〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. in Meleagro Fearfull men are of none account in the war but are absent while they are present which is the cause saith Cicero Cicero pro Aul. Caecinna Quod exercitus maximi saepe pulsi ac fugati sunt terrore ipso impetuque hostium sine cujusquam non modo morte verum etiam vulnere Fear destroyed great Armies great Armies have been overthrowen with this vain fear not only without the death but also without the hurt of any man and therefore reason it self perswadeth us to cast off all fear and to arm our selves with courage when we go against our enemies for though as the Comick saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many evils spring out of rashness Yet Fo rs juvat audentes prisci sententia vatis Claud. ad probinum And as old Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Odyssâ—x Omnibus in rebus potior vir fortis audax Sit licet hospes è longinquis venerit oris The stout couragious man is best in all affaires when as the timorous man omnia tuta timet doth oftentimes fear his own shadow and there is no receit against fear But though fear is an ill companion male cuncta ministrat and ordereth all things very ill It is sometimes good to fear dangers and how yet sometimes this fear of dangers is of an excellent use especia ly when it is joyned with a provident care to prevent it for it is a point of great wisdom in doubtfull things to fear the worst when the best will save it self we see many men have been suddenly destroyed because they feared not the dangers that were imminent over their heads whereas he Qui insidias timet in nullas incidet nec cito perit ruina qui ruinam timet quia semper metuendo sapiens vitat malum inimicum quamvis humilem docti est metuere he that feareth the snare falleth not into the snare and he that feareth ruine is not suddenly ruin'd because a wise man avoideth evil by fearing it and a learned man will not be fearless of the hurt that may happen unto him from his meanest enemy when according to that of the Poet Parva necat morsu spatiosum viper a taurum A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper Causa pusilla nocet sapiensque nocentia vitat A small thing may do much mischief Yet this fear of danger without a care joyned with it to prevent the danger or at least to lessen it is rather a vexation to be avoided than a vertue to be embraced Therefore this fear is only good as it makes us wary to prevent the evil as the fear of the Thief makes the good man of the house watchful to defend his house saith our Saviour And as this humane frailty The humane Fear hath driven many meâ— to great sins and the fear of future dangers hath been the ruine of many a man and the losse of many great Armies so the like fear hath driven many men to great sins As Pilate for fear of the people and of their complaint against him to Caesar condemned to death the Lord of Life Judges for fear of the rich and powerful men do many times decree unjust judgement And the Preachers of Gods Word do sometimes pervert the truth and preach placentia for fear of dangers either losse of Livings or of Liberties And in many other men this humane fear is the cause of many inhumane acts Therefore the holy Ghost prohibiteth this fear in every place Moses injoyneth Judges to be men of courage Luke 12. Jerem. 1. Esay 51.7 Ezech. 2.6 Our Saviour bids his Disciples not to fear them that kill the body and after that can do no more And the Lord often commandeth his Prophets not to fear the faces of men nor to be afraid of their threatnings As the Prophet Esay saith Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is my Law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wooll And the Angel biddeth the Church of Smyrna Revel 2.10 to fear none of those things that they should suffer that is neither poverty nor sicknesse nor reproach nor imprisonment nor yet death it self And the reason why we should not fear these things is set down by the Lord himself saying Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine when thou passâ—st through the waters Esay 43.1 2. I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Rom 8.31 because God is with us and if he be with us Who can be against us Nâ—m quid timet hominem homo in sinu Dei positus Aug. de verb. Dom. For why should any man that is in the bosom of God and upheld there by Gods hand be afraid of any man or of any thing Tu de illius sinu noli cadere quicquid ibi passâ—s fueris ad salutem valebit non ad pernitiem Do thou continue in Gods favour and thou shalt not need to fear any mans fury And so you see how the humane fear of all worldly evils is as much as we can to be shunned and no wayes to be embraced But 2. 2 The Divine fear God the object of this fear in two respects The Divine fear is that which we are commanded here and in all other places of the holy Scripture to seek for it and to embrace it And though as I said before the proper object of fear is said to be evil yet God which is the chiefest Good may be said to be the object of this fear in two respects 1. Respect 1 As the body feareth the parting of the soul which is the life of the body so the soul feareth the departing of Gods favour which is the life of the soul and that parting of Gods favour from us is the greatest evil that can happen unto us 2. As a Malefactor feareth the good and just Magistrate lest he punish him for his evil deeds so every sinner doth or should fear God lest he should render vengeance unto him for his sins And from these two respects springeth a twofold kind of Divine fear 1. The servil-fear which is a fear of punishment 2. Filial-fear which is a fear to lose the love and favour of God which grieves them more to lose it than to suffer all the punishment that they can endure And both these fears are wrought in our hearts by the finger of Gods Spirit when as the wicked neither respect Gods love nor fear his justice
but will notwithstanding all the promises of the Gospel and all the threatnings of the Law most fearlessely run to all kind of wickeduess And although the servil-fear hath for its object malum poenae 1 Of the servil-fear the evil of punishment and the filial-fear hath malum culpa the evil of sin Qâ—ia in illo timetur ne incidatur in tormentum supplicii August in isto ne amittatur gratia beneficii because that by the first we fear the torments of Hell-fire and by the second we fear to lose the joyes of Heaven Gregor in pass Et quem à prava actione formidata poena prohibet formidantis animum nulla spiritus libertas tenet nam si poenam non metueret culpam proculdubiò perpetraret And he that abstaineth from evil only for fear of the punishment is not refrained by the freedom of Gods Spirit because he would certainly commit the sin if he were not withheld by the fear of punishment And so as S. Augustine saith Aug. l. 2. contâ—a pelag Qui timore poena non amore justitiae fit bonus nondum bene fit bonus nec fit in corde quod fierâ— videtur in opere quando mallet bonnm non facere si posset impune He that doth good for fear of the rod more than for the love of goodness doth not that good so well as he ought to do it neither is that done in the heart which seems to be done in the work when he had rather not do it if he might leave it undone without punishment Yet this servil-fear is very good and very necessary for most men That the servil fear is good and how because that as the needle draweth the threed after it so this fear entring first into the heart maketh way for the other fear to follow after and when this keepeth us from the evil it maketh us by little and little to fall in love with the good for as nemo repente fit pessimus but the sinner falleth into Hell by certain steps and degrees so we ascend to Heaven per scalas gratiarum by passing on from faith to faith and from one grace unto another that is from the weaker still unto the stronger and from the lesse perfect unto that which is more excellent The Scripture perswadeth us to this servil-fear Exod. 20.20 And therefore we are perswaded to this fear both in the Old and New Testaments As 1. Moses saith unto the Israelites God is come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin not And the Prophet Esay saith Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear Esay 8.13 and let him be your dread And the Prophet Jeremy saith Fear ye not me saith the Lord and Will ye not tremble at my presence Pavor vester terror vester Jer. 5.22 which have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot passe it though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet can they not provaâ—l though they roar yet can they not pafs over it 2. Our Saviour saith Fear not them which kill the body Math. 10.28 but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Which very thing is further amplified Luke 2.5 and the Precept reiterated by S. Luke And S. Paul saith Heb. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God And therefore the Prophet biddeth us to kisse the Son lest he be angry and so we should perish from the right way And yet such is the nature and so great is the sottishness of foolish man that he will be afraid where no fear is he will startle at his own shadow he will suggest fears and raise jealousies unto himself as we see the English Rebels have done out of nothing We fear every vain thing more than we fear God for they dreamed they were undone when they were most happy and they made the World believe the King raised War against his Parliament when we saw the Parliament caused the King to flee away to save his life Thus we fear flies and tremble at the sight of feathers and the great God that is a consuming fire whose voice teareth the Mountains dryeth up the Seas and shaketh the Wildernesse we are no whit afraid to provoke him every day for though he chargeth us with a sub-pae-na as we shall answer it at his dreadful Judgement To honour all men to wrong no man to obey the King and to do to all men as we would they should do to us yet Revenge against our neighbours Rebellion against our King Robbing the poor Killing the innocent and the like are things of no more account than killing flies So much do we fear our God! But against this every man will say that he feareth God and what he doth he doth it for his service So the grand Rebels Corah Dathan and Abiram tell Moses All the Congregation is holy So that Arch-hypocrite Saul saith I have performed the Command of the Lord and when Samuel reproved him that he had not obeyed the voice of the Lord he stiffely justifieth himself 1 Sam. 13.15 20. and saith yea I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and if any thing be amisse it is not I that am to be blamed for it but the people which took of the spoil and they took it to none other end but for the service of God that they might sacrifice unto him in Gilgal Even so all Rebels and all hypocrites justifie themselves under the spâ—cious pretexts of doing all for Gods honour and the good of the Gospel and if any thing be amisse it is that which they cannot help it is the fault of their unruly followers which also cannot so much be condemned because they intend all for the glory of God and by the spoil of the Bishops and Recusants to set up a Preaching-Presbytery which will be a very acceptable sacrifice unto God and a far better service than now is used And therefore I do very ill to taxe them that they fear not God And so the case standeth Marcus ait Scaurus negat I affirm it and they deny it But in truth though it is the property of all hypocrites to cloak their wickednesse under the pretence of bettering things Yet God likes better of what Himself requireth than of what these Will-worshippers think to be more honourable for him And as Samuel was faign to convince Saul by the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen so to prove these Rebels to be void of the fear of God I must say Si non creditis oraculis credite oculis If you will not believe my words look into their deeds for as the Tree is known by the fruits The two things that the fear of God doth 1. To
for his flock For the affirmative or positive duties of a good Shepherd what he should do for his sheep never any came neer the goodnesse of this good Shepherd For 1. He provideth for his flock not onely the outward food of their bodies which he doth for all other living creatures when as the Prophet saith He openeth his hands and filleth all things living with plenteousness and as the same Prophet saith He feedeth the young ravens that call upon him and the best of us hath not a crum of bread but what he hath from him but he hath provided also the spiritual food of their souls which is the Word of God and the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper for as our Saviour alledged against Satan Mat. 4.4 Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God and the blessed Sacraments are Verba visibilia Evangelii the visible and palpable words of the Gospel and are as the celestiall manna the heavenly food that perisheth not but feedeth us to eternall life The errour of the Messalian Hereticks if we strive to receive the same worthily as we ought to do though now we have too too many that are poysoned with the conceit of the Messalian Hereticks that said Baptism and the Lords Supper did neither profit us nor hurt us but that they which were inspired by Gods Spirit were guided by the revelation of that Spirit how to behave themselves in all their wayes which is the readiest way to lead them to the infernal spirits because we are not to be led by the inspiration of any spirit but by those holy directions which the Spirit of God hath left us in the holy Scriptures What is meant to be inspired with Gods spirit and when we pray to be inspired with Gods Spirit we mean no otherwise then that the Spirit of God would guide us to lead our lives and to do all things as we are commanded by the same spirit to do in the word of God that is left unto us by the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ to be the onely Rule of all our actions 2. As he provideth thus both our temporal and our spiritual food 2 Christ ordereth how the food of his should be disposed so he ordereth and disposeth this food unto his sheep not according to their sensual appetite but for the natural good of their bodies and the spiritual health of their souls that it may be unto them the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death As 1. For their natural food 1 Their natural food he would have us with the son of Jakeh to desire neither poverty nor riches neither too much nor too little but to be fed with food convenient lest if we be too full we forget the Lord grow too proud as the great rich men commonly be or if we be too poor we be driven to steal and to lie Prov. 30.8 9. and to take the name of God in vain And What should be convenient for every man because most men are loath to understand what is the mean betwixt too much and too little and what measure is that that is convenient S. Paul tells us That having food and rayment we should therewith be contented for the greatest Monarch in the world can have no more and our Saviour that best knew what is convenient for every man bids us prey to God that he would give us this day our daily bread that is so much as will serve us for our present necessity Luke 12.19 and not with that fool in the Gospel to lay up much goods for many years when he knew not that his soul in that night should be taken from him and then he could not tell who should enjoy those things or how those things should be spent that he had provided And 2. For our spiritual food 2 Their spiritual food this good Shepherd hath commanded us that are his under-Shepherds to give unto his sheep their owne portion in due season 1. Their own portion and that both in quality and quantity 1 Their own portion 1. In quality 1. In Quality what is most proper for every one as all meats serve not for every stomack and every potion serves not for all diseases so it is with our spiritual food and the divine physick of our soules and therefore we are advised to give milk unto the babes and stronger meat to them that are stronger men in Christ that is plain and easie doctrines to the plain and more ignorant people and deeper and more polite discourses to the judicious and those of deeper knowledge because as S. Paul saith we are debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbaâ—ians to the wise and to the unwise and therefore as Christ biddeth his Apostles so must we sometimes launch forth into the deep both of Divinity and Humanity and as well of Arts as of Languages And so we are to give praises to the good reproofes to the bad but flatteries unto none when we ought no more to flatter the sweet and clement then to fear the cruel tyrant and in like manner we are commanded to apply comfors and consolations to the dejected spirits to pronounce pardon to the penitent sinners and to thunder out the terrors of Gods judgements to none but such as are impenitent and obstinate transgressors 2. In Quantity we are to give our sheep neither too much of this spiritual food 2 In quantity nor yet too little for where prophesie faileth the people perish and the worst famine is the famine not of corn wine and oyl but of the famine of Gods Word and therofere the Apostle saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel and wo is them that hinder us to preach it as they have done these many years And yet as we are not to give our sheep too little of this spiritual pasture lest they should want so they should not have too much lest they should loath it for a man may eat too much of the Honey-comb saith Solomon Prov. 25.16 Num. 11.20 and the children of Israel had so much Manna that they loathed it and Quails so plentifully that the flesh came out at their nostrils and so men may have the Word of God so fully that they will despise it or at least neglect it because as Solomon saith Prov. 27.7 the full soul loatheth or treadeth under foot the honey-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet so is the Word of God precious when it is not so plentiful and despised when we are full of it And truly I do believe Knowledge how more plentiful now then ever it was the Gospel of Christ and the rest of the holy Scriptures were never since Christ his time so fully and so generally and so truly published as of late they were in the reigne of our late King
because this our City is built upon a Rock and the gate of hell shall never be able to prevail against it not only because that being upon a Rock it can never be undermined but especially because as S. Cyprian saith Cyprianus Non plus valet ad dejiciendum terrena paena quam ad erigendum divina tutela And this good Shepherd which is the Lamb that standeth upon Mount Sion to defend it is more powerful to save it then the Roaring Lyon which is the Prince of darkness to destroy it 2. The same Prophet David saith The Lord is my Shepherd 2 From wants Psal 23.2 therefore I shall want nothing he shall feed me in a green pasture and lead mo forth besides the waters of comfort And in the Propher Ezekiel this good Shepherd saith Ezek. 34.14 The best food for Gods sheep what it is I will feed my sheep in a good pasture and upon the high Mountains of Israel shall their Fold be there shall they lye in a good Fold and in a fat Pasture shall they feed upon the Mountains of Israel where you must observe that this Fold is the Church of Christ and the fat Pastures are the Lilies Violets and the sweetest of all pleasant flowers especially the three leaved grass that as Aristotle saith is most delight some unto the sheep for this is the food of the Shepherd even as he professeth in the Canticles Cantic 2. that he feedeth among the Lilies and that is as Psellus doth interpret it where he seeth the graces of Gods holy Spirit and the virtuous examples of the Saints these are as meat and drink unto him and so they are unto his sheep For as S. Ambrose saith the Pastures of Gods sheep are the blessed Sacraments the holy Scriptures heavenly Sermons pious books and holy meditations of heavenly things and especially the three leaved grass which is the understanding of that great mystery of godliness that our God which is but one God in Essence is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the waters of comfort The waters of comfort what they are are those plentiful streams of milk and honey of Divine Consolation wherewith the Spirit of God doth as it were inebriate the souls of his servants for the Church of Christ is the Land of Promise which floweth with milk and honey it is the Wilderness where the Lord raineth Manna the bread of heaven to fatisfie the fouls of his children it is the Spouse of Christ whose loves are better then Wine and it is the House of God Cantic 2. whereof the Psalmist speaketh that the sheep of Christ shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house and he shall give them drink of his pleasure as out of a River that is alwayes running Psal 36.8 and yet never dried up And Christ being our Shepherd his sheep shall not only have the spiritual food of their souls and be satisfied with these heavenly juncates but they shall have also whatsoever is necessary for the sustentation of their temporal life For as S. Paul saith Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come And our Saviour saith that if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and so to become the sheep of this good Shepherd Matth. 6. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other things that you seek as food and rayment shall be given unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things therefore he that feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him will much rather feed you that are the sheep of Christ if you relye upon him And they shall not only have sufficient for themselves but also to help and to relieve many others as the poor and their children and their childrens children for the blessing of the Lord saith Solomon maketh rich and a good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 10.22 Prov. 13 22. Psal 112. v. 2 3. Iob 22.23 for riches and plenteousness are in his house and his Seed is blessed And Eliphas the Temanite saith If thou return to the Almighty and put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles then shalt thou lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks Yea the Almighty shall be thy Defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver even as the Lord blessed Abraham that he became very rich in cattel Gen. 13.2 c. 12.16 in silver and in gold and had sheep and oxen and he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and Camels Or were it so that God did not thus bless us with outward wealth but suffer the world to frown upon us and to bring us to some want and poverty as he did to Job Lazarus and others either for the tryal of their faith patience and constancy in his service or for some other causes best known unto himself yet if we be the sheep of Christ what need we care or fear any such want so long as we want not the Wedding Garment and the spiritual food of our souls Quia major est suavitas mentis quam ventris because the garment of righteousness is of more worth then any Imperial Robe and the satisfying of our Souls is a great deal better then the filling of our bodies whose food be the same never so dainty is compared with the other nothing but ackorns and husks and other like vanities that are as soon done and gone as they are begun whereas a good conscience is a continual feast and the food of our souls Iohn 6.50 54. which our good Shepherd giveth us never perisheth but feedeth us to everlasting life as our Saviour sheweth O then beloved Brethren What a blessed and a happy thing it is to be the sheep of Christ to be thus innobled with such a Master thus protected from all evil and thus satisfied with all good though therefore the Proverb tells us and it is very true if thou make thy self a sheep the Wolfe will eat thee yet it is far more excellent and to be chosen rather to be a sheep of Christ then a wolfe of the world and to be a Lamb of God rather then a Lyon of the devil when at the last we shall find it far better to be devoured then to devoure and to be spoiled then to spoil our Neighbours 3 The duties and properties of Christ his sheep Two special points Iohn 10. v. 5. But then 3. If you would be the sheep of Christ you must be qualified with these two special properties 1. To hear the Voice of Christ 2. To refuse the hearing of a strangers voice For So our Saviour saith My sheep hear my voice but a stranger will they not follow but will fly from him because they know not the voice of strangers So
all these things pass I dare appeal to any impartial Reader that neither Eusebius nor Socrates nor Thuanus nor Chammier nor any other Hystorian Ecclesiastical or Prophane that have written of Persecutions or of the cruelty of Antichrist can shew me any King since the King of the Jews that by his own Subjects and for no vice of his own that malice it self can tax him but only in reality whatsoever is otherwise pretended for the defence of Christ his faith and the true service of God the protection of all faithfull Preachers and the upholding of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom hath or could suffer more unkingly indignities by any Antichrist than our gracious King hath done by his own ungraciaus Subjects of these three Kingdoms But stay and let us consider that although these Persecutions be exceeding great yet our sins and transgressions are far greater and God in all this is most just and as Ezra saith Ezra 9 13. Punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve for certainly we must confess what the world seeth that we have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly and therefore as Eusebius confesseth the iniquities of the Primitive Christians to have pulled upon them those Heathen Persecutions so must we acknowledge this Antichristian Tyranny to have most justly fallen upon us And not only so but seeing we have so justly deserved it let us submit our selves under the mighty hand of God repent and be sorry for whatsoever we have done amiss and pray to God for grace and strength to suffer what shall be laid upon us either for the punishment of our sins or the trial of our Faith to God and our Loyalty to our King not only the loss of all worldly things but even of our life it self because that in so suffering unto death we shall be sure to have the Crown of life which the Lord grant unto us for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen I have spent two hours in treating of this one verse already and because here is magnum in parvo abundance of treasure in this little mine I must crave leave to spend one hour more and with that I hope I shall finish all that I have to say on these words You may remember I told you the words contain 1. Gods love to Man 2. Mans love to God The first I handled in my first Sermon And In the second I shewed you three parts that is to say 1. The Persons We 2. The Act Love 3. The Object him We love him 3 The Object of our love God The two first in my last Sermon And now because I love neither Tautologies nor to stand long upon repetitions I will proceed unto the object of our love where the Apostle saith We love him that is God And I would to God that we did all love him quia actus distinguitur per objectum because it is not our love that doth hurt us but the object of our love maketh or marreth all for as St. Augustine saith Duas civitates duo faciunt amores our love to God buildeth up Jerusalem Aug. super Psal 64. the Church and City of God and our love to the world and these worldly things buildeth up Babylon the Synagogue of Satan And therefore this is the errour of the sons of men The errour of men not that we are subject unto Passions and endued with the affections of Fear Hate Love and the like but that we misguide our Passions and misorder our affections by misplacing them where they ought not to be setled for we may fear so it be him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire we may hate so it be the thing that is evill and we may love so it be what we ought and as we ought to love But this is that which God cannot endure that we should fear men more than God or fear temporal losses goods or lands more than the loss of our souls and the wounding of a good conscience or that we should hate our brethren and not their sins which we cherish in our selves though we detest them in all others or that we should love the world and not God or any thing in the world more than God or so much that it should any waies lessen our love to God And therefore here I may stop my course and stay a while to reprove those many millions of men that are as the Philosophers said The Citizens of the world and do freely bestow their loves not on God but either upon the vain pleasures The love of vain things choaketh our love to God or the vile profits of this wicked world And it is a strange thing to see how one affecteth Honour another Beauty a third Authority and most of us some one kind of vanity or other that either drowneth or driveth away and so lesseneth much our love to God And above all things the love of Riches choaketh this divine love in all worldly men For as Apolonius Tyanaeus saith That he hath seen a stone called Pantaura which is the Queen of all other stones and hath in it all the vertues that are to be found in all the other pretious stones So to this stone do some men compare riches Kiches what they are like because they suppose riches to contain in them the force and vertue of all other things and are able to bring mighty things to pass as the fiercest beasts are made tame by them the fairest Ladies are won by them as Jupiter prevailed with Danae What great things wealth and riches have done when as the Poets feign he came unto her in a golden showre The greatest Kings are subdued by them when as no weapons can overcome the shields of Gold and Rome it self might have been bought if Jugurth had had wealth enough to purchase it as he said when he passed out of Rome And you see the Fishes of the Sea that are overwhelmed with water and drowned in the Deep cannot escape the force of Riches and the Fowls of the air though of the swiftest Wings yet can they not fly from their Empire yea what Altitudes have not Riches abated What difficulties have they not vanquished What improbabilities I will not say impossibilities have they not facilitated And what things have they desired that they have not obtained Therefore St. Augustine shewing the folly of the Pagans about their selected gods Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 7. c. 3. wondreth that if wise men were their Selectors why Venus was preferred before the Lady Vertue or if Venus deserveth her enhansement because more do affect her than those that love vertue then why was not Lady Money more famous than Minerva seeing that in all sorts of men there are more that love coyn better than knowledge and all Trades aime at Money and say with the Poet Quaerenda pecunia primum est virtus
Roman Deputy testifieth Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes 3. 3 They were the murderers of their own lawful King This their King was not like Jeroboam the son of Nebat starting aside and stepping in over the right Kings head nor like Queen Athalia that usurped the Regal throne by suppressing the lawful King but he was their own lawfull King lineally descended from King David both in respect of his Putative Father and his Mother Mary as both Saint Matthew and Saint Luke do testifie and sufficient reasons may be produced to prove that by heredâ—tary right which is the â—best and the most undubitable right unto the Crown he was born the King of the Jews 4. 4 They were the murtheres of a just King And this their King was not like Rehoboam the son of Solomon that is a foolish or at least an undiscreet son of a most sage and a wise Father but he was the wisdom of God as saith the Evangelist that his wise answers to all the subile questions of his adversaries Luke 11.49 and the malicious objections and remonstrances of his persecurors satisfied all wise and indifferent men and stopped the mouthes of many of his greatest adversaries when they admired his worth though they persecuted his person John 7.46 and hated him the more yet were they driven to confesse that never man spake as he did Neither was he like Manasses an Idolatrous and a bloody King nor yet like Ahab an unjust tyrannical intruder of himself into his subjects possessions but he was a most pious and a religious King going in his own person unto the Temple and scourging all prophaners out of Gods house and he was so pitiful so merciful and so mild that as Cicero saith of Pompey and the Historians say of Titus the son of Vespasian that for his courtesies was termed deliciae generis humani never man departed unsatisfied and discontented from them Mat. 10.13.8 so did this good King never deny the just request of any Petitioner that ever came or sought unto him but be went about doing good healing all that had infirmities and releasing all that were possessed of the devill And for his own integrity and the uprightnesse of his life he could not only say with Samuel Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Asse have I taken 1 Sam. 2.3 or whom have I defrauded and I will restore it but he could justly demand of his greatest adversaries and the most malicious priers into his actions Which if you can rebuke me or reprove me of sin for they that thirsted most after his blood must needs confesse that he was of an incomparable life in whose mouth was found no guile and in whose heart was no deceit So spâ—tlesse he was in all his actions that the holy Martyr might justly call this King that Just One. And yet they say with Martial Non amo te Princeps nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantnm possum dicere Non amo te We love the note O King but why we cannot tell thee But this we can assure thee that we do not love thee And therefore notwithstauding all that I have said that he was 1. A King 2. Their own King 3. Their lawful king And 4. A just and pious King that desired onely their good And thus they murdered King Charles that was 1 a King T. Their own King 3. Their own lawful King 4 Their just wise and most religious King the preservation of their Lawes and the maintenance of the true service of God amongst them for the salvation of their souls yet their love is so little and their hatred is so great that they must take away his life and kill him and that in the most barbarous manner and the most odious kind of killing they must murder him And he that murders a Christian King commits a fourfold murder saith our Chronicler Speed 1. Homicide 2. Parricide 3. Christicide 4. Dei-cide because the King is Gods annointed and his Vice-gorent here on earth therefore David killed the Amalekite because he had killed a King though that King was most wicked and none of his own King 2 Sam. 1.16.16 And you may conceive what a devellish and hellish fact this is beyond all heathenish abomination for subjects to murder their own King For Pilat that was but a heathen and a very corrupt Judge hearing them so fiercely crying out to have him crucified and being amazed at such an execrable voice sayth Shall I crucifie your King As if he had said Is it possible John 19.15 that you should desire me to crucifie your King for Reason and Nature and the Lawes of God and of all Nations will condemn you for this fact and detest you for base Traytors and the bloody murderers of your King But the old Murtherer that hath been a murderer from the beginning John 8. hath surnished his Schollars with two strong but deceitful arguments to justifie the killing of their King 1. From the Law of Nature 2. From the word of God 1. Nature teacheth us to defend our selves and to kill any one 1 From the Law of Nature rather then to suffer our selves to be killed by him because every thing in nature is sâ—i conservativum and therefore to study for a self-preservation is an inbred Law of Nature Quam non didicimus sed exhausimus ex natura which we need not learn when as Nature teacheth the same saith Cicero And therefore these Jews do conclude It is expedient that this King should be killed lest the Nation if they let him alone should be Destroyed i.e. rather then they should Justly perish he must be Vnjustly murdered this is the reasoning of Flesh and Blood But to this the Apostle answereth in generall that the Wisedom or the reason of Worldly men is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1.20 and chap. 2.14 and the Naturall man receaveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him And more particularly we say that the Holy Scripture is the best interpreter of the Law of Nature and then I desire you as our Saviour advised the Jews to search the Scriptures and go through the whole Book of God and tell me if you find not Subjection to our Kings every where injoyned and Resistance even against the Worst Kings every where prohibited And then shew me where you find the least Print of any Precept or Counsell given to any Subject to put their King to death Or where any Subjects mentioned in all Gods Book did ever alleage any Text of Scripture or produced any good Example from the Scripture to warrant or to excuse such a fact I am sure Saul was a Tyrant and a Bloody murderer a Demoniak and Prophaner of Gods service Varighteous and Irreligious and sought the life of David every way and in every place and though he was but the First elected King of the Jews 1 Sam. 10. and
not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them and themselves by their false Expositions and new invented traditions were the innovators and corrupters both of the Law and Prophets and more particularly 1. For the Sabbath he sheweth that themselves are herein too nice and superstitious and he no prophaner thereof because the Sabbath was made for man i.e. for the good of man both for his soul and body of his soul by serving God and of his body by those necessary actions and recreations that may conduce for the continuance of his health on that day 2. For the reverence to be observed in the Temple or Church of God 2 Objection answered Esay 56.7 he sheweth that he was not too strict in driving the buyers and sellers and all other prophaners thereof out of the same because God himself saith even of this material Temple or Church of stones My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people for the Gentiles as well as for the Jewes but they had prophaned the same by making it a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves as they do that make it a stable for their horses or a receptacle for their plundered and stolne goods And in both these points our Puritans now are just as the Jewes were then too much given to prophane the Church and too superstitious to observe the Sabbath But 3. For abridging the liberty of divorces 3 Objection answered Matth. 5.32 he tells them that he teacheth no otherwise then what was from the beginning that whosoever putteth away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery but you by forsaking the good old way and following the traditions of your latter Rabbines your Assembly of new Divines have made the Commandements of God of none effect and teach for Doctrine the Commandements of men Chap. 15.6 just as they do now forsake the good old government of the Church that hath been from the beginning from Christ his time and follow the new invented Government that is forced from the false and wrested Expositions of our upstart Rabbines that never yet saw the age of a man since the death of Calvin and Beza the first Fathers that begat it 2. As they did thus unjustly taxe their King for Innovation 2 The destruction of the people And this madded the people against King Charles John 11.48 and the alteration of their established Religion so they have another bait whereby they do as cunningly catch the people and set them like wild men to joyn with them yea to out-goe them in their desires to destroy their King and that is Salus populi the safety and liberty of the people which they said would be utterly lost if they did let Him goe and this madded the people against their King though there was no truth in the charge nor ground to believe it but the feares and jealousies of the people raised only by the malice of their wicked leaders for how could it be that either the safety or the liberty of the people should be any wayes impaired by that King that came to fulfill the Law and to root out all the false glosses thereof and was contented to lose not his Kingdom only but also his own life for the safety and liberty of his people as themselves confesse that he must die for the people i. e. for their Lawes and Liberties and so become the Martyr of the Law and the Saviour of his people So you see the pretended charge against this King Jo. 11 48. that he was a tyrant by indevouring to destroy their Lawes and to alter their Religion and a Traytor to the State by forbidding Tribute unto the Conqueror whom now they were resolved to honour for their onely King lest they should lose their place and their Nation 2. 2 The true causes that moved the murderers to kill their Kings The true reall causes that moved these murderers to kill their King were very many but especially four 1. Envie to him 2. Despaire in themselves 3. Fear to lose 4. Ambition to be great For 1. 1 Envie Joh. 7.47 Mar. 7.37 They perceived that for his admirable worth and his divine endowments when as never man spake as he did and that he did all things well the people loved him followed him and adhered to him then As the glorious rayes of the Sun upon any putrified matter causeth a stench so his excellent vertues begat the poysonouâ—brats of envie and malice in these wicked miscreants and so Pilate perceived that for envie they had delivered or rather as the word signifieth betrayed him to death 2. 2 Despair of pardon When they had by their Declarations and Remonstrances their calumnies slanders and false accusations sought with all art to render him odious unto his people and had in all things opposed him to the uttermost of their might Gen. 4.13 then as Cain cried out my sin is greater then can be forgiven So the guilt of their malice and the remembrance of their fore-past wickednesse against him were of so deep a stain they they conceived all the water in the Sea could not wash it away and all the mercie of man could not remit their sin such is the conscience of all unconscionable sinners therefore though this good King could would and did forgive his enemies and pray for his persecutors yet because their hate and sins were so great that they could not believe it they thought themselves no wayes secured unlesse he were killed 3. 3 Fear to lose what they had gotten The men were now got into great power they had the liberty to be of what Sect and profession they pleased Scribes Pharises or Sadduces or what you will and to do what they would so long as they pleased the Conqueror no man could contradict them but if the right King continue King they saw he would not and could not endure such an Anarchie of Government and a Hodge podge to remain amongst them therefore Caiaphas the second man in power tells them it is expedient that he die for fear of the losse of their places and this their great power and liberty 4. 4 Ambition to be great men Matth. 21.23 Mâ—â— 12.7 Luk. 20.9 This King himself in the parable of the Vineyard which is faithfully recorded by three Evangelists sets down as I conceive it the main cause fundamental ground of his death that is their ambition desire to be great and to hold all power and authority in their own hands for so the wicked husband-men say This is the heir Venite come let us kill him and then retinebimus haereditatem ejus we shall hold his inheritance His it is we confesse yet then We shall hold it because as S. Mark saith then certainly erit nostra it will be ours and no man can keep us from it and indeed this desire of bearing rule And
be numbered inter pessimos being an Adulterer a Tyrant and a Sacrilegious King that neither spared man in his fury nor woman in his lust and yet this Kingdom then had never a Zimri in it to take away his life for all his wickedness Bodinus de repub l. 2. c. 5. Not to resist our King though he should be a Tyrant Peter Martyr in 1 Sam c. 26. And Bodin saith the most learned Divines are of opinion that it is so far from being lawful for subjects to kill their King under colour of Tyranny that they are expressely forbidden to speak ill of them And Peter Martyr saith that Religious David made no doubt but that King Saul was a Tyrant yet he abstained from killing him when he might most easily do it because he saw that he could not lawfully do it and if it was not lawful for him that was by God's appointment and the ministery of God's Prophet Samuel annointed to be King after him then surely no other man might have done it Camer l. 2. c. 10. And Camerarius demands if there could be a worse Prince than Nero and yet saith he The Apostles S. Paul and S. Peter are so far from advising the Christians to conspire against him as they command them to use all obedience to him and that not for fear only but also for conscience sake Chrysost in Epist ad Thessal And S. Chrysostome saith That Theodosius destroyed Thessalonica and spared neither Sex nor Age neither young nor old man nor woman but took upon him so much as he listed to satisfie his own furious will and yet howsoever parendum est obedience must be given him saith this holy father And if the King becomes an Idolater Not to resist our King though he should be an Idolater and doth with Manasses command his subjects to worship Idols as Hen. 8. commanded the observation of the 6. Articles wherein they were to adore the Breaden god yet in this case no Zimri should presume to kill his King but the rule of the Apostles ought to be followed to obey God rather than man and not to do what God forbids though the King command it to be done yet no wayes to take armes against him but to follow the examples of the Saints and Martyrs of God Vt supra rather to suffer death than to offer any resistance and whatsoever becomes of our bodies to possesse our souls in patience saith Camerarius And though the King should prove a wicked Heretick yet we must not rise against him saith the same Author but with the weapons of prayer desire of God to convert him for so the true Christians followed the Emperour Constantius Not to resist our King though he should be an Heretick that was an Arian and they followed Julian the Apostata in his wars and expeditions though they were never so far and never intended to rebel against him And as the Jews and Christians were of this opinion that it is not lawful in any case for any subject to kill his King So the Gentiles also seem to be of the same mind for when the Jews cryed to have our Saviour crucified Pilate demands of them Shall I crucifie your King as if he should have said What was there ever such a Nation so wicked and so abominable before God and all good men as to desire to crucifie their King Why this desire seemeth The Jews confess that no Nation should desire to be the death of their King not only strange and admirable but also abominable and so incredible unto me that you should in good earnest desire to crucifie your King and it seems by their answer to this question of Pilate that they rightly apprehended his mind and did also approve his sense that for any Nation or People to desire to crucifie their King was most abominable and wicked and therefore they absolutely deny that they were his subjects and say We have no King but Caesar For They were not ignorant how the heathens honoured their Kings and how the Egyptians Aubanus de Africa l. 1. p 39. Osor de instit regis l. 4. P. 106. whose manners they knew well enough did bear so much good will and love unto their Kings that as Boemus Aubanus saith Non solum sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quam uxorum filiorumque aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura and Osorius saith Persae quidom aliquid caeleste atque divinum in regibus inesse statuebant and Q. Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation of their King and bore so much love unto him that Alexander could not perswade them either for fear or reward to tell him whither their King was gone or to reveal any of his intentions or to do any other thing that might any wayes prejudice the life or the affaires of their King and Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessel that was so full of men of war that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said unto them O ye men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition Then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the sea till the vessell was unburthened and so the King preserved And Justin tells us that the Sicilians did bear so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased King Justin l. â— that they disdained not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his son And Plutarch saith that when certain men came to Tyribastus to have taken him he defended himself so stoutly that they were not able to come near him but when the apprehenders said They came from the King Plut. de superstit he had such a reverent respect unto his Majesty that he presently laid down his Cimiter and yielded himself unto them And for the Examples and Precedents that those learned Orators do produce at the conference to shew how divers kingdomes as England France Spain and many more have cast off some Kings whom they disliked and put to death some others that had deserved it I answer that I have read all the nine Speeches over and over and am sorry that learned men which have read so many Histories both domestick and forreign should like the Spider suck the poysonous examples of those books and alledge them for imitation in such transcendent impiety and I am more sorry that they should passe at a conference of men that were chosen of their countrey for most grave and wise and did professe themselves most religious without a supercilious and a plenary answer which they might very briefly do and with a lesse then the tenth part of the pains these Oratours or Lawyers if they were such for divines I am sure they
way to bring wars and troubles unto himself and to the Common-wealth and a curse at least if not a rooting out of his posterity while the innocent blood that he hath shed or caused to be shed doth continually cry to God for vengeance against him or them that did it And so you see that neither Zimri nor any other killer of his King and of his Master or of any other man can have any peace either with God or with men 3. 3 King-killers and murderers and the like wicked men can have no peace with themselves The murderer and wicked man can have no peace with himself nor any rest or quietness in his own thoughts and conscience for as Lipsius saith Cognatum immo innatum est omni sceleri sceleris supplicium Sin bears its own punishment alwaies on his back they are so inseperably knit together that the one cannot be committed but the other will be inflicted because as S. Augustine saith Jossit Dominus ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi paena Lipsius de constantia l. 2. c. 13. the Lord hath ordained it and it is so that a wicked disordinate mind should be a punishment unto it selfe for as God said unto Cain so it is with us if we do ill sin lyeth at the door that is the reward of sin Gen 4.7 or the punishment due for that sin is alwaies at hand like a wild Beast to dog us and to bite us wheresoever we go and the conscience of sin especially of these bloody sins beareth forth such bitter fruit as that nothing in the world can be more grievous or more miserable to a mortall man for as Menander saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The conscience is as a god to all men to be a witness of our debts a judge of our deeds and a tormentor of all our transgressions and the wise man saith The spirit of a man will bear his infirmities that is all the sad calamities and misfortunes that may happen unto him a brave mind and a Heroick spirit will bear them all but a wounded spirit who can bear For as the Poet saith Strangulat inclusus dolor Ovid. Trist l. 5. atque exaestuat intùs And the Examples that might be brought hereof are infinite beyond number I will name to you but a few Oedipus that bloody incestuous King of Thebes is said to be led to Athens by his daughter Antigona i.e. to be doggd up and down by his own conscience and to be buried in the Temple of Erinnys i.e. to be overwhelmed with sorrows and perturbations for his lewd forepassed life and his wife and mother Jocasta in like manner strangled her self saith Sophocles And Procopius writes that Theodoric King of the Gothes after he had most unjustly put to death Symmachus and Boetius two noble Senators of Rome his own thoughts and conscience did so molest him that as he was at Supper with many friends about him and a Fish his head of great bigness being set on the table his imagination conceited It was the head of Symmachus that with angry eyes grinned upon him whereby he was so oppressed with fear and trembling that he suddenly rose from the table and could never afterwards be comforted but his conscience did continually so torment him that he pined away most miserably till he died And Polydore Virgil saith Polydor. l. 25. that Richard the third of this Kingdome after he had slain his two Nephews had the like tormenting conscience till he was slain by Hen. 7. at Bosworth Field And we read that Tiberius after he had been the death of very many that he hated was so vexed with such grievous torments of his wounded spirit that he desired all the gods rather to destroy him all at once then to suffer him thus to pine away with the continual sting and stripes of a tormented conscience wherein the just God dealt with him as he had done to many others to suffer many deaths before he put them to death as the subtle Fox was wont to say and Nero the monster of men when he had most unthankfully put to death his own Master and Tutor Seneca and most unnaturally caused his own natural Mother to be killed with many others of the faithful servants of Christ he was so grievously vexed in conscience that he could not be comforted by any means but thought in his mind that he did alwayes see his Mothers Ghost still crying for vengeance against him And to passe over those infinite examples that might be produced of this kind I will only alleadge that one of Apollodorus the Tyrant who dreamed that he was flea'd by the Scythians and that his heart thrown by them into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this thy miseries my self so the heart and conscience of every malefactor especially the shedders of innocent blood will perpetually tell them where they are and what they must expect and howsoever they may put on a seeming countenance of peace and a quiet mind of no disturbance yet indeed they are but like the glow-worm that in a dark night makes a fiery shew but being prest you shall find nothing in him but cold moisture for the worm of conscience doth alwaies gnaw their wretched souls within them when their faces seem to smile without But it may be some will object that all sinners have not such unquiet minds and all murderers and King-killers have not as we see wounded spirits I answer that some indeed are of such brasen faces that they can laugh their sins out of countenance and smile with the fool when they go to the gallows but lassure my self their hearts bleed when their faces counterfeit smiles and they are like Dives that saw Lazarus a far off in Abrahams bosom but was himself tormented in Hell for the heart and soul may be sorrowfull when the face and countenance may seem cheerfull And it is a thousand to one but it is so with all murderers and the like haynous transgressors for that it is unpossible that such men should ever want furies so long as they have themselves or if they could find a way to run away from themselves and to cause their souls to forsake their bodies as Saul Zimri Achitophel and Judas did yet their consciences will not flie away from their souls nor their sins from their consciences but let a murderer King-killer or Master-killer or any other man-killer flye ab agro in â—ivitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum from the field into the City from the City into his house and from the house into his bed and thence like those impatient fishes that leap out of the frying pan into the fire from the private hell of their own breasts into the publick hell of damned souls yet Ecce hostem inveniet à quo confugerat behold there he shall find the enemy whom he feared that is a tormenting
Church Satan hath some of his Emissaries amongst them that come as the Scribes and Pharisees came to hear Christ not to be instructed by him that they might be saved but to catch at some things in his words that they might accuse him 3. 3 Taking away their lives Jer. 19.4 c. 22.17 Jer. 2.34 They filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents and that which was a great deal worse even the worst of all In their skirts was found the blood of the soules of the poor innocents which I take to be not only an Hebraism but also to shew unto us how they sought to destroy both the bodies and the souls of men and that is as I conceive by forcing them for fear of being undone and to have all their lively-hood taken from them to forswear themselves as the Prophet Hosea sheweth they have spoken words swearing falsely Hosea 10.4 in making a Covenant and shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord For though they pretended this out of zeal to Gods service to compell men to such a Form of Gods worship and to professe such and such a Religion as they conceived best or else to deprive them of their possessions yet I find the best Divines protesting that this is contrary to Gods will that would have faith wrought in us by preaching and not by fighting and Religion settled in us by perswasion and not by compulsion For as Lipsius saith Lipsius polit l. 4. c. 4. The greatest thing that any Prince is able to bring to passe by his terrour is to make that he who doth most of all seem to be obedient doth in outward shew consent but never in his heart for as Lactantius demandeth Who can compel me either to believe what I list not Lactant. l. 5. c. 14. Faith and Religion not to be forced Eccles hist l. or not to believe what I will And therefore constraint bringeth dissimulation and not Religion and maketh Hypocrites and not Saints when the constrained persons do worship the power of the constrainer and not his God which made King Theodorick to say That he could not command Religion because no man could be inforced to believe against his will and there is nothing more free than Religion which the mind no sooner withstandeth but forthwith it vanisheth and is no more Religion saith Lactantius quò suprà Hosea 10.4 And yet these Jews whereof the Prophet Hosea speaketh sought with all rigor to compel men to swear unto their wicked covenant and thereby saith our Prophet Their skirts were filled with the blood of the souls of the poor innocents when to save their estates they believed their faith and became such hypocrites before God for fear of men as made them most liable to Gods heavy judgements which must needs be no small offence in this people and in all those that imitate them herein But let this wickedness and the sin of this people be what it will it proceeded all from the Assembly of their Divines and false Prophets The Assembly of their Divines the chiefest cause of their wickedness Jer. 23.13.14 For they caused my people Israel to erre and they strengthened the hands of the evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness saith the Prophet For indeed we that are the Teachers of the people are just like Jeremy's Figs They that were good were very good and they that were bad were very bad So are we either the best or the worst of men and we either bring men to Christ or send them to the Antichrist either make them Saints or make them Seditious and Hereticks and through our pride covetousness and ambition we lead them like fools as they are that follow falshood into all mischief And therefore from the King to the peasant from the highest to the lowest all men ought to be wary whom they affect and chuse to be their Teachers For it is most true that as the Prophet saith Like Priest like people unless it be as S. Bernard saith That now the Priest is worse than the people For we know the Arian Bishops made Constantius an Arian Emperour and the false Prophets made Ahab and Jezabel so zealously affected to the service of Baal So the Anabaptistical Priests make their followers Anabaptists and the popish Priests make Papists And therefore all great men Kings Princes and Governours ought to have a special care to chuse Orthodoxal men to be their Chaplains and all men ought to have the like care to follow the Doctrine of the true Preachers and to be as willing to hear the Orthodox and true Preachers as the Heterodox and false Prophets For if Ahab and Jezabel would have hearkened to Micaiah as well as they did to the Prophets of Baal it is very likely Baal had not been so much worshipped nor the true Service of God so much neglected But S. Gregory l. 4. Epist 38. saith most truly Rex superbiae prope est quod dici nefas sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus And herein this City and this Kingdom is now very happy that God hath sent them so Religious and so Noble a King as doth favour and countenance the true Protestants and is not apt to believe the aspersions that the false brethren are so ready to cast upon them But to proceed to shew to you how this great wickedness of the people proceeded from the Priests our Prophet saith That from the Prophets of Jerusalem which was in Judea as London in England and Dublin in Ireland Lishon in Portugal and Paris in France the chiefest City of the Kingdom is prophaness gone forth into all the land Jer. 23.25 that is they of the Head-City were the cause that all the other Cities of the whole Kingdom do so prephanely The Head-City is the Leader of all the other 〈◊〉 of the Kingdom and so irreverently serve the Lord. And therefore the Prophets of the Metropolis ought to be very careful and circumspect what example they give to other Cities And this our Prophet further sheweth How this great mischief of prophaness covetousness injustice and all other wickedness happened to become so general among this people and that was When the unity of the Clergy and uniformity of Gods service was divided into many Sects and different sorts of serving God Jer. 12.10 for many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard saith the Prophet not because they were many had they been all of one mind but because they were of many different minds as were the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Esseni and many other inferiour Sects among the Jews as now Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Papists Quakers Dippers and many Sects and Factions are among us when the Church of God that should be tanquam Acies ordinata like a well-ordered Army as Solomon saith i.e. governed by the General and his subordinate Officers and not be commanded by a multitude of unequal and all dissenting Commanders shall be instructed by
their sins were suddenly destroyed and their punishment was not delayed that others by their example might be affraid to offend God lest his wrath should as suddenly consume them as it had done the others before they had any time to cry for pardon Yet sometimes he beareth long before he seems to be angry as the punishment of the Ninivits was to be deferred forty daies which forty daies were extended to forty years before Ninivy felt the smart and of the Israelits the Lord saith Forty years was I grieved with this Generation and to the old world he gave one hundred and twenty years to repent before he punished them and to the Amorits 400 years and which is more to be admired that the punishment of such a transcendent sin should be so long deferred The Jews that murdered their King the son of God remained full forty years before Jerusalem was destroyed and the death of Candaules slain by Gyges was not punished untill the daies of Craesus which was four Generations after as Herodotus saith out of the mouth of the oracle as the Prophet saith the like of Jehu for the slaughter that he committed so the Murderers of King Charles and of his Loyall subjects may perhaps escape for some time and yet their punishment may come at last and it may be with them as it was with Joab for the murder of Amasa and Abner So wounderfull is the long suffering and the patience of our God which he useth as the Apostle sheweth that he might lead them by that great patience unto repentance or if they repented not that they might be without excuse and that as Lactantius saith the long sufferance of God in expecting their amendment might be recompensed with the severity of vengeance in their punishment for the offendors must not think that because their payment is deferred therefore it shall be lessened or that the Lord hath forgotten it because they think not of it but as the longer you keep the Vsurers money the more interest he expecteth and the more debt is on your score and the higher you lift up your hand the heavier the blow will fall so the longer God beareth with the wicked transgressors of his laws before their punishment cometh the sorer and the severer will be their punishment when it cometh The deferring of Gods help no argument of Gods hate And therefore the long deferring of Gods aide and help to relieve his distressed servants and their often over-throws in their just defence is no argument that God hath forsaken them and will not help them no more then he forsook holy Job when he seemed to leave him destitute of all help or the ten Tribes when they fought and were twice beaten by the Tribe of Benjamin and the long flourishing of the wicked their good successes in all their bad causes The long prosperity of the wicked no argument of Gods speciall love Job 21.13 their prevailing against the righteous and their freedome of all punishment in this life but especially the deferring of their punishment is no token of Gods love unto them or especially of his acceptance of them no more then it was to Dives that without any rubs ran all his race in pleasure or to them whereof Job speaketh that spend their daies in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave because God dealeth with the wicked herein as Claudian saith he did with Ruffinus Tolluntur in altum Vt lapsu graviore ruant God lifteth them up and they abusing that favour he casteth them down and destroyeth them But the Prophet David seems to tell us the very set time The very time when God most commonly useth both to help and to relieve those that serve him and to punish and destroy those that prophane his fervice and continue in their wickedness under the Hypocriticall shew of holiness for he saith that the Lord is Deus in opportunitatibus a God in the needfull time of trouble that is as a holy Father expounds it Tum incipit auxilium divinum 1 When God helpeth his servants cum desinit auxilium humanum God will then help us when we cannot help our selves and when we are as Moses was at the red sea betwixt two huge Mountains and the raging sea before him and Pharaohs mighty host behind him ready to be destroyed either drowned in the waters or slain by the sword or break their necks if they assaid to climb those rocky Mountains or as the disciples of Christ were in the ship ready to perish as themselves confess When they see no hope of any human help then will God shew himself and send them help out of his holy place as he did to Job to restore his health when all his friends could not ease his pain and delivered Daniel out of the Lions den when the King himself could not free him from it And so will he do to all them that serve him and put their trust in him send them deliverance when man seeth no hope of assistance as he doth many times raise the sick when the Physitian giveth him over And the reason of this manner of his proceeding Why God deserreth and the long deferring of his help is to teach us with Moses Gideon Daniel Job Jonas and the rest of Gods servants to ascribe all the glory of our wonderfull and extraordinary deliverances to God and not to our selves nor to any other creature but to God Psal 115.1 and so to say with the psalmist Not unto us not unto us but unto thy name give the praise And for the time 2 When he punisheth the wicked when God usually punisheth the transgressors of his Laws the same Prophet saith When the ungodly are green as the grass and when all the workers of wickedness do flourish then shall they be destroyed for ever Psal 92 7. that is when they have brought all their projects to their own wished ends subdued their adversaries trampled the just harmless men under feet and perhaps with Ahab killed and taken possession too of poor Naboth's Vineyard and with the rich man in the Gospel pulled down their old barns and cottages and builded large Palaces filled their coffers and laid up store for many years and now thought to eat drink and be merry then suddenly when they look not for it will the Lord awake as a Giant out of sleep and will smite his enemies upon the cheek bone and put them to perpetuall shame and say unto them as he did to that fool in the Gospell This night shall they fetch away your souls from you and your lives shall pay for the lives of them that you have murdered and then Who shall have those treasures that you have so unjustly scraped together and those possessions that you have so wrongfully plucked and detained from the right owners And you your selves might have observed within these few lustra's many famous men that have been suddenly taken away
this world better than Peace for as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent All things do prosper in the time of peace And as the Prophet saith Our garners are full and plenteous with all manner of store our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets our oxen are strong to labour and there is no decay no lâ—ading into captivity and no complaining in our streets Psal 144.14 but our houses are repaired our Cities inlarged our Fields tilled and the poor are relieved which the Souldiers cause to starve and to die at their doors which have nothing to help them And therefore the very heathen man could say Cicero Iniquissimam pacem justisfimo bello antefero that he preferred the worst peace before the best and justest war and the onely outward blessing that comprehended all the other blessings which the Israelites desired was peace their onely salutation was Peace be unto you John 20.19 when Christ arose from the dead the first word that he spake to his disciples was Peace be unto you and when he was to leave the world the chiefest Legacie that he left to his Apostles was My Peace I give unto you and so the Apostolical wish to all Saints in all their Epistles is Grace and Peace be unto you and the most frequent Counsel most principall Precept that is given 2 Cor. 13.11 Colos 3.15 Phil. 4.7 Luc. 10.3 To love one another to honour all men to live in peace with all men the same thing in effect Which was Cromwels that Arch-souldier's Motto and is to be earnestly urged to be observed in all the New Testament by all the Ministers of Christ is to love one another to honour all men and to live in peace with all men which are the very same things in effect though exprest in divers forms and where this bond of peace is broken our Saviour saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be termed and called the children of God which is the God of Peace And what think you then of the souldiers that fight and war and break the bands of peace and the golden chain of unity and concord all to pieces whose children be they and may they not fear to be accursed Yes certainly and therefore they pretend that Pax quaeritur bello they make war to purchase peace To whom I may justly answer as Cyneas did to King Pyrrhus when the wise Oratour demanded of him what he would do when he had conquered Italy and Sicilie and Africk and Macedon c. Pyrrhus answered we will then be quiet and make peace and eat drink and be merry to whom Cyneas replyd And what letteth us my good Lord but that we may do so now before the shedding of so much blood as must be spilt in these enterprises So I say if you make War to procure peace why will you disturb the peace and not rather now when men do live in peace embrace it and suffer it to continue before you purchase it with the slaughter of so many men as must be killed in war But would you know the reason All the graces of Christ without the this grace will availe us nothing why they are so blessed that do procure peace and do embrace it and why we are so earnestly so often and in so various terms sollicited by Christ and his Apostles to observe this duty Saint Augustine telleth us it is because all the graces of Christ without this grace of loving all men and living in peace with all men will avail us nothing at all Namsicut spiritus humanus nunquam vivificat membra nisi fuerint unita ita Spiritus sanctus nunquam nos vivificat nisi sumus in pace conjuncti For as the Soul and humane spirit doth not quicken and give life unto our members unlesse they be joyned together so the Spirit of God will never quicken us to become members of Christ unlesse we be united together with love and in the bond of peace as the same Father speaketh and Saint Paul plentifully proveth the invalidity of all graces 1 Cor. 13. per totum without this grace of love and charity towards all men and what love can be in them that kill their neighbours And therefore not onely of our peace and reconciliation with God or the peace and tranquillity of our consciences but even of this peace among men Esay 52.7 the Prophet saith How beautifull are the feet of the Embâ—ssadours of peace and our Saviour doth so earnestly perswade us to embrace this peace without which we can never attain unto any peace with God or to any quiet mind for as Saint John saith he that loveth not his brother and I may adde 1 John 4.20 and is not at peace with his neighbour whom he hath seen how can he love God and be at peace with God whom he hath not seen And therefore The piety of our Liturgy and Letany howsoever they that think themselves to be the holy brethren and yet are the incentives of war do exclaim against our Liturgy and cannot endure the Letany yet our Church doth most piously pray Give peace in our time O Lord and again That it may please thee to give unto all 〈…〉 peace and concord 〈…〉 the first part of that honour which we owe to all men that is to do 〈◊〉 wrâ—ng to shed no blood to hate no man in our heart to traduce no man with our tongues and to smite no man with our hands but to love and to live in peace with all men 2. As we are no wayes to hurt or to wrong any man so we ought 2 Every way to assist and help them that need our help to the uttermost of our power to be always ready to relieve help and succour every one that is oppressed and that standeth in need of our help nihil est tam egregium tam liberale tamque munificum quà m opem ferre supplicibus excitare asfâ—ictos dare salutem homines à periculis liberare and there is nothing more royall more liberal and more munificent then to help the poor supplicants and distressed Petitioners to raise up the afsticted and to free the oppressed out of the hands of their oppressours saith the Oratour Câ—cero Orat. 1. and in his Oration for Ligarius he saith Homines ad Deos nulla re propiùs accedunt quà m salutem hominibus dandâ— men can by no way be made more like unto God than by doing good and by yielding health and deliverance unto men Therefore Solomon saith with-hold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it and say not unto thy neighbour Prov. 3.27 28. Go and come again and to morrow I will give it thee when as thou hast it by thee because as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celeres Gratiae dulciores sunt
his private Closet his mind was wandring among the Wantons in the Galleries of Rome If we hear Sermons he will poyson our Opinions and prejudicate our minds with some ill conceit of the Preacher if we do well he will infect our best deeds with Pharisaical pride tum superbia destruit quicquid justitia aedificat pride destroyeth whatsoever righteousness buildeth if we do ill he will perswade us to persevere therein And so in all things else though he professeth love yet is it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the gift of an enemy as was Ajax Sword that he received from Hector wherewith he kill'd himself a most deadly love worse then any open hate 2. Passing over all dissembling flatterers and all flattering friends 2 How the world professeth to love us perditissimos homines and those villanous men as Cicere terms them which can give a stab to the smile of an innocent and perfidiously deceive them qui laesi non essent nisi credidissent which had been safe if they had not trusted them The whole world is the Devils Ape and imitates him to a hair like the Courtlie Mountebank that is composed of nothing else but Complements and can promise golden Mountains but perform dirty Dales and deal with us as Laban did with Jacob Gen. 29.24 when he had served seven years for beautiful Rachel to thrust into his bed and to his bosome bleer-ey'd Leah It is like Dalila able to betray the strongest Sampson and like Circe powerful enough to bewitch the Wisest Solomon And if I had time to relate unto you the Tragedies of Mar. Attilius Regulus Cheops King of Egypt that erected the Pyramides Croesus King of Lydia Darius King of Persia Manius Acilius the Roman Consul Belisarius the brave General of Justinian who in his old age begged Date obolum Belisario Iob 30.4 quem virtus exaltavit fortuna depressit malitia excaecavit O give one half-peny to him whom virtue raised fortune spoiled and malice made him a poor blind begger And those thirty Emperours or thereabouts that died not sicca Morte but were killed from Julius Caesar to Charlemaigne and especially that notable example of Hebraim Bassa chief Councellor and of greatest power with Solyman the Great Turk whom Paulus Jovius termeth the greatest Minion of the worlds inconstancy because he was so intirely beloved of Solyman that he entreated his Master not to make so much of him lest being elevated with Haman too high he might have like him too great a fall and the Emperour swore he would never take away his life while he lived yet afterwards for some distaste of his insolent carriage Solyman being informed by a Talisman or Turkish Priest that a man asleep cannot be counted among the living sent an Eunuch into his Chamber who with a sharp Razor cut his throat as he was quietly sleeping in his bed And likewise Pope Baltazar Cossa who called himself John the XXIV that being thrown out of his Popedome by the Council of Constance 1417. made these verses of himself Qui modo summus eram gandens nomine Prasul Tristis Abjectus nunc mea Fata gemo Excelsus solio nuper versabar in alto Cunctaque Gens pedibus oscula prona dabant Nunc ego paenarum fundo devolvor in imo Vultum deformem quemque videre piget Omnibus eterris Aurum mihi sponte ferebant Sed nec Gaza juvat nec quis amicus adest Sic varians Fortuna vices adversa secundis Subdit ambiguo nomine ludit atrox And a thousand like examples that might be produced of some men that as Job saith cut up mallows by the bushes and Juniper roots for their meat children of fools yea children of base men that were viler then the earth whose Fathers we would have disdained to have eaten with the dogs of our flocks are now keepers of Castles and Commanders of whole Countryes Camer l. 4. c. 7.246 And others that from the highest honor were suddenly thrown down to the lowest misery compell'd to change their scarlet robes for rugs it would plainly appear unto us that the lovers of this world which relie upon the Worlds love Camerarius l. 3. c. 5.162 are greater fools then Heliodorus the Carthaginian who caused this Epitaph to be ingraven upon his Tomb hard by the straight of Gibralter I Heliodorus Reliodorus his Epitaph a fool of Carthage have ordained by my last will to be buried in this place in the remotest part of the world to see if any man more foolish then my self would come thus far to see me And therefore the best way to escape the deceits of the World is to follow the counsel of the Epicarmus How we ought to deal with the world that is semper diffidere alwayes to distrust it and never to believe it but with Ulysses to tye our selves unto the main Mast of our ship i.e. to sound reason or rather to true Religion that teacheth us to deal with this World as the worldlings deal with God to stop our ears like the deaf Adder that layeth one ear close to the earth and clappeth her tail in the other and so never listneth to the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely 3. 3 How we love our selves 2 Tim. 3.2 The Comique tells us verum idesse vulgo quod dici solet that every man loves himself better then another And Euripides saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one loves himself better then his friend and the Apostle saith that in the last times men should be lovers of themselves And yet there was not a sounder truth uttered by the mouth of any Phylosopher then nemo laditur nisi a seipso no man is wounded but by himself because as Aquinas saith inordinatus amor sui est causa omnis peccati Sin is the cause of all our miseries and the inordinate love of our selves That our self love is the cause of all our sins and of all our miseries is the chiefest cause of all sins And Plato calleth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons omnium malorum the root and fountain of all mischief And experience tells us that intus est equus Trojanus every mans greatest enemy lodgeth within his own bosome otherwise if we had the true reins of our own passions and could bridle our own affections then outward occasions might well exercise our virtue but not much injure our actions because others cannot draw us into any great inconveniences if we do not some way help our selves forward As the Adulterers cannot bereave us of the chastity of our bodies if there be not an Adulterer lodging within our souls and the Fornicator cannot take away the chastity of a Virgin if her corrupted heart doth not some way yield consent and therefore the Law saith of the ravished woman that she shall be freed and no cause of death shall be in her because the fact was committed against
her will No force can prevail against the will and actual sins have so much dependency upon the hearts approbation as that the same alone can either vitiate or excuse the action and no outward force hath any power over mine inward mind unless my self do give it him as all the power of the Kingdome cannot force my heart to hate my King or to love his enemies they may tear this poor body all to pieces but they can never force the mind to do but what it will And yet such is the deceit of our own flesh that if the devil should be absent from us our own frailties would be his tempting deputies and when we have none other foe we will become the greatest foes unto our selves as Apollodorus the Tyrant dreamd that he was flead by the Scythians and that his heart thrown into a boyling caldron should say unto him That it was the cause of all his miseries and so every man that is undone hath indeed undone himself for Perditio tua exte thy destruction is from thy self saith the Prophet yea the very best men Hos 13.9 by whomsoever wronged yet wrong themselves as now it is with our gracious King for as Valentine the Emperour when he cut off his best Commander and demanding of his best Counselour what he thought of it had this answer given him That he had cut off his own right arm with his left hand so when the good King seduced and over-perswaded gave way though against his will to make an Everlasting Parliament he then gave away the Sword out his own hand So I could tell you of a very good man that is brought to very great exigency by parting with his owne strength and giving his sword out of his own hand and when he excluded the Bishops out of the House of Peers he parted with so much of his own strength and brought himself thereby to be weaker then he was before and so it will be with every one of us and it may be in a higher misprision then with our King if we look not well unto our selves and take heed lest in seeking to preserve our bodies we destroy our own souls or to save our estates we make shipwrack of our faith or especially to uphold an earthly Rule or Kingdome we expose to ruine the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church of God as you know how the Parliament do it at this day And therefore the Spaniards prayer is very good Dios mi guarda mi de mi O my God defend me from my self that I do not destroy my self and Saint Augustine upon the words of the Psalmist Deliver me from the wicked man demanding who was that wicked man Answ it was a seipso and so the wisest Philosophers have given us many Precepts to beware of our selves And he that can do so Latius regnat avidum domando Spiritum Horatius quam si lybiam remotis Gadibus jungat uterque paenus Serviat uni doth more and ruleth better then he that reigneth from the Southern Lybia to the Northern Pole so hard it is for man under all the cope of Heaven to find any one that truly loves him But God is Verax veritas true and the truth it self and as Hugo saith Veritas est sine fallacia faelicitas sine miseria he is Truth without Deceit that neither can deceive not be deceived and as this our Apostle saith God is love and the Fountain of all true love and he is sweet he is wise and he is strong 1 John 4.8 How God loveth us and how sweet and gracious his love is therefore S. Bern. saith that he loveth sweetly wisely and strongly Dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit sweetly because he was made man to have a fellow-feeling of our miseries wisely because he did avoid sin that he might be able to help us and strongly because his love was as strong as death when rather then he would lessen his love unto us he would lose his life for us And therefore of all that pretend to love us God alone is the onely pure and truly perfect lover 2. For the affection it is love for God loved us and love 2 The affection Love comprehendeth three things as it is in the creatures is a passion better perceived by the lover then it can be expressed by any other and it comprehendeth three things 1. A liking to the thing beloved 2. A desire to enjoy it And 3. A contentment in it as when the Father saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as others think of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to be fully and perfectly satisfied in the thing loved as Phavorinus testifieth And so though the affection of love is not the same in God as it is in us because he is a Spirit most simple without passion and we are often-times transported and swallowed up of this affection yet in the love of God we finde these three things most perfectly contained 3 Things contained in the love of God 1. An Eternal benevolence or purpose to do good unto his creatures 2. An Actual beneficence and performance of that good unto them 3. A Delightful complacency or contented delight in the things beloved as the Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness that is he taketh delight and pleasure in all righteous livers and as he hateth the ungodly so he loveth the righteous and taketh delight in them and in their just and righteous dealing But because love is an inward affection that can hardly be discerned without some outward demonstration of the same and that as S. Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis the trial of our love is seen by our actions which testifie our love far better then our words How God imanifesteth his love many wayes when we see too too many that profess to love us when they labour to destroy us as the rebels pray for the King when they fight against him so finely can the Devil deceive us therefore God manifested his love by many manifold arguments As 1. Way 1 By screating things of nothing and making them so perfectly good that when himself had considered them all he saw that they were all exceeding good 2. Way 2 By preserving all things that they return not to nothing Quia fundavit Deus mundum supranihilum ut mundus fundaret se supra Deum because God laid the foundations of the world upon nothing that the world might wholly rely upon God who is the basis that beareth up all things with his mighty word and more particularly in preserving not onely the righteous but even the wicked also from many evils both of Sin and Punishment for did not God withhold and restrain the very reprobates even
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when