of Life For they were not from the beginning neither shall they continue for ever The wealthy idleness of Men hath found them out upon Earth therefore shall they come shortly to an end And so forth to the end of the Chapter containing these Points How Idols or Images were first invented and offered unto how by an ungracious custom they were established how Tyrants compel Men to worship them how the ignorant and the common People are deceived by the cunning of the Workman and the beauty of the Image to do honour unto it and to err from the knowledg of God and of other great and many Mischiefs that come hy Images And for a conclusion he saith That the honouring of abominable Images is the cause the beginning and end of all evil and that the Worshippers of them be either mad or most wicked See and view the whole Chapter with diligence for it is worthy to be well considered specially that is written of the deceiving of the simple and unwise common People by Idols and Images and repeated twice or thrice Sap. 15. lest it should be forgotten And in the Chapter following be these words The painting of the Picture and carved Image with divers Colours enticeth the ignorant so that he honoreth and loveth the Picture of a dead Image that hath no Soul Nevertheless they that love such evil things they that trust in them they that make them they that favour them and they that honor them are all worthy of death and so forth Psal 115. In the Book of Psalms the Prophet curseth the Image-honorers in divers places Confounded be all they that worship carved Images and that delight or glory in them Psal 135. Like be they unto the Images that make them and all they that put their trust in them And in the Prophet Isaiah saith the Lord Isai 42. Even I am the Lord and this is my Name and my Glory will I give to none other neither mine Honor to graven Images And by and by Let them be confounded with shame that trust in Idols or Images or say to them you are our Gods And in the xl Chapter Isai 40. after he hath set forth the incomprehensible Majesty of God he asketh To whom then will ye make God like Or what similitude will ye set up unto him Shall the Carver make him a carved Image And shall the Goldsmith cover him with Gold and cast him into a form of Silver Plates And for the poor Man shall the Image-maker frame an Image of Timber that he may have somwhat to set up also And after this he cryeth out O Wretches heard ye never of this Hath it not been preached unto you since the beginning and so forth how by the Creation of the World and the greatness of the Work They might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all to be greater than that it should be expressed or set forth in any Image or bodily Similitude And besides this Preaching even in the Law of God written with his own Finger as the Scripture speaketh and that in the first Table Exo. 20. and the beginning thereof is this Doctrine aforesaid against Images not briefly touched but at large set forth and preached and that with denunciation of destruction to the Contemners and Breakers of this Law and their Posterity after them And lest it should not yet be marked or not remembred the same is written and reported not in one but in sundry places of the Word of God that by oft hearing and reading of it we might once learn and remember it as you also hear daily read in the Church God spake these Words and said I am the Lord thy God Thou shalt have none other Gods but me Exo. 20. Levit. 26. Deut. 5. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above nor in the Earth beneath nor in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the Sin of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shew Mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my Commandments All this notwithstanding neither could the notableness of the place being the very beginning of the very loving Lord's Law make us to mark it nor the plain declaration by recounting of all kind of similitudes cause us to understand it nor the oft repeating and reporting of it in divers and sundry Places the oft reading and hearing of it could cause us to remember it nor the dread of the horrible penalty to ourselves our Children and Posterity after us fright us from transgressing of it nor the greatness of the reward to us and our Children after us move us any thing to Obedience and the observing of this the Lord 's Great Law But as though it had been written in some corner and not at large expressed but briefly and obscurely touched as though no penalty to the Transgressors nor reward to the Obedient had been adjoined unto it like blind Men without all knowledg and understanding like
either earnestly lament and bewail their sinful lives or did addict themselves to more fervent Prayer that it might please God to turn his wrath from them when either they were admonished and brought to the consideration thereof by the preaching of the Prophets or otherwise when they saw present danger to hang over their heads This sorrowfulness of Heart joyned with Fasting they uttered sometimes by their outward behaviour and gesture of Body putting on Sackcloth sprinkling themselves with ashes and dust and sitting or lying upon the Earth For when good men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin see damnation to be the reward of it and behold with the eye of their mind the horror of Hell they tremble they quake and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart for their offences and cannot but accuse themselves and open this their grief unto Almighty God and call unto him for mercy This being done seriously their mind is so occupied partly with sorrow and heaviness partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of Hell and Damnation that all desire of meat and drink is laid apart and loathsomness of all worldly things and pleasure cometh in place so that nothing then liketh them more than to weep to lament to mourn and both with words and behaviour of body to shew themselves weary of this life Thus did David fast when he made intercession to Almighty God for the Childs life begotten in Adultery of Bathshtba Vriah's Wife King Ahab fasted after this sort when it repented him of murdering of Naboth bewailing his own sinful doings Such was the Ninevites Fast brought to repentance by Jonas preaching When forty thousand of the Israelites were slain in Battel against the Benjamites the Scripture saith All the Children of Israel and the whole multitude of the People went to Bethel and sate there weeping before the Lord and fasted all that day till night Judges 20. So did Daniel Hester Nehemias and many others in the Old Testament fast But if any man will say it is true so they fasted indeed but we are not now under the yoke of the Law we are set at liberty by the freedom of the Gospel therefore those Rites and Customs of the old Law bind not us except it can be shewed by the Scriptures of the New Testament or by examples out of the same that fasting now under the Gospel is a restraint of meat drink and all bodily food and pleasures fro◠〈…〉 First that 〈…〉 is a truth more manifest than that it should here need to be proved the Scriptures which teach the same are evident The doubt therefore is whether when we Fast we ought to withhold from our bodies all meat and drink during the time of our Fast or no That we ought so to do may be well gathered upon a Question moved by the Pharisees to Christ and by his answer again to the same Why say they do John's Disciples fast often Luke â— and pray and we likewise but thy Disciples eat and drink and fast not at all In this smooth Question they couch up subtilly this Argument or Reason Whoso fasteth not that man is not of God For Fasting and Prayer are works both commended and commanded of God in the Scriptures and all good men from Moses till this time as well the Prophets as others have exercised themselves in these works John also and his Disciples at this day do fast oft and pray much and so do we the Pharisees in like manner But thy Disciples fast not at all which if thou wilt deny we can easily prove it For whosoever eateth and drinketh fasteth not Thy Disciples eat and drink therefore they fast not Of this we conclude say they necessarily that neither art thou nor yet thy Disciples of God Christ maketh answer saying Can ye make that the children of the wedding shalt fast while the Bridegroom is with them The days shall come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them In those days shall they fast Our Saviour Christ like a good Master defendeth the Innocency of his Disciples against the malice of the arrogant Pharisees and proveth that his Disciples are not guilty of transgressing any jot of Gods Law although as then they fasted and in his answer reproveth the Pharisees of Superstition and Ignorance Superstition because they put a Religion in their doings and ascribed holiness to the outward work wrought not regarding to what end Fasting is ordained Of Ignorance for that they could not discern between time and 〈◊〉 They knew not that there is a time of rejoycing and mirth and 〈…〉 â—tation and mourning which both he teacheth in his answer as shall be touched more largely hereafter when we shall shew what time is most fit to fast in But here beloved let us note that our Saviour Christ in making his answer to their question denied not but confessed that his Disciples fasted not and therefore agreeth to the Pharisees in this as unto a manifest truth that whoso eateth and drinketh fasteth not Fasting then even by Christs assent is a withholding of meat drink and all natural food from the Body for the determined time of Fasting And that it was used in the Primitive Church appeareth most evidently by the Chalcedon Council one of the four first General Councils The Fathers assembled there to the number of 630. considering with themselves how acceptable a thing Fasting is to God when it is used according to his word Again having before their eyes also the great abuses of the same crept into the Church at those days through the negligence of them which should have taught the People the right use thereof and by vain glosses devised of men to reform the said abuses and to restore this so good and godly a work to the true use thereof decreed in that Council that every Person as well in his private as publick Fast should continue all the day without meat and drink till after the Evening Prayer And whosoever did eat or drink before the Evening Prayer was ended should be accounted and reputed not to consider the purity of his Fast This Canon teacheth so evidently how Fasting was used in the Primitive Church as by words it cannot be more plainly expressed Fasting then by the Decree of those six hundred and thirty Fathers grounding their determination in this matter upon the Sacred Scriptures and long continued usage or practice both of the Prophets and other godly Persons before the coming of Christ and also of the Apostles and other devout men in the New Testament is a withholding of meat drink and all natural Food from the Body for the determined time of Fasting Thus much is spoken hitherto to make plain unto you what Fasting is Now hereafter shall be shewed the true and right use of Fasting Good works are not all of one sort For some are of themselves and of their own proper nature always good as to love God above all things to
unto him and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart bewailing the same in the affliction of our Bodies These are the three ends or right uses of Fasting The first belongeth most properly to private Fasts the other two are common as well to publick Fasts as to private and thus much for the use of Fasting Lord have mercy upon us and give us grace that while we live in this miserable World we may through thy help bring forth this and such other fruits of the Spirit commended and commanded in thy Holy Word to the glory of thy Name and to our comforts that after the race of this wretched life we may live everlastingly with thee in thy Heavenly Kingdom not for the merits and worthiness of our works but for thy mercies sake and the merits of thy dear Son Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all Laud Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of FASTING IN the former Homily beloved was shewed that among the People of the Jews Fasting as it was commanded them from God by Moses was to abstain the whole day from Morning till Night from Meat Drink and all manner of Food that nourisheth the Body and that whoso tasted ought before the Evening on the day appointed to Fasting was accounted among them a breaker of his Fast Which Order though it seem strange to some in these our days because it hath not been so generally used in this Realm of many years past yet that it was so among Gods People I mean the Jews whom before the coming of our Saviour Christ God did vouchsafe to chuse unto himself a peculiar People above all other Nations of the Earth and that our Saviour Christ so understood it and the Apostles after Christs Ascension did so use it was there sufficiently proved by the Testimonies and Examples of the Holy Scriptures as well of the New Testament as of the Old The true use of Fasting was there also shewed In this Second Part of this Homily shall be shewed that no Constitution or Law made by Man for things which of their own proper nature be meer and indifferent can bind the Conscience of Christian men to a perpetual observation and keeping thereof but that the Higher Powers have full liberty to alter and change every such Law and Ordinance either Ecclesiastical or Political when time and place shall require But first an Answer shall be made to a Question that some may make demanding what judgment we ought to have of such abstinences as are appointed by publick Order and Laws made by Princes and by the Authority of the Magistrates upon Policy not respecting any Religion at all in the same As when any Realm in consideration of the maintaining of Fisher-Towns bordering upon the Seas and for the increase of Fisher-men of whom do spring Mariners to go upon the Sea to the furnishing of the Navy of the Realm whereby not only Commodities of other Countries may be transported but also may be a necessary defence to resist the Invasion of the Adversary For the better understanding of this Question it is necessary that we make a difference between the Policies of Princes made for the ordering of their Commonweals in provision of things serving to the most sure defence of their Subjects and Countries and between Ecclesiastical Policies in prescribing such works by which as by secondary means Gods wrath may be pacified and his mercy purchased Positive Laws made by Princes for conservation of their Policy not repugnant unto Gods Law ought of all Christian Subjects with reverence of the Magistrate to be obeyed not only for fear of Punishment but also as the Apostle saith for conscience sake Conscience I say not of the thing which of its own nature is indifferent but of our Obedience which by the Law of God we owe unto the Magistrate as unto Gods Minister By which positive Laws though we Subjects for certain times and days appointed be restrained from some kinds of Meats and Drink which God by his Holy Word hath left free to be taken and used of all men with thanksgiving in all places and at all times yet for that such Laws of Princes and other Magistrates are not made to put Holiness in one kind of Meat and Drink more than another to make one day more holy than another but are grounded meerly upon Policy all Subjects are bound in Conscience to keep them by Gods Commandment who by the Apostle willeth all without exception to submit themselves unto the Authority of the Higher Powers And in this point concerning our Duties which be here dwelling in England environed with the Sea as we be we have great occasion in reason to take the Commodities of the Water which Almighty God by his Divine Providence hath laid so nigh unto us whereby the increase of Victuals upon the Land may the better be spared and cherished to the sooner reducing of Victuals to a more moderate price to the better sustenance of the Poor And doubtless he seemeth to be too dainty an English-man who considering the great Commodities which may ensue will not forbear some piece of his licentious Appetite upon the Ordinance of his Prince with the consent of the Wise of the Realm What good English heart would not wish that the old ancient glory should return to the Realm wherein it hath with great commendations excelled before our days in the furniture of the Navy of the same What will more daunt the Hearts of the Adversaries than to see us well fenced and armed on the Sea as we be reported to be on the Land If the Prince requested our obedience to forbear one day from flesh more than we do and to be be contented with one meal in the same day should not our own Commodity thereby perswade us to subjection But now that two meals be permitted on that day to be used which sometime our Elders in very great numbers in the Realm did use with one only spare meal and that in Fish only shall we think it so great a burthen that is prescribed Furthermore consider the decay of the Towns nigh the Seas which should be most ready by the number of the People there to repulse the Enemy and we which dwell further off upon the Land having them as our Buckler to defend us should be the more in safety If they be our Neighbours why should we not wish them to prosper If they be our defence as nighest at hand to repel the Enemy to keep out the rage of the Seas which else would break in upon our fair Pastures why should we not cherish them Neither do we urge that in the Ecclesiastical Policy prescribing a form of Fasting to humble our selves in the sight of Almighty God that that Order which was used among the Jews and practised by Christs Apostles after his ascension is of such force and necessity that that only ought to be used among
them all other true Christian men to Pray always and never to faint or shrink Remember also the example of the Woman of Canaan Mat 15. how she was rejected of Christ and called Dog as one most unworthy of any benefit at his hands yet she gave not over but followed him still crying and calling upon him to be good and merciful unto her Daughter And at length by very importunity she obtained her request O let us learn by these examples to be earnest and fervent in Prayer assuring our selves that whatsoever we ask of God the Father in the Name of his Son Christ John 16. and according to his will he will undoubtedly grant it He is truth it self and as truly as he hath promised it so truly will he perform it God for his great mercies sake so work in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that we may always make our humble Prayers unto him as we ought to do and always obtain the thing which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily concerning PRAYER IN the First Part of this Sermon ye heard the great necessity and also the great force of devout and earnest Prayer declared and proved unto you both by divers weighty Testimonies and also by sundry good Examples of Holy Scripture Now shall you learn whom you ought to call upon and to whom you ought always to direct your Prayers We are evidently taught in Gods Holy Testament that Almighty God is the only Fountain and Well-spring of all Goodness and that whatsoever we have in this World we receive it only at his hands to this effect serveth the place of St. James James 1. Every good and perfect gift saith he cometh from above and proceedeth from the Father of Lights To this effect also serveth the Testimony of Paul in divers places of his Epistles witnessing that the Spirit of Wisdom the Spirit of Knowledge and Revelation yea every good and heavenly gift as Faith Hope Charity Grace and Peace cometh only and solely of God In consideration whereof he bursteth out into a sudden Passion and saith O man 1 Cor. 4. what thing hast thou which thou hast not received Therefore whensoever we need or lack any thing pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul it behoveth us to run only unto God who is the only giver of all good things Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teaching his Disciples how they should Pray sendeth them to the Father in his Name saying Verily verily John 16. Matt. 6. Luke 11. I say unto you whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And in another place When ye Pray pray after this sort Our Father which art in Heaven c. And doth not God himself Psal 50. Acts 1. by the mouth of his Prophet David will and command us to call upon him The Apostle wisheth Grace and Peace to all them that call on the Name of the Lord and of his Son Jesus Christ Joel 2. as doth also the Prophet Joel saying And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Thus then it is plain by the infallible word of Truth and Life that in all our necessities we must flee unto God direct our Prayers unto him call upon his Holy Name desire help at his hands and at none others whereof if we will yet have further reason mark that which followeth There are certain conditions most requisite to be found in every such a one as must be called upon which if they be not found in him unto whom we pray then doth our Prayer avail us nothing but is altogether in vain The first is this that he to whom we make our Prayers be able to help us The second is that he will help us The third is that he be such a one as may hear our Prayers The fourth is that he understand better than we our selves what we lack and how far we have need of help If these things be to be found in any other saving only God then may we lawfully call upon some other besides God But what man is so gross but he well understandeth that these things are only proper to him which is Omnipotent and knoweth all things even the very secrets of the Heart that is to say only and to God alone whereof it followeth that we must call neither upon Angel nor yet upon Saint but only and solely upon God Rom. 10. as St. Paul doth write How shall men call upon him in whom they have not believed So that Invocation or Prayer may not be made without Faith in him on whom they call but that we must first believe in him before we can make our Prayer unto him whereupon we must only and solely Pray unto God For to say that we should believe either in Angel or Saint or in any other living Creature were meer horrible Blasphemy against God and his Holy Word neither ought this Fancy to enter into the Heart of any Christian man because we are expresly taught in the Word of the Lord only to repose our Faith in the Blessed Trinity in whose only Name we are also Baptized according to the express Commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 28. in the last of St. Matthew But that the truth hereof may the better appear even to them that be most simple and unlearned let us consider what Prayer is De spi lit cap. 50. De summo bono cap. 8. lib. 3. St. Augustin calleth it a lifting up of the mind to God that is to say an humble and lowly pouring out of the Heart to God Isidorus saith that it is an affection of the Heart and not a labour of the Lips So that by these places true Prayer doth consist not so much in the outward sound and voice of words as in the inward groaning and crying of the Heart to God Now then is there any Angel any Virgin any Patriarch or Prophet among the dead that can understand or know the meaning of the Heart The Scripture saith Psal 7. Apoc. 2. Jer. 17. 2 Par. 6. It is God that searcheth the Heart and the Reins and that he only knoweth the Hearts of the children of men As for the Saints they have so little knowledge of the secrets of the Heart that many of the ancient Fathers greatly doubt whether they know any thing at all that is commonly done on Earth And albeit some think they do yet St. Augustin Lib. de cura pro mort agenda c. 13. De vera Râ—l cap. 22. Esay 63. Lib. 22. de civit Dei cap. 10. a Doctor of great Authority and also Antiquity hath this Opinion of them That they know no more what we do on Earth than we know what they do in Heaven For Proof whereof he
the place where he hath promised to be present and where he will hear the Prayers of them that call upon him The which thing both Christ and his Apostles with all the rest of the Holy Fathers do sufficiently declare by this That albeit they certainly knew that their Prayers were heard in what place soever they made them though it were in Caves in Woods and in Desarts yet so oft as they could conveniently they resorted to the material Temples there with the rest of the Congregation to joyn in Prayer and true Worship Wherefore dearly beloved you that profess your selves to be Christians and glory in that name disdain not to follow the example of your Master Christ whose Scholars you say you be shew you to be like them whose School-mates you take upon you to be that is the Apostles and Disciples of Christ Lift up pure hands with clean hearts in all places and at all times But do the same in the Temples and Churches upon the Sabbath days also Our godly Predecessors and the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church spared not their Goods to build Churches no they spared not their Lives in time of Persecution and to hazard their Blood that they might assemble themselves together in Churches And shall we spare a little labour to come to Churches Shall neither their Example nor our Duty nor the Commodities that thereby should come unto us move us If we will declare our selves to have the fear of God if we will shew our selves true Christians if we will be the followers of Christ our Master and of those godly Fathers that have lived before us and now have received the Reward of true and faithful Christians we must both willingly earnestly and reverently come unto the material Churches and Temples to Pray as unto fit places appointed for that use and that upon the Sabbath day as at most convenient time for Gods People to cease from bodily and worldly business to give themselves to Holy Rest and Godly Contemplation pertaining to the Service of Almighty God Whereby we may reconcile our selves to God be partakers of his Holy Sacraments and be devout hearers of his Holy Word so to be established in Faith to Godward in Hope against all Adversity and in Charity toward our Neighbours And thus running our course as good Christian People we may at the last attain the Reward of everlasting Glory through the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Place and Time of PRAYER IT hath been declared unto you good Christian People in the former Sermon read unto you at what Time and into what Place ye shall come together to praise God Now I intend to set before your Eyes First how zealous and desirous ye ought to be to come to your Church Secondly how sore God is grieved with them that do despise or little regard to come to the Church upon the Holy restful Day It may well appear by the Scriptures that many of the godly Israelites being now in Captivity for their sins among the Babylonians full often wished and desired to be again at Jerusalem And at their return through Gods goodness though many of the People were negligent yet the Fathers were marvellous devout to build up the Temple that Gods People might repair thither to honour him And King David when he was a banished man out of his Countrey out of Jerusalem the Holy City from the Sanctuary from the Holy place and from the Tabernacle of God What desire what ferventness was in him toward that Holy place what wishings and prayers made he to God to be a Dweller in the House of the Lord One thing saith he have I asked of the Lord and this will I still crave that I may resort and have my dwelling in the House of the Lord so long as I live Again O how I joyed when I heard these words We shall go into the Lords House Psal 122. And in other places of the Psalms he declareth for what intent and purpose he hath such a fervent desire to enter into the Temple and Church of the Lord I will fall down saith he and worship in the holy Temple of the Lord. Again Psal 63. I have appeared in thy holy place that I might behold thy might and power that I might behold thy glory and magnificence Finally he saith I will shew forth thy name to my brethren I will praise thee in the midst of the Congregation Why then had David such an earnest desire to the House of God First because there he would worship and honour God Secondly there he would have a contemplation and a sight of the Power and Glory of God Thirdly there he would praise the Name of God with all the Congregation and Company of the People These considerations of this blessed Prophet of God ought to stir up and kindle in us the like earnest desire to resort to the Church especially upon the holy restful days there to do our Duties and to serve God there to call to remembrance how God even of his meer mercy and for the glory of his Name sake worketh mightily to conserve us in Health Wealth and Godliness and mightily preserveth us from the assaults and rages of our fierce and cruel Enemies and there joyfully in the number of his faithful People to praise and magnifie the Lords Holy Name Set before your Eyes also that Ancient Father Simeon of whom the Scripture speaketh thus to his great commendation and an encouragement for us to do the like There was a man at Jerusalem Luke 2. named Simeon a just man fearing God he came by the spirit of God into the Temple and was told by the same spirit that he should not die before he saw the anointed of the Lord. In the Temple his Promise was fulfilled in the Temple he saw Christ and took him in his Arms in the Temple he brake out into the mighty praise of God his Lord. Anna a Prophetess an old Widow departed out of the Temple giving her self to Prayer and Fasting day and night And she coming about the same time was likewise inspired and confessed and spake of the Lord to all them that looked for the Redemption of Israel This blessed Man and this blessed Woman were not disappointed of wonderful Fruit Commodity and Comfort which God sent them by their diligent resorting to Gods Holy Temple Now ye shall hear how grievously God hath been offended with his People for that they passed so little upon his Holy Temple and foulely either despised or abused the same Which thing may plainly appear by the notable Plagues and Punishments which God hath laid upon his People especially in this that he stirred up their Adversaries horribly to beat down and utterly to destroy his Holy Temple with a perpetual desolation Alas how many Churches Countries and Kingdoms of Christian
strangers one to another Ephes 2. 1 Cor. 10. and 12. but we are the Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God yea and members of one body And therefore whiles our Minister is in rehearsing the Prayer that is made in the name of us all we must give diligent ears to the words spoken by him and in heart beg at Gods hand those things that he beggeth in words And to signifie that we do so we say Amen at the end of the Prayer that he maketh in the name of us all And this thing can we not do for edification unless we understand what is spoken Therefore it is required of necessity that the Common-Prayer be had in a Tongue that the Hearers do understand If ever it had been tolerable to use strange Tongues in the Congregations the same might have been in the time of Paul and the other Apostles when they were miraculously endued with gifts of Tongues For it might then have perswaded some to embrace the Gospel when they had heard men that were Hebrews born and unlearned speak the Greek the Latine and other Languages But Paul thought it not tolerable then And shall we use it now when no man cometh by that knowledge of Tongues otherwise than by diligent and earnest study God forbid For we should by that means bring all our Church-exercises to frivolous Superstition and make them altogether unfruitful Luke writeth Acts 4. that when Peter and John were discharged by the Princes and High-Priests of Jerusalem they came to their fellows and told them all that the Princes of the Priests and Elders had spoken to them Which when they heard they lifted up their voice together to God with one assent and said Lord thou art he that hast made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are in them c. Thus could they not have done if they had prayed in a strange Tongue that they had not understood And no doubt of it they did not all speak with several voices but some one of them spake in the name of them all and the rest giving diligent ear to his words consented thereunto and therefore it is said that they lifted up their voice together St. Luke saith not Their voices as many but their voice as one That one voice therefore was in such Language as they all understood otherwise they could not have lifted it up with the consent of their hearts For no man can give consent of the thing that he knoweth not As touching the Times before the coming of Christ there was never man yet that would affirm that either the People of God or other had their Prayers or Administrations of the Sacraments or Sacrifices in a Tongue that they themselves understood not As for the time since Christ till that usurped Power of Rome began to spread it self and to inforce all the Nations of Europe to have the Romish Language in admiration it appeareth by the consent of the most Ancient and Learned Writers that there was no strange or unknown Tongue used in the Congregation of Christians Justinus Apol. 2. Justinus Martyr who lived about 160 years after Christ saith thus of the Administration of the Lords Supper in his time Vpon the Sunday Assemblies are made both of them that dwell in Cities and of them that dwell in the Countrey also Amongst whom as much as may be the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets were read Afterwards when the Reader doth cease the chief Minister maketh an Exhortation exhorting them to follow honest things After this we rise all together and offer Prayers which being ended as we have said Bread and Wine and Water are brought forth Then the head Minister offereth Prayers and Thanksgiving with all his power and the People answer Amen These words with their circumstances being duly considered do declare plainly that not only the Scriptures were read in a known Tongue but also that Prayer was made in the same in the Congregations of Justin's time Basilius Magnus and Johannes Chrysostomus did in their time prescribe publick Orders of publick Administration which they call Liturgies and in them they appointed the People to answer to the Prayers of the Minister sometime Amen sometime Lord have mercy upon us sometime And with thy Spirit and We have our hearts lifted up unto the Lord c. Which answers the People could not have made in due time if the Prayers had not been in a Tongue that they understood The same Basil writing to the Clergy of Neocaesarea Epist 63. saith thus of his usage in Common-Prayer appointing one to begin the Song the rest follow and so with divers Songs and Prayers passing over the Night at the dawning of the Day all together even as it were with one Mouth and one Heart they sing unto the Lord a Song of Confession every man framing unto himself meet words of Repentance In another place he saith If the Sea be fair how is not the Assembly of the Congregation much more fair in which a joyned sound of Men Women and Children as it were of the waves beating on the shore is sent forth in our Prayers unto our God Mark his words Bâ—sil Rom. 4. A joyned sound saith he of Men Women and Children Which cannot be unless they all understand the Tongue wherein the Prayer is said And Chrysostom upon the words of Paul saith So soon as the People hear these words World without end 1 Cor. 14. they all do forthwith answer Amen This could they not do unless they understood the word spoken by the Priest Dionysius saith Dionys Cyprian Ser. 6. de orat dominica that Hymns were said of the whole multitude of People in the Administration of the Communion Cyprian saith The Priest doth prepare the minds of the Brethren with a Preface before the Prayer saying Lift up your hearts That whiles the People doth answer We have our hearts lifted up to the Lord they be admonished that they ought to think on none other thing than the Lord. St. Ambrose writing upon the words of St. Paul saith This is it that he saith 1 Cor. 14. because he which speaketh in an unknown Tongue speaketh to God for he knoweth all things but men know not and therefore there is no profit of this thing And again upon these words If thou bless or give thanks with the spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest This is saith Ambrose if thou speak the praise of God in a Tongue unknown to the Hearers For the unlearned hearing that which he understandeth not knoweth not the end of the Prayer and answereth not Amen which word is as much to say as truth that the blessing of thanksgiving may be confirmed For the confirmation of the Prayer is fulfilled by them that do answer Amen that all things spoken might be confirmed in the minds of the
that man which openly before the Magistrates refused to marry her And it was not a reproach to him alone but to all his Posterity also For they were called ever after The House of him whose shoe is pulled off Another place out of the Psalms Psal 75. I will break saith David the horns of the ungodly and the horns of the righteous shall be exalted By an Horn in the Scripture is understood Power Might Strength and sometime Rule and Government The Prophet then saying I will break the horns of the ungodly meaneth that all the Power Strength and Might of Gods Enemies shall not only be weakned and made feeble but shall at length also be clean broken and destroyed though for a time for the better tryal of his People God suffereth the Enemies to prevail and have the upper hand In the 132 Psalm it is said Psal 132. I will make David 's horn to flourish Here David's Horn signifieth his Kingdom Almighty God therefore by this manner of speaking promiseth to give David Victory over all his Enemies and to stablish him in his Kingdom spite of all his Enemies And in the threescore Psalm it is written Moab is my wash-pot Psal 60. and over Edom will I cast out my shoe c. In that place the Prophet sheweth how graciously God hath dealt with his People the Children of Israel giving them great Victories upon their Enemies on every side For the Moabites and Idumeans being two great Nations proud People stout and mighty God brought them under and made them Servants to the Israelites Servants I say to stoop down to pull off their shoes and wash their feet Then Moab is my wash-pot and over Edom will I cast out my shoe is as if he had said The Moabites and the Idumeans for all their stoutness against us in the Wilderness are now made our Subjects ouâ— Servants yea Underlings to pull off our shoes and wash our feet Now I pray you what uncomely manner of speech is this so used in common phrase among the Hebrews It is a shame that Christian men should be so light headed to toy as Ruffians do with such manner of speeches uttered in good grave signification by the Holy Ghost More reasonable it were for vain men to learn to reverence the form of Gods Words than to sport at them to their Damnation Some again are offended to hear that the godly Fathers had many Wives and Concubines although after the phrase of the Scripture a Concubine is an honest name for every Concubine is a Lawful Wife but every Wife is not a Concubine And that ye may the better understand this to be true ye shall note that it was permitted to the Fathers of the Old Testament to have at one time moe Wives than one for what purpose ye shall afterward hear Of which Wives some were Free-women born some were Bond-women and Servants She that was Free-born had a Prerogative above those that were Servants and Bond-women The Free-born Woman was by Marriage made the Ruler of the House under her Husband and is called the Mother of the Houshold the Mistress or the Dame of the House after our manner of speaking and had by her Marriage an Interest a Right and an Ownership of his Goods unto whom she was married Other Servants and Bond-women were given by the Owners of them as the manner was then I will not say always but for the most part unto their Daughters at the day of their Marriage to be Handmaidens unto them After such a sort did Pharaoh King of Egypt give unto Sarah Geâ— 29. Abraham's Wife Agar the Egyptian to be her Maid So did Laban give unto his Daughter Lea at the day of her Marriage Zilpha to be her Handmaid And to his other Daughter Rachel he gave another Bond-maid named Bilha And the Wives that were the owners of their Handmaidens gave them in Marriage to their Husbands upon divers occasions Sarah gave her Maid Agar in Marriage to Abraham Gen. 16. Lea gave in like manner her Maid Zilpha to her Husband Jacob. So did Rachel his other Wife give him Bilha her Maid Gen. 30. saying unto him Go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees which is as if she had said Take her to Wife and the Children that she shall bear will I take upon my lap and make of them as if they were mine own These Hand-maidens or Bond-women although by Marriage they were made Wives yet they had not this Prerogative to Rule in the House but were still Underlings and in such subjection to their Masters and were never called Mothers of the Houshould Mistresses or Dames of the House but are called sometimes Wives sometimes Concubines The plurality of Wives was by a special Prerogative suffered to the Fathers of the Old Testament not for satisfying their carnal and fleshly Lusts but to have many Children because every one of them hoped and begged oft-times of God in their Prayers that that Blessed Seed which God promised should come into the World to break the Serpents Head might come and be born of this stock and kindred Now of those which take occasion of carnality and evil life by hearing and reading in Gods Book what God had suffered even in those men whose commendation is praised in the Scripture As that Noe 2 Pet. 2. Gen. 9. whom St. Peter calleth the eighth Preacher of Righteousness was so drunk with Wine that in his sleep he uncovered his own Privities Gen. 19. The just man Lot was in like manner drunken and in his drunkenness lay with his own Daughters contrary to the Law of Nature Abraham Gen. 17. whose Faith was so great that for the same he deserved to be called of Gods own mouth a Father of many Nations Rom. 4. the Father of all Believers besides with Sarah his Wife had also carnal company with Agar Sarah's Handmaid Gen. 29. The Patriarch Jacob had to his Wives two Sisters at one time The Prophet David and King Solomon his Son had many Wives and Concubines c. Which things we see plainly to be forbidden us by the Law of God and are now repugnant to all publick Honesty These and such like in Gods Book good People are not written that we should or may do the like following their examples or that we ought to think that God did allow every of these things in those men But we ought rather to believe and to judge that Noe in his drunkenness offended God highly Lot lying with his Daughters committed horrible Incest We ought then to learn by them this profitable Lesson that if so godly men as they were which otherwise felt inwardly Gods Holy Spirit inflaming their hearts with the fear and love of God could not by their own strength keep themselves from committing horrible sin but did so grievously fall that without Gods great Mercy they had perished everlastingly How much more ought we then miserable
wretches which have no feeling of God within us at all continually to fear not only that we may fall as they did but also be overcome and drowned in sin which they were not And so by considering their fall take the better occasion to acknowledge our own Infirmity and weakness and therefore more earnestly to call unto Almighty God with hearty Prayer incessantly for his grace to strengthen us and to defend us from all evil And though through Infirmity we chance at any time to fall yet we may by hearty Repentance and true Faith speedily rise again and not sleep and continue in sin as the wicked doth Thus good People should we understand such matters expressed in the Divine Scriptures that this Holy Table of Gods Word be not turned to us to be a snare a trap and a stumbling stone to take hurt by the abuse of our Understanding But let us esteem them in a reverent Humility that we may find our necessary Food therein to strengthen us to comfort us to instruct us as God of his great Mercy hath appointed them in all necessary works so that we may be perfect before him in the whole course of our life Which he grant who hath Redeemed us our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for evermore Amen The Second Part of the Information for them which take Offence at certain places of the Holy Scripture YE have heard good People in the Homily last read unto you the great Commodity of Holy Scriptures ye have heard how ignorant men void of godly Understanding seek Quarrels to discredit them Some of their Reasons have ye heard answered Now we will proceed and speak of such politick wise men which be offended for that Christs Precepts should seem to destroy all Order in Governance as they do alledge for example such as these be If any man strike thee on the right cheek Mat. 5â— turn the other unto him also If any man will contend to take thy coat from thee let him have cloak and all Let not thy lest hand know what thy right hand doth If thine eye thine hand Mat. 18. or thy foot offend thee pull out thine eye cut off thine hand or thy foot and cast it from thee Rom. 12. If thine enemy saith St. Paul be an hungred give him meat if he be thirsty give him drink so doing thou shalt heap hot burning coals upon his head These sentences good People unto a natural man seem meer absurdities contrary to all Reason 1 Cor. 2. For a natural man as St. Paul saith understandeth not the things that belong to God neither can he so long as old Adam dwelleth in him Christ therefore meaneth that he would have his faithful servants so far from vengeance and resisting wrong that he would rather have him ready to suffer another wrong than by resisting to break Charity and to be out of Patience He would have our good deeds so far from all carnal respects that he would not have our nighest Friends know of our well-doing to win vain-glory And though our Friends and Kinsfolks be as dear as our right Eyes and our right Hands yet if they would pâ—â—â— us from God we ought to renounce them and forsake them Thus if ye will be profitable Hearers and Readers of the Holy Scriptures ye must first deny your selves and keep under your Carnal Senses taken by the outward words and search the inward meaning Reason must give place to Gods Holy Spirit you must submit your Worldly Wisdom and Judgment unto his Divine Wisdom and Judgment Consider that the Scripture in what strange form soever it be pronounced is the Word of the living God Let that always come to your remembrance which is so oft repeated of the Prophet Esaias The mouth of the Lord saith he hath spoken it and Almighty and everlasting God who with his only word created Heaven and Earth hath decreed it the Lord of Hosts whose ways are in the Seas whose paths are in the deep Waters that Lord and God by whose word all things in Heaven and in Earth are created governed and preserved hath so provided it The God of gods and Lord of all lords yea God that is God alone incomprehensible almighty and everlasting he hath spoken it it is his Word It cannot therefore be but truth which proceedeth from the God of all Truth it cannot be but wisely and prudently commanded what Almighty God hath devised how vainly soever through want of grace we miserable wretches do imagine and judge of his most Holy Word The Prophet David describing an happy man Psal 1. saith Blessed is the man that hath not walked after the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful There are three sorts of People whose Company the Prophet would have him to flee and avoid which shall be an happy man and partaker of Gods Blessing First he may not walk after the counsel of the ungodly Secondly he may not stand in the way of sinners Thirdly he must not sit in the seat of the scornful By these three sorts of People ungodly mâ—n sinners and scorners all Impiety is signified and fully expressed By the ungodly he understandeth those which have no regard of Almighty God being void of all Faith whose hearts and minds are so set upon the World that they study only how to accomplish their worldly practices their carnal imaginations their filthy lust and desire without any fear of God The second sort he calleth sinners not such as do fall through Ignorance or of frailness for then who should be found free What man ever lived upon Earth Christ only excepted but he hath sinned Prov. 24. The just man falleth seven times and riseth again Though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sin they stand not still to continue and tarry in sin they sit not down like careless men without all fear of Gods just punishment for sin but defying sin through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sin The Prophet then calleth them sinners whose hearts are clean turned from God and whose whole conversation of life is nothing but sin they delight so much in the same that they choose continually to abide and dwell in sin The third sort he calleth scorners that is a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with Malice that they are not contented to dwell in sin and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness but also they do contemn and scorn in other all Godliness true Religion all Honesty and Vertue Of the two first sorts of men I will not say but they may take Repentance and be converted unto God Of the third sort I think I may without danger of Gods judgment pronounce that never any yet converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their
the giving than with the gift and that he as much esteemeth the doing of the thing as the fruit and commodity that cometh of it Whoso therefore hath hitherto neglected to give Alms let him know that God now requireth it of him and he that hath been liberal to the Poor let him know that his godly doings are accepted and thankfully taken at Gods hands which he will requite with double and treble For so saith the Wise man He which sheweth mercy to the poor doth lay his money in bank to the Lord for a large interest and gain the gain being chiefly the possession of the life everlasting through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Sermon of Alms-deeds YE have heard before Dearly Beloved that to give Alms unto the Poor and to help them in time of necessity is so acceptable unto our Saviour Christ that he counteth that to be done to himself that we do for his sake unto them Ye have heard also how earnestly both the Apostles Prophets Holy Fathers and Doctors do exhort us unto the same And ye see how wel-beloved and dear unto God they were whom the Scriptures report unto us to have been good Alms-men Wherefore if either their good examples or the wholsom counsel of godly Fathers or the love of Christ whose especial favour we may be assured by this means to obtain may move us or do any thing at all with us let us provide us that from henceforth we shew unto God-ward this thankful service to be mindful and ready to help them that be poor and in misery Now will I this second time that I entreat of Alms-deeds shew unto you how profitable it is for us to exercise them and what fruit thereby shall arise unto us if we do them faithfully Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teacheth us that it profiteth a man nothing to have in possession all the riches of the whole World and the wealth or glory thereof if in the mean season he lose his Soul or do that thing whereby it should become captive unto death sin and hell-fire By the which saying he not only instructeth us how much the souls health is to be preferred before worldly commodities but it also serveth to stir up our minds and to prick us forwards to seek diligently and learn by what means we may preserve and keep our souls ever in safety that is how we may recover our health if it be lost or impaired and how it may be defended and maintained if once we have it Yea he teacheth us also thereby to esteem that as a precious Medicine and an inestimable Jewel that hath such strength and vertue in it that can either procure or preserve so incomparable a treasure For if we greatly regard that Medicine or Salve that is able to heal sundry and grievous Diseases of the Body much more will we esteem that which hath like power over the Soul And because we might be better assured both to know and to have in readiness that so profitable a Remedy he as a most faithful and loving Teacher sheweth himself both what it is and where we may find it and how we may use and apply it For when both he and his Disciples were grievously accused of the Pharisees to have defiled their souls in breaking the constitutions of the Elders because they went to meat and washed not their hands before according to the custom of the Jews Christ answering their superstitious complaint teacheth them an especial remedy how to keep clean their souls notwithstanding the breach of such superstitious Orders Luke 11. Give Alms saith he and behold all things are clean unto you He teacheth them that to be merciful and charitable in helping the Poor is the means to keep the Soul pure and clean in the sight of God We are taught therefore by this that merciful Alms-dealing is profitable to purge the Soul from the infection and filthy spots of sin The same Lesson doth the Holy Ghost also teach in sundry places of the Scripture Tobit 4. saying Mercifulness and Alms-giving purgeth from all sins and delivereth from death and suffereth not the soul to come into darkness A great confidence may they have before the high God that shew mercy and compassion to them that are afflicted The wise Preacher the Son of Syrach confimeth the same Ecclus 5. when he saith That as water quencheth burning fire even so mercy and alms resisteth and reconcileth sins And sure it is that mercifulness quaileth the heat of sin so much that they shall not take hold upon man to hurt him or if ye have by any infirmity or weakness been touched and annoyed with them straightways shall mercifulness wipe and wash away as salves and remedies to heal their sores and grievous diseases And thereupon that Holy Father Cyprian taketh good occasion to exhort earnestly to the merciful works of giving Alms and helping the Poor and there he admonisheth to consider how wholsom and profitable it is to relieve the needy and help the afflicted by the which we may purge our sins and heal our wounded souls But yet some will say unto me If Alms-giving and our charitable works towards the Poor be able to wash away sins to reconcile us to God to deliver us from the peril of damnation and makes us the Sons and Heirs of Gods Kingdom then are Christs merits defaced and his blood shed in vain then are we justified by Works and by our Deeds may we merit Heaven then do we in vain believe that Christ died for to put away our sins and that he rose for our justification as St. Paul teacheth But ye shall understand Dearly Beloved that neither those places of the Scripture before alledged neither the Doctrine of the blessed Martyr Cyprian neither any other godly and learned man when they in extolling the dignity profit fruit and effect of vertuous and liberal Alms do say that it washeth away sins and bringeth us to the favour of God do mean that our work and charitable deed is the original cause of our acception before God or that for the digninity or worthiness thereof our sins may be washed away and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity for that were indeed to deface Christ and to defraud him of his glory But they mean this and this is the understanding of those and such like sayings that God of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation hath so offered his grace especially and they have so received it fruitfully that although by reason of their sinful living outwardly they seemed before to have been the Children of Wrath and Perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto obedience to Gods Will and Commandments they declare by their outward deeds and life in the shewing of
now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker Instead of the Image of God he was now become the Image of the Devil instead of the Citizen of Heaven he was become the bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and thâ—râ—fore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death This so great and miserable a Plague if it had only rested on Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born But it fell not only on him but also on his Posterity and Children for ever so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the self-same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved St. Paul in the fifth Chapter to the Romans saith By the offence of only Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting damnation both of Body and Soul They became as David saith corrupt and abominable they went all out of the way there was none that did good no not one O what a miserable and woful state was this that the sin of one man should destroy and condemn all men that nothing in all the World might be looked for but only pangs of death and pains of Hell Had it been any marvel if mankind had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in his behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure Promise thereof namely that he would send a Messias or Mediator into the World which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both Parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereinto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker This Covenant and Promise was first made unto Adam himself immediately after his Fall as we read in the third of Genesis where God said to the Serpent on this wise I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed He shall break thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel Afterward the self-same Covenant was also more amply and plainly renewed unto Abraham where God promised him that in his seed all Nations and Families of the Earth should be blessed Again it was continued and confirmed unto Isaac in the same form of words Gen. 26. as it was before unto his Father And to the intent that mankind might not despair but always live in hope Almighty God never ceased to publish repeat confirm and continue the same by divers and sundry testimonies of his Prophets who for the better perswasion of the thing prophesied the time the place the manner and circumstance of his Birth the affliction of his Life the kind of his Death the glory of his Resurrection the receiving of his Kingdom the deliverance of his People with all other circumstances belonging thereunto Isaiah prophesied that he should be born of a Virgin and called Emanuel Micheas prophesied that he should be born in Bethlehem a place of Jury Ezekiel prophesied that he should come of the stock and linage of David Daniel prophesied that all Nations and Languages should serve him Zachary prophesied that he should come in poverty riding upon an Ass Malachy prophesied that he should send Elias before him which was John the Baptist Jeremy prophesied that he should be sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver c. And all this was done that the Promise and Covenant of God made unto Abraham and his Posterity concerning the Redemption of the World might be credited and fully believed Now as the Apostle Paul saith when the fulness of time was come that is the perfection and course of years appointed from the beginning thâ—n God according to his former Covenant and Promise sent a Messias otherwise called a Mediator unto the World not such a one as Moses was not such a one as Josua Saul or David was but such a one as should deliver mankind from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all people namely he sent his dear and only Son Jesus Christ born as the Apostle saith of a Woman and made under the Law that he might redeem them that were in bondage of the Law and make them the Children of God by adoption Was not this a wonderful great love towards us that were his professed and open Enemies towards us that were by Nature the Children of Wrath and fire-brands of Hell-fire In this saith St. John appeared the great love of God that he sent his only begotten Son into the World to save us when we were his extream enemies Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a reconciliation for our sins St. Paul also saith Christ Rom. 5. when we were yet of no strength died for us being ungodly Doubtless a man will scarce die for a righteous man Peradventure some one durst die for him of whom they have received good But God setteth out his love towards us in that he sent Christ to die for us when we were yet void of all goodness This and such other comparisons doth the Apostle use to amplifie and set forth the tender mercy and great goodness of God declarâ—d towards mankind in sending down a Saviour from Heaven even Christ the Lord. Which one benefit among all other is so great and wonderful that neither Tongue can well express it neither Heart think it much less give sufficient thanks to God for it But here is a great controversie between us and the Jews whether the saine Jesus which was born of the Virgin Mary be the true Messias and true Saviour of the World so long promised and prophesied of before They as they are and have been always proud and stiff-necked would never acknowledge him until this day but have looked and waited for another to come They have this fond imagination in their heads That the Messias shall come not as Christ did like a
Hell to the intent to put us in good hope that by his strength we shall do the same He paid the Ransom of sin that it should not be laid to our charge He destroyed the Devil and all his Tyranny and openly triumphed over him and took away from him all his Captives and hath raised and set them with himself among the Heavenly Citizens above Ephes 2. He died to destroy the rule of the Devil in us and he rose again to send down his Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts to endow us with perfect Righteousness Thus it is true that David sung Psal 84. Ephes 4. Captivam duxit captivitatem Luke 2. Veritas de terra orta est justitia de coelo prospexit The truth of Gods promise is in Earth to man declared or from the Earth is the everlasting Verity Gods Son risen to life and the true righteousness of the Holy Ghost looking out of Heaven and in most liberal largess dealt upon all the World Thus is glory and praise rebounded upwards to God above for his mercy and truth And thus is Peace come down from Heaven to men of good and faithful hearts Psal 48. Misericordia veritas obviaverunt sibi Thus is mercy and truth as David writeth together met thus is peace and righteousness embracing and kissing each other If thou doubtest of so great wealth and felicity that is wrought for thee O man call to thy mind that therefore hast thou received into thine own possession the everlasting Verity our Saviour Jesus Christ to confirm to thy Conscience the truth of all this matter Thou hast received him if in true faith and repentance of Heart thou hast received him If in purpose of amendment thou hast received him for an everlasting gage or pledge of thy Salvation Thou hast received his Body which was once broken and his Blood which was shed for the remission of thy sin Thou hast received his Body to have within thee the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for to dwell with thee to endow thee with grace to strengthen thee against thine Enemies and to comfort thee with their presence Thou hast received his Body to endow thee with everlasting righteousness to assure thee of everlasting bliss Ephes 5. and life of thy Soul For with Christ by true Faith art thou quickned again saith St. Paul from death of sin to life of grace and in hope translated from corporal and everlasting death to the everlasting life and glory in Heaven where now thy conversation should be and thy heart and desire set Doubt not of the truth of this matter how great and high soever these things be It becometh God to do no small deeds how impossible soever they seem to thee Pray to God that thou mayest have Faith to perceive this great Mystery of Christs Resurrection that by Faith thou mayest certainly believe nothing to be impossible with God Luke 18. Only bring thou Faith to Christs Holy Word and Sacrament Let thy Repentance shew thy Faith let thy purpose of amendment and obedience of thy heart to Gods Law hereafter declare thy true belief Endeavour thy self to say with St. Paul Phil. 4. From henceforth our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour even the Lord Jesus Christ which shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like his glorious body which he shall do by the same power whereby he rose from death and whereby he shall be able to subdue all things unto himself Thus good Christian People forasmuch as ye have heard these so great and excellent benefits of Christs mighty and glorious Resurrection as how that he hath ransomed Sin overcome the Devil Death and Hell and hath victoriously gotten the better hand of them all to make us free and safe from them and knowing that we be by this benefit of his Resurrection risen with him by our Faith unto life everlasting being in full surety of our hope that we shall have our bodies likewise raised again from death to have them glorified in immortality and joyned to his glorious body having in the mean while his holy Spirit within our hearts as a Seal and Pledge of our everlasting Inheritance By whose assistance we be replenished with all righteousness by whose power we shall be able to subdue all our evil affections rising against the pleasure of God These things I say well considered let us now in the rest of our life declare our Faith that we have in this most fruitful Article by framing our selves thereunto in rising daily from sin to righteousness and holiness of life For what shall it avail us saith St. Peter to be 2 Pet. 2. escaped and delivered from the filthiness of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ if we be entangled again therewith and be overcome again Certainly it had been better saith he never to have known the way of righteousness then after it is known and received to turn back again from the holy Commandment of God given unto us For so shall the Proverb have place in us where it is said The Dog is returned to his vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire again What a shame were it for us being thus so clearly and freely washed from our sin to return to the filthiness thereof again What a folly were it thus endowed with righteousness to lose it again What madness were it to lose the Inheritance that we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sin And what an unkindness should it be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come to us to dwell with us as our Guest to drive him from us and to banish him violently out of our souls and instead of him in whom is all grace and vertue to receive the ungracious spirit of the Devil the founder of all naughtiness and mischief How can we find in our hearts to shew such extream unkindness to Christ which hath now so gently called us to mercy and offered himself unto us and he now entred within us Yea how dare we be so bold to renounce the presence of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost For where one is there is God all whole in Majesty together with all his power wisdom and goodness and fear not I say the danger and peril of so traiterous a defiance and departure Good Christian Brethren and Sisters advise your selves consider the dignity that ye be now set in let no Folly lose the thing that Grace hath so preciously offered and purchased let not wilfulness and blindness put out so great light that is now shewed unto you Ephes 6. Only take good hearts unto you and put upon you all the Armour of God that ye may stand against your Enemies which would again subdue you and bring you into their thraldom Remember ye be bought from your vain conversation
Christs benefits which he hath plentifully wrought for us by his Resurrection and passing to his Father whereby we are delivered from the captivity and thraldom of all our Enemies Let us in like manner pass over the affections of our old conversation that we may be delivered from the bondage thereof Exod. 7. and rise with Christ The Jews kept their Feast in abstaining from leavened bread by the space of seven days Let us Christian folk keep our Holy-day in spiritual manner that is in abstaining not from material leavened bread but from the old leaven of sin the leaven of maliciousness and wickedness Let us cast from us the leaven of corrupt Doctrine that will infect our Souls Let us keep our Feast the whole term of our life with eating the bread of pureness of godly life and truth of Christs Doctrine Thus shall we declare that Christs gifts and graces have their effect in us and that we have the right belief and knowledge of his holy Resurrection where truly if we apply our Faith to the vertue thereof in our life and conform us to the example and signification meant thereby we shall be sure to rise hereafter to everlasting glory by the goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory Thanksgiving and Praise in infinita seculorum secula Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Worthy Receiving and reverend Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ THE great love of our Saviour Christ towards mankind good Christian People doth not only appear in that dear-bought benefit of our Redemption and Salvation by his Death and Passion but also in that he so kindly provided that the same most merciful work might be had in continual remembrance to take some place in us and not be frustrate of his end and purpose For as tender Parents are not content to procure for their Children costly Possessions and Livelihood but take order that the same may be conserved and come to their use So our Lord and Saviour thought it not sufficient to purchase for us his Fathers favour again which is that deep Fountain of all goodness and eternal life but also invented the ways most wisely whereby they might redound to our commodity and profit Amongst the which means is the publick celebration of the memory of his precious Death at the Lords Table Which although it seem of small vertue to some yet being righly done by the Faithful it doth not only help their weakness who by their poisoned Nature readier to remember injuries than benefits but strengtheneth and comforteth their inward man with peace and gladness and maketh them thankful to their Redeemer with diligent care and godly conversation Exod. 12. And as of old time God decreed his wondrous benefits of the deliverance of his People to be kept in memory by the eating of the Passover with his Rites and Ceremonies So our loving Saviour hath ordained and established the remembrance of his great mercy expressed in his Passion in the institution of his Heavenly Supper Mat. 26. 1 Cor. 11. where every one of us must be Guests and not Gazers Eaters and not Lookers feeding our selves and not hiring others to feed for us that we may live by our own meat Luke 11. and not to perish for hunger whiles other devour all To this his Commandment forceth us 1 Cor. 6. Mat. 26. saying Do ye this drink ye all of this To this his Promise enticeth This is my Body which is given for you This is my Blood which is shed for you So then of necessity we must be our selves partakers of this Table and not beholders of other So we must address our selves to frequent the same in reverent and comely manner lest as Physick provided for the Body being misused more hurteth than profiteth so this comfortable Medicine of the Soul undecently received tendeth to our greater harm and sorrow 1 Cor. 11. And St. Paul saith He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own damnation Wherefore that it be not said to us as it was to the Guest of that great Supper Mat. 22. Friend how camest thou in not having the marriage-garment And that we may fruitfully use St. Paul's counsel Let a man prove himself 1 Cor. 11. and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup we must certainly know that three things be requisite in him which would seemly as becometh such high Mysteries resort to the Lords Table That is First a right and worthy estimation and understanding of this Mystery Secondly to come in a sure Faith And Thirdly to have newness or pureness of life to succeed the receiving of the same But before all other things this we must be sure of especially that this Supper be in such wise done and ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded to be done as his holy Apostles used it and the good Fathers in the Primitive Church frequented it For as that worthy man St. Ambrose saith he is unworthy of the Lord that otherwise doth celebrate that Mystery than it was delivered by him Neither can he be devout that otherwise doth presume than it was given by the Author We must then take heed lest of the Memory it be made a Sacrifice lest of a Communion it be made a private eating lest of two parts we have but one lest applying it for the dead we lose the fruit that be alive Let us rather in these matters follow the advice of Cyprian in the like cases that is cleave fast to the first beginning hold fast the Lords tradition do that in the Lords commemoration which he himself did he himself commanded and his Apostles confirmed This caution or fore-sight if we use then may we see those things that be requisite in the worthy receiver whereof this was the first that we have a right understanding of the thing it self As concerning which thing this we may assuredly perswade our selves that the ignorant man can neither worthily esteem nor effectually use those marvellous graces and benefits offered and exhibited in that Supper but either will lightly regard them to no small offence or utterly condemn them to his utter destruction So that by his negligence he deserveth the Plagues of God to fall upon him and by contempt he deserveth everlasting Perdition To avoid then these harms use the advice of the Wise man Prov. 23. who willeth thee when thou sittest at an earthly Kings Table to take diligent heed what things are set before thee So now much more at the King of Kings Table thou must carefully search and know what dainties are provided for thy Soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy Faith beholdeth For this Table is not saith Chrysostom
and Riots in the challenge of their Lands yea sometimes Murders and Bloodshed whereof thou art guilty whosoever thou be that givest the occasion thereof This covetous practising therefore with thy Neighbors Lands and Goods is hateful to Almighty God Let no Man subtilly compass or defraud his Neighbor biddeth St. Paul in any manner of cause 1 Thes 4. For God saith he is a revenger of all such God is the God of all equity and righteousness and therefore forbiddeth all such deceit and subtilty in his Law Deut. 9. by these words Ye shall not deal unjustly in Judgment in Line in Weight or Measure Prov. 20. Ye shall have just Ballances true Weights and true Measures False Ballances saith Solomon are an abomination unto the Lord. Remember what St. Paul saith God is the revenger of all Wrong and Injustice as we see by daily experience however it thriveth ungraciously which is begotten by falshood and craft We be taught by experience how Almighty God never suffereth the third Heir to enjoy his Fathers wrong Possessions yea many a time they are taken from himself in his own life time God is not bound to defend such Possessions as are gotten by the Devil and his Counsel God will defend all such Mens Goods and Possessions which by him are obtained and possessed and will defend them against the violent Oppressor Prov. 25. So witnesseth Solomon The Lord will destroy the House of the proud Man but he will establish the borders of the Widow Psal 36. No doubt of it saith David better is a little truly gotten to the righteous Man than the innumerable Riches of the wrongful Man Let us flee therefore good People all wrong Practices in getting maintaining and defending our Possessions Lands and Livelihoods our Bounds and Liberties remembring that such Possessions be all under Gods revengeance But what do we speak of House and Land Nay it is said in the Scripture that God in his ire doth root up whole Kingdoms for wrongs and oppressions and doth translate Kingdoms from one Nation to another for unrighteous dealing for Wrongs and Riches gotten by deceit This is the practice of of the Holy One saith Daniel Dan. 4. to the intent that living Men may know that the most High hath power over the Kingdoms of Men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Furthermore What is the cause of Penury and Scarceness of Dearth and Famine Is it any other thing but a token of Gods ire revenging our Wrongs and Injuries done one to another Ye have sown much upbraideth God by his Prophet Haggai and yet bring in little ye eat Hagg. 1. but ye be not satisfied ye drink but ye be not filled ye cloath your selves but ye be not warm and he that earneth his Wages putteth it into a bottomless Purse Ye looked for much increase but loe it came to little and when ye brought it home into your Barns I did blow it away saith the Lord. O consider therefore the Ire of God against Gleaners Gatherers and Incroachers upon other Mens Lands and Possessions It is lamentable to see in some places how greedy Men use to Plough and grate upon their Neighbors Land that lieth next them how covetous Men now a days Plough up so nigh the common Balks and Walks which good Men before time made the greater and broader partly for the commodious Walk of his Neighbor partly for the better shack in Harvest time to the more comfort of his poor Neighbors Cattle It is a shame to behold the insatiableness of some covetous Persons in their doings that where their Ancestors left of their Land a broad and sufficient Bier-balk to carry the Corps to the Christian Sepulture how Men pinch at such Bier-balks which by long use and custom ought to be inviolably kept for that purpose and now they either quite eare them up and turn the dead Body to be born farther about in the High Streets or else if they leave any such Meer it is too straight for two to walk on These strange encroachments good Neighbors should be looked upon these should be considered in these days of our Perambulations And afterward the Parties admonished and charitably reformed who be the doers of such private gaining to the slander of the Township and the hindrance of the Poor Your High-ways should be considered in your Walks to understand where to bestow your days works according to the good Statutes provided for the same It is a good deed of Mercy to amend the dangerous and noisom Ways whereby thy poor Neighbor sitting on his silly weak Beast founder not in the deep thereof and so the Market the worse served for discouraging of the poor Victuallers to resort thither for the same cause If now therefore ye will have your Prayers heard before Almighty God for the increase of your Corn and Cattle and for the defence thereof from unseasonable Mists and Blasts from Hail and other such Tempests love Equity and Righteousness ensue Mercy and Charity which God most requireth at our hands Which Almighty God respecteth chiefly in making his Civil Laws for his People the Israelites Levit. 24. Deut. 29. in charging the owners not to gather up their Corn too nigh at Harvest Season nor the Grapes and Olives in gathering time but to leave behind some Ears of Corn for the poor Gleaners By this he meant to induce them to pity the Poor to relieve the Needy to shew mercy and kindness 1 Cor. 9.10 It cannot be lost which for his sake is distributed to the Poor for he which ministreth Seed to the Sower and Bread to the Hungry Joel 8. which sendeth down the early and the latter Rain upon your Fields so to fill up the Barns with Corn and the Winepresses with Wine and Oyl He I say who recompenseth all kind of Benefits in the Resurrection of the Just he will assuredly recompence all merciful deeds shewed to the Needy howsoever unable the Poor is upon whom it is bestowed O saith Solomon let not mercy and truth forsake thee Bind them about thy neck saith he and write them on the Table of thy Heart so shalt thou find favor at Gods hand Thus honor thou the Lord with thy Riches and with the first Fruits of thine increase so shall thy Barns be filled with abundance and thy Presses shall burst with new Wine nay God hath promised to open the Windows of Heaven upon the liberal righteous Man that he shall want nothing He will repress the devouring Caterpiller which would devour your Fruits He will give you peace and quiet to gather in your Provision that ye may sit every Man under his own Vine quietly without fear of the Foreign Enemy to invade you He will give you not only Food to feed on but Stomachs and good Appetites to take comfort of your Fruits whereby in all things ye may have sufficiency Finally he will bless you with all manner of Abundance in this
to them that they study not either to Write fair to keep a Book of Account to study the Tongues and so to get wisdom and knowledge in such Books and Works as be now plentifully set out in Print of all manner of Languages Let young Men consider the precious value of their time and waste it not in Idleness in Jollity in Gaming in Bant queting in Ruffians company Youth is but Vanity and must be accounted for before God How merry and glad soever thou be in thy Youth O young Man saith the Preacher how glad soever thy Heart be in thy young days Eccles 11. how fast and freely soever thou follow the ways of thine own Heart and the lust of thine own Eye yet be thou sure that God shall bring thee into Judgment for all these things God of his mercy put it into the Hearts and Minds of all them that have the Sword of Punishment in their Hands or have Families under their Governance to Labor to redress this great enormity of all such as live Idly and unprofitably in the Common-weal to the great dishonor of God and the grievous Plague of his silly People To leave sin unpunished and to neglect the good bringing up of Youth is nothing else but to kindle the Lords wrath against us and to heap Plagues upon our own Heads As long as the Adulterous people were suffered to live Licentiously without Reformation so long did the Plague continue and increase in Israel Numb 25. as you may see in the Book of Numbers But when due correction was done upon them the Lords anger was strait way pacified and the Plauge ceased Let all Officers therefore look straitly to their charge Let all Masters of Housholds reform this abuse in their Families let them use the Authority that God hath given them let them not maintain Vagabonds and Idle persons but deliver the Realm and their Housholds from such noysom Loyterers that Idleness the Mother of all Mischief being clean taken away Almighty God may turn his dreaful Anger away from us and confirm the Covenant of Peace upon us for ever through the Merits of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF Repentance and of true Reconciliation unto God THere is noting that the Holy Ghost doth so much Labor in all the Scriptures to beat into Mens Heads as Repentance amendment of Life and speedy returning unto the Lord God of Hosts And no marvel why for we do Daily and Hourly by our wickedness and stubborn Disobedience horribly fall away from God thereby purchasing unto our selves if he should deal with us according to his Justice Eternal Damnation The Doctrin of Repentance is most necessary So that no Doctrin is so necessary in the Church of God as is the Doctrin of Repentance and amendment of Life And verily the true Preachers of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the glad and joyful tidings of Salvation have always in their Godly Sermons and Preachings unto the People joyned these two together I mean Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins even as our Saviour Jesus Christ did appoint himself saying So it behoved Christ to Suffer and to Rise again the Third Day and that Repentance and Forgiveness of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And therefore the holy Apostle doth in the Acts speak after this manner I have witnessed both to the Jews and to the Gentiles the Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Did not John Baptist Zacharias Son begin his Ministry with the Doctrin of Repentance saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand The like Doctrin did our Saviour Jesus Christ preach himself and commanded his Apostles to preach the same I might here alledge very many places out of the Prophets in the which this most wholsom Doctrin of Repentance is very earnestly urged as most needful for all degrees and orders of Men but one shall be sufficient at this present time These are the words of Joel the Prophet therefore also now the Lord saith Joel 2. Return unto me with all your heart with Fasting Weeping and Mourning rent your hearts and not your cloaths and return unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great compassion and ready to pardon wickedness Whereby it is given us to understand A perpetual Rule which all must follow that we have here a perpetual Rule appointed unto us which ought to be observed and kept at all times and that there is none other way whereby the wrath of God may be pacified and his anger asswaged that the fierceness of his fury and the plagues of destruction which by his righteous Judgment he had determined to bring upon us may depart be removed and taken away Where he saith But now therefore saith the Lord return unto me It is not without great importance that the Prophet speaketh so for he had before set forth at large unto them the horrible Vengeance of God which no Man was able to abide and therefore he doth move them to Repentance to obtain Mercy as if he should say I will not have these things to be so taken as though there were no hope of grace left For although ye do by your sins deserve to be utterly destroyed and God by his righteous Judgments hath determined to bring no small destruction upon you yet know that ye are in a manner on the very edge of the Sword if ye will speedily return unto him he will most gently and most mercifully receive you into favor again Whereby we are admonished that Repentance is never too late so that it be true and earnest For sith that God in the Scriptures will be called our Father doubtless he doth follow the nature and property of gentle and merciful Fathers which seek nothing so much as the returning again and amendment of their Children as Christ doth abundantly teach in the Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15. Ezek. 18. Esay 1. 1 John 2. Doth not the Lord himself say by the Prophet I will not the death of the wicked but that he turn from his wicked ways and live And in another place If we confess our sins God is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all wickedness Which most comfortable Promises are confirmed by many Examples of the Scriptures when the Jews did willingly receive and imbrace the wholesom counsel of the Prophet Esay Esay 33. God by and by did reach his helping hand unto them and by his Angel did in one night slay the most worthy and valiant Soldiers of Sennacheribs Camp 2 Par. 53. Whereunto may King Manasses be added who after all manner of damnable wickedness returned unto the Lord and therefore was heard of him and restored again into his Kingdom
otherwhiles obey God but by and by do think that laying him aside it is lawful for them to serve the World and the Flesh And because that we are letted by the natural corruption of our own Flesh and the wicked affections of the same he doth bid us also to return with Fasting not thereby understanding a superstitious Abstinence and choosing of Meats but a true Discipline or taming of the Flesh whereby the nourishments of filthy Lusts and of stubborn Contumacy and Pride may be withdrawn and pluckt away from it Whereunto he doth add weeping and mourning which do contain an outward profession of Repentance which is very needful and necessary that so we may partly set forth the righteousness of God when by such means we do testifie that we deserved punishments at his hands and partly stop the offence that was openly given unto the weak Psal 25. Thus did David see who being not content to have bewept and bewailed his sins privately would publickly in his Psalms declare and set forth the rigteousness of God in punishing sin and also stay them that might have abused his Example to sin the more boldly Therefore they are farthest from true Repentance that will not confess and acknowledge their sins nor yet bewail them but rather do most ungodlily glory and rejoyce in them Now lest any Man should think that Repentance doth consist in outward weeping and mourning only he doth rehearse that wherein the chief of the whole matter doth lie when he saith Rent your Hearts and not your Garments and turn unto the Lord your God For the People of the East part of the World were wont to rent their Garments Psal 52. if any thing hapned unto them that seemed intolerable Hypocrites do counterfeit all manner of things This thing did Hypocrites sometimes counterfeit and follow as though the whole Repentance did stand in such outward gesture He teacheth then that another manner of thing is required that is That they must be contrite in their Hearts that they must utterly detest and abhor Sins and being at defiance with them return unto the Lord their God from whom they went away before For God hath no pleasure in the outward Ceremony but requireth a contrite and humble Heart Psal 52. which he will never despise as David doth testifie There is therefore none other use of these outward Ceremonies but as far forth as we are stirred up by them and do serve to the glory of God and to the edifying of others Now doth he add unto this Doctrin or Exhortation How Repentance is not unprofitable certain godly Reasons which he doth ground upon the nature and property of God and whereby he doth teach that true Repentance can never be unprofitable or unfruitful For as in all other things Mens hearts do quail and faint if they once perceive that they travel in vain Even so most especially in this matter must we take heed and beware that we suffer not our selves to be persuaded that all that we do is but labor lost for thereof either sudden desperation doth arise or a licentious boldness to sin which at length bringeth unto desperation Lest any such thing then should happen unto them he doth certifie them of the grace and goodness of God who is always most ready to receive them into favor again that turn speedily unto him Which thing he doth prove with the same Titles wherewith God doth describe and set forth himself unto Moses speaking on this manner Exod. 34. For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil that is such a one as is sorry for your Afflictions First He calleth him gentle and gracious as he who of his own nature is more prompt and ready to do good than to punish Whereunto this saying of Esaias the Prophet seemeth to pertain where he saith Esay 55. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his own imaginations and return unto the Lord and he will have pity on him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive Secondly Doth attribute unto him mercy or rather according to the Hebrew word the Bowels of mercies whereby he signified the natural affections of Parents towards their Children Which thing David doth set forth goodly Psal 103. saying As a Father hath compassion on his Children so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him for he knoweth whereof we be made he remembreth that we are but dust Thirdly He saith that he is slow to anger that is to say long-suffering and which is not lightly provoked to wrath Fourthly That he is of much kindness for he is that bottomless Well of all goodness who rejoyceth to do good unto us therefore did he create and make Men that he might have whom he should do good unto and make partakers of his Heavenly Riches Fifthly He repenteth of the evil that is to say he doth call back again and revoke the punishment which he had threatned when he seeth Men repent turn and amend Against the Novatians Whereupon we do not without a just cause detest and abhor the damnable Opinion of them which do most wickedly go about to persuade the simple and ignorant People That if we chance after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ to fall into some horrible sin shall be unprofitable unto us there is no more hope of reconciliation or to be received again into the favor and mercy of God And that they may give the better colour unto their pestilent and pernicious Error they do commonly bring in the sixth and tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Chapter of the second Epistle of Peter not considering that in those places the holy Apostles do not speak of the daily falls that we as long as we carry about this body of sin are subject unto Mat. 12. Mark 3. but of the final falling away from Christ and his Gospel The sin against the Holy Ghost which is a sin against the Holy Ghost that shall never be forgiven because that they do utterly forsake the known Truth do hate Christ and his Word they do crucifie and mock him but to their utter destruction and therefore fall into desparation and cannot repent And that this is the true meaning of the holy Spirit of God it appeareth by many other places of the Scriptures which promise unto all true repentant sinners and to them that with their whole heart do turn unto the Lord their God free pardon and remission of their sins For the probation hereof we read this O Israel saith the holy Prophet Jeremy if thou return Jer. 4. return unto me saith the Lord and if thou put away thine abominations out of my sight then shalt thou not be removed Again these are Esaias words Esay 55. Let the wicked forsake his own ways and the unrighteous his own
move us to Repent Esay 31. Ezek. 33. Hos 14. First The Commandment of God who in so many places of the holy and sacred Scriptures doth bid us return unto him O ye Children of Israel saith he turn again from your infidelity wherein ye drowned your selves Again Turn you turn you from your evil ways For why will ye die O ye House of Israel And in another place thus doth he speak by his Prophet Hosea O Israel return unto the Lord thy God For thou hast taken a great fall by thine iniquity Take unto you these words with you when you turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we offer the Calves of our Lips unto thee In all these places we have an express commandment given unto us of God for to return unto him Therefore we must take good heed unto our selves lest whereas we have already by our manifold sins and transgressions provoked and kindled the wrath of God against us we do by breaking this his Commandment double our offences and so heap still damnation upon our own heads by our daily offences and trespasses whereby we provoke the eyes of his Majesty we do well deserve if he should deal with us according to his justice to be put away for ever from the fruition of his Glory How much more then are we worthy of the endless torments of Hell if when we be so gently called again after our Rebellion and commanded to return we will in no wise hearken unto the voice of our heavenly Father but walk still after the stubbornness of our own hearts Secondly The most comfortable and sweet promise that the Lord our God did of his meer mercy and goodness joyn unto his Commandment for he doth not only say Return unto me O Israel Jer. 4. but also if thou wilt return and put away all thine abominations out of my sight thou shalt never be moved These words also have we in the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 18. At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord so that they shall be no more thought upon Thus are we sufficiently instructed that God will according to his promise freely pardon forgive and forget all our sins so that we shall never be cast in the teeth with them if obeying his Commadment and allured by his sweet Promises we will unfeignedly return unto him Thirdly The filthiness of sin which is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhor us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former life we do with our whole heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of amendment of life flee unto his mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ If we should suspect any uncleanness to be in us Similitude wherefore the earthly Prince should loath and abhor the sight of us what pains would we take to remove and put it away How much more ought we with all diligence and speed that may be to put away that unclean filthiness that doth separate and make a division betwixt us and our God Esay 59. and that hideth his Face from us that he will not hear us And verily herein doth appear how filthy a thing sin is sith than it can by no other means be washed away but by the Blood of the only begotten Son of God And shall we not from the bottom of our hearts detest and abhor and with all earnestness flee from it sith that it did cost the dear Heart-Blood of the only begotten Son of God our Saviour and Redeemer to purge us from it Plato doth in a certain place write that if Vertue could be seen with bodily Eyes all Men would wonderfully be inflamed and kindled with the love of it even so on the contrary if we might with our bodily Eyes behold the filthiness of sin and the uncleanness thereof we could in no wise abide it but as most present and deadly Poison hate and eschew it We have a common Experience of the same in them which when they have committed any heinous offence or some filthy and abominable sin if it once come to light or if they chance to have a through feeling of it they be so ashamed their own Conscience putting before their Eyes the filthiness of their Act that they dare look no Man in the Face much less that they should be able to stand in the sight of God Fourthly The uncertainty and brittleness of our own lives which is such that we cannot assure our selves that we shall live one hour or one half quarter of it Which by experience we do find daily to be true in them that being now merry and lusty and sometimes Feasting and Banqueting with their Friends do fall suddenly dead in the Streets and otherwhiles under the Board when they are at meat These daily Examples as they are most terrible and dreadful so ought they to move us to seek for to be at one with our heavenly Judge that we may with a good Conscience appear before him whensoever it shall please him for to call us whether it be suddenly or otherwise for we have no more Charter of our life than they have But as we are most certain that we shall die so are we most uncertain when we shall die For our life doth lie in the hand of God who will take it away when it pleaseth him And verily when the highest Summer of all Death the Lords Sumner Eccles 11. Contra Demetrianum Eccles 5. which is death shall come he will not be said nay but we must be forthwith be packing to be present before the Judgment seat of God as he doth find us according as it is written Whereas the Tree falleth whether it be toward the South or toward the North there it shall lie Whereunto agreeth the saying of the holy Martyr of God St. Cyprian saying As God doth find thee when he doth call so doth he judge thee Let us therefore follow the Counsel of the Wise Man where he saith Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security shalt thou be destroyed and shalt perish in the time of Vengeance Which words I desire you to mark diligently because they do most lively put before our Eyes the fondness of many Men who abusing the long-suffering and goodness of God do never think on Repentance or amendment of Life Follow not saith he thine own mind and thy strength to walk in the ways of thy heart neither say thou Who will bring me under for
my works For God the Revenger will revenge the wrong done by thee And say not I have sinned and what evil hath come unto me For the Almighty is a patient Rewarder but he will not leave thee unpunished Because thy sins are forgiven thee be not without fear to heap sin upon sin Say not neither The mercy of God is great he will forgive my manifold sins For mercy and wrath come from him and his indignation cometh upon unrepentant sinners As if ye should say Art thou strong and mighty Art thou lusty and young Hast thou the Wealth and Riches of the World Or when thou hast sinned hast thou received no punishment for it Let none of all these things make thee to be the slower to repent and to return with speed unto the Lord. For in the day of punishment and of his sudden vengeance they shall not be able to help thee And specially when thou art either by the Preaching of Gods Word or by some inward motion of his holy Spirit or else by some other means called unto Repentance neglect not the good occasion that is ministred unto thee lest when thou wouldst repent thou hast not the grace for to do it For to repent is a good gift of God which he will never grant unto them who living in carnal security do make a mock of his Threatnings or seek to rule his Spirit as they list as though his working and gifts were tied unto their will Fifthly The avoiding of the plagues of God and the utter destruction that by his righteous Judgment doth hang over the heads of them all that will in no wise return unto the Lord Jer. 24. I will saith the Lord give them for a terrible plague to all the Kingdoms of the Earth and for a Reproach and for a Proverb and for a Curse in all places where I shall cast them and will send the Sword of Famine and the Pestilence among them till they be consumed out of the Land And wherefore is this Because they hardned their hearts and would in no wise return from their evil ways nor yet forsake the wickedness that was in their own hands that the fierceness of the Lords fury might depart from them Rom. 8. But yet this is nothing in comparison of the intolerable and endless torments of Hell fire which they shall be fain to suffer who after their hardness of heart that cannot repent do heap unto themselves Wrath against the day of anger and of the declaration of the just Judgment of God Whereas if we will repent and be earnestly sorry for our sin and with a full purpose and amendment of Life flee unto the mercy of our God and taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ do bring forth Fruits worthy of Repentance he will not only pour his manifold Blessings upon us here in this World but also at the last after the painful Travels of this Life reward us with the inheritance of his Children which is the Kingdom of Heaven purchased unto us with the death of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all praise glory and honor World without end Amen AN HOMILY AGAINST Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion The First Part. AS God the Creator Lord of all things appointed his Angels and heavenly Creatures in all obedience to serve and to honor his Majesty so was it his will that Man his chief Creature upon the Earth should live under the obedience of his Creator and Lord and for that cause God as soon as he had created Man gave unto him a certain Precept and Law which he being yet in the State of innocency and remaining in Paradise should observe as a pledge and token of his due and bounden Obedience with denunciation of Death if he did transgress and break the said Law and Commandment And as God would have Man to be his obedient Subject so did he make all earthly Creatures subject unto Man who kept their due obedience unto Man so long as Man remained in his obedience unto God In the which obedience if Man had continued still there had been no Poverty no Diseases no Sickness no Death nor other miseries wherewith Mankind is now infinitely and most miserably afflicted and oppressed So here appeareth the Original Kingdom of God over Angels and Man and universally over all things and of Man over earthly Creatures which God hath made subject unto him and withal the felicity and blessed State which Angels Man and all Creatures had remained in had they continued in due obedience unto God their King For as long as in this first Kingdom the Subjects continued in due obedience to God their King so long did God embrace all his Subjects with his love favor and grace which to enjoy is perfectly Felicity whereby it is evident that Obedience is the principal Vertue of all Vertues and indeed the very root of all Vertues Mat. 4. b. 9. Mat. 25. d. 41. John 8. f. 44. 2 Pet. 2. a 4. Epist Jude a. 6. Apoc. 12. b. 7. Gen. 3. a. 1 Wisd 2. d. 24. Gen. 3. b. 8.9 c. c. 17. d. 23.24 and the cause of all Felicity But as all Felicity and Blessedness should have continued with the continuance of Obedience so with the breach of Obedience and breaking in of Rebellion all Vices and Miseries did withal break in and overwhelm the World The first Author of which Rebellion the Root of all Vices and Mother of all Mischiefs was Lucifer first Gods most excellent Creature and most bounden Subject who by Rebelling against the Majesty of God of the brightest and most glorious Angel is become the blackest and most foul Fiend and Devil and from the height of Heaven is fallen into the Pit and bottom of Hell Here you may see the first Author and Founder of Rebellion and the reward thereof here you may see the grand Captain and Father of Rebels who perswading the following of his Rebellion against God their Creator and Lord unto our first Parents Adam and Eve brought them in high displeasure with God wrought their exile and banishment out of Paradise a place of pleasure and goodness into this wretched earth and vale of misery procured unto them sorrows of their Minds Mischiefs Sickness Diseases death of their Bodies and which is far more horrible than all worldly and bodily Mischiefs Rom. 5. c. 12. c. d. 19. c. he had wrought thereby their eternal and everlasting death and damnation had not God by the obedience of his Son Jesus Christ repaired that which Man by Disobedience and Rebellion had destroyed and so of his mercy had pardoned and forgiven him of which all and singular the Premises the holy Scriptures do bear record in sundry places Thus do you sâ—e that neither Heaven nor Paradise could suffer any Rebellion in them neither be places for any Rebels to remain in Thus became
shall please him he turneth it Thus say the Scriptures Wherefore let us turn from our sins unto the Lord with all our Hearts and he will turn the Heart of the Prince unto our quiet and wealth Else for Subjects to deserve through their sins to have an evil Prince and then to Rebel against him were double and treble evil by provoking God more to plague them Nay let us either deserve to have a good Prince or let us patiently suffer and obey such as we deserve And whether the Prince be good or evil let us according to the Counsel of the holy Scriptures Pray for the Prince for his continuance and increase in goodness if he be good and for his amendment if he be evil Will you hear the Scriptures concerning this most necessary Point 1 Tim. 2. I exhort therefore saith St. Paul that above all things Prayers Supplications Intercessions and giving of Thanks be had for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life with all godliness for that is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour c. This is St. Pauls Counsel and who I pray you was Prince over the most part of the Christians when Gods holy Spirit by St. Pauls Pen gave them this Lesson Forsooth Caligula Claudius or Nero who were not only no Christians but Pagans and also either foolish Rulers or most cruel Tyrants Will you yet hear the Word of God to the Jews when they were Prisoners under Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon after he had slain their Kings Nobles Parents Children and Kinsfolks burned their Country Cities yea Jerusalem it self and the holy Temple and had carried the residue remaining a live Captives with him into Babylon Will you hear yet what the Prophet Baruch saith unto Gods People being in this Captivity Baruc. 1.11 Pray you saith the Prophet for the life of Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon and for the life of Balthasar his Son that their days may be as the days of Heaven upon the Earth that God also may give us strength and lighten our Eyes that we may live under the defence of Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon and under the Protection of Balthasar his Son that we may long do them service and find favor in their sight Pray for us also unto the Lord our God for we have sinned against the Lord our God Thus far the Prophet Baruch his words which are spoken by him unto the People of God of that King who was an Heathen a Tyrant and cruel Oppressor of them and had been a Murtherer of many Thousands of their Nations and a Destroyer of their Country with a Confession that their sins had deserved such a Prince to Reign over them And shall the old Christians by St. Pauls exhortation Pray for Caligula Claudius or Nero Shall the Jews Pray for Nabuchodonosor These Emperors and Kings being strangers unto them being Pagans and Infidels being Murtherers Tyrants and cruel Oppressors of them and Destroyers of their Country Countrymen and Kinsmen the Burners of their Villages Towns Cities and Temples And shall not we Pray for the long prosperous and godly Reign of our natural Prince No stranger which is observed as a great blessing in the Scriptures of our Christian our most gracious Sovereign no Heathen nor Pagan Prince Shall we not Pray for the health of our most merciful most loving Sovereign the Preserver of us and our Country in so long peace quietness and security no cruel Person no Tyrant no Spoyler of our Goods no Shedder of Blood no Burner and Destroyer of our Towns Cities and Countries as were those for whom yet as ye have heard Christians being their Subjects ought to Pray Let us not commit so great Ingratitude against God and our Sovereign as not continually to thank God for his Government and for his great and continual benefits and blessings poured upon us by such Government Let us not commit so great a sin aginst God against our selves and our Country as not to pray continually unto God for the long continuance of so gracious a Ruler unto us and our Countrey Else shall we be unworthy any longer to enjoy those benefits and blessings of God which hitherto we have had by her shall be most worthy to fall into all those mischiefs and miseries which we and our Country have by Gods grace through her Government hitherto escaped What shall we say of those Subjects May we call them by the name of Subjects Who neither be thankful nor make any Prayer to God for so gracious a Sovereign but also themselves take Armor wickedly assemble Companies and Bands of Rebels to break the publick Peace so long continued and to make not War but Rebellion to endanger the Person of such a gracious Sovereign to hazard the Estate of their Countrey for whose defence they should be ready to spend their Lives and being English Men to rob spoil destroy and burn in England English Men to kill and murder their own Neighbors and Kinsfolk their own Countrey-men to do all evil and mischief yea and more too than Foreign Enemies would or could do What shall we say of these Men who use themselves thus rebelliously against their gracious Sovereign Who if God for their wickedness had given them an Heathen Tyrant to Reign over them were by Gods Word bound to obey him and to pray for him What may be spoken of them So far doth their unkindness unnaturalness wickedness mischievousness in their doings pass and excel any thing and all things that can be expressed and uttered by words Only let us wish unto all such most speedy Repentance and with so grievous sorrow of heart as such so horrible sins against the Majesty of God do require who in most extream unthankfulness do rise not only against their gracious Prince against their natural Countrey but against all their Countrey-men Women and Children against themselves their Wives Children and Kinsfolks and by so wicked an example against all Christendom and against whole Mankind of all manner of People throughout the wide World such Repentance I say such sorrow of Heart God grant unto all such whosoever rise of private and malicious purpose as is meet for such mischiefs attempted and wrought by them And unto us and all other Subjects God of his mercy grant that we may be most unlike to all such and most like to good natural loving and obedient Subjects Nay that we may be such indeed not only shewing all obedience our selves but as many of us as be able to the uttermost of our power ability understanding to stay and repress all Rebels and Rebellions against God our gracious Prince and natural Country at every occasion that is offered unto us And that which we are all able to do unless we do it we shall be most wicked and most worthy to feel in the end such extreme Plagues as God hath ever poured upon Rebels Let us make
continual Prayers unto Almighty God even from the bottom of our hearts that he will give his grace power and strength unto our gracious King to vanquish and subdue all as well Rebels at home as Foreign Enemies that all Domestical Rebellions being suppressed and pacified and all outward Invasions repulsed and abandoned we may not only be sure and long continue in all obedience un o our gracious Sovereign and in that peaceable and quiet life which hitherto we have led under his Majesty with all security but also that both our gracious King and we his Subjects may all together in all obedience unto God the King of Kings and unto his holy Laws lead our lives so in this World in all Vertue and Godliness that in the World to come we may enjoy his everlasting Kingdom which I beseech God to grant as well to our gracious Sovereign as unto us all for his Son our Saviour Jesus Christs sake To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God and King immortal be all glory praise and thanksgiving World without end Amen Thus have you heard the First Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech the their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may by relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion AS in the First Part of this Treaty of Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and against Disobedience and Rebellion I have alledged divers sentences out of the holy Scriptures for proof so shall it be good for the better declaration and confirmation of the said wholsom Doctrin to alledge one example or two out of the holy Scriptures of the Obedience of Subjects not only unto their good and gracious Governors but also unto their evil and unkind Princes As King Saul was not of the best but rather of the worst sort of Princes as being out of Gods favor for his disobedience against God in sparing in a wrong pity the King Agag whom Almighty God commanded to be slain according to the Justice of God against his sworn Enemy and although Saul of a Devotion meant to Sacrifice such things as he spared of the Amalechites to the Honor and Service of God yet Saul was reproved for his wrong Mercy and Devotion and was told that Obedience would have more pleased him than such lenity which sinful humanity saith holy Chrysostom is more cruel before God than any Murther or shedding of Blood when it is commanded of God But yet how evil soever Saul the King was and out of Gods favor yet was he obeyed of his Subject David the very best of all Subjects and most valiant in the service of his Prince and Country in the Wars the most obedient and loving in Peace and always most true and faithful to his Sovereign and Lord and farthest off from all manner of Rebellion For the which his most painful true and faithful Service King Saul yet rewarded him not only with great unkindness but also sought his destruction and death by all means possible so that David was fain to save his life not by Rebellion or any Resistance but by flight and hiding himself from the Kings sight Which notwithstanding when King Saul upon a time came alone into the Cave where David was so that David might easily have slain him yet would he neither hurt him himself neither suffer any of his Men to lay hands upon him Another time also David entring by night with one Abisai a valiant and fierce Man into the Tent where King Saul did lie asleep where also he might yet more easily have slain him yet would he neither hurt him himself nor suffer Abisai who was willing and ready to slay King Saul once to touch him Thus did David deal with Saul his Prince notwithstanding that King Saul continually saught his death and destruction It shall not be amiss unto these Deeds of David to add his words and to shew you what he spake unto such as encouraged him to take his opportunity and advantage to slay King Saul as his mortal Enemy when he might 1 Reg. 24. b. 7 c. 1 Reg. 26. b. 9. b. 10 c. The Lord keep me saith David from doing that thing and from laying hands upon my Lord Gods Anointed For who can lay his hand upon the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As truly as the Lord liveth except that the Lord do smite him or his days shall come to die or that he go down to War and be slain in Battel the Lord be merciful unto me that I lay not my hand upon the Lords Anointed These be Davids words 1 Reg. 24. a. 1 Reg. 1 b. 7. b. 9. 2 Reg. 1. b. spoken at sundry times to divers his Servants
Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech the their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and th◠〈◊〉 Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most mercâ—â—â—â— God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Third Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion AS I have in the First Part of this Treatise shewed unto you the Doctrin of the Holy Scriptures as concerning the Obedience of true Subjects to their Princes even as well to such as be evil as unto the good and in the Second Part of the same Treaty confirmed the same Doctrin by notable examples likewise taken out of the Holy Scriptures so remaineth it now that I partly do declare unto you in this Third Part what an abominable sin against God and Man Rebellion is and how dreadfully the wrath of God is kindled and inflamed against all Rebels and what horrible plagues punishments and deaths and finally eternal damnation doth hang over their heads as how on the contrary part good and obedient Subjects are in Gods favor and be partakers of Peace Quietness and Security with other Gods manifold blessings in this World and by his mercies through our Saviour Christ of life everlasting also in the World to come How horrible a sin against God and Man Rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according unto the greatness thereof For he that nameth Rebellion nameth not a singular or one only sin as is Theft Robbery Murder and such like but he nameth the whole puddle and sink of all sins against God and Man against his Prince his Country his Country-men his Parents his Children his Kinsfolks his Friends and against all Men universally all sins I say against God and all Men heaped together nameth he that nameth Rebellion For concerning the offence of Gods Majesty who seeth not that Rebellion riseth first by contempt of God and of his holy Ordinances and Laws wherein he so straitly commandeth Obedience forbiddeth Disobedience and Rebellion And besides the dishonor done by Rebels unto Gods holy name by their breaking of their Oath made to their Prince with the attestation of Gods Name and calling of his Majesty to witness Who heareth not the horrible Oaths and Blasphemies of Gods holy Name that are used daily amongst Rebels that is either amongst them or heareth the truth of their Behavior Who knoweth not that Rebels do not only themselves leave all Works necessary to be done upon Work-days undone whiles they accomplish their abominable work of Rebellion and to compel others that would gladly be well occupied to do the same but also how Rebels do not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also do by their Works of wickedness most horribly prophane and pollute the Sabbath-day serving Satan and by doing of his work making it the Devils day instead of the Lords day Besides that they compel good Men that would gladly serve the Lord assembling in his Temple and Church upon his day as becometh the Lords Servants to Assemble and meet Armed in the Field to resist the fury of such Rebels Yea and many Rebels lest they should leave any part of Gods Commandments in the first Table of his Law unbroken or any sin against God undone do make Rebellion for the maintainance of their Images and Idols and of their Idolatry committed or to be committed by them and in despite of God cut and tear in sunder his holy Word and tread it under their Feet as of late ye know was done The fifth Commandment As concerning the second Table of Gods Law and all sins that may be committed against Man who seeth not that they be contained in Rebellion For first the Rebels do not only dishonor their Prince the Parent of their Country but also do dishonor and shame their natural Parents if they have any do shame their Kindred and Friends do disinherit and undo for ever their Children and Heirs The sixth and eighth Commandment Thefts Robberies and Murders which of all sins are most loathed of most Men are in no Men so much nor so perniciously and mischievously as in Rebels For the most arrant Thieves cruellest Murderers that ever were so long as they refrain from Rebellion as they are not many in number so spreadeth their wickedness and damnation unto a few they spoil but a few they shed the Blood but of a few in comparison But Rebels are the cause of infinite Robberies and murderers of great Multitudes and of those also whom they should defend from the spoil and violence of other and as Rebels are many in number so doth their wickedness and damnation spread it self unto many And if Whoredom and Adultery amongst such Persons as are agreeable to such wickedness are as they indeed be most damnable The Seventh Commandment What are the forcible oppressions of Matrons and Mens Wives and the violating and deflouring of Virgins and Maids which are most rife with Rebels How horrible and damnable think you are they Now besides that The Nninth Commandment Rebels by breach of their Faith given and the Oath made to their
Heirs for ever for whom they might purchase Livings and Lands as natural Parents do take care and pains and to be at great costs and charges and universally instead of all Quietness Joy and Felicity which do follow blessed Peace and due Obedience to bring in all troubles sorrow disquietness of Minds and Bodies and all Mischief and Calamity to turn all good Order upside down to bring all good Laws in contempt and to tread them under feet to oppress all Vertue and Honesty and all vertuous and honest Persons and to set all Vice and Wickedness and all vicious and wicked Men at liberty to work their wicked Wills which were before bridled by wholsom Laws to weaken to overthrow and to consume the strength of the Realm their natural Country as well by the spending and wasting of the Mony and Treasure of the Prince and Realm as by murdering the People of the same Prov. 14. their own Country-men who should defend the honor of their Prince and liberty of their Country against the Invasion of Foreign Enemies And so finally To make their Country thus by their mischief weakned ready to be a prey and spoil to all outward Enemies that will invade it to the utter and perpetual captivity slavery and destruction of all their Country-men their Children their Friends their Kinsfolk left alive whom by their wicked Rebellion they procure to be delivered into the hands of the Foreign Enemies as much as in them doth lie In Foreign Wars our Country-men in obtaining the Victory win the praise of valiantness yea and though they were overcome and slain yet win they an honest commendation in this World and die in a good Conscience for serving God their Prince and their Country and be Children of eternal Salvation But the Rebels how desperate and strong soever they be yet win they shame here in fighting against God their Prince and Country and therefore justly do fall headlong into Hell if they die and live in shame and fearful Conscience though they escape But commonly they be rewarded with shameful Deaths their Hands and Carcasses set upon Poles and hanged in Chains eaten with Kites and Crows judged unworthy the honor of Burial and so their Souls if they repent not as commonly they do not the Devil hurrieth them into Hell in the midst of their mischief For which dreadful execution St. Paul sheweth the cause of Obedience Rom. 13. not only for fear of Death but also in Conscience to God-ward for fear of eternal damnation in the World to come Wherefore good People let us as the Children of Obedience fear the dreadful Execution of God and live in quiet Obedience to be the Children of everlasting Salvation For as Heaven is the place of good obedient Subjects and Hell the Prison and Dungeon of Rebels against God and their Prince so is that Realm happy where most obedience of Subjects doth appear being the very Figure of Heaven and contrariwise where most Rebellions and Rebels be there is the express similitude of Hell and the Rebels themselves are the very Figures of Fiends and Devils and their Captain the ungracious pattern of Lucifer and Satan the Prince of darkness of whose Rebellion as they be Followers so shall they of his damnation in Hell undoubtedly be partakers and as undoubtedly Children of Peace the inheriters of Heaven with God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen Thus have you heard the First Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one godly Concord and Unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Fourth Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion FOr your further instruction good People to shew unto you how much Almighty God doth abhor Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion specially when Rebels advance themselves so high that they arm themselves with Weapon and stand in the Field to sight against God their Prince and their Country It shall not be out of the way to shew some Examples set out in Scriptures written for our eternal Erudition We may soon know good People how heinous an offence the treachery of Rebellion is if we call to remembrance the heavy wrath and dreadful indignation of Almighty God against Subjects as do only but inwardly grudge mutter and murmur against their Governors though their inward Treason so privily hatched in their Breasts come not to open Declaration of their doings as hard it is whom the Devil hath so far enticed against Gods Word to keep themselves there no he meaneth still to blow the Coal to kindle their Rebellious Hearts to flame into open Deeds if he be not with Grace speedily withstood Num. 11. a Num. 12.
People and Country where Rebellion was first begun that the Child then and yet unborn might rue and lament it with the final overthrow and shameful deaths of all Rebels set forth as well in the Histories of Foreign Nations as in the Chronicles of our own Country some thereof being yet in fresh Memory which if they were collected together would make many Volums and Books But on the contrary part all good luck success and prosperity that ever hapned unto any Rebels of any Age Time or Country may be contained in a very few lines or words Wherefore to conclude let all good Subjects considering how horrible a sin against God their Prince their Country and Country-men against all Gods and Mans Laws Rebellion is being indeed not one several sin but all sins against God and Man heaped together considering the mischievous life and deeds and the shameful ends and deaths of all Rebels hitherto and the pitiful undoing of their Wives Children and Families and disinheriting of their Heirs for ever and above all things considering the eternal damnation that is prepared for all impenitent Rebels in Hell with Satan the first Founder of Rebellion and Grand Captain of all Rebels let all good Subjects I say considering these things avoid and flee all Rebellion as the greatest of all mischiefs and embrace due obedience to God and our Prince as the greatest of all Vertues that we may both escape all Evils and Miseries that do follow Rebellion in this World and eternal damnation in the World to come and enjoy Peace Quietness and Security with all other Gods benefits and blessings which follow Obedience in this life and finally may enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven the peculiar place of all obedient Subjects to God and their Prince in the World to come which I beseech God the King of all Kings grant unto us for the obedience of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ unto whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God and King immortal all honor service and obedience of all his Creatures is due for ever Amen Thus have you heard the Fourth Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be common Enemies as well to the truth of thy eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one godly Concord and Unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Fifth Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion WHereas after both Doctrin and examples of due Obedience of Subjects to their Princes I declared lastly unto you what an abominable sin against God and Man Rebellion is and what horrible Plagues Punishments and Deaths with Death everlasting finally doth hang over the heads of all Rebels it shall not be either impertinent or unprofitable now to declare who they be whom the Devil the first Author and Founder of Rebellion doth chiefly use to the stirring up of Subjects to Rebel against their lawful Princes that knowing them ye may flee them and their damnable suggestions avoid all Rebellion and escape the horrible plagues and dreadful death and damnation eternal finally due to all Rebels Though many causes of Rebellion may be reckoned and almost as many as there be Vices in Men and Women as hath been before noted yet in this place I will only touch the principal and most usual causes as specially Ambition and Ignorance By Ambition I mean the unlawful and restless desire in Men to be of higher estate than God hath given or appointed unto them By Ignorance I mean no unskilfulness in Arts and Sciences but the lack of knowledge of Gods blessed Will declared in his holy Word which teacheth both extreamly to abhor all Rebellion as being the root of all mischief and specially to delight in obedience as the beginning and Foundation of all goodness as hath been also before specified And as these are the two chief causes of Rebellion so are there specially two sorts of Men in whom these Vices do Reign by whom the Devil the Author of all evil doth chiefly stir up all Disobedience and Rebellion The restless Ambitious having once determined by one means or other to atchieve to their intended purpose when they cannot by lawful and peaceable means climb so high as they do desire they attempt the same by force and violence wherein when they cannot prevail against the ordinary Authority and Power of lawful Princes and Governors themselves alone they do seek the aid and help of the ignorant multitude abusing them to their wicked purpose Wherefore seeing a few ambitious and malitious are the Authors and Heads and multitudes of ignorant Men are the Ministers and furtherers of Rebellion the chief Point of this part shall be as well to notifie to the simple and ignorant Men who they be that have been and be usual Authors of Rebellion that they may know them and also to admonish
even at this day But these ambitious and indeed traitorous means and spoiling of their Sovereign Lords the Bishops of Rome of Priests and none other by right than the Bishops of one City and Diocess are by false usurpation become great Lords of many Dominions mighty Princes yea or Emperors rather as claiming to have divers Princes and Kings to their Vassals Liegemen and Subjects as in the same Histories written by their own Familiars and Courtiers is to be seen And indeed since the time that the Bishops of Rome by Ambition Treason and Usurpation atchieved and attained to this height and greatness they behaved themselves more like Princes Kings and Emperors in all things than remained like Priests Bishops and Ecclesiastical or as they would be called Spiritual persons in any one thing at all For after this rate they have handled other Kings and Princes of other Realms throughout Christendom as well as their Sovereign Lords the Emperors usually discharging their Subjects of their Oath of Fidelity and so stirring them up to Rebellion against their natural Princes whereof some examples shall in the last part hereof be notified unto you Wherefore let all good Subjects knowing these the special Instruments and Ministers of the Devil to the stirring up of all Rebellions avoid and flee them and the pestilent suggestions of such Foreign Usurpers and their Adherents and embrace all obedience to God and their natural Princes and Sovereigns that they may enjoy Gods blessings and their Princes favor all Peace Quietness Security in this World and finally attain through Christ our Saviour life everlasting in the World to come which God the Father for the same our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake grant unto us all To whom with the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory World without end Amen Thus have you heard the Fifth Part of this Homily Now good People Let us Pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which he Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Sixth and last Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion NOw whereas the Injuries Oppressions Raveny and Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome Usurping as well against their natural Lords the Emperors as against all other Christian Kings and Kingdoms and their continual stirring of Subjects unto Rebellions against their Sovereign Lords whereof I have partly admonished you before were intolerable and it may seem more than marvel that any Subjects would after such sort hold with unnatural Foreign Usurpers against their own Sovereign Lords and natural Country It remaineth that I do declare the Mean whereby they compassed these matters and so to conclude this whole â—reaty of due Obedience and against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion You shall understand Of the ignorance of simple people the later Part that by ignorance of Gods Word wherein they kept all Men specially the Common People they wrought and brought to pass all these things making them believe that all that they said was true all that they did was good and godly and that to hold with them in all things against Father Mother Prince Country and all Men was most meritorious And indeed what mischief will not blind ignorance lead simple Men unto By ignorance the Jewish Clergy induced the common People to ask the delivery of Barabbas the seditious murderer and to sue for the cruel Crucifying of our Saviour Christ for that he rebuked the Ambition Superstition and other Vices of the High Priests and Clergy For as our Saviour Christ testifieth that those who Crucified him wist not what they did so doth the Holy Apostle St. Paul say If they had known if they had not been ignorant they would never have Crucified the Lord of Glory but they knew not what they did Our Saviour Christ himself also foreshew that it should come to pass by ignorance that those who should persecute and murder his true Apostles and Disciples should think they did God acceptable Sacrifice and good Service as it is also verified even at this day And in this ignorance have the Bishops of Rome kept the People of God specially the common sort by no means so much as by withdrawing the Word of God from them and by keeping it under the vail of an unknown strange tongue For as it served the ambitious humor of the Bishops of Rome to compel all Nations to use the natural Language of the City of Rome where they were Bishops which shewed a certain acknowledging of subjection unto them so yet served it much more their crafty purpose thereby to keep all People so blind Si cognovissent Gregorius 2 3. Anno Dom. 726. c. In the second Commandment that they not knowing what they prayed what they believed what they were commanded by God might