in the sight of her husband and then forced her to draw a sword and give her husband a deadly wound her hands being ordered by them The Town of Barre in France being taken by the Papists all kinde of cruelty was there used Children were cut up the guts and hearts of some of them pulled out which in rage they gnawed with their teeth The Italians which served the King did for hatred of religion break 〈◊〉 into such fury that they did rip up a living childe and took his liver being as yet red hot and eat it as meat John Burgeolus President of Turon an old man being suspected to be a Protestant and having bought his life with a great summe of money was not withstanding taken and beaten cruelly with clubs and staves And being stript of his clothes was brought to the bank of the river Liger and hanged his feet upward and head downward in the water up to his breast Then he being yet alive they opened his belly pull'd out his guts and threw them into the river And taking his heart they put it upon a spear carrying it with contumelious words about the City Were these men or rather devils in the shape of men What should I instance further in those late Irish unheard of cruelties so well known and so much written of such as whereof the devil himself might be ashamed had he any shame in him Lithgow a Scot after he had with K. James his letters travelled thorow the greatest part of the known world was as he returned through Spain in the City of Maligo suprized by nine Sergeants and carried before the Governour By whose appointment they stripped him of his clothes robbed him of his money put him into a dark dungeon shackled him starved him wounded him c. In ten hours he received seventy severall torments At last all the Lords Inquisitours commanded him to receive eleven strangling torments at midnight and to be burnt body and bones to ashes though they had nothing against him but suspition of religion And yet after this God wonderfully delivered him He was brought on his bed to our King wounded and broken and made this relation to the face of Gundamor the Spanish Ambassadour They will scourge you John Fortune a Martyr in Q. Maries dayes was thus threatned by one Mr Foster You shall be whipt and burned for this year I trow His answer was I should be full glad of that For it is written They will scourge you in their synagogues And since the time that the sword of tyranny came into your hand I heard of none that were whipt Happy were I if I had the maidenhead of that persecution Verse 18. And ye shall be brought before Governours Yea they offered themselves to them crying Christiani sumus and so tyring them thereby that one of them in a great chafe cryed out O miseri si libet perire num vobis rupes aut restes de sunt Can ye finde no other way to dispatch your selves but that I must be troubled with you And before Kings for my sake As Paul before Agrippa and afterwards Nero Luther before Charles 5. Lambert before Hen. 8. Verse 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak Be not anxious about either matter or manner of your apology for your selves Ye shall be supplied from on high both with invention and elocution Demosthenes that great Oratour was many times 〈◊〉 when he spake to King Philip and sometimes so amated that he had not a word more to say Moses that great scholar feared he should want words when he was to stand before Pharaoh and professeth that since God had called him to that service he found lesse freedom of speech then before Latomus of Lovain a very learned man having prepared an eloquent Oration to Charles the fifth Emperour was so confounded in the delivering of it that he came off with great discredit and fell into utter despair No wonder therefore though the Apostles being ignorant and unlettered men were somewhat troubled how to doe when brought before Kings and Kesars Our Saviour here cures them of that care by a promise of helpe from heaven And they had it Acts 2. 4. 5. 7. And so had the Confessours and Martyrs in all ages of the Church Nescio unde veniunt istae meditationes saith Luther of himself in a letter to his friend And in his book of the Babylonish captivity he professeth that whether he would or no he became every day more learned then other How bravely did Anne Askew Alice Driâ—er and other poor women answer the Doctours and put them to a nonplus Was not that the spirit of the Father speaking in them Verse 20. But the Spirit of your Father Who borroweth your mouth for present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudenesse to reply There is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the weak and unlearned to confound the wise and mighty as he did Balaams Asse to confute his master Verse 21. And the brother shall dâ—liver up the brother As Alphonsus Diarius did his own brother John at Neoberg in Germany So Doctour London made Filmer the Martyrs own brother witnesse against him cherishing him with meat and money and telling him he should never lack as long as he lived c. So one Woodman was delivered by his own brother into his enemies hands Of him and other Martyrs burnt with him White Bishop of Winchister after Gardiner falsly affirmed in a Sermon Good people these men deny Christ to God and the holy Ghost to be God c. In the civil warres of France the sonnes fought against their fathers and brothers against brothers and even women took up arms on both sides for defence of their religion This is the effect of the Gospel of peace but by accident And the father the childe As Philip K. of Spain who said he had rather have no subjects then hereticks as he called them And out of a bloudy zeal suffered his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition because he seemed to favour the Protestant-side Verse 22. And ye shall be hated 〈◊〉 perinde crimine incendij quam odio humani generis convicti sunt saith 〈◊〉 of those poor Christians that by Nero wore haled to death for setting the City of Rome on fire which was done by himself 〈◊〉 telleth us that their name and not their crime was punished in Christians So Luther complaineth that there was in his dayes no crime comparable to that of professing the Gospel But he that endureth to the end Apostacy looseth the things that it hath wrought 2 Joh. 8. Non quaeruntur in Christianis initia sed finis saith 〈◊〉 It is the evening that crowneth
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that make religion daunce attendance to policie 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 set the 〈◊〉 upon Christ not 〈◊〉 upon the 〈◊〉 Thus did 〈◊〉 and before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jactura regionis quam 〈◊〉 Thus do all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the worlds wisards whose rule is 〈◊〉 sed paucis Religiosum oportet esse sed non religentem c. But what saith a Father Deum siquis parum 〈◊〉 valdè contemnit And one thing said Luther that will be the 〈◊〉 of religion is worldly policy that would have all well however and seeks to procure the publike peace by impious and unlawfull counsels and courses Verse 8 And a very great multitude Bondinus saith he was met at this time by three-hundred-thousand Jews some whereof went afore Christ some followed after according to the solemn rites and reverence used to be given to earthly Kings in their most pompous triumphes This was the Lords own work Verse 9. 〈◊〉 to the Sonne of David So they acknowledg Christ to be the true Messiah and congratulate him his kingdom over the Church and yet a few-daies after these same at the instigation of the Priests and Pharisees cry 〈◊〉 dealing by Christ as Xerxes did by his steersman whom he crowned in the morning and then took off his head in the afternoon of the same day or as the fickle Israelites dealt by David 2 Sam 20. where we shall finde the same hands that erewhile fought for David to be all theirs do now fight against him under the son of 〈◊〉 to be none of theirs Verse 10. Who is this Why could not they tell after so 〈◊〉 miracles done among them Were they such strangers at 〈◊〉 Many live and dye very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 places where they have had line 〈◊〉 line precept upon 〈◊〉 c. and yet they are no wiser then the child new weaned from the breast Isa. 29. 8. their wits serve them not in spiritualls though otherwise shrewd enough Verse 11. The Prophet of Nazareth c. The Archprophet they acknowledge him but of Nazareth of Galilee They had not profited 〈◊〉 much or made so far 〈◊〉 in the mystery of Christ as to know him to have 〈◊〉 born a 〈◊〉 And to nourish this errour in the people it was that the devil that old Impostour Mark 1. 24. though he confessed Christ to be the Holy 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 yet he calleth 〈◊〉 Jesus of Nazareth Satan 〈◊〉 semèl videatur verax 〈◊〉 est mendax semper fallax Satan 〈◊〉 speaks truth but with a minde to deceave Verse 12. And 〈◊〉 out all them that sold The zeal of Gods house did ever eat him up And as revenge 〈◊〉 zeal 2 Cor. 7. 11. he marrs their markets and drives them 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 with Procul ò procul este 〈◊〉 And this deed of our Saviours was altogether divine whiles as another Sampson he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon heaps yet without bloodshed with the 〈◊〉 of an 〈◊〉 St Hierom extolleth this 〈◊〉 above the raising of Lizarus restoring the blind to their sight the lame to their limmes c. and adds this mysticall sense of 〈◊〉 text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingreditur Templum Patris ejicit 〈◊〉 tam Episcopos Presbyteros quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turbam de Ecclesia sua 〈◊〉 criminis habet vendentes paritèr 〈◊〉 Christ is every day casting out of his Church all these mony-marchants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both ministers and others that make sale of holy things which the very Heathens abhorred and others long since complained that benefices were bestowed non ubi optimè sed ubi 〈◊〉 as if a man should bestow so much bread on his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is to ride on him The tables of the mony-changers This he did also at his first 〈◊〉 into the ministry Ioh. 2. 14. 15. See my notes on that 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 of Religion was Christs chief care and so it should be ours And although little was done by his first attempt Ioh. 2. yet he tries again 〈◊〉 should we contributing what we 〈◊〉 to the work continually by our prayers and utmost indeavours wishing at least as Ferus did that we had some Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 away the evils in Church and state Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t 〈◊〉 sed multos habemus 〈◊〉 he for we abound with 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Verse 13. Shall be called the house of prayer A principall piece of Gods 〈◊〉 worship and 〈◊〉 put 〈◊〉 the whole Christ 〈◊〉 never came into this house but he preached 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 In the Sanctuary was the incense-Altar in the middle a type of prayer the table of shew-bread on the oneside 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 tribes and the candlestick a type of the word on the other To teach us that there is a necessity of both ordinances to all Gods 〈◊〉 But ye have made it a den of theeves So Christ calleth not the mony-marchants only but the 〈◊〉 also that set them awork And whereas they cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord for to those was this speech first addressed Ier. 7. 11. as if they could not do amisse because they served in the Temple the Prophet tells them there and our Saviour these here that it 's so much the worse What should an Angel of darknesse do in heaven Who required these things at your hands to tread the courts of my Temple This is the gate of the Lord into which the righteous only should enter The Papists in like sort cry out at this day Ecclesia Ecclesia Nos sumus Ecclesia and herewith think to shrowd their base huckstering of holy things For omniae Romae venalia all things are saleable and soluble at Rome But this covering is too short and their grosse theeveries are now made apparent to all the world as their rood of grace and the blood of Hales were at Pauls crosse by that Noble Cromwell and as their cheating trade of Indulgencies and Popespardons was by Luther who by dint of argument overthrew those Romish mony-changers and drove the countrey of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen fitly calleth them Verse 14. Came to him in the Temple and he healed them So true was that testimony given of our Saviour Luke 24. 19. that he was a Prophet mighty in deed as well as in word before God and all the people Nos non eloquimur magna sed vivimus said the Primitive Christians Our lives as well as our lips should speak us right and reall in Religion As Christ here by his cures gave a reall answer to that question ver 10. Who is this Let us learn to lead convincing lives these are the best apologies when all 's done Verse 15. And the children crying c. To the great grief and regret of those cankerd carls the Priests and Scribes but to the singular commendation of their parents who had so well taught and tutoured them So the children of Merindoll answered the Popish Bishop of Canaillon
for mint signifies also a book of histories because in that one poor herb large stories of Gods wisdom might and love are described unto us In tithing this and other pot-herbs the Pharisees were over and above sollicitous and even superstitious and all for a name So in the year of grace 1435. Capistranus the Minorite being sent into Germany and other countreys by Pope Nicolas to preach obedience to the Sea of Rome gat a great deal of credit and respect to his Doctrine by putting down dicing carding dancing feasting masking enterludes c. although he taught not one syllable of sound doctrine touching Christ and his merits 〈◊〉 of faith patience of hope c. There are both Magnalia 〈◊〉 legis the great and the lesser things of the law both must be looked to Hypocrites are nice in the one but negligent of the other Judgement mercy and faith So of old to those bodily exercises and externall rites so stood upon by the hypocrites in their 〈◊〉 Isaiah opposeth judgement and justice Chap. 1. Hosea opposeth mercy and kindenesse Chap. 4. Zachary opposeth truth and fidelity Chap. 8. as more to be looked after and 〈◊〉 for Verse 24. Which strain at a gnat c. A proverbiall speech warranting the lawfull use of such expressions for illustration of a truth The Greeks have a like proverb to gargle down an image statue or colosse that is to make no bones of a foul fault when matters of lesse moment are much scrupled Saul kept a great stir about eating the flesh with the bloud when he made nothing of shedding innocent bloud Doeg was deteined before the Lord by some voluntary vow belike But better he had been further off for any good he did there The Priests made 〈◊〉 of putting the price of bloud into the treasury Matth. 27 6. who yet made no conscience of imbruing their hands in the innocent bloud of the Lamb of God The Begardi and Beginnae a certain kinde of heretikes Anno 1322. held this mad opinion that a man might here attain to perfection and that having attained to it he might do whatsoever his nature led him to That 〈◊〉 was no sin but to 〈◊〉 a woman was a mortall wickednesse c. Verse 25. Ye make clean the out-side True Ephraimites or rather Canaanites so they are called Hos. 12. 7 8. that is meer naturall men Ezek. 16. 4. the balances of deceit were in their hands they loved to oppresse yet so long as thereby they grew rich they flattered themselves and said In all my labours they shall 〈◊〉 none iniquity in me that were sinne Hypocrites if they can but make fair to the worldward it is enough But as the fish Sepia is bewraied by the black colour which she casteth out to cover her so the hypocrite is convinced by the very shew of godlinesse under which he hoped to have lurked God so discovers his deceitfull courses as that his wickednes is shew'd before the whole Congregation Pro. 26. 26. Verse 26. Cleanse first that which is within God loveth truth in the inwards Psal. 51. 6. O Jerusalem wash thy heart Jer. 4. 14. not thy hands only as Pilate did this breeds constancy and evennesse in all our outward behaviours Iam. 4. 8. Grace and nature both begin at the heart at the center and from thence goes to the circumference Art and hypocrisie begin with the face and outward lineaments Verse 27. Ye are like unto whited Sepulchres The Jews had their vaults or caves for buriall These the wealthier sort would paint garnish beautifie at the mouth or entrance of them And hereunto our Saviour alludeth Intùs Nero foris Cato 〈◊〉 hic ut Piso vivit ut Gallomus c. It was said of the Sarmatians that all their vertue was outward And of Sejanus that he had only a semblance of honesty Intùs summa adipiscendi libido within he was full of extortion and 〈◊〉 Hypocrites seem as gloworms to have both light and heat but touch them and they have neither The AEgyptian temples were beautifull on the out-side when within ye should finde nothing but some serpent or crocodile Apothecaries boxes oft have goodly titles when yet they hold not one dram of any good drug A certain stranger coming on 〈◊〉 unto the Senatours of Rome and colouring his hoary hair and pale cheeks with vermilion hiew a grave Senatour espying the deceit stood up and said What sincerity are we to expect at this mans hands whose locks and looks and lips do lie Think the same of all painted hypocrites Verse 28. But within ye are full c. Fair professours they were but foul sinners not close but grosse hypocrites such as knew themselves to be so like as Ieroboams wife knew her self to be disguised when she went to the Prophet and as the whore that offered sacrifice to cover her whoredom Prov. 7. 14. This hypocrisie goes worthily coupled 〈◊〉 with iniquity It ariseth from secret Atheisme as in Ananias and Saphira that noble pair of hypocrites and paveth a way to the unpardonable sin as in these Pharisees Verse 29. 〈◊〉 build the Tombs c. And lost their cost because they received not their doctrine So do the Papists at this day in their pretended honouring the ancient Saints and Martyrs whose religion and practices they persecute in the true professours How much better Rabus Crispin the French Chronicler 〈◊〉 Fox and others who have raised the Martyrs as so many Phaenices out of their ashes again by recording their holy lives and Christian deaths And how shall Cope and Kemp stink for ever in the nostrils of all good people The former 〈◊〉 fouling so much fair paper in railing at and casting reproach upon the holy Martyrs of the Protestant religion in his sixth dialogue especially The later for disgracing them some few years since excusing the powder traitours at same time in a Sermon at S. Maries in Cambridge Verse 30. If we had been in the daies Either these men grosly dissembled or their hearts greatly deceived them For certainly an Herod and Herodias to Iohn Baptist would have 〈◊〉 an Ahab and Iezabel to Elias But as it was said of Demosthenes that he was excellent at praising the worthy acts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so at imitating of them In like sort may we say of the 〈◊〉 they could well declaim against their fore-fathers 〈◊〉 but not so well disclaim them They were adversus sua ipsorum 〈◊〉 facundi 〈◊〉 as one speaketh in a like case Shrill accusers of themselves Verse 31. Wherefore ye be witnesses c. Here our Saviour casts all their cost in their teeth as if thereby 〈◊〉 had meant to commend 〈◊〉 fathers curelty in killing the Prophets sith they 〈◊〉 it by persecuting him and his to the death 〈◊〉 is commonly hereditary and runs in the bloud and as we use to say of 〈◊〉 The older it is the stronger as in the
c. See the Note on Job 19. 25. 〈◊〉 afarre off Either out of womanly modesty or 〈◊〉 of faith which when it is in heart is able by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pull the very heart as it were out of hell and with 〈◊〉 and conquest to look even death and the devil in the 〈◊〉 as we see in Anne Askew Alice Driver and other brave women that suffered stoutly for Christ. Verse 56. Among which was Mary Magdalen Love is 〈◊〉 as death good blood will never bely it self Mary also 〈◊〉 mother of Jesus was there sitting with the sword thorow her 〈◊〉 that old Sime on had forehight her See 〈◊〉 19. 26 27. with the Note upon that text Verse 57. A rich man of Arimathaea Not many such ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are any Ioseph was a counsellour a Senatour one of the 〈◊〉 or seventy Seniours Christ findes friends in the 〈◊〉 tempestuous times and unlikely places as in 〈◊〉 and Neroes court Some good Obadiah or One 〈◊〉 to seek out Paul the prisoner and refresh his bowels Serena the 〈◊〉 wife to Diocletian that bloody persecutour was a Christian and a great friend to the true Religion So was the Lady Anne wife to our King Richard the second a disciple of Wickliffe whose books also she conveyed over into Bohemia her countrey whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing Reformation 〈◊〉 of Gaunt shewed himself a great favourer of Wickliffe The like did the Electour of Saxony for Luther George Marquesse of Brandenburg in a meeting of the Emperour and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ausborough zealously professed that he would rather kneel down presently in the presence of them all and yeeld his head to be 〈◊〉 off by the executioner then deny Christ and his Gospel Verse 58. He went to Pilate It was time for him now or never to shew himself and to wax bold Mark 15. 43. The Spaniards they say abhorre dangers never aduenturing upon hard enterprizes but aiming to proceed securely Christs Disciples must speak and do boldly in the Lord 〈◊〉 14. 3. whatever come of it Audendo Graeci pèrvenêre Trojam Alexander never 〈◊〉 any thing but he conceived it might be done and he did it Historians 〈◊〉 most of his successe to his courage and tell us that having a souldier of his own name in his army whom he knew to be a coward he commanded him either to change his name or shew his valour So saith Christ to all 〈◊〉 Iosephs and Nicodemusses either play the men or pretend 〈◊〉 to me Verse 59. He wrapped it in a clean linnen cloth Which 〈◊〉 had bought new for the purpose saith St Mark to his no 〈◊〉 cost for linnen in those daies was precious so that a handkerchief among even the Roman riotours was a rich token as appears out of the Poet. Neither did this rich man loose his cost for he is and shall be famous for it to the worlds 〈◊〉 though 〈◊〉 body be not at leasure to do as Paleottus Archbishop of Binony did who wrot a great book of the shadow of Christs body 〈◊〉 Iosephs new syndon which was also commented upon by 〈◊〉 Professour of Divinity there Verse 60. And laid it in his own new tomb His own 〈◊〉 was now well warmed sweetned and sanctified by our 〈◊〉 body against himself should be laid there as afterwards he 〈◊〉 and probably was too A new tomb it was and fit it should 〈◊〉 for that virgin-body or maiden-corps as one calls it 〈◊〉 and untainted Besides else it might have been suspected 〈◊〉 not Christ but another arose or if he yet not by his own but by anothers vertue like him who revived at the touching of the bones of dead Elisha 2 King 13. Buried our Saviour was 1. 〈◊〉 none might doubt of his death 2. That our sinns might be buried with him 3. That our graves might be prepared and perfumed for us as so many beds of roses or delicious dormitories Isa. 57. 2. He was buried in Calvary to note that he died for the condemned and in a garden to expiate that first sinne committed in the garden and in another mans sepulchre to note that he died for other mens sins as some will have it Helena mother of Constantine the great bestowed great cost in repairing this 〈◊〉 of our Saviour which the Heathens out of hatred to Christ had thrown down and built a temple to Venus on the same ground And Ierusalem that poor ruinous city being governed by one of the Turks Sanzacks is for nothing now more famous then for the sepulchre of our Saviour again repaired and much visited by the superstitious sort of Christians and not unreverenced by the Turks themselves And he rolled a great stone Either for an inscription to the sepulcher or for more safety to the body or that the glory of the resurrection might be the greater or all these together Verse 61. And there 〈◊〉 Mary Magdalen Carefully watching where they laid the Lords body that they might not leave off their kindenesse to him living or dead as she said of 〈◊〉 Ruth 2. 20. Heavy they were as heart could hold yet not hindred thereby from doing their duty to Christ. So Daniel though sick yet did the Kings businesse Even sorrow for sin if it so exceed as to disable us for duty is a sinfull sorrow and must be sorrowed for Verse 62. Now the next day that followed That is on that high-day that double Sabbath they that had so oft quarreld Christ for curing on the Sabbath request a servile work to be done of securing and sealing up the sepulcher It is a common proverb Mortui non mordent Dead men bite not But here Christ though dead and buried bites and beats hard upon these evil mens consciences They could not rest the whole night afore for fear he should get out of the grave some way and so create them 〈◊〉 trouble Scipio appointed his sepulcher to be so placed as his image standing upon it might look directly toward Africa that being dead he might still be a terrour to the Carthaginians And 〈◊〉 an ancient King of this Iland commanded his dead body to be embalmed and put into a brazen image and so set upon a brazen horse over Ludgate for a terrour to 〈◊〉 Saxons It is well known that Zisca that brave Bohemian charged his Taborites to flea his corps and head a drum with his skin the sound whereof as oft as the enemies heard they should be appaled and put to flight And our Edward the first adjured his son and Nobles that if he died in his journey into Scotland they should carry his corps about with them and not suffer it to be interred till they had vanquished the Usurper and subdued the countrey Something like to this the Prophet Isaiah foretelleth of our Saviour and we see it here accomplished when he saith In that day the root of Jesse shall stand up for an 〈◊〉 to the people and even
of Camels hair Sutable to Elias in whose spirit and power he came who was thus habited So those worthies of whom the world was not worthy wandered about in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Goat 〈◊〉 but they were like the Ark without covered with Goats-hair within all of pure gold God cloathed our first parents in leather when there was means of better cloathing to humble them 〈◊〉 and to shame all such as are proud of their cloathes which are the ensigns of our shame and came in with sin as it's 〈◊〉 And a leathern girdle about his 〈◊〉 So had Elias and God takes notice of it and records it when the pomp and pride of many Monarchs lie hid in obscurity buried in oblivion Such love beareth the Lord to his people that every thing in them is remarked and registred He thinks the better of the very ground they goe upon Psal. 87. 2 3 4 5 6. their walls are ever in his sight and he loveth to look upon the houses where they dwell Isa. 40. 16. And his meat was locusts These creatures have their name in Greek from the top of the ears of 〈◊〉 which as they fled they sed upon That they were mans meat in those Eastern Countries appears Levit. 11. 22. and Pliny testifieth as much Course meat they were but nature is content with little grace with lesse Cibus potus sunt divitiae Christianorum saith that Father 〈◊〉 and water with the Gospel are good chear saith another 〈◊〉 Saviour hath taught us to pray for bread not for manchet 〈◊〉 junkets but down right houshold bread and himself gave thanks for barley-bread and broiled fishes A little of the creature will serve turn to carry thee thorow thy pilgrimage One told a Philosopher If you will be content to please Dionysius you need not feed upon green herbs He replied And if you can feed upon green herbs you need not please Dionysius you need not flatter comply be base c. The Ancients held green herbs to be good chear and accounted it wealth enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be 〈◊〉 nor cold saith 〈◊〉 But what 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 Jews that for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locusts read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sweet-meats as Epiphanius noteth against the Ebionites The best we see are liable to be belied And wilde honey Such as naturally distilled out of trees as did that which Jonathan tasted with the tip of his rod called honey of the wood 1 Sam 14. 27. God made 〈◊〉 suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock Deut. 32. 13. Hence Iudea was called Sumen totius orbis And Strabo that spitefully affirmeth it to be a dry barren countrey had not so much ingenuity as that railing Rabshakeh 2 King 18. 32. 〈◊〉 5. Then went out to him Ierusalem Hitherto the prosopography of 〈◊〉 Baptist Follows now the resort that was made unto him for by his divine doctrine and austere life he had merited among many to be taken for the Messiah Joh. 1. And all Iudea That is very many as the word All is many times elswhere taken in the new Testament And all the 〈◊〉 round about Iordan Stirred up by the noise of that new preacher So sundry amongst us will be content 〈◊〉 hear if there goe a great report of the man or if he deliver some new Doctrine or deal in deep points as Herod Lu. 23. 8. But these soon grow weary and fall off as those Jews did from Iohn for the which they were justly taxed by our 〈◊〉 Verse 6. And were baptized of him in Iordan Baptizing of 〈◊〉 was in use among the Jews before the daies of Iohn Baptist. From this custome saith Broughton though without commandment and of small authority Christ authoriseth a seal of entring into his rest using the Jews weaknesse as an allurement thither As from bread and wine used with the Paschall Lamb being without all commandment of Moses but resting upon the common reason given by the Creatour he authoriseth a seal of his flesh and bloud In Iordan At Bethabara Joh. 1. 28. that is at that very place where the people of Israel passed over Jordan and 〈◊〉 the Land Baptisme then was there first administred where it had been of old fore-shadowed Here also we see that the acts of 〈◊〉 and Iesus took their happy beginning at one and the same place And like as the people after they had passed over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumcised before they received the Land by lot of inheritance So after we have been baptized and thereby enrolled among the Citizens of the new Ierusalem the 〈◊〉 of sinne and super fluity of 〈◊〉 must be daily pared off by the practice of mortification ere we can come to the Kingdome of Heaven Confessing 〈◊〉 sins In token of their true repentance For as only the man that is wakened out of his dream can tell his dream so only he that is wakened out of his 〈◊〉 can clearly 〈◊〉 them And this confession of sin joyned with confusion of sin without the which confession is but winde the drops of contrition water is that which in baptisme we restipulate Not the putting away of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 answer of a good conscience toward God 1 〈◊〉 3. 21. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conscience a heart 〈◊〉 from wickednesse in this 〈◊〉 of regeneration the baptisme of repentance the washing of the new birth the being baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire this saveth saith S. Peter Not as the efficient cause of salvation for that is Christ alone nor yet as a 〈◊〉 instrument for that 's faith alone but only as a 〈◊〉 of the saved and a pledge of their salvation As on the other side God will not own a viperous brood though baptized that bring not forth fruits meet for repentance To such baptisme is not the mark of Gods childe but the brand of a fool that maketh a vow and then breaketh it Eccles. 5. 3. For the font is Beersheba The well of an Oath and there we swear as David did to keep Gods righteous judgements Now if Zedekiah and 〈◊〉 paid so dear for their 〈◊〉 for their fast and loose with men how will God revenge the quarrell of his Covenant The Spanish converts in Mexico remember not any thing of the promise and profession they made in baptisme save only their name which many times also they forget In the Kingdom of Congo in Africk the Portugals 〈◊〉 their first arrivall finding the people to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God did enduce them to a profession of Christ and to be baptized in great abundance allowing 〈◊〉 the principles of religion till such time as the Priests prest them to lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case enduring returned again to their Gentilisme Such renegadoes we
sake though under pretexts of fear of sedition because of the great multitudes that followed and admired him as Iosephus hath it This hath ever been an ordinary 〈◊〉 cast upon the most 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 of sedition and 〈◊〉 of the State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 held and called a Traitour Elijah a troubler of Israel Paul a pest Luther tuba rebellionis the Trumpet of rebellion c. Iuvenies apud Tacitum quentatas accusationes Majestatis unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant saith Lipsius There was some colour of right yea of piety laid upon the French massacre and by edicts a fair cloak sought to cover the impious fraud as if there had been some wicked conspiracy plotted by the Protestants against the King the Queen-mother the Kings brethren the King of Navarre and the Princes of the bloud For there was coyn stamped in memory of the matter in the fore-part whereof together with the Kings picture was this inscription Virtus in rebelle◠And on the other side Pietas excitavit justitiam Not many years before this Francis King of France when he would excuse to the Princes of Germany whose friendship he then sought after that cruelty he had exercised against the Protestants he gave out that he punished Anabaptists only that bragged of Enthusiasmes and cried down Magistracy stirring up the people to sedition as they had done not long before in Germany This foul aspersion cast upon true Religion gave occasion to Calvin then a young man of 25. years of age to set forth that incomparable work called his institutions of Christian Religion Concerning which Paulus Melissus long since sang Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas Huic peperere libro saecula nulla parem Since Christs and the Apostles time no such book hath been written He departed into Galilee Succenturiatus prodit Ioanni saith a learned Interpreter He therefore went into Galilee which was under Herods government to be as it were a supply and successour to Iohn whom Herod had imprisoned How well might the tyrant say of the Church as those Persians did of the Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We overturn them and yet they fall not we wound them and yet they fear not St Basil bad the persecuted Christians tell the tyrants with a bold and brave spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ye prevail again yet surely ye shall be overcome again For there is neither power nor policy against the Lord. Charles the fifth then whom all Christendome had not a more prudent Prince nor the Church of Christ almost a sorer enemy when he had in his hand Luther dead and Melancthon and Pomera◠and certain other Preachers of the Gospel alive he not only determined not any thing extreamly against them or violated their graves but also entreating them gently sent them away not so much as once forbidding them to publish openly the doctrine that they professed For it is the nature of Christs Church the more that persecutours spurn against it the more it flourisheth and encreaseth as the Palme-tree spreadeth and springeth the more it is oppressed as the bottle or bladder that may be dipt not drowned as the Oak that taketh heart to grace from the maims and wounds given it and sprouts the thicker as Fenugreek which the worse it is handled saith Pliny the better it proves This made Arrius Antoninus a cruell persecutour in Asia cry out to the Christians who came by troops to his tribunall and proclaimed themselves Christians so offering themselves to death O miseri si libet perire num vobis rupes aut restes desunt O Wretched men of ye be so desirous to die have you neither rocks nor halters wherewith to dispatch your selves Diocletian after he had in vain done his utmost to blot out Christs Name from under heaven and could not effect it such was the constancy of the Primitive Christians that no sufferings could affright or discourage them but that they grew upon him daily doe what he could to the contrary laid down the Empire in great discontent and betook himself as Charles the fifth also did to a private course of life As Lambs breed in winter and Quails came with the winde So good Preachers and people spring most in hard times No fowl is more prey'd upon by hawks kites c. then the Pigeon yet are there more doves then hawks or kites for all that saith Optatus So the sheep and so the sheep of Christ A little little flock he calleth it but such as all the Wolves on earth and devils in hell cannot possibly devour The Christians of Calabria suffered great persecution Anno 1560. for being all thrust up in one house together as in a sheep-fold the Executioner cometh in and amongst them taketh one and blindfoldeth him with a muffler about his eyes and so leadeth him forth into a larger place where he commandeth him to kneel down Which being done he cutteth his throat and so leaving him half dead and taking his butchers knife and muffler all of gore bloud cometh again to the rest and so leading them one after another he dispatcheth them all to the number of 88. All the elder went to death more cheerfully the younger were more timorous I tremble and shake saith a Roman-Catholike out of whose letter to his Lord this is transcribed even to remember how the executioner held his bloudy knife between his teeth with the bloudy muffler in his hand and his arms all in gore-bloud up to the elbows going to the fold and taking every of them one after another by the hand and so dispatching them all no otherwise then doth a butcher kill his calves and sheep Notwithstanding all which barbarous cruelty the Waldenses or Protestants were so spread not in France only their chief 〈◊〉 but in Germany also many years before this that they could travell from Collen to Millain in Italy and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession It is not yet a dozen years since Pope Urban the eighth that now sitteth upon the surrender of Rochel into the French Kings hands sent his Breve to the King exasperating him against the Protestants in France and eagerly urging yea enforcing the destruction of all the heretikes stabling in the French vineyard as his Inurbanity is pleased to expresse it But what shall be given unto thee Or what shall be done unto thee thou foul tongue Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of Juniper Psal. 120. 4 5. which burn vehemently and smell sweetly God shall shortly put into the hearts of the Kings of the earth and this King among the rest of the ten to hate the whore to eat her flesh and to burn her with fire Revel 17. 16. There are not many ages past since one of his predecessours broke open the gates of Rome 〈◊〉 the wals dispersed the Citizens and condemned the
compose all quarrels in this AEgypt of the world let it be remembred as Moses told the two striving Israelites that we are 〈◊〉 And oh how good and how pleasant it is for brethren in the Ministery especially to 〈◊〉 together in unity Verse 22. And 〈◊〉 immediately left the ship and their 〈◊〉 These were 〈◊〉 merchants that 〈◊〉 with all to 〈◊〉 the pearl of price So did many Martyrs and knew they made a savers bargain Nicolas Shetterden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a 〈◊〉 to his mother What state soever your fathers be in leave that to God and let us follow the counsell of his Word Dear mother embrace it with hearty affection read it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it be your pastime c. So shall we meet in joy at the last day or else I bid you farewell for evermore So Nicolas of Jenvile 〈◊〉 young man newly come from Geneva was condemned to die and set in the Cart. His father comming with a 〈◊〉 would have beaten him But the officers not suffering it would have struck the old man The sonne crying to the officers desired them to let his father alone saying he had power over him to do in that kinde what he would but Christ was dearer to him then the dearest friend on earth c. That of St Hierom is well known to most and often alledged If my father stood weeping on his knees before me my mother hanging on my neck behinde me and all my brethren sisters children kinsfolk howling on every side to retain me in sinfull life with them I would fling my mother to the ground despise all my kinred run over my father and tread him under my feet thereby to runne to Christ when he calleth me Reberies and Danvile two French Martyrs having been sorely racked at night rejoyced together After that Reberies cried twice or thrice Away from me Satan His fellow being in bed with him asked why he cried and whether Satan would stop him of his course Reberies said that Satanset before him his parents but by the grace of God said he he shall do nothing against me Verse 23. And Jesus went about all 〈◊〉 Not as the Circumcelliones of old to make shew of their holinesse nor as the Jesuites into whom the Pharisees have fled and hid themselves to gain proselytes and passengers That goe right on their waies Prov. 9. 15. but he went about doing good saith S. Peter The chiefest goods are most active the best good a meer act And the more good we doe the more God-like we be and the more we draw nigh to the heavenly patern Religion is not a name goodnesse a word but as the life of things stands in goodnesse So the life of goodnesse in action So much we live as we 〈◊〉 O Lord by these things men live saith 〈◊〉 and in all these things is the life of my spirit And he that keepeth my Commandments shall live in them as the lamp lives in the oil the flower in the earth the creature by food Nos non eloquimur magna sed vivimus said the ancient Christians And holy Bradford 〈◊〉 that hour lost wherein he had not done some good with tongue pen or hand God hath set us our time and our task Job 14. 5 6 David is said to serve out his time and John Baptist to finish his course Act. 13. Up therefore and be doing that ye be not taken with your task undone Fruitlesse trees shall be cut down short shooting loseth many a game The master is an austeer man and looketh for his own with usury It is an easie thing when the candle is out and all still without din to fall a napping which will prove to your cost when God shall send forth summons for sleepers Teaching in their Synagogues Houses dedicated to the worship of God wherein it was lawfull and usuall to pray preach and dispute but not to sacrifice Act. 15. 21. The Temple at Ierusalem was the Cathedrall Church The Synagogues as petty Parish-Churches belonging thereunto There were 480. of them in Ierusalem as Manahen the Jew reporteth And preaching Which is a further matter then teaching and is therefore set after it here as an addition It signifieth to publish and as a Herald to deliver a matter in the hearing of a multitude with greatest majesty constancy fidelity and liberty of speech not budging or balking any part of the truth not huckstering the Word of God or handling it deceitfully but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speaking in Christ. And healing all manner of sicknesse and disease Both acute and chronicall None came amisse to this Iehovah Rophe the Lord that healeth as he stileth himself This Sun of righteousnesse that hath healing under his wings To an Almighty Physician saith Isidore no disease can seem incurable He healed with a wet finger as we say such patients as all the Physicians in the Countrey cast their caps at and could not tell what to 〈◊〉 to Verse 24. And his fame went thorow all Syria Fame followeth desert as a sweet sent the rose This gave occasion to the Poets to feign That Achilles his tomb was ever garnished with green amaranth A good name is better then great riches saith Solomon And if I can keep my credit I am rich enough said the Heathen Blessing and good report are exprest by one and the same word in the old Testament Prov. 27. 21. to shew what a ablessing of God it is And it could not but be a great comfort to David that whatsoever he did pleased the people Cicero saith that perfect glory consisteth in these three things If the multitude love a man if they will trust him and if they hold him worthy of admiration praise and honour Now none of these were wanting to our Saviour as appeareth in this holy History and as others have fully set forth Do worthily in Ephrata and so be 〈◊〉 in Bethlehem Ruth 4. 11. And they brought unto him all sick people All that were in ill case and taking For Si vales benè est saith one And Vita non est vivere sed valere saith another The Latines call a sick man AEger which some derive of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voice of complaint and 〈◊〉 And the Stoikes when they affirmed that to live agreeably to nature is to live vertuously and valiantly although the body be never so out of order they perceived when their own turn came to be sick saith one Se magnificentiùs locutos esse quam veriùs that they had spoken more trimly then truly That were taken with divers diseases and torments That were besieged and hemmed in on every side as by an enemy straitned and 〈◊〉 so that they knew not whither to look only their eies were toward Christ. Diseases and torments As of those that are put
to do any thing for them or theirs The whole Law is say the Schoolmen but one copulative Any condition not observed 〈◊〉 the whole lease and any Commandment not obeyed subjects a man to the curse And as some one good action hath 〈◊〉 ascribed and assured to it as peace-making Matth. 5. 9. so he that shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all When some of the Israelites had broken the fourth Commandment God challengeth them for all Exod. 16. 28. Where then will they appear that plead for this Zoar for that Rimmon a merry lye a petty oath an idle errand on the Lords day c. Sick bodies love to be gratified with some little bit that favoureth the disease But meddle not with the murthering morsels of sin there will be bitternesse in the end Jonathan had no sooner tasted of the honey with the tip of his rod only but his head was forfeited There is a 〈◊〉 fullnesse in sin a lye in these vanities give them an inch they 'l take an ell Let the serpent but get in his head he will shortly winde in his whole body He playes no small game but meaneth us much hurt how modest soever he seemeth to be It is no 〈◊〉 then the Kingdom that he seeketh by his maidenly 〈◊〉 as Adoniah As therefore we must submit to 〈◊〉 so we must resist the devil without expostulation 1 Pet. 5. 7. throw water on the fire of temptation though but to some smaller sin and stamp on it too Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth saith St James A little poison in a cup a little leak in a ship or breach in a wall may ruin all A little wound at the heart and a little sin in the soul may hide Gods face from us as a cloud Therefore as the Prophet when a cloud as big as a mans hand only appeared knew that the whole heaven would be overcovered and 〈◊〉 the King to betake himself to his charret so let us to 〈◊〉 shelter for a company comes as she said when she bore her 〈◊〉 Gad After Jonathan and his Armour-bearer came the whole host and when Dalilah had prevai'ed came the Lords of the Philistims He that is fallen from the top of a ladder cannot stop at the second round Every sin hardneth the heart and gradually disposeth it to greater offences as lesser wedges make way for bigger After Ahaz had made his wicked Altar and offered on it he brought it into the Temple first setting it on the brazen Altar afterwards bringing it into the house and then lastly setting it on the Northside of Gods Altar Withstand fin therefore at first and live by Solomons rule Give not water passage no not a little Silence sin as our Saviour did the 〈◊〉 and suffer it not to sollicite thee If it be importunate answer it not a word as 〈◊〉 would not Rabshakeh or give it a short and sharp answer yea the blew eye that St Paul did This shall be no grief unto thee hereafter nor offence of heart as she told David the contrary way It repented St Austin of his very excuses made to his parents being a childe and to his schoolmaster being a boy He retracts his ironyes because they had the appearance of a lye because they looked ill-favouredly B. Ridley repents of his playing at Chesse as wasting too much time Bradford bewaileth his dullnesse and unthankfullnesse Davids heart smote him for cutting the lap of 〈◊〉 coat only and that for none other intent then to clear his own innocency that in which Saul commended him for his moderation There are some that would shrink up sin into a narrow scantling and bring it to this if they could that none do evil but they that are in goales But David approves his sincerity by his respect to all Gods Commandments and hath this commendation that he did all the wills of God Solomon also bidds count nothing little that God commandeth but keep Gods precepts as the sight of the eye Those venturous spirits that dare live in any known sin aspire not to immortality Phil. 2. 12. they shall be least that is nothing at all in the Kingdom of heaven And teacheth men so As the Pharisees did and all the old and modern heresiarches In the year 1559. it was maintained by one David George that Arch heretike that good works were pernicious and destructory to the soul. The Anabaptists and Socinians have broached many doctrines of devils not fit to be once named amongst Christians The Pneumatomachi of old set forth a base book of the Trinity under St Cyprians name and sold it at a very cheap rate that the poorest might be able to reach it and reade it as 〈◊〉 complaineth In those Primitive times those capitall haeresies concerning the Trinity and Christs Incarnation were so generally held that it was a witty thing then to be a right beleever as Erasmus phraseth it All the world in a manner was turned Arian as St Hierome hath it 〈◊〉 telleth us that the 〈◊〉 being desirous to be instructed in the Christian religion requested of 〈◊〉 the Emperour to send them some to preach the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He being himself an 〈◊〉 sent them Arian Doctours who set up that heresie amongst them By the just judgement of God therefore the same Valens being overthrown in battle by the 〈◊〉 was also burnt by them in a poor cottage whether 〈◊〉 had fled for shelter Heretikes have an art of pythanology whereby they cunningly insinuate into mens affections and many times 〈◊〉 wade before they teach as it is said of the 〈◊〉 It was therefore well and wisely done of Placilla the Empresse when her husband Theodosius senior desired to conser with Eunomius she earnestly disl 〈◊〉 him lest being perverted by his speeches he might fall into his haeresie Shall be least in the Kingdom of heaven That is nothing at all there as Matth 20. 16. Either of these two sins here 〈◊〉 exclude out of heaven how much more both If single sinners that break Gods Commandments and no more shall be damned those that teach men so shall be double damned If God will be avenged on the former seven-fold 〈◊〉 he will on the later seventy-fold seven-fold When the beast and the Kings of the earth and their armies shall be gathered together toward the end of the world to make war against Christ the multitud shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sword the poor seduced people that were carried along many of them as those two-hundred that followed Absolom out of Jerusalem in the simplicity of their hearts and understood not the matter shall have an easier judgement But the beast was taken and the false Prophet and were both cast 〈◊〉 not slain with the sword and so cast to the infernall vultures to be
yea the very Scriptures the Gospel of truth the rich offers of grace and our golden opportunities Is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ned by many into a 〈◊〉 formality and policie our ancient fervour and forwardnesse into a generall 〈◊〉 and unzealousnesse And besides the love of many waxen cold doth not iniquity abound in every quarter and corner of the land which therefore even groaneth under 〈◊〉 burden and longeth for a vomit to spue us 〈◊〉 as the most unthankfull and unworthy people that ever Gods Sun shone upon and Gods rain fell upon the Sun of Christs Gospel especially and the rain of his grace so fair and so long together If there be any 〈◊〉 sin in the world it is ingratitude said that 〈◊〉 Q. Elizabeth in a 〈◊〉 to Henry 4. King of France The very Heathens judged it to be the epitome of a levil Call me unthankfull saith one you call me all that naught is Lycurgus would make no law against it because he thought no man would fall so far below reason as not thankfully to acknowledge a benefit Thus nature it self abhorres ingratitude which therefore carrieth so much the more detestation as it is more odious even to them that have blotted out the image of God Some vices are such as nature smileth upon though frowned at by divine Justice Not so this Where fore have ye rewarded evil for good Gen. 44. 4. Verse 46. For if ye love them that love you what reward have you The Greek and Latine word say the Rhemists signifieth very wages or hire due for worke and so presupposeth a meritorious deed But what will they say to S. Luke who calleth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or grace which S. Matthew here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reward It is a reward but of meer grace see Rom. 4 that God will give to them that love their enemies If thine enemy be hungry feed him c. For thou shalt heap coales of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee saith Solomon Prov. 25. 21 22. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all little enough 1. Thou shalt heap coals on 〈◊〉 head those coales are as Austin interprets it urentes 〈◊〉 gemitus the scorching sighs of true repentance q. d. Thou shalt melt these hardest metals as many of the Martyrs did their persecutours thou shalt meeken their rancour overcome their 〈◊〉 cause them to turn short again upon themselves and upon sight of their sin shame themselves and justifie thee as Saul did David 2. The Lord shall reward thee And all his 〈◊〉 are more then bountifull yet not of merit for what proportion betwixt the work and wages but first of mercy Reward and mercy are joyned together in the second Commandment and Psal. 62. 12. Secondly of promise for our encouragement 〈◊〉 our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Briefly it is called a reward not properly but by similitude because it is given after the worke done Next it is a reward not legall but evangelicall promised in mercy and in like mercy performed Whence it is also called the reward of inheritance Now an inheritance is not merited but freely descendeth on sonnes because they are sonnes Let no sonne say with profane Esau What is this birth-right to me or with the prodigall in the Gospel Give me here the portion that belongeth unto me such are those that love their friends only here they have love for love and that 's all they are to look for but look up to the recompence of reward with Moses and answer as Naboth God forbid that I should so farre gratifie the devil and mine own evil heart as to part with my patrimony my hope of reward for a little revenge or whatsoever coyn bearing Satans superscription Verse 47. What doe ye more then others Singular things are expected and required of such as have received singular grace and mercy As to be eminent in good works to get above others to 〈◊〉 our feet where other mens heads are The way of the righteous 〈◊〉 on high saith Solomon he goes an higher way to worke then ordinary and walkes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately exactly he gets even to the very top of godlinesse as the word importeth He knows that more then the common stint is required of him and that he must doe that that the world will never doe as to be hot in religion Rev. 3. 16 The carnal Gospeller saith Religiosum oportet esse non religentem It is fit to be Religious but not so consciencious So to be zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. but with discretion saith the 〈◊〉 The King of Navarre told Beza he would launch no further into the sea then he might be sure to return safe to the haven Though he shewed some countenance to religion yet he would be sure to save himself So to abound in Gods work to have a heart full of goodnesse as those Romanes Chap. 15. 14. a life full of good works as Tabitha Acts 9. 33. But this is to be wise overmuch saith the flesh Philosophandum sed paucis What need this waste said Judas It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem to worship said 〈◊〉 to the people take a shorter cut rather to the golden calves They are idle they are idle said Pharaoh of Gods busiest servants So God would have his to walke precisely This the mad world mocks at To pluck out their right eyes this is a hard saying saith the sensualist To offer violence to Gods Kingdom Fair and softly goes farre and its good keeping on the warm side of the hedge saith the Polititian to 〈◊〉 Gods 〈◊〉 as the apple of thine eyes 〈◊〉 how few are 〈◊〉 that will not break the hedge of any Commandment so they may 〈◊〉 a peece of foul way Lastly To love an enemy doe good to them that hate us c. But this seems to the most 〈◊〉 and impossible What love those that 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 daily rage and rail at them with such 〈◊〉 as if they 〈◊〉 been as far as hell for every word that 〈◊〉 cut of their mouthes against them c Love this man Nay 〈◊〉 love the 〈◊〉 himself They will rather die a thousand deaths then endure such a one If they could love him yet they would not They are prime Christians in these mens opinions that 〈◊〉 to Sauls measure I will doe thee no hurt my son David If they passe him by when he is in their power as the Priest and the 〈◊〉 did the wounded man if they fall not 〈◊〉 upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and retaliate injuries they have gone farre and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such a measure of charity they hold little 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here attainable This is the voice and guise of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy and prompteth us to 〈◊〉 taunt with taunt suit with suit blow with blow and holds them fools that doe not But
the Gospel and know no other happinesse 〈◊〉 to have and to hold these have their eyes blinded by the god of this world as Isaac had his wels stopped up with earth by the Philistines And as a small dish being held near the eyes hideth from our sight a great mountain and a little hill or cloud the great body of the Sun though it be farre bigger then the whole earth So these earthly trifles being placed near mens 〈◊〉 do so shadow and over-cloud those great and glorious excellencies that are above that they can neither truly behold them nor rightly judge of them When men travell so farre into the South that the sight of the North-pole is at length intercepted by the earth it is a signe they are farre from it so is it that men are farre from heaven when the love of the earth comes in betwixt their souls and the sight thereof Earth-damps quench the spirits lamp Much water of affliction cannot quench that love that yet a little earth may soon do Verse 24. No man can serve two Masters c. The Mammonists minde must needs be full of darknesse because utterly destituted of the Father of lights the Sun of the soul for ye cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon By Mammon is meant earthly treasure worldly wealth outward abundance especially when gotten by evil arts it commeth to be the gain of ungodlinesse the wages of wickednesse riches of unrighteousnesse filthy 〈◊〉 When Joseph was cast into the pit by his bloudy brethren What gain saith Judah will it be if we kill him The Chaldee there hath it What Mammon shall it be What can we make of it What profit shall we reap or receive thereby Now these two God and Mammon as they are incompatible Masters so the variance between them is irreconcileable Amity with the world is 〈◊〉 with the Lord Jam. 4. 4. Emnity I say in a sense both active and passive for it makes a man both to hate God and to be 〈◊〉 by God so there 's no love lost on either side If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him that 's flat But the 〈◊〉 any one is drowned in the world 〈◊〉 more desperately he is divorced from God who requireth to be served truly that there be no halting and totally that there be 〈◊〉 halving Cambden reports of Redwald the first King of the East Saxons that was 〈◊〉 that he had in the same Church one Altar for Christian religion and another for sacrifice to devils And Callenucius telleth us of a Noble-man of Naples that was 〈◊〉 profanely to say that he had two souls in his body one for God and another for whomsoever would have it The Ebionites 〈◊〉 Eusebius would keep the Sabbath with the Jews and the Lords-day with the Christians as if they were of both religions 〈◊〉 in truth they were of neither So Ezekiels hearers sate devoutly before the Lord at his publike Ordinances and with their 〈◊〉 shewed much love but their heart meanwhile was on their half-penny it went after their covetousnesse So the Pharisees heard Christs Sermon against the service of Mammon and derided him and while their lips seemed to pray they were but chewing of that murthering-morsell those widdows houses that their throats as an open sepulchre swallowed down soon after Thus filled they up the measure of their fathers those ancient Idolaters in the wildernesse who set up a golden calfe 〈◊〉 then caused it to be proclaimed To morrow is a feast to Jehovah And such is the dealing of every covetous Christian. S. Paul calleth him an idolater S. James an adulterer for he goeth a whoring after his gods of gold and silver And although he bow not the knee to his mammon yet with his heart he serveth it Now obedience is better then sacrifice and Know ye not saith the Apostle that his servants ye are to whom ye obey c Inwardly he loves it delights in it trusts on it secures himself by it from whatsoever calamites Outwardly he spends all his time upon this Idol in gathering keeping increasing or honouring of it Hence the jealous God hateth him and smites his hands at him Ezek. 22. 13. and hath a speciall quarrell against 〈◊〉 that blesse the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth As for his servants he strictly chargeth them to 〈◊〉 their conversation without covetousnesse Heb. 13. 5. yea their communication Ephes. 5. 3. yea their cogitation 2 Pet. 2. 14. branding them for 〈◊〉 children that have so much as their thoughts exercised that way He will not have his hasten to be rich or labour after superfluities 〈◊〉 nor anxiously after necessaries For worldlinesse 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 when men oppresse themselves with multiplying of 〈◊〉 or suffer their thoughts and affections to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken up with minding these things on earth as a main hinderance from heaven It fills the heart with cares and so unfits 〈◊〉 deads it to divine duties The thoughts as wings should carry 〈◊〉 in worship even to the mansions of God which being laden 〈◊〉 thick 〈◊〉 they so glue us to the earth that the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 word and ordinances cannot draw us one jot from it The 〈◊〉 is also hereby made like a mill where one cannot hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noise is such as takes away all intercourse If conscience call 〈◊〉 them to take heed of going out of Gods way they are at as little 〈◊〉 to listen as he that runs in a race who many times 〈◊〉 with so much violence that he cannot hear what is said unto him 〈◊〉 it never so good counsel And having thus set their hearts and 〈◊〉 their hopes upon earthly things if ever they 〈◊〉 them as it 〈◊〉 falleth out they are filled almost with unmedicinable sorrows 〈◊〉 as they will praise the dead above the living and wish they had 〈◊〉 been born Eccles. 4. 1 2 3. Lo this is the guise and guerdom of those Inhabitants of the earth those viri divitiarum as the 〈◊〉 stiles them those miserable muck-worms that prefer Mammon before Messias gold before God money before mercy earth before heaven as childish a weaknesse as that of Honorius the Emperour that preferred a Hen before the City of Rome 〈◊〉 saith one is a monster whose head is as subtill as the serpent whose mouth is wide as hell eyes sharp as a Lizard scent quick as the Vulture hands fast as Harpyes belly insatiable as a Wolfe feet swift to 〈◊〉 as a Lionesse robbed of her whelps Ahab will have Naboths vineyard or he will have his bloud Judas was both covetous and a murderer and therefore a murderer because covetous He is 〈◊〉 also a thief and why a thief but 〈◊〉 a Mammonist 〈◊〉 draws a man from all the Commandments Psal. 116. 36. And there want not those that have drawn the covetous person thorow all the Commandments and proved him
another but ranck haeretikes This was somewhat like Pliny his description of the Christians in that Province where he was governour And here I cannot omit that when the B. of Worcester exhorted M. Philpot the Martyr being brought to his answer before he began to speak to pray to God for grace Nay my Lord of Worcester said Bonner you doe not well to exhort him to make any praier for this is the thing they have a singular pride in For in this point they are much like to certain arrant haeretikes of whom Pliny maketh mention that they sang antelucanos 〈◊〉 Psalms of praise to God before break-of-day But had Bonner and his fellow-buzzards but observed the burning zeal sweet assemblies watchings prayings holinesse of life patience in death c. of those that served God after the way that they called haeresy they might well have seen and said as much as the Centurion did of our Saviour and they might have replyed as our Saviour did of himself I have not a devil but I honour my father and ye doe dishonour me If I honour my self my honour is nothing It is my father that honoureth me of whom ye say that he is your God Cenalis Bishop of Auranches wrote against the Congregation of Paris defending impudently that their assemblies were to maintain whoredom How much better and with more ingenuity the Bishop of Aliffe who preaching at 〈◊〉 in the time of that Councell Anno 1563. Spake of the faith and manners of the Catholikes and herericks and said that as the faith of the Catholikes was better so the hereticks exceeded them in good life which gave much distast saith the Historian But Bellarmine had he been then and there present would not likely have been much offended For we faith he although we believe that all the 〈◊〉 are to be found in the Church yet that any man may be absolutely said to be a member of the true Church defcribed in the Scriptures we doe not think that any internall vertue is required of him but onely an externall profession of the faith and such a partaking of the Sacraments as is perceived by the outward senses A pretty description and picture of a Papist amongst whom if any be vertuous it is by accident and 〈◊〉 as they are members of that Church As 〈◊〉 wittily said of the Epicures that if any of that sect proved good it was 〈◊〉 by the benefit of a better nature for they taught all manner of loosenesse and libertinisme But for the most part such as their doctrine is such is also their practise The Friers saith One that had seen it and so could well avouch it are a race of people alwaies praying but seldom with signe of devotion vowing obedience but still contentious 〈◊〉 yet most luxurious poverty yet ever scraping and 〈◊〉 And generally the devotions of papists saith he are prised more by tale then by weight of zeal placed more in the m ssy materiality of the outward work then purity of the heart from which they proceed They hold integrity for little better then 〈◊〉 and abjectnesse about Italy and abuse the most honourable name of Christian usually to signify a Fool or a Dolt as is afore noted out of D. Fulke Are not these the fruits of a rotten religion of trees specious without but putrefied and worm-eaten within as the word our Saviour here useth properly signifieth which appears at length by their rotten 〈◊〉 The true Christian will not cease to bear good fruit what weather soever come Jer. 17. 7. The hypocrite will either bear onely leaves as the 〈◊〉 tree or apples of Sodom grapes of Gomorrah Of such we may say as of mount Gilboah no good fruit growes on them or as Siratonicus saith of the hill Haemus that for eight moneths in the year it was very cold and for the other foure it was winter Or as the Poet said of his countrey that it was bad in winter hard 〈◊〉 summer good at no time of the year Campian of St Iohns in Oxford 〈◊〉 of the University Anno 1568. dissembled the Protestants Religion So did Parsons in Balial untill he was for his dishonesty expeld with disgrace and fled to the Papists where caelum mutavit non animum neither good egge nor good bird as they 〈◊〉 Verse 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit c. Fruitlesse trees are cut down to the fire Short shooting looseth many a game The idle servant is delivered to the tormentours and unsavoury salt is cast out to be trodden on as Ecebolius 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 earth is nigh to cursing whose end is to be burned Pure gold discovers deadly poison For there will sparkle out of the cup certain rain-bowes as it were and there will be heard 〈◊〉 One a fiery hissing of the gold thrusting out the poison Whereby is signified saith he that God threatneth judgement and hell-fire to those that corrupt and poison heavenly Doctrine See more of this above chap. 3. 10. Let us study and 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 the tree of Paradise that was fair to the eie and good to eat and that tree of life Rev. 22. 2. That bringeth 〈◊〉 every moneth twelve manner of fruits c. And those 〈◊〉 Psal 92. 13. that being planted in the house of the Lord bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fruit in their old age I am like a green olive tree saith David our bed is of green cedar saith the Spouse Ephraim was like a green firre tree fat and sappy c. Barrennes is no 〈◊〉 a fault then ill fruit Verse 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them See vers 〈◊〉 where the self-same words are used Lest any 〈◊〉 pretence of danger in hearing false prophets should refuse to hear any though they come with never so much evidence of truth 〈◊〉 Saviour wills and commands here that examination and discretion go before both rejection of errours and receiving of truths Try all things hold fast that which is good As the mouth tasteth meat so the ear must try and taste words Iob. 12. 11. 34 3. He is a fool that beleeveth every thing nay any thing that tends to the cherishing of corruption and carnall liberty or the advancing 〈◊〉 corrupt nature which is nothing else but a piece of proud flesh and must be abased to the utmost Christians should 〈◊〉 in knowledge and in every sense so as readily to discern things that differ and not to be wherried and whirled about with every winde 〈◊〉 doctrine as children nor to be carried away as they are led 〈◊〉 Gentiles 1 Cor. 12. 2. He that will take for true and trusty whatsoever any Impostor puts upon him shall be as fouly deceived 〈◊〉 Iacob was by Laban Search and see whereto they tend and 〈◊〉 they drive at If they would drive us from God as Moses expresseth it and draw us from the doctrine of
beatificall vision and fruition of God and this is the very hell of hell c. Verse 24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of 〈◊〉 c. Here we have the conclusion of this if not first yet certainly fullest of our Saviours Sermons for matter most heavenly and for order more then methodicall Most men think if they sit out a Sermon it is sufficient when the preacher hath 〈◊〉 done they have done to Away they go and for any practice they leave the word where they found it or depart sorrowfull as he in the Gospel that Christ requireth such things as they are not willing to perform Our Saviour had four sorts of hearers and but one good that brought forth fruit with patience When St Paul preached at Athens some mocked others doubted a few believed but no Church was sounded there as at other places because Christ crucified was preached unto the Jews a stumbling 〈◊〉 and to those Greeks foolishnes whiles the Jews required a signe and the Greeks sought after wisedome But what saith the Prophet Behold they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisedome is in them He is a wise builder a 〈◊〉 servant a wise virgine a wise merchant if our Saviour may be judge that heareth these sayings of his and doth them And behold saith Moses I have taught you statutes and judgements Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisedome c. A good understanding have all they that do thereafter David hereby became wiser then his teachers ancients enemies and Paul counted it his chief policy to keep a good conscience void of offence toward God and men which cannot be untill it may be said of a man as Shaphan said of Josiahs work-men All that was given in charge to thy servants they doe it For not the hearers of the Law but the doers shall be justified saith Paul shall be blessed saith our Saviour often shall be made thereby the friends of Christ Ioh. 15. 14. the kindred of Christ Matth. 12. 50. The glory of Christ a royall diadem in the hand of 〈◊〉 yea such as have the honour to set the crown royall upon Christs head in the day of his espousals Be ye therefore doers of the Word saith S. Iames and not hearers only deceiving or putting paralogismes tricks and fallacies sophister like upon your own souls They that place religion in hearing and go no further will prove egregious fools in the end Which to prevent look intently and accurately saith that Apostle stoop down and pry heedfully into the perfect law of 〈◊〉 as the Cherubims did into the Propitiatory as the Angels do into the mystery of Christ as the Disciples did into the sepulchre of Christ and continue therein till ye be transformed thereinto Not being forgetfull hearers but doers of the work so shall ye be blessed in the deed It is not enough to hear but take heed how you hear 〈◊〉 with you the loan of your former hearing For to him that hath shall be given and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you As ye measure to God in preparation and practice he will measure to you in successe and blessing and every time that you hear God will come to you in the fulnesse of the 〈◊〉 of the Gospel of peace See that ye shift not off him that speaketh 〈◊〉 12. 25. Veniat veniat verbum Domini submittemus illi sexcentasi nobis essent colla said a notable Dutch Divine Let God speak and we will yeeld though it were to the losse of a thousand lives The Macedonians delivered themselves up to God and the Romans to the form of doctrine that was delivered 〈◊〉 them they took impression from it as the metall 〈◊〉 from the mould or as the wax doth from the seal David 〈◊〉 up his hands to Gods Commandments Psal. 119. 48. he did all the wils of God who had set him both his time and his task He sets all his servants a work and requireth their pains Hos. 10. 11. Ephraim was an heifer used to dance and delight in the soft straw and could not abide to plow but the Lord will make him both bear and draw Religion is not a name saith one goodnesse a word it is active like fire communicative like light As the life of things stands in goodnes so the life of goodnesse in action The chiefest goods are most active the best good a meer act And the more good we do the more God-like and excellent we be and the better provided against a rainy 〈◊〉 Which built his house upon a rock This rock is Christ and conscionable 〈◊〉 are living stones built upon him The Conies are a people weak and wise saith Solomon and their wisdome herein appears they work themselves holes and burrows in the bosome of the earth in the roots of the rocks Learn we to do the like and be sure to dig deep enough as S. Luke hath it which while the stony-ground-hearers did not their blade was scorcht up and came to nothing Some flashing joy they had upon the hearing of the Word and many meltings according to the nature of the Doctrine delivered but these sudden affections being not well bottomed nor having principles to maintain them they were but like Conduits running with wine at the Coronation or like a land-floud that seems to be a great sea but is soon gone again Verse 25. And the rain descended and the flouds came c. Many are the troubles of the righteous they come commonly thick and three-fold one in the neck of another as Jobs messengers The clouds return after the rain 〈◊〉 12. 2. there is a continuall succession of miseries and molestations from the devil the world and the flesh to them that hear and do the words of 〈◊〉 like the weather in winter when a showr or two do not clear the air but though it rain much yet the sky is still over 〈◊〉 with clouds which are 〈◊〉 upon the Saints sometimes in 〈◊〉 and lighter 〈◊〉 as the smaller rain sometimes in pressing and piercing calamities like storm and hail The rain fals 〈◊〉 flouds rise the winde blows and many a sharp showr beats upon the Christians building but like Noahs Ark it is pitcht within and without like Mount Sion it abides for ever immoveable 〈◊〉 founded upon the Rock of ages Si nos ruemus ruet Christus 〈◊〉 I lle 〈◊〉 mundi said that noble Luther If we 〈◊〉 Christ shall fall too that Ruler of the world and 〈◊〉 him fall I had rather 〈◊〉 with Christ then stand with Caesar. The devil stirs up a 〈◊〉 against Gods children saith Ambrose Sedipse naufragium 〈◊〉 but himself maketh ship wrack The Church according to that 〈◊〉 Motto Nec fluctu nec 〈◊〉 movetur and yet Venice hath but one street they say that is not
the Gospel for the Pope of Rome and the Councel of Trent do bestirre themselves wonderfully May not we say as much and more now-adaies And sowed tares among the wheat 〈◊〉 it were rendered blasted corn that yeelds nothing better at harvest then 〈◊〉 and chast though it be in all things like the good corn and the contrary appeareth not till towards harvest when the dust is driven away by the winde the chaff cast into the fire Hereby are meant hypocrites and heretikes Qui 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 esse possunt in area non possunt who shall be sifted out one day And went his way As if he had done no such thing Satan hides his cloven 〈◊〉 as much as he can and would seem no other then an angel of light Or abijt idest latuit saith one he went away that is he lurked as his imps use to do under the fair penthouse of zeal and seeming devotion under the broad leaves of formall 〈◊〉 Verse 26. Then appeared the tares also Hypocrites are sure 〈◊〉 or later to be detected All will out at length Sacco solute apparuit argentum When God turns the bottom of the bag upwards their secret sins will appear They shall finde themselves in all evil in the middest of the Congregation and Assembly They that turn aside unto their crooked waies shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity Verse 27. So the servants of the housholder c. Godly Ministers are much vexed at hypocrites and 〈◊〉 hearers So was our Saviour at the Pharisees Mark 3. 5. he looked on them with anger being 〈◊〉 at the hardnesse of their hearts So was Paul at Elymas the sorcerer he set his eies upon him as if he would have looked 〈◊〉 him after which lightning 〈◊〉 that terrible thunder-clap O full of all subtilty c. So was Peter at Simon Magus and S. John at 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you Mihi certè Anxentius nunquam aliud quà m diabolus erit quia Arrianus saith Hilarius who also called Constantius Antichrist Verse 28. Wilt thou then that we go c. This was zeal indeed but rash and unseasonable and is therefore to be moderated by prudence and patience Those two sons of thunder had over quick and hot spirits 〈◊〉 9. 55. Luther confessed before the Emperour at Wormes that in his books against private and particular persons he had been more vehement then his religion and profession required And he that writes the history of the Trent-Councell tells us if we may beleeve him that in Colloquio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaker for the Protestants entring into the matter of the Eucharist spake with such heat that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own party so that he was commanded to conclude Zeal should eat us up but not eat up our discretion our moderation Verse 29. Lest whilst ye gather up the tares Those that are now tares hypocrites may become good corn good Christians Iether an Ish 〈◊〉 by nation may prove an Israelite by religion Simon Magus may perhaps have the thoughts of his heart forgiven him In the year 1553. a Priest at Canterbury said Masse on one day and the next day after he came into the Pulpit and desired all the people to forgive him for he said he had betrayed Christ yet not as Iudas did but as Peter and so made a long Sermon against the Masse Verse 20. Binde them in bundles c. This shall be the Angels office at the last day to bundle up swearers with swearers drunkards with drunkards c. that they may suffer together as they have sinned together and pledge one another in that cup of fire and brimstone that shall then be poured down their throats Psal. 11. 6. As in the mean brimstone is here scattered upon their habitation Job 18. 15. every moment ready to take fire if God but lighten upon it with the arrows of his indignation Psal. 18. 14 Verse 31. Is like to a grain of mustard-seed Which soon pierceth the nostrils and brain as Pliny noteth and hurteth the eyes as the very name in Greek importeth But that which our Saviour here observeth and applieth in it is the smallnesse of the seed the greatnesse of the stalk or tree that comes of it and the use of the branches for birds to build in This grain of mustard-seed sowed is the word preached which though it seem small and contemptible proves quick and powerfull Hitherto flee the birds of the ayr Gods elect for shade in prosperity for shelter in adversity Yea as the trees of America but especially of Brasile are so huge that severall families are reported to have lived in severall 〈◊〉 of one tree to such a number as are in some petty village or 〈◊〉 here So is the growth of the Gospel it runs and is glorified 2 Thess 3. 1. as the Jerusalem-Artichoke overruns the ground wheresoever it is planted It was a just wonder how it was carried as on Angels wings over all the world by the preaching of the Apostles at first and now again in the late Reformation by Luther and some few other men of mean rank but of rare successe These were those Angels that 〈◊〉 flying with the 〈◊〉 Gospel no new doctrin as the Adversaries slander it in the middest of heaven or betwixt heaven and earth because their doctrine at first was not so clearly confirmed to others 〈◊〉 so fully 〈◊〉 by themselves Melancthon confesseth Quod 〈◊〉 habemus sc. 〈◊〉 quos 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 And Cardinall 〈◊〉 saith the same Melancthon reading the Ansborough-Confession saith that our cause concerning the righteousnesse of faith was stronger in the confirmation then in the confutation of the contrary opinion Quod verum est as he there yeeldeth quia facilius 〈◊〉 in sophisticis quam destruere In Physicis contra But our John Wickliffe long before Luther wrote more then two hundred volumes against the the Pope The Lady Anne wife to K. Richard the second sister to Wence slaus K. of 〈◊〉 by living here was made acquainted with the Gospel Whence also many Bohemians coming hither conveyed 〈◊〉 book into Bohemia whereby a good foundation was laid for a 〈◊〉 Reformation After this were stirred up there by God John Husse and Hierom of Prague who so propagated the 〈◊〉 in that Kingdom that in the year of Christ 1451. the Church of God at Constantinople congratulated to the University of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happy 〈◊〉 and exhorted them to 〈◊〉 For before the Hussites by the mediation of 〈◊〉 Sophia who 〈◊〉 them had obtained of the King the 〈◊〉 exercise of their Religion 〈◊〉 Bohemia Howbeit soon after this they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persecution by the Popish party who yet could say no worse of them then this In their lives they are modest in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their 〈◊〉 one towards another servent but their 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and stark naught saith 〈◊〉
give It is not powring out but want of powring out that dryes up the streams of grace as of that oile 2 King 46. The liberall soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Prov. 11. 25. Verse 36. Declare unto us the parable Private conference hath incredible profit The Minister cannot possibly say all in an hour seek settlement from his lips who both must preserve and present knowledge to the people Junius was converted by conference with a country-man of his not far from Florence Galeacius Caracciolus by a similitude of Peter Martyrs in his publike lectures on 1 Corinth seconded and set on by private discourse David was more affected by Nathans Thou art the man then by all the lectures of the law for a twelvemoneth before Verse 37. Is the Sonne of man i.e. Signifies the Sonne of man as Circumcision is the covenant that is the signe of the covenant And as Christ 〈◊〉 of the Sacramentall bread This is my body which Luther interprets synecdochically for in or under this is my body Calvin after Tertullian and Augustine interprets it metonimically for this is the signe or the figure of my body Hence the Jesuites presently cry out The spirit of God disagreeth not with it self But these interpretations 〈◊〉 disagree Therefore they are not of the spirit But let them first agree among themselves before they quarrel our disagreements for their own Doctors are exceedingly divided even about this very point of the Eucharist and know not what their holy Mother holdeth Bellarmine teacheth that the substance of the bread is not turned into the substance of Christs body Productivè as one thing is made of another but that the bread goes away and Christs body comes into the room of it Adductivè as one thing succeeds into the place of another the first being voyded And this saith he is the opinion of the Church of Rome himself being Reader of Controversies at Rome But Suarez Reader at 〈◊〉 in Spain consutes Bellarmines opinion tearming it Translocation not Transubstantiation and saith it is not the Churches opinion Verse 38. The field is the world The Christian world the Church not the Roman-Catholike Church only the Popes territories as he would have it The Roatian Hereticks would needs have made the world believe that they were the only Catholicks The Anabaptists have the same conceit of themselves Muncer their Chieftain in his booke written against Luther and dedicated to Christ the most Illustrious Prince as he stileth him inviegheth bitterly at him as one that was meerly carnall and utterly void of the spirit of Revelation And Parcus upon this text tells us that in a conference at Frankendal the Anabaptists thus argued The field is the world therefore not the Church that by the same reason they might deny that 〈◊〉 breed in the Church But tares are and will be in the visible Church as our Saviour purposely teacheth by this parable The tares are the children of that wicked one So called partly in respect of their serpentine nature those corrupt qualities whereby they resemble the devil And partly because they creep into the Church by Satans subtilety being his agents and 〈◊〉 ries Agnosco te primogenitum diaboli said St Iohn of that Heretike Cerinthus And Hypocrites are his sonnes and heires the very free-holders of hell and other sinners but their tenants which have their part or lot with hypocrites Verse 39. The enemy that sowed them c. As Esther said the adversary and enemy is that wicked Haman so Satan Why then have men so much to do with him The Jews as often as they hear mention of Haman in their synagogues they do with their fists and hammers beat upon the benches and 〈◊〉 as if they did knock upon Hamans head We have those also that can bid defiance to the devil spet at his name curse him haply but in the mean space listen to his illusions entertain him into their hearts by obeying his lusts These are singularly foolish For it is as if one should be afraid of the name of fire and yet not fear to be burnt with the flame thereof Verse 40. So shall it be in the end of this world As till then there can be no perfect purgation of the Church Neverthelesse Magistrates and all good people must do their utmost within their bounds to further a 〈◊〉 a little otherwise then the Cardinals and Prelates of Rome whom Luther fitly compared to foxes that came to sweep a dusty house with their tailes and instead of sweeping the dust 〈◊〉 sweep it all about the house so making a great smoke for the time but when they were gon the dust falls all down again Verse 41. All things that offend Gr. All scandals pests botches blocks to others in the way to heaven Scandalum est reinon bonae sed malae exemplum aed 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 saith Tertullian Such were those proud contentious covetous Prelates in the Primitive Church that Ammianus Marcellinus stumbled and stormed at Such were those loose and ungirt Christians of whom Lactantius complaineth in his time that they dishonoured their profession to the scandall of the weak and the scorn of the wicked Such was Pope Clement the fifth who so ill governed the Church that Fridericke King of Sicily began to call the truth of Christian Religion into question and had fallen utterly off from it had he not been settled and satisfied by Arnoldus de Villa nova a learned man of those times Forasmuch as Christians the Papists he meant do eate the God whom they adore Sit anima 〈◊〉 cum Philosophis said Averoes the Mahometan let my soul be with the Philosophers rather Nothing more stumbleth that poor people the Iews and hindreth their conversion then the Idolatry of Papists and blasphemies of Protestants Oh that God would once cut off the names of those idols and cause the unclean spirit to passe out of the land according to his promise Zach. 13. 2 Fiat Fiat Verse 42. And shall cast 〈◊〉 into a furnace of fire Loe the good Angels are executioners of Gods judgements 〈◊〉 cannot be a better and more noble act then to do justice upon 〈◊〉 malefactors Howbeit at Rome they would not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common executioner to dwell within the City nay not so much as 〈◊〉 to be seen in it or draw breath in the aire of it 〈◊〉 was very strict in them and that was very just in God that 〈◊〉 which was executioner of 〈◊〉 Bayfield Bainham 〈◊〉 Lambert and other good men died rotting above ground 〈◊〉 that none could abide to come near him Verse 43. Then shall the righteous shine Those that have here lain among the pots smucht and sullied shall then outshine the Sunne in his strength Shine they shall in their bodies which shall be clarified and conformed to Christs most glorious body the standard Philip. 3. In their soules those spirits of just
in the same estate wherein they were before These that follow this latter sense read the text thus by an alteration of points Ye which have followed me shall in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in his glory fit upon twelve thrones c. Ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones As so many Kings Kings they are here but somewhat obscure ones as Melchisedech was but shall then appear with Christ in glory far outshining the Sunne in his strength higher then all the Kings of the earth When Daniel had 〈◊〉 the greatnesse and glory of all the four Monarchies of the world at last he comes to speak of a Kingdome which is the greatest and mightiest under the whole heaven and that is the Kingdom of the Saints of the most high So glorious is their estate even here what 〈◊〉 it be then at that great day And if the Saints every of them shall judge the Angells What shall the Apostles do surely as they 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 men in this world so shall it fare with them at the generall Judgement Verse 29. Shall receive an hundred sold In reference to Isaacks hundred-fold increase of his seed Gen. 26. 12. or that best of grounds Mat. 13 Those that do pillage us they do but husband us sow for us when they make long forrowes on our backs Psal. 126. and ride over our heads Psal. 66 12 Gordius the Mattyr said It is to my losse if you bate me any thing in my suffrings Crudelitas vestra nostra gloria said they in Tertullian your cruelty is our glory and the harder we are put to it the greater shall be our reward in heaven Nay on earth too the Saints shall have their losses for Christ recompensed either in mony or monies-worth either in the same or a better thing Iob had all doubled to him Valentinian for his tribuneship the Empire cast upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostate who had put him out of office for his religion Q. Elizabeth whose life 〈◊〉 a long while had been like a ship in the midst of an Irish sea after long restraint was exalted from misery to 〈◊〉 from a prisoner to a 〈◊〉 Optanda nimirum est jactura quae lucro majore pensatur saith Agricola It is 〈◊〉 a lovely losse that is made up with so great gain 〈◊〉 Q. Elizabeth forknown whiles she was in prison what a glorious raign she should have had for 44 years she would never have wished her self a milk maid So did but the Saints understand what great things abide them both here and hereafter they would bear any thing chearfully An hundred 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life hereafter On who would not then turn spirituall purchaser Well might St Paul say godlines is profitable to all things Well might the Psalmist say In doing in suffering thy will there is great reward Not for doing it only but in doing it for Righteousnes is its own reward St Mark hath it thus He that leaveth house brethren sisters father c. shall receive the same in kinde house brethren 〈◊〉 father c. That is 1. He shall have communion with God and his consolations which are better then them all as 〈◊〉 that Italian Marquesse that left all for Christ avowed them and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his City was taken by the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us to God Lord let me not be troubled at the losse of my gold and silver for thou art all in all unto me 2. He many times gives his suffering servants here such supplies of their outward losses in raising them up other friends and means as 〈◊〉 abundantly countervail what they have parted with Thus though David was driven from his wife and she was given to another God gave him a friend Jonathan whose love was beyond the love of women So though Naomi lost her husband and children Boaz 〈◊〉 and Obed became to her instead of all The Apostles left their houses and houshold-stuffe to follow Christ but then they had the houses of all godly people open to them and free for them and happy was that Lydia that could entertain them so that having nothing they yet possessed all things They left a few friends but they found 〈◊〉 more where ever they came Wherefore it was a 〈◊〉 sarcasme of Iulian the Apostate when reading this text he jearingly demanded whether they should have an hundred wives also for that one they had parted with 3. God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil they suffer for him as Ioseph of a slave became a ruler as Christ that was judged by men is Judge of all men The first thing that Caius did after he came to the Empire was to 〈◊〉 Agrippa who had been imprisoned for wishing him Emperour Constantine embraced Paphnutius and kissed his lost eye The King of Poland sent 〈◊〉 his enerall who had lost his hand in his warres a golden hand instead thereof God is far more liberall to those that serve him suffer for him Can any son of Iesse doe for us as he can Verse 30. But many that are first c Because Peter and the rest had called for their pay almost afore they had been at any pains for Chtist he therefore quickeneth them in these words bidding them bestir themselves better left others that are now hindermost should get beyond them and carry the crown Lay hold on eternall life saith Paul intimating that it is hanged on high as a garland so that we must reach after it strain to it So run that ye may obtain Look you to your work God will take care of your wages you need never trouble your selves about that matter CHAP. XX. Verse 1. For the Kingdom of heaven c. THat last sentence Christ further illustrateth and enforceth by this following parable Peter and the rest were in danger to be puffed up with the preconceit of their abundant reward 〈◊〉 chap. 19 28 29. This to prevent and that they might not stand upon their tearms and tiptoes they are again and again given to know that 〈◊〉 that are first shall be last and last first Which 〈◊〉 out early in the morning God is found of them that seek him not Isa 65. 1. Yea the Father seeketh such to worship him Ioh. 4. 23. he solliciteth suitours and servants A wonderfull condescension it is that he looketh out of himself upon the Saints and Angels in heaven Psal. 113. 6. How much more upon us poor earth-worms Labourers into his Vineyard Not loiterers Iacob saw the Angels some ascending others descending none standing still God hath made 〈◊〉 to play in the waters not so men they must be doing that will keep in with God Verse 2. For a penny a day Not for eternall life for this those murmuring merit-mongers never had who yet had their peny but something what ever it were that gave the labourers good content that it was for which each of them followed Christ
judgement of God are regested upon them Verse 25. His bloud be on us and on c. God said Amen to this woefull curse which cleaves close to them and their posterity as a girdle to their loins soaking as oil into their bones to this very day Psal. 109. 18 19. Thirty eight years after this fearfull imprecation in the same place and close by the same tribunall where they thus cried out His bloud be on us c. Historians tell us that Herod wanting money demanded of the Jews so much out of their treasury as would pay for the making of a water-course But the Jews supposing it a needlesse work not only denied him but gave many out-ragious and spitefull speeches tumultuously flockt about him and with great clamours prest upon him even as he was in his seat Whereupon to prevent mischief he sent to his souldiers to apparrel themselves like Citizens and under their gowns to bring with them a 〈◊〉 or ponyard and mingle themselves amongst the multitude which they did observing who they were that made the greatest uproar And when Herod gave the sign they fell upon them and slew a great multitude Many also for fear of losse or danger killed themselves besides others which seeing this massacre 〈◊〉 treason among themselves fell one upon another What a dispersed and despised people they are ever since exiled as it were out of the world by the common consent of all Nations for their inexpiable guilt See my True Treasure Chap. 7. Sect. 2. And beware by their example of wishing evil to our selves or others as our desperate God damn-me's do at every third word almost and God will undoubtedly take them at their words as he did those wretches that wished they might die in the wildernesse Numb 14. 28. As he did John Peters the cruell Keeper of Newgate in Queen Maries daies who commonly when he would affirm any thing were it true or false used to say If it be not true I pray God I rot ere I die and he had his desire So had Sir Gervaise Ellowaies Lieutenant of the Tower hang'd in our remembrance on Tower-hill for being 〈◊〉 to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury who being upon the Gallows confest it was just upon him for that he had oft in his playing at cards and dice wished That he might be hang'd if it were not so and so In the year 1551. the devil in a visible shape lifted up a cursing woman into the air in Germany and therehence threw her down in the view of many people and 〈◊〉 her neck Another brought her daughter to Luther entreating his praiers for her for that she was possessed by the devil upon her cursing of her For when she had said in a rage against her daughter Involet in 〈◊〉 diabolus The devil take thee he took possession of her accordingly The same Authour relateth a like sad story of a stubborn son cursed by his father who wished he might never stirre alive from the place he stood in and he stirred not for three years o. Cursing men are cursed men Alterius perditio tua sit cautio Seest thou another suffer shipwrack look to thy tackling Verse 26. And when he had scourged Jesus So 〈◊〉 satisfie their cruelty and move them if it might be to pity But though they relented not at the sight it 's fit we should Would it not grieve us at the heart if we should see the Kings son basely whipped by our adversaries only for our affairs Christ was scourged when we had offended that he might free us from the sting of conscience and those scourges and scorpions of eternall torments that he might make us a plaister of his own blessed bloud for by his stripes we are healed by the bloudy wails made upon his back we are delivered We hold it a thing almost beyond belief that the applying of medicines to the sword that wounded a man shall make the wounds heal in a man But here is a mystery that only Christian religion can tell of and of which there never was president in nature that the scourging and wounding of one man should cure another See the Note on Joh. 19. 1. Verse 27. Then the souldiers of the Governour Barbarous and brutish men skilfull to destroy Ezek. 21. 31. Let the young men arise and play before us said Abner 2 Sam. 2. 14. It is but a sport to souldiers to kill and put men to tormentfull ends At the taking of Tripolis in Barbary the Turkish souldiers having in their hands one John de Chabos a 〈◊〉 man born in Daulphine they brought him into the town and when they had cut off 〈◊〉 hands and nose they put him quick into the ground to the wast and there for their pleasure shot at him with their arrows and afterwards cut his throat What insolencies and cruelties they exercised upon our Saviour for our sakes even the whole band of them we should read with regret for our sins the weapons and instruments of all his sufferings and see thorow his wounds the naked bowels as it were of his love to our poor souls Verse 28. And they stripped him That we might be cloathed with the rich and royall raiment of 〈◊〉 righteousnesse that fleece of the Lamb of God who 〈◊〉 away c. And put on him a scarlet robe Ore worn and threed 〈◊〉 no doubt so to set him forth as an historicall King in 〈◊〉 of him but the Kingdom of Christ came not by observation He is an obscure King as Melchisedeeh was but yet a King as he told 〈◊〉 and this was that good confession witnessed by him and celebrated by S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 13. Verse 29. And when they had platted a crown c. Christ by wearing this crown of thorns the first-fruits of the curse took away the sin and curse of all his people who must therefore by their obedience set a crown of gold on his head Cant. 3. 11. as 〈◊〉 in his superstitious way 〈◊〉 his crown upon the crucifix See the Note on 〈◊〉 19 2. And a reed in his right-hand So do all those still that submit not to the scepter of his kingdom that give him not full 〈◊〉 over their souls Bowed the knee before him With ludibrious devotion So do hypocrites to this day King Richard the second when he was to be deposed was brought forth in royall array whereof he was presently despoiled Never was Prince so gorgeous with 〈◊〉 glory and more grief Verse 30. And they spit upon him So doth 〈◊〉 still cast dirt and drivell into Christs face See the 〈◊〉 on Chap. 26. 67. Robert Smith Martyr in his examination before Bonner made one of his Doctours to say that his breaden god must needs enter into the belly and so 〈◊〉 into the draught To which he answered What derogation was it to Christ when the Jews spit in his face Smith presently replied If the Jews being
will not such men say or do for mony Pecunia 〈◊〉 fecit forma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jamilla promissio temerarios saith Aretius Verse 13. Stole him away while we slept If it were so 1. Ye kept a good watch the while and wanted some 〈◊〉 to slay you for sleeping 2. If all asleep who told you his 〈◊〉 stole him did you sleep waking as lions do or did they make 〈◊〉 little noise that you never heard them about it as 〈◊〉 Francis Drake at Taur apasa in the West-Indies found a Spaniard sleeping securely upon the shore and by him thirteen wedges of silver which he commanded to be carried away not so much as once waking the man Surely here it was neither so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the devil who began at first his kingdom by lying and by lying still upholds it set these fellows awork to say as they were taught any thing for mony though never so absurd and false But mony got on this manner will prove aurum Tolosanum burn in thy purse and bring Gods curse upon all thy substance Verse 14. We will perswade him and secure you Hypocrites have enough if they can collogue with men and escape the lash of the law God is not in all their thoughts or they think they can perswade him and secure themselves Hence that overflow of sinne through hope of impunity and abundance of Atheisme Verse 15. So they took the mony So sequacious are such men to sinne where any thing is to be got by it Balaam will venture hard for the wages of wickednesse Set but a wedge of gold in sight and 〈◊〉 that could stop the Sun in his course cannot stay Achan from fingering it And this saying is commonly reported They were given up to beleeve this lye because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess. 2. 10. There are that sense it otherwise This saying is commonly reported that is this 〈◊〉 imposture of the Priests and souldiers wretchedly conspiring to cosen the world with such a base lye is sufficiently known for a peece of knavery and is so resented to this day Think the same of the Trent-conventicle carried by the Pope and his agents with so much finenesse c. but so as now all 's come out to their eternall infamy Verse 16. Went away into Galilee They had seen him twice or thrice before at Ierusalem yet took a long journey here into Galilee to see him again Whom having not seen ye love 1 Pet. 1. 8. Austins wish was to see Christum in carne But if we had known Christ after the flesh yet saith St Paul henceforth should we know him so no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. sith the comfortable presence of his spirit is better then his corporall presence and more to our benefit Ioh. 16. 7. By this it is that though now we see him not yet beleeving we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1. 8. and must not think much of a journey 〈◊〉 though it be not to a mountain in Galilee but to the heavenly hills from whence comes our help to see the King in his beauty Christum regem videre in decore suo which was Bedes wish Verse 17. They worshipped him but some doubted Even whiles they worshipped they doubted yet was not their worship rejected The Lord knoweth his still 2 Tim. 2. 19. But they know not him still as here in this text howbeit they are known of him Gal. 4. 9. and their whole way both known and approved Psal. 1. 6. Verse 18. All power is given to me Christ premiseth his power and promiseth his presence the better to perswade them to set upon his work his great work of subduing the world to the obedience of the faith Better may this King of Kings say then that King of Spain Sol mihi semper lucet for he is Catholike Monarch The kingdomes of this world and of the other too are become the kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and 〈◊〉 shall reign for ever and ever Revel 11. 15. As for the Saints how can they be but in an all-sufficiency sith all is theirs they being Christs and Christ being Gods what boldnesse may they take to go to Christ as Jacob did to Joseph when he understood that the sway of the whole land was in his hand c See the Note on Matth. 11. 27. Verse 19. Go yee therefore In this my strength as Gideon did against the Midianites and though but a barly cake course and contemptible yet shall ye overthrow the worlds tents yea the strong holds of Satan though you have but lamps and 〈◊〉 in your hands yet shall ye acheive great matters The Apostles were those white horses whereupon the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 went forth conquering and to conquer Britannorum 〈◊〉 Romanis loca Christo patuerunt saith 〈◊〉 The Burgundians much afflicted by the Hunnes sled to 〈◊〉 the God of the Christians whom after a long dispute they 〈◊〉 to be a great God and a great King above all Gods St Francis Drake tells us of twelve Martyrs burnt for Religion at Lima in Mexico not two moneths before his coming thither And he that set forth New-Englands first-fruits assures us of some of those Natives that being converted to the faith lived 〈◊〉 and died comfortably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all nations 〈◊〉 Disciple them make them Christians first and then teach them to observe c. vers 20. as in Baptisme they have promised for otherwise it was pity that font-water was ever spilt upon their faces In the kingdom of Congo in Afrike diverse of those Heathens by the 〈◊〉 of the Portugals arriving there were content to become Christians and to be baptized allowing of the principles of Religion and professing Christ till the Priests pressed them to lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case induring they returned back again to their Gentilisme As for the 〈◊〉 Converts in Mexico they so litle remember their covenant made with Christ in Baptisme that many times they forget 〈◊〉 very names soon after they have been baptized Baptizing them into the name of c. That is consecrating them unto the sincere service of the sacred 〈◊〉 and confirming them by this holy Sacrament in the faith of the forgivenesse of their sins and in the hope of life eternall This is the end use and efficacy of Baptisme which Piscator saith few of the Fathers rightly understood Those Popish Asles certainly did not who moved this foolish question An asinus bibens ex baptismo bibat aquam baptismi sic asinus dicendus sic baptisatus Pity but these questionites had been present when the young scollar reading publikely the fifth of the first of Corinthians for probation-sake at the Colledge of Bamberg when he came to that passage Expurgate vetus fermentum c. Sicut estis azymi He not understanding the word Azymi
Sun-shine-morning had a foul dismall evening Neseis quid serus 〈◊〉 vehat Thou knowest not what a great-bellyed day may bring forth 〈◊〉 crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Think every day the last day Verse 30. Even thus shall it be Security ushereth in destruction The Judge standeth before the door as is easie to foresee Watch therefore Verse 31. He which shall be on the house-top An hyperbolicall expression usuall among the Jewes to denote matter of haste Verse 32. Remember Lots Wife Who either out of curiosity or covetousnesse turnd her but and she was turned We are as hardly drawn off the world as a Dog from a fat morsell Those that set forth of Italy with Galeacius Marquesse of Vicum who left all for the liberty of conscience at Geneva many of them when they came to the borders of Italy and considering what they forsook first looked back afterward went back again and were taken by the Spanish Inquisition and made publikly to abjure the Christian religion Remember the horrible history of 〈◊〉 of old and the lamentable case of Spira alate said the Lady Jane Gray prisoner to Harding the Apostate Lege historiam saith one ne fias historia lege judicia ne fias exemplum 〈◊〉 Verse 37. Where Lord Or Whither Lord viz. shall they be taken of whom thou speakest To heaven saith he See the Note on Matt. 24. 28. Verse 38. There the Eagles Those vulturine Eagles that are said to fly two or three dayes before to the place where armies are to meet and carcases shall be CHAP. XVIII Verse 1. Alwaies to pray and not to faint GRaece Not shrink back as Sluggards in work or Cowards in Warre Prayer should be redoubled and reinforced as those Arrowes of deliverance 2. Kings 13. 19. The woman of Canaan prayes on when denyed And Jacob holds with his hands when his thigh is lamed He wrestled with slight and might he raised dust as the word signifies and would not away without a blessing James surnamed the Just Christs Kinsman had his knees made as hard as Camels knees with much praying as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father Latimer during his imprisonment was 〈◊〉 constant and instant in prayer that oftt 〈◊〉 he was not able to 〈◊〉 off his knees without help Yea Paulus Emilius being to fight with Perses King of Macedony would not give over 〈◊〉 to his God Hercules till he saw certain arguments of a victory As loathing of meat saith a Divine and painfulnesse of speaking are two symptomes of a sick body so irksomnesse of 〈◊〉 and carelesnesse of hearing of a sick soule Verse 2. Which feared not God nor regarded man These two 〈◊〉 of God and shame of the world God hath given to men as 〈◊〉 to restraine them from outrage But sinne hath oaded such 〈◊〉 impudency in some mens faces that they dare do any thing Verse 3. Avenge me of mine adversary A downright request without either Logick or Rhetorick to set it forth or inforce it to each us that though our prayers be but blunt or broken language if importunate they shall prevaile neverthelesse Verse 4. And he would not for a while There is a passive injustice Non 〈◊〉 nocens sed 〈◊〉 fuit saith Ausonius of Claudius Not to do justice is injustice Verse 5. She weary me Gr. She buffet me or club me down God must be pressed in prayer till we put him as you would say to the blush or leave a blot in his face unlesse we may be masters of our requests Verse 6. 7. Heare what the unjust Judge saith Hic paria non inter se conferuntur sed minus cum majore saith Beza Verse 7. Though he bare long with them When they are at the 〈◊〉 most under When their enemies are above feare and they below hope when there is not faith in Earth to beleeve then are there bowels in Heaven to releive and restore them Verse 8. Shall he finde faith upon earth God oft staies so long till the Saints have done looking for him when they have forgot their prayers c. he comes as it were out of an engine Verse 9. That they were righteous and despised others Pray to be preserved from this perillous pinacle of self exaltation Verse 10. The one a Pharisee A Doeg may set his foot as far and further within the Sanctuary as a David The Pharisee and Publican went both of them up to private prayer Verse 11. God I thank thee Non vulnera sed muner a 〈◊〉 he shewes not his want but his worth and stands not only upon his comparisons but upon his disparisons I am not as this Publican No for thou art worse yea for this because thou thinkest thee better But of Pharisees it might be said as Arnobius did of the Gentiles Apud vos optimi censentur quos 〈◊〉 pessimorum 〈◊〉 facit They are very good that are not very bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pride wears a triple crown with this motio Tra. 〈◊〉 Non obedio 〈◊〉 This Pharisee held himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all others a 〈◊〉 only as Basil of 〈◊〉 hath it He takes his poor counter and sets it down for a Thousand pounds he prizeth himself above the market Verse 12. I fast twice a week Cardinall Bellarmine did more for he fasted thrice a week saith he that writes his life John Arch-Bishop of 〈◊〉 he who first affected the stile of Universall Bishop was sirnamed Nesteutes from his frequent fasting Munday and Thursday were the Pharisees fasting-dayes because Moses went up to the Mount on a Thursday and came down on a Munday saith 〈◊〉 Verse 13. 〈◊〉 upon his breast In token of indignation and that he would have smitten his sin so hard if he could have come at it God be mercifull c. Here was much in few The Publican 〈◊〉 much though he spake little As a body without a soul much wood without fire a bullet in a gun without powder so are words in prayer without spirit Oratio brevis penetrat caelum The hottest springs send forth their waters by ebullitions Verse 14. Justified rather then the other The Pharisee was not at all justified Neither is there More or Lesse in justification But our Saviour here useth a popular kind of expression Verse 18. And a certain Ruler Saint Mark saith that this Ruler came running which argues his earnestnesse and in a man of quality was 〈◊〉 for such walk softly for most part and in state Verse 22. Yet lackest thou one thing Yea all things But our Saviour speaketh thus by an holy irony Verse 25. It is 〈◊〉 for a 〈◊〉 Caveant ergi divites saith an Interpreter solicitè mane vesperi interdiù noctu secum de periculosa vitae suae atione commententur Let rich men therefore weigh their danger and beware Verse 34. And they understood none c. Prejudicate opinions of Christs earthly kingdom