he should rather have runne unto God to have given him thankes for all his benefits but it may be God came in a more terrible manner then he was wont not so the text saith the voice of the Lord came he did but send his voice not his fearefull and terrible which shakes the Wilderness but his mild and gentle voice it came walking it came not running to take vengeance and therefore it must needs be that his guilty conscience made him afraid Cain after he had murthered his innocent brother howsoever he could prettily excuse the matter unto God telling him that he was not his Brothers keeper yet had he an inward accuser which laid the murther so hard unto his charge that he was enforced to confess the fact and desperately to cry out my sinnes are greater then can be pardoned Jacobs sonnes when they sold their Brother Joseph were never troubled in conscience for it but many yeares after upon their trouble in Egypt their consciences were awaked Gen. 42. 21. They said one unto another wee have verily sinned against our Brother in that wee saw the anguish of his soule when besought us and we would not heare him therefore is this trouble come upon us Ahab was one that sold himselfe to worke wickednesse that provoked the God of Heaven to anger more then all the Kings that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne this wicked King hearing from the mouth of a poore Prophet who a little before fled out of the Country for saving his life those fearful judgements that God would bring upon his house was smitten in conscience and rent his cloathes and put sackcloath upon him and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went bare footed 1 King 21. 2. the Scribes and Pharises brought a woman that was taken in adulterie to Christ desirous to know his opinion but to no other end save only to tempt him our Saviour made no particular enumeration of their sinnes but only wrote with his finger upon the ground adding these words He that is without sin amongst you let him cast the first stone at her What followed when they heard it being accused by their owne consciences they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the least there was never a greater contemner of God then was Caligula never man burst out into more outragious sins then he he was one of those fools that say in their heart their is no God yet none so fearfull as he when he saw any signes of Gods judgements insomuch that when it thundred he was wont to hide himselfe under his bed his guilty conscience made him feare that God whom of purpose he studyed to contemne 4. I doe not speake this as though I were of opinion that all men were alike touched with a feeling of their sinnes I know there is great difference between the sons of God and the sons of Belial when they have sinned between such as sin of infirmitie and such as by long practise have gotten an habit Sin is to the Children of God asit it were a thorne in their sides and a prick in their eyes they feel it at the very first yea and that most grievously too but thewicked which sinne with a high hand have so overcharged their conscciences that they are benummed and past feeling as the Apostle speakes Eph. 4. 19. such have their consciences burned as it were with a hot Iron as he elswhere saith meaning that they are so dulled and hardened by custome that they can hardly be brought to any feeling of their sinnes and no marvell for Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati custome of sinning taketh away the feeling of sinne I may compare the conscience of Gods Child to the eye of a needle which streitneth the smallest thred but such as have gotten a custome of sinne their consciences are like to great broad gates at which a loaden Camel may finde easie entrance or it may be likned unto a greene path in soft and marish ground which in the beginning is so soft that a man cannot set his foot upon it but will leave an impression in the ground but in processe of time by continuall passage it is worne unto the gravell and then a loaden Cart will scarce leave any print behind it so like wise the conscience at the first is so soft that the least sinne leaveth a wound and print in it but continuance in sinne weareth it to the gravel and maketh it so hard that the greatest iniquity can scarcely be felt Now the Children of God commonly sinning upon infirmity seldom upon presumption never upon habit after they be effectually called but the wicked adding drunkenness to thirst that is heaping one sinne in the neck of another without entring into a due consideration of their wicked estate it fals out that the ungodly for the most part are not so soone touched with a feeling of their sinnes as are Gods children when they have transgressed Holy David after he had committed adulterie with Bathsheba slept divers moneths in his sinne a thing not so ordinarily befalling the Children of God but he was no sooner rouzed out of this Lethargie by the Prophet Nathan then the prick of sinne did sting him to the heart and made him crie as in Psal 51. Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy great mercies and according to the multitude of thy compassions doe away mine offences One deep calleth upon another the deepnesse of his sinnes calleth for the depth of Gods mercies but Herod had so long enjoyed Herodias his Brothers wife that the preaching of John Baptist a greater man then the Prophet Nathan a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet could not move him from that particular though he disswaded him from other sins to which he was not so much inured The same Prophet David when he had numbred the people a thing of it selfe indifferent if he had taken no pride in the multitude of his Hoast was smitten at the heart and said unto the Lord I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done If his Predecessor Saul had done the like it may be supposed he would have defended the lawfulness of the fact who was so ready to excuse himselfe for keeping the fat Oxen of the Amalekites contrary to Gods commandement Godly Austin in his old age was moved in conscience for the least faults he had committed when he was a Child for playing at the Ball when his Parents had forbidden him for stealing a few wild Peares out of his Neighbours Orchard sinnes which few will remember or if they doe it is onely to brag of them so then it is without question that such as are not inured to any sinn will be sooner moved then those which by long custome have made it naturall unto them but yet none are so wicked though with Ahab they sell themselves to worke wickedness but their consciences will
fellowes Come and bring wine and wee will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant But few or none will say with those good professors Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his lawes and we will walk in his paths I think I cannot truly say with Hosea that the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of this land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For our heads are not so sick as our hearts are heavie I mean our heads are not so void of knowledge as our hearts are of obedience but I dare boldly say that which followeth By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and wâ—oâ—ing they break forth and bloud toucheth bloud Will you heare the judgements annexed in the subsequent words Therefore shall the land mourne and every one that dwelleth therein shall be cut off This is a terrible curse and he that dwelleth in heaven still avert it from u but yet it is a conclusion which the Lord useth to inferre upon such premises Give me leave to repeat a paâ—able unto you My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it and gathered the stones out of it and he planted it with the best plants and hee built a Tower in the midst and made a winepresse therein The Prophet in that place applieth it to the land of Judah Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant plants me thinks I may not unfitly apply it unto this Island Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Britaine and the men of this land are his pleasant plants Now therefore O ye inhabitants of this land judge I pray you between him and his vineyard what could hee have done unto it that he hath not done He hath planted it with his own right hand he hath so hedged it about with his heavenly providence that the wilde boare out of the woods cannot root it up nor they that go by pull off his grapes He hath watered it most abundantly with the dew of heaven he hath gathered the stones of Popery and superstition out of it hee hath set the winepresse of his word therein hee hath given it a Tower even a king as a strong tower against his enemies whose raigne the Lord continue over us if it be his pleasure as long as the moon knoweth her course and the sun his going down and let all that love the peace of Britaine say Amen Now he hath long expected that it should bring forth grapes but behold it bringeth forth wild grapes Hee looked for judgement but behold oppression for righteousnesse but loâ— a crying These were the sinnes of Jerusalem and you know her judgements hee that was Jerusalems God is Britaines God too and therefore if shee parallel Jerusalem in her iniquities let her take heed shee taste not of her plagues God though he hath not yet begun to punish her in his fury yet hath he sundry times shaked his rod of correction over her if this will not worke amendment her judgement must be the greater Fearfull was the case of Samaria whom Gods punishments could not move to repentance I have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your Cities and scarcenesse of Bread in all your places yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord God I have withholden the raine from you when there was yet three moneths to the harvest and I caused it to raine upon one City and brought a drought upon another yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. Pestilence have I sent amongst you after the manner of Egypt and yet ye have not returned unto me saith the Lord. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. yet ye have not returned unto mee saith the Lord God The Lord hath not hitherto dealt with us after our sinnes nor plagued us according to the multitude of our iniquities yet he hath made it manifest that he is displeased with us His mercy hath pulled back his hand from drawing his sword of vengeance against us yet he hath left us sundry tokens that he is angred with our sinnes It is not long since that the heavens were made as brasse and the Earth as yron nay the very waters became as yron or as brasse so that neither the heavens from above nor the earth or water from below did afford comforts for the service of man This extraordinary cold distemperature of the ayre might by an Antiperistasis have kindled some heat of zeal and devotion in our breasts when it had not the expected effect then he Called for a dearth upon the land and destroyed our provision of bread even such a famine that if we were not relieved from forrain countreys Ten women might bake their bread in one Oven as the Lord speaketh Levit. 26. 26. But all this hath not brought us upon our knees nor humbled our soules before our God therefore once againe hee hath put life in his messenger of death and set him on foot which hertofore of late years hath raged in this city like a man of warre and like a gyant refreshed with wine and bestirred himselfe though not with the like violence almost in every part of this kingdom I mean the pestilence that walketh in the darknesse and the sicknesse that hath killed many thousands at noon day all these are infallible tokens that he is offended with our sinnes Howbeit he is so mercifull that he will not suffer his whole displeasure as yet to arise Horum si singula duras Flectere non possunt poterint tamen omnia mentes If each of these by themselves cannot prevaile with us yet if they be all put together they may serve as a threefold cord to draw us unto repentance If these be not of force but still we continue to blow up the coales of his anger then let us know for a certainty that they are the forewarners of a greater evill as the cracking of the house is a forewarning of his fall these be but the flashing lightnings the thunder bolt will come after The cloud that is long in gathering will make the greater storme he is all this while in setting his stroke that hee may give the sorer blow Eurum ad se Zephirumque vocat hee is in bringing the windes out of his treasures that hee may rain upon our heads a showre of vengeance which shall be the portion of all the ungodly to drink I began like a Barnabas I will not end like Boanerges my song had an Exordium of mercy I am loath to bring for an Epilogue a thunderclap of judgement Wherefore my beloved Brethren now that you see the true causes of the ruines of every common-wealth and the judgement that
SERMONS PREACHED UPON Severall Occasions BY LANCELOT DAWES D. D. Now Minister of Barton in Westmorland and sometimes fellow of Queens Colledge in Oxford MATH 23. 37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered c. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Robinson at the three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCLIII The Contents First Sermon Gods Mercies and Jeusalems miseries Ieremie 5. 1. Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof If yee find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgment and seeketh the truth and I will spare it pag. 1. Second Sermon Matth. 26. 15. What will yee give me and I will deliver him unto you pag. 53. Third Sermon Matth. 27. 3 4. Then Judas which betrayed him saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Prieâ—ts and Elders saying I have sinned betraying the Innocent bloud but they said what is that to us see thou to that and when he had cast down the silver pieces in the Temple c. pag. 89. Fourth Sermon Psal 82. 6 7. I have said ye are gods but you shall dye like men pag. 105. Fift Sermon Galat. 3. 10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them pag. 139. Sixt Sermon preached at the funeral of Dr. Senhouse Bishop of Carlile Job 14. 14. If a man die shall he live again all the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my changing come pag. 159. The second part Four Sermons on this Text. Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little flock for it is your fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome pag 1. The second Sermon upon the same pag. 30. The third Sermon upon the same pag. â—5 The fourth Sermon upon the same pag. â—â— Fifth Sermon Matth. 7. 22 23. Many will say unto me that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied and then I will professe to them I never knew you pag. 93. Sixth Sermon Jer. 22. 3. Thus saith the Lord Execute yee Judgement and Righteousnesse pag. 129. GODS MERCIES AND IERVSALEMS MISERIES JEREMIE 5. 1. ¶ Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof if ye can find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgement and seeketh the Truth and I will spare it MAny means did the Lord use to reclaim Jerusalem from her rebellion against him by sundry commemorations of his benefits he wooed her by the sweet promises of the Gospel he incited her by the captivity of her sister Samaria he forewarned her but yet she continued like her forefathers a faithlesse and stubborn generation a generation that set not her heart aright she runs still on a wrong Bias in stead of being a faithfull Spouse she becomes a filthie harlot and playeth the Whore upon every hie mountain and under every green tree her wine is mixed with water her silver is become drosse her Princes rebels and companions of theeves and as she growes in years so she increaseth in all impieties she which at the first did onely pull little sinnes with the small cordes of vanity doth now draw greater transgressions with the huge cartropes of iniquity so that now from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head there is nothing sound in her but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption In this case God which cannot abide wickednesse neither can any evil dwell with him as the Psalmist speaketh begins to loath her and to give her up into the hands of her most savage and cruell enemies the Chaldeans who shall defile the holy Temple and make Jerusalem a heap of stones Oh but shall the husband be so unkind to his Spouse whom he hath married unto himself shall a Father be so severe to his child shall the God of mercy be so unmerciful unto his chosen Shall not the judge of the world do right farre be it from God that hee should slay the righteous with the wicked God answereth that there is no reason why she should repine against him or accuse him of cruelty her Apostasie is so generall her disease like a Gangraena is spread through every member of the body her malice is so incurable that he cannot without impeachment of his justice spare her any longer Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem c. as if he had said O yee men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem do not say that your teeth are set on edge because your fathers have eaten sowre grapes do not object that my wayes are not equal it is your wayes that are unequal it is your sins that brings this heavy doom upon your heads whether this be so or not you your selves be Judges for I beseech you seek up and down not in the Countrey towns onely and villages of Judah but in the Metropolis of the whole Kingdome in the holy City run through every corner of it search and enquire in the houses and allies and back-lanes and high streets thereof marke their conditions observe their practises consider their behaviour take a full view of their whole carriage if after such enquiry there be found but one man amongst the whole multitude that feareth me or maketh any conscience of his wayes and I will spare the whole City for that one mans sake but if after you have sought man by man there be not one godly man found amongst them all think it not cruelty if now at length I inflict in justice my judgements upon her the summe is contained in this short proposition I will spare Jerusalem if there can one righteous man be found in her Wherein wee may observe these two principall points Gods mercy in that hee would have spared Jerusalem for one mans sake Jerusalems misery in that not one righteous man can bee found in her the former I deliver in this proposition Gods mercy in sparing doth exceed his justice in punishing and with this wee will beginne But alas who am I dust and ashes that I should intreat of this Subject it is a bottomelesse depth who can dive into it it is an unaccessible light who can behold it if the Heathen Simonides after three dayes study how to describe God was further from any resolution in the latter end then when he first began nay if Moses a man more familiar with God then any that ever lived upon the face of the earth when he was put in a clift of a rock and covered with Gods hands could not behold the glory of his face then may it not seem strange if the tongues of men and Angels faile in describing the very back parts of this one
attribute being more proper and essentiall unto God then any whatsoever That Tyrian proved the wisest in the end who having concluded in the Evening with his fellowes that he which could first in the next morning behold the Sun which they worshipped as a God should be King looked not toward the East where he riseth but towards the western mountains where his rayes did first appear We will follow his Example and seeing we cannot seek into the fountain at which the Cherubs did cover their faces let us behold it in the mountains that is the Prophets and Apostles as Jerome expounds the word or the mountains that is the creatures and works of God in all which it doth most clearly shine there is no work of God in which there do not appear such manifest Characters of his mercy that he which runneth may read them Those benefits intended towards his children as namely Election before all time creation in the beginning of time Vocation Redemption Justification in the fulnesse of time Glorification after all time c. To prove them to be so many rivers of the bottomlesse Ocean of Gods never dying mercy it were but to busie my self about a principle which I hope none of you will call into question Gods almighty power is manifested unto us in that he hath created the world of nothing and made all the hoast of heaven by the breath of his mouth and it is a property in describing of which Gods Secretaries do strive to be eloquent Job to shew it faith that hee spreadeth out the heavens like a Canopie and walketh upon the height of the Sea that he maketh the starres Arcturu and Orion and Pleiades and the climates of the South Elihu sets it forth under Behemoth whose taile is like a Cedar and his bones like staves of brasse yet the Lord leadeth him whither soever he will and under Leviathan which makes the depth to boile like a pot and the sea like a pot of ointment and yet the Lord can put a hoâ—k in his nose and pierce his jawes with an Angle David to shew it faith that he maketh the mountains to skippe like Rammes and the little hils like young sheep Esay to expresse it saith that all nations before him are as a droppe of a bucket and are counted as the dust of the ballance that hee taketh away the Isles as a little dust that he hath measured the waters in his fist and counted heaven with a span comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a weight and the hils in a ballance and yet his mercy goeth beyond his power in that his omnipotency hath made nothing but what his mercy moved him to create and it comes after too in preserving and guiding and protecting by his heavenly providence a branch of his mercy whatsoever his powerfull hand hath made if he should but once stop the influence of his mercy all the works of his hands should presently be annihilated The earth is full of the mercies of the Lord saith the Psalmist hee saith not the heavens saith Austen Quia non indigent misericordia ubi est nulla miseria they needed no mercy where there is no misery and yet in another place hee addeth the heavens too thy truth an other of his attributes goeth unto the clouds there it stayeth but thy mercy goeth further it reacheth unto the heavens in fewer words It is over all his works But my text leads me to entreat of his mercy as it hath reference unto his justice where you shall finde that of two infinites one doth infinitely surpasse an other to bee called a mercifull God and the father of mercy is a title wherein God especially delighteth but he is almost never called the God of judgement here how hee proclaimeth himself The Lord the Lord strong there is one Epithete of his power merciful gracious slow to anger abundant in goodnesse and truth reserving mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin there are six of his mercy Then comes his justice in punishing of offences not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there he confines his justice hee saith unto it as he doth unto the seas in Job Hither shalt thou goe and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy raging waves it shall not passe the fourth generation and that is more then Ordinary if it come so farre it is but as a high spring upon such as hate him but his mercy flowes like a boundlesse Ocean upon thousands of those that love him Nay the Prophet tels us that to punish is with God a rare and extraordinary work The Lord saith he shall stand as in mount Perazim hee shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon that hee may do his work his strange act This is an act of judgement where you see that to punish with him is an uncouth and strange work an act indeed unto which without compulsion of justice hee could not be drawn he is more loath to put out his hand for to inflict a judgement then ever was Octavius to subscribe his name to the execution of any publike offender whose usuall speech was this Vtinam nescirem literas I would to God I could not write How oft doth miserable man offend against his maker surely if the just man fall seven times then the wicked falleth seventy times seven times and yet he maketh his Sunne to shine upon them both he makes his rain to fall upon them both still almost he containeth the sword of his justice within the sheath of his mercy If in case he be enforced to draw it he is as it were touched with a feeling of that which the wicked suffer hear himself speak Therefore thus saith the Lord of hoasts the holy one of Israel ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies it is a kinde of ease to be avenged of thine enemie and therefore God when the Jews continue still to provoke him to his face will ease himself by inflicting his judgements upon them I will ease me of mine enemies but it comes with an ah or alas it is pain and grief to him he is wounded to the very heart his bowels are rolled and turned within him a few tears might have made him sheath his sword and deferre his punishments the history of Ahab will prove as much who was one that had sold himself to work wickednesse that provoked the Lord more then all the Kings of Israel that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin therefore the Lords sends unto him the Prophet Eliah telling him that in the field where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth they should lick his blood also and that he would wipe
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth
gather them under her shadow there shall the vultures also be gathered every one with her mate Seek in the book of God and read none of these shall fayle For more confirmation hereof consider the subversion of Abbies they were founded by religious men in their generations to a good purpose their situation was as the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt as thou goest unto Zoar as Moses speaks of the plaine of Jordan before the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrah they stretched their towers up to the heavens like the Pyramides of Egypt but behold the Lord hath wiped them as a man wipeth a dish which he wipeth and turneth up side downe They are now the fittest places for the raven to build in habitations for Dragons and courts for Ostriches they stand but as Aristotle saith quod stat movetur they stand so as they are moving to a fall in the plasantest vallies of the land as the reliques of Babel in the vallie of Sinar or like a cottage in a vineyard like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers and like a besieged and defaced city dropping down by joynts as a thief rotteth from the gibbet What were their sinnes which brought so heavy a judgement upon them suppose they were as they were indeed the sinnes of Sodome pride fulnesse of bread mercilesnesse towards the poor and abundance of idlenesse Now if these sins of some few or suppose the greater part certain it is that all were not such som were industrious som humble som merciful towards the needy some of a moderate and spare dyet if these sinnes I say brought so heavy a judgement upon those houses that they are in comparison of that they were before like the stump of Dagon when his head and the two palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold in Ashdod or the remainders of Jezabel when the hungry dogges had eaten her up so that there was no more found of her then the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands insomuch that none can say this is Jezabel these be the houses they were before shall we think that their houses shall continue for ever which turn Bethel into Bethaven the house of God into a house of vanity which take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogges which with the consecrated things of the altar maintain their own pompe feed their Hawkes their Horses keep but I stay my self 18. After the Church-robber comes the grinding oppressour another great plague which sits sore upon the skirts of our land He saith unto his gold thou art my God and to the wedge of gold thou art my confidence And instead of counting godlinesse great gain he accounteth gain great godlinesse he addeth house to house and land to land as if the way to the spiritual Canaan laid all by land and not through a red sea of death He brayeth the people as in a mortar and grindeth the faces of the poor He selleth the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes he eateth up the poor as if they were bread Vtpisces saepe minutos Magnu ' comest ut aves enecat accipiter As a Pike devoureth the little fishes and as a goshauk kils the smaller birds hee gathereth the livings of the poorer sort into his own hands as the great Ocean drinketh the rivers hee enhaunceth his rents and pilleth his poor tenants and doubleth yea treableth their fines telling them with young Rhehoboam that his little finger shall be heavier then his fathers loynes Not contented with this cruelty he thrusteth them out of their houses and depopulateth whole townes and villages making those streets which used to be sown with the seed of men Pastures for the sending out of bullocks and for the treading of sheep One justly complaineth of our English sheep that whereas in former times they were the meekest beasts of the field and contented themselves with a little are now become so fierce and greedy that they devour men and town-fields and houses and villages and lay all waste insomuch that that which the Psalmist speaketh of Israel spoiled by his enemies may be verified of our Jacob also They have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling places Surely the very stone out of the wall doth cry against these men and the beam out of the timber doth answer it woe unto him that buildeth his house with bloud and erecteth his wals by iniquity While the spleen swelleth the body languisheth and it may justly be feared that if our good Physitian do not in time purge these tumorous and swelling members they will cause a lienterie in the body politick God forbid that this flourishing kingdome which sometime hath deserved that title which Cyneus Embassadour unto Pyrrhus gave unto Rome when he called it a City of Kings should ever deserve that title which one gives unto France when he cals it a kingdome of asses by reason of the burdens that are laid upon the baser sort by their superiours 19 Therefore it behoves you and as many as sit at the sterne of justice not to sleep with Jonas while the ship is tossed with these mighty winds nor to be carelesse in a matter so neerly concerning the good of this Common-wealth Gird you with your swords upon your thighes O yee men of might according to your worship and renown ride on because of the word of truth and righteousnesse and let your right hand teach you terrible things But if you shall be negligent herein surely as Mordecai said to Hester help and deliverance shall come from another place For doubtlesse the crie of the afflicted is already ascended into the eares of the Lord of hosts and he will take the matter into his own hand Believe it it is his own promise Now for the comfortlesse troubles sake of the needy and because of the deep sighing of the poor I will up saith God and will deliver him from such as vex him and will restore him to rest I will prosecute this point no further onely let me tell these locusts that their goods whereunto they trust are but a broken staffe of reed whereunto if a man leane it will peirce into his hand that their pleasures are but as Dalilab was to Samson even gyevs and fetters of Satan to entangle them that their gold will be as a milstone about their necks to carry them down headlong into the pit that their hands and goods are as a bunch upon a Camels back which will not suffer them to enter in at the needles eye the narrow way that leadeth to heaven that those goods which by grinding and oppressing they have scraped together the Lord will fan them away with the fan of 〈◊〉 unlesse as Daniel said to Nabuchadnezzar they break off their sinnes by righteousnesse and their iniquity by mercy towards the poore and that which they
to permit them to fall as namely to humble them to make them more earnestly implore his help to shew unto them their own miserie in relapsing and to make knowne his owne mercy in forgiving but still he is ready to receive them again if they returne unto him by repentance For if he would have us to forgive our Brethren their trespasses when they turne unto us and ask forgiveness not seven times but seventy times seven times that is as oft as they offend us much more will the Lord out of the bottomlesse depth of his mercie pardon his children when they fall if afterward they returne unto him by earnest and unfeigned repentance And thus much in effect the Novatians did at length confesse holding that such as sinned after baptisme were not to be admitted into the congregation but yet they should be exhorted to repentance that so they might obtain remission of sinne of God who alone can forgive sinnes meaning that if after their relapse they should repent the Lord would have mercie upon them and this is the difference betwixt Gods children and revolting hypocrites these when they fall they fall away but Gods Elect though they fall seven times yet they rise as often The fall of the wicked is like the fall of Eli from his chaire or of Iesabel from the window it is a breakneck fall but the fall of the godly is like unto the fall of Eutychus though they fall from the third loft yet they are taken up though dead and some good Paul by embracing them with the sweet promises of his Gospel doth revive them the wicked are like to the Raven which as the vulgar corruptly reades it went out of the Arke and returned not they goe out of the Arke the Church and return not but feed upon the carrion of this world but the godly are like the Dove they flie somtimes out of the Arke the church of God yet when they find no rest for the soles their feet they returne again with an olive-branch in their mouthes like the Dove I mean with an humble confession of their offences and earnest and hearty prayers unto Almighty God which when they do then Noah the true Preacher of righteousness will put forth his hand and again receive them into the arke And therefore let not the weake Christian be discouraged with the remembrance of such sinnes as he hath faln into after his justification as if now there were no hope of pardon but let him prostrate himselfe before the throne of God and with many bitter groanes crie after this or the like manner Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I dare not lift up my impure eyes unto the heavens the seate of thy majesty I am one whom thou hast vouchsafed to adopt to be thy son and yet I have never reverenced thee as a loving Father but like a stranger have transgressed thy precepts and neglected thy statutes so that I am most unworthy to be called thy sonne I am one for whom thou hast given thine owne and only sonne Christ Jesus God and man the very brightnesse of thy glorie the engraven form of thy person the essential word by which thou madest all things and yet I have been unmindfull of so great a benefit I have rejected the sweet promises of thy sons Gospel I have denyed the faith I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou out of the bottomlesse depth of thy mercie many others of better desert being still leftin darknesse hast illuminated with the light of thy word hast called unto faith and repentance hast ingrafted into the true Vine when I was a wild branch thou hast made me partaker of thy holy sacraments and yet these inestimable Jewels these heavenly treasures these rich indowments I have set at naught and trodden under foot I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou hast washed with the blood of thy deare sonne whom thou hast restored to newness of life and yet I have returned like a dog to my vomit and with the Sow to the wallowing in the mire to thee therefore to thee belongeth righteousness but unto me belongeth nothing but shame and confusion of face yet O my God the greater my offences are the more earnestlie I implore thy help and the more shall thy mercie appeare if thou pardon and forgive them I have polluted and defiled all my wayes thou O Lord Jesus which art puritie it selfe which camest into this world to save sinners whereof I am chief wash my filthiness revive my deadness quicken my dulness awake my drousiness kindle my zeale increase my faith Lord Jesus I flie unto thee my soule gaspeth after thee as a thirstie land Peter denyed thee and thou didst receive him again the Apostles forsooke thee and yet thou forgavst them Paul persecuted thee and yet thou didest receive him to mercie David did grievously trespasse and yet thou O God hadst pittie and compassion upon him the Israelites oftentimes provoked thee and yet thou didst in thy mercie forgive them thy love is not abated thy bowels of compassion are not lessened the bottomlesse-Ocean of thy mercie is not dried thou hast protested and made it to be proclaimed by thy Herauld the Prophet that thou wilt not the death of a sinner but that he turne unto thee and live Lord I turne unto thee receive me to mercie let thy favourable countenance once againe shine upon me And when his heavenlie Father shall heare these and perceive that they proceed from an humble and contrite heart presently he will have compassion upon such a prodigall Child and fall on his neck and kisse him and bring forth his best Robe even the Robe of Christs righteousnesse and put it upon him and put a Ring on his finger and shooes on his feet Thus farre of the first Proposition the second followes It is not enough for a Christian to perform obedience to some of Gods precepts and to beare with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all There were some of opinion as saith Lombard that a man might truely repent of one sinne and obtain pardon for the same and yet continue in another but these did never rightly understand the nature of mortification which requires a detestation and forsaking of all sinne and not a paring away of some which may best be spared as wee cannot at the same time look with one eye into Heaven and another unto the earth so may wee not in somethings serve God and in other things be servants of sinne when a man seeth his house on fire he will not quench some part of the flame and let the rest be burning but he will use all possible meanes to extinguish all the fire lest peradventure if one spark
Goliath like give him a sword for the cutting of our own throats Againe Is it so that in the regenerate so long as he remaineth in this earthly Tabernacle there remain not some few reliques but many fragments of the natural man so that there is a combat between the flesh and the spirit where then be the Papists which maintain justification by works Can a clean thing come out of that which is unclean saith Job and can our minds wils and affections wherein the flesh and the spirit are mixed together produce any effect which is not impure and imperfect and therefore farre short of that perfection and righteousnesse which is required by the Law I do not say that they are sinnes that is but a slander of the Papists but they have some degrees of sins and imperfections joyned with them the best come that groweth in our fields hath some grains blasted the best fruits that we can bring forth are in some part rotten the best gold that we can show is much mixed with dross and cannot abide the touchstone it is an easie matter I confesse for a sinfull and unregenerate cloysterer to say somewhat for the dignitie of workes in justifying a man but when we enter into an examination of our own consciences and find so many sins and imperfections lurking in every corner of our hearts it will make us crie out with Bernard meritum meum miseratio domini my merit is the Lords mercie and again sufficit ad meritum scire quod non est meritum Nay if we look up unto God and consider him not as a mans brain considereth him but as his word describeth him unto us with whose brightness the stars are darkned with whose anger the earth is shaken with whose strength the mountains melt with whose wisdom the crafty are taken in their own nets at whose pureness all seem impure in whose sight the heavens nay the very Angels are unclean we must needs confesse with Job that if we should dispute with God we could not answer him one for a thousand and confesse that he found no stedfastness in his Saints yea and when the heaven is impure in his sight much more is man abominable and filthy which drinketh iniquitie like water and therefore pray unto him with David that he will not enter into judgement with us because in his sight shall no man living be justified but I must leave this point and come unto the second All the dayes of my appointed time c. Every man hath an appointed time by God which he cannot passe Though Adams wisdome was such that he could give names to everie creature according to their nature yet he forgate his owne name because of his affinitie between him and the earth the sons of Adam are like their father they are witty enough about the creatures but they quite forget their own names and their natures too and this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and over-whelmed with crueltie they wil contend with Nebuchadnezzar in Isa to advance themselves even above the stars of God and to match their Grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of the earth would with the wings of pride soare into heaven and care little for being like their elder brother the second Adam which from Heaven came unto earth and took upon him our infirmities and miseries but let them secure themselves never so much the tide will tarrie for no man for their Father eat sowre grapes and his childrens teeth are set on edge their Father for eating a grape of the forbidden Vine had this sentence pronounced against him Unto dust thou shalt returne and his children shall be lyable to it till heaven and earth be removed and there be no more death The tender and dainty women which never adventure to set the sole of their feet upon the ground for their sofness and tenderness as Moses speakes have a day appointed when their mouthes shall be filled with mould and their faces which they will not suffer the sun of the Firmament to shine upon lest it should staine their beautie shall be slimed with that earth which they scorned to touch with the soles of their feet those rotten posts which spend themselves in whiting and painting as though they would with Medea recal their years or with the Eagle by casting their old bill renew their youth have a day set them in which deaths finger shall but touch them and they shall fall in pieces and returne to their dust those which cloth themselves with linnen and build them houses of Cedar and add house to house and and to land as though they should continue for ever or at the least as if their journy to the heavenly Canaan lay all by land and nothing by Sea have a determinate time when their unsatiable desires shall be content with a Golgotha a place of dead mens souls a little part of a potters field asmuch as will serve to hide and cover their earthen vessel Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modo sufficit octo pedum Are not his dayes determined saith Job the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe it is not nobility of Parents nor wisdom nor comelinesse of person nor strength of bodie nor largenesse of dominions that can lengthen the thred of a mans dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauporum tabernas regumque turres Deaths Arrow will as soon pierce the strong Castle of a King as the poor cottage of a Countrie Swain be thou more zealou then Moses or stronger then Sampson or beautifuller then Absalom or wiser then Solomon or richer then Job or faithfuller then Samuel Ire tamen restat Numa quo devenit Ancus This is the conclusion of all flesh at the time appointed thou must dye yield thy body to deaths Serjeant to be kept Prisoner in the Dungeon of the earth till the great Assises which shall be holden in the clouds at the last day the conclusion is most certain howevsr the premises be most fallible and doubtfull I say not that the time of our lives are equally lengthened or that the dayes our life consist of like houres some see but a winter day and their breath is gone some an â—quinoctial day and they live till their middle age some a long Summers day and live till old age all of them with the Beast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be sure to dye at night the course of mans life is like the journy of the Israelites from Aegypt to Canaan some dye as soon as they are gone out of Aegypt some in the midle way some with Moses come to the edge and borders of Canaan some indeed with Caleb and Joshua enter the promised Land alive such as shall be living at the last day but this is without
did impose this law upon himselfe telling the Pharisees that his Doctrine was not his owne but the Fathers that had sent him Now then if the Priests of the Law if the Prophets if the Apostles if Christ Jesus himselfe did not preach any Doctrine but what they received from God if they were tyed to the word and might not decline to the right hand nor to the left Much more are the Lords Ministers at this day tied not to deliver any Doctrine to their Hearers but what is evidently grounded upon the sacred Oracles of Truth They are to build the Kingdom of Christ to subvert the kingdome of Antichrist to feed the Lords Sheep to drive away the Wolves to comfort the weake and feeble knees to break the brazen and iron sinews of impenitent sinners to sing a song of mercie to penitent and humble soules to thunder judgments to forlorn miscreants To binde and to loose to plucke up and to roote out to destroy and to cast downe to build and to plant but all by the word of God The writings of Heathen men contain in them many excellent precepts of Morality but they are mingled with a number of untruths and vanities The writings of the ancient Fathers are of especiall use in the Church of God but they are not sufficient groun is for me to build my Faith upon them I may no more in all things follow their steps then I may be drunk with Noah or commit incest with Lot or be an Adulterer with David or an Idolater with Solomon or with Peter deny and forswear Christ I say of them all in respect of the Scriptures as Stankarus a Polonian Heretick spake of our Protestant Writers in respect of Peter Lombard Plus valet Petrus Lombardus quam Centum Lutheri c. One Peter Lombard is of more worth then 100. Luthers 200. Melanctons 300. Bullingers 400. Peter Martyrs and 500. Calvins But one plaine sentence of Scripture is more worth then 100. Austins 200. Cyprians 300. Jeremies 400. Ambroses 500. Gregories where their Doctrines are not warrantable by the word of God I say of them as Aristotle did of Socrates and Plato Socrates is my Friend and Plato my Friend but Truth is my greatest Friend And as Austin said of his Country-man Cyprian Cypriani literas non ut Canonicas lego sed ex Canonicis considero quod in ijs divinarum Scripturarum autoritati convenit cum laude ejus accipio quod non convenit cum pace ejus respuo I read Cyprian not as canonical Scripture but I examine his Writings by the canonicall and where I find them agreeing with his due commendations I receive them when repugnant with his good leave I will reject them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. Quest Is it then unlawfull for a Minister to use humanity or secular learning in his Sermon Ans I have known many who have said that a Sermon is too barren and dry and not so learned nor so pleasant nor so powerfull nor so profitable if it consist meerly of testimonies from Scripture without some inspersions at the least of secular learning as if that were dry which is like the Raine that comes down from heaven and waters the earth that it may yeeld seed to him that soweth and bread to him that eateth or any thing were more learned then that which will make a man wise unto salvation or any thing more pleasant then that which is sweeter then honie or the honie-comb or any thing more powerfull then that which is lively And mighty in operation and sharper then any two-edged sword and entereth through even to the dividing of the soule and the spirit and of the joynts and the marrow or any thing more profitable then that which is given by inspiration from God and is profitable to Teach to reprove to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse that the man of God may be absolute being made perfect unto all good works Again on the other side I know many both Preachers and Hearers who distast as much a sentence borrowed from a prophane Writer as the children of the Prophets did of that branch of Coloquintida that was cast into the pot mors in olla One sentence in their conceit spoils a whole Sermon the thing otherwise never so good These men are verily perswaded that Hieroms dreame was in good earnest that he was wrapt into the third Heaven and miserably beaten before the Tribunall seate of God for reading of Tullie which although he writing to a certain Lady who was too much addicted to reading of secular Authors he relates as a story Yet when the same was objected against him by Ruffinus and without question Lactantius and Tertullian and Austin and some others of the Fathers deserved to lick of the whip for this as well as Hierome who were so throughly acquainted with all secular Writers that as he himselfe speaks of some of them a man cannot tell whether he shall more admire them for their secular learning or their knowledg in the Scriptures insomuch that as Julian complained of some of them De aquila pennas evellerent quibus aquilam configerent They pulled quills out of the Eagles wings the Roman Ensign wherewith they wounded and killed the Eagle My resolution then is this As I cannot approve of the former sort so can I not altogether of the latter my reasons are these 1. No Sermon is purum putum dei verbum meer Logick and Rhetorick and humane invention are used in the best and therefore if I shall sometimes borrow a sentence from a secular Writer be it Goats-hair or hay or stubble or call it what you will peradventure it may prove as good as any thing I can bring of mine owne 2. I take it to be a property of a foolish Captaine to scorn to use any stratagem which his Enemie hath used before It 's lawfull for the Hebrews to spoile the Aegyptians so that it be not to make a golden Calfe of the spoile 3. St. Paul himself sometimes brings sentences out of secular Writers as Tit. 1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heroicall verse out of Epimenides So Acts 17. We are his generation part of an heroicall verse out of Aratus and 1 Cor. 15. Evill words corrupt good manners a comicall verse out of Menander 4. There is but one truth and Omne verum est a Spiritu Sancto saith Ambrose so that if thou shalt alleadg that it is unlawfull to use it because it dropt from the tongue or penn of a Pagan I will reply that if it be true it is lawfull because it is originally from God but here these cautions are to be observed 1. It must not be a Doctrine but only an Illustration or amplification of a Doctrine 2. It must be sparingly used in popular Congregations 3. As an Israelite when he