they had forsaken the sincerity of the Law and had made a medley of Gods will and humane traditions Yea they were contented because they were fat and fed plentifully euen to soothe and say as the people did without rebuking them and to swallow vp their grosse and grieuous sinnes Therefore they are summoned first as being first in blame and are set foremost in the battell after the Heluetian manner whose Parochi alwayes leade forth their armies hereupon wee reade that Huldricus Zwinglius died in the fore-front of a set encounter In which orderly proceeding of Gods iustice we learne that Iudgement begins at Gods owne house and Church-men if they offend but as others yet shall they be punished euen because they are Church-men more then others vnlesse they repent Ely a Priest of the Lord had exemplarie punishment shewed vpon him in breaking his necke as hee fell out of his Chaire for not better guiding his sons I reade no such seuerity shewed vpon the Priests of Midian The Priests sonnes Nadab and Abihu Aarons darlings for offering strange fire are burnt vp sodainly with fire that came out from God I reade no such sodaine plague to befall Adramelech and Sharazer that slew Senacherib their owne father The Priests daughter that played the whore was to be burnt I reade not the like sore punishment appoynted to other mens daughters What shall we say Apostles not Apostates Euangelists not Extrauagants Prophets not Poets holy Virgins not impudent Harlots haue beene the Spectacles of persecution and gazing-stockes of disgrace despight and cruelty both to men and Angels Yea no matricide as Nero no fratricide as Cayn no Regicide as Rauillac no sulphureous gun-pouder Traytor euer indured such exquisite tortures and torments wherewith it hath pleased God to afflict trie and exercise his owne Church by the hands of cursed Persecutors Prelates therefore and Preachers must tremble vnder the mightie hand of God for albeit the Scripture entitles them Angels yet they are not so by nature but by office Diuels may appeare in the shape of Angels of Light and take part with the spirits of Darkenesse against Christ yea they may be bad Angels in all kinde of badnesse Angels of Sathan by discord as were Iannes and Iambres Angels of Apostacie through Pride as was proude Diotrephes who loued the preheminence Angels of Inâ—ubus by wantonnesse as were the Priests of Priapus and Beelphegor Angels of the bottomlesse pit through base Couetousnesse who spend all their time in seeking basely to haue All these and the like are the Locusts of the bottomlesse pit and their destruction is therein for euermore Prelates and Preachers are Starres but if they become wandering starres or bitter starres of Wormewood or falling starres or starres placed in the Dragons tayle their portion is to be cast downe and to be reserued to the blackenesse of darknesse for euer Our Sauiour saith If the light of the world lose its brightnesse how great will that darkenesse be and if the Salt loâ—â— its sauour wherewith shall it be seasoned It is good for nothing but to be cast forth to the dunghill Prelates and Preachers therefore being the light of the world and Salt of the earth must tremble vnder the mightie hand of God For if they be vnsauourie salt like Ecebolius they shall be trode vnder the peoples feete If negligent seruants their woe is at hand And if the Doctours of the Church become Seducers the Prelates proue Pilates the Pastours become Impostors and the Disposers of Gods truth turne Dissipators and destroyers Gods iudgement wil be toward them and that in more grieuous manner then toward others For Centinels in neglect of their watch or ward are more to be punished then the other ordinary souldiers Commissioners beare blame if their embassage be not carefully deliuered and the seruant that knoweth his Maisters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes Thus wee see Iudgement begins at the house of God but the Scripture doth not say it ends there If the Lord search Ierusalem with Lights what will become thinke you of Babylon If the top of Carmel doe wither what will become of the valley of the children of Hinnon If woe be denounced against Capernaum Bethsaida Corazin what belongs to Damascus Azzah Edom and the like If the righteous scarce be saued where shall the wicked and sinners appeare The title of Priest being formerly glorious in this worst age of the world is by dis-vsage and abuse growne into miserable contempt and disgrace but howsoeuer the worldlings esteeme of Church-men disgrace them how they will yet it hath pleased God to vse those weake and feeble instruments to the aduancement of his glory and the saluation of man Not by their owne woorths but by Gods owne power and vertue who when hee taketh the meanest things into his hands workes powerfully by them whatsoeuer pleaseth him By Salt taken into Gods hand God maketh the bitter waters of Iericho to become sweete by ordinary water of a common riuer cureth the Leprosie of Naaman By dreames reuealeth the certaintie of future occurrences to Pharaoh Gideon and Nebuchadnezzar By Clay maketh the blinde to see By Touch cureth the palsey restoreth sight and raiseth vp to life againe By his word casteth out vncleane spirits and by the shadow of a man cureth diuers diseases Say then if Prelates and Preachers in the worlds estimation be but as ordinary water salt clay and as the hemme of a garment yet we see if God take them into his hand as in his hand al his Prelates and Preachers are he worketh by them both great and marueilous effects If the world esteem Church-men but as ordinary Iordan God may vse them to cleanse your Leprosies but as salt by Gods grace they may make you taste goodnes but as durt trampled vnder your feet yet through God they may make you see your selues and sinnes and if they be but shadowes yet they may haunt you like ghosts vntill you returne vnto the Lord your God Yea say you But many Church-men run before they be sent True But euery plant that our heauenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted vp Againe you vrge If Church-men were in the hand of God as you say there would no doubt be a plentifull haruest by their hands Well was not Peter and Paul in the hand of God for I speak to Christians why was one of them esteemed a drunkard while he preached and the other a mad man by miscreaÌ„ts Is not the seed al one that is sowed whence then is the difference of thirty sixty and an hundred fold and some-where no encrease No no the actions of agents are in the Patients rightly disposed Therfore to the children of Wisdome the very feet of Church-men are beautifull they pray for them and count them worthy of double honor Yea say ye so they are if they be good
by enhaunsing their Sacrifices which the Spirit of God laugheth to scorne by terming a Coniugatis their Sacrifices slaughters their Temples shambles and their Priests Butchers Yea and that which is more all the estates as it seemes had subiected themselues in their reuolt to the base vulgar desiring to giue them content for aduantage in what straine or depth of impietie so euer Fourthly in this Declaration also is shewed the insolencie of their sinnes For they were growne to that impudencie and height of sinning albeit God himselfe both by immediate and mediate means had beene a rebuker of them all Wherein they endeuored to preuent the obiection that is ordinarily made in the Prophets whereby they might haue said to God If we are deceiued thou hast deceiued vs. But the Text meetes with that and saith God himselfe had beene a rebuker of them all O how great is the subtilty deepenesse and slienesse of sinne that hath all these foule and fearefull ingrediences Learne hence therefore that No voyce nor rebuke of God or good men laying forth the hideousnesse and horror of sinnes neuer so open to the view of the conscience can preuaile with the mighty hunting Nimrods of this world to restraine their rage and furious madnes but still they make their greatnesse in Church Court and Common-wealth baites and guiles for their gaine and glorie This appeareth in the very termes and passages of the context For from the Court to the Cart they would be Nets and Snares to one another albeit the Lord God himselfe had beene a rebuker of them all for it This is Patriarchall truth for righteous Noah holy Lot and meeke Moses preuaile not with some in their times It is Propheticall truth for all the Prophets grieuously complaine hereof It is Euangelicall truth for Christ himselfe preuailes not with Herod and other miscreants And it is also Apostolicall verity for the Apostles preuaile not with such as Symon Magus was and others of that stampe nor all the ministration of the glorious Gospell of Christ sithence that time doth preuaile with those that are miscreants and none of Gods eternall Election The reason hereof is plaine for these wicked ones are enwrapped in the snares of the diuell They are the Diuells slaues bound to doe his will They are vniust and will be vniust still They are filthy and will be filthy still They are plunged into the deepnesse of Sathan and they are mis-perswaded and mis-led by the mystery of Iniquity This will further appeare out of the Declaration both in Israel alreadie reuolted and in Iuda that yet staggered Israel reuolted is a Paralell of the Papacie and staggering Iuda is a type of Cassandrian Protestancie See this in both first in Popery Is not that of the Prophet true We would haue cured Babel but she could not be healed For albeit God himselfe hath rebuked the Popish vassalls at sundry times and in diuers manner not onely by the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God by which their Babylon is fallen but also by his immediate hand in bringing to nought their cursed damnable designements and in shewing the very ruine of their rotten cause as diuers and sundry instances may be giuen both auncient and moderne at home and abroad especially of those two in our owne Nation namely the difference betwixt the Seminaries and the Iesuites in Wisbich Castle and the hellish gun-pouder treason yet that great Romish Archimandrites of the world and his reuolted â—ry continue Nets and Snares vpon Mizpah and Tabor that is Church and Common-wealth not onely litterally in their ambuscadoes vpon the Alpes but also Metaphorically at Rome at Remes Loretto Compostella Hallas Sichem and where not All their doings and dealings being semblable vnto Nets and Snares In pretence of Sanctifie craking of nothing but of Religion Mother-Church infallibility of See authority of Fathers and Counsels and such like boastings Nets and Snares for profit witnesse their Bulles Indulgences the holie Exercise as they call it of the vnholy fathers the Iesuites Nets and Snares for lawlesse warranty as appeareth in their Decretalls in their Brutum fulmen of Excommunication in their captiuating seely soules that thirst after Christ with Masses Dirges Trentalls Pilgrimages Reall-presence and many such like incumbrances For you must know that these Shop-keepers open not their Shops for nothing For all their trickes tend either to profit or to pleasure or to both For their profit they haue their seuerall wares namely the yeare of Iubile Archiepiscopall and Episcopall palls Anniuersary-Masses priuate-Masses priuiledged Altars Taxations Apostolicall as they call them for vnlawfull faculties dispensations against Scripture absolutions reuocations legitimations and for what not To instance would be teadious Yea to keepe this profit they are no lesse cunning in their vowes of single life in keeping the Election of the Pope amongst the Cardinals onely in winning the fauour of the Nobility by making their debauched sonnes Abbots and Priors and by making their collapsed daughters Abesses and Nunnes As also in be-fooling the Kings of the earth with a Prime-rose blessed by the Popes nowne mouth a holy Sword a military Belt a waxen Agnus Dei and the like trumperies Moreouer they haue nets and snares for their pleasure also in keeping the common people ignorant of the Word of God in traducing the phrases of the holy Scripture and in preparing their baites for all palates For the pompous they haue the bait of the Papacie for the sordid the order of the Capuchini and Sfoliani for the delicious the Abacies for the melancholy the Hermites and Anachorites for the wanton and lasciuious they haue those daies of priuiledge at Rome before euery Carniuall wherein they haue liberty and licence to doe what lustfull wickednesse they lift Surely a man cannot chuse but wonder to obserue their mixt compositure which doubtlesse they themselues smile at in their sleeues as namely that the Popes should wash the feete of the poore and yet suffer the Kings of the Earth to kisse their feete That they should depose and set vp the Kings of the Earth with one and the selfe-same Bull. That they should take vpon them to remit sinnes vent the strange conceits of Transubstantiation auricular Confession workes of superrerogation and the like fopperies Insomuch that a man may truely take vp a complaint and say What soule doth not bleed to see the spirit of God thus grieued to see the hearts of the sonnes of men so obdurate and what faithfull soule doth not cry out earnestly to the Lord in the word of Dauid It is high time for Thee Lord to set to thy helping hand for they the Papists haue destroyed thy Law But that which is most maruailous of all is to see that these Romanists should in all Common-wealths where euer they liue be nets and snares as appeareth most plainely in our State wherein these Flies of Aegypt cannot content themselues to liue within the
sacramentally which if they receaue worthily they goe on in the world breathing out breath fearefull to the very Deuill himselfe and to all the powers of darknesse as golden-mouthed Chrisostome vsed to speake vnto his Antiochians yea wherewith wee goe confidently on in the spirit of Dauid that albeit we walke through the valley of the shadow of death yet feare wee none ill for euery Christian in that case is as it were another Christ. So doth Saint Ambrose reade that place in the Galathians In a word the people are blessed by the State Ecclesiasticall through the ministration of the Word by which God remoueth all impediments that hinder the course of their Saluation For Christ thereby powreth on them Ezechiels pure water to purge their impurities pruneth off the wilde branches cutteth off all superfluities at last vtterly abolisheth the houres and powers of darkenesse drowneth Pharaoh in the red Sea of his bloud and beateth downe Satan vnder their feete Thus are they blessed on euery side by Moses by Aaron by the Pillar of a cloud of witnesses in spirituall affaires by the Pillar of fire in secular negotiations by the Church by the Court in their all so that I may conclude with the Psalmist Saluation belongeth onely to the Lord and his blessing is vpon his people both from the State politique and from the State Ecclesiasticall The vse of this concernes both the Kingdome in generall the Chamber of the Kingdome in particular and euery mans conscience indiuidually Doth not the people of this Land the house of England see and consider how God hath made our State his owne deare darling which the Iesuites and other emissaries of Rome spite at Hath not God chosen it as his Lilly among the flowers of the field as the Doue among the Fowles of Heauen as the Cedar among the Trees of the Forrest as his Iudea among the Nations and as his Syon amongst the mountains Is not this our Iland the house of preuailing Israel a Sanctuary for his Elect an Oracle for his Word and an habitation for himselfe Is not our Republique to Rome as Aegina to Athens not onely an eye-sore but an heart-sore The State-politique whereof doth right euery man both in iudgement and iustice The principall agent of Iustice vnder the King is called in the abstract the Chiefe-Iustice The King himselfe is the fountaine of all Iustice and doth delegate his power of administration vnto seuerall Iustices Itinerant who in their set circuits for the benefit and ease of the subiect doe expedite the lesser causes Yea the whole Land being diuided into Shires or Shares Hundreds Wapentakes and Tithings that euery man to the number of tenne may answere for each other and may be liable to Law if they doe any harme and also may receiue right to that number in euery particular place and Parish The inferiour Courts are erected for the good of the subiect in smaller causes and the Parliament in supreame causes is conueened wherein the King himselfe albeit he hath royall assent in all yet by Law Reason and Religion he is legally limited and concluded So that vncontrolled no wicked Nimrod can offend by strong hunting no cursed Macheuillian by damnable Statizing nor any griping Zacheus by forged cauillations Our Christian King hath so prouided that this his house of England may be indeed the house of preuailing Israel That God may generally be honoured hee hath ordained as the King of Babel in his Prouinces that all his subiects within the foure seas may truly worship the God of Israel That God may be pleased with our prayers and fastings he hath ordained a Lent as the King of Niniue a fast That God may be glorified with a Festiuity hee hath consecrated the fift of Nouember to his diuine worship in thankes-giuing for the States wonderfull deliuerance from the hellish Gun-pouder Treason as Queene Hester ordained the Feast of Purim for the Iewes deliuerance from wicked Hamans cruelty Hee hath set an order to things indifferent as did good King Ioas that there may be no confusion no schisme in his Land He hath restrayned foolish vaine and idle questions both priuate and publique with all fruitlesse opposition lest that carpet-Preachers should through a singular spirit broach the Lees of Anabaptisme Brownisme Vorstianisme and other fanaticall delusions and lest they should sow schismes heresies and seditious murmurings amongst his Christian subiects In a word our King hath taken course that the hand of violence may in no wise touch the bodies of his subiects to which purpose Coroners are appointed in all shires and corporate Townes to enquire by secret inquest vpon such as come to violent or vntimely deaths that the Kings Delegates may be certified how his Subiects come to their ends He hath also most Christianly prouided that your goods may be kept from rapine fraud and cousenage To which purpose are ordained Clerkes of Markets to looke to weights and measures and Iudges and Iustices for theeues robbers and all other oppressors And also for your reputation and good name he hath ordained that no black-mouthed Curre with a tongue enflamed by hell fire shall besmut the same but he is lyable to censure Is not therefore the blessing of God vpon the people from the state Politique Neither are the people lesse blessed by the state Ecclesiasticall Neuer more preaching Prelates in our Israel neuer more able Ministers ouer the Land applying themselues in euery case of conscience as godly Casuists vnto all the distressed in minde To which purpose some haue Moses Rod for miracles Aarons Belles for comfort Dauids Harpe for the howlings of hell Salomons Sword for decision of controuersies others haue Ieremies Hammer to breake the hard-hearted Esayes Trumpet to awaken the drowsie Peters Keyes to open the ioyes of Heauen to such as are weary of this life becomming the sons of solace to the tender conscience and the sonnes of thunder to a boysterous and big-boned Nimrod In a word becomming all to all that they may winne some Say then if the blessing of God be not also on the people from the state Ecclesiastique Descend wee from the state of the Kingdome to the Chamber of the Kingdome the great City of London What blessings hath not that City from the state Politique in their bodies goods and good name which if any man impeach hee is lyable to Law How are the soules and consciences of the Citizens blessed by that sacred Company of many able Preachers to whom God hath giuen the Word Insomuch that I may truly say that no City in the World on which the Sunne shineth hath more cause to magnifie God and to multiply their thankefulnesse Oh how many and how manifold are Gods blessings vpon that City Oh how many are the wayes that God hath reuealed for the saluation of chose Citizens Insomuch that a man may take vp the words which Saint Chrisostome vsed to his Antiochians Is it possible that a people fed with
feet and cannot goe the goggle-eyed bleare-eyed and pur-blinde haue two eyes to see and yet cannot perfectly discerne euen so many haue both eares who either with the Adder stop both and so heare nothing or being of the generation of Malchus they haue neuer a right-eare rightly to heare hearken and conceiue as they should In this place therefore obaudire is obedire so Christ himselfe saith in a double paralell of the Gospel In Saint Luke Christ saith concerning his Apostles Hee that heareth you heareth mee and in Saint Matthew If thy brother heare thee thou hast woone him In both which places hearing is obeying But what is it that these parties summoned must heare Euen a plaine Demonstration of their sinnes and a iust Iudgement awarded against them for the same Whereby we learne that It deerely and neerely concernes all degrees in Court Church and Common-wealth that they attend as well to the ripping vp of their sinnes and to the denunciations of Gods iudgements for the same as to the Promulgation of Gods mercies in fauour to the Penitent that all estates hauing a sence and sight of their iniquities may breake them off by repentance and obtaine pardon by Iesus Christ our Lord. What doth all preaching auaile else if it hath not this concurrence relation For they that heare and doe not vnderstand all Preaching to them is a dreame They that haue eares and heare not all Preaching to them is as a fearefull slumber They that haue eares to see are they not monsters and they that haue eares to attend vaine and vile things are they not contemners of God and all godlinesse But here you see is enioyned as the elegancy and efficacy of this phrase requireth that wee not onely beleeue what we heare from God but assent also thereunto and submit our selues by the obedience of faith to be taught by the Spirit of God as a Childe submits himselfe to his Tutor They that thus heare whether they be sceptered mytred or inferiors come with graue modesty and great reuerence to heare God speake vnto them So came Elias casting his mantle before his face when he heares the voyce of God So came Abraham with submission and much modesty when he makes suite for Sodome So came Ezechiel prostrating himselfe vpon the ground and made the earth his vayle So came Peter crying out Depart from me for I am a sinnefull man So came the Syrophenician trembling standing behind and desiring but to touch the hem of Christs garment So affected come all blessed faithfull and deuoute soules whom doubtlesse the Lord doth heare and in his good time will grant their godly requests To this purpose you see also that Preachers are in Scripture called Trumpeters Proclaymers Embassadors to whom all audience euen from the greatest is vsually giuen Moreouer is it not the House of God where we come to heare Gods voyce shall we there offer the sacrifice of fooles Come wee thither to make a Tabernacle for God or a golden Calfe for the Diuell Earings and Iewelâ— were giuen to the making of both but by diuersly affected people But some happily may say What need all this Vociferation The World was neuer more attentiue to preaching True it is blessed and beloued as long as Placentia are preached but to some giddy kinde of people Zidkeiah is more welcome with his deceiptfull falshoods then Michaiah the sonne of Iimlah with the glorious sunne-shine of Gods truth Others as long as Preachers please them they are pleased but if Amos tell the rich that they sell the poore for shooes and the miserable for a graine of salt If Hoseah tell Ephraim that he is like a cake on the harth not turned and Iames cry out Woe to the rich and Esayas tell the Daughters of Syon that they are proud and goe mincing and so forth Tell me then what entertainment respect and audience Church-men shall haue that speake in Gods voyce vnto such kinde of people God speakes out of a Whirle-winde that is either by outward affliction as he spake to Iob or else by the inward sting of conscience and so we reade the Iewes were pricked to the heart by Peters preaching as is extant in the Acts. It is the property of the voyce of the Lord to breake the Cedars as the Psalmist saith and to diuide the flames of fire that is to rebuke them that are of a high spirit and to subdue the proud hearted For God had rather haue one Publicaâ— that doth despise and abhorre himselfe then a thousand Pharises that doe iustifie and boast themselues The sonnes of follie indeede reiect the words of Exhortation but the sonnes of Wisedome say Let the iust smite me for the wounds of a friend are farre better then the balmes of a flatterer Tell me who loueth vs more then God and yet hee doth afflict the godly Patriarkes with famine and his owne deare Israel growing rebellious with sundry punishments The vse of this is manifold First of Enquiry for the Lord Iesus We reade in Iob that in an holy Assembly of the Children of God the Diuell being not called came thither also So in diuers Christian Congregations according to the old English Prouerbe Where God hath his Church the Diuell hath his Chappell Whence it is that many in Christian Assemblies when they should heare Gods voyce behaue themselues as if they were Gothes Vandales Guelphes and Gibellineâ— For while other well-affected Christians attend reade lift vp their hands to Heauen pray sing sigh fit still vnto the end these ill-affected ones sleepe prare put out the foole-finger curse grinne scoffe and hasten away as vnworthy of the peace of God Maruell not therefore why so many come so often to Church and are neuer the better For their hearts are waxen grosse and their eares and eyes and all are stupified by the Diuell Hence is it that they come without heart to God and are but halfe Christians at the best like Agrippa or like Hagar who sate right euer against the waters and did not see them Nothing likes these kinde of people but a hunting Masse as Henry of France was wont to say and a straw-berry Sermon But happily you will say The Pulpits ought to be mercy-seates and Chaires of consolation but they are become Tribunals where the Auditory is arraigned accused and condemned I answere Behold I shew you a Paradoxe It is a plague vnto you when you are not plagued and you are vndone when you are not vndone It was neuer worse with the Israelites then when their mouthes and stomakes were full of Quailes The dolors of Synai to some are more wholsome then the songs of Syon Indeede he that endeauoureth to teach a foole gleweth a potshard together and he that speaketh vnto a heart that doth not attend is as if he should speake to one newly raised from sleepe Weepe therefore ouer the dead but seauen dayes because they are depriued of the light but weepe ouer