great benefits that this good God had done unto them First Moses tells you They waxed fat and then they kicked as we lately did and forsook God that made them and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation They provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and moved him to anger with their abominations They sacrificed to Devils and not to God to Gods that they knew not that came newly up whom their fathers feared not which was and is the fruit of every new Religion as of late dayes we have fully seen amongst us And then as they forsook God that formed them so presently they rebelled against his servants they muttered and murmured and rejected all their Governours and as the Psalmist saith They angred Moses in their tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord for these two to forsake God and to rebel against their Governours do always go together And if you look into the foresaid sixteenth Chapter of Ezekiel you shall see how the Prophet sheweth their wickedness and how they have multiplied their abominations above measure and as many of us over-wickedly and unjustly seeking to make our children great in this world do bring them unto the Devil in the world to come Ezech. 16.21 so did they slay their children and cause them to pass through the fire and as the Psalmist saith Ps 106.37 They offered their sons and their daughters unto Devils and the Lord himself assureth us that Sodom had not done so wickedly as they had done Ezek. 16.48.51 and Samaria had not committed half of their sins And what an intolerable ingratitude was this The most monstrous thing that ever was not possibly to be described quia dixeris maledicta cuncta cum ingratum hominem dixeris because thou sayest all the evils that can be said when thou namest an ungrateful man especially to God that hath done such great things for us For we read of many bruit beasts that for small benefits have been very thankful unto men as of the Dog that for a peice of bread will follow and be ready to die for his Master and the Lion that for pulling a thorn out of his foot preserved the slave that did it from all the beasts of the forrest and afterwards his life on the Theatre in Rome and Primauday tells us of an Arabian infidel that being taken prisoner and afterwards set at liberty by Baldwin King of Jerusalem in token of his thankfulness for that favour Pet. Prim. c. 40. p. 431. he went to him by night into a Town where he was retired after he had lost the field and declared to him the purpose of his companions and conducted him until he had brought him out of all danger And when bruit beasts and Pagans are thus thankful unto us shall man be unthankful unto God No no He should be truly thankful And Seneca saith there be four special conditions of true thankfulness 1. Grate accipere to receive it thankfully 2. Nunquam oblivisci Never to forget it for he can never be thankful that hath forgotten the benefit 3. Ingenue fateri per quem profecerimus Four conditions of true thankfulness ingeniously to acknowledge by whom we are profited 4. Pro virili retribuere to requite the benefit received in the best manner that we are able But this people scarce observed any one of them I am sure not the second and therefore not possibly the third and fourth for the Prophet David tells us plainly that after the Lord had shewed his tokens among them and his wonders in the land of Ham and had brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and had given them the lands of the Heathen Is 105.42 43 so that they did as many have done amongst us to take the labours of the people in possession Ps 106.13 Yet within a while they did as we do forget his works and would not abide his counsel V. 21. yea they forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham and fearful things by the Red-sea But to let this people pass that were destroyed for their unthankfulness let us look unto our selves and have our eyes behind us to behold and see First What God hath done for us And What God did for us the people of these dominions Amos 3.2 Secondly What we have done for the honour and service of God And First As the Lord said of the Jews You onely have I chosen of all the families of the earth so I believe the Lord may justly say of our Kings dominions that he shewed more love and favour unto them then he did to any other Kingdom of the World for whatsoever good he did to others he did the same to us And he shewed two more signal favours to us then he did to any other Kingdome of all Christendome As I. He raised the good Emperour Constantine the Son of Helen out of Britaine to close up the days of persecution and shut the doors of the Idol-Temples II. When the mysts of ignorance and errors and superstition had covered and overshadowed almost all the Church of Christ God sent successively no less then five such excellent Protestant Princes King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the I. and II. as no other Kingdom had the like to protest against all the Popish errours and superstition and to make such a perfect reformation of Religion that both for Doctrine and Discipline no Church in Christendom is so purely and so perfectly established as these Churches of our Kings dominions are such love and such mercies of God to us as exceeded all the blessings of the earth and shewed to no other Nation of the world in such a measure but to this And what reward I pray you What requital have we rendred unto God have we and our people rendred unâ—o God for those great unparalell'd benefits that he hath done unto us I do profess I have been a man ever faithful to my King and ever fearless of all the dangers of the world and therefore I must say the truth as Saint Steven told the Jews though I should fare as Saint Steven did that as they were a stiff-necked people that have always resisted the Holy Ghost and persecuted the Prophets and been the traytors and murderers of Christ so have the major part of us shewed themselves a rebellious Nation that confederated to assist the Devil to requite Gods extraordinary signal favour to us with extraordinary signal contempt of Gods service and signal malice to all his servants above any other nation of the World by raising out of us and bringing in amongst us the great Anti-Christ that is the great enemies of Christ you know whom * The Long Parliament to slay the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which were Cohors Magistratuum Chorus Prophetarum 1. the best and blessed King Charles the First that
and rooted out his whole off spring And I could spend my whole hour in examples of this kinde but I will content my self with two or three As 1. Of Ferdinando the fourth King of Castiâ—e Ferdinando who did most unjustly condemn two Knights to death and one of them cryed O thou unjust Judge we do cite thee to appear within thirty dayes before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ to receive judgement for thine injustice and so upon the last of those days he dyed to receive his sentence according to his summons And one Lapparel a Provost of Paris Lapparel caused a poor man that was prisoner in the Chastilet to be executed by giving him the name of a rich man who being guilty and condemned was set at liberty in the place of the poor man but the just judgment of God discovered his injustice and being accused and condemned he was hanged for his labour and so Philip King of Macedon was killed by Pausanias a mean Gentleman Philip Macedo Demetrius because he denied to do him justice against Antipater that had wronged him and Demetrius for throwing the petitions of his subjects into the River and denying to do them justice they all forsook him and Pyrrhus took away his Kingdome And many other men I could name to you that their injustice hath undone them And therefore all men should take heed of committing this horrible sin of injustice either by doing wrong or denying right unto others The injustice of some Judges And yet I am ashamed to speak it though I shall not be affraid to write it how gravely some Judges have sate upon the seat of judgment to pronounce unrighteous judgments and think to cover all their iniquity with the fig-leaves of the formalities of their Lawes to overthrow the reality of justice Oh beloved Monstrum horrendum ingens est it is a most horrible thing to have injustice done from the seat and from the Ministers of justice when a man is apparently wronged oppressed and expulsed out of house and home and shall with a deale of travel and a great deale of expences come to a Court of justice to be righted and instead of being redressed he shall see there scelus sceleribus tectum his former wrongs finely handled and loaded with far greater wrongs Do you think that this is well pleasing unto God or that such injustice shall escape unpunished no no for they shall finde that there is a God which judgeth the earth and that his judgment will be according to truth without partiality either to Jew or Gentile which here among men I see is not so But as I read that Diogenes seeing some petty thieves led to the place of execution laughed exceedingly and being demanded why he laughed he answered to see the great thieves lead the little thieves to the Gallowes so if he should see men forcibly expelled out of their possessions and the forcible entrers legally acquitted or if he should see the poor Irish Catholicks driven out of house and home either because they were Irish rebels which justly deserved it or because they were Romish Catholicks which should not therefore be destroyed and should see the great English Sectaries that had been greater rebels countenanced and magnified and to injoy the others Lands and Livings would he not laugh at this justice which is just like that which we read of in l. 1. of Philip Commines when Charelois lost the Feild and his Captains and their Troopers fled away he gave the offices and places of them that fled ten leagues to those that had fled twenty leagues beyond them Therefore I say to you whom God and the King have made Judges of these things for the settlement of this Kingdome As you have done hitherto so still ride on with your honour and have no respect of Persons nor of Nation nor of Religion but do that which is just and righteous in the sight of God and as God hath blest you and preserved you hitherto so he will still bless you and preserve you for evermore And for the preservation of better justice then I see in many places I shall speak more of it in another place and after another manner for you may be sure that Kingdome shall never be happy where oppression is frequently used and iniquity protected by injustice and especially by the Courts of Justice And therefore to the end that true justice might be truly observed I could wish the Parliament would make some Acts Lawes against many abuses practised by some cunning Lawyers in the very Courts of Justice The abuse of some cunning Lawyers in quashing of Indictments and especially against the frequent and abusive quashing of Indictments which is a sin of no slender malignity â—or when a poor man far from the fountain is by violence oppressed and he indicts his oppressors then presently comes a Certiorari and removes it to the Kings Bench and there the Lawyers are so skilfull in the tricks and quiddities of the Law and the Cases of John A-Nokes and John A-Stiles that they say there can hardly be any indictment framed but they are able to finde a flaw to quash it which I was told by great Lawyers And what a wrong is this to his Majesty in his fines what an injury to the poor men that are oppressed and what incouragement to all those wicked men that are so ready to offer all violence unto their neighbours which are not able to indict the same offendors three or four times over till they shall finde a man able to draw a faultless indictment And if this be not a greivous greivance worthy to be redressed if you desire the preservation of justice judge you And therefore it were good that some better way were devised for the framing of Indictments or the not quashing of them so easily and so frequently as they are reported to be 4. Sacriledge 4. The last frequent sin that I shall at this time desire you to cast your eyes behinde you to behold Gods detestation of it and his punishments that he poureth out upon the offenders is sacriledge which is the taking away and with-holding of those Revenues which God hath appointed and godly men have dedicated for the maintenance of Gods service and the religion of Jesus Christ and so the robbing of God himself both of his honour and service a sin so general that the custome of it hath quite taken away the sense of it and men think it to be no sin at all But I know what some may here say that now I plead mine own cause 1 Sam. 12.3 I will briefly answer as Samuel did unto the people and I say that I sued indeed for the Church right but I testifie before the Lord and your Grace and you All that I did it not to inrich my self for I thank God I have enough both for my self and my relation wife children and friends but I did it for the
oves gently and lovingly like sheep as he did the Israelites by the hands of Moses and Aaron And Psal 99.1 2. Seeing Christ is King then as the same Prophet saith contremiscat populus let the people tremble for if they fall to be unruly as we were of late let them be never so impatient this King can as easily gather unto himselfe the spirit of his under-Princes as we can slip a cluster of Grapes from a Vine and he can send them a Rehoboam without Wisedome or a Jeroboam without Religion or Ashur a Stranger an Vsurper as we have had to be our King or nullum Regem no King at all but a disordered Anarchy which is the worst of all Psal 10.4 and all this quia non timuerunt Jehovam because they cared not for God neither was God in all their thoughts But to end this Point seeing Christ our King is this Lion here mentioned we need not fear our spiritual enemies for though he be a Lion and a roaring Lion that is against us yet you see we have a Lion with us and as Saint John saith he that is in us is greater then he that is in the world 1 John 4. and is stronger then the strong man armed and able as the Apostle saith Rom. 16.20 Vide the abridgment of the Gospel fol. 26. 27. to tread and bruise Satan under our feet and therefore we ought to stand fast in the Lord without fear because as Saint Chrysostome well saith non debet timere hostem fortem qui habet Regem fortiorem he need not fear the strongest enemy that hath a stronger King as our King is blessed be God for it 2. Saint Luke is understod by the Calf 2. as Saint Matthew is here understood by the Lion quia solet res quae significat ejus rei nomine quam significat nuncupari as the bread that signifieth the body of Christ is termed the body of Christ because he proveth Christ to be the King of the Jews and that Lion of Juda which was so long expected to come into the world so for the like reason Saint Luke is here to be understood by the Calf because he principally aimed to prove Christ that is signified by the Calf to be that Priest of whom the Lord sware thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck For I told you before that of all the sacrifices of the four footed Beasts of the Herds which the Hebrews called bakar that is majores hostias the greater sacrifices the Calf was most acceptable unto God as the Prophet sheweth Psal 51.19 Heb. 9.19 Exod. 24 8. Esay 11.6 7. when they offered yong bullocks id est goodly Calfs upon his altar And the reason is because the Calf is meeker and more gentle then either of the rest in regard of which meekness the quiet and peaceable man is metaphorically called a Calf And therefore by the Calf is here signified the Priestly office of Christ whereby he offered up himself as a meek and immaculate Calf unto God that by the blood of this Calf we might be sprinkled and purged from all our sins because that without shedding of bloud there is no remission Heb. 9.22 as the Apostle speaketh And of all the rest of the Evangelists Saint Luke onely doth most specially aime to prove Christ to be a Priest and to shew his Priestly office for both the Alpha and Omega of his Gospel is concerning the Temple and the sacrifices thereof when as he beginneth the same with the Priesthood of Zacharias and his sacrifice of incense and endeth the same with the sacrifice of the Christians that were continually in the Temple praysing and blessing God Luc. 24.53 For though that before the birth of this Priest the other Priests were to burn incense in the Temple of the Lord as Zacharias did yet this Priest being now born and ascended up to heaven the sacrifice that the Christians are to offer unto God is to be continually praysing and landing God in the Temple as Saint Luke saith the Apostles did For the true propitiatory sacrifice being exhibited the Types and Figures thereof must now cease and be abolished and in the place thereof the gratulatory sacrifice must be established And therefore Saint Luke beginneth his Gospel with the propitiatory sacrifice of Zaâ—harias because Christ was not as yet incarnate John 1. but he endeth the same with the gratulatory sacrifice of the Apostles because that now the word was made flesh and Christ had ascended into Heaven S. Luke proveth Christ to be a Priest by 3 special Arguments And lest this should not be sufficient to demonstrate Christ to be a Priest he proceedeth to prove him to be that Priest which was after the order of Melchisedech by three other special Arguments 1. A Prosapia from his Pedegree 2. From the true qualities and properties of a Priest 3. From the performance of the duties and office of a Priest 1 Argument from his Pedegree 1. In that St. Luke deriveth his Genealogy by Nathan S. Ambrose saith it was to shew his Priestly office and Venerable Bede saith that because Saint Matthew intended to shew the Regal office of Christ and St. Luke his Priestly office therefore St. Matthew derives his person from King Solomon Beda l. 1. in c. 3. Luc. and St. Luke from Nathan and so saith he in the Chariot of the Cherubims the Lion which is the strongest of all Beasts designs his Kingly office and the Calf which was the sacrifice of the Priest denotates his Priestly function and saith he Eandem uterque sui operis intentionem in genealogia quoque salvatoris texenda observavit And both the Evangelists in like manner observed the same intention of their work in setting down the genealogy of our Saviour And then immediatly he addeth two excellent Observations to confirm the same point As 1 Observation 1. That in the manner of setting down his genealogie S. Matthew descended from Abraham to Joseph Beda ibid. to note his Kingly office and to shew that he partaked with us of our mortality but S. Luke by ascending from Joseph unto Adam and so to God doth rather design his Priestly office in expiating our sins and so bringing us to immortality And therefore in the descending generations of S. Matthew the taking upon Christ our sins is signified but in the ascending genealogies of S. Luke the abolition of our sins is noted unto us For so the Apostle saith God sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh there is the acception and the taking of our sins upon him and for sin or by the sacrifice for sin Rom. 8.3 condemned sin in the flesh there is the expiation of our sins And 2. To the same purpose he observeth 2 Observation that S. Matthew in his genealogie descended from David by Solomon with whose mother David sinned but S. Luke ascended by
They should be content with their wages but they should therefore have their wages and how should they have their wages if the Superiour officers defraud the inferiour Souldiers or the close-handed people detain their taxes I know not where the fault is if there be any but I know his Majesty and his Immediate Governours would have all things done with uprightness and according to the Dictate of right reason But to leave these and the like unreasonable men that do these and the like things without reason 4. They should be endued with the properties of the Eagle 4. We should all be like the flying Eagle and the chiefest properties of the Eagle are 1. A sharp sight 2. A lofty flight And both these are expressed in the Book of the Righteous Job 39.32 where the Lord demandeth of Job Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high She dwelleth and abideth en the Rock 1 The sharp sight of the Eagle upon the crag of the Rock and the strong place there is her lofty flight then he proceedeth and saith From thence she seeketh the prey and her eyes behold afar off there is her sharp sight and of this sharpness of sight Saint Augustine saith How sharp our sight should be in spiritual things that being aloft in the clouds she can discern Sub frutice leporem sub fluctibus piscem Under the shrubs an hare and under the waves a fish Even so should we that profess Religion especially we that are the Ministers of God should have Eagles eyes to see the Majesty of God in a bramble-bush Exod. 3.2 like Moses to discern the presence of Christ with us in the fiery furnace Dan. 3.25 like Abednego to behold an Army of Angels ready to defend us in our straightest siege 2 Reg. 6.17 like Elizaus and to consider the assistance of God to help us when we are molested and compassed with the greatest heaps of afflictions Rom. 8.18 like the holy Apostle St. Paul The worldly mans quick sight But this the children of this Generation cannot doe for though the understanding of the worldly man which Nazianzen calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eyes and lamp of reason be piâ—rcing sharp and cunning enough to make a large shekel and a small Epha Amos 8.5 Luke 12.56 and very well able to discern the alterations of the skyes as our Saviour witnesseth yea and to enter like Aristotle into the secrets of nature and the deepness of Satan to finde out the plots and practices of his craftyest instruments yet being but a meer natural man he cannot perceive the things that be of God 1 Cor. 2.14 as the Apostle sheweth neither can his understanding reach any further then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as may be manifested by demonstration as St. Clement saith For If you talk of Christ's conception in the wombe of a pure Virgin without the help of a man then the Heathen His dimness and blindeness in spiritual things like Sarah laugheth at it and the wise Philosopher as being in darkness stumbleth at it and cannot conceive how this thing can be If you talk of Christ's death and say that our God should dye and by his death procure to us eternal life then the Jews will storm at our folly and the Grecians count it a meer madness and a great reproach to our Religion And if you talk of his glory and power that being dead and buryed he should raise himself again and now reign as a King of Kings in Heaven then the children of infidelity deem it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feigned thing The reason of the worldly mans blindeness And the reason thereof is rendred by St. Augustine that as the eye of man if it be either blinde or purblinde cannot thereby discern the clearest object even so saith he animus pollutus aut mens turbata a soul defiled with sin or a minde disturbed with worldly cares can neither see God that is present with him nor understand the things of God that belong unto him Yet the spiritual man that hath the Eagles eyes The spiritual mans quick sight which Philo calleth fidem oculatam faith enlightened by Gods spirit can discern all the deep things of God even the most excellent mystery of godliness which is as the Apostle saith God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels 1 Tim. 3.16 preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory For in the unspeakable birth of Christ the Eagles eye doth behold a divine miracle in his accursed death it seeth a glorious victory and in his return from death it conceiveth an assured hope of everlasting life 2. The lofty flight of the Eagle 2. The next Property of the Eagle is her lofty flight for the Poets feign that the Eagle fled up to Heaven and laid there her eggs in Jupiter's lap and the Prophet Esay alludeth to her lofty flight when he saith that those which wait upon God shall renew their strength Esay 40. ult and shall lift up their wings as the Eagles Jerem. 49.16 but Jeremiah goeth on further and saith that the Eagles do build their nests on high and yet Ezechiel goeth beyond them both for he saith that the great Eagle with great wings long-winged full of feathers which had diverse colours came unto Lebanon Ezech. 17.3 and took the highest branch of the Cedar where you see she takes first the highest tree and then the highest branch of that tree I know it was a Vision that shewed the state of Jerusalem but yet you may see thereby the lofty flight of the Eagle So St. John flew as high as Heaven to begin his Gospel and so we considere debemus in coelis ought to have our mindes set not on the fooleries and vanities of this world Ephes 2.6 but on heavenly things and heavenly places that Esay 58.14 being mounted up super altitudines terrae above all the high places of the earth as the Prophet speaketh we may behold all the things of this world to be tanquam muscas but as gnats and flyes or like the spiders web that though it be never so curiously woven yet will it make no garment for us and so all the titles of honour to be but folia venti the windy blasts of a fleshly pair of bellows too weak an air to carry up a noble Eagle How to deem of all worldly things all the pleasures of this world to be but lilia agri like the lilies of the field that are more delectable in shew then durable for continuance and all the allectives under heaven to be but vanity of vanities and altogether vanities For thus by a contemplation and continual consideration of heavenly things it would appear unto us quam abjecta sunt que jam alta videntur how base are all the
reprobation and the like we should say with the Prophet David Ps 77.19 thy way is in the sea thy patches in the great waters and thy foot steps are not known And so when we can not see the reason of his judgments why this man prospereth and that man is punished and as Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad Ï€. Annuit hoc illi divum pater abnuit illud Why he giveth this thing and denyeth that thing why he raiseth this man throweth down that man we should cry out with the Apostle O the deepness of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayâ— past finding out And therefore least as they say Pliny burnt himself in Mount Aetna by searching too far into the cause of its continual burning and Aristotle drowned himself in the sea of Oseria by diving too deep into the causes of its extraordinary flowing So our eyes should be dazled wi h the brightness of Gods presence and our selves swallowed up in his bottomless counsels we should not presume to look too fully upon so glorious a Majesty we should not dive too far into the depth of those bottomless mysteries but as these heavenly beasts and the holy Cherubims did cover their faces with two of their wings So should we because we are no ways able to dive into the depth of them But as the Poet can say to every boy Mitte arcana Dei caelumque inquirere quid sit That the secrets of State ought not to be pried into by the vulgar people So you must know that besides arcana Dei there are also mysteria imperii secrets of State which we must not search into but with these beasts cover our faces with two of our wings for if there were no government both in the Church and Common-wealth but Anarchy and as the Poet saith Totaque discors All things in confusion We were in a worse condition then the bruit beasts For they are governed by the law of strength when the weakest must yield and obey the stronger as all the beasts unto the Lion the fowles unto the Eagle and the fishes unto the Whale But God ordered that men indeed with reason should be guided and governed by Lawes not onely those that he delivered himself but also those that are made by the wisest of men as Moses Solon Lycurgus and the like Kings and Princes and their under-Magistrates to rule and to govern the people according to their Lawes and this government is a matter of great weight and moment And therefore the Prophet saith that Christ his government is upon his shoulders Esay 9.6 not in his hand or at the armes end but upon his shoulders which are the bearing members of all heavy things and government requires not onely strength and strong shoulders to bear it but also wisdome and a good head to guide it because it is ars artium gubernare populum it is one of the hardest things in the World and the chiefest of all arts to govern the people especially when turba begins to be turbata multitudo that is wayward and froward And therefore the Prophet David compareth the government of the unruly people to the appeasing of the raging seas saying unto God Thou stillest the rage of the sea Hovv hard a thing it is to gove n the unruly people and the noyse of his waves and the madness of the people And this madness of the people requires grave Judges and wise Lawyers that can truly interpret the Lawes and judg all differences according to Law which otherwise would be made like a nose of wax to be turned which way you will And least their madness should stop the current both of the Law and Religion too and so destroy both the learned Lawyers that preserve our right and without whom we were not able to live in the Common-wealth and the Preachers of the Gospel that maintain Religion without with we were most miserable as of late years they intended to do The Kings and Princes that are the governours of the people must maintain soldiers and Captaines to suppress their madness and to â—â—eserve peace and religion both in the Church and Common-wealth And therefore the soldiers as I shewed not long since are not to be slighted but to be cherished and satisfyed for their wages that as John Baptist saith they may be contented therewith and not forced through want to oppress the people And seeing all these things and abundance more of like sort that are requisite for the government of the people can not be done without a great deale of counsel and wisedome and pollicy and strength and power and the like it is not for the common vulgars to steale fire out of Heaven to search out the reasons and to prie into the causes and all the actions of their Superiours but as the maxime of all wise men is curabit praelia Conon let the secrets of the Prince be to the Prince and as the Medes said to Deioces whâ—n they chose him to be their King do thou what thou wilt about the government of us both in war and peace and we will obey thy commands and follow our husbandry our trades and our occasions Josh 1.16 and as the Jewes likewise said to Joshua All that thou commandest as we will do and whâ—ther soever thou sendest us we will go and whâ—soever he be that dâ—th rebel against thy commandment in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death so should we and all other people study to be quiet as the Apostle speaketh and to follow their vocation and to learn obedience which is better then sacrifice and never to be so curious and censorious as to prie into the secrets and to condemn the actions of their Governours but rather with the Cherubims and these Beasts to cover their faces with two of their wings And as they ought to do this about the secrets of State The Church affairs ought to be leâ—t to the disposal of Aaron and the Priests so they should do the like about the Church affairs which they should leave to Aaron and the Priests to dispose of and not with the men of Beth-shemesh to prie into the Arke of the Lord 1 Sam. 6.19 lest they suffer as they did when the Lord smote fifty thousand threescore and ten men for their curiosity in prying into the secrets of the Church For what have Lay-men to do with the ordering of holy things that the Lord God hath committed unto the Priests Ne Sutor ultra crepidam said Apelles The Shoemaker must not touch the thigh Vnless his art doth reach so high And will they order things in the Church of God that have so much disorder in their own house and can not tell how to mend it therefore they ought rather to hide their faces with two of their wings then to prie into the Government of the
and humbly pray to God to grant us these eyes with these beasts continually to behold and to consider all these things that we may escape the dreadful doom of the wicked and attain to everlasting happiness through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and onely Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen THE FOURTH SERMON REVEL 4.8 And they rest not or ceased not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come AFTER that the holy Evangelist had described these Beasts he sets down their practice and the exercise that they used Touching which we are to consider 1. Their Constancy They ceased not or rest not day and night 2. Their Harmony saying Holy holy holy c. The which Harmony consisteth of six special parts That is 1. The mystery of the Trinity of persons in the Vnity or one essence of the Deity 2. The sanctity purity and equity of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. The power authority and dominion of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The knowledge sight and providence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. The strength and omnipotence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. The continuance and eternity of God in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And these six Points cannot well and fully be explained by any humane wit they all and every one of them being as God is ineffable and incomprehensible And therefore as Synefius saith as the Geographers use to draw the great Vniverse and Compass of the world in a little Map so I can speak and express but very little of these great and unspeakable Attributes of the great God 1. For their constancy in the service of God it is said they ceased not day nor night to sing this heavenly harmony saying Holy holy holy Lord God c. and it was not wearisome unto them continually to praise his glorious Names but it was rather their whole joy and felicity to glorifie their God and to magnifie him for ever for they are so satisfied with the sight of his presence the beatical Vision of God and so ravished with the love of his Majesty that they can never leave to praise him And this should teach all the Saints of God to be like these beasts and to do the like to be never weary of well doing but to be like King Therons Horses that as Pindarus saith were never weary of running so should the Servants of God be never weary of serving God but to continue constant in the performance of the duties of their profession night and day without ceasing because as St. Bernard saith Bern. Epist 129. Absque perseverantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec victores palmam consequuntur without perseverance and continuance in well doing neither can they that fight obtain the victory nor the Victors get the Garland of honour for to triumph And St. Augustine saith He doth not truly believe in Christ that doth not continue constant in his profession unto the end Quia credere vere Aug. tract 106. in Joh. est credere inconcusse firme stabiliter fortiter ut jam ad propria non redeas clam relinquas because that to believe truly is to believe without wavering firmly and strongly so that you return not to your carnal and worldly desires and leave the things of Jesus Christ And therefore the Prophet David describing the blessed man Psal 1.1 2. saith He will not only withhold himself from walking in the counsel of the ungodly and from standing in the way of sinners and from sitting in the seat of the scornful but his delight is also in the Law of the Lord and in his Law will he exercise himself both day and night and so the Lord saith unto Joshua Let not this Book of the Law depart out of thy mouth but meditate therein both day and night that thou mayst observe and do all according to that is written therein Whereby you may see that perseverance and continuance in Gods service and preferring the duties of our calling is not to be done by fits but alwayes and especially without ceasing Alexand. Hal. secund 2. in tract de apostat without apostacy which is Temerarius à statu fidei vel religionis recessus a starting aside like a broken bow from that faith obedience and profession that we have formerly made How men relapse from their duties And such a one was Ammonius Alexandrinus the Master of Origen that being bred a Christian from his childhood and applying himself wholly to Philosophy did quite forsake the orthodoxal Faith And so Ecebelius at the first was a zealous Christian and in the reign of Julian a great persecutor of the Christians and after his death he became a Christian again and for his apostacy cried out and casting himself to the ground at the Church-porch Socrat. l. 3. c. 13. said Calcate me salem insipidum O tread upon me as upon unsavoury salt And how many men have we that like Ecebolius were very loyal and faithful Subjects and good Protestants in the time of Charles the first and when they saw the power of the Parliament increasing they became arrant Rebels and Traytors against their King and amphibolous in their Religion and within a while when God did cut in pieces that gâ—rdian knot and scattered those Rebels like a summers Cloud Who seem more faithful to Charles the second then these Schollers of Ecebolius that ever whirled with the strongest wind and yet they do not with Ecebolius fall down to the earth and cry out with him in true repentance Calcute nos salem insipidum but most of them jet it up and down in pride and shew themselves rather like the Borussians that being perswaded by Boleslaus Crispus King of Poland to imbrace the Christian faith What the Borusâ—ians did Cromerus lib. 6. within a while after renounced the same and told their Prince Se omnia ejus imperata excepta religione facturos they would be obedient to him in all things but only in the profession of his Religion for so these men profess themselves now to be good Subjects but they cannot endure our Ecclesiastical discipline and our Church service And therefore seeing many men do relapse with the Borussians from the true profession of faith or serve God by fits like those that are taken with the fits of an Ague or be like the Laodiceans neither hot nor cold and that we ought to be like these beasts serving God and discharging our duries without ceasing it behoveth us to preach in season and out of season and to do as we are required by the Lord himself Cry aloud ne cesses and give not over but lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions Esay 58.1 and the house of Jacob their
that afterwards came to be Lord Chancellour Coventrie Sic me servavit Apollo So that Jehova saved me to whom I have committed my self ever since and vowed I would praise him and thank him and do him the best service that I could while I lived as I shewed in an Epistle before the seven golden Candlesticks Then immediately after this being then about twenty seven years old I went to Cambridge and though my former troubles wasted my means being by reason of the former accusations of mine enemies suspended by the Bishop of London and driven to be released by an appeal to the Prerogative Court yet I took my degree Bachelour of Divinity and returning to London I presently petitioned to my Lord of Canterbury Abbats whom ever after I found my very gracious Lord and to my Lord Chancellour Egerton whom I found so likewise and shewed them the great wrongs and abuses to my utter ruine that I had suffered from the Bishop of London and those bloudy persecutors without any shadow or colour of truth in any of all their Accusations and they presently pitying my case gave me the Parsonage of Llan-Llechyd worth to me a 100 li. per annum a better Rectory than that which mine enemies caused the Bishop of London to take from me that was rightly presented to it by the Earl of South-hampton But sicut unda sequitur undam so one affliction comes in the neck of another for I was no sooner arrived in Llan-Llechyd but the Bishop of Bangor because I refused to take another living for this that he saw was so commodious for him began to persecute me afresh and devised certain Articles which ex officio he prosecuted against me and I was fain again to appeal unto the Arches and my Lord of Bangor being in London my Lord of Canterbury sent for him and me and checked him exceedingly for his prosecution and gave me a Licence to preach throughout divers Diocesses of his Province and a Protection from being molested by my Lord of Bangor yet still I found that busie Bishop would not be quiet but as the Poet saith Manet alta mente repostum judicium paridis so my complaint against him to my Lord of Canterbury stuck in his mind as I had but a little respect or joy in his Diocess especially from his Lordship therefore after I had continued there four years about 32 years old I went to Cambridge again and took my degree Doctor of Divinity and then returning to London I became a domestical Chaplain to the Earl of Montgomery afterwards Earl of Pembroke and Lord Chamberlain to his Majesty to whom I had been Chaplain at large for many years before And then blessed be God I had a little rest from my persecution and began to study hard to Print Books of no small Volumes nor of mean Subjects as the seven Golden Candlesticks and many other Sermons now termed The best Religion and The true Church divided in six several Books And to be promoted to some eminent places to be his Majesties Chaplain a Prebend of Westminster and Dean of Bangor and before I was full forty years old in Election and very like to have been made Bishop of St. Asaph But when the Sun shineth brightest it continueth not long without Clouds and often times follow stormes and tempest so after I had spent these halsion daies and lived many years in the Kings Court I found some rubs and obstacles of my desires by reason of some discontent and difference betwixt me and the then Archbish of Canterbury * About my seeking to be Bishop of Asaph that clouded the brightness of my hopes for some while yet at last when the Long Parliament began to struggle and not only to chop off the head of the wise and stout Earl of Strafford but also to clap up the Bishop of Canterbury in Prison and to clip the wings of all the rest of the Bishops his Majesty of his own gracious mind and accord without any motion of any man made unto him when the Lord Primate of Ireland delivered him a Petition from the Bishops of Ireland to desire his Majesty to nominate a very worthy man Doctor Sybâ—horp that was Bishop of the poor Bishoprick of Kilfanora unto the Bishoprick of Ossory answered the Primate that he had reserved the same for Doctor Williams Dean of Bangor To whom the Primate replied Your Majesty bids him to his loss to use the Primates own words as he told me and his Majesty answered He could make him a saver and therefore let him have the refusal of it and when I heard of this passage from my Lord Primate I thought I were a very unworthy man if I refused so gracious an offer of so gracious a Master and considering that as my Predecessor and a man of my spirit Bishop Bale was called by the sole free motion of that pious King Edw. 6. so I was called by the sole free motion of the most religious King Charles I. I thought my self rightly called by God unto it and I accepted the same and yielded unto the divine calling with all thankefulness unto his gracious Majesty And now the storms and tempest begin to darken the Sunshine of my prosperity for I was no sooner arrived in Ireland seen Kilkenny and preached once in that Cathedral and consecrated in Dublin about Michaelmas but the Rebellion there brake out the October following after I had spent well-nigh 300 li. and had received not one penny then was I forced to fly towards his Majesty and the next Summer after having occasion to go to Dublin after I had setled my Wife and Family in a house that I had by Tocester and the first night that I came to my house after my return from Ireland the Rebels in North-hampton having heard how zealously I had preached for his Majesty and that now I was returned to my house by Tocester again sent a Troope of horse under the command of Captain Flaxon and so he carried me a prisoner to North-hampton where at my first entrance into the Town I saw a whole troop of Boys and Girls and other Apprentices that expected my coming and as the boys cried to Elizeus come up thou bald pate come up so they cried along the street a Bishop a Bishop and with this Io paean was I carried to the Commissioners Lodging where I was clapt up close in a Chamber and one of the Commissioners Sir John North I believe the civillest of them all came to me with a Satchel of Writings that Captain Flaxon found in my house and opening the same the first writings that came into his hand was the Treatise that I had written and had intituled it The Grand Rebellion and had written those words on the outward leaf thereof and as soon as ever he took it out of the bag I made bold And if I had not done so I had been undone before he had cast his eye upon the Title to take it
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other