abominable wickedness heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of Gods inevitable Judgment Examples of such scorners we read in the Second Book of Chronicles 2 Par. 30. When the good King Ezechias in the beginning of his Reign had destroyed Idolatry purged the Temple and reformed Religion in his Realm he sent Messengers into every City to gather the People unto Jerusalem to solemnize the Feast of Easter in such sort as God had appointed The Posts went from City to City through the Land of Ephraim and Manasses even unto Zabulon And what did the People think ye Did they land and praise the Name of the Lord which had given them so good a King so zealous a Prince to abolish Idolatry and to restore again Gods true Religion No no. The Scripture saith The people laughed them to scorn and mocked the Kings Messengers And in the last Chapter of the same Book it is written That Almighty God having compassion upon his people sent his Messengers the Prophets unto them to call them from their abominable Idolatry and wicked kind of living But they mocked his Messengers they despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and till there was no remedy For he gave them up into the hands of their enemies even unto Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon who spoiled them of their Goods burnt their City and led them their Wives and their Children Captives unto Babylon The wicked People that were in the days of Noe made but a mock at the Word of God when Noe told them that God would take vengeance upon them for their sins The Flood therefore came suddenly upon them and drowned them with the whole World Lot Preached to the Sodomites that except they repented both they and their City should be destroyed They thought his sayings impossible to be true they scorned and mocked his Admonition and reputed him as an old doting Fool. But when God by his Holy Angels had taken Lot his Wife and two Daughters from among them he rained down Fire and Brimstone from Heaven and burnt up those scorners and mockers of his Holy Word And what estimation had Christs Doctrine among the Scribes and Pharisees What Reward had he among them The Gospel reporteth thus The Pharisees which were covetous did scorn him in his Doctrine O then ye see that worldly rich men scorn the Doctrine of their Salvation The worldly wise men scorn the Doctrine of Christ as foolishness to their Understanding These scorners have ever been and ever shall be to the Worlds end 2 Pet. 3. For St. Peter Prophesied that such scorners should be in the world before the latter day Take heed therefore my Brethren take heed be ye not scorners of Gods most Holy Word provoke him not to pour out his wrath now upon you as he did then upon those Gybers and Mockers Be not wilful murderers of your own Souls Turn unto God while there is yet time of Mercy ye shall else repent it in the World to come when it shall be too late for there shall be Judgment without Mercy This might suffice to admonish us and cause us henceforth to reverence Gods Holy Scriptures but all men have not Faith This therefore shall not satisfie and content all mens minds but as some are carnal so they will still continue and abuse the Scriptures carnally to their greater damnation 2 Pet. 3. The unlearned and unstable saith St. Peter pervert the holy Scriptures to their own destruction 1 Cor. 1. Jesus Christ as St. Paul saith is to the Jews an offence to the Gentiles foolishness But to Gods children as well of the Jews as of the Gentiles he is the power and wisdom of God The holy man Simeon saith Luke 2. that he is set forth for the fall and rising again of many in Israel As Christ Jesus is a fall to the Reprobate which yet perish through their own default so is his Word yea the whole Book of God a cause of damnation unto them through their incredulity And as he is a rising up to none other than those which are Gods Children by adoption so is his Word yea the whole Scripture the power of God to Salvation to them only that do believe it Christ himself the Prophets before him the Apostles after him all the true Ministers of Gods Holy Word yea every word in Gods Book is unto the Reprobate the savour of death unto death Christ Jesus the Prophets the Apostles and all the true Ministers of his Word yea every jot and tittle in the Holy Scripture have been is and shall be for evermore the savour of life unto eternal life unto all those whose hearts God hath purified by true Faith Let us earnestly take heed that we make no jesting-stock of the Books of Holy Scriptures The more obscure and dark the sayings be to our Understanding the further let us think our selves to be from God and his Holy Spirit who was the Author of them Let us with more reverence endeavour our selves to search out the wisdom hidden in the outward Bark of the Scripture If we cannot understand the sense and the reason of the saying yet let us not be scorners jesters and deriders for that is the uttermost token and shew of a Reprobate of a plain Enemy to God and his wisdom They be not idle Fables to jest at which God doth seriously pronounce and for serious matters let us esteem them And though in sundry places of the Scriptures be set out divers Rites and Ceremonies Oblations and Sacrifices let us not think strange of them but refer them to the Times and People for whom they served although yet to learned men they be not unprofitable to be considered but to be expounded as figures and shadows of things and persons afterward openly revealed in the New Testament Though the rehearsal of the Genealogies and Pedegrees of the Fathers be not to much edification of the plain ignorant people yet is there nothing so impertinently uttered in all the whole Book of the Bible but may serve to spiritual purpose in some respect to all such as will bestow their labours to search out the meanings These may not be condemned because they serve not to our Understanding nor make to our Edification But let us turn our labour to understand and to carry away such sentences and stories as be more fit for our Capacity and Instruction And whereas we read in divers Psalms how David did wish to the Adversaries of God sometimes shame rebuke and confusion sometime the decay of their Off-spring and Issue sometime that they might perish and come suddenly to destruction as he did wish to the Captains of the Philistines Cast forth saith he thy lightning and tear them shoot out thine arrows and consume them with such other manner of Imprecations Yet ought we not to be offended at such Prayers of David being a Prophet as he was singularly
simple Man of small wit and less knowledge one that was reputed among the Learned as an Ideot and he on Gods name would needs take in hand to dispute with this proud Philosopher The Bishops and other learned Men standing by were marvellously abashed at the matter thinking that by his doings they should be all confounded and put to open shame He notwithstanding goeth on and beginning in the Name of the Lord Jesus brought the Philosopher to such Point in the end contrary to all Mens expectation that he could not chuse but acknowledge the power of God in his Words and to give place to the Truth Was not this a miraculous Work that one silly Soul of no Learning should do that which many Bishops of great knowledge and understanding were never able to bring to pass So true is the saying of Bede Where the Holy Ghost doth instruct and teach there is no delay at all in learning Much more might here be spoken of the manifold gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost most excellent and wonderful in our eyes but to make a long Discourse through all the shortness of time will not serve And seeing ye have heard the chiefest ye may easily conceive and judge of the rest Now were it expedient to discuss this Question Whether all they which boast and brag that they have the Holy Ghost do truly challenge this unto themselves or no Which doubt because it is necessary and profitable shall God willing be dissolved in the next Part of this Homily In the mean season let us as we are most bound give hearty thanks to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ for sending down his Comforter into the World humbly beseeching him so to work in our Hearts by the power of this Holy Spirit that we being Regenerate and newly Born again in all Goodness Righteousness Sobriety and Truth may in the end be made partakers of everlasting Life in his Heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Amen The Second Part of the Homily concerning the HOLY GHOST dissoâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 doubt Whether all Men riâ—htly 〈…〉 themselves the HOLY GHOST or no â—ohn 14. â—5 OUr Saviour Christ departing out of the World unto his Father promised his Disciples to send down another Comforter that should continue with them for ever and direct them into all truth Which thing to be faithfully and truly performed the Scriptures do sufficiently bear witness Neither must we think that this Comforter was either promised or else given only to the Apostles but also to the Universal Church of Christ dispersed through the whole World For unless the Holy Ghost had been always present governing and preserving the Church from the beginning it could never have sustained so many and great brunts of Affliction and Persecution with so little damage and harm as it hath And the words of Christ are most plain in this behalf saying John 24. Mat. 21. That the Spirit of truth should abide with them for ever that he would be with them always he meaneth by Grace Vertue and Power even to the Worlds end Also in the Prayer that he made to his Father a little before his death he maketh intercession not only for himself and his Apostles but indifferently for all them that should believe in him through their words John 17. Rom. 8 that is to wit for his whole Church Again St. Paul saith If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is not his Also in the words following Ibidem We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Hereby then it is evident and plain to all Men that the Holy Ghost was given not only to the Apostles but also to the whole Body of Christs Congregation although not in like form and majesty as he came down at the Feast of Pentecost But now herein standeth the Controversie Whether all Men do justly arrogate to themselves the Holy Ghost or no The Bishops of Rome have for along time made a sore Challenge thereunto reasoning with themselves after this sort The Holy Ghost say they was promised to the Church and never forsaketh the Church But we are the chief Heads and the principal part of the Church therefore we have the Holy Ghost for ever and whatsoever things we decree are undoubted Verities and Oracles of the Holy Ghost That ye may perceive the weakness of this Argument it is needful to teach you First What the true Church of Christ is and then to confer the Church of Rome therewith to discern how well they agree together The true Church is an Universal Congregation or Fellowship of Gods faithful and elect People built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2. Jesus Christ himself being the head Corner-stone And it hath always three Notes or Marks whereby it is known Pure and Sound Doctrin the Sacraments Ministred according to Christs holy Institution and the right use of Ecclesiastical Discipline This description of the Church is agreeable both to the Scriptures of God and also to the Doctrin of the Ancient Fathers so that none may Justly find fault therewith Now if you will compare this with the Church of Rome not as it was in the beginning but as it is at present and hath been for the space of Nine hundred Years and odd you shall well perceive the state thereof to be so far wide from the nature of the true Church that nothing can be more For neither are they built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets retaining the sound and pure Doctrin of Christ Jesu neither yet do they order the Sacraments or else the Ecclesiastical Keys in such sort as he did first Institute and Ordain them But have so intermingled their own Traditions and Inventions by chopping and changing by adding and plucking away that now they may seem to be converted into a new Guise Christ commended to his Church a Sacrament of his Body and Blood they have changed it into a Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead Christ did Minister to his Apostles and the Apostles to other Men indifferently under both kinds They have robbed the Lay people of the Cup saying that for them one kind is sufficient Christ Ordained no other Element to be used in Baptism but only Water whereunto when the Word is joyned it is made as St. Augustine saith a full and perfect Sacrament Augustine They being wiser in their own conceit than Christ think it is not well nor orderly done unless they use Conjuration unless they Hallow the Water unless there be Oyl Salt Spittle Tapers and such other dumb Ceremonies serving to no use contrary to the plain Rule of St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. who willeth all things to be done in the Church to Edification Christ Ordained the Authority of the Keys to Excommunicate notorious sinners and to Absolve them which are truly Penitent They abuse this Power at their own pleasure as well in
ye see how all is of God by his Son Christ our Lord and Saviour Remember I say once again your Duty of Thanks let them be never to want still injoyn your self to continue in Thanksgiving ye can offer to God no better Sacrifice For he saith himself Psal 50. It is the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks that shall honor me Which thing was well perceived of that holy Prophet David when he so earnestly spake to himself thus Psal 103. O my Soul bless thou the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy Name I say once again O my Soul bless thou the Lord and never forget his manifold rewards God give us Grace good People to know these things and to feel them in our Hearts This knowledge and feeling is not in our selves by our selves it is not possible to come by it a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge Let us therefore meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit the Holy Ghost which proceedeth from our Father of Mercy and from our Mediator Christ that he would assist us and inspire us with his presence that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our Salvation For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the Name of our Mediator as St. Paul plainly testifieth 1 Cor. 12 No Man can once Name our Lord Jesus Christ but in the Holy Ghost Much less should we be able to believe and know these great Mysteries that be opened to us by Christ St. Paul saith That no Man can know what is of God 1 Cor. 2. but the Spirit of God As for us saith he we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God for this purpose That in that holy Spirit we might know the things that be given us by Christ The Wise man saith that in the Power and Vertue of the Holy Ghost resteth all Wisdom and all Ability to know God and to please him For he waiteth thus We know that it is not in Mans power to guide his goings Wisd 9. No Man can know thy Pleasure except thou givest Wisdom and sendest thy holy Spirit from above Send him down therefore prayeth he to God from the holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy Majesty that he may be with me and labor with me that so I may know what is acceptable before thee Let us with so good Heart Pray as he did and we shall not fail but to have his assistance For he is soon seen of them that love him he will be found of them that seek him for very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom In his power shall we have sufficient Abilty to know our Duty to God in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our Duty in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the Grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working And he only is present every where by his invisible Power and containeth all things in his Dominion He lightneth the Heart to conceive worthy thoughts to Almighty God he sitteth in the Tongue of Man to stir him to speak his Honor no Language is hid from him for he hath the knowledge of all Speech he only Ministreth Spiritual strength to the powers of our Soul and Body To hold the way which God had prepared for us to walk rightly in our Journey we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity That we may boldly come in Prayer and call upon Almighty God as our Father it is by this holy Spirit which maketh intercession for us with continual Sighs Galat. 4. Rom. 8. If any Gift we have wherewith we may work to the Glory of God and profit of our Neighbor all is wrought by this own and self same Spirit which maketh his distributions peculiarly to every Man as he will 1 Cor. 12. If any Wisdom we have it is not of our selves we cannot glory therein as begun of our selves but we ought to glory in God from whom it came to us as the Prophet Jeremy writeth Jerem. 9. Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me for I am the Lord which sheweth Mercy Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. This Wisdom cannot be attained but by the direction of the Spirit of God and therefore it is called Spiritual Wisdom And no where can we more certainly search for the knowledge of this Will of God by the which we must direct all our Works and Deeds but in the holy Scriptures for they be they that testifie of him John 5. saith our Saviour Christ It may be called Knowledg and Learning that is other where gotten without the Word but the Wise Man plainly testifieth Wisd 13. that they all be but Vain which have not in them the Wisdom of God We see to what Vanity the Old Philosophers came who were destitute of this Science gotten and searched for in his Word We see what Vanity the School Doctrin is mixed with for that in this Word they sought not the Will of God but rather the Will of Reason the Trade of Custom the Path of the Fathers the Practice of the Church Let us therefore Read and Revolve the holy Scripture both Day and Night Psal 1. Psal 119. For blessed is he that hath his whole meditation therein It is that which giveth light to our Feet to walk by It is that which giveth Wisdom to the simple and ignorant In it may we find Eternal Life In the holy Scriptures find we Christ in Christ find we God for he it is that is the express Image of the Father He that seeth Christ seeth the Father And contrariwise as St. Jerome saith the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ Not to know Christ Psal 19. Heb. 1. John 14. is to be in darkness in the midst of our Worldly and Carnal light of Reason and Philosophy To be without Christ is to be in foolishness For he is the only Wisdom of the Father in whom it pleased him that all fulness and perfection should dwell Coloss 2. With whom whosoever is endued in Heart by Faith and rooted fast in Charity hath laid a sure Foundation to build on whereby he may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ This universal and absolute knowledge is that Wisdom which St. Paul wisheth these Ephesians to have as under Heaven the greatest treasure that can be obtained Ephes 3. For of this Wisdom the Wise Man writeth thus of his experience All good things came to me together with her and innumerable Riches through her hands And addeth more in that same place Sap. 7.
She is the Mother of all these things for she is an infinite treasure unto Men which whoso use become partakers of the love of God I might with many words move some of this audience to search for this Wisdom to sequester their Reason to follow Gods Commandment to cast from them the Wits of their Brains to favor this Wisdom to renounce the Wisdom and Policy of this fond World to taste and Savor of that whereunto the Favor and Will of God hath called them and willeth us finally to enjoy by his Favor if we would give ear But I will haste to the Third Part of my Text wherein is expressed further in Sapience how God giveth his Elect understanding of the motions of the Heavens of the alteration and circumstances of Time Which as it followeth in words more plentiful in the Text which I have last cited unto you so it must needs follow in them that be endued with this Spiritual Wisdom For as they can search where to find this Wisdom and know of whom to ask it So know they again that in time it is found and can therefore temper themselves to the occasion of the time to suffer no time to pass away wherein they may labor for this Wisdom And to encrease therein they know how God of his infinite Mercy and lenity giveth all Men here time and place of Repentance And they see how the Wicked as Job writeth abuse the same to their Pride Job 14. and therefore do the Godly take the better hold of the time to redeem it out of such use as it is spoiled in by the Wicked They which have this Wisdom of God can gather by the diligent and earnest study of the Worldlings of this present life how they wait their times and apply themselves to every occasion of time and to get Riches to encrease their Lands and Patrimony They see the time pass away and therefore take hold on it in such wise that otherwhiles they will with loss of their sleep and ease with suffering many pains catch the offer of their time knowing that that which is past cannot be returned again Repentance may follow but remedy is none Why should not they then that be Spiritually Wise in their Generation wait their time to encrease as fast in their state to win and gain Everlastingly They reason what a brute forgetfulness it were in Man endued with Reason to be ignorant of their Times and Tides when they see the Turtle Dove the Stork and the Swallow to wait their times Jer. 8. as Jeremy saith The Stork in the Air knoweth her appointed times the Turtle the Grane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my People knoweth not the judgment of the Lord. Ephes 2. St. Paul willeth us to redeem the time because the days are evil It is not the Counsel of St. Paul only but of all other that ever gave precepts of Wisdom There is no Precept more seriously given and commanded than to know the time Yea Christian Men for that they hear how grievously God complaineth and threatneth in the Scriptures them which will not know the time of his Visitations are learned thereby the rather earnestly to apply themselves thereunto After our Saviour Christ had Prophesied with weeping Tears of the destruction of Jerusalem at the last he putteth the cause Luke 19. For that thou hast not known the time of thy Visitation O England ponder the time of Gods merciful Visitation which is shewed thee from day to day and yet will not regard it neither wilt thou with his Punishment be driven to thy Duty nor with his benefits be provoked to Thanks If thou knewest what may fall upon thee for thy unthankfulness thou wouldst provide for thy Peace Brethren howsoever the World in generality is forgetful of God let us Particularly attend to our time and win the time with diligence and apply our selves to the Light and Grace that is afforded us let us if Gods Favor and Judgments which he worketh in our time cannot stir us to call home to our selves to do that belonging to our Salvation at the least way let the malice of the Devil the naughtiness of the World which we see exercised in these perilous and last times wherein we see our days so dangerously set provoke us to watch diligently to our vocation to walk and go forward therein Let the misery and short transitory joys spied in the casualty of our days move us while we have them in our hands and seriously stir us to be wise and to expend the gracious good Will of God to us ward which all the day long stretched out his Hands as the Prophet saith unto us Isaiah 65. for the most part his merciful Hands sometime his heavy Hands that we being learned thereby may escape the danger that must needs fall on the unjust who lead their days in felicity and pleasure without the knowing of Gods Will toward them but suddenly they go down into Hell Let us be found Watchers found in the Peace of the Lord that at the last Day we may be found without spot and blameless yea let us endeavor our selves good Christian People diligently to keep the presence of his holy Spirit Job 2. Let us renounce all uncleanness for he is the Spirit of Purity Sap. 1. Let us avoid all hypocrisie for this holy Spirit will flee from that which is feigned Heb. 11. Cast we off all malice and all evil will for this Spirit will never enter into an evil willing Soul Let us cast away all the whole lump of sin that standeth about us for he will never dwell in that Body that is subdued to sin We cannot be seen Thankful to Almighty God and work such despight to the Spirit of Grace by whom we be Sanctified Heb. 10. If we do our endeavor we shall not need to fear We shall be able to overcome all our Enemies that fight against us Only let us apply our selves to accept the Grace that is offered us Of Almighty God we have comfort by his Goodness of our Saviour Christs Mediation we may be sure And this holy Spirit will suggest unto us that shall be wholsome and comfort us in all things Therefore it cannot be but true that St. Paul affirmeth Of him by him and in him be all things and in him after this transitory life well passed shall we have all things For St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. When the Son of God shall subdue all things unto him then shall God be all in all If ye will know how God shall be all in all verily after this sense may we understand it In this World ye see that we be fain to borrow many things to our necessity of many Creatures there is no one thing that sufficeth all our necessities If we be an Hungred we lust for Bread If we be Athirst we seek to be refreshed with Ale or Wine If we be
imaginations and turn again unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And in the Prophet Hosea the godly exhort one another after this manner Come and let us turn again unto the Lord Hos 6. for he hath smitten us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will bind us up again Note It is most evident and plain that these things ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sins and wickednesses were gone away from him For we do not turn again unto him with whom we were never before but we come unto him Now unto all them that will return unfeignedly unto the Lord their God Eccles 7. 1 John 1. the favor and mercy of God unto forgiveness of sins is liberally offered whereby it followeth necessarily that although we do after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ fall into great sins for there is no righteous Man upon the Earth that sinneth not and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us yet if we rise again by Repentance and with a full purpose of amendment of Life do flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in his Son Jesu Christ there is an assured and infallible hope of pardon and remission of the same and that we shall be received again into the favor of our Heavenly Father It is written of David Acts 13. 2 Sam. 7. I have found a Man according to mine own heart or I have found David the Son of Jesse a Man according to mine own heart who will do all things that I will This is a great commendation of David It is also most certain that he did stedfastly believe the promise that was made him touching the Messias who should come of him touching the Flesh and that by the same Faith he was justified and grafted in our Saviour Jesu Christ to come and yet afterwards he fell horribly committing most detestable Adultery and damnable Murder and yet as soon as he cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 2. 2 Sam. 22. I have sinned unto the Lord his sin being forgiven he was received into favor again Now will we come unto Peter of whom no Man can doubt but that he was grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ long before his denial Which thing may easily be proved by the answer which he did in his Name and in the Name of his Fellow Apostles make unto our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said unto them Will ye also go away John 6. Master saith he to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and know that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God Whereunto may be added the like Confession of Peter where Christ doth give us most infallible testimony Thou art blessed Simon the Son of Jonas for neither Flesh nor Blood hath revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven These words are sufficient to prove that Peter was already justifyed through this lively Faith in the only begotten Son of God whereof he made so notable and so solemn a confession But did not he afterwards most cowardly deny his Master although he had heard of him Mat. 26. Mat. 10. Whosoever denieth me before Men I will deny him before my Father Nevertheless as soon as with weeping eyes and with a sobing heart he did acknowledge his offence and with an earnest repentance did flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in him whom he had so shamefully denied his sin was forgiven him and for a Certificate and Assurance thereof the Room of his Apostleship was not denied unto him But now mark what doth follow After the same Holy Apostle had on Whitsunday Acts 2. with the rest of the Disciples received the gift of the Holy Ghost most abundantly he committed no small offence in Antiochia by bringing the Consciences of the Faithful into doubt by his Example Gal. 2. so that Paul was fain to rebuke him to his Face because that he walked not uprightly or went not the right way in the Gospel Shall we now say that after this grievous offence he was utterly excluded and shut out from the grace and mercy of God and that this his trespass whereby he was a stumbling Block unto many was unpardonable God defend we should say so But as these Examples are not brought in to the end that we should thereby take a boldness to sin presuming on the mercy and goodness of God but to the end that if through the frailness of our own Flesh and the temptation of the Devil we fall into like sins we should in no wise despair of the mercy and goodness of God What we must beware of Even so must we beware and take heed that we do in no wise think in our hearts imagine or believe that we are able to repent aright or to turn effectually unto the Lord by our own might and strength For this must be verified in all Men John 15. 2 Cor. 3. Phil. 2. Without me ye can do nothing Again Of our selves we are not able as much as to think a good thought And in another place It is God that worketh in us both the Will and the Deed. For this cause although Jeremy had said before Jer. 6. If thou return O Israel return unto me saith the Lord yet afterwards he saith Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God And therefore that holy Writer and ancient Father Ambrose doth plainly affirm That the turning of the heart unto God Ambros de Vocat Gent. lib. 8 cap. 9. is of God as the Lord himself doth testifie by his Prophet saying And I will give thee an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart These things being considered let us earnestly pray unto the living God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe by his holy Spirit to work a true and unfeigned Repentance in us that after the painful labors and travels of this Life we may live eternally with his Son Jesus Christ to whom be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of Repentance HItherto have ye heard Well-beloved how needful and necessary the Doctrin of Repentance is and how earnestly it is throughout all the Scriptures of God urged and set forth both by the ancient Prophets by our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles And that for as much as it is the conversion or turning again of the whole Man unto God from whom we go away by sin these four Points ought to be observed that is From whence or from what things we must return
or profitable The praise of Holy Scripture than the Knowledge of Holy Scripture forasmuch as in it is contained God's true Word setting forth his Glory and also Man's Duty The perfection of Holy Scripture The knowledge of Holy Scripture is necessary To whom the knowledge of Holy Scriture is sweet and pleasant Who be enemies to Holy Scripture And there is no Truth nor Doctrine necessary for our Justification and everlasting Salvation but that is or may be drawn out of that Fountain and Well of Truth Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the Right and Perfect way unto God must apply their Minds to know Holy Scripture without the which they can neither sufficiently know God and his Will neither their Office and Duty And as Drink is pleasant to them that be Drie and Meat to them that be Hungry So is the Reading Hearing Searching and Studying of Holy Scripture to them that be desirous to know God or themselves and to do his Will And their Stomachs only do loath and abhor the Heavenly Knowledge and Food of God's Word that be so drowned in worldly Vanities that they neither favour God nor any Godliness For that is the cause why they desire such Vanities rather than the time knowledge of God As they that are sick of an Ague An apt Similitude declaring of whom the Scripture is abhorred An exhortation unto the diligent reading and searching of the holy Scripture Matth. 4. The Holy Scripture is a sufficient Doctrine for our Salvation What things we may learn in the Holy Scripture whatsoever they eat and drink though it be never so pleasant yet it is as bitter to them as Wormwood not for the bitterness of the Meat but for the corrupt and bitter humor that is in their own Tongue and Mouth Even so is the sweetness of God's Word bitter not of itself but only unto them that have their Minds corrupted with long custom of Sin and love of this World Therefore forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly Men which care not but for their Carkass Let us reverently hear and read Holy Scripture which is the Food of the Soul Let us diligently search for the Well of Life in the Books of the New and Old Testament and not run to the stinking Puddles of Mens Traditions devised by Mens Imagination for our Justification and Salvation For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to love and what to look for at God's hands at length In these Books we shall find the Father from whom the Son by whom and the Holy Ghost in whom all Things have their Being and Keeping up And these Three Persons to be but One God and One Substance In these Books we may learn to know ourselves how Vile and Miserable we be and also to know God how Good He is of Himself and how He maketh us and all Creatures partakers of His Goodness We may learn also in these Books to know God's Will and Pleasure as much as for this present time is convenient for us to know And as the great Clerk and godly Preacher St. John Chrysostom saith whatsoever is required to the Salvation of Man is fully contained in the Scripture of God He that is Ignorant may there learn and have Knowledge He that is Hard-hearted and an obstinate Sinner shall there find Everlasting Torments prepared of God's Justice to make him afraid and to mollifie or soften him He that is oppressed with Misery in this World shall there find Relief in the promises of Everlasting Life to his great Consolation and Comfort He that is wounded by the Devil unto death shall find there Medicine whereby he may be restored again unto Health If it shall require to teach any Truth or reprove any false Doctrine to rebuke any Vice to commend any Virtue to give good Counsel to Comfort or Exhort or to do any other thing requisite for our Salvation All those things saith St. Chrysostome we may learn plentifully of the Scripture There is saith Fulgentius abundantly enough Holy Scripture ministreth sufficient Doctrine for all Degrees and Ages Matth. 4. Luke 3. John 17. Psal 19. What commodities and Profits the knowledge of Holy Scripture bringeth both for Men to eat and Children to suck There is whatsoever is meet for all Ages and for all Degrees and sorts of Men. These Books therefore ought to be much in our Hands in our Eyes in our Ears in our Mouths but most of all in our Hearts For the Scripture of God is the Heavenly Meat of our Souls the Hearing and Keeping of it maketh us Blessed Sanctifieth us and maketh us Holy it turneth our Souls it is a light Lanthorn to our Feet it is a sure stedfast and everlasting instrument of Salvation it giveth Wisdom to the humble and lowly Hearts it Comforteth maketh Glad Cheereth and Cherisheth our Conscience It is a more excellent Jewel or Treasure than any Gold or precious Stone it is more sweet than Honey or Honey-comb it is called the best part which Mary did choose for it hath in it everlasting Comfort The Words of Holy Scripture be called Words of Everlasting Life For they be God's Instruments ordained for the same purpose They have power to turn through God's Promise and they be effectual through God's assistence Luke 10. John 6. and being received in a faithful Heart they have ever an Heavenly spiritual working in them They are lively quick and mighty in Operation and sharper than any two-edged Sword and enter through Heb. 4. even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and the Spirit of the Joints and the Marrow Christ calleth him a Wise Builder Matth. 7. that Buildeth upon his Word upon his sure and substantial Foundation By this Word of God we shall be judged For the Word that I speak saith Christ John 12. is it that shall judge in the last day He that keepeth the Word of Christ is promised the Love and Favour of God John 14. and that he shall be the Dwelling-place or Temple of the Blessed Trinity This Word whosoever is diligent to Read and in his Heart to Print that he readeth the great affection to the transitory things of this World shall be minished in him and the great desire of Heavenly things that be therein promised of God shall increase in him And there is nothing that so much strengthneth our Faith and Trust in God that so much keepeth up Innocency and Pureness of the Heart and also of outward Godly Life and Conversation as continual Reading and recording of God's Word For that thing which by continual use of Reading of Holy Scripture and diligent searching of the same is deeply Printed and Graven in the Heart at length turneth almost into Nature And moreover the Effect and Virtue of God's Word is to illuminate the Ignorant and to give more light unto them that faithfully and diligently
shall justly judge both the quick and the dead according to their Works For whosoever forsaketh the Truth Though Perjury do escape here unspied and unpunished it shall not do so ever for love or displeasure of any Man or for lucre and profit to himself doth forsake Christ and with Judas betray him And although such perjured Mens falshood be now kept secret yet it shall be opened at the last day when the secrets of all Mens Hearts shall be manifest to all the World And then the Truth shall appear and accuse them and their own Conscience with all the blessed company of Heaven shall bear witness truly against them And Christ the Righteous Judge shall then justly condemn them to everlasting shame and death This sin of Perjury Almighty God by the Prophet Malachy doth threaten to punish sore saying unto the Jews Malac. 3â— I will come to you in judgment and I will be a swift witness and a sharp Judge upon Sorcerers Adulterers and Perjured persons Which thing to the Prophet Zachary God declareth in a vision wherein the Prophet saw a Book flying which was twenty Cubits long and ten Cubits broad God saying then unto him this is the curse that shall go forth upon the face of the Earth for Falshood false Swearing and Perjury And this Curse shall enter into the House of the false Man and into the House of the perjured Man and it shall remain in the midst of his House consume him and the timber and stones of his House Thus you see how much God doth hate Perjury and what punishment God hath prepared for false Swearers and perjured Persons Thus you have heard how and in what causes it is lawful for a Christian Man to Swear Ye have heard what properties and conditions a lawful Oath must have and also how such lawful Oaths are both Godly and necessary to be observed Ye have heard that it is not lawful to Swear vainly that is other ways than in such Causes and after such sort as is declared And finally ye have heard how damnable a thing it is either to forswear ourselves or to keep an unlawful and an unadvised Oath Wherefore let us earnestly call for Grace that all Vain-swearing and Perjury set apart we may only use such Oaths as be lawful and Godly and that we may truly without all fraud keep the same according to God's Will and Pleasure To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Amen A SERMON How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God OF our going from God the Wise Man saith that Pride was the first beginning for by it Man's Heart was turned from God his Maker For Pride saith he Eccl. 10. is the Fountain of all Sin He that hath it shall be full of Cursings and at the end it shall overthrow him And as by Pride and Sin we go from God so shall God and all Goodness with him go from us And the Prophet Osee doth plainly affirm that they which go away still from God by vicious living and yet would go about to pacifie him otherwise by Sacrifice Osee 5. and entertain him thereby they labour in vain For notwithstanding all their Sacrifice yet he goeth still away from them Forsomuch saith the Prophet as they do not apply their Minds to return to God although they go about with whole Flocks and Herds to seek the Lord yet they shall not find him for he is gone away from them But as touching our turning to God or from God you shall understand that it may be done divers ways Somtimes directly by Idolatry as Israel and Judah then did Somtimes Men go from God by lack of Faith and mistrusting of God whereof Isaiah speaketh on this wise Wo to them that go down into Egypt to seek for help trusting in Horses and having confidence in the number of Chariots and puissance or power of Horsemen Isai 31. They have no confidence in the Holy God of Israel nor seek for the Lord. But what followeth The Lord shall let his hand fall upon them and down shall come both the helper and he that is holpen they shall be destroyed all together Somtimes Men go from God by the neglecting of his Commandments concerning their Neighbours which command them to express hearty Love towards every Man as Zachary said unto the People in God's behalf Give true judgment shew mercy and compassion every one to his brother imagine no deceit towards Widows Zach. 7. or children fatherless and motherless towards strangers or the poor let no man forge evil in his heart against his brother But these things they passed not of they turned their backs and went their way they stopped their Ears that they might not hear they hardned their Hearts as an Adamant stone that they might not listen to the Law and the words that the Lord had sent through his Holy Spirit by his ancient Prophets Wherefore the Lord shewed his great Indignation upon them It came to pass saith the Prophet even as I told them As they would not hear so when they cried they were not heard but were scattered into all Kingdoms which they never knew and their land was made desolate Jer. 7. And to be short all they that may not abide the Word of God but following the persuasions and stubbornness of their own Hearts go backward and not forward as it is said in Jeremy They go and turn away from God Insomuch that Origen saith He that with Mind with Study with Deeds with Thought and Care applieth Jer. 7. and giveth himself to God's Word and thinketh upon his Laws day and night giveth himself wholly to God and in his Precepts and Commandments is exercised This is he that is turned to God And on the other part he saith Whosoever is occupied with Fables and Tales when the Word of God is rehearsed he is turned from God Whosoever in time of reading God's Word is careful in his mind of Worldly business of Money or of Lucre he is turned from God Whosoever is intangled with the cares of Possessions filled with covetousness of Riches Whosoever studieth for the Glory and Honour of this World he is turned from God So that after his Mind whosoever hath not a special mind to that thing that is commanded or taught of God he that doth not listen unto it embrace and imprint it in his Heart to the intent that he may duly fashion his life thereafter he is plainly turned from God although he do other things of his own Devotion and Mind which to him seem better and more to God's Honour Which thing to be true we be taught and admonished in the Holy Scripture by the example of King Saul who being commanded of God by Samuel 1 Kings 15. that he should kill all the Amalekites and destroy them clearly with their Goods and Cattle Yet he being moved partly with pity and partly as he thought with devotion
unto God saved Agag the King and all the chief of their Cattel therewith to make Sacrifice unto God Wherewithal God being displeased highly said unto the Prophet Samuel I repent that ever I made Saul King for he hath forsaken me and not followed my Words and so he commanded Samuel to shew him and when Samuel asked wherefore contrary to God's Word he had saved the Cattel he excused the matter partly by fear saying he durst do no other for that the People would have it so partly for that they were goodly Beasts he thought God would be content seeing it was done of a good intent and devotion to honour God with the Sacrifice of them But Samuel reproving all such intents and devotions seem they never so much to God's Honour if they stand not with his Word whereby we may be assured of his pleasure said on this wise Would God have Sacrifices and Offerings Or rather that his Word should be obeyed To obey him is better than offerings and to listen to him is better than to offer the fat of Rams yea to repugn against his voice is as evil as the sin of soothsaying and not to agree to it is like abominable Idolatry And now forasmuch as thou hast cast away the word of the Lord he hath cast away thee that thou shouldest not be King By all these examples of Holy Scripture The turning of God from Man we may know that as we forsake God so shall he ever forsake us And what miserable state doth consequently and necessarily follow thereupon a Man may easily consider by the terrible threatnings of God And although he consider not all the said misery to the uttermost being so great that it passeth any Man's capacity in this life sufficiently to consider the same Yet he shall soon perceive so much thereof that if his Heart be not more than stony or harder than the Adamant he shall fear tremble and quake to call the same to his remembrance First the displeasure of God towards us is commonly expressed in the Scripture by these two things By shewing his fearful Countenance upon us and by turning his Face or hiding it from us By shewing his dreadful Countenance is signified his great wrath But by turning his Face or hiding thereof is many times more signified that is to say That he clearly forsaketh us and giveth us over The which significations be taken of the properties of Mens manners For Men towards them whom they favour commonly bear a good a chearful and a loving Countenance So that by the Face or Countenance of a Man it doth commonly appear what Will or Mind he beareth towards others So when God doth shew his dreadful Countenance towards us that is to say doth send dreadful plagues of Sword Famine or Pestilence upon us it appeareth that he is greatly wroth with us But when he withdraweth from us his Word the right Doctrine of Christ his Gracious assistance and aid which is ever joyned to his Word and leaveth us to our own Wit our own Will and Strength He declareth then that he beginneth to forsake us For whereas God hath shewed to all them that truly believe his Gospel his Face of Mercy in Jesus Christ which doth so lighten their Hearts that they if they behold it as they ought to do be transformed to his Image be made partakers of the Heavenly Light and of his Holy Spirit and be fashioned to him in all Goodness requisite to the Children of God So if they after do neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine and to the setting forth of his Glory he will take away from them his Kingdom his Holy Word whereby he should reign in them because they bring not forth the fruit thereof that he looketh for Nevertheless he is so merciful and of so long-sufferance that he doth not shew upon us that great wrath suddainly But when we begin to shrink from his Word not believing it or not expressing it in our livings First he doth send his Messengers the true Preachers of his Word to admonish and warn us of our Duty That as he for his part for the great love he bare unto us delivered his own Son to suffer death that we by his death might be delivered from death and be restored to the Life everlasting evermore to dwell with him and to be partakers and inheritors with him of his everlasting Glory and Kingdom of Heaven So again that we for our parts should walk in a Godly life as becometh his Children to do And if this will not serve but still we remain disobedient to his Word and Will not knowing him nor loving him nor fearing him nor putting our whole trust and confidence in him And on the other side to Neighbours behaving our selves uncharitably by Disdain Envy Malice or by committing Murder Robbery Adultery Gluttony Deceit Lying Swearing or other like detestable Works Heb. 3. and ungodly behaviour then he threatneth us by terrible Comminations swearing in great Anger Psal 15. that whosoever doth these Works shall never enter into his Rest 1 Cor. â—â— which is the Kingdom of Heaven The Second Part of the Sermon of Falling from God IN the former part of this Sermon ye have learned how many manner of ways Men fall from God Some by Idolatry some for lack of Faith some by neglecting of their Neighbours some by not hearing of God's Word some by the Pleasure they take in the Vanities of worldly things Ye have also learned in what misery that Man is which is gone from God And how that God yet of his infinite Goodness to call again Man from that his misery useth first gentle Admonitions by his Preachers after he layeth on terrible Threatnings Now if this gentle Monition and Threatning together do not serve then God will shew his terrible Countenance upon us he will pour intolerable Plagues upon our Heads and after he will take away from us all his Aid and Assistance wherewith before he did defend us from all such manner of Calamity As the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah agreeing with Christ's Parable Isaiah 5. doth teach us saying That God had made a goodly Vineyard for his beloved Children he hedged it he walled it round about he planted it with chosen Vines and made a Turret in the mid'st thereof Matth. 2â—â— and therein also a Vine-press And when he looked that it should bring forth good Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes And after it followeth Now shall I shew you saith God what I will do with my Vineyard I will pluck down the Hedges that it may perish I will break down the Walls that it may be troden under foot I will let it lye waste it shall not be cut it shall not be digged but Bryers and Thorns shall overgrow it and I shall command the Clouds that they shall no more rain upon it By these Threatnings we
are monished and warned that if we which are the chosen Vineyard of God bring not forth good Grapes that is to say good Works that may be delectable and pleasant in his sight when he looketh for them when he sendeth his Messengers to call upon us for them but rather bring forth wild Grapes that is to say sower Works unsavoury and unfruitful Then will he pluck away all defence and suffer grievous plagues of Famine Battel Dearth and Death to light upon us Finally if these serve not he will let us lie waste he will give us over he will turn away from us he will dig and delve no more about us he will let us alone and suffer us to bring forth even such Fruit as we will to bring forth Brambles Bryers and Thorns all Naughtiness all Vice and that so abundantly that they shall clean overgrow us choke strangle and utterly destroy us But they that in this World live not after God but after their own Carnal liberty perceive not this great Wrath of God towards them that he will not dig nor delve any more about them that he doth let them alone even to themselves But they take this for a great benefit of God to have all their own Liberty And so they live as if Carnal liberty were the true Liberty of the Gospel But God forbid good People that ever we should desire such Liberty For although God suffer somtimes the wicked to have their Pleasure in this World yet the end of ungodly Living is at length endless destruction The murmuring Israelites had that they longed for Numb 11. they had Quails enough yea till they were weary of them But what was the end thereof Their sweet Meat had sower Sauce Even while the Meat was in their Mouths the plague of God lighted upon them and suddenly they died So if we live ungodlily and God suffereth us to follow our own Wills to have our own Delights and Pleasures and correcteth us not with some plague it is no doubt but he is almost utterly displeased with us And although it be long ere he strike yet many times when he striketh such Persons he striketh them at once for ever So that when he doth not strike us when he ceaseth to afflict us to punish or beat us and suffereth us to run headlong into all Ungodliness and Pleasures of this World that we delight in without Punishment and Adversity it is a dreadful token that he loveth us no longer that he careth no longer for us but hath given us over to our ownselves As long as a Man doth prune his Vines doth dig at the Roots and doth lay fresh Earth to them he hath a Mind to them he perceiveth some token of Fruitfulness that may be recovered in them but when he will bestow no more such Cost and Labour about them then it is a sign that he thinketh they will never be good And the Father as long as he loveth his Child he looketh angerly he correcteth him when he doth amiss But when that serveth not and upon that he ceaseth from correction of him and suffereth him to do what he list himself it is a sign that he intendeth to disinherit him and to cast him away for ever So surely nothing should pierce our heart so sore and put us in such horrible fear as when we know in our Conscience that we have grievously offended God and do so continue and that yet he striketh not but quietly suffereth us in the Naughtiness that we have delight in Then specially it is time to cry and to cry again as David did Psal 51. Cast me not away from thy Face and take not away thy Holy Spirit from me Lord turn not away thy Face from me cast not thy Servant away in Displeasure Hide not thy Face from me lest I be like unto them that go down to Hell The which lamentable Prayers of him as they do certifie us what horrible danger they be in from whom God turneth his Face for the time and as long as he so doth So should they move and stir us to cry upon God with all our heart that we may not be brought into that State which doubtless is so sorrowful so miserable and so dreadful as no Tongue can sufficiently express nor any Heart can think For what deadly grief may a man suppose it is to be under the Wrath of God to be forsaken of him to have his Holy Spirit the Author of all Goodness to be taken from him to be brought to so vile a condition that he shall be left meet for no better purpose than to be for ever condemned in Hell For not only such places of David do shew that upon the turning of God's Face from any Persons they shall be left bare from all Goodness and far from hope of remedy But also the place rehearsed last before of Isaiah doth mean the same which sheweth that God at length doth so forsake his unfruitful Vineyard that he will not only suffer it to bring forth Weeds Bryers and Thorns but also further to punish the unfruitfulness of it he saith he will not cut it he will not delve it and he will command the Clouds that they shall not rain upon it Whereby is signified the teaching of his Holy Word which St. Paul after a like manner expressed by Planting and Watering meaning that he will take that away from them so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom they shall be no longer governed by his Holy Spirit they shall be put from the Grace and Benefits that they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the Heavenly Light and Life which they had in Christ whil'st they abode in him They shall be as they were once as Men without God in this World or rather in worse taking And to be short they shall be given into the Power of the Devil which beareth the Rule in all them that be cast away from God 1 Kings 15. as he did in Saul and Judas and generally in all such as work after their own Wills the Children of mistrust and unbelief Let us beware therefore good Christian People lest that we rejecting or casting away God's Word by the which we obtain and retain true Faith in God be not at length cast off so far that we become as the Children of unbelief which be of two sorts far diverse yea almost clean contrary and yet both be very far from returning to God the one sort only weighing their sinful and detestable Living with the right Judgment and Straitness of God's Righteousness be so without Counsel and be so comfortless as they all must needs be from whom the Spirit of Counsel and Comfort is gone that they will not be persuaded in their Hearts but that either God cannot or else that he will not take them again to his Favour and Mercy The other hearing the loving and large Promises of God's Mercy and
themselves by true Faith perfect Charity and sure Hope of the endless Joy and Bliss everlasting All those therefore have great cause to be full of Joy that be joyned to Christ with true Faith stedfast Hope and perfect Charity and not to fear death nor everlasting Damnation For Death cannot deprive them of Jesus Christ nor can any Sin condemn them that are grafted surely in him which is their only Joy Treasure and Life Let us repent of our Sins amend our Lives trust in his Mercy and Satisfaction and Death can neither take him from us nor us from him For then as St. Paul saith Whether we live or die we be the Lords own And again he saith Christ did die and rose again because he should be Lord both of the dead and quick Then if we be the Lords own when we be dead it must needs follow that such temporal death not only cannot harm us but also that it shall be much to our profit and joyn us unto God more perfectly And thereof the Christian Heart may surely be certified by the infallible or undeceivable Truth of Holy Scripture It is God saith St. Paul which hath prepared us unto immortality and the same is he which hath given us aâ— earnest of the Spirit Therefore let us he always of good Comfort for we know that so long as we be in tho Body 2 Gal. 5. we be as it were far from God in a strange Country subject to many perils walking without perfect Sight and Knowledge of Almighty God only seeing him by Faith in Holy Scriptures But we have a courage and desire rather to be at home with God and our Saviour Christ far from the Body where we may behold his Godhead as he is Face to Face to our everlasting Comfort These be St. Paul's words in effect whereby we may perceive that the Life in this World is resembled and likened to a Pilgrimage in a strange Country far from God and that Death delivering us from our Bodies doth send us strait home into our own Country and maketh us to dwell presently with God for ever in everlasting Rest and Quietness So that to die is no loss but profit and winning to all true Christian People What lost the Thief that died on the Cross with Christ by his Bodily death Yea how much did he gain by it Did not our Saviour say unto him Luke 16. This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And Lazarus that pitiful Person that lay before the Rich Man's Gate pained with Sores and pined with Hunger did not death highly profit and promote him which by the ministry of Angels sent him unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest Joy and Heavenly Consolation Let us think none other good Christian People but Christ hath prepared and made ready before the same Joy and Felicity for us that he prepared for Lazarus and the Thief Wherefore let us stick unto his Salvation and Gracious Redemption and believe his Word Serve him from our Hearts Love and Obey him and whatsoever we have done heretofore contrary to his most Holy Will now let us Repent in time and hereafter study to Correct our Life and doubt not but we shall find him as merciful unto us as he was either to Lazarus or to the Thief whose examples are written in Holy Scripture for the comfoâ—t of them that be sinners and subject to sorrows miseries and calamities in this World that they should not despair in God's Mercy but ever trust thereby to have forgiveness of their Sins and Life everlasting as Lazarus and the Thief had Thus I trust every Christian Man perceiveth by the infallible or undeceivable Word of God that Bodily death cannot harm nor hinder them that truly believe in Christ but contrarily shall profit and promote the Christian Souls which being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect Charity and in sure Trust that God is merciful to them forgiving their Sins for the Merits of Jesus Christ his only natural Son The Second Cause why some do fear death The Second Cause why some do fear death is sore sickness and grievous pains which partly come before death and partly accompany or come with death whensoever it cometh This fear is the fear of the frail flesh and a natural passion belonging unto the nature of a mortal Man But true Faith in God's promises and regard of the pains and pangs which Christ upon the Cross suffered for us miserable sinners with consideration of the Joy and everlasting Life to come in Heaven will mitigate those pains and moderate this fear that it shall never be able to overthrow the hearty desire and gladness that the Christian Soul hath to be separated from this corrupt Body that it may come to the Gracious Presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ If we believe stedfastly the Word of God we shall perceive that such bodily sickness pangs of death or whatsoever dolorous pangs we suffer either before or with death be nothing else in Christian Men but the rod of our Heavenly and Loving Father wherewith he mercifully correcteth us either to try and declare the Faith of his patient Children that they may be sound Laudable Glorious and Honourable in his Sight when Jesus Christ shall be openly shewed to be the Judge of all the World or else to chastise and amend in them whatsoever offendeth his Fatherly and Gracious Goodness lest they should perish everlastingly And this his correcting rod is common to all Men that be truly his Therefore let us cast away the burden of Sin that lieth too heavy on our necks and return unto God by true penance and amendment of our lives Let us with patience run this course that is appointed suffering for his sake that dyed for our Salvation all sorrows and pangs of death and death itself joyfully when God sendeth it to us having our Eyes fixed and set fast ever upon the Head and Captain of our Faith Jesus Christ Phil. 2. Who considering the Joy that he should come unto cared neither for the shame nor pain of death but willingly conforming and framing his Will to his Fathers Will most patiently suffered the most shameful and painful death of the Cross being innocent and harmless And now therefore he is exalted in Heaven and everlastingly sitteth on the right hand of the Throne of God the Father Let us call to our remembrance therefore the Life and Joyes of Heaven that are kept for all them that patiently do suffer here with Christ and consider that Christ suffered all his painful passion by sinners and for sinners And then we shall with Patience and the more easily suffer such sorrows and pains when they come Let us not set at light the chastising of the Lord nor grudge at him nor fall from him when of him we be corrected For the Lord loveth them whom he doth correct and beateth every one whom he taketh to be his Child What Child is
dalliance and but a touch of youth Not rebuked but winked at Not punished but laughed at Wherefore it is necessary at this present Exod. 20. to treat of the sin of Whoredom and Fornication declaring unto you the greatness of this Sin and how odious hateful and abominable it is and hath alway been reputed before God and all good Men and how grievously it hath been punished both by the Law of God and the Laws of divers Princes Again to shew you certain remedies whereby ye may through the Grace of God eschew this most detestable sin of Whoredom and Fornication and lead your lives in all Honesty and Cleanness and that ye may perceive that Fornication and Whoredome are in the sight of God most abominable Sins ye shall call to remembrance this Commandment of God Thou shalt not commit Adultery By the which word Adultery although it be properly understood of the unlawful commixtion or joining together of a married Man with any Woman beside his Wife or of a Wife with any Man beside her Husband Yet thereby is signified also all unlawful use of those Parts which be ordained for Generation And this one Commandment forbidding Adultery doth sufficiently paint and set out before our Eyes the greatness of this Sin of Whoredom and manifestly declareth how greatly it ought to be abhorred of all honest and faithful Persons And that none of us all shall think himself excepted from this Commandment whether he be old or young married or unmarried Man or Woman hear what God the Father saith by his most Excellent Prophet Moses Deut. 23. There shall be no Whore among the Daughters of Israel nor no Whoremonger among the Sons of Israel Here is Whoredom Fornication and all other uncleanness forbidden to all kinds of People all Degrees and all Ages without exception And that we shall not doubt but that this Precept or Commandment pertaineth to us indeed hear what Christ the perfect Teacher of all Truth saith in the Now Testament Ye have heard saith Christ that it was said to them of old time Matth. 5. Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you Whosoever seeth a Woman to have his Lust of her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Here our Saviour Christ doth not only confirm and establish the Law against Adultery given in the Old Testament of God the Father by his Servant Mâ—ses and make it of full strength continually to remain among the Professors of his Name in the new Law But he also condemning the gross interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees which taught that the foresaid Commandment only required to abstain from the outward Adultery and not from the filthy desires and impure Lusts teacheth us an exact and full perfection of Purity and Cleanness of Life both to keep our Bodies undefiled and our Hearts pure and free from all evil thoughts carnal desires and fleshly consents How can we then be free from this Commandment where so great charge is laid upon us May a Servant do what he will in any thing having Commandment of his Master to the contrary Is not Christ our Master Are not we his Servants How then may we neglect our Master's Will and Pleasure and follow our own Will and Phantasie John 15. Ye are my Friends saith Christ if you keep those things that I command you Now hath Christ our Master commanded us that we should forsake all uncleanness and filthiness both in Body and Spirit This therefore must we do if we look to please God Matth. 15. In the Gospel of S Matthew we read that the Scribes and Phaâ—isâ—es were grievously offended with Christ because his Disciples did not keep the traditions of the Forefathers for they washed not their Hands when they went to Dinner or Supper And among other things Christ answered and said Hear and understand Not that thing which entreth into the Mouth d fileth the Man but that which cometh out of the Mouth defileth the Man Matth. 15. For those things which proceed out of the Mouth come forth from the Heart and they defile the Man For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders breaking of Wedlock Whoredoms Thefts false Witness B asphemies These are the things which d file a Man Here may we see that not only Murder Theft false Witness and Blasphemy defile Men but also evil Thoughts breaking of Wedlock Fornication and Whoredom Who is now of so little Wit that he will esteem Whoredom and Fornication to be things of small importance and of no weight before God Christ who is the Truth and cannot lye saith Mark 7. That evil Thoughts Titus 1 breaking of Wedlock Whoredom and Fornication defile a Man that is to say corrupt both the Body and Soul of Man and make them of the Temples of the Holy Ghost the filthy Dunghil or Dungeon of all unclean Spirits of the House of God the dwelling place of Satan John 8. Again the Gospel of St. John when the Woman taken in Adultery was brought unto Christ said not he unto her Rom. 6. Go thy way and sin no more Doth not he here call Whoredom Sin And what is the Reward of Sin 1 John 3. but everlasting Death If Whoredom be Sin then it is not lawful for us to commit it For St. John saith John 8. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil And our Saviour saith Every one that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If Whoredom had not been Sin surely St. John Baptist would never have rebuked King Herod for taking his Brother's Wife Mark 6. but he told him plainly That it was not lawful for him to take his Brother's Wife He winked not at the Whoredom of Herod although he were a King of Power but boldly reproved him for his wicked and abominable living although for the same he lost his Head But he would rather suffer death than see God so dishonored by the breaking of his Holy Precept and Commandment than to suffer Whoredom to be unrebuked even in a King If Whoredom had been but a Pastime a Dalliance and not to be passed of as many count it now a days truly John had been more than twice mad if he would have had the displeasure of a King if he would have been cast in Prison and lost his Head for a trifle But John new right well how filthy and stinking and abominable the Sin of Whoredom is in the sight of God therefore would he not leave it unrebuked no not in a King If Whoredom be not lawful in a King neither is it lawful in a Subject If Whoredom be not lawful in a publick or common Officer neither is it lawful in a private Person If it be not lawful neither in King nor Subject neither in common Officer nor private Person truly then it is lawful in no Man nor Woman of whatsoever Degree or Age they be Furthermore in the Acts of the Apostles we read
wisely ordained that in time of necessity we should humble our selves in his sight pour out the secrets of our heart before him and crave help at his hands with continual earnest and devout Prayer By the mouth of his Holy Prophet David he saith on this wise Call upon me in the dayâ— of thy trouble Psal 50. Mat. 7. and I will deliver thee Likewise in the Gospel by the mouth of his well-beloved Son Christ he saith Ask and it shall be given you knock and it shall be opened for whosoever asketh receiveth whosoever seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened 1 Tim. 2. Phil. 4. Col. 5. James 1. St. Paul also most agreeably consenting hereunto willeth men to pray every where and to continue therein with thanksgiving Neither doth the blessed Apostle St. James in this point any thing dissent but earnestly exhorting all men to diligent Prayer saith If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God which giveth liberally to all men and reproacheth no man Also in another place James 5. Pray one for another saith he that ye may be healed For the righteous mans prayer availeth much if it be fervent What other thing are we taught by these and such other places but only this that Almighty God notwithstanding his Heavenly Wisdom and fore-knowledge will be prayed unto that he will be called upon that he will have us no less willing on our part to ask than he on his part is willing to give Therefore most fond and foolish is the Opinion and Reason of those men which therefore think all Prayer to be superfluous and vain because God searcheth the Heart and the Reins and knoweth the meaning of the Spirit before we ask For if this fleshly and carnal Reason were sufficient to disanul Prayer then why did our Saviour Christ so often cry to his Disciples Luke 22. Watch and Pray Why did he prescribe them a Form of Prayer saying When ye pray Mat. 6. Acts 1. pray after this sort Our Father which art in Heaven c. Why did he Pray so often and so earnestly himself before his Passion Finally why did the Apostles immediately after his Ascension gather themselves together into one several place and there continue a long time in Prayer Either they must condemn Christ and his Apostles of extream folly or else they must needs grant that Prayer is a thing most necessary for all men at all times and in all places Sure it is that there is nothing more expedient or needful for mankind in all the World than Prayer Pray always saith St. Paul with all manner of prayer and supplication Ephes 6. and watch therefore with all diligence Also in another place he willeth us to pray continually 1 Thess 5. without any intermission or ceasing meaning thereby that we ought never to slack or faint in Prayer but to continue therein to our lives end A number of other such places might here be alledged of like effect I mean to declare the great necessity and use of Prayer but what need many proofs in a plain matter seeing there is no man so ignorant but he knoweth no man so blind but he seeth that Prayer is a thing most needful in all estates and degrees of men For only by the help hereof we attain to those heavenly and everlasting Treasures which God our Heavenly Father hath reserved and laid up for his Children in his dear and well-beloved Son Jesus Christ John 16. with his Covenant and Promise most assuredly confirmed and sealed unto us that if we ask we shall receive Now the great necessity of Prayer being sufficiently known that our minds and hearts may be the more provoked and stirred thereunto let us briefly consider what wonderful strength and power it hath to bring strange and mighty things to pass We read in the Book of Exodus Exod. 1. that Josua fighting against the Amalekites did conquer and overcome them not so much by vertue of his own strength as by the earnest and continual Prayer of Moses who as long as he held up his hands to God so long did Israel prevail but when he fainted and let his hands down then did Amalek and his People prevail Insomuch that Aaron and Hur being in the Mount with him were fain to stay up his hands until the going down of the Sun otherwise had the People of God that day been utterly discomfited and put to flight Also we read in another place of Josua himself Josua 10. how he at the besieging of Gibeon making his humble Petition to Almighty God caused the Sun and the Moon to stay their course and to stand still in the midst of Heaven for the space of a whole day until such time as the People were sufficienly avenged upon their Enemies And was not Jehosaphat's Prayer of great force and strength 2 Par. 26. when God at his request caused his Enemies to fall out among themselves and wilfully to destroy one another Who can marvel enough at the effect and vertue of Elias Prayer 1 Kings 18. He being a man subject to affections as we are prayed to the Lord that it might not rain and there fell no rain upon the Earth for the space of three years and six months Again he prayed that it might rain and there fell great plenty so that the Earth brought forth her increase most abundantly It were too long to tell of Judith Esther Susanna and of divers other godly Men and Women how greatly they prevailed in all their doings by giving their minds earnestly and devoutly to Prayer Let it be sufficient at this time to conclude with the sayings of Augustin and Chrysostom Aug. Ser. 26. de temp Chrys sup Mat. 22. whereof the one calleth Prayer the Key of Heaven the other plainly affirmeth that there is nothing in all the World more strong than a man that giveth himself to fervent Prayer Now then dearly Beloved seeing Prayer is so needful a thing and of so great strength before God let us according as we are taught by the example of Christ and his Apostles be earnest and diligent in calling on the Name of the Lord. Let us never faint never slack never give over but let us daily and hourly early and late in season and out of season be occupied in Godly Meditations and Prayers What if we obtain not our Petitions at the first yet let us not be discouraged yet let us continually cry and call upon God he will surely hear us at length if for no other cause yet for very importunities sake Luke 18. Remember the Parable of the unrighteous Judge and the poor Widow how she by her importunate means caused him to do her Justice against her Adversary although otherwise he feared neither God nor man Shall not God much more avenge his Elect saith our Saviour Christ which cry unto him day and night Thus he taught his Disciples and in
them all other true Christian men to Pray always and never to faint or shrink Remember also the example of the Woman of Canaan Mat 15. how she was rejected of Christ and called Dog as one most unworthy of any benefit at his hands yet she gave not over but followed him still crying and calling upon him to be good and merciful unto her Daughter And at length by very importunity she obtained her request O let us learn by these examples to be earnest and fervent in Prayer assuring our selves that whatsoever we ask of God the Father in the Name of his Son Christ John 16. and according to his will he will undoubtedly grant it He is truth it self and as truly as he hath promised it so truly will he perform it God for his great mercies sake so work in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that we may always make our humble Prayers unto him as we ought to do and always obtain the thing which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily concerning PRAYER IN the First Part of this Sermon ye heard the great necessity and also the great force of devout and earnest Prayer declared and proved unto you both by divers weighty Testimonies and also by sundry good Examples of Holy Scripture Now shall you learn whom you ought to call upon and to whom you ought always to direct your Prayers We are evidently taught in Gods Holy Testament that Almighty God is the only Fountain and Well-spring of all Goodness and that whatsoever we have in this World we receive it only at his hands to this effect serveth the place of St. James James 1. Every good and perfect gift saith he cometh from above and proceedeth from the Father of Lights To this effect also serveth the Testimony of Paul in divers places of his Epistles witnessing that the Spirit of Wisdom the Spirit of Knowledge and Revelation yea every good and heavenly gift as Faith Hope Charity Grace and Peace cometh only and solely of God In consideration whereof he bursteth out into a sudden Passion and saith O man 1 Cor. 4. what thing hast thou which thou hast not received Therefore whensoever we need or lack any thing pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul it behoveth us to run only unto God who is the only giver of all good things Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teaching his Disciples how they should Pray sendeth them to the Father in his Name saying Verily verily John 16. Matt. 6. Luke 11. I say unto you whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And in another place When ye Pray pray after this sort Our Father which art in Heaven c. And doth not God himself Psal 50. Acts 1. by the mouth of his Prophet David will and command us to call upon him The Apostle wisheth Grace and Peace to all them that call on the Name of the Lord and of his Son Jesus Christ Joel 2. as doth also the Prophet Joel saying And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Thus then it is plain by the infallible word of Truth and Life that in all our necessities we must flee unto God direct our Prayers unto him call upon his Holy Name desire help at his hands and at none others whereof if we will yet have further reason mark that which followeth There are certain conditions most requisite to be found in every such a one as must be called upon which if they be not found in him unto whom we pray then doth our Prayer avail us nothing but is altogether in vain The first is this that he to whom we make our Prayers be able to help us The second is that he will help us The third is that he be such a one as may hear our Prayers The fourth is that he understand better than we our selves what we lack and how far we have need of help If these things be to be found in any other saving only God then may we lawfully call upon some other besides God But what man is so gross but he well understandeth that these things are only proper to him which is Omnipotent and knoweth all things even the very secrets of the Heart that is to say only and to God alone whereof it followeth that we must call neither upon Angel nor yet upon Saint but only and solely upon God Rom. 10. as St. Paul doth write How shall men call upon him in whom they have not believed So that Invocation or Prayer may not be made without Faith in him on whom they call but that we must first believe in him before we can make our Prayer unto him whereupon we must only and solely Pray unto God For to say that we should believe either in Angel or Saint or in any other living Creature were meer horrible Blasphemy against God and his Holy Word neither ought this Fancy to enter into the Heart of any Christian man because we are expresly taught in the Word of the Lord only to repose our Faith in the Blessed Trinity in whose only Name we are also Baptized according to the express Commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 28. in the last of St. Matthew But that the truth hereof may the better appear even to them that be most simple and unlearned let us consider what Prayer is De spi lit cap. 50. De summo bono cap. 8. lib. 3. St. Augustin calleth it a lifting up of the mind to God that is to say an humble and lowly pouring out of the Heart to God Isidorus saith that it is an affection of the Heart and not a labour of the Lips So that by these places true Prayer doth consist not so much in the outward sound and voice of words as in the inward groaning and crying of the Heart to God Now then is there any Angel any Virgin any Patriarch or Prophet among the dead that can understand or know the meaning of the Heart The Scripture saith Psal 7. Apoc. 2. Jer. 17. 2 Par. 6. It is God that searcheth the Heart and the Reins and that he only knoweth the Hearts of the children of men As for the Saints they have so little knowledge of the secrets of the Heart that many of the ancient Fathers greatly doubt whether they know any thing at all that is commonly done on Earth And albeit some think they do yet St. Augustin Lib. de cura pro mort agenda c. 13. De vera Râ—l cap. 22. Esay 63. Lib. 22. de civit Dei cap. 10. a Doctor of great Authority and also Antiquity hath this Opinion of them That they know no more what we do on Earth than we know what they do in Heaven For Proof whereof he
Hearers through the testimony of the truth And after many weighty words to the same end he saith The conclusion is this that nothing should be done in the Church in vain and that this thing ought chiefly to be laboured for that the unlearned also might take profit lest any part of the Body should be dark through Ignorance And lest any man should think all this to be meant of Preaching and not of Prayer he taketh occasion of these words of St. Paul If there be not an Interpreter let him keep silence in the Church to say as followeth Let him Pray secretly or speak to God who heareth all things that be dumb For in the Church must he speak that may profit all Persons St. Hierom writing upon these words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. How shall he that supplieth the place of the unlearned c. saith It is the Lay-man whom Paul understandeth here to be in the place of the ignorant man which hath no Ecclesiastical Office How shall he answer Amen to the prayer that he understandeth not And a little after upon the words of St Paul For if I should pray in a Tongue c. he saith thus This is Paul's meaning If any man speak in strange and unknown Tongues his mind is made unfruitful not to himself but to the Hearer For whatsoever is spoken he knoweth it not Psal 18. St. Augustine writing upon the xviii Psalm saith What this should be we ought to understand that we may sing with reason of Man and not with chattering of Birds For Owls Popinjays Ravens Pies and other such like Birds are taught by men to prate they know not what but to sing with understanding is given by Gods Holy Will to the Nature of Man Again the same Augustine saith De Magist There needeth no speech when we Pray saving perhaps as the Priests do for to declare their meaning not that God but that Men may hear them And so being put in remembrance by consenting with the Priest they may â—ang upon God Thus are we taught both by the Scripture and Ancient Doctors that in the Administration of Common-Prayer and Sacraments no Tongue unknown to the Hearers ought to be used So that for the satisfying of a Christian mans Conscience we need to spend no more time in this matter But yet to stop the mouths of the Adversaries which stay themselves much upon General Decrees it shall be good to add to these Testimonies of Scriptures and Doctors one Constitution made by Justinian the Emperor who lived five hundred twenty and seven years after Christ and was Emperor of Rome The Constitution is this Noâ—el constit 23. We command that all Bishops and Priests do celebrate the Holy Oblation and the Prayers used in Holy Baptism not speaking low but with a clear or loud voice which may be heard of the people that thereby the mind of the Hearers may be stirred up with great Devotion in uttering the Prayers of the Lord God for so the Holy Apostle teacheth in his first Epistle to the Corinthians saying Truly if thou only bless or give thanks in spirit how doth he that occupieth the place of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving thanks unto God for he understandeth not what thou sayest Thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified And again in the Epistle to the Romans he saith With the heart a man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Therefore for these causes it is convenient that among other Prayers those things also which are spoken in the Holy Oblation be uttered and spoken of the most Religious Bishops and Priests unto our Lord Jesus Christ our God with the Father and the Holy Ghost with a loud voice And let the most Religious Priests know this that if they neglect any of these things that they shall give an account for them in the dreadful judgment of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Neither will we when we know it rest and leave it unrevenged This Emperor as Sabellicus writeth favoured the Bishop of Rome and yet we see how plain a Decree he maketh for Praying and Administring of Sacraments in a known Tongue that the Devotion of the Hearers might be stirred up by knowledge contrary to the judgment of them that would have Ignorance to make Devotion He maketh it also a matter of Damnation to do these things in a Tongue that the Hearers understand not Let us therefore conclude with God and all good mens assent that no Common-Prayer or Sacraments ought to be ministred in a Tongue that is not understood of the Hearers Now a word or two of private Prayer in an unknown Tongue We took in hand where we began to speak of this matter not only to prove that no Common-Prayer or Administration of Sacraments ought to be in a Tongue unknown to the Hearers but also that no Person ought to Pray privately in that Tongue that he himself understandeth not Which thing shall not be hard to prove if we forget not what Prayer is For if Prayer be that Devotion of the Mind which enforceth the Heart to lift up it self to God how should it be said that that Person prayeth that understandeth not the words that his Tongue speaketh in Prayer Yea how can it be said that he speaketh For to speak is by voice to utter the thought of the mind And the voice that a man uttereth in speaking is nothing else but the Messenger of the mind to bring abroad the knowledge of that which otherwise lieth secret in the heart and cannot be known according to that which St. Paul writeth 1 Cor. 2. What man saith he knoweth the things that appertain to man saving only the spirit of man which is in man He therefore that doth not understand the voices that his Tongue doth utter cannot properly be said to speak but rather to counterfeit as Parats and such other Birds use to counterfeit mens voices No man therefore that feareth to provoke the wrath of God against himself will be so bold to speak of God unadvisedly without regard of reverent understanding in his presence but he will prepare his Heart before he presume to speak unto God And therefore in our Common-Prayer the Minister doth often-times say Let us pray meaning thereby to admonish the People that they should prepare their Ears to hear what he should crave at Gods hand and their Hearts to consent to the same and their Tongues to say Amen at the end thereof On this sort did the Prophet David prepare his Heart when he said Psal 57. My heart is ready O my God my heart is ready I will sing and declare a Psalm The Jews also when in the time of Judith they did with all their heart pray God to visit his People of Israel had so prepared their hearts before they began to pray 2 Par. 3. After this sort had Manasses prepared
that man which openly before the Magistrates refused to marry her And it was not a reproach to him alone but to all his Posterity also For they were called ever after The House of him whose shoe is pulled off Another place out of the Psalms Psal 75. I will break saith David the horns of the ungodly and the horns of the righteous shall be exalted By an Horn in the Scripture is understood Power Might Strength and sometime Rule and Government The Prophet then saying I will break the horns of the ungodly meaneth that all the Power Strength and Might of Gods Enemies shall not only be weakned and made feeble but shall at length also be clean broken and destroyed though for a time for the better tryal of his People God suffereth the Enemies to prevail and have the upper hand In the 132 Psalm it is said Psal 132. I will make David 's horn to flourish Here David's Horn signifieth his Kingdom Almighty God therefore by this manner of speaking promiseth to give David Victory over all his Enemies and to stablish him in his Kingdom spite of all his Enemies And in the threescore Psalm it is written Moab is my wash-pot Psal 60. and over Edom will I cast out my shoe c. In that place the Prophet sheweth how graciously God hath dealt with his People the Children of Israel giving them great Victories upon their Enemies on every side For the Moabites and Idumeans being two great Nations proud People stout and mighty God brought them under and made them Servants to the Israelites Servants I say to stoop down to pull off their shoes and wash their feet Then Moab is my wash-pot and over Edom will I cast out my shoe is as if he had said The Moabites and the Idumeans for all their stoutness against us in the Wilderness are now made our Subjects ouâ— Servants yea Underlings to pull off our shoes and wash our feet Now I pray you what uncomely manner of speech is this so used in common phrase among the Hebrews It is a shame that Christian men should be so light headed to toy as Ruffians do with such manner of speeches uttered in good grave signification by the Holy Ghost More reasonable it were for vain men to learn to reverence the form of Gods Words than to sport at them to their Damnation Some again are offended to hear that the godly Fathers had many Wives and Concubines although after the phrase of the Scripture a Concubine is an honest name for every Concubine is a Lawful Wife but every Wife is not a Concubine And that ye may the better understand this to be true ye shall note that it was permitted to the Fathers of the Old Testament to have at one time moe Wives than one for what purpose ye shall afterward hear Of which Wives some were Free-women born some were Bond-women and Servants She that was Free-born had a Prerogative above those that were Servants and Bond-women The Free-born Woman was by Marriage made the Ruler of the House under her Husband and is called the Mother of the Houshold the Mistress or the Dame of the House after our manner of speaking and had by her Marriage an Interest a Right and an Ownership of his Goods unto whom she was married Other Servants and Bond-women were given by the Owners of them as the manner was then I will not say always but for the most part unto their Daughters at the day of their Marriage to be Handmaidens unto them After such a sort did Pharaoh King of Egypt give unto Sarah Geâ— 29. Abraham's Wife Agar the Egyptian to be her Maid So did Laban give unto his Daughter Lea at the day of her Marriage Zilpha to be her Handmaid And to his other Daughter Rachel he gave another Bond-maid named Bilha And the Wives that were the owners of their Handmaidens gave them in Marriage to their Husbands upon divers occasions Sarah gave her Maid Agar in Marriage to Abraham Gen. 16. Lea gave in like manner her Maid Zilpha to her Husband Jacob. So did Rachel his other Wife give him Bilha her Maid Gen. 30. saying unto him Go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees which is as if she had said Take her to Wife and the Children that she shall bear will I take upon my lap and make of them as if they were mine own These Hand-maidens or Bond-women although by Marriage they were made Wives yet they had not this Prerogative to Rule in the House but were still Underlings and in such subjection to their Masters and were never called Mothers of the Houshould Mistresses or Dames of the House but are called sometimes Wives sometimes Concubines The plurality of Wives was by a special Prerogative suffered to the Fathers of the Old Testament not for satisfying their carnal and fleshly Lusts but to have many Children because every one of them hoped and begged oft-times of God in their Prayers that that Blessed Seed which God promised should come into the World to break the Serpents Head might come and be born of this stock and kindred Now of those which take occasion of carnality and evil life by hearing and reading in Gods Book what God had suffered even in those men whose commendation is praised in the Scripture As that Noe 2 Pet. 2. Gen. 9. whom St. Peter calleth the eighth Preacher of Righteousness was so drunk with Wine that in his sleep he uncovered his own Privities Gen. 19. The just man Lot was in like manner drunken and in his drunkenness lay with his own Daughters contrary to the Law of Nature Abraham Gen. 17. whose Faith was so great that for the same he deserved to be called of Gods own mouth a Father of many Nations Rom. 4. the Father of all Believers besides with Sarah his Wife had also carnal company with Agar Sarah's Handmaid Gen. 29. The Patriarch Jacob had to his Wives two Sisters at one time The Prophet David and King Solomon his Son had many Wives and Concubines c. Which things we see plainly to be forbidden us by the Law of God and are now repugnant to all publick Honesty These and such like in Gods Book good People are not written that we should or may do the like following their examples or that we ought to think that God did allow every of these things in those men But we ought rather to believe and to judge that Noe in his drunkenness offended God highly Lot lying with his Daughters committed horrible Incest We ought then to learn by them this profitable Lesson that if so godly men as they were which otherwise felt inwardly Gods Holy Spirit inflaming their hearts with the fear and love of God could not by their own strength keep themselves from committing horrible sin but did so grievously fall that without Gods great Mercy they had perished everlastingly How much more ought we then miserable
who became poor to make us rich vile to make us precious subject to death to make us live for ever What greater love could we silly Creatures desire or wish to have at Gods hands Therefore Dearly Beloved let us not forget this exceeding love of our Lord and Saviour let us not shew our selves unmindful or unthankful toward him but let us love him fear him obey him and serve him Let us confess him with our Mouths praise him with our Tongues believe on him with our Hearts and glorifie him with our good Works Christ is the light let us receive the light Christ is the truth let us believe the truth Christ is the way let us follow the way And because he is our only Master our only Teacher our only Shepherd and chief Captain therefore let us become his Servants his Scholars his Sheep and his Souldiers As for Sin the Flesh the World and the Devil whose Servants and Bond-slaves we were before Christs coming let us utterly cast them off and defie them as the chief and only Enemies of our Soul And seeing we are once delivered from their cruel Tyranny by Christ let us never fall into their hands again lest we chance to be in a worse case than ever we were before Happy are they saith the Scripture that continue to the end Be faithful saith God until death and I will give thee a crown of life Again he saith in another place He that putteth his hand unto the Plough and looketh back is not meet for the Kingdom of God Therefore let us be strong stedfast and unmoveable abounding always in the works of the Lord. Let us receive Christ not for a time but for ever let us believe his Word not for a time but for ever let us become his Servants not for a time but for ever in consideration that he hath redeemed and saved us not for a time but for ever and will receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom there to reign with him not for a time but for ever To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen AN HOMILY FOR Good-Friday concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ IT should not become us well-beloved in Christ being that People which he redeemed from the Devil from Sin and Death and from everlasting Damnation by Christ to suffer this time to pass forth without any meditation and remembrance of that excellent Work of our Redemption wrought as about this time through the great mercy and charity of our Saviour Jesus Christ for us wretched Sinners and his mortal Enemies For if a mortal mans deed done to the behoof of the Common-wealth be had in remembrance of us with thanks for the benefit and profit which we receive thereby how much more readily should we have in memory this excellent act and benefit of Christs death whereby he hath purchased for us the undoubted pardon and forgiveness of our sins whereby he made at one the Father of Heaven with us in such wise that he taketh us now for his loving Children and for the true inheritors with Christ his Natural Son of the Kingdom of Heaven And verily so much more doth Christs kindness appear unto us in that it pleased him to deliver himself of all his goodly Honour which he was equally in with his Father in Heaven and to come down into this vale of misery to be made mortal man and to be in the state of a most low Servant serving us for our wealth and profit us I say which were his sworn Enemies which had renounced his holy Law and Commandments and followed the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt Nature And yet I say Coloss 2. did Christ put himself between Gods deserved wrath and our sin and rent that Obligation wherein we were in danger to God and paid our debt Our debt was a great deal too great for us to have paid And without payment God the Father could never be at one with us Neither was it possible to be loosed from this debt by our own ability It pleased him therefore to be the payer thereof and to discharge us quite Who can now consider the grievous debt of sin which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an Innocent and will not hate sin in his heart If God hateth sin so much that he would allow neither man nor Angel for the Redemption thereof but only the death of his only and well-beloved Son who will not stand in fear thereof If we my Friends consider this that for our sins this most innocent Lamb was driven to death we shall have much more cause to bewail our selves that we were the cause of his death than to cry out of the malice and cruelty of the Jews which pursued him to his death We did the deeds wherefore he was thus stricken and wounded they were only the ministers of our wickedness It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living Let us know for a certainty that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for the sin which he had not done himself how much more ought we sore to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God if we earnestly repent us not and be not sorry for them No man can love sin which God hateth so much and be in his favour No man can say that he loveth Christ truly and have his great Enemy sin I mean the author of his death familiar and in friendship with him So much do we love God and Christ as we hate sin We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not favourers thereof lest we be found Enemies to God and Traytors to Christ For not only they which nailed Christ upon the Cross are his tormentors and crucifiers Heb. 6. But all they saith St. Paul crucifie again the Son of God as much as is in them who do commit vice and sin which brought him to his death Rom. 6. If the wages of sin be death and death everlasting surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof Rom. 8. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh and after the sinful lusts thereof St Paul threatneth yea Almighty God in St. Paul threatneth that we shall surely die We can none otherwise live to God but by dying to sin If Christ be in us then is sin dead in us and if the Spirit of God be in us which raised Christ from death to life so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life Rom. 1. But if sin rule and reign in us then is God which is the fountain of all Grace and Vertue departed from us then hath the Devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us And surely if in such miserable state we die we shall
When he was wrongfully dealt with he threatned not again nor revenged his quarrel but delivered his cause to him that judgeth rightly Perfect patience careth not what Perfect patience nor how much it suffereth nor of whom it suffereth whether of Friend or Foe but studieth to suffer innocently and without deserving Yea he in whom perfect Charity is careth so little to revenge Mat. 5. that he rather studieth to do good for evil to bless and say well of them that curse him to pray for them that pursue him according to the example of our Saviour Christ The meekness of Christ who is the most perfect example and pattern of all meekness and sufferance which hanging upon the Cross in most fervent anguish bleeding in every part of his blessed Body being set in the midst of his enemies and crucifiers and he notwithstanding the intolerable pains which they saw him in being of them mocked and scorned despitefully without all favour and compassion had yet towards them such compassion in heart that he prayed to his Father of Heaven for them Luke 15. and said O Father forgive them for they wot not what they do What patience was it also which he shewed when one of his own Apostles and Servants which was put in trust of him came to betray him unto his Enemies to the death He said nothing worse to him Mat. 15. but Friend wherefore at thou come Thus good People should we call to mind the great examples of Charity which Christ shewed in his Passion if we will fruitfully remember his Passion Such charity and love should we bear one to another if we will be the true Servants of Christ For if we love but them that love and say well by us Mat. 5. what great thing is it that we do saith Christ Do not the Paynims and open sinners so We must be more perfect in our Charity than thus even as our Father in Heaven is perfect which maketh the light of his Sun to rise upon the good and the bad and sendeth his rain upon the kind and unkind After this manner should we shew our Charity indifferently as well to one as to another as well to friend as foe like obedient Children after the example of our Father in Heaven For if Christ was obedient to his Father even to the death and that the most shameful death as the Jews esteemed it the death of the Cross why should we not be obedient to God in lower points of Charity and Patience Ecclus. 28. Mat. 28. Let us forgive then our Neighbours their small faults as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us our great It is not meet that we should crave forgiveness of our great offences at Gods hands and yet will not forgive the small trespasses of our Neighbours against us We do call for mercy in vain if we will not shew mercy to our Neighbours For if we will not put wrath and displeasure forth of our hearts to our Christian Brother no more will God forgive the displeasure and wrath that our sins have deserved before him For under this condition doth God forgive us if we forgive other It becometh not Christian men to be hard one to another nor yet to think their Neighbour unworthy to be forgiven For howsoever unworthy he is yet is Christ worthy to have thee do thus much for his sake he hath deserved it of thee that thou shouldest forgive thy Neighbour And God is also to be obeyed which commandeth us to forgive if we will have any part of the Pardon which our Saviour Christ purchased once of God the Father by shedding of his precious Blood Nothing becometh Christs Servants so much as mercy and compassion Let us then be favourable one to another James 5. and pray we one for another that we may be healed from all frailties of our life the less to offend one the other and that we may be of one mind Ephes 5. and one spirit agreeing together in brotherly love and concord even like the dear Children of God By these means shall we move God to be merciful unto our sins yea and we shall be hereby the more ready to receive our Saviour and Maker in his blessed Sacrament to our everlasting comfort and health of Soul Christ delighteth to enter and dwell in that Soul where Love and Charity ruleth and where Peace and Concord is seen For thus writeth St. John 1 John 4. 1 John 2. God is charity he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him And by this saith he we shall know that we be of God if we love our brethren Yea and by this shall we know that we be delivered from death to life if we love one another 1 John 2. But he which hateth his brother saith the same Apostle abideth in death even in the danger of everlasâ—â—ng death and is moreover the child of damnation an◠〈◊〉 the Devil cursed of God and hated so long as 〈◊〉 so remaineth of God and all his heavenly company For as Peace and Charity make us the blessed Children of Almighty God so doth hatred and envy make us the cursed Children of the Devil Rom. 8. God give us all grace to follow Christs examples in Peace and in Charity in Patience and Sufferance that we now may have him our guest to enter and dwell within us so as we may be in full surety having such a pledge of our Salvation If we have him and his favour we may be sure we have the favour of God by his means For he sitteth on the right hand of God his Father as our Proctor and Attorney pleading and suing for us in all our needs and necessities Wherefore if we we want any gift of godly wisdom we may ask it of God for Christs sake and we shall have it Let us consider and examine our selves in what want we be concerning this virtue of Charity and Patience If we see that our hearts be nothing inclined thereunto in forgiving them that have offended against us then let us knowledge our want and wish to God to have it But if we want it and see in our selves no desire thereunto verily we be in a dangerous case before God and have need to make much earnest Prayer to God that we may have such an heart changed to the grafting in of a new For unless we forgive other we shall never be forgiven of God No not all the prayers and good works of other can pacifie God unto us unless we be at peace and at one with our Neighbour Nor all our deeds and good works can move God to forgive us our debts to him except we forgive to other He setteth more by Mercy than by Sacrifice Mercy moved our Saviour Christ to suffer for his Enemies it becometh us then to follow his example For it shall little avail us to have in meditation the fruits and price of his Passion to magnifie
1 Pet. 1â— and that your freedom is purchased neither with gold nor silver but with the price of the precious blood of that innocent Lamb Jesus Christ which was ordained to the same purpose before the World was made But he was so declared in the latter time of grace for your sakes which by him have your Faith in God who hath raised him from death and hath given him glory that you should have your faith and hope towards God Therefore as you have hitherto followed the vain lusts of your minds and so displeased God to the danger of your souls So now like obedient Children thus purified by Faith 1 Pet. 1. give your selves to walk that way which God moveth you to that ye may receive the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls And as you have given your bodies to unrighteousness to sin after sin so now give your selves to righteousness to be sanctified therein If ye delight in this Article of our Faith that Christ is risen again from death to life then follow you the example of his Resurrection as St. Paul exhorteth us saying Rom. 6. As we be buried with Christ by our Baptism into death so let us daily die to sin mortifying and killing the evil desires and motions thereof And as Christ was raised up from death by the glory of the Father so let us rise to a new life and walk continually therein that we may likewise as natural children live a conversation to move men to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5. If we then be risen with Christ by our faith to the hope of everlasting life let us rise also with Christ after his example to a new life and leave our old We shall then be truly risen if we seek for things that be heavenly if we have our affection on things that be above and not on things that be on the earth If ye desire to know what these earthly things be which ye should put off and what be the heavenly things above that ye should seek and ensue St. Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians declareth when he exhorteth us thus Mortifie your earthly members Col. 3. and old affection of sin as fornication uncleanness unnatural lust evil concupiscence and covetousness which is worshipping of Idols for the which things the wrath of God is wont to fall on the children of unbelief in which things once ye walked when ye lived in them But now put ye also away from you wrath fierceness maliciousness cursed speaking filthy speaking out of your mouths Lie not one to another that the old man with his works be put off and the new be put on These be the earthly things which St. Paul moved you to cast from you and to pluck your hearts from them For in following these ye declare your selves earthly and worldly These be the fruits of the earthly Adam These should you daily kill by good diligence in withstanding the desires of them that ye might rise to righteousness Let your affection from henceforth be set on heavenly things sue and search for mercy kindness meekness patience forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel to another as Christ forgave you even so do ye If these and such other heavenly vertues ye ensue in the residue of your life ye shall shew plainly that ye be risen with Christ and that ye be the heavenly Children of your Father in Heaven from whom as from the giver James 1. cometh these graces and gifts Ye shall prove by this manner that your conversation is in Heaven where your hope is and not on Earth following the beastly appetites of the flesh Phil. 3. Ye must consider that ye be therefore cleansed and renewed that ye should from henceforth serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of your lives that ye may reign with him in everlasting life If ye refuse so great grace whereto ye be called what other thing do ye Luke 1. than heap to you damnation more and more and so provoke God to cast his displeasure upon you and to revenge this mockage of his Holy Sacraments in so great abusing of them Apply your selves good Friends to live in Christ that Christ may still live in you whose favour and assistance if ye have then have ye everlasting life already within you then can nothing hurt you Whatsoever is hitherto done and committed John 5. Christ ye see hath offered you pardon and clearly received you to his favour again again in full surety whereof ye have him now inhabiting and dwelling within you Only shew your selves thankful in your lives Col. 3. determine with your selves to refuse and avoid all such things in your conversations as should offend his eyes of mercy Endeavour your selves that way to rise up again which way ye fell into the Well or Pit of sin If by your Tongue you have offended now thereby rise again and glorifie God therewith accustom it to land and praise the Name of God as ye have therewith dishonoured it And as ye have hurt the name of your Neighbour or otherwise hindred him so now intend to restore it to him again For without Restitution Restitution God accepteth not your Confession nor yet your Repentance It is not enough to forsake evil except you set your courage to do good By what occasion soever you have offended turn now the occasion to the honouring of God and profit of your Neighbour Psal 36. Truth it is that sin is strong and affections unruly Hard it is to subdue and resist our Nature so corrupt and leavened with the sour bitterness of the Poison which we received by the inheritance of our old Father Adam But yet take good courage saith our Saviour Christ Matth. 6. for I have overcome the World and all other Enemies for you Sin shall not have power over you for ye be now under grace saith St. Paul Rom. 6. Rom. 8. Though your power be weak yet Christ is risen again to strengthen you in your Battel his Holy Spirit shall help your Infirmities In trust of his mercy 1 Cor. 5. take you in hand to purge this old leaven of sin that corrupteth and soureth the sweetness of our life before God that ye may be as new and fresh dough void of all sour leaven of wickedness so shall ye shew your selves to be sweet bread to God that he may have his delight in you I say kill and offer you up the worldly and earthly affections of your bodies For Christ our Easter Lamb is offered up for us to slay the power of sin to deliver us from the danger thereof and to give us example to die to sin in our lives As the Jews did eat their Easter Lamb and keep their Feast in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt Even so let us keep our Easter Feast in the thankful remembrance of
O thou that art desirous of this Table of Emissenus a godly Father Euseb Emiserem de Euchar. that when thou goest up to the reverend Communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats thou look up with Faith upon the Holy Body and Blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with thy inward man Thus we see Beloved that resorting to this Table we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity all distrust in Gods promises that we make our selves living Members of Christs Body For the unbelievers and faithless cannot feed upon that precious Body whereas the faithful have their life their abiding in him their union and as it were their incorporation with him Wherefore let us prove and try our selves unfeigned without flattering our selves whether we be Plants of the fruitful Olive living branches of the true Vine Members indeed of Christs Mystical Body whether God hath purified our hearts by Faith to the sincere acknowledging of his Gospel and embracing of his mercies in Christ Jesus so that at this his Table we receive not only the outward Sacrament but the spiritual thing also not the Figure but the Truth not the shadow only but the body not to death but to life not to destruction but to salvation which God grant us to do through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Worthy Receiving and Reverent Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ IN the Homily of late rehearsed unto you ye have heard good People why it pleased our Saviour our Christ to institute that heavenly memory of his Death and Passion and that every one of us ought to celebrate the same at his Table in our own Persons and not by other You have heard also with what estimation and knowledge of so high Mysteries we ought to resort thither You have heard with what constant Faith we should clothe and deck our selves that we might be fit and decent partakers of that Celestial Food Now followeth the third thing necessary in him that would not eat of this Bread nor drink of this Cup unworthily which is newness of life and godliness of conversation For newness of life as fruits of Faith are required in the partakers of this Table We may learn by eating of the Typical Lamb whereunto no man was admitted but he that was a Jew that was circumcised that was before sanctified Yea St. Paul testifieth 1 Cor. 10. that although the People were partakers of the Sacraments under Moses yet for that some of them were still Worshippers of Images Whoremongers Tempters of Christ Murmurers and coveting after evil things God overthrew those in the Wilderness and that for our example that is that we Christians should take heed we resort unto our Sacraments with holiness of life not trusting in the outward receiving of them and infected with corrupt and uncharitable manners For this sentence of God must always be justified I will have mercy and not sacrifice De Bapt. lib. 1. cap. 3. Wherefore saith Basil it behoveth him that cometh to the Body and Blood of Christ in commemoration of him that died and rose again not only to be pure from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit lest he eat and drink his own condemnation but also to shew out evidently a memory of him that died and rose again for us in this point that ye be mortified to Sin and the World to live now to God in Christ Jesu our Lord. So then we must shew outward testimony in following the signification of Christs death amongst the which this is not esteemed least to render thanks to Almighty God for all his benefits briefly comprised in the Death Passion and Resurrection of his dearly beloved Son The which thing because we ought chiefly at this Table to solemnize the godly Fathers named it Eucharistia that is Thanksgiving As if they should have said Now above all other times ye ought to laud and praise God Now may you behold the matter the cause the beginning and the end of all Thanksgiving Now if you slack ye shew your selves most unthankful and that no other benefit can ever stir you to thank God who so little regard here so many so wonderful and so profitable benefits Seeing then that the name and thing it self doth monish us of thanks Heb. 13. let us as St. Paul saith offer always to God the host or sacrifice of praise by Christ that is the fruit of the lips which confess his Name For as David singeth Psal 50. He that offereth to God thanks and praise honoureth him But how few be there of thankful Persons in comparison to the unthankful Luke 17. Lo ten Lepers in the Gospel were healed and but one only returned to give thanks for his Health Yea happy it were if among sorty Communicants we could see two unfeignedly give thanks So unkind we be so oblivious we be so proud Beggers we be that partly we care nor for our own commodity partly we know not our Duty to God and chiefly we will not confess all that we receive Yea and if we be forced by Gods power to do it yet we handle it so coldly so drily that our lips praise him but our hearts dispraise him our tongues bless him but our life curseth him our words worship him but our works dishonour him O let us therefore learn to give God here thanks aright and so to agnize his exceeding graces poured upon us that they being shut up in the Treasure-house of our Heart may in due time and season in our life and conversation appear to the glorifying of his Holy Name Furthermore for newness of Life it is to be noted that St. Paul writeth That we being many are one bread and one body For all be partakers of one bread Declaring thereby not only our Communion with Christ but that Unity also wherein they that eat at this Table should be knit together For by Dissension Vain-glony Ambition Strife Envying Contempt Hatred or Malice they should not be dissevered but so joyned by the bond of Love in one Mystical Body as the corns of that Bread in one Loaf In respect of which strait knot of Charity the true Christians in the Primitive Church called this Supper Love As if they should say none ought to sit down there that were out of love and charity who bare grudge and vengeance in his Heart who also did not profess hiâ— kind affection by some Charitable Relief for some part of the Congregation And this was their Practice O Heavenly Banquet then so used O Godly Guests who so esteemed this Feasts But O wretched Creatures that we be at these days who be without reconciliation of our Brethren whom we have offended without satisfying them whom we have caused to
nothing is impossible as may further also appear by the inward Regeneration and Sanctification of Mankind When Christ said to Nicodemus Unless a Man be born a-new of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God he was greatly amazed in his mind and began to reason with Christ demanding how a Man might be born which was old John 3. Can he enter saith he into his Mothers Womb again and so be born anew Behold a lively pattern of a fleshly and carnal Man He had little or no intelligence of the Holy Ghost and therefore he goeth bluntly to work and asketh how this thing were possible to be true whereas otherwise if he had known the great power of the Holy Ghost in this behalf that it is he which inwardly worketh the Regeneration and New Birth of Mankind he would never have marvelled at Christs words but would rather take occasion thereby to praise and glorifie God For as there are three several and sundry Persons in the Deity so have they three several and sundry Offices proper unto each of them The Father to Create the Son to Redeem the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie and Regenerate Whereof the last the more it is hid from our understanding the more it ought to move all Men to wonder at the secret and mighty working of Gods Holy Spirit which is within us For it is the Holy Ghost and no other thing that doth quicken the Minds of Men stirring up good and godly Motions in their Hearts which are agreeable to the Will and Commandment of God such as otherwise of their own crooked and perverse Nature they should never have John 5. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit As who should say Man of his own Nature is fleshly and carnal corrupt and naught sinful and disobedient to God without any spark of goodness in him without any vertuous or godly Motion only given to evil Thoughts and wicked Deeds As for the Works of the Spirit the Fruits of Faith charitable and godly Motions if he have any at all in him they proceed only of the Holy Ghost who is the only worker of our Sanctification and maketh us new Men in Christ Jesus Did not Gods holy Spirit miraculously work in the Child David when of a poor Shepherd he became a Princely Prophet 1 Sam. 17. Mat. 9. Did not Gods Holy Spirit miraculously work in Matthew sitting at the receit of Custom when of a proud Publican he became an humble and lowly Evangelist And who can choose but marvel to consider that Peter should become of a simple Fisher a chief and mighty Apostle Paul of a cruel and bloody Persecutor a faithful Disciple of Christ to teach the Gentiles Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to Regenerate Men and as it were to bring them forth anew so that they shall be nothing like the Men that they were before Neither doth he think it sufficient inwardly to work the Spiritual and New Birth of Man unless he do also dwell and abide in him 1 Cor. 3. Know ye not saith St. Paul that ye are the Temple of God and that his Spirit dwelleth in you Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is within you Again he saith You are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit For why Rom. 8. 1 John 2 the Spirit of God dwelleth in you To this agreeth the Doctrin of St. John writing on this wise The Anointing which ye have received he meaneth the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you And the Doctrin of Peter saith the same 1 Pet. 4. who hath these words The Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you O what comfort is this to the heart of a true Christian to think that the Holy Ghost dwelleth within him Rom. 5. If God be with us as the Apostle saith who can be against us O but how shall I know that the Holy Ghost is within me Some Man perchance will say forsooth As the Tree is known by his Fruit so is also the Holy Ghost The Fruits of the Holy Ghost according to the mind of St. Paul are these Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Gal. 5. Faithfulness Meekness Temperance c. Contrariwise the Deeds of the Flesh are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Wantonness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Debate Emulation Wrath Contention Sedition Heresie Envy Murder Drunkenness Gluttony and such like Here is now that Glass wherein thou must behold thy self and discern whether thou have the Holy Ghost within thee or the Spirit of the Flesh If thou see that thy Works be vertuous and good consonant to the prescript Rule of Gods Word favouring and tasting not of the Flesh but of the Spirit then assure thy self that thou art endued with the Holy Ghost otherwise in thinking well of thy self thou dost nothing else but deceive thy self The Holy Ghost doth always declare himself by his fruitful and gracious gifts namely by the word of Wisdom by the word of Knowledge which is the understanding of the Scriptures by Faith 1 Cor. 12. in doing of Miracles by healing them that are Diseased by Prophesie which is the Declaration of Gods Mysteries by discerning of Spirits diversities of Tongues interpretation of Tongues and so forth All which gifts as they proceed from one Spirit and are severally given to Man according to the measurable distribution of the Holy Ghost even so do they bring Men and not without good cause into a wonderful admiration of Gods divine Power Who will not marvel at that which is written in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 5. to hear their bold confession before the Council at Jerusalem And to consider that they went away with joy and gladness rejoycing that they were worthy to suffer Rebukes and Checks for the Name and Faith of Christ Jesus This was the mighty work of the Holy Ghost who because he giveth patience and joyfulness of heart in Temptation and Affliction hath therefore worthily obtained this name in Holy Scripture to be called a Comforter Who will not also marvel to read the learned and heavenly Sermons of Peter and the Disciples considering that they were never brought up in School of Learning but called even from their Nets to supply the Rooms of Apostles This was likewise the mighty work of the Holy Ghost John 14. who because he doth instruct the hearts of the simple in the true knowledge of God and his Word is most justly termed by this name and title to be the Spirit of Truth Lib. 11. cap. 3. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History cap. 3. telleth a strange Story of a certain learned and subtil Philosopher who being an extream adversary to Christ and his Doctrin could by no kind of Learning be converted to the Faith but was able to withstand all the Arguments that could be brought against him with little or no labor At length there started up a poor
transitory Life and endue you with all manner of Benediction in the next World in the Kingdom of Heaven through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor everlasting Amen AN HOMILY OF The State of Matrimony THe Word of Almighty God doth testifie and declare whence the Original Beginning of Matrimony cometh and why it is ordained It is instituted of God to the intent that Man and Woman should live lawfully in a perpetual Friendship to bring forth Fruit and to avoid Fornication by which Mean a good Conscience might be preserved on both Parties in bridling the corrupt inclinations of the Flesh within the limits of Honesty for God hath straitly forbidden all Whoredom and Uncleanness and hath from time to time taken grievous punishment of this inordinate Lust as all Stories and Ages have declared Furthermore It is also ordained that the Church of God and his Kingdom might by this kind of life be conserved and enlarged not only in that God giveth Children by his Blessing but also in that they be brought up by the Parents godly in the knowledge of Gods Word that thus the knowledge of God and true Religion might be delivered by Succession from one to another that finally many might enjoy that evâ—rlasting Immortality Wherefore for as much as Matrimony serveth us as well to avoid sin and offence as to encrease the Kingdom of God you as all other which enter the State must acknowledge this benefit of God with pure and thankful minds for that he hath so ruled your hearts that ye follow not the example of the wicked World who set their delight in filthiness of sin but both of you stand in the fear of God and abhor all filthiness for that is surely the singular gift of God where the common example of the World declareth how the Devil hath their hearts bound and entangled in divers snares so that they in their Wifeless State run into open abominations without any grudge of their Conscience Which sort of Men that live so desperately and filthy what damnation tarrieth for them St. Paul describeth it to them saying Neither Whoremongers 1 Cor. 6. neither Adulterers shall inherit the Kingdom of God This horrible Judgment of God ye be escaped through his mercy if so be that ye live inseparatly according to Gods Ordinance But yet I would not have you careless without watching for the Devil will assay to attempt all things to interrupt and hinder your Hearts and godly Purpose if ye will give him any entry For he will either labor to break this godly knot once begun betwixt you or else at the least he will labor to incumber it with divers griefs and displeasures And this is the principal craft to work dissension of Hearts of the one from the other that whereas now there is pleasant and sweet Love betwixt you he will in the stead thereof bring in most bittet and unpleasant discord and surely that same Adversary of ours doth as it were from above assault Mans nature and condition For this folly is ever from our tender Age grown up with us to have a desire to rule to think highly of our selves so that none thinketh it meet to give place to another That wicked Voice of stubborn Will and Self-love is more meet to break and to dissever the love of Heart than to preserve Concord Wherefore married Persons must apply their minds in most earnest wise to Concord and must crave continually of God the help of his Holy Spirit so to rule their Hearts and to knit their Minds together that they be not dissevered by any Division or Discord This necessity of Prayer must be oft in practice and using of married Persons that oft times the one should pray for the other lest hate and debate do arise betwixt them And because few do consider this thing but more few do perform it I say to pray diligently we see how wonderfully the Devil deludeth and scorneth this State how few Matrimonies there be without Chidings Brawlings Tauntings Repentings bitter Cursings and Fightings which things whosoever doth commit they do not consider that it is the instigation of the Ghostly Enemy who taketh great delight therein for else they would with all earnest endeavor strive against these mischiefs not only with Prayer but also with all possible diligence yea they would not give place to the provocation of Wrath which stirreth them either to such rough and sharp Words or Stripes which is surely compassed by the Devil whose temptation if it be followed must needs begin and weave the Web of all Miseries and Sorrows For this is most certainly true that of such beginnings must needs ensue the breach of true Concord in Heart whereby all Love must needs shortly be banished Then can it not be but a miserable thing to behold that yet they are of necessity compelled to live together which yet cannot be in quiet together And this is most customably every where to be seen But what is the cause thereof Forsooth because they will not consider the crafty Trains of the Devil and therefore give not themselves to pray to God that he would vouchsafe to repress his Power Moreover they do not consider how they promote the purpose of the Devil in that they follow the wrath of their hearts while they threat one another while they in their folly turn all upside down while they will never give over their right as they esteem it yea while many times they will not give over the wrong part indeed Learn thou therefore if thou desirest to be void of all these miseries if thou desirest to live peaceably and comfortably in Wedlock how to make thy earnest Prayer to God that he would govern both your Hearts by the Holy Spirit to restrain the Devils power whereby your Concord may remain perpetually But to this Prayer must be joyned a singular diligence whereof St. Peter giveth this precept saying You Husbands deal with your Wives according to knowledge giving honor to the Wife as unto the weaker Vessel and as unto them that are Heirs also of the grace of Life that your Prayers be not hindred This precept doth particularly pertain to the Husband for he ought to be the Leader and Author of Love in cherishing and increa ing Concord which then shall take place if he will use Moderation and not Tyranny and if he yield something to the Woman For the Woman is a weak Creature not indued with like strength and constancy of Mind therefore they be the sooner disquieted and they be the more prone to all weak affections and dispositions of Mind more than Men be and lighter they be and more vain in their Fantasies and Opinions These things must be considered of the Man that he be not too stiff so that he ought to wink at some things and must gently expound all things and to forbear Howbeit The common sort of Men do judge
otherwhiles obey God but by and by do think that laying him aside it is lawful for them to serve the World and the Flesh And because that we are letted by the natural corruption of our own Flesh and the wicked affections of the same he doth bid us also to return with Fasting not thereby understanding a superstitious Abstinence and choosing of Meats but a true Discipline or taming of the Flesh whereby the nourishments of filthy Lusts and of stubborn Contumacy and Pride may be withdrawn and pluckt away from it Whereunto he doth add weeping and mourning which do contain an outward profession of Repentance which is very needful and necessary that so we may partly set forth the righteousness of God when by such means we do testifie that we deserved punishments at his hands and partly stop the offence that was openly given unto the weak Psal 25. Thus did David see who being not content to have bewept and bewailed his sins privately would publickly in his Psalms declare and set forth the rigteousness of God in punishing sin and also stay them that might have abused his Example to sin the more boldly Therefore they are farthest from true Repentance that will not confess and acknowledge their sins nor yet bewail them but rather do most ungodlily glory and rejoyce in them Now lest any Man should think that Repentance doth consist in outward weeping and mourning only he doth rehearse that wherein the chief of the whole matter doth lie when he saith Rent your Hearts and not your Garments and turn unto the Lord your God For the People of the East part of the World were wont to rent their Garments Psal 52. if any thing hapned unto them that seemed intolerable Hypocrites do counterfeit all manner of things This thing did Hypocrites sometimes counterfeit and follow as though the whole Repentance did stand in such outward gesture He teacheth then that another manner of thing is required that is That they must be contrite in their Hearts that they must utterly detest and abhor Sins and being at defiance with them return unto the Lord their God from whom they went away before For God hath no pleasure in the outward Ceremony but requireth a contrite and humble Heart Psal 52. which he will never despise as David doth testifie There is therefore none other use of these outward Ceremonies but as far forth as we are stirred up by them and do serve to the glory of God and to the edifying of others Now doth he add unto this Doctrin or Exhortation How Repentance is not unprofitable certain godly Reasons which he doth ground upon the nature and property of God and whereby he doth teach that true Repentance can never be unprofitable or unfruitful For as in all other things Mens hearts do quail and faint if they once perceive that they travel in vain Even so most especially in this matter must we take heed and beware that we suffer not our selves to be persuaded that all that we do is but labor lost for thereof either sudden desperation doth arise or a licentious boldness to sin which at length bringeth unto desperation Lest any such thing then should happen unto them he doth certifie them of the grace and goodness of God who is always most ready to receive them into favor again that turn speedily unto him Which thing he doth prove with the same Titles wherewith God doth describe and set forth himself unto Moses speaking on this manner Exod. 34. For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil that is such a one as is sorry for your Afflictions First He calleth him gentle and gracious as he who of his own nature is more prompt and ready to do good than to punish Whereunto this saying of Esaias the Prophet seemeth to pertain where he saith Esay 55. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his own imaginations and return unto the Lord and he will have pity on him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive Secondly Doth attribute unto him mercy or rather according to the Hebrew word the Bowels of mercies whereby he signified the natural affections of Parents towards their Children Which thing David doth set forth goodly Psal 103. saying As a Father hath compassion on his Children so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him for he knoweth whereof we be made he remembreth that we are but dust Thirdly He saith that he is slow to anger that is to say long-suffering and which is not lightly provoked to wrath Fourthly That he is of much kindness for he is that bottomless Well of all goodness who rejoyceth to do good unto us therefore did he create and make Men that he might have whom he should do good unto and make partakers of his Heavenly Riches Fifthly He repenteth of the evil that is to say he doth call back again and revoke the punishment which he had threatned when he seeth Men repent turn and amend Against the Novatians Whereupon we do not without a just cause detest and abhor the damnable Opinion of them which do most wickedly go about to persuade the simple and ignorant People That if we chance after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ to fall into some horrible sin shall be unprofitable unto us there is no more hope of reconciliation or to be received again into the favor and mercy of God And that they may give the better colour unto their pestilent and pernicious Error they do commonly bring in the sixth and tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Chapter of the second Epistle of Peter not considering that in those places the holy Apostles do not speak of the daily falls that we as long as we carry about this body of sin are subject unto Mat. 12. Mark 3. but of the final falling away from Christ and his Gospel The sin against the Holy Ghost which is a sin against the Holy Ghost that shall never be forgiven because that they do utterly forsake the known Truth do hate Christ and his Word they do crucifie and mock him but to their utter destruction and therefore fall into desparation and cannot repent And that this is the true meaning of the holy Spirit of God it appeareth by many other places of the Scriptures which promise unto all true repentant sinners and to them that with their whole heart do turn unto the Lord their God free pardon and remission of their sins For the probation hereof we read this O Israel saith the holy Prophet Jeremy if thou return Jer. 4. return unto me saith the Lord and if thou put away thine abominations out of my sight then shalt thou not be removed Again these are Esaias words Esay 55. Let the wicked forsake his own ways and the unrighteous his own
Unto whom this our returning must be made By whose means it ought to be done that it may be effectual And last of all after what sort we ought to behave our selves in the same that it may be profitable unto us and attain unto the thing that we do seek by it Ye have also learned that as the Opinion of them that deny the benefit of Repentance unto those that after they be come to God and grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ do through the frailness of their Flesh and the temptation of the Devil fall into some grievous and detestable sin is most pestilent and pernicious so we must beware that we do in no wise think that we are able of our own selves and of our own strength to return unto the Lord our God from whom we are gone away by our wickedness and sin Now it shall be declared unto you what be the true parts of Repentance and what things ought to move us to repent and to return unto the Lord our God with all speed Repentance as it is said before is a true rtturning unto God whereby Men forsaking utterly their Idolatry and wickedness do with a lively Faith embrace love and worship the true living God only and give themselves to all manner of good Works which by Gods Word they know to be acceptable unto him There be four parts of Repentance Now there be four parts of Repentance which being set together may be likened to an easie and short Ladder whereby we may climb from the bottomless Pit of perdition that we cast our selves into by our daily offences and grievous sins up into the Castle or Tower of eternal and endless Salvation The first is the Contrition of the Heart for we must be earnestly sorry for our sins and unfeignedly lament and bewail that we have by them so grievously offended our most bounteous and merciful God who so tenderly loved us that he gave his only begotten Son to die a most bitter death and to shed his dear Heart Blood for our Redemption and Deliverance And verily this inward sorrow and grief being conceived in the heart for the heinousness of sin if it be earnest and unfeigned is a Sacrifice to God as the holy Prophet David doth testifie saying Psalm 5. A Sacrifice to God is a troubled Spirit a contrite and broken Heart O Lord thou wilt not despise But that this may take place in us we must be diligent to read and hear the Scriptures and the Word of God which most lively do paint out before our eyes our natural uncleanness and the enormity of our sinful life 2 Sam. 12 For unless we have a thorow feeling of our sins how can it be that we should earnestly be sorry for them Before David did hear the Word of the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Nathan what heaviness I pray you was in him for the Adultery and the Murder that he had committed So that it might be said right well that he slept in his own sin We read in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4. that when the People had heard the Sermon of Peter they were compunct pricked in their hearts Which thing would never have been if they had not heard that wholesom Sermon of Peter They therefore that have no mind at all neither to read nor yet to hear Gods Word there is but small hope of them that they will as much as once set their Feet or take hold upon the first Staff or Step of this Ladder but rather will sink deeper and deeper into the bottomless Pit of perdition For if at any time through the remorse of their Conscience which accuseth them they feel any inward grief sorrow or heaviness for their sins for as much as they want the salve and comfort of Gods Word which they do despise it will be unto them rather a Mean to bring them to utter desperation than otherwise The second is an unfeigned Confession and acknowledging of our sins unto God whom by them we have so grievously offended that if he should deal with us according to his justice we do deserve a thousand Hells if there could be so many Yet if we will with a sorrowful and contrite Heart Ezek. 18. make an unfeigned Confession of them unto God he will freely and frankly forgive them and so put all our wickedness out of remembrance before the sight of his Majesty that they shall no more be thought upon Hereunto doth pertain the golden saying of the holy Prophet David where he saith on this manner Then I acknowledge my sin unto thee Psalm 51. neither did I hide mine iniquity I said I will confess against my self my wickedness unto the Lord thou forgavest the ungodliness of my sin These are also the words of John the Evangelist 1 John 1. If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness which ought to be understood of the Confession which is made unto God For these are St. Augustins words In Epist ad Julian comitem 30. That Confession which is made unto God is required by Gods Law whereof John the Apostle speaketh saying If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness For without this Confession sin is not forgiven This is then the chiefest and most principal Confession that in the Scriptures and Word of God we are bidden to make and without the which we shall never obtain pardon and forgiveness of our sins Indeed besides this there is another kind of Confession which is needful and necessary And of the same doth St. James speak after this manner saying Acknowledge your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be saved As if he should say Open that which grieveth you that a Remedy may be found And this is commanded both for him that complaineth and for him that heareth that the one should shew his Grief to the other The true meaning of it is that the Faithful ought to acknowledge their offences whereby some hatred rancour ground or malice having risen or grown among them one to another that a Brotherly reconciliation may be had without the which nothing that we do can be acceptable unto God Mat. 5. as our Saviour Jesus Christ doth witness himself saying When thou offerest thine Offering at the Altar if thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thine Offering and go and be reconciled and when thou art reconciled come and offer thine Offering It may also be thus taken that we ought to confess our weakness and infirmities one to another to the end that knowing each others frailness we may the more earnestly pray together unto Almighty God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe to pardon us our infirmities for his Son Jesus Christs sake and not to
not rise to life but fall down to death and damnation and that without end Chrisâ— haâ—h not redeemed from us sin that we should live an sin For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin that we may safely return thereto again but he hath redeemed us that we should forsake the motions thereof and live to righteousness Yea we be therefore washed in our Baptism from the filthiness of sin that we should live afterward in the pureness of life In Baptism we promised to renounce the Devil and his suggestions we promised to be as obedient Children always following Gods will and pleasure Then if he be our Father indeed let us give him his due Honour If we be his Children let us shew him our Obedience like as Christ openly declared his obedience to his Father which as St. Paul writeth was obedient even to the very death Phil. 2. the death of the Cross And this he did for us all that believe in him For himself he was not punished for he was pure and undefiled of all manner of sin He was wounded saith Esay for our wickedness Esay 53. and stripped for our sins he suffered the penalty of them himself to deliver us from danger He bare saith Esay all our sores and infirmities upon his own back No pain did he refuse to suffer in his own body that he might deliver us from pain everlasting His pleasure it was thus to do for us we deserved it not Wherefore the more we see our selves bound unto him the more he ought to be thanked of us yea and the more hope may we take that we shall receive all other good things of his hand in that we have received the gift of his only Son through his liberality R m. 8. For if God saith St. Paul hath not spared his own Son from pain and punishment but delivered him for us all unto the death how should he not give us all other things with him If we want any thing John 1. either for body or soul we may lawfully and boldly approach to God as to our merciful Father to ask that we desire and we shall obtain it For such power is given to us to be the Children of God so many as believe in Christs Name Mat. 11. In his Name whatsoever we ask we shall have it granted us For so well pleased is the Father Almighty God with Christ his Son that for his sake he favoureth us and will deny us nothing So pleasant was this Sacrifice and Oblation of his Sons death which he so obediently and innocently suffered that we should take it for the only and full amends for all the sins of the World And such favour did he purchase by his death of his Heavenly Father for us that for the merit thereof if we be true Christians in deed and not in word only we be now fully in Gods grace again and clearly discharged from our sin No â—ongue surely is able to express the worthiness of this so precious a death For in this standeth the continual pardon of our daily offences in this resteth our justification in this we be allowed in this is purchased the everlasting health of all our souls Acts 4. Yea there is none other thing that can be named under Heaven to save our souls but this only work of Christs precious offering of his Body upon the Altar of the Cross Certes there can be no work of any mortal man be he never so holy that shall be coupled in merits with Christs most holy act For no doubt all our thoughts and deeds were of no value if they were nor allowed in the merits of Christs death All our righteousness is far unperfect if it be be compared with Christs righteousness For in his acts and deeds there was no spot of sin or of any unperfectness Our deeds be full of imperfection And for this cause they were the more able to be the true amends of our righteousness where our acts and deeds be full of imperfection and infirmities and therefore nothing worthy of themselves to stir God to any favour much less to challenge that glory that is due to Christs act and merit Psal 115. For not to us saith David not to us but to thy Name give the glory O Lord. Let us therefore good Friends with all reverence glorifie his Name let us magnifie and praise him for ever For he hath dealt with us according to his great mercy by himself hath he purchased our Redemption Heb. 1. He thought it not enough to spare himself and to send his Angel to do this deed but he would do it himself that he might do it the better and make it the more perfect Redemption He was nothing moved with the intolerable pains that he suffered in the whole course of his long Passion to repent him thus to do good to his Enemies but he opened his heart for us and bestowed himself wholly for the ransoming of us Let us therefore now open our hearts again to him and study in our lives to be thankful to such a Lord and evermore to be mindful of so great a benefit Acts 17. yea let us take up our Cross with Christ and follow him His Passion is not only the ransom and whole amends for our sin but it is also a most perfect example of all patience and sufferance For if it behoved Christ thus to suffer and to enter into the glory of his Father why should it not become us to bear patiently our small crosses of adversity and the troubles of this World For surely as saith St. Peter Christ therefore suffered 1 Pet. 2. 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 8. Mat. 5. Heb. 11. to leave us an example to follow his steps And if we suffer with him we shall be sure also to reign with him in Heaven Not that the sufferance of this transitory life should be worthy of that glory to come but gladly should we be contented to suffer to be like Christ in our life that so by our works we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven And as it is painful and grievous to bear the Cross of Christ in the griefs and displeasures of this life so it bringeth forth the joyful fruit of Hope James 5. in all them that be exercised therewith Let us not so much behold the pain as the reward that shall follow that labour Nay let us rather endeavour our selves in our sufferance to endure innocently and guiltless as our Saviour Christ did For if we suffer for our deservings 1 Pet. 2. then hath not patience his perfect work in us but if undeservedly we suffer loss of goods and life if we suffer to be evil spoken of for the love of Christ this is thankful afore God for so did Christ suffer The patience of Christ He never did sin neither was any guile found in his mouth Yea when he was reviled with taunts he reviled not again