faile and so the seruice of God to fall to the ground Last of all it was a part of iniustice to denie to the Leuite that wages which was due and appointed vnto them by the Lord. So plentifull and so manifold was this sinne which God in this place vpbraideth them withall And therefore Mal. 3.9 marke what followeth vpon this You are cursed with a curse for yee haue spoiled me euen this whole nation Wheresoeuer this sinne is suffered there the curse of God hangeth ouer the whole land This may very fitly be applied to our times For though the Leuiticall Priesthood bee abrogated by Christ yet the ministerie of the Church remaineth still to the end of the world And the Lord hath appointed that the Ministers of the Gospel should be maintained still Mat. 10.10 Our Sauiour saith The labourer is worthie of his wages And the Apostle proueth it at large that there is maintenance as due to the Ministers of the Gospell as euer it was to the Priests in the time of the law 1. Cor. 9.14 The Lord saith hee hath ordained that they that preach the Gospell should liue of the Gospell And how carefull the Primitiue Church was to prouide for their teachers may appeare in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles But when once it pleased God to conuert Kings and Emperours vnto the knowledge of Christ they very bountifully enriched the Church and assigned vnto it tithes and other reuennues Which order was so inuiolably kept for a long time a Qui decimas â—aicis donaret inter maximos Haereticos non minimus babeatur Willet contr 2. quaest 3. as that there was a decree that whosoeuer should estrange tithes from the Church and giue them to the vse of Lay persons hee should bee accounted not the least among the greatest Heretikes But when superstition beganne once to grow and the ancient discipline of the Church was decayed then beganne many abuses about Church reuennues For the Pope first of all alienated the property of tithes and erected impropriations rightly so called as altogether improper for them that haue them for the maintenance of a sort of lazie Monks and Friers which like Locusts haue deuoured the Church And this appeareth euen in our owne stories For when as in the raigne of Henry the third the Bishops of England made suite to the Pope that impropriate benefices might bee restored to then first vse at the contrary request of the Monks the Pope determined they should stand as they did But the Pope is not only too blame in this case but many also of our owne Ministers are in fault For when ambitious spirits beganne to striue impudently for Church-liuings they were content basely to stoope on their knees as Camels doe for their burdens and to lay their liuings in the lap of euery Dalilah to shaue at their pleasure and to take away from them that wherein their strength consisted Hence part of the tithes and reuennues is sold away part is taken away from the Church by Noble men and part translated to other vses by the decrees of Princes so that now the poore Church of God is constrained either to satisfie the couetousnesse or to minister fewell to the prodigality of priuate persons and all men take pleasure to spoile those things which our deuout forefathers bestowed vpon the Church As the Souldiers dealt with the garments and coat of Christ Mat. 27.35 they parted his garments and cast lâ—ts so doe these men deale with the possessions of the Church They share and diuide amongst them the goods of the Church and cast lots for them and in the meane while suffer Christ Iesus to hang miserably vpon the Crosse Some deuoure some spoile the Churches goods and in the meane while suffer the Ministers of the Church and the true Teachers of the Gospell to starue and pine Thus they crucifie Christ and cast lots for his garments And this sin is so much the more hainous because a great number of those that are guilty of it would bee counted great Professours and very religious They may not bee termed wasters and spoilers but friends and fauourers yea defenders of the Church But shall I tell them how they defend it Brentius in Luc. 23. Euen iust as one saith as the Souldiers defended Christ when he hanged vpon the Crosse It is the commendation of that good Centurion that out of his loue to the Nation of the Iewes Luke 7.5 he built them a Synagogue This man shall rise vp in iudgement against these persons who by transferring Church-goods to their owne priuate gaine as much as lieth in them do pull downe Churches With what face dare they boast themselues to be Christians when they offer such iniurie to Christ in his poore Church and Ministers Rom. 2.22 how can they professe that they abhorre Idols when thus grosly they commit sacriledge The very Heathen men haue condemned this sinne They could not endure the spoiling of their Gods in any whosoeuer hee were And therefore Aelian Var Histor l. 5. c. 16. when a yong child at Athens had taken vp a plate of gold that fell out of Dianaes coronet hee was brought before the Iudges who set before him gugawes and rattles to play withall and the plate also and when the child refused the trisles and tooke the plate againe hee was not spared for the tendernesse of his age but was punished as a Church-robber And the ciuill lawes are altogether against it holding that the things of God such as are our a Sacrum dicitur quicquid mancipatum est cultui diuino vt Ecclesia vel res Ecclesiae Magist sentent lib. 3. distinct 27. C. tithes and reuennues of the Church ought not to belong to Lay persons And it is well spoken by one to this purpose That whatsoeuer is designed as proper to diuine worship is of right and iustly reputed holy of which sort is the Church and all things of the Church or belonging to it And surely such and so heauie haue been Gods iudgements denounced and executed against these sacrilegious Church-robbers themselues that by colour of their impropriations depriue the godly Leuites of their proper liuings and driue them out of their countries that we caÌ„not otherwise esteeme of such intruders vpon the rights of Gods Church then as men giuen ouer to the God of this world hauing made an irrecouerable shipwracke of a good conscience For to seaze vpon the Church-liuings thereby to bring the Ministers to extreme beggerie what is it else but after the manner of the Iewes Gentils though vnder some other pretence yet with no lesse cruelty to persecute and make hauock of the Church it selfe And therefore the Lord may iustly take vp the same complaint against vs in this behalfe as he did before against the Iewes For Christ himselfe is spoiled when those things are spent vpon prophane vses which should serue for the maintenance of his Ministers For
suddenly they goe downe the graue as Iob saith and are cropt off as an eare of corne Haue wee not examples euery day almost of some that go well to bed at night and are sound dead in the morning and of others that droppe downe by the high way side and dye in the field As the candle burneth bright for a time but if one blast of wind come ouer it it is put out and there remaineth nothing but a stinking snuffe so many a man flourisheth for a while but in a moment God taketh away his breath and there remaineth nothing but a filthy stinke of his sinnes whereof hee had not repented Wee may not take vpon vs to determine peremptorily of such Rom. 11.33 because the iudgements of God are vnsearchable and his waies past finding out But yet the case is fearefull and that which befalleth one may befall another Death is fitly compared to an Archer For as the Archer somtimes shooteth ouer and sometimes short sometimes on the one hand and sometimes on the other but at last he hitteth the marke In like manner death sometimes shooteth ouer thee and hitteth thy superiours sometimes hee shooteth short and hitteth thy inferiors sometimes he shooteth on thy right hand and taketh away thy friends somtimes on thy left hand and killeth thy enemies Arist problem loc 34. Omnem crede diem tibi dilux isse supremum Grata superueniet quae non sperabitur hora. Horat. l. 1. Epi. 4. but at the last he wil hitte thy selfe thou knowest not how soone And therefore it was good counsell that Eleazar the Iew gaue to one that asked his aduise in this case Namely that a man should repent one day before his death and when the other replyed that no man knoweth saith he the day of his death therefore saith hee repent to day least it be too late to morrow But suppose that this doe not befall them but that they dye an ordinary death yet for the most part there are so many hinderances in sicknesse Quoniam multa sunt quae impediunt languentem retrahant periculosissimum est interitui vicinum ad mortem protrahere remedium Aug. de vera falsa paenitentia cap. 17. as a man can haue but little leasure for this businesse For besides the painefulnesse of the disease which is no small impediment in this case a man shal be so accombred with taking order for his worldly estate and so vexed and disquieted with the weeping and wailing of his freinds that hee can little attend to thinke of his soule And therefore Saint Augustine saith well that seeing there are so many pulbackes to hinder a man at that time it is most dangerous and neare to destruction to put off the remedy vntill death But bee it that hee preuent much of this trouble in his health by setting his house in order before hand as the Prophet Isaias commaunded King Hezekiah 2. Kings 20.1 yet many times by the iudgement of God vpon him he dyeth suddenly bereft of all sense and feeling of his sinnes and of all comfortable assurance of the pardon of them and possest with dulnesse of heart and drowsinesse of spirit As one saith well a Saepe moriens obliuiscitur sui qui dum viueret oblitus est Dei 1. Sam. 25.37.38 A man oftentimes forgetteth himselfe when hee lyeth a dying that forgot God while hee liued Thus was it with Nabal his heart dyed within him and hee was like a stone he had a faire time as wee say hee lay sicke tenne dayes after before he dyed But how could hee repent when his heart was dead before Our times are full of such And I feare mee it is the case of a number of those whose death the world so much admireth and commendeth that they dye like lambes I wish they dye not rather like blocks giuing no comfortable testimonie of their faith in Christ or sorrow for their sinnes And such are they that Dauid speaketh of that there is no bands in their death Psal 73 4.19 but they depart as meekly or as stil as a child in the cradle and yet for all that he saith they are suddainly destroyed and horribly consumed Yea our Sauiour hath taught vs that a man may haue good wordes in his mouth and call vpon God and yet goe to the Deuill Mat. 7.22.23 Last of all though hee escape all these dangers yet who can tell whether God will heare him when he cryeth at the last gapse or no b Iustum est vt a Deo contemnatur moriens qui Deum omnipotentem contempsit viuens Prou. 1.24.28 Quid enim quod differas An vt plura peccata committus Ambros de penitent lib. 2. cap. 11. For is it not a iust thing that God should contemne him in his death that contemned God almightie in his life And hath not the Lord threatned in plaine tearmes that because hee hath called and men refuse and hath stretched out his armes and none would regard therefore they shall call and crie vpon him euen till their hearts ake and he will not heare them And therefore let vs not deferre this so gratious a worke but presently addresse our selues to repent of our sinnes otherwise the longer wee put it off the more wee shall increase the number of our sinnes But notwithstanding al that hath beene said it is strange to see how the most men labour to confirme themselues and to harden their heartes in their sinnes And all because God is mercifull It is true indeed that God is rich in mercy Ephes 2.4 Yea his mercies are ouer all his workes Psal 145.9 And therefore if men would make a right vse thereof they should rather bee led to repentance thereby then any way setled in securitie Romans 2.4 For as Bernard saith well a Quae maior iniquitas quam vt inde à te creator contemnatur vnde plus amari merebatur Quae maior iniquitas quam cum de potentia Dei non dubitas quinte destruere possit qui condere potuit confisus tamen de multa eius dulcedine qua speras eum nolle vindicare cum possit malum pro bonis odium pro dilectione retri buas Certè si talis est qualem putas tantò nequius agis si non amas c. Ab sit tamen ab eius perfectione vt quod dulcis est iustus non sit quasi simul dulcis iustus esse non possit cum mel or sit iusta dulcedo quam remissa imò virtus non sit dulcedo sine iustitia Bern. de gradib humilitatis what greater iniquity can there be then that thy creatour should for that bee contemned of thee for which he deserued more to be loued What greater iniquitie can there bee then that seeing thou doubtest not of Gods power but that he that made thee is able to destroy thee yet thou trusting in his great mercy whereby thou hopest that though hee can hee will
not punish thee dost render him euill for good and hatred for his good will Surely if hee bee such a one as thou imaginest thou dealest so much the more lewdly if thou doest not loue him And if hee suffer any thing to bee done against himselfe rather then hee will doe any thing against thee what malice is it in thee not to spare him who spareth not himselfe in sparing thee But farre be it from his perfection that as he is mercifull so hee should not be iust as though he could not be both iust and mercifull together especially considering that mercy is better when it is iust then when it is remisse yea mercy is no vertue without iustice b Quantò duitius Deus expectat vt emendetis tantò grauius iudicabit si neglexeritis Aug. de vanitate saeculi Yea the longer that God in mercy expecteth thine amendment so much the more grieuously will hee punish thee if thou neglect it c Deus quantum patris pietate indulgens bonus est tantum iud cis maiestate metuendus est Cyprian Serm. 5. de lapsis For looke how indulgent and gentle the Lord is in the kindnesse of a Father so much is hee terrible in the maiesty of a Iudge d Parauit calum sed parauit tartarum Parauit refrigeria sed parauit etiam aeterna supplicia Parauit inaccessibilem lucem sed parauit etiam perpetuae noctis vastam aeternamque caliginem idem lib. 2. Epist 7. And as he hath prepared heauen so hee hath prepared hell As hee hath prepared a place of comfort so he hath prepared also eternall torments As he hath prepared the light which none can attaine vnto so hee hath prepared also the vast and eternall mist of perpetuall darkenesse To this purpose agreeth that saying of Saint Augustine e Multum delectat omnes peccatores quia misericors miserator dominus c. Sed si amas tam multa initia tunc ibi vltimum quod ait verax Si enim nihil aliud diceret nisi misericors miserator dominus c. quasi iam conuerteres te ad securitatem impunitatem licentiam peccatorum faceres quod velles c. Et si quis te bene admonendo obiurgaret obsistere impudenti fronte Quid me terres de Deo nostro ille misericors est c. Ne talia homines dicerent vnum verbum addidit in fine quod ait verax excussit laetitiam malè prasumentium induxie timore piè doletium Augu. de decem chordis Heb. 10.32 12.29 Gal. 5.22.23 Iob. 39.16.17.18 It is very pleasing sayth he to all sinners that the Lord is mercifull and gratious slow to anger c. as it is Exod. 34.6.7 But if thou loue so many beginnings feare that which he saith at the last that he is true also For if he should haue said nothing else but mercifull and gratious c. thou wouldest straight fall to securitie and promise to thy selfe impunitie and take libertie to sinne and to doe what thou wilt c. And if any man should admonish and reproue thee thou wouldest resist with an impudent forehead say why do you terrifie me with our God he is mercifull c. Least men should speake in this manner he hath added one word in the end where he saith that he is true Whereby hee hath shaken off the ioy of euill presumption and hath brought the feare of godly sorrow c. Yea as the Scripture hath highly extolled the mercy of God to repentant sinners so it hath fearefully set out his rigour and seueritie against the impenitent It is a fearefull thing saith the Apostle to fall into the handes of the liuing God and our God is euen a consuming fire There is nothing so cold as lead and nothing so scalding if it bee heated there is nothing so blunt as iron and nothing so sharpe if it be sharpned there is nothing so calme as the Sea and yet in a boisterous weather there is nothing so tempestuous So likewise there is nothing so mercifull as God and yet if he bee prouoked nothing so terrible Whosoeuer will liue in sin and yet dreame of mercy hee deceiueth himselfe For as there is no law written against them that haue the fruits of the spirit so there is no Gospell written for them that bring forth the fruits of the flesh A presumptuous person may be fitly compared to the Ostrich which layeth her egges in the earth and maketh them hot in the dust as Iob saith and when she goeth from them shee taketh her markes by the seauen starres Afterward when she would returne shee looketh to the starre and vnder it seeketh them but it being remoued in the meane while shee cannot finde them and so her egges are trodden vnder foot and broken by wilde beastes so that shee seldome bringeth forth any young So a sinner that presumeth too much of Gods mercy sometimes by the instinct of the spirit hath some good purposes to doe well but hee quickely departeth and leaueth them presuming that by the mercy of God hee may returne to them againe when hee list but while hee deferreth to prosecute those good purposes and to bring them to effect Christ withdraweth his mercy from him and so they are troden vnder foot by the Deuill And therefore it is good to keepe the golden meane betweene the mercy and iustice of God a Proinde diligentes misericordiam Dei metuentes iustitiam nec de remissione peccatorum desperemus nec remaneamus in peccatis scientes quod illa omnium debitae sit exactura aequitas iustissimi iudicis quae non dimiscrit misericordia clementissimi redemptoris August de fide ad Petrum Diacon that louing the one and standing in awe of the other wee may neither despaire of the forgiuenesse of our sinnes nor securely continue in them knowing that the equitie of a most iust Iudge will exact all those sinnes of all men which the mercy of a most kind redeemer hath not pardoned Indeede the Lord is longe before hee punish but yet forbearance is no quittance b Raro antecedentem scelestū deseruit pede paena claudo Horat. li. 3. ode 2 Psal 140.11 50.21.22 Ezech. 18.21.22 and it is seldome seene that punishment is so lame that it cannot ouertake a sinner Euill saith Dauid that is the punishment of sinne shall hunt and pursue like a bloudhound the wicked person and bring him to destruction And howsoeuer the Lord many times seeth and sayth nothing yet in the end he will reproue sinners and set in order before them the things that they haue done But they haue Scripture to alledge for their warrant in this case For the Deuill hath made them wise to their own destruction Hath not God say they promised that at what time soeuer a sinner doth repent of his sinnes from the bottome of his hart he will put all his