GOD'S MERCIES AND JERUSALEM'S MISERIES.  
A Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross, the 25. of june. 1609.  
By Lancelot Dawes, Master of Arts and Fellow of Queen's College in Oxford.  Matth. 23.37.38. 
¶ O jerusalem, jerusalem, how often would, etc.  
Printed for Cle. Knight. 1609.   

¶ To the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry Lord Bishop of Carlisle.  
Right Reverend,  
THIS Sermon was made for the Cross, not intended for the Press. I was by authority commanded the former, and by importunity of many have at length consented to the latter. It may perchance hereafter complain with the Satirist. 
Har. lib. 2. Epist. 1.   
Deferat in vitem vendentem thus, at odores,  
Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.  
But that is no great disgrace in these days, it shall have Store of company, perhaps some to whom it may deservedly give the wall. As for fault finding carpers, I little account of their censure, it is well known whose livery they wear, it were a strange piece of work that should have their approbation. Some have charged nature of a gross oversight for placing the ox his horns upon his head, and not upon his shoulders which are the stronger, an ingenuous reader will wink at a fault, and approve that which is good. But let these pass, my humble desire is, that this mite which I have cast into the treasury (for my riches extend not to a talon) may find acceptance with your good Lordship, who may justly claim the same interest in me which Paul did in Philemon. 
Vers. 19 Seneca. lib. 1. de benefic. Cap. 8.  Thou owest unto me even thine own self. I willingly acknowledge it: and say as Aeschines in Seneca said to Socrates: Seeing I have nothing to offer worthy so reverend a Person. (for to dedicate a Sermon to your Lordship is but with Chaerilus to present a few harsh verses to Alexander) I offer myself; promising still to continue.  
London the 27. of june. Your Lordships in all humble duty and Service. Lancelot Dawes.   

GOD'S MERCIES AND JERUSALEM'S MISERIES.  JEREMY 5.1. 
¶ Run two and fro by the streets of jerusalem, and behold now, and know and inquire in the open places thereof: if ye can find a man, or if there be any that executeth Judgement and seeketh the truth and I will spare it.  
MAny means did the Lord use to reclaim JERUSALEM from her rebellion against him, by sundry commemorations of his benefits he wooed her by the sweet promises of the Gospel, he incited her by the captivity of her sister Samaria, he forewarned her, but yet she continued like her forefathers, 
a Psal: 78.  a faithless and stubborn generation, a generation that set not her heart aright, she runs still on a wrong Bias, in stead of being a faithful Spouse, she becomes a filthy harlot, and 
b jere. 3.6.  playeth the Whore upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, her 
c Isa. 1.22.  wine is mixed with water, her silver is become dross, her Prince's rebels and companions of thieves, and as she groweth in years, so she increaseth in all impieties, she which at the first did only pull little sins with the small 
d Jsa. 5.18.  cords of vanity, doth now draw greater transgressions with the huge cart-ropes of iniquity, so that now 
g Isa. 1.6.  from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head, there is nothing found in her but wounds and swellings, and sores full of corruption. In this case God 
h Psal. 5.4.  which cannot abide wickedness, neither can any evil dwell with him, (as the Psalmist speaketh) begins to loathe her, and to give her up into the hands of her most savage and cruel enemies, (the Chaldeans) who shall 
i Psal. 79.1.  defile the holy Temple, and make jerusalem a heap of stones. Oh, but shall the husband be so unkind to his Spouse 
k jer. 2.2  whom he hath married unto himself? shall a Father be so severe to his child? shall the God of mercy be so unmerciful unto his chosen? 
l Gen. 18.25  Shall not the judge of the world do right? far be it from God, that he should slay the righteous with the wicked. God answereth, that there is no reason, why she should repine against him, or accuse him of cruelty: her Apostasy is so general, her disease (like a Gangraena) is spread through every member of the body, her malice is so incurable, that he cannot without impeachment of his justice, spare her any longer. Run to and fro by the streets of jerusalem, etc. v. 8. O ye men of juda and inhabitants of jerusalem, do not say that your teeth are set on edge, because 
m Ezech. 18  your fathers have eaten sour grapes, do not object, that my ways are not equal, it is your ways that are unequal: it is your sins that brings this heavy doom upon your heads: whether this be so or not, you yourselves be judges: for I beseech you seek up and down, not in the Country towns only, and villages of judah, but in the Metropolis of the whole Kingdom, in the 
n Math. 4. Isa. 52.1.  holy City, run through every corner of it, search and inquire in the houses and allies and backe-lanes, and high streets thereof, mark their conditions, observe their practices, consider their behaviour, take a full view of their whole carriage, if after such inquiry, there be found but one man amongst the whole multitude that feareth me, or maketh any conscience of his ways, and I will spare the whole City for that one man's sake: but if after you have sought man by man, there be not one godly man found amongst them all, think it not cruelty, if now at length I inflict (in justice) my judgements upon her: the sum is contained in this short proposition: I will spare jerusalem, if there can one righteous man be found in her.  
Wherein we may observe these two principal points: God's mercy, in that he would have spared jerusalem for one man's sake; jerusalems' misery, in that not one righteous man can be found in her; the former I deliver in this proposition; God's mercy in sparing doth exceed his justice in punishing, and with this we will begin.  
Doctrine. But alas, who am I dust and ashes that I should entreat of this Subject? it is a bottomless depth, who can dive into it? it is an unaccessible light, who can behold it? 
Tull de. natu. deorum.  if the Heathen Simonides after three days study how to describe God, was further from any resolution in the latter end, then when he first began: nay, if 
o Exod. 33.  Moses (a man more familiar with God than any that ever lived upon the face of the earth) when he was put in a cleft of a rock, and covered with God's hands, could not behold the glory of his face; then may it not seem strange, if the tongues of men and Angels fail in describing the very back parts of this one attribute, being more proper and essential unto God than any whatsoever. 
justin lib. 18.  That Tyrian proved the wisest in the end, who having concluded in the Evening with his fellows, that he which could first in the next morning behold the Sun (which they worshipped as a God) should be King; looked not toward the East where he riseth, but towards the western mountains where his rays did first appear. We will follow his Example and seeing we cannot seek into the fountain at which the Cherubs did cover their faces: let us behold it in the mountains, that is, the Prophets and Apostles, 
Hierom. lib. 110. Comment in Ezech.  as Jerome expounds the word, or the mountains, that is the creatures and works of God, in all which it doth most clearly shine: there is no work of God in all which there doth not appear such manifest Characters of his mercy, that he which runneth may read them. Those benefits in tended towards his children, as namely Election before all time, creation in the beginning of time, Vocation, Redemption, justification in the fullness of time, Glorification after all time, etc. To prove them to be so many rivers of the bottomless Ocean of Gods never dying mercy; it were but to busy myself about a principle, which I hope none of you will call into question: Gods almighty power is manifested unto us, in that he hath created the world of nothing, 
p Psal. 33.6.  and made all the host of heaven by the breath of his mouth, and it is a property in describing of which Gods Secretaries do strive to be eloquent, job to show it saith that 
q job. 9  he spreadeth out the heavens like a Canopy, and walketh upon the the height of the Sea, that he maketh the stars Arcturus and Orion, and Pleyades, and the climates of the South. Elihu sets it forth under Benoth, whose tail is like a Cedar, 
r job. 40.  and his bones like staves of brass, yet the Lord leadeth him whither soever he will; and under Leviathan, which makes the depth to boil like a pot, and the sea like a pot of ointment, and yet the Lord can put a hook in his nose, and pierce his jaws with an Angle. David to show it, saith that he maketh the mountains to skip like Rams, and the little hills like young sheep: 
Psalm. 114.  I say, to express it saith, that 
s Isa. 40.  all nations before him are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the dust of the balance, that he taketh away the Isles as a little dust, that he hath measured the waters in his fist, & counted heaven with a span, & comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a weight, and the hills in a balance, and yet his mercy goeth beyond his power, in that his omnipotency hath made nothing but what his mercy moved him to create, and it comes after too, in preserving, and guiding, and protecting, by his heavenly providence (a branch of his mercy) whatsoever his powerful hand hath made, if he should but once stop the influence of his mercy, all the works of his hands should presently be annihilated. 
t Psal. 33.5.  The earth is full of the mercies of the Lord (saith the Psalmist) he saith not the heavens saith Austen, Quia non indigent misericordia ubi est nulla miseria: they needed no mercy where there is no misery; 
Augustin in illum locum.  and yet in another place he addeth the heavens to thy truth (an other of his attributes) goeth unto the clouds, there it stayeth, but thy mercy goeth further: 
Psal. 14.5.9  it reacheth unto the heavens, in fewer words: It is over all his works.  
But my text leads me to entreat of his mercy, as it hath reference unto his justice; where you shall find that of two infinites one doth infinitely surpass an other, to be called a merciful God, and the father of mercy is a title wherein God especially delighteth, but he is almost never called the God of judgement: hear how he proclaimeth himself: The Lord, the Lord strong, there is one Epithet of his power; merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness, and truth, reserving mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin: there are six of his mercy. Then comes his justice in punishing of offences: not making the wicked innocent, visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation: there he confines his justice, he saith unto us as he doth unto the seas in job: 
(w) job. 38.11.  Hither shalt thou go, and thou shalt go no further, here shalt thou stay thy raging waves, it shall not pass the fourth generation, and that is more than Ordinary, if it come so far, it is but at a high spring, 
Exo. 20.5.6.  upon such as hate him: but his mercy follows like a boundless Ocean, upon thousands of those that love him. Nay the Prophet tells us that to punish, is with God a rare & extraordinary work. 
x Esa. 28.21.  The Lord (saith he) shall stand as in as in mount Perazim, he shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. This is an act of judgement, where you see that to punish, with him is an uncouth and strange work, an act indeed, unto which without compulsion of justice, he could not be drawn; he is more loath to put out his hand for to inflict a judgement, than ever was Octavius to subscribe his name to the execution of any public offender, whose usual speech was this, 
Sueton.  utinam nescirem literas, I would to God I could not write. How oft doth miserable man offend against his maker? surely if the just man fall seven times, than the wicked falleth seventy times seven times, & yet he maketh his Sun to shine upon them both, he makes his rain to fall upon them both, still almost he containeth the sword of his justice within the sheath of his mercy: if in case he be enforced to draw it, he is as it were touched with a feeling of that which the wicked suffer; hear himself speak, Therefore thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, 
Isa. 1.24.  the holy one of Israel, ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: it is a kind of ease to be avenged of thine enemy, and therefore God when the jews continue still to provoke him to his face, will ease himself by inflicting his judgements upon them, I will ease me of mine enemies, but it comes with an (ah) or (alas) it is pain and grief to him, he is wounded to the very heart, his bowels are rolled and turned within him; a few tears might have made him sheathe his sword, and defer his punishments; the history of Ahab will prove as much, who was one that had sold himself to work wickedness, that provoked the Lord God more than all the Kings of Israel that were before him, 
1. King. 16 30.  than Baasha, than Omri, then jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin, therefore the Lord sends unto him the Prophet Eliah telling him, that in the field where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, 
1. King. 21.19.21.  they should lick his blood also, and that he would wipe away his posterity as one wipeth a dish, when it is wiped and turned upside-down. Ahab hath no sooner rent his clothes at the Prophet's words, than God repenteth him of what he had threatened: Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me? 
verse. 29.  a simple humiliation God wots, only in outward show, and yet it shall suffice to revoke part of God's judgements against him, because he submitteth himself before me, I will not bring that evil in his days upon his house. Niniveh had multiplied her transgressions as the sand upon the sea shore; she had by her sins blown up the coals of God's anger against her; but yet he will not come upon her as a thief in the night to destroy her, she shall have forty days warning, and if in the mean time she will turn her plaiing into praying, and her feasting into fasting, and by covering herself with sackcloth, hide from his eyes her broad sails of pride, he will make it known unto her, that he was not so ready before, to lend a left ear of justice to her crying sins, as he is now to afford a right ear of mercy to the cry of her sinners: 
jonah. 3.10.  he will repent of the evil that he had denounced against her, and will not do it. The old world had so defiled the earth with her cruelties, and the smoke of her sins did so fume up to heaven into the nostrils of God, 
Gen. 6.6.  that he was sorry in his heart that ever he had made man: yet he will not presently destroy this wicked generation, there shall be an hundredth and twenty years for repentance, 
Vers. 3  before he will purge this Augaeum stabulum, with a deluge of waters.  
Nay, such is the never drying stream of his mercies, 
Ruffin hist. Eccles. lib. 2. Cap. 18.  that for the righteous sake, the wicked though they do not repent, shall far the better. God is not like to the Emperor Theodosius, who for the offence of a few, put all the Thessalonians to the sword: but rather (if without offence the Potter may be compared to the clay) like to that Persian General, 
Herod. lib. Plut. in Caesare.  who spared Delos because that Apollo was borne there; or Caesar who made the Cindians free men for Theopompus his sake: it was an opinion of the Heathen, that for one evil man's sake, many good men were put to the worse, 
— Pallas exurere gentem  

Virgil. 1. lib AEn.  Argiuûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto:  Pallas overthrew the whole navy of the Argives.  
unius ob noxam & furias Aiacis Oilei, for the sin of one man by name, Ajax the son of Oileus, 
Hesiod. op. & dies.  and Πολλα●● καὶ ξυμπασά πόλις κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐπαυρεῖ, God punisheth a whole City for one man's sin, and sends upon it Διμὸν ὸμοῦ καὶ λόιμον, famine and plague, for the sin of some particular, it is not so: God never punisheth one man for another's offences: if thou object unto me, that the Israelites were plagued for David's trespass, I answer, David's sin did occasion that punishment which the Israelites did justly deserve for their own iniquities: for howsoever David in respect of himself (who deserved more) called them sheep, yet indeed they were Wolves in sheep skins: and verily in this particular, we have an evident demonstration of his mercies: for first, of three several punishments, he gives him leave to choose which of them he would: When David had chosen the Pestilence for three days, indeed he sent his destroying Angel; but before his sword was half drawn, he puts it up again, and repenteth him of the evil, and abridgeth the time: Now we know that every substraction from his judgements is a multiplication of his mercies, and how far he is from punishing the righteous with the wicked, let Sodom witness, a sink of the filthiest sins, a cage of the uncleanest birds, a den of the wickedest thieves that ever the earth bred: yet he will not rashly come upon her, but first he will go down and see▪ 
Gen. 18.21.  whether they have done altogether according unto that cry which was come unto him, & if there can but fifty righteous men be found in five Cities, which was but for every City ten, nay, if but forty, nay, if but thirty, nay, if but twenty, nay, if but ten can be found amongst them all, which was but for every City two, he will not destroy the City for those men's sake: when none can be found save just Lot, he will not subvert Sodom before he be brought out of the City, nay, he will spare the whole City of Zoar for Lot's sake: if good Paul be in the ship, all that are with him, 
Act. 27.  even the barbarous Soldiers shall for his sake come safe to land. But of all others (that I may end this point where I began it) jerusalem in my Text is most famous: whom the Lord doth so tenderly compassionate, that if within her spacious walls, amongst so many millions of souls, one righteous man could have been found, either amongst the Nobles or Magistrates, or Priests, or People, he would have spared jerusalem for that man's sake.  
And is this true? be not then Use. 1 dismayed thou fainting and drooping soul, whom the burden of thy sins hath pressed down to the brink of hell: is there such a thunder-threatening cloud of God's justice set before thine eyes, that thou thinkest it impossible that the Sun of his favour should pierce through it into thine heart? deceive not thyself, where sin aboundeth, 
Rom. 5.20.  there grace superaboundeth; thou art a fit Subject for God to work upon: where should the Physician show his skill, but where the greatest maladies do reign: and where can God better show his mercy, then where is the greatest abundance of man's misery? the desperatest diseases that can befall the soul of man, dead Apoplexies, unclean leprosies, dangerous Lethargies, remediless Consumptions, whatsoever they be, God can as easily cure them, as the smallest infection: and as he is able, so is he most willing to do it, because his mercy (as I have already proved) is his chiefest attribute, and every attribute of God, is the Essence of God, so that he can no more cease from his works of mercy, than the eye being well disposed from seeing, or the fire from heating, or the heaven from moving, or the Sun from shining: he that denieth this is a Traitor to the king of Heaven, because he gainesayeth that still wherein God especially delighteth. There is no sin of itself so heinous, but God can wipe it away: he will forgive wicked Manasses aswell as righteous Abraham 10000 talents as one penny.  
Suppose that all the sins that ever were committed, from the murder of Cain to the treason of judas, laid upon thy shoulders, there is no more proportion between them and God's mercy then between Stillam muriae & mare Aegaeum betwixt a drop of brine and the Acgean, 
Cicero de sinibus.  nay the great Ocean, the snuff of the Candle and the light of the day, or a mote in the Sun, and the Globe of the high heaven. Fly unto the throne of grace, and though thy sins were bloody like Scarlet, he will make them as Wool; and though thou be as Purple which is twice died, to wit in the Wool and in the Cloth: Though thou be died in the Wool (the first lineaments of nature) with original depravation, and in the Cloth (after thy natural perfection) with actual transgression, yet he will make thee as white as the snow in Salmon: 
Isa. 1.  he will bind all thy sins in a bundle, and cast them into the bottom of the Sea, he will nail them unto his sons Cross, he will remove them as far from thee as the East is from the West, or the North distant from the South. No man ever begged an alms at God's hand in faith, and returned empty. Heaven gates are never shut when penitent sinners knock, there is a Master of requests in that Court, which is more ready to prefer thy petition unto God, than thou canst be to request his help, and will he which for ten men's sake would have spared Sodom, and for one man's sake have passed by the crimson sins of jerusalem, who was moved with compassion at the hypocritical repentance of wicked Ahab, and revoked his sentence at the counterfeit humiliation of proud Niniveh, stop his ears at the petition of any penitent sinner? doubt not but he will hear thy petition and give his royal assent to that thou desirest, though thou canst but with David roar and not speak, or with the poor Publican utter a short and abrupt speech O Lord be merciful unto me a sinner, etc. or with Hezekiah Chatter like a Crane, 
Isa. 38.14.  and mourn like a Dove. Oh then flee unto him as a Dove unto the windows, 
Cant. 2.  hide thyself in the holes of the true rock, put thy finger in Christ's side there thou shalt find both Oil to soften and Wine to cure thy festered soul, cry mightily to God with Niniuch, say with David, 
2. Sam. 12.13.  I have sinned, morn with Hezekiah, weep bitterly with Peter, 
Matt. 26.  fall down at jesus his feet with Mary Magdalen, 
john. 11.  say with blind Bartelmaeus in the Gospel, O son of David have mercy upon me. 
Matth. 9.27.  And doubt not but God will be merciful unto thy sins, and make his favourable countenance shine upon thee.  
Again is God's mercy such that he will spare the wicked for the Use. 2 righteous sake? Here than ye sons of belial, may learn this lesson to spare the righteous for the wickeds sake. I mean to cherish and to make much of all those that fear the Lord, if for no other reason yet even for this, because such men are often times a means to keep away God's judgements from the evil doers, the chaff shall not be burned as long as it is mingled with the wheat. Plutarch saith that in the sacking of Cities such houses as were erected near unto a Temple, of any of the heathen Gods, were untouched, when the rest were overthrown by the enemy: as long as a sinner standeth near unto a Temple of the living God, he needeth not fear an overthrow. God could do no hurt unto the Sodomites as long as just Lot was in their company, 
Gen. 19  as he blessed the house of Obed Edom, 
2. Sam. 6.12.  and all that he had because of the Ark that was with him, so the blessings that fall upon the wicked man's head, are because of the godly with whom he dwelleth; it was the encouragement that Caesar gave unto the Boatman, 
Phillip in Caesare.  when his Boat was almost over whelmed by the violence of the waves, in the River Anius, that he should not fear because Caesar was in his company. And the best encouragement that can be given to the wicked, in the time of danger, is that some good man is in their company, than they may say as Michah said when he had hired a Levite to be his Priest, now I know that the Lord will be good unto me seeing a Levite (a man that feareth the Lord) is with me, 
jud. 17.13.  and therefore at the least in this one point, let them resemble the just man, which maketh much of them that fear the Lord, Psal. 15. because they are as it were Bucklers to keep away the force of the blow, 
Psa. 106.23.  and with faithful Moses they stand in the gap to turn away his wrathful indignation, lest it should destroy them. But if they seek (as the custom of so many is) by all means possible to destroy them, to trample them in the dust and (as much as in them lieth) to root them out of the land of the living, that they may have none to control them for their unlawful deeds than they do their best to cut a sunder the thread that keepeth up the sword of vengeance, or Samson like to pull down the pillars upon which their house standeth and so to bring all down upon their heads.  
Again is God so slow to anger, Use. 3 so unwilling to revenge? had he rather save one righteous man than punish a whole City, of such as sin against him? Where be the gallants of our days, who will not brook the least offence offered against them? Nothing shall wash it away but the precious Blood, it is a disgrace unto me, an ignominy unto my whole kindred, is that a disgrace in thee which is an honour in god? For thy kindred I little account of it. If thou canst draw it from the loins of Adam, thou gettest nothing there but shame, unless thou canst step a foot higher (as Luke doth in the Genealogy of joseph) and say that Adam was the Son of God, 
Luk. 3.38.  if thou wouldst be counted the Son of God, tread in his steps, walk as thou hast him for an example. Be thou merciful, as thy Father which is in Heaven is merciful. For so doing thou showest thyself to be a sparkle derived from that infinite flame, a drop taken from that bottomless Ocean, it is remarkable (which one observeth) that God hath given unto Beasts both weapons of defence and offence, the Lion hath his Paws, the Ox Horns, the Boar Tusks, the Serpent his Sting, the Birds Claws, the Fishes scales, the very Hedgehog is not without his Pricks: But man the excellency of his dignity, and the excellency of his Power (as jacob speaks of Reuben) he brings into the world smooth and naked, 
Gen. 49.3.  in token that he should be like unto him, soft to anger slow to revenge. Esau, that was borne red, 
f Gen. 25: 25.  and rough God disinherited as a Monster, and no true Child of his, but smooth jacob he acknowledged to be his Son. The child of wrath is no Son unto the God of mercy. How often dost thou sin against thy God? By thy blasphemous oaths thou tearest him, by thy hypocritical holiness thou mockest him by thy uncleanness thou polutest him, by thy arrogant pride thou disdainest him, and spittest in his face. The least trespass that thou committest against him, is no less than treason against his royal person, and doth God for every offence unsheathe his sword against thee? Si quoties peccant homines sua fulmina mittat jupiter, etc. If God should in judgement punish every sin upon the offendor, where should wretchedman be? now when God writeth thy sins in dust, wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble? When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents, wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundredth pence? If thou wilt be indeed his Son, be like unto him, be pitiful, tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion, if thou be angry beware that thou sin not, 
Eph. 4.26.  by speedy revenge, if thy wrath be conceived in the morning, and perchance increase his heat with the Sun till midday, yet let it settle with the Sun at afternoon, and set with it at night, 
1. Kings. 3.  Let not the Sun go down upon thy wrath, if its conception be in the night, use it as the harlot used her child, smother it in thy bed & make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before it see the Sun, 
Psal.  to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves, the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together, the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith: So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love: The branches of this Vine as they are united with the bole (from whence they receive nutriment) so have they certain tendrils whereby they are fastened, and linked one to another. Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brother's hurt, thou dost as it were divide Christ, thou pullest a stone out of this Temple, thou breakest a branch from this Vine, 
AEneid. 3.  nay (more than so) thou cuttest the Vine itself. Virgil tells us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a myrtle tree to shadow his sacrifice, their issued drops of blood from the bole trickling down unto the ground: at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum AEnea laceras iam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus, the Poet tells us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his son which cried for vengeance against Polymnestor the Thracian King which had slain him, in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother, and hast a desire to revenge thyself of him (as he had to pull a bough from the Tree) think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down. Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himself. Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner, iam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus, imbrue not thy hands in my blood, haud cruor hic de stipite manat, it is not the branches thou fightest against, 
jude. 9.5.  Nam Polydorus ego, I am jesus whom thou persecutest. 
Titus. 9.5.  I am now come near to a point, which I have pressed heretofore in the other public place of this city, 
At the Spittle.  therefore I proceed no further, but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse, which was jerusalems' misery.  
The Tree is very fruitful, and I am but a passenger, and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest, and the readiest to part with the boughs, which when I have commended to your several casts, I will commit you to God.  
First the Paucity of true professors (if ye can find a man, or if there be any.) Secondly, the place where. (In jerusalem.) Thirdly, that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickedness; not expressed but necessarily understood.  
From these three I collect three propositions; from the first, Gods flock militant may consist of a small number: from the second, There is no particular place so privileged, but that it may revolt and fall from God: from the third, No place is so strong, nor City so fenced, but the sins of the people will bring it to ruin. Of these three in order, God's holy spirit directing me, and first of the first.  
God made all the world, 
Proposition.  and therefore it is great reason, that he should have it all to himself: yea, and he challengeth it as his own right: 
c Hag. 2.8.  The Gold is his, and the silver is his, and all the beasts of the field are his, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills: and the heavens are his, for they are his Throne, and the earth is his, for it is his footstool, and the reprobate are his, 
Psal. Act. 749 jerem. 25  for Nebuchadnezzer is his servant, and as juda is his so is Moab likewise: but in an other kind of service, in a word, The earth is the Lords and all that therein is, 
Psal. 24.  the compass of the world, and all that dwell therein, but not in that property, which is now meant for that belongs only unto men, and yet not unto all, but to a few, which are appointed to be h●yres of salvation. 
Heb. 1.14.   
God made all men, so that they are all his sons by creation, but he ordained not all to life, so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption: our first Father did eat such a sour grape as did set all his children's teeth on edge: by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birthright, and was shut out of Paradise, by committing treason against his Lord and King, 
Gen. 3.  his blood was stained, and all his children were made uncapable of their father's inheritance, but God (who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy, 
2. Cor. 1.3.  & God of all consolation) as he purposed to show his justice in punishing the greater part of such, as so grievously incurred his displeasure: so on the contrary side, it was his good pleasure to show his mercy, in saving of some, though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other, and therefore it is a Parliament holden before all times, it was enacted, that the natural son of God, the second person in the Trinity, should in the fullness of time take upon him man's flesh, and suffer for our transgressions, and gather a certain number out of that Mass of corruption, 
Austin.  wherein all mankind lay: these be they which shall follow the Lamb whethersoever he goeth; these be his people and the sheep of his pasture, these be they which have this prerogative to be called the sons of God, 
Psal. 100 Gal. 4.1. Rom. 8.17.  and the heirs of God annexed with Christ: and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked.  
There is much chaff and little wheat, it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner: there are many stones, but few pearls: it is the Pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood. 
2. Cor. 4.  Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds. Satan hath a kingdom, and Christ but a little flock, it is like to Bethleem in the land of judah, 
Luk. 12.32. Mich. 5.2. Gen. 8.3.  but a little one amongst the Princes of judah, it is like to Noah's flood, going and returning, like the sea flowing and ebbing, or like to the Moon filling and waning, & sometimes so Eclipsed and darkened with the earth, that thou canst not perceive, that Christ the son of righteousness doth shine upon it.  
The story of Times will make this plain, innumerous were the men of the old world, yet God's flock was only contained in the family of Sheth, they only were called the Sons of God, 
Gen. 6.2.  afterward this flock was compassed in a very narrow fold, in Noah's family, it was enclosed in one Ark, and yet there was one Wolf amongst these few sheep. 
Nat lupus inter oves. Ovid metam. lib: 1.  Thus it continued in a very narrow compass till Abraham's time, and so downward till it began to multiply in the land of Egypt, and afterward in the promised Canaan, as yet it was still tied to one place, there was but one pasture for God's sheep, the rest of the world played the harlot with other lovers, and went a whoring after their own inventions, and in this one pasture there were more Goats than sheep, for though the number of the children of Israel were as the sand upon the sea shore, 
Rom. 4.27.  yet only a remnant was to be saved. When the fullness of time was come that God had sent his son made of a woman, this Moon did suffer such an Eclipse, as that the quickest eye could hardly perceive her: then she began to recover her light, for God broke down the partition wall, and rend the vail of the Temple, and made no difference betwixt the jew and the Gentile, Tuos Niriusque mihi nullo discrimene agetur.  
Then God's sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in the streets, than the Vine stretcheth forth her boughs, unto the river, and her branches unto the lands end, than God gave unto his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost part of the earth for his possession. Yet then and ever since, the glean of Satan have been more than the vintage of Christ. Yet take a survey of the world, as it is at this day; divide it into three parts with Ptolemy or into four with some later writers, nay into six or seven with our last Geographers, 
Maginus.  and you shall not find much above one of these seven which profess Christ. Amongst these separate the orthodox from the heterodox, and you shall find that Christ is now almost banished out of the world, so that if the son of man should now come, 
Luk. 18.8.  he should scarce find faith in the earth, the true profession of the Gospel, is confined in a little corner of the Northwest, and in this corner remove the Atheists, and Heretics, and Worldlings, and Neuters, and Hypocrites, how little will the remainder be after so many subtractions? And no marvel, for many are called, but few are chosen, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. God's sheep have a little narrow path, but the Goats have a beaten Cartway.  
Use. 1 This being so, it is strange what Bellarmine meant to make amplitude, and multitude, to be a note of the true Church; especially when he proposeth to speak of such notes, by which it may be most easily known, and distinguished from the false religion of the jews, and Heretics, and Pagans, and Infidels whatsoever: and therefore such as are both 
g Notae debent esse propriae non communes lib 4. cap. 2 et postea in eodem cap. notae variae inseparabiles avera Ecclesia  proper and inseparable, in respect of the Church; and again such as though 
h Non quidem efficiunt evidenter verum ipsam esse veram Dei Ecclesiam, sed tamen efficiunt evidenter credibile De ecclesiae lib. 4. cap. 3.  they make it not evidently true, yet they make it evidently credible, not only probable (for 
i Lutheranorum notae non sunt ullo modo, sufficientes, nam non declarant quae sit vera Ecclesia, se cundun heretic. nisi probabiliter lib eod. cap. 2  that is the imperfection of our notes, if you will believe him) nay, amongst those which admit of the Scriptures, and Ecclesiastical Histories and writings of the ancient fathers, faciunt etiam evidentiam veritatis. Lord how plausible a Doctrine would this have been unto Ahab; how would it have fitted his turn to plead for Baal? what meanest thou Eliah thus to trouble Israel? As though we were all Idolaters and thou only a true worshipper of God? Consider the matter aright, and thou shalt find what a weak ground thou standest upon, those are the true worshippers of God, who are the most in number, now thou art but one and the Prophets of Baal, are four hundredth and fifty, how pleasantly would it have sounded in the ears of the jews, when jeremiah thus prophesied? Behold (might they say) all the inhabitants, of judah, and jerusalem are against thee, and is the spirit of God departed from us all to possess thee? Thus Constantius disputed with Libanus Bishop of Rome, against Athanasius 
k Hoc orbis terrarum comprobat: quota tu pars es orbis terrarum qui solus facis cum homine scelerato pacem orbis d●ssoluis. Theod. lib. 2. cap. 16.  The whole world is of this Opinion, and what art thou that thou shouldest take part with a naughty fellow, and dissolve the peace of the world. If this objection had been urged against Luther, when he first began to bait the Pope's Bull, he might easily have answered in Athanasius his words: 
Athan. Epist. ad solitarian. vitam agentes.  What Church is there now that doth openly adore Christ; if it be godly it is Subject to danger, for if there be any that fear God (as indeed there are many every where) they have hid themselves with Elias in Dens and Caves of the earth. But the example of the jews will not much move our adversary quia non est eadem ratio populi judeorum et populi cristianorum, 
Bellar. li. 3. d●● Eccle. milit. cap. 16.  and might the Church of Christians be still known, by the multitude of professors, so that a man not yet resolved in the truth, might be guided by this mark to find her out, as the wise men by the Star were directed unto Christ! Surely no, 
Jdem. lib. 4 cap. 5.  for scimus initio fuisse multo p●uciores Christianos, quam essent judaii, what better was she in the time of those ten bloody persecutions which endured for the space of three hundred years? when a man could no sooner make profession of his faith but he was either killed with the sword or burnt with fire, 
Alij flammis exusti, alij ferro perempti, alij flagris verberati alij cru●iati patibulo, etc.  or drowned in the Sea, or stoned to death, or slain quick, or famished with hunger, or thrust through with bodkins, or thrown to wild Beasts, or pulled in pieces with Trees or wild horses, or boiled in lead, or made away with more exquisite, and more Tragical torments. (If that be possible) then the Perilli of our time have invented to gratify the Romish Phalleris. Come a little lower and compare the Church not with the number of the Gentiles, (which no Papist in the world can for shame deny to have ever exceeded the number of Christians) but with Heretics, I mean not all sorts joined togeher (for they will subscribe to 
a Haeraetici sunt per totam faciem terrae, alij hic alij ibi alia secta in Africa, alia, haresis in oriente August de past. Cap. 8.  Austin the Church is every where, and Heresy every where, but the Church is the same every where, heresy is not the same but most different) but only the Arians, which sometimes have so overspread the whole Christian world, as that if any had said, Lo here is Christ or there is Christ, thou wouldst have believed him. The Church was like a Sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house top, or like a Pelican in the Wilderness, and an Owl in the desert: they counted themselves the only Catholics, but the true Christians they termed Schismatics, 
Augustine  calling them joannites, and Ambrosians, and Athanatians, and Homousians: Even as the Papists at this day challenge the name of Catholics, to themselves, and call us Lutherans, and Zwinglians, and Caluinists.  
They did not only possess the Church of jerusalem, and Alexandria, & Antiochia, & Constantinople, and the rest in the Eastern Empire, but passing thence into the North, & from thence with the Goths, and Vandals into Germany and France, and Spain, and Italy, (yea into Africa to) had infected all the Churches in the West. Which makes jeremy say that the whole world groaned and marveled, 
Hierom. in dialog contr. Luciferianos.  to see herself become am Arrian, an Arrian sat in Peter's chair, the head of the Church 
a Durand. lib. 2.  that great Melchisedecke whose Priesthood is not to be compared to any other, their 
* Dominus deus noster Papa. Ex trau. joh. 22. ut citat jewel.  God and their Lord, the 
a Durand. lib. 2.  Pope himself, rather than he would die in the defence of the Gospel, subscribed to Arianism; surely the whole Body must needs go wrong, 
Liberius teste. Athan. Epist. ad. Solitariam. vitam agentes idem patet. ex preambulo. Concil. Nicen.  when the head did thus miscarry.  
This plague endured not for some small moment (like the Macedonian Empire which was but a Flash and gone) but for the space of three hundred years and upward. Where was now the true Church amongst the Arrians, 
Bodin.  which oppugned the Doctrine of the Nicene Synod in sundry counsels, and expelled the Orthodox Bishops and enjoyed their rooms, and instead of the true Christ worshipped an Idol of their own inventions? or rather in a few miserable and forlorn wretches, which remained in prisons and wildernesses, and Mountains, and dens, and Caves of the Earth, as was the case of the Church at that time, so was it in the time of Wicliffe and Husse, for then the Devil had for a long time been loosed, and Antichrist was in the height of his pride, & the light of the Gospel was taked up in the Ashes of Popery, 
Ποῦ ●οτε εἴσιν ὃι τὴν πενίαν ἡμέν ὁνεισζοντει καὶ τῶν πλοῦτῶν. κομπάζοντες ὁι πλήθει τῆνεν ἐκκλησίαν ὅριξοντες, καὶ τό βροχυ, διάπτύ οντες ποίμνιον. Nazianz. in oratione contra Arrianos.  in so much that that which Nazianzen spoke in the oration against the Arrians, might fitly have been applied against the Papists. Where be those that object poverty unto us, & boast of their prosperous Estate, this is another mark of the Popish Church.  
Where be those that define the Church to be a multitude, and set at nought a little Flock: and yet if multitude should bear the bell away, the Papists should not have any such cause of triumph, as they will bear the world in hand that they have. There are at this day four Religions in the world (if the name of Religion may be given to them all) judaisme, Paganism, Mahametanisme, and Christianisme: of all these judaisme is the least, but Paganism exceedeth all the rest, Mahametanisme (which is a mixture craftily composed of the other three) both in largeness of Countries, and multitude of people, goeth beyond all Christendom: for it hath not only seated itself in the whole Turkish Empire, and the large kingdoms of the great Sophi, but spreadeth abroad in many places of the vast dominions of Tartary, Cathaia, & China almost unto the Eastern Ocean, and what it hath of later years gained in the west, we feel partly in the miserable distress of Hungary and Transiluania, and have just occasion of greater fear, if the Lord out of compassion to his poor Church, shall not overthrow the plots of that proud Senacherib, 
2. Kin. 19.28  and put a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his lips, and carry him back again the same way that he came. Now for Christianisme, amongst those that profess the name of Christ, there are not above a third part that are Papists: for the Russians together with the Relics of the Greek Church, the Armenians and the Christians that are under the Emperor of the Abassens, do exceed the number of all those, which hold the Principles of the Romish Church. The Protestants come not much behind them: for howsoever within these hundred years, the Moon did suffer such an universal Eclipse, that a man would have judged she had lost her light, and the Lords flock was but like a few grapes after the Vintage is ended, here a grape and there a grape on the outmost boughs.  

Brevi occupavit doctrina Lutheri, non Soli multa regna in partibus septemtrionalibus sed etiam usque ad Indos excur●re aufa est. Bel. lib. 3. de pont. Ro. cap. 23.  Yet since it pleased God to stir up the heart of Martin Luther to stand at open defiance with the Italian Goliath which reviled the Israel of God: she hath every day recovered her light, the Gospel that was then hid under a bushel, is become like to David's Sun, which cometh forth as a Bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a Giant to run his course: the professors of the Gospel have wonderfully increased so that now their sound is gone through the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 
Psal. 90.4,  There is no place in the Globe of the earth, where Christ is professed, which hath not some Protestants. Italy the very Centre and sink of Popery, and the seat of the great Whore, when jezabel hath done what she can, in murdering the Lords Prophets, will afford seven thousand men which have never bowed the knees of their hearts unto Baal. 
Vid. Bell. de Paul. Rom. lib 3. cap. 21. Nostris temporibus Romana sedes magnam Germaniae partem amisit, Suetiam Gothiam, Noruegiam, Damam, etc.  In France we have a far greater number, in Germany the mayor part, almost all Polony, all Denmark, Swethen, Norway, Britain, and all the Islands in the Northern seas, which have taken the military Oath to fight under Christ's standard. If these be not equal to them, yet consider on either side such as know the Principles of Christian Religion, and can give an account of their faith, and we have a far greater number, for the common people amongst them are stupid & blind, and do no more understand the mysteries of their salvation then Pagans and Infidels, or those in the Acts, who being demanded of Paul, whether they had received the holy Ghost, made answer that they never heard whether there was an holy Ghost or no. 
Act. 19.2.  And little marvel for many of their Priests do no more understand their Masses, which they mumble daily in their Churches; then Balaams' Ass understood his own voice. It is enough for them to believe as the Church believeth, though they know no more what that is, than did Bellarmine's Collier, who being demanded what he believed, (quoth he) that which the Church believeth, being again demanded what that was, answered, the same which I believe: Herein we will not think much that the Papists exceed us: Bellarmine may give good measure if he draw the dregs and all: 
August: in Psal. 39  but Austen will teach him another lesson, Noli numerare turbas hominum incedentes latas vias, implentes crastinum circum, civitatis natalem clamando celebrantes, civitatem ipsam male vivendo turbantes, noli illas attendere, multi sunt, & quis numerat, sed pauci per viam angustam incedunt. 
Christ: hom: 40. ad populum Antiochium.  chrysostom will teach him that not in numeri magnitudine, sed in virtutis probitate consistit multitudo. It was a pretty stratagem of the Roman Captain, when his Soldiers were few in number, to make every man draw a bough in the dry dust, that so the ●amnites (with which he was to encounter) beholding them a far off might believe that his Army was greater than indeed it was: we are no such dastards as to be afraid of every withered branch that can raise up dust into the air: 
livius decade 1. lib. 9  if the Papists purpose to match us with multitude, let them bring such as have some skill to handle their spiritual weapons.  
I end, seeing the Church is like unto the Moon, sometimes in a glorious splendour, sometimes clouded with Schism, and sometime so darkened with the shadow of heresy and superstition, and persecution, that the eyes of Lynceus can scarce behold her.  
Seeing that the Papists at this day, cannot compare neither with the number of Christians (taking the name generally for all such as profess the name of jesus) nor with the Protestant Churches, if we take an account only of such as understand the Principles of their Religion: 
Hic non tenetur nota marginalis quae nunquam occurrit in li. Sent. P. Lamberti.  I see no reason why Bellarmine should make multitude a Note of the true Church; or if it were, why the Papists should challenge it themselves: and therefore he may be well censured with a hic magister non tenetur, 
s Vives de causis Co:rupt: Art.  or nota quod haec nota nihil notat, it was only to make up the number of notes, that he may number one Art, nam cum non prosunt singula, multa iwant; though they be of little force being severally considered, yet if they be all jointly taken, they will prove like 
t Plut Apoth.  Seleucus his rods, or like a threefold cord which is not easily broken. Indeed he had need to be stronger than Hercules, that could cut off all the heads of Hydra at one blow: but a simple warrior taking one by one may make an end of them before he be wearied; for they are like to the tail of Sertorius his horse, 
Plutar. in vita sertorij.  which a valiant Soldier taking it all together, could not pull off, but a poor Skull pulling one hair after an other had quickly made it bare.  
Use. 2 Secondly, doth God's flock sometimes consist of a very small number? then it behoveth thee (beloved Christian) with greater diligence to try and examine thyself, whether thou be comprehended in this number: for as in that universal deluge of waters, all were drowned that were not in Noah's Ark: so in the great flood of fire, which shall be at the end of the world, all shall be swept away with a river of brimstone, which are not of this flock: it is a common saying, he shall never have God for his father which hath not the Church for his mother, and he shall never be a member of the Church triumphant, which is not first of the Church Militant: first, than thou art to inquire whether thou be of the true visible Church; and this thou shalt know, by two marks; by the true preaching of the word, by the right use of the Sacraments, for where these two are performed according to the prescript of God's word, there must needs be a true church; this is somewhat, but it is not all: for what did it avail judas to be numbered amongst the twelve? he was in hell before any of the rest came at heaven: all that are in the church be not of the church: there are both good and bad fish in this net; there is wheat and tars in this field, Sheep and Goats in this fold, thou must therefore go further and examine, whether thou be one of that Company, which God from eternity elected unto life, and in time effectually calleth by his holy Spirit, and makes true members of his Son jesus Christ, which is the head of this body, whether thou be of that flock which Christ calleth his garden, 
Cant  his sister, his spouse, his love, his dove, his undefiled, which is the pillar and ground of truth, 1. Tim. 3.13. the body of Christ, Eph. 1.23. the temple of the Lord, Eph. 2.21. which the gates of hell shall never prevail against, Matth. 16 18. Here thou must exercise thy wits, this must be thy care to find thyself in this little number, but how may this be known? by the cause? that is the will and good pleasure of God, which dwelleth in light that none can approach unto. This is a bottomless depth, who can sound it? Never man looked into this Ark and lived: busy thy brains about it, and when thou hast done all thou canst, thou art but like a fly about a Candle, which playeth so long with the flame, 
Lipsius' lib. 2. de Con.  that at length she burns her wings and falls down: and good reason it should be so: for it is enough for wretched man to be of God's Court, 
Plut. in Thes.  and it is too much to be of his Privy Council: thou must therefore do as Theseus did with the Labyrinth, thou must catch hold of the threads end that hangs without the door, and so by winding steps come at length to the first cause. Seeing thou canst not know it a Priori by the cause; thou must know it a posteriori, by the effect, an effect of God's immutable decree, and an undoubted mark (to let all others pass) of God's child his Sanctification: for as on the one side it is certainly true, that without holiness of life, no man shall see God: Heb. 12.14. So it is as true on the other side, that he which walketh not after the Flesh, 
Rom. 8.1.  but after the Spirit is engrafted into Christ and shall never be condemned. So then holiness of life is the true touchstone, to try whether thou be of this number: but here deceive not thyself, for there is a verbal holiness, and a Pharisaical holiness, and a Herod's holiness, and a popish holiness, and an Anabaptistical holiness. The verbal holiness is of such as draw near unto God with their lips, 
john. 29.13.  but with their hearts are far from him as the Prophet speaks: the Pharisaical holiness, is of those which devour widows houses under colour of long prayers; and such as will not leave a mote on the outside of their cap, but never care how filthy it be within. The Herod's holiness is of them which will quench the fire on the hearth, and leave it burning in the top of the chimney, will mend their least faults, and let their worst be marring. The Popish holiness is in observing human traditions, and treading under foot the law of God. The anabaptistical holiness is of such, as are well persuaded of themselves (though without all reason) but can never have a charitable opinion of any others: they are troubled with a Noli me tangere, touch me not, 
Isa. 65.5.  come not near me for I am holier than thou: but I say unto thee, except thy righteousness exceed the righteousness of all these men, 
Matth. 5.20.  thou shalt not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: it is an other kind of holiness which thou must have, if thou wilt assure thy soul that thou art one of Christ's flock: it is indeed in the tongue, but it proceedeth from an other fountain (the heart) and makes a man say with David, thy words have I hid within my heart, 
Psal. 119.  that I might not sin against thee. It makes a man have a carc to approve by outward actions unto men, but much more to approve the cogitations of his heart unto God: it strives not to break of some branches of sin (such as may be best foregone) reserving the rest, but it is most severe against those sins which are the sweetest to man, because such sins as are most pleasant unto many, are most unpleasant in the sight of God. It will not stick charitably to censure others: but it makes a man most sharp in censuring & containing his own sins, it resteth not contented with any one degree of perfection, but forgetteth that which is behind, & endeavoureth to obtain that which is before, 
Phil. 3.13.  and followeth hard toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ jesus.  
Beloved in our best beloved jesus Christ, do ye all desire to be fully assured that you are of that little number, whose names are written in the book of life: I know you desire it, for (alas) what comfort can a man have in this life, though he should be Monarch of the whole world, and to have kings to lay their crowns before his footstool, if he doubt what shall become of his own soul? that of the heathen Emperor, animula vagula blandula que nunc abibis in loca, etc. Though it be allowed by popish Divinity, 
Verba morientis Traiani.  will be but a cold comfort to a Christian on his death bed: he shall never come in heaven that is not perfect of the way before he go hence. This is the best mark whereby you may assure yourselves, that ye are already in the high way, even your sanctification. Oh then be not (as to many are) like painted tombs, guilded without, rotten within; tip not your tongues with godliness, when your souls are full of gall and bitterness. Bear not Bibles in your hands, and Mammon in your hearts. Let the remembrance of this, that holiness of life is the cognisance of every true member of Christ's Church, be as it were a knife to cut a sunder the cords of vanity, wherewith Satan strives to strangle you, or to draw you headlong into hell and destruction. Let it be as a spur to prick you forward in the course of idleness, assuredly howsoever my words may now pass away as a wind, and not sink into the hearts of many that shall hear them: yet Cum votat ille dies, etc. 
Ovid Meta. lib. 15.  When those muddy walls are ready to fall (and fall they must for all your daubing) there cannot a greater terror befall your consciences (to make you fear that you are but rotten members at the best of Christ's Church) than the remembrance of an evil life: nor on the other side can there a greater comfort betide you, 
Eccl. 12.8.  when your pitchers are ready to be broken at the cistern, then to assure yourselves by your lives past (abounding with good works which are the fruits of a justifying faith) that you are amongst those which God hath accounted to be his children. For than you may go with greater desires unto your graves then a weary pilgrim unto to his bed, assuring yourselves that your souls shall be transported into Abraham's bosom, there to reign with the holy Angels in eternal happiness, for evermore.  
The second proposition followeth, 
2. Proposition.  No particular place is so privileged, but that it may revolt and fall from God. If ever city that was seated under the cope of heaven, had a Patent from the God of heaven, for her perseverance in religion, it was jerusalem: for as of all the countries in the world, he choose judea, so of all the cities of judea, he preferred jerusalem. Sometimes his tabernacle was placed in Silo, but this he disliked, 
Josh. 18.1.  and removed unto jerusalem, as the only place which he had picked, and culled out of all others to set his name there; according to that of the Prophet. He refused the Tabernacle of joseph, & chose not the tribe of Ephraim: but he chose the tribe of judah, even the hill of Zion, which he loved, and there he builded his sanctuary as an high palace, like the earth which he established for ever. Psal. 78.67.68.69. Thus he made a seat for himself, an holy place, for the tabernacle of the most highest. Here was a Temple for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of jacob, those that shall but slightly peruse the grants and privileges which God hath promised this one city, will think that it had been as impossible for her to fall away, as for the found to be darkened in the midst of heaven. The hill of Zion is a fair place, even the joy of the whole earth upon the northside lieth in the city of the great king, God is well known in her palaces, as a sure refuge. jerusalem have I chosen out of the tribes of Israel, to put my name in it for ever. 2. King. 21.7.  
The Lord hath chosen Zion to be an habitation for himself, he hath longed for her, saying, this shall be my rest for ever, 
Psal. 132.14.15.  here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein. Hear was the seat of judgement, even the seat of the house of David. To whom the Lord had sworn by his holiness, that his seed should endure for ever, 
Psal. 132.5.  & his seat should be as the Sun before him: that he should stand fast for evermore, as the Moon, & the faithful witness in heaven. Psal. 89. When the Israelites were yet in the wilderness, God told them by his servant Moses, that he had appointed them a place in the land of Canaan, where they should all meet out of their several tribes, and towns to offer their first fruits, & to sacrifice unto the Lord: You shall seek the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, and thither you shall come, and shall bring your  offerings, & your sacrifices, & your tithes, & the offerings of your hands, and your vows, etc. And there ye shall offer before the Lord. Deut. 12. This was jerusalem, for thither the tribes came up even the tribes of the Lord, to testify unto Israel, and to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Psal. 122. Moreover here was there συνεδριον their chief Council, 
Sigon. de rep. haeb. lib. 6. Cap. 7.  or high Commission, (consisting of the king and princes of the people, to wit, the chief of every tribe, and of seventy Elders, 
Gijon de resp: haeb. lib. 6. cap. 7.  and of the high Priest, with the Doctors of Law) in which all matters of greater moment were concluded, and unto which (as unto the Oracles of God) in difficult points, which could not be decided by the judges of particular Towns and Cities, they were to have recourse for the full determination thereof, according to that of the Prophet: If there rise a matter too hard for thee to judge between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between plague and plague, in the matters of controversy within thy gates, then shalt thou arise, and go up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt come unto the Priests of the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days and ask, and they shall show thee the sentence of judgement and thou shalt do according to that thing which they of that place (which the Lord hath chosen) shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee, Deut 17. Beside this, the law was there more diligently then in other places expounded; the Prophets did reveal God's secrets unto the people, and by thundering out the Canons of the law did strive to wean them from their evil ways, and by the promises of the Gospel to woo them unto God: the jebusites which before time God had permitted to dwell amongst them; that they might be thorns in their eyes, and prickles in their sides, were now extirpated, 
Sigonius de rep: Haeb. li. 1.  so that they could not choke the word of God, which was sown amongst them, and make it unfruitful. Was there ever City upon the face of the earth, which had such a Charter as this? it was the City where God had promised to be resident, where was the Ark of the Covenant, and the glorious Temple which Solomon had built at God's appointment, where the Kings of judah had their abode, where the Law and the Prophets were diligently read and expounded unto the people, where all points of difficulty were handled, where was the priests Palace, whether the whole land had recourse out of their several Tribes, as unto the place where men ought to worship: 
john. 4.  it was a heaven upon earth, and a type of that glorious City which is above: and is jerusalem so fallen from God, can there not one righteous man be found within her walls? is the holy City become so wicked? is the faithful Spouse become a Harlot? are her Princes become Rebels, her judges Murderers, her Gold dross, her charity oppression, her ripeness rottenness, her almsdeeds al-misdeedes? Hath the leprosy of sin so infected every part of her body, 
Isai. 1.  that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is nothing whole therein, but wounds and swellings, and sores full of corruption? What need we go further for proving our conclusion, for as he speaks in Tully, 
Cicero. lib. 1. de orat.  Either this is enough, or I know not what will suffice: if you would have Topical Arguments after such a demonstration as this: I could lead you through many places of invention, which would manifestly confirm my assertion. I could show you the Churches of Gallatia and Philippi, and Corinthus, which Paul had planted, Apollo and other Disciples had watered, and God had wonderfully increased, I could instance in Smyrna, and Pergamus and Laodicea, etc. In which the Evangelist john had so painfully laboured in Constantinople and Ephesus, and Nice, and Chalcedon, famous for the general Counsels, in Carthage, and Hippo, and other Churches of Africa in Antiochia, the first Godmother of Christians, and in a word, in all the Eastern and African Churches, in which so many Worthies have flourished. What is the cause of these particulars at this day? behold they are fallen, as though they had not been planted, as though the seed of the word had not been sown amongst them, 
Isa. 40.  as though that stock had taken no root in the earth, the Lord hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and the whirlwind hath taken them away like stubble: the abomination of desolation (let him that heareth it, consider it) sitteth in their holy places, which are now nothing else but as it were an habitation for Dragons and Courts for Ostriches, 
Philip. Lonicerus de rebus Turcicis.  instead of the sacred Bible, they have entertained the blasphemous Koran, their Mophti Meizin, and Antippi, and such Idolatrous Mahometains have gotten the rooms of the ancient Fathers.  
Use. What? and are these also fallen? then let her that thinketh she standeth take heed lest she fall. I mean that strumpet which advanceth herself above the stars of God: which saith, I am, and none else, and sings with Niobe in the port, Sum Felix, I am in a happy estate, and there shall no harm happen unto me; which with Laodicea thinketh that she is rich and increased with goods, and needeth nothing, 
reve. 3.  whereas indeed, (as anon you shall hear) she is wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Ninive had such a conceit of herself, and did so far presume upon her strength, that she thought it had been impossible for all the powers of the world to bring her under the hatches. And therefore the Lord bids her look upon the state of Alexandria, a stronger City than Ninive, and yet she was destroyed. Art thou better (saith he) than No, 
Nahum. 3.8  which was full of people? that lay in the rivers, and had the waters round about it; whose ditch was the sea, and her wall was from the sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and there was no end: Put & Lubin were her helpers, yet was she carried away, and went into captivity. The same may be said of Rome, (suppose that none of these Cities which I have last mentioned may paralele with her) is she better than jerusalem: which was seated upon such strong bulwarks, as already hath been mentioned: yet she fell from God and moved the holy one of Israel to anger against her: grant unto her all that she can claim (and she will be sure to lack nothing for want of challenging, 
Thrasilaus apud Athen. Dipnos. li. 12.  for she is not unlike to him who could not espy a ship floating upon the seas, but presently said it was his) and more than all the Papists in the world can prove to be her due, yet she hath no more to brag of, than had jerusalem; is she the mother city of all other and the Metropolis of all Christendom? So was jerusalem, in respect of the inhabitants of jury. Which at that time were the only people which God had chosen. Are all others to appeal unto her as unto their supreme judge in matters of difficulty; so were jews unto the high court of jerusalem; did Peter the prince of the Apostles, the porter of heaven gates, remove his chair from Antiochia and placed it at Rome? so did the Lord his tabernacle from Shiloh to jerusalem, hath Rome the head or chief Bishop of all Christendom? jerusalem had the like, is she the keeper and dispenser of the Lords treasury? So was jerusalem: doth she challenge a freedom for persevering in the truth? jerusalem had better grounds to do the like: and verily, as Rome doth at this day flatter herself with a false application of universal promises, 
joh. 8.33.39 Psalm.  So did jerusalem. Abraham is our father, we are the children of Abraham, 
Gen. 49.10. jer. 7.4.  this is my rest for ever: the sceptre shall not departed from judea, nor a lawgiver from under his feet: the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, this is the temple of the Lord. All her titles that she can any way lay claim unto, will not make her better than jerusalem, which became such an Apostatate, that not one godly man could be found in her. So that she cannot challenge any privilege to herself from falling to the like wickedness, that which happens to the one, may be fall the other, Unless she can deal with the truth, as the old Romans handled the goddess victoria: who after they had won the field, used to clip her wings that she might not fly away.  
But what need we stand of the possibility, when the act proveth it. A certain man, walking on his way, while he looked not so well to his feet, as he should have done, fell into a pit: when divers of his acquaintance came by, and saw his mischance, they began to inquire one after another, how he fell thither: What a question is that said he, you see that I am fallen, think rather of some means how to help me up again. We never need make question, whither and how Rome could revolt and fall from Christ; certain it is, she is fallen; and well it were for her, if she could be holp up. When Philip told Nathaniel, that he had found the Messiah, of whom it was written in the Law, and in the Prophets, and told him who it was, viz. jesus of Nazareth: Nathaniel wondered at it, and said; Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? 
john 1.47.  If any shall wonder that there should be any defect in Rome, which so many ages hath been counted the mother & nurse of true religion: I answer him as Philip answered Nathaniel, Come and see. When thou art an eye-witness of all her abominations, thou wilt subscribe to his testimony, who at his coming away, bade her thus adieu: Roma vale vidi, satis est vidisse revertar, cum leno meretrice scurra cinoedus ero.  
I must confess, that when first I made choice of this portion of Scripture, I did not intend to have played upon this string with my least finger. But now that I have met Rome in my high way, I cannot choose, but (by your patience) speak a word unto her before we part, especially, when I consider how ready she is to disgrace all such as will not drink of her Cyrcean cups. How she sendeth her panders amongst us to get her more customers, & his peddlers to sell her deceitful wares. How busy she is in hanging up her spiderwebs to catch our English butterflies which have neither wit to avoid them, nor strength to break them; and what pains she taketh in decking herself, and in painting her ugly wrinkled face, that she may allure. Men destitute of understanding, to forsake their first love, and commit folly with her. There was a time when Rome was a glorious Church, 
Prou. 7.7.  Paul giveth her this testimony, that 
a Rom. 1.8.  her faith was published throughout the whole world. She was (as some say) the chief, seat for one of the four patriarchs. 
b Praefac. in Concil. Nicenum 1 sedes, Romanoe. 2 Alexandria. & Cant 6. Antiqua Consuetudo. etc.  or rather of equal dignity with the others, Her approbation was desired in sundry Counsels, as one more incorrupt than the rest, 
Quia urbis Romae peril. estres.  by reason that she was not so shaken with Schisms and Heresies, as were the Eastern Churches, she was an Asylum for many which were persecuted for the testimony of jesus Christ: this she was, and this is all that she can boast herself off at this day. Which when she hath done, she is no better than those degenerous spirits of Nobility and Gentry, who when they have nothing in themselves worthy the least commendation, will dig up the old root whence they sprang. But 
Si vita labat, perit omnis in illa,  
Gentis honos cuius, 
ovid.  laus est in origine sola.  He leaneth upon a rotten staff, which hath nothing to speak for him save his dead Progenitors virtues. If any man think I do her wrong, may it please him to compare her with the state of jerusalem in the time when jeremy prophesied: the sins of jerusalem were either in doctrine and matters of Religion, or in conversation and manner of living: for the former, it is as much (if not more) corrupted at this day in the Romish Church, than it was then amongst the jews. The Prophets there 
c Ier 5.31.  Prophesied lies: 
d Cap. 23.24  God sent them not, and yet they ran, he spoke not unto them, and yet they prophesied 
e Cap. 14.14.  even a false vision, and the dreams and devices of their own hearts: whether the Romanists do this or no: those impious assertions which they maintain against the reformed Churches (for oppugning whereof, 
f Vid. Lind: li. 4. Cap. 100 et petrum a Soto contra Brentium.  many holy Martyrs have with their best blood died the skirts of the purple hoar) may sufficiently witness. What shall I tell you of their prayers for the Dead, their Sacrifice of the Mass, their communicating under one kind, their vows, their forbidding of Marriages, their Indulgences, their Purgatory, their works of Supererogation, and a number more, by which like 
g Act. 14.25.  the Silver Smiths of Diana, they have gotten their goods? all which make a goodly show of holiness, to such as are blinded with the mists of ignorance, by reason that the candle of the word is covered under a Bushel, and locked up in the closet of an unknown tongue, but bring 
h Psal. 105.  David's Lantern to try them and you shall find that when they are viewed in the light, they will prove like Gloe-wormes, and Toadestooles, more like to any thing then that which they were taken for: or like 
i Solimus.  the Apples of Sodom, which make a goodly show a far off, but if they be once touched, they will presently fall into dust; or like those 
k D. D. in his preface upon Euclid.  Mathematical Showers, which in the twilight seem to be gold or precious stones, yet where the light comes, prove nothing but lime & sand: then their prayers unto Saints will prove but much babbling: their Images teachers of lies, their forbidding of marriages, doctrines of Devils: their Purgatory fire borrowed from the superstitious Ethnics, to keep their Kitchens hot, their Masses, massacres of Souls, their Holy-water, Crucifixes, Relics and Rags of Saints, etc. beggarly rudiments, base Merchandise not worth the cheapening: this they themselves know full well, and therefore if ye ask these Luci●ugae scripturarum, 
Tertul. de resurrectione Carnis. Persius. Eckius Pighius contro. 3. de scriptura. Ludou. Canonicus quat. in orat. hab. in Concil. Trid. vide Chem. in exam. Concil. Tried, et juellum in defen. apol. Cap. 19 et. 20. Si quis habent interpretationem Romanae Eccl. deal q●o l●co scripturae etiamsi nec sciat nec intelligat an aut quomodo eum scripturis Conueniat. habet tamen ipsissimum dei verbum, Hosius: de expresso dei verbo.  what warrant they have from the Oracles of God, Romulidae Satyri quid diâ Poemata narrant? They will tell you they have it by tradition, or the Church hath ordained it: or it is not needful to bring Scripture for a ground of their Positions: which it pleaseth some of them to call a Lesbian rule, and a nose of wax, and a black Gospel, and inky Divinity, and a dumb Teacher, and a dead and kill Letter. Indeed, if they can wrest any place of Scripture though it be contrary to the meaning of the holy Ghost, yet it must be taken for sound Divinity, because as a great Cardinal speaks: If any man have the interpretation of the Romish Church, of any place of Scripture, although he know not whether it agree with the word of God or no: yet it is not to be doubted, but he hath the very word of God. Thus must these expositions go for sound Divinity, mark them and compare them with jewish glosses: Drink ye all of this, that is not all, but some, to wit, the Clergy, Marriage is honourable amongst all men, not all, but some, the laity: Cast not pearls before swine: that is, suffer not the people to read the Scriptures in a known tongue: 
Psal. 8.  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, that is, under the Pope's feet: The fishes of the Sea, that is the Souls in Purgatory, The beasts of the land, that is the men of this world, 
Antoni: in Sum. part. 3. tit: 2 2. c. 5.  The fowls of the heaven, that is the souls of the blessed which the Pope hath canonised, Here are two swords, that is, the Pope hath the managing of both sword, Civil and Ecclesiastical, an exposition not altogether so harsh, as that which 
n In his advertisement to Pope Paul the Fift touching the Venetians.  Baronius brought of late, to prove that the Pope had authority not only to feed Christ's Sheep, but also to punish with death such as resist his Papal dignity: because he which said, 
o joh. 21.  Peter feed my sheep, said also, 
p Act. 10.13  Arise Peter and kill: if he had pressed the text a little further, he might by the same Argument have proved his holy Father to be an Anthropophagus or Cannibal, because it is not simply said, Arise Peter and kill, but Arise Peter kill and eat, unless he had Bellarmine's wit, 
Bellar. de Rom. Pont. lib. 1. cap. 12.  who proveth the Pope's Supremacy, not from the first word kill, but from the second word Eat.  
But the main fault in Religion, which hastened God's judgements upon jerusalem, was her idolatry: She changed her God: 
r jer. 2.13.  She forsook the fountain of living waters, and digged unto herself even broken pits which would hold no water: she played the harlot upon every high mountain, and under every green tree: 
Verse. 17.  She said unto a tree, thou art my Father, and to a stone, thou hast begotten me. Whether Rome go not beyond her in this particular, he that hath but half an eye may plainly see, 
Virgil. Aene. 1.  
Cur natos toties crudelis tu quoque falsis,  
Ludio imaginibus?—   
We do not read of many Idols that were famous amongst the jews, there was Ashtereth the God of the Sidonians; & Milcome the abomination of the Moabites, and Chemosh the abomination of the children of Ammon, and Baal, and a few more: but the Idols which Papists have invented are so many, that Rome can scarce find room for placing them: She is more like to the old Gentiles, who did acknowledge one chief jupiter,— αναξ ανδρωντε θεωντε, 
Hominum rex atque deorum.  
And jupiter omnipotens, qui res hominumque Deumque  
aeternis regis imperiis:  But he had three hundred under him which they worshipped as gods: 
Varro.  though the Papists acknowledge one supreme power, yet are there three hundred to whom they perform that worship which is due only unto God, and as they had twelve which they counted greater gods, which Ennius containeth in these old verses, 
juno, vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars.  
Mercurius, iovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo. 
Extant apud Apulerum. et Natalem Comitem. Sen. na. quaest. lib. 2. cap. 41.   Whom they hold to be of God's Privy Council: but many lesser gods and goddesses for particular purposes, as for their Waters, Lympha, 
Varro. lib. 1. de re Rustica.  for her Gardens, Pomona for their grounds, Terminus, etc. So the Papists have the twelve Apostles, which (with the Platonists) they use as Mediators between them & the high God, unto which they have added the Virgin Marie, thinking especially by her intercession to have their desires; as the Troyans' in the Poet used the mediation of Venus to obtain favour of jupiter. Now for particular matters, there is scarce any thing but they have a God or Goddess for it: When they are in fear of the plague they pray to Sebastian, 
Lutherus in Decalog.  against the falling sickness to Valentine, against sudden death to Christopher, against the Ring-worm to Anthony. Now then as Pythagoras from the print of Hercules his foot in the games of Olympus, did collect the bigness of his whole Body. So from these few things which have been spoken, you may gather how far Rome hath declined from her former purity, and how well she may parallel with jerusalem in my Text. I might take occasion to speak of that pre-eminence, which the Pope challengeth over all Christian Kings (God's immediate Deputies on earth) by reason of a supposed Authority given unto Peter, whose successor he pretenteth himself to be, the very same argument in substance, by which the Turk claimeth the Western Empire, because he succeed Constantine: or he that married Tully's wife, laid claim to his learning, because he had married his executor: all Princes must hold their sceptres from him, all nations must crouch down before him, and all kingdoms must do him service: Hear jerusalem dare not stand out in comparison with Rome: her high Priests were never come to that height of impudency, as to set up their heads above the Lords anointed. When Tiberius observed the base servitude which the Romans used towards him: he could not choose but cry out, 
Tacitus Annal. lib. 3.  O homines natos ad servitutem, he that considereth how vilely & servilely, she which sometime was the Empress of the world, doth obey him which is styled a servant of servants, he may well use Tiberius his words: or those of the Poet, 
Roma tibi quondam suberant domini dominorum,  
servorum servi nunc tibi sunt domini.  but this is only by the way. From her religion, let us come to her conversation and manner of living. jerusalem was as corrupt in life, as she was in religion: 
z jer. 7.9.  She did steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely. Her inhabitants, 
a Cap. 6.13  from the least unto the greatest, were given to covetousness, and from the Prophet unto the Priest, they all dealt falsely. 
b Cap. 2.34.  In the wings was found the blood of the souls of poor innocents: How far Rome goeth beyond jerusalem, even in this also we may have a little taste in our holy English Catholics, the remainder of the Romish Church, and the only true professors (if ye will believe them) of the ancient faith in this kingdom: but try them by the works of regeneration (the principal body of true Christianity) and you shall find, that in profanation of God's Sabbath, in swearing and blaspheming, in lying and cozening, in drunkenness and whoredom, in oppression, and all unconscionable dealings, they are for the most part, the very scum and excrements of this land. And why should they make conscience of these sins, 
Venalia Romae temlpa, sacerdotes altaria sacra, coronae, ignes thura preces Coelum est venale deusque.  seeing their holy mother is as it were a fair or royal Exchange, where any sin may be bought at a reasonable rate. Nothing more common than what do you lack, or what will you buy, etc. A pardon for your sins past, or for any sin you shall hereafter commit? a toleration for common Stews, for, (but I dare not name it) a dispensation for incestuous marriages, or any thing else, you shall have it if you can agree for the price: shall I say all in a word, She is a hell of impieties, 
Reu. 18.2.  a habitation of devils, and the hole of all foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And therefore I less marvel why Friar Mantuan should be so bitter against her corruptions in his time.  
Sanctus ager scurris venerabilis ara cinaedis,  
Seruit, honorandae diwm Ganimedibus aedes. 
Mantuane.   
And he saith further, Nulla hic arcana revelo, It was no shriving secrets the Friar did disclose, but such things as all the world could witness to be true. Bernard 
Bernardus. lib. 4. de Consideratone ad Eugenium.  is more sharp against the abuses of his time (though the rotten humours were but then in gathering) when he complaineth that the covetous, Luxurious, Ambitious, Incestuous, Sacreligious, and all such hellish Monsters did flock to Rome, to get a warrant from the Apostolic Sea, for their proceed. And that they made no more conscience of Sinning, than thieves after they have rob a man by the highway, are afraid to divide the spoil. Curia tua recipere bonos magis, quam facere consuevit, (he speaks unto the Pope) mali enim illic non proficiunt sed boni deficiunt. I intent not now to lay open her monstruous cruelties and bloody massacres, of such as truly profess the Gospel of Christ, in which point she doth very well resemble (Shall I say) jerusalem, which killed the Peophets & stoned them that were sent to her? nay, rather old Rome under Nero as often as the Emperor gave commandment that any should be slain or banished, 
Tacitus. lib. 14. Annal. quoties fugas & caedes jussit princeps, toties, predijs actae: quaeque rerum secundarum olim nunc publicae cladis insignia fuere.  so often (saith Tacitus) did they give thanks unto God: and those things which in former time had been notes of some prosperous success, were now the ensigns of public slaughter. Is not this her custom at this day? are there any bloody butcherings of Christ's flock, any cruel murdering of Christian Princes, by Romish jebusites, but it shall be received at Rome with Bonfires and Hymns in most triumphant manner? all which things when I consider, I am fully resolved that a learned Divine of later years, doth not speak of any malicious humour, when he saith that there be three points of divinity, 
calvinus lib. 4. justit. ca 7.  (he calleth them Capita arcana Theologiae) which go current in Rome. The first, that there is no God: the Second, that whatsoever is written of Christ is lies and deceits. The third, that the Doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgement is merely fabulous, now then this being the case of that great and glorious City, we may well collect, that her horrid desolation and fearful downfall is at hand. For there is no state so strong, no City so fenced, but the sins of the people will bring it unto destruction, which is my third and last Proposition out of the second general branch of my text, whereof I am now by your patience to entreat.  

Proposit. 3  That Kingdoms and common wealths have their periods and downfalls, is a conclusion which the premises of all former ages do demonstrate; learned Athens, stately, Sparta rich Babylon, victorious Carthage, ancient Troy, proud Ninive, and a thousand more have numbered their years: and at this day have no stronger fence than Paper walls, to keep their names from oblivion, the great enemy of antiquity. Now for the true cause of their subversions, it is a truth, which the greatest wizards of this world, after much study, and many serious consultations which nature could never find out. The Epicures attribute it to fortune the Stoicts to destiny, the Pythagorians to numbers. Which last opinion Plato made such reckoning of, that he will have numbers to be the sole cause of the transmutations of common wealths. Whose words be so Enigmatical, 
Plato. lib. 8. de rep. Cicero. lib. 7. Epist ad Atticum.  that Tully makes them a Proverb, and Marsilius Ticinus invocateth not Oedipus but Apollo to unfold them. 
Arist. 5. lib. pollit. cap. 12.  Aristotle (who of all others cometh nearest unto the truth) makes the cause to be a disharmonie in the body politic, as too much wealth of some few, the great misery of many, injury, fear, etc. I little marvel that heathen Philosophers should shoot so wide, when Christians have so grossly mistaken their mark. Bodin how witty is he in pleading for numbers? 
Bodin Math. hist. cap. 6.  what virtue doth he attribute to 7. or 9 or 12. and the squares and cubics. How doth he shift himself to prove his opinion sound, by instances of the most comon-wealthes that have been hitherto in account, adding, or detracting years at his pleasure, from the calculation of the best Chronologers, to make the number square or cubique, or spherical, or at the least, some way consisting of 7. or 9 or of three roots or squares. Cardanus 
Cardanus.  hangeth all upon the tail of the greater bear. The common sort of Astrologians, refer it to the planets and stars, making such a scheme at the first foundation of any City, which made Varro (as Plutarch witnesseth) so earnest with Taruncius Firmanus, to inquire the opposition, and aspect of the planets, when Rome was first situated, thinking hereby to conjecture how long that Empire should endure. Copernicus' 
Copernicus.  will have the conversion & motion of the centure of his imaginary excentricle circle (which circle according to him, is not caused by the heavens motion (for the heavens in his opinion are unmovable) but by the earth, which he will have to be continually wheeled about, to be the cause of these alterations of Commonwealths. Thus while they groped in the dark, they miss their mark, 
Gen. 19  as the Sodomites did Lot's door, and while they professed themselves wise, 
Rom. 1.22.  they became fools. And little marvel, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: None of all these have happened on the true cause, 
1. Cor. 1.  it is the sins of the people which bringeth every commonwealth to ruin. And how can it be otherwise? for if thou lay more weight on the roof, than the pillars can support, the house must needs fall. Now sin is of such an intolerable weight, that no house nor City, nor Commonwealth can stand under it, but it will press it down, it is a burden to the whole earth, and makes it reel to and fro, 
Isa. 24.20.  and stagger like a drunken man: it is a burden to all the creatures, 
Rom. 8.22.  and maketh them groan and travel in pain: it is a burden to God himself, which makes him cry out in the Prophet against the jews, 
Amos 2.13.  That they had pressed him with their iniquities, even as a cart is pressed with sheaves: it lay so heavy upon Christ's shoulders, that it made him sweat drops of blood, 
Luke 22.44.  This burden of itself so heavy, like a malefactor that is pressed to death, cries for more weight, to press the sinner to the pit of hell: it calls to heaven for the burden of the Lord, 
jere. 23.  that is, for vengeance to be inflicted upon the impenitent sinner, God in regard of his patience, and long suffering, is said to have leaden heels, he cometh slowly even against his will to punish, but in respect of his justice, he is said to have iron hands. He striketh with a witness, when once he gins to smite in his proceed against the sins of men, he hath a double method sometimes, (and this method is most usual when he proceedeth against the sins of his children) he comes to them as he came to Elias. 
1. King. 19  First he sendeth a mighty strong wind, to blow down the tall Cedars, and cast them to the ground, as Paul was, before he was converted. Then an Earthquake, 
Acts 24.26.  to shake the flinty rocks, I mean the stony hearts of men, & to make them tremble, as Felix did, when Paul disputed of the judgement to come, than a fire to burn up the stubble, and consume the briars, and then (when these forerunners, like john Baptist have prepared a way for the Lord) he comes himself, in a soft voice, the gracious and sweet promises of the Gospel, to seal a pardon to such, as by the former judgements are dejected and humbled. And this may be termed Gods Ordo compositiws: Sometimes (and this is more usual, especially when he proceeds against the wicked) he taketh a contrary course: First, he comes in a soft and still voice, to woo them to himself: But when they harden their hearts, and will not be reclaimed from their evil ways; then at length he will send a fire to devour them, and an Earthquake and mighty strong wind, to scatter them away like chaff from the face of the earth, 
Psal. 1.  & to blow them down even in the bottom of hell; and this I may fitly call God's ordo resolutiws; it is said of Alexander, 
Q. Curtius.  that when he besieged a certain City, he held out a Lamp, proclaiming a pardon to as many as would yield themselves before the Lamp was burned: so the Lord first holdeth out the Lamp of his word, whereby he calleth them to submit themselves, and gives them a time to deliberate; if in the mean time they do not yield, nothing remains but death and destruction: it is storied of Tamburlaine the Scythian, 
Stephani. Epi. in Herod.  that whensoever he besieged a City, first he displayed a white flag in token of mercy, if they would yield themselves, the second day a red flag threatening blood because they did not in time submit themselves, if they continued until the third day, than came out his black slack menacing utter ruin and desolations; this is God's Method. First he sets out his white flag of peace; if this be not regarded, then comes his red flag of correction, though not of destruction: if this will take no place with them, than he sets out his black flag, 
Virgil lib. 6. Aeneid.  bella horrida bella, nothing but death and desolation. Down with it, down with it▪ even to the ground, tribulation and anguish, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest, this shall be their portion to drink. It's long before he be moved to anger, but if the coals of his wrath be kindled; O Lord God how terrible will this flame be! it will lick up the sea like dust, and melt the mountains like wax, and burn to the very bottom of Hell, so that nothing in the world will quench it, but the blood of the Lamb, and the streaming tears of unfeigned repentance: cast your eyes to the time of old, for we are: 
job. 8.9.  but men of yesterday, and our days on earth are like a shadow, as Bildad speaketh in job, and you shall find my conclusion proved by the occurrents of all ages. Sodom that fruitful and plentiful City, which was for beauty and pleasure like the garden of God, or as the valley of Egypt, 
Gene. 19  as thou goest unto Zoar, 
Gene. 13.10  if the stink of her sins ascend into heaven, shall be converted into a stinking Fen, for an everlasting remembrance of her iniquity. 
Deut. 3.3.  jericho a goodly place, a City of Palm trees, a fenced City, whose walls reached up to heaven: 
john 6.21.  if she be withal a sinful and an idolatrous City, she and all that is in her, both man and woman, young and old, Ox and Ass, shall be utterly destroyed. Babylon, which Aristotle 
Arist. Polit.  for the greatness calls rather a Region then a City, the Empress of the earth, the Princess of Cities, the glory of Kingdoms, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, which said, I sit as Queen, I am no widow, and shall see no mourning: If she continued in her sins, shall be as the destruction of God in Sodom and Gomorrah, 
Isa. 13.  it shall not be inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation, but Zim shall dwell there, and their houses shall be full of Ochim, Ostriches shall dwell there, and the Satyrs shall dance there, and Limb shall cry in their Palaces, & Dragons in their pleasant places: so that a man shall be more precious than gold, even a man above the wedge of the gold of Ophir: It is not her powerful state, nor rich Citizens, nor strong walls, nor high Towers, nor magnifical buildings, that shall free her from God's punishing hand: nay, jerusalem in my Text, the Vine that God's right hand had planted, the City of the Great King, the holy place of the Tabernacle of the most high, the beauty of Israel, the glory of Nations, 
Lament. 1.  and Princesses of provinces, if she will not be awaked from her sins, shall not be much better than the destruction of Sodom and the miserable desolation of doleful Gomorrah, her walls shall be turned into heaps of dust, her houses consumed, her Temple burned, her treasury empty, her in habitants killed: Quis Cladem illius urbis quis funera flaetu explicet. What heart is so flinty which will moult into tears, when it shall think of the misery which did twice befall this one City.  
Now all 
c 1. Cor. 10.11.  these punishments came upon Use. 1 them for an ensample and are written to admonish you upon whence the ends of the world are come, that you should be armed and warned, that you should see, and foresee, before the time be past, 
Cicero. Phil. 1.  ut quorum facta imitamini eorum exitum per horrescatis, that if you tread in their footsteps you should remember their downfalls, God is the same God still, he is as strong as ever he was, he is as just to revenge as ever he was, his arm is not shortened, his strength is not abated, his wrath is not turned away from sin, but his hand is stretched out still. Sin may bud in the spring but it withereth before Harvest: it may flourish for a time, but godliness endureth unto the end. When the wicked thinketh himself the surest, when he saith unto his soul, Peace, Peace, and Soul, take thy rest. Even then there is but one step between him and destruction: believe the kingly Prophet, he speaketh it of his own experience, I myself have seen the ungodly in great prosperity, 
Psa. 37.36.37  and flourishing like a green bay tree; what followeth, I went by, and lo, he was gone; I sought him, and his place could no more be found. Behold his countenance, he is but as the grass upon the house top, which withereth before it be plucked up, 
Psal 73.18.  or as the sound upon the water, or as a garment fretted with moths: O how suddenly doth he fade, perish, and come to a fearful end: even as a dream vanisheth when as one awaketh. 
Plut. in vitae Pyrrhi. idem in vita Aninib.  It is noted of Pyrrhus and Hannibal, that they could quickly conquer a City, but they could never keep that which they had once subdued. I little marvel, that the wicked have great facility in heaping up of riches, but I should think it strange, if they could keep them till the third generation. Their wealth is like a snowball, gathered in the fall, not without labour and cold fingers: and anon after it is melted with the Sun, or washed away with the reign. But alas, alas beloved, I may hear take up the Prophet's complaint. 
Isa. 53.1.  Who will believe our report? my words seem unto many, as Lot's Sermon did to his sons in-law, when he foretold the destruction of Sodom, who seemed as though he had mocked, Gen. 19.14. Give me leave a little to speak plainly: I came not to sing unto you a gloria patri without a sicut erat, to flatter you with a smooth tale, as to lay pillows under your elbows, whereby you may securely sleep in your sins, Multi sunt Placentini, & Landenses pauci Veronenses, many come hither from Placentia, and Landa, but few from Veron. I doubt not but ye will all with your tongues confess my Proposition to be true, but the practice of the most denieth it: it is the sins of the people that bringeth every common wealth to ruin. Every one will say as much, but yet in our practice we hold an other strange Axiom that goeth for currant amongst us: it is the sins of the people that upholdeth every Common wealth: conscionable and true, and faithful dealing, which my Prophet as I suppose, nameth, by executing of judgement and seeking of the Truth, is like an Almanac out of date, every man hath found out a new way, both to maintain and better his estate, this old way is to far about. The bloodsucking Usurer, instead of lending and expecting nothing again, a lesson which our Saviour would have him to take out, if he look for the true treasure, doth eat and consume his needy Brother, even as pharao's lean and ill-favoured Kine devoured the other. This is the way he taketh to support his house, God loves not such an Arethmatician as spendeth his whole study about Multiplication, 
Regula falsitatis.  and the Rule of falsehood, and can never learn, the practice of Division. The Lawyer who should employ his best knowledge in uniting the knots of the law, and should be an Atropos to cut off the thread of controversies between man and man: feedeth his Client with golden hopes, and sugared words, and in the mean time like Lachesis draweth in length the thread of contention, using unnecessary delays, and posting of the matters from Court to Court, Term to Term, year to year, not unlike the cogging Surgeon, who in hope of greater gain doth poison the wound, that it may be longer in curing, or (if I may use a homely comparison) like the waggish Boy in the streets, who when he seethe two dogs snarling and grinning one at another for a bone, is never at rest till (for his own pleasure, but little for their profit) he hath brought them a rictu ad morsum, to try their right by their teeth, till at length the weaker be enforced to resign up his right to the stronger: this is a principal plot to maintain his estate.  
The Citizen that liveth on his trade, is like to the idolatrous jews in the Psalmist, which worship the Images of Canaan; Canaan signifieth a Merchant, and what is the merchants Image (saith Luther) but Denarius the Cross. This he maketh such reckoning of, as that he careth not for making shipwreck, not of a crazed, wooden vessel, but of a good conscience, so that he may obtain it: he selleth days and months, and years at a higher rate than his best stuffs; if his wares be too light, false balances must make up the weight, if too bad, too dear, a false oath must make a mends for both. The country Landlord (for though I speak in jerusalem, yet I do not doubt but some of every quarter of judah doth hear me, whom the Lord hath endowed with ample possessions that he should be as it were Pater Patriae, an upholder of his Country, a maintainer of justice, a scourge of vice, a protector of Religion, a shelter for the distressed to defend them from the rage of oppressors, as the 
a Xenocrates apud Aelianum. var. hist. lib. 13. cap. 31.  Philosopher did the Sparrow that fled into his bosom from the talentes of the Hawk. What doth he? he raiseth his rents, wringeth his Tenants like sponges, shaketh by some new devise the ancient custom; if this will not serve his turn, he farmeth out his livings (especially in such a year as this, when he should break his bread to the poor at his own doors) and taketh a room in this City, or some other, where he may live with much ease, little charges, and small credit, this he counteth an especial means to hold up his estate.  
If I have been in the bosoms of many of you, blame yourselves, for mine own part I may truly say to every particular that thinketh himself touched, as our Saviour said to the woman that was taken in Adultery; 
joh. 8.11.  Hath no man condemned thee? neither do I. Marry, withal I add that of john, 
1. joh. 3.20.  If thine own conscience condemn not he, God is greater than thy conscience, and knoweth all things; and therefore I dismiss thee with that speech of our Saviour spoken to the Cripple, that was newly restored to his feet; Go thy way and sin no more, 
joh. 5.14.  lest a worse thing come unto thee. What shall I say more? Run through each particular Estate and calling, and you shall find by the practice, though not of all, God forbidden that I should think so, I know there are in every profession which make a conscience of their ways, and in all their actions set God before their eyes, yet of the most part, that fraudulent and deceitful dealing, or some other unlawful means, is thought the most expedite and beaten way for supporting them. Few will let this conceit sink into their heads, that sin is the means that bringeth every Estate to ruin, the Preacher may tell them as much, but they will believe him at their leisure; in the mean time, they will still run on their old Bias; the husbandman may labour in weeding those grounds, but still they bring forth briers to entangle and nettles to sting others: the Gardener may busy himself in pruning those vines, but still they bring forth sour grapes, such as will set the teeth of God's children on edge. God's shepherds may watch continually about their flocks; 
jer. 2.  yet like swift Dromidaries they run by their ways, and like the wild Ass used to the wilderness, which snuffeth the wind by occasion at her pleasure, as the Prophet speaks; they cannot be kept from going astray. Every one can be angry if his worldly purpose be crossed never so little, but few or none will say with David; it grieveth me when ● see the transgressors, because they keep not thy law: Many can weep and commend plenty of tears, when any worldly calamity doth befall them, but few or none can shed one tear, Misere terendo oculos (as he speaks in the Comedy) for their sins, much less weep bitterly as Peter did, 
Math. 26.  or have their eyes gush out with water, because other men keep not Gods laws, 
Psal. 119.  with David many will sing to the Viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music like David as the Israelites did. 
Amos. 6.5.  But few will say with him, 
Psal. 119.143.  All my delight is in thy commandments; Many will say, with those good fellows, Come & bring wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and to morrow shall be as this day, 
Isa. 56.12  and much more abundant But few or none will say with those good professors, Come & let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of jacob, and he will teach us his laws, 
Isa. 2.3.  and we will walk in his paths.  
I think I cannot truly say with Hosea, that the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of this land, because there is no knowledge of God in the land. For our heads are not so sick, as our hearts are heavy: 
Isa. 1.5.  I mean our heads are not so void of knowledge, as our hearts are of obedience, but I dare boldly say, that which followeth: By swearing and lying, and killing, and stealing, and whoring, 
Hos. 4.2.  they break forth, and blood toucheth blood. Will you hear the judgements annexed in the subsequent words: Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein, shall be cut off. This is a terrible curse, & he that dwelleth in heaven, still avert it from us, but yet it is a conclusion which the Lord useth to infer upon such premises.  
Give me leave ro repeat a parable unto you, 
Isa. 5.1.2.3. etc.  My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he hedged it, and gathered the stones out of it, and he planted it with the best plants; and he built a Tower in the midst, and made a winepress therein. The Prophet in that place apply it to the land of judah, Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, is the land of Israel, and the men of judah, are his pleasant plants: me thinks I may not unfitly apply it unto this Island. Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Britain, and the men of this land are his pleasant plants, Now therefore, O ye inhabitants of this and, judge I pray you, between him and his vineyard, what could he have done unto it, that he hath not done? He hath planted it with his own right hand, he hath so hedged it about with his heavenly providence, that the wild boar out of the woods cannot root it up, nor they that go by, pull off his grapes. He hath watered it most abundantly with the dew of heaven: he hath gathered the stones of Popery and superstition out of it; he hath set the winepress of his word therein: he hath given it a Tower, even a king as a strong tower against his enemies, whose reign the Lord continue over us, if it be his pleasure, as long as the moon knoweth her course, & the sun his going down and let all that love the peace of Britain, say Amen. Now he hath long expected that it should bring forth grapes, but behold it bringeth forth wild grapes. He looked for judgement, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but lo a crying.  
These were the sins of jerusalem, and you know her judgements, he that was jerusalems' God, is Britain's God too, and therefore if she parallel jerusalem in her iniquities, let her take heed she taste not of her plagues; God though he hath not yet begun to punish her in his fury yet hath he sundry times shaked his rod of correction over her, if this will not work amendment, her judgement must be the greater.  
Fearful was the case of Samaria, whom God's punishments could not move to repentance. I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your Cities, 
Amos. 4.  and scarcenesss of Bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord God. I have with holden the rain from you when there was yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to ruin upon one City, and brought a drought upon another, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Pestilence have I sent amongst you after the manner of Egypt, and yet ye have not returned unto me saith the Lord. I have smitten you with, blasting and mildew, etc. yet ye have not returned unto me saith the Lord God. The Lord hath not hitherto dealt with us after our sins, nor plagued us according to the multitude of our iniquities, yet he hath made it manifest that he is displeased with us: His mercy hath pulled back his hand from drawing his sword of vengeance against us, yet he hath left us sundry tokens that he is angered with our sins. It is not long since that the heavens were made as brass, 
Deut. 28.23.  and the Earth as iron, nay, the very waters became as iron or as brass so that neither the heavens from above, nor the earth, or water from below did afford comforts for the service of man.  
This extraordinary cold distemperature of the air might by an Antiperistasis have kindled some heat of zeal & devotion in our breasts; when it had not the expected effect, 
Psal. 105.16  than he Called for a dearth upon the land, and destroyed our provision of bread: even such a famine, that if we were not relieved from foreign countries, Ten women might bake their bread in one Oven, as the Lord speaketh, Levit. 26.26.  
But all this hath not brought us upon our knees, nor humbled our souls before our God, therefore once again, he hath put life in his messenger of death, and set him on foot, which heretofore of late years hath raged in this city, like a man of war, and like a giant refreshed with wine, and bestirred himself (though not with the like violence) almost in every part of this kingdom: 
Psal. 91.6.  I mean the pestilence that walketh in the darkness, and the sickness that hath killed many thousands at noon day: all these are infallible tokens that he is offended with our sins: Howbeit he is so merciful that he will not suffer his whole displeasure as yet to arise, 
— Horum si singula duras  
Flectere non possunt, poterint tamen omnia, mentes.  If each of these by themselves cannot prevail with us, yet if they be all put together, they may serve (as a threefold cord) to draw us unto repentance. If these be not of force but still we continue to blow up the coals of his anger, then let us know for a certainty, that they are the forewarners of a greater evil, as the cracking of the house is a forewarning of his fall: these be but the flashing lightnings, the thunderbolt will come after.  
The cloud that is long in gathering, will make the greater storm: he is all this while in fetting his stroke, that he may give the sorer blow, Eurum ad se Zephirumque vocat; he is in bringing the winds out of his treasures, that he may rain upon our heads a shower of vengeance which shall be the portion of all the ungodly to drink.  
I began like a Barrabas, I will not end like Boanarges: my song had an Exordium of mercy, I am loath to bring for an Epilogue a thunderclap of judgement. Wherefore (my beloved Brethren) now that you see the true causes of the ruins of every commonwealth and the judgement that hangeth over your heads (like Damocles his sword) for our iniquities; flatter yourselves no longer in your own sins, but turn unto him by speedy and unfeigned repentance, that he may repent him of the evil, & turn away his plagues from you: let the wanton leave his dallying, and the drunkard his carousing, and the Usurer his biting, and the swearer his blaspheming, and the oppressor his grinding, and every one amend one in time, before the Lords wrath be further kindled: then will the Lord be merciful unto this land: he will quickly turn the sour looks of an angry and sin revenging judge, into the smiling countenance of a mild and gentle Father. He will take the rod which he hath prepared for you, and burn it in the fire. These plagues which do hang over you for your iniquities, he will blow away with the breath of his nostrils, as he did the Egyptian Grasshoppers into the red sea: he will command his destroying Angel to put up his sword into the sheath, he will open the windows of heaven, and power down a blessing upon you without measure.  
Then shall you be blessed in the City and blessed in the field, blessed at your going out, and blessed at your coming in, and whatsoever you put your hands unto shall be blessed; your sons shall 
a Psa. 129.4.  grow up as Olive branches, and your daughters shall be as the 
b Psal. 144.  polished corners of the Temple. Your grounds shall so abound with grain that the tilers shall laugh and sing; your garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store 
c joel. 2.24.  your presses shall abound with Oil and wine, your sheep shall bring forth thousands, and ten thousands in your fields; Every thing shall prosper, nothing shall stop the current of God's blessings, there shall be no decay, nor leading into captivity, and no complaining in your streets; and which is better than all ●hese, he will give you faithful & painful Pastors to feed you, his spirit to comfort you, his word to instruct you, his wisdom to direct you, his Angels to watch over you, his grace to assist you, and in a word, He will be your God, and you shall be his people: 
Esther. 6.9  thus shall it be done unto all those whom the King of heaven shall honour: so that all the world shall wonder at your felicity, & say, Blessed be the Lord which taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, & happy are the people that be in such a case, yea blessed are all they which have the Lord for their God; thus will he be with you, and direct you in the desert of this world, till he bring you into a fair and Goodly place, the promised land, a land that floweth with better things than abundance of Milk and Honey, the celestial Paradise, the heavenly Canaan, the kingdom of glory prepared for you from the beginning of the world, even that kingdom where the King is verity, the laws charity, the Angels your company, the Peace felicity, the life eternity. To this kingdom, the God of all mercy bring us for his sake that bought us with his own blood, to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit, three persons in trinity, and one God in unity, be ascribed all honour & glory, power and Majesty, both now and for evermore Amen.  
FINIS.