Two Sermons; THE FORMER DELIVERED AT PAUL'S CROSS THE FOUR AND TWENtieth of March, 1615. being the anniversary commemoration of the Kings most happy succession in the Crown of England. THE LATTER AT THE Spittle on Monday in Easter week, 1613. By JOHN WHITE D.D.  
My Son, fear thou God and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change.  Prou. 24.21.  printer's device of Richard Field, featuring an anchor suspended by a hand from the clouds (McKerrow 192) 
ANCHORA SPEI  
Imprinted at London by Richard Field for William Barret. 1615.   

TO THE RIGHT VIRTUOUS AND NOBLE Lady, the Lady Crofts, wife to my worthy Patron, Sir john Crofts of Saxham: all comfort in the mercies and grace of God.  
GOod Madam, I send you what I preached, not long since, in a solemn and devout audience, upon special occasion. For such is either the curiosity or religion of Hearers, that sometime they will have us preach in print. He that could do it well, in one sense, were a man fit for this age; though in my sense, it is fit for many then for myself: who knowing mine own imperfections, and the different operation of a moving voice and breathless letters, am therefore naturally timorous of public censures; and had kept my lines within doors if either importunity had not enticed them abroad, or I had not feared their stealing out at a back door. Now, as they are, I commend them to your Ladyship, it having been, time out of mind, a courtesy allowed the Press, to take up the Pass where it best affects. When I lived far remote, Sir john Crofts, your husband, my worthy and loving Patron, having never seen me, sent and called me to the place I have: since which time it hath pleased both Him and you self, and your Noble children, and my Honourable LADY CHEANY (with whom you lived in the straightest band of love until God, by a blessed death, in her ripe age, took her to his mercy) so much to favour me, that thereby I have been the better both encouraged and enabled to my studies, which were falling to the ground for want of means. And if that were not, yet what I have seen since, in the course of your life, and the order of your family, were enough to bind all good minds, that honour Virtue, unto you; whose zeal to Religion, and love to Learning, and continual exercise therein both by reading and practice, joined with such promptness of memory and modesty in speaking, gives you interest in all either Learned, or Godly, & makes you worthy of more than my poor words can attribute. Saint Jerome commends a Lady because she made her daughters and gentlewomen that were about her daily to read and learn somewhat out of the Scripture: a kind of commendation now worn out of fashion, like a suit of apparel of the old make: yet your Ladyship hath not refused it; that he who hath seen your children and attendants about you, private, at work, hath doubted which were the work; the Reading of some, while others were working, or the working of others while some were reading. Which parts men observing in persons of your rank, have taken liberty, without all fear, and freely, to speak thereof; and the wisest that have been, such as Ignatius, Chrysostome, Jerome, Basil, Nazianzen, Saint Paul himself and the holy Evangelists, have mentioned them; and more than mentioned them; left us those memorial of them that the Church of God could not have spared: as may be seen by their affectionate writing of, and to, the Maries, Lydia, Lois, Eunice, Cassobolites, Olympias, Laeta, Demetrias, Paula, Eustochium, Celantia, Saluina, and divers more; whose virtues therein mentioned are a great part of that which hath taught and given example to noble women in all ages since. For conjugal love, motherly piety, matronly gravity, wisdom, bounty, humility, hospitality, virtue, shall be both registered, and commended, and imitated, and honoured, when the contrary shall be contemned in the greatest, and, now and then, sent down to the grave with a peal of satires. Go forward then and maintain what God hath given you; and as these things are yours in an eminent manner, so hold them fast, and value them above your husband's state, or your patronage: much more above glittering apparel and worldly pleasures, and those vanities and excesses where with so many please themselves and no body else. And as here they yield you honour and respect, so in Death (which determines all our actions, and lays the pleasures of sin upon God's cold earth) you shall taste the benefit thereof: for the delights of the flesh, and the pride of life, will poison the grave; but the fear of God shall be recompensed with Honour, and Peace, and Eternal life: which things are daily behight unto you, your godly husband, and virtuous children, in his prayers to God,  
By him that is at your ladyships service IO. WHITE.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS upon the four and twentieth of March, 1615. being the anniversary commemoration of the Kings most happy succession in the Crown of England.  1. TIM. 2.1. 
I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayer, intercession, and giving of thanks, be made for all men: for Kings, and for all that are in authority: that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness, and honesty.  
AND is it true, that all these things are so indeed as they seem unto us? are we not deceived? do we certainly see one another indeed, that we dream not of that which is but a fancy and beguiles us? are we out of our beds, waking, and moving, and truly understanding what befalls us? is it daylight? are our eyes open? is not sleep still upon us, or waking dreams, presenting us with imaginations? are they not shadows that are about us? Is it credible that a sinful Nation, so ill deserving at the hands of God; so watched by enemies in our bosom, the most cruel and merciless that ever were; and threatened by him and his that think they have power to shut up heaven, and restrain the influence of every creature; that waited for nothing, as this day, but confusion and every mischief to fall upon us that their wrath could procure: is it, I say, possible that a people in such danger of shipwreck, in good-earnest without dreaming, should, notwithstanding, live and breath the same life we did, enjoy the same mercies of our God, the same security, the same peace, both of State and Church; and they lie at our feet like the five Kings of Canaan, 
Ios. 10.24.  that meant to have devoured us? and this day, which they prophesied should have been the dismallest that ever rose upon the kingdom, assemble also together in joy and triumph, men, women and little children, to celebrate our peace, ringing and singing, and rejoicing before the Lord our maker?  
Parsons, the jesuite, a man well known to our State, and by his own, thought a great Statesman himself, and wise (but he was a cab of dung, 
2. Reg. 6.25.  an Ass' head sold to the Pope for 80. silverlings, and his friends rose up in a misty morning when a sheep seemed to them as big as an ox) in the late Queen's days, published in print, that 
* Answer to the libel of Engl just. pag. 176. & 185.  By the uncertainty of the next heir, our Country was in the most dreadful and desperate case, in the greatest misery and most dangerous terms, that ever it was since or before the Conquest: and in far worse than any Country of Christendom; by the certainty of most bloody, civil, and foreign wars: all our wealth and felicity whatsoever depending upon a few uncertain days of Queen Elizabeth's life; and such as hoped otherwise he calls, common persons and thriftless younkers. And this was the general cry and expectation of them all: that what we now see to the contrary, through God's infinite mercy, against their conspiracies, may seem a dream; and our meeting this day, to celebrate this mercy, may seem a fancy or delusion of our senses. And indeed for men to be thus mistaken in their sleep it is ordinary. For, Esay 29. 8. A hungry man dreams, and behold he eateth; a thirsty man dreams, and lo he is drinking: and yet when they wake their soul is empty. 
Chrysost.  For such is the nature of dreaming: (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) it is full of deceit, and will set us a playing with monsters.  
2 But that which we are about is neither dream nor delusion, nor are you asleep, but waking, and you really enjoy under your hands all that you think on; and see a wonder beyond any ever dreamt of: and it is day, even clear daylight, one of the lightsomest that ever shined on our nation; the Sun is up, and hath showed us the unspeakable mercies of our God. 
Psal. 118.24.  This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad therein. And long may this day endure; like the day of josuah when the Sun stood still in Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley of Aialon: Let the tender mercies of God evermore enlighten it with the dayspring from above: let eternity embrace it and clasp it round about, that it may be joined with the days of heaven, and measured together with eternity: let clouds nor mists, nor storms, nor tempest, nor the smoke of the bottomless pit, ever overshadow it; nor the dark night tread upon it: let it show the paths of righteousness, and the ways of God to all people: in the light thereof let us see long peace, and the continuance of true religion, the amendment of our lives, and the downfall of Antichrist. Writ this day, as 
a Ep. ad Magnes.  Ignatius saith of another day; the Lady and mistress of all other days: the blessed day which the Lord hath made, therein to show the riches of his mercies to the unworthiest nation that ever was; God grant we may be able to rejoice 
b Tertul. apol.  Conscientia non lascivia: not lasciviously but righteously; 
c Euthym. in Psal. 117.  ut celebrem Deo ac splendidam solemnitatem agamus: that we may make our solemnity such as the goodness and greatness of God requireth.  
3 To which purpose the words of my text do fully instruct us. They are an admonition touching the matter of prayer, wherein the Apostle requires that, without limitation, we pray and give thanks for all men: but namely for Kings and public Magistrates, and such as are eminent in the State, that the Gospel may be propagated, peace, virtue and justice, may be maintained. For, Prou. 29. When good men are in authority, the people shall rejoice; but when the wicked bear rule, the land mourns: And Esay 49. King's shall be thy nourishers, and Queens thy nurses; when God will put his Church into the hands of the Magistrate as it were to nurse, let thanks be rendered to him for his ordinance, and supplication, and prayers, and intercession, be made for their continuance in well doing; that the State under them may be in peace, and be governed justly and religiously. He complains immediately before, of some that, lately by their apostasy from their religion, had hindered the Gospel, and in damaged the Church: had there been a Christian zealous Emperor, a Constantine, a Theodosius, a jovinian, a john Frederick, this either had not fallen out, or had not done so much hurt; now, in this want, all that could be done was to excommunicate; which being too little for the removing of so great a mischief, he exhorts and requires, that principally above all things a care be had in the Church, that prayer and thanksgiving be made for all men, that no man fall from faith and a good conscience: and namely for Kings and Magistrates, that such as fall being suppressed by the secular power, the peace and quietness, the piety and honesty, of Church and State may be preserved. This is the sense and connexion of the text.  
4 Wherein our Apostle affirms three things. First, the exercise that he would have used. Secondly, the matter of this exercise. Thirdly, the end why we should thus exercise. The exercise is prayer. The matter of this prayer, for all men, and namely for Kings and Magistrates. The end why, that we may lead a quiet and calm life, in godliness and honesty. In handling whereof you will soon perceive me to omit many points that are incident: but I must attend upon the time, and will aim only at the occasion.  
5 First, the exercise commended is prayer and thanksgiving. For, 2. Cor. 10.4. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty: where Saint Chrysostome notes upon that place, not our wealth, or power, or flattering of ourselves can save us, but the power of God. This duty is expressed in four terms: supplication, prayer, intercession, thanksgiving. The stream of Doctors, and expositors, old and new, commonly distinguish these as four several kinds of prayer, albeit they scarce agree in defining them. The most received distinction is, that supplications are for the pardon of our sins. Prayers, the vow and promise, that we make to God, touching the amendment of our life. Intercession when we pray for others. Thanksgiving, when we praise his Name, for the graces he bestows upon us. Others, who seem to come nearer the point, expound them thus: when we pray God to turn away evil, this is supplication: when to give us the good we need, this is prayer: when we simply crave any thing whatsoever, this is intercession: when we bless God for his mercies, this is thanksgiving. For my own part, I think it more probable and easier to defend, that the Apostle intends no such division, in regard of the matter of Prayer; but only to commend the same thing in diverse words, according to the custom of the Scripture; for howsoever prayer and thanksgiving may be distinguished; yet the rest either cannot, by reason they do all of them essentially include each other; or are not, in this place, by reason the definitions assigned will not so aptly suit with the Text. I will therefore follow 
* In Psal. 140.  Hilary, who applies them to the several motions of the mind wherewith we ought to pray: for in all prayer it is necessary that the mind be lift up to God by charity, humility, and faith: our charity desires the good of others as well as our own; our humility prays with all submission to God, and acknowledges what we receive of his mercy: our faith makes us fly to God alone, and in his goodness to repose our confidence. According to which exposition, this distinction of words is not founded on the matter of prayer, so much as on the several habits and motions of the mind whence true prayer proceedeth, and wherewith it is informed. For every moral action is specified by the intention of the doer: & therefore the intentions or motions of the mind being divers, the same prayer hath also divers appellations.  
6 Which things thus expounded, we may perceive what the thing is that is, most effectual and available to the prosperity of a kingdom, that Kings and Rulers may succeed and hold out, to the comfort and happiness of their people, our Apostle bidding make prayer and supplication, and give thanks for these things. Not that policy, or strength, and counsel may be neglected, for that were tempting of God, and contemning the means which he hath appointed; but because it is God alone that gives motion to these things, and the influx of his providence makes them effectual: By him King's reign, and Princes rule, and all the Nobles and judges of the earth, saith Solomon, Prou. 8. and job 12. He leads Counsellors away spoiled, and makes the judges fools: he looseth the collar of Kings, and guirdeth their loins with a girdle: he poureth contempt upon Princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. If his help and mercy be wanting, the sinews of a State will shrink, and the wisdom of the wise will be infatuated; policy will be no better than lunacy, glory will turn into misery, and armies of men will but help to make the fall heavier. 
Pachymer.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what God will have come to pass will outworke all human consideration; and then, as Nazianzen speaketh, Tandem submergetur navis quae multos ad portum foeliciter appulit: hope which useth to bring the most miserable to the shore, itself shall sink and perish. Thus the mightiest States have been dissolved, and all worldly power, when God abandons it, falls to the ground. That, as Sidonius speaketh, 
Lib. 1. ep. 7.  the most potent and politic man that lives, may lie, veluti vomitu Fortunae nauseautis exputus: as if Fortune from her loathing stomach had vomited him up, and spit him upon the ground: to prevent which danger, and to save from enemies, the prayers and religion of the subject have always been the best means. 
a Exo. 17.  When Amalek fought against Israel, Moses, by his prayer, assured the victory. 
b 2 Chro. 20.  When josaphat was in danger, he prayed to God with his people: We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And this remedy hath never failed the people that have used it. Saint Ambrose 
c De obit. Theod.  reports of Theodosius, that in a fought field against the tyrant Eugenius, when he had almost lost the day, alighting from his horse, and stepping before his army, in the face of the enemy, he only kneeled down and cried to God, Vbi est Deus Theodosijs, Where is Theodosius his God? and won the day. 
d Just. apol. 2.  When Marcus Aurelius, in the field against 970000. enemies, was in distress for want of water, the prayers of the Christians relieved him: cum ipsa oratione affuit Deus, saith justin Martyr, so soon as they had prayed God was with them; and he received the prayers of the Church as a garrison into his Empire. The Macabees had their name of this, that in their colours, when they went into the field, they had five letters, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every better signifying a word, Mi cha Elohim be jisrael: Who is like to God in Israel: all their confidence was in God, on whom they called & depended. This is so well known and ratified by experience, that I never read of any State, Christian or Gentile, but they have acknowledged it. That not the Church alone, but infidels in their idolatry, and heretics in their schism, have had recourse thereto. What more solemn with the ancient Greeks', Romans, Carthaginians, or the Turks and Barbarian at this day, then to enjoin prayer and religious service to their idols, for the security of their State? The only error among Christians, being, either the performing of this exercise without cleansing their life, or the forgetting or neglecting thereof, or the casting it behind strength and policy, which ought to follow it. Your Bishops and Preachers honour and affect the outward policy of the State as much as nay in the kingdom do, and take as much comfort in the strength of our nation, the wealth of the subject, the vigilancy and circumspection of the Counsellor, the courage and skill of the martial man, and will be as sorry to see them decay: yet will we never cease to cry in your ears, 
e Psal. 33.17.  A horse is but a vain thing to save. The SPANISH ARMADA, and POWDER-TREASON, and ALL THE TREASONS that have been plotted beside, have taught us, that not the policy or counsel, or strength of our nation, but the mercy of God, the infinite, tender, saving mercy of our God, hearing the prayer of his people, was it that rescued, when strength lay asleep on Dalilahs' knees, and policy was blind, and all human wit foresaw no danger: the which may teach us for ever not to boast too loud of great Britain's strength, but to remember PRAYER, and by maintaining RELIGION, and leading the subject forward to DEVOTION, and by suppressing that which hath poisoned the prayers of thousands among us, to procure that God every where, by lifting up pure hands, be called upon, and blessed for his merciful providence over the State.  
7 And we must not only be mindful of the duty, but careful also that we discharge it well; by reason that as true prayer rightly informed will preserve, so that which is otherwise will do no good: therefore, as Saint Chrysostome saith: Not only the flowers, whereof the garland is made, must be fresh and lovely, but the hands also of him that makes the garland must be clean. For Saint james 
f jac. 4.3.  saith, You ask and receive not, because you ask not as you should. We must join three things with prayer, if we will be heard. First, the hands lift up must be pure, that we live not in sin. Esay, 1. When ye multiply your prayers I will not hear you, for your hands are full of blood, in which case, 
g Vit. Mos. lib 3.  saith Philo, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Sacrifice is abominable, service unholy, and prayer ominous: For 
h Pro. 28.9.  he that turns his ear from hearing and obeying the word, even his prayer shall be abominable. Next, we must persevere without weariness, praying daily, and waiting patiently, if any thing be amiss, and daily giving thanks; So the Scripture teacheth: 
i Col. 4.2.  Continue in prayer, and watch thereunto. For the State hath her daily charge, and daily enemies, and daily dangers: as a ship by sea in a long voyage; where perseverance, every man in his charge, is it that makes a prosperous journey. Thirdly, the mind must be lift up to God by the purity and the devotion thereof: there must be faith and confidence, that God will hear us; reverence of his Name, meekensse of spirit, love to one another; and, as our Apostle saith in the eight verse: holy hands without wrath or doubting. And in the point of Thanksgiving, there must not only be in the understanding an apprehension of the mercies of God received, but in the will such a spiritual joy therein, and love to God therefore, that the mind thereby be revoked from rejoicing in any thing else, but only in God that saves us. This is the prayer that pierceth heaven: Praeteruolat montes & nubes, penetrate coelum, & implet mundum, ecce quousque volat vox clamantis animae: It flies higher than mountains or the clouds: it filleth the world and pierceth heaven, when the soul cries to God with an earnest voice. When Arius infested the Church, the saying was, that Athanasius resisted him with his learning, but Alexander the devout Bishop vanquished him with his prayers. Socrates telleth that when a terrible fire in Constantinople, fastened on a great part of the city, and took hold of the Church, the Bishop thereof went to the altar, and falling down upon his knees, would not rise from thence till the fire, blazing in the windows, and flashing at every door to come in, was vanquished, & the Church preserved: with the floods of his devotion, he slaked the fury of the threatening element. The same shall be the force of our prayers for his Majesty and the State, if we be faithful therein: heresy may rage's, treason conspire, and enemies cast firebrands; but we will trust in him that never forsaketh such as call upon his name.  
8 The next thing mentioned in the text, is the matter of our prayers, containing the Persons & the thing to be prayed for: touching the Persons, he enjoins that we pray, first, generally, for all men: and then particularly, for Kings and all in authority. First, for all men, the reason whereof is yielded, verse the fourth, because God wills that all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth: and Christ the Redeemer, in some true manner or other, gave himself a ransom for all. Our devotion must attend God's will, that what he wills we pray for, that so his will may be done in earth as it is in heaven. There were no difficulty in this point if by, ALL MEN, no more were meant than All the elect, or All that profess Christ, and are true members of the Church. For in these the mercy of God, and the effect of our prayers infallibly and apparently show themselves: for, Rom. 8. Whom he predestinated, them he calls, and whom he calls those he justifies, and whom he justifies them he also glorifies. But when we see with our eyes innumerable companies, and whole nations, to be Barbarians, Infidels, jews, Idolaters, Heretics, Atheists, Profane, Excommunicate, Enemies; and when we certainly know by the Scripture, and without controversy believe, no small part of mankind, in God's decree and eternal purpose, to stand reprobate and rejected from salvation, and all the effects of election, (whether in the mass of sin or not, and whether upon the foresight of their unbelief or otherwise, all is one to the point of this difficulty:) when, I say, it is of all hands yielded that there be so many reprobates, denied the grace of election, and from all eternity, prepared, or 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 9.22. fitted, made up, finished.  finished, as the Scripture speaketh, to destruction (for what God executes in time he wills in eternity,) what shall we say to Prayer and Thanksgiving for these? or what benefit can either they or we receive thereby? Mark my answer. Touching the former the case is not difficult, such being the extent of the grace of God, that there is 
k Act. 10.34.  no respect of person with him; but either jew or Gentile, or Barbarian or Scythian, or idolater or heretic, may reap the benefit of our prayers, if it be no more but the outward comforts of this life; which God by his own example, 
l Mat. 5.45.  making the Sun to shine upon the just and unjust, will have us vow and wish them. And abstracting from reprobation, which is hid from us, and considering no more in them but what we can infallibly see, God can or may also give the means, that they may be called to the truth and be saved. For so we see the riches of God's mercy to extend itself to the sinfullest and woefullest persons that ever were. Gentiles in some ages have been converted; idolaters, Atheists, heretics in all ages have been reclaimed and joined to the Church; and if they be not, yet we to whom God hath no imparted his secret purposes, see nothing in them but we may desire it: Nay the more misery and infidelity we see them drowned in, the more doth Christian piety bind us to pity their state, & desire their conversion. Therefore 
m Liturg. jacob. & aliorum.  in the ancient Liturgies of the Church we often read, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Lord remember and have mercy upon All men: And Celestin, a godly Bishop of the ancient Church: 
n Ep. ad epise. Gall.  Apud divinam clementiam, sanctarum sedium praesides humani generis aguntcausam; ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi: The Bishops of the Church, saith he, commend to God the cause of all mankind, and 
* Not that, as we pray for all men, so God will save all men; but that as we pray for All, so we believe it to be his will we pray for all, and that God in all estates of men will save whom he pleaseth.  by their prayers show what we are to believe. They entreat God to give Infidels faith, Idolaters truth, Iewes light, heretics repentance, schismatics humility. But touching the reprobate there is more to be added. For albeit no man pray God to save them whom he, in his secret counsel, knows to be reprobate, that is to say, to change or abrogate his eternal decree: yet four things are certain touching them, which I will lay down in so many conclusions. First, We pray not God to SAVE those whom we believe he hath reprobated from all eternity: the reason is, for no man prays for that which God hath made no promise to grant, as there is no promise that he will save him or those whom he hath rejected from election, but the contrary; an express revelation that he will condemn them. Secondly, it is unknown to all men who in particular are reprobate. For albeit a man may discern violent signs of reprobation in some, as in a Turk or a jew; yet, speaking precizely, the reprobation of this or that man is a secret laid up in Gods own bosom, and he that guesses at it may be deceived, in as much as God's works of grace are secret, 
o Ro. 11.23.  that he who to day is a wild olive, to morrow in an instant may be graffed in. Yea he that most strongly thinks himself a reprobate, as Spira of Padua did, may suddenly be prevented by the grace of God, and brought to his justification, for any thing that we know. Thirdly, the commandment of prayer no where distinguisheth between elect and reprobate, but generally binds to pray for all men. There is a distinction, and God that made it, knows it; but we must do our own work, and let God alone with his. For, Deut. 29. Secret things belong to the Lord thy God, but things which are revealed, to us, that we may do the words of the Law. And, to authorize us to pray for any man, it is sufficient that, all things considered, it is morally possible he may be saved: which moral possibility may be had, touching the salvation of any man alive, if God, by revelation, or some other certain way, show not the contrary. I call it moral possibility which, in our understanding, may be so, by reason there are many things which, for any thing we know, may fall out to effect it, albeit absolutely, in God's knowledge, it shall never be. Metaphysical possibility, having no ingredience into our moral actions, is not enough no give this warrant: & therefore how vehement soever the conjectures & likelihoods of any man's reprobation be, yet still we have five things that overcome such conjectures, and make the possibility of his salvation moral to us. First, the general promises of the Gospel offered to all. Secondly, the efficacy of God's grace when it comes. Thirdly, the possibility that it may come. Fourthly, the commandment to pray that it may come. Fiftly, the examples of diverse in desperate state, to whom it hath come. All which being put together and well considered, make it morally possible that he may be called; and overcome the most violent conjectures and presumptions to the contrary, in as much as when they are at the highest, yet they never exceed the latitude or dimensions of a conjecture. Fourthly, though in the sense of my first conclusion we do not pray that all men generally, including the reprobate, may be saved; nor can give thanks for the salvation of those whom God saves not; yet for the temporal good of reprobates and all, whether spiritual or concerning their outward state, we may both pray and give thanks. The reason is, for God gives such temporal things to the reprobate, and for his Churches good, to glorify his Name, magnify his liberality, make them without excuse, and benefit his children: which being ends belonging to the sanctification of God's name in the wicked, we justly pray for all that which may advance them.  
9 Touching prayer for our enemies, there lies no question; our Saviour so expressly including it in the commandment touching prayer, and by his own blessed example and the example of his dearest servants commending it to us. Rom. 12.21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Philo, discoursing of Aaron's Ephod which he put on when he went to pray, saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: A representation of the whole world: having in it all colours to represent all states of people whatsoever. And in very deed we err more grossly in nothing then in bearing malice, and wiping men's names out of our prayers, as if our private affection were the calendar of every man's salvation, when no man can rend himself from his brother, but first he must rend himself from Christ, who is the root whereon both he and his brother grow; as a branch on a tree, cannot separate itself from the rest of the branches, but first it must departed from the tree itself whereupon both it and all the other branches grow. And therefore 
* Ephiph. ep. ad joan. Hierosol.  the Patriarch of jerusalem was unwise to quarrel with Epiphanius because he prayed for him; for Ephphanius answered, he would never be so out of charity with any man, that he would set him at nought, whom God had made: 
p Lib. 1. de Cain & Abel. cap. 9  And Saint Ambrose gives a good reason: Quia singuli orant pro omnibus, etiam omnes orant pro singulis: When every man prays for all men, by this means all men pray for every man.  
10 But the special persons for whom particularly and namely we must pray, are Kings and all in authority: for Kings are Gods anointed: and as Tertullian 
q Ad Scap. cap. 2.  speaks, Homines à Deo secundi, & solo Deo minores: Next unto God, and second to none but God. The King, 
r Ad pop. Antioch. hom. 1.  saith Chrysostome, hath no Peer upon earth, but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the head and top of all men that live. Our neighbours of Rome now say otherwise; that the Pope is the man: and Kings are but his officers, and vassals, to hold his stirrup, to bear his canopy, to hold him the basin and ewer when he washes, to be used or deposed at pleasure, as he shall see cause. This is that which the late Council of Lateran in Rome called Regale Pontificium Romanorum genus: The royal race of our Roman Bishops. They call him that now is Paulus Quintus, Vicedeus, Reipub. Christianae Monarcha, Pontificiae omnipotentiae assertor invictissimus. The vice-God and Monarch of the Christian world, and the invincible defender of the Papal omnipotency. But let them alone; he is Antichrist for his labour, whom Saint Paul says, we shall know by this, that he will exalt himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Beyond all Augusteïty and them that are called Gods; as Kings, by Gods own mouth are. S. Paul affirms that to be the highest power which bears the sword. Rom. 12. and therefore himself 
s Act. 25.11.  appealed to it. Optatus, against the Donatists, 
t Lib. 3. contr. Parmen.  saith, Super Imperatorem non est nisi Deus, qui fecit Imperatorem, there is none above the King but God that made the King. And with Kings must be joined all that are in authority; Peeers, judges, Magistrates, councillors of State, Captains of war: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. All that are eminent, or have any stroke in the government. For they also may do good or hurt: for 
u Gen. 41.43.  joseph was the King of Egypt's right hand: and they cried in the streets Abrech, for he was Pater patriae, A tender father to his country, and preserved it in time of extremity. Though Achitophel, and Shebnah, and Symmachus, and Stephen Gardiner, were not such. For though good Kings never so willingly, as the Sun, yield their light and comfort to the State, yet bad persons about and under them, not loving the Gospel nor justice, but aiming at their own private ends, like clouds or malignant stars, may come between and hinder the influence. Besides, their example draws like Adamant; and their integrity is so needful, that under the best Princes that ever were, that part of the State hath always drooped and withered that bad officers have meddled with. As on the contrary, the virtue of the inferior Magistrate hath oftentimes qualified the errors and distempers of violent tyrants: as we may perceive in the government of jehoash of juda, 
u 2. Reg. 12.2  of whom it is said, that He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days wherein jehoiadah the Priest instructed him. This is the reason why the Church must pray for Kings and all in authority under them.  
11 Learn here, that government and eminency is of God, by his own ordinance, for the benefit of mankind, and maintenance of civil society: else the Apostle would not have tied us to pray for them. Yea he saith expressly, Rom. 13.1. There is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God; therefore God giveth them his own names and titles, and sets them in a throne like himself: And 
x Mat. 4.  the Devil, making an offer to Christ, that he would give him All the kingdoms of the world, promised more than he had either right or power to perform. But here we must distinguish. There are four things in a King and every one that is in authority. First, his person, wherein he partakes in the common nature of all other men, and lives and dies like them. Secondly, his power and royal dignity. This is of God, whosoever he be that hath it, whether a good Prince or a Tyrant: a Nero or a Constantine, one or other. Thirdly, his coming to his power. This also is of God, when it is by lawful means, without usurpation, else not. For he that ordains the power, alloweth not the usurpation of it. Fourthly, the use of this power, which being just, and godly, and right, is also of God: but the abuse of it by tyranny or idolatry, or injustice, for example, is not so; for God allows no power to overrule his own Law. Our Anabaptists therefore, and such as are enemies to Monarchy, and all conspirators, Assasines, rebels, and turbulent persons, are beasts, and enemies to God's ordinance and to nature. For, saith Philo, He that lives under a law is a citizen of the world: the reason whereof he gives, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: He rules his actions according to the rule of nature. For albeit the Magistrate sometimes step into his place and use it unlawfully, yet still the place is of divine ordinance, and the means to reform what is amiss, is still to pray for Kings and all in authority. And not only the King himself is of God, but all the eminency and distinction of authority that is under him, his Nobles, his counsellors, his judges, his Magistrates, his Officers, his Courts, are all of God; to maintain his State and royalty, and to manage the affairs of the Commonwealth, which one man cannot do: and it is but a savage and popular humour to backbite or despise this eminency in whom soever. Those rhymes, When Adam delved and Eve span, etc. were liker to be made in Wat Tilers camp, than any where else; and the practice of libeling against Magistrates and great persons, at this day, that neither the living can walk, nor the dead sleep, cannot be justified. If any thing be amiss, there is cause rather of sorrow than laughter, and it is fit to pray, then to lay our heads together at a scurrilous Pasquil: which tending to nothing but the bringing of authority into contempt and disgrace, the end may be the overthrow of all at the last, when nothing is more dangerous in a State, then for Statesmen to lose their reputation: and the Stage and Poet, with jests and satires to deride sin, which by the Bishops and Pastors of the Church is gravely and severely to be reproved. It is true indeed that among the Greeks', in veteri Comoedia the persons of men were taxed: but they were Barbarians whom Christians must not imitate; and the Magistrates thereby were disgraced, and the rude people armed against them to the ruin of the best men, as we have examples in Socrates and others, and therefore the best States put them all down.  
12 I come now to the last point of my text: which is, the thing prayed for, or the end why we pray for Kings, That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. In which words he names the thing with the conditions thereof. The thing is peace, the conditions are peace with godliness, peace with honesty, in their latitude: All godliness, all honesty. For peace without these things is no good or durable peace, but will deceive the State that trusteth to it. Is it peace? 
a 2. Reg. 9.22  saith jehoram; but jehu answered, What peace so long as the whoredoms of jezabel and her witchcrafts remain? We must therefore pray for peace with godliness and honesty. This peace hath two degrees in the text: the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Public quietness, when the State is secured; neither wars nor garboils, nor faction, nor conspiracies, troubling it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Varinus: Quietness is the security of the State from fear. The next is, peace & tranquillity of every man's private state, when no storm beating the public, he lives at rest in his private, and hath Vsum fructum communis pacis, The use and profit of the public peace. An image whereof we have in the days of Solomon: 
b 1. Reg. 4.25  They dwelled confidently every man under his vine, and under his figtree, from Dan to Beershebah. The want whereof gave occasion to a servant of the Emperor Adrians', when he died, to write upon his grave stones; Here he lies that died an old man and yet lived but seven years; because after he was out of his infancy, all the rest of his life was beaten with labour and unquietness. The godliness mentioned is the true faith, and right service and worship of God by true religion, when the same is nourished in the State: as in the days of those Kings that put down the groves and altars built to Baal. Honesty supposes every virtue that maintains civil society, and governs the outward life of the subject: the contrary whereof is riot, disorder, unseemliness in manners. These are the things to be aimed at in government: and for the obtaining whereof we must pray and give thanks for Kings and all in authority.  
13 Note first, that the best and principallest things that can betide any people, is, the maintenance of true religion and godliness, and the preservation of peace and outward honesty in the State: the Apostle requiring that we pray for these things first of all; as that which all men mut procure to the uttermost of their power: and which being obtained, God in this life, gives no greater blessing. Our nation therefore possessing these things in so ample manner, must confess that God hath enriched it with his greatest mercies, and made it most happy, and given unto in all that for the which he first ordained government: of which point I shall say more in that which followeth.  
14 Note again, how the Magistrate, and others of eminency, must advance these things and procure them. First in their own persons, and by their own example, themselves living gravely, religiously and honestly. For if the end of prayer be that this may be in the State, how much more are the Statesmen bound to advance it in themselves? It is a thing that great men and well borne, may be fitly take notice of, this day, as any day in the year; that the using of their pleasures moderately and discreetly, and the composing of their manners and carriages, their studies and example, to the maintenance of religion and honesty, will be very grateful, this day, and well accord with the prayers of the Church. There is a fault this way, I will touch it, but softly: Many gentlemen and eminent persons, specially of the younger sort, too much neglect that godliness and government which, by their means, another day, when they are in authority, they should see maintained in others. Lightness of carriage, want of learning, ignorance in the laws, customs and government of the country, slackness, or possible, averseness in religion, abandoning themselves over to spending and sensuality: and for one particular, immoderate drinking: are evil dispositions to eminency, and will make them both unable to maintain the public good, and unfit to govern others. Nostíne hos, saith Pliny, qui omnium libidinum servi, eos puniunt quos imitantur? Have you not seen those who being the servants of every sin, yet punish that in others, which themselves imitate? Mendacia fallax Damnat, & in moechos gladium distringit adulter, was the complaint of Prosper: that is to say; when liars were to be censured by deceivers, and adulterers to be punished by wantoness. It was but a hard shift that a city in Spain was glad to use for the redressing of such a like matter. Ludovicus Vives makes the report. The young Nobles and gentlemen, diverse of them, were fallen from the gravity and honour of their ancestors: they followed prodigality and lightness; they were unlearned in the laws, and knew little Art, or military discipline; every one had his mistress, and spend his time in courting her: banquets, revels, dancing, amarousnesse, was their study. Great gallants they were, and that was all: which the ancient Magistrates observing, thought, what will become of the country which these must govern when we are dead? They dealt with the women, on whom they saw they depended; their daughters, the Ladies, all the young gentlewomen; and showing them the inconvenience, required their help, and gave them instruction: which they following effectually, recovered the gentlemen. They repelled from their favour all that were fantastical, sent them to their books; advised them to Arms, gravity, sobriety, nobleness: and favouring none that were vain, they wrought wonders, and secured the State; that these men proved as honourable and serviceable in the same, as any of their ancestors that were before them. I told you this was but a hard shift, yet was it the best they had; and would we had Ladies and gentlewomen to do as much for us, when Bishops and Preachers, and sage examples of our State cannot do it.  
15 Secondly, the Magistrates must maintain civil honesty in others also that live under them. For, Rom. 13. such as do evil are threatened; for the Magistrate bears not the sword in vain, but is Gods minister to take vengeance on them. I need not stand to prove that which no man denies: only they which know they should do it, either do it negligently, or are outfaced that they dare not do it. Who seethe not that whoredom, drinking, swearing, quarreling, and roaring (pity we should be enforced to name such things in this place) are so common, that scarce is there left in the streets, either religion, or honesty, godliness or civility? But drinking is now so taken up through the whole kingdom, that the Germans, I hear, are like to lose their Charter? There was in Rome a street called Vicus Sobrius: The Sober street, because there was never an alehouse in it; which is hard to be said of any street in England. I heard myself, not long since, the principal Magistrate of this City, that then was, in an open speech touching the bleeding sins, and swelling sores, (so, as I remember, he called them of the City) and so tenderly exhort to amendment, that I well perceived many things to be discovered that could not so easily be reform. And yet the Magistrate must not be weary for all that, when the prayers of the Church continually attend upon him; and if, by all endeavour possible, this one sin of drinking could be put down, the public honesty of our nation would the easilier be maintained. Now, all over the land, the justice of peace is mild, and the drunkard merry, which two, you know, will amend no sin. I will tell you a story in Athenaeus of an alehouse that came to be called The sign of the galley, upon this occasion. The roaring-boys meeting at a house, drank so long that their brains being overwhelmed, they thought all that was about them to be sea, and the room where they sat a Galley, so tossed with waves that they feared drowning; and therefore, as men in danger of shipwreck, they threw all things that came to hand out of the window into the street, pots, plate and furniture, to lighten the ship: which being taken up & carried away by such as came by, the Magistrate next morning comes to punish them for the disorder: but they, having not yet slept out their drink, answered him, That it was better to cast all into the sea, than the Galley, wherein they were, should be sunk, and so many brave gentlemen be cast away; and while the Magistrate wondered at their drunken imagination, another, creeping from under the table where he had lain all the night, replied, thinking the Magistrates to have been gods of the sea; And I, o ye Tritons, for fear laid me down under the hatches: which distemper of theirs the officers perceiving, went their way, and forgiving them, bad, Do so no more: to whom they all gave this thanks; If ever we escape this storm, and get safe to land, we vow you statues, and will set up your images in our country as to our saviours. This story is a pattern of the behaviour which our drunkards use, and the manner how it is punished abroad in the country; when they are presented, they answer for themselves some phlegmatic conceit of swimming in the sea, that relishes of the broth; and the Magistrate bids, Do no more so: and so the drunkard in honour of the justice, makes his image for saving him, and writes upon it, Good-ale never wanted a friend upon the bench.  
16 There is as much to be said of drinking healths, but I want time, nor greatly care I what any man can plead for it: one Saint Ambrose is more to me; and one discourse of his, De potu ad aequales calices, Touching drinking healths, more moves me, than all the health maintainers in this City: whom I do most earnestly entreat to read over and over, the 13. and 17. Chapters of his book, called De Elia & jeiunio: where he shall not only see the very image of our times; Bibamus etiam pro salute Imperatoris: Let us drink Health to the Emperor, but hear the holy Bishop so inveigh against it, that the gravity and bended brows of so great a Prelate were able to make the cup fall out of the greatest Barons hand in England. 
* Avent.  The Emperor Aurelian was ill troubled to find out one Bonosus to quaff with the Germane Ambassador, who yet was derided for his labour, and commonly called, Not a man, but a drunken pitcher filled with wine. Our time affords store of these, whom no exercise can please without drinking, like the Germane mentioned by Pontanus, who hearing a solemn Tilting at the Court applauded by the company, cried out, O valeant ludi quibus nemo bibit: Farewell the game where there is no drinking. Let all men remember their end, and the terrible account they shall, one day, make to him that hath said it: 
o Es. 5.22. Habb. 2.15.  Woe be to them that are strong to drink, and give their companions drink that they may see their nakedness.  
17 Let me insist upon a word more that is in my text: Godliness of religion. Wherein no doubt, our Apostle desires God's blessing upon Kings for this cause principally, that the true faith of Christ may be maintained, and heresy suppressed. This is agreed upon at all hands, that I need not spend time in proving it. Gal. 5.12. He wisheth they were cut off that trouble the Church: and Irenaeus reports the preciseness of the Apostles, and the Christians of those times, to have been such,  ne verbo tenus communicarent alicui eorum qui adulteraverat veritatem: That they would not so much as talk, or in words communicate with any that had violated the truth. For, him that is an heretic avoid, saith our Apostle, Tit. 3.10. Our countrymen Romanized and jesuited, have filled the world with outcries against our State, for supressing them, and making laws against their religion. What they say, and how they exclaim, and what they conspire about this matter, I cannot now stand to rehearse; but if their heresy and superstition be not expelled, how shall your faith stand? What security shall Sarah and her son Isaak have in the house, if Hagar and her brat be not beaten out of doors? I will play at short weapons with them, & come to the point. PAPISTRY CAN STAND NEITHER WITH PEACE NOR PIETY: THE STATE THEREFORE THAT WOULD HAVE THESE THINGS, HAD JUST CAUSE TO SUPPRESS IT. Touching our Peace, it hath not been violated in our State these many years, but by them: nor scarce in any State Christian, since Charles the Great his time, but the Pope and his ministers have had a hand in it. 
* Pet. de Vin. lib. 1. ep. 31.  It was the complaint of the noble Frederick the second, Revera Imperialis authoritas Papali semper impugnatur invida: The Papal envy hath always blasted the authority of Kings. And I challenge all the jesuits this day in England, let them give an instance of any kingdom in the Christian world these eight hundred years that hath not complained of the Pope intermeddling, and crossing their peace. But I will show them that a great part of the most grievous tragedies that ever fell out in any kingdom, whether the combustion, or the overthrow of the State, or the murder of the king, have been contrived by them; and so long as there is a book to be sold in this Churchyard, or we can keep our libraries from their purging, it will be justified by due record. 
* Niceph. Gregor.  He was a great King that put one to death for but wearing his Crown in his own presence: he was going in his barge, and his Crown falling into the water, the barge man swom after it, and only put it on his head as he swum till he recovered the barge: the King gave him a talon for saving it, but cut off his head for wearing it. Would God these men had done no more but reached at the crown to save it, but we know they have endeavoured to steal it: and if authority cut them not shorter, they will whensoever occasion serves, sink and destroy it.  
18 I will say nothing of their private turbulency, nor what good neighbours they are at home in the country where they rule the house that harbours them, & specially the goodwife or Lady thereof. I will only touch their sauciness with the Crown, that which our State droops and bleeds under. Who is such a stranger in our State, that he knows not their refusal of an oath only for allegiance and civil obedience? their suing for dispensation, and their open contestations with his Majesty and the State about it, the Pope with his College and Consistory maintaining them? Saint Austin says, We distinguish between the eternal God, and the temporal Lord; yet we obey the temporal Lord for his sake that is the eternal God. And all Antiquity confessed (I use the very words of Chrysostome, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact) that were he an Apostle, a Prophet, an Evangelist, a Bishop, a Priest, a Monk: Sive quisquis tandem fuerit, of what cloth soever his Coat be made, the King is above him. Strabo tells of a High priest in Pontus, that ware a Crown, whose subjects were called Hieroduli, whom he ruled with Kingly authority; but he was a Pagan, and still the King was his Lord. The Pope affects this prehemience, and would have all the world to be his Hieroduli: he and his crew will be Pagans, Donatists, Anabaptists, what you will so they be no subjects. 
a Luc. 22.25.  Christ told his Disciples, Peter and all, The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, but it shall not be so among you: The Pope and Papists will exercise it, and turn the text, King's exercise Lordship over their subjects, and you shall exercise it over Kings, & not be subject. This point of subjection lies in their bones. 
* Ph. Camer.  There was sometime in Gaunt, as diverse of the Magistrates were sitting on a bench in the street, a Beggar, who passing by craved their alms, & complained, that he had a secret disease lying in his bones, and running all over his body, which he might not for shame discover to them; they moved with pity, gave him each of them somewhat, and he departed. One more curious than the rest, bad his man follow him, and learn, if he could, what that secret disease should be: who coming to him, and seeing nothing outwardly upon him, but well to look at; Forsooth, quoth the Beggar, that which pains me you see not, I have a disease lying in my bones, and all my parts, that I cannot work: some call it Sloth and some Idleness. Our jesuited Papists have a disease that holds them much like this of the Beggar; they cannot be subject; to look at outwardly you shall discern nothing, for they are close: but there creeps all over their body, through every joint, and is settled in the marrow, a Lordly humour, that they cannot obey, nor understand themselves to be the King's subjects any longer than the Pope will have them. Some Physicians extenuate the nature and danger of the disease, but the beggar of Gaunt was not so bad, nor so hard to cure; and we see, when Physicians have done the uttermost, it turns at last to treason and rebellion; that he which desires the King's safety, must pray for stronger physic than yet hath been given, to purge this humour: though for my own part I think, the physic strong enough if the sturdy beggars were made to drink it and, law were backed with execution.  
19 What woeful treasons did they contrive against that blessed Lady our gracious Elizabeth that now is gone? what rebellions and invasions did they kindle? what mischief had they in their heads against her? And now she is gone (Ah the sacred name of Christian piety where art thou buried, that we might visit thy monument!) how barbarously have these sepulcrorum effossores raked and digged into her grave, and railed upon her royal name? whom strangers have come from far to see, as she of Saba did to see Solomon? foreigners reverenced, subjects doted upon, all Princes living admired, themselves openly flattered, and for the time fawned upon? Ah blessed Lady how did God, by thy hands, that which the potentest Princes in the world could hardly reach to? Honour held her State within thy Crown, Majesty sprang in thy breast, thy heart was filled with piety, thy hands with pity, thy lap with plenty, thy throne with justice: thou liest not buried in the cold earth, but in the living hearts of all that knew thee; that which the peerless Ladies of the former world had severally, thou hadst alone: Placida, Pulcheria, Galla, Theodelind, Eudocia, Palaelogina; of whom 
* Niceph. Gregot.  it is said, that with the bounty and admiration of her sex, as with a net she fished, and caught, & drew unto her the opinions of all men; and yet there is found a generation that curse thy name: as there was a people that had a daily ceremony, to go out of doors, and with their face into the East to curse the Sun that gave them light, and by his influence preserved them.  
20. His gracious Majesty speeds no better; let their cursed writings, and base speeches of him, and all other practifes against him, be laid aside: and remember but the POWDER TREASON, the uttermost point of all villainy, beyond which it is terra incognita, no man can devise what should be between Hell and it. The Hermit of the Legend, hearing all the devils in Hell, as he thought, together on the other side of the wall, lifting, and blowing, and groaning, as if they had been removing the world, desired God to let him see what they were doing; and they were but lifting at a feather: had not the Hermit come in. they would have feathered such an arrow, as should have struck through the heart of the child yet unborn. They say there is a bird, that, when men are at sacrifice, takes fire from the altar, and burns their houses; these are the birds of that feather, that can find no fire to burn our State but what is kindled on their very altars, and the dearest ceremonies of their religion. Religion, sacraments, prayer, the holiest things they have, and God himself, are applied to execute the devil and his Vicars cursed will. Thuanus writes that the Pope caused the massacre of Paris (what time, in diverse parts of France were murdered above 60000 persons) to be painted in his palace; it should seem, Ad perpetuam rei memoriam; lest so extreme wickedness should be forgotten. So no doubt should this Powder work have been painted by it, if it had not miscarried: save that no Art could have imitated the confusion, no colour have represented so barbarous cruelty. What stain could shadow the blood of so royal Princes? what red were sufficient to paint the blood of so many and noble Christians? what black, the darkness of that day? what azure the unmercifulness of the fire? what device, what invention could have expressed the woeful cry of the innocent, and the infernal noise of the blow? If they were men, why did they work like devils? if christian men, let me speak to them in the words of Saint Cyprian: Quid facit in pectore Christiano Luporum feritas, canum rabbiss, saevitia bestiarum, venenum lethal serpentum? How came into the breast of Christians the rage of Wolves, the madness of dogs, the cruelty of beasts, the deadly poison of venomous serpents? Cum sitis impij, crudeles, homicidae, inhumani, non amplius eritis Christiani: saith Lucifer Calazitanus, of the Arians: When you are become impious, cruel, murderers, without humanity, you shall no longer be called Christians. Yet these men are made our ghostly fathers, and hearken a little; and take the measure of them that cry themselves, as loud as oister-women in the streets, The Apostles successors. Over and beside that I have already said, and all the rest, they have violated our Churches, threatened the Statesman, assaulted the officer, rescued the malefactor, broken the prisons, slaughtered our cattle; these fifty years together traveled of nothing but the destruction of their dearest country that bred and bore them. O earth, earth, earth, cover not this impiety, and let their wickedness find no place; o heavens above reveal it; o heaven and earth, and all you creatures, were it possible you had any sense of our complaint, bear witness of it: Priests are turned into hangmen, massing into massacring, ghostly fathers into bloudly murderers, Colleges of Friars into dens of Assasines. Alas for the infamy of our age to bear the date of such impieties. But thou o blessed Trinity, the sole infuser of grace, who hast kindled the feeling of all this wickedness, as a fire in my bones, move the hearts of our seduced countrymen, open their eyes, and lead them into the ways of peace and godliness: and as for Rome that works nothing but the ruin of thy Church and Gospel; Remember O Lord the children of Edom in the day of jerusalem, how they have cried against thy Sanctuary, Down with it, down with it, even to the foundation, O daughter Babylon, who one day shalt be wasted and destroyed; happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.  
21 There is much to be said touching their religion; their turbulency troubles peace no more than their heresies corrupt religion: no time now to insist upon the point: this must be tried by our public writings and disputations, if any man will do it exactly. If the several points of their faith, and the articles of their NEW CREED were ever taught or believed in the ancient Church, or otherwise came into the world then by the strength of human wit, far the advancing of the Pope and his Clergies greatness, why have they purged so many ancient books, coined so many writings, and allowed nothing to be authentical but what the Pope agrees to? and 
* Regula infailibilis ad firmandum unam fidem, est fummus Pontisex Romanus: & omnes atticuli fidei ulti matèresolvuntur in ipsam Albertin. Corol. pag. 251.  made him the sole rule of all men's faith and conscience? And I greatly care not what any man persuades himself to the contrary. Our Church at this day, and ever since the reformation of religion, hath had as learned Divines able to judge of these things, as the Pope and his abettors in all their nations have any to oppose against them: and which is God's special favour to us, we have a King who with his own mouth and pen can justify as much as his laws maintain, against the best of them all. Yet it lies not all on the point of learning neither: Savanarola truly 
a De Ord. scient. lib. 3.  saith, Veritas Scripturae puritate cordis & divina illustratione magis addiscitor quàm vi ingenij aut studij humani exercitio: The truth of the Scripture is sooner learned by pure hearts enlightened from above, then by the strength of wit or exercise of human study. What it is that draws so many to papistry, and fills the land with so many Seminary Priests, we know well enough: the Friar long since discovered it to his novice, when he told him the advantage that ghostly fathers had over the lay people: We keep their counsel, they keep none of ours: we have part of their lands, they have none of ours: we have charity towards their wives, they towards none of ours: they bring up our children, we none of theirs. A marquess of Brandenburg was wont to say, that he had three Monasteries in his country that were so many miracles. One of the Dominicans, who had abundance of corn, and yet had no land to sow: Another of the Franciscans, who were full of money, and yet received no rents: The third of Saint Thomas, whose Monks had many children, and yet had no wives, These speeches were in their time pleasantly uttered, but all the world knows the moral to be true: and so I leave them and will end my text, and entreat you to retire to our public gratulation.  
22 If our Apostle would have Prayer and thanksgiving for Kings and all in authority, then when Nero was Emperor, such a tyrant and monster that 
* See Hieron in Dan. 11. Sever. Sulp. sacr hist. lib. 2. August. De Civit. lib. 20. cap. 19  divers held him to be Antichrist; and every Magistrate then living was a deadly persecutor of the Gospel; how deeply are we bound to give God thanks for our times, wherein we enjoy so gracious a Governor? I speak of one of the best and greatest Princes that the Church of God hath lightly had, and this land, yet, never had any greater: and therefore myself being of so small faculty and straight conceit, I must entreat you, in the phrase of Philo, To behold the image of a great mountain in a small ring: To conceive the worth of a good King in the narrow words of an unskilful speaker; when the mercies of God bestowed on us, in, and by him, I freely confess, are higher and greater than I can measure. Were I a Pacatus, a Claudian, a Mamertinus, that so nobly sounded out the praise of their Emperors: had I the reputation and faculty of an Eusebius, an Amberose, a Nazianzen, a Chrysostome, I would say as much of his Majesty as they said of Constantine, Theodosius, or Valentinian. For, 
* Cassiod. var. lib. 9 ep. 25.  Stipendium & Tyranno penditur, praedicatio non nisi bono Principi: Men pay tribute to Tyrants, but commendations are due to good Princes, and the least reward we can yield them. He is unthankful that is unmindful of a benefit, unthankful that requites it not; unthankful that denies it; but most unthankful that dissembles it. Though we cannot requite the mercy of God, yet we will neither forget nor dissemble it.  
23 It was Gods own immediate doing to anoint him over us, when the sins of our nation rather cried for vengeance then deserved so happy government; and the uttermost that the wit of enemies and malice of Satan could do, was not wanting to make diversion. The manifold dangers from which God hath delivered him, even from his cradle, are so many pledges of his love to us: for they shall not miscarry whom God protects. David was grievously persecuted: joash his life sought by his own grandmother Athaliah. 
o Phot. biblioth. pag. 30.  Constantine being a youth in Dioclesian's Court, by the craft of Maximinus, was trained to combat with a Lion. 
* evagr. lib. 5. cap. 21.  When Mauritius was an infant, his mother saw a Fairy oftentimes to pull him out of his cradle, and offer to devour him. Queen Elizabeth's dangers you all know. So that what we have is God's entire mercy against the malice of men and evil angels. That day right was given to the succession, which is no small blessing: For, 
* Wisd. 4.3.  Bastard plants take no rooting. Two mighty nations that sprang out of one womb, but had been divided ever since they were born, which is 2500. years, were united: the benefit whereof, if it be well pursued, will be simply the greatest that can belong to both the states, if, as brothers they will abstain from injuries, and strive which shall overcome other in piety and brotherly offices. There was nothing of that we had before, but by his Majesty we have it either enlarged or confirmed to us, and by hope of succession in his issue, to our children after us: Peace, Religion, Honour, Security: the best things and all that a State can desire. The inconvenience is, that by long enjoying them we disccrne not their price: as the Barbarians abounding with gold and pearl, truck them for pings and glasses. Had we lived a while as 
o jud. 6.  Israel did under the Madianites, in holes & caves of the earth for sear, had we tasted the times of our Baron's war here in England: lived a while in Flanders under the D. of Alva; or in France the time of their civil wars, and tasted their massacres: or under the Spaniard in the West Indies: or a while under the Turk in Anatolia where he breeds his soldiers: or but at home under a Boner, and a Winchester, or a Spanish Inquisition: our taste would return unto us, and we should better know what we have.  
24 Touching Religion, and the government of our Church, established by his Highness, there be many complaints made by our Brownists & their favourers: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Simocatt. Hist.  for discontented minds are always whining, and upon small occasions use to multiply mountains of complaints: and fill the world with their importunity. A contemptible generation they, are and unworthy answer: yet I will say no more than is true; Religion is as purely taught & maintained in England this day, as in any Church or nation in Europe, & as much liberty allowed to preach it: and touching the Ecclesiastical government by Bishops which they so vellicate, I protest before God and man, it amasseth me to see such as can read either the Scripture or Antiquity to carp at it, when the Christian world, for 1400 years after Christ, never saw any other government. I will flatter  
times over: thrice with his weight in silver, twice in gold, once in pearl, and unions, and yet could not obtain it. Oh that there had been but one dram of his highness clemency in those hearts that were so inexorable: who hath saved, & pardoned more than (possible) hath stood with his own safety. What can I speak of his Learning, Eloquence, and gifts of Nature worthy of the same! wherein I presume his greatest adversaries will not deny him to parallel, if not exceed, all Princes living, & to be equal to the learnedst that have gone before him. We have heard him heretofore, and saw him now lately in our Universities, in the midst of the learnedst in all Professions, speaking & discoursing with no less judgement and readiness of utterance and conceit, then if it had been his ordinary Profession. How much ado had many to refrain very tears for joy to see a mighty and potent King, and God's vicegerent upon earth, to bring all his State & Royalty with him into the schools of the Prophets, & there with such humility and meekness to sit him down among his poor subjects, and converse with them in their own faculty? Never was there in the world a greater Patron to Learning and learned men; there being few that excel in Learning and zeal for the Gospel, even in foreign parts, but he hath some way made them beholding to him: his own writings of all sorts, but principally in the cause of Religion against Antichrist, are such as have ennobled his Kingdom for ever and have given more life and courage to us all, than I may well with modesty express: and time shall show, those writings will work scuh effects against the enemies of the truth, that the ages to come shall him Blessed. And for his constancy in the maintenance and propagation of religion, both at home and abroad, I am not the word and sacrament? that scarce any private man hears more Sermons than himself: that, in this respect, as much may be said of his Court, as was said of the Court of Theodosius, that it was turned into an Oratory for the daily service of God. And to assure us of his entire heart, he hath given the dearest pledges that he possibly could: against the Pope and his band he hath exposed his Crown, dignity, children, life; all he hath: what would we more? We know well enough how he hath been laboured at home and abroad for toleration of Papistry: and how the Recusants and their Patrons have negotiated the business: yet could they never nor shall they ever stir him. That day he gave the Noble Princess, that gracious Lady his daughter to the Palatine, he sealed us an instrument of his hand to testify his love to religion; and make his affection thereunto known to all men. Go we yet forward to the rest. How religiously and virtuously hath he caused the Prince his son to be brought up, whose education is such, that I make a question whether any Bishop in our kingdom be so religious and careful in the education of his child? This we are sure of; his Majesty cannot, in all that is under his hands, more gratify the State, and the Church of God, and his poor subjects therein, then in this one thing, if the consequence thereof be well considered and compared with the contrary. Let carping spirits and meddling tongues, that hold it their chiefest liberty to scan Kings and take into their actions, contain themselves: these his virtues, and this love which he hath showed to State and Church, shall bind all godly hearts unto him, and make them the tabernacle of his honour; when Papists and factions have spit out their venom: whom I could charm well enough if they were not deaf Adder. David commended Saul: the Spirit of God David: the ancient Church could never satisfy itself in extolling Constantine, Theodosius, Valentinian, Gratian; and yet, if I listed, I could pick quarrels to the best of them: and charge every one of them with some particulars that his Majesty cannot be touched with.  
26 Let us have an eye to the text. When God, by his governent, upholds unto us Peace, tranquillity, Religion, Godliness: praise God for the King, and ye praise him for all these things: Love and serve the King, and ye love and serve God that hath given you all. Let us sing a song of thanksgiving to God for his mercies: Holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth are full of thy goodness: thou hast visited thy people, and showed them thy salvation: thy bounty and thy mercy hath crowned them with gladness, and turned away the punishment of their sins: and let us say, with the people at the inauguration of Solomon, 
o 1 Reg. 139.  God save the King: that under him we and our posterity may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Unto whom our God, one glorious, gracious, and immortal God, the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost, be rendered again and again all honour and glory now and evermore. Amen.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT THE SPITTLE in London, upon Easter Monday, 1613.  1. TIM. 6.17. 
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy: That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to Distribute, willing to Communicate: Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.  
IN which words the blessed Apostle instructs Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, how to preach to great and wealthy men, and how to exhort them touching the use of their riches, that they may be saved. For it is to be supposed, that as the poor embraced the Gospel, so many rich alst. For, Act. 2.45. we read of divers that had fair possessions and much wealth; and 19.31. of some that were of the chiefest of Asia, that believed: for Ephesus, and all Asia were full of wealth: and if there had been none then, yet afterward, when the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, there would be many both great, and noble, and rich, and wealthy, that God would call into his Church, in all ages, and therefore he leaves this Scripture for them: to admonish and direct them in the use of their riches, and teach them how to carry themselves, that, with their greatness, they might also enjoy the hope of eternal life; without which hope all worldly wealth and greatness were nothing worth. For, What shall it profit a man to win the whole world, if he lose his soul? saith our Saviour. Mat. 16.26. And as at a funeral dinner there are many guests and great cheer, but no mirth, because he is dead that should make it: so in the state of riches there is great plenty and much abundance of outward things, but no fecuritie of mind, if they be not well used; because that is wanting that should give it, the hope of salvation, and assurance of eternal life in the world to come. He had said, a little before, verse the ninth, that Such as will be rich fall into temptation and snares, and lusts, that plunge them into destruction; and that the desire of money should be avoided as the root of all evil: The which doctrine, lest it should be mistaken, he expounds in this place; that his meaning is not simply to condemn the state of rich men, as some do, but only to forewarn them of the danger: that they possess their riches, & use them with that humility of mind, and thankfulness to God, and readiness to do good, that they may make them a means to prefer themselves thereby to the undoubted hope of eternal life.  
2 I know well, this doctrine, and very likely this text too, is often handled in this place, but that is no matter; the audience and occasion will scarce admit any other. The Priests must walk, with the same Ark upon their shoulders, every day once, about the walls of jericho for six days together; and the seventh day seven times: Ios. 6.3. The King of Israel beat the ground thrice, and the Prophet was angry that he beat it no oftener. 2. Reg. 13.18. The Sun riseth daily, yet no man is weary of it. The body is nourished, and diseases cured, not so much with the variety of meats and physic, as with their goodness and finnesse. If it please God to give me strength, and you patience, the Text will serve well enough.  
3 It contains a threefold admonition for the rich. First, touching their mind, what to avoid: Not to be high minded, not to trust in their riches, but in God. Secondly, then touching the use of their wealth: That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Thirdly, touching the end why they must do this: That they may lay up in store, for themselves, a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. They may possess their riches, but their riches must not possess their mind. Then again, they must not possess their riches alone, but, as God's stewards put in trust, they must faithfully impart them to others. Then lastly, they must so store up riches, that they store up withal a good conscience, and so lay hold on these earthly things, that they lose not the hold of better things in the life to come. These are the particulars of the whole.  
4 But first let it be noted how he propounds this doctrine: Charge them that are rich in this world. He condemns not riches, nor disallows their use, but only bids Timothy admonish such as have them to be humble minded. He binds no man to renounce them, but to use them well, and to join the riches of God's grace with them. There have been humours exceeding busy with riches and greatness, and all property and dominion; that every thing might be in common. The Council of Diospolis charges Pelagius with this opinion, and made him recant it. But he was not the first. Niceph. lib. 9 cap. 16. saith of Eustathius and his sectaries, Quod locupletes extorres prorsus regno coelorum esse duxerunt: They held no wealthy man could be saved. In our times the Anabaptists plied this conceit: they made a book, called Opus restitutionis, wherein they taught it violently. Hortensius, in his story, tells strange practices of theirs this way. But it is an absurd humour, fit for none but banktouts and rebels: when possessions are given of God, and property is founded in the law of Nature: and against it Saint Austin, Ep. 89. q. 4. wittily observed, that Lazarus a poor man, sat in heaven, in Abraham's bosom, that was a rich man. Solomon saith, The rich and the poor meet together, and the Lord made them both. Prou. 22.2.  
Note again how the Apostle will have Timothy, and, by his example, the Ministers of the Church, to to preach to the rich also, and the greatest that live; and so to preach, that they be not flattered and let alone in bad courses: but charged and admonished, if they should chance to be high minded or unthankful to God; for they are a portion of the flock, over which the holy Ghost hath made us overseers, and unto whom the will of God must be revealed as well as the poor. And though they be greater than the Preacher, in this world, yet they are not greater than he that sends the Preacher to them. jer. 1.7. Whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid, I have put my words into thy mouth. I have set thee over nation; & kingdoms: And Apo. 10. vlt. Thou must prophesy among the Nations, & to many Kings. In the which respect Nazianz. says of the Emperor himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The Law of God hath subjecteth you to our Pulpits. Saint Chrysostome says, Sive quis Dux militiae sit, five Praefectus, sive Princeps diademate coronatus, maiorem illo potestatem habes: Whosoever he be thou art above him: thou art the keeper of the flock, suffer none to defile the fountain of water whereof the Sheep should drink, but repel them.  
6 The rich and the mighty must note this, and Preachers must observe it, that both sides keep even quarters. Great men have always been hard to deal with. Pride the rich man's cousin (so Bernard styles it) fills them with stoutness and presumption. jer. 22.21 I spoke to thee in thy prosperity, but thou wouldst not hear me, this hath been thy manner. Whereby it comes to pass, that many times the Preacher by doing but his duty, by charging them that are Rich, falls into much trouble: not that the Poorer sort are much better: for we find as much Pride and Presumption among them as with the Rich; but they want teeth and horns; The Sons of Zeruiah are too strong for us. All the Prophets, Apostles, and Pastors of the Church in all ages have found this by experience. And if the upholding of Christ's kingdom against the world and sin, and the salvation of our souls, lay not upon it, it were better for us never to have to do with a great man. The Shepherd having lost a lamb out of his flock, made a vow to God, that if he might find the thief, hewould sacrifice a Ram. But when in the pursuit he found a Lion preying upon it, he made another vow, that if God would deliver him from the Lion's fury, he  
not give way to God's authority, but so unthankfully draw pride from that which should draw them to humble themselves to God the more; it is just with God to leave them in the hands of unprofitable teachers. An unworthy thing no doubt, and ill befitting the majesty of the Pulpit, for a Preacher to flatter any man, to trifle in his Sermons, or private exhortations, to sow his seed in the ear, to hunt after his own credit: not to deal, as far as his faculty reaches, thoroughly: and yet the holy Ghost complains of such all over the Scripture. That a man may say of their preaching as a good writer doth of Irish haps, Oculos pascunt, aures onerant: It is better to see them then hear them. There is much delight to see their nimble fingering, how they run in and out, and touch double and triple; but the melody is not much worth. And yet, they say, Saint Keywins Harpc is kept for a great relic, as flattering and verbal Preachers are now and then great relics with worldly men. Quae otiosorum auribus placent, aegrotorum animis non prosunt, saith Saluianus: That which most tickles delicate ears, lest helps diseased souls. Let no man therefore, how great soever, carry that mind, to have the Preacher conceal any part of this charge: If you cannot amend your sin so soon as you should, o yet suffer us to rebuke it, to touch it, to smite it: our doctrine and plain dealing, in time, may be a means to help and heal you. You give the Physician leave to tell you any disease that is in you body: your Lawyer leave to show you any flaw that is in your state; your horse-keeper tells ye the surfeits of your horse: your huntsman the surrances of your dogs: and must we only dissemble, and conceal from you the sins of your soul? We will not do it: we will love you, and pray for you, and honour your greatness; but your sins we will reprove, and what God hath bidden us, we will charge you with. And this little book that we hold in our hand, shall give us more true comfort then the following and fawning upon all the greatness of the world. Hitherto of the charge in general.  
8 Now I come to the particulars, and first he admonishes them touching their mind. The foundation of all well-doing must be laid in the heart; for, Prou. 4.23. thereout the whole life proceedeth. And Mat. 12.33. first, Make the tree good. This is the reason why the light of the Moon is variable and unconstant, sometime more, and sometime less, and sometime none at all, because it is but borrowed; and this will make great men unconstant in their well-doing, if the heart be not established with grace, in itself; therefore Gods charge unto them is, to begin with the heart. This charge is set down, first negatively: Not to be high minded: not to trust in riches. The reason: For they are uncertain. Then affirmatively: But in the living God. The reasons are two. First, he is the living God. Next, He gives us richly all things to enjoy. Where four degrees of God's bounty and mercy are mentioned. First, he gives generally: All things. Next abundantly: All things richly. Then freely: He gives all things. Lastly effectually: To enjoy. It is unpossible the things of this world should come to our hands with better conditions.  
9 First, charge them That they be not high minded. It is the nature of greatness, when it comes, to blow up the heart, as a bladder is blown with a quill. And our Apostle said in the ninth verse: The rich fall into lusts and temptations. Societ as quaedamest, etiam nominis, vitijs & divitijs, saith Sidonius: Wealth and wickedness begin both with a letter, and are seldom asunder. And as he that drinks wine shall feel it fume into his head, though he be never so sober; so riches and all worldly greatness are a cup of fuming wine, which the best man that lives shall feel suming in his heart, and some are made stark drunken withal. Es. 29.9. They are drunk, but not with wine. And as worms breed in the heart of trees, and they tell of toads and serpents that have been found in the midst of a great stone; so pride the worm of wealth, (so Saint Austin calls it) commonly breedeth in the spirit of rich men. And this is the reason why the Apostle in the first place gives warning of it. This high mindedness, if I may stand a little to expound it, thus works in those that have it. First, he values and esteems himself about that he is. His understanding being corrupted and blinded, he apprehends great matters in himself, that he is rich, that he is great, that he is wise, that he is able: whereupon he affects himself in his will, and delights in his own imagination. jer. 22.23. I dwell in Libanon, & make my nest in the high Cedars. This thought makes the action of pride complete; and it is not necessary that a man in good earnest and formally think thus, but it is the complete action of a high mind to have the passions of it. The errors of this passion are two. First, that he forgets God to be the Author of that he hath. Next, that he sees not the imperfections, and misery, and wants attending that he hath. But is like a country man, that comes into a shop, and having no skill, buys at a dear rate, and holds in great account, mingled and counterfeit wares, because he hath no skill: so his own heart beguileth him. This is the first working of a high mind. Then secondly, upon this apprehension he prefers himself afore others, as good, or better than himself: yea he despiseth others. Luk. 18.11. God, I thank thee, I am not as other men; or as this Publican. 1. Sam. 25.10. Who is David, and what is the son of Ishai? Thirdly, he thinks himself worthy of any thing he desires, and thereupon inordinately intrudes himself into all greatness and promotion, as if of right it were due to him. Like the Spider that being but a poisonful vermin, yet climbs to the roof of the King's palace. Pro. 30.28: And the thistle that jehoash the King of Israel tells of. 2. Reg. 14.9. that sent to the Cedar of Libanon to give him his daughter to be his sons wife. Fourthly, he makes his own corrupt will and judgement the rule of his actions, thinking so well of his own doings, that he grows insolent and incorrigible, and will abide no teaching; like Cain, Gen. 4.9. Am I my brother's keeper? He thought God did him wrong to question with him about his brother; his brother was old enough to look to himself. Fiftly, he shows his spirit in outward behaviour, in words, in gesture, in apparel, in building, in furniture, in excess of meat and drink. Esa. 3.16. The daughters of Zion are haughty, & walk with their necks stretched out, and wandering eyes, mincing as they go: Their head tires, and rings, and mufflers. Finally, in his heart, he refuseth all obedience to God, thinking it a base thing to be subject to his word, or ordinances. job 21.15. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what should we get by praying to him? These are the characters of a high mind, whose secret thoughts are noted by the holy Ghost; that we may see the pestilency of that which the Apostle, here, gives warning of. Apoc. 18.7. I sit a Queen. Dan. 4.27. Is not this great Babel, that I have built by the might of my power? Obad. ver. 4. Thou exaltest thyself as an Eagle, and makest thy nest among the stars. But it is a better way to hear what God says, jer. 9.23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understand and know me; saith the Lord.  
10 I have now showed what it is that rich men must avoid, but I must add, that poor men, and mean persons, must avoid it too. For it is a venom that poisons the basest also. Hagar Abraham's bondwoman, was no such goodly stuff, and yet Gen. 16.4. Sarah her mistress was despised in her eyes. And 1. Sam. 10. we read how the refuse of the people despised the Magistrate. Thus it fares at this day among us; servants despise their masters, the people reverence not the Magistrate, the grave Magistrates of this very City receive not the pledges of respect. job saith, when he was a Magistrate, and walked through the street, the young men saw him and hid themselves, the aged rose and stood up: the ear that heard him blessed him, and the eye that saw him gave witness to him, job. 29.7. Now young man, Prentices, servants, the common sort, are so far from hiding themselves, or rising up, that I have often seen the Magistrate faced, and almost browbeaten, as he hath gone by: but that due observance and honour, that, by bearing the head, bowing the knee, showing awful respect, they should yield to so public Magistrates in so honourable a City, I have seldom seen. The reason is, that Presumption and arrogancy follows youth and baseness, as well as wealth. A paltry cottage will send out as much smoke as a great house. A rotten log that is all sap, will yield as much saw dust, as sound timber. The best motive I can propound to all young people and servants, is this; so to carry themselves toward their masters, as they would their own servants another day should carry themselves toward them: and so to honour their Magistrate, as themselves would look to be honoured, when by their well-doing, God should hereafter advance them to the like place.  
11. In the second place again Negatively: Charge them not to trust in riches. The companion of pride is confidence in that which a man hath: the Prophet Hab. 1.16. says, They sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their yarn: the meaning is, that the same confidence which by sacrifice and incense we protest to God, they put in their wealth. And job 31.24. it is noted to be a passion in the covetous rich man, to make gold his hope, and to say to the wedge of gold; Thou art my confidence: where the Septuagint translate, If I have wedded myself to gold, because they dote upon it as a man doth on the beauty of his wife: and therefore he adds, If I beheld the Sun when it shined, or the Moon walking in her beauty. If my heart did flatter me in secret, or if my mouth have kissed my hand. For these are the passions of the wealthy, to delight in the beauty of riches, and secretly, in their heart to kiss them, and flatter themselves in their abundance, as if gold were their Sun by day, and silure their Moon by night. So Pro. 10.15. The rich man's goods are his strong city. And Ecclesi. 40.25. Gold & silver fasten the feet: that is to say, The Covetous man thinks he stands firm on no ground but paved with gold. As Luke. 12.19. I will say to my soul; Soul, thou hast much wealth laid up for many years: live at ease, and take thy pleasure. This is the confidence that rich men put in their riches.  
12 But the Apostle gives a reason against this: They are uncertain. Which is a good reason; for Hope and Trust should be planted upon that which is firm and certain, lest it deceive us. The Greek word here used, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, means that it is not apparently manifest, that our riches are that we take them for; we presume of their goodness, but we may be deceived: as Mat. 13.22. they are called Deceivable riches. This uncertainty of riches and all worldly greatness is threefold. First, they are not sure to abide with him that hath them in most abundance. Pro. 23.5. Wilt thou cast thine eye upon that which is nothing? for riches betakes her to her wings, and as an Eagle flies away into the heavens. And as a bird shut up in a cage, will away suddenly whensoever she spies a hole open; so worldly wealth slides away through a hundred holes. jer. 5.27. As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of riches: and 17.11. As the Partridge gathers her young, so is he that gets riches unjustly. They writ of the Partridge, that she will steal the eggs of other birds, and call their young ones that she never hatched; but when they are flig and can fly, they all leave her again mourning and calling when they are gone, and she that had many running after her for a time, by & by hath none at all. So, saith the holy Ghost, it shall be with him that trusts in his riches. job. 5.3. I saw him well rooted like a tree, and suddenly I cursed his habitantion: that is to say, I abhorred the uncertainty of his state, and in my mind presaged the ruin of it. The experience of all times and persons confirms this. And the very Gentiles confessed it more than many Christians do. Zonara's, pag. 32. Tom. 2. writes, that the manner was among the Romans, When any triumphed, that an Officer stood behind him, and bade him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Look what was behind him: and there he saw a whip and a bell, to admonish him, that, for all his present greatness, yet in time he might fall into the lashes of misery, that as a bell it should sound, and all his friends should hear it. Thus fell job and Nabuchadnezzar: thus Belisarius, that having sometime been the most honourable, wealthy, and powerful in the Empire, in his old age begged from door to door, and being blind, was led by a boy begging in the streets, Belisario obolum date. Paulus Aemilius tells of a great man, that boasting of his prosperity, as if nothing could shake it, was admonished by his friend, Solam it am Numinis procul abbess, à tam secundis rebus non posse: Gods anger could not long forbear so great prosperity: and shortly after fell into that woeful misery, that greater hath not been heard of. The most renowned Emperor Frederick lost all, and sued to be made but the Sexton of a Church. How many great Merchants have suddenly lost all? how many Noblemen have spent all? how many wealthy persons have come to extreme poverty? All stories divine and human show this to be true. Few Sundays come over our head, but decayed householders, or shipwrecked merchants, are gathered for. The wealth therefore of this world is compared to a tree that casts his leaves, and is soon blown down. Psa. 37.35.  
nesse untrusty. This kind of uncertainty is properly in being occasions of sin, as our Apostle teaches in the ninth verse. They puff up the heart, they entice to security, they are bawds to wantonness; and when they leave a man, they fill his heart with discontent and murmuring. Quantum, cum habentur, haeret amor, tantum cum subtrahuntur urit dolour: We love them not so well when we have them, but we sorrow as much after them when they are gone. He that hath most is never satisfied, if once he fall to love them. A sponge is holden to be a living creature, but it hath no parts. It is all belly to suck in and digest, nothing else: so is it with a covetous man, he is all belly, whatsoever he doth tends to getting. But of all other temptations that follow riches, none like the strange alteration they make in the mind of man upon their coming; that he which before was loving, and humble, and patiented, and contented, and religious, and zealous, and chaste, and sober, and mortified, now grows so altered into the contrary, that he is not himself. They writ of one of Euripides Tragedies, so acted by the Players, that it made such an impression in the beholders, that they all went home in a passion of frenzy, pronouncing iambics, and grew into such a vein of tragedy-playing, pacing and acting it in the streets as they went, with the lovely words of Perseus to his Andromeda, that it was long ere their distemper could be suaged again. This Tragedy made the spectators no madder, then, in our time we have seen, worldly greatness to do many men; who have gone to the Theatre sober enough: but when wealth and riches, and worldly greatness have presented themselves, upon the Stage, unto them, and with their lovely aspect a little enchanted them; there hath been nothing with them but vanity and presumption. We have heard much of the efficacy of music, what passions and alterations it will work in the mind of man, and how it will put him into fits, beside himself: but I will tell you a story in Saxon Grammaticus. There was in the King of Denmark's Court one that played on a Harp so exquisitely, that it was said he could put men into what passion he listed, though it were into fury and madness. One desirous to make the trial, would hear him, but so that diverse gentlemen, standing aloof off out of the hearing, should be ready to come in, and stay the music, if, they saw him in any distemper. Things thus ordered, the physician began to play: and first he struck so deep and sweet a note, that he put the man into dumps, that he stood like one forlorn with care, his hat in his eyes, his arms wreathed, sighing and lamenting. Then the physician began a new note, and played nothing but mirth and devices, that the man began to leave his dumps, and fall a dancing. But in the third place he so varied his notes, and by degrees wrought upon the man, according as he saw him incline, that from dancing he brought him to shouting until he grew frantic, and slew four that came in to stay him. If riches be not used the wiselier, they do the same that this Harper did. First, in the beginning, when a man is gathering them together, they fill him with care and restlessness, that nothing is more miserable than a man carking after the world. Then, in the second place, when he hath tasted their sweetness, and is gotten through his travel, when he comes to be a master, he falls a dancing, and shows the vanity and surquedry of his mind: he speaks proudly, his behaviour vain, his apparel excessive. And in this fit his wife also dances with him. But when this fit is over, the third passion is Frenzy, killing and slaying: he becomes a griping usurer, and cuts the throat of many a man; & is so strong and violent in whatsoever he takes in hand that no man with safety may come within him. Ita animorum habitus inflectit modorum varietas: Thus riches make every man dance after their pipe. Sic vitijs ut divitijs incubantes, says Sidonius: They foster their sins as well as their riches that love their riches. This is the uncertainty of riches, and the reason yielded by the Apostle why no man should trust in them.  
15 The next part of the charge is Affirmatively: But to trust in the living God, who gives richly and things to enjoy. In which words there are two reasons assigned why they should trust in God. First, he is the living God: who lives himself by his own perfection, and gives life to all other things. The life of God is his eternal nature, when, by the immanent operation of his understanding and will, as by his own form, he moves himself, & gives motion & virtue to all inferiors causes; being himself the centre, and first beginning of all motion, not determined by any thing out of himself. This life of God is Anima mundi: the soul of the world. Act. 17.25. In him we live, and move, and have our being. And our Apostle mentions it to give rich men to understand that if they have never so much, yet there is no life or virtue in it, but as it shall please God to infuse: and if a man have nothing, yet trusting in God he can give him life and livelihood, when all outward means lie dead. This is it our Saviour means, Luc. 12.15. Though a man have abundance, yet his life stands not in his wealth. How then? The Prophet David says, Psal. 145.15. The eyes of all wait upon thee: And thou givest them their meat in due season: thou fillest all things living (not with bread, but) with thy good pleasure. Note here, touching the life of God, first, that all second causes, as riches, meat, apparel, comfort, are uncertain & vain, if God forsake them. Next, when a man hath all things at hand that he can desire, yet God by infusing of his life into them, gives us the fruition. Mat. 4.4. Man lives not by bread only, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And therefore David says, Psal. 20.7. Some put their trust in chariots, & horses, but we will remember the name of jehovah our God. As if he should say, All the power in the world is nothing, if God with hold his life from it. And thus we see, many times, death, and misery, and want, and weakness, to be in the midst of abundance; when life, and comfort, and peace, and strength, are found in poverty. Thus the poor man's child grows up, and many a one straightened and scanted with want, yet lives in much peace; when issue fails, & posterity misproves among the rich, and their houses, ever anon, are overthrown. This is the the first reason why To trust in God.  
16 The next is, He gives us, richly, all things to enjoy. Where, as I noted in the beginning, four conditions of the gift of God are affirmed. First, that he gives us all things, generally either that we have, or that we shall need, or can desire. In this great variety and plenty that we see, all things come from him: & in this great necessity wherein we need so many things, he denies nothing. He gives the king his Royalty, the Nobleman his Honour, the Captain his strength, the rich man his wealth. He gives us health, and pleasure, and deliverance in the time of danger; and as Nathan said to David, 2. Sam. 12.8. If all this were too little, he would yet give us more. He gives all things. Next, he gives abundantly: richly, as becomes the greatness of a King. Earthly Princes, and the greatest that live, are feign to measure their gifts, because their store is not infinite; but, Eph. 2.4. God is rich in mercy. We read of a Duke of Milan, that marrying his daughter to a son of England, he made a dinner of thirty courses, and, at every course, gave so many gifts, to every guest at the table, as there were dishes in the course. This was rich & royal entertainment; but God gives more richly. Thirdly, he gives freely: he exchanges not with us for any thing that he receives at our hand again, but he gives, that is to say, without any desert in us, he confers freely: for He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and will show compassion upon whom he will show compassion. Exo. 33.19. Therefore wicked and unworthy men are rich, and great, and honourable; and the heathen that have not known his Name, enjoy great abundance. No man doth so; but he that gives most can yet scarce be said to do it freely, because though he receive nothing again in the same kind, yet he hath thanks, and enjoys love and pleasure from him he gratifies; which God, in many doth not; and if any be thankful and love him, that also is his gift whereby he prevented and stirred him up. Amor Dei facit nos amabiles: Gods love infused into us makes us such as he can love. Fourthly, he gives effectually, to enjoy, that no malice or envy, of the devil or man, can take away the benefit of his gift from us. He gives it, and so gives it, that he upholds it to us against loss and decay; and then gives us comfort in it, and strength to it, to serve our turn. He giveth strength to our bread, warmness to our clothes, cheerfulness to our health, and security to our plenty. But there are yet two things more intended in the words. First, he gives us all things to use and occupy, and do good with, to our selves and others: not to hoard and lock up, & live beside it in baseness and penury; as if our house should be like the den of a Wolf, nothing but to cram and hide therein whatsoever we lay hold on: for Solomon saith, Eccles. 9.7. Go eat thy bread and drink thy wine with joy: that is, as the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds, Taste thy bread, thyself, cheerfully, and help the poor. job saith, 31.18. He eat not his meat alone, but the poor grew up with him, and the fleece of his sheep warmed him. This man was more than the jailor of his wealth to carry the keys. Next, the meaning is, to enjoy that we have well, and use it lawfully; not to bestow it as we list our selves, according to the corrupt lusts of our hearts, upon the vanities and excesses of the world, but as becometh the stewards of God's gifts. For the rich man, in the Gospel, Luk. 16.19. was no miser of his goods, but spent freely; yet for so much as he did it upon excess in apparel, and meat, and pleasures, he went to hell for it.  
17 I cannot leave this point thus, but must needs spend a little more time about it; and therefore I humbly beseech this honourable Audience to give me leave to deal freely and really. When God bestowed this abundance of wealth upon the land, he never intended that it should be so abused, in prodigality and excess: Drinking, and dicing, and gaming, and apparel, consume the most part of many a man's estate; to say nothing of whoredom, and suits at law, and other actions of prodigality. Many hundreds sell their land, which God gave them to enjoy, and destroy their estates to maintain these things: this is it that makes our gallants trudge so fast between the Broker and the Usurer. The excess of apparel is such, both in men and women, from the Lady to the milkmaide, that it should seem they imagine, God gave them their riches for nothing but to deck themselves. The walls of old Babylon might have been kept in repair with as little cost as our women are; and a Lady's head is sometime as rich as her husbands rend day. There is as much, possible, to be said of men. I have little hope to control it. When Luther began to preach against the Pope's pardons, a friend of his came to him, and gave him this counsel: As good hold your tongue; the custom is so strong you will do no good; go into your study and pray, Domine miserere nostri; and get you no anger. The same you may say to me, for any hope of reformation that I see. And if some little restraint were intended, I make a question whether our Ladies, and citizens wives, and some Preachers wives among them too, would forbear to do as the Dames of Rome did, when a motion was made to abridge them a little of their jewels and coaches: they flocked together, and suffered no man to go into the Senate house, till they had let him see their resolution. Cato might say his mind, but the women would have their will. But the will and resolution of the best subject in this land, be they women or men, shall not bear them out against the Almighty: who in his word hath controlled this excess, & by the Pastors of his Church in all ages condemned it even to hell, their painting, their nakedness, their inconstancy in all fashions, their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the instruments of dissoluteness: their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: as Nazianzen speaketh: The sophistry of their locks, turning their head into a stage for men to look at. But this is nothing. Fear they not him that hath made heaven and earth, and hath thrown into sudden misery, and knocked down, before their eyes, as gallant as themselves, in the top of their pride? Fear they not sickness, disgrace, a loathsome age? O why art thou proud o dust and vanity? vile earth, stinch lapped up in silk, magnified dung, guilded rottenness, golden damnation? Do you not consider (I will yet once more urge the point, if peradventure any piety, any remorse, any grace, any memory of God's love be left among us) do you not consider what havoc ye make of God's good gifts, that should be spent to better purposes; relieving the poor, keeping house, paying of debts, bringing up your children? Do you never call to mind the preciousness of the time spent about these things, when scarce one hour in twenty four and twenties is bestowed in humble prayer and true repentance upon your knees, in your closet, unto God? see you not what a banner you display of a vain mind, that minds nothing but these trifles? how you confound all order and states, by going beyond your calling? what occasions of sin and uncleanness you offer to yourselves and others? how you deface God's workmanship, your bodies, as if he made them unperfect, and you would mend them? Non cogitat vanitatem universi, qui universas vanitates cogit in cutem suam: Such as hang upon their skin the vanity of all things, little remember the vanity of every thing. And so I come to the second principal part of my text.  
18 Wherein the Apostle charges them touching the use of their riches, To do good, to be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. He admovisheth them of three points. First, the substance: to do good. Secondly, the quantity, to be rich in doing good. Thirdly, the quality, to be ready and willing to do this. Touching the first point, it is to be observed, that our Apostle doth not particularly express and name any thing, as alms, or lending, or contributing this or that way; which yet they are bound unto in express terms elsewhere; but only in general he bids them not withhold their riches, but communicate & distribute them, to all good purposes, and be good and godly as well as rich, yea abound in godliness as much as they do in wealth and prosperity. The substance is, do good, distribute, communicate, every way: the first word imports all good, whatsoever belongs to a Christian life, piety, holiness, justice, integrity, religion, all godliness. The other two, distribute, and communicate, that good which properly is expected from rich men, that none else can do. The proper good of fire is to warm, the good of water is to wash & cleanse, the good of meat to feed, the good of Physic to cure; and the proper and special good of rich men is to help and relieve by communicating and distributing, where there is want, either among the poor, or in the Church, or in the Common wealth. The which goodness our Apostle most wisely opposes against the manifold evil that they may do. For a great man with his riches may do much hurt: he may oppress the State wherein he lives twenty ways; by engrossing, by enhancing, by monopolies, by usury: he may oppress his enemy: pervert justice: give bad example: hinder religion: support heresy: bear out himself in any wickedness (for, A gift in the bosom prospers which way soever it goes.) This is it that hath filled this City, and all the world with oppression, and bloodshed, and whoredom, and Atheism, and Papistry, and blasphemy, that a great man may do what he list; because his riches afford him the means, and are a bush at his back. This is it that makes the name of riches so odious in the Scripture, and rich folk so suspected in the world. And this is it that causes many a man to seek after greatness, and authority, and place, and promotion, that he might be able to execute the lusts of his heart; as many love to be mending the fire, not because they care for mending it, but because they would warm their fingers. From all this the Apostle revokes us to the doing of good. This is the substance.  
19 The quantity is, rich in good: the quality, ready and willing. In which words he teacheth how to conditionate our distribution; there must be Plenty and cheerfulness. First, they must be rich and plentiful, as God hath been to them. He gives richly all things, and expects that we should distribute richly again. This is done, when first we cast our eyes upon all sorts of good that is to be done: the poor, in extremity must be helped: orphans and aged must be provided for: our poor friends that are behind hand: prisoners, and distressed householders: young tradesmen that want stocks: must be thought on. We must be ready to help forward any public good, Churches, highways, bridges,  
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the miserable? Many a poor child is cast naked, by death and poverty of friends, upon the world; it weeps in want, and yet knows not it own misery: many a young man and woman in their want, are ready to fall into desperate courses: many an honest householder doth all he is able, and yet overcharged cannot rescue himself from secret want, pinching debts, heavy sighs. O happy hand that helps here, and happy abundance that supplies all this want: a poor child by this means becomes an honest man, and sometimes a great ornament to his country: and the distressed are enabled either to overcome, or comfortably to bear their affliction. Make the picture of this Mercy in a table, and hang it in your houses: let it be a virgin fair and lovely: her garments green and orient: a crown of gold upon her head, the tears of compassion bolting at her eyes, pity and ruth sitting in her face. Let her paths be milk where she sets her foot: let plenty lie in her lap, and multitudes of people draw their breath from her. Let her give sight to the blind, and feet to the lame, and strength and comfort to the miserable. Let the earth give her all his riches, and the heavens their influence. Let her make the Sun to shine, the day to rise, the clouds to rain, the earth to be fruitful. At her right hand place the Angels of heaven protecting, at her left hand all God's mercies attending. Under her feet the devil and covetousness. Let pride follow her in bands; let oppression, and envy, and self-love, and unlawful gains, fly from her presence: and writ upon her breast, in golden letters, O bona Charitas, alumna coeli, corona soli, haeres vitae, medicina mortis, o bona Charitas.  
21 Let me yet put you in mind of some things that possible might be mended. The common prisons of this City, they say, are the dens of much mischief: some that have long lain in them set up a school of wickedness, and teach the rest impudency. So that which is God's ordinance for reformation, becomes a means to bring them to further naughtiness. It were a work inferior to no other, if they were continually and ordinarily visited by godly Preachers appointed thereunto, that should preach unto them, catechize them, and see their order, and make relation thereof to the Magistrate. Besides, such prisons as have jesuits and Romish Seminaries in them, are daily visited by Recusants, who bring their friends with them for conference. And so by that means they are seduced, and others confirmed in papistry: Popish books are scattered abroad, and more hurt is done in the prison (notwithstanding the care of the Magistrate) then abroad. They which are in authority can tell how to order them better than I; but it were much good to Religion if that generation were a little more restrained. The King of Meth, sometime in Ireland, upon an occasion not much unlike this, asked one how certain noisome birds that came flying into the realm, and bred there, might be destroyed; who answered him, Nidos eorum ubique destruendos: The way to be rid of them, was to destroy their nests. If you will show any zeal in rooting out papistry, and desire to rid the City of it, the nests and cages where the jesuits and Mass priests and shut up, and breed, must be looked unto: both private houses, and the common prisons, where these unclean birds are better entertained, than honester men, and truer subjects.  
22 And whereas subsidies, and loans of money, and other taxations when need is, are part of those duties whereby the goods and wealth of the subject is communicated to the State; let me say something of that too. It is a thing that we should readily yield to. A good King is no burden to his State, if it be considered that whatsoever the stomach receives from the mouth, is for the benefit of the whole body. The Magigistrate is eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, father to the poor, watchman to the common wealth, job. 29.15. whiles private men sit in rest, without care or fear of the enemy; which he cannot be, without these things. It is reported that the principal cause of the loss of the Greek Empire, by the late conquest which the Turk made of the famous Constantinople, was the churlishness of the subject toward their Emperor: the siege was foreseen, and motions were made for contribution toward the repair of the walls, and certain military charges, but the subject drew back, and pleaded want, until it was too late, and the City lost: what time the Turk entering, and finding so much wealth in private men's houses, amazed, lift up his hands to heaven, and asked what they meant that had so much wealth, to suffer themselves to be thus destroyed, only for want of using it. When I remember the benefits that God gave us when he brought his Majesty in, & his rare constancy in maintaining Religion, and exposing himself and his children to the fury of the devil and his Agents, for our sakes; and when I think upon the liberty that the Gospel and justice obtain under him; and when I read, now and then, in my books, of the vast and woeful confusion that many a people lives in, in comparison of us, I wish that in am hereof his gracious Highness, as long as he lives might receive all contentment from us again. For all wise men know that the welfare of kingdoms flows from the goodness of the King. And therefore his Majesty is worthy of all he hath, and more, and we may with comfort contribute to his charges that we do, and if it were more. And so I come to the last part.  
23 Wherein he admonishes touching the end why rich men must do all this, and the state whereto they shall rise thereby: That they may lay up in store, for themselves, a good foundation against the time to come: that they may lay hold upon eternal life. The meaning is, that this is the way to bring themselves to eternal happiness: for God is righteous, and will reward unto every man that he well doth. Gen. 4. If thou do well, shalt thou not be rewarded? He would have no man think that God will recompense evil for well-doing, or forget mercy and compassion. Deus reddit bona pro bonis, quia bonus est: mala pro malis, quia justus est; bona pro malis, quia bonus & justus est; tantùm non reddit mala pro bonis, quia iniustus non est: says Augustine. God renders good things for good, for he is good; evil things for evil, for he is just; good things for evil because he is good, and just: only he rewards not evil for good, because he is not unjust. And the way to recover this reward is to be rich in the work of the Lord 1. Cor. 15. For by this means an entrance into the everlasting kingdom shallbe richly ministered unto us. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In steed of these riches we shall be rewarded according to God's riches. Aeterna aeternus tribuit, mortalia confert mortalis; divina Deus, peritura caducus: says Prudentius.  
24 This promise avouches three things. First, that there is a time to come, an eternal life. For many rich are so besotted with the present time of this life, that they think there is no other, or if there be, yet they desire it not, but abandon themselves over to the present. Thus the rich man, Luk. 12. I will say to my soul, Thou hast much goods laid up for many years: live at ease, take thy pleasure: and Psal. 17. David mentioneth some whose Portion is in this life; that is, which look no further: but our Apostle propounds unto them the time to come, whereof it stands every man in hand to have regard: for as the tree falls so it lies, says Solomon, Eccle. 11. Secondly, he affirms the foundation of eternity to be laid here, that all such as will enjoy the life to come, lay hold upon it in this life. There is no question of this point. For Abraham tells the rich man, being in hell torments: Remember that thou, in thy life time, receivedst thy pleasures; and likewise Lazarus pain: therefore he is glorified, and thou tormented. And the Apostle requiring them to lay a good foundation, implies that the state of the next life follows the state of this, as the upper building follows the foundation. If we live well, that is a good foundation, if wickedly and disobediently, that is a bad foundation. For, job 4. They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same. This life is the field wherein he must sow that will reap: the vineyard wherein he must labour that will receive wages: the race wherein he must run that will be crowned: the mart time wherein he must occupy his talon that will be a gainer: the warfare wherein he must fight valiantly that will be rewarded. john 9 The night approaches wherein no man can work. Thirdly he affirms, that as there is a time & a life to come, the foundation whereof is to be laid in this life: so humility of mind, and mercy, and goodness, and readiness in distributing, is the way to apprehend it, and come unto it: and all rich men thereby have ready and infallible way unto salvation. So saith S. john, 1. Epist. 3.14. By this we know, we are translated from death to life, if we love our brethren. And therefore our Saviour, Luk. 16. bids, Make you friends with your riches, that they (your friends by exhibiting your alms) may receive (and make way for you to enter) into everlasting habitations. But, of all other, the 25 of Matthew shows this most plainly: where our blessed Saviour shall say at the day of judgement, to the godly, Come ye blessed, etc. And this is the reason why alms, and mercy, and all good works, are so commended in the Scripture, and in the Fathers, and have those high titles given unto them, because they are the things which God hath appointed us to walk in for the working out of our salvation.  
25 For the better understanding of which point, and that you may see the venom which the Church of Rome hath put into the doctrine of Alms, and all Good works: you must note that for the bringing man to heaven and happiness, two things must be done: First, God's justice must be satisfied, and the price be paid which man, through his sin, owes to God. For God having given the Law for man to keep entirely, in thought, word, and deed; and man having broken this law, by his sin; the justice of God is such, that he cannot, now, be saved, till the price be paid for this sin: and a just and full satisfaction be made to God for the breach of this law: the which no man can do by alms, or prayers, or any good works; but by faith in Christ, whose death and obedience alone justifieth from the law. But then, secondly, when Christ our Saviour hath reconciled us to his Father, and elevated us into a new state, that our sins are pardoned; and obtained for us the gift of eternal life: yet still we must perform the conditions, and walk the way prescribed in the Gospel. As if the King freely, without desert of mine, at the mediation of another, give me a place about him, and never so much right unto it; yet I am bound, if I will enjoy it, to come unto him, and do the things that the place requireth: and if he give me a tree growing in his forest, this his gift ties me to be at cost to cut it down, and bring it home, if I will have it: and when I have done, I cannot brag that by my coming and service, I merited the place; or by my cost in carrying the tree, made myself worthy of the tree; as the jesuits speak of their works: but only my deed is the way that leads to the fruition of that which is freely given me. And there cannot be produced a place in all the Scripture, nor a sentence in all the Fathers, which extend our works any further, or make them exceed the latitude of a mere condition, or way, whereby we walk to that, which, not themselves, but the blood of Christ, hath deserved. The Prophet David was a holy man, and merciful to the poor, yet when he comes to the point of meriting, Psalm 143. he desires God Not to enter into judgement with him; for no flesh is righteous in his sight. And, that which might give an end to this controversy for ever; Apoc. 4.10. we read the four and twenty Elders had crowns upon their heads, but yet when they came into the presence of God, to worship him, They cast them down before his Throne, and cried, Thou alone art worthy. Again, within the same latitude of our works, the Apostle saith, that thereby We lay hold upon eternal life; because as they are the way, so they give confidence and assurance to the conscience, and lay, through hope, the ground of salvation in our mind. For as he that keeps the way, is sure to come to the end; so he that perseveres in the way of a good life, is sure to come to eternal life, and hath confidence, not because he thinks his works are worthy, or deserve it, but because he knows they are the way. 1. joh. 3. If our heart condemn us not, we have confidence toward God. Saint Jerome writes of Hilario, a holy man, that when he died, and felt a motion of fear, he checked himself, Egredere anima mea, egredere; quid time's? Septuaginta prope annis servisti Christo, & iam times? March on my soul, and set forward willingly: why fearest thou? these seventy years thou hast served God, and wilt thou be now afraid? For as in a clock, the finger makes not the clock to go, but the clock it: and yet it shows how the clock goes within. So our works. And as, after a long sickness, when a man feels his stomach come, his strength, and sleep to amend, and his sits to abate; he beginneth to conceive certain hope of life: even so our works are the signs of our election; and the forerunners of salvation, whereby we lay hold on it by hope and faith, and walk toward it. This is the Apostles meaning.  
26 Let us come to some application of it, and so end. When the foundation of eternal happiness is to be laid in this world, by living godly; and such as will enjoy heaven must lay hold upon it in this life; they much forget themselves, that, by living in sin and wickedness, lay the foundation of their own destruction. For job saith of every wicked man, 20.11. that His bones shall be filled with his sin, and it shall couch down with him in the dust, and 1. joh. 3.8. Let no man deceive you with vain words; he that doth wickedly is a wicked man, and of the devil. Every man thinks to have eternal life, and yet few lay any foundation for it. If ever it were a time to cry out of sin, this is it, wherein the Preachers may say with the Angel in Zach. 1. We have gone through the world, and behold all the world sitteth still, and is at rest. And it cannot be said of us, as it was of the Amorites, that Their wickedness is not yet complete: Gen. 15. For we see sin to be of that elevation, that there is scarce left any room for the mercy of God to help us. There are four things that show sin to be complete, and nothing wanting but the terrible judgements of God to be daily looked for. First, when the sins are great, like the sins of the Gentiles, Atheism, whoredom, Sodomy, bloodshed, oppression. These are crying sins, and there are no greater. Secondly, when they are so general that all sorts are wrapped in them. In Sodom there were not Ten good men, Gen. 18. but round about, from the young to the old, they followed wickedness, Gen. 19 and Gen. 6.12. All flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Thirdly, when it is done openly without shame or fear. Esay 3.9. Their countenance testifieth against them; they show their sins like Sodom, they hide them not; like Absalon that Lay with his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. 2. Sam. 16.22. Fourthly, when it refuseth all admonition and reformation, and no Preaching can beat it down: like the old world, that an hundred years together, all the while the Ark was in making, despised the preaching of Noah: and like Babylon. jer. 51.9. We would have cured Babel, but she could not be healed. The sinners of England are of this size. Let it be written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond. jer. 17.1. No sin so great but it is among us; and that which is greater than the greatest, the greatest sins are, many times, either least punished, or not at all. And the course of sin is so general, that he gins to be counted very precise that will not swear and swagger with the worst. But if any man cleave, a little more than ordinary, to Religion, that scarce suits with the civility of our time. And our sins are so open that I must say with Bernard, They are become the fable of the world: that if we should not speak of them, every man might call us the grossest dissemblers of the world. Would God the Noah's of our time had left us any piece of a garment to cover them. Neither will they endure reproof, but are justified, and affront the Pulpit, that the greatest Bishop in the kingdom shall be censured if he deal with them. Yea the torrent of these things is so strong, that it seems manifestly to tend to the dissolution of all human society. Three things maintain society, Religion, justice, and Order. Religion is pitifully violated by Atheism, blasphemy, heresy, horrible profaneness. The Stages now in this city, woe is me that I should live to see it, toss the Scripture phrase as commonly, as they do their Tobacco in their bawdy houses. justice is destroyed by oppression, rapine, bribery, extortion, partiality. That of the Prophet, Esay 59 is verified: judgement is turned backward, & justice stands aloof: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot go. O the pity of God If truth had fallen in the desert, it had been no marvel: but that it shall fall in the street, where so many go up and down, and none to help it up; and be so wounded with the fall that it should be lamed, no uprightness, no plain dealing, no truth among men; this is lamentable. Government and order is profaned by contention, by contemning the Magistrate, by whoredom, incest, so domy, pride, drunkenness. These things are too manifest: & all that are guilty must make account, when they have run their race, that there is a heaven & a God, whom it will be a woeful thing to lose for the base pleasures of this world. And in this passage I value all men alike, of what cloth soever his coat be made: he that lays the foundation with firework, must look, in the end, to be blown up. The great Nobleman, that thinks God hath made him greater than others, for no purpose but that he might be bolder to sin, than others: the wealthy Gentleman that turns towns into sheep walks; sell Benefices for ready money: contrive hospitality into the narrow room of a poor lodging taken up in the City: that subvert the strength of the land by unreasonable renting the tenants: the judge that takes bribes, that judges for favour, that upon the bench makes laws, and justice, and religion, stoop to his lust: the Lawyer that pleads against the right, leads jury into perjury: spends Sabbath after Sabbath among clients, openly defying God to his face thereby, and protesting that he loves his fee better than God's ordinance: the sharking Officer that receives bribes, & spares neither the King nor the subject, but sucks from them both what he can; and the Clergy man too that fails, either in life or teaching: or labours not effectually to feed the flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made him Overseer: for all that are such as these, and all whatsoever that lay the foundation of sin, must needs build upon condemnation. And albeit my words may work no great impression, yet afore any man can deny this to be true, he must turn Atheist, and be certain that my Text, and all Scripture, is false; and that there is no God, nor heaven, nor hell torments. A hard point to settle in the mind; yet if it be not so, all that live in this ungodly sort shall perish eternally. For God in the Scripture hath said it, and all the holy men, from the beginning of the world to this day, have believed it.  
27. The servants of Christ, who by their obedience glorify his name, shall do otherwise: whom again and again I exhort to go forward in laying hold upon this eternity: let no tediousness of time or labour weary you; let not the snares of this present world entrap you, but looking on jesus Christ the author and captain of our faith, run with patience the race that is set before you, that the sense and love of this present world rob you not of the hope of the world to come. Look upon those, who, in all ages, have taken this course: the Prophets and patriarchs, Apostles, and Christians in times past, and as wise and noble spirits as ever lived; whom this world could never deceive, the pleasures thereof could not surprise them, nor all the greatness therein transport them; they only attended upon God and the good which he set before their eyes: they trampled under their feet all that, whatsoever it were, that could not be used with godliness. They lived justly, soberly, charitably, chastened, uprightly among all men: they called upon God, were zealous for his word, sought not themselves but the common good of Church and State, & only inquired how they might glorify his name that so mercifuly redeemed them with his blood. Me thinks I see them mounting themselves above the clouds, and trampling under their feet, all the vanities of this world; and with their hands wafting us toward them, and calling aloud upon us to follow them, and hasten away, that the love of riches, and pleasure, and case, & security, intercept us not. They are gone before us, and being crowned live in the joyful society of holy Angels and the blessed Trinity, where the chief of their joy is, that they are delivered from this wretched world. O happy life that shall never see death, nor hear any more the temptations of this wicked world: that shall lay all these things at our feet, and show us him that hath conquered them: where all this riches, and power, and greatness, and abundance, and pleasure, and every worldly joy, shall have no use; but God himself shall be all in all; and such as have renounced these things, or converted them to the service of God, shall for gold have immortality, and for the pleasure of sin reap joy and eternity with God for ever: and that happiness which the soul of man either most desires, or is most capable of. The fruition of God shall be their meat and drink: the glory conferred upon them shall be their apparel; their delight, the society of men & Angels; the joy of their heart, the depth of eternity. And now o Lord our God the merciful Father of all that seek thee, inspire our hearts, put back the world, the devil, and the flesh from us. join us to thyself now in this life by grace, and then in that life by glory for Christ's sake; to whom with the holy Ghost, in the unity of the Trinity, three persons, and one immortal God, be rendered all honour, and glory, and thanksgiving now and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.