TWO SERMONS PREACHED AT the Assizes holden at CARLISLE, touching sundry corruptions of these times.  
By L. D. sometimes fellow of Queens Coll. in Oxford.  ISAIAH 62.1. 
For Zion's sake, will I not hold my peace.  
AT OXFORD, Printed by joseph Barnes. 1614   

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN God the Lord Bishop of CARLIL.  
RIGHT REVEREND,  
WHen I preached at Carlil at the last Assizes, I made no other account, but that my sermon should (like Aristotle's 
a Arist. de hist. animal. lib. 5. cap. 19  Ephemeron) have died the same day that it took breath. Since which time I have been entreated by divers to make it common: to whom I would not yield the least assent, as doubting that their desires proceeded rather from affection towards the speaker, than from a sound judgement of the things spoken. But when I perceived how distasteful it was to some, that bear Romish hearts in English breasts; I resolved, as David did when Micol mocked him for dancing before the ark, to be yet more vile, by publishing that unto their eyes, which before was delivered to their ears; hoping that the more it displeaseth them the better acceptance it shall find with the true Israelite. Which now at length I have effected. So that as before they heard it (or at least heard of it) so now they may read it. And if I have evil spoken let them bear witness of the evil, but if I have said well, why do they smite me? It seems to them a mere calumniation to say that there is no probability that a Papist shall live peaceably with us, & perform true and sincere obedience towards our Prince. To whom I might return the short answer of the Lacones to their adversary, Si: if it were so, my speech was not to no purpose, because not only rebels to the king, but much more to God and his true worship and service, are to be rooted out of a Christian commonwealth. And if those be worthy a sharp censure which agreeing with us in the fundamental points of Divinity, cannot away with the carved work of our temple, but cut it down as it were with axes & hammers: how much more those Sanballats and Tobiah'sses, that strike at the foundation thereof, and say of it, as did the children of Edom in the day of jerusalem, down with it, down with it, even to the ground.  
But I rather say, O si, I wish it were so, & that there were no fear of danger by their means and devises. But this I doubt cannot be effected, unless there be, I will not say with the Orator, a wall, but a sea between them and us. Till then there is as great probability of peace between us as there was of old between the Catholics and the Donatists, the Orthodoxal and the Arians, the Hebrews and the Egyptians, the jews and the Samaritans: Immortal odium & nunquam sanabile vulnus. And for true loyalty, and faithful obedience there is as great probability, as that the two poles shall meet. The King and the Pope are two contrary masters none can truly serve them both; Either he must hate the one, and love the other, or he must lean to the one and despise the other. The obedience which either of them requires is so repugnant, that they cannot lodge within one breast. This loyalty which our adversaries do outwardly pretend is but equivocal, no more true loyalty, than a dead hand is a hand; it wants the very form and soul (if I may so speak) of true dutifulness, which is to perform obedience voluntarily and with a free heart for God's cause, as to Christ's immediate Vicar over all persons within his dominions. It is with some secret reservation, till their primus motor, the man of sin, upon whom their obedience depends, shall sway them an other way: or rebus sic stantibus, the state standing as it doth, & donec publica bullae executio fieri possit, until they may have power and strength to resist. So that I may use the same words unto them which Austin doth to the Rogatists, 
Aug. ep. 48.  Saevire vos nolle dicitis, ego non posse arbitror; ita enim estis numero exigui, ut movere vos contra adversarias vobis multitudines non audeatis, etsi cupiatis. I speak chief of such as are grounded in the principles of Popish divinity, & take for current whatsoever is stamped in Rome's mint. As for their ignorant followers I only give them that censure, which S. Paul gives the jews; They have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of the righteousness of God, & going about to 'stablish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.  
I have adventured to join with this an other Sermon preached before upon a like occasion (so far as I could gather it out of a few scattered papers flying abroad like Sibylla's leaves, — rapidis ludibria ventis. Which I have the rather done, because my experience these few years in the country, hath taught me how common those sins are which I have herein endeavoured to reprove. If these my labours shall not be distasteful, I shall be willing to go forward in a greater subject. Howsoever they shall be taken, I submit them to the censure of your Lordship, and of every indifferent Reader (not counting what carping Momus can say against them) in the words of judicious Vives; 
Lud. Vives in August. de de Civit Dei li. vlt. c. vlt.  Si quid dixi quod placeat, habeat lector gratiam Deo propter me; si quid quod non placeat, ignoscat mihi propter Deum & malè dictis det veniam propter benè dicta; and of holy Austin in the conclusion of his long discourse de Trinitate, Domine Deus unus & trinitas, quaecunque dixi de tuo agnoscant & tui, si qua de meo & tu ignosce & tui.  
Your Lordships in Christ to be commanded LANCELOT DAWES.   
MATH. 26.15. 
What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?  
I have elsewhere, in a great and populous auditory, discoursed of our Saviour's mildness, & humility, & of the deceit and hypocrisy of the judasses' of these times, from these words of our Saviour: judas betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss? 
Luk. 22.48.  Being commanded to supply this place, I thought it not unfit for this present occasion, to look back into the story of our Saviour's passion, & to seek out the cause of judas his cruel, and more than hellish fact, in betraying his Master, which I find wrapped in the words already delivered unto you.  
These two questions, what will ye give me? and what shall I give you? be two evils at this day much reigning amongst men; which though they may stand somewhat upon their antiquity, yet they have little reason to brag of their pedigree. For the one may be fathered upon Simon Magus, who offered to buy the gifts of the holy Ghost for money: 
Act. 8.19.  What shall I give you, that upon whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the holy Ghost? the other upon judas the traitor, who offered to sell the giver of the holy Ghost for a small sum of money. What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? Both of them wicked, but the speech of judas the more heinous. Who not contented with that which he got by stealth out of the bag which he bore, and being disappointed of a profit which he expected, in regard that that box of ointment which he purposed to have sold, (that he might have converted a good part thereof to his own proper use,) was powered upon our Saviour's head: & perceiving our Saviour to defend the fact of the woman, anon he goes out; and because he was frustrated of his hope of gain by selling the ointment, he offers for a small sum of money to sell the anointed. What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? As if he should have said, I perceive that ye are marvelous desirous to apprehended my master, but ye cannot easily effect your purpose, by reason of the people, which make such account of him, that perchance they would make an uproar, if any open violence should be offered unto him: yet if ye will listen unto me, and follow my counsel, I will quickly ease you of that care, upon this condition, that ye will afford me any reasonable reward for my pains; tell me therefore before I go, what shall my recompense be, and I will undertake without any tumult to deliver him into your hands. In which words observe these two points, 1. judas his question, what will ye give me? 2. His promise to deliver his master, so that he may be rewarded: and I will deliver him unto you.  
In the question we see, that though judas was an Apostata, fallen from God, and led by Satan to betray his master, whom he little esteemed, as appears by the price he sold him for; yea though he had a desire to make his master away, lest he should afterward get knowledge of his theft, yet he will not betray him unless he have something for his pains. And therefore before he make any promise of delivering him, he covenanteth for a price: whence ariseth this note, that even the wicked, and reprobate will abstain from horrible and gross sins when there is no provocation offered, and when they see no end of committing them. There are in every sin which is voluntarily committed two causes. An inward impulsive moving them; and something which may have the name of a final cause or else an external object, alluring them. The impulsive cause in judas was covetousness. The final cause was to obtain some money. The impulsive cause kept itself close, and like a thief, lurked in a corner, till a fit opportunity was offered, and a reward was expected. As it was in judas, so was it in Achan; no doubt but Achan had given lodging to covetousness before the overthrow of jericho: but then he had the opportunity offered him. He saw amongst the spoil a goodly Babylonish garment, 
I●s. 7.21.  and two hundred shekels of silver, & a wedge of gold, & because he coveted them he took them (contrary to the Lords commandment) & hide them in the midst of his tent. As it was in these two, so was it in Gehazi. I make no question but an inordinate desire of having had possessed his heart, before that Naaman the Syrian, came to his master, to be healed of his leprosy. But never such an opportunity was offered, as was then: for when he saw Naaman offer his master some rich rewards for curing him, & his master absolutely refusing them, 
2. Kin. 5▪ 20.  he thought then was the golden occasion offered him to satiate his greedy desires, & therefore posts after Naaman to get something of him. Wicked Ahab who (as the holy Ghost speaketh) sold himself to work wickedness, did not shed the blood of Naboth the Israelite, but to this end, that he might obtain the vineyard which lay near unto his house. Now as it is in covetousness, so with other sins. And the reason is very plain: for though the understandings of the wicked be so darkened, that they call good evil, and evil good, sour sweet, and sweet sour; 
Isa. 5.  though their appetites and affections be so perverted, that they swallow up sin with greediness, & drink iniquity like water: yet there is some relics of the image of God in their understanding, whereby they have a glimpse of good & evil, which though it cannot moderate the will, and affections from running into sin, yet it doth so far forth bridle them, as that they will not commit any heinous impiety, but when some thing is offered which puts as it were a vizard upon the object of the will, and makes it choose that which otherwise it would refuse. For the will by nature is always carried unto his proper object, which is good, and abhorreth that which is evil. So that when it chooseth evil, it is not as it is a will, but as it is depraved, & as the understanding, which judgeth of the object, before the will choose or refuse it, counteth that good which indeed is evil. Use. 1 3 Here two sorts of men are to be censured: the first is such as think themselves sufficiently excused for committing any sin, if they can bring any occasions, or the allurements which have moved them to commit it. The drunkard will say that company hath drawn him to forget himself, and therefore he must be pardoned. The adulterer will plead for himself, that his own corrupt affection hath moved him, & that the circumstances of time & place have caused him, and therefore he must be excused. But these excuses are such, as that, if they would serve the turn, the wickedest reprobate upon the face of the earth might be found not guilty. For might not judas have pleaded for himself, that he would never have betrayed Christ, but that he expected some reward from the high Priests? Might not Ahab have sworn that he would never have sought Naboths blood, if it had not been for his vinyeard which was so commodious for his house? Might not Achan have avouched that he would never have transgressed the Lords commandment by taking of the excommunicate thing, but that it so offered itself that he thought he might have taken it, and none been privy to it? Might not Cain have excused the slaughter of his guiltless brother, that he would not have killed him, if the Lord had not had a greater respect unto Abel's sacrifice, than unto his? It is true indeed, that such objects may occur, such inducements may happen, as that the dearest of God's children (which as long as they remain in these houses of clay do taste too much of the old Adam) may thereby be led to commit gross impieties. We know, that the fear of death moved Peter to deny his Master: That idleness, & the sight of Bathsheba, caused David to adultery: That Lot's daughters brought their father to commit incest: That Solomon by his wives was drawn to Idolatry: That the fear of the Egyptians made faithful Abraham to distrust God's providence, & to say that his wife was his sister. But this ●onely shows their imperfections; it excuseth not their facts, that they had sundry provocations to these sins. If Peter had thought that the fear that the jews put him in, by reason of the great cruelty which they used against his master, might have excused him for denying Christ, 
Mat. 26.  he might have spared his tears. If occasion, and time & place, might have purchased a pardon for David, 
Psal. 51.1.  he would never have been so vehement, and passionate, in confessing his fault, and craving a pardon for the same. And indeed this is the only course to be freed from God's plagues, not to excuse our sins, and say that such & such provocations brought us to them: for so the wickedest reprobate might be innocent) but to humble ourselves before the Majesty of God, and to confess our misery, that he may receive us to mercy.  
Use. 2 4 There is another sort of men which if they commit not such iniquities as others do, (either because their natures are not so prone, and bend to those vices, or because such objects and allurements are wanting, as others have had) will boast (at least within themselves) that they have attained unto a far greater measure of holiness, than others, which by their natural proneness, or some external cause, are drawn to wickedness. But (alas) what credit is it for the Scythians, that they were no drunkards, when they never gate wine nor strong drink? What commendation for the old Germans, 
Tacitly.  that they abstained from the unlawful company of women, when by nature they were not addicted to wantonness? What credit is it for a young child, or withered old man, to abstain from carnal pleasure, when the heat of youth in the one is quelled, & the other never knew what lust meant? What grace for a weak spirited man, who was never moved with any excessive anger, not to be a murderer? This is rather commendation worthy, if we shall abstain from those vices to which our corrupt nature doth most propend: If the Dutch can leave his drunkenness, the Italian his lustfulness, the French his factiousness, the Spaniard his haughtiness, the English his gluttony, & greediness: if the choleric can lay aside his anger, and rashness; the phlegmatic his sloth, & idleness; the melancholic his hatred, & enviousnes; the sanguine his concupiscence, and wantonness; in a word, if Herod can be contented to part with Herodias, and every man his beloved sin, to which by nature he is most addicted.  
When a certain Physiognomer looking upon Socrates, gathered by his complexion that he was given to l●st & wantonness, the people which knew the continency, and virtuous life of Socrates, mocked him as unskilful of his art, thinking that Socrates was not addicted to any such vice. But Socrates acknowledged the judgement of the Physiognomer to be true, and confessed that by natural disposition he was prone unto it; thinking it a greater virtue to conquer, and keep under the corruptions of the flesh; then to keep himself under, and within the bond of reason, when he had nothing to draw him away. And yet this is little worth, unless it be at such time, when some external means, and provocations do concur, for bringing that into act, which depraved nature most affecteth. The drunkard will sometimes abstain from his beastliness: but it is when he can get no wine. The oppresser from grinding, and grating the faces of the poor; but it is when he lacks matter to work upon. The wanton from his pleasures; but it is when he wants time, and place to effect his desires. The glutton from his excessive cating: but it is in a dearth, or scarcity, when he knows not how to fill his paunch. It had been praise worthy in judas, if having a covetous mind, the high Priest had come unto him, and offered him a large sum of money, upon this condition, that he would have betrayed his master; and he should have replied, as Simon Peter did to Simon Magus: your money perish with you, 
Act. 8.20.  because ye think that the son of God may be bought for money. It is a good commendation which Tully gives to Muraena, that living amongst the effeminate and luxurious Asians, he was not infected with their faults. Laus illi tribuenda est, 
In Orit pro Mu●aena.  non quòd Asiam viderat, sed quòd in Asia continenter vixerat. And Ulysses deserves the name of a sober and temperate man, not because he was so amongst the Grecians, but because he kept himself sober in Circe's cellar; where all his fellows except Eurylochus were drunk. On the contra●y it argueth weakness in Anacharsis the Scythian Philosopher (who used to say in commendation of his country that there were no 
a A●ist. Post. Analyt. lib. 1  Pipers in Scythia because there were no vines) that falling into the company of some Cellar-knights which drank for a wager, he took their part, and was fi●st drunk under board himself. 
Psal. 11.5.  The Lord, saith the Psalmist, trieth the righteous. He suffereth such objects to be offered unto them, as may be allurements unto sin; that by refusing & forsaking thereof, they may make it known to the world, to whom they belong. So was Lot's righteousness tried, not when he dwelled with Abraham, but when he was removed to Sodom: which though it was for the pleasantness of the soil like the garden of Eden, yet for wickedness and unnatural uncleanness it surmounted hell itself. And yet for all this it could not infect righteous Lot, who dwelling amongst them, 
2. Pet. 2.8.  from day to day vexed his righteous soul by their unlawful deeds. So was David's innocency tried, not when he fled from Saul, but when he found him asleep and might have killed him. 
1. Sam. 26●  So likewise thou declarest thy righteousness, not when thou abstainest from such sins as thy nature is averse from, or from such sins as thy flesh is prone unto, at such times as fit means are wanting to accomplish thy desire: but when thou abstainest from such as thy flesh inwardly desireth, and some external provocation urgeth and allureth thee unto. Thou must, when the high Priest offers thee a rich reward, not be bribed to sell thy master. With Ulysses thou must live sober at Circe's table, with Lot thou mayst persist honest amongst the Sodomites: otherwise if thou persuadest thyself, that thou dost well, if thou canst abstain from gross sins, when there is no great inducement to persuade thee to act them; this is but judas his righteousness, who would not betray his master but in hope of reward, what will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?  
5 And so I come unto the second general part: wherein observe 1. the person delivering, I. 2. the action, deliver. 3. the party delivered, him. 4. the parties to whom, unto you. Of which before I particularly entreat we may from the promise as it hath reference unto the question, gather this conclusion. That a covetous mind, setting all respects aside, will not be afraid to commit any sin, so that he may be rewarded for his pains.  
Luke 
Luk. 22.2.  and john 
Ioh 13 3.  tell us, that the Devil put it into the heart of judas to betray his master. He put it not into the heart of Peter, or john, or any other of the Disciples; why? because this Philargyria, had only taken root in judas his heart: the rest were not infected with this disease. They were indeed weak, & feeble in the faith, and therefore Peter though he followed him a far of, & came into the high Priests hall, yet a poor damsel did so shake the rock of his faith, that presently he denied him, the rest immediately after he was taken forsook him, and fled: but none of them did entertain any such suggestion as to betray him, save judas Iscariot, who before was entangled with the chains & fetters of covetousness. So true is it which the Apostle saith, those that will be rich fall into snares and temptations of the devil; for so the vulgar addeth 1 Tim. 6.4. Here then, if ever, the poet's exclamation may have place, 
— Quid non mortalia pectora cogis 
Aen. lib. 3.   
Auri sacra fames!—  What vice so scandalous; what thing so monstrous; what sin to God & nature so odious, which the desire of money will not cause a man to commit? A man betrayeth a man, a servant his master, a creature delivers his creator, the 
a joh. 17.12  son of perdition 
b Matth. 16.16.  the son of God; the Lord of life must be put to death for a little money. Well therefore doth the Apostle term covetousness the root of all evil. 
1 Tim. 6.10  For as all the lines of a circle do take their beginning from one middle point or centre; so all other evils do spring from this fountain. 
Gal 5.20 ●1.  The works of the flesh are manifest (saith the Apostle) which are Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, debate, emulations, wrath, contentions, seditions, heresies, envy, murder; I may add lying, swearing, stealing, oppressing, whence do they proceed, but from a covetous & insatiable heart? This is the womb where they ordinarily are bred.  

●aven. — Lucri bonus est odor ex re  
Qualibet—  
saith the Poet: alluding to the fact of Vespasian, 
Sueton in Vespasiano.  in Suetonius, who gathered a tax from some homely matters, and told his son Titus that it smelled as well, as any other silver did. Be it gotten, by theft, lying, stealing, swearing, forswearing, usury, oppression, what way so ever it be gotten, (saith the covetous in his heart) if it be gain, it is well gotten. Tacitus 
Tacit. hist. l. 3  tells us of a Roman knight, that killed his own brother, in hope to be rewarded for his pains. Histories are full of the like, which I will pass over with silence. I will only instance in one of our own country, (which me thinks in all points, save in the difference of the parties betrayed, may be compared to this of judas) I mean Humfery Banister servant to the Duke of Buckingham: whom the Duke had tenderly brought up, and above all loved & trusted, insomuch that being pursued by K. Richard the third, he hide himself in Banisters house, thinking it to be the only sanctuary, where he might safely repose himself. But wh●n K. Richard had promised 1000 pounds to those that would find him out, the desire of gain so wrought with him, that presently betrayed his Lord & master into the king's hands. As the fact was like to that of judas, so the punishment hath some resemblance with it. judas though he had no bond for payment, yet he got the money. The high Priests proved better of their promise then the King judas did not enjoy the money, for he went out, 
In the life of Richard the 3 written by Sir Th. More.  and hanged himself. Banister was not executed, but was shortly after for a murder condemned: his son & heir became mad, and died in a hogsty, his daughter was infected with a leprosy, his second son deformed of his limbs; his youngest son drowned in a puddle.  
6 By this which hath been spoken, you see my conclusion plainly proved: that a covetous man, setting all respects aside, will not be afraid to commit any ●●nne, so that he may be rewarded for his pains. And how can it be otherwise? for he is like a hunger-starved man which will do any thing, so that he may satiate his appetite. Covetousness like the pit of hell, is never satisfied, and like the bar ren womb, it never saith, I have enough.  

Ovid. Fast. Prov. 30 15  Quo plus sunt potae, plus sitiuntur aquae. the more blood the two daughters of the horseleech shall suck, the more eagerly they cry out▪ 
Hor.  give. give. This barren & dry earth is never satisfied with water; nec sitim pellit, nisi causa morbi. Nothing will content this dropsy, but that which more augmenteth the disease, as nothing will satisfy the fire, but that which more augmenteth the flame. He is like unto him that hath the Caninus appetitus, the more he eateth the more he hungereth. Some Physicians say that gold is good for him that is in a consumption, but I never read that it is good against a surfeit. But experience proves it true that a gold-hungring man, doth not only long for this metal when he is in a consumption, but far more when he hath taken a surfeit through abundance.  — congesto pauper in auro est. 
The richer, the poorer: his mind hungereth as much for gold, as Dionysius his belly hungered for flesh, who used to stand all the day in the shambles, & quod emere non potuerat, oculis devorabat. 
justin. l. 2●.  That which he could not buy with his penny, he devoured with his eyes. And here that comes in my mind which Herodotus recordeth of Alcmaeon the Athenian, who because he had kindly entertained the messengers which Croesus sent to the oracle of Delphos: 
Herod. lib. ●.  Croesus sen● for him and offered him as much gold as at one time he could bear out of his treasure house. Alcmaeon not a little glad of the offer, prepared a large doublet with wide fleeves, a pair of breeches reaching down to his heels, both of them fit for Hercules then for himself. This done he went to Croesus his coffers, & first filled his breeches as full as he could stuff them, than his sleeves, and bosom, then glued as much as he could to the hairs of his head, and beard, & then lastly stuffed his mouth with as much as he could thrust in it, and so with much ado, crept out of the treasure house.  

Application to magistrates  This sin, as of all men it is to be avoided, so especially of magistrates which sit at the stern to direct our ship in this glassy sea: and which are the pillars of justice to support her battered fabric. Ye must not give it the least welcome in your hearts: but (like the wise traveller) stop your ears at the songs of this Siren, and not give it the least attention though it charm never so cunningly. You should have eyes like unto Lynceus, to ●iue into the bottom of the most deep and abstruse controversies. Now hope of reward blindeth the eyes of the wise: so that as a blind man which hath a pearl upon his eyes, cannot see his way, but stumbleth at every block, and falleth headlong into every pit: right so if you shall have this rich pearl (this pearl of riches) before your eyes, you can never tread right in the way of truth. The eye, or any faculty of the sensual, or in ellectuall part, if it be busied about any one object neglecteth the rest: & if your eyes be exercised about this object, it will make you negligent in public affairs. 
Arist. de anima lib 3.  Intùs apparens prohibet alienum: if the species of gold possess your hearts, there will be no room for justice to lodge in them. For these two be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, non benè conveniunt nec in unâ sede morantur. They can no more lodge within the same breast then light with darkness, the ark with Dagon, God with Mammon. It was Caesar's saying, borrowed from Euripides in his Phoenissa: If justice must be broken, 
Cic. lib. 3. Offic.  it must be for reigning. But he might more truly have said, for gaining. For gold could never away with justice, & therefore the Poets feign, that when gold first began to be digged out of the earth, justice durst tarry no longer, but presently fled into heaven. 
Exod. 18.21  Therefore jethro describing the qual●tie of a good judge, saith that he must deal justly or truly, & then he adds, as it were by way of explication for the better understanding of the former word, that he must hate covetousness: as if he had said, if he be a covetous, and gold-thirsting man he cannot be a true and just dealer. And to this purpose David prayeth, Ps. 119. that the Lord would incline his heart to his testimonies, & not to covetousness.  

● To lawyers  7 Now as this insatiable desire of gain, is not to sit on the bench with the judge, so is it not to plead at the bar●e with the counsellor, which with the key of knowledge is to unlock the secrets of the law, and with a skilful, & expert hand, to untie the knots of hard and difficult questions. It will make him Pharisee-like to strain a Gnat, and to swallow a Camel; to tithe mint, and cummin, & to let pass judgement and fidelity, it will make his tongue play fast and lose with justice at its pleasure. A golden key commonly opens a wrong lock. Auro loquente, nihil pollet quaevis oratio. When Pluto speaks Plato may hold his hand on his mouth like Harpocrates the Egyptian God, & say nothing. It is a great commendation which Tully gives unto a Lawyer: 
De orat. l. 1.  The mouth of a Lawyer is an oracle for the whole city. But if this mouth be once corrupted with gold it will prove like the oracle of Delphos, of which Demosthenes complained in his time, 
Tull. de divinat. lib. 2.  that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, speak nothing but what Philip, which gave it a double fee would have it to say. And such an oracle Demosthenes himself sometime proved: 
Aul. Gel. l. 1● cap 9  who being feed to plead a cause, & immediately after receiving a large sum of money of the other party for holding his peace, the next day comes into the court in a rug-gown, having his neck, & jaws all muffled with furs, and warm clothes, and told the judges he was troubled with a squinancy that he could not speak. Whereupon one that perceived his disease, said that it was not a cold, but gold that hindered his speech. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an Ox, I warrant you, was in his tongue. The Athenian coin which was stamped with the form of an Ox had bunged up his mouth, no marvel if he was speechless.  
8 But especially this sin is to be avoided of you that are witnesses, and jurors, 
3. To witness and jurors,  which are the one by testifying the other by examining the truth to make a final decision of controversies. If you shall entertain any such thought as to say with judas, What will ye give me? ye shall be sure to find some Simon Magus ready to say? What shall I give you? Falsity and lying have ever been the handmaids to covetousness. And therefore when the Prophet jeremy complaineth, that from the least to the greatest they were all given to covetousness, 
jer. 6.13.  it must needs be true which he addeth in the next words, that from the Prophet even unto the Priest they all dealt falsely. As judas was hereby moved to betray his master, so were the soldiers persuaded to lie, and falsely to forswear themselves, that his disciples stole him away when they were asleep; and that most palpably too. For if they were asleep how knew they that it was his disciples, and if they knew that it was his disciples, how were they asleep?  

2. Pet. 2.15  9 Fellow not then the ways of Balaam the son of Bosor which loved the wages of unrighteousness. Only herein ye must keep his resolution, 
Num. 24.13  not for an house full of silver and gold to go beyond the word of truth to say less or more. Equivocations and mental reservations which the Papists make such reckoning off, are the ready way to renew that old tohu, and bohu, to make a chaos and confusion of all things, 
Gen. 1.  to mix light and darkness, truth & falsehood, heaven and hell together. Whosoever shall for filthy lucre sake, either wittingly conceal part of the truth, or add any thing thereto, and thereby turn the truth into a , 
Eccls 6.3.  I say unto you that an untimely birth is better than he. And better it were for him unless he repent, 
Mat. 18.6.  that a millstone were put about his neck, and that he were drowned in the deep of the sea.  
10 To end this point, 
4 To all. Luk 12.13. Eph. 5.3.  let me speak unto you all in the words of our Saviour, beware of covetousness, & with the Apostle, let it not be once named amongst you. But if ye will needs be covetous, 
1. Cor. 14. ●  covet spiritual things: set not your hearts on the things that are below, but on the thin●s that are above. Covet that which will satiate your hearts, and that is nothing in this world. For the heart is triangular, and the world is round, and a round body cannot fill a triangle, but there will remain s●me empty corners: no more can the whole world fill the three corners of an heart, nor any thing save he which is three, and one, God blessed for evermore. Inquietum est cor nostrum O Deus postquam recessimus à te donec revertamur ad te, saith Austin, O God our heart is never contented when we turn from thee, till we return to thee. Oh then as your hearts are, so let your hearts desire be; that is, the Basis or broader part upward toward heaven, and heavenly things, & the conus or narrow point towards earth and earthly things. Use not your riches as Anacharsis said the Athenians did their money: Nummis ad numerandum, 
Plut. de profit virt. sent.  only to count it over, & then to coffer it up. Enjoy them, but joy not immoderately in them, knowing this that ye are not owners, but only users of the things that ye possess. Alas why should a man, which is a little world of himself, a man whose conversation should be in heaven, be wedded to these base, and vile excrements of the earth? they deserve no better name. For what I pray you is the best gold, but a congealed vapour? and the greatest possessions but so much earth? and the finest silk, but excrements of silly worms, which live but two or three months? Solomon had as much experience in them as any man that ever lived. 
1. Kings. 10 17.  For he gave in jerusalem silver as stones, & Cedar trees, as the wild figtrees that grow abundantly in the plains, yet in his old age, when he became a preacher, and repent him of his former life, he took such small comfort in this transitory trash, that in the beginning of Ecclesiastes, he took this for his text, Vanity of vanities, 
Eccles. 1. ●  and all is but vaniti: and if they be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary, they will want of weight. They are altogether vanity, nay they are lighter than vanity itself. Let us then so love them, as that we care not to leave them: and in all things, 
Plilip. 4.12  let us learn both to be hungry, and to be full, and to abound, and to have want: accounting all things, but loss, and dross, and dung, that we may win Christ. Which judas for the desire of a little money promiseth to deliver unto the high Priest: I will deliver him unto you. And so I come to the particulars of the second general branch of my text.  
11 And first we are to begin with the Person delivering, and that is judas, no Saducee, nor Pharisee which oppugned his doctrine, no professed enemy which openly sought his destruction, but an Apostle, one of the twelve which he had chosen unto himself, and sent abroad to preach the Gospel, and to cast out Devils, and to heal the sick. Hence I infer this conclusion: that no calling is so holy but that it hath some wicked imps, & dissembling hypocrites (which though for a space they may deceive the world with a vizard of holiness, yet time will unmask and show them in their own colours) intermixed with true professors. A conclusion which if the instances of our time could not make good, the premises of all former ages do abundantly demonstrate it. When as yet our first parents had no more children than Cain and Abel, 
Gen 4.  the elder of these two, the first that ever was borne of a woman, the heir apparent of the whole world, was an Apostata: his hypocrisy was disclosed in killing his brother. When the whole Church was compinged within the sides of one ark, all were not sheep that were in this little fold, 
Gen. 7.  for— Nat lupus inter oves, there swam one wolf among these sheep. As there was a Sem which was elected; so was there a Cham which was rejected: his apostasy declared in mocking his father. Of the same father (even of him, 
Gen. 16.  who was the father of the faithful) there came an Ishmael, as well as an Isaac; of the same mother (even at one and the self same birth) came an Esau, 
Rom 4 16.  as well as a jacob. 
Gen. 25.24  The same kingdom had as well a Saul, as a David: the same place a Barrabas, and a Barnabas, the same profession a Cephas, and a Caiphas, a Jude, & a Iuda●: and as it was, so it shall ever be till the son of man come in the glory of his kingdom, as long as the net swims in the salt sea of this world, till it be brought to land, it shall contain both good & bad fishes. Till the reapers come there must grow wheat and tars together in this field: till the shepherd come there must be sheep and goats in this fold. 
2. Tim. 2.20.  This great house till it be builded a new, must contain vessels of honour, and vessels of dishonour: the gold must be mixed with the dross, till the great and terrible fire come to separate them. In this floor the wheat shall be mingled with the chaff, till the Lord come with his fan in his hand to winnow it, and shall blow the chaff, 
Psal. 8.  and scatter it away from the face of the earth.  
Reasons. The reasons here of first respect the wicked, & that is to make them more inexcusable, in that conversing with the godly they do not learn godliness: but as those which walk in the sun, though they change their outward colour, yet they still retain their inward nature, so these though they receive an outward tincture of godliness, yet they still keep their inward corruption. Hereupon it is that Corazin and Bethsaida are more inexcusable, 
Mat. 11.21. Mat. 12 41.  then Tyrus and Sidon: that the men of Ninive, & the Queen of the South shall arise against the jews and shall condemn them: 
Mat. 11.23  that it shall be better for them of Sodom in the day of judgement, then for Capernaum.  
2 The lord by this means effecteth the conversion of sun, which are not yet called. For as the Aramits, by walking with the Prophet, 
2. King. 6.  were at unawares brought to Samaria: so many who are not as yet called by walking with the righteous, are catched at unawares, and brought to Christ's sheepfold.  
3 The lord doth hereby exercise his children and keeps them still fight, whereas otherwise they would be ready to fall a sleep in the cradle of carnal security. The coldness of devotion, that is in the worldlings, doth by an Antiperistasis oftentimes stir up the heat of zeal in God's children. While the wind strives to blow out the fire it increaseth the flame, and while the wicked do endeavour to consume the heat of zeal in God's children, and to make them as cold as they themselves are, they often blow it up, & make it far greater than it was before.  
I told you before what Tully saith of Muraena, that his chastity was more seen in living amongst the effeminate Asians, then ever it was at Rome. And I am sure Lot's continency did far more appear when he lived amongst the Sodomites, then when he was in the mountain with his two daughters. 
Gen. 19  If God's children should have none but such as Moses, and Elias to converse with them, they would say as Peter did unto Christ, when he was transfigured upon the mountain, Master it is good for us to be here: 
Mark. 9.5.  let us here (upon this mountain) build us tabernacles. They would never say with the Psalmist: 
Psal. 15.8.  Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle, and who shall rest upon thy mountain? Whereas now being vexed with these Canaanites that dwell amongst them, and are thorns in their sides, 
Num. 33.59.  and pricks in their eyes: they are weary of the earthly Canaan, & long for another, which floweth with better things than milk & honey. They cry out as Rebecca when she felt the two twins struggling in her womb: 
Gen. 25 22  if it be so, why are we thus?  
Use. 1 12 To leave then the conclusion, and to come to some application thereof. Are the wicked intermixed with true & zealous professors? What shall we then say to the old Donatists, and the Brownists, and Anabaptists, which separate themselves from the true Church, & say with those in the Prophet, Come not near us for we are holier than ye? 
Socrat. hist. Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 7.  Me thinks I may say unto them as Constantine said to Acesius a Novatian Bishop: Let them make a ladder for themselves to ascend into heaven, here is no place for them on earth, as long as this world shall last, the Lords wheat shall grow up with the tars. Christ hath spoken it, 
Mat. 13.29.  and Christ is truth, if there be in them any charity, they will assent to this verity: 
Sat in illis charitas & congaudeant vernate Aug. Cor. 2.6.  yea but light hath no communion with darkness, nor bitterness with honey, nor life with death, nor the unbeliever with the infidel. It is the objection of Petilian the Donatist against Austin. But his answer is, that when they eschew the darkness, they forsake the light: when they flee from death they flee from life also. Attendis Zizania per mundum, & triticum non attendis, cum per totum utraque sint jussa crescere? attendis semen maligni, quod ad finem messis separabitur; & non attendis semen Abrahae, in quo benedicentur omnes gentes? Dost thou mark the darnel, & dost thou not remember the wheat? Dost thou think upon the seed of the serpent, whose head shall be crushed; and dost thou not think upon the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed? when thou fleest from the chaff, thou forsakest the good wheat, which is mingled with it. When thou separatest thyself from the seed of the wicked, thou seperatest thyself from the seed of Abraham. When thou thus dividest thyself from the hypocrites, that are in the true Church, thou cuttest thyself from the Church, and a member taken from the whole must needs perish. If thou wilt think upon this with that heedfulness that thou shouldst, thou wilt not forsake the green pastures of the Lord, that are beside the waters of comfort, 
Psal. 3.  because of the goats; nor leave God's house, because of the vessels of dishonour; nor run out of the Lords floor, because of the chaff; nor separate thyself from the wheat, because of the tars, which shall at length be bound in a bundle, and cast into the fire; nor burst the unity of the Lords net, because of the bad fish, which swim in it, (which, when the net is brought to land, shall be cast away:) but as a Father speaks tolerare potiùs propter bonos commixtionem malorum, 
Aug lib. 3. contra litt. Petit. cap. 3.  quàm violare propter malos charitatem bonorum; rather for the good to tolerate the bad, then for the bad to forsake the good.  
Use. 3 But before I leave this point, I must give thee this lesson (and I beseech thee mark it well) though of necessity thou must live amongst the ungodly, 
Psal. 1.12.  yet thou must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, much less stand in the way of sinners, & least of all, sit down in the seat of the scornful. Though thou dwell among wolves, thou must not vlulare cum lupis, howl with the wolves: 
1. Cor. 5.10  though thou accompany with the fornicators of this world, and with the covetous, and with extortioners, & with Idolaters, (for else thou must go out of this world) yet be not partaker with them in their sins, lest thou be partaker with them in their punishments. Though a corporal separation cannot be had, yet in spirit thou must separate thyself: 
2. Tim 2.19  for let every one that calleth on the name of the Lord, separate himself from iniquity. Thou seest what is thy lot, if not with Lot, to dwell with Sodomites: or with Naaman, to be amongst the Aramites: or with joseph to live amongst the Egyptians; if thou canst not say with David, 
Ps. 120.5.  Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in Meshech, and to have mine abode in the tents of Kedar: Yet mayst thou say with Esay, Woe is me, 
Isa. 6.5.  for I dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lips. With Christ and his Apostles, thou must converse with a judas: with the Hebrews, thou must live with the Canaanites: with the Spouse in the Canticles, thou must be as an apple tree amongst the wild trees of the forest, 
Cant. 2.2, 3  or as a lily amongst the thorns. Let not these wild trees, which are moved with every blast of wind, by the shaking of their boughs beat down thy fruit, and though the thorns prick thee, yet keep still a lilies beauty. Thou must touch pitch, but beware of being defiled with it. Thou must walk upon coals, beware of burning thy feet: though thou lie among the pots, among the washpots of the Lord (as 
o Ps 108.9.  Moab is called) amongst the vessels of dishonour that are kept for the day of wrath, yet must thou be as the wings of a dove, that is covered with silver wings, 
Ps. 67.13.  and her feathers like gold. Be not like the Apothecary, that carrieth the smell of his shop about with him, nor like the river jordan, which 
q Plin. nat. hist. l. 5. c. 15  looseth his sweet waters in the lake Asphaltites. But like the fish in the salt sea, which still retain their freshness; pass through the brinish Ocean of this world, as Arethusa doth under the Sicilian sea,  

Virg. Eclog. 10.  Doris amara suam non intermisceat undan. In a word, though thou canst not wholly separate thyself from the workers of darkness, yet have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but even reprove them rather. 
Eph. 5.11.  Nay from such works, as much as thou mayst lawfully, separate thyself: for thou wilt in time joy in the latter, if thou long enjoy the former, it is a matter of some difficulty to be continually handling pitch, and bird-lime, and to have none cleave to thy hands. 
a Arist. Met. lib. 1. cap. 2.  Aristotle noteth it of his master Plato, that conversing long with the Pythagorians, he learned from them many erroneous opinions, which afterward he stiffly maintained. 
b Q. Cur.  Alexander by conversing with the effeminate Persians, and 
c Liv. dec. 3. lib. 3.  Annibal by living in Capua, did abate so much of their former valour, that it was doubted whether they were the same men they had been before. 
d Sozom. l. cap. 2.  julian, in profession sometimes a Christian, by conversing with Libanius, and Maximus, became an Apostata. To go no further with the examples of heathen men, you know that joseph living in Pharaohs Court, began to swear 
e Gen. 42.1.  by the life of Pharaoh. And the Hebrews dwelling among the Idolatrous Egyptians (which 
f Herod. l.  worshipped an ox) did meetly well imitate them, for they 
g Exod. 3●  worshipped a calf. And pitching for a time in the plane of Moab, they sacrificed to Baal Peor, 
Numb. 25 Ps. 106.26  and ate the offerings of the dead. An infected sheep will sooner spoil a whole flock, than a whole flock will cure an infected sheep. It is no hard matter to change wine into vinegar, but to turn vinegar, onto change water into wine, Hoc opus, hic labor est. This is such a miracle as will never be wrought, unless jesus be at the feast. It is an easy matter to be infected with the plague of sin, if thou remove out of the fresh air into the company of contagious persons. And though thou be regenerate, & the old man hath got his deadly wound, yet is there a sympathy between thee, & the wicked. Thy affections are like tinder, ready to kindle with every sparkle, that the wicked shall strike in them. And sin once kindled is like wild fire, it will not be quenched with every kind of water. This poison perhaps will not be perceived at the first, yet, like the biting of a mad dog, it will never cease infecting thy blood till it come at thy hart. Beware them of dogs. 
Philip. 3.2.  Avoid (as much as is possible) such contagious places, as are dangerous to infect, and keep thyself in the fresh air, where the spirit, that quickeneth, doth blow. But whereas thou canst not wholly avoid the company of sinners (for as before was said, the good and bad fish swim together ●n God's net) avoid their sins. 
Prov. 1.10.11.  hearken unto Solomon, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path; but contrariwise when they entice thee to evil, persuade them unto that which is good. Be to them, as Noah was to the old world, a preacher of righteousness; 
2. Pet. 2. ●. Vers. 8.  as Lot was to the Sodomites, who dwelling amongst them vexed his soul with their unlawful deeds; as Christ was to the woman of Samaria, 
Ioh 4.  who by desiring of the water of jacobs' well to quench his thirst, brought her to desire the water of life, whereof who soever drinketh shall never more thirst; and as he was with Publicans and sinners, who refused not to go to their corporal banquets, that he might feed them with spiritual food; as john was with the Pharisees & Saducees, 
Mat. 3.  who preached unto them faith and repentance; and as Paul was amongst the idolatrous Athenians, who went with them, through their idolatrous temples, and red the titles and inscriptions written upon their altars, but to this end, to take a text, and argument thence, 
Act. 17.23.  to persuade them to the worship of the true God.  
So much of the person delivering. The action followeth, (deliver.)  

Deliver.]  13 Treason is a sin so odious, that even the heathen which were guided, but with a glimpse of nature's light, howsoever, sometimes for their own advantage, they approved the fact, yet they could never away with the author of it. It was Augustus his saying of Rimotalchus the king of Trace, which vaunted himself for the betraying of Antony: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I may love the treason but I hate the traitor. And it was the saying of Antigonus: Proditores tantisper amo dum produnt, hast ubi prodiderint odi. I love a traitor when he commits the treason, but when he hath done it, I detest him. These speeches, though plausible at the first, argue corruption in the speakers. For if the traitor be evil, surely the treason cannot be good. The old Romans could abide neither. For when Pyrrhus his physician, seeking to gratify the Romans, promised to give his master poison, the Romans made Pyrrhus acquainted with it, & willed him to look unto himself. And when the schoolmaster of the Phalascides children offered to betray those which were committed to him, 
Liv. dec. 1. lib. 5.  to Camillus his hand: Camillus sent them back again, and made his own scholars to beat him.  
This fact, of itself so heinous, 
Him.  is further aggravated by the person betrayed. If judas had betrayed one of his fellows, the sin had been horrible: but he makes it far worse, he betrayeth his master. He goes yet further, for (behold whither man doth fall, 
Unto you. Luk. 1.71.  if the spirit of God do not direct his steps) he delivereth him into the hands of his hateful enemies, who came to deliver us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us. He delivereth him to death, who came to restore us, that were dead in our sins, to life; who to satisfy for our hunting after vanities, was himself hunted like a Pelican in the wilderness; to satisfy for our carnal, and sensual pleasures, left the bosom of his father with whom is fullness of delights, and at whose right hand is pleasure forevermore: to satisfy for our pride, humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant: 
Phil. 2.7.  to answer for our gluttony, tasted gall, and vinegar; to answer for our covetousness, paid not gold, nor silver, but the ransom of his own blood. These things I do but point at, having discoursed of them elsewhere, when I handled our Saviour's mild speech unto judas, when he went to betray him. Therefore I pass them over, & come to apply this fact unto these present times.  
14 judas is dead, and all men cry, fie upon him, and say that it if they had been in judas his days, they would not have been partners with him in the blood of our Saviour. And so said the old Pharisees, if they had been in the days of their fathers, they would not have been partners with them in the blood of the Prophets. 
Mat. 23.30.  And yet they fulfilled, nay they exceeded the measure of their father's wickedness. And now adays howsoever many will build the tombs of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, yet we have judasses', which will betray Christ unto the high Priests. I cannot reckon them all, but there are 3. transgressors, nay 4. which I cannot pass over. 1. the sacrilegious Churchrobber, 2. the grinding oppressor. 3. the close briber. 4. the deceitful lawyer. All these do their best (nay their worst) to betray Christ, if not in his person, yet in his members, into the hands of the hellish Caiphas. And me thinks they do somewhat resemble those 4. great plagues mentioned in the 1. of joel: which were: the Caterpillar, the Locust, the Cankerworm & the grasshopper. The Caterpillar eats the first fruits when they are in setting. To him I compare the Church-robber, which lives of the first fruits & tithes, which by the law are due to God. The Locust (as Naturalists describe him) is a great fly, which liveth upon the less, and with no difficulty can burst a spider's web, wherein the smaller flies are quickly catched. To him I compare the oppressor, which devours his inferiors, and will with no less difficulty pass through those good statutes that are made against him, than a great Locust will burst through a spider's web. The canker-worm doth secretly shave off the tender barks of herbs & trees before he can be perceived. To him may be likened the briber, which doth so closely carry himself, that none can perceive him, but the plant which he feeds upon. The Grasshopper hath a chirping voice to allure a man after him, but yet so nimble is his motion, that he which followeth him shall scarcely find him. Like to it, is the deceitful lawyer, which with fair promises, and sugared hopes, draws his clients after him; but so nimbly he hops up and down, for his own advantage, that ye shall perhaps not find him twice in one tune, insomuch that ye shall be worse resolved in the end, than ye were in the beginning. These 4. lie as heavy upon our land, as those 4. plagues did upon judah: so that we may say, that which is left by the Locust, the grasshopper hath eaten, and the residue of the grasshopper, hath the cankerworm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm hath the caterpillar eaten. Before I begin to speak of these in particular, let me use the Apostles protestation. I say the truth in Christ jesus, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the holy ghost. 
Rom. 9.1.  I do not seek the disgrace of any particular, it is the truth's cause, and God's cause that moveth me to speak (and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth when I shall be afraid to discharge a good conscience in God's behalf.) If then my music seem harsh, & unpleasant in the ears of any that hear me, I would have them to know thus much, that the strings upon which a I am to play are far out of tune. If any man shall find himself wounded with my speech, I say unto him as our Saviour did to the adulteress, Hath no man condemned thee? neither do I condemn thee; yet I add with john, if thine own heart do condemn thee, 
joh. 8.10.11. 1. joh. 3.20  God is greater than thy heart and knoweth all things, & therefore I dismiss thee with that speech of Christ to the impotent man: go thy way, and sin no more, 
joh. 5.14.  lest a worse thing happen unto thee. Now to the particulars.  
15 In the first place come the Simoniacal patrons, the heirs and eldest sons of judas, the caterpillars of our church, & the notablest thieves in all our land. Which will not part with that portion which is due unto the sons of Levi, and which is committed unto them, as the golden apple was unto Paris, with this motto engraven upon it, detur digniori, let the most worthy have it, unless with judas they covenant for a price before hand. Let a man's gifts of mind be never so good, yet if he bring no gifts in hand; let his care, and industry, and learning be never so rare, & extraordinary, yet if he do not speak with the tongue of men, & angels yea arke-angels, he shall have little hope to prevail in his suit. He that will insinuate himself into their favours, must come, as jupiter came into Danae's lap, per impluvium, secretly in at the chimney top, (not in at the door) and he must come as jupiter then came, in a shower of gold. This is the way, this is the best means to effect his desire: for he that is as blockish and stupid, 
Plut. Apoth.  as Philip's Ass in Plutarch, if he be loaden with gold (with that ass) oh he is a man of excellent gifts, of rare endowments, no exception must keep him back; that which he wants in learning, he hath it in simplicity: as if it were simplicitas Asinina, 
Mat. 10.16.  & not simplicitas columbina, which the Lord would have in his ministers. And what if he lack Latin? he hath gold enough, & that is a far more precious metal. But if this way will not hold, than they will take another course, they will act the parts of Ananias and Saphira▪ & keep back part of that possession, which they should voluntarily lay down at the Apostles feet. 
Act. 4.12.  There must be an exception in the general rule, a reservation of their own tithes, a limitation of such a township, or such a field. Or they will say with the harlot, 1. Kin. 3 Let it neither be thine nor mine, but let it be divided. Here is treason in another kind; they do not sell the king of heaven, by covenanting for a price before hand, as judas did, but (which is all to one effect) they clip his coin and make it so light, that it will not sustain the sons of Levi. And this verily is a principal reason, that we have so many mutes, and so few vowels in our cross row: that many lapwings which hopped out of their nests with their shells on their heads, before ever they get a feather on their backs, have builded in those rocks where eagls should nestle; and many which have never put down their buckets, into either of the two fountains of this land (or if they have, it hath been but tanquam canis ad Nilum, they have only wet their lips, and taken a lap by the way) are advanced to Ecclesiastical preferments, and made Pastors of flocks being not able to feed themselves, and are become captains in the Lord's field, being not able of themselves to take one stone out of Gods brook to cast at the forehead of the spiritual Goliath. I confess some of them will now and then be flinging in the pulpit, but they be mentita tela, other men's weapons they fight with: they have, indeed, as good a property in them, as they have in their benefices, and as Paulus in Martial had in his verses, 
Carmina Paulus emit, iactat sua carmina Paulus: nam, quod emit, possit dicere iure suum. judg. 18.  which he used to brag off. Such wandering Levites as these are the fittest merchants that sacrilegious judasses' can meet withal: for they will be contented to dwell with every base filching Michah: & will serve him for ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and meat, and drink, and withal their hearts, will be contented to part with beautiful Rahel, (though they serve for her) so that they may be assured of blear-eyed Leah. 
Gen. 29.  They will never say as much as jacob did to Laban: Wherefore hast thou done thus with me? did I not serve thee for Rahel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? Truth it is, that even these would gladly mend their estates (and who can blame them?) but they are withholden with a triple cord, which, as the wise man saith, is not easily broken. 1. The Patron's bounty, which though it be little, yet it is more perhaps than they deserve. 2. Their own promise, or hand writing, which if it be not of sufficient validity, then comes a third cord to make all sure, and that is want of ability. A spider's web (you know) is strong enough to hang a silly fly withal. God forbidden that I should object this sacrilege, as a general fault of these times, not admitting any limitation; or say that these devouring Caterpillars have eaten up all the houses of God in the land. 
1. King. 19  I remember what the Lord answered Elias, when he complained against Israel, that they had killed his Prophets, and digged down his altars, and that he was left alone. 
Ro. 11.3.4.  I have (said the answer of God) reserved unto myself seven thousand men, which have not bowed their knees unto Baal. Even so, at this present time, by the grace of God, there is a remnant (though I think far fewer than seven thousand) yet a remnant there is, which have never digged down the altars of God to build their own houses with the ruins thereof; which have not bowed unto their angle, nor sacrificed unto their net, nor  incense unto their yarn, nor monopolised that unto themselves, which of right belongs unto God's ministers. So that in this case they may say with good Samuel, Whose ox have I taken, 
1. Sam. 12.3  or whose ass have I taken, or of whose hand have I received any bribe? They hate such sins of unfaithfulness, & they will not suffer the least chip of God's bread to stick on their fingers. By the means of such faithful Nehemiahs (thanks be to God, and remember them herein O God, and wipe not out that kindness that they have showed on thy house, 
Nehem. 13 14.  & on the offices thereof) the glorious gospel of Christ doth give a goodly lustre in many places of this land. But the great number of the other (which I purpose not to leave as yet, for I would gladly make a rod of such small cords as I have, to whip these buyers and sellers out of the Temple) is such, that it doth almost overshadow these, that they seem but as it were a handful, and do bear (I take it) the like proportion, that gedion's army did to the huge host of the Midianites. 
jud. 7.   

Hospin. de orig. templor.  16 The donation of Ecclesiastical live, was at the first, for avoiding of faction and confusion, amongst the ignorant and seditious multitude, which otherwise should have made choice of their Pastors, commended to some particulars, which for their worth, and wisdom, & uprightness were thought fittest, both to make choice of such, as could sufficiently discharge the places, and to protect them, & their right against such ravenous harpies, and Eagle-clawed Nabuchadnezzars, as would scrape and gather into their hands the vessels of the temple: and hereupon they were called Patrons. But time is like a river, 
— Nec enim consistere flumen,  
Nec levis hora potest.  That is not my meaning, but as a river sinks that which is heavy and substantial, & carrieth down that which is light & nought, so hath time in this point. The uprightness & faithfulness, that is sunk long ago in a great number: their carefulness in protecting the ministers right, that swims not down so low as to our time: and yet as Tully said of a tyrant, that he gives life to those that he doth not kill; so we could willingly accounted them worthy maintainers of the Levites portion, if they would take nothing from them. But the name of patron, this is light, and the current of time hath conveyed it unto us. But (alas alas) it is but as he said, — sine corpore nomen. It is secunda not to, a shadow of a name; & yet a name is no more than a shadow of a thing. And verily it may be feared that the great abuse of the thing will in future ages make the word to be of a contrary signification: as the name 
m Isidor. orig lib. 9 cap 3.  tyrannus, which at the first signified any prince, which had a care of his subjects safety, & protected them against their foes; by the cruelty of the governors (handling them, as 
n 1. Sam. 8.  Samuel told the jews their king should use them; or as the Stork in the fable dealt with the frogs, when he was made their king; or as 
o Sueton. in Vespas.  Vespasian used his nobles squeazing them like a sponge, when they were full) is now degenerate from its ancient sense, & used for the contrary. We have occasion of doubting the same in this point. For judas claimeth Christ's bag by prescription. Is not now the Advouzan of a benefice accounted as a man's proper inheritance? Is it not offered to him that will bid the most, as an Ox in the shambleses, or an Ass in the market? Is it not accounted a good patrimony to many younger brothers, which scorn for sooth to be Priests; and would God they would scorn the Priest's portion too, then would they abate a little from the height of their own conceits: & would at length be enforced, for their delicate fare, to eat husks; and to turn their satin suits into country russets. But they are of the same opinion that was William Rufus sometimes king of this Realm, 
p Mat. Parisiensis in vita Guil. 2 Rex in proprio tenebat, (die qua obiit) Archiepiscopatum Ca● 8. Episcopatus Wint. & Sarisb. cum 11. Abbatiis.  who kept diverse bishoprics in his own hands as they fell, and would not restore them unto ecclesiastical persons. Being demanded a reason hereof, he said that God's bread was sweet, and good for kings. Or like our old countryman 
q justin.  Brenus, who (when he went about to rob the temple at Delphos) said that God was rich, and therefore should part with something to supply his wants: and, with 
r Aelianus variae hist. l b 1  Dionysius, they count gold too cold to cloth Apollo with, a garment of worse stuff is good enough. 
s In Synodo, Triburiensi An. Do. 895.  When the question was proposed whether golden chalices or wooden were to be used in the administration of the sacrament. Boniface bishop and afterwards Martyr, 
t Beat. Rhenanus lib. 2. rerum Germanicarum.  made 
s In Synodo, Triburiensi An. Do. 895.  answer that in former times they had golden ministers, & wooden chalices: but in his time wooden Priests used golden chalices. I may say the contrary, in the times of our forefathers were blockish, and wooden Priests, and then they had golden cups. Then the people would even have pulled out their own eyes to have given to those blind guides; and were so ready to offer their free gifts to the building of the tabernacle, that 
u Exod. 36.5, 6.  Moses was constrained to say, the people bring too much, and more than is enough: nay moreover, to make a proclamation, & enact a statute, (which yet is in force, but needless) that neither man, nor woman should prepare any more for the oblation of the sanctuary. But now (thanks be to God) we have golden pastors, and wooden dishes are thought good enough for them.  

a Persius.  Dicite pontifices in templo quid facit aurum? What should the church do with gold? Peter said unto the lame man, 
b Act. 3 6.  gold & silver have I none. 
c Ps, 45.14.  The king's daughter is all glorious within, (they forget what follows, her clothing is of wrought gold) the ministers kingdom is not of this world, a competent living is sufficient, that is 40. or 50l. ●ush, he must not be troubled with the thorny cares of this world, 
d Num. 16.  ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi: thus would these wild asses & fat bulls of Basan beat out of the manger the oxen that tread out the corn, that they may have the best themselves, & leave only the orts for them, which should have all. Alas beloved, that God's legates, which should be barbarous, & beneficial unto the poor, and provide for their family, should thus be stinted by such, whose hearts are never satisfied with earth, till their mouths be filled with gravel. But let them not think that the ministers living is ever competent, where any part of his right is detained. And therefore let them beware how they play the judas in stealing out of the bag, which is committed unto them, part of that relief, which should sustain Christ, & his Apostles: or betray him in his maintenance, & by a consequence in his members, the flock, by withdrawing their food. For if Succus pecori, than it must needs follow that lac subducitur agnis: if the pasture be without the fleece, the flock shall want their fodder. It is an objection which some would fasten as a scandal upon our Universities, that many of our preachers dronelike lurk in their own hives, and flee not abroad; that they bury their talon at home in their own studies as in the ground; whereas, by settling themselves in some country charge, they might put it out to their master's best advantage. But (shall I tell you?) the case is with them as it was with the sick impotent man by the pool Bethesda in the 5. of john, gladly would they be in the pool, but there is none to put them in: an angel troubles the water, and presently, while they are coming, an other steps down before them. The fountains are stopped; no stream can flow abroad unless Tagus-like it have golden sands; or, like unto Eurotas and Alpheus, it pass under the earth as it were by some sleight and secret conveyance, and so burst up on the sudden in some place where it cannot be prevented: or like unto Tigris, that fierce and swift running river, which perforce will burst down such dams, and banks as would hinder his course: or last of all like unto Maander that insinuating, and parasitical river (as I may call it) which winds, & turns itself into every pleasant valley, that it may, as it were, get the good will, and favour of the places where it comes. These 4. rivers find the easiest passage, rich Tagus, fierce Tigris, subtle Eurotas, & winding Maeandar. The rest, for the most part, (for I speak not of all) though their waters be as pleasant as the 
e Gen. 2.10  4. rivers of Eden, yet shall they 
f Ios. 3.  stand on a heap, like the waves of jordane when the Israelites passed over; or as a pool, or the dead sea without any vent: whereas if there might, at the vacancy of live, an offer be made unto one of the Universities, & a choice made thence, no doubt but the gospel of Christ would flourish in every quarter of this realm from Dan to Beersheba, from the river of tweed unto the lands end. And God would for this cause even open the windows of heaven unto the inhabitants thereof, and power down upon them a blessing without measure, and rebuke the devourer for their sakes, that he should not destroy the fruits of their ground, neither should their vine be barren in the field, as the Lord speaks by the Prophet 
g Mal. 3.10, 11.  Malachi.  
17 I have dwelled too long upon this point. Only to end, I would these men would remember judas his end. Demiror te Antonî quorum facta imitaris eorum exitum non phorrescere. It is the saying of 
h Philippice 2.  Tully to Antony. I wonder Antony that thou art not afraid of those men's deaths, whose lives thou imitatest. And it is strange that these men will be like unto judas in the premises, and never think of the conclusion that was inferred thereupon. 
i Amos 7.14.  I am not a Prophet, nor am I the son of a Prophet, that I should foretell the manner of their particular ruins. Thus much upon good grounds I will say, that these goods will in time profit them no more, than the price of him, that was valued, availed judas: they will be like 
k Plin. lib. 10 cap. 3.  eagle's feathers; they will eat, & consume the rest of their substance: or like eqwi Scianus & aurum Tolossanum in 
l A Gell. lib. 10 cap. 9  Gellius, which were still infortunate to those that had them. And those goodly buildings, which they make for themselves with the ruins of God's house (I will speak in the words of Isaiah against the enemies of the church) 
m Isa. 34.11 13. etc.  the Pelican and the hedgehog shall possess them, the great raven, and the owl shall dwell in them, and he shall stretch out upon them the line of vanity, and the stones of emptiness: they shall bring forth thorns in the palaces thereof, nettles and thistles in the strong holds thereof, & they shall be habitations for dragons, & courts for Ostriches: there shall meet Zim, & Limb, & the fairies shall dance there, & the skrichowle shall rest there, and shall find for herself a quiet dwelling: there shall the owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, & gather them under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek in the book of God and read: none of these shall fail. For more confirmation hereof, consider the subversion of Abbeys: they were founded by religious men in their generations, to a good purpose: their situation was as the 
n Gen. 13.10.  garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou goest unto Zoar; as Moses speaks of the plain of jordan before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah: they stretched their towers up to the heavens, like the Pyramids of Egypt; but, behold, the Lord hath wiped them as a man wipeth a dish, which he wipeth, and turneth upside down. They are now the fittest places for the raven to build in, habitations for dragons, and courts for Ostriches, they stand, (but as 
o Phys. c.  Aristotle saith, quod stat movetur, they stand so as they are moving to a fall) in the pleasantest valleys of the land, as the relics of Babel in the valley of Sinar: or 
p Isa. 7.8.  like a cottage in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and like a besieged & defaced city, dropping down by joints, as a thief rotteth from the gibbet. What were their sins which brought so heavy a judgement upon them? suppose they were (as they were indeed) the sins of Sodom, 
q Ezech. 16 ●3.  pride, fullness of bread, mercilessness towards the poor, and abundance of idleness. Now if these sins of some few, or suppose the greater part (certain it is that all were not such, some were industrious, some humble, some merciful towards the needy, some of a moderate and spare diet,) if these sins, I say, brought so heavy a judgement upon those houses, that they are, in comparison of that they were before, like the stump of 
r 1. Sam. 5.4.  Dagon, when his head, & the two palms of his hands were cut of upon the threshold in Ashdod; or the remainders of jezabel, when the hungry dogs had eaten her up, so that 
s 2. King 9.35.37.  there was no more found of her, than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands; insomuch, that none can say this is jezabel; these be the houses they were before: shall we think that their houses shall continue for ever, which turn Bethel into Bethaven; the house of God, into a house of vanity; which take the children's bread and cast it unto dogs? which, with the consecrated things of the altar, maintain their own pomp, feed their Hawks, their Horses, keep—? but I stay myself.  
18 After the Church-robber comes the grinding oppressor, another great plague, which sits sore upon the skirts of our land. He saith unto his gold, thou art my God, 
t job 31.24  and to the wedge of gold, thou art my confidence. And instead of counting 
u 1. Tim. 6.5, 6.  godliness great gain, he accounteth gain great godliness: he addeth house to house, and land to land, as if the way to the spiritual Canaan laid all by land, and not through a red sea of death. He brayeth the people as in a mortar, & grindeth the faces of the poor. 
a Amos 8. ●  He selleth the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes: he eateth up the poor as if they were bread.  
—  pisces saepe minutos  
Magnu' comest, ut aves enecat aceipter,  
As a Pike devoureth the little fishes, and as a goshawk kills the smaller birds: he gathereth the live of the poorer sort into his own hands, as the great Ocean drinketh the rivers: he enhanceth his rents, and pilleth his poor tenants, and doubleth, yea, treableth their fines, telling them, with young 
b Kin. 12.10  Rhehoboam, that his little finger shall be heavier than his father's loins. Not contented with this cruelty, he thrusteth them out of their houses, and depopulateth whole towns, & villages, making those streets which used to be sown with the seed of men, 
c Isa. 7.25.  Pastures for the sending out of bullocks, and for the treading of sheep. 
d Apud Cand. in descript. Northampt.  One justly complaineth of our English sheep: that whereas in former times, they were the meekest beasts of the field, & contented themselves with a little, are now become so fierce, & greedy, that they devour men, and town fields, and houses, & villages, & lay all waist; insomuch that that which the Psalmist speaketh of Israel, spoiled by his enemies, may be verified of our jacob also: They have devoured jacob, and laid waste his dwelling places. Surely, the 
e Hab. 2.11 12.  very stone out of the wall doth cry against these men, and the beam out of the timber doth answer it: woe unto him that buildeth his house with blood, and erecteth his walls by iniquity.  
While the spleen swelleth, the body languisheth: and it may justly be feared, that if our good Physician do not in time purge these tumorous, and swelling members, they will cause a lienterie in the body politic. God forbidden that this flourishing kingdom, which sometime hath deserved that title which 
f justin  Cyneus, Ambassador unto Pyrrhus, gave unto Rome when he called it a City of Kings, should ever deserve that title, which 
g Aventinus  one gives unto France, when he calls it a kingdom of asses, by reason of the burdens, that are laid upon the base sort by their superiors.  
19 Therefore it behoves you, & as mamy as sit at the stern of justice, not to sleep with jonas, while the ship is tossed with these mighty winds: nor to be careless in a matter so nearly concerning the good of this Commonwealth. 
h Psal. 48.4.5.  Gird you with your sword upon your thighs, O ye men of might, according to your worship, and renown, ride on because of the word of truth, and righteousness, & let your right hand teach you terrible things. But if you shall be negligent herein, surely, as Mordecai said to Hester, 
i Est. 4.14.  help, and deliverance shall come from another place. For doubtless the cry of the afflicted, is already ascended, into the cares of the Lord of hosts, & he will take the matter into his own hand. Believe it, it is his own promise: 
k Ps. 12.5, 6  Now for the comfortless troubles sake of the needy, & because of the deep sighing of the poor, I will up, saith God, and will deliver him from such as vex him, & will restore him to rest. I will prosecute this point no further: only let me tell these locusts, that their goods whereunto they trust 
l 2. King. 28 21.  are but a broken staff of reed, whereunto if a man lean it w●ll pierce into his hand: that their pleasures are but as 
m jud. 16.  Dalilah was to Samson even gives and fetters of Satan, to entangle them: that their gold will be as a millstone about their necks, to carry them down headlong into the pit: that their lands & goods are as a bunch upon a Camels back, which will not suffer them to enter in at the needle's eye, 
* Mat. 19.24.  the narrow way that leadeth to heaven: that those goods, which by grinding, and oppressing they have scraped together, the Lord will fan them away with the fan of vanity, unless (as 
o Dan. 4.24  Daniel said to Nabuchadnezzar) they break off their sins by righteousness, and their iniquity by mercy towards the poor; & that which they have by unlawful means gotten (with Zachaeus) 
p Luk. 19.8  they restore it again fourfold.  
20 From the Locust, we come to the cankerworm; from oppressing Ahab, to bribing Gehazi: of whom I may truly affirm that which 
q Hist. lib. 8.  Tacitus speaks of the Astrologians in Rome, it is genus hominum pestilens, & fallax, quod in hac republicae semper prohibetur, & semper retinetur; a pestilent, and froward kind of people, which hath been still gain said, and yet never more common, and frequent then now; an offspring, not so degenerate from the joins of judas, as is the oppressor. Because the oppressor like the fat Bulls of Basan, closeth the poor on every side, and gapes upon him with his mouth, as it were a ramping, & a roaring lion; whereas the briber 
r Psa. 10.8.10.  lieth closely in the thievish corners of the streets, that he may ravish such as he shall get into his net. The oppressor takes it perforce, the briber gets all by secret compact▪ What will ye give me? 
s Est 4.11.  None might come to the inner court of king Ahashuerosh, save he, to whom the king held out his golden sceptre. But none may come to the bribers inner court, save he, that shall hold out a golden sceptre unto him. Be thy cause never so light in the balance of equity, it is not material, if thou canst make it up in gold, it shall be currant through his liberties. Right and wrong, truth, and falsehood are only distinguished by their attendants. If injustice get the overthrow, it is because she is not guarded with such companies, as are expected. But I have not Elishaes' eyes, to point out Gehazi, and to observe what he hath done in secret, & therefore I will pass him over: only thus much I would have him to know, that judas cannot so secretly compact with the Priests, but Christ knoweth it. That speech of our blessed Saviour (which that worthy Martyr Hugh Latimer used for his posy) is an undoubted truth: There is nothing so secret, but it shall be revealed. Thou mayst well flatter thyself with an outward show of justice, like that monster in the 
t Hor. epi●●▪ lib. 1. ep. ●6.  Poet: 
— Pulchra Laverna  
Da mihi fallere, da sanctum iustumque videri:  
Noctem peccatis, & fraudibus obijce nubem.  O beautiful Laverna, grant that I may deceive the world with a counterfeit show of holiness: cover my sins with a cloud of obscurity, that they may be hid. Deceive the world thou mayst, but thou canst not deceive God.  
u Ov●d. met.  Sol oculis hominem, quibus aspicit omnia cernit: 
God, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, can pierce through this cloud, if it were darker than hell, and behold thy doing. It is no heathenish counsel, which a heathen man gives, neither doth it smell of Epicurism, though it was his dictate, who was the father of that swinish sect, 
a Epicurus apud Sense.  that whatsoever thou art about to do, though never so secret, thou shouldst still imagine, that some doth behold thee, and observe thy actions.  sic tanquam illo spectant vivas, & omnia tamquam illo vidente facias, saith Seneca. And therefore whatsoever thou art about to do, saith the same writer, imagine that Cato, a severe reprehender of the least vices, or (if this be too much) suppose that Laelius, a man of a quiet disposition, but such as cannot brook any notable offence, doth behold thee. This is good counsel of a heathen man, which knew not God aright. But thou, which dost profess Christianity, shouldst go a step further, and fully assure thyself, that not a sinful man, but that a sinne-revenging God doth watch thee. Propè à te Deus est, tecum est, intùs est. And, Sacer in te spiritus sedet, bonorum malorumque observator, & custos, as the heathen Stoic divinely speaketh: there is a holy spirit within thee, which seethe whatsoever thou dost, good or bad. Do not then deceive thyself like that Sophister in 
b ●ost. anal. 〈◊〉. 1. cap. 1.  Aristotle, who thought it impossible to know by demonstration, the affections of a number or triangle, because he kept some number or triangle in his fist, which othe●s did not know of. Be it Nummus, or Numerus, triangle, or cross, or whatsoever it be, thou canst not keep it so closely in thy hand, but God looks into it, and will one day call thee to an account for it.  
21 In the last place, comes the Grasshopper, the cozening Lawyer, who feeds his client with sugared words, & golden hopes, but all proves in the end for a quid mihi dabitis? Here, as Tully said unto the Romans touching the Catilinarians; Cupio me Patres Conscripti esse clementem, cupio non dissolutum videri; I would gladly hold my peace, and not be judged by any to exceed the limits of modesty. But Voces reip. imò totius regni me nequitiae inertiaeque condemnarent: the voice of the whole kingdom, exclaiming against the great abuses of these times, would condemn me of negligence. The time is protracted, unnecessary delays are used, new doubts are daily invented, insomuch that the causes are oftentimes more uncertain in the latter end, than they were at the first beginning. What postings off from court to court! what delays and procrastinations from term, to term, from year to year! in somuch, that a man may sooner travel about the whole globe of the earth, then pass through an English court. The laws are made like a game at the cards, wherein all the players are losers, and all the gain comes to the butler, which found them cards to play on. And the lawyers prove such arbitrators, as was Quintus Fabius in Tully; who, being appointed a daiesman between the Nolanes, and the neopolitans, touching the borders of their grounds, took a great part of their right from both: or rather like to Philip of Macedon; who, being chosen a judge between two brethren, touching their father's kingdom, took it from them both, and reserved it to himself. They take from both the parties, though not the same numero, which they contend for, yet the same specie, (I mean the value of the same) and gain it to themselves. The silly sheep in a tempest runs to a briarbush for a shelter: when the storm is overblown, he is so clasped in the briers, that before he get out, he is enforced to leave some good part of his fleece behind him, so that he is made unable to endure the next storm. And yet better it is that he should endure it with patience, then, by having recourse to such an harbour, have his skin ripped by the bramble. I will not apply. I reverence the profession. It is good, and necessary for the commonwealth and a calling warrantable by God's word. And I make no question but there are many of this profession, which do study to approve their doings in the sight of God and man. And so I am persuaded of you all, though I thus speak: but as the 
c 1. Cor. 4.4  Apostle saith of himself: I know nothing of myself, yet am I not justified, so say I, though I know nothing by any of you, yet I am not justified. I do not discharge a good conscience, unless I should admonish you of these things; that if any be guilty of that which I have spoken, he may learn to amend it: if not, he may do his endeavour to avoid it.  
22 If I should speak unto you, (R. H.) and offer to instruct you in the particular duties of a judge, I might perchance be judged by many, with 
d Aelian. Var. hist. lib. 2. ●ap. 2.  Megabizus to discourse of the art of painting, before the scholars of Zeuxis. To say nothing, that my text gives me no fit occasion to discourse of this subject, notwithstanding I beseech you, in one word give me leave to move you to that, which ye both know, & are ready, I am sure, to put in practice. You know the saying of the Poet, 
Qui rogat ut facias, quod iam facis, ipse rogando  
Laudat, et hortatu comprobat acta suo.  The object of your office is either life, ●or living. About both these, it is requisite you have 3 properties; an eagle's eye, a lady's hand, and a lions heart. An eagle's eye, to dive into the bottom of such matters as shall come before you: for the wound is never sound cured, unless the bottom be first searched. A lady's hand, to deal softly, and gently with your patients. A lions heart, to be courageous, and resolute, when there is no place for lenity. Herein ye must imitate a good Surgeon, who cuts the wound, though his patient weep never so sore. 
e Aug. in Mat. Ser. 15.  Plorat secandus & secatur plorat urendus & uritur. The sick weeps, and yet the Surgeon cuts, the sick laments, & yet the Surgeon seareth. Is this cruelty in the Surgeon? none at all. For, saevit in vulnus, ut homo sanetur: quia si vulnus palpetur, homo perditur. Where there is hope of cure without sea●ing, or cutting, use there a lady's hand; in this case a plaster is better than a knife. But where the member is incurable, and incorrigible, and like to endanger the whole, cut it off, Melius est ut pereat unus, quàm unitas. And, — immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum, ne pars syncera trahatur. But yet Cuncta prius tentanda; fire must be the last medicine. All gentle means must be first tried: and even in this act of justice, ye must not altogether exclude mercy. 
f Plutare. de audiendis poetis,  When many of the Lacedæmonians were drunk with wine, Lycurgus gave charge that the vines should be cut down; but Plato's counsel was better, who willed, that the fountains should be caused to run amongst the Vines, and that the rage of Bacchus, should be tempered with the soberness of Neptune, that is, that the water should be mingled with the wine. Though the extremity of justice make some desperate, (as did Draco's laws, which for their severity are said to be written in blood) yet must it not therefore be taken away, but rather the rigour of justice must be mixed with clemency, as his counsel was, that the rage of wine should be assuaged with the coolness of the water. For justice without mercy is bloody cruelty, mercy with out justice is foolish pity; but justice with mercy is perfect Christianity. Oh then, those which God would have joined together, do not you put asunder. But let them both be so linked together, that ye may verify that of the 
g Ps. 85.10.  Psalmist, Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness, and peace have kissed each other. To this purpose, in all your consultations, and actions set God before your eyes. Let him be on your right hands, and so ye shall not greatly fall. A Poet, when he is to bring a person upon the stage, will have this care, that the action, and speech be agreeable to the person.  
h Hor. de art Poet.  Intercrit multum, Davusne lo quatur, an Heros: 

i Cicero.  Id histrio videbit in Scena, quod non sapiens in vita? shall a stage-player observe that decorum on the theatre, which a wise man will not look to in his life? The world is a stage, & every man acteth his part upon this stage. You (R. H.) do act the part of God himself. The more wary aught ye to be in your actions. Ever waiting, whether God, if he were in your places, would do thus, or thus. Remember likewise, that, though ye be Gods, yet ye must die as a man. The greatest judge of the earth must one day hold up his hand at the bar, and answer for himself, when the judge of the world shall sit on the bench. This do, & when it shall please God to call you hence, ye shallbe advanced to a higher court, the court of heaven, where, for your scarlet garments, ye shall be invested 
k Rev. 7.15  in long white robes, your bench shall be the throne, your attendants the Angels, the parties ye shall judge, 
l 1 Cor 6. ●  the world, your sentence an Halleluiah: Amen, praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for evermore Amen.   
PSAL. 82.6.7. 
I have said, ye are Gods; but ye shall die like men.  
THere are 3. sorts of men, who, if they be faithful in their places, and follow the direction of their books, are the chief pillars, to support a Christian commonwealth: the Physician, the Divine, and the Magistrate. These 3. are in the body politic; as the three principal parts, the liver, the heart, and the brain are in the body of man. The Physician is the liver, the Divine is the heart, and the Magistrate is the brain of the commonwealth. The liver is called the beginning of the natural faculty; it segregareth the humours, it engendereth alimental blood, & by veins sends it into each part of the body, whereby the whole is nourished, and preserved. Like unto it is the Physician, who purgeth the body of man, from such noxious humours, as whereby it may be endangered, & prescribeth such a diet, as whereby it may be best nourished, and kept in health. The heart is called the beginning of the vital faculty, it engendereth the vital spirits, and by arteries sendeth them into every particular member. To which I compare the Divine. For as the heart is the fountain of the vital spirits, & the beginning of the vital faculty: so is the Divine the fountain and beginning, though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of generation, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of radication, yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (to use the physicians terms) of the dispensation of the true vital spirit. He is the means to make thee, of a natural man (such as the Physician leaveth thee) a spiritual substance. The brain, which is called the beginning of the animal faculty, is the chief commander of the whole: it sitteth in the highest room, as in a stately palace, being compassed about with the pericranium, the cranium, and the two meanings, as so many strong castles, and countermures, against all foreign invasion. It hath the five external senses as intelligencers, to give notice, what is done abroad, the common sense, the fantasy, and the understanding as privy counsellors, the memory as a book of records. But yet it is not idle, but is continually busied in tempering the spirits received from the heart: which it sendeth by the nerves, through the whole body, thereby giving sense, & motion to every part. A fit emblem of a good Magistrate, who as he hath his forts, and guard, and counsellors, and records, etc. so must he remember that he hath not these for his own proper use, but for the whole, and therefore should bestir himself, for benefiting the whole, especially in tempering the spirits received from the heart; I mean in using those spiritual admonitions, and instructions, which he shall receive from the minister of the Gospel, for the good, and benefit of all those that are under him. As the body is in best estate, when all these are well disposed, so it is most miserable, when there is a dyscrasy, and distemperature in any of them. So in the state likewise: Woe unto that Commonwealth where the Physician for wholesome physic ministereth hemlock: & the Divine, for sound doctrine, broacheth heresy, and the Magistrate turneth justice into wormwood. Of all these three, the brain is subject to most diseases: and of all these three, the Magistrate is most obnoxious to falls; both because he hath many incitements unto sin, which others want; & because he is deprived of a benefit, which others have, that is, he is not so freely reproved for his offences, as commonly others are; And lastly because of those Cubiculares consiliarij, (as 
a Polit. lib. 3 cap. 9  Lipsius calls them) tineae & sorices Palatij, (as Constantine termed them) the very moths and rats of a court, which live by other men's harms; à quibus bonus, prudent, cautus venditur imperator, (as 
b Vopi●c. in Aureliano.  Dioclesian an ill Emperor said well) which sell the magistrates favours, as if one would sell smoke, (as did 
c Lamprid. Ant. Heliog.  Zoticus the fair promises of Heliogabalus) and are always ready, for their own advantage, to give an applause unto his worst actions. By these he is led whithersoever they will have him, 
d Hor.  Ducitur ut nervis alienis mobilc lignum. Even as an arrow is led by the bowstring. Therefore David in this Psalm maketh a sharp sermon against the corruption of Magistrates, out of which I have made choice of this one branch. I have said, ye are Gods; but ye shall die like men. As if he had said: truth it is, your authority is great, your power extraordinary, (ye are Gods) yet 
e Ps. 75.6.  set not up your horns on high, and speak not with a stiff neck, ye are no transcendents, ye have no more reason to boast of your superiority, than the moon hath to brag of the light, which she borroweth from the sun, or the wall of the beam, which it receives in at the window; ye have it only from me (I have said:) & though ye be Gods, yet ye are but earthly Gods, ye are Gods in office, not Gods in essence, ye are made of the same metal that others are, & your end shall be like other men's (you shall die like men.) In which words, not to stand upon the diverse acceptions of any of them, may it please you to observe these 3 points. 1. The party from whom Magistrates receive their authority, it is from God, (I have said) and Gods saying is his doing. 2. Their pre-eminence above others, in that they are called Gods (ye are Gods) 3. The limitation of their dignity, ye shall die as men. Out of which I collect these 3. propositions. 1 Magistrates and judges of the earth do receive their authority from God. 2. They are Gods deputies to minister justice, & to judge between party & party. 3. Though they be extolled above their brethren according to their office, yet they must die as other men: where is implied this general conclusion, that it is the lot of all men, once to die. These are the pillars of my intended discourse: of which while I shall plainly entreat, in the same order, that I have now proposed them, I beseech you all to afford me your Christian attention.  
2 Of all the corporeal creatures that God made, 
1. Part.  none is more exorbitant then man. The highest movable is constant in his motion. He doth not hasten, nor neglect his course. The sun is precise in his course under the Ecliptic line, & turneth not an hair breadth, unto the right hand or unto the left, but 
f Psal. 19.5  cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his race. The rest of the Planets, though they turn to both sides of the Zodiac, and are (the most of them) sometimes direct, and sometimes stationary, and sometimes retrograde (as Astronomers speak) by reason of their motion in their imaginary Epicicles, yet they have their constancy in this inconstancy. Thou (O God) hast given them a law that shall not be broken. The elements keep themselves within their bounds. The beasts of the forest, in their kind, have their policy, and society. The raging sea goes not beyond his limits: God hath bound it (to use 
g job. 38.  jobs words) as a child in swaddling bands: he hath given it doors, and bars, and said unto it, hither shalt thou go, & thou shalt go no further, here shalt thou stay thy proud waves. But man is more exorbitant than all these: no bounds can keep him in. Therefore God hath written in the heart, and conscience of every man, that comes into the world, a law, which we call the law of nature: as that God is to be worshipped, good is to be embraced, evil is to be avoided. That which thou wouldst not another man should do unto thee, thou must not do to another man. And according to these general notions, he would have every person to direct his actions. But this law (like an old inscription upon a stone) is written in the stony heart of man in such blind characters, that he is put to his shifts before he can spell it. And howsoever he understand it in Thesi, yet in Hypothesi, in the particular, he makes many solecisms, and oftentimes calls good evil, and evil good. Therefore God hath written with his own finger a paraphrase upon it, which we call the moral law, and added a large commentary of judicial laws, by the hand of Moses. Which benefit (though not the same numero) he hath not only granted unto Christian Commonwealths, but even to the heathen also, amongst whom, in all ages, he hath stirred up men of excellent spirit to make laws, for the better government of their several states. The best of which did acknowledge that they had them from God. Howbeit after the custom of nations, which held a plurality of Gods, they did not all agree in one name; 
h Diodorus Siculus.  Lycurgus affirming that he received his laws from Apollo, Mino● from jupiter, Solon, and Draco from Minerva, Numa from the Nymph Egeria, Anacharsis from Zamolxis the Scythian God.  
3 But all this will not confine man within his bounds, for it is true of him, which was spoken of the Athenians, that they knew what was to be done, & yet did it not. And, which was objected by the Cynic, against the old Philosophers of Greece, that they gave good rules, but put none in practice.  
— 
i Ovid. Met  video meliora proboque  
Deteriora sequor,—  
said Medea when she was overcome with passion. It is true of most men, though they know the law, how that they which commit sin, are worthy of death, 
k Rom. 1.31  yet they do not only the same themselves, but also favour them that do it. The law of itself is but a dead letter. It is like a sword in the wars without a soldier to draw it. Many make no more account of transgressing it, than 
l Liv. lib. 1. dec. 1.  Remus did of going over the furrow, which Romulus had caused to be drawn. Or the frogs in the fable of skipping over the Lion, when he was fast a sleep. Therefore God hath added the Magistrate, as the life, and soul of the law, as a Captain to manage this sword. Him he hath made (if I may so speak) the summum genus of the commonwealth, by two generical differences of poena, and praemium, to coarct, and keep his inferiors in their several ranks: that as jehu, and jehonadab, went hand in hand together, for the rooting out of Ahabs' posterity, & destruction of Baal's Priests; so the magistrate being (as 
m Ethicorun, lib. 5. cap. 4.  Aristotle calls him) a living law, and the law, being a mute, & dead Magistrate, should join hand in hand, and proceed valorously, to the rooting out of sin, the suppression of Idolatry, the protection of justice, and maintenance of true religion.  
4 Now that they have this authority only from God, it is a point, which I hope in this place, I shall not need long to insist upon. 
n jam 1.17  For if every good and perfect gift be from above, even from the father of lights, much more this excellent, and supereminent gift of governing God's people, must proceed from this fountain. And to think otherwise is but with the Epicures, to be of opinion, that though God made the world, yet the government thereof, he leaveth to fortune's discretion, to be directed by her. One of the styles wherewith God is invested, is this, that 
o 1. Cor. 14  he is the author of order, and not of confusion: if of order then of Civil government, seeing that an Anarchy is the cause of all disorder, & confusion in the state. Insomuch that the reason of all the sins that were committed in Israel, is often in the book of judges ascribed unto this, that they wanted a Magistrate: There was at that time no king in Israel. judg. 17. 6. 18. 1. 19 1. 21. 25.  
It is a miserable life, to live under a Tyrant where nothing is lawful; but far worse, to live in an Anarchy where nothing is unlawful. But I shall not need to trouble myself, or to tyre out your attention, by heaping up multitudes of reasons for proving of this point, seeing it is a conclusion so plainly averred by the holy Ghost: 
p Prov. 8.15, 16.  by me kings reign (saith the wisdom of God by the mouth of Solomon) & princes decree justice; by me princes rule, and the nobles, and all judges of the earth. As if he had said: it is not by the wit, and policy of man, that the government of states is committed unto kings, & other inferior Magistrates: it is effected by the wisdom, and providence of God. With which the 
q Rom. 13.1.  Apostle agreeth, when he tells us, that there is no power but of God, & the powers that be, are ordained of God. It was sometime said of 
r Dan. 5.19  Nabuchadnezzar, that great king of Babylon, that whom he would, he pulled down, and whom he would, he set up. But it is always true of the king of heaven, who is — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the king of kings, and Lord of Lords; he pul●eth down one, & setteth up an other, he disposeth of their rooms, at his pleasure: For if 
s Pro. 21.1  the hearts of kings, much more their kingdoms, are at his disposition. This is a truth to which the very heathen themselves have subscribed. It was 
t 2. Chr 9.8  God alone that did exalt Solomon unto the throne of his father David, so the Queen of the South affirmed; that did exalt Cyrus to the kingdoms of the earth, so 
u 2. Chr. 36 23.  he himself confessed. Agreeing with that of the prophet 
a Ps. 71.7.8  David, Promotion comes not from the East, nor from the West, no nor yet from the South. And why? God is the judge, he putteth down one, and setteth up another.  
Use. 5 And is this true? Here than first the Anabaptists come to be censured, which withdraw their necks from the yoke of civil government, and condemn it, as not beseeming the liberty of a Christian man. A lesson which they never learned from the prophet Esay, who foretold, that in the time of the gospel (an assertion which they cannot away with; for though they grant, that the jews, at God's appointment, had their Magistrates, yet they think it not sit for a Christian to be subject to such slavery) in the time I say of the gospel he will appoint kings to be patrons, & propugnators of his Church. 
b Is. 49.23.  King's shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens shall be thy nurses. Nor from our Saviour Christ, who though he told his disciples, 
c Luk. 22.25.  when they strove for superiority amongst themselves, that one of them should not domineer over another, as did the kings of the nations, yet it was never his meaning to withdraw them from obedience to superior governors, but that 
d Mat. 22.21.  Caesar should have that which did belong to Caesar. Nor from 
e 1 Pet. 2.17  Peter, who commands us to honour the king. Nor from 
f 1. Tim. 2. ●  Paul, who commands us to pray for kings, and all that are in authority, and that to this end, that we may lead a quiet, and peaceable life in all godliness, and honesty. God knows better what is meet for christians than the Anabaptists do. He knows that we are strangers on earth, & not angels in heaven. And being 
g 1. Pet. 2.11.  strangers and pilgrims, stand in as great need of these helps, as of fire, of water, of air, of apparel, of any thing, which is necessary for the sustentation of our lives; seeing that they are not only the means that we are partakers of all these while they effect, that we may live together in civil society, but also the promoters of true religion, the advancers of virtue, the rewarders of piety, the punishers of sin, the destroyers of Idolatry, superstition, and all misdemeanours amongst Christians. So that as God said unto Samuel concerning the jews, when they disliked their present government, 
h 1. Sam. 8.7.  they have not cast thee away, but they have cast me away, that I should not reign over them: so I may say of these fanatical spirits, it is not the Magistrate, but God himself, whom they have rejected, that he should not reign over them.  
Use. 2 6 There is an other sort of men, who, though not directly with the Anabaptists yet indirectly, & by a consequent, cross my proposition. I mean the Papists. These do not altogether take away the civil Magistrate, but they tie his thummes & abridge his authority. It must be only in temporalibus: for spiritual matters, he must have no more dealings with than, than 
i 2. Sam. 6●  Vzza had to touch the ark of God. This they willingly grant, that the magistrates are Gods, but as the Aramits said of the Israelites, 
k 1. King. 20.28.  that their Gods were Gods of the mountains, & not Gods of the valleys: so say they, the civil Magistrates, are Gods of the mountains, and not Gods of the valleys; they are Gods of the Laity, but not of the Clergy.  
This is nought in respect of that which followeth. For whereas God challengeth this as a prerogative unto himself, to bestow kingdoms on whomsoever he will, and placeth the Princes of the earth in authority next unto himself, this they have perforce taken from God, and bestowed it upon him, that 
l 2. Thess. 2.4.  sitteth in the temple of God, and advanceth himself, above all that are called Gods. It is he to whom (if ye will believe him, & his parasites) all power is committed, both in heaven and in earth. He is that King of kings, & Lord of Lords, by whom Prince's rule, and on whom the right of kings dependeth: all nations must fall down before him, and all kingdoms must do him homage. The greatest Monarch of the earth must prostrate himself before him, & kiss his holy feet. The Emperor, if he be present when he taketh horse, must hold the bridle, when he lighteth, he must hold the right stirrup, when he walketh, he must bear up his train, when he washeth, he must hold the basin, when he would be borne, he must be one of the 4 that must carry him upon their shoulders in a golden chair.  
7 And as he takes upon him to give kingdoms to whomsoever he will (like the Devil, who told our Saviour Christ 
m Luk 4.6  that all the kingdoms of the world were his, and he gave them to whomsoever he would (whereupon saith an ancient father, 
n Irenaeus.  mentitur diabolus, quia cuius jussu homines creantur, huius jussu reges constituuntur, the devil is a liar, for by whose authority men were created, by his are kings appointed) as he takes upon him, I say, to give kingdoms at his pleasure, so will he take them away when he liketh. So far is he from that obedience, & reverence, which every soul should give to the higher power. Who knoweth not that 
o Chron. Charion lib. 3.  Leo Isaurus for putting in execution, a decree of a Council held at Constantinople in his time, touching the taking away of images, was first excommunicated, and then deprived of all his revenues in Italy? That Pope Zacharie deposed Childericke, the French king, that he might gratify Carolus Mertellus, and his son Pipin? That the proud Venetian peddler, 
p Bonfin. rerum Vng. dec. 4. l. 1.  Paul the second, by a public edict deprived of crown and kingdom, George the king of Bohemia, because he was an Hussite, & stirred up Mathias the king of Hungary, (his son in law) to war against him? What shall I tell you of the indignities, offered in our own land, against Henry the second, and john, king of England? or of the bulls of Pius Quintus, sent against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory, whereby he hath excommunicated her, absolved her subjects, from their oaths of allegiance, stirred up rebellions in these middle parts of Britain, and taken upon him, to bestow the regal diadem upon strangers. God be thanked 
q Ps. 2.4.  he that dwells in heaven (and, of right, challengeth the authority of disposing the kingdoms of this world to himself) laughed all their devises to scorne●. So that his Canons, though they made a terrible noise, yet no bullet was felt. And his Bulls which sometimes had such a terrible aspect, that a whole provincial Synod durst scarce venture to bait them, proved such cowardly dastards, that every single adversary hath been ready to tug them. Much resembling the counterfeit shows of Semiramis, when she warred against the king of India, which, a far off, seemed to be Elephants, & Dromedaries, but when they were thoroughly tried, proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed with straw. 
r Apoc. 16.7.  Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements.  
Use. 3 That I may cut off this first branch of my text: my third, & last inference shall concern you (R. H.) whom the Lord hath placed at the seat of judgement. Have Magistrates their authority from God? this concerns you in your places, as well as the greatest potentate of the earth. And therefore as on the one side it should be encouragement unto you, to hold on in all godly courses ye have begun; so on the other side, it should work in you, an humble, & thankful acknowledgement of so rare a benefit. Say not then within yourselves, that it was your own deserts, the excellency of your wits, the ripeness of your judgements, the deepness of your knowledge in the laws, the integrity of your persons, that did advance you, unto those rooms: It was none of all these, it was God alone that did promote you. If these were means of your preferment, yet have ye nothing whereof ye can justly boast, because ye have them all from him. For Dei dona sunt, quaecunque bona sunt. Use then your places as received from him, acknowledge God to be the author of your advancement, and say with 
s Luk 1.  Mary in her Song: he that is mighty hath done great things for us, and holy is his name. And so much of the first proposition. The second followeth.  Magistrates are Gods deputies. 
2. Propos.  
8 God as he is jealous of his honour, so is he of his name too. He will not give it unto any other, but only so far as he hath some resemblance with him. I find only 3 in God's book, (to say nothing of that eternal essence, to which it principally agreeth) which have this name given them. The first is Satan, who, by reason of his great, & almost unlimited power, which he hath for a time, here on earth, by ruling & reigning in the hearts of the children of disobedience, is called a God. The God of this world, 2. Cor. 2.4. The second are the blessed Angels, those yeomen of the guard in the court of heaven, which wait about the throne of God. These, by reason of their supereminent offices, are called Gods. Thou hast made him a little inferior to the Gods, Psal. 8.5. which the Apostle, following the Septuagint, translateth Angels, Heb. 2.7. The third, is the Magistrate, who, both in this Psalm, & sundry other places of Scripture, is called a God. His master shall bring him to the Gods, Exod. 21.6. Thou shalt not rail upon the Gods, Exod. 22.28. that is, the judges: implying thus much, that as they have a commandment, and authority from God; so they have, in some sense, the authority of God, and do supply his room. Therefore, said Moses unto the judges which he appointed in every city, 
t Deut. 1.36.  ye shall not fear the face of man, for the judgement is Gods. And jehosophat to those judges, which he had set in the strong cities of judah: 
u 2. Chr. 19 6.  take heed what you do, for ye execute not the judgement of man, but of the Lord.  
Use. 1 9 Now then, if Magistrates be Gods deputies, what reverence, it behoveth each private person, to exhibit unto them, I appeal to the conscience of every particular. There be many at this day, who howsoever in common civility, they will seem to give an outward reverence unto the Magistrate, yet in heart they scorn and contemn sundry of them: as perchance not being able to equalize them in wealth, peradventure not descending of so ancient a house as they.  

a Horat.  Tunè Sylli, Damae, aut Dionysi filius audes  
Deijcere e saxon cives, et tradere Cadmo?  
It was an old objection in the Satirist: what? darest thou, being thus, & thus descended, presume to give judgement upon a man that is better borne then thyself? yes; why not? he is now in God's place. He that lifteth the poor out of the mire, & raiseth the beggar out of the dunghill, that he may set him with the Princes of his people, hath styled him, with his own name, and set him in his room. I remember a story in 
b Herod. l. 2 Arist. polit. lib 3.  Herodotus, of Amasis' an Egyptian king, who, in the beginning of his reign, was scorned of his subjects, by reason of the baseness of his parentage: which when the king observed, he took a golden basin, wherein his guests were wont to wash their feet, and use to some homely purposes, and thereof made an image of one of their Gods, and set it in an eminent place of the city; which when the Egyptians saw (as they were marvelous superstitious) they came flocking on heaps unto it, & worshipped it. Hereupon Amasis, calling the people together, told them, that he was like unto that basin, which before was vile and abject, yet now was worshipped, because of the form it bare: so he, though before he was mean, and base, yet now was to be honoured, because he was the king, for the persons sake whom he did represent. It skilleth not, what the Magistrate hath been, or what hereafter he may be. For the present, be thy reputation never so great, thou art to honour and reverence him, if not for the man's sake, yet for God's sake, whose person he beareth. The story of 
c Liv. dec. 3. lib 4. Plu▪ in vit. F●bii.  Quintus Fabius is very worthy the noting. Quintus Fabius was sent by the Senate of Rome to his son, who was Consul, and resided at that time in Apulia. The old man, either by reason of his age, or to try his sons courage, went riding to his son: which when his son observed, he sent a Sergeant, and commanded him to light, and come on foot, if he would speak with the Consul. The bystanders thought it great arrogancy in the young man to be so bold with his aged father. But old Fabius, who had experience, what it was to be Consul, knew well, that he did no more than did beseem him: experiri volui fili (said he) satin' scires Consulem te esse. It is not for a Magistrate to debase himself: neither is it for others, of what reputation soever, to equalize themselves with the judge whom God hath placed over them: whom Solomon would have to be feared; 
d Prov. 24.21.  whom 
* Pet. 2.14.  Peter would have to be honoured; whom 
f Rom. 13.5.  Paul would have to be obeyed, not for wrath only, but even for conscience sak●.  
10 And this is not only meant of godly and religious Magistrates, such as are described by 
g Deut 17.  Moses, which make God's law of their privy Counsel, and turn not aside to the right hand, or to the left: but of wicked and ungodly governors too; such as are described by 
h 1 Sam. 8.  Samuel, which take men's sons, & appoint them to his charets, & to be his horsemen, & to run before his charets, & take their fields, & give them to his servaunts, and their vineyards, and give them to his eunuchs. The reason, is, because as well the bad, as the good are of God. The one he gives in his love the other in his anger. He that gave the regiment of a Commonwealth to Caius Caesar, a mild, and gentle Prince, gave it also unto Marius a bloody Consul. He that gave it unto Augustus, a mirror of humanity, gave it unto Nero, a monster of crudelity. He that gave it unto Vespasian, gave it unto Domitian. He that gave it unto Constantine, a religious defender of Christianity, gave it unto julian, an author of apostasy, saith 
i August. de Civil Dei lib 5. cap. 21  Austin. And be they good or bad, we have no commandment from him, but parendi, & patiendi: of obeying them, when their precepts are not repugnant to God's statutes, and of suffering with patience whatsoever they shall lay upon us. It was a worthy saying of the mother of the two 
k Bonsin. rerum Wag. dec. 3. lib. 2.  gara's, when they kept Sigismond in prison, that a crowned king, if he were worse than a beast, could not be hurt without great injury done to God himself. A lesson which she learned from 
l 1. Sa●. 24  David, whose heart smote him, when he had cut the lap of saul's garment, because he was the anointed of the Lord: although he 
m 1. Sam. 13 14.  himself was before that time anointed to be king over Israel, and was without cause, hunted by Saul like a Pelican in the wilderness, and an owl in the desert.  
11 Then to draw thy sword, & to seek perforce to depose such as God hath placed over thee, either because they are not suitable to thy affections, or not faithful in their places, what is it but, with the old giants, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to fight with God: with the cur dog, to bite at the stone, & not regard who casteth it: or, with the rebellious child, to snatch at the rod, & never remember who smitten with it. The weapons of a Christian, in this case (when such a case doth hap) must be preces & lacrymae, prayers, that either God would turn the heart of an evil magistrate, or set in his room a man 
n 1. Sam. 13 14.  David-like after his own heart: and tears, for his sins, which as they are the cause of war, famine, pestilence, and all other calamities, so are they also of wicked & ungodly magistrates. Otherwise they have reason to fear, that, if God should displace an evil magistrate, he would set a worse in his roone. According to that of th● 
o Val Max. lib. 6. cap. 2.  old wife of Syracuse, who when others prayed for the death of Dionysius the Tyrant, she prayed for his long life, being sent for by Dyonysius, & demanded wherein she was beholden unto him, that she so devoutly prayed for him: in nothing, said she, am I beholden to thee, & yet I have great reason to pray for thee. For I remember when I was a young wench, there was a cruel tyrant, that reigned over us; and all of us prayed for his death, I as fast as any: shortly after he was slain, and then came a worse in his room. Then we prayed for his death, at length he was dispatched. Now after both these art thou come, and thou art a thousand times worse than all thy predecessors. And who knows but, when thou art gone, God may (if it be possible) send a worse in thy room? This they may justly expect, which continued in their sins, & think by their private endeavours to cross God's ordinance. Thus much of those duties, which are required at the hand of every private man towards the Magistrate.  
Use. 2 12 My second inference shall touch those duties that are required at the hands of Magistrates, in that God hath made them his deputies. As God hath done great things for them, so he requireth much at their hands. But (alas) it often falleth out that those which own God the most, pay him the least: and those, who of all others should be most careful of their places, of all others make the least conscience of their ways. 
p Annal. l. 6  Tacitus reporteth of Claudius that he was a good subject, but an ill Emperor: 
q Hist. lib. 2.  of Titus, that he was an ill subject, but a good Emperor. Where one proves like Titus; two prove like Claudius. Honour's change manners. And those goodly blossoms, which did appear in many when they were private men, when they come in God's place, like frost-eaten buds, whither away, & prove like thunder-blasted fruit, not worth the touching, much less the tasting. It is noted of 
r Buchc●c. Ind. Chron.  Aeneas Silvius, that when once he became Pope, and got his name changed into Pius secundus, he condemned diverse of those things which he had written, when he was a private man. Whereupon one came over him with this quip, quod Aeneas probavit, Pius damnavit: that which Aeneas commended, Pius condemned. A fault to which men of eminent place are too much subject, to condemn and dislike those good things when they are in authority, which they approved when they were private men. Quod Aeneas probavit, Pius damnabit. Thus, those whom God calls Elohim, change their natures, and prove Elilim idols, and vanities. The heathen persecutors (as 
f Abbas Visp.  some writers have recorded) in the place where Christ was crucified had placed the image of Venus, a heathen idol, that if any should worship Christ, he might seem to adore Venus. This is the devils practise, to set an idol in God's room; sometimes a Venus, a Cupid, that use their authority for the enjoying of their own carnal pleasures; sometimes a Mars, using his power to blood and revenge; sometimes a Saturn, that eateth up his children (that is, his inferiors, which he should affect as a father doth his own children) as if they were bread; sometimes a Mercury, who is eloquent in speaking, but withal nimble in fingering, having a smooth tongue like jacob, but rough hands like Esau, nay Eagle claws like Nabuchadnezzar, to scrape, and scratch together whatsoever comes in his way, using his place only for his own advantage. Here is the undoing of all: for, besides that God's place is polluted, and the people wronged, there is an evil precedent given to private men, to follow the wicked example of their governors. For as the lower spheres, follow the motion of the higher: so in the commonwealth, those that are of an inferior rank are ready to follow the practice of those that are set over them. When a shrub, or bramble falleth, they hurt none but themselves; but when a Cedar of Lebanon, or an oak of Basan falleth, down goes all the under-wood that grows about them. It is the nature of the plague to infect upwards, from a lower, to a higher room: but the plague of sin is more forcible in infecting downwards, from an higher, to a lower room. It descends from the top to the toe & from the head to the skirts of the clothing. If 
t Mat. 2.3.  Herod be troubled about the birth of Christ, all jerusalem will be in an uproar with him. And if 
u 1. Kin. 12  jeroboam be an idolater, 
— 
a Claud.  componitur orbis  
Regis ad exemplum:  all Israel will go a whoring after him. And hereupon it is, that ye shall seldom meet with his name in the books of Kings, but you shall find him branded in the forehead with this mark, that he made Israel to sin.  
13 God be thanked, we have no great occasion of complaint at this day; especially in our chief Magistrates (& I wish, I might without check of conscience say as much of those, that are of an inferior rank) The Lord hath set over us (his name for ever be blessed for it) a most godly and religious King, of whom (as 
b Rarâ tempo●um felicitate, ubi sentire qua velis & quae sentis dicere licet Hist. lib. 1.  Tacitus ●aith of Trajan, and Cocceius Nerva) a man may think what he will, & speak what he thinks. God hath given him (as he did unto 
c 1. King. 4 29.  Solomon) a large heart as the sand that is upon the sea shore to judge his people according to right, and to 
d 1. Kin. 3 9  discern between good and bad. Whose princely care is to observe the practice of the old Romans, 
e August. de Civ. Dei l. 5. cap. 12,  to set honours temple close on the backside of virtues temple and not wittingly to suffer any to come into the Temple of Honour, which have not first done their devotion in the Temple of Virtue: not to make his judges, and chief Magistrates (like ᶠ jeroboams Priests) of the basest, 
e 1 Kin. 12.31.  & lowest of t●e people; but such as 
g Eood. 18.21.  Moses, at Iethroes persuasion, made judges over Israel, men of courage, fearing God, men dealing truly, and hating covetousness.  
14 And such (R. H.) you have by good demonstrations evidently proved yourselves to be. So that to make any large discourse before you, of your particular duties, may pervadventure seem unto some, as needless a piece of work, as it was for 
h Tull. de orat. lib. ●●  Ph●rmio, to make a military discourse before Annibal; or for Plotin to read a lecture in Philosophy in the presence of Origen. Yet because it comes within the limits of my text, I beseech you that you, will with patience hear me, while I shall say somewhat of that duty which God requires at your hands, in that he hath seated you in those high rooms. Many will tell you of the greatness of your places; but not so many will truly acquaint you with that which God requires for the discharging of those places. For my part me thinks I may say unto you, as 
i Liv. dec. 1. lib. 10.  Lucius Posthumius sometimes said unto the Senators of Rome: Non sum Patres-conscripti adeò vestrae dignitatis memor, ut obliviscar me esse Consulem. I am not so mindful of the greatness of your places, that I should in the mean time forget mine own, how that God hath made me his Ambassador, & commanded me to acquaint you with some part of his will.  
15 It is our parts, & duties, to give you that reverence, and honour, which is due unto men of your place. But yet as the people said unto the Ass that carried the image of Isis, when the beast seemed to be proud, because the people bowed as it went along the streets, as if the honour had been given unto it, and not unto the image: religioni non tibi, said they, it is not thee, but the goddess, whom we worship. So it is not to you as ye are men, but as you are in God's place, & do bear, and resemble his person, that we exhibit this reverence. You are Gods, but ye are Gods on earth, and Gods of earth, as we shall hear anon. Mathematicians tell us, that the whole earth is but a point in respect of the highest movable: it is no more in respect of that heaven, which is God's throne, than 
k Aelian. Var. hist. l. 3.  Alcibiades his lands were in that map of Greece that Socrates showed unto him. The greatest judge in the world, if his circuit should extend over the whole globe of the earth, is but a God of God's footstool. Your circuit is far less: you are but Gods of an outcorner, nay, a little portion of an outcorner of God's footstool. Let me then speak unto you in the words of the Tragedian, 
Vos, quibus rector maris, 
l Seneca in Thyeste.  atque terrae  
Ius dedit magnum necis, atque vitae,  
Ponite inslatos tumidosque vultus,  you whom the God of heaven, and earth hath so highly extolled, as to make judges of life and death, be not proud of your authorities, but think with yourselves, that, 
Quicquid à vobis minor extimescit,  
Maior hoc vobis Dominus minatur.  What hurt soever your inferiors shall sustain by your means, there is a greater God, that threateneth the same (nay a worse) unto you. 
m Psal. 2.  Be wise now therefore O ye Gods: be learned ye that are judges of the earth: serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling: kiss the son, lest he be angry. Let his word be a law to direct your sentences, his will the line to measure your actions. With what conscience can those hands subscribe to an untruth, which should be God's instruments to confirm a right? with what faces can those mouths pronounce an unjust sentence, which should be the organs of God to confirm a right? When you do amiss, you are not only injurious unto man whom ye wrong, but contumelious unto God, whose sacred judgements ye pollute. Give me leave then to say unto you with good king 
n 2. Chr. 19 6, 7.10.  jehosophat: take heed what ye do, for ye execute not the judgements of man, but of the Lord, & he will be with you in the cause, and judgement. Wherefore now let the fear of God be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity in the Lord our God, neither respect of persons, nor receiving of reward. Therefore in every cause that shall come unto you, between blood and blood, between law and precept, statute and ●udgement, ye shall judge the people according unto right, and admonish them that they trespass not against the Lord. Let me say with 
o Deut. 1.16, 17.  Moses, judge righteously between every man, and his brother, and the stranger that is with him: ye shall have no respect of persons in judgement, but shall hear the small, as well as the great. With 
p jer. 22.3.  jeremiah unto the king of judah: Execute judgement and righteousness, deliver the oppressed from the hands of the oppressor, vex not the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, do no violence, nor shed innocent blood in this place. And finally with my Prophet in this Psalm: Defend the poor and fatherless, see that such as be in need, & necessity have right, deliver the outcast, and poor, save them from the hands of the ungodly.  
16 I speak not this, as if I would have you to exceed the limits of justice, for commiserating the cause of the poor. I know the poor may offend as well as the rich: & as the poor is to be pitied, so the rich is not to be wronged. And he that hath given this law unto the Magistrate, that he should not respect the person of the mighty, hath given this also, 
q Lev. 19.15  that he should not favour the person of the poor. It is not the misery of the one, nor the felicity of the other, that the judge is to respect. For the matters in question, sound them to the bottom, anatomize them to the least particle, and sift them to the branne● but for the parties whom they do concern, further than this, that ye are to judge between a man and a man, ye ought not to inquire. The 
r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  law in the Greek tongue comes from a verb that signifieth to divide, because it divideth to every man, that which is his own. You then which are dispensers of the law should give to every one, poor or rich, that which is his right. Hereupon it is that 
s Arist. Eth. lib. 5. cap 4.  Aristotle calls the judge in commutative justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or as some copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medianus, or mediiurius, a mean between two; because he should not propend to the one party, more than the other, but only so far as the weight of the cause carrieth him, and should give to every man that which is his right, and that not according to geometrical, but according to arithmetical proportion: that is, not with Xenophons' young Cyrus give the greater coat unto the greater man, and the lesser coat unto the lesser man, but to give the greater coat (if it be his due) unto the lesser man, and let the greater man (if he have right to no more) be contented with the lesser coat.  
17 But the principal thing, which it beseemeth me to put you in mind of, and which is chief required at your hands, as ye are factors for the God of heaven, is the care of religion, and the true worship of God. Nothing is so dear unto God, as his own worship. He that toucheth it, wounds him to the heart, and pierceth the apple of his eye. It is an injury which he will not put up at the hands of any man, but will come against him, as the fire that burneth up the stubble, and as the hammer that breaketh a stone. Therefore it most nearly concerneth you, who are his deputies, to maintain his service, and to put what strength you can unto the hammer of justice, that ye may (as far as the laws will give you leave) burst into pieces, whatsoever shall advance itself against his worship.  
18 The sicknesses in religion, that are amongst us, are not Novatianisme, Brownisme, Catharisme. No, no: these hot frenzies are scarce heard of in this cold climate wherein we live. They are cold Epilepsies and dead Apoplexies, and sleepy Lethargies, & dangerous Consumptions, that vex us. The main root, whence they all spring, is a disease, with which this land is sick. And that is the bold profession of Popery: for hereby the true Christians are mightily discouraged, those that are infected with Romish superstition take occasion, by little and little, to fall away from us; The ignorant are doubtful, & know not what to do, but are ready to embrace any religion, or no religion, as time and occasion shall require; The Atheist (a vermin wherewith this whole country swarms, though they cannot be well discovered, by reason that they wear vizards upon their faces) is hardened and heartened in his impiety.  
For us, we do what we can to cut in sunder this bitter root. Gladly would we heal them of Babylon, but they will not be healed. For our private conferences with any of them, if they want wit to answer our reasons, they have will to let them alone. For our public work of the ministry, lest we should catch some of them they will not come within the compass of our nets. The last weapon of the church is fulmen excommunicationis, to drive them out of our Synagogues. And what care they for this, who will not come in them, no, when we do entreat them? they count it but brutum fulmen, a thunder clap, without a bolt, a canonshot without a bullet: it hurts them no more than the dart which old Priamus in the 
t Virg Aen. li. 2.  Poet shot at Pyrrhus: 
— Quod protinus aere repulsum,  
In summo clypei, nequidquam umbone pependit.  Further than this we cannot go: the weapons of our warfare are spiritual. Coactive jurisdiction is beyond our sphere. what is now behind? Vbi desinit Philosophus, incipiat medicus; where the word leaves them, let the sword find them. Brachium seculare, was the help, & assistance that the holy fathers of the Council of Constance implored against the poor Hussites. And brachium seculare is the help and assistance, that we implore against these Canaanites, that are amongst us. Which (howsoever unto the halting Mephibosheths, and lukewarm Laodiceans of our time, which can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth: & wear linen and  in the same garment, and yoke an ox, and an ass in the same plough, & care not if their fields be sown with mingled seeds, they be never a whit noisome: yet unto the true Israelite, 
u Num. 33.55.  they are thorns in his sides & pricks in his eyes; and gives him just occasion to exhibit that bill of complaint against them which the jews framed most falsely against the 
a Act. 21.28  Apostle, ye men of Israel (nay ye Gods of Israel) help, these are the men that teach all men every where, against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover they have brought (not Grecians, as it is in the text, but a more pestilent sect) Romans into the land, and have polluted this holy place.  
19 I speak not only of those children of Babylon, those sons of Belial, the followers of the beast, the viperous brood of Rome, the Seminary Priests & jesuits, that crawl in every quarter of this land, like the 
b Exod. 8.  frogs of Egypt; and 
c Mat. 23 15  travel sea & land, to make one of their own profession, that he may be twofold more the child of the devil, than they themselves are: but also of these limbs of Antichrist, these factors, and panders for the great whore, that are at home, & sit under their own fig trees, & drink the water of their own cisterns. 
d Cic. 2. Cal.  Quos video volitare in foro, quos stare ad curiam, quos etiam venire in senatum, as the Orator speaks. These, these are nostri fundi calamitas, the very moths of our region, & the cankarwormes of our religion. Wherefore gird you with your swords, 
e Ps. 45.4.  upon your thighs, & be not faint hearted (like 
f jud. 8.20.  Iether the first borne of Gedeon) but let your right hand teach you terrible things. No doubt but they will complain of cruelty, & persecution (they do that already, when they have no cause) but let not that discourage you, but rather let it be a means that they may have the same law, which the old 
g Tull. pr● Rosci●.  Capitolian dogs had: when they barked without a cause, their legs were to be broken. If the difference between them and us, be de lanâ caprinâ, about toys & trifles, let them be ashamed of their bloody cruelty, that have butchered, & massacred so many thousands of our brethren, for toys and trifles. Yea, & let us be ashamed likewise, that have continued so long in schism, & division from the Roman church for matters of so small moment. If they be (as I take them to be) fundamental points of Christianity, (alas) what worldly respect shall be sufficient to cool the heat of our zeal in God's cause? If our religion be a new religion, & theirs the old, & Catholic, let us forsake our new-fangles, & join with them. The old, is the true religion. If ours be the old, & Catholic religion, which the Apostles have taught us, the martyrs have confirmed unto us, & the faithful till this day have maintained & taught: & theirs a new and an vpstar● religion an hodge-podge & Pandora composed of all religions in the world, scarce heard off (for any material point of difference between them & us) in the church of God, for six hundredth years after Christ: let them pair away these rotten rags, these 
h Is 64.6.  filthy and menstruous clouts, and 
i Gal. 4.9.  beggarly rudiments, & let them join with us. Either let us all swear by God or all by 
k Zeph. 1.5.  Malcham. Either let us all serve God, or all Baal; if God be God, let us all follow him, if Baal be God, let us all go after him.  
20 I know what some will be ready to answer me, though in matters of religion they be different from us, yet for civil duties they will be subjects good enough. You say true, sir, and so the kite will be a dove good enough: but wot ye when? marry 
l Isto pacto & milv●s quando pullos rapere territus non potuerit co●umbum se nominat. Aug. contra lit. metil. lib 2. c. 83.  when he cannot seize upon a chicken, and make her his prey, as Augustine speaks. Is it likely that he will be true to an earthly king, that in matters of religion is his opposite, who is false to the king of heaven? Philosopher's, though they hold that it is not the same virtue that makes bonum virum, & bonum civen, yet the best of them agree in this principle, that he cannot be bonus civis, good in the duties of civil policy, which is not first bonus vir, perfect in the general duties of morality: neither can he be true in practising the virtues of the second table, which is false in the first. Dost thou think, that the oath of Allegiance is a band of sufficient force to tie a Papist in true allegiance unto his prince?  
m Horat.  Quo teneas vultum mutantem Protea nodo? 
Canst thou bind Proteus, that turns himself into every shape? Or canst thou make a coat for the moon, that is never at a stay? Was there ever oath so wisely contrived, so religiously taken, but the slippery snakes, and stretching horseleeches of Rome, could find some chink to creep out at? or their Holy Father, out of his Papal, and transcendent power can dispense with it, or cut it, as 
n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Alexander did Gordians knot, or break it, as 
o jud. 16.12  Samson did the new ropes, wherewith the Philistines had bound him, which he broke from his arms, as a thread?  
21 Verily I think there is no probability, to be a true Papist, & a true subject. A few simple seduced creatures amongst us, that understand not the mysteries of popery, but only in a generality, I speak not of them: (and yet I know how easily the young cubs may be taught to learn the tricks of the old Foxes) but for the rest, the time past will help us to discover them in the time to come. To say nothing of their damnable, & treacherous practices a broad against foreign princes, & here at home against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory, and the breath of our nostril's King james; that one gunpowder-plot, a devise set from the bottom of hell, may be an everlasting memento of their disloyalty, 
Accipe nunc Danaúm insidias, & crimine ab uno  
Disce omnes—  By this one fact we may judge of all the rest, as an ass may be known by his long ears, & as the bigness of Hercules might be gathered by the print of his foot. And though 
p P. R.  some of them, to make it less heinous, call it a particular fact of a few, and that temerarious too, as though, forsooth, it had been far from their hearts to have attempted any such cruelty against the Lords anointed: yet it may be truly said of them all, as Tully said of the Catilinarians, alijs facultas defuit, alijs occasio, voluntas profectò nemini. And he, that in outward show seems most against it, would have lent both heart, and hand, & put to the very match, so that he might have effected that matchless treason. And why should it be otherwise? For what, I pray you, is any Prince in the world, if he do not adhere to the Apostatical See of Rome? shall I define him unto you out of their Logic books? 
q Bell. Sand. Creswell. Ba●●cherius. Rainolds.  A wolf devouring the sheep; an Ahab or jezabel, destroying the Lords Prophets; an Holofernes, a processed enemy to the true Israelite; a Goliath, reviling the host of the living God; a seducer, and deceiver of the people, as our Saviour was called by their old grandfathers. And must not such a one be made away by one means or other, by open hostility, or secret conspiracy, it makes no matter?  — dolus an virtus quis in host requirit? 
Shall not the shepherd do well to kill a wolf? shall not 
r jud. 13.8.  judeth be highly extolled if she can kill Holofernes though sleeping in his bed? And if 
s Sam. 18.7  David kill Goliath, deserves he not to be met with the women of Israel with timbrels, and instruments of joy, singing thus, Saul hath killed his thousand, but David his ten thousand? In a word, is it not their assertion that Princes must not be suffered to reign, when they draw the people into heresy, but must be made away, yea by all means possible. And therefore I less marvel, why that reviling Rabshekeh, that brazen-faced fugitive Parsons, who blushed not to say any thing in his younger years, in his old age took upon him a kind of modesty, and durst promise no more for his fellows then this; that there was no impossibility for Papists to live in subjection, and dutiful obedience unto the king of great Britain. For possibility it is not the question, but for probability it is no more, than that the wind, and the sea, light, and darkness, the Ark and Dagon, God, and Mammon, the unbeliever and the infidel shall be together. For what I pray you is it, which knits men, as it were with chains of adamant, in love amongst themselves, & in loyalty and obedience unto their Prince? Is it fear of punishment? Oh no, for malus est custos diuturnitatis metus. He never reigns long, whom every man feareth; Cave●● multos, quem timent singuli, let him beware of a multitude whom every particular dreadeth. Is it hope of reward? not that neither. For that is often frustrated, and then followeth an alteration in the affections. It is neither of these. It is religion and the true fear of God. This, this is it which knits the heterogeneal parts, of the same kingdom unto the prince, as the several parts of man's body are by arteries knit, and united unto the heart, and as the lines of a circle, though they be far distant about the circumference, yet concur in one middle point: so must it be with them. Though they be different about the circumference of worldly affairs, yet must they concur in one common centre of religion. A good Christian commonwealth is like vnto 
t Act. 10.  Peter's sheet, wherein were all manner of four footed beasts, and creeping things, & fowls of the heaven. There are in it all sorts of men. There are nobles flying aloft, like the fowls of the heaven; there are of the base sort, creeping as it were below; and there are of a middle sort, men of all conditions, and callings. But this sheet is knit together (as that was) at the 4 corners (the most distant and remote parts thereof) with the unity of religion.  
22 This is so plain, that 
u Arist. Pol. lib. 5 cap. 11  Aristotle gives it as an especial rule for a Tyrant, if he mean to continue his government, to make an outward show of religion. For such kings (saith he) as seem to be religious, are in least danger of treacherous practices by such as are under them. Now where this unity of religion is wanting, (as wanting it is, seeing we differ from the Papists, not in a few circumstances, but in sundry fundamental points of Divinity) how can this knot be made fast? Nay, seeing they are so far from counting any Protestant Prince religious, that they count him an heretic; and the more diligent he is, in cleansing and refining his kingdom from the dregs of Romish superstition (as our Saviour Christ was in purging the law from the absurd glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees) the greater persecuter he is holden with them to be of the Catholic faith. Verily I see no probability, I had almost said, no possibility, that they will hereafter prove true and dutiful subjects to the King of great Britain. They may well make protestations, and outward shows, of love, and duty, and obedience towards the Prince: but Lupus pilum, non ingenium mutat, a wolf is a wolf though he be clothed in a sheepskin; well may he cast his old hair, but still he keeps his own nature. Shall their fair speeches make us believe them?  — sic notus Ulysses? 
Is the craft of the Romish foxes no better known unto us?  timeo Danaos, & dona ferentes. 
I fear their fawning far more, than their frowning, it was but a frivolous tale, which the people of Alexandria told Timothy, etsi non communicamus tecum, tamen amamus te, although we do not communicate with thee, yet we love thee. For how can a man love him in his heart, with whom he cannot find in his heart to communicate?  
I am in a field, in which I might coarse at large, but I am mindful of the time, & will not presume too long upon your patience. Some of our worthies do stoutly with their pens oppose themselves against these men, & I pray God every magistrate in his place would be as careful in vnsheathing the sword of justice against them. 
a Catiline. 1a  Habemus in eos Senatusconsultum satis vehemens, & grave; we have an act, & statute strong enough against them. But their boldness, not waning, but daily increasing, makes me almost say, as it followeth in the orator, habemus inclusum, in tabulis, tanquam gladium in vaginâ reconditum. It is closed in the book as a sword in the scabbart, or (as 
b 1. Sam. 21  Goliahs' sword was) wrapped in a cloth behind the Ephod. The best that I can say in this case, is to use the prophesy of the Crow in 
c Suet. in Domitiano.  Suetonius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all will be well: Est benè non potuit dicere, dixit erit. 
d Plin. nat. hist. l. 8. c. 16  Pliny writeth that the tricks of an ape, will so vex & move a Lion, that he will disgorge, and cast up, whatsoever lies on his stomach. I doubt not but their apish tricks will in time move the heart, & stomach, of our gracious, & merciful Coeur de Lion, & other magistrates in their places, to cast up, and show such tokens of their inward grief, as they shall have just occasion to conceive against them; and to purge the body politic from these noxious humours wherewith it is endangered. And without this there is no assurance of peace. For as 
e 2. King. 9.22.  jehu said unto jehoram when he went against the house of Ahab: is it peace jehu! (said jehoram.) What peace said the other, while the whoredoms of thy mother jezabel, and her witchcrafts are great in number? So say I, what peace can be expected, as long as the whoredoms of the Romish jezabel, and her witchcrafts, and enchanting cups, wherewith she withdraweth the people from their obedience to their Sovereign, and stealeth their hearts from him (as did 
f 2. Sam. 1●. 6.  Absalon the hearts of the Israelites, from David his father,) are in great number. As long as the Pope can set any foothold in Britain, he will still bestir himself to molest the peace of our Zion.  
Et si non aliquâ nocuisset, mortuus esset. But enough (if not too much) of this subject. It is a point which I vowed to handle; not out of any spleen to any particular person whosoever (he that seethe the thoughts of my heart, knows that I lie not) but for the love of the truth, the zeal of God's glory, the integrity of my conscience, & the discharge of my duty. And herein liberavi animam meam: look ye unto it. The third proposition followeth.  
23 Ye shall die.) What metal other creatures were made of, whether immediately of nothing, or of some pre-existent matter, I find no express mention in God's book. This I find, that man was made of a matter, and that not gold, nor silver, pearl or precious stones, but of earth, the basest and vilest of all the elements, yea of the dust of the earth, even of dry dust, which is good for nothing: that if he shall with proud Phaeton in the Poet, boast that Apollo, God is his father, he might presently call to mind, that poor Clymene, the earth is his mother; that he was 
g Gen. 2.7.  made of dust, that he is 
h Ps. 103.14  but dust, & that 
i Gen. 3.19  he shall return to dust. And yet I know not how it comes to pass, but I am sure it is true, that many in authority resemble the dust in no property better than one, that as the dry dust in the streets, is with every blast of wind blown aloft into the air: so are their hearts blown aloft, and swollen up with a windy tympany of their own greatness. But let them climb as high as they can, God will one day send a shower, and lay this dust. They are but natural men; & the thread of nature (as a Poet feigneth) is tied unto the foot of jupiters' chair: he can lose it, when it shall please him. Though Adam's wit was such, that he could give names unto every creature, according to their natures, yet he forgot his own name. He did not remember that he was called Adam, homo ab humo, by reason of that affinity that was between him and the earth. These sons of Adam are very like their old grandfather, they are witty in seeking out the names, and properties of other creatures, but they forget their own names, and their natures too. And this is the cause why they be so holden with pride, and overwhelmed with cruelties. They will with 
k Is. 14.13.  Nabuchadnezzar, strive to advance themselves above the stars of God; and to match their old grandfather, the first Adam, who though he was made of earth, yet with the wings of pride and arrogancy would needs soar up into heaven, and care little for resembling their elder brother, the second Adam, who took upon him our weakness, that we might be strengthened: our poverty, that we might be enriched; our nakedness, that we might be clothed; our baseness, that we might be exalted; our mortality, that we might be invested in the rob of immortality; and was contented to descend from heaven, to earth, that he might make a way for us, to ascend from earth to heaven. But let them secure themselves as much as they will; their hourglass is continually running; the tide of death will tarry no man. Our 
l E●ec. 18.  father hath eaten a sour grape, and his children's teeth are set on edge. Our grandfather for eating of the forbidden tree, had this sentence denounced against him; that he should return to dust. And his children are liable unto it, till heaven and earth be renewed, and there be no more death.  
Those gr●at and mighty Gods of the earth, wh●ch  themselves 
m Luk. 16 19  in purple, and fine linen, and dwell in houses of Cedar, and 
n Is. 5.8.  add house to house, and land to land, as if the way to heaven laid all by land, have a time appointed them, when their insatiable desires shall be contented with a Golgotha, a place of dead men's skulls, a little portion of the great potter's field, as much as will serve to hide, & cover a dead carcase in it. You which sit on the seat of judgement, whom the Lord hath so highly extolled as to be called Gods, you have your days numbered, your months determined, your bounds appointed which ye cannot pass. It is not the ripeness of your wits, nor the dignity of your places, nor the excellency of your learning, nor the largeness of your commission, that can add one inch unto the thread of your days.  

o Hor. car. lib. 1. Od. 4.  Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,  
Regumque turres—  
Death's arrow will as quickly pierce through the strong castle of a king, as the muddy wall of a country swain. Were ye wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, richer the● job, mightier than the greatest monarch of the earth, faithfuller in your places then Samuel, that faithful judge of Israel; Ire tamen restat Numa quò devenit & Ancus. This must be the conclusion; Ye must die as men, and yield your bodies to deaths sergeant, to be kept prisoners in the dungeon of the earth, till the great and general Assizes that shall be holden by our Saviour Christ, in the clouds of the sky, at the last day. The conclusion is most certain, howsoever the premises be fallible, and doubtful. 
p Seneca.  Alexander, when by his followers he was called a God, forgot that he was to die as a man, till by a poisoned arrow he was put in mind of his mortality, & then he confessed the truth: Vos me Deum esse dixistis, sed iam me hominem esse sentio. You said that I was a God, but now I perceive I am but a man. And shortly after he perceived it with a witness, when he was poisoned by Antipater, and then enclosed in a small parcel of ground, whose aspiring mind the whole world could not fill.  

q Epitaph. Hen. ●. Regi● Angl.  Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae  
Climata, terra modò sufficit octo pedum.  
He, whom the whole earth could not content, was at length contented with a parcel of ground of eight, yea of six foot long. 
r Act. 12.  Herod when upon a day he was arrayed in royal apparel, and sat on the bench, & gave such an excellent charge, that the people cried, — non vox hominem sonat— It is the voice of God, and not of man, immediately after proved neither God nor man. For he was eaten up of worms, and gave up the Ghost. Rare examples for the Gods of the earth, to look down into their own bosoms, and to remember that they must die as men. It is a good custom of the Emperor of the Abyssenes (Prester john) to have every meal, for the first dish, that comes on his table, a dead man's skull, to put him in mind of his mortality. So was that which was used by Philip: namely, to have a boy every day to put him in mind, that he was to die as a man. Not much unlike was the old practice of the 
s Munst. Cosmogr.  Egyptians, who when their Princes went to banquet, used to bear before them the picture of a dead man, to put them in mind of their mortality.  
24 Seeing then that ye must die, study to have your accounts in readiness, that whensoever t●e Lord shall call you hence, he may find you provided▪ Be faithful in those high ●oon●es wherein God hath placed you. 
t 2. Chr. 19 ●.  Ye execute not the judgements of man, but of the Lord. Ask counsel therefore of God, & weigh your proceed in the balance of the sanctuary. Do nothing but what God commands you, and the testimony of a good conscience will warrant to be lawful, remembering that ye m●st one day (God knows how soon that day will come) be summoned to appear before the common judge of all flesh; who is a burning, & 
u H●b. 12. ●9.  consuming fire, who is not blinded with secret closnesse, nor corrupted with bribes, nor moved with friends, nor alured by flatterers, nor persuaded by the importunity of entreaters, to departed an hairs breadth from the course of justice: no though these 
a Ezech. 14 14.  three men Noah, Daniel, & job, should stand before him, and make intercession in your behalf. These things remember, and do, and ye shall have comfort in your lives, comfort at your deaths. And when your so●l●s shall be removed from those earthly co●●●ges wherein they now dwell, they shallbe tr●●●●ted 〈◊〉 ●verlasting habitations, and received with this joyful, and comfortable welcome: 
b Mat 25.21.  it is well done good servants and faithfully ye have been fa●thfull in a little, I will make you rulers over much; enter into your master's joy.  
25 Like men] It is implied in the conclusion of my text, that it is the lot & condition of all men to die. And therefore as it concerns magistrates, so it concerns all others to provide themselves for their end, because 
c Eccl. 11.3.  as the tree falls, so it lies: that is, as the day of death shall leave them, so the day of judgement shall find them.  
Remember this ye that are to be witnesses, 
Application. 1. to witnessses, etc.  for giving testimony unto the truth, and jurors for giving a verdict according to the truth. And as you love & reverence the truth itself, as ye desire the benefit of your Christian brethren, which ye should love as yourselves, as ye wish the glory of God, which ye should tender more than yourselves; let it be a forcible motive unto you to deal uprightly in every cause with every man, without declining to the right hand, or to the left, then shall ye sanctify the name of God, by whom ye do swear to speak truly, to deal truly: ye shall give occasion to good men to praise God for you, and ye shall not need to be ashamed to meet God in the face, when he shall call you to a reckoning for your doings. But on the other side, if rewards shall blind you, or fear enforce you, or pity move you, or partiality sway you, or any respect whatsoever draw you to smother the truth, and favour an evil cause: ye pierce yourselves through with many darts. For first you are false witnesses against your neighbour: secondly, ye are thieves, ye rob him of his right: thirdly, ye are murderers, ye kill him in his body, or in his name, or in his maintenance: four, & which is worst of all, ye take the name of your God in vain, yea as much as in you lieth, ye take his godhead from him, & make him who is the truth from everlasting, to be all one with the devil, who is a liar from the beginning. If ye must be countable unto God, when he shall call you hence, for every idle word that goes out of your mouths; and if the least ungodly thought of your hearts, in the rigour of God's justice, deserve eternal death, how shall ye be able to stand in judgement under this ponderous Chaos of so many crying sins. I cannot prosecute this point: only for conclusion I say with 
d Deut. 30.19 20.  Moses, behold this day have I set before you life & death, blessing and cursing, choose life, & ye shall live. If not, I pronounce unto you this day, ye shall surely perish. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.  
26 You, 
2. To lawyer's Attorneys, etc.  whose profession is to open the causes in controversy, & by your knowledge in the laws to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, remember that ye must die. And therefore I beseech you in the fear of God, to study to make the cause of your clients sure, as that ye do not in the mean time forget S. 
e 2. Pet. 1.10  Peter's counsel, to make your own election sure.  
I urge this the rather, because (— absit reverentia vero) I will speak the truth in despite of all scoffs, & I hope such as are ingenuous will bear with my plainness, if as 
f Plut. Apot.  Philip said of the Macedonians, I call a boat a boat, and a spade a spade; because it seemeth to be much neglected by many of your profession, who with Martha trouble themselves about many businesses, but unum necessarium, to meet Christ, and talk with him, they scarce remember it. I remember the saying of Demades touching the Athenians, when they refused to make Alexander one of their Gods, & Cassander (who was his successor) threatened that unless they would do it, he would presently overthrow their city: the Athenians (said Demades) have reason to look to themselves, lest, while they are too curious about heaven, they lose the earth. But these men have need to look to themselves, least while they trouble themselves too much about the earth they lose heaven: by whose means especially it is effected, that our courts, do too much resemble the lions den, which howsoever other beasts in simplicity went flocking on heaps unto, yet the fox, that found by experience how others sped, durst not come near it.  
— Quia me vestigia te●r●●t (said she)  
Omnia te adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum.  
All comes to them, little from them: they have as attractive a force so● silver, as the loadstone hath for iron. 
g Hom. Iliad lib. 6.  Glaucus made no good market with Diomedes, when he changed his golden armour, for armour of brass: but many clients complain that they meet with worse merchants, who for a purse full of angels give them nothing but a black box full of papers. Procrastinations, & unnecessary delays, for filling of the lawyer's coffers, and pilling of the poor clients, is a fault which I have glanced at heretofore, and might a thousand times hereafter yet ever it be reform. For never was it more spoken against then now, & never was it so much practised as now. Well far the old Athenian laws, which (as Anacharsis once said) were like unto spiderwebs, that catched the little flies, and let the wasp, ●●d the Bee, and the Beetle burst through them▪ in respect of them that hold w●●p, & B●●, and Beetle and all, and scarce any cā●urst through them. But what do I now? Condemn I the law? I do wrong. Is the law sin? saith 
h Rom 7.6 7.12 14.  Paul (he speaks of the moral law.) Nay the law is holy, and just, and good, but I am carnal, sold under sin. So say I, is our law sin? Nay our law is just, & good. Here is the breakneck of all: too many of our solicitors, attorneys, & learned scribes, are merely carnal & sold under sin, using it not to that end for which it is ordained, the glory of God, and the peace of the commonwealth, but as the fowler doth his not, for catching of plovers to enrich themselves withal: making that which should be for the common good, a monopoly for themselves, a profession of mockery, and a mere shop of most horrible, & detestable covetousness.  
But it is the worst thriving in the world to rise with an other man's fall. It was a short, but a sharp quip, which a captive gave unto Pompey the great, Nostrâ miseriâ es Magnus, It is our misery that gave thee thy surname. It is so in this case, Nostrâ misera es magnus, may the client say to his counsellor. As the swelling of the spleen argueth the consumption of other parts: so the enriching of the lawyer, the impoverishing of the client. If then his cause be good (alas) why is it never ended? If it be nought, why is it still defended? If the cause be nought, the defence is worse than nought. Understand me rightly: it may be a counsellors hap to be a speaker in an ill cause, and yet he not worthy any blame. The party may misinform him in the truth of the cause. judgements in the like case may be different, or some other circumstance may deceive him. But where it plainly appears to be nought indeed, by nimbleness of wit, and volubility of tongue, to smooth it over with colourable probabilities, thereby (as far as thou canst) to give the truth an overthrow, this is but to gild over a rotten post, to call good evil, and evil good, to let lose Barrabas, and destroy jesus, to make the devil, who is a fiend of darkness, to appear in the likeness of an angel of light, and therefore worse than nought. Better with Papinian to have thy head parted from thy shoulders, then to be a common Advocate in such causes.  
There is a kind of men in the world, who though they know before they begin their suits, or at least before they have waded far in them, as well as they know their own names, & the number of their fingers, that the matter which they prosecute, by extremity of law, is manifest wrong: yet either out of a malicious humour, to give their adversaries an overthrow, or because their ability is such, that it will hold them out, or because others do join with them, and make it a common quarrel, or because they love (Salamander-like) to be broiling in the fire of contention, can by no means be dissuaded from their wicked enterprise. This matter so wickedly, & mischievously begun, one counsellor or other, (that loves (with the eele-catchers in the old comedy) to be fishing in muddy waters, and desires alive to bathe himself in any pool that an Angel shall trouble) must manage. He must find some probable title in the law for it: he must as long as the law will afford him any kind of waif, weave it out in length, and when it fails, he must spider-like spin it out of his own bowels. He must prolong judgement, and defer the matter from one day to an other, from one term to an other, from one year to an other, from one court to an other; till at length he who hath both God, and the law, and a good conscience on his side, for very weariness, be enforced to give it over, or be brought to extreme beggary, that he can follow his suit no longer, or till Atropos have cut in sunder the thread of his days, & so made an ●nd of the quarrel. Well were it for the commonwealth if such seditious quarrelers, and make-bates were by some severe punishment, taught not to delude justice, and oppress the truth: that others by their example might be terrified from such wicked attempts, and that honest & godly men might live in more peace, and t anquillity. If my words do sound harshly in the ears of some of my hearers, I must say of them as 
i Hierom●.  Hierom saith of some in his epistle to Rusticus: dum mihi irascuntur, suam indicant conscientiam, multoque peiùs de se, quàm de me judicant. If they be offended with me, they bewray their own guilty consciences, and have a far worse opinion of themselves, than they have of me. I name none; I know none. I speak in general against sin, and 
k 1. joh. 3.20.  if any man's conscience condemn him, God is greater than his conscience, and knoweth all things, and therefore 
l joh. 5.14  let him go his way, and sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto him. My hope is that all of you are of a better disposition. But I know ye are all men, and therefore subject to the like passions, & infirmities that others are. Let me therefore once again (to return to that from which I have a little digressed) beseech you in all your plead, & legal proceed to remember that account, that ye must make unto God, when ye shall be called hence. Remember that there is a woe denounced against them 
m Is. 5.20.  that call good evil, and evil good. Remember the end of your profession; it is not to sow dissension, to fill your own coffers, to make a mart to utter your own wares, to show your ready wits, and voluble tongues in speaking probably of every subject good or bad: but to help every man to his right, to cut away strife and contention, and to restore peace and unity in the commonwealth, that all the members of the body politic may be of one heart, and one soul. 
n Eph. 4.4, 5, 6.  Even as there is one hope of our vocation, one Lord, one faith one baptism, one God, and father of all, which is above all and through all, and in us all. Remember that our God is called the 
o 2. Cor 13 11.  God of peace, his Gospel, the 
p Eph 6.15  Gospel of peace, his ministers the 
q Is. 52 7.  Ambassadors of peace; his natural son, the 
r Coloss. 1.  author of peace, his adopted sons, the children of peace: if then ye will be the sons of the most highest, your endeavour must be this, 
s Eph. 4.3.  to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. 
t 2. Tim. 2.7  Consider what I say, & the Lord give you wisdom, and understanding in all things.  
Finally to speak unto all (and so to make an end of all) seeing that we are all tenants at will, 
3. To all.  and must be thrust out of the doors, of these earthly tabernacles, whensoever it shall please our great landlord to call us hence: let us have our loins girt, and our lamps continually burning, that whensoever the Lord shall call us hence, in the evening, or in the morning, at noonday, or at midnight, he may find us ready. Happy is that man whom his master when he comes, shall find watching. Let us every day sum up our accounts with God. 
u Hierom.  Ita aedificemus quasi semper victuri, ita vivamus quasi cras morituri: let us build as if we would ever live, but let us live, as if we were ever ready to die. Then may every one of us in the integrity of heart, and sincerity of conscience, when the time of his departing is at hand say with the blessed Apostle, I have fought a good fight, and have finished my course. 
2 Tim. 4 7.8.  I have kept the faith; Fron hence forth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God, the righteous judge shall give me at that day. Unto this God, one eternal, omnipotent, and unchangeable jehovah in essence, three persons in manner of subsistence, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be ascribed all honour, & glory, power, might, and majesty, both now & forevermore. Amen.  
FINIS.   

The Principal points handled in the first Sermon.  

The wicked abstain from sin when a fit opportunity is wanting. Sect. 1. 2. 3. 4.  
The danger of covetousness. Sect. 5. 6. 7. 8.  
Hypocrites are always mingled with godly professors. Sect. 11. 12.  
Four judasses' in these times. Sect. 14.  
The first the simonical Patron. Sect. 15. 16. 17.  
The second the oppressor. Sect. 18. 19  
The third the briber. Sect. 20.  
The fourth the deceitful lawyer. Sect. 21.  
The Magistrates duty. Sect. 22.    

The principal points handled in the second Sermon.  

Magistrates have their authority from God. Sect. 4.  
Which makes against the Anabaptists Sect. 5.  
The Pope's usurped power over secular Princes. Sect. 6. 7.  
Magistrates be Gods deputies. Sect. 8.  
Therefore subjects must honour them whether they be good or bad. Sect. 9 10. 11.  
Magistrates do often abuse their authority. Sect. 12.  
How careful they should be of discharging their duties. Especially in maintaining true religion. Sect. 14. 15. 16. 17.  
Papists are not to be suffered, both because of their differences from us in matters of religion. Sect. 18. 19  
And because there is no probability that they will be true subjects. Sect. 20. 21. 22.  
judges must remember that they must die & then be judged. Sect. 23.  
The great abuse of the laws. Sect. 26.