ENGLAND'S First and Second SUMMONS.  
Two Sermons Preached at Paul's Cross, the one the third of januarie 1612; The other the fifth of February, 1615.  
By THOMAS SUTTON Bachelor of Divinity, than fellow of Queen's College in Oxford, and now Preacher at Saint Mary Oueries in Southwark.  
The second Impression, Perused and Corrected by the Author.  MICAH 6.2. 
Hear ye Mountains the Lords quarrel, for the Lord hath a quarrel against his people, and he will plead with Israel.  
LONDON, Printed by NICHOLAS OKES for MATHEW LAW, and are to be sold at his Shop in Paul's Churchyard at the Sign of the Fox. 1616.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL MASTER Doctor AIRAY Provost of Queen's College in Oxford, all felicity both in this world and in the world to come.  
RJght Worshipful, you may justly marvel what importunity might bring my impolished Meditations so quickly to the Press, but (being much against my will enforced to let them try their fortune in the world) why I should bequeath them to your protection no man needs to wonder, considering the many encouragements, and continual kindnesses which I have received from you, unto whose favour, next under God, I ascribe the greatest part of my well-being, since first I came under your government. I know well you have many learned Scribes in that Naioth, whereof God hath made you the chief Seer, more worthy to have shown their forwardness in this kind than myself, who can leave more learning for the gleaning, than my whole vintage. (For I am but one of the least, and lowest amongst all the sons of my mother) yet seeing you may justly challenge the same interest in me, which Paul did in Philemon, Thou owest unto me thy own self, I am willing to discharge some part of my debt, if you shall allow of this coin and impression for currant: and yet even in this, shall I run farther upon the old score, as being rather in your debt for your kind receiving of it, than out of your debt by repaying so slender thanks. I know that the least Sabbath days journey of your own, is more worth than any whole years pains of mine: Yet am I confident, you will both consider my years, which are but few, and the time I had, which was but short, and my many other occurrences, wherewith in the mean time I was interrupted, and then accept of this for trial, as if it were the extract of some purer and better wit. The Lord prosper your days, direct your heart, and bless all your labours, to the glory of his Name, and the good of his Church: From Queen's College in Oxford.  
Yours in all duty and service, Thomas Sutton.   

ENGLAND'S Summons.  HOSEA 4.1.2.3. 
Hear the word of the Lord ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the Land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the Land.  
By swearing and lying, and killing, and stealing, and whoring, etc.  
THis whole Chapter is parcel of a Sermon, penned by Hosea the son of Beeri, containing in it a sharp and bitter invective against Israel, falling of itself into two fair and goodly channels. The one an accusation of the men of Israel for their crimson sins, from the first unto the fifteenth verse. The other a kind and gentle admonition to the men of judah, to forbear the dangerous paths of sin, wherein her sister Israel had wearied herself, in the remnant of the Chapter.  
The accusation is laid down in a legal and judicial manner of proceeding, wherein the Israelites are summoned to appear at the bar and tribunal of God's judgements, there to answer unto such capital offences, as there should be objected, and laid unto their charge: & it contains in it four several bills of indictment, and after plain and evident conviction, four several judgements against them, the first bill is contained in the two first verses, where they stand indicted of want of truth, want of mercy, etc. and the judgement for those sins is annexed, verse the third: Therefore the Land shall mourn. The second bill is contained in the fourth verse, where they are accused of two notorious and inexpiable crimes; the one they would endure no reproof, they were impatient of wholesome admonition; the other, they would not stick to revile the messengers of God, and the sentence of the judge against this sin is annexed, verse the fifth: Therefore shall they fall in that day. The third bill is contained in the seventh verse. where saith Zanchius, they are accused of palpable and gross unthankfulness; for look how fast soever the Lord heaped his blessings upon their bodies, so fast themselves heaped a dead weight of sin upon their own souls; and the judgement for this sin is annexed in the end and closure of the same verse: Therefore will I turn their glory into their shame. The fourth and last bill is contained in the twelfth verse, where they are accused of spiritual whoredom; and the judgement for this sin is annexed at the fourteenth verse: Therefore I will not visit your daughters when they are harlots, nor your spouses when they are whores: Of all which there is only one indictment, and one judgement, comprised in the words we have in hand.  
So that the limbs and members of the Text must needs be two. The one Gods legal proceeding with Israel. The other his verdict and stroke of judgement. In God's proceeding I observe first the summons, Hear the word of the Lord. Secondly the reason of the Summons; it was to debate and decide a Controversy. Thirdly the parties who stood at variance, and these as unequally matched, as ever were earth and heaven, strength and weakness, or the great Beemoth, and the silliest worm that creepeth in the chinks of the earth: It was God and Israel. God both judge and Plaintiff himself; Israel the weak and poor defendant. Fourthly the sins whereof they are accused; and these are either privative in the first, or positive in the second verse. The privative sins are three; whereof two concern their neighbours. The first, want of Truth. The second want of Mercy. The third respected God himself, There was no knowledge in the Land.  
The positive sins are five; Swearing, Lying, Killing, Stealing Whoring; and every of these aggravated from two circumstances in the text. First from the eagarnesse and violence of their affection in the pursuit of them: for They broke out. Perruperunt omnia repagula, quibus contineri solent homines à peccando; there was neither love nor shame; neither awe of God's majesty, nor the dread of his punishments, that could restrain or keep them back, from gruing head and reins unto all bloody and crying sins. Secondly from the uninterrupted course and continued practice of their sinning, Blood touched blood, every little cottaage became Aceldema, a field of blood. Finis unius peccati gradus futuri, so soon as ever they had wearied themselves with one of these sins, they posted with precipitant and winged haste, without all intermission of time unto an other.  
Thus sin and sin went hand in hand, and thus Blood touched Blood.  
The punishments for these sins, which are here lively and emphatically described by divers metaphors, are two. First, the famine, where it is said, The Land shall mourn; as if he should thus have said: The people will not mourn for themselves, therefore the earth (though it be senseless) shall mourn for them; it shall mourn as Rahel mourned for her children, being rob and stripped, not only of her fruits, but of her inhabitants also. The second is the sword, where it is said, Every one shall be cut off: and both of these are further aggravated from the generality and extent of the punishment; which was to seize not only upon man who had sinned, but also upon the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the Sea: which last clause, that it should seize upon the fishes of the Sea, doth most of all exaggerate the wrath of God against them: for even in the great and general deluge, when man for sin was swept away with the bosom of desolation, the fishes were exempted from all punishment, 
Augustinus de Civitate Dei, lib. 15. cap 27.  as if they had been a nation of another world, who having no commerce nor society with man, were not tainted with the flux and leprosy of his sin: but now it seems his wrath was hotter, in as much as he threatens to make the fishes also partakers of man's punishment, not that he purposed to catch the silly fishes in the net of his judgements, but only that by these Rhetorical amplifications, he might more feelingly affect and move the hearts of the Israelites, both with some touch and feeling of their own sins, and his punishments. Thus you see into what an Ocean of all variety and choice of matter I am now ready to wade, both as fast as God shall give me assistance, and as far as the time and your Christian patience will permit; and first of the summons, which was the first thing I observed in the accusation: Hear the Word of the Lord, as if in fuller terms he should have said.  
You cannot choose but know how carefully I have solicited, how friendly I have admonished, how powerfully I have exhorted, how sincerely I have instructed you in matters concerning God and your own peace, but my words have perished in the air, I have spent my strength upon you in vain, and for nothing; for how little you have profited, how backward you have been in hearkening, how slack in performing, how cold in your zeal, how dead in your affection, how frozen in your obedience, theworld can testify unto your face. I have wooed you with love, but you never regarded, I have wooed you with tears, but you never forrowed, I have wooed you with promises of rewards, but you never believed; I have shaken you with menaces and threats of death and blood, but you never suspected that any of these evils should come upon you: Mercy hath stood and knocked at your gates, but she hath been repelled; Judgement hath laid siege to the walls of your houses, but you have not been humbled; the silver trumpets of heaven, and the watchmen of Israel, have racked and stretched their voices, they have filled their mouths with ruthful Elegies so passionate, as might have wrung a stream of tears from a heart of Iron; but you have laughed them to scorn, you have esteemed their words but as an empty sound, & their persons as the refuse and vassals of the earth: wherefore we cease from henceforward to speak unto you, we will waste no more strength upon you, but withal know, that the Lord will debate the matter with you himself: he sees that his Ambassadors cannot prevail by Preaching mercy, therefore this dreadful Sovereign will come himself to pass his judgement; unto which judgement by virtue of a commission from the Court of heaven, I warn and summon you, Hear word of the Lord.  
From whence issues this point of doctrine: 
When the Preacher prevailens not, God begins himself.  That if the Ministers of God, have long and long contended with a people, to work their conversion and cannot prevail, then will the Lord take the matter into his own hand, and prosecute the cause with afflictions, and judgement.  
For proof whereof you shall not need to wade far into the Crystal River of God's Book. Stand but a while upon the brink of this silver streaming Siloam, and you will all confess with Archimedes, as if yourselves had been down in the water; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we have found the Proposition true, and the doctrine sound.  
When God had opened the flood gates of his love, first in the admirable work of man's creation, changing him from a little model of slime, into a glorious substance: secondly, in the propagation of Man, increasing his seed as the Stars of Heaven: thirdly, in gracing Man with domination and soveraignrie over all his creatures: four, in crowning man with the highest perfection, and beauty of temporal delights? Thus purposing to win his affection, and to bind him for ever, to perform homage and due allegiance unto him; but still perceiving that these blessings made them grow rather wanton then thankful, that they turned the dew of his graces into a rank pasture to fat themselves in sin; that the oil of his mercy made them more active, and nimble in feats of impiety, that the strength of his creatures made them more strong to give head & rains to open rebellion, in the end He thus resolves against them in the sixth of Genesis, the third, Lo iadon ruchi. 
Gen. 6.3.  My spirit shall no longer strive with man: which Text the Rabbinshave so foully mangled that it were but folly to relate their enforced expositions. 
Lutherus. P. Martyr.  I rather embrace the judgement of Luther, and Peter Martyr, and then the sense is pregnant for our purpose: My Spirit shall no longer strive with Man; that is, I will not endure that my Word should still be Preached in vain unto them: as if in more ample form of words he had said, they might long since have learned of Methusalem and of Lamech, and yet they have some time and respite to learn of my servant Noah, how to possess their souls in peace: but if they will not be reclaimed, than I will trouble my servants no longer in wooing and soliciting them, but after the prefixed time of an 120 years, I will come myself in the fierceness of my wrath with an Alpheus, and inundation of water in the one hand, and a bosom of desolation in the other, to purge this Augeum stabulum, which is the harbour of their sins. Thus when Noah, whom the spirit of God had styled a Preacher of righteousness, had used his divinest, and most powerful Rhetoric; sometimes as a Pericles, thundering; sometimes as an Apollo's powerfully persuading; sometimes like a Demosthenes, sweetly pleasing; sometimes like a learned Tertullus, strongly convincing the old world of disloyalty unto God. And yet all these painful Sermons proved but like paper bullets shot against a brazen wall; then began the judge of all the world to stir up himself like a man of war, to muster up his sergeants of death, to discharge whole volleys of plagues so thick upon them, that ere ever he could be brought to stay his hand from striking, the whole earth might have complained and mourned with Rahel, that the greedy womb, and belly of the sea, had swallowed and entombed the carcases of all her children in one day, Genesis 7.22.  
Thus righteous Lot for many years together wrestled with Sodom, sometime like a sharp satire whetting his style with bitter and tart iambics to dismay and grate their unrelenting hearts: sometimes sweeting his discourse with hymns of comfort, intermingling gracious promise of the joys of heaven: sometimes stealing into their hearts and attentions by pleasing descants: and sometimes deading and appalling their wanton countenance, by showing them the ugly visage and frightful portraiture of their sin, by opening the doors and dark entries of hell, by exaggerating the wrath and fierceness of a revenging God, by frequent and vehement ingemination of a spiritual Caucasus, wherein they should be chained for ever like Prometheus; of a judge before whom they should stand with fear; of a judgement and sentence under which they should sink with utter despair; of a hell and a Tophet, wherein they should fry, till eternity itself should have a period: when thus he had vexed and wearied his righteous soul, and like a burning lamp had wasted his marrow, and fatness with a solicitous and tender regard of their welfare, & yet with all his labour could not pull so much as one soul out of the fire, with all his strength not break the heart of one sin, with the sling of David not wound the head of one Goliath: with all the rich armory of God, not so much as snape or cool the heat of one impiety. Then the Lord began to buckle, and join forces with them himself, to draw a sword like the sword of Saul or Gideon, which never returned empty from the blood of the slain, and the fat of the mighty, he parleyed but a while with the clouds of Heaven, and they without demur of time united their forces, melted and resolved themselves into a sudden and violent storm, not of water, whose violence their sumptuous buildings might have abated: but of fire, which is unresistible, and that mixed with brimstone, which both increased the heat, 
Gen. 19.24  and made the torment more distasteful. Thus did Moses wrestle and combat with Pharaoh, sometimes charging him in the name of God to let Israel go: sometimes confounding him and his sorcerers with miracles: sometimes striking him and his whole land with such uncouth, and sore diseases, as might either have broken or bowed a heart of iron and a face of brass, but still he hardened his face like a stone, and would not perceive, he musted his eyes like Tamar, and would not see, he made his conscience like a smooth pavement, whereon the heaviest judgement which Moses thundered, the strangest miracles which he wrought, the weightiest plagues which the rod of the Almighty inflicted, left no mark not impression; The turning of all their water into blood, could not wring one drop of water from his eyes; the common plague upon all the beasts of the Land, could not kill one sin in his heart, all the cold showers of hail could not abate or cool his heat and rage against the Israel of God, the suns drawing of a black mask before her crimson face could not persuade him to pluck the vizard from his crimson sins; the kill of the first borne in all the houses of Egypt, could not kill the strength of sin in this one Egyptian: and therefore when the Lord saw that Moses was too weak a cumbatant for such a potentate, he took the cause into his own hand, and plied him close with judgements: First, daunting him with fear, and then opening the belly of the sea, which swallowed him alive. Exod. 14.20.  
To this purpose hearken you how the Prophets complain of Babel, 
jer. 51.9.  jerem. 5.1.9. We would have cured her, but she would not be cured: come, let us all forsake her. How many passionate Sermons may we think that the Prophets had made? How many fervent prayers had they tendered? How often had they knocked at the doors of their hearts by powerful exhortations? How often had they knocked at the doors and windows of heaven by supplications, before they would give her over, or leave her to herself to sink or swim? 
Zwingl. & Hugo.  Zwinglius and Hugo Cardinalis make this place very strong to back the pointin hand It is (say they) the appeal of all the Prophets to the court of heaven, Cil enim inter Prophet as non esset, qui Babylonij fastum comprimeret, eius ultio ad Dominum delata est. When all the Balm in Gilead could not cure her, them they left her deplored and desperate to fall into the hands of God, and when the tongues of his Prophets were wearied with crying, and their souls fainted and failed with labouring, and their spirits groaned being even tired with wooing and entreating, and for all this she made this the burden of her song, Nolo sanari, I will not be healed: Then the Lord called for Medes and Persians to be the hammer wherewith he might break; for the Kings of Armenia and Scythia, to be the arrows of his quiver, wherewith he might cleave; for Cyrus and Darius to be his glistering sword, wherewith he might gash and slice their flesh, and to weed them man after man out of those Elysian fields, and Hesperian Orchards, wherein they were planted. 
Stephan. in apolog. pro Herodoto.  Stephanus in his Apology for Herodotus, reports of Tamberlane that warlike Scythian, that whensoever he besieged a City, he first displayed a white flag in token of mercy; the next day a red flag, menacing and threatening blood; the third day a black flag, the messenger, and ensign of death; a right parallel with the method used here by God himself: His white flag, I call those bands of love, those conditions of peace which God is feign to entreat at the hands of sinners: His red flag of correction, I call those grating corrosives, and astonishing judgements, with which the Ministers of God so often use to break the hearts of such men, as with jonas have suffered themselves to be surprised with a lethargy of sin, and when God's Heralds have worn themselves out of breath with long displaying the two flags, and cannot prevail; then the Colonel himself, whose Chariot is the wind, takes the black flag into his own hand, hems and walls them round with fears and terrors, he gives his sword a charge to eat up their flesh, and his arrows a charge to drink up their blood, and his iron rod a charge to break them like clay, and the stars a charge to fight with them as they did with Sisera, and the earth a charge to swallow them as it did Korah, and death a charge to mow them down like grass, till there should not remain one man alive to bury another.  
Which one point will be our guide to three heavenly meditations; & every one of these a sovereign remedy, and antidote against some sin. The first, Use 1 a wound and terror to the heart and conscience of all such and make a scoff & a jest at the threatening, which the Ministers of God denounce against them for their sins. For doth the Preacher tell the adulterer that he shall never see the kingdom of God, & will not he yet leave off his dallying? doth he tell the oppressing Landlord, & the Usurer that they shall never look God in the face with comfort, & will they not yet leave off their grinding? doth he tell the unconscionable Lawyer, that the Lord is angry with him for his needless demurs, for suffering poor country clients to plead so long at the bar, till the box go with all the gains, and will he yet spin out the suit so long, till the client want waif to bestow upon him? doth the Preacher tell the generous & noble buds of this Land, 
M.B.  that your profane & obscene stageplaies do prcue the inexpiable stain and dishonour of this famous City, the noisome worms that canker, and blast all hope of grace and goodness in the blossoms, that they do so weaken & emmasculate all the seeds of holiness by a sly and bewitching insinuation, that whereas they are planted in these nurseries of the Law, to be fitted & enabled for the public good, & for the continnance of the glory, and happiness of this Kingdom; they licentiously dissolve into ungodly and wanton pleasures, and then all hope of their ever doing good, either unto God, or unto his Church, or unto their Country, melteth as the Ice before the fire, and floweth away as unprofitable waters: and will they not yet cease to flock unto such wanton theatres, and there to spend their goods to no other purpose but to set their own lusts on fire, to uphold schools of lewdness and of sin, to maintain men of a corrupt life, and dissolute behaviour in a calling no way warranted from God? Let all these cast eye upon the doctrine which I have delivered, and it will let them know, that if they refuse to be reclaimed from this trade of sin by the mouth of the Preacher, than the Lord will make it his own quarrel, and whatsoever the Preacher hath threatened out of his book, the Lord will repay it seven fold into their bosoms.  
Secondly, this point descries the infinite and boundless mercy of God, who often shows us his bow, but takes neither string nor arrow into his hand; who will never begin to chide, till first by the mouth of the Preacher he have wooed us with love; never strike till first by the mouth of the Preacher he have shaken his rod over our heads; never begin to levy his men of war till first by the mouth of the Preacher, he have entreated and offered conditions of peace; never spoil before he have often spared; never smite till he have often cited; never condemn till he have often and often convicted; that man might be left without excuse, and renew no Plea of false imprisonment.  
Thirdly, Use 3 this Doctrine is a wholesome caveat for all the inhabitants of this Land, to yield obedience to the Preachers exhortation, and by repentance to conclude a present peace with GOD; before the Lord be so highly incensed, as to send out a prohibition to make his Ministers surcease from entreating, that himself may join issue in the Court, and wage the Law himself, that where Preachers cannot prevail by entreating, himself will prevail by commanding your confusion. You are at this day, and long have been, the astonishment and wonderment of all the world. God hath opened the windows of Heaven wider, and offered more grace unto you, by the preaching of the word, then to all the Nations under the canopy and roof of heaven. He hath sent his Messengers the Prophets, like Noah's Dove, with every one an Olive branch of peace in his mouth, to beg, and purchase a divorce betwixt you and your sins: he hath sent his messengers the Angels, with their swords half drawn, to win your affection, and to winnow and sift all the bran, I mean ungodliness and profaneness from amongst you. What means could the Lord have used for your conversion that he hath not already used? so that if you still persist in your grey and ancient sins: if the Preacher thunder, and you not moved: if the Preacher beseech, & you not touched: if the Preacher threaten, and you not humbled: know this for certainty, that ere long, the ancient of days will harrow up your flesh, and blow up your skin, and spend upon you all the plagues and botches of Egypt, till you be turned like Sodom, into a fen; like Babylon, into a cabin for Dragons and Ostriches, and like Moab into a plain: Et barbarus has segetes, this fruitful Canaan and this little Naioth wherein we are planted, be given for a prey and possession to strangers. Think not that he forgets you because it is long before he strikes. 
Plutar. in vita Fabiij.  Hannibal had no reason to think Fabius a dastard, because he was slow in marching; nor that besieged City in Curtius, to call Alexander a coward, because he was more ready to show his clemency in saving them alive, than his manhood in conquering of them. And so from the Summons, Hear, I should pass to the parties summoned, the children of Israel, but that my meditations are intercepted, and I am contented to take view of an other Doctrine by the way as I go, offering itself unto me from these words, The Word of the Lord, and is comprised in these terms.  
The voice of God's Ministers is not the voice of man but of God, 
The Preachers voice is God's voice.  backed and convinced out of the 10. of Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He that heareth you heareth me; and from the testimony both of Church, Isaiah 2.3. The word of God shall go forth of jerusalem; and of Cornelius, speaking thus unto Peter: We are here assembled to hear the things that are commanded thee of God, Acts 10.33. But most plainly by the mouth of Paul, 1. Thess. 2.13. He received it not as the word of man, but as it is indeed the word of God. Use. Which point will one day be sure to rise up in judgement, against all such as openly despise, or but little regard the Lords Message. Bone Deus in quae nos temporae reseruasti? In to what a miserable time are we fallen, when each crafty Achitophel shall have attendance when he speaketh; and every syllable of his discourse, as if it were penned at Delphos, shall pass currant through the world for an Oracle? When every histrionical Orpheus shall be able to draw stones & towers after him when he acteth? When every proud Herod, who hath nothing in him to commend him, but his gaudy attire, shall yet have all the applause, and his words accounted as the voice of God not of man? Vox illa hominem non sonat: But for Esay, he may speak till he be hoarse, who will believe him? he may lift up his voice like a trumpet, who will hear him? David may play sweetly upon his instrument of ten strings; and the Preacher descant heavenly on the ten commandments, & yet who is enamoured with the melody of the one; or reform according to the other? 
2. Cor. 12.  Paul may be rapt into the highest heaven, Preach nothing but salvation, slip not a phrase which is not sweetly interlaced with heavenly eloquence, pave them the readiest way to those joys which are unspeakable; yea even thrust this Ariadne's thread into their hands; few or none that will regard him. Thus are Gods Heralds, esteemed no better than Cassandra's Prophecies; his Ambassadors worse than justinian's Orators, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such members as the world might well want, the refuse of men. Question but a word with those despisers, and all the Apology they pretend, all the rub they make, is the bad and corrupt life of many Preachers: this is it that makes them refuse to hear, and puts them out of all conceit with the message they deliver. I hope I shall drive them from this hold, and satisfy their objection with a word. Know then, that when thou settest foot within the door of God's house, thy intent and purpose should be, to have thy sins opened, thy maladies cured, to take spiritual Physic, for the remedy of some languishing disease which would eat up thy soul. Wilt thou then be so wilful, as refuse the sovereign medicines, because thy Physician is sick of the same disease that thou art? Wilt not thou be cured by this Physician, because the Physician cannot cure himself? What would God have said to Noah, if he had refused to save himself in the Ark, because the men that made the Ark for him, were drowned themselves? Will not you go on the readiest way to heaven, because he that is your guide and Pilot runs counter himself? What though the water itself be not so clean as thou wouldst have it, yet it will purge and cleanse thee? And what though sometimes the life of the Preacher be not so spotless, as it might be wished? yet the Message which he bringeth, the Word which he Preacheth, the way which he pointeth out, is the way of life; be his life never so wicked, his heart never so foul within him, the words which he hath uttered will be sufficient to cast and condemn thee at the last day.  
We read that Elijah was well contented to be fed and nourished by the mouth of Ravens; 
1. King. 17.  birds as ravenous and unclean as any other; whereas God could have fed him by the mouths of far cleaner birds. A good caveat for us (saith Stella upon the tenth of Luke) never to refuse the food and diet of our souls, 
Stella upon Luke 10.  though the vessels wherein it is carried, be both unsanctified and unclean. The Ravens were unclean birds, but the meat which they brought was wholesome: and the case being all one, why should a man refuse the glad tidings of salvation, or stop his ears at the voice of the skilful charmer, because the messenger that brings the tidings, is overtaken with some known sin? Or because he that charmeth, stauncheth not the issue of his own corruption? I might enlarge the point both from S. Augustine, 
Aug. Cont. Donat l. 4. cap. 4. Born. in Cant. Serm. 66.  in his 4. Book and 4 Chapter against the Donatists; and from S. Bernard in his 66. Sermon upon the Canticles. But I remember that I have far to go and little time to spend; wherefore I only add this short caution and proceed. Beware you murmurre not against the Preacher of the Word, lest it be justly said to you, as Moses said to Israel; Non est murmur contra nos, sed contra Deum: Your murmurre is not against us, but against the Lord, Exod. 16.8. Despise not him that Preacheth the Word, lest it be said unto you, as Paul told his Thessalonians: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1. Thess. 4.8.  you despise not man but God. Deal not fraudulently with him that hath a charge of thy soul, lest it be said unto you as it was to Ananias and Saphira; you have not dealt wickedly with man, but with God, Act. 5.4. And so I come to the parties here summoned to the Word, The children of Israel.  
By Israel (saith Zanchius) we are especially to understand, those ten Tribes, which revolted in jeroboams time, from the regiment of judaea, and our Prophet styles then not barely Israel, as junius and Tremelius render it: but Bene jisrael, Israelis filii, sons of Israel, who was mighty with God, meaning to put them in mind of their father's virtues, that this comemorative might be an argument to bring them home to their father's footsteps, and to aggravate their shame, that having so religious parents, themselves proved such notorious and shameless Apostates, from whence amongst others, I have made choice of this Note.  
Good and virtuous children be loath to departed from the good example of their parents: 
Good children must follow their father's virtues.  So we read of jehosaphat, that he made it his care to walk in the steps of Asa his father; the first of Kings at the 22. Of Ezekiah, 
2. King. 18.  that he walked in the same steps that David his father had done: Of josiah, 
2. Chr. 34.  that he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left, but walked precisely in the way of his father. This was a high commendation that Paul gave the Thessalonians, 1. Thess. 1.6. And a commendation which God gave the Rechabites, promising that he would crown them with a hopeful posterity, because they followed the godly example of their father: Verily jonaedab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever, jer. 33. And Isay 51.2. God thus speaks to Israel; Consider Abraham your father, and Sarah that bore you; they were zealous of my glory, be not you so cold. These were burning and shining lamps, be not you like black clouds and emblems of darkness. Abraham refused not to sacrifice his son: look on him, and refuse not to sacrifice thy sin, and unclean affections. Saerah obeyed Abraeham, and called him Lord; and Israel thou art God's Spouse, therefore obey thy God, & worship him as Lord only: Which virtuous imitation, not only Christians, but Heathens have embraced. 
Scipio Africanus.  Scipio Africanus accounted it no small disparagement for him to walk one foot awry, from that course of life which Cyrus in Zenophon had gone before him. It was the height of Caesar's glory to walk in the steps of Alexander; 
Caesar.  Of Selimus the turkish Emperor to walk in the steps of Caesar; And of the Arabians, 
Selimus Turc. imperat.  to imitate the life and profession of their fathers: as Strabo in his sixteenth book, 
Strabo l. 16 Sabel. l. 6. Exemp. c. 1.  and out of him Sabellicus in his sixth book of Examples and first Chapter.  
Which point should be a good encouragement for all sorts of men, Use. to make themselves rich in the works of mercy as their forefathers have done; an encouragement for Princes to follow the example of Phineas, 
Numb. 25.  to be zealous for the Lords sake. An encouragement for States and Potentates, to follow the example of the good Centurion, 
Luke 7.5.  in showing their love unto this Nation, and building up the Church of God. An encouragement for Ladies and Matrons, to follow the example of Abigail, 
1. Sam. 25.  to encourage and relieve all such as fight the Lords battle. An encouragement for reverend Bishops, to follow the example of good Elisha, 
2. Kings 6.  in providing for the Prophets. An encouragement for judges, to follow the example of Othoniel, 
judg. 3.9.  in saving and sheilding the poor & impotent from the yoke and servitude of greater personages. An encouragement for Lawyers to follow the good example of Elias, in standing up to plead the Lords cause against all the favourites of Babylon, 1. Kin. 18. an encouragement for rich and wealthy citizens, to follow the example of Zacheus, in opening the bowels of their compassion to the afflicted members of Christ jesus, Luke 19.8. an encouragement for Courtiers, to follow the example of Nehemiah, in redressing their contempt of God's sabbath, Nehem. 13.22. an encouragement for all men, of all men, of all estates and conditions, that if they have fond and espied in their parents, or other holy men, or precedent ages, any one virtue that was eminent, any one gift that was commendable, any part or quality that was admirable, and excellent, that they should affect & imitate: but alas, it is now the open shame of our land, and a scar in the face of our gentry, that they are become such as Plutarch taxed in the life of Alexander, readier to imitate his foul deformities, than his valiant attempts, or Plato's crooked shoulders, sooner than his divine discourses, or Aristotle's stammering speeches, sooner than his profoundness and depth of reason; & instead of imitating their ancient virtues, they imitate nothing but new & acquaint devices. They are full of strange children, said Esay 2.6. which place if I might be bold to allegorize, or follow our English marginal, I would call their strange children, their strange devices; their brainsick imitation of the fantastical outside, and inward corruption of all nations. Is it not a wonder to think that the world should be come to the age of almost six thousand years, & yet be still in childbed? and every month in travel of new fashions, new sins, new vanities, of all things new, save only of the new man, and the old man is in such request with her, that the world is ready to say with the young man in the Gospel, whom Christ would have had to follow him, that she will indeed follow him, but first she must go bury her father, she hath an old man at home, that is not yet dead; an old man, the old Adam, the man of sin is yet alive within her, till he be dead, there is no following of Christ.  
O the shame of this world, that men honourable and worshipful by descent, Christians by profession, their father's joy, and their countries hope should servilely yield to follow the fashions of all countries in their follies: thy attire in the beginning was given thee only for a cover to hide thy shame, and therefore when thou followest more fashions then all other people, thou proclaimest it to the world that thou hast more sin to hide, more shame to cover, than all the nations of the world beside. In the Italian fashion, thou hidest the Italians sin: in the Turkish thou hidest the Turkish shame: in the Spanish, thou hidest the Spanish sin: and in the French fashion, thou hidest the Frenchman's shame: for thy attire was given thee only to cover thy shame: but I have small hope to prevail, the sin is so ancient. I will therefore spare my further pains in this point, and proceed from the summons, and arraignment to the occasion thereof; the deciding of a controversy, which one clause contains, both the plaintiff which is God, and the defendant Israel: what? a controversy with Israel? the Vine which his own right hand had planted? with Israel the people which he honoured? with Israel the son whom he adopted, and loved more tenderly than all the Nations of the earth beside? and hath God a controversy to decide with thee? then this observation meets me by the way: That no city, or people is so graced with privileges, 
No nation can stand under the burden of sin.  so crowned with blessings, so beloved of God, but sin will set GOD and them at variance, make Heaven their adversary, and hazard the racing and ruinating, both of state and government: that common weals, & kingdoms have a period, let Athens, and Sparta, and Babylon, and Troy, and Niniveh, and Carthage be witnesses, who have at this day no other defence, but paper walls to keep their memories: but what have been the cause of these subversions the most are ignorant. The Epicure ascribes it unto fortune, the Stoic to destiny, Plato and Pythagoras and Bodin in the sixth of his Methods unto number, 
Plato & Pythagoras, Bodin in 6. meth Arist. 5. Polit. 12. Copernicus' Cardanus.  Aristotle in the fifth of his politics, at the twelfth, to an asymmetry and disproportion in the members. Copernicus' to the motion of the Centre, of his imaginary excentricke circle, Cardanus & the most part of Astrologians to Stars & Planets; but all these have only groped in the darkness, & being misled by an Ignis fatuus, have supposed with Ixion in the fable, they had found the true juno. the brightest and the clearest truth, when it proved but a cloud of palpable darkness; but if we consult with the Oracles of God, we shall find that sin is the only cause why God falls out with his dearest children, why he turns cities into ashes, ruinates states, and makes kingdoms but ludibria fortunae, everlasting monuments of desolation: the Scriptures are so pregnant in this argument, that the shallowest novice may run and read abundant testimonies: ask of jerusalem, and she can witness that this Doctrine is too too true, she will not stick to tell you what she was, & whither she is fallen, perhaps in these mournful terms, I was the Vine which GOD had planted with his hand, and watered with the dew of heaven: I was the City of the great King, the Tabernacle of the most High, I could once have said with Niobe in the Poet, Sum foelix, I shall never have cause to mourn: but hark you now how she hath changed her tune, and the Epilogue of her pleasing-song hath proved this doleful Elegy, I sinned grievously, therefore am I in derision, Lamen. 1.8. I sinned with a high hand, therefore hath he filled me with bitterness, and made me drunk with Wormwood, Lament. 3.15. I was sick from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head, and I had not a man to stand in the gap to stop the Sword of the Almighty, therefore once was I rob by Shishack King of Egypt, 1. Kings 14. and now am I utterly sacked by the king of Babel. 2. Ki. 25. Inquire of Sodom, and she will tell you that she was once as fair as the garden of Eden, & as pleasant as the valley of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar; of Babylon, & she will tell you, that she was once the Empress of all the earth, the pride & beauty of Chaldea; of jericho, and josephus will tell us in his first book, De bello judaico, that it was a city of palm trees, whose beauty might have commanded immortal memory, but God became an enemy to Sodom, by reason of her uncleanness, and an enemy to Babylon, by reason of her pride, and an enemy to all the Kingdoms of Canaan, because they were abetters and maintainers of all variety of sins, so that they may all shake hands, and sing in order this doleful madrigal, Sodom may thus begin, and say, My wantonness set GOD and me at variance, therefore am I burned to ashes, and turned into a stinking Fen, Genesis 19.25. and Babylon may answer thus, my pride set God and me at variance, therefore are my palaces made Dens for Dragons, Esay 13.21. and Canaan may make up the Consort thus, My gross Idolatry set God and me at variance, therefore hath he stripped me naked, Hosea 2.3. Were it needful I would tell you of the Churches of Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Ephesus, Smyrna, Nice, Laodicea, Antiochia, Constantinople, of all the Eastern and African Churches, once like so many watered Gardens, moistened with all the fruitful showers & dew of Heaven, while other places of the world remained, like the mountains of Gilboa, whereon there fell neither dew nor rain, they were watered like the fleece of Gideon, while the earth was dry round about them, but since they have started aside, like the men of Ephraim, they have been settled upon the Lees with Moah, they have ploughed Aceldama, a field of blood, and sown iniquity; therefore had the Lord a long fuite & controversy with them, but in the end wiped out their names, discarded their Idols, gave their Land to be inhabited by Zijm and Ochim Turks and Infidels.  
And if ever, then would God, Use. that at this time, and in this point, my voice were like the voice of some thundering Pericles, and my Pen iron, and my sides brass, & my speech powerful, and my prayers effectual to rend, and move the hearts of those, who by their outrageous sins make God fall out with us, and eagerly importune the judge of all the World to denounce a doom of death and desolation upon this Land; as he hath done upon those Cities which we mentioned. The world can tell, that of all the Trees in the Garden, we are the Vine, amongst all the varieties of flowers, we are the Lilies & the Rose, amongst all cities we have jerusalem; amongst all the Princes we only had a Deborah, and we have a David; amongst all the Prophets of the Lord, we have the most reverend Elishaes'; amongst all the nurseries and springs of learning, we have the most famous Naioths, we are they, upon whose heads the Cataracts of Heaven have been opened, that we might fill ourselves with that Manna which might long since have wiped out the black spots and stains of sin, which are the characters of Hell: these are our high and rich prerogatives, wherein we may outvie the felicity and pride of foreign Nations. But will this Summers glean of our prosperity never be overshadowed? Will our Sun never stoop below the Horizon? yet (beloved) we harbour such armies and bands of sins, we are in league and compact with such prodigious vices; we take part with Mammon against God, when we wed our affections to the World like Demas; we take part with Baal against God, when we are contented to wink at our Recusants, and the Calves which are erected in Dan, and Bethel; we take part with the flesh against God, when we do yield our bodies which should be temples of holiness, to be defiled with filthy strumpets; we take part with all the powers of darkness against GOD, and our own souls, when we are content to spend our goods, bestow our time, waste & consume our bodies, in rearing a Babel with the one hand, wherein we shall sport ourselves a while, though with the other we be digging up a hell & a Tophet, wherein without repentance, we fry for ever: thus have we flown in the face of the blessed Trinity, who never did us wrong; we have dared our God to his face; our whole Land begins to swarm with sins, as thick as Egypt did with frogs; we are already grown so far, and yet we are going so fast, that a man would think, that many of us did at this day contend & strive, who should outstrip another, and be foremost in hell.  
What then can we expect, but that God whom we have constrained to be our enemy, should begin to make furrows in our backs, to strike our heads with giddiness, our faces with paleness; to call again for an invincible Armado, like to that of 88 for a new powder-plot of Italian Doegs', that our Land may be a prey to those that seek our lives; suffer our Churches to be turned into Manors, and the houses of the Prophets be laid on ruinous heaps: this and no other, will be the decision and final determination, of that controversy between God & this Land, unless by a flood of tears we can stop the way; unless by speedy repentance we can dull the edge of his sword that is ready drawn, and slack the strings of his bow, that is already bend for our destruction: the most secret plots & treasonable conspiracies, that are wrought against us, are not half so dangerous, the nefarious projects of all the jesuits in the world, (though their heads be the richest shops the Devil hath, for devising of bloody attempts) are not half so powerful, all the Stratagems, the gunneshotte and the powder that Hell can help them unto, are not so forcible, nor so likely to interrupt the peace and happiness of our State and Kingdom, as our own sins are, these only (our sins I mean) are the enemies that are most like to ring our kneels and proclaim our Funerals: These only (our sins I mean) are the Edomites which are most like to make a short cut in our peace, to set a sudden stop and period to our prosperity, to make a crack in our hope, to alter the gracious aspect of the heavens, to stint the influence of God's gracious favour, to procure our woe, and to give our whole State, our whole Kingdom, a blow that can never be healed. Give me leave therefore for closure of the point, to exhort you (Right Honourable) and all the rest, in the name of God, now at last to bethink yourselves of some remedy: God hath put a sword of authority in your hand, for no other purpose but to strike at sin; if yet you suffer it to rust in the sheath (I am not afraid to tell you) that either you are afraid to quarrel with sin, or else you be are it some good will yourself; or else you have but malt hearts, and white livers, and cold constitutions, ready to faint and shrink in the Lord's cause: and so by your means sin shall have a continual Spring, no Autumn, not one leaf of it fall, but our Land shall feel a continual Autumn and falling from its ancient glory, but see no Spring; and a continual Winter, vexed with the storms and showers of heavens displeasure, but never see nor feel the warmness of Summer. Strike then at the root of sin, for sin striketh at the root, and shaketh the foundation of our Land: But if our reverend judges suffer him that sitteth upon the Bench, to wrong him that standeth below the Bar waiting for justice; them let him know that he maintains a sin, and then we all know that he doth his best to ruinated our Land. If the Gentry grow rich and potent by turning Tenants out of doors, by depopulation, by clipping or selling the Levites portion, then let them know that they maintain a sin, and then we all know they do their best to ruinated this Land: If Merchants and men of Trade grow rich and powerful by fraud and cheating, these also be underminers of our State, they do their best to ruinated this Land. Good Lord what will become of us, when foul sins in this City become rich professions, and yet they are the Moths that are eating, they are the Cankers that are fretting, they are the Vermin that are undermining both our Church and Kingdom. The sum of all is this, if we continue in our ancient course and trade of sin, it is as sure as if God had sealed it, we shall be either made a prey unto our enemies, or have our flesh so full of God's poisoned arrows, that it were better for us to die then to live: Let it then be our joint and greatest care, to empty our houses, to cleanse our streets, to weed the cockle and darnel out of this Land, that God may be pleased long and long, to continue his true Religion, our peerless King, & this little Kingdom, in peace and happiness. Remember what I say, and I say it again: Let it be your care (Right Honourable) to strike at the root of sin in the City: Let our reverend judges strike at the root of sin in the Courts, on their Benches, in their Circuits: Let my Brethren of the ministery, strike at the root of sin in their charges: Let every man that cares for Zion, that loves our Nation, that favours Religion, that wisheth the glory of our Lord to be immortal, that hath a true English and a Christian heart, fling one stone at the face, make one wound in the forehead of sin; and I beseech God that the heavens may give you good success, and that the Lord may be with you, all you valiant men: And so I should come somewhat to the particular crimes whereof Israel is accused.  
All which sins are reducible to two heads: some are privative in the first, viz. Want of Mercy, etc. some positive in the second verse, viz Swearing, etc. But before I adventure this main Ocean observe by the way; 
Neglect of duties enjoined is no small sin.  That the neglect of a duty commanded, displeaseth God as well as the committing of sins prohibited; seeing this controversy betwixt God and Israel, arose not only from the positive sins, wherein they committed things forbidden, but from the privative also, wherein they were careless of duties enjoined. God cursed Meroz, not for fight against the people of God, but because they did not assist them against the mighty, judg. 5.23. Dives fried in hell, not for robbing, but for not relieving Lazarus, Luke 16. The unprofitable servant was cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, into utter darkness, not for spending, but for not bestowing his masters talon. The siue foolish Virgins were shut out of doors, not for abuse in wasting, but for wanting of Oil. And the wicked shall be condemned at the last day, not for reaving the meat from the hungry, but for not feeding them; not only for dislodging the stranger, but for not entertaining him; not only for stripping the naked out of his clothes, but for not clothing him, not only for wronging the sick & comfortless, but for not visiting, and for not comforting of him, Mat. 25. Vice & Virtue are contraries which want a Medium, & therefore the absence of the one in subiect● capaci, argues the presence of the other; so that if we be destitute of virtue, then are we attended with troops of vices. If our houses be clean swept and empty of spiritual graces, than they are convenient lodgings for unclean spirits: If we be not graced with knowledge, then are we muffled and blinded with ignorance: If void of faith, we are clothed with infidelity; If once we give over doing good, than we prostitute ourselves to all ungodliness. And therefore the neglect of a duty which is enjoined, being always accompanied with some bolts and scars of fouler sins, is sufficient matter both of inditement and of judgement, whensoever the Lord shall summon us to appear before him.  
A special caveat for us, Use. 1 not with simple Idiots to bless ourselves, because we are harmless and do no man wrong; or because we are not tainted with the continual flux or bloody issue of such sins as would make us odious in the world; or because we break not with violence, into the outward act of such sins as are monstrous, and deserve the censure of the Law. For God hath not only forbidden the evil, but commanded the good: What if thou steal not from thy brother, yet if thou open not thy hand to secure him, thou art a robber? What if thou dost neither lienor swear, yet if thou make not thy mouth a glorious Organ, & thy tongue a golden Trumpet, to Preach and proclaim his love and mercy, thou art a deep and a round offender? What if no man can condemn thee for any evil, yet unless God and thy own conscience shall commend thee for some good thou haste wrought, I tremble to tell thee how far thou art from the Kingdom of God. The judge may not bless himself in this, that he never hindered the poor, for if he have not furthered them; nor in this, that he never kindled suits and contentions, for if he have not laboured to suppress and smother them, he hath but a disloyal heart, & the Lord will one day be quit with him for it. The Landlord may not bless himself in this, that he never wrung nor gripped the bowels of his tenants, for if he have not succoured and protected them; Nor in this, that he never wronged the Church, for if he have notpropt & strengthened it, his zeal hath been but cold, the Lord will one day be quits with him for that. The Pastor that hath the charge (I will not say the cure of souls, seeing many have the charge, who never have care of discharging their duties) may not bless himself in this, that he never seduced his people out of the way, for if he have not painfully instructed them in the right way; nor in this, that he never did them wrong, for if he have not watched over them to do them good, their blood shall be required at his hand, and the Lord will be quits with him for that. Let it be the shame of those that sit in darkness, and are proud of their ignorance, to say they have as good souls, & hope to be saved aswell as any, because they do no man any harm; but for us who may sit all day long at the feet of some good Gamaliel, and every hour of the day may hear some Paul Preaching unto us; not only renounce the evil, but do the good; not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only abjure carnal and sensual delights, the husks and mast whereon the worldling is like to surfeit, but also make a covenant with our eyes, that they sport themselves with looking only upon the beauty of heaven; with our affections, to wed themselves only to the joys of heaven. Be covetous, I would have thee so, so that thou covet no treasure but spiritual: Be ambitious, I would have thee so, so thou affect no honour but immortal; Renounce all kind of peace, wherein thou findest no peace of conscience; Discard all joys, wherein thou feelest not the joy of the Holy Ghost: Hoc fac & vines, do this and thou shalt live in the fear, thou shalt die in the favour, thou shalt rest in the peace, thou shalt rise in the power of God the Father, and help to make up the consort in singing of Halleluiah, Halleluiah, all glory, and honour, and praise, and immortality, be ascribed unto the Lamb, and to him that sitteth upon the Throne for evermore. And now I am come without further defrauding of your expectation, to the particular grievances whereof God complains; and the first of those is Want of Truth.  
The Hebrew word Emeth, saith Zanchius, signifieth that kind of fidelity, which Tully called, Dictorum conventorum constantiam, and this truth sometimes respects the heart, and is called simplicity and integrity, sometime the outward carriage in word or speech, and is called truth; sometimes the works and actions, and then is called justice and upright dealing: so that when the Lord chargeth them with want of Truth, his meaning is, there was no integrity, or simplicity, in their hearts, therefore there was hypocrisy; no verity in their speeches, therefore lying; no justice in their actions, therefore fraudulent and deceitful dealing. I will wrap up all in this one conclusion.  
All dissimulation in the heart, 
First particular grievance.  and lying in the tongue, and deceit in the outward action, betwixt man and man, makes God and man at odds and variance. The, first which is dissimulation in the heart, proved from the example of Ananias and Saphira, why didst thou conceive this in thy heart? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Acts 5.4. The second which is lying in the tongue, excludes from heaven, Apoc. 22. The last, which is deceit in the outward action, is condemned, Leu. 19 Dissimulation in the heart is the badge & cognisance of such deplored wights as shall never see the face of God with comfort, job. 13.16. Lying in the tongue is the badge and cognisance of the children of the devils getting, john 8.44. Deceit in the outward action is the badge and cognisance of him that despiseth his God: nay, of him that shall bear the wrath and vengeance of God, 1. Thess. 4.8. It is most true which Syracides observed, Animaquae dissimulat, accelerate miseriam, the soul that dissembleth increaseth his pain, Ecclesiastic. 2. and true which Bernard observed out of Wisdom Os quod mentitur perdit animam ' the tongue that lieth, 
Wisd. 1.11.  murdereth the soul, and true which Moses observed, Manus iniustitiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the hand that dealeth falsely is abomination, Deu. 25. This is God's indictment which you have heard; wilt please you to hear the verdict which the jury of the Prophets brings in against them?  
Esay and jeremy, as foremen in the name of all the rest, have penned it thus: Every one of them is an hypocrite and a dissembler, Isaiah 9.16. And jeremy thus: They have no courage for the truth: jeremy 9.3. This is the verdict which the Grand-Iury of greater Prophets have brought against them; and the verdict of the Petty-Iury, I mean the lesser Prophets, is the very same, registered by Michah, as prolocutor for the rest, There is none righteous amongst them, every man hunteth his brother with a net, Micah. 7.2. Thus the jury hath found them guilty: will you now hear how the Law proceeds, when the judge passed this sentence, Lying lips are abomination to the Lord, Prou. 12.22. He shows he had a whip prepared for liars, when he plagued Ananias and Saphira, Acts 5. he showed his love to all dissemblers, when he dismissed all deceitful dealers out of his house, Psalm. 101. He showed he had a whip laid up for all deceivers, & the lightest of these is a doom too heavy for them to bear.  
See then the eminent and apparent danger whereunto men of all estates wrest themselves, Use. by renouncing and divorcing of truth, they make a breach betwixt them & God that can not be closed, they sow such seed of debate and contention betwixt them & God, as cannot be covered; they challenge such a dreadful war betwixt them and God as will never be ended, till the sword of the Almighty hath wearied itself, & the arrows of God have made themselves drunk, and death the Axe of God have surfeited itself with blood: and yet, were there a privy search to go through each Maeander and corner of the earth to seek for truth; it would be as hard to find, as honesty was in Athens, when Diogenes sought it with a candle at noontide, or goodness in jerusalem, when there was neither Priest nor People that executed judgement, jer. 5.1. Terras Astraea reliquit, truth hath taken herself unto her wings, she hath hid herself & will not be found. send privy Search to all the shops of Merchants and men of Trade, and when you have done your best, you may write this upon the doors; Has aedes Astraea reliquit, Had truth been one of our apprentices, we should never have sold our wares so dear if we had more truths in our mouths, we should have less money in our coffers: send privy Search into our courts of Law, and when you have done, you may write this upon the Bar, Has sedes Astraea reliquit, truth hath abated too much of our fees: we should have been but beggars if we had not banished it: send privy Search amongst our Statesmen, and when you have done, you may write this upon their gates for the world to read Astraea & domes & domines reliquit, in this house truth resigns to policy, dissimulation is the ready way to rich preferment: send privy Search to seek for truth in the very Pulpit, which should be the Ark of Truth & Custoder of God's sacred Oracles, & when you have done, you may set this on many Churches and Pulpit doors, Veritas exulat, truth is brought under hatches, either she is ashamed, or else she dares not show her head; whiles some for raking a little profit, others for fear of men's displeasure, sow pillows under the elbows of great personages, and suffer loud sins to escape like the adulteress in the Gospel: because they are graced with greatness and authority. Seeing then our Tradesmen sell truth for coin, our Lawyers for fees, and our Statesmen for preferment, & our Clergy to please a Patron, how can we think the Lord will not come to visit us for these things, & his soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? what then remains but that we either call truth home, which we have banished by the law of Ostracism, that it may be an apprentice to our Merchants and men of trade, a Counsellor, and Sergeant at the Law, a Retainer & Pensioner to our men of state, and Usher to all the Clergy of the Land, or else look every day for Gods arrest upon us; the heavens will not still reprieve their judgements, the Sergeants of GOD'S wrath will not always sleep, all the vials which God holdeth in his hand, are not full of balm & oil to heal & supple; some of them are running over with gall and addle, some ready to vent the lees, & sourest dregs of God's displeasure upon this Land, Quae semper imitatur eorum facta quorum exitum et exitium perhorrescit, which shrinks and trembles at Israel's fearful sentence; but makes neither stop nor rub at Israel's crying sins which wrings her hands, & knocks her breast so often, as she either hears or reads the dismal Sentence which God pronounced against Israel, but will neither weep nor cry, nor shed a tear for herself, although she lie rotting in the same cage of uncleanness, and foaming in the same menstruous blood which made Israel so loathsome unto God. Let it therefore be the care of our Magistrates to fetch home & encourage truth; of our judges to defend & support the truth; of the Clergy to preach and speak the truth; of our godly and religious Citizens to lodge and harbour truth: let us show ourselves to be true nathanael's, in whom there is no guile, & put in practise the Prophet's rule, Zach. 8.16. Speak ye every man the truth unto his neighbour, and love not deceit, for that is the thing that the Lord hateth. And so I proceed to the second particular grievance whereof Israel is indicted in the next word, We en chesed, No mercy; which word chesed comprehends in it all works of Charity and Christianity, but I cannot insist upon explication, the point is this.  
Want of mercy is a sin that crieth loud, 
Second particular grievance  and knocketh hard at heaven for vengeance, I shall not need prodigally to spend either breath, or time in strengthening or supporting this clause of truth. S. james hath put the matter out of difference, ja. 2.13. There shall be judgement merciless to him that shows no mercy; it was want of mercy that called for a weltering Ocean to swallow the host of Pharaoh, Ex. 15. It was want of mercy that caused Gideon to harrow & slice the flesh of the men of Succoth with thorns and briers, judg. 8.7. it was want of mercy that hazarded the destruction of all Nabals posterity, 1. Sam. 25. It was want of mercy that opened the belly and bosom of hell, to devour and entomb the soul of Dives, Luke 16. It was want of mercy (saith Plutarch) that brought the men of Delphos so low on their knees, 
Plutar. de sera numinis vind.  that they were enforcod to proclaim it by the mouth of criers, thorough all the markets & assemblies of Greece, that whosoever would, should come and be avenged on them for the death of Aesop. It was want of mercy (saith Beatus Rhenanus) that made Hatto that infamous clerk and Bishop of Moguntia, 
Beatus Rhenanus.  to be chased to death by an Army of Rats. It was want of mercy toward the little sop and handful of seed, which God had planted in Goshen, that made all the land of Egypt to rock, and the pillars thereof to grow like the cracking of a decayed vessel, being overwaved by the undaunted roughness of some violent and uncouth storms; all of these jumping with that of Syracides, Eccles. 35.18. The Lord will not be slack, the Almighty will not tarry, till he have smitten in sunder the loins of the unmerciful.  
And have not we deserved to drink our bellies full of these waters of Marah as well as they? may not we tune all our Songs upon this note, Help Lord? & upon this, There is no mercy? our hands are dried & withered, help Lord: merciful men are gone out of the world, Esay 57 Our Land gins to ring, & our ears are filled with such ruthful and sad complaints as these, Help Lord, there is no mercy. Our Church bemoans herself thus, Help Lord, there is no mercy. And is not her complaint as just as any, when so many hungry souls like poor Lazarus, would gladly gather up the crumbs of a spiritual benediction, from the mouth of their Pastor, but cannot have it, when so many zealous christians in the land, would sit all the day long at the feet of some Gamaliel, & gladly step into Bethesda; but either their Angel is from home, or else he is not able to trouble the water for them. Our Commons do bemoan themselves thus, Help Lord there is no mercy: And is not their complaint as just, when Landlords are become tyrants, & Tenants be made but slaves to serve their turn? and Naioth in Ramah (I mean the Nurseries of Arts and Sciences) bemoans herself thus, Help Lord, there is no mercy: And is not her complaint as just as any, when so many golden wits, likely to have proved the gracious ornaments and pride of their mother; are daily enforced to try their fortune some other way, being utterly discouraged for want of maintenance? and our courts of justice bemoan themselves thus, Help Lord, there is no mercy: and is not their complaint as just as any? when the Lawyer, who should be an Atropos to cut the thread, feeds his Client with golden hopes and sugared words, and proves a Clotho to spin, & a Lachesis to draw in length the threads of contention: what christian heart would not indite both bitter & tart iambics? or whose bowels would not yearn & groan within him? to see how the Engrosser of this worst Age, employs and sets his best wits on tenters, to join house to house, land to land, and field to field, till there be not left a Cottage nor a Corner for the poor to dwell in; not a Common nor Pasture for them to feed in, and if it were possible, scarce wholesome air enough for them to breath in. Whose heart would not boil & melt within him, to see how the world's Alchemist wrestles & strives to turn every corner of his field into a beautiful garden? every little garden into a glorious paradise? every little cottage into a palace? their clothes & garments into robes? their tables into shrines? their chests and coffers into rich minerals of gold and silver? and all this by turning good housekeepers into beggars, and tenants out of doors. Whose bowels will not roll within him, to see how great men take away the children's bread, whereon both church & common wealth should feed, & cast it unto whelps, that they may be nourished? unto kites & hawks, that they may be stuffed and gorged in their mews while Christ jesus in his distressed members, hath his face withered with hunger, & his feet parched with cold, and his stomach grated, nay gird, & pasted unto his sides, for want of succour, for want of sustenance? Whose heart would not bleed to see many houses, 
Ovid Metam. lib. 2.  Tecta sublimibus alta columnis; goodly and tall as Babel, but not an alms at their doors, scarce smoke within them? to see such spacious barns, so little kindness? to see how that in swallowing the blessings of God, every one of us is like the monster Briareus? we have an hundred hands to receive, but in relieving and supplying the want of other, we have but one hand, & that dried and withered, like the hand of jeroboam, 1. King. 13. How then can we think that the Lord will not visit us for these things, and his soul be avenged on such a nation as this? They that should be a staff unto the feeble, are of all others the readiest to bring them upon their knees: they that should be eyes to the blind, are the foulest moats & beams, to put out the eyes of them that see: they that are ordained to cheer the faces of the poor, are the only men to grind and harrow them: they that should stand in the gap, like Moses, to save them from all annoyance, are of all others the most forward to feed them with wormwood & the water of affliction, as Ahab did Micaiah the Prophet, 1. Ki. 22. And shall not the Lord be avenged on such a people as this? wherefore (beloved) let me try if I can persuade you in the words of S. Bernard, 
Bern de modo bene vivendi.  Animae tuae gratum feceris si misericors fueris, thou shalt do well to thy soul by showing mercy: in the words of S. Ambrose: 
Ambros. 1. Tim. p. 8. Tract. 5. in johan.  Nil magis commendat animum christianum, Nothing that God respects so much as mercy: in the words of S. Augustine: Charitas tua viscera percutiat: Be ye rich in the works of mercy. Provocaris Christian, provocaris à viduâ in certamen: the poor Widow of Sarepta, must tutor thee to be merciful; job must read thee a Lecture of mercy, who had been both eye unto the blind, and feet unto the lame, and a father to the poor, job 29. Let me beseech you in the words of the Prophet, Zacharie 7.9. Show mercy every man unto his brother: let me beseech you in the words of Peter, 1. Peter 3. Love as brethren, and be merciful: In the words of Paul, Coloss. 3.12. Now therefore as the elect of God holy & beloved, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, put on the bowels of compassion; let your mouths be filled with talking, your hearts with contriving, your hands with working the works of mercy while you live, that when your life shall be run out of breath, you may hear the sentence of blessedness, Mat. 5. Blessed are the merciful, for the Lord hath plenty of mercy in store for them. And so I come to the third particular grievance: No knowledge.  
In which words (saith Zanchius) we are to note; first, 
Third particular grievance. Crimen & exaggeratio criminis.  the crime; secondly, the aggravation: The crime, they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they had no knowledge: Which is as much as if he thus had said; you are so far from serving me, that you know not whether I am your God or no. What do I telling you of want of truth or want of mercy? sins of the second Table, not so immediately against my honour. There is a worse fault in you then both these, there is a sin against the first Table, which doth more nearly impeach my Majesty, and that the very root and stem of all sin, of all profaneness, You have no knowledge: the aggravation is from the generality and proceeding of the sins, he saith not there was no knowledge of God in you, but in totâ terrâ, in the whole land. It was a universal contagion that infected all the ten tribes: much might hence be gathered, but me thinks the point that is most observable should be this.  
Ignorance, 
Ignorance the mother of sin.  in things concerning God, is the mother and root of most fearful and enormous sins, and therefore it is that all sins be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and bear the name of ignorance, Heb. 9.7. Ignorance was the natural mother that brought Israel so many sins into the world; or else God himself shot short of truth, Ps. 95. My people err in their hearts because they have not known my ways. Ignorance was the natural mother that brought the jews so many goodly sins, and filled their Country with sinners, or else Saint Matthew hath done them wrong, You are deceived not knowing the Scriptures, Math. 22. Ignorance made them crucify the Lord of Life, or else Saint Luke hath overreached himself, Acts 3.15. It was ignorance that made them become proud justiciaries, depending wholly and relying upon their own righteousness, because they knew not the righteousness of God, or else Saint Paul hath censured them too hard, Rom. 10.3. Ignorance was the blind guide that led the Gentiles to idolatry, Gal. 4.8. And Ignorance of things concerning God, set Paul's head on working of mischief against the Church of God, 1. Tim. 1. and this is a disease so infectious, that it poisons whatsoever good thing lies in the same womb with it: It poisons Religion with Idolatry; it infects devotion and zeal with superstition; it makes hope to swell with presumption; and turns every symptom of fear into desperation and horror: 
Causa causa & causa causati.  And if Logic that is old be not worn quite out of date, them Ignorance which is proved and convicted to be the prime cause of sin, cannot choose but usher and make way for punishment. I appeal for proof to the Oracles of God, where I find it punished sometimes with captivity, Esay 5.13. My people is gone into captivity because they wanted knowledge: Sometimes with desolation, Esay 27. Sometimes with destruction, Hosea 4.6. It maketh subject to the curse. Ps. 79.6. It maketh strangers from the life of God, Ephes. 4.18. It debars from the life of glory: For they that know not one foot of the way to heaven, how is it possible they should pass through so many winding mad'st, and perplexed passages, unto those fortunate islands of ineffable comfort? Lastly, Ignorance maketh liable to the vengeance of God in the day of judgement, 2. Thess. 1.8. He shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance unto them that know not God.  
And therefore the more to blame was the Council of Trent, Use. for setting lock & key upon the Scriptures, that the Laity might not look into them, but with as great and eminent danger as the men of Bethshemesh for looking into the Ark, 1. Sam. 6. and Pius the fourth Pope of that name, 
Pius 4.  for censuring the sacred Oracles of Heaven amongst books prohibited, marking them in the forehead with the stroke of Noli me tangere, God hath not dedicated the Bible to the Laity; 
Hosius.  and of Hosius a father in the Trent conspiracy, that it is fit for women to meddle with the Distaff, then with the word of God. Suffer me to draw a little blood out of this vein; for whatsoever they do or can pretend, it is evident out of ancient Stories that in the Primitive Church the word of God was not only permitted to the Lay people to read, but also that translations were provided of set purpose, that they might read it. We read in Socrates, 
Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 24.  that they were translated by ulphilas Bishop of the Goths, that the Barbarians might learn them; by Methodius into the Slavonian tongue. 
Chrys. Hom. 1. in johan.  S. Chrysostome in his first Homily upon john, remembers the Syrian, the Egyptian, the Indian, the Persian, the Ethiopian, and many others: And Theodoret in his first Book, 
Theod. de curan. Graecorum affectibus lib. 15.  De curandis Graecorum affectibus, will bear us witness that in his time the Bible was turned into all Languages in the world; & what one thing is more common among the Fathers, than often to be calling upon the people to get themselves Bibles, to read and examine them: Then the Laity was acquainted with the Text of Scripture as well as the learned, and then the doctrine of Hosius was not hatched: So we read in Socrates, 
Socr. lib. 5. cap. 8.  of Nectarius, that of a judge, and one of the Laity, he was made Bishop of Constantinople; by the consent of an 150 Bishops; And of Saint Ambrose, 
Socrat. l. 4. cap. 25.  who was translated from the government of a Province to be Bishop of Milan: Of Gregory the father of Nazianzene; Of Thalassim, Bishop of Caesarea, that from private men, they were removed to sit at the stern of the Church; which shows how painful and how indefatigably diligent they had been in the Word of God, and in the search of Scriptures, that being but Lay-men, yet were supposed able to sustain the office & charge of Bishops. We read in Eusebius, of Origen, 
Euseb. hist. eccles. l. 6. cap. 2.  that he was trained up in the Scriptures from a child, that he got them without book, and was wont to question with his father Leonides about the difficult meaning of some places: Of Macrina foster mother to S. Basil, 
Basil. Epist 74.  that she proposed unto herself the example of Timothy, and trained him up in learning the Scriptures from his infancy. S. Basil himself is our recorder in his 74. Epistle; so we read in Nicephorus, 
Niceph. lib. 8. cap. 14.  his 8. book and 14. chapter, of Paphnusius a Lay-man, and yet so renowned for his singular knowledge in Divinity, that he was accounted worthy to bear a part, and be no small helper in the Council of Nice: And who knows not that S. Hierome directs many of his Epistles unto godly women, 
Hierom.  highly commending them for their labour in the Scriptures? Or who knows not that S. john himself writ his second Epistle to his elect Lady? 
joh. Epist. 2.  which Epistle is Canonical Scripture: And is it not a shame to think that he would send her an Epistle which she might not read? It was indeed the reproach which julian the Apostata objected against the Christians; and from him it seems that Hosius and Andradius, and our blind Romish guides have borrowed it: By all which it appears, that this muffling of men's eyes, which the Trent men have devised, is but a novelty and a trick to win some credit to their Legend, thevery shop and forge of lies; and under the vail and mist of Ignorance, to send whole droves and legions of souls to hell. But for you (beloved) I shall beseech God in the words of S. Paul, and I beseech you use the same prayer for yourselves; That the word of God may dwell in you plentifully in all Wisdom; that the book of God may never be wrested out of your hand; that he would open to you the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which there are hid; that you may be like Apollo's powerful, and like Tertullus learned in the Scriptures, that you may relish that heavenly Manna, that you may long after the sincere milk of the Gospel, that you may perform indeed as much as God gave joshua in charge, Josh. 1.8. That this book of God may not departed out of your mouths, that you meditate therein day and night, that you observe and do all that is written therein; for thus you shall make your ways prosperous, you shall make your sorrows easy, your comforts many, your virtues eminent, your conscience quiet, your life holy, your death comfortable, your election sure, your salvation certain; and so I make post haste to those five sins which I called positive, whereof the first is swearing.  
Swearing, 
1 Positive sin. Zanchius. Polanus. Mercer. Ribera out of Hier. Error Manich. & Anabap. Zanchius in 3. praeceptum ex Gratiano.  the Hebrew word Aloh may either signify cursing and execration, as Zanchius; or Perjury, and foreswearing, as Polanus; or slandering & detraction, as Mercer would have it. I rather follow the exposition of Ribera out of Saint Hierome, that here it is used to signify rash & idle swearing; so that here is no shroud for that doting humour of Anabaptists, and Manichees, which they would gladly rear & build out of the fift of Matthew, Swear not at all: and out of the fift of james the 12. My brethren above all things swear not. Gratian (saith Zanchius in his exposition upon the third commandment) will help us with a lift out of the Fathers to answer them, Damnantur à Christo, & Apostolo iuramenta temeraria, quae vulgo habentur in colloquijs, non ea quae coram Magistratu habentur in judicijs. Our Saviour forbids common and idle swearing in our ordinary talk & upon slight occasion, but he forbids not the lawful use of an oath before the Magistrate, which elsewhere he allows, and calls the judge and Palaemon to make an end of all contention, Heb. 6.16. This then needs must be the point.  
Rash and idle swearing being not performed, in justice, in truth, and in judgement, is such a sin as will make a whole Land to mourn and shake. The truth whereof is most apparent in the 23 of jeremy at the 10. Because of oaths the Land mourneth: To which we may add that black doom gone out against profane swearers in the fift of Zachary, The curse of God shall lay siege unto the house of him that sweareth, until it have consumed the timber, and the stones thereof: And that sentence of Syracides, Eccle. 23.11. He that useth swearing shall be filled with wickedness, and the plague shall never be removed from his house. It seems this doctrine hath been long known and Preached, & this sin also cried down by the ancient Laws of most Nations in the world: 
johannes Boaemus de moribus Gentium lib. 1. cap. 5. Boamus l. 2. cap. 9  for amongst the Egyptians whosoever was convicted for a common swearer was to lose his head: amongst the Scythians it was the loss & forfeiture of all his goods: amongst the Romans the swearer was to be thrown with violence from the top of the rock Tarpeius. And this was the cause (saith Plutarch) that they would not suffer their children to swear by the name of Hercules within doors, 
Quaest. Romam.  but enjoined them to go abroad, and there deliberate of their oaths. Amongst the Grecians, 
Graeci.  the swearer was to lose his ears: 
judaei in Talmud.  the jews were wont to rend their clothes when they heard the name of God profaned; which if we should do in our days, we should rend our clothes so oft as we hear men spewing black and fearful oaths, one suit would not last us one day; nay, sometimes not hang so long upon our backs, till our flesh or skins were warm within us. Yea, the very Turks, 
Boaemus de moribus Gentium lib. 2. c. 11.  as some report of them, will stop their ears at the hearing of an oath. And it is memorable of one of the Kings of France, 
Rhenan in annot. in Tertul.  who (as Beatus Rhenanus records) made this Statute; that Swearers should have their mouths seared with burning irons. And one of the Kings of this Land, out of a religious care to prevent the doom which the heavens threatened for this sin; ordained that a mulet and forfeiture should be exacted of every one that was heard or noted to swear within his Court. To shut up this proof, swearing is a sin that brings the wrath of God, not only upon the party that swears though he be sure not to escape, nor only upon the house where he dwells, as the sin of Ely for want of due correction upon Hophni and Phinehas: but upon the country, as the sin of Achan brought wrath upon Israel, and the sin of the men of Gibeah, hazarded the ruin of the whole tribe of Benjamin, judg. 20. & yet woe be unto us, for our land may truly take up that mournful complaint of the Prophet Esay, The whole Land is sick, and the whole heart is heavy with this sin: and redouble often and often the Elegy of jeremy: Because of Oaths our Land mourneth.  
Our Magistrates that should put bridles in the lips of others, 
Magistrates tainted with this sin.  do not, or else they dare not, make any Laws against this sin, for fear lest they should prove nets to catch themselves. Most of our noble stems, 
The Nobility.  to show their undaunted boldness, (in open railing upon God himself) do show more base courage in outvying of oaths then ever they are like to do in martial feats in Arms. GOD hath vouchsafed to hovor them more than others, and they dishon or him, & endanger the honour of this land, as much as any. Those that should prove the hope and life of the Gentry, 
The Gentry.  make it the usual & common figure in their Rhetoric, not to give their best friend a word, till first they have given the name of God a wound; an oath is the poem of all their speeches, & compliment of their discourse; there is not the least error in casting of a die, but it must cost our Saviour a stab; he will not lose one penny by his gaming, but Christ jesus must pay for it, it shall cost him the staining and impeachment of his dearest honour; if his neighbour wrong him, although but in show, by fearful oaths he will be revenged on GOD for that; if GOD will be so merciful as to crown him with some unexpected blessing, than he shows his contentment with decades and pages of oaths. This is the Dialect wherein GOD must be thanked for that, it is most true of them which Quintilian lib. 1. Instit. said of his pupil: Nondum prima exprimit verba, etiam jurare didicit: an oath is the first English which he learneth; Et qui jurat cum repit quid non adultus faciet? If they can swear in their cradles, they will shake a Land with oaths when they are old. 
Citizens.  Our Citizens which should be samplars for the world to imitate, will not stick to sell their souls, so they may sell their wares with it: but is it not a miserable and sorry bargain, when for every trifling gain, not worth the naming, they give their souls to boot, which cannot be redeemed with a thousand worlds. If you chance to come near the Court, 
Courtiers.  you would think you were entered upon a stage, and come into a school of blasphemy: if you walk into the streets of the city, you would think you were among the courtier's scholars, who having often heard their lectures of swearing, were now boldly & readily repeating them. Cast eye upon the Country swain, 
Countrymen.  and there is not the silliest caitiff, howsoever defeated of all the endowments both of grace and nature, but is wise enough to practise this sin; he that by nature is most rude and barbarous in speaking, can be eloquent & rhetorical enough in swearing, that howsoever they are excelled by Courtiers and Citizens in variety of attire, yet they disdain & scorn, that they should put them down, either in the complement & bravery, or in the variety of new fashioned oaths. Thus do men of all estates turn worse than jews, in crucifying the Lord of glory, & ripping their saviour's wounds to bleed again; for the jews crucified him but once, blasphemous swearer, thou crucifiest him almost at every word thou speakest; the jews sinned of ignorance, not knowing that he was the Messiah, but thou of wilfulness; the jews called for Pilate to crucify him, but thou ungracious murderer wilt do it thyself, and instead of cross & nails, thou rentest and grindest him to pieces betwixt thy teeth. This dreadful name of God, & this sweet name of jesus, is all the Evidence, and all the Charter thou hast to show, for thy right and title in heaven. If this prevail not, thou art a spark of Tophet, and a firebrand of Hell: and wilt thou for all this, tear in pieces this dreadful name? wilt thou rend thy own Charter, and by blotting this name, blot thy own name out of the book of Life? Suppose there could not be found any other sin in all our Land, suppose swearing had not any other sin to bear it company, suppose there were no foreign enemy in the world to annoy or invade us, yet the frequent use of this infernal dialect and language of the Devil, would prove an engine and rampire strong enough to batter our walls, a sword keen enough to martyr our flesh, an arrow swift enough to drink up our blood, a disease sharp and desperate enough, to make a flaw in our estate, a breach in our peace, and a scar in our Church, a shaking ague, and hot fever, sure enough to shake our Land from one end unto the other; and therefore, if you respect and tender the peace and welfare of this kingdom; if you bear any love to this Nation, if you affect the health of jerusalem, if you wish from your hearts that the flourish and happiness of our state & land may be immortal, if you have any zeal or courage for the Lord of Hosts, then gird your swords upon your thighs, arm yourselves with courage & resolution, to stop the mouth of this crying sin: It is a proud sin, that scorns to quarrel with any under God himself: It is a stout sin, that is always heaving at the strength & foundation of our Land. O suffer it not to walk in your streets, to sit at your boards, to tarry in your shops to jet in your Markets without a check: why should this above all other sins stoop and submit itself to no law? why should this above all other sins be subject to no censure? O that some good Phinehas who is zealous of the name of God, would break us the ice, and take in hand to purchase & procure from our Senate, some wholesome law, some sharp and cutting statute, that might snape the growth, and staunch the bloody flux of this heinous impiety; verily GOD would say of such a man as he said of Phinehas, Numb. 25. This good man that was zealous for my sake, hath turned away mine anger from you; surely happy should be that day, and immortal should be the memory, and honoured for ever should be that man, by whose zealous endeavours so good a work should be effected; their memories should never perish, but wheresoever there should be but mention of their names, there also the good work that they have done, should be spoken of for a memorial of them; and would God we might be so happy as once to see that day. And so I come to the second sin, which is Lying, wherein I dare pass my word I will be brief.  
Cachesh, howsoever in Kal, 
The second positive sin.  it may signify to wax faint, and be without courage, yet in Piel, as here it is used, it signifies to lie; & is by Martyr out of Augustine defined to be either the uttering of some untruth, or the uttering of a truth untruly, with intent and purpose to deceive. Aquinas secunda secundae in his 110. question, 
August. de mendacio.  makes eight kinds of lies, but S. Augustine more concisely comprizes them all in three. The first for profit, which is called officiosum; another for merriment, which is called iocosum; the third of malice, which he calls perniciosum. The first kind of lie takes hold of those, that for a little lucre send truth a packing. The second takes hold of those, who affecting to make others sport, set their wits on working. The third takes hold of those, that use to whet their tongue with gall, to wreak their malice. And there is none of these, either so mincing or so neat and handsome, but it is a foul & loathsome sin. For howsoever Plato in his second Dialogue de Republica; and Quintilian in his twelfth Book of Institutions; and Aquinas in the place beforecited, at the 4. Article, can find in their hearts to wink at such lies as are full of wit and good conceit; and S. Jerome himself, would father some officious lies, even upon the Scripture, from the example of the Egyptian Midwives, Exod. 1. and of Rahab, joshua 2. and of Abraham, Gen. 12. and of jacob, Gen. 27. Yet seeing S. Augustine a better scholar than Plato; and Solomon a better Orator than Quintilian; and both job and Paul, better Commentators then either Aquinas, or Saint Jerome, as I hope will take my part, I shall not shrink nor retract what I have said; that there is no kind of lie, be it never so neatly trimmed, and wittily contrived, 
All sorts of lies be sins.  never so likely to prove good and advantageous, which may not without any slander be censured and noted for a sin.  
For proof whereof, I might appeal to the Essaei among the jews in Eusebius, 
Euseb. de praep. Euangel. lib. 8  his 8. Book de Preparatione evangelica, and 4. cha. to Damascene in the 3. of his Parallels: to Chytraeus in a Tract de jacobi mendacio: to Gerson in his protestation about the matters of Faith: to Saint Bernard de modo bene vivendi, 31. Sermon: Saint Augustine, who of set purpose hath answered S. Jerome in his 8. and 9 Epistles: to the laws of the Persians in Plutarch: 
Plutarch. de vitando.  to infinite other authorities. But when the Scriptures be plain, I list to seek no further. Shall Solomon then be judge? I am contented, upon condition he may be heard to speak out of the 12. of the Proverbs v. 22. for there he hath defined a lie to be abomination in the fight of God. Or if you will hear him speak out of the 6. of Proverbs v. 17. for there he hath pictured a lie with this mot to upon the face: The sin which God abhorreth. Which place is not meant only of the pernicious lie, which is spiced with malice; but also of merry & conceited lies. For otherwise Solomon hath thwarted Hosea, who blacked it on the head for a sin, to make Princes merry with lies, Hosea 7.3. not only of the pernicious lie, that is lined and bolstered with gall and rancour, but also of the officious and profitable lie: otherwise Solomon forgot himself, when he commands, that upon no terms, that upon no conditions, we should make sale of truth, Pro. 23. If any lie might merit or plead not guilty, then surely it should be such a one, as maketh for the defence and increase of God's glory and honour, & yet even this lie also deserves an Anathema, from the 13 of job v. 7.9. will you lie for God's defence? Is it well that one should make a lie for him? The model of time will not abide any profuse or large discourse, I therefore epitomize and contract my larger meditations into this brief sum. The pernicious lie which is of malice, as it hath no father but the devil, so hath it no other Patron to defend it: the lie for sport and merriment we have already disabled; and the ground of the officious lie is but a quicksand, unable to support such a weighty sin. For say thou lie to help thy neighbour at a dead lift, perhaps to save his life, a thing that God command's, this is but a weak supporter; for even in this thou dost thyself more hurt, than thou canst do thy neighbour good, Nisi fiat justis & rectis medijs, 
P. Martyr de mendacio.  saith Martyr unless it be done by lawful and warrantable means. Say thou intent the benefit of the Church, and by consequent Gods greater glory; yet S. Paul will school thee better, Rom. 6.1. Thou mayst not give way to the smallest evil, in hope of the greater good to follow thereupon. If it be objected, that the Egyptian midwives lied, and God blessed them; I answer, that God blessed them not for the lie, but for their faith that wrought in them by love. If it be said that Abraham lied to Pharaoh, and to Abimelech. I answer, it is more than can be proved. Indeed he said that Sarah was his sister, & it was true; for they were the children of the same father, but not of the same mother, as Abraham himself expounds his own meaning, Goe 20.12. but he never denied that she was his wife; Non petit Abraham ut Sarah mentiatur, saith junius, Abraham desired her not to lie: what then? S. August. in his 22. book against Faustus the Maniche, 
Aug. contra Faust. Manic. lib. 22.  answers it thus: Veritatem voluit celari, non mendacium dici: he bid her not speak a word but truth, and yet be wary that she told not all that she knew, à nemine enim id exigitur ut totum depromat quod novit; Phar. ao could not bind them to reveal the whole truth, saith Martyr, in assoiling of this doubt. If it be said that jacob lied when he told his father that he was his elder son Esau; Aquinas answereth, secunda secundae quaest. 110. Artic. 3. 
Aquinus' 2. a. 2.ae. q. 110. Art. 3.  that the saying was mystical not untrue, as if he should have said; I am the elder by grace; or thus, it was Prophetical to show a mystery; Quod minor populus hoc est Gentium substituendus esset in locum primogeniti hoc est judaeorum; By Esau he meant the jews, by himself the Gentiles, and his purpose was to signify that howsoever the jews were Gods first borne, yet they should be cast off, and the Gentiles who were the younger brethren, were they to whom the blessing and the inheritance did belong. But I will dwell no longer on this point. The closure is this, Si quando locuti sunt ut homines, peccasse non diffitebimur: 
P. Martyr. in locis come. de mendacio.  If they speak these things as men they erred, and we deny it not: Sin veró afflatu Dei, mirabimur e●rum dicta sed in exemplum non trahemus: If these things were spoken by the motion and direction of God's Spirit, we will stand in admiration of the wisdom of God; yet dare we not make this practice a pattern for us to imitate, but for all lies we will make bold there to include them, where the day of judgement without repentance will be sure to find them, even in the Catalogue & amidst the beadrole of our sins. Set a watch therefore before thy mouth, and keep the door of thy lips, that thou utter not a lie; set lock & key upon thy ears, that thou entertain not the voice of him that telleth a lie. For as he that telleth the lie, hath the devil in his tongue; so he that heareth the lie hath the devil in his ear, and quickly it creeps in at the ear that will never out of the heart while thy breath is in thee.  
The time hath already commanded me to take my work out of the Looms, and to let the other three sins remain untouched; would God they were also left unpractised: nay, it were well if they were not also professed amongst you. This (beloved) this is the only thing that we the Ministers of God, who come here to spend our breath, would gladly beg, this only is the thing that we would feign beseech with all the bowels of our affections, with our eyes watering, with our flesh shaking, with our hearts bleeding, with our soul's mourning, with all the strings of our hearts enlarged towards you, that you would not suffer these sins to dwell amongst you, that now at length you would draw your swords against sin, which at every corner besiegeth your City, before it begin to batter your walls. It is a crafty Sinon, you cannot lodge it within your gates but with fear and danger of your lives; it is a convicted rebel against heaven, you may not harbour it, it is a professed traitor against the peace and quiet of your Land, you cannot entertain it without suspicion of high treason both against our blessed Saviour, & our gracious Sovereign. Alas beloved, how long, how long, shall the Preacher cry that sin is more to be feared then any treason, and yet we practise it? How long shall the Preacher cry that sin is the only Troyan-horse, whose womb can command a bloody Armado, armed with cruelty and rage to work our overthrow, and yet we entertain and welcome it? how long shall the Preacher cry in our streets, and wring it in your ears, that sin is the only makebate betwixt God and us, & yet we are in league and compact with it? How long shall the Preacher proclaim this truth, that our Land will never be rid of Priests and jesuits, the little Foxes that hinder the growth of the Gospel, till first we have cried down our sin, and yet we will not leave it? how long shall the Preacher cry, nay, weary the strings of his tongue, and weary his sides, and break the veins and the pipes of his heart, with crying that the sin of our Land, that the sin of our people, and the unthankfulness of our Nation, hath taken away the glory and the mirror of Princes, the staff of our comfort, the joy of our heart, and the hope of our Land; and yet we dandle it on our knees, and yet we foster it: we would be lotheto bestow our love upon him that should practise treason against the Crown, and yet we love our sin which is more treacherous: we would be loath to see our Land invaded by foreign enemies that were stronger than we, and yet we keep our sin at home, which is more dangerous: surely our eyes would sink into their holes, and our hairs start from of our heads, and our hearts would break in sunder within our sides, if ever we should hear of the subversion of our State, of the sacking of our Kingdom, of the downfall of our Churches, of the burning of our houses and Cities over our heads, of the eclipfe and darkening of the Gospel amongst us: and yet alas our sins are stirring the ashes, & blowing the coals, and putting oil to the flame of God's displeasure, and how shall we quench it? we must quench it by a flood of tears, by watery eyes, by bleeding hearts, by pensive souls; we must quench it by making oureys fountains, & our heads springs, & our hearts rivers of tears: nay, let us even turn our fountain of tears into a stream, and our stream of tears into a flood, & our flood of tears into an Ocean, and let that Ocean be bottomless, & that spring boundless, and that fountain of tears never be dried up, that God may be pleased to heal our Land, which he hath shaken, to renew our hopes which he hath crossed, to turn away the judgement which he hath threatened, to crown us with those myriads of blessings which he hath promised: and amongst all these thy blessings, writ down these particular by name; Crown our gracious Sovereign, and this Kingdom with immortal happiness; let the Sceptre never departed from his seed; let none of his seed ever departed away from thee: weaken the walls of Babel; continue the light of thy holy Gospel; bless our friends; convert, or else confound, or infatuate ourfoes; kindle our zeal; soften our hearts; heal our fores; pardon our sins; save our souls at the last day, for thy Son Christ jesus his sake.  
FINIS.   

England's SECOND SUMMONS.  
A Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross the 5. of February, Anno Domini, 1615.  
By THOMAS SUTTON Bachelor of Divinity, than Fellow of Queen's College in Oxford, and now Preacher at S. Mary Oueries.  
The second Impression, Perused and Corrected by the Author.  REV. 3.19. 
Be zealous and repent.  
LONDON, Printed by NICHOLAS OKES for MATTHEW LAW, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the Fox. 1616.   

ENGLAND'S SECOND Summons  REV. 3.15.16. 
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou werest either cold or hot.  
Therefore, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, it will come to pass, that I shall spew thee out of my mouth.  
THIS whole chapter contains in it three Epistles indited by God in the consistory of Heaven, sent by his faithful servant john, unto three famous Churches of Asia.  
Every Epistle may be broken into four quarters.  
The first, an Exordium, or entrance: The second a general proposition: The third a narration: The fourth an Epilogue or conclusion.  
My Text is part of the last Epistle, directed to the Church of Laodicea, whose Exordium, or entrance, is set down in the 14 verse; wherein I note.  

First, the party to whom this Epistle was directed, it is the Angel of the Church of Laodicea.  
Secondly, the party greeting or sending, it is Amen; God blessed for ever.   
The Proposition in the 15 verse, I know thy works.  
The Natration from the 15. verse to the 22. The Epilogue and closure, verse the last.  
In the narration I discover four particulars.  

First, I find her checked and reprehended for her lukewarmness, vers. 15.  
Secondly, I find her chid and threatened, verse sixteen.  
Thirdly, I hear here her exhorted to more heat and fervency in zeal, vers. 19  
Lastly, I see her entreated and alured by a gracious promise, verse 20.   
And surely this sickness of Laodicea, was a sickness unto death, seeing the most sovereign sprigs of balm which the Physician could find in all Gilead, were not sufficient to assuage her grief, or mitigate her pain.  
If you long to see the breaking up of my Text into smaller fractions. In it you may observe:  
First, a prerogative royal appropriated only unto God, I know thy works.  
Secondly, the deplored estate of these Laodiceans, wherein you have: First, the crime which was objected, Thou art neither hot nor cold: Secondly, the aggravation of the crime, by comparing lukewarmness in religion with another sin damnable in itself, yet pardonable in respect of this: Would God thou werest either hot or cold. Thirdly, the sentence of malediction which he passed upon them; Therefore I will spew thee out of my mouth.  
And thus have I briefly and coarsely made my first draft, whereby you may guess at the limbs, and gather the proportion of my whole discourse.  
Now if God shall continue his gracious assistance, and you your christian attention; I shall employ my best end evours, for this model of time, to express the perfect feature of every member, beginning with that prerogative royal, which none can justly claim, but God. I know thy works; as if in fuller terms he had spoken thus: thou dost but feed thyself with vain and fruitless hopes, thou thinkest thou hast done me good service by kneeling in my house, and hearing of my word, and by a tolerable care in the outward observance of my Laws; but for thy love thou hast espoused that unto the world, for thine affection thou hast wedded that unto thine Herodias, for thy zeal thou hast inflamed that with the love of thy own wanton Dalilah: thou bowest in mine house, but thou worshippest Rimmon: thou professest my name, but thou servest thine own belly: thou runnest for a Crown, but thou lookest back like Atalanta, and reachest at those balls of Gold which the Devil like a crafty Hippomenes hath scattered in the way. In the time of peace thou lookest fair, like the Curtains of Solomon, or the Apples of Sodom; but if I nurture thee never so lightly with my rod of correction, I find thee black as Kedar, and rotten as the Clay in the depth of winter: thou prayest that my name may be hallowed, but thou swearest rashly, and thou thinkest I he are thee not: thou committest adultery with all thy lovers, and thou thinkest that the night and the darkness shall be a Canopy to hide thee that I see thee not: thou grindest the faces of the poor for whom I died: thou underminest the little Church which I have planted, and thou thinkest that I know it not: but alas for thee, the strength of thy wit hath increased thy sin, for there is not a thought so secret, but I can tell it, not a cabin so retired but I am in it, no closet so secure but I can open it, nor no work so cunningly contrived and wrought, but I shall know it.  
When thou drawest the curtains to commit adultery, and sayest, no eye seethe me; then am I standing beside thy bed, when thou art hammering and contriving bloody and treasonable practices, and sayest no care heareth me; then am I liftning within thy Closet: When thou art hiding the spoils, which thou hast taken from the Church, and sayest, no man can control me; then am I looking thee in the face, and shaking my rod over thee. I am about thy paths, and about thy bed, and I take notice of all thy ways, I know all thy works: which one mineral, contains more fragments of inestimable treasures, then can be gathered up in so short a time, I will content myself with the bare touching of one Pearl, which lies as it were above ground, obvious to the eyes of every passenger, described in these terms. There is no work, no purpose so secret which is not open and manifest to the eyes of God. 
We can hide nothing from God.   
I shall not need to be prodigal in spending mine own breath, or your attention, in propping such a known and ancient Theorem, I purposely omit the many fruitless disputations of Lombard in his first book of Distinctions; and of Aquinas in the first of his Sums the fourteenth Question: only thus much I must needs praemise; that there is in GOD a twofold knowledge. The one special, which in Schools is termed the knowledge of Approbation, whereby God is said only to know his own sons and children, and not the reprobates, whereof we read, Matthew. 7.23. Away from me ye wicked, I know you not. And Romans 11.2. God hath not cast away his people, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which he knew before. The other general, and absolute, whereby he readeth the most retired thoughts, and secret purposes both of the good and bad; as if he had them noted in great and capital characters before his eyes. The former, which is the knowledge of Approbation, pertaineth to the unsearchable and eternal decree of God's Predestination, and stands far enough aloof out of my way. The other which is absolute and general, is now at the Bar, and ready to be tried.  
Shall Moses be the judge? then hear him in the sixth of Genesis, at the fifth verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord saw the inward meanings of the heart. The heart is seated in a darksome closet walled round about with flesh, swaddled up and covered with the richest hangings of nature's wardrobe, so charily attended, so shrouded with vails, that though thou bear it in thy bosom, though thou feed it with thine own goods, though thou study to delight & please it, though it be thine own, yet if thou wouldst give a world for a sight, thou couldst not have it. Yet neither is the heart so close imprisoned, but he beholdeth, nor a thought so privily conceived, but he describeth, nor a spark of lust so softly blown and kindled, but he discerneth, nor the smallest seed of ungodliness, so warily covered, but he revealeth it. Shall we be tried by Solomon? Then hear him in the 1. Book of Kings, chapter 8. and verse 39 The Lord knoweth the hearts of all the sons of men. Shall we be tried by GOD himself? Then hear him in the first book of Samuel, chapter 16. verse 7. Man beholdeth the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. Shall we be tried by David? Then hear him in the first Book of Chronicles, chapter the 28. verse the 9 The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all imaginations of the thoughts. O hear him in that passionate Ode, that he compiled when the nefarious projects of Absalon, and Shimei, had almost broken his heart, psalm 139. The Lord understandeth my thoughts before I have conceived them, he is about my paths,  quid foris perpetrem: to watch what I do abroad, and about my bed:  quid privatus cogitem: to observe what I do at home, he spieth out all my ways: whereto the Apostle hath suited his style: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are naked and open, or as it were anatomised, and cut up before his eyes, for that is the Apostle Saint Paul's allusion, in the fourth chapter and thirteenth verse to the Hebrews. You shall find in the second book of the Kings and sixth chapter that the King of Aram could never plot so secretly against Israel, but Israel got wit and notice of it. This Aram is a fit Emblemeto resemble us, who can not entertain a sinful thought, though slumbering upon our beds, nor effect a wicked purpose, though bolted in our lodging, when our Windows are closed, and our Curtains drawn, but this eye of heaven sees it, writes it down in the Book of his Accounts, and at the last day will summon and warn our souls to a reckoning for it, Pecces quocunque sub axe, sub jove semper eris. Though thou journey to the lowest vault and dungeon of Hell to hide thyself in the ashes of Tophet: yet still shalt thou find it most true which the Heathen Poet spoke merrily of his Silenus. 
Virg. Egl. 6.  Ad Lunae luminae visus eris. He knows what thou art doing, better than thou canst tell him, and therefore Pierius in his three and thirtieth of his Hirogliphicks, out of Cyril, and Eucherius wittily resembles GOD by the picture of an eye, standing upon the top of a staff, the staff is the Emblem of his power & Sceptre, wherewith he governs, and the eye is the Emblem of his all-searching knowledge, whereby he diveth and pierceth into the secrecy of all hearts.  
Which point (let it be as stolen and common as it will) would it once be learned, were able enough of itself, to snape the growth of all our sins, and staunch the bloody issue of all our impieties. It was the counsel of Bernard in his book de Vita solitaria, and of wise Seneca in his 11. Epistle; Semper proponendus ante oculos vir bonus, ut tanquam illo spectant vivamus, tanquam illo vidente faciamus. The honest heathen was of opinion, that no man would presume to sin, that had not some hope to escape unseen. Come hither & learn, thou dissembling hypocrite; 
God seethe hypocrites.  Introrsum turpis speciosus pelle decora: thou that coggest and dalliest with GOD, come hither and learn, thou lookest like to a goodly painted Tomb, but within thou art lined with rottenness and with corruption, and GOD hath spied it; thou makest the world believe, that thou art all zeal, that thou lovest no house but the Church, no household but the Saints, that thou honour'st no master but God, that thou longest for no home but Heaven, that thou affectest no joy but Spiritual, that thou reachest at no honour but immortal; and yet thou wilt take a bribe like Gehezi; Thou wilt grate the faces, and sip the purses, and pair the livings, and leave desolate the mansions of the poor without inhabitants, and yet thinkest that no eye shall see thee. Alas for thee, deplored Wight, wilt thou blow nothing but Akeldama, a field of blood, and sow nothing in it but Zizania, the tars of iniquity, and still think no eye shall see thee? Alas for thee; wilt thou openly plight thy troth unto God, and privately wed thyself unto the world? wilt thou burn with zeal at the Church, and freeze at home? wilt thou dispute and speak for Christ, but fight and strive against him? wilt thou bear a fair golden tongue in thy mouth, and a foul cankered heart in thy belly? wilt thou wear Christ's Livery on thy back, and wear the devils favour, and the shreds of his banner in thy bosom? wilt thou speak aloud, Psal. 51. Lord make me a clean heart, & create a right spirit within me: but underneath join prayer with him in the Satire, Da mihi fallere, da justum, sanctúmque videri, noctem peccatis & fraudibus obijce nubem: that is, be nothing less indeed, than what thou seemest, and wouldst be thought to be, and still think that no eye shall see thee; wretched and shameless man, darest thou not sin in the presence of a man, and yet lie foaming and weltering in sin, in the presence and sight of blessed Angels?  
O Emblem of folly! Art thou ashamed to sin in the sight and presence of a man, and yet lie rotting in sin, and tumbling in blood, and courting of vice, and murdering thy own soul, before the face of a dreadful and awful God? Were it not altogether as good for thee to damn thy soul in the sight of men, as in the view and sight of God? What folly like to this, to watch and tend a poor soul without doors, and stab it behind a curtain? or what folly like this, to keep thy soul well and carefully, when men see thee, but to wound it in secret? or what folly like this, to tender thy soul at the Church, and to damn it in thy Closet?  
Let the unchaste wanton, 
God sees adulterers  and the adulterer by name remember this. Surely, thou of all other art one of salomon's fools: and the Wise man hath drawn thy portraiture, Ecclesiasticus the 23. chapter, and 18. and 19 verses, Thou fearest nothing but the eyes of man, thou sayest in thine heart, who seethe me? I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, whom need I to fear? Nulla est in rima, 
Eras. Dial.  nullus qui me exaudiat: The black and sable hangings of the night have bespredde themselves over me; either now or never, I may sin with safety, I shall wipe my mouth in the morning, and not be descried. Not descried sayest thou? then surely thou mayest be bold to sin, all will be well. But shalt thou not be descried indeed? Canst thou make thy door so fast, that the arm of the Almighty, and all the strength of heaven cannot open it? Is there any darkness so thick and palpable that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eyes of Heaven cannot spy thee thorough it? 
Homerus.  Is there any vail so close, that the Father of Lights, and descrier of secrets cannot find it? I dare presume thou darest not think it, for when thou hast muzzled thy face like Thamar, to take a short and sinful pleasure, and hid thyself like Sarah, behind the door, or with Adam behind the bushes; or with jonah, in the keel and belly of the ship, yet thou must say unto thy God as Ahab said unto Elijah, 1. Kings 21.20. Hast thou found me O mine enemy? Nay O God terrible and dreadful thou hast found me? And then let me ask thee in the same terms that the young gallant in Erasmus, asked his wanton Mistress, An non pudet id facere in conspectu Dei, ac testibus Sanctis Angelis, quod pudet facere in conspectu hominum? May not the Sun be ashamed, and the Stars gloom, and the heavens be astonished, to see the hair of thy head how it standeth, the windows of thy head how they slip and sink into their holes; thy pulses how they beat, thy flesh how it shaketh, thy heart how it panteth, thy conscience how it is perplexed; how it hovereth, how it chaseth itself for fear of miscarrying and trespassing before the judges of the world, which are but little Globes of earth, and pictures of living clay; but if once the curtains of heaven be drawn, and the firmament hanged with blacks, and thou entrenched with ruinous and dampy walls, and none sees thee but God, than thy conscience falls fast asleep again, thy Herodian tells thee thou art too too fearful, thy flesh tells thee thou art too too bashful; nay, thou turnest powerful Orator thus to persuade thy own self, that there is now no cause to fear: The eye which I feared is now overcast and surprised with sleep: the light which I doubted, is now overshadowed and covered with darkness; the witness which I suspected, is now retired and out of sight, none sees but God, why then should I fear? As if there were no fear of going to hell, but that a man should see thee going, were intolerable; as if it were no shame to sin, but to be descried and taken, were inexpiable; as if the sin itself were but a trifle, only the want of cunning and neat conveyance, made it execrable; whereas all this while an angry God stands looking on thee, and an iron rod is shaken over thee, and a bottomless Tophet is gaping for thee. Alas for thee deplored wight; wilt thou make every sinful pleasure a halter to strangle thee? and every strange flesh a lure to take thee? Wilt thou press out of every bunch of grapes a pond to drown thee, because thou canst choke thyself in this silken halter, and poison thyself with this strange lure, and yet escape the censure of men? Surely thy own soul and conscience, may seem to be the author and penman of this, or the like ruthful and passionate Elegy. O wanton flesh whom I am enforced to serve! O rebellious carcase, whose prisoner I remain! O sinful body whose Tenant I am, and in whose womb I dwell! Why dost thou not cease to kill me? In ipso scelere est supplicium sceleris; It were even as good for me to be wounded in the view and face of the world, as to be priest to death, and stifled in a corner: and as good for me to be hailed to the slaughter, and assaulted in the open field, as to be murdered in a private chamber. What if no man see thee, yet God sees thee? Who is greater than he? What if no man charge thee, yet God can condemn thee? What if thou delude the human Consistory, and man's Tribunal, yet shouldst thou tremble to trespass against thy God who is greater than he. It was a pretty saying of Epicurus, in Seneca his 97. Epistle. Quid si tuta possint esse seelera, si secura esse non possint? vel quid prodest nocentibus habuisse latendi facultatem, cum latendi fiduciam non habent? If the sinner be hemmed and guarded with walls, and yet have a conscience to bait and to dog him: If the wanton be attended and clothed with darkness, and yet have a God to see and revenge him, then where is his comfort? or how is he safer for sinning in secret?  
Remember this, corrupt Gehazi, that pocketest bribes in private: Remember this great Plotter of the world, that reachest at a hungry preferment with more haste then good speed, by giving and taking of pledges, to bind and confirm unlawful promises that are made in secret: and let us all remember this, that our hearts must needs be shamelessly sinful, and our cases utterly desperate, and our end undoubtedly miserable, if we dare fly in the face of God, and grieve his holy Spirit, and rip our saviours wounds, and stab his blessed sides, because we have the darkness for a mask, and the night for a covering, and the walls for a defence, and God hath none to bear him witness. It was a good Position of Boetius, 
Boaetius de consolation Philosophy, lib. 5. last prose.  de consolation Philosophiae, his fifth Book and last Prose, Magna est necessitas probitatis, cum agitis ante oculos, judicis cuncta cernentis: A man cannot choose but be good, who remembers that he stands always in the sight of God: And therefore Prudentius in one of his Hymns gives this good memorandum, 
Prudentius Himnorum l. 1.  quicquid ages furtimuè, palamuè, memento inspectatorem semper adesse Deum.  
And here would I gladly make a stop, and stint my meditations in this point, but that I find two of the best sorts of men, that may justly wait and expect some further use. The one would have encouragement, the other would have comfort from my doctrine, and I have sufficient to content them both. The one is he that spendeth his breath and spirits in doing of good. The other is he that is breathless already, being almost disconsolate, and out of heart, by sustaining of evils, each of them shall have a taste, lest if I send them empty home, the one should be discouraged, the other discontented in the way.  
Give me a man that hath coped and buckled with the sins of the time: 
An encouragement to do good.  Give me a man that hath studied the advancement of Religion; Give me a man that hath pleaded the Lord's cause against the favourites of Baal, as Elias did, 1. Kings 18. That hath provided for the Prophets, as Elisha did, 2. Kings 6. That shows himself zealous for the Lord of Hosts, as Phineas did, Numbers 25. at the 11. That hath encouraged those that fight the battles of the Lord as Abigail did, the first of Samuel the 25. That hath reform the contempt of the Sabboath, as Nehemiah did, Nehem. the 13. the 22. and then tell me what can be more available to inflame his zeal, to set edge upon his affection, to make him Christianly ambitious in striving for heaven, to make him outvie and outstrip his brethren, to make a man sweat and tug with more eagerness and fervency of spirit, in building of the house or provoking the Gospel of Christ, than this one; that God sees him, that the heavens applaud him, that God and Angels are spectators, God and Angels attendants to grace and honour him? Was there ever spirit so degenerous and base that will not stir and strike with violence, when the eye of his Colonel is fixed full upon him? And is there not as good reason, that the Christian warrior should march with a courage against sin, because his Master and Captain jesus Christ never casts his eye of him? If Elias be pleading against Baal, this should make him more hot and vehement; If Elisha be providing for the Prophets, this should make him more careful and solicitous; If Abigail be encouraging and relieving those that fight the battles of the Lord, this should make her more cheerful and magnificent; If the Preacher be hewing, and slashing at sin, this should make him more industrious and resolute, considering that there hath not been so much, as a good purpose in thy heart; thou hast not once opened thy mouth in the Lord's cause, thou hast not glven a drop of water to one of his Disciples, thou hast not relieved one of his members, thou hast not preferred one of his Prophets; thou hast not broken the heart, nor wounded the head, nor staunched the passage of any one sin, but God hath seen it, and penned it down, and doth remember it, and will reward it: Go on then in the name and blessing of God; and if thou have goods relieve Christ jesus in his afflicted members with it: If thou have learning, make the Church of GOD thine adopted heir, and leave some remembrance in it: If thou have authority show it in cutting off sin that endangers the Land; in giving of life to Religion, which now lies in a swoon; show it in scourging and whipping of vice: bring glory to thy God comfort to thy soul, honour and immortality to thy Country by it. If thus thou have behaved thyself, then go on and the Lord be with thee: And as thou goest thus cheer up thy heart. Great was the good I intended, though I have not performed it: Laboured I have, though not much prevailed; I have coped with sin, though I could not discomfit it; I have snaped the growth of some ungodliness, though I could not dig up the roots of it: I have done my best, though that which is best I have not done. Shall I be discouraged because I can but do my best, and not so much as I should? Surely no. I will still be doing some good, and striving to do better; if I mend and do never so much; I will strive to do more; If I prevail, God shall have glory, if I prevail not, yet still I will strive; because there is nothing that I do or purpose, but my God doth see it, writes it in his book, doth remember it, and will reward it.  
Thus he that doth good hath had his encouragement. The next is he that endureth afflictions: If I may beg your attention till I have reached him but a morsel of comfort, I will presently proceed to that which follows. Give me a man hath not lived so many minutes of time, as he hath read and perused whole decades and volumes of woe; or a man that hath not eaten so many morsels of bread, as he hath digested whole loads and burdens of grief, or a man that never tasted so many drops of drink, as he hath shed streams and rivers of tears; or a man that hath no follower but pain, no retainer but discontent, no companion but grief of heart; that pens no songs but sad complaints, and mournful Elegies; that endites no descants but sighs and groans, that sings no tunes but Lachrimae; give me such a man as this, and you shall see, that this little sprig of balm, which I plucked from my Text, will make him whole and sound again: And this is it. The Lord sees thee. 
An encouragement to endure affliction.  Thou dost not shed a tear for his sake, but he puts it into his bottle, Psal. 56. ver. 8. The enemy hath not made a scar or a scratch in thy face, but he accounts it done unto himself; Thou hast not sweat one drop of water for his sake, but he that sweat drops of blood for thee, he doth regard it. There is not one furrow in thy back, but he both searcheth the wound, and provideth balm and oil to supple it.  
This was it that comforted Elias in the Wilderness, and Daniel in the Cave; and job on the dunghill, and jeremy in the dungeon; and this is it that must cheer and comfort thee; every sigh that thou fetchest, every tear thou shedst, every drop thou sweatest, every wound thou feelest, every stroke thou bearest, every threat thou endurest, is both seen and noted, and recorded, in God's Writing-booke, and when that Book shall be opened, then shall all tears be wiped from thine eyes, then shall thy wounds be washed with oil, then shall thy sores be healed with balm, Et haec olim meminisse iwabit, Thou shalt remember with joy the days and nights which thou hast passed in heaviness, then no more sowing in tears, but reaping in joy: Then no more mournful Elegies, but this, or some higher strain of heavenly eloquence: I was wont to be brewing and spending of tears, but now am I swimming and bathing in pleasure: For every tear do I find rivers of Comfort, for every moment of grief, a world of contentment, I had once no Songs, but sighs and sobs, no tunes, but groans: But now my sighs are turned, and my groans are changed into Hallelujahs, my ditty is Halleluiah, my strains Halleluiah, Halleluiah. Glory, and praise, and honour be ascribed, etc.  
Thus this one point, that God describeth our works, and purposes, ingeminates & proclaims a woe and terror to the hypocrite, and the Adulterer, but encouragement to the good, and to the afflicted store of comfort, I close it thus. God sees thee Hypocrite, hereafter dissmble not. God sees thee Adulterer, hereafter commit it not again. God seethe thee good Christian, go on and fear not, God seethe thee afflicted soul, go on and despair not. Hypocrite God sees thee, then be as good as thou wouldst be accounted, Adulterer, God seethe thee, then do not that on the night, which on the day light thou darest not. Good Christian, GOD seethe the, continue in doing well, he will shortly crown thee. Afflicted man, God sees thee, stand and sweat, and endure, he is now coming to release thee. And so I proceed from God's excellent prerogative: I know thy ways, To the crime objected against Laodicea; Thou art neither hot nor cold.  
Not to trouble you with such a variety of expositions, as Pererius out of Haimo, out of Gregory in the third of his Pastorals, as also out of Liranus, and Bernard, and Rupertus, have noted ready to my hand. Out of the very best of them, I think I may thus resolve. By Hot, I mean a man zealous of God's honour, and worship, whose zeal is built and founded on knowledge, whose heart is not infected, nor tainted with pride. By Cold, I mean such i'll and frozen caitiffs, as do wed and espouse themselves unto the world, and make no conscience of religion. 
who are to be meant by hot, & cold, and lukewarm.  By Lukewarm, I mean such as do divide their love between GOD and the world, and their service between God and Baal, and their allegiance between God and Mammon, that love God in word, but the world in heart, that profess Religion only so far, as religion makes for their commodity. The second sort of professors, which are cold Christians, the Lord will refuse. The Third sort, which are Lukewarm Gospelers, the Lord will spew out of his mouth, only the first who have given the world and Baal their bills of Divorce, and sent them away, and not only abjured them, but are zealous for the glory and worship of the GOD of Heaven, these only are here commended, their service only is accepted. So that my doctrine cometh off with ease, and thus offers itself to meet me in the way.  
The profession of religion without zeal and forwardness is odious and loathsome unto God. 
Profession without zeal is odious.  For evidence, I appeal to the silver Trumpets of Heaven, and the Watchmen of Israel, read unto me, what might be the cause why Moses, in the 32. chapter of Exodus should wish to be razed out of the Book of Life; why Paul, in Romans the 9 chapter, the third, should desire a separation from the protection and love of Christ? was it not the fire of their zeal, and the fervency of their Spirit, that made them thus impatient of the least impeachment, that could be offered to the glory of their Sovereign and majesty of their God?  
Paul and Moses the Seedmen of Religion, their profession the prop and stay whereon the Church of God doth lean, their lives like to that Star in the second chapter of Saint Matthew, to bring us to CHRIST; and yet all their preaching, had it wanted zeal, and their profession, had it wanted heat, and their service, had it wanted this earnest longing, and ardency of affection, to credit and honour their Lord and Master, all their Religion had been but vain, all their profession but formal, all their service but smooth dissembling in the sight of God. If josiah had only refused to bow and kneel to Baal, or had he only professed the service of the true God, and gone no farther, he had endured as sharp a censure as Azariah the King of judah. He did uprightly in the sight of God, but the high places were not taken away, and therefore the Lord smote him, the second Book of the Kings, and 15. chapter. And the Scriptures would not have so much commended him, but because he was zealous for the glory of GOD, because he was forward to destroy their Groves, and zealous to break down their Chemarims, and forward to throw down their Altars, & sacrifice their priests, this was it that God liked, and this was it that the Scriptures commended: and this was it that won him high title and immortal honour from all the Kitgs that were either before or after him: the second Book of Kings the 23. chapter and the 25. verse. It is not to be questioned but that this Laodicea a Church so famous, did make profession of religion, did worship the true and immortal deity, did give ear and attention to the preaching of john, was thoroughly acquainted with all the grounds and principles of the Christian faith. We read of no heresy that she maintained, of no superstitious worship that she harboured, and yet he will spew her out of his mouth. The abomination of desolation must be set up in her high places. She must fall as though she had never been planted, and whither as though the seed of the Word had never been rooted, her Churches must be sacked, her ancient glory must end in shame; In stead of the sacred Bible, she must rove at the way to Heaven in an unhallowed and blasphemous Alcoran, and in stead of skilful Pilots, and Christian guides, she shall be utterly misled by an Ignis fatuus, I mean Turks and Infidels: read now unto me what might be the cause of this. Laodicea was much of Ephraim's temper, in the seventh of Hosea, like a cake upon the hearth but half baked, Laodicea was like the people of Meroz in the fifth of the judges, nothing forward. Laodicea was like those shrinkers in the ninth of jeremy, that had no courage for the truth, she wanted heat in her profession, she wanted life and spirit in Christ's cause, she most of all wanted that which he most of all required, and that was zeal, nullum enim Deo gratius sacrificium, quam zelus animarum, saith Saint Gregory in the twelfth homily upon Ezechtel.  
Which point will one day nail the heart, and cut deep into the conscience of all those that have so much to do in the Lord's cause, but do either little or nothing for it. And shall I without offence make bold to tell you that which I have received from the Lord, and do the message for which I came hither: Then let me first begin with the fairest; It is you (right Honourable) into whose hands the Lord hath put his Sword, for no other purpose, but to strike at the root, and to draw at the face, and to aim at the heart and strength of sin; if you suffer your Sword to rust in your sheath, and your Arrows to rot in your quiver; if you have a fair profession, and yet we find no good you have done; if you carry a Sword, and yet we hear tell of no sin you have wounded; be a soldier of Christ to quarrel with sin, and yet we remember no field you have pitched; if God have honoured you, and you not honoured him, by baiting and hazling of sin, by cooling the heat, and breaking the heart, & taunching the violent issue of ungodliness, Where then is your zeal? If God be dishonoured, and you not revenge it, if virtue discouraged, and you not defend it; if religion be outfaced, and our land endangered by the inroads and incursions of sin, and you shall not help it; where then is your zeal? If sabboth's be broken, and you have authority, and yet not suppress it; If swearing and drunkenness be accounted but complement, and you have authority, and shall not oppose it. If sin may sit in your shop and feed at your boards, and jette in your Markets; and you have a Sword and yet will not strike it; If God say, strike, or else thou dishonourest me; strike or else I will take the sword from thee; strike, or else thou fight against me; strike, or else I will strike at thee, & yet no punishment, but you will reprieve it where then is your zeal? Let me not offend, I condemn you not, Qui monet ut facias quod iam facis, ipse monendo laudat. I am only your remembrancer to put you in mind of whetting your sword, for a sword without an edge may fright, but woundeth not: to put you in mind of heating and warming your profession. For profession without zeal, is but like the snuff of a candle, that smoketh and stinketh, but neither warmeth nor lighteth the house, to put you in mind of that courage which you should bear, and of that conscience which you should make of the curbing of sin, of the honouring of God, of advancing Religion, lest the sword which you bear, prove a nail unto your heart, and the honour which you bear a dishonour to your Maker; to put you in mind, that a Christian profession, that a high and honourable calling should still be beautified and graced with zeal, and attended with christian resolution. If then you be willing to fight for your Master, if willing to honour and credit your maker; if you would have Religion thank you, and the world to think well of you, good men to praise GOD for you, God's people to pray for you, the heavens to bless you, and all mouths to commend you, all hearts to love you; then must you add zeal to your profession, than string up your bow, make your arrows swift and keen, your sword sharp and glistering, and I beseech God to strengthen both your heart and hand, to sharpen both your Arrows and Sword, to bless you and your good endevorus, that you may bring much honorto his dreadful name, many blessings to this famous City, much peace and comfort to your souls.  
And seeing I am thus far proceeded, let me have leave to add a word or two, to the wise and reverend judges of the Land; you are they whose profession it is to free the weak & impotent, from the yoke and servitude of greater personages, who would swallow them up, to lop and prune the corrupt and rotten branches, that infect and pester the Land, to cut off the traitorous heads of Priests and jesuits, that hinder the peace, to whip and censure our besotted Recusants, that repine at the growth of the Gospel, yet if this godly profession want zeal in performing, if our laws be sovereign but want execution, if you be good men but want resolution, if the poor client solicit that his cause may be ended, if the country beseech that offenders may be punished, if the Preachers entreat and beseech you, for the glory of God, for the honour of our Land, for the peace of our Church, for the safety of his majesties royal person, that you would weaken the forces, and abate the pride, and frustrate the counsel, and either banish or bind to allegiance our hollowhearted and popish foundlings, and you shall not hear the suits, nor satisfy the hopes of our Church and State that cry and call for the sweeping and purging of our land of all noisome and infestious weeds, which the envious man of Rome hath sown and planted; then you do more dishonour God by want of zeal, than ever you can honour him by your profession: If therefore you desire to make your profession glorious, your graces eminent; if you desire to make Religion beholding to you, good men to bless God for you, our Land to thank and reward you, the Church to pray for you, all hearts to love you, all mouths to commend you, and God's blessing upon you, then must you add zeal to profession. Be zealous like jehu, for the glory of God, 2. Kings 10. Be zealous to break the thread of contentions without demurs and delays: Be zealous to ease the Church of those that contend and wrestle in her womb, to ease the Land from Dan to Beersheba, from the one end to the other, of all such spiteful miscreants as desire and long to see the Sceptre removed from juda: that speak of us as Scipio in Polybius did of Rome, 
Polybius apu Curionem lib. 3.  at the burning of Carthage, Illadies veniet, cum flamma hac templa peribunt; who have hope that they shall one day see our Churches burned, our Cities sacked, our courage daunted, our State subverted, our Religion altered, our Sovereign buried, the Gospel silenced, and our light removed: But o thou wise and immortal God, that sittest upon the circle of the heaven, and seest what these bloodsucking and deplored wights are devising against Thee, and thine anointed Servant; against thy poor Church and true Religion, against our State & against our Kingdom; fill the hearts of our Magistrates with zeal, strengthen their hands with resolution and courage to cut them off: infatuate the counsel of these Achitophel's, but grant ioyand peace unto thy Church, long life and happiness to our gracious Sovereign, purity and continuance of true Religion, growth and passage to the Gospel, glory and immortal happiness to this State and Kingdom. Lord say Amen to our requests, and let every one that loves this Nation, that cares for Zion, that favours Religion, that wisheth well to our Sovereign, help me with their prayers, hold up their hands, and lift up their voices to heaven and say, Amen, Amen.  
And seeing I am thus far proceeded, deny me not your attention till I have left a word of exhortation to my brethren of the Clergy; You are they whose breasts should be signed with urim and Thummim, and your foreheads marked with this inscription, Holiness to the Lord, Exod. 28.36. your profession is the winning of souls, your charge weighty; if you win them great is your glory, if you lose them your danger intolerable. But if your people lie at the side of Bethesda, and you will not trouble the water for them; if they long for the crumbs of your spiritual benediction, and shall not obtain them; if they would sit at your feet to hear your Preaching; if they gasp for this heavenly bread, and cry for the waters of comfort, and yet must starve and die for want of them; then your want of care makes your profession odious; your want of zeal makes your profession dangerous; your want of forwardness in Religion, makes Religion be termed but policy; you can never gain so many souls by your profession, as you may destroy and murder for want of zeal. john was not only a lamp shining in his Sermons, but a torch burning with zeal; Nam qui non ardet, non accendit, saith S. Barnard: nec lucere potest nisi priùs ardeat, saith Aquinas upon the fifth of john; If yourselves burn not with zeal how can you inflame the hearts of others? If you burn not yourselves, then can you give no light to others. You are Lucernae quoad officium, but extinctae quoad effectum, like snuffs in the midst of a golden Candlestick: Suffer me then to exhort and charge you all, that look for joy and comfort on the bed of your sickness, that look for a gracious welcome to the Supper of the Lamb; that would have your heads crowned, and your souls saved at the last day, that now in the prime of your life, and the light of the Gospel, you would add burning zeal to Christian profession, for than would good Laws be strictly executed, then would sin be sharply punished, then would our Recusants be roundly censured, then would the Gospel be frequently Preached, then would Religion flourish, and God be highly honoured. But alas for us all, where or in whom shall we find it? where is the glowing of the ears? where is the wring of the hands? Where is the beating of the breasts? Where is the sparkling of the eyes? Where is the yearning of the Bowels? The shaking of the flesh? The panting of the heart? The thriftless Gallants are outvying of oaths, and our bearts are not wounded; your obscene and Whorish stages bereave this Land of many hopeful sprigs, deprive the Gentry of many hopeful stems, fill this City with prodigious vices; turn good, and ingenuous, and hopeful natures, into prodigal and dissolute, and lewd professors, and yet our hearts are not nailed, where then is our zeal? God is dishonoured, Recusants are and will be suffered, sin is and will be maintained, zeal is and must be taunted; a good conscience is & must be laughed out of countenance; Religion is and must be brought under hatches, and sent a begging, and yet our hearts are not moved, where then is our zeal?  
And because there is no point wherein a man may sooner overshoote himself then in this, I will in a word or two deliver some plain and easy rules whereby a man may judge whether his zeal be currant or counterfeit. 
Marks of true zeal.   
1 The matter must be good Gal. 4.18. 
The 1.  or else it is not zeal but devilish and fleshly heat a frenzy, and madness, counterfeiting the name of zeal like the zeal of those Idolater that mangled and cut themselves, 1 Kings 18. Like the zeal of the Scribes and Pharisee who compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes: Like the zeal of Paul before his conversion: Like the zeal of ignorant Papists and Brownists at this day, who are hot indeed; for they must needs run whom the devil drives, Sed incalescunt in re frigida: They are like bits of lime never so hot and smoking as in cold water, never earnest but in evil causes: Which may be hence convicted, because they use no weapons but such as the devil puts into their hands, to wit, railing and detracting, and rotten speeches the only Patrons for such bad causes.  
2 Zeal must begin at home; 
The 2.  for they are most skilful Physicians, and best able to deal with others, that have first wrought a cure upon their own souls; to check all those that wade deep into the souls, and bloodily go are the consciences of other men, but have not purged their own unclean sinks at home; no not drawn one drop of menstruous blood, out of their own corrupt and rotten hearts: Like Pharisees who censured Christ but not themselves; like Brownists, who stretch their veins, and make their bowels swell, with crying, Disorder, Disorder, amongst us, but leave sinks of sin unpurged, cages of sin uncleansed, bands and troops of sin untamed and unvanquished under their own roofs.  
3 True zeal will look as carefully to the heart before God, 
The 3.  as the behaviour in the sight of men, and make a man as fearful to sin, when he is alone, as when he is in company of men. Thus it wrought with job, chap. 31. And thus with joseph, Gen. 39 A check to those that would not be accounted ill, but make no conscience of doing ill; that would be called good men, but have no heart to good actions.  
4 If it be true zeal it will make thee more strict to thyself, then to others, 
The 4.  and give more liberty to another than thou wilt take thyself; Abraham was so strict to himself, that he would not take of the King of Sodom, so much as a thread, or shoe-latchet, and yet would not deny to Aner and Eschol and Mamre, their liberty Gen. 14.23. and therefore it must be termed rather pride than zeal to be too tetrical and rough, that whosoever is not in every point so precise as ourselves, should be turned out as dogs, or profane persons unworthy of our account and countenance.  
5 True zeal feareth not the faces of the mighty; 
The 5.  when we must beware of their precipitancy, who will charge the Minister to be of a cold constitution, if he break not abruptly into open reprehension men in authority; which 〈◊〉 to reprove without the spi●●● of meekness, to exasperate there then to humble the part admonished.  
Lastly, 
The 6.  if it be true zealed will make thee brook and po●● many private wrongs done thyself, but hot and impati●●● of any dishonour unto G●● When the Israelites offered 〈◊〉 ●uate wrongs to Moses, he was wont to speak mildly and pray earnestly for them; but when they fell to Idolatry, a matter which concerned God, than his fire was kindled, than he breaks the Tables, and stamps the Calf to powder, and casts the ashes into the water, and makes them to drink up their God, Exod. 32.  
I fear I have dwelled too long upon the point, the closure is but this; Let us all bestir ourselves when God's cause is a judging, and be earnest when his glory is in question; be zealous to strike when he himself puts the sword in our hands; be calous to speak when himself puts the word in our mouths: let every one that wears the coat and livery of Christ, writ ●eale upon his breast, And o thou holy and blessed Spirit come unto us as thou camest to thine Apostles, in shape of fiery tongues, that our tongues may be tipped and enamuled, our hearts seasoned, our souls inflamed, our profession graced with zeal of thy honour and worship, that sin may be shaken, thy Name exalted, thy Truth embraced, our Church continued, our Land blessed, our souls saved, when these few and miserable days shall be ended. And so I come from the crime objected, 
The crime objected against Laodicea.  Thou art neither hot nor cold, to see how the sin is aggravated in the next words, Would God thou wert eithor hot or cold. Which words are not so to be understood, as if they should have pleased him well enough, had they been either hot or cold, or any thing but lukewarm, Non ostendit quid probat, sed quid praefert, but his meaning was to let them know, that he so disliked lukewarmness in Religion, and indifferency in profession of Christianity, that he should have liked them better, and their condition should not have been so desperate, had they made no conscience, or had no knowledge, as now it was by their hypocrisy and want of zeal: so that the point which by the Holy Ghost is here delivered, may be comprised in these terms.  
It were better to be of no Religion at all, 
Better to be of no Religion then to be lukewarm  then to divide our love between God and the world, and our service between God and Baal, and our attendance between God and Mammon; or to embrace Religion no farther, than Religion serves our turn to gain withal.  
Which Theorem howsoever it be the deduction of Ambrose, and of the whole current both of Modern, and Ancient Interpreters, yet shall it be no waste of time to support and fence it, by copying a place or two out of God's Writing-booke; turn but your leaves unto the 9 of john the 41. and view our saviours answer to the Pharisees question; Had you been blind you should not have sinned; That is, say Bucer, and Musculus, and Aquinas agreeing with the gloss, Your sin had not been so exceeding sinful as now it is; as if our Saviour had thus enlarged his speech: There is no man that hath not gone astray even from the womb; The most righteous before men is defaced and speckled in the sight of God, and may go crying all the day long with the Leper, Leviticus the 13. chapter and verse 45. I am unclean, I am unclean: but you dissembling Pharisees are more deeply stained then any other, your sins are high coloured like crimson, which (as Lipsius observeth) is twice died; other men have Moats, 
Lipsius' de Constantia. libro. 1.  but you have Beams in your eyes, other men have Scratches, but you have Wounds and Scars in your Faces, others may swallow sins as big as Gnats, but you can digest sins as big as Camels, and how is it that your sins are more inexpiable than other men's? it is because you serve me not in sincerity, and profess religion only for your profit, and divide your love betwixt me and your own Mammon, it had been better for you, to have worshipped only Mammon, and never to have heard of me, it had been better for you to have trusted only to your own wits, and never to have trusted me, unless you trust only me, and better for you to have been stark blind, then only to see how you may turn your backs, and look asquint at Heaven; it were better to have been cold dead, then to be as it were in an Isthmus; 
Heinsy Poem.   tundat mentem fluctus uterque tuam: to bide betwixt life and death, to have thy Religion ebbing and flowing, 
Plutarch. de Socratis Genio. Hesych. de vita Philosophorum.  thy profession like the soul of Hermotimus in Plutarch, and of Epimenides in Hesychius coming and going. Let thy Religion be either pure and sound, or none, thy profession either entire and sound, or none, thy zeal either burning hot, or none, to be blind, to be of no profession, to make no conscience of Religion is very damnable: but to see the way, and not to follow it, to profess Religion, and not to be zealous for it, to wear CHRIST'S Livery, and serve any other besides the Master that gave it, is intolerable. Add unto this that clause of the Apostle, cited to this very purpose by Gregory, in the third of his Pastorals, out of the second Epistle of Peter, chapter 2. and the 21. verse. It were better never to have known the way, then after knowledge to turn out of it. Which one place, by general consent, is sufficient to make good our point, the ignorant (which in the Apostles style) knows not, is like the cold man in my Text, that cares not for Religion, the backeslider in the Apostles style, that turneth aside, is like unto the Lukewarm Christian in my Text, that careth not whether Religion sink or swim, whether his profession do stand or fall, who like to Metius Suffetius in Livy, 
Livy in his first Decade and first Book.  will strike or speak for neither side, until one side be down, and then join to that which is best, for their commodity. A thing odious amongst Heathens, and therefore prohibited by Solon, That any man should stand as a neuter betwixt two, 
Strigellius in 3. Apoc  as Strigellius remembreth in his Commentary upon this place, a thing cried down by Elias, in the first book of the Kings 18. chapter, and a course as damnable as is the worshipping of a devil, as Origen in his eight book against Ceisus that godless heathen, and a sin famous for a dreadful woe gone out against it, Ecclesiasticus chapter 2. verse 13.  
The whole Catalogue of best Interpreters will yield a large supply of Reasons to support and fence my Proposition. 
Reason out of Gregory's 3. Pastor.  I will but point at one alleged by Gregory, thus speaking to the point in hand. It is better to be cold then lukewarm in religion; not because the lukewarm sins more heinously, but because he is reclaimed more hardly; Dum enim se sanum putet, medicinae opem non quaerit, say Marlorat and Ribera. He is like Harpastes in Seneca, 
Seneca.  supposing he seethe the true way to Heaven, though he be posting to Hell, and will not be turned, dreaming of nothing but of life and happiness, though he be wallowing in the menstruous rags of sins pollution, and will not be cleansed, thinking it the safest course, to walk only betwixt two ways, betwixt God and Baal, betwixt God and Mammon, to take God in one hand, and the world in the other, which is nothing else but to purchase Hell by wit and policy, and yet this is the lukewarm Christians resolution, that must not be altered. It was the saying of Wisdom, Prou. chapter 26. There is more hope of a fool, then of him that is wise in his own conceit, and I match it thus; There is more hope of reclaiming the foolish and the ignorant, that knoweth not what Religion means, then of him that makes Religion like a shepherds cur, never to bark but when Policy and Preferment shall command it.  
By which point, a man may judge of the woeful case and hopeless condition of all such indifferent and hollow professors, as use Religion only for a stirrup, whereby they may mount to rich preferments, and of such as wear God's livery on their backs, but keep a lodging for Baal in their hearts, and of such as stand equally affected to all Religions, who will cry aloud, God save King JAMES, when they are with us, and yet would kiss the feet of Paulus Quintus his Holiness, if they were in Babylon, and of all such as do want that holy and godly zeal, which should be seated in the heart, and seen in the life of sound Professors; for all these are but Lukewarm, and therefore their case more fearful, their amends more hopeless, their recovery more unlikely, their salvation more uncertain, then if they were the sons and children of Heathens that never heard of God. Remember this, ye Romish foundlings, ye part stakes with Christ in matter of salvation, ye extenuate the virtue of his death, ye think the righteousness of Christ an unfit coat to cover your shame, you will have fig-leaves of your own to cover it, you think Christ too weak & faint an Orator, to beg your pardon, and to purchase Heaven, and substitute in his room your own inherent righteousness which shall command it, you offer the sacrifice of praise for your salvation, not unto CHRIST, but unto your own works which have deserved it; you do think the Son of God unfit to stand between God and you, but your own lives, they are so holy, your own virtues, they are so many, your own works, they are so perfect and meritorious, that although sin have locked the doors of Heaven against you, yet these can open it, be God's justice never so infinite, yet these can answer it; be his wrath never so hot, yet these can quench it, though Heaven be never so hard to come by, yet these may challenge it. A woe therefore must needs betide you, because you are neither hot to give him, nor cold to deny him; neither hot to give him his own, nor cold to deny all the glory due unto him, and therefore your case is the more fearful, your amends more hopeless, your salvation more desperate, than they that have no hope, than they that know no means, than they that never think of the way, than they that never talk of the joy, never dream of Immortality in the kingdom of Heaven; You shall be spewed out of his mouth.  
Remember this, ye wavering Gospelers, you that altar your Religion with Time and State, you that can make your Religion to ebb and to flow like the stream, and do as the most do, and your profession to wax and wain like to the Moon, and show your light only by fits, or like inferior stars move only as some higher Planet shall carry you, you that make your zeal like the Heliotropium, 
Plinius.  to open and manifest itself at every gleam of prosperity, but at the falling of a storm, can close and shut yourselves again; your case is more fearful, your condition more deplored, your salvation more desperate, than they that never knew what religion meant, than they that never heard the Gospel preached, or they that never had their Souls seasoned with one spark of grace; For you shall be spewed out of his mouth.  
Remember this ye Scholars of Nicodemus, who come unto CHRIST by night only, you that seem to bear good will to our Religion, but dare not show it, because your Rulers; I mean your Lords and Masters do dislike it, you that have gold and incense for CHRIST, but dare not offer it, your case is fearful, your salvation almost desperate, You must be spewed out of his mouth.  
Remember this, ye mediators that would gladly conclude a marriage between the Church of God & a Romish synagogue, and patch a religion like Sergius the monk, 
Boaemus de Alcorano. li. 2. ca 11.  of good and evil; you that would make an atonement between the religion of Protestant & Papist sacra prophanis, that would have our gold & their dross to be stamped together, our golden head to stand upon their feet of clay, and Gods eternal truth to be yoked with foolish and false traditions; you, O you are pure and perfect Laodiceans, you could be content to speak, half in the language of Canaan, and half in the language of Ashdod, to blow with an Ox and an Ass together, to patch some shreds of new cloth woven by Romish spiders, into our Apostolic and ancient vesture, surely your case is fearful, your condition miserable, your salvation, either almost, or altogether desperate; You must be spewed out of his mouth.  
Lastly, you double hearts, you hollow neutrals and temporizers, consider and remember this, you that have the wit and skill to stand upon the church's threshold, and we know not whether you will go in with us, or out with our enemies, you deceitful Trumpeters and Preachers, that give such uncertain sounds, that the hearer knows not whether it be an alarum to encourage him to the fight, or a retreat to call him back from pursuing the Romish adversary: ye that cannot be descried, whether you be with us or against us, consider and remember this; The GOD of Heaven cannot endure you, his Spirit is grieved with you, his Church is diseased yea and perplexed by you, you are like a draft of poison in her womb, your case is fearful, your condition very miserable, your salvation almost desperate; You must be spewed out of his mouth: And let us all remember and tremble when we consider what God is like to do with the people and inhabitants of this Land, who lie so sick, and are so deeply infected with this sin. It were better that our Gentry were almost jews and Pagans, then to be hollow and give Religion no encouragement. It were much better that Preachers should stand like to Harpocrates that Egyptian god, with their fingers in their mouths, then to speak so faintly when Babel is in building, to speak so cowardly, when sin is increasing, to speak so doubtfully, when God's cause is in hearing, or never powerfully, but only when rich advowsons, or great men's favours are bestowing. It were better for many of you Citizens, never to have heard the name of CHRIST, never to have known what the Gospel did mean; then to profess so barely, to uphold so weakly, the name whereby you hope to be saved, to maintain so poorly the Gospel wherein you have a Crown proposed, and a heaven promised, we might promise unto ourselves a longer peace, unto our kingdom more prosperity, to our hearts more true comfort, to our consciences more certain rest, to our souls more undoubted safety, if we had neither Gospel preached, nor Religion professed, nor Truth maintained amongst us, than now many of us can, for if we do preach Christ, it is so slackly; if we do defend the Truth, it is so slenderly; if we do profess Religion, it is so indifferently; if we do shoot at Babel, it is so weakly; if we do strike at sin, it is so faintly; if we do God any service, it is so wearily performed, that many English Professors do come far short of these Laodiceans, and what then may we think will God do with them?  
The golden Conduits and learned Oracles of justice and Law (as Tully in his first book de Oratore was pleased to style them) may do better to clasp up their mouths, and throw down their benches, and let Religion shift for itself as well as she may, then to lie sick of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Demosthenes in Gellius in his 11. book and 9 ch. when he was to plead for the Milesians, lay sick of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or squinancy, I mean to shrink when they should cut off corrupt members; or hold their hand when they should ease the Land of her impostumes; or in a sinful policy to forbear the canvasing of Romish brats, that trouble our Church and endanger our Land, and malign our Sovereign, 
Ouidui.  Vixque tenent lachrymas, quod nil lachrymabile cernunt, who pray for our climacterical year, and are sick to see the prosperity of our jerusalem, and better for us all, that our mother's belly had been our Tomb; or like Aristotle's Ephemeron in his fifth book de historia animalium, we had perished the day that we were born; like Micaiah, 1. Kings 22. we had taken a surfeit of the bread and water of affliction; and better to feed with Phalaris his bull; to lie in Procrustes his bed; or sit with joseph in the stocks, till the soul give over housekeeping in his dampy lodging, then to hover like the young man in Zenophon between two ways and go on in neither; 
Zenophon Cyrus.  or stand like an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, between two Religions, and stick neither to the one, nor to the other; or to play the hollow neutrals, and turn our backs upon all Religion, save only when we grope a profit in it, or only when we are the richer for it, or only when we can win a great man's favour, or procure to ourselves some honour, or prevent some shame and censure by it, for than we prove ourselves to be perfect Laodiceans, and the Lord will spew us out of his mouth.  
Were I like Apollo's, eloquent and powerful in the Scriptures, were my sides brass, and my pen iron, and my tongue a silver Trumpet, I would here indite a Rhetorical and passionate exhortation, unto a sort of men, quos video volitare in forum, quos stare ad curiam, quos etiam venere in senatum, sola fundi nostri calamitas, the only scabs, and ulcers both of Church and State, as the Orator speaks in his second Oration against Catiline, 
In Cat. Orat. 2.  I mean our Church Papist, who will serve both God and Rimmon, and our nullifidian Protestant, that can serve both God and Mammon: o that they were wise, then would not the one come this day to Church with us, and the next day to a Romish Synagogue to hear a Mass; nor the other need driving into the Temple, like that Ass mentioned by Bodin, in the 2. of his Demonology, out of Lucian and Apuleius, but run from Church, like Timon in the Poet, ringing as he goes, At mihi plaudo ipse domi, I had rather see one of these Angels, then hear three of yonder Preachers: o that they were wise, then would the one cleave wholly either to God or Rimmon, and the other bow only either to God or Mammon; then would the one either bring his heart with him, or give us his room; and the other would come either with some zeal, or spare his labour in making a formal profession: Then would they either give God all, or take all from him; unless they will serve God with one half, and an Idol with the other; meaning that GOD should have only the one half, and an Idol should have the other: And they meant only to trouble God so far as to save the body, but let the devil and the Pope agree between themselves which of them two should have the soul. O Lord open their eyes, o Lord turn their hearts, o Lord pardon their sins, lest they come into condemnation, and be spewed out of thy mouth, which is the sentence of malediction passed upon all lukewarm professors, whereof in the last place I am to speak. I will spew thee out of my mouth.  
Which words contain an allegory drawn from the nature of warm water, 
The sentence of malediction. Illyr. Bulling. & Perer.  as Illyricus and Bullinger; or from meats, as Pererius and Ribera, which if they be hot or cold, the stomach may retain, but if lukewarm, it casts them up again, ut ventriculus benè coquat, constringi debet & claudi: The stomach digests those meats best, whereby it is straightened and contracted; so do meats that be hot, exciecando, contract the stomach by drying, and meats that be cold exasperando, by wring and pinching it; but meats that be lukewarm do enlarge and dilate the stomach; So that when nature would turn off any part which is hurtful, it easily casts up all; and hereby we must understand in the General, God's infinite hatred against lukewarm professors, and their Tragical end: and amongst many particulars which might be gathered from the phrase, I will spew thee out of my mouth, I have pitched my meditations on these two.  
1 That which provokes a man to vomit is grievous and troublesome, while it rests upon the stomach, and bears the conclusion thus:  
The Lukewarm professor is a sore diseaser, and a continual disturber of the Church.  
2 That the party provoked to vomit, is well pleased when the stomach is well purged of the load that troubles it; And bears the conclusion thus.  
God is highly pleased, when the Church is eased and purged of neutral, and hollow professors.  
I will draw a little blood at these two veins, 
The lukewarm professor is a sore disturber of the Church.  and set them as the utmost borders and bounders of my discourse.  
To begin with the former; me thinks the Lukewarm professor may fitly be compared with Dan, one of the sons of jacob, whom his own father termed, an Adder that biteth the horses and maketh the Rider to fall backward, Gen. 49. Or to a snuff in the midst of a golden Candlestick, that cannot grace the house so much by his glimmering light, as it offends the company by a loathsome and ungrateful smell: or to a cumbersome Ephialtes, that will not suffer the spouse to sleep, but proves most troublesome and dangerous, when she should rest and is least suspicious, or to an unnatural, or rather a natural viper, that first feeds on the mother that breeds it, and then breaks the womb that bears it. If flinching jonas be in the ship, the waters will presently begin to boil and swell. 
Virgilius Aenid. lib. 1.  Eripient subito nubes coelumque diemque there will suddenly follow as thick a Chimmerian darkness, as there was at Paul's voyage to Rome, when neither Sun nor Star appeared, Act. the 27. The limbs and joints of the ship cannot choose but menace and threaten present drowning, it can neither stand still at Anchor, nor go on in safety; if it stand the waves run over it; if it fail and move, the wind and weather overturnes it, there can be neither token of fair weather, nor hope of life till jonas be cast out of it. And may it not well enough lie heavy at the heart of a tender mother (I mean the Church) that she knows not whether some of her sons will take her part, or fight against her; That she knows not whether they that lie in her womb will prove like Barnabas sons of consolation, or like Benoni, a heaviness and woe unto her: How should it choose but perplex and nail her soul, that they whom she feedeth with the milk of her breasts; that they whom she honoureth with the best of her substance; that they whom she crowneth with the richest of her gifts, yet for all this do not love her? What is there that can more disquiet & disturb the Church's peace; that will sooner make her look old and grey; that can make deeper furrows in her face, and blow upon her back with a sharper edge than this? that so many of her children should be stillborn and cannot; some tongue tied and will not; some bashful and dare not speak a word for Religion? that some of her pillars do nothing but pill her treasures; that some which should do her good, care for nothing but her goods; that some of her Prophets seek for nothing but to profit themselves? What is there that can disquiet a Church so much as this, that the mayor part of all Congregations should be lukewarm and hollow professors? some well-willers to Dagon; some worshippers of a wedge of gold; some making Religion but a stalking horse, or some handsome drudge to serve their policy. This, this cannot choose but be a nail at her heart.  
Which conclusion may serve to stop the stentorious mouths, Use. and to pair the Satirical and bloody pencils of some men, who in all their learning can find none that either disquiets or endangers the Church but the strict Precision, who cannot swallow down some of our Church Ceremonies, and therefore employ their whole strength, and spend their whole life, in humbling them who are brought already to the lowest Nadir, as if then they had swept and purged the Church of all her imposthumes; whereas yet our Churches hang full of Romish spiders, who in their Italian cobwebs would strangle our English souls; God forbidden that ever my pen should patronize any peevish Schismatics, only it were to be wished, that some men would not herein place their felicity, or count this the greatest service to God and the Church, to trounce and ferret a few poor and despised men; but rather they would raise hue and cry after Lukewarm professors, and carnal Gospelers, and close Atheists, and sleepy Sibarites, 
Athaenaeus lib. 12.  that they would keep Romish fire from our English tinder; these, these, are the traitorous Sinon's that trouble our Church, these are the worms that breed in the belly, and these the imposthumes that disease the womb of our mother; such hot frenzies, as Novahanisme, Catharisme, and Brownisme, are seldom or never heard of in this frozen climate, and the iron age wherein we live: the most of our diseases are cold Epilepsies, and dead Apoplexies, and slumbering lethargies, and surely happy should be the pen that might but wound one of the disturbers, and happy should be the tongue that might discomfit one of these pioneers, and happy might be the man, that might exile but one of these undermining traitors out of the Church. These are the sins that threaten our ruin, and these the hatchets, that cut down our Vine, and these the Foxes that eat of her grapes, and these the bells that are most like to ring our kneels, and proclaim our funerals; and therefore every Scribe that can handle a pen, must steep it in vinegar and make it tart; every Magistrate that can handle a sword must draw it and make it sharp; every man that wears but a Christian heart in his bosom most rouse and waken; He that hath but a tongue in his head must move and shake it; he that hath but a stone in his hand must throw and fling it, at the brazen faces and whorish foreheads of these murdering and prodigious sins; else may we fear that one day we shall feel God's hand upon us and see destruction looking in at our gates, and desolation looking in at our windows, and find nothing but emptiness in our Churches, see nothing but Romish spiders weaving their cobwebs in our Pulpits, Sed tarda sit illa dies, & nostro serior aevo, let the Sun of that morning never rise, bury us quick o earth, Lord take away our lives rather than the light of our Gospel from us. And now have I brought you within the view and sight of our journeys end, I hope it will make you cheerful in hearing, while I am briefly opening my last conclusion, viz.  
God is highly pleased, 
God highly pleased with purging the Church of lukewarm Professors.  when his Church is eased and emptied of hollow professors. Let them take jonas and cast him into the sea; Et facto citius tumida aequora placant, the winds will hold their peace and be still, the waves will give over boiling, and make their crests as flat and leveli as a floor, and the Masters of the ship must needs have joyful hearts, to see how merrily she cuts the waters, so soon as she hath picked up her troublesome load, and emptied her womb of jonas: whom she was not able to digest. I know that amongst the wheat there will be chaff, yet if the chaff were burned; I know that amongst the beds of Lilies, there will be weeds, yet if the weeds were rooted up; I know that within the pales and hedges of Gods own vineyard there will be stones, yet if the stones were gathered out; the burning of the chaff would relish like a  Sacrifice, the rooting up of the weeds would savour as the smell of Incense, the ridding of the stones would be as welcome as a free will offering unto God: Did not the Stars and the Heavens applaud Elias in the first book of King's chapter 13. for reclaiming them that halted between two opinions: for settling them that were like to fall down between two professions, or was it not a labour well bestowed, whereby he cured the Land that was sick and weary, not able to bear them, and purged their Souls that were sick and ready to die within them, and highly pleased his GOD, who was so deeply offended with them. The grief of the head can no way be better cured, then by purging the stomach, and scouring the body of such infestuous humours as fume upward, and disquiet the brain, and if Christ be our head, and the Church his body, how should you imagine that his spirit can be better pleased, or our blessed Saviour delighted with any thing so much, as with the sweeping out of Lukewarm professors, and the paring away of equivocal members with the healing, if they be curable, or else the cutting off, if they be hopeless and incurable neutrals.  
Were it not that the time were now ready to impose me silence, and commanded me to let you see the farthest period, I could very hardly part so quickly with so good a point: I wind up all in one word of exhortation. I should think my breath and travel happily bestowed, my ministery and service richly blessed, my pains and labour highly honoured and rewarded, if I might prevail with authority, to provide some strong purgation to scour out of the sick body of this Land, some unwholesome Tenants, who janus-like have two faces, 
ovid. Fast. libr. 1.  the one to look demurely up to heaven, the other wanton to smile upon an Idol, and come to our Churches, only to save charges. If I might prevail with the Clergy, to provide some powerful and passionate exhortations to settle the hearts of their hearers upon one God, renouncing Idols, upon one Saviour, abjuring this sinful trash and deceitful riches. The world knoweth it full well, that our Land was never so sick, that our Church never groaned so loud, never mourned in such a passion, nor never traveled of these Hermaphrodites, with half so much pain and grief as now ●he doth, she hath already bred, and at this day she both feedeth and clothes a numberless swarm of our-cast professors, I mean Church papists, and rotten Protestants, who sometimes like unto judas, pretend to kiss, but if they can come near enough, intent to kill her, and sometimes salute her Porches, but it is as joab saluted Abner, 
2. Sam. 3.  with a dagger in their pockets, she may conclude a peace with other enemies, but these will cut her throat by way of friendship, she sighs so deeply, and she groaneth with so much anguish, that her cries are heard, & her grief lamented beyond the Seas. It is no whispering rumour, yourselves have often heard it cried here at the cross, that they are warmly lodged, and richly friended, and costly fed, with the marrow and fatness of our own Land, who the midst of our jubilees, do make flaws in our peace, and in the midst of our joys endanger our lives, and if any foreigner should invade the land, would lend their knives to cut our throats, and be the foremost men to bear arms against us.  
This alas, this is the malady that maketh the visage of our Church so wan, and her face so full of wrinkles, and her back so full of furrows, and her eyes so full of tears, and her heart so full of sorrows, that though many good Physicians will speak her fair, and wish her health, yet they launce not the Impostume, yet they purge not the fretting humour that consumes and grieveth her, you may read in her face, that her gripings and convulsions be insufferable, you may hear by her groans, that her pain is intolerable, you may presage by her pulses, the signs and symptoms of desolation and death, and when these Catholic vipers have broken her heart, what will become of us, who suffer such Professors as will never prove good Subjects to varnish their nests, and make their bowers within her: it would do them good to do us hurt: it would lengthen their lives, to shorten ours; it would bring them half way to Heaven, to bury their poniards in our breasts; it would make a new Feast, and another Holiday in the Roman Calendar, if they might but smell the burning, and hear tell of the smoke and ashes of our Churches, they are already become so bold, their number is so exceeding great, their Religion is so exceeding bloody, their malice so inveterate, that if no sharper course be taken to repress and smother them, they will adventure within a while, to try whether we or they shall be the masters; and if either malice or multitude can do it, they will make bonfires of our flesh, they will cut off our lives, and confiscate our livings, and set fire on our Churches, and martyr our Clergy, and massacre our judges, and murder our Princes, and say of England as Edom said of jerusalem, Down with it, down with it even to the ground. And if ever this day of mourning come upon us (which I pray God may never come;) yet if it should come we may thank ourselves for keeping Romish Wasps in our English Hives.  
It were happy for our Land, if we now at last began to pity and bemoan ourselves, and be somewhat sharp in keeping them under, while we have the sword in our hands, rather than to suffer them to grow so long, until they be able to tread upon our Religion, or to vaunt or triumph over us. And if any amongst us can prepare an offering of peace, now or never let him bring it; he that can utter or conceive a prayer, now or never let him offer it: Let us move the Heaven with crying: spare thy people, O God, spare thy people, give not our church into reproach; Let not the Antichristian host be our masters; Let not the blasted Catholics be our commanders; Let not the workmen of Babel be our confounders.  
Will you have your farewell and hear what I'll say at your parting? Let me exhort you (reverend judges) who walk here in Scarlet robes, and sit on seats of justice, to be zealous for the truth, to pity and compassionate our Church, to settle your own hearts to beware of lukewarmness in your religion, that when you shall leave these Benches, and put off these robes, you may sit on Thrones amongst the four and twenty Elders, and be clothed with the long white Raiment of Saints, and follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth. Let me exhort you, godly and religious Citizens, to be zealous for the truth, to uphold & maintain the Gospel, to take heed of coursing and wandering amongst religions, to take heed of lukewarmness in your christian profession, that when you shall be put out of these houses, you may be received into everlasting habitations; when you shall leave your trading in this City, you may be fellow-Citizens with the Saints in glory, when these rotten posts and worm-eaten timber of your bodies shall be broken down, your souls may be carried on Angels wings into Abraham's bosom, and you also may follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes. And let us all begin this day to make our eyes rivers, and our heads springs, and our hearts fountains of tears. And let this river never give over running, let this spring never give over swelling, let this fountain never give over flowing; until this river of tears become a sea, and this spring of tears become a flood, and this fountain of tears become an Ocean, to wash our beds, to water our couches, to make our chamber swim; for the misery that we are like to bring upon ourselves, for the desolation and woe which we are like to bring upon our Churches; for the solemn destruction, and final subversion which we have laboured to bring upon our whole land, and upon our kingdom, by palpable lukewarmness in our Religion, and by our want of godly zealein our Christian profession. And when this river of tears shall be dried, and these fountains stopped that we cannot weep. Let us fill the air and beat the heavens with our prayers, and though sickness may put our tongues to silence that we cannot speak, yet let our heart's breath, & our souls enforce upon the heavens some earnest and powerful supplications, that the dreadful God whom we have offended may be pleased to bless our Church, to prosper our Sovereign, to protect our Kingdom, to advance the Gospel, to increase our zeal, to  ourenemies in mourning weeds, to open the windows of Heaven & crown us with his blessings, to cure all our souls, to forgive all our sins, to save all our souls, for his Son Christ jesus his sake: Amen, Amen.  
FINIS.