SIX SERMONS NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, Preached by that learned and worthy Divine Edward Chaloner lately decleased Dr in Divinity, sometimes Chaplain in Ordinary to our Sovereign K. james, and to His MAJESTY that now is; and late Principal of Alban Hall in Oxford.  
Printed according to the Author's copies, written with his own hand.  
AT OXFORD, Printed by W. Turner, for Henry Curteyn. Ann. Dom. 1629.    

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM EARL OF PEMBROKE, LORD Herbert of Cardiff, Lord Par and Rosse of Kendal, Lord Marmion and Saint Quintin, Lord Warden of the Stanneries: Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Steward of his Majesty's household, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council.  
RIGHT HONOURABLE,  
I HAVE adventured to commit unto the public view, under your Honour's name and protection, a second parcel of Dr Ed: Chaloners Sermons. I have quickly named the Author and the Book, that they may be my apology for presuming to your Lordship's presence, (who otherwise should easily acknowledge, that no shaft out of my own quiver, nor any plume of mine, durst mount so high,) yet as I do ingeniously confess, that there's nothing of mine own, which I could account worthy to prefer me to your Honour's notice: so do I verily believe, there's not any thing of this Authors composing so mean, which your Lordship will not value worthy your noble acceptation and patronage. The Reasons why I have caused these Sermons to pass the press, besides those motives which induced our Dr to the publishing of the former (the good affections of some, his friends, earnestly desiring it:) first the Worth of the arguments, being several choice pieces of holy writ dexterously handled, and such as may well (if affection prejudice not my judgement) prove serviceable to the Church and Common good: Next the love and grateful respect, which I deservedly bear to the memory of the Author deceased, jointly excite me thus to make him the more memorable; whilst I endeavour that as by the blessing of God, his Name yet lives (and I wish his virtues too) in a Posthumus of his body: so both may survive in these Postnatis, the happy issue of his mind. Why, I have dedicated, and now offer them to your honour, I hope you will not interpret boldness but duty; seeing not only those general relations, which gave you interest in the former, continue the same to these, but a special right hath now more entitled you to the whole, even justice; challenging the work to him, to whom the Author hath devoted himself in all his public endeavours. Your Lordship's countenance to the book shall secure it against the Critics rankest censure: as for the Author, he is now farther above their reach and venom, than the Publisher can be (though perhaps he is yet content to be) below their envy.  
Your Honours in all duty AB. SHERMAN.   

THE TITLES AND SEVERAL Texts of the six ensuing Sermons.  

SERM. 1. The Cretians Conviction and Reformation. Titus. 1.13. This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. pag. 1.  
SERM. 2. The Ministers Charge and Mission. Matt. 20.6. Why stand you here all the day idle? pag. 27.  
SERM. 3. God's Bounty and the Gentiles Ingratitude. Rom. 1.21. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. pag. 57  
SERM. 4. Affliction the Christians Portion. Act. 21.14. For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at jerusalem for the name of the Lord jesus. Pag. 79.  
SERM. 5. The duty and affinity of the faithful. Luk. 8.21. Then came his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press, and it was told him by certain, which said, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee: And he answered, and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are those which hear the word of God and do it. pag. 103.  
SERM. 6. No peace with Rome. Gal. 2.5. To whom we gave place by subjection, no not an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. pag. 127.    

THE CRETIANS CONVICTION, AND REFORMATION.  TIT. 1.13. 
This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.  
SInce the time that Adam grew disobedient to GOD his Father, all Mankind have taken after the Earth their Mother, and whether the temper of the Climate which we inhabit do enforce it, or the quality of the Soil wherein we breathe, or the nourishment whereon we live, altering us somewhat, as it is altered by us; plain it is, that we borrow our dispositions from our Countries, and our humours are by consent of Nature so annexed, to our tenors, and entangled to our possessions, that Geographers have now thought manners of people as essential parts of their Art, as Regions; and a Map as precisely to be drawn of the one as of the other. Wherefore the Apostle S. Paul in the blossoming of the Gospel having planted Titus in the Episcopal See of Crete, and delivering a kind of decretals, and Canon Law, touching the life and demeanour of the Clergy; he thought it no less behooveful for Titus amongst other things to be acquainted with the manners of his Flock, then for a Physician to know the constitution of his Patients, and therefore out of a Prophet of their own, extracts for him a character of the Nation: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The Cretes are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. I will not stand to discuss what Prophet of theirs it was which thus acted the Critic, whether Epimenides, or Calimachus, since I find that Epimenides hath amongst the Learned prevailed for multitude of voices, nor is it expedient to vent all reasons which are alleged, why he was here termed a Prophet, that name being common to all, whose inventions could place measures, and more particularly appropriated to Epimenides, as who was esteemed by the report of Laertius even of the Cretians themselves, to be such an one. The verdict you see he gives up, finds them guilty of a threefold corruption: first, of a corruption of the reasonable faculty, which sitting as supreme judge in the Court of Truth and Falsehood, they laboured what they could to part it by wrong informations, They were always liars: Secondly, of a corruption on of the irascible faculty, which they cherished with malice, and brutish cruelty, They were evil beasts: Thirdly, of a corruption of the concupiscible faculty, being better fed then taught, pigri, idle companions, and ventres, belly-gods, (to speak with the time) bad observers of Fasting-days, ill Lent-keepers, They were slow bellies. Hear is a crystal mirror of divine providence, wherein the sole mercy of GOD is resplendent. Let our Pelagians of the newest devised fashion tell me, let them which would exalt the decayed and dead will of man one link higher in the chain of Predestination than the eternal decree of GOD, answer me, how was Nature manured and pruned in these Cretians? how were her talents here turned and wound in the bank for the best advantage, that thus beyond all plea of desert, the Gospel should arrive in Crete, and Titus as Ambassador be sent from GOD to win them unto Christ? Certainly if Cretians tongues be shaped for the utterance of any truth, they might resolve our new Cretians the controversy, from their own case, where the light of the truth so immediately followed in their Island upon a midnight of ignorance, and blindness, and that without any twilight interceding or arising from the extinguished tapers of man's natural understanding, that my Text makes their disease and their cure to be close successors the one of the other; where we discover, first an accusation against them, begun indeed by Epimenides, but seconded by himself, This witness is true: Secondly, a reformation, in which (as if the grace of GOD building upon no other foundation either of good nature, or moral honesty) Titus must not exclude with Aristotle either youth or unbridled affections from being hearers of his Philosophy, but must seriously intent their recovery, Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith.  
Concerning the first, namely the accusation; the Cretians found no Advocate that I know to maintain their honesty, till the jesuites entertained Eudemon as being a native Cretian, and therefore best squaring with their discipline, and admitted him into their society, whom when a writer of ours fitly reputed for a notorious liar, with Cretenses mendaces, The Cretians are always liars, he blusheth not to excuse the matter, as if Epimenides called them liars for this only, because they affirmed that they could show the sepulchre of jupiter, whom both he and the rest of the Gentiles did conceive to be immortal. This shift smells of the same dye with a Sophism used in Logicians. The Cretians are always liars; but Epimenides was a Cretian which said this; therefore Epimenides lied, and so by a consequence it is false, that the Cretians are always liars; for as in this Syllogism, a fallacy is committed in arguing from mere particulars, the major, that the Cretians are always liars, being but equipollent to this; that many, or a greater part are liars, out of which rout, Epimenides might well be exempted; so in the other caption of Eudemon's, what lets, that Epimenides saying might be true in part, though not in this; that jupiter was immortal; yet in this; that the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies; which is all that our Apostle doth quote, Cretes erunt testes, nec fingunt omnes Cretes. A pretty world it is with the jesuites, that as heretofore they have put us to maintain the authority of the Scriptures above the Church, so now we must defend the truth of them against a Cretian. But Eudemon reasoning against so manifest a testimony of the Holy Ghost, argues, that either his Countrymen have not yet left off their old quality, or else that amidst the refined decisions of their order touching lies & equivocations, an officious lie for ones Country is held currant ware, though the credit of an Apostle suffer by it. But let's leave Eudemon & his Countrymen as condemned by the Sentence of S. Paul himself, besides an whole jury of Proverbs packed against them, Cretizare, Cretizare cum Cretensi, Cretensis cum Aegineta, Cretensis nescit mare, all which give no better language than the lie to the Cretians.  
The points which I shall desire you to consider in this accusation of S. Paul's, are chief two. First, his Christian ingenuity in receiving and approving the truth, though breathed from the lips of a profane Cretian, where he rejects not the pearl because it was enclosed in a wooden casket, nor disdains the fruit because it was served up in an earthen dish; but rather the more admires it, and commends it to Titus and these Cretians, to be tasted by them also. This was fare from the daintiness of many in our age, which think no instructions available or of force, but such as proceed from men, of whose inward calling they are persuaded, as if the efficacy of the Word depended on the sanctity of the deliverer. Hence grows that loathing amongst some of their Pastors & their doctrine, that they follow those teachers, not whom God by an ordinary calling appointed them, but whom they choose themselues. They pretend as strict an observation of the Sabaoth almost as the jews, only to hear whom they fancy; they can convert the Sabaoth day's journey, to spite the Pope, from two Italian miles, to two high German. True it is, that as the bells which hung in the Vestments of Aaron were intermingled with Pomegranates, so God loveth not a sound without fruit, & exemplary piety is a second Sermon; nay, to say the truth, there is not a figure in Rhetoric more potent than the good opinion conceived of the speaker, in which respect both Arist. & Cicero, required it even in a civil Orator: But this argues not the truth, uttered by a profane person, of imperfection, but the stomaches of most hearers to be of weak digestion. The gift of the Holy Ghost mentioned in the Gospel, where the Apostles were confirmed in the Ministry of the word, is not graetia justificationis, a grace of justification; but gratia aedificationis, a grace of edification, not gratia gratum faciens, as the Schoolmen, say, that is, a peculiar grace given them for the salvation of themselues, but gratia gratis data, a grace given them for the salvation of others. The Carpenters (you know) builded the Ark, & yet were not saved themselues: & the Tyrians & Sydonians furnished Solomon with materials for the Temple, and were nevertheless themselves without the covenant: So this witness of Epimenides, S. Paul converts to an instrument of winning the Cretians to true speaking, which yet could not save Epimenides from venting a notorious lie, and that in the very place itself touching Jupiter's eternity. But what imports it whether the Physician do heal himself, so long as he prescribes us wholesome Physic; or whether the prison key be in the hands of a prisoner, so long as it opens the wicket, and sets us free from thraldom and bondage?  
The second thing to be considered in this accusation, is the Christian liberty, which S. Paul assumeth in inserting the witness of a profane Writer, and that with no small commendations, into the bowels of Canonical Scripture. In the verse preceding, he cited indeed one of their Poets, but the manner of his citing of him is there somewhat more doubtful; here in my Text, saying, this witness is true, the case is more cleared; and he declares himself that he useth it as a confirmation or proof, not to be refuted by him, but to refute the gainsaying of the Cretians by it. But what will some say, Is S. Paul come to quote Poets? why? he hath taught us, that the Scriptures are sufficient, to teach, to instruct, to confirm, to reprove, that the man of God may be perfect in every good work: how is it then that he takes up the defence of an unhallowed Poem, and turns Patron to the assertion of an Ethnic Writer? Nay, he which professed his coming not to be in the wisdom of men, doth he borrow this furniture from Philosophers, and give room to strangers to lodge under the roof of God's Sanctuary? But the Fathers do upon this place note the prudence of the Apostle, who to the Cretians used the authority of a Cretian, giving them their food in due season, and applying Physic to the temper of his Patients, becoming all things to all men, unto the jew a jew, unto the Gentile a Gentile, that he might win them unto Christ. For what more clearness can there be, then to make men parties in the proof, judges in their own cause, and witnesses against themselves? how can one better confute the jew, then by Paraphrasts, dispersed as well in their Cabal, as in their Talmud? How should one reason better against the Epicure and Atheist, then by bringing the world and creatures therein for witness, or these are the records which they lovebest, and most believe, and from which they are loathest to departed? How can one soundlier confound the Naturalist, then by the things that every man readeth in his own nature, which he finds inscribed in his heart, and hath been uttered by natural men? Thus God himself doth oftentimes suit his manner of calling men, to their condition of life; The Wise men which were Astronomers he called by a star, Peter a fisherman by a draught of fishes, Dionysius Areopagita, of the Sect of the Stoics or Epicures, as Ambrose supposes, by a sentence urged by S. Paul at Athens out of Aratus, and here is the same enterprised against the profane Cretians, from a profane Prophet of their own, Epimenides. Certainly, seeing it hath pleased our Apostle to quote a saying of Nature's Secretary, and to insert it into his writings as an engine which he would employ for the conversion of the Cretians unto godliness, and since we see the Spirit of God to have sweetened the waters of cursed jericho, and to have made wholesome drink of them for the children of the Prophets, as also to have quickened and made fertile these wild stocks, and to transplant them, to bud and bring forth fruits of righteousness and faith in these Cretians; I cannot here by the way but condemn them which think either the study, or citing of humane writers in divine exercises, to be altogether unlawful. The main prejudice against these citations happens from a wilful blindness of a perverse generation, which hath not after so many years tutouring, learned to distinguish between the lawful use and the abuse of a thing: I confess as it was more in practice in the Primitive Church, than now it is, to cite some Authors; so was there then another reason for the same than now there is, the Father's being then to deal with Ethnics, & sometimes with learned & judicious Philosophers, as was the case of S. Paul at Athens, and here happily in Crete, in which Cydon might then as well yield an Eudemon as now, howsoever the whole Island was famous in this, saith Solinus, that it first gave laws to letters before all others, & therefore the example of these men can yield no sufficient pretence to any nowadays, to make preaching the Word to be but a rhapsody or medley of Greek & Latin Poets; Bernard saith truly, that humane erudition (too much of it) is but vinum inebrians, wine that makes a man drunk: inflans, non nutriens; implens, non adificans; rather glutting, then nourishing; and puffing up, then edifying, & to such as make their auditors to surfeit of such raw and immature fruits, I may say with S. Hierome to Eustochius, Quid cum Psalterio Horatius, cum Evangelistis Maro, cum Apostolis Cicero; what makes Horace with the Psalter, what Virgil with the Evangelists, what Cicero with the Apostles? Nay, we all know how unseemly a thing it is for a subject to sit on the same Throne with his Prince, or an handmaid to bear equal rule in the house with her Mistress; or the dog (as our Saviour terms these foreigners) to possess the room and place of the Children: Yet let me say thus much; that the subject may usher his Prince, the servant attend his Master, & the handmaid her Mistress. There is yet an Atheist in the world, which saith in his heart, there is no God, to him we may send Cicero, a man as ignorant of the Scripture, as he incredulous of it, which shall certify him of the consent of all Nations in the acknowledging a divine power. There are of the Sect of the Epicures, which bid us eat, & drink, & sport, for after death there is neither Heaven nor Hell, to these we may oppose Homer if blind, yet seeing farther than they perhaps into the state of men deceased. There are of the Stoics brood remaining which mind not the providence of God, but refer all things to destiny, to these the Orator or Plato, that Attic Moses will reply, that God's providence extendeth itself unto all things, and that there is not a mote (as Democritus) so small which yet he doth not mind and order. Is this now to make the pulpit a Philosopher's School, or rather the Philosopher's School a footstool unto the pulpit, and an handmaid unto divinity, to proceed better in the necessary work? I cannot tell what others may conceive, but methinks as often as we hear an Epimenides resolve us morrally into the chaos of vice of which we consist, this meditation should bud in the heart of every good Christian; Good GOD are those perilous times to ensue in our days which thou foretold'st by thy Apostles, or do the minds of men decay with the whole fabric of the world, that thus in the first principle of our catechisms, Heathens should inform us of our misery, and the Disciples of nature prove greater Masters than the Scholars of the Gospel? Believe it, believe it (beloved) these are those Ninivites which will rise up in judgement against you, these those Queens of the South which will conndemne you, for they had not those lights which we have, and yet they saw fare more, than many of us do. Truly doth Hierome observe upon the first of Daniel, that if you turn over the books of the Philosophers touching manners, you shall find part of the vessels of the house of God there; in Plato that was the maker of the world, in Zeno the Prince of the Stoics you may discover hell, and the immortality of the soul, although they mixing the truth with much falsehood may be said to have taken not all the vessels of God's house, but some only, and those not whole neither, but cracked and broken. Something you may find in Plato that is borrowed from Moses, whom he always meaneth as some think by this phrase, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the old ancient speech hath it: Something in Homer that he might be beholding unto the same for; especially that in his 4th Iliad. Parents are to be honoured that we may be long lived; where he relisheth of the fift Commandment: nay D. Chytreus affirms all the writings of Philosophers touching manners to be nothing else but so many commentaries upon the five former commandments of the latter table. Now tell me I beseech, you why (after the great captivity which Iaphet's posterity hath suffered under Satan; God having sent his Apostles and us their successors in Preaching the word, to build an house unto him amongst the Gentiles) why I say, we may not lawfully use those instruments which once were dedicated to the Tabernacle, or not restore those things to the Temple, which once were stolen from the Temple, or burn those lamps in our Sanctuary which once were lighted at the altar, and have all this while lain unprofitably in the treasure house of the God of the King of Babylon. I am not ignorant that this course hath found inveighers in all ages; it is reported that St Hierome was whipped in a sleep by an Angel, for too much addicting himself unto Cicero's works, I am sure that waking, Magnus scourged him, quasi candorem Ecclesiae Ethnicorum sordibus pollueret, as if he polluted the candour of the Church with the filth of Ethuickes. To be brief, I find that they deny not the use of humane learning to be lawfully admitted in divine exercise, so that these four conditions, observed also by S Paul himself in this very text, be not wanting. The first concerns the end, that as our Apostle here make the mark (at which he shot this arrow drawn from the quiver of Epimenides) to be the soundness of the Cretians faith, so not vain glory, but the confirmation of faith, and the removing of rubs thereof, laid by its oppugners, either to hinder its growth or fruits, must be that which gives us commission to make sale of that ware in Christ's market. For Philosophers if they have spoken any thing consonant to our belief, we are not only not to be afraid to meddle with it, sed etiam ah ijs tanquam ab injustis possessoribus vindicandum, but also we are to challenge it (saith Austin) as being detained by  possessors, we are not to shun learning because they say that Mercury was the first inventor of letters, neither are we to reject virtue and justice, because the Gentiles dedicated Temples to the worship of them; nay rather whosoever is a good Christian will acknowledge the truth to be his Masters wheresoever he finds it; and think it no villainy, so long as it benefits his Lords work, either to go down to the Philistines to sharpen his axe, or to borrow of the Egyptians gold and silver for the building of the Tabernacle.  
The second condition is that the profaneness or Ehtnicism in them be castrated, not so much in the press as in the mouth, for by this means we gather the rose, saith Theodoret, and leave the briar, we take the gold and let the dross go. We are to deal in these cases, saith Hierome, as God commanded the Israelites Deut. 21. If you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire unto her, and would make her your wife, you must shave her head, and pair her nails, and put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and then you may marry her: So if we be enamoured on secular wisdom, and for the beauty and decency thereof do desire of a captive maid to make it an Israelite, quicquid in ea mortuum, idololatriae, voluptatis, errorum, libidinum, vel praecide vel rade, whatsoever is dead in it, whether idolatry or wantonness, or error, or lasciviousness, either  or shave, and then you may lawfully beget of her, household servants unto the Lord God of Sabaoth: This rule is most excellently kept by St Paul in this my text, where he quoting a sentence of Epimenides, the greater half he is contented to lay by; it being, as Hierome, Austin, chrysostom, and Theophilact do witness, tainted with the immortality of jupiter, and avouching of his eternity. The same course he took with that of Aratus mentioned, Act. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for we also are his offspring; in which Calvin thinks that the Poet conceived some particle of the divine essence to reside in the soul of man, yet this nothing letted (saith he) why the Apostle might not thence extract a sense good enough to confute the Athenians withal; so senseless is their position which think no reformation to be lawful, but that which abrogates the whole use of a thing for some partial abuse sliding hereby from an affirmative superstition, which idolatrously toucheth what is unlawful, to a negative superstition, which abstaineth from what is lawful.  
The third condition is that we always so use humane learning that we ever give the Scriptures the upper hand. So St Paul having condemned these Cretians from the mouth of Epimenides, he thought this might serve as a good motive or preparation to stir them up towards their amendment, but because Titus was to go on a surer ground, he establisheth that sentence from another of his own, which proceeding from one inspired with the infallible spirit of truth, could not incur suspicion of errors; (This witness is true,) for as much difference as was between that riches which Solomon had to build the Temple, and that which the Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians to build the tabernacle; so much and more is between that testimony which nature brings, to divine writings, & that which the penmen of the Holy Ghost bring unto it: the which being well conceived, the contention (as the Fathers observe) 'twixt Hagar and Sarah, may be composed, if Hagar flout not Sarah, as if she were barren, nor Sarah exclude Hagar, as being her handmaid.  
The last condition is that which Rhetoricians do give in like case, that these citations of humane writers be used in divine exercise: non ut esculentis, sed ut condimentis: not as meat, but as sauce. The Apostle therefore, though there were many strains of poetry and proverbs touching these Cretians imperfections, as common to be had as any ware in the market, yet he contents himself with one, and saith not, haec testimonia sunt vera, these witnesses are true, but, hoc testimonium est verum, this witness is true, not as if more than one humane authority were unlawful, for he himself in a short oration to the Athenians, did quote both an inscription upon an altar, and a sentence of a Poet, but to teach us herein to use a moderation: for it were a madness, because lace sets forth a suit, therefore to make a suit of lace only, or because tapestry and hangings do grace a house, therefore to content ourselves with them instead of stone and timber the most principal stuff in building, which were as much as to say, I would build me an house, but in effect make but an arbour. Poets and Orators are not the  meats which do nourish, but the green olive which provokes the appetite: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Pindarus, sub finem coenae dulcis est placenta: whereupon, as Gratian observes, Gregory blames not those Bishops which studied & applied these things, Sed qui contra episcopale officium pro lege Evangelicâ grammaticam populo exponebant, but them which contrary to their office of expounding the Gospel, read a grammar lecture unto the people, such as for wholesome food proposed pepons and onions, and I know not what old ends to digest, as if he were no body which compiled not a whole Homer's Centons, or a Virgil's Centons, and vented them all at once to their auditory. Otherwise who can deny, but that an ingenuous hearer may get some profit by hearing as well as another by reading? as for them of the opposite opinion, I would wish them more charity, then to grudge that other men see with two eyes, whereas they see but with one, and will leave them with that saying of Hierome to Magnus, ne vescentium dentibus edentuli invideant, & oculos caprarum talpae contemnant: that if they want teeth, they would not envy them which eat with them, nor contemn the eyes of goats, if themselves be Wants and stark blind. And so I come from the accusation taken up by our Apostle against these Cretians, This witness is true, unto the reformation, whose steps and degrees succeed in the next place to be handled, Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith.  
Was this witness true, and must Titus therefore be so hardy as to rebuke them for it? Surely this was a service of no small danger; for first venture non habet aures, the belly was never tender eared, especially in cases, wherein her copy is questioned, and can it now brook with patience to be stinted, & those ancient feasts famous in Crete for their antiquity and founder, renowned Minos, to be censured? Again, that evil beasts should be curried without kicking, or giving some token of their feral inclination, almost o'refloweth the banks of all probability in nature: But to take the lie without a challenge, to be twitted by St Paul, & then taxed by Titus for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, always liars, the Valiant of our times, I am sure, will never be induced to believe, that either the Cretians were men of resolution, or else that they would pocket up a rebuke in this kind without a frey. I cannot tell, whether since the time that duels have been thought the best means to disprove a lie, although in them is made good, that which was never questioned, to wit, skill in fencing, and not that which is impeached, to wit, truth and honesty, but these rather impaired, for hardly I shall believe him to regard his word, which regards not his soul, whether (I say) reproofs of this nature be now warrantable? Certainly had Paul construed this language to be a subject worthy of a combat, he would not have branded a whole nation with such a vice, or at least thought to have wrought soundness in men's faith by so unseasonable an instrument? We which challenge fare higher places in Christ's school, than these raw converts, must acknowledge our nonproficiency, if we be more offended with others telling us of our faults, then with ourselves, for being faulty, seeing it is more disgraceful to be, then to be called so; inasmuch as words are but airy images of things, and to make the most of it, a biting enemy is but a choleric physician that tells one his disease in his anger. But counterfeit valour hath confined reproofs to such narrow limits, & tied them to such nice terms, that for fear of an encounter they seldom or never go abroad, and have scarce the pulpit allowed them for a sanctuary. Hence springs that unhappy friendship, quae illum quem diligit, (as Carthusian saith) tacendo tradit diabolo, which favouring his brother's ears, breaks his neck: hence that indulgency, and connivency of parents, especially in cases of virtue and religion, where if the question were to be decided, whether the foul be ex traduce, that is, may be allowed by heralds, a place in pedigrees; I might answer, no: seeing the neglect which they have of it doth convince sufficiently, that they begot their children's bodies, but not their souls. The Law in Deuteronomy is universal, thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, or his ass fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: what shall we say, (beloved) doth God take care for oxen or asses? but the pity is (saith Bernard) cadit asina, succurritur ei, cadit anima, non est qui relevet eaem: the ass falls, she is succoured, a soul falls, & there is none which by reproving, will relieve it. I find by the testimony of a jesuite, Valentia 3. Tom. 3. disp. & 10. q. that this duty of rebuking in my text, is so little valued in the Church of Rome, that seldom either confessors are inquisitive in ask, or penitents careful to accuse themselves of any defect herein: but yet to make us as deformed as themselves, they deliver that all rebukings whatsoever are taken away by our doctrine, for what (saith Bellarmine) wilt thou check him for not walking in the fields, whom thou supposest by abridging the power of the will, to be shut up in prison? or if thou blame a man for falling into a pit, because through his own fault he fell, yet wilt thou reprove him for not coming out, when thou makest him so weak and feeble, and the pit so high that he cannot? Yes, he may rightly be blamed for not being in the fields, which ought to be there, shuts himself up, and is willing to abide there still, and he is worthy to be chid which comes not out of a pit though he cannot, if he by his own negligence broke the ladder, which should help him out. Now man casts himself into this pit, and shuts himself in this prison, herein he is to be rebuked; he willingly would abide there still, herein he is to be rebuked; he lost by his own default the means to escape thence, I mean to avoid an occurrent sin, and herein he is to be rebuked. But they reply, you show indeed in this, a justice in reproving, but by denying a power to the will of using or rejecting these reproofs, you deny the profit or necessity of them. Why? admit that reproofs take not their effect from the freedom of the will, yet must Titus his talk be thought superfluous, and Cicero's rhetoric be canonical scripture, frustra leges dantur, frustra objurgationes, laudes, vituperationes adhibentur, in civil matters we deny not the will to have a kind of regiment, though somewhat impaired, but ever in spiritual: do not rebukes serve as so many rules and precepts to inform us what we should do? do they not as summoner's admonish us of our misery, do they not imprint a kind of shame even in the wicked, touching the outward act; is not the justice of God in punishing sinners preached in them? lastly, are they not ordained by God as sharp instruments to search the benumbed wounds of his maimed children, which by joining to them the saving oil of his grace, he makes effectual? What matters, though they receive not their efficacy from nature, if they have it from grace? Thus much my text assures me, that rebukes are to be used, and if we believe our Apostle, they must not be regulated by Popery, which to make the will a Lord, attires the understanding as nakedly as a beggar, and to pamper the one, starves the other, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the original, which is not a bare reproof, but implies also a disproof, as if he should have said, tyrannise not over their consciences in matters of religion, lap not up your reproofs in the general belief of the Church, but batter down the rampires of sin with reason, and subdue self will with the weight of invincible demonstration. This teacheth us what ought to be the furniture of rebukes, if we would have them effectual, to wit, that they be fraught with convincing arguments, that Rhetoric enter not the lists without some weapons borrowed from the arsenal of Logic, that we remember the Maxim in Philosophy, that the will wils no more than the understanding understands. Checks have a kind of signiory over the outward members, they may fetter the legs, indeed (adds the same Father) the ears of all men, but I convent the consciences of some few, wherefore I say not, thou adulterer correct thyself, but whosoever art infected with that vice in this people, correct thyself: Such doubtless was the oratory of Titus, Paul bade him rebuke the Cretians for their lying, this he might say, the love which you profess, is dissimulation, your vowing of service, and all you have (if any such compliment were then in use) is nothing else for the most part, but a courteous & courtlike kind of Cretisme, but to give the lie to any one in particular, herein, though the party hate not the thing, yet he would hate the name, and the potion would turn to gall, what should remove it? The reasons and grounds hereof, are principally two, the one lest we arm shame with a brazen vizard, to take up the patronage of a fault, and so quem vis correctiorem, facis pejorem, saith Austin, whom thou intendest to mend, thou makest worse: the other is, because a good name is like the fasces and ensigns of honour, which usher the good actions of men, and make them passable in the world: He which defames this, deprives his brother of an instrument, without which neither his general calling of a Christian, nor his particular almost whatsoever, can be so powerful. Alexander ab Alice therefore disputing the question, whether contumelies are to be remitted, not only quoad rancorem, as touching malice and rancour, but also quoad satisfactionem, as touching satisfaction; he distinguisheth of contumelies, that some are injuriosae in personas, injurious to the persons; some, injuriosae in officia, injurious to the offices which they bear: the former he saith, ought not to be greatly set by, but easily pardoned, but not the latter without some amends, if it may be had. For in things which touch once particular person, we give an account to God, but for ourselves; but in things which concern one's office or calling we may give an account to God for others, and therefore we cannot dispense with aught that belongs to them without being injurious to our neighbours; now amongst these not the least is a good name, it being our own indeed, as our riches are, in respect of the possession, but it is others in respect of the use and benefit. Hear therefore (beloved) I could wish that in public speaking men would observe this distinction of him and them, more seriously, whether they speak of those which bear sway in the commonwealth, or them which are overseers in the Church. Chief Magistrates are set by God, to be like Sunnes in the firmament, rash censures of these are like Clouds in the middle region of the air, they hurt not the Sun itself, neither do they abstract any thing from his permanent brightness, but they deprive us which live below of that light and warmth which he deriveth to us. So likewise Pastors in the Church, are trumpets of the Gospel which summon you to battle against your spiritual enemies, he which defames them, doth he stop the breath of the trumpet; doth he hinder it from sounding? no, but he enchants your organs and puts wool into your ears, that you cannot distinguish the sounding of it: I speak not this as if I would procure their obliquities exemption from reproof, that they should be deprived of the means prescribed by God for men's recoveryes, as the gloss would have the Pope, to whom no man may say, Domine cur itafacis? for if vices once ascend the Pulpit, where shall they not enter? if Satan plant ill manners in the most eminent place of the Church, what will he not do in private houses? But what was prescribed to Titus to be the square of his fraternal corrections, I commend to all, redargue illos, not illum, rebuke privately him, publicly not him, but them. But perhaps in the third place you will ask, how you must rebuke? my Apostle here tell's you, when he saith, Rebuke them sharply. The vices above mentioned were so common and frequent amongst the Cretians, that the whole Island seemed to be lulled a sleep & to need sharp reprehensions to rouse it up. For as it is with ill humours, that a weak dose doth but stir and anger them, not purge them out; so it fareth with inveterate sins, an easy reproof doth but encourage wickedness, and make it think itself so slight as that censure importeth. Upon which ground, Commentator upon the 1. Ethics, disputing, whether young men swayed by their affection may be admitted into the School of Moral Philosophy, determines affirmatively that they may, but with this limitation, that the professers and readers of that discipline, do oftentimes place opprobrious and contumelious speeches instead of specularive arguments, the reason whereof I find given by Gregory, ut cum culpa ab actore non cognoscitur, quanti sit ponderis ab increpantis ore sentiatur, that when the fault is not conceived by the doer, the weight of it may be felt, from the mouth of the reprover. For a sharp reproof and a contumely do agree, as Thomas well notes, in the matter, but differ formally, meaning that the same words or phrases may be common to them both; for to call fool, Matth. 5. is judged a contumely and deserving hell fire, yet foolish, Luke 24. is a reproof, and used by our Saviour to the two Disciples, and to the Galatians by St Paul, chap. 3. but because the signification of words do depend upon the inward affection, therefore the form which denominates the action is taken from the end and scope of the speaker, to wit, whether he intendeth the dishonouring of the persons, or their reformation, as Titus when he made the butt of his rebukings the soundness of the Cretians faith. But lest we should imagine the sinews and vigour of reproof to consist in Sarcasmes, or to prevail only in the tongue of barking Doeg, St Paul hear tell's us what sharpness is most convenient, when he saith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifying a cutting off, and as some interpreters do note, used by S. Paul as alluding to chirurgeons who cut away the dead flesh which fostereth corruption in wounds, whereby we may learn, that reproofs are then most feeling & do pierce home, when they not only make that sin bleed whose cure is intended, but also lay the axe to the root of it, as well as occasions, and the like, which do preserve and foster it. It were folly to preach obedience to the Prince, unless we infringe and extirpate the sandy foundation of Papal authority: In vain it were to rebuke lying, & not to cancel the grounds of equivocations, to blame despair, and not take away the uncertainty of Salvation, to beat down presumption, and proclaim open markets for indulgences. The last thing which may be desired to be known in this precept of rebuking is the end, wherefore it is to be done; & that is set down in the last place, That they may be sound in the faith. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, saith the Wiseman, his accusations are instructions, his chastisements peace, his precious blames shall never break our heads. But here likewise may be questioned, what faith is understood by the Apostle, whether fides quae creditur, the faith which is believed, or fides quâ creditur, the faith whereby we believe: I cannot altogether exclude this latter from an interest in my text, seeing these two are relatives, and therefore what toucheth one, doth obliquely concern the other; but yet I take the former to be principally intended, the phrase importing no less, which saith not that they may have a sound faith, as implying a defect merely in the subject, but that they may be sound in the faith, as implying an imperfection in the object, & the circumstances enforcing the same, which mention, corruption of doctrine in the teachers, and a mixture of jewish fables in the things taught. When therefore S. Paul lays an injunction upon Titus to rebuke the Cretians for those three notorious vices, that they might be sound in the faith, he seems to paint in one small table the whole progress of heresies how they begin, how they are promoted, and how they are established and confirmed: The liar which is the first broacher of them tell's the tale, The evil beasts, which are his contentious followers do defend it, and The slow bellies are most hearers that for want of pains taking in the enquiry do approve it. But to remove these obstructions, Titus must turn Physician, and to procure soundness of faith must take upon him the task of a spiritual Hypocrates. And to apply this to ourselves; the voice of more than a Titus is necessary in this decrepit age of ours, wherein faith in many places lies bedridden, and as if Crete had dispersed new colonies throughout the world, it scarce is any where secure from the assaults of a lying and contentious Cretian. What plot of ground feeds not Minotaures which gore the sides of faith and Christian religion: what pasture so level wherein some aspiring Ida lift's not up its head, and involues its vain conceits in the clouds? Even the Labyrinths of Dedalus have left their subterranean habitations, and planted themselves in the fallacies and impostures of homebred Donatists and neighbouring Pelagians. I wish that words were as coin, that so the many which this subject requires, might be exchanged into fewer, & yet of equivalent value, & I might contain myself within that circle of time on which hope rather than assurance bids me trespass: but this Presence command's me silence, where the example of our royal Theseus himself in quelling these monsters, hath supplied that which you may suppose was the task of Titus, and engrafted (I doubt not) what my text aime's at, with a silent Sermon, and real persuasion of its own. For conclusion therefore, I have hitherto entertained your ears with the anatomy of a Cretian, and transported your thoughts a while from this Island of ours, the gem of the Western Ocean, & set them on shore on the most eminent and renowned Island of the Mediterranean; what you have there beheld, I trust your riper judgements will make use of, not as most travellers do, by bringing them home with you into your Country, but by learning how to avoid them. In that catalogue or inventory rather of Cretish trash, the first sophisticate ware which offered itself for currant, was the lie; if these quarters of Europe do as much detest the thing, as distaste the name, think Titus rebukes bound for some other coast, & not ours. But for the other movables, fit to store parks and forests, than towns or cities; namely, evill-beasts, I should be also confident of our freedom herein as of wolves, were not slow bellies, whereof our Soil is too copious, and sharp teeth ever individual companions. My hope is, that parting from Crete, you will shake hands and bidadew to those surquedries & superfluities which styled these Cretians, slow bellies, S. Paul especially in my Text making this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, (as I showed before) the pruning or paring off, of those things which breed and foster corruption in us, to be the most necessary mean to arrive at soundness of faith. Why should our pamper, afford matter to any homebred viper to censure us, as Epimenides did his Countrymen, or think the beasts which we profane by sacrifice to our own appetites, do as they did to these Cretians, incorporate their brutish affections with their carcases: This time bids them live, that you may kill these. Thus must this sharpness of rebuking be practised, thus this soundness of faith here mentioned, be perfected.  
AMEN.   

THE MINISTERS CHARGE, AND MISSION.  MATT. 20.6. 
Why stand you here all the day idle?  
IT is the inbred disposition of most men, no sooner to set hand to the plough in the field, or to thrust a sickle into his harvest; but, whereas the main scope of their actions ought to be the good and benefit of others, they always drive at, and chief intent the welfare of themselves. As Peter (in the Chapter going before) scarce had three winters past, (as Writers note) when from his travails in the Deep, he had been called to the quiet harbour of the Gospel; & from a poor silly Fisherman, been promoted by our Saviour to be a fisher of men, but that he thinks fit already (good man) his portion should be prescribed him, the slender service he had yet done, or could do his Master, he thinks not of; but high promotions, and munificent rewards are already his Butt he shootes at, and his question is, What shall we have? God's rewards (beloved) to his Servants are uneffable, Ye which followed me in the regeneration (Christ Tell's them) shall sit upon twelve thrones, and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel: an answer (no doubt) satisfying to the full both Peter and his Companions; but so it falls out oftentimes, that the best prescribed potions undiscreetly taken, prove banes unto the Patient, and the wholesome proposes of an instructor, uttered for the confirming of one in a good course, by mis-applying, produce the contrary effect. Christ therefore, lest confidence should beget in them slothfulness, his benignity prejudice their forwardness, & too much security of the prize make them idle in the race, in this Chapter he rouses them by the Parable of an Husbandman sending out labourers into the Vineyard, where some being hired at the dawning of the day, some at the third and sixth hour, others but at the ninth and the eleventh, yet all equally receiving their penny, nay, the last, in some respects, being preferred before the first; he give's his Disciples to understand, that it is labour, not early calling, which gett's precedency in God's Kingdom, the mansion houses which their Father will bestow on them, should be according to their diligence; as they multiplied their talents, so should they be remunerated with Cities; if they look to sit on the Thrones he told them of, and would shine as the brighter stars in Heaven, they must here on Earth be more eminent than others in painful conversation; there are primi vocatione, the first in calling, and there are primi affectione, the first in affection; those oftentimes for their fainting in God's Vineyard, shall have a lower place at his Supper, and these for their forward zeal after their calling, shall sit in the higher room, and so the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Interpreters for the most part do agree, that by the Husbandman in this Parable is meant GOD himself; by the labourers, Men upon Earth; by the Vine-yard, the Church of God; to which, men being called, should in it (according to their vocation) do deeds of piety and justice; and by the penny which was paid in the evening, to be understood, the Crown of glory, which at the end of the World God give's to his Elect. The difficulty resteth chief in the hours; some (as Hierome relate's it) would have the eleventh hour to signify the calling of the Gentiles, and the former to be referred unto the jews, which lived before Christ's coming in the flesh; Gregory, Beda, and Theophylact are of opinion, that the labourers of the first hour do signify the Patriarches from Adam to Noah; those of the third, the Fathers from Noah to Abraham; those of the sixth, from Abraham to Moses; the ninth, from Moses to CHRIST; and the eleventh, from CHRIST to the end of the world. But herein I suppose that the Logic rule is to be observed, which saith, Omnis Similitudo claudicat; Chrisostome especially upon this place giving this note, that in Parables we should attend chief to the general scope, and not be too curious in particulars: wherefore with our best reformed Interpreters, in that our Saviour was pleased to name 5 hours, we rather take an ornament to be added thereby to the Parable, than any mystery to be involved in the number, and by those several hours do understand only several ages and seasons of man's life, according to which, God calleth some sooner, and some later into his Church, some in their infancy, some at riper years, and some not long before their death; of which latter sort, the Housholder here in my Text speaketh, Why stand ye here all the day idle? Maldonat & the rest of Popish Commentators, would have these loiterers to be blamed here in my Text, not so much for that by their careless security, they endangered the loss of that invaluable Crown, which God freely give's to whom he pleaseth; but in that forsooth they merited not ex condigno, and meritis operum, the Kingdom of Heaven: wherein I know not whether they may justlier be branded with ignorance or impiety; for pretend what they can, a main difference will ever appear between the merits which they maintain, & the practice of these men here in my Text; for first the husbandman pretends here, that it is lawful for him to do as he will with his own, the Papists will have him deal according to men's deservings; for justo Dei judicio debetur meritis bonorum operum, merces vitae aeternae, saith Bellar. in his 5th book de justif. & 16. cap. Again, the penny here was wages sufficient for the whole day; & therefore admit that the first labourers were idle for some part of the day; yet they can never make it good, that the laborers which wrought but one hour in the day, could challennge the whole day's hire ex meritis; & to conclude, Bellar. in his 5th the justif. & 17. cap. would have good works meritorious, ratione pacti & operis simul, in regard of the perfection of the work & the promise of God annexed withal, whereas besides the first labourers, none are found in this Parable to have had any pactum or agreement made with them (as their own men observe,) & therefore their kind of merit can agree with none of them, save peradventure the first, which were least respected, last paid, & beside, were noted to be great murmurers; in which regard, Musculus is content that the Papists shall share with them, & for their satisfaction, shall find something correspondent to themselues in this Parable. The husbandman therefore in my Text, dealing not with those which had turned over Peter Lombard's sentences, or Thomas Aquinas sums, used not (as I suppose) those school quiddities to simple labourers; but seeing them slothful & idle, he thought good to blame them for it, before he hired them, as if he should thus have argued the case with them: Idleness you know is unprofitable to all men, & being labourers, inexcusable in you, your Vocation (methinks) should prompt you to sedulity; & where the harvest is great, & hirers many, you should be more solicitous for yourselves, & not be deficient in your own cause, your idle manner of standing (it seems) is an impeachment unto you, & causeth that either hirers heed not you, or you not them, & therefore, Why stand you idle? Again, you are labourers of the Vine-yard, & there it is that you should exercise your endowments; this is a marketplace for buyers and sellers, a tribunal for justice, a councel-chamber for actions of state, wherein you, by your Vocation which another way had diverted your employments, cannot deal, and therefore, why stand you here idle? To be brief, the day is the time, in which a man goeth out unto his work until the evening; would you be counted worthy of your hire, & are you loath to sustain the brunt of the heat? He that sleepeth in harvest, shall be filled with poverty; and he which is slothful in the day, shall not receive the penny at night: But oh! I fear by your own negligence you will lose the opportunity of the time, the sweetness of the labour, & the plenteousness of the reward; & therefore, why stand you here all the day idle?  
The sum is a reprehension of idleness in all men which are labourers in God's Vineyard, as indeed all men are, or at least, aught to be enrolled under that title.  
The things reprehended are three; the 

1 Action, why stand you idle.  
2 Place, here in the marketplace.  
3 Time, all the day.    
Standing, that describes idlenesse's degree; the market place, that note's opportunity; & all the day, that expresseth perpetuity. [No place so fit that I know to stand idle in, as the market place; & he that will lose no time of standing idle, his best course is to stand idle all the day.] Within these bounds I shall endeavour by God's assistance, & your Christian patience to confine my meditations; & first for the action, which comes in the first place to be considered, Why stand ye idle▪  
The usual place in great & large Cities (as ancient writers do observe) where labourers stood for hire in the Romans time, to whom suppose judea now subject, was the Forum, or market place; & it may be evidently gathered out of this Parable, for there it was where the Housholder found some standing for him at the third hour, & either in the same, or not much differing place that he found the rest standing at other times; for had they stood in a place unusual to find labourers in, they rather would have given some satisfaction to the Housholder why they stood there, then why they stood idle, whereas these labourers only to excuse their idleness, in saying that no man had hired them, ver. 7. made no mention at all of the place they stood in. They whose quills writ with no ink but with the blood of Monarches, and find no Panegyricke themes fitting their paradoxal brains, but treasons against States, murdering of Princes, and massacring of God's Elect, might with much more ease (I doubt not) commend these men here in my Text, and with a great deal better vizord of Christian charity, rank these silly labourers amongst their canonised Saints; for if the son in the Gospel be blamed for denying to do his Father's will, Mat. 28.21. These men are to be commended in that they came hither (as it should seem) on set purpose to do it. It had been little acceptable in God's sight for them to have risen early, and late to have taken rest, had it not been to a good end, and right use, but labour it was which they aimed at, and patience it was with which they waited for it. The foolish virgins which attended not the bridegroom's coming, were justly rebuked: that could not be objected against these men, for they waited and attended for hire all the day, and what virtue is oftener ingeminated in holy Writ with greater commendations, then patiented waiting? Yet when Christ enters into judgement with his servants, what flesh can appear righteous in his sight? whilst we live in this world we must not expect any absolute perfection, and so fare are we unable (which our adversaries would have) to perform more than we need do, that it is a matter impossible for us to perform what we should do. The coming of these men to market to be hired, the patiented expectation of hirers, the willing undertaking of pains imposed upon them, was a thing (no doubt) to God well pleasing, but that immaculate lamb, which is the true Pastor, and Bishop of our Souls, hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy on all; when he is pleased to ask a why? what man is he that can answer one to a thousand? That which these labourers did, their intent to labour in the vineyard, was in itself bonum, an action good & laudable, but there wanted a benè to it, & therein did the obliquity consist. When the harvest was great & the labourers few, these came indeed for work, but yet diligently they sought it not out, when any came into the market to hire labourers (as it seems) they proffered not themselues, till the husbandman or others asked them, as negligent & careless people they heeded not the opportunities of the time, but are said in an idle fashion to stand there, which being so blamed by the husbandman in my text, directeth us to this observation.  
That the labourers of God's vineyard should not stand only expecting when labours should be imposed on them, but also should seek out and be apprehensive of all good occasions, wherein they may be employed.  
It is a position of Aristotle well known, that moral felicity consists in action: & certainly if that may be esteemed our summum bonum, or highest felicity on earth without which we are assured of no felicity in heaven, I may well conclude with the Philosopher, that our earthly happiness doth consist in nothing so much as in action. For doth not our Saviour tell us, that the tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Matth. 7.19? and the life of a Christian is it not compared by S. Paul both to a race wherein God affords no toleration to standers by, & bestows a crown upon none but such as so strive as they ought to do 2. Tim. 4? & again to a time of sowing, wherein whatsoever a man soweth in his life he is sure to reap the same again in the world to come. Gal. 6.7? for though it be true that Deus coronat dona sua, non merita tua, God crowneth his own gifts not thy merits, as saith St Augustine, yet is it as true that to the making of the wedding garment, with which we must appear clothed, when at the last trump, the great King shall summon us unto his heavenly supper, there is required not faith alone, but works also, as Hierome well observes upon the 22 Mat. Faith I confess, is as the chief stuff of which the garment or coat is made; but works are, that by which it is known & discerned: & in as much as that the seed of the Serpent by hypocrisy & dissimulation hath of ten made false garments for the devil to mask in like an angel of the light, Christ will never acknowledge the garment to be his livery, unless he find on it his own badge, & that badge is works, Now in regard of this necessity of well-doeing, I hope there is not in this assembly any so rudely catechised in the School of Christianity, which will not from these premises infer with me, that if we expect the promises annexed, we must diligently exercise the functions of our calling when opportunity is offered; yet as in moral actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, prudence and perspicuity are so necessary that the Philosopher in the 6 of his Ethics, concludes no moral virtue to subsist without them; so are we to think of the actions of our vocations, that they likewise will be unfruitful without these requisites adjoined: for be our drifts never so religious, never so laudable be our intentions, yet want there but prudence to direct us, or perspicuity to apprehend & force the means conducing to our designs, and we may easily mistake the narrow paths which lead unto life, & be misled into the broad way which leadeth unto destruction▪ seeing therefore that a Christian is on all sides so encountered with the wiles of Satan &c enticements of the world, well & wary must he be, lest by standing idly or carelessly with these labourers when opportunities are offered, he miss & fail of the scope he intended. So fare were the Saints in the old Testament from omitting any opportunity whereby they might practise their piety, that on the contrary side they sought out ways, & as it were plotted how to do good. Abraham, Gen. 18. looks up & sees three men, and what doth he? not look aside like the miser's of our days, nor stand expecting when they should implore harbour of him, though the Sun was as then at the highest, & the time of the day by reason of heat unseasonable to travail in, but he runs to meet them, lest they should overpasse him, bows to the ground that they might not deny him, and petitions them if he hath found favour in their sight, that they would vouchsafe to turn in unto him. Remember Lot in the chapter following, doth not he likewise rise up to meet the men which came to Sodom, bow his face unto the ground, & press earnestly upon them, which seemed loath to be burdenous to so kind an inviter, that they would turn into his house, & partake of his provision? Why these men became humble suitors unto their guests, & not their guests unto them? All the parcels of holy writ are full of such examples; the zeal of David for the house of the Lord, jehoas his own care in purging the Temple, Paul's preaching in season & out of season, & Nehemiah's solitary night-walkes about desolate Jerusalem, what are they but lively patterns of that forwardness & forecast, though not specially stirred up by others, which every Christian should assume himself in the work of the vineyard? I could here propose unto you the example of our Saviour Christ, whose compassion commonly then most appeared when it was lead implored. Little did Jerusalem or Zion think of him, when he weeps for it, or the soul-sick jew seek for him as the Physician, when he sought nothing more them to salve him, sinful man which never had the grace either to discern his own misery or to beg God's mercy, Christ seeing what he had need of, of himself came down to cure his infirmity; and his mortal enemies which abandoned him, & had lost the right of their inheritance, thirty-three years and more voluntarily fights he with the devil, world, & death, that he might purchase it a new for them.  
These (believed) and the like examples should move us to bethink ourselves of those free and voluntary actions of piety which God requires at our hands, and whilst we are here abiding in this Naioth as in a Source whence knowledge is to be derived into the barren places of this land, let us not stand idle, or be too beetle-sighted in apprehending the good opportunities which are here presented unto us to do good to others: & though we are not called to any special charge; yet imagine we may not, that in the mean season God challengeth no mites at our hands to be freely bestowed on the hungry souls which dwell by us, & which perish often for want of the smallest crumbs that fall from our tables; you know whose voice it was, Nunquid ego custos fratris mei? am I my brother's keeper? O beloved? thou shalt not see (saith God) thy brother's ox or his ass go astray, & hide thyself, thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother: Deut. 22. I may ask you as the Apostle did of another sentence of the law; doth God care for oxen or asses? hath he not a greater care of men's souls? wilt thou then see I say, not thy brother's ass, but thy Saviour's sheep go astray, and not seek to bring it again unto him? If we oppress the fatherless, or detain the right of the poor, mortui sumus non otiosi, we stand not idle, saith chrysostom, but are then dead; but though we do not this, yet if we seek not out the poor and give voluntarily untothem, stamus otiosi, saith he, we stand idle. This is the market place where the husbandman expecteth to find labourers, and it is almost the twelfth hour with some that they have stood idle therein, shall they say with these in my text, quia nemo nos conduxit, because no man hath hired us: why then belike the vineyard in this parable is not the Church of God, wheresoever the brambles of sin are to be cut off; but some fat benefice: nor the penny which the husbandman agrees to give them, the crown of glory, which they must not receive until the evening; but some worldly promotion, which they must harp after in the mean time. They indeed which are possessed of a pastoral charge, have a more special vocation to employ their talon in that place, which talon if they put up in a napkin, as some do, they shall be beaten with more stripes than we, yet we have a general vocation beside, by virtue whereof in those things which bear a relation unto Christ our head, we have all an interest one in another, and in this respect, we are commanded to admonish one another: Rom. 15.14. beside, we are parts of the same body, and have we no fellow-feeling when other members are wounded, or do fester? we do fight the same battle, & think we it endangers us nothing, when others break their ranks, or forsake their stations? We are the flock of the same shepherd, and feed in the same pastures, and shall we conceive ourselves free from all peril, when we see others tainted or infected? if any by preferring a Simon Magus before a prompt and learned Ezra, do hinder thee somewhat from an ordinary performance of the works of thy calling, this thing will God require at their hands, but if these neglect their care of us, shall we wholly neglect our care of God's flock? God grant there be none here of whom, as the wiseman said of worldlings, that God gave them riches, but he gave them not the heart to use them, so I may say of them, that God hath given them learning, eloquence & other blessings from above, and hath not given them the heart to use them. It was fare otherwise (beloved) in the Prophet Esay, of whom we read, that so soon as God had but touched his lips with a coal from his altar, his heart was strait inflamed to be set on work, and when the House of Israel, and men of judah, which were the vineyard which the Lord of hosts had planted, and of whom he looked for judgement and righteousness, when they had brought forth wild grapes, the sins of crying and oppression, and God had said, who shall go up for us, and whom shall I send? Esay makes no delays but cries, send me. Let us reason together (beloved) we are the vineyard of the Lord as was judah and Israel, what could he have done more for them, than he hath done for us? and hath not superstition and Baalisme infected yet many an angle of our land, as it did that of judah, and to root out this, God saith, whom shall I send? hath not simony and senselessness of religion invaded the richer sort, and to correct these, God saith daily, whom shall I send? Flattery, raines it not in palaces, false balances in cities, and ignorance in cottages? and to reform these, God saith once and again, whom shall I send? Every minister is a watchman, and as an officious messenger, is to say in these cases, send me. Now when God sends us out into the ways, and wills us to bid as many as we can find, of poor and distressed unto the marriage, can it suffice us to preach in high places only, or kings palaces? This is with the people to seek Christ, not so much for aught else, as for the loaves they eat, and which filled them; or With judas, to follow Christ rather for his bag, then for his doctrine Rouse up yourselves therefore (beloved) the harvest is great, and good labourers in many places are deficient, knowledge decays in some parts, and how should it be repaired but by you? the necessity you see is urgent, the opportunities apparent, the reward eminent, and therefore why stand you here? which is the place reprehended, and cometh next to be handled. Why stand you here? The place here reprehended by the husbandman was, in all probability, the marketplace, and indeed the marketplace, if we may stand upon the letter, is no fit place for the labourers of the vineyard to stand in. But to pass from the letter to the sense; the market (saith one) is the world, ubi omnia sunt venalia, maxim verò animae, where all things are bought and sold, especially men's souls; Lord to see how cheap the devil buys them! for how little pleasure, how little gain or honour? the shrewd merchants of our days, who will stick at a penny when they trade with their neighbours, will not stand for their souls when they are to barter with the devil. But yet as our best interpreters do observe, the vineyard being taken more particularly for the Church, the market may signify any place out of Church, and not amiss, for God forbidden, that markets should be kept either in Churches, or Church matters, since it pleased our Saviour to whip both buyers and sellers out of the Church: but this I note only by the way. The labourers of the vineyard being so sharply rebuked by the husbandman for standing (here) that is, in a place wherein their labour lay not, & whereof they were not labourers, doth direct us more usefully to this observation:  
That a Christians labour should chiefly be employed in that place, whereof his calling makes him a labourer.  
This is easy to be confirmed by sundry places of holy writ, for first we find that the Levites were watchmen, but yet by Moses law, as in their proper place, they especially were to watch in the Tabernacle or the Congregation; Num. 10. Israel must fight the Lords battle against Midian, yet so that all observe the place which their Gideon appoints them: judg. 7. And the Elders at Ephesus are commanded to watch and take heed, but it must be to the flock, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers: Act. 20. jacob, as we read Gen. 31. when he once undertook to be his uncle's shepherd, the homeliness of the task could not daunt him, nor the unkindness of churlish Laban diminish his vigilancy, but that for 20 years together, though the drought consumed him in the day, and the frost by night, so that for care, his sleep departed from him, he still abode with his flock in the field.  
A good example (beloved) for us ministers, which either now have, or may hereafter have a flock of Christ's committed to our custody, to teach us with what care & diligence we should always attend on it. It is a vineyard wherein the enemy will sow weeds to pluck down the vines, if we be not watchful as was this Patriarch: it is a camp on all sides oppugned by Satan's stratagems, so that if we but budge from our station, he'll immediately find entrance: it is a flock which we must feed not verbo only, but exemplo by example likewise, as we are taught 1. Pet. 5. and therefore if through our absence any thereof do err or go astray, at our hands God will require it again. Woe therefore, saith Ezechiel, to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock, the sword shall be upon his arm, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened. But what (will some object) must the shepherd then be always attending his flock, the labourer always labouring in the vineyard? this is an hard saying, and who is able to bear it? Neither am I ignorant what hath befallen to many, who at the first have been so vehement in speaking against any toleration in this kind, that afterwards having more feelingly looked into the case have changed their minds: a notable example whereof we may have in Cajeran, whom Ambrose Catharinus in his apology against Dominicus a Soto, produceth to prove the lawfulness of this act, for that he having once in his writings inveighed most bitterly against it, & afterwards being made Cardinal, accepted of a Bishopric, and resided not at it, and so refuted his writings with his example. To come briefly therefore to the point, I dare not be so peremptory against the practice of our Church as some are, plain it is that this commandment of residing is praeceptum affirmativum, an affirmative precept, as Eliseus, Valentia, with others do observe, and therefore you know it binds not sempe, or ad semper, it must not be laid in the balance stripped from those necessary material circumstances which should give it weight. I grant therefore that there may be certain cases which, though one be a labourer of this vineyard, or a pastor of this flock, yet may excuse his absence for a time. As first intrinsecall impediments, such as is the sickness of the body, for if the place be unfit for recovery, it were hard heartedness in a flock to bar the physician of their souls (as Mosconius notes) the lawful means to recover the health of his body; and therefore leaving not his place unfurnished until his recovery, I take, the husbandman excepteth this man though he be a labourer of the vineyard from his censure of standing here. Secondly, there may be extrinsecall impediments, which may admit of a dispensation of absence, as persecution, so that the two rules which St Austin requireth in his 18 epistle to Honoratus be observed; the first is, that the persecution be not general but personal: not general, that is of all pastors, or of the flock as well as pastors, for if he than leave his station, he is compared by our Saviour to an hireling, who seethe the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep, joh. 10. and this persecution of clergy and lay-people together, is likened by that Father, to the equal danger of mariners and merchants in the same ship in a great tempest, now God forbidden (saith he) that the mariners, or specially the master of the ship leaving his passengers behind, should save himself by a boat, or by swimming, and commit the unwealdy vessel to the mercy of the unmerciful waves. But the persecution must be personal and proper not to pastors only, but to that pastor or some pastors only, and in this case Elias fled from jesabel: 1. King. 19 Peter left the Church of Jerusalem to escape Herod's fury: Act. 12. Paul left the Church of Damascus, when some particularly sought to kill him: Act. 9 and Christ wished his disciples when they were persecuted in one city, to fly into another, Mat. 10. The second rule which St Austin sets down, is that the necessary offices of the pastor which is fled, be supplied by others: and therefore, Paul when he fled the persecutors, left not Damascus void of a necessary ministry, nor Athanasius left the Church of Alexandria destitute of other teachers, when he fled from Constantius the Emperor, as the same Father well noteth. Thirdly, I deny not but that a labourer from his special place, or a pastor from his particular flock may be absent, and yet not come under the Husbandman's lash of Why stand you here: and this may be qualitate negotij, when the business about which he goeth, is to the profit either of the universal Church, or of some particular. Naclantius, Campegius, Mosconius and others which writ upon this subject, do reduce to this title the going to general or particular Synods, and helping to establish other Churches, & the like, in which cases they agree that a pastor may leave his flock for a time, so that the time be not very long, and the place not unprovided of a sufficient substitute: for so we read of Timothy, to whom Paul had committed the Church of Ephesus, and Tytus who was Bishop of Crete, how the one was sent to establish the Church in Dalmatia, & the other both promised to the Philippians, & also upon an occasion sent for to come to Rome: 2. Tim. 4. but yet so, that neither Titus his flock were left unprovided of many instructors which before he had ordained there, nor Ephesus, as Calvin well noteth, wanted a Tychicus, which was sent unto them to supply timothy's room. But these former exceptions may be applied to all Churches in general, there are some other alleged by our men which concern our Church of England more particularly: for first, there is a liberty of absence granted to some, that their knowledge may be increased in the University, & their labours by that means, be made afterwards the more profitable: secondly, to others, lest the houses of great men should want that daily exercise of religion, wherein their example availeth as much, yea many times peradventure more than the laws thenelues, with the common sort: thirdly, to others which are men of quality, that as their services are in weight for the public good, so likewise their rewards & encouragements should be the more, lest it might here be verified, which we read in the first of job, that the oxen should be only ploughing, and the asses feeding. But because it is controversed with no small fervency on both sides, what are the true limits, without which it is not lawful to stray in this point; & for as much as it cannot be imagined, that all circumstances are so perspicuously delivered in the Scriptures concerning this, as that more doubts, like Hydra's heads, shall notrise up a new to continue the fight; for mine own part I could wish, that men would but first practice on all parts that which may be certainly determined by the word of God. Fourething we find plainly expressed in the Scriptures concerning the duty of a Pastor. First, that he is to employ his talon to the best advantage of the Church, lest the grace bestowed upon him be in vain: 1. Cor. 15. Secondly, that he hath a particular calling to take heed to, & to feed that flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost hath made him overseer: Act. 20. Thirdly, that his hirelings negligence shall not excuse him, if the wicked be not warned from his way, but that the blood of that man God will require at his hands which is the true watchman, Ezech. 33. Fourthly, that the feeding of his flock is to be preferred before any worldly respect, be it either honour or wealth; and therefore we are commanded to take the oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: 1. Pet. 5. and indeed our laws never intended, that the outward pomp of the Church should be advanced with any prejudice to the inward growth of it, as some think, who take the Church to be of the Spanish humour, & could be content to have its belly pinched, rather than it's back ungarded. These things, I take, may be sufficiently strengthened by many texts in holy writ: if any will pretend that they can practise these by substitutes, or can supply in effect by proxies what these challenge, let others take up the first stone, I should be here silent: for mine own part I came not hither to lay any aspersion of negligence upon those reverend pillars of our Church, whose assiduous and frequent visiting of their flocks, besides other worthy labours consumed in higher places, might serve to brand our rural sluggards with perpetual ignominy: only for those, whose flock, (as St Paul terms it) have scarce seen their face in the flesh, nor others in the pulpit; & which abusing the scope of the statute, provided no doubt to a good end, think they may go safely therein, as fare as the very letter of the law will give them leave; I know not what to judge; unless they are persuaded, that before God's tribunal, they shall be proceeded against by the common law, or else, that they hope they shall be allowed a Counsellor to plead their case at that day. In the mean time, leaving the deciding of the question to others, let us apply to ourselves but those four points which before I mentioned, and consider therein the duties which God exacteth at our hands: the first, which concerns the employment of our talon, yields a caveat both to those, who having spent their little stock in the country, make a colour of coming hither like the foolish virgins to buy more oil, that they take heed lest the bridegroom pass by in the mean season, or that they show not themselves more foolish than the virgins; and when they come for oil, mistake the vessel, and bestow their talon upon a differing ware: as also to those which are well fraughted with spiritual food, that they would not take hold of that dispensation which the law provided for emptier vessels; he which caused the widow's barrel of meal not to waste, nor her cruize of oil to fail until the day that see sent rain upon the earth, will make thy lamp not to wax dim, nor thy store to decrease till thou hast watered and enlightened those barren and dark places whither thou art sent. Consider the Prophet jeremy, a man would think that he had not a forty years' underage, but childhood on his side to avoid so weighty a work, as to be a Prophet unto nations, but when God had once set him to destroy and pull down, to build and to plant, (there was his calling) and put forth his hand and touched his mouth, (there was the collocation of gifts requisite to his calling) why his plea of want of years did him no good, ne dicas, sum puer; say not then, I am a child, jer. 1.7. The second and third points (I proposed) which concern the care that God exact's of every man that hath a flock; do show those whom either services or greater employments have called away; what conflicts (as the Apostle tells us) they should have for their flocks, and I hope they will all herein imitate the example of St Paul, Col. 2.5. though they be absent in the flesh, yet they will be with them in the spirit, joying and beholding their order: at least they will escape that complaint of the Church, Cant. 1. My mother's children were angry with me, they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. The last point which intimates the high respect we should bear to our office of labouring in the vineyard, condemns in all sorts any proposing to themselves of inferior ends or reasons inducing their absence, other than is the profiting of the Church in general or in particular. O beloved, I fear me if many pried but into their own hearts, they should find the state of the question somewhat altered from that which they propose unto the world; it would not be, whether they might dispense with themselves to be absent from the place where their particular calling lies, upon case of sickness or persecution, or the establishment of their neighbour Churches, or assisting of Synods assembled; or lastly, (which seems to be Mr hooker's ground, and indeed is an excellent one,) to bring to the Church in case of necessity a greater profit: but they should find that pleasure too often would challenge as great a privilege as persecution; and private profit would think her cause as good as profiting of whole Churches, and herein would consist the controversy of our worldlings, whether these be causes sufficient to make it lawful for a labourer in the vineyard, or a Pastor in the Church, to live not for a small time, but ordinarily remote from the place of which he is a labourer or pastor, and to commit the principal work unto an hireling: I name not these, as though other pretences might not be inserted into the state of the question; but these giving aim as it were unto the rest, and the difficulty herein consisting not so much in scientia as in conscientia, all men upon what pretence soever they live away, leaveing the higher subtleties to the Schools, I desire them that they would but first according to these Criteria examine a little their own souls. Fathers and Brethren, I know not what to say, if these carnal motives are sufficient to make any negligence in this case excusable: hath not Christ taught us that a good shepherd will lay down, not his goods or his wealth, (for that were a small matter) but even his own life for his flock. joh. 10? Matthew had abounded more in wealth had be still fate at the receipt of custom, and not followed our Saviour; and Paul might more freely have enjoyed himself had he still continued at the feet of Gamaliel. But Matthew thou hadst been poor to Christ, hadst thou not made thyself poor unto the world: and Paul had been hard hearted to us, had he not been cruel to himself: the world had lost an example, we had lost our lesson, the Church had lost an instructor, and Christ an Apostle. The good Fathers (I am ashamed to speak it) Tertullian to Fabius, and Austin to Honoratus made more scruple of leaving their flocks, when cruel persecutors fought their lives, than many now adays do to abide with them when they are oppugned only by their carnal appetites; they prodigal of their lives, and blood charged the enemy in open fight, and cast him out, rescuing kingdoms and subduing the nations of the world to Christ and his Gospel, and shall we when the field is won forsake our colours, be slack inpursuite, and give the adversary leave once more to make a reentry? But the time bids me be brief, I will leave therefore the farther application hereof unto your own consciences, and so I come to the time reprehended in my texra all the day, Why stand yet here all the day idle?  
I shown you the Sun before in his rising, when to you (beloved) yet hanging upon this our mother's breasts my advice was, that you would not stand idle there, wanting not opportunities of entering into the vineyard; my next lesson was for those which had taken earnest and were already hired, that they would not stand (here) idle out of their proper place the vineyard, & lo, to them the Sun stood as it were in the midst of the firmament; but now we must behold him not stationary as at the prayer of joshua, nor retrograde as in the dial of Ahaz, but going down, and the glorious lamps of heaven whisome obscured by his brighter beams, almost ready to make their appearance: now was the time or never for the husbandman to bestir himself, now must the labourers do something to earn their penny; poor men it was the 11. hour of the day, and they in the same case as at the first. O but let not the Sun go down in this manner, work the work of the husbandman dum dies est, whilst it is yet day, the night will come when no man can work, than he which hath stood all the day idle, shall lose all the day's hire, the the crown of eternal glory. Many good conclusions might from hence be deduced; as first how dangerous a thing it is for a man to defer his entrance into a new course of life: haec parabola (saith one) tollit desperationem, non docet praesumptionem, this parable taketh away desperation, not teacheth presumption, for he which at the 11th hour was willing to accept of these men's labours, gave them no assurance that they should find labour at the sixth. Besidcs, non semper manet in foro Pater-familias, (saith Austin) the lord of the vineyard is not always in the market to set thee on work; and no marvel (saith Gregory) if at the last gasp he forget himself, who in all his life neglected to remember God. But these I pass over, as being by others often beat upon: wherefore I desire that you would return a little backward with me, and call to mind, how Interpreters for the most part do agree, that the several hours and parts of the day, do delineate unto us in this parable nothing else, but the several seasons of of man's life, and how that the market place doth paint out any place out of the Church: that therefore the husbandman should brand all the day or parts of man's life spent (here) or out of the Church with this blot of idleness, I infer:  
That all our life appears idle in God's sight, which is spent before we truly are inserted or engrafted into the body of the Church.  
As the Church is distinguished into visible & invisible, so may a man be said to be actually inserted either into the visible alone, which requireth nothing but an external profession of the true faith; or into the invisible, which besides the profession, craves the inward spirit of adoption. The Papists howsoever they make a fair gloze, and seem much to extol their Mother the Church with extra Ecclesiam non est salus, out of the Church there is no salvation; a point acknowledged as well by us, as themselves; yet it is a matter worth the observing, that lest the doctrine of merits and freewill should quite go to the ground, so bold will they make with this their Mother; as that Andradius on the one part, would have even Heathens, existing out of the visible Church, by their good works to purchase salvation; & Bellarmine on the other part, in his 1. book de justif. & 21. chap: thinks, that men wanting justifying grace, & therefore not yet actually of the invisible Church (if we should speak according to the truth) may perform works which, shall not only appear not idle in God's sight, but over & above; prove meritorious ex congruo of justification. Alas but if either of these doctrines might hold play, it had been hard measure to have styled these labourers standing here with so homely a title, as idle. Bellarm. quoting this Parable at least 7 times in his 4th Tome, to prove freewill & merits, cannot (if he be ingenious) but confess, that if ever meritum ex congruo were found in any, it was in these men: For what virtues requires he to merit of congruiry, which any way might be defective in them? Faith enough for a Papist they had, for they knew the way into the market, in which they were to stand for hire; & the Papists desire to know no more for this merit, then where is the church: wanted their Hope (another of Bellar. preparatives) when they so steadfastly kept their station? Slacked they their desire. or was their intent altered when they so patiently expected the hire, until the 11 ●● hour? nay, to conclude, lacked there anything to the perfection of the action, when it took effect? They might have excused themselves, saying, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that we have stood here all the day to merit ex congruo our hire, that we might merit ex condigno the penny. But behold the Husbandman like a good Physician, first shows them their malady, before he applies the medicine, and by arguing their infirmity, stirs them up to an acknowledging of their misery. What shall we say (beloved) is it likely that God is so rigid in his censures, that he will not spare to reprove even actions meritorious? his mercy was wont to be above all his works, and will he now make well-deseruing the subject of his high displeasure? God forbidden! let him be just, and these labourers, how glorious soever their actions, sinners; and being sinners, it followeth, that God which in the evening rewarded them above their merit, did now entertain them without their merit; and that their works which after their calling into the Church appeared pleasing, before this admission appeared idle and vain in themselves: The reason is given by our Saviour, Mat. 12. when he bids us to make the tree good, and his fruit good; or the tree evil, and his fruit evil; for as is the tree, such will be the fruit; the sacrifice of the unregenerate or wicked, is an abomination unto the Lord, Proverb. 15. and the Lord Esay 1. cries out to the jews which had forsaken him. Bring no more oblations in vain, my soul hateth your new Moons, and your appointed feast, they are a burden unto me, and I am weary to bear them; and again in the 66. Chap: He that killeth a bullock, as if he slew a man, he that offereth an oblation, is as if he offered swine's blood, he that remembreth incense, as if he blessed an Idol. Hear nothing might pass for meritorious, ex opere operato, though it were sacramental; but rather in that they wanted Faith, the seal of their redemption, and gate of entrance into the Church of Christ; they had no fruit in those things, their works yet did appear idle.  
A point worth the considering by those who having once been freed from the bondage of Antichrist, do like Lot's wise look back again towards Sodom, if not with a resolution of returning, yet with a delight of beholding her painted outside. Beloved, if we acknowledge them to be none of the true Church, I may confidently pronounce their works as they are in God's sight, vain and idle. For Sodom will be Sodom and Antichrist will be Antichrist; we cannot expect grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. Affirmatively I confess I cannot conclude, this or that man doth outward good works, therefore he is a member of the true Church; for God only who knoweth the heart of man, can truly judge of the goodness of the work; but negatively I may say, this man is no member of the true Church, therefore his life beit never so laborious in the eyes of men, yet in the sight of God, with these labourers in my Text, he stands always idle. And indeed the husbandman's argument so runs. statis hîc, you stand here out of the Church, ergo otiose; pretend therefore what you list, defend your case how you can, you stand here all the day idle. It hath been a preposterous course therefore, as you may well observe, which the jesuites and Priests have used, in seducing our Countrymen either at home or abroad, to win them to their side, by showing them the devotion of their religious men, the liberality of their Lay people, or the strange outward holiness of both sorts, at some times in the year; our men should first, before they venture too fare upon their works, sift the truth of their Church; and before they suffer shipwreck in their practickes, sound the depth or their shallowes in their theoricks. For from the glistering of works to the verity of the Church, inference can be but probable at the most, & often false; but from the corruption of doctrine, or from a nullity of the Church, to the nullity of good works, the argument holds always strong, and the conclusion necessary. Bellarmine himself acknowledgeth the former in his 5. book de gratia & libero arbitrio, and 10. chap: when he saith, Ex operibus ipsorum hominum qui nos docent, non posce cognosci doctrinam, cùm opera interna non videantur, externa autem sunt communia utrisque. The doctrine which men teach cannot be known by their works, because their inward works are not seen, and their outward works are common to both sides. The latter I confirmed before, & it needs not much amplifying; for if the root be bitter, the fruit cannot be sweet; and if the member be rotten, it cannot but be of small performance. But to come more particularly unto them, because they seem herein to outface us: our men doc commonly give three reasons, wherefore the works of those which exist out of the true Church, can by no means be pleasing in God's sight; and should I not too fare encroach upon your patience, I could easily exemplify them in the Church of Rome; The first is, because they proceed not from a true faith. & alas! what is the faith of the Church of Rome? Antichrist hath not so shed her horns, as she hath diminished that true faith to which Paul tells us, she was once obedient, that faith was such an one as came by hearing the word of God: Rom: 10: and was like that of Abraham's, by which he doubted not of the promises made unto him, Gen. 15: so that her eyes were knowledge, & her soul was a firm confidence in the merits of our Saviour; here you may see a strange alteration, Bellarmine defining faith rather by ignorance, than knowledge, & telling us, that all confidence in these cases is plain presumption: wherefore Rome's faith being deprived both of sight & soul at once, can be no more operative, it must needs be dead, & profit them nothing. The 2d reason why the works of those which are not members of the true Church, are idle in God's sight, is because they are not done to a right end: well said therefore S. Austin, Cùm facit homo aliquid ubi peccare non videtur, si non propter hoc facit, propter quod facere debet, peccare convincitur. Now to instance in the Church of Rome, whither bend their actions but to this end, to found the kingdom of Antichrist? Whither tends all their doctrine & teachings, but only to rear up & fortify (as Molineus well notes) the tower of confusion, new? Babel? some points to enrich her treasury, as indulgences, pilgrimages and dispensations: some to augment her power & authority, as ignorance of Lay-people, multiplying of Fryeries, the necessity of Confession and Absolution; some to conserve that which hath already been gotten: as the single life of Priests, exemption of Clergy from secular Magistrates, the pre-eminence of the Pope above Princes, Counsels, and Scripture itself, with the like. See how out of the mines of the Gospel, Antichrist labours to hue his throne, & make the Articles of faith nothing but columns of a Papal Empire. But these may seem yet to be actions of State; let's see what each member doth in the closet of his soul: a man would think that between onesselfe & God there should be plain dealing found; yet behold, even there do they err in their scope, & rob God of his honour, rejecting him which is the way, & striving through their own works to beat a path to the heavenly Canaan. How art thou fallen Babylon that great City, and art become the habitation of devils! how hast thou built thy fortress upon the sands of humane wisdom, refusing the rock & cornerstone Christ jesus! But to be brief, the 3d reason, why those works are idle in God's sight, which are done by men out of the true Church, is drawn à formali, because the works many of them in their own nature are gross sins; & indeed it is a matter worth the observing by all of us, that those fects which maintain not the truth of the Gospel in purity & sincerity, are tainted commonly besides other errors, with the defending of some gross sin or other, which displays and adds suspicion to all the rest: God in his providence detecting hypocrisy by some apparent iniquity. S. Paul gives us an evident example hereof in the Gentiles Ro. 1. who for that they turned the glory of the incorruptible God, to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things; God also gave them up unto horrible sins, promiscuous lusts, which were against nature, and delivered them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things, which they knew that they which committed them were worthy of death, and yet they not only did the same, but also favoured them which did them. And to say the plain truth, what are many of those points which the Roman Consistory defends at this day, any other then hay nous crimes hateful to all men? Perhaps their prayer for the dead, their pilgrimages, fasting-dais, vows and ceremonies, may seem to come from a foolish ignorant zeal, and therefore the more excusable; but the doctrine of murdering and deposing of Princes, their Powder▪ plots, the assertion of aequivocation, their tolerating of public stews even in Rome itself, what Christian can with patience abide to hear them? O heavens! open your doors, & send thunder that may sound out these wicked and unnatural positions, astonish the nature of things reasonable a while, that the nature of things unreasonable may understand, and all God's creatures be abashed at such impieties! It is not (I am persuaded) either the wheel offortune, or the change of destiny, or the craft of the devil, that brings the adversaries of our Church to believe such shameful doctrines; but it is God in his divine providence which hath permitted them, even there where the light of nature is most apparent, so to stumble, that the meanest of God's Elect whom he hath decreed to redeem from the servitude of the Beast, by feeling the Law written in their hearts, to thwart and contradict those strange assertions, nay grow to a distrust in the rest, and by distrusting search, and by searching find the true way which leads unto life everlasting. We may well remember how the absurd selling of Indulgences or pardons for men's sins, by Leo the tenth, was that which first stirred up Luther's generous spirit in Germanic, to make a farther inquiry into Babylon's mysteries, and how that gross dispensation from the Pope, for K. Henry to marry his brother's wife, was that which did first animate him to shake off the yoke of Antichrist here in England. It were now plain way wardness with us, and simplicity unpardonable, especially in us Scholars, either not to observe, or in observing, not to make use of these things. There may be Balsecks, and Eudemons', amongst them, to carp at the actions of our men; we against them need no such libelers, the Pillars of their own Church have in writing vented blasphemies enough to brand then withal, & their own pens in many countries have served as just instruments of their confusion. To come to an end; This Land hath seen with watery eyes; the strumpet for many hundred of years together, sitting over multitudes and nations, as over many waters; it hath beheld her, fortifying herself like a Monarch, & carrying the kingdoms of the Earth in open triumph; let it suffice us now, that the good Husbanndman CHRIST JESUS, at the 11. hour, at the end of the day of days, hath opened our eyes to discern her fornications, that we might go out of her; and hath redeemed us from that market where before we stood idle, at sale amongst her merchandises, by hiring us out into the Vineyard of his Gospel. Let us beseech God, that we being now reduced again into the right way, may no more fall back to stand idle in the wrong; but that like good labourers we may work the work of the vineyard wherein we are placed with all alacrity & diligence, that whether the Master come at the 3d or 6●, or 9● or 11● hour, when he cometh he may find us well-doing, and in the evening, reward us with that penny, or Crown of eternal glory, which before the foundation of the World he laid up for those which would faithfully serve him.  
AMEN.   

GOD'S BOUNTY, AND THE GENTILES INGRATITUDE.  ROM. 1.21. 
Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankfully, but became vain high their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  
THIS Chapter contains an arraignment of the Gentiles; the judgement place, the tribunal of Christ, where the defendant must plead guilty; the witness is conscience which cannot lie, though to the prejudice of the owner; the accuser's sin and Satan, two tyrannous opposites; and the indictment an action of wilful perverting the Law of nature, and detaining the truth in unrighteousness. In this accusation we may consider,  
Viz. 

1. God's bountiful declaring of himself objected to them: employed in these words, because when they knew God etc.  
2. The Gentiles gross neglect and contempt of this bounty, detected in them both;    
Viz. 

1. From the parts of it, to wit, 

1. Gloria Deo denegata, they glorified him not as God.  
2. Contumelia Deo irrogata, neither were thankful.    
2. From the effects of it, which, were 

1. A promptitude to invent vain falsehoodes, but became vain in their imaginations.  
2. An indisposition to credit evident truths, and their foolish heart was darkened.      
The alleging of God's bountiful declaring of himself in my text, was to remove an objection which the Gentiles might urge in their own defence, it is not expressly set down, but tacitly employed in that it is refuted, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because, being a rational particle, and here used as instructive, so that whereas the Gentiles would perhaps have pleaded ignorance to excuse their idolatry, the Apostle shows them, that their ignorance was crassa & affectata, was gross and affected, such as the Pope now adays enjoins his subjects, and such as by the tenors of Philosophy doth augment rather than diminish an offence: for besides that to excuse ignorance is required; first that it be not gotten by men's own fault, as theirs was by Adam's transgression; Secondly that they bewail their own ignorance, and acknowledge it, and desire to be enlightened by the spirit of God; Thirdly, that God be obleiged by covenant to restore them to that light which they wilfully lost: it is farther exacted that they make good use of that light of nature which is left them, and suffer it not grossly to be extinguished, in which the Gentiles most of all offended. For what if they knew not God absolutely? as Bellarmine in his fourth book de gratiá & lib. arb. etc. Yet by the light of nature they knew there was a God, and that God ought to be worshipped, though by their wilful ignorance, they glorified him not as God: and so I come from God's bountiful declaring of himself objected to the Gentiles; s to their gross neglect and contempt of the same detected in them both from the parts and the effects of it, but first of the parts, which come in the next place to be handled, Gloria Deo denegata, they glorified him not as God, and Contumelia Deo irrogata neither were thankful.  
The Gentiles glorified not God as God, two manner of ways, in the theory, and in the practic; 1. in the theory, to wit, in the doctrine of his essence. The Peripatetics, as it appears by Aristotle in the eighth of his Physics, and first de Coelo, robbed him of the creation of the world, which with motion they would have eternal. The Stoics took from him providence, by referring the events of things to destiny. Most of them deprived him of his unity, Simplicity, immensity, and power, by feigning a number of Gods, which they confined either to certain nations or certain offices, and negotiations: thus they glorified him not as God. In the practice part of their divinity, which concerned the outward worship of him, which S Paul well expressed in 23d verse of this chapter, where he saith, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Some of them went lower even to plants and herbs, as if GOD could have grown in their gardens, with which the Poet derided the Egyptians:  
O Sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in horto  
Numina!  
So that though we cannot deny in the Gentiles a good meaning and intention of glorifying God, yet how little acceptable to him is devotion not directed by true knowledge, no where appears better than in this example in my text of the Gentiles. Who could be more solicitous and forward in the worship of God than they? witness the sumptuous and magnificent Temples, the solemn feasts and shows, the continual Sacrifices which they advanced in the honour of their supposititious deities: but as Austin upon the 31. Psalm alluding to such blind worshippers as these, saith truly, that the swiftest runners being once out of the way become greatest loser's, and that it were fare better to have the ship guided by slack and heavy mariners, then by a nimble and quick pilot, who failing in his course, sternes the vessel with greater violence and much sooner against the rocks: so questionless it had been less to these Gentiles condemnation, if they had been sluggishly religious, then missing their mark to be so zealously impious. Whence we may learn, saith Beza, that to propose, as these Gentiles did, the 〈…〉 GOD for one's scope, and not to be grounded on sound and sure foundations, a good meaning is nothing available to excuse one before GOD. To a good intention it is not enough (say Divines) that the end be good, unless other two properties be present, Goodness in the work, and lawfulness in the means. Saul had a good end when he sought to slay the Gibeonites, the text tell's us, it was in his zeal to the Children of Israel and judah, nevertheless it brought a famine upon the land, and cost the lives of his seven sons, because the work was bloody: 2. Sam. 21. The Scribes and the Pharisees, no doubt, had a good end in their laborious worship of God, but our Saviour tells them, that in vain did they worship him, because they taught for doctrines, the commandments of men: Matt. 15.8. If the end be sufficient to excuse an action, than Paul sinned not in that he persecuted the Church of God, he should not have said, Accepi misericordiam, I found mercy, but rather Mercedem accepi, I received a reward, for he did it with zeal ignorantly: 1. Tim. 1. If sins, as our adversaries would have them, may become venial from the end, than we are unjustly angry with the murderers of the Apostles, for they were not only ignorant that it was a sin, but thought also moreover, that they did God good service, joh. 16.2. How is it then that this answer flies with such plausible passage in the world, that when ignorance and superstition reign together, neither the ignorant is so careful to learn, nor the learned to teach, nor the taught to remember; only because if the worst come to the worst, God will be merciful, in that things are done (as we say) with a good meaning. Alas (beloved) it had been happy for the Gentiles if any such plea could have served their turns, compare but their Hecatombs with the Papists wafers, their Colossus' and golden statues with these men's wooden or stony poppets, their cuttings with others whip, and you will say, that in the end they equalled, in many other things outstripped Popery, yet this begged not their pardons: the Apostle tells us that the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against them, because though God they glorified, yet they say led in the main matter, non ut Deum glorificarunt, they glorified him not as God. It is not therefore, we see, the glorious title of a profession, not the antiquity, not the duration, not the conspiration of a multitude in doctrine, or a religious purpose, which is warrant sufficient for a Church to be true, so long as they first prove not their worship to be free from idolatry, their ceremonies from superstitions, their faith and doctrine not tainted with false conceivings of the deity, but as they glorify God in word, so really, ut Deum glorificant, they glorify him as God.  
What is man if he be spoiled of reason, and senses, and motions, so what is God, if he be supposed without his attributes? the Gentiles glorified him not as god, because, as you heard, they robbed him of his simplicity, immensity, power and providence, and what do the Papists when they impair his wisdom, grace, and glory? They match traditions with the written word, therein injurious to the wisdom of God; they mingle man's merits with the merits of Christ, therein injurious to the grace of God; they communicate divine worship to stocks and stones, therein injurious to the glory of God.  
Thus have you briefly seen what the Apostle understood, in that they glorified not God of God; what he adds, that they were not thankful, is but a part, if not the same in substance with the former, for they glorified him not as God, because they stripped him, besides other attributes, of his works of creation and providence; and they were not thankful, because they acknowledged not these things to be his doings and handy work. I will not therefore stand long upon it, it requiring rather the comment of a grateful convert, then of a curious interpreter. Only let me say, that if ingratitude be so highly condemned in the sons of nature, it is much more to be pitied in the children of grace; God might say to all, that he gave them a soul to be commander of their bodies, thinking that it being placed by him, would perform the ordinary respect of the work to be at his command, and at the sinke-ports of the body, would admit no enemy which should impeach the quiet of his government, he might allege farther, that he made them after his own image, hoping that as Simile simili gaudet, their joy and contentation should be to walk with him like Enoch, and not to go like cursed Cain from his presence, but never did such arguments enter into the heart of any orator or rhetorician, to stir the coals of gratitude and thankfulness, as are conversant and familiar with the least of Gods elect. If you peruse the acts and monuments of our redemption, that he of rich did become poor, this is more than of a monarch to become a beggar, it was in the abstract, of riches to become poverty; but that he so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son to die, and be subject to death, even the death of the cross for us, when we were yet his enemies; here eloquence may cast in her mite, and like the poor widow, be liberal of what she hath, but admiration and stupor must supply, what the tongue of men and Angels cannot utter. There is therefore no ingratitude like the ingratitude of men to God, it is a contempt of him, whose benefits they cannot want, it is (saith Gregory) suis contra Deum donis pugnare, to oppugn God with his own gifts; thus are they unthankful which acknowledge not God's grace and protection, they which deny themselves to be sinners, or brag of merits, they to whom God hath given the means of knowing him, as he did to these Gentiles, and they abuse it by not harkening unto it, and living accordingly. I pray God it may not be imputed to us, that in this respect we are not thankful, lest we participate of the punishments of these Gentiles, in becoming vain in our imaginations, and having our foolish hearts darkened and obscured. O that we could be taught by precedents; and were not so blockish, as not to learn until our own experience be our master. We know how heretofore the Eastern Churches contended for the Empire of learning & knowledge with the whole world, where are now those famous schools of Alexandria, where those seven renowned Churches of letter Asia, where those Colleges of Monks dispersed through Egypt and Syria, where their Basills, Nazianzens, Chrysostom's, Nyssens, Cyrils? was not the ungrateful world thought unworthy of these benefits, and therefore were those lights extinguished, those candlesticks removed, and in their place nothing but darkness and confusion? Greece itself, sometimes the flow and luxury of wit, now contains nothing but extreme barbarism and stupidity: in it Athens so glorious in times passed for Philosophers, is now the temple of ignorance: as in respect of her temporal estate, she hath lost her beauty, pared her large dimensions, deposed her sceptre wherewith she overruled and swayed all Greece; so in respect of her wisdom, knowledge, and skill in disciplines, one might now seek old Athens in new Athens, and not find it. As therefore God dealt with the land of Canaan, which being sometimes the mirror of the world, for fertility and abundance of all things, now for a testimony of punishment to the ingrateful inhabitants, he hath made it subject to many curses, and especially to that of barrenness; so hath he done to these nations, even plagued them with extreme want of that knowledge, the abundance of which, their fathers did so wantonly & unthankfully abuse. Now (beloved) for this which he hath done for our souls, what exacts he again at the hands of us his creatures? temples, or basilikes, or marble palaces for his Majesty to dwell in? Why, the earth is but his footstool, and the heaven of heavens is not able to contain him; or is it the blood of bulls & goats that he is delighted with? why, Mille sui Siculis errant in montibus agni, all the beasts of the forest are his, and so are the sheep upon a thousand mountains. What tribute therefore is it which he demands at our hands, what is the coin that he requires to be paid with? Why, the Psalmist tells us. Offer unto the Lord the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Well might we fear lest God should have required some thing without us, some thing in the house that the moths had corrupted, some thing in the garner that the mice or vermin had consumed, some thing in the field that the fox or wolf had devoured; but he sends us to ourselves, to our own ward, to the inmost closet of the soul, which none can unlock but God only, ara tua conscientia, saith Sr Austin, thy conscience is thine altar, offer thereon the sacrifice of praise. Here you see how little it is that God challengeth, and yet as little regarded, I pray God it be not one day as hard laid to the charge of Christians, as it was here to the Gentiles, that they were not thankful. And so I come from the parts of that contempt and neglect, which the Gentiles shown in the abuse of that knowledge which God afforded them of himself, in that they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; unto the effects of the same, which were, as before I shown you, a promptitude to invent and foster vain falsehoods, and a difficulty to credit the truth, but first of the proneness they had to invent falsehoods, which cometh in the next place to be treated of: but became vain in their imaginations.  
Bonaventure on the 2d of the Sent. is so confident, that he pronounceth it impossible, esse culpam in aliquo, quin ad ipsam poena sequatur inseparabiliter, that there should be a fault in any man, which punishment doth not follow inseparably at the heels. We perhaps would cast about whence this punishment should come; we look if our goods do diminish, our stock be impaired, our health be abated, our friends alienated; but alas! then had this maxim proved false in these Gentiles, which had no cause to complain of any such disasters. But the punishment was in their minds, sin begot sin, errors begot errors, falsehoods begot falsehoods, and that, saith Durand, either by way of a final cause, as one misconceit being more plausible unto them then another, and to defend it, they invented others, in which kind Aristotle in the first of his phys. saith truly, that uno absurdo dato, sequuntur mille: or else by way of an efficient cause, the one habituating and disposing them, as we commonly see it experimented in liars, to coin other fables with as great facility as the former. And thus stood the case with the Gentiles at this time, they had no sooner detained the truth in unrighteousness, that is, laid down one false Maxim of examining the truth of the Godhead, by the fancies and inventions of men; but that strait (as necessarily as a false ell makes a false measure, or light weights errors in traffic) their brains conceived meteors and airy speculations, and brought forth idle and vain imaginations. And therefore the Apostle taking his phrase from the dealing of a tyrant, which detains hisprisoner unjustly in a dark dungeon, not judging him according to form of law, saith, that the Gentiles detained the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in unjustice; for unjustice it is to try a man by his enemy, and the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God: Rom. 8.7. it is unjustice to make them of one's jury, which cannot understand the cause in hand, and the natural man cannot understand the things that are of God: 1. Cor. 2. As therefore (saith chrysostom upon my text) he which either travails in an unknown way, or sails in a dark night amongst dangerous rocks, not only is not liliely to arrive at his intended port, but also for the most part doth miscarry; so they which enter upon the way to heaven, and rejecting the light necessary to their journey, instead thereof do use the darkness of their own inventions, seek for God incorporeal in bodies, for God without figure in earthly figures, must needs suffer shipwreck, and sink with the waves of their own vain imaginations. Neither hath the Gentiles only been partakers of these inconveniences, but the jew also hath tasted of the like sauce, because (saith the Lord, Esay 28.) the fear of this people towards me, is taught by the precepts of men, there was the truth detained in injustice, therefore behold, I will proceed, or I will add to do a marvellous work, and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Sr Paul in the 1. Cor. 1. points at the fulfilling of this prophecy, when he asks where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of the world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? where (as a learned writer of ours in his miscellanea sacra, hath observed) are described the vain imaginations, not of the Gentile only, who was puffed up with his own reasonings from effects to causes, from accidents to substances, when he says, where is the wise? nor only those ecclesiastical Doctors, which expounded the Scriptures according to the grammatical sense for the instruction of the people, when he adds, where is the Scribe? but also in concluding with the disputers, he would signify the musical expositors of the jews (whose apes our postillers seem to be) which expounded not the Scriptures after the ordinary way, but busied themselves about allegorical, tropological, and anagogical senses, and the places in jerusalem were called the houses of mystical disputes where they taught▪ Now how vain were the imaginations of these Doctors, who, as Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle, thought, that every where he saw his own shape and picture going before him, so did these in all parts of Scripture where they walked, persuade themselves that they saw the image of their own conceits; and what gave occasion to this vainness in them? was it not that they forsook the paths and ancient forms of teaching, which their samuel's and Eliah's and Elisha's had in their schools of the Prophet's children left unto them? and their Rabbis being trained up, as it appears by Philo, in the philosophy of Pythagoras & Plato, which was much symbolical and enigmatical, would show whose disciples they were in the pulpit, and attire Sarah in the garments and weeds of Hagar the bondwoman? I do not here deny the use of Philosophy in divine matters, it is a footstool to the pulpit, and as Laban when he gave Rachel unto jacob, he gave also Bilhah to be her maid; so in this latter age of the world, when it pleased God to restore the light of his word so plentifully unto us, he graciously hath adorned it with the service and attendance of philosophy, and humane learning: but yet we must remember, that philosophy is but the handmaid, she must not prescribe laws and rules to her mistress, When some sought to examine the truth of the word by the dictates of philosophers, and the speculation of humane reason, the Apostle in 2d of the Col. bids them beware, lest any man spoil them, through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. By which saying Tertullian observes, that he concondemnes all heretics, of which the philosophers were the Patriarches, for whence did Valentinus feign his forms and trinity in man, but from Plato? Martion the coeternity of matter with God, but from the Stoics; that God was mortal, but from the Epicures; that he was of a fiery substance but from Heraclitus? whence arose the impious conceits of the Artemonites, but from this, as Eusebius in his fifth book of Ecclesiastical history confesseth, that they more were addicted to Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Galen, then to the Scriptures? Whence grew the errors of Origen; but from this, as Epiphanius witnesseth, that he triumphed too much in the disciplines of the Philosophers, & contented not himself with the simplicity of the Apostles? whence sprang the heresy of the Arrians, but from this, as Ambrose on the 118. Psalm observes, that they examined the divine generation of Christ, according to the grounds of Aristotle, and the use of this world? Thus by preferring their own fancies and the sandy foundation of humane wisdom, before the sure foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, they detained the truth in unjustice, and became vain in their imaginations. The Fathers were (as Hiperius notes) for the most part Platonists, and I know not if some of them may not elsewhere be said to relish of his precepts; certainly if in any thing this age of ours may contend with theirs, or else outstrip it, it is there where in their commentaries in imitation of him, they drench the literal sense too much with Allegories, as Andradius confesseth. S. Hierome, a man not too easily brought on to acknowledge the errors of his writings, amongst those few things which he doth retract, censures nothing so sharply as the mistake of his youth in this kind, thinking it one of the greatest sins of his youth, that being carried away through an inconsiderate heat in his studies of Scripture, he adventured to interpret Abdias the Prophet Allegorically, when as yet he knew not the historecall meaning. I will not deny Allegories, Tropologies, Anagogies, as several applacations of one sense, I will not deny more than one literal sense, so that one be subordinate to the other; but to make all places, as the Papists would have them, liable to as many senses as wit is able to feign, to draw the Pope's temporal sword out of Peter's scabbard, or to fish for his vicarage with Peter's net, this I leave to the limbeckes of the jesuites, and ask if my text fits not right to them, that detaining the truth in unrighteousness, they became vain in their imaginations. Gerson in his tract of Astrology tell's us, that it was a custom in the University of Paris, that whosoever was licenciated in the arts, should take an oath to determine his Philosophy problems always agreeable to the Articles of faith, and that they would dissolve the reasons of the Philosopher brought to the contrary; this was an excellent course to give liberty to the truth of the Scriptures, whilst the dreams of Philosophers kept it not in subjection; but he which shall read the Sorbornes' determinations in Theology, would guess that they had taken another oath to determine their questions in Divinity according to the precepts of Aristotle's Philosophy, and to dissolve the authorities of the Apostles brought to the contrary. And may not we here see my text well verified, that these Schoolmen detaining the truth in unrighteousness, first in their exposition of the Scripture, by keeping the literal sense from the view of the world, and distasting those (witness the sundry apologies of Caietan) who betook themselves to the literal sense, as knowing inwardly that their positions were not sufficiently grounded, and that this kind of teaching opened a gap unto the world to descry their palpable abuses; Secondly, in their positions relying first, as Daneus shows, upon Austin, afterwards as Popery more strengthened itself, upon Aristotle, and lastly upon the Tridentine Council, and uncertain traditions, that these I say should not elsewhere in their unprofitable questions, and more ridiculous resolutions, be seen, as my text says, to become vain in their imaginations; perhaps their prayer for the dead, their pilgrimages, vows and ceremonies, may seem to come from a foolish ignorant zeal, and herein though their imaginations cannot scape the lash of vain, yet they may be more pardonable. But to teach that colours may subsist without a subject, that a man may be at the same time at home in his bed and fight against the Turks, that one may equivocate and dissemble to a good end, that one may do evil that good may come thereof, that the rights of laws and nations do lie under the Pope's girdle, why this Philosophy was never taught by Aristotle, or Plato, or Cicero, but as I guess, when Hermolaus Barbarus questioned the devil for the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he added some further instructions to be delivered the jesuites touching these matters, for the defending their tenants. And truly I am persuaded, that it is neither the wheel of fortune, nor chain of destiny, nor craft of Satan, that hath brought our adversaries to believe such shameful doctrines, but it is God in his divine providence which hath permitted them even there where the light of nature is most apparent so to stumble, not only to give the world a caveat, that those which detain the truth in unjustice, should become vain and ridiculous in their imaginations, but also that the meanest of his elect which he hath decreed to redeem from the servitude of the beast, by seeing the law written in their hearts, to thwart and contradict these vain imaginations, may grow to a distrust of the rest, and by distrusting search, and by searching find out the true way which leadeth unto life everlasting. And thus having spoken of the first effect of this abuse of the Gentiles, concerning the bountiful declaration of God unto us by his creatures, which was a promptitude to invent vain and ridiculous falsehoods, they became vain in their imaginations, I pass unto the second effect of the same, to wit, an indisposition to credit or assent to evident truths, which comes in the last place to be discussed, and their foolish heart was darkened.  
In darkening of the heart we find three kinds of agents mentioned in holy writ, first God, of whom our Saviour out of Esay tells us, that the jews could not believe because he had blinded their eyes, which he effects (saith Austen) non impertiendo malitiam, not by imparting or infusing malice, but non impertiendo misericordiam, by not imparting mercy; or as upon the 12. of john. he hath it, deserendo & non adjuvando, by forsaking & not helping or assisting them with his illuminating grace. Secondly, the devil, whom God permitteth oftentimes to blind those, which he will punish, as when he suffereth a lying spirit to go into the mouths of the Prophets of Ahab, to deceive them. 1. Kings 22. Thirdly, ourselves, who by our corrupt and inordinate affections, do cast a veil before our own eyes, that we cannot see the truth oftentimes, when it is most palpable: this the Apostle seems in general to intimate unto us in this whole chapter to have been a main cause of the Gentiles blindness for that seeking after wisdom as it is 1. Cor. 1. and applauding themselves with their humane inventions, they became less prepared to yield attentive cares unto the truth, so that the preaching of the cross was foolishness unto them, scoffed at by their Philosophers, & graced by no better a title than babbling, Act. 17. in a word (saith Ansten) quod curiositate invenerunt, per superbiam perdiderunt, pride lost them that, which curiosity had gotten. But more particularly my text doth intimate it, when it discribes unto us what heart it is that is darkened, to wit, cor insipiens, stultum, ineptiens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a foolish heart; an heart which lodgeth in her chiefest rooms vain guests, that will brook no wise thoughts to enter, but sets wilfulness at the door to keep them out. In a word if there be any prejudice, if there be any forestall, if any preoccupation in a mind, bend to vanities, that it becomes darkened, and cannot see the truth when it is most obvious & plain, the Apostle comprehends it in this one saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, afoolish heart. It is in man, as it was in the parable of the vineyard, let the Lord go to a fare country, I mean, let not his spirit be present with us, and the soul which should root out the wild and sour grapes, that the whole Vine-yard of our bodies may yield pleasant fruit unto the Lord, will suffer the inferior faculties to mutiny and resist his messengers, though his Son himself come in Person unto us. This folly is not one single individuum, nor one infima species, but like the Viper, which in every letter of the Alphabet can show some of her kindred; so in all societies, all trades, all subjects, this foolishness of heart can brag, that she puts out to nurse some or other of her young ones to do mischief, & darken the heart. The Psalmist therefore when he would express how God punished the stiffnecked Israelites in the desert, saith not, that he sent false Prophets amongst them to seduce them, nor that he suffered them to be deluded by lying wonders; but he gave them up to their own hearts lusts, & in this Chap. that he delivered the Gentiles unto their affectios, to signify what legions of devil's man carries in his heart, what Lions, & Bears, & Wolves, & uncouth beasts within his breast, what ignis fatuus in his brains, to transport him out of the way, though never so broad, if God's Spirit sit not at the stern to direct them? Read the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revel. search curiously into the judgements of God therein registered, examine the causes, peruse the instruments, pry into the wondered ways of the Lord so far as he hath revealed them, & tell me if for the most part, errors, falsehoods, & heresies have not been rooted in some folly of the heart, in some corrupt & naughty affection, which darkens the understanding. What could be more plain to the israelites when they came out of Egypt, than that the Lord was God, & that he was a strong pillar of defence, in whom they were to trust? They saw the wonders which he did in Eypt, they saw the marvelous conduct they had through the red sea, they saw the terrible deliverance of the law in mount Sinai, their noble conquest over Pharaoh & all his host, their mighty victories over all their enemies that durst oppose them; why did these so often rebel against him, murmur against Moses, erect Idols? Would you that I should recount either the waters of Meribah, or the Quails & Manna in the desert, or the daughters of Moab? you shall see that the grounds of all these revolts were lusts of the flesh, sensuality, intemperancy, gluttony, and the like, which are the vanities and foolishnesses of the heart. Solomon (you know) was a Prophet, & one beloved of GOD, it was much that he should run a whoring after many gods, and err in a principle which he sucked with his nurse's milk, and had so throughly been instructed in, both by the writings of Moses, the Law of Nature, & the sundry apparitions of God, most graciously vouchsafed unto him. He spoke (saith the Scriptures) of trees, from the Cedar which is in Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; whether he red Lectures of these Plants, or else wrote books of them, is something doubtful; but if he had but seen a tree, and considered how it hath a bark, and a stalk, and a trunk, besides many boughs and branches, and an infinite number of leaves; if he had but observed how the body hath no likeness to the leaves, nor the leaves to the fruit, nor the fruit to the blossoms, and yet how all these come from one root, and that root again from a kernel; he could not think that all these could be the work of any more than one workman, or that Nature could direct us hereby to aught else then one beginning. He spoke also (saith the same verse) of beasts and fowls; in them he might have seen how the Bees have one King, the Cranes in their flight follow one Captain, even herds in the field naturally incline to one Leader, all which might have taught him, that all things are subordinate, and moderated not by many, but by one Governor. Besides, he was more wise than either was the Chaldees or Egyptians, and therefore we can presume him to be ignorant of none of their Arts and Disciplines; and did not their Arithmetic teach him, that numbers do proceed from unities; their Geometry, that magnitudes doc arise from indivisible points; why the Perspectives draws all lines to one centre? Philosophy,; all causes to one first cause? Astronomy, all motions to one first Mover? so that there was nothing in all his learning from whence he might not have learned, that of all things there is but one Maker, and so consequently, for all things we are to worship and give divine honour but to one God. Yet lo this Solomon, this bright morning star, sets in the West, & is housed in one of those dark and smoky degrees, mentioned by Astronomers; lust and love of his wives possess his fantasy, and then whatsoever good object would present itself to his understanding, it is by the interposition of these earthly vanities, these foolishnesses of heart darkened: It might be wisely said of him, as S. Austin once spoke of the Wisemen of his days: O Lord, with the understanding which thou givest unto men, they number the stars of the firmament, and the sands of the sea; they measure the heavens with their instruments, and foretell the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon many ages beforehand; they can say, that such a year, & such a month, & such a day of the month, & such a hour of the day, there shall be an Eclipse, and it falls out accordingly; and they are lifted up, and greatly extolled which know these things; notwithstanding per impiam superbiam recedentes ac deficientes à lumine tuo, tantò antè solis defectuns in futurum praevident, & in praesentia suum non vident; through impious pride, their foolish hearts departing away from thy light, so long before they can foresee the darkening of the sun which is to come, and cannot see their own darkness which is present. Let me lead you from the Old Testament into the New, there suppose the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses Chair, and scanning the gestures, and words, and works of our Saviour; why did they not know him to be the Messiah? they heard john Baptist give plain testimony of him, the same Christ fulfilled likewise all that was spoken by the Prophets; why could not they see that he was the Saviour of the world? he made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to go; he made the sick and diseased whole, he raised up the dead, he told them even their thoughts & cogitations: how were their hearts so darkened, that they could not know him? S. Paul informs us, that their foolish hearts were possessed with pride, & that seeking to establish their own righteousness, & to be justified by the works of the Law, they stumbled at that stumbling stone: Rom: 9.32: if any therefore ask or demand, how it comes to pass that so many see not the truth of the Gospel, if it be so plain as we make it; whence it is, that the Scriptures which, we say, are so easy in all matters of Salvation, be not yet understood, either by the wise salomon's, or the learned Scribes and Pharisees of the Roman Church; I must answer with the Apostle in my text, quòd abscurum & obtonebratum est eorum cor insipiens; because their foolish heart, their heart taken up with foolish & earthly imaginations is obscured & darkened. The Apocalypse in describing the whore of Babylon, notes two branches of this foolishness in her; pride in challenging adoration, and covetousness in venting her Merchandices, which go beyond all Markets that I know, but the devils, even to the souls of men. Cap. 19 & are not our adversaries careful & diligent to fulfil the Scriptures? whither tend all their doctrines and teachings, as some well note, but either to enrich her treasures? as indulgences pilgrimages, and dispensations, or augment her power and authority? as ignorance of Lay-people, multiplicity of Fryeries, necessity of confession and absolution: or to conserve that which hath been already gotten? as single life of Priests, exemption of the Clergy from secular Magistrates, the preeminences of the Pope above Princes, Counsels, and Scripture itself? See the witchcrafts wherewith she is bewitched, the Cups wherewith she is drunken; the mists wherewith her foolish heart is darkened and obscured. Can our adversaries object truly to us any such follies of the heart, which do shut our eyes, that we are not able to discern the acuteness of their Achillean arguments? yes, some of them have said, it is a desire of Sovereignty in Princes, & of licentiousness in all, that casts the veil before our hearts, and makes them foolish in things pertaining to his Holiness. Why then belike these cause us that we do not allow of Friars and Mookes. though in the fourth of Gen: it be said, as Bellar. urgeth it. then began men to call upon the name of the Lord: for these it is that we do yield unto the sacrifice of the Mass, though Solomon in the 9 of the Proverbes, as Bellar. quotes him, saith most plainly, that wisdom hath built her an house, slain her victuals, and drawn her wine. These make us that we will not kill and devour those creatures the Kings and Princes, which perform not what the Pope enjoins and commands, though Baronius most subtly hath concluded it from the voice to Peter, kill and eat; hence it is that we require more than an implicit faith in the Laiety: though the Master of the Sent: and Bell. allege it, in the 1. of job it is printed in fair Letters and good Characters, that the Oxen were ploughing, and the Asses feeding besides them. If therefore foolishness do darken our hearts, that we cannot see so fare as the Lynxes of the Roman Church, I must say with S. Paul, that it is the foolishness of God which is wiser than men, and the weakness of God which is stronger than men. But what marvel if others, whose hearts are the Cabinets of vanity and folly, are purblind in the way of truth, when as we ourselves are so led oftentimes by them in easy matters, that we become beetle-eyed, & see little or nothing? why do we not see the shortness of our life, but thus jive in the world, as though we should live ever? why do we not see the vanities of earthly things; but embrace them as though they had some substance in them? Why do we not see our own imperfections and follies, but contemn our brethren, as though ourselves were some demigods upon earth. O beloved! if we list to marvel at the darkness of others hearts, we cannot well marvel at any thing so much as at our own darkness, that cannot see ourselves. Let us look at the last, into the Closet of our own souls, and if we find the room then darkened, that in seeing we see not, and the Word is a sealed book unto us; then we must know, that it is some foolishness in the heart which is the cause of that blockish dulness which is come upon us, anger hath troubled our affections, pleasure hath stolen away our attention, profit hath corrupted our judgements; then must we return unto the Lord with prayer, that by glorifying God as God, and being thankful, we may have our vain imaginations removed, the foolishness of our hearts expurged, and our dark understandings enlightened through jesus Christ our Lord: To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, and three Persons, be rendered all praise, honour, and glory, might, majesty, and dominion, from this time forth for evermore.  
AMEN.   

AFFLICTIONS THE CHRISTIANS PORTION.  ACT. 21.31. 
For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to dye at jerusalem for the Name of the Lord jesus.  
I Think (saith this blessed Apostle, 1. Cor. 4.) that God hath set forth us the last Apostles, as men appointed to death, for we are made a gazing-stocke unto the world, and to Angels, and to men. If any of the Apostles could receive this testimony, as indeed there was not any of them which lively expressed it not in the whole course of his life, witnessing S. John's banishment, Peter's imprisonment, james his beheading; yet much more was it true of S. Paul; were they persecuted? so was he: were they afflicted? so was he; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more plenteously, in deaths often, 2. Cor. 11. Nothing seemed wanting to this valiant Soldier of Christ, but the time of his offering; and lo, and Agabus is here present to foretell him, that that likewise drew near and was at hand. What would you I should propose unto you, a man wrestling with his enemies abroad, or with his friends at home; with his own afflictions, or the Church's necessities? all seem to dehort our blessed Apostle from his combat; yet he which desired to be dissolved for Christ, speak 's roughly Pharaoh-like, as a son of thunder to himself, Vinciatur Paulus modò liberè discurrat Evangelii sermo, immò occidatur Paulus, modò vivat apud omnes, vigeaque gloria nominis jesu; Let Paul be bound, so that the Gospel have its free passage; yea, let Paul be put to death, so that the glory of the Name of Christ do live & flourish amongst all men: pericula non respicit, coronas respicit; plagas non horret, sed praemia numerat, saith Cyprian: he respects not the danger, but the crown; he fears not the strokes, but conceives the rewards. Come therefore afflictions, come torments, come bonds, come death, he's ready, not to be bound only, but to dye at jerusalem for the Name of the Lord jesus.  
The sum is a protestation or declaration of S. Paul's zeal, constancy, and forwardness in the maintaining and defending Christ's cause: Wherein observe with me (I beseech you) these three parts,  
viz: 

1. Affectionem personae, the affection and disposition of the Person. I am ready.  
2. Gravitatem rei, the greatness of the thing which he was to undergo, not to be bound only, but also to dye at jerusalem.  
3. Qualitatem ceausae, the quality or nature of the cause, for the Name of the Lord jesus.    
Within these bounds by God's grace & your Christian patience, I shall confine my meditations, & first the affectione personae, the affection or disposition of the person which comes in the first place to be handled, I am ready. He saith not, I will be bound, or I will dye, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, paratus sum, I am ready to be bound and to dye. Whereupon saith Thomas 2● 2ae: q. 124. Non debet homo occasionem dare alteri injustè agendi, sed si alius injustè egerit ipse moderatè tolerare debet: A man ought not to give an occasion to a Tyrant to do ill, but if a Tyrant should do ill, he ought moderately to bear it. Raise not wars thyself (saith chrysostom) for this is not a part of a soldier but of a seditious person, but if the trumpet of piety shall summon thee, march then on without linger, contemn thy life, enter the lists with alacrity, break the ranks with thine adversary, and retreat not till the victory be thine own. Origen in his 31. hom, on St john gives the reason why we may not give any occasion to others to persecute us, Not only (saith he) because the event of so great a temptation is uncertain, but also lest we be a cause that others by shedding our blood become greater sinners than otherwise they would be. The words are not therefore to be Categorically understood, but Hypothetically, if a just occasion be offered, not absolute absolutely (say the Schoolmen) but secundum praeparationem animi, one must have his mind prepared for't; all beating upon this conclusion: That a good Christian should always be ready and prepared in mind manfully, to undergo such crosses and afflictions as it shall please God to object him unto.  
In prosperity (saith chrysostom) expect adversity, in a calm think of a tempest, in health of sickness, in plenty of want. There is not one minute left us wherein we may so glut ourselves with the enjoying of a present good, as that we are not likewise, to prepare and fit ourselves to sustain a future ill. There is therefore a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to day, or now, in all the mandates almost of the King of heaven. So our Saviour's Watch, Mark 13.37. the Wiseman's Consider, Eccles. 7.14. St Paul's armour, Ephes. 6.13. contain no other thing▪ then what the same Apostle so much beats upon, Phil. 4.11. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content; I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound,  and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. All backwardness is sliding back, and delays are denials, when our Saviour saith unto us, Take up thy cross and follow me. We must therefore be like valiant soldiers always in arms, sober, watchful, ever expecting the enemy. We must be prepared (in Christ's School) to answer ad unguem all the devil's sophistry, to refute the objections of the world with the answers of the spirit, the motions of our appetites with God's commandments, and to oppose Satan's Hoc dabo, This will I give thee, with Christ's Scriptum est, It is written. It was Nabal's curse to be strucken at his feast, and the rich-man's doom to have his soul taken away when it was possessed with worldly projects. Fare be it from those which account this world but as an Inn where they may none abide, & this life but the high way to a better estate, to be taken at so unawares and to be assaulted so unprovided. As we know not when the bridegroom will pass by, nor when the master will come: so know we not when he will set us to our task nor how soon he will put us to our trial.  
But I will stand no longer for the proof of a point so evident, I will now come to apply it to ourselves. These things are written for our instruction, to admonish us to beware how we stand unprovided to undergo the crosses of this world. It is strange to observe our improvidence herein, how cunningly we can cozen ourselves and be unfit of munition until the last cast. But had▪ we but the grace to consider what true preparation is, the wonderful fruits of it, and the manifold difficulties that always cross it, most evidently it would appear, that by this deceit more do perish, then by all the guiles and subtleties of Satan beside: for that serpent which deceived our first parents even in paradise, better considers he then we do, how that he which is not fit to day, will be less fit to morrow; that an enemy the less expected, the hardlier repulsed; he knows the more our negligence is, the easier is his entrance; the greater our improvidence, the more effectual his violence, the less we are ready to suffer for Christ, the less Christ is ready to protect us: whence our good inclinations are the weaker, our understanding the more darkened, our will the more perverted, our appetite the more dissordered, all our inferior parts and passions the more strengthened, and stirred up against the rule of reason, whereby his footing is the stronger, and our case the more desperate. Lastly he is privy to the crosses and perils of our life, to the dangers that may befall us, to the objects that may withdraw us, to the calamities that may at any time deject us, so that if once he spy us but to lie open, he doubteth not but to subdue us under him. Now shall we see this net and be yet entangled? know the guile of this old wreathing serpent, and yet never endeavour to prevent it? Most commonly there is no man hath so little care of himself but that he hath desire to prevent these inconveniences, and to prepare himself more seriously to resist the temptations of the world, and when he heareth the commendations of the Saints of God, their resolution in defending Christ's cause, & manfulness in sustaining such afflictions as befell them, he wisheth in his heart that he also were such an one, and groaneth oftentimes in conscience that he never hath endeavoured so to be. But alas my good Christian brother! what letteth at this instant, that this course should not be taken, what inconvenience would follow it, if presently this were practised which for ever should do us good? Thou shouldst prevent the evil day which suddenly may overtake thee, thou shouldst have thy lamp ready whensoever the bridegroom passeth by thee, thou shouldst be in thy complete armour when the enemy shall assail thee. In being defective herein thou committest that which in matters of less moment thou wouldst be loath to commit. We would esteem him an unwise mariner which will venture to sea in a calm, and not have his ship able to brook a tempest; and him to be an unconsiderate statesman, which in peace thinks it needless to provide munition for time of war: the pysmire may be our teacher herein, which (as Solomon saith) prepareth her meat in summer, and gathereth her food in harvest; Now shall these unreasonable creatures & brute beasts be more provident than man, the lord and ruler of them? shall the children of this world be more wise in their generations, than the children of the spirit in theirs? we are not to think that tempests, or winters, or wars are nigh at hand or approaching only; but we are to conceive ourselves to be always in the field, ever in battle, continually in a storm; our whole life, saith Paul, is a warfare; & it is nothing else, faith Augustine, but a continual temptation. I confess it is no small task sufficiently to resolve one's self herein: the Father's meditations on this subject are not books but volumes. chrysostom thought it the best discourse to be always talking of hell, & St Hierome saith, this voice of Christ's continually sounded in his ears, and awoke him, Surgite mortui, venite ad judicium, Arise you dead & come to judgement. I cannot tell what others may conceive, but methinks this meditation should be sufficient to rouse the drousest spirit amongst us, and to provoke him to a serious resolution to suffer under Christ's banner. Hath God made me and created me, and shall I for fear or favour basely subject myself to be another's creature? hath he sacrificed his only son to redeem me, and shall I think it much to mortify the desires of my flesh to please him? O God thy mercies towards man have been innumerable! the stars of the firmament, and the sands of the sea are but as an handful to what thou hast heaped upon him; Et quid retribuemus Domino? What shall we give unto thee, o Lord, for all the benefits thou hast done unto us? Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would we give it thee, thou delightest no in  offerings: mille tui Siculis errant in montibus agni, for all the beasts of the forest are thine, and so are the cattles upon a thousand hills: behold therefore thy servants & the work of thy hands, do with us even as it shall seem best in thy sight, lo we are all thy creatures. You see (beloved) the use of this one word Ready, though we have time enough to struggle with the crosses of this world, and ability to use that time, and desire to use that ability, and grace to prosper that desire; yet it were foolishness to put off the practice thereof until such time as the days of temptation shall come upon us, when Satan will be at the strongest and wee at the weakest: though there be twelve hours in the day to walk in, and it be never too late (as the saying is) to be good; yet we should hold it indiscretion, not to shut the door till the thief be entered; and folly, not to put the head-piece on, till the blow be given. My counsel therefore shall be that which St Paul gives to the Ephes. c. 6. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and withstand in the evil day: stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace: above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, that you may not only vanquish the allurements of the world, but also the threatenings of Antichrist, not only the temptations of the flesh within, but also the assaults of the adversary without, that bonds may not dismay you, death not terrify you, but that in all just occasions you may be ready and prepared for the name of Christ, not to be bound only, but to die also: which is the second part of my text and cometh next to be handled, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die, etc.  
We see in the Apostle St Paul a notable example of obedience: he shutteth his eyes to all things else, and only openeth them to God's word: he maketh a way to serve God through all lets, all fleshly impossibilities, and being in this way, he trampleth under him his own nature, and beateth a path for God's word out of his own heart: finally, he regardeth not what men say, nor what his own thoughts can say, but having received his mandat, resolves for his journey, suffering God's wisdom to reason for him, and Gods omnipotent power and providence to work for him. For Paul was now such a man as might have hoped for rest in his flesh, he might have said, Lord I have served thee these many years in sufficient trials of my love and obedience, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in stripes, in shipwreck, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, now I am old, give me now immunity, let me be no longer pressed. Again he had access to God and familiarity, he knew God was pitiful, and merciful, and easy to be entreated, and yet he never spoke one word for himself, or his own releasement: He complained not of his grief, he desired not to have the burden lessened, but as if he had the feet of an hind, runs many a tedious day's journey by way of the commandment, till at length he arrived at Jerusalem. Freedom and liberty are more worth than gold, as the saying is, but skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life, job. 2. the Casualists therefore in a matter of life and death, forbidden to administer an oath to any in his own cause: wherefore if any thing might plead exemption from God's edicts, than might this case of bonds and death, and if any man, then questionless might St Paul more than any other in this case: the state of the Churches, whereof some were not so sufficiently confirmed, others, with wolves which crept in amongst them, not a little distracted, did seem to require it, but he so resolutely undergoing that which God commanded him, and submitting himself to whatsoever God, in the defence of his own name should impose on him, may not unfitly direct us to this conclusion: That neither bonds, nor death, nor any respect whatsoever, can be of such force or power, at to privilege the least backwardness, or starting back in defending of God's cause.  
He that loveth father or mother more than me (saith our Saviour) is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; fear not them therefore (saith he) that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, Luk. 12.5. In regard whereof God hath ever emboldened some valiant soldiers or others, and proposed them to the Church for the rest to imitate. Amongst his Prophets, one hath his forehead as an adamant, harder than a flint, not to be dismayed at men's proud looks, howsoever they be hard hearted and rebellious, Ezech. 3.8. another is a fenced brazen wall, not to be prevailed against, jerem. 15.20. and hence grew the resolution of God's servants, not to shrink back or yield a foot, when Gods honour lay at the stake, or his Church's preservation was any way interested. So Hanani is bold with Asa, though the prison follow it, Thou hast done foolishly, 2. Chron. 16. The three children with Nabuchadnezzar threatening the fiery furnace, We are not careful to answer thee in this matter, Dan. 3. john with Herod, though his head pay for it, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife, Matt. 14. and Peter with the Council breathing threatenings and slaughter, Act. 5. We ought to obey God rather then man. In this life the Church hath need of more than a lion's heart, for she shall ever find enemies to resist, afflictions to wrestle with, tears to wipe, beasts to fight with, calamities to subdue. In Egypt, it had Pharaoh's to oppress it, in judah and Israel Manassehs, and Ahabs to vex it; in captivity, haman's to destroy it; and at return, Tatnai's and Sanballats to discourage it. To say the truth, it is so appointed from the foundation of the world, that righteousness here should suffer in secular conflicts; for so just Abel was slain in the beginning, and before any example (saith Chrysostom) first of all dedicated to martyrdom: him followed an Holocaust, and whole Hecatombs of Prophets, of whom as the author to the Hebrews tells us; Some were tortured, others mocked and imprisoned, some, stoned and sawen asunder, others slain with the sword, or wandered about in sheepskins and goate-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered i deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth. To me therefore (saith a religious divine) the caves, and prisons, and wildernesses are most welcome; for there it was either that the Prophets taught, or the Apostles preached, or the Evangelists testified the truth of Christ. But such hath ever been the love of God in protecting of his Church, that whereas all other things by vexation and oppression, do wane and decay; his Church like the moon, when the Sun of righteousness seems to be in opposition against her, gives ever most light, and is at the fullest. It is usual with the Fathers to compare the Church to the ark, because as none were saved from the deluge but such as were in the ark, so none are delivered from eternal death, but such as are really existing in the Church. But the similitude holds, as well in respect of the storms and tempests which always accompany it; the more the floods of affliction do increase, the more it is elevated and lifted up towards heaven. Hence were drawn those excellent allegories of ancient fathers; Gods people (saith justin Martyr) are a vine planted by our Saviour, if you prune or cut it, the branches will sprout the better. The blood of Christians is like seed, (saith Tertullian) the more they are mowed and cut down, the thicker they will grow. The Church (saith Leo) is God's field, the cares of corn are his servants, the more grains fall to the ground, the more ears do multiply and rise up. As plants seated by rivers of waters, so is the Church oppugned by her adversaries, (saith chrysostom) no garden so flourisheth being moistened by the streams of running waters, as the Church when it is watered with the blood of Martyrs. Howsoever therefore we esteem of afflictions and perfections, and pray to be delivered from them; yet did we but throughly examine their ends and singular uses, we would freely confess with the Wise man, Eccles. 7. It is better to go to the house of mourning, then to go to the house of feasting: And indeed the ends of these chastisings, proposed in the Scripture, are manifold; the exercising and trying of the faithful, the waking of the drowsy, the testifying of the truth, etc. whereby the weak are confirmed, the sluggish roused, and God's power in man's weakness the more manifested. To these St Augustine in his 78 Serm. de Tempore, prettily alludes the story of Esau and jacob, both struggling together in Rebeccah's womb: for when Rebeccah went to inquire of the Lord concerning their struggle, the Lord said unto her, Gen. 25. Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. St Austin asks how this was fulfilled, for we never read at any time that the elder did serve or perform obedience to the younger. He answers therefore, the elder shall serve the younger, as wicked men doc serve the godly, non obsequendo, sed persequendo, not by obeying, but by persecuting, as the hammer serves the mettle, as the mill serves the wheat, and as the furnace the gold when it tries it. It is a memorable saying therefore of Ignatius, when he was to be cast to Lions to be devoured of them, I am the wheat and grain of Christ, I shall be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread. You see (beloved) how persecutions and fiery trials do always attend the Church whilst it wanders in this desert of sin, so that so fare I am from assenting any thing to Bellarmine, who makes his 15th note of the true Church to be foelicitas temporalis, temporal felicity; that rather with our own divines I take cruces, the crosses of this world, though they are not a note, to be a condition of the Church militant. Seeing therefore that sufferings are necessary, it is a Christian virtue by a magnanimous patience to make them voluntary: we must not revolt with Demas, nor follow afar off with timorous Peter, nor dissemble our profession by jesuitical equivocation, but rest steadfast in the faith, knowing that if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him, if we forsake houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for his name's sake; we shall be recompensed in this life with peace of conscience, and in the other with felicity.  
But (boloved) the loved of the voice of more than a trumpet is necessary in these dastardly times of ours, wherein men are as fare from the zeal of those godly Saints, as they are degenerated from their virtuous manners. Every one in the defence of his own cause will be eager enough, we want no courage to stout and brave it in defence of our wicked lives and lewd manners, a man is not afraid to challenge his brother into the field, & seek to shed his blood with hazard of his own life, though he fight against God and the just laws armed with vengeance; but in Christ's cause, he will be more faint-hearted than Peter, who denied his master at the voice of a silly chambermaid; or at lest-wise rather then he will lose a friend, will not stick to dispease God. But alas! self willed and inconsiderate man, little dost thou mark the steps thou treadest, or the downfall of that way wherein thou postest; shall Christ be thought to be thy master, when thou art ashamed openly to be his servant? shall he receive thee which rejectest him? or suppose, thou wilt greatly esteem his robes of glory, which voluntarily dost here put on the devil's livery? No, no (beloved) he hath taught us otherwise: He that confesseth not me (saith he) before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven: He that loveth father or mother, or son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. We are unworthy indeed to be his soldiers, if we will not take up our cross & follow him. Alas! what thing of moment can there be which may yield a coloured pretence to shake off our allegiance to so good a master? Shall persecution, or anguish, or tribulation, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? why, in all these we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Sufferings and bonds are not things execrable to Christians; for a Christian man's breast, whose hope consists wholly in the tree, dreadeth neither bat nor club; wounds and scars of the body be ornaments to him, such as bring no shame nor dishonesty to the party, but rather prefer and free him with the Lord. Though in dungeons there be no beds for his body to rest on, yet hath he rest in Christ, and though his weary bones lie upon the cold ground, you he thinks it no pain for him to lie with his Saviour. Ones feet may be fettered with bonds and chains, but happily is he bound of men, whom the Lord Christ doth lose; happily doth he lie tied in the stocks, whose feet are thereby swifter to run to heaven. Neither can any man rye a Christian so fast, but that he runneth so much the faster for his garland of life; say one hath no garment to save him from cold, yet he that putteth on Christ is sufficiently coated; say bread do lack to your hungry bodies, but man liveth not by bread only, but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God. What if we shorten our days of misery, do we not the sooner make our entrance into better of glory? What if we suffer torments of body? but oh let us more sear, lest we for ever lose the joys of the soul! But some (perhaps) will think it impertinent to urge this hard and unsavoury precept at such a calm of the Church, wherein every man eats of his own vineyard, who gathers quietly the fruit himself, which he himself hath planted, there are now no persecutions (men will say) no bonds nor death threatened for Christ's name, (and God grant these words may never more be heard in this our Israel, God grant it I say,) but in the mean time, shall we be so senseless as to think that Christ's name is now banished this Island, and that it surceased with the blood of Martyrs? No, it is conversant amongst us, and summons her champions as resolutely to defend it as ever it did: but where is it? why, 'tis every where; that poor man oppressed, is Christ's cause; that sick brother, that wretch, that Lazarus, that naked body, that widow, that orphan child; hear what our Saviour saith, Matt. 25. What you have done unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. And do you ask yet where is Christ's cause? why, 'tis in the midst of you; are any of your neighbour's drunkards or profane? there it is; are any of your servants disorderly or negligent? there it is; are any of your children disobedient or dissolute? why, there it is. Say not as the wicked do, it is in the wilderness, it is in the desert, it is in Spain, it is in Rome; no, but examine your own hearts, & if you find there written the God of the world, then be bold to say, lo here is Christ▪ s cause, here I must fight valiantly to destroy the kingdom of Satan and to vanquish Christ's enemy. No sack of a city is so lamentable as when the devil entereth into a soul, and when he cries down with an heart and sinks the whole man into ruin and perdition. Come on therefore decree Christians, you which stand for Christ's name have a strong cause, why have you faint hearts? I confess that there be Canaanites which must be expulsed before we can obtain the land of promise, and Schons and Oggs, giants of monstrous stature to appall & affright us, but doth not the matter stand just so with the affairs of this world? Can one obtain any thing here amongst men but he must get it by violence? seek we then with the same violence the things in heaven, with which wicked men do seek the things of this world. Here we can get nothing without labour, watching, trouble, venture, fight; do but the same, and see heaven is offered! how much difference in the ends, and see the means are both one. And so I pass à gravitate rei, from the greatness of the thing which the Apostle was ready to undergo, ad Qualitatem causae, the nature of the cause, which comes in the last place to be treated of, For the name of the Lord jesus.  
We read in histories how prodigal some have been of their lives; honour, ease, devotion, shame, want, pain, any thing served them for a reason not only to forsake themselves, or to expose themselves to unevitable dangers, but also to be their own executioners. Gellius in his fifteenth book and twentieth ch. tell's of the women of a certain town, that in wantonness had brought it up for a fashion to kill themselves. Next to them seemed to be those in the Primitive Church, which invented new ways of martyrdom, with hunger; wherewith they were so transported, that some of them taught, that upon conscience of sin, to kill one's self, was by this act of justice a martyrdom: upon which ground Petillian, against whom S Austin writes, canonised judas for a Martyr. The rage and fury of the Circumcellians in extorting this imagined martyrdom, brought them first to solicit and importune others to kill them, and if they failed in that suit, they did it themselves; and another sect prospered so fare in heaping up numbers of martyrs, that their whole sect, as Epiphamius tell's us, was called Martyriani. Divers therefore contributing their Helps to the preservation and tranquillity of states, employed their best inventions to remedy these inconveniences, and to divert men from such precipitate courses. Aristotle in the 3. of his Ethics and 7. chap. to correct the opinion of getting honour by that act, taught that nothing was more base and cowardly then to kill one's self, became (saith he) men did it not, either for henesties' sake, or for the good of the commonweal, but only to be freed from some inconveniences, which they thought might molest them. The Spaniards in the Indies had another policy; when they found a general inclination and practice in the inhabitants to kill themselves to avoid slavery, they had no way to reduce them, but by some dissembling and outward counterfeiting, to make them believe that they also killed themselves, and so went with them into the next world, and afflicted them more there then they did in this. Prince's likewise have inflicted forfietures and infamous mulcts upon them which should so slay themselves; and the Church by her Canons hath denied them burial. Thus in sundry times placet, sundry means have been thought of to prevent and dissuade men from such inconsiderate actions. But Almighty God, who disposeth all things sweetly, hath been so indulgent to our nature and the frailty thereof, that he hath afforded us a means how to give away our life, and yet so as it shall be pleasing to him; which is, by delivering ourselves to martyrdom, so that it be for the testimony of his name, and the advancing of his glory, For in this we restore him his talon with profit, our own soul, with as many more as our example works upon and wins to him. This is that which S. Paul implies in the words of my text, declaring that he was ready not to be bound only, but also to dye at Jerusalem. But because martyrem non facit poena sed causa, as S. Austin tell's us, it is not the punishment but the cause which makes a martyr; the Apostle would not so leave us in a doubt, as if to dye simply were good or desirable, and as if it were lawful in any occasion to be profuse and prodigal of one's blood; but intimates the quality of the cause, which makes true martyrdom, not to be fame, or honour, or any worldly respect, but only the name of the Lord jesus: from which example of our blessed Apostle may it please you to infer with me this conclusion; That, that cause which warrants true martyrdom, is to be the maintaining of Christ's truth and the defending of his name.  
The wicked and the godly, may both have the same punishment, but not the same cause; Christ was crucified and the thiefs were crucified, but quos passio jungebat, causa separabat (saith Austin) whom the passion did join, the cause did sever; which he sweetly thus presseth from those words of the kingly Prophet, Psal. 35. Arife and wake to my judgement, even to my cause, my God and my Lord: not to punishment (saith the Father) but to my cause, not to that which the thief hath common with me, but to that which the blessed only can challenge, who suffer persecution for righteousness sake: Mat. 5. Now that we may the better know what is to be understood by the name of Christian in this place, and in what respects it may truly be termed martyrdom, which one sustains in the defence of it; we must note that all true martyrdom for Christ's sake is grounded upon one of these three pretences and claims: The first is the sealing with our blood the profession of some moral truth, which though it be not directly of the body of the Christian faith, nor expressed in the articles thereof; yet it is some of those works which a Christian man is bound to do: Such was the martyrdom of S. john Baptist, when he was beheaded for telling Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife: Mat. 14. The second is, the maintaining with loss of life the integrity of the Christian faith, and not suffering any part thereof to perish and corrupt: Such were the martyrdoms of the Prophets before Christ, of the Fathers in the Ten first persecutions, and of the Protestants here in England in Queen Mary's days. The third is, the endeavouring by the same means to preserve the liberties and immunities of the Church: which are two fold, either native and connatural to the Church, as preaching the word, administering the Sacraments, and applying medicinal censure; or accessary, such as for the furtherance & advancement of the worship of God, Christian Princes have given unto it. If any to whose charge God hath committed these by an ordinary calling do lose his life either in the execution of the former, or for a pious & dutiful admonition to the Prince for the latter, we may justly esteem him for a martyr.  
But to come to our application; Christ hath his martyrs, and Antichrist would have his also. It may make some peradventure to wonder and stand astonished, at the strange hardness of some priests & jesuites of the Roman religion, their resolution to dye for their Bell the Bishop of Rome; but should we but sift the truth of the point, we should find that it is not Christ's cause that they die for; nor his Name which with the Apostle here they so stand for, but that other reasons and by-respects do induce them to this false martyrdom. To see one lavish of his blood, would persuade a simple man to think that the cause could not be but good: but alas! it is not true zeal, but fury which drives them to these exigences, it is not the love of their Master Christ, but the hope of avoiding Purgatory, and of meriting heaven, which so advanceth this corrupt inclination. Yet this I will say, that if the sustaining of death for the defence of one's cause could end the controversy, Bellarmine the greatest Doctor of the Romish Church, would give the Umpire to our side, for in his 4th book de signis Ecclesia & 2. chap. he ingenioussly confesseth, that Martyrdom can be no note of the Romish Church, because (saith he) other sects there are, amongst which he name's the Calvinists, who have ever been most forward in dying for their Religion. But let us go on, and examine a little, whether those jesuites and Priests, according to the ground laid down before, can challenge the names of true Martyrs, or no. To begin therefore with the first kind of Martyrdom, which is, for defending some moral truth; do they dye for defending any such verity? No (beloved) it is for oppugniug even the rirst Commandment, which concerns our duty towards man; that Commandment teacheth us, that we should honour our Fathers and Mothers, by which is meant not only our natural Parents, but likewise all higher powers, and especially such as have sovereign authority over us as Kings and Princes, whom the Scripture doth term nursing Fathers of the Church, Esay 49. But they are executed for plotting their deaths, for contriving powder-treasons, for affirming that the Pope may depose the King, that he may excommunicate him, and then give his Subjects a privilege to assassinate him, so that for defending any moral truth they are not Martyrs, but rather for breaking of so great a Commandment, they die as guilty offenders both of God and the Laws of the Land. Well then, let's go to the Articles of Faith, may they betermed Martyrs, because they stand for the up-holding of any part of the Creed? therein do they maintain the Name of jesus? No (beloved) though some of them are called jesuites, yet are they so fare from being so indeed, that as Whitaker a learned divine of ours hath observed, there is no point of their doctrine wherein they differ from us, but either therein they deny the Name of jesus, or the Name of Christ, one of our Saviour's two Names is always infringed by them. But yet they will say (perhaps) that they die for maintaining their Church's immunities & privileges; & therein do descrue to be called Martyrs: (They may well indeed say, their Church's, for I cannot say, Christ's Church.) But what are the Privileges which they pretend? why, any of their Priests will tell you, they are those which our Saviour gave to S. Peter, in Matt., 16. ver. 18. in these words, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. But what mean these words? are they any thing else then that Christ would build his Church upon that rock, that is, upon that confession of Peter's immediately before uttered, That he was the Son of God? this indeed is the true sense; but yet the Pope's Canon-Law hath pleased to give another interpretation, Thou art Peter, that is to say, in the Roman speech, (I am sure neither in the Greek nor Latin) thou art Bishop of Rome, and upon thee as thou art such an one, I will build my Church; but not only upon thee Peter, for there shall be no moreBishops of Rome of that name; but upon thee Gregory, upon thee Adrian, julius, joane, upon every Bishop of Rome, good or bad, holy or profane, Christian or Atheist, be he what he will, I will build my Church; and under this I ordain thee Monarch, both of things temporal, and things spiritual, Sovereign King and Bishop together; of spiritual, to control the Old Testament, to dispense against the Gospel, and against the Apostles, to make new articles of faith, to be above all Counsels, and when thou traylest men by thousands into hell, I would have no man to question thee, why dost thou this? Of Temporal, to dispose of all the World, to distribute it at thy pleasure, as if it were thine own heritage, to reign over Kings, to arraign and indite them, to depose them, to absolve their subjects from their Oath of Allegiance, to expose their estates for a prey, their persons to murder, to bestow their Kingdoms on whom it shall please thee, and lastly to change their tenors to fealty, or convert their territories to their own demaine. Pity will strike one here into horror: but sweet jesus, were these the privileges which thou bequeathed'st to S. Peter? were these the dignities which thou conferred'st on thy Church? thy profession was wont to be that thy Kingdom was not of this world, that the servant is not greater than his Master; and thy Apostles have taught us, that every soul should be subject unto higher powers; & may now any be so hardy, as to claim this Imperial sway from thy donation? Alas beloved, this challenge by the Pope, is fare from the promise of the Apostles, and of S. Peter himself! let's look into his 1 Epistle, and 2 Chap. where he enjoins all men to fear God, and honour the King, and we shall perceive that his scope was obedience, subjection, duty. Poor man whilst he lived he was in want and need, silver and gold he had none; and see, since his death the Pope hath provided for him a mighty Kingdom. All the Church's privileges which they die for (if they die for any) are these which you have heard; whether he deserves the name of a Martyr, which dies for such manifest impieties, judge you. Of all their Martyrs it may be said, as once S. Austin in his 68 Epistle said of the Donatists, Vivebant ut latrones, honorab antur ut martyrs; they live murderers, and traitors, & false Prophets, & a painted straw shall make them to be honoured as Martyrs. Our case (thankes be to God) is fare differing from theirs; we know whose name it is which we maintain: & if ever the Lord marched before us in a pillar of fire to show us the true way we are to take, he doth it this day; here you see the representation of his death, these are those remembrances he left us, to show how he was crucified in our cause, & these are they which put us in mind what we are to do again in his cause. His Supper he ordained to begird & arm us to withstand his enemies. He which is loath to put on this armour, is unwilling to fight his battle. Let no man therefore drawback when Christ offereth to assist him with such munition. Let no man say, I am unworthy, but put his confidence in his Saviour, which makes him worthy. We may not deceive ourselves (beloved) he is not unworthy to eat his body and drink his blood, which thinks himself unworthy: for unto such Christ saith, Come unto me all ye which are laden, & I will ease you; but he is unworthy which is loath to be made worthier, which is profane in his life, and means yet to be so, which is malicious in his thoughts, & resolves to continued so, which is covetous in his heart, & purposeth to abide so; to them if any be here so minded, I give this counsel; refrain from this holy Communion, touch not, taste not, handle not those sacred resemblances of your Redeemer: this Supper indeed is an armour of proof, to shield all such as do fight truly in Christ's cause; but if you war under the devil's banner, it will prove like Saul's armour to David, it will press you downwards: it is a weapon left us to put Satan to flight; but if you fight not on God's side, it will bend itself upon yourselves, & like the Midianites swords, will stick in your own sides. But I hope better things of you. In Baptism you received your press-money, & were entered into your Captain Christ jesus his Book; than you made your first vow, to fight against the world, the flesh, & the devil: you must remember if that you will be expert and able soldiers, you are often to be muttered & trained, often must you bear the colours, often take the bread of munition during this spiritual warfare. You see as there is a prize to win, so there is a buckler to defend you, food to strengthen you. Courage, courage therefore for Heaven, for CHRIST, for the Crown of Glory: it is a shame in such a multitude of those that profess CHRIST, that there are so few which truly follow him, & that men are like Pharaoh's lean kine, in the rich and plentiful pastrures of the Gospel; the blood of Martyrs was the milk which nursed the Primitive Church in her infancy, & shall it be too hard for our digestion now? it was the seed of the Church out of which we sprung, and shall we grudge to tithe ourselves to God in any proportion that he will accept? But the Apostles are dead, and those great lights of example the Patriarches, the Prophets, & the holy Martyrs, and we have their sepulchers with us; yet let their hope, their zeal, their faith, their constancy, their patience live. I speak with more vehemency, because I know not what concerns us more than this Scripture, He that looseth his life for my sake shall find it. Lo we stand upon our being, or not being; upon having, or losing of our souls: the God of love and peace give us all the spirit of zeal, hope, and patience, that in the sweat of jesus Christ we may overcome all faintings of the heart, all reluctations of the flesh, all bitterness of temptation: To him therefore, with the Father, and Holy Ghost, one God and three Persons, be rendered all praise, honour, and glory, now and for evermore.  
AMEN.   

THE DUTY AND AFFINITY OF THE FAITHFUL.  LUKE 8. 21. 
Then came his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press. And it was told him by certain, which said, Thy, mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee: And he answered and said unto them; My mother and my brethren are those which hear the word of God & do it.  
WHat the occasion might be which moved our Saviour to make this reply, Interpreters on all parts do not agree. Tertullian, chrysostom, and Theophylact are of opinion, that Christ here taxed his Mother and Brethren, as if the scope of their coming had been, to show their kindred with our Saviour, and their authority over him. Others think he reprehended only their unseasonable and inconsiderate proclaiming of their affinity with him, because by this means (say some) the devil might take an opportunity to extinguish that opinion which some (a little before) began to conceive of his divinity. But Hierome thinks rather, he blamed by this answer, him which interrupted him in his preaching, as who should tempt him, whether he would prefer flesh & blood before the spiritual work of his Vocation. Of all these the Popish Writers can best brook them which cast any aspersion of a fault upon our Lady; whom the Council of Trent in the 6. Sess: would redeem if not from being conceived in original sin, yet from ever committing of any actual transgression. Tolet therefore the jesuite, would have these words in my Text to imply no reprehension, but rather an admonition or commonefaction; albeit jansenius, so he may save our Lady from a chiding, stands not greatly whether it were bestowed upon Christ's brethren, or upon him which told our Saviour of his mother's being without. For mine own part, though I am not desirous to impute any obliquity to the blessed Virgin at this time; yet fare be it from me to say, that there was ever any (Christ only excepted) which lived without sin. For what is that of our Saviour's to Mary, joh. 2. Woman, what have I to do with thee, but a reprehendsion? and shall Christ reprehend where there was no fault? What other thing can those words of mary's import, Luke 1. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour? but that she confessed her sins, when she acknowledged a Saviour. Bellarmine therefore in his 4th book de amissione gratiae, and 16. Chapter, denies not that she had a Saviour, and that remission of sins was necessary unto her, as well as unto others; but he would fain recover himself with this shift, saying, that those sins were remitted unto her, none in quae inciderat, sed in quae incidisset, nisi gratia Dei per merit a Christi praeventae suisset: not those into which she fell, but those into which she would have fallen, bade not the grace of God prevented her; as if forshooth God used to impute those sins to men which they never committed, or as if a King should be stow his pardon of felony upon him which never stole, and yet think it a great favour. As for the words of my text, I deny not but that the of died Virgin might come with good intent unto our Saviour, hoping either to hear him & see him, as some would have it: or as others, to recover him from those traps & shares which the Scribes & Pharisces laid to entrap him withal. Yet I may well gather thus much, that if our Saviour reprehends not in this place an error already committed, yet he giveth a caveat of one which might be committed; and if I may not say he blameth one past, it is plain he prevents one to come. For what do not men conceive of the bond of kindred? might not the jews suppose that our Saviour would have granted great privileges to those which claimed affinity or consanguinity with him? or at lest have omitted his preaching and teaching at their importunity? He therefore either to divert them from such fancies, or to show by his own example how highly we are to value the exercise of our heavenly calling before all respect whatsoever to our earthly parents, answered as we read it set down in Matthew, & Marks gospel, Who is my mother, & who are my brethren? As if he should have said: it is so indeed with the world that kindred & consanguinity are of great importance, that they bear great sway in men's affections, and potent orators they are to turn them which way they list. This wholly I dislike not, nay rather as I myself was ever obedient unto my parents, so leave I this commandment unto you, that of all others you most incline your ears to them and hearken unto their counsel: but now I am about the business of my heavenly Father, I am performing the work for which I was sent; I confess, that great is the privilege of our carnal progenitors, yet greater is the pre-eminence of our p●●●tuall alliance: if that other is to be respected as good yet this is to be preferred as better. What therefore if my mother or brethren stand without, must I leave my task of preaching the kingdom of God to converse with them? No, no, I say unto you, the nearness which I have with them is somewhat, but the propinquity I have with you in God is much more: are they of my blood? so are you; are they of my kindred? so are you; is there my mother or my sisters or my brethren? why know this also, that whosoever heaveth the word of God and doth it, the same is my mother, my sister and my brother.  
The sum is a declaration of that near conjunction which they have with Christ who are members of, him, and are truly engrafted into his body. Wherein observe with me these two circumstances,  
viz. First the titles here given unto them, my mother & my brethren are these etc.  
viz. Secondly, the properties required in them, which are two 

1. Hearing the word of God.  
2. Doing it.    
My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it.  
My mother and my brethren, there's the Invitation; are these which hear the word of God, there's the Information; and do it, there's the Execution: so that consanguinity and nearness of kin invites to hear, hearing is the means to inform; & information directs us how to execute. My mother and my brethren are these etc. It may seem strange to some that our Saviour should in this place use so harsh a Metaphor in showing the near conjunction and union of himself with his members, as not only to apply to the same subject things of divers natures, but also differing sexes. Whosoever hears the word of God and doth it (saith he;) he excludes not men, nor altars the case with women, they are all of them both his mother and his brethren. Morally indeed (as jansenius expounds it) he may be termed his brother, because he is the son of the same heavenly father & joint heir with Christ: Rom. 8.17. and his mother because Christ is borne a new in him by a spiritual nativity, according to that of the Apostle: Gal. 4.19. My little children with whom I travel in birth again until Christ be form in you. But because it is true which S. Paul hath in the same Epistle and 3 chap: there is neither jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for they are all one in Christ jesus; Literally should I explicate it, it imports by a mentioning of the subject for the abstract, that they are his mother and brethren, implying as much as this, what love a mother receives of her son, the same you receive of me; what affection a brother challengeth of a brother the same impart I to you, what ever alliance, consanguinity or kindred effects in provoking to compassion and mutual desires of each others welfare, the same and greater passeth from my bowels to them which hear God's word and do it. To be brief, he shows a new kindred, not such as Heralds can reduce into a pedigree grounding upon a lineal descent of flesh and blood, but upon a spiritual cognation with him; and here (saith Ambrose) he which gave laws and precepts unto us became an executer of his own edicts. For having prescribed, that he which leaveth not father or mother is not worthy of him, practiseth it first in his own person, not that he might abrogate the duties due to mothers, for it was his own decree, that he which honours not his father & mother shall dye the death, sed affectibus quia paterius se mysterijs ambitùs quàm maternis debere cognoscat, hut because he knows he ought more to his father's mysteries the to his mother's affections. The sum of all affords us this observation;  
That we are to esteem, no bond of kindred or consanguinity so great, as the spiritual alliance which we have with Christ, and through Christ one with another.  
How nearly the elect and chosen vessels of God are linked to Christ, may sundry ways be showed out of the writings of the holy Ghost. For first, they have a near relation unto him in respect of nature, whereby he is their father by the right of Creation; for though from their parents they take their body's derivation, as being God's instruments in their production, yet upon him they depend as upon the principal efficient: in him we live, and moon, and have our being (saith Saint Paul) Act. 17. and in this respect Adam is is termed the Son of God, Luke 3.38. Secondly, they are nearly adjoined unto him, in respect of grace; & indeed this seems a more near conjunction with him than any can be of kindred or affinity, for in this regard Christ is termed the head, they the members, Eph. 4.15. Christ the husband, they the spouse, 2. Cor. 11. Christ the vine, they the branches, joh. 15.1. Christ the fountain, they the brook, joh. 4.14. and if any thing may more plainly express the nearness and conjunction they have with him; he calls himself via & vita, the way and the life, joh. 14.6. When a woman therefore had said unto him. Luk. 11. Blessed is the womb that bore thee, & the paps that gave thee suck; yea rather (saith he) blessed are they that hear the word of God & keep it. yea. rather; non carnales parentes negat, sed spirituales Praefert; (saith Maldonat) he denies not his natural parents, but prefers, his spiritual. Matrens matri, fraters fratribus anteponit, he prefers his mother hearing the word, before his mother giving him suck: his brethren doing the will of God, before his brethren descending from the same parents. What if Mary were his mother by bearing him in her womb? yet her motherhood seemed redoubled in her when she conceived him in her soul. If james and joses might call him brother, because they were linked unto him by the bond of the flesh, yet more truly were they then his brethren, when they were so made by the bond of the spirit.  
But I need not insist longer upon the proof of a point so evident. I will now come to apply it to ourselves; we see the near alliance we have with Christ, and through Christ, one with another: the great King of heaven and earth vouchsafeth to incorporate us into his family, and as if it were too little to place us in any remote degrees of alliance, he graceth us with those excellent, and most affectionate names, of Mother and Brethren. O let us not swell and be carried away with the mere titles thereof, but endeavour to make manifest to the world, that our affections are correspondent to our appellations. Men and brethren, are you ambitious of this high dignity, to be called his brother? Would you be styled with so supereminent a title? Why, you must perform then the offices of a brother to him, by reducing yourselves, and by winning others to his faith; you must raise up seed unto him, and become the sons of the same heavenly father. Are any amongst you, which affect the privileges of a mother? Think ye not that also to be a thing impossible that our blessed Saviour should be borne again, and that of any other besides his virgin mother? though to natural man this seem impossible, yet to the spiritual man it will seem easy, and of no difficulty to be performed. Believe but his word, and you have conceived him in your womb; do but his will, and you have brought him forth into the world; entertain but his messengers, and you embrace him in your arms; relieve but him which craves a cup of cold water in his name, & you give him suck. This is a grace not appropriated to women only, nor only to the married, for men also and virgins themselves, may be the happy mothers of such an issue. But alas (beloved) how is it that we so sleight & so little value this unspeakable honour? we recount our carnal pedigrees, and are puffed up if an herald can derive our descent from any noted family upon earth, which yet began but yesterday, and perhaps will perish before night; and do we think it a small thing that we are here offered to be admitted into so noble an alliance, as to have God to our Father, and Christ to our Son and brother? The greatest Monarch upon earth can show his descent, but for some hundred of years, although few can prescribe for so long; so subject to changes and alterations are all things under the funne; and shall it not be our ambition to reject those vain and upstart descents, when we have such evidences as these to derive our pedigree from eternity? In our natural descents there is great uncertainty, heralds may be corrupted, writings lost, deeds changed; but in our spiritual alliance with Christ, our names are written in the book of life which no forgery can counterfeit, nor injury of time deface. But the world understands not this, and the foolish will not believe it, a greater matter they think it, to be of a noble house, and to have had such and such ancestors: why, (beloved) let us reason together; what content can a man find to derive himself from him whom hereafter he will Judge most vile and wretched? what a fondness were it to build one's reputation upon the glory of such an one, as perhaps the next day he shall follow to the place of execution with execrations and curses? And yet this may be the case between us and our glorious progenitors, whom now we so vaunt of; who knows whether at Christ's appearance he shall not rife up in judgement against them and condemn them? Who can assure himself, whether those which the world accounted as worthies, shall not be found at the last day, to have been but painted clouts, and full of slime and corruption within? And yet the greatest sort of men are proud, and self conceited, that they are descended even from those, who were so cruel unto them, that the same moment they gave them life, they gave them also the sting of death, in their flesh; and in the mean time, they set at naught the alliance they have with the Lord of life, or that they may be in so honourable a rank, as to be Christ's mother or his brethren. And what is the issue of all? Why, we reject God from being our Father, that we may glory only in earthly ancestors; we exclude Christ from being our eldest brother, that we may apply ourselves to the brethren of our own house; we renounce for our kinsmen the blessed troops of Saints and Angels, that we may have none of our stock but whom the world applauds and counts happy. This was not the practice of the godly in the Scripture, we read of Moses, how when he came to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: Heb. 11.24. for, to say the truth, our earthly affinity is but transitory, and abideth not, if you would purchase an everlasting and never-dying kindred, call them your brethren which are humbled with adversity, for these shall be partners with you in the kingdom of God; call them your brethren, which have forsaken the splendour of the world, for these shall reign with you for ever in heaven; call them your brethren, which have renounced the ambitious titles of honour, for these shall inherit with you the crown of righteoussnesse; call them your brethren, which hear the word of God and do it, for these must be your companions in glory. Link not yourselves with the covetous for wealth, with the proud for honour, with the voluptuous for pleasure, with the hollow-hearted in religion for gain and preferment; but if you would knit an unseparable knot of kindred, let your brotherhood be founded in Christ, lest at your deaths you be both of you either everlastingly separated, or everlastingly confounded. I confess it is an hard thing to persuade flesh and blood to follow this, they will scarce believe that Christ by the right of kindred, claims such an interest in them, as that by his example they should so much preferred the spiritual alliance they have with him, before that which they have with their own kindred. For do not we see the quite contrary practised every where in the world? Doth not one think his wife nearer to him, and for her sake either quits, or at lest is cold in the profession of Christ's religion? Do not others think their mother or their brethren nearer to them, and when they hear Christ taught in the Church, if any saith unto them, as here we find it in my text, thy mother and thy brethren are without desiring to see thee, they will leave Christ's company to feed their fancies? Do not all think their humours and pleasures and profits nearer unto them, and for their sakes go to law with their brethren, reject all alliance they have with any in Christ, and with slaundring, backbitings, and raylings, like foul birds defile their own nests? Moses when two Israelites striven together, said, why smitest thou thy fellow? I say more, why strive we, we are brethren? We may conceive our head jesus Christ as saying from heaven, why strive you my kinsmen? why make you divisions in our family my mother and my brethren, which you are? Your are all children of the same heavenly Father, children should dwell together; members of the same body, members should grow together; soldiers of the same army, soldiers should gether; soldiers of the same army, soldiers should march together. Thus we are termed in the holy Scriptures, let it be our care to be answerable to such honourable appellations. And now that you have seen your titles and prerogatives which Christ bestows on you, of his mother and brethren, harken but like mothers and brethren to the properties required in you, which are hearing and doing, and God will make you to be so indeed And first I desire hearing, which cometh in the next place to be handled: My mother and my brethren are they which hear the word of God, etc.  
There is nothing so necessary to a Christian which travels from this Egypt of misery and oppression to the heavenly Canaan, as the knowledge of the word of God; for by this he is directed in his way, conducted to his port, assured of his safe arrival. This made the Prophets so often to ingeminate the hearing of it unto God's people: Hear ye the word of the Lord ye rulers: Esay. 1.10. Hear the word of the Lord ye house of David, jerem. 12.4. You shepherds hear the word of the Lord: Ezech. 34.7. Hear all ye old men: joel. 1.2. Hear all ye people. Mich. 1.2. Princes, rulers, shepherds, people, old, young, all, liable to this task of hearing, in somuch, that our Saviour makes this the burden of his Sermons, he that hath an ear to hear let him hear. But (beloved) in this place our Saviour seems to go somewhat farther, and as if our kindred and alliance with him were to be confirmed by charter, makes none capable of that honour, but those which can show their title out of the word of God. My mother and my brethren are they which hear the word of God; The observation which I draw from hence, is this,  
That it is required of all those, which would be adopted into Christ's family, to be diligent hearers of God's word.  
I need not be large in proving the truth of this doctrine; It is sufficient, that hearing is the ordinary means which Christ hath left us to engraft us into his family, and to make us the children of his heavenly Father: for by faith we are made the heirs of salvation, and faith cometh by hearing: (saith the Apostle) Rom. 10. so that no hearing, no faith; no faith, no salvation: He therefore which is of God, hears God's voice (saith our Saviour,) john. 8.47. And again, my sheep hear my voice. joh. 10.27. In regard whereof, the Saints in all ages were bound to repair to the ministers of the word, and to hear the Law at the Priest's lips, Malach. 2.7. In the Old Testament, we find that they resorted to the Prophets upon the sabbaths, and upon other days; for when the Shunamite in 2. King. 4. craved leave of her husband to go to the Prophet, he replied wherefore wilt thou go? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath day, as if on those days the people used to resort unto them to hear them. The like was used in the new Testament, for so our Saviour sent the jews to the Scribes and Pharisees, Matt. 23.1. the Angel sent Cornelius to Peter, Act. 10.32. and of these times Esay prophesying, saith, that in the last days it shall come to pass that many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of jacob, and he will teach us his ways, Esay. 2.3. For indeed the ministry of the Gospel is that golden pipe (as one terms it) whereby and wherethrough all the goodness of God, all the sweetness of Christ, all heavenly graces whatsoever are derived unto us; It is that hook and bait which Christ's fishers of men, his disciples and Apostles used, in the taking of souls; It is that spiritual armour which casteth down every thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; It is that blowing of the Levites, which, if not at the first, yet at the seventh time, will beat down jericho in us, and hue a passage in our hearts for the entrance of the heavenly tabernacle. It is that pool of Bethesda, at which should lie every distressed & impotent soul, & expect the moving of the waters, I mean, the first moving of the spiritual waters of life, by the preachers of the Gospel. To make use of this doctrine; there are two sorts of men which commonly fail in the performance of this commandment, of hearing the word; the first are those which say, they can read the Bible in their houses, that they have God's word which will instruct them as sufficiently at home, as any sermons in the Churches. But these men foulety deceive themselves, for first they must know that it is one thing to say that the Scriptures are sufficient to teach them all things necessary to salvation; another thing to say, that they teach these things so usefully without an interpreter, as with one. I deny not but that in the Scriptures more excellent knowledge & profound mysteries are contained, than the greatest Doctors & learned'st men withal their pains & industry can attain unto: but so powerful & so profitable it is not to them when it is read privately, as when it is preached in the Church; for who can say that he shall not hear in preaching, many things expounded which 〈◊〉 was ignorant of, many godly instructions gathered, which he observed not, many useful points applied to his conscience which he heeded not? I pass by his sins ripped up, the weaknesses & diseases of his soul displayed to his view, the threatening of the law denounced, the sweet comforts of the Gospel produced, salves applied to his sores, balsam to his wounds, plasters to his dying & putrifying members: besides a thousand excellent and heavenly effects, which hearing brings with it. Thou camest into the Church a vulture, before thou departest, thou mayst be transformed into a dove; thou cam'st in a wolf, thou mayst be changed into a lamb; not having thy body or soul so altered that thou shalt be no more a man, but thy foul mind, and beastly thoughts expelled, which before would not suffer thee to be a man. I add, the hearing of the word preached is a part of the service of God, and a duty enjoined every Christian to perform, if therefore other things moved us not unto it, yet methinks the commandment itself should be of virtue sufficient to move a good Christian to be zealous in this kind, to say with David, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to visit his holy temple. At the day of judgement when all the glory of this world shall be as dross, when our riches shall fail us, our honour not profit us, our friends forsake us, there will be nothing left us to do us good, but what we shall have learnt by having heard Christ preached. But I pass to the other fort of me which offfend like wise, & that perhaps more dangerously in not hearing the word preached. These are they which are so fare from reading at home, that think it not greatly necessary for the either to read or to hear any where; many of them will pretend that they are busied about this or that business, they are craftsmen, they must follow their trade, they have a wife, their children must be fed, their household provided for; and lastly, they are men of the world, a little knowledge & a good meaning is sufficient for them, it is for scholars, and such as give themselves to a contemplative life, to be skilled in these points. But alas! (my good Christian brother) is it not for thee to apply thyself to the hearing of the word preached, because thou art distracted and encumbered with cares & businesses? why, so much the more it is necessary for thee to have the munition of the word, by how much the more distressed thou art in worldly dangers; they that be free and fare from trouble and intermeddling of worldly things, live in safeguard, in tranquillity, and in a calm, or within a sure haven; Thou art in the midst of the sea of worldly wickedness, & therefore thou needest the more of ghostly succour & comfort; They fit fare from the strokes of battle, and fare out of gunshot, and therefore they be but seldom wounded; thou that standest in the forefront of the host, & nighest to thine enemies, must needs take now and then many strokes, and be grievously wounded, and therefore thou hast most need to have thy remedies and medicines at hand. Thy wife provoketh thee to anger, thy child giveth thee occasion to take sorrow and pensiveness, thy enemies lie in wait for thee, thy friend (as thou takest him) sometimes envies thee, thy neighbour misreporteth thee, or picketh quarrels against thee, thy mate or partner undermineth thee, thy lord or superior threatneth thee, poverty is painful unto thee, the loss of thy dear and well-beloved causeth thee to mourn, prosperity exalteth thee, adversity bringeth the low, and lastly, manifold occasions of cares, tribulations and temptations, do beset thee and besiege thee round about. Now where canst thou have armour or fortress against these thine assaults? where canst thou have salve for thy sores, but in the word of God, and in diligently hearing it preached? O therefore (beloved) stop not up with earth, as the Philistives did, those fountains which are digged for you, neither yet with the jews run to broken Cisterns. If Christ come peaching unto you, entreat him not with the Girgasites to departed out of your coasts; if his messengers are present to instruct you, say not as Felix did to Paul, Go thy way for this time, and when I have convenient season, I will call for thee again, but lay hold upon all occasions & opportunities; when angels food is offered refuse not to taste it, when clothing is proffered, be not way ward and go naked, but remember that saying of a good father, he which harkneth not unto God inviting him, shall be sure to find God taking vengeance upon him. And so I pass from the first property which is required in those which are of Christ's family, to wit, hearing the word, to the second, which is doing of the same; my mother and my brethren are they which hear the word of God, and do it.  
After hearing, our Saviour inculcates doing, and that to good purpose, for to hear the word and not to do it yields rather matter of condemnation then of profit. For what saith the Apostle? It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. Saint Peter therefore compares them to the dog that turns to his own vomit again, and the sow to her wallowing in the mire; Saint james to a man beholding his face in a glass, who when he goeth away, he strait ways forgetteth it; and our Saviour resembleth them to him who built his house upon the sand, which, when the rain descended & the floods came and the winds blue, fell and great was the fall of it. All show the brutish and swinish fashion of those which spurn at the pearls of the law, and like those in Saint james which divide faith from works, and say, I have faith and thou hast works. What God hath joined together let no man separate, as faith comes by hearing so hearing through faith must be operative in good works, otherwise no kindred nor alliance with Christ, we can claim no interest in his blood. If we would be his brethren we must hear his own word, and yet not so only, but also do it: from whence I inferred this observation.  
That it is necessary for all those which would claim any interest in Christ to be doers of his word.  
For the fuller explication of the which assertion we must first distinguish of necessity, a thing may be said to be necessary in a double respect, either by way of a cause, and so the sun is necessary to make the day because it is the cause of it: physic is necessary for the recovery of a man's health because it is the cause of it: or else a thing may be said to be necessary by way of an effect or of a condition, and so heat is necessary to the fire, light to the sun, moistness to the water, not that heat is the cause of the fire, nor light the cause of the sun, nor moistness the cause of the water, but that the fire, and sun, and water, are rather the causes of them, and they necessary effects of these. Upon this distinction depends the great controversy between us and the Church of Rome concerning good works. We agree on both sides, that to do and perform the word of God, to do good works, is necessary for every man which expecteth to be justified by Christ, the difference consists in this; they say that good works are necessary to justification, as being causes of it, we say they are necessary to justification only, as being effects of it: I need not insist much upon the deciding of the controversy in these barren times of ours, wherein there are so few which do good works, I wonder what they ail to busy themselves so much in musing what gain or merit shall accrue unto them from them, whether it shall be a merit of congruity or desert, whether of the first grace or of the second? when as their store, methinks, is yet so small, that though they sell all they have and become bankrupt merchants, they shall never be able to purchase the least pearl which adorns the crown of glory. I know that divers are of opinion, that it is a good policy to persuade the common people as the Pope doth, that good works are the meritorious causes of justification, & so by a consequence, of salvation, because by this means the heat of sin (say they) will be repressed in many, & men will be the more careful in the performance of good deeds. But were these men either well catechised in their religion, or else were any whit skilled in the writings of the adverse party, I doubt not but they would soon perceive, that their doctrine of works adds fuel rather to increase the flame of bad desires in one, them any way extinguisheth or diminisheth the vigour of it. For besides that they teach that many gross & heinous sins are no sins, & that they mince many and of mortal make them venial, say that the hope of the reward for their good works & the fear of punishment either in hell or in purgatory for their bad, do something move & rouse them up to perform good deeds, yet judge you (beloved) whether the easy avoiding of those punishments which they have devised will not as much give them courage to go on in sin & persevere in the way of wickedness? Why, mark but a little their doctrine; in any sin there are these two parts, the guilt of it, & the punishment; the punishment they make to be twofold, the one eternal, which is in hell, the other temporal, wherewith (say they) God either afflicts men in this life, or else in purgatory when they are dead. Now would you know how easy a matter they make it to be freed from the guilt of sin, & from hell fire? Why Bellarmine will soon resolve you for that, & tell you that these are taken away by confessing of one's sins to the Priest, & by receiving an absolution from him, in his 4th book de poenit: and 1. ch. and because contrition is so necessary to make the absolution to be of force, he will tell you that a servile contrition is sufficient for that purpose, such an one as ariseth not from a fear of offending God, but only from a fear of the punishment which God will inflict upon them, as we find it in his 2d book de poenit. & 17. ch. which kind of contrition and sorrow for ones sins, if it be sufficient, I make no question but that the devil himself might be absolved from his sins; for besides that he trembles, which argues that he is possessed with such a fear as this; Saint james tells us moreover that he believes, which I think is more than many Papists do, who content themselues with an implicit faith (as they term it) and a blind zeal: but because when the guilt and the punishment of hell fire is taken away they teach that God leaves a temporal punishment to be undergone by them, either in this life, or after this life in purgatory, you shall see that the means to avoid that will be, as easy as the former. For to omit more going about then needs; if they would take a speedy way, it is but purchasing an Indulgence of the Pope, they may have plenam, pleniorem, plenissimam, as they term them, for half their sins, or for one third or fourth part, or if the Pope please, for all, as we may well see in Bellarm: his 1. book de Indulgent: chap. 9 Who would not be a Papist if he were desirous to live as he listed? When besides the Indulgences, for a certain number of Ave-Maryes (repeated at some altars, which the Pope appoints) he may have a pardon for more years than the world is like to continue? But to leave them a while to themselves, it shall be enough at this time to show you, that howsoever we hold not good works to be the causes of salvation, nor yet that we are to merit Heaven by them, as they do; yet that we make them absolutely necessary for those which are the heirs of salvation; and so withal that our doctrine rightly considered, doth more necessarily require them of us, than the Papists do. For first, we hold them to be necessary, in respect, of God, that his Commandment may be obeyed, that his will may be done, that we show ourselves obedient children unto him, that we be thankful for our redemption by CHRIST, that we may glorify our Father which is in Heaven. Secondly, we hold them to be necessary, in regard of our neighbours, that they may be helped, that they may be won by our example, and that by doing good, the mouths of our adversaries may be stopped. Thirdly, we hold good works necessary for ourselves, and that notably in these respects. First, that we may have some assurance of our faith, and of our salvation; for when we cannot discern our faith, whether it be a true and lively one or no, but only by the works which it bringeth forth, as the tree is not known but by his fruit, it greatly concerns all those which would overcome all temptations at their death, to make good proof of their faith in their life, which is the thing pointed at by the Apostle S. Peter in his 2. Ep. and 1. Chap: where he saith, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. And herein the Schools afford us a good distinction, and tell us, that aliud est fiduciam ponere in operibus, aliud fiduciam oriri ex operibus; it is one thing to put one's confidence in ones works, another thing to have a confidence from ones works, though we put not the confidence of our salvation in our works, as the Papists do, yet we hold that a confidence of our salvation may arise unto us from our works, because our works do testify our faith, whether it be a lively one, or no. Secondly, we hold good works are necessary for us, because though the having of them deserves not Heaven, yet the not having of them merits Hell. It was a good answer therefore which a godly man made unto one, who asked him, what if there were no Heaven, wherewith should his austerity and mortification be recompensed? He replied, but what if there be an hell wherewith thy vices shall be punished? Thirdly, that we may receive temporal benefits in this life, and avoid temporal punishments, which otherwise God will inflict upon us, if we do amiss; for so saith S. Paul, Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1. Tim. 4. chap But I hasten to my application. This serves (beloved) for a caveat to those which put all their holiness in hearing, and think that will serve their turns, though they never do any thing. Many there be in these days of ours, whose not only ears are bend to hearing, but also their tongues are ready whet to all unprofitable disputation; whom I could wish, as they be prompt of hearing, and vehement in reasoning, so they were as ready & practive to do good deeds. I marvel to recount whereof comes this strange hypocrisy, whence it happeneth, that the Religion of Christ beginneth to wax nothing else but as it were a sophistry and talking-craft. We hear the Scriptures, and we hear preaching, but in the mean time we subdue not ourselves by fasting, watching, and weeping, we make not this life a meditation of death, we do not strive to be Lords ower our appetites and affections, we go not about to pull down our proud and high minds, to abate our fumish & rancorous stomaches, to restrain our indiscreet sorrows, our lascivious mirths, our inordinate thoughts, our insatiable hearing of vanities: but all our holiness consists in talking or hearing, & we pardon each other for all good living, so we may stick fast together in argumentation. What should I stand in persuading you to goodness, whereas no day nor hour passeth, wherein appeareth not some silent sermon, or real persuasion to avoid sin, & practise goodness? If you cannot be induced unto it, because of its own pulchritude, because it carrieth such a show of honesty, such a grace and excellency, that the action itself may be a sufficient remuneration; yet for your soul's sake let me persuade you unto it. I know whilst you are in your flourishing time, you are free from all despairs or fears of desertion; but when the days of temptation shall come upon you, and Satan like a hard creditor shall most press, when you are least able to stand upright; in so dangerous a conflict, against so subtle an adversary, how will you be able to maintain your own right? he'll tell you, you have no right nor interest in Christ's family, you have no portion with his brethren, for no unrighteous person shall inherit the kingdom of God; you'll reply that you stand not upon your works, neither expect, as the Papists do, to be justified by merits; but your faith in Christ is that Helmet of salvation, & the hand which lays hold upon the heavenly promises. True, he'll answer, but how can you assure yourselves that you have true faith? That you cannot judge of, but by the fruits; When bad company enticed you to intemperancy, did you resist them? when wealth and preferment tempted you, did you forgo them, rather than commit any dishonest action? when your acquaintance or friends persuaded you to any wrong course, did you for the truth's cause only gainsay them? when your enemies reviled you, did you bless than? when they sought your undoing, did you pray for them? these things will show whether your faith be a lively▪ faith or no; and these questions you must be provided to answer unto, if you would be able to refute the devil's sophistry. But perhaps I may find many so senseless, that they shall have no feeling of their estate, in respect of the world to come; because repentance never comes too late; the These upon the Cross found mercy, and therefore why not they upon their deathbeds a more likely place? Well, say that he may find mercy at the last, though no merveile (saith Gregory) if at the last gasp he forget himself, who in all his life neglected, to remember GOD; but suppose the best that may be hoped for, yet consider herein thy foolishness, which in matters of less moment thou wouldst be loath to commit; each day thou knittest knots, which once thou must undo again; thou heapest that together, which one thou must disperse again; thou eatest and drinkest that hourly, which once thou must vomit up again, to omit thy ungrateful dealing with thy Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST, whom thou servest thus at the length with the devil's leave: and then (forsooth) we will turn to be religious, when time will scarce permit us to be wicked any longer. O what a senselessness is it, to make that the task of thy death, which should be the practice of all thy life! and to settle thine everlasting, thine only and surest Making and Marring, upon so tottering, and sinking, and sandy a foundation! We see and know by experience, that a ship the longer it leaketh, the harder it is to be emptied; a house, the longer it goeth to decay, the worse it is to repair; or a nail, the farther it is driven in, the harder it is to pluck out again; And can we persuade ourselves, that the trembling hands, the shaking joints, the dazzled eyes, the fainting heart, the failing legs of unwieldy drooping and undisciplinable old age, may empty, repair, pluck out, the leaks, and ruins, and nails of so many years flowing, failing, and fastening? But imagine thou thinkest not of the Kingdom of GOD, because thou conceivest thyself to be too sure of it already, yet the horrible punishments mentioned in the Scriptures, inflicted for sin even in this life (if thou hadst grace) might methinks, enforce doing good upon thee. For what cast Adam out of Paradise? sin: what wounded him in nature, & spoiled him of grace? sin: what brought first hunger and thirst into the world, but his gluttony? What made so many poor men, such a number of beggars, but his original theft? What caused our days to be so short, that many drop away in the very prime of their years, but his inordinate appetite of divinity, and consequently of eternity? Many examples could I bring out of the Old Testament, as deaths of private men and Princes, subversions of Armies, dispersions of Countries, mortality of thousands, famine, wars & plagues, captivities & imprisonments, for no other cause inflicted, than sin and wickedness. But I will give you this one lesson for all, and it is a point worthy your observing, that howsoever God suffers the  oftentimes to live in great prosperity, and as the Psalmist saith, to flourish like a green bay tree; yet let those which hope for any part of inheritance with Christ, expect for certainty, that if they be not alured to well-doing by God's blessings, that at length they shall be deterred from ill-doing by his chastisements. For it is a true saying, Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. All sins therefore (saith Auselme) be they great, or be they small, they shall be punished; here's only the difference, if we crucify ourselves unto the world, and so we first abandon it, plectuntur homine puniente, they are punished man correcting them; if God crucify the world unto us, and so make it and the glory thereof first to forsake us, plectuntur Deo iudicante, they are punished God adjudging them. It is a fearful thing (beloved) to fall into the hands of the living God. He therefore which only beholdeth the hearts of all men, and turneth them which way it seemeth best to his godly wisdom, unite our hearts to serve him, and through him to love one another; that being not only hearers of his Word, but also doers of the same, we may be adopted into Christ's family, and become the sons of our Heavenly Father, to reign with him for evermore.  
AMEN.   

NO PEACE WITH ROME.  GAL. 2.5. 
To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.  
COncerning the Ceremonial law, of which Saint Paul treats throughout this whole Epistle, I find a differing practice of the Apostles. A while after our Saviour's death, they retained the use of it, at the least in many things; because a sudden abrogation carries a show of violence, and breeds an opinion of contempt; whereas Mater Synagoga (faith Saint Austin in his 19 Ep. ad Hieronym.) cum honore sepelienda erat; the Mother the Synagogue was to be buried honourably; she was to be brought to her sepulchre by her sons, and not by a present forsaking, be exposed to the biting of dogs, and reproaches of the enemy. In which respect, lest a prejudicated opinion should forestall the jews, and make them conceive that the Apostles held their ceremonies in detestation, as things impious and abominable: we read how the Apostles counselled the Gentiles for a time to abstain from things strangled, and from blood, Act. 15. how S. Paul circumcised Timothy, Act. 16: and purified and shaved himself with four others, Act. 21. all tending to no other end then this, (saith that Father) that the jews might see the nature of their ceremonies, that they ought nec tanquam necessaria appeti, nec tanquam necessaria damnari; neither be desired, nor yet condemned as things necessary. But when the Gospel was sufficiently settled, and the jews by infallible proofs convinced, that all sacrifices and circumcisions ended with the sacrifice of Christ jesus upon the Cross, than the Apostles took the Synagogue to be as buried; and that he which by a revocation of the ceremonial law, should disturb her ashes where they lay in queit; would add nothing to what she had in honour, but rake her out of her grave, and show her won and dead corpse to the world with dishonour. Before, even as soon as her Spouse yielded up the Ghost, they acknowledged her to be mortuam; but afterwards when they had divulged her death, and rung as it were her knell, they proclaimed her to be not only mortuam, dead; but also to be mortiferam, deadly. When therefore in jerusalem and Galatia, some mistaking perhaps the reason of the Apostles applying themselves at the beginning to the jewish customs, would yet continue in them, and seek to reconcile judaisme with Christianity, to advance the liberty of the one, and yet to bring in the bondage of the other; make one Religion of two, or else in the exercise of the one, join as a thing necessary the outward rites and ceremonies of the other; Saint Paul valiantly withstand's them; though before he had circumcised Tymothy, which was to go amongst the jews, yet Titus he would not suffer to be circumcised, who was to preach unto the Gentiles; first see in my text a courageous and resolute oppositition, To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour. Secondly, an urgent motive or induction, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you; all directing us to this conclusion,  
That reconciling of other religions, with that which alone is allowed and approved of God, is to be withstood, as being most dangerous to overthrow, and corrupt the truth.  
There is nothing more destructive in nature, than the combining and uniting of contraries, fire the most active element, if you apply once water to it, is extinguished; a little leaven leavens the whole lump, the stars themselves in conjunction with stars of other tempers, do change their influence and operation; and from such preposterous engendring of beasts of divers kinds, sprung that ancient proverb, Africa semper aliquid apportat novi. Africa is ever brought a-bed of some strange, and uncouth monster. And as it fares in nature, so doth it in divinity; there hath nothing proved more dangerous and hurtful in it, than a reconciling of truth with falsehood, a medley of religions, and a too facile persuasion to admit error within the pale of verity. Hence was it that God by way of emblem, and as in a mirror teaching us how fare we should ever set a sunder worships of diverse nature, forbids mingled seed, a plough of an ox and an ass, garments of linsey-woolsey. The neglect of this commandment produced that pernicious heresy of Samaritanism before Christ; they which turned from captivity would be jews forsooth in profession; and yet because they thought their idolatrous worship was nothing opposite to this course, therefore the text saith, that they feared the Lord and served their own Gods. 2. Kings. 17. It was that which hatched Semipelagianism, Semi-arrianisme in the Primitive Church; and it is evident that Mahomet's first position was this, that all men might be saved by their own religion whatsoever it were; and so composed of Christianity, judaisme, and Paganism, that most pestilent Koran, the Turks divinity. Herod had a humour of indifferency in this kind, and as if the Prophets had been turbulent spirits in exclaiming so against Idolatry, he would be a jew with the jew, and an Ethnic with the Ethnics, build a Temple to Caesar and to the true God (saith josephus) at the same time. julian the Apostate followeth him, but it was with a more devilish policy, he gave heretics freedom amongst true believers, not that he cared for either, but that by their mutual distractions he might destroy both. Tunc enim reddidit Basilicas haereticis (saith Saint Austin) quando templa daemoniis: he restored at the same time Churches to heretics, and Temples to devils. The best advised therefore, and most judicious have in all ages resisted with might and main these crafty divices of the devil, who, when he knows error to be too weak whilst it stands in hostile opposition with the truth; would yet seek to advance it by way of friendship and amity. Excellent was that resolution of Saint Basill to the precedent of Valence the Emperor, who desired him to yield to some moderation and not to make such a rent in the Church for small subtleties; Those which are throughly seasoned with true religion, will rather suffer all kinds of death, then give way for the altering of one syllable. A man would think it but a small difference (it it but a little iota) between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; yet the right believers could never be (brought, (as Theodoret witnesseth) either to omit the one, or admit the other. It is true indeed which Ireneus hath written, It is better not to search the causes of things, and to know nothing but jesus Christ, then by subtleties ad babble to fall into impiety; and that of Hillary, that God calls us not to happiness by hard questions; and again Dulce pacis nomen, that the name of peace should be sweet amongst Christians, yet both of these, do they not with what vehemency they can oppose errors? How many labyrinths and perplexities is Ireneus compelled to rip up, that he might freç the truth from prodigious fallacies? how solicitous and earnest was Hillary in dissolving the cavils of the Arrians: shall we term these Father's contentious, or rather good and obedient soldiers? that where Christ proclaimed war, and said he came not to send peace, but the sword, they would not be so inconsiderate, as to treat on the Articles of peace. The jewish ceremonies, you know, had been elements in their time, and God had used them before, as the first letters of the book to school his people with; yet the Gospel of Christ being planted in the Church of Galatia, might have no copartnership with them; in this chapter Saint Paul relates how he withstood Peter to the face, for admitting of them, ingeminates anathema to such as Preached otherwise, and protests unto them, not hiding his face, nor dissembling his name, Behold, I Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now when Moses and Christ together were so offensive to him, he would never have heard of a reconciliation between Christ and Belial, light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness, the Temple of God and Idols, the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils, in the communion whereof he noteth an impossibility in both his Epistles to the Corinthians. If therefore the reconciling, and atoning of truth and falsehood, be so dislike in Gods pure eyes, and so dangerous to his Church, with what colour can some in our days, take in hand the reconciling Protestancy and Popery, of Christ and Antichrist, at the least, as they pretend in all matters of moment, and points necessary to salvation: I fear it is not a general agreement which they aim at on both sides, which is as impossible to effect, as to bring the Northern and Southern pole into one centre, but rather as Calvin well notes, to gaive a liberty to themselves in particular, and a plausible acceptance, at the adverse party. This task I find enterprised by diverse, first Cassander who was set on work by Ferdinand and Maximilian the Emperors, to compose if possibly he could, the dissensions of the Church, wrote his consultation of it, and thought that a mean betwixt the rigid Papist and Protestant was best; whiles the one might remit somewhat of their pride, and needelelesse ceremonies; the other, hard constructions of the Papists determinations, which though they might be false, yet he took them not to be so dangerous as they were conceived. To him we may join Andrea's Frisius de emendanda repub. Bartholomaeus Nervus, which defended Cassander, and Seravius Modestus who in his tract entitled, the duty of a godly man, in these dissensions would make the rapture and breach between us and the Church of Rome, to be a case of schism, and not heresy, that is, to consist in matters of less moment, and not in fundamental points of salvation. After these, others have continued the plea, in Germany the Interremists, in France hec, whosoever hec were, that wrote the pacifical discourse, to prove that Huguenots of good right may be accounted members of the Roman Church. With what success or applause, the world hath received these treatyes of peace, I leave to those to judge who have observed with what violence and indignation these subtle practices of the Pope have from time to time been resisted. It is not amity and union which our men have in these things rejected; as fare as they can in all contoversies, the most learned have distinctly set down the points of agreement; but they saw the fraud of the enemy, and therefore preferred just war before an  peace. Temporal princes might respect herein the quiet of their state, but the Pope's instruments gain doubly by it; for first, they would by bringing us to the unity of their Church, keep us in obedience to the See of Rome: secondly, by working an opinion of agreement in the mainest points of religion, win us to come over to them the more easily in all points. It shall not therefore be amiss, by way of prevention, to show somewhat of this matter, and though it would be over long to run through the differences between particular writers on both sides which are infinite, and perhaps not so evident, to prove to all men my position; yet the state of these dangerous times, (wherein too many do fall from cooling to benumbednesse, from slackness to defection, from indifferency to senselessness, and a loathing of all religion,) doth require that somewhat be set down out of the allowed books, and writings established by both Churches, whether the differences in fundamental points be such, as hitherto we have made the world to believe. That we may not be mistaken or thought over hot in parting the fray to make it greater, I will set down certain conclusions, wherein we will not greatly descent from these peacemakers in this question. First, it is one thing to speak of the Church of Rome before the Council of Trent, and another thing to speak of it since the Council of Trent. I grant that before the Council of Trent, though in many things there was a difference between us and them, yet in most of greatest moment, there was not the precise difference between us as is now, which happened, partly, because that the Church of Rome had not so strictly defined those tenants in any Council before that time, as it did then; partly, because though the current of the greater faction ran the quite contrary way, yet they which were of our opinion submitted themselves to the obedience of the Church of Rome, which Luther did not. So that if any ask, where was our Church before Luther's rising? I answer, it was in Rome, and the Roman jurisdiction; perhaps not in the Pope's privy chamber, yet in his Court amongst his greatest counsellors, agents, doctors, writers, prelate's. Then did Gregorius, Ariminensis doubt how any such place as Limbus puerorum might stand with the doctrine of the primitive Church; then did Richardus de Sancto Victore, Gerson and Durand, deny that distinction of venial and mortal sins; then did Scotus, Cameracensis, and Waldensis refute those merits of congruity and condignity; Bernard with others, justification by inherent qualities; then did the M. of the Sentences not once mention transubstantiation; Bonaventure doubted of it; Cajetan confessed, that though in word most do affirm it, yet in deed many deny it, thinking nothing less. Then did many (saith Bacon) deny that Purgatory could be proved by Scriptures: Willielmus Altisiodorensis said, it was a common opinion of his time, that we neither do properly pray to Saints, nor Saints for us: Then did Mirandula withstand worshipping of images; the Sorbonistes the Popes infallibility; many his indulgences and pardons; and most good men his jurisdiction in the temporal affairs of princes: So that he which shall seek reconciliation between us and them, (because before the Council of Trent we jumped in opinions with many of their men, or at lest not greatly swerved from them) will fight very much without an enemy, and forgets that the Papists by the Church, which they would under pain of damnation, bind every man to believe, understand not the Church which was sixty or an hundred years since, but the present Church, as Bellarmine, and their great Doctors do interpret. Secondly, we distinguish of Roman Catholics, whereof, as in all religions, so in theirs, some are more moderate, and (whether through ignorance of their own doctrine, or through an impartiality of judgement, as diverse learned men in France, or through an accusation of their conscience, as most at the time of death, especially touching the doctrine of merits) do greatly incline to our tenants; others are professed Romanists both in letter and title, and swarm not a whit from the determination of the Church. The former I leave in this controversy, the demonstration of the problem shall be in the latter. Thirdly, because we propose the question, whether we and they do differ not only in lighter matters, but also in those which concern the foundation of religion; lest any should misconceive our meaning, let us add a third distinction, that a foundation of religion is overthrowed two ways; either in flat terms, when a main principle of faith is absolutely denied, as the deity, and the consubstantiality of the Son, by Arrius; the trinity of the persons by Sabellius and Servetus; the resurrection of the body by Hymenaeus and Philetus; and the last judgement by S Peter's mockers; or 2ly by consequent, when any opinion is maintained, which by just sequel overturneth the truth of that principle which the defendant professeth to hold. So the Minaei, of whom St Jerome speaks, whilst they urged circumcision, by consequent according to Paul's rule, rejected Christ; so the Pelagians, whilst they defended a full perfection of our righteousness in ourselves, by a consequent overthrew Christ's justification. Popery comes in the latter rank, it pronounceth the same words of the Bible, & believes them; it repeats the same Creed Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian, and adheres to it; but it denies each article by a consequent, because it denies the true exposition of the article. Non enim in verbis, sed in sensu fides est, (saith Bellarmine) nec idem symbolum habemus, si in explicatione dissidemus: Our belief stays not itself upon the words, but upon the sense, nor have we the same Creed if we differ in the explanation of it. The Arrians, Novatians, Nestorians, and almost all heretics have ever agreed upon the same Creed; but because they agreed not upon the meaning of it, they therefore consequently may be said to deny it. The state therefore of our position in sum is this,  
That a pure professed Romanist, which strictly adheres to the doctrine of the Pope and of the Roman Church, since the Council of Trent; doth differ from this reformed Church of ours, in such fundamental points, that, if not directly, yet by a consequence, we must needs hold him to deny sundry articles of faith, and therefore all hope of reconciliation to be taken away.  
In the proof of which assertion, because I will not stand upon such differences as perhaps arise betwixt private persons on both sides, I will take for the Papists side the Council of Trent, begun in the year 1545, celebrated by three Popes, Paulus tertius, julius tertius, and Pius quartus, received by all succeeding Popes, and under pain of Anathema or curse, enjoined to be believed by all Catholics: For our side I will take the book of Articles, Homelyes, and such books, as to which we all do subscribe. And that we may the better proceed in such points as may cause a separation from a Church, let us examine those things which the 19th article makes to be the notes of a Church, to wit, the pure preaching of the Word, and the right administration of the Sacraments. Now the controversy betwixt us & the Church of Rome concerning the preaching of the Word, are either of the Word itself, or of the things delivered in the Word. Touching the Word, we agree that it is infallible, but we differ mainly three manner of ways: first, in setting down what is Scripture and what is not. The Council of Trent in the fourth Session, reckons up all those books which we term Apocrypha, to be Canonical; and saith, that the Church doth pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ suscipere & venerari, receive them with the same reverence and affection, as it doth the other books of the Old or New Testaments Our book of Articles in the sixth Article saith of these Apocrypha books, that the Church doth read them (as Hierome saith) for example of life and instruction of manners, but yet doth not apply them to establish any doctrine. So than it doth not receive them with the same reverence & affection, as it doth the other. Secondly, we differ in the interpretation of the Scriptures: The Council of Trent in the same Session, forbids any man to interpret the Scripture, contra eum sensum, quem tenuit, aut tenet sancta matter Ecclesia, contrary to the sense which the holy mother the Church hath held or doth hold; by the Church (saith Bellarmine in his 3 book de verbo Dei, and 3 chap. understanding Pontificem cum Concilio, the Pope in a Council, in which opinion he affirms all Catholics to concur. Our book of Articles in the sixteenth art. saith, that a general Council, for as much as it is but an assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit, and Word of God, may err, and sometime hath erred, even in things pertaining to God. And therefore, it holdeth not with the Church of Rome, that the Church, much less the Pope in a Council, is the infallible expositor of Scriptures, which none may upon any ground whatsoever gainsay. Thirdly, we differ concerning the perfection of the Scriptures. The Council of Trent in the same Session, supposing the Scriptures not to contain perfectly all things necessary to salvation, enjoins the world to embrace with like respect as we do the Scriptures, traditiones sine scripto tum ad fidem tum ad mores pertinentes, unwritten traditions pertaining as well to faith as to manners. Our Articles in the 6 Art. saith, that the holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation, well then, whereas it is required that every rule should be known; first, what it is, otherwise it cannot without much uncertainty direct: secondly, how it is to be understood, otherwise we cannot use it: thirdly, that it be perfect and sufficient, otherwise it will not serve the turn; why then, see that we, and the Church of Rome differ in the rule itself, in the interpretation of it, and in the perfection of it; now they which are so divers in describing the principles, and very rule of their faith, I much marvel, if they agree in the substance of it: But let us come now to the thing delivered in the Word: it is necessary for every Christian, which would be restored to the glorious liberty of the sons of God, to have a twofold knowledge, the one, in what miserable an estate he is in; the other, how, and by what means he may be freed from this misery; if I know not my disease, I shall not seek to the physician for relief; and if I know not how to use and apply my physic, I am yet in the same case of despair. To omit lesser differences, let us see whether in those points which are necessary to the knowledge of these things the Church of Rome and we do so fare differ, as that a moderate spirit may not reconcile us, and make us one. To begin with our state and misery. The Council of Trent doth sundry ways lessen our miserable state & condition; first, by curtelling original sin, & making concupiscence no part of it; the words in the 5 Session are these; hanc concupiscentiam quam aliquando Apostolus peccatum appellat, sancta Synodus declarat Ecclesiam Catholicam nunquam intellexisse peccatum appellari, &c: this concupiscence which sometimes the Apostle calls sin, the holy Council doth declare, that the Catholic Church never understood it to be called a sin, as if it were truly & properly a sin in the regenerate; but only because it came from sin, & doth incline to sin: Again, the Council pronounce than Anathema, or curse, to those which affirm, that by the grace which is conferred in baptism, non tolli totum id quod veram & propriam rationem peccati habet; that whatsoever hath the nature of sin, or may be so termed in original sin, is not taken away. We yield, that in those which are baptised, and are regenerate, original sin is taken away in respect of the guilt; so that it be not imputed to us, and in respect of that absolute rule which before it had in us; because, though it be, as St Paul saith, a law in our members warring against the law of our mind; yet hath it not that full sway in us after regeneration, which it had before, by reason that it is suppressed greatly by the grace of God. But that concupiscence is no part of it, or that it remaineth not under the title of sin after baptism, our book of Articles flatly denies, both in the ninth Article, where it saith, And this infection of nature (namely original sin) doth remain, yea even in them that are regenerate, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God; and although there is no condemnation to them that believe & are baptised, yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin, so as for original sin, you see our tenants are contrary, and can no way be reconciled: secondly, the Council of Trent lessens our estate of misery, not only in diminishing that which is malum culpae, an evil (as the Schoolmen say) of sin, but also in patching up other defects which are termed malum poenae, an evil of punishment; to wit, by attributing to the soul free will: We grant first, that we have a freedom of will in all respects; as free imports as much, as not constrained or compelled, for God compels us not to any thing contrary to our mind, but moves and solicits, as it were, our minds with his grace, to will willingly what he would have us to will: secondly, we grant that in natural, and moral, and bad actions, we have a freedom of will, as freedom is taken for a power, even before regeneration; and in supernatural and divine actions after regeneration, though somewhat imperfectly, and thus fare the Papists and we agree. The question is, what freedom the will hath in respect of supernatural good works, either in general before regeneration, or more particularly in the work of regeneration. As for these works in generally, the Council of Trent in the 6 Session, and 7 Can. saith, that whosoever affirms that all works which are done before justification, howsoever they are done, to be truly sins, or to deserve the hatred of God, let him be accursed. Our 13th Article saith, contrary; works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of the spirit, are not pleasant to God, for as much as they spring not of faith in Christ jesus; yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but that they have the nature of sin; Our Article is directly opposed to their Canon. As for the work of regeneration the Council of Trent hath provided for that in the 4th and 5th Can. and puts down, that whosoever affirms the will of man to be extinct, or as dead & merely passive in these actions, let him be accursed; whereas our 10th Article allows the will, no strength nor power to do any good thing, till it be, as it were, revived by the grace of God preventing us. Whereupon say some of our league-makers, the difference between the Papist and Protestant in Freewill, is only this: they both compare a man after the fall of Adam to a prisoner; the one conceives that he cannot come out of this prison because he is bound only, as the Papist; the other, because he is not only bound but dead also, as the Protestant; both acknowledge that God is he without whom they cannot be freed from this estate of thraldom; only the Papist says, that God needs but only untie his bonds, and then he can come out of himself, whereas the Protestant seems to increase his mercy, and says he must not only lose his bonds, but also restore him to life. Now for as much as both do attribute the power of coming out of prison to God; what great danger say they, is in either opinion, which should so set us at odds about it? But these observe not the whole difference: say that we both acknowledge God to be him which gives us power to come out of prison; yet if he leave us there, and persuades us not so effectually, that we not only may, but also will come out: if being wounded, the chirurgeon gives me a plaster, and then leaves me to apply it to my wound, if I will, or otherwise not, why surely I must impute the immediate cause of my deliverance or cure to myself, and not to the other, which unties my bonds, or gives me my plaster; Now what saith the Council of Trent, in the 4. Canon and 6. Session; whosoever saith, that the free will of man being moved and stirred up by God, doth not cooperate by yielding to God, so stirring and calling him, whereby he may dispose and prepare himself to obtain the grace of justification, and that he cannot descent, if he list; let him be accursed. So in the first act of regeneration, it makes man's will a co-worker with God's grace, and gives the will a power to use or refuse this grace offered, (as before I told you of staying and going out of prison, of curing or not curing of wounds:) whereas our tenth Article tell's us, that the grace of God prevents us: how? why it saith not only that we may have a power, but that we may have a good will, nor doth it, there leave us, but worketh with us, when we have the will. The Papists tenant is much derogatory from the mercy of God, which claims both the will & the deed to himself; and in this point of free will, the Church of Rome, and We cannot be reconciled.  
Thus have you seen how Popery blinds herself in viewing herestate of misery, how she covers her wrinkles & deformities, and stops her crevisses with vntempered mortar, if she taught not that concupiscence which is the inmost garment of the soul, the first it puts on and the last it puts off, is no sin, she could not affirm afterwards that any man could perform the Law, or be justified by inherent righteousness, and if she laid not with another hand the sandy foundation of freewill, she could not have outfaced the world that the merit of any man were his own. So then having played her part (as she thinketh) with applause in the first scene of man's life his forlorn estate of misery, she ventures from that to the second scene of his life, his cure & recovery out of his former sickness by justification. Though as yet you see she is not so good a leech as to find out the extremity of the disease, yet I wish her so good luck, as to light upon some good medicine to remove it. Hence the question ariseth betwixt the Protestant and her, whether she must look for the Physic within herself, or whether she must look for it abroad. In a word; the chief quarrel is about the matter of this Physic, and the instrument which applies it. First for the matter of it, we agree on both sides that it is righteousness, and that this righteousness must come from Christ. Now the righteousness of Christ is either inherent in himself, and esteemed as ours by reason of our faith in him, or else inherent in us, but proceeding from him being infused in our hearts by his grace, which we call sanctification. The difference lies in this. The Council of Trent makes the matter of this cure, that is, which works our redemption from death, and purchaseth everlasting life, to be Christ's righteousness inherent in us, which consists partly of habitual righteousness, to wit, grace and charity diffused into our hearts by the holy Ghost, as we find it in the 6th session, and the 11th canon: partly of actual righteousness, to wit, good works flowing from the former, as it is in the same session and 26th can. By reason of the former of these, say the Schoolmen, we obtain the first justification, having heaven made due unto us by title of inheritance; by the latter we obtain a second justification, that is, we do corroborate and increase the former, laying right to heaven by title of merit: Contrariwise our 11 Article tells us, that we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ, by faith: and not for our own works and deservings. I might then reason here with Saint Paul, if we are accounted righteous, then it's of grace, not of debt, if only for the merit of Christ, than not for our inherent righteousness, if not for our own works and deservings, then certainly not for any habitual or actual justice that is in us: But here our peacemakers do interpose, seeing that both sides do agree that we are absolved from our sins, and delivered from Hell, originally by the blood or jesus Christ, what doth it import us whether another pay our debts for us, as the Protestant teacheth, or that he give us money in our hands to pay it ourselves, as the Papist affirms, are not both alike beholding to him? I answer, it is true if it be first proved, that he doth give it us in our hands: for otherwise when we think ourselves rich, and venture to purchase a goodly Lordship, if we have no money to pay for it, happily we may go without it: Again it must be proved, that we are able to receive this money into our hands, if he should give it us: suppose one should see a city, which he is desirous to be Lord of, the which the owner's value at the price of many millions, the party being destitute of money, begs of some great Prince, whose favour he is in, to give him so much out of his treasury, to pay for this city, as the sum amounts unto; the Prince gives it him, and by this means, the party becomes Lord and Master of the city: but how? doth the Prince give all these millions into his hands, or lay them upon his back? why the burden were unsupportable, and his hand uncapable to hold so great a mass; therefore he brings the sellers to the place where it lies, and there shows them, where it is, and that way gives it them. So it is in the work of justification, and in the purchassing everlasting life: the price of it is infinite, it cost the death of him which was God and man, to gain it for us; if he had been God only, and not man, he could not have suffered for us, and if he had been man only, and not God, his sufferings had not been of so great a virtue, as to merit for us, so goodly an inheritance; now is it possible, that he which is God as well as man (that he might be capable of such a merit) should make us again (which are but men and sinful men, and not Gods) capable of this merit; why, surely we dare not say, that we are able to carry all those millions, which must be paid for our celestial City, in our pockets, as do the Papists; but we must bring the Lord of it to our treasury, Christ jesus, and bid him take from thence what will satisfy him. Thus you see, the Papists and We do yet differ about the matter of our cure, or justification: and in this we cannot be reconciled. Let's now come to the instrument whereby the plaster is applied to the wound. The Papists affirm, that it is applied by habitual and actual righteousness. But yet amongst these, they allow faith a share; we say on the other side, that faith only doth apply it, but yet not that faith which is alone, without inherent righteousness habitual and actual; so that, say our truce-makers, for so much as the Protestant and Papist do both hold, faith and good works to be necessary for those which are saved, it seems they agree upon the same root CHRIST JESUS, upon the same tree, springing and receiving nourishment from its root, faith and works; the difference is only in the boughs, which we must hold by: the Protestant (say they) lays hold of a sure one, which will hold, it is faith in CHRIST; the Papists for more security lay hold on both, faith in CHRIST, and works; seeing than it is but so, that both may be saved by their hold; why should we so wrangle about trifles? I answer, that the reason holds not, unless we conceive faith and works to be two firm boughs, equally growing out of the same body, whereon one might hang; now faith (I confess) is a firm bough, whereon we may safely venture; but works, or rather righteousness, is not another bough equalling faith, but a tender and weak twig, blasted and half withered, sprouting out of the bough which is called faith: So that he which shall hang upon it, shall certainly fall down. Again, that faith which we rest upon, is a bough of the tree, which we may put confidence in, and and may be bold to rely upon: their faith is not the same bough (as men would make us believe) but another bough, wanting sap, and juice, and strength, split with tempests, and shaken with wind and weather, upon which they forbidden any man to lay his assurance, and indeed which cannot save them: mark but the difference; The Council of Trent in the 6. Sess: and 12. chap: hath these words, Nemo quamdiù in hac mortalitate vivitur, de arcano divinae praedestinationis mysterio usque adeo praesumere debeat, ut certò statuat se omninò esse in numero praedestinatorum: Let no man so long as he life's in this mortal life, presume so fare of the mystery of divine predestination, that he will resolve assuredly, that he is in the number of the Elect: And in the 3d Canon of the 6. Sess▪ pronounceth Anathema to him whosoever he be, which assuredly, without doubting, by reason of his own infirmities and unfitness, believes that his sins are forgiven; on the other side, our Church of England in the 11. Article, as before you heard, saith, that we are accounted righteous before God only by faith; and for the fuller explication of this faith, what it is; it referreth us to the Homily of justification, confirmed likewise by public authority, which Homily in the third part of it, tells us, that the right and true justifying faith is, not only to believe, the holy Scripture, and all the foresaid articles of our faith, are true, but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God's merciful promises, to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ: they are the very words, and therefore I pray you mark them. Nowel's Catechism commanded to be taught by public authority, saith the like; that a lively, true, & Christian faith, is a certain Knowledge of God's fatherlike good will towards us through CHRIST, & a confidence in the same, and that none have this true faith which do despair of God's mercy. I need not stand long in proving either the former to be the Church of Rome's; (Bell. Valentia, & the whole current of Popish Doctors, making it a main controversy between us) nor to induce you to credit the latter as a firm position of our Church; for I hope you hear no other doctrine preached unto you then this, that you must be saved by a firm faith and confidence, that your sins are remitted in JESUS CHRIST. Only let me for conclusion of all, frame this Argument: The Church of England holds it necessary to salvation, to believe confidently and assuredly one's self to be of the number of the Elect, and that his sins are remitted in JESUS CHRIST; but the Church of Rome pronounceth a curse to all those which believe confidently and assuredly▪ that they are of the number of the Elect, and that their sins are remitted in JESUS CHRIST; therefore the Church of England, and the Church of Rome do differ in a point, which we hold necessary to salvation; and therefore they can by no means be reconciled. Having showed unto you what the main differences ●re between Vs. and the Church of Rome; concerning the pure preaching of the Word, which is the first note of a true Church. I will now come to the Administration of the Sacraments, which the 19 Article, makes to be the second note. Wherein (for brevity's sake) I will give you only a taste, and that shall be in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper. We agree on both sides, that CHRIST is really present in the Sacrament, the question is about the manner of it. The Council of Trent in Session 17th, enjoins under pain of curse, to believe that CHRIST is there substantially, by converting the bread and wine into the substance of his Body and Blood, which the Church terms transubstantiation. Our 8th Article determines first negatively, that he is not there by transubstantiation, for that the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of the Lord, is repugnant to plain words of Scripture, and over-throweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. Secondly affirmatively, how Christ is there, to wit, after an heavenly and spiritual manner, and received and eaten by faith; Afterwards, whereas the Council of Trent would have us to worship this Sacrament with divine worship, the 31. Artic. of ours, well complains, that these sacrifices of Masses were blasphemous fables, & dangerous conceits; Now if by the censure of our Church, the case stands so between us, that the opposite side destroys the nature of a Sacrament, gives occasion to superstitions, nay more, supports blasphemous fables, and dangerous conceits, (as you hear it doth) why, surely 'tis absolutely unlawful for us to communicate with you in the outward worship of God, and therefore in a main point; even on the marks and notes of the true Church, the Pope and We are unreconcilable.  
What can the truce-makers then here object for their purpose? will they say our differences do consist in niceties and mere subtleties? is this a nicety? to know whence we are to be assured of our faith, which we believe; whether out of the Canonical Scripture, or out of the Apocrypha writings and traditions? or is it a mere subtlety, & unworthy the maintaining of a Christian, whether we commit Idolatry or no, in receiving the Sacraments? how we are wounded in nature, and despoiled of grace; and again, by what means we must be saved from destruction? I omit the Pope's universal sway which he challengeth over things temporal, works of supererrogation, prayer for the dead, invocation of Saints, Purgatory, worshipping of Images, the number of the Sacraments, and their efficacy, auricular confession, venial sins, falling from grace, and a multitude of other points, wherein it is impossible to reconcile us: would you have us for quietness sake, in these to condescend to you? why, Gelasius tells us, that to condescend▪ is to go from a higher place to a lower; nos coascendere eos nobiscum rogamus ad summa de imis; we do entreat them rather to ascend with us from the low place wherein they are, into an higher: One thing I add, that to yield any way to them, besides the scruples which it may breed in men's minds, & the unstableness it may work, were no less impossible, for the points upon which we differ, then bootless for the perverseness of the Romanists, with whom we deal; for though we accorded with them in all other points, yet if we do not subject ourselves to them in this; that we acknowledge the Pope for Peter's successor, and the Head of the Church, we yet are Heretics, and no members of the true Church, (saith Bellarmine in his 3. Book de membris Ecclesiae, Chap 19) This supremacy of the Pope is such an Article of their faith, that to defend it, and overshaddow it, there is nothing which the Court of Rome leaves unattempted; so that to retain it, it passeth not to forgo half her controversies, yea to renounce the holy Scriptures, and the Articles of all the Creeds: For the dead, you may choose whether you will pray for them; for Saints if you will, you shall not be compelled to pray to them; Pilgrimages, and vows you may be dispensed with; in all which, and more, the holy Fathers will bear with their weak Catholics. Turn over a new leaf, & albeit thou be'st a good Catholic, yet if thou sayest unto them, Father, I doubt somewhat of the pre-eminence of the Pope, and of his Monarchy, whether it hath so large an extent, as some make it to have; these terms of his being God's-Vicegerent, and of his Omnipotency, do wound my conscience; they are straight in an uproar; an inexpiable blasphemy, and an Anathema: If thou thinkest but to dull the edge of this blade, or bend this temporal sword, if thou receiu'st not the thrust of it with thy naked breast, thou art a dead man; hadst thou faith enough to remove mountains from one place to another; hadst thou as much charity as to suffer thyself to be burnt for thy brethren, yet the Ocean, were it turned all into holy-water, could not save thee, there's no peace for thee in this life, nor remission in the world to come. Much more might be said, concerning the unreconcilable differences between Us and Rome; but the many life's spent in the quarrel, even of those which held right dear amity, and concord, the constant opinion on both sides, our Soveraigne's heroical Defiance to Rome, in his Writings, proclaiming the Pope, Antichrist, prevails so fare with you, I doubt not, as that I shall not need to insist any longer upon a point so plain & evident: Now he which brought us out of darkness into light, open our eyes, that we may discern light from darkness; and that now being made the children of th'one, we fall not back to be the servants of the other, through jesus Christ our Lord: To him therefore, with the Father, and Holy Ghost, one GOD and three Persons, be rendered all praise, honour, and glory, now and for evermore. AMEN.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
PAge 2. line 2. for entangled read entailed: page 2. l. 29. for part read pervert: page 4. line 8. read omnia: page 17. l. 21, read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.