all these things pass I dare appeal to any impartial Reader that neither Eusebius nor Socrates nor Thuanus nor Chammier nor any other Hystorian Ecclesiastical or Prophane that have written of Persecutions or of the cruelty of Antichrist can shew me any King since the King of the Jews that by his own Subjects and for no vice of his own that malice it self can tax him but only in reality whatsoever is otherwise pretended for the defence of Christ his faith and the true service of God the protection of all faithfull Preachers and the upholding of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom hath or could suffer more unkingly indignities by any Antichrist than our gracious King hath done by his own ungraciaus Subjects of these three Kingdoms But stay and let us consider that although these Persecutions be exceeding great yet our sins and transgressions are far greater and God in all this is most just and as Ezra saith Ezra 9 13. Punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve for certainly we must confess what the world seeth that we have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly and therefore as Eusebius confesseth the iniquities of the Primitive Christians to have pulled upon them those Heathen Persecutions so must we acknowledge this Antichristian Tyranny to have most justly fallen upon us And not only so but seeing we have so justly deserved it let us submit our selves under the mighty hand of God repent and be sorry for whatsoever we have done amiss and pray to God for grace and strength to suffer what shall be laid upon us either for the punishment of our sins or the trial of our Faith to God and our Loyalty to our King not only the loss of all worldly things but even of our life it self because that in so suffering unto death we shall be sure to have the Crown of life which the Lord grant unto us for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen I have spent two hours in treating of this one verse already and because here is magnum in parvo abundance of treasure in this little mine I must crave leave to spend one hour more and with that I hope I shall finish all that I have to say on these words You may remember I told you the words contain 1. Gods love to Man 2. Mans love to God The first I handled in my first Sermon And In the second I shewed you three parts that is to say 1. The Persons We 2. The Act Love 3. The Object him We love him 3 The Object of our love God The two first in my last Sermon And now because I love neither Tautologies nor to stand long upon repetitions I will proceed unto the object of our love where the Apostle saith We love him that is God And I would to God that we did all love him quia actus distinguitur per objectum because it is not our love that doth hurt us but the object of our love maketh or marreth all for as St. Augustine saith Duas civitates duo faciunt amores our love to God buildeth up Jerusalem Aug. super Psal 64. the Church and City of God and our love to the world and these worldly things buildeth up Babylon the Synagogue of Satan And therefore this is the errour of the sons of men The errour of men not that we are subject unto Passions and endued with the affections of Fear Hate Love and the like but that we misguide our Passions and misorder our affections by misplacing them where they ought not to be setled for we may fear so it be him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire we may hate so it be the thing that is evill and we may love so it be what we ought and as we ought to love But this is that which God cannot endure that we should fear men more than God or fear temporal losses goods or lands more than the loss of our souls and the wounding of a good conscience or that we should hate our brethren and not their sins which we cherish in our selves though we detest them in all others or that we should love the world and not God or any thing in the world more than God or so much that it should any waies lessen our love to God And therefore here I may stop my course and stay a while to reprove those many millions of men that are as the Philosophers said The Citizens of the world and do freely bestow their loves not on God but either upon the vain pleasures The love of vain things choaketh our love to God or the vile profits of this wicked world And it is a strange thing to see how one affecteth Honour another Beauty a third Authority and most of us some one kind of vanity or other that either drowneth or driveth away and so lesseneth much our love to God And above all things the love of Riches choaketh this divine love in all worldly men For as Apolonius Tyanaeus saith That he hath seen a stone called Pantaura which is the Queen of all other stones and hath in it all the vertues that are to be found in all the other pretious stones So to this stone do some men compare riches Kiches what they are like because they suppose riches to contain in them the force and vertue of all other things and are able to bring mighty things to pass as the fiercest beasts are made tame by them the fairest Ladies are won by them as Jupiter prevailed with Danae What great things wealth and riches have done when as the Poets feign he came unto her in a golden showre The greatest Kings are subdued by them when as no weapons can overcome the shields of Gold and Rome it self might have been bought if Jugurth had had wealth enough to purchase it as he said when he passed out of Rome And you see the Fishes of the Sea that are overwhelmed with water and drowned in the Deep cannot escape the force of Riches and the Fowls of the air though of the swiftest Wings yet can they not fly from their Empire yea what Altitudes have not Riches abated What difficulties have they not vanquished What improbabilities I will not say impossibilities have they not facilitated And what things have they desired that they have not obtained Therefore St. Augustine shewing the folly of the Pagans about their selected gods Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 7. c. 3. wondreth that if wise men were their Selectors why Venus was preferred before the Lady Vertue or if Venus deserveth her enhansement because more do affect her than those that love vertue then why was not Lady Money more famous than Minerva seeing that in all sorts of men there are more that love coyn better than knowledge and all Trades aime at Money and say with the Poet Quaerenda pecunia primum est virtus
youngest son as it hapned afterward unto Hiel the Bethelite So would the instruments of Satan deal with all Gods Prophets 1 Reg. 16.24 as Jehu did with the Prophets of Baal and as it hapned to Segub and Abiram the sons of Hiel after the re-edifying of Jericho And did not the Long-Parliament take the same course to root out all the Bishops all the Hierarchy and all Episcopall men all must down root and branch and not one of them must be left Alas alas were they all wicked or did some offend and must all be condemned for the offence of few or will they shew themselves like the implacable goddesse which as the Poet saith Exurere classem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Unius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei destroyed all the Navie and drowned all the Argives for one mans fault This is to condemn the righteous with the wicked and the Lord saith the Judges should justifie the righteous Deut. 25.1 and condemn the wicked and not to condemn the righteous for the wicked nor with the wicked for the Poet speaking of some lewd women saith Parcite paucarum diffundere crimen in omnes Spectetur meritis quaeque puella suis Though some be loose and wanton yet must you not for this blame those that are honest so though some of the Bishops might perhaps be found unworthy of so high a calling Is that a sufficient argument to destroy them all Yet such hath been the Devils Logick to perswade his late Schollars to make their distruction as universal as Noahs deluge to take them all away And so much shall serve for the first point 2 The killing of the Preachers i.e. The progression of these persecutors in their wickednesse which is the persecution of the Prophets The next point is 2. Occidio praedicatorum And that is their progression and their going forward in their wickednesse more and more As the Sun goeth higher and higher unto the perfect day so do they go from one sin unto another still from the lesser unto the greater for they have not only persecuted the Prophets saith this holy Martyr but they have also slain them which shewed before of the coming of the just one that is the Preachers of Jesus Christ wherein you may behold as in a glasse the lively perfect picture of all wicked men and the innate inseparable condition of all malicious persecutors that is to proceed from bad to worse from one step to another from one degree of evill to a viler untill at last they fall into the bottomlesse gulph of all the most horrid wickednesse and as the Poet saith Flumina magna vides parvis de fontibus ortâ— Plurima collectis multiplicantur aquis From a small fountain thou maist see great flouds to arise and many waters to make great Seas so from the small seeds of these mâ—ns â—â—â—ice their sins ascend to the top of intolerable mischief or rather descend to the bottomiesse gulf of their own unavoidable destruction for so Cain at first was but angry with his brother because the Lord accepted him and liked better of his sincerity than of the others hypocrisie then Acrior ad pugnam redit vim suscitat ira he began to hate and to maligne him after that malitia excoecavit eum his malice moved him to persecute him and last of all most inhumanely to kill him So Pharaoh first envied the prosperity of the children of Israel because he thought that Fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris God blessed them and all that they had better then he blessed him then vim injuriam intulit he began to oppresse them by laying hard taxes and most cruel labours upon them and then he killed their children and in all likelyhood would have killed them if God had not delivered them out of his hands And the reason of this their progression in wickednesse The reason why the wicked grow from bad to worse is truly rendred by Seneca Quia omne scelus majori scelere tuetur every hainous and most wicked deed can never subsist and be upheld but by a more wicked deed and therefore the Lyar will swear and forswear himself to justifie his lye the robber will kill the honest traveller for fear he should accuse him and the Rebell that riseth to resist and to warre against his King and the Traytor that betrayeth his King never thinks himself safe untill he can be the death of his King so the Hereticks maintain their heresies and errors with far greater heresies and the Presbyterians that oppose and refuse to be directed by their Diocesans think themselves never satisfied untill they see the Bishops wholly supprest and destroyed And so the Jewes walked in the same steps and dealt after the same manner with Gods Prophets And so likewise ever since the wicked worldlings deal with the true Preachers of Jesus Christ for the whole companie of Gods children knowes what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great gulph and a huge distance and difference not in nature originally figmentum unum when as all men are made from the same lump but in generality and condition there is and hath been ever seen betwixt the Lay Commonalty and the learned Clergy of any Land and how as Ismael that was born after the flesh persecuted his own brother Isaac that was born after the Spirit so the Lay-worldlings do ever maligne and persecute unto death all the right spiritual Clergy-men And this persecution we of the Clergy have felt now of late to the very height when very very many of the very best of them that did feed daintily even with the Kings dishes were as the Prophet saith left desolate in the street and glad to sustain their lives with a little Barley bread and Glass-door and they that were clad in Scarlet were driven to embrace the dung-hills Jerem. 4.5 and be clad in rags and with Joshua the high Priest to be clothed with filthie garments Zechary 3 3. and so were made the scorn and Table-talk of their neighbours and blamed that they did not live and go according to their degrees and calling when as the Proverb is ultra posse non est esse none is able to do beyond his ability and he onely that weares the shooe knoweth where it pincheth him And as the Jews not only persecuted the Prophets but also slew the Preachers so many of us were slain some with the sword of these mercilesse men and many more with hunger and want Zechar. 3 3.1 when their hearts were broken with the extremity of grief and the weight of those miseries that were laid upon these good men were far heavier then the pillars could support And so this persecution thus proceeding did far exceed all former persecutions beyond Nero's tyranny and Dioclesians cruelty and was of the same kind but of a higher strain than Julians stratagems which was not only to suppresse Presbyteros
not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them and themselves by their false Expositions and new invented traditions were the innovators and corrupters both of the Law and Prophets and more particularly 1. For the Sabbath he sheweth that themselves are herein too nice and superstitious and he no prophaner thereof because the Sabbath was made for man i.e. for the good of man both for his soul and body of his soul by serving God and of his body by those necessary actions and recreations that may conduce for the continuance of his health on that day 2. For the reverence to be observed in the Temple or Church of God 2 Objection answered Esay 56.7 he sheweth that he was not too strict in driving the buyers and sellers and all other prophaners thereof out of the same because God himself saith even of this material Temple or Church of stones My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people for the Gentiles as well as for the Jewes but they had prophaned the same by making it a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves as they do that make it a stable for their horses or a receptacle for their plundered and stolne goods And in both these points our Puritans now are just as the Jewes were then too much given to prophane the Church and too superstitious to observe the Sabbath But 3. For abridging the liberty of divorces 3 Objection answered Matth. 5.32 he tells them that he teacheth no otherwise then what was from the beginning that whosoever putteth away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery but you by forsaking the good old way and following the traditions of your latter Rabbines your Assembly of new Divines have made the Commandements of God of none effect and teach for Doctrine the Commandements of men Chap. 15.6 just as they do now forsake the good old government of the Church that hath been from the beginning from Christ his time and follow the new invented Government that is forced from the false and wrested Expositions of our upstart Rabbines that never yet saw the age of a man since the death of Calvin and Beza the first Fathers that begat it 2. As they did thus unjustly taxe their King for Innovation 2 The destruction of the people And this madded the people against King Charles John 11.48 and the alteration of their established Religion so they have another bait whereby they do as cunningly catch the people and set them like wild men to joyn with them yea to out-goe them in their desires to destroy their King and that is Salus populi the safety and liberty of the people which they said would be utterly lost if they did let Him goe and this madded the people against their King though there was no truth in the charge nor ground to believe it but the feares and jealousies of the people raised only by the malice of their wicked leaders for how could it be that either the safety or the liberty of the people should be any wayes impaired by that King that came to fulfill the Law and to root out all the false glosses thereof and was contented to lose not his Kingdom only but also his own life for the safety and liberty of his people as themselves confesse that he must die for the people i. e. for their Lawes and Liberties and so become the Martyr of the Law and the Saviour of his people So you see the pretended charge against this King Jo. 11 48. that he was a tyrant by indevouring to destroy their Lawes and to alter their Religion and a Traytor to the State by forbidding Tribute unto the Conqueror whom now they were resolved to honour for their onely King lest they should lose their place and their Nation 2. 2 The true causes that moved the murderers to kill their Kings The true reall causes that moved these murderers to kill their King were very many but especially four 1. Envie to him 2. Despaire in themselves 3. Fear to lose 4. Ambition to be great For 1. 1 Envie Joh. 7.47 Mar. 7.37 They perceived that for his admirable worth and his divine endowments when as never man spake as he did and that he did all things well the people loved him followed him and adhered to him then As the glorious rayes of the Sun upon any putrified matter causeth a stench so his excellent vertues begat the poysonouâ—brats of envie and malice in these wicked miscreants and so Pilate perceived that for envie they had delivered or rather as the word signifieth betrayed him to death 2. 2 Despair of pardon When they had by their Declarations and Remonstrances their calumnies slanders and false accusations sought with all art to render him odious unto his people and had in all things opposed him to the uttermost of their might Gen. 4.13 then as Cain cried out my sin is greater then can be forgiven So the guilt of their malice and the remembrance of their fore-past wickednesse against him were of so deep a stain they they conceived all the water in the Sea could not wash it away and all the mercie of man could not remit their sin such is the conscience of all unconscionable sinners therefore though this good King could would and did forgive his enemies and pray for his persecutors yet because their hate and sins were so great that they could not believe it they thought themselves no wayes secured unlesse he were killed 3. 3 Fear to lose what they had gotten The men were now got into great power they had the liberty to be of what Sect and profession they pleased Scribes Pharises or Sadduces or what you will and to do what they would so long as they pleased the Conqueror no man could contradict them but if the right King continue King they saw he would not and could not endure such an Anarchie of Government and a Hodge podge to remain amongst them therefore Caiaphas the second man in power tells them it is expedient that he die for fear of the losse of their places and this their great power and liberty 4. 4 Ambition to be great men Matth. 21.23 Mâ—â— 12.7 Luk. 20.9 This King himself in the parable of the Vineyard which is faithfully recorded by three Evangelists sets down as I conceive it the main cause fundamental ground of his death that is their ambition desire to be great and to hold all power and authority in their own hands for so the wicked husband-men say This is the heir Venite come let us kill him and then retinebimus haereditatem ejus we shall hold his inheritance His it is we confesse yet then We shall hold it because as S. Mark saith then certainly erit nostra it will be ours and no man can keep us from it and indeed this desire of bearing rule And
they prosper bear rule and raign in a flourishing stare for some years they shall therefore flourish for ever and never be punished because the Lord is flow to anger and cometh to punish on leaden feet using much patience towards the most wicked reprobates to see if his long sufferance can lead them to repentance But if they be such as the wise man speaketh of that Because sentence against an evill work treason Eccles 8.11 or murder or the like is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill Te peccare sinit siquidem divina potestas Temporis ad spatium parcit quandoque nocenti Sed gravius tandem tormentum rector Olympi Injungit torquetque magis delicta nocentum Obadiah v. 15.16 Exod. 1.22 15.5 then will God recompence the slownesse of his coming with severity of vengeance and smite then home with iron-hands for this law is irrevocably enacted in heaven that murders adulteries oppressions perjuries and other such wickednesses shall not always prosper but shall undoubtedly be punished though the times and the manner are not by us to be known 2. For the punishment of malefactors it is 1. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall suffer the same strokes and receive the same measure as they have measured unto others As thou hast done it shall it be done unto thee Even as Pharaoh drowned all the male-children of the Israelits in the waters of Nilus so was He and all his Host drowned in the red Sea and as the sword of Agag had made many women childless so did the sword of Samuel make Agags mother childless among women and as all the foresaid examples that have proved Traytors and have kil'd their Kings have been kil'd themselves just as the Lord had said Whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed 2. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall suffer some punishment that shall be somewhat like to the sin 2 Chron. 12.5 that they have committed for so the Lord saith You have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you and so it hapned to Solomon that as he divided Gods service betwixt God and the Idols so God divided his Kingdom betwixt Rehoboam his son and Jeroboam his servant And this likeness of the punishment hath a reference sometimes 1. To the Subject 2. To the Place 3. To the Time of our sinning for 1. 1 Kings c. 11. c. 12. As Adam sinned in eating the forbidden fruit so his punishment shall be to eat the fruit of the ground in the sweat of his face and Hezechias for shewing his Treasure was punished with the loss of his treasure 2 King 20. as many other men for being proud of their wealth do lose their wealth some one way and some another 2. The Lord saith that 2 In respect of the place 1 King 21.20 In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine which came to pass accordingly you may see in 1 King 22 38. 3. Sometimes the punishment hath reference to the time of our sinning 3 In respect of the punishment as the spies that searched the land of Canaan 40 daies and sinned by their false report were punished by wandering in the wilderness 40 years and it is observed that Pompey was killed by Septimius and Achillas as upon the same day wherein he had formerly triumphed for the spoile of Jerusalem and the Jews had their City utterly destroyed by Titus at the same time of the year and as some think on the same day of the month wherein they had crucified our Saviour Christ 3. In respect of the persons sinning and punished we are to observe 3 The persons sinning 2 King 14.6 that although the Lord saith The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin and the soul that sinneth that soul shall die and God will not have them say The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Yet it is most certain that many times the wickedness of the fathers is remembred in their posterity and the punishment of that wickedness is oftentimes delated and after a sort both deferred and in part transferred as well to the children and to the childrens children of them that walk in the same steps and follow the same courses as their fathers did and sometimes upon the very innocent Infants as upon the wicked fathers that are murderers and malefactors themselves For so the Lord saith that for the sin of Jeroboam therefore behold and mark it well I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 14.10 11. and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam asa man taketh away dung till it be all gone And so Baasha the son of Ahijab smote all the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15.29 he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed untill he had destroyed him 1 King 16.3 4. according to the Word of the Lord and the Lord threatneth the very same punishment and the rooting out of all his posterity to Baasha 1 King 16.11 12. that killed his King Nadab and did other evils in the sight of the Lord and this Zimri the servant of Elab brought to pass according as the Lord had threatned and the very like punishment happened to all the posterity of Ahab even for Naboths murder and other sins of Ahab 2 King 9.9 and c. 10.17 and too many more murderers and wicked men that by their sins and desire to raign and unjust preferring of their children have pulled down vengeance upon themselves and rooted out all their posterity And for Romulus Tarquinius and Nero I say neither of them were either good or honest and yet the holy Scripture doth not allow the killing or sentencing of them to death and the proof of the Senat 's killing Romulus or sentencing Nero to death is not Authenticall nor the examples by any means to be followed when they are so apparantly contrary to the practice and precepts of the holy Apostles and the success which followed Neroes death proved so lamentable Corn. Tacit. l. 20. 21. as the Tragicall butchering of three of their succeeding Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius that had been three most famous Captains and had done very worthy exploits for their Countrey And therefore whosoever thinketh by murder and slaughter to usurp another mans Kingdom Inheritance or Possession and thereby to raise his house and to advance his children as Zimri Baasha Shallum and others thought to do or thereby to benefit the Common-wealth as they pretend to do he deceives himself because this is the only
CHARLES for you know it is not long since the Word of God was had in our native language but it was locked up in the Greek and Latine Tongues which none but a few scholars understood and since it is vulgarly published you may consider how many Bibles are now printed to furnish every Prentice maid and boy in comparison of the small number that the best men had in former times and for Sermons how rare were they in our fathers times and how generally you may hear them now at all times in most places and the Angel foretells the Prophet Daniel it should be thus before the end of the world for saith he Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be encreased as now it is I think ten times more then ever it was Dan. 12.4 And therefore the Prophet saith The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Hab. 2.14 And yet notwithstanding all the multitude of our Bibles all the volumes of divine Treatises all the frequent Sermons that are made and all the knowledge that is profest from the learned scribe to the City-tradesman the Country plough-man our Saviour tells us that when he cometh Iniquity shall be encreased the love of many shall wax cold and he shall scarce finde faith upon the earth And if any man demand with Nichodemus How can these things be I answer That the more good wheat we sowe in the field of Gods Church the more tares will Satan sow amongst it and the more we strive to enlarge the true faith the more errours and heresies will his instruments spread amongst the people and for knowledge he knoweth enough and too much himself and is very well pleased that all his servants should be knowing men The Devil would have all to be knowing men and be as skilful in the Scriptures as he is himself for as one crafty knave can do ten times more mischief then ten silly fooles so one learned heretick will broach more errours and defend and maintaine them far better then many meaner scholars can do and it is a true axiom that Non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores the great errours never sprung and the strange heresies could never have been maintained but by men of some good parts and of great knowledge And therefore I may justly say with S. Augustine that Melior est fidelis ignorantia quam temeraria scientia it were far better for men to be humbly ignorant then proudly filled and rashly erring with knowledge for as the Apostle saith Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.1 Esay 47.10 and many times produceth many errours and much evil even as the Lord saith of Babylon Thy wisdome and thy knowledge have perverted thee and caused thee to turn away from the right way And as the rash proud and unsanctified knowledge of men doth breed many errours and much evil so it bringeth no good at all for as S. Paul saith that not the hearers of the law Rom. 2.13 but the doers of the law shall be justified so not the knowers of the Scriptures could they repeat it all at their fingers end but they that understand it right apply it as they ought believe in Christ and lead their lives according to the Scriptures shall receive the reward promised in Scripture otherwise as he that knoweth his masters will and doth it not so he that knoweth the Word of God and is most skilful in the holy Scriptures and yet neither applies them right nor believes nor lives according to the Word of God is worthy to be beaten with many stripes And therefore Christ enjoyneth us to give unto his sheep their own due portion of knowledge and spiritual food that may edifie them and not destroy them and that is such a proportion as every one is capable of and is requisite for him to know And 2. As we are to give to every one his own due portion of this spiritual food 2 In due season both in quality and quantity so we are to give it them in due season because as Solomon saith there is a time for all things as a time to speak and a time to be silent a time to feast and a time to fast a time to preach and a time to pray which I fear is now cut shortest of all times if not persecuted to hide it self in corners and private Chappels when as many of our Churches are scarce acquainted with the Lords prayer the prayer that our Saviour commanded us to use Horrendum dictu And as Christ our grand Shepherd hath commanded us to give to every one his own portion in due season so he hath warned and instructed his sheep not to take what they list but to be satisfied with what is given them and to expect it in the due time and not to exact it whensoever they please because God cannot endure that every man should be his own carver and stretch forth his hand with Adam to any forbidden fruit God would not have men to be their own carvers when as every one should be contented with what is given him and should pray to God as Christ hath taught us saying Give us this day our daily bread and therefore when Christ blessed the five Loaves and two Fishes he did not as many of our new Divines teach the people now to take what they list of the blessed bread in the Eucharist but as S. John saith he distributed them to the Disciples John 6.11 and the Disciples to them that were set down But alas here is our misery and the iniquity of these times The misery the iniquity of these dayes that our dispensers shall not dispose this spirituall food and God himself shall not distribute his own gifts but as the Poet saith Vivitur ex rapto what God hath most graciously bestowed upon one man another will most wickedly snatch it from him and men must and will have the Word of God expounded extorted and multiplied as Christ multiplied his loaves when where how and by whom they list which is the cause of our calamities and like if not prevented to bring destruction unto the sheep of Christ And therefore 3. Christ the good Shepherd doth not onely feed his sheep and bid S. Peter and in him all us three times to feed his sheep that is to feed them three manner of wayes 1. Pascere verbo 2. Pascere cibo 3. Pascere exemplo 1. With the Word of God 2. With Almes-deeds 3. With good examples but he doth also expose himself to all dangers even to death it self to save and to protect his sheep from the fury of those that any wayes labour to destroy them even as he saith I lay down my life for my sheep therefore he must needs be the good Shepherd and none can deny him to be a good Shepherd that layeth down his life for his sheep And he requireth of
we were thus filled with malice swelled with enmity and opposite to all amity to all verity to all goodness when we lay polluted in our own blood as the Prop. Ezek. saith Ez. 6.6 were enemies unto God and were as the Ap. speaketh dead in trespasses sins having hearts but no hearts to love him having souls Eph. 2.1 but no souls to long for him and having bodies but no bodies to serve him but such as were breathing out slaughters against him as Saul was breathing the like against the Church Acts 9.1 and when we were no more willing to yield him any the least jot of true love or holy affection then dead bodies are able to perform the most honourable action God then pittied our miseries and had compassion of our unworthiness and as S. Aug. saith etiam non dilectus dilexit out of his abundant goodness without any other motive he loved us when we thus hated wronged and abused him continually provoking him to anger with our continual abominations and yet he doth not say with the Poet Odero si potero si non invitus amabo I love them against my will but indignos amavi I have freely loved them that are so worthy of my hate and so unworthy of my love And therefore here is love and the love of loves and the wonder of all wonders to prosecute them with love that persecuted him with hate and so mercifully to give his only Son to save their lives that so causlesly and maliciously put his Son whom he so dearly loved to a most direful and a most shameful death And therefore as David directeth his 45. Psalm which is Epithalamium Christi sponsae or Canticum amicanum a Song of Loves to the chief Musitian upon Shoshannim or to him that excelleth in Musick So must I leave this great love of God to be amplified by him that is vates amorum the Disciple of Love not he that termed himself so but he that was so indeed the Disciple which our Saviour loved And so I will descend unto the second part of this text which is Pars 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos diligimus eum as Catharinus Calv. Beza Tremel and abundance more do read it or diligamus eum as the Vulg. Lat. Aquinas Justinianus Corn. a Lapide and all those that follow the vulgar translation do expound it which in effect is all one the Holy Ghost purposely using that word which in the original is both the Indicative and the Subjunctive Mood to reach us that what the holy men of God do all men should do the same that is to love him which is the second part of my Text far different from the former that being high and excellent this low and but indifferent that very great and more then can be expressed this very very little and less then should be imagined and therefore I can speak but a little of it and for that little I beseech you to consider these two points The 1. From the consideration of Gods love that he loved us 2. From the consideration of the time that he loved us first The first point teacheth us to love God again Quia amor amoris magnes 1 VVhat the first Point teacheth us i.e. to love God a-again De Lege Talionis Res dare pro rebus pro verbis verba solemus Pro bufis bufas pro trufis reddere trufas Buffets with blowes and mocks with mowes Dalton p. 180. Mat. 7.12 1. In retaliation of evil for evil Exod. 21.22 durus est qui amorem non rependit and Lextalionis The Law of like doth require no less then that we should love him that loveth us for even reason sheweth that Lex non justior ullaest there cannot be a juster Law in the world then the Law of Retaliation and so our Saviour testifieth With the same measure ye meat it shall be measured to you again and Nature it self teacheth us the same Lesson Quod tibi fieri velis aliis hoc fieri videto Quod tibi fieri nolis aliis hoc fieri caveto And the Eternal Verity saith Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets And this Law holdeth good not only in general but also in the particular retribution 1. Of evil for evil 2. Of good for good As 1. Moses that was Faithful in all Gods House saith If men strive and any mischief follow then thou shalt give Life for Life Eye for Eye c. which is to be understood not of private revenge but to be executed by him that is justly deputed to execute vengeance upon the evil doers And so we find it executed both by God and men for the Old world that filled the Earth with a Deluge of all wickedness God brought a Deluge of Water to wash the same clean away and the Sodomites that burned with the fire of unlawful Lusts were consumed with Fire and Brimstone for the same and the Egyptians that drowned all the Male Children of the Israelites were themselves drowned in the Red Sea and the Children of Israel when they took Adonibezek cut off his Thumbes and his Great Toes and he said Judges 1.6 7. Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbes and their Great Toes out off gâ—thered their meat under my Table and now as I have done so God hath required me So when Perillus made his Brazen Bull to torment others Phalaris thought it just that himself which made it should first tast of his own Invention And when Egypt wanted the wonted Inundation of Nilus and Thracius told Busiris that the Wrath of the gods would be appeased by the Sacrificing of a Strangers Blood and the King understanding by his own Confession that he was an Alien Illi Busiris fies Jovis Hostia primus Inquit Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam He thought it the justest act to offer him first unto the gods So we read that those Lords which first called the Moores into Spain to suppresse their King Rodericke whom they hated were themselves and their Families destroyed by the means of those Moores and the Britains that rejected their Just and Lawful King Aurel. Ambrosius Speed l. 7. c. 12. and sent for the Saxons Hengist and Horsus to aid Vortigerne and his Associates that were Intruders were driven by the Saxons into the Rocky Mountains where they remain exiled from their own Right to this very day and because the God of Long Patience is a God of Great Justice that will render to every man according to his deeds and holds it very just that those rebellious people which call any other Nation to suppresse their own Lawful King should at one time or other either by that very Nation or some other be subdued and destroyed themselves therefore Subjects ought to think of Gods Justice before they cast off the Yoke of their Allegiance And 2. As the Poet