I haue elsewhere, in a great and popu­lous auditory, dis­coursed of our Sa­viours mildnes, & humility, & of the deceit and hypo­crisie of the Iudas­ses of these times, from these words of our Saviour: Iudas betrayest thou the son of man with a kisse? Luk. 22.48▪ Being commanded to supply this place, I thought it not vnfit for this present oc­casion, to looke backe into the storie of our Saviours passion, & to seeke out the cause of Iudas his cruell, and more then hellish fact, in betraying his Master, which I finde wrapped in the wordes al­ready delivered vnto you.

These two questions, what wil yee giue [Page 2] me? and what shal I giue you? be two evils at this day much reigning amongst men; which though they may stand some­what vpon their antiquity, yet they haue little reason to bragge of their petigree. For the one may be fathered vpon Simō Magus, who offered to buy the gifts of the holy Ghost for mony:Act. 8.19. What shall I giue you, that vpon whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receiue the holy Ghost? the other vpon Iudas the traitour, who offered to sel the giver of the holy Ghost for a small summe of mony. What will yee giue mee, and I will deliver him vnto you? Both of thē wicked, but the speech of Iudas the more hainous. Who not con­tented with that which he gat by stealth out of the bag which he bare, and being disappointed of a profit which he expec­ted, in regard that that boxe of oint­ment which hee purposed to haue sold, (that he might haue converted a good part thereof to his own proper vse,) was powred vpon our Saviours head: & per­ceiving our Saviour to defend the fact of the woman, anone hee goes out; and be­cause hee was frustrated of his hope of gaine by selling the ointment, he offers [Page 3] for a small summe of mony to sell the an­nointed. What will yee giue mee, and I will deliver him vnto you? As if he should haue said, I perceiue that yee are marveilous desirous to apprehēd my master, but yee cānot easilie effect your purpose, by rea­son of the people, which make such ac­count of him, that perchāce they would make an vproare, if any open violence should be offered vnto him: yet if yee wil listen vnto me, and follow my counsell, I wil quickly ease you of that care, vpon this condition, that yee will afford mee any reasonable reward for my paines; tel me therefore before I go, what shall my recompence bee, and I will vndertake without any tumult to deliver him into your hands. In which wordes obserue these two points, 1. Iudas his question, what will yee giue mee? 2. His promise to deliver his master, so that he may bee re­warded: and I will deliver him vnto you.

In the question wee see, that though Iudas was an Apostata, fallen from God, and ledde by Satan to betray his master, whom he little esteemed, as appeares by the price he sold him for; yea though hee had a desire to make his master away, [Page 4] least hee should afterward get knowe­ledge of his theft, yet hee will not betray him vnlesse hee haue something for his paines. And therefore before he make a­ny promise of delivering him, hee cove­nanteth for a price: whence ariseth this note, that even the wicked, and reprobate will abstaine from horrible and grosse sinnes when there is no provocation offered, and when they see no end of committing them. There are in every sinne which is volun­tarily committed two causes. An inward impulsiue mouing them; and something which may haue the name of a final cause or else an external obiect, alluring them. The impulsiue cause in Iudas was covet­ousnesse. The finall cause was to obtaine some mony. The impulsiue cause kept it selfe close, and like a theefe, lurked in a corner, til a fit opportunitie was offered, and a reward was expected. As it was in Iudas, so was it in Achan; no doubt but Achan had giuen lodging to covetous­nesse before the overthrowe of Iericho: but then he had the opportunitie offered him. He saw amongst the spoile a goodly Babylonish garment, I [...]s. 7.21. and two hundred she­kles of silver, & a wedge of gold, & because [Page 5] he coveted them hee tooke them (contrarie to the Lords commandment) & hid 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 hauing had possessed his heart, before that Naa­man the Syrian, came to his master, to be healed of his leaprosie. But never such an opportunitie was offered, as was thē: for whē he saw Naamā offer his master some rich rewards for curing him, & his master absolutely refusing them,2. Kin. 5▪ 20. hee thought then was the golden occasiō 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 himselfe to worke wickednesse, did not shedde the blood of Naboth the Israelite, but to this ende, that hee might obtaine the vineyard which lay neere vnto his house. Now as it is in covetousnesse, so with other sins. And the reason is very plain: for though the vnderstandings of the wicked bee so darkned, that they call good evill, and evil good, sower sweet, and sweet sower; Isa. 5. though their appetites and affections bee so per­verted, that they swallow vp sinne with [Page 6] greedinesse, & drinke iniquitie like wa­ter: yet there is some reliques of the i­mage of God in their vnderstanding, whereby they haue a glimpse of good & evill, which though it cannot moderate the will, and affections from running in­to sinne, yet it doth so farre forth bridle them, as that they will not commit any hainous impietie, but when some thing is offered which puts as it were a vizard vpon the obiect of the will, and makes it chuse that which otherwise it would re­fuse. For the will by nature is alwaies ca­ried vnto his proper obiect, which is good, and abhorreth that which is evill. So that when it chuseth evill, it is not as it is a will, but as it is depraved, & as the vnderstanding, which iudgeth of the ob­iect, before the will choose or refuse it, coūteth that good which indeed is evill. Vse. 1 3 Here two sorts of men are to be cen­sured: the first is such as think themselues sufficiently excused for committing any sinne, if they can bring any occasi­ons, or the allurements which haue mo­ved them to commit it. The drunkard will say that company hath drawne him to forget himselfe, and therefore hee [Page 7] must bee pardoned. The adulterer will plead for himselfe, that his owne corrupt affectiō hath moved him, & that the circū stances of time & place haue caused him, and therefore he must bee excused. But these excuses are such, as that, if they would serue the turne, the wickedest re­probate vpon the face of the earth might be found not guilty. For might not Iudas haue pleaded for himselfe, that he would never haue betraied Christ, but that hee expected some rewarde from the high Priests? Might not Ahab haue sworne that hee woulde never haue sought Na­boths blood, if it had not bin for his vine­yarde which was so commodious for his house? Might not Achan haue avouched that he would never haue trāsgressed the Lords commandement by taking of the excommunicate thing, but that it so offe­red it selfe that he thought he might haue taken it, and none bin privy to it? Might not Cain haue excused the slaughter of his guiltlesse brother, that he woulde not haue killed him, if the Lord had not had a greater respect vnto Abels sacrifice, thē vnto his? It is true indeed, that such ob­iects may occurre, such inducemēts may [Page 8] happen, as that the dearest of Gods chil­dren (which as long as they remaine in these houses of clay do tast too much of the old Adam) may thereby be led to cō ­mit grosse impieties. We know, that the feare of death mooved Peter to deny his Master: That idlenes, & the sight of Bath­sheba, caused David to adultery: That Lots daughters brought their father to commit incest: That Salomō by his wiues was drawne to Idolatry: That the fear of the Egyptians made faithfull Abraham to distrust Gods providence, & to say that his wife was his sister. But this [...]onely shews their imperfectiōs; it excuseth not their facts, that they had sundry provo­catiōs to these sins. If Peter had thought that the feare that the Iews put him in, by reason of the great cruelty which they v­sed against his master, might haue excu­sed him for denying Christ,Mat. 26. he might haue spared his teares. If occasion, and time & place, might haue purchased a pardon for David, Psal. 51.1. he would never haue 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 Gods plagues, not to excuse [Page 9] our sinnes, and say that such & such pro­vocations brought vs to them: for so the wickedest reprobate might be innocent) but to humble our selues before the Ma­iestie of God, and to confesse our misery, that he may receiue vs to mercy.

Vse. 2 4 There is another sort of men which if they cōmit not such iniquities as others do, (either because their natures are not so prone, and bent to those vices, or be­cause such obiectes and allurements are wanting, as others haue had) will boast (at least within thēselues) that they haue attained vnto a farre greater measure of holinesse, then others, which by their na­turall pronenesse, or some external cause, are drawne to wickednes. But (alas) what credit is it for the Scythians, that they were no drunkards, whē they never gate wine nor strong drinke? What commen­dation for the olde Germanes, Tacit [...]. that they abstained from the vnlawfull companie of women, whē by nature they were not addicted to wantonnes? What credit is it for a yong childe, or withered old man, to abstaine from carnall pleasure, when the heate of youth in the one is quelled, & the other never knew what lust meant? [Page 10] What grace for a weak spirited mā, who was never moved with any excessiue an­ger, not to be a murtherer? This is rather commendatiō worthy, if we shall abstain frō those vices to which our corrupt na­ture doth most propend: If the Dutch can leaue his drunkennes, the Italian his lust­fulnesse, the French his factiousnes, the Spaniard his hautinesse, the English his gluttony, & greedines: if the cholericke can lay aside his anger, and rashnesse; the phlegmaticke his sloath, & idlenesse; the melancholicke his hatred, & enviousnes; the sanguine his concupiscence, and wā ­tonnes; in a word, if Herod can be cōten­ted to part with Herodias, and every man his beloved sin, to which by nature he is most addicted.

When a certaine Physiognomer loo­king vpon Socrates, gathered by his cō ­plexion that he was given to l [...]st & wan­tonnesse, the people which knewe the continencie, and vertuous life of Socra­tes, mocked him as vnskilfull of his art, thinking that Socrates was not addicted to any such vice. But Socrates acknow­ledged the iudgement of the Physiogno­mer to be true, and confessed that by na­turall [Page 11] disposition hee was prone vnto it; thinking it a greater vertue to conquer, and keepe vnder the corruptions of the flesh; then to keepe himselfe vnder, and within the bond of reason, when hee had nothing to draw him away. And yet this is little worth, vnlesse it be at such time, when some externall meanes, and provo­cations doe concurre, for bringing that into act, which depraued nature most af­fecteth. The drunkard will sometimes abstaine frō his beastlinesse: but it is whē he can get no wine. The oppresser from grinding, and grating the faces of the poore; but it is when hee lacks matter to worke vpon. The wanton from his plea­sures; but it is when hee wants time, and place to effect his desires. The gluttō frō his excessiue cating: but it is in a dearth, or scarcitie, when he knowes not how to fill his p [...]unch. It had been praise worthy in Iudas, if hauing a covetous minde, the high Priest had come vnto him, and offered him a large summe of mony, vpō this condition, that hee would haue be­trayed his master; and he should haue re­plyed, as Simon Peter did to Simon Ma­gus: your mony perish with you, Act. 8.20. because yee [Page 12] thinke that the sonne of God may be bought for mony. It is a good commendation which Tully giues to Muraena, that living amongst the effeminate and luxurious Asians, hee was not infe­cted with their faultes. Laus illi tribu­enda est, In Orit pro Mu [...]aena. non quòd Asiam viderat, sed quòd in Asia continenter vixerat. And Ʋlysses deserues the name of a sober and temperate man, not because hee was so amongst the Grecians, but be­cause hee kept himselfe sober in Cir­ces cellar; where all his fellowes ex­cept Eurylochus were drunke. On the cō tra [...]y it argueth weaknesse in Anacharsis the Scythia [...] Philosopher (who vsed to say in commendation of his countrey that there were noA [...]ist. Post. Analyt. lib. 1 Pipers in Scythia be­cause there were no vines) that fallng into the company of some Cellar-knights which dranke for a wager, he tooke their part, and was fi [...]st drunke vnder boord himselfe.Psal. 11.5. The Lord, saith the Psalmist, trieth the righteous. Hee suffereth such obiects to bee offered vnto them, as may be allurements vnto sinne; that by refu­sing & forsaking thereof, they may make [Page 13] it knowne to the world, to whom they belong. So was Lots righteousnes tried, not when hee dwelled with Abraham, but when hee was remoued to Sodome: which though it was for the pleasant­nesse of the soyle like the garden of E­den, yet for wickednesse and vnnaturall vncleanenesse it surmounted hell it selfe. 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 soule by their vnlawfull deeds. So was Davids innocencie tried, not when he fled from Saul, but when he found him asleepe and might haue killed him.1. Sam. 26 [...] So likewise thou declarest thy righteousnesse, not when thou abstainest from such sinnes as thy nature is averse from, or from such sinnes as thy flesh is prone vnto, at such times as fit meanes are wanting to accomplish thy desire: but when thou abstainest from such as thy flesh inwardly desireth, and some externall provocation vrgeth and allureth thee vnto. Thou must, when the high Priest offers thee a rich reward, not be bribed to sell thy master. With Ʋlysses thou must liue sober [Page 14] at Cyrces table, with Lot thou maist per­sist honest amongst the Sodomites: other­wise if thou perswadest thy selfe, that thou dost well, if thou canst abstain from grosse sinnes, when there is no great in­ducement to perswade thee to act them; this is but Iudas his righteousnesse, who would not betray his master but in hope of reward, what will yee giue me, and I will deliuer him vnto you?

5 And so I come vnto the second ge­nerall part: wherein obserue 1. the persō delivering, I. 2. the action, deliver. 3. the partie delivered, him. 4. the parties to whom, vnto you. Of which before I parti­cularly intreat we may from the promise as it hath reference vnto the questiō, ga­ther this conclusiō. That a couetous mind, setting all respects aside, will not be afraid to commit any sinne, so that hee may bee re­warded for his paines.

Luke Luk. 22.2. and Iohn Ioh 13 3. tell vs, that the Devill put it into the heart of Iudas to betray his master. He put it not into the heart of Peter, or Iohn, or any other of the Disci­ples; why? because this Philargyria, had only taken root in Iudas his heart: the rest were not infected with this disease. [Page 15] 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 poore damsell did so shake the rock of his faith, that presēt­ly he denied him, the rest immediatly af­ter he was taken forsooke him, and fled: but none of them did entertain any such suggestiō as to betray him, saue Iudas Is­cariot, who before was entangled with the chaynes & fetters of covetousnes. So true is it which the Apostle saith, those that will be rich fall into snares and tenta­tions of the devil; for so the vulgar addeth 1 Tim. 6.4. Here then, if ever, the poets exclamation may haue place,

What vice so scandalous; what thing so monstrous; what sinne to God & nature so odious, which the desire of mony will not cause a man to commit? A man be­trayeth a man, a servant his master, a creature delivers his creator, theIoh. 17.12 sonne of perditionMatth. 16.16. the sonne of God; the Lord of life must bee put to death for a little mony. Well therefore doth the Apostle tearme covetousnesse the roote of all evill. 1 Tim. 6.10 [Page 16] For as al the lines of a circle do take their beginning from one middle point or cē ­ter; so all other evils doe spring from this fountaine.Gal 5.20. [...]1. The workes of the flesh are ma­nifest (saith the Apostle) which are Idola­try, witchcraft, hatred, debate, emulations, wrath, contentions, seditions, heresies, envy, murther; I may adde lying, swearing, stea­ling, oppressing, whēce do they proceed, but from a covetous & infatiable heart? This is the wombe where they ordinari­ly are bred.

saith the Poet: alluding to the fact of Ve­spasian, Sueton in Vespasiano. in Suetonius, who gathered a taxe from some homely matters, and tolde his sonne Titus that it smelled as wel, as any other silver did. Be it gotten, by theft, ly­ing, stealing, swearing, forswearing, vsu­rie, oppression, what way so ever it bee gotten, (saith the covetous in his heart) if it be gaine, it is wel gotten. Tacitus Tacit. hist. l. 3 tels vs of a Roman knight, that killed his own brother, in hope to be rewarded for his paines. Histories are full of the like, which I will passe over with silence. I wil only instance in one of our owne coun­trie, [Page 17] (which me thinkes in all points, saue in the difference of the parties betrayed, may be cōpared to this of Iudas) I meane Humfery Banister servant to the Duke of Buckingham: whom the Duke had ten­derly brought vp, and aboue all loued & trusted, insomuch that being pursued by K. Richard the third, hee hid himselfe in Banisters house, thinking it to bee the only sanctuary, where he might safely re­pose himselfe. But wh [...]n K. Richard had promised 1000 pounds to those that would finde him out, the desire of gaine so wrought with him, that presētly he be trayed his Lord & master into the kings hands. As the fact was like to that of Iu­das, so the punishment hath some resem­blance with it. Iudas though hee had no bond for payment, yet he got the mony. The high Priests proued better of their promise then the King Iudas did not en­ioy the mony, for he went out,In the life of Richard the 3 writ­ten by Sir Th. More. and han­ged himselfe. Banister was not executed, but was shortly after for a murther con­demned: his sonne & heire became mad, and died in a hogstie, his daughter was infected with a leprosie, his second son deformed of his limmes; his youngest [Page 18] sonne drowned in a puddle.

6 By this wh ch hath been spoken, you see my conclusion plainely proved: that a covetous man, setting al respects aside, will not be afrayd to commit any [...]nne, so that hee may bee rewarded for his paines. And how can it be otherwise? for hee is like a hunger-starved man which will doe any thing, so that he may satiate his appetite. Covetousnesse like the pit of hell, is never satisfied, and like the bar ren wombe, it never saith, I haue enough.

Ovid. Fast. Prov. 30 15 Quo plus sunt potae, plus sitiuntur aquae. the more blood the two daughters of the horseleech shal sucke, the more eagerly they cry out▪ Hor. giue. giue. This barren & dry earth is never satisfied with water; nec sitim pel­lit, nisi causa morbi. Nothing will content this dropsie, but that which more aug­menteth the disease, as nothing will sa­tisfie the fire, but that which more aug­menteth the flame. Hee is like vnto him that hath the Caninus appetitus, the more he eateth the more he hungreth. Some Physitians 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 proues it true that a gold-hun­gring [Page 19] man, doth not onely long for this mettall when he is in a consumption, but farre more when hee hath taken a surfeit through abundance.

The richer, the poorer: his mind hunger­eth as much for gold, as Dionysius his belly hūgred for flesh, who vsed to stand all the day in the shambles, & quod eme­re non potuerat, oculis devorabat. Iustin. l. 2 [...]. That which he could not buy with his pennie, he devoured with his eies. And here that comes in my minde which Herodotus re­cordeth of Alcmaeon the Athenian, who because hee had kindly entertained the messengers which Croesus sent to the ora­cle of Delphos: Herod. lib. [...]. Croesus sen [...] for him and offered him asmuch gold as at one time he could beare out of his treasure house. Alcmaeon not a little glad of the offer, prepared a large doublet with wide fleeues, a paire of breeches reaching downe to his heeles, both of them fitter for Hercules then for himselfe. This done he went to Croesus his coffers, & first fil­led his breeches as full as hee could stuffe them, then his sleeues, and bosome, then glued as much as hee could to the haires [Page 20] of his head, and beard, & then lastly stuf­fed his mouth with as much as hee could thrust in it, and so with much adoe, crept out of the treasure house.

Ap [...]lication to magistratsThis sinne, as of all men it is to bee a­voided, so especially of magistrats which sit at the sterne to direct our ship in this glassie sea: and which are the pillars of iustice to support her battered fabricke. Yee must not giue it the least welcome in your hearts: but (like the wise travel­ler) stoppe your eares at the songs of this Syren, and not giue it the least attention though it charme never so cunningly. You should haue eies like vnto Lynceus, to [...]iue into the bottom of the most deep and abstruse controversies. Now hope of reward blindeth the eies of the wise: so that as a blind man which hath a pearle vpon his eies, cannot see his way, but stū ­bleth at every blocke, and falleth head­long into every pit: right so if you shall haue this rich pearle (this pearle of ri­ches) before your eies, you can never tread right in the way of truth. The eie, or any facultie of the sensuall, or in elle­ctuall part, if it bee busied about any one obiect neglecteth the rest: & if your eies [Page 21] bee exercised about this obiect, it will make you negligent in publike affaires.Arist. de ani­ma lib 3. Intùs apparens prohibet alienum: if the spe­cies of gold possesse your heartes, there will be no roome for iustice to lodge in them. For these two bee [...], non benè conveniunt nec in vnâ sede morātur. They cā no more lodge within the same breast then light with darknesse, the arke with Dagon, God with Mammon. It was Cae­sars saying, borrowed from Euripides in his Phoenissa: If iustice must be broken, Cic. lib. 3. Offic. it must be for raigning. But hee might more truely haue said, for gaining. For gold could never away with iustice, & there­fore the Poets faine, that when gold first began to be digged out of the earth, iu­stice durst tary no longer, but presently fled into heaven.Exod. 18.21 Therefore Iethro descri­bing the qual [...]tie of a good iudge, saith that he must deale iustly or truely, & thē he addes, as it were by way of explicatiō for the better vnderstanding of the for­mer word, that he must hate covetousnes: as if he had said, if he be a covetous, and gold-thirsting man he cannot bee a true and iust dealer. And to this purpose Da­vid prayeth, Ps. 119. that the Lord would [Page 22] encline his heart to his t [...]stimonies, & not to covetousnesse.

[...] To lawyers7 Now as this insatiable desire of gain, is not to sit on the bench with the iudge, so is it not to plead at the bar [...]e with the counsellor, which with the key of know­ledge is to vnlock the secrets of the law, and with a skilfull, & expert hand, to vn­tie the knots of hard and difficult questi­ons. It will make him Pharisee-like to straine a Gnat, and to swallow a Camell; to tythe mint, and cummin, & to let passe iudgement and fidelity, it will make his tongue play fast and loose with iustice at its pleasure. A golden key commonly o­pens a wrong locke. Auro loquente, nihil pollet quaevis oratio. When Pluto speaks Plato may holde his hande on his mouth like Harpocrates the Egyptian God, & say nothing. It is a great comēdation which Tullie giues vnto a Lawyer:De orat. l. 1. The mouth of a Lawyer is an oracle for the whole citie. But if this mouth bee once corrupted with gold it will proue like the oracle of Delphos, of which Demosthenes complai­ned in his time,Tull. de di­vinat. lib. 2. that it did [...], speake nothing but what Philip, which gaue it a double fee would haue it to say. [Page 23] And such an oracle Demosthenes himselfe sometime proved:Aul. Gel. l. 1 [...] cap 9. who being feed to plead a cause, & immediatly after recei­ving a large summe of mony of the other party for holding his peace, the next day comes into the court in a rug-gowne, ha­ving his necke, & iawes all muffled with furres, and warme cloathes, and told the iudges he was troubled with a squinancie that he could not speake. Whervpon one that perceived his disease, said that it was not a colde, but gold that hindered his speech. [...], an Oxe, I warrant you, was in his tongue. The Athenian coine which was stamped with the form of an Oxe had bunged vp his mouth, no marvaile if he was speechlesse.

8 But especially this sin is to bee avoi­ded of you that are witnesses, and iurers,3. To wi [...] ­nesses and Iurers, which are the one by testifying the other by examining the trueth to make a finall decision of controversies. If you shall en­tertaine any such thought as to saie with Iudas, What will yee giue me? yee shall be sure to finde some Simon Magus ready to say? What shall I giue you? Falsity and ly­ing haue ever bin the handmaides to co­vetousnesse. And therfore when the Pro­phet [Page 24] Ieremie complaineth, that from the least to the greatest they were al givē to co­vetousnes, Ier. 6.13. it must needs be true which he addeth in the next words, that frō the Pro­phet evē vnto the Priest they all dealt fals­ly. As Iudas was hereby moved to betray his master, so were the souldiers perswa­ded to lie, and falsely to forsweare them­selues, that his disciples stole him awaie when they were asleepe; and that most palpably too. For if they were asleepe how knew they that it was his disciples, and if they knew that it was his dis [...]iples, how were they asleepe?

2. Pet. 2.159 Follow not then the waies of Balaam the sonne of Bosor which loued the wages of vnrighteousnes. Only herein ye must keep his resolution,Num. 24.13 not for an house full of silver and gold to goe beyond the worde of truth to say lesse or more. Equivocations and men­tall reservations which the Papists make such reckoning off, are the ready waie to renew that old tohu, and bohu, to make a chaos and confusion of all things,Gen. 1. to mixe light and darknes, truth & falshood, hea­ven and hell togither. Whosoever shal for filthy lucre sake, either wittingly cō ­ceale part of the truth, or adde any thing [Page 25] thereto, and thereby turne the truth into a ly,Eccl 6.3. I say vnto you that an vntimely birth is better then hee. And better it were for him vnlesse he repent,Mat. 18.6. that a milstone were put about his necke, and that he were drow­ned in the deepe of the sea.

10 To end this point,4 To all. Luk 12.13. Eph. 5.3. let me speake vn­to you al in the words of our Saviour, be­ware of covetousnes, & with the Apostle, let it not be once named amongst you. But if ye wil needs be covetous,1. Cor. 14. [...] covet spirituall things: set not your heartes on the things that are below, but on the thin [...]s that are aboue. Covet that which wil satiate your hearts, and that is nothing in this world. For the hart is triangular, and the world is round, and a round body cannot fill a triangle, but there will remaine s [...]me emptie corners: no more can the whole world fill the three corners of an heart, nor any thing saue he which is three, and one, God blessed for evermore. Inquietū est cor nostrum O Deus postquam recessi­mus à te donec revertamur ad te, saith Au­stin, O God our heart is never contented when we turne from thee, till we returne to thee. Oh then as your hearts are, so let your hearts desire bee; that is, the Basis [Page 26] or broader part vpward toward heaven, and heavenly things, & the conus or nar­row point towardes earth and earthly things. Vse not your riches as Anachar­sis said the Athenians did their money: Nummis ad numerandum, Plut. de pro­fect virt. sent. onely to count it over, & then to coffer it vp. Inioy thē, but ioy not immoderatly in them, knowing this that yee are not owners, but on­ly vsers of the things that yee possesse. Alas why should a man, which is a little world of himselfe, a man whose conver­sation should be in heaven, bee wedded to these base, and vile excrements of the earth? they deserue 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 silke, but excrements of sillie wormes, which liue but two or three months? So­lomon had as much experience in them as any man that ever lived.1. Kings. 10 17. For hee gaue in Ierusalē silver as stones, & Cedar trees, as the wild fig-trees that grow abundantly in the plaines, yet in his old age, when hee became a preacher, and repented him of his former life, he tooke such small com­fort in this transitory trash, that in the [Page 27] beginning of Ecclesiastes, hee tooke this for his text, Vanitie of vanities, Eccles. 1. [...] and all is but vaniti: and if they be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary, they wil want of weight. They are altogether vanitie, nay they are lighter then vanitie it selfe. Let vs then so loue them, as that we care not to leaue them: and in all things,Plilip. 4.12 let vs learne both to be hungry, and to bee full, and to abound, and to haue want: accoun­ting all things, but losse, and drosse, and dung, that wee may winne Christ. Which Iudas for the desire of a little mony pro­miseth to deliver vnto the high Priest: I will deliver him vnto you. And so I come to the particulars of the second generall branch of my text.

11 And first wee are to begin with the Person delivering, and that is Iudas, no Saducee, nor Pharisee which oppugned his doctrine, no professed enimie which openly sought his destruction, but an A­postle, one of the twelue which hee had chosen vnto himselfe, and sent abroad to preach the Gospell, and to cast out Di­vels, and to heale the sicke. Hence I infer this conclusion: that no calling is so holy but that it hath some wicked impes, & dis­sembling [Page 28] hypocrites (which though for a space they may deceaue the world with a vizard of holinesse, yet time will vnmaske and shew them in their owne 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 mo children then Cain and Abel, Gen 4. the elder of these two, the first that ever was borne of a woman, the heire apparent of the whole world, was an Apostata: his hypo­crisie was disclosed in killing his bro­ther. When the whole Church was com­pinged within the sides of one arke, all were not sheepe that were in this little fold,Gen. 7. for —Nat lupus inter oves, there swamme one wolfe among these sheepe. As there was a Sem which was e­lected; so was there a Cham which was reiected: his apostasie declared in mock­ing his father. Of the same father (even of him,Gen. 16. who was the father of the faithfull) there came an Ishmael, as wel as an Isaac; of the same mother (even at one and the selfe same birth) came an Esau, Rom 4 16. as well as a Iacob. Gen. 25.24 The same kingdome had as well [Page 29] a Saul, as a David: the same place a Bar­rabas, and a Barnabas, the same professiō a Cephas, and a Caiphas, a Iude, & a Iuda [...]: and as it was, so it shall ever bee till the sonne of man come in the glory of his kingdome, as longe as the nett swims in the salt sea of this world, till it bee brought to land, it shall containe both good & bad fishes. Till the reapers come there must growe wheat and tares toge­ther in this field: till the shepheard come there must bee sheepe and goates in this fold.2. Tim. 2.20. This great house till it be builded a new, must containe vessels of honour, and vessels of dishonour: the gold must be mix­ed with the drosse, till the great and ter­rible fire come to separate them. In this floore the wheat shall bee mingled with the chaffe, till the Lord come with his fan in his hand to winnow it, and shall blow the chaffe,Psal. 8. and scatter it away from the face of the earth.

Reasons. The reasōs here of first respect the wick­ed, & that is to make them more inexcu­sable, in that conversing with the god­ly they doe not learn godlines: but as those which walke in the sunne, though they change their outward colour, yet they [Page 30] stil retaine their inward nature, so these though they receiue an outward tincture of godlines, yet they stil keepe their in­ward corruption. Herevpon it is that Co­razin and Bethsaida are more inexcusa­ble,Mat. 11.21. Mat. 12 41. then Tyrus and Sidon: that the men of Niniue, & the Queene of the South shall a­rise against the Iewes and shall condemne them: Mat. 11.23 that it shall be better for them of So­dome in the day of iudgment, then for Ca­pernaum.

2 The lord by this meanes effecteth the conversion of sōe, which are not yet cal­led. For as the Aramits, by walking with the Prophet,2. King. 6. were at vnawares brought to Samaria: so many who are not as yet called by walking with the righteous, are catched at vnawares, and brought to Christs sheepfold.

3 The lord doth hereby exercise his children and keepes them still fighting, wheras otherwise they would be readie to fall a sleepe in the cradle of carnall se­curitie. The coldnes of devotiō, that is in the worldlings, doth by an Antiperistasis oftētimes stir vp the heat of zeal in Gods children. While the wind striues to blow out the fire it encreaseth the flame, and [Page 31] while the wicked doe indeavour to con­sume the heat of zeale in Gods children, and to make them as cold as they them­selues are, they often blow it vp, & make it farre greater then 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 Lots continencie did farre more appeare when hee lived amongst the Sodomites, then when he was in the mountain with his two daughters.Gen. 19. If Gods children should haue none but such as Moses, and Elias to converse with them, they would say as Peter did vnto Christ, when hee was transfigured vpon the mountaine, Master it is good for vs to be here: Mark. 9.5. let vs here (vpon this mountaine) build vs ta­bernacles. They would never say with the Psalmist:Psal. 15.8. Lord who shall dwell in thy Ta­bernacle, and who shall rest vpon thy moun­taine? Whereas now being vexed with these Cananites that dwell amongst thē, and are thornes in their sides, Num. 33.59. and pricks in their eies: they are wearie of the earthly Canaan, & long for another, which flow­eth with better things then milke & ho­nie. [Page 32] They cry out as Rebecca when shee felt the two twinnes struggling in her wombe:Gen. 25 22 if it be so, why are we thus?

Vse. 1 12 To leaue then the conclusion, and to come to some application therof. Are the wicked intermixed with true & zea­lous professours? What shall we then say to the old Donatists, and the Brownists, and Anabaptists, which separate them­selues from the true Church, & say with those in the Prophet, Come not neere vs for we are holier then ye? Socrat. hist. Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 7. Me thinks I may say vnto them as Constantine said to Ace­sius a Novatian Bishop: Let them make a ladder for themselues to ascend into heavē, here is no place for them on earth, as long as this world shall last, the Lords wheate shall growe vp with the tares. Christ hath spoken it,Mat. 13.29. and Christ is truth, if there bee in them any charitie, they will assent to this veritie: Sit in illis charitas & congaudeant vernate Aug. Cor. 2.6. yea but light hath no communion with darknesse, nor bit­ternesse with honie, nor life with death, nor the vnbeleeuer with the infidell. It is the obiection of Petilian the Donatist a­gainst Austin. But his answer is, that whē they eschew the darknesse, they forsake the light: when they flee from death they [Page 33] flee from life also. Attendis Zizania per mundum, & triticum non attendis, cum per totum vtra (que) sint iussa crescere? atten­dis semen maligni, quod ad finem messis se­parabitur; & non attendis semen Abrahae, in quo benedicentur omnes gentes? Dost thou marke the darnell, & dost thou not remember the wheat? Dost thou thinke vpon the seed of the serpent, whose head shall be crushed; and dost thou not think vpon the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed? when thou fleest from the chaffe, thou forsakest the good wheat, which is min­gled with it. When thou separatest thy selfe from the seed of the wicked, thou seperatest thy selfe from the seede of A­braham. When thou thus dividest thy selfe from the hypocrits, that are in the true Church, thou cuttest thy selfe from the Church, and a member taken frō the whole must needs perish. If thou wilt thinke vpon this with that heedfulnesse that thou shouldst, thou wilt not forsake the greene pastures of the Lord, that are besides the waters of comfort, Psal. 3. because of the goats; nor leaue Gods house, because of the vessels of dishonour; nor runne out [Page 34] of the Lords floore, because of the chaffe; nor separate thy selfe from the wheat, be­cause of the tares, which shall at length be bound in a bundle, and cast into the fire; nor burst the vnitie of the Lords net, be­cause of the bad fish, which swimme in it, (which, when the net is brought to land, shal be cast away:) but as a Father speaks tolerare potiùs propter bonos cōmixtionem 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.

Vse. 3 But before I leaue this point, I must giue thee this lesson (and I beseech thee marke it well) though of necessitie thou must liue amongst the vngodly,Psal. 1.12. yet thou must not walke in the coūsell of the vngod­ly, much lesse stand in the way of sinners, & least of all, sit down in the seat of the scorn­full. Though thou dwell among wolues, thou must not vlulare cum lupis, howle with the wolues: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 goe out of this world) yet be not partaker with them in their sinnes, least thou bee [Page 35] partaker with them in their punishmēts. Though a corporall separation cannot bee had, yet in spirit thou must separate thy selfe:2. Tim 2.19 for let every one that calleth on the name of the Lord, separate himselfe frō iniquitie. Thou seest what is thy lot, if not with Lot, to dwell with Sodomites: or with Naaman, to be amongst the Ara­mites: or with Ioseph to liue amongst the Egyptians; if thou canst not say with Da­vid, Ps. 120.5. Woe is mee that I am constrained to dwell in Meshech, and to haue mine abode in the tents of Kedar: Yet maist thou say with Esay, Woe is mee, Isa. 6.5. for I dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lippes. With Christ and his Apostles, thou must con­verse with a Iudas: with the Hebrewes, thou must liue with the Cananites: with the Spouse in the Canticles, thou must bee as an apple tree amongst the wild trees of the forrest, Cant. 2.2, 3 or as a lilie amongst the thornes. Let not these wild trees, which are moued with every blast of winde, by the shaking of their boughs beat downe thy fruit, and though the thornes pricke thee, yet keepe still a lilies beautie. Thou must touch pitch, but beware of being defiled with it. Thou must walke vpon [Page 36] coales, beware of burning thy feete: though thou lie among the pots, among the washpots of the Lord (asPs 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 doue, that is covered with silver wings, Ps. 67.13. and her fea­thers like gold. Be not like the Apotheca­rie, that carieth the smel of his shop a­bout with him, nor like the river Iordan, whichPlin. nat. hist. l. 5. c. 15 looseth his sweet waters in the lake Asphaltites. But like the fish in the salt sea, which still retaine their freshnes; passe through the brinish Ocean of this world, as Arethusa doth vnder the Si­cilian sea,

Virg. Eclog. 10. Doris amara suam non intermisceat vndā. In a word, though thou canst not wholy separate thy selfe from the workers of darknesse, yet haue no fellowship with the vnfruitfull workes of darknesse, but even reproue thē rather. Eph. 5.11. Nay from such works, as much as thou maist lawfully, separate thy selfe: for thou wilt in time ioy in the latter, if thou long enioy the former, it is a matter of some difficultie to bee conti­nually handling pitch, and birdlime, and to haue none cleaue to thy hands.Arist. Met. lib. 1. cap. 2. Ari­stotle [Page 37] noteth it of his master Plato, that conversing long with the Pythagorians, hee learned from them many erronious opinions, which afterward he stifly main­tained.Q. Cur. Alexander by conversing with the effeminate Persians, andLiv. dec. 3. lib. 3. Annibal by liuing in Capua, did abate so much of their former valour, that it was doubted whether they were the same mē they had beene before.Sozom. l. cap. 2. Iulian, in profession some­times a Christian, by conversing with Libanius, and Maximus, became an Apo­stata. To goe no further with the exam­ples of heathen men, you knowe that Io­seph living in Pharaohs Court, began to sweareGē. 42.1. by the life of Pharaoh. And the Hebrewes dwelling among the Idola­trous Egyptians (whichHerod. l. worshipped an oxe) did meetly well imitate them, for theyExod. 3 [...] worshipped a calfe. 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 sheepe will soo­ner spoile a whole flocke, then a whole flocke will cure an infected sheepe. It is no hard matter to change wine into vineger, but to turn vineger, onto chāge water into wine, ‘[Page 38]Hoc opus, hic labor est.’ This is such a miracle as will never bee wrought, vnlesse Iesus be at the feast. It is an easie matter to bee infected with the plague of sin, if thou remoue out of the fresh aire into the company of cōtagious persons. And though thou be regenerate, & the old mā hath got his deadly woūd, yet is there a sympathy betweene thee, & the wicked. Thy affectiōs are like tindar, ready to kindle with every sparkle, that the wicked shal strike in them. And sinne once kindled is like wilde fire, it will not be quenched with every kinde of water. This poison perhaps wil not be perceived at the first, yet, like the biting of a madde dogge, it will never cease infecting thy blood till it come at thy hart. Beware thē of dogs. Philip. 3.2. Avoid (as much as is possible) such contagious places, as are dangerous to infect, and keepe thy selfe in the fresh aire, where the spirit, that quickneth, doth blow. But whereas thou canst not wholly avoid the company of sinners (for as before was said, the good and bad fish swim togither [...]n Gods net) avoid their sinnes.Prov. 1.10.11. Harken vnto Solomon, My sonne, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. My [Page 39] sonne, walke not thou in the way with them, refraine thy foot from their path; but con­trarywise when they entice thee to evill, perswade them vnto that which is good. Be to thē, as Noah was to the old world, a preacher of righteousnesse; 2. Pet. 2. [...]. Vers. 8. as Lot was to the Sodomites, who dwelling amongst them vexed his soule with their vnlawfull deeds; as Christ was to the woman of Samaria, Ioh 4. who by desiring of the water of Ia­cobs well to quench his thirst, brought her to desire the water of life, wherof who soever drinketh shall never more thirst; and as he was with Publicanes and sin­ners, who refused not to goe to their cor­porall banquets, that he might feed them with spirituall foode; as Iohn was with the Pharisees & Saducees, Mat. 3. who preached vnto them faith and repentance; and as Paul was amongst the idolatrous Athe­nians, who went with thē, through their idolatrous temples, and red the titles and inscriptions written vpō their altars, but to this end, to take a text, and argument thence,Act. 17.23. to perswade them to the worship of the true God.

So much of the person delivering. The action followeth, (deliver.)

[Page 40] Deliver.]13 Treason is a sinne so odious, that e­ven the heathen which were guided, but with a glimpse of natures light, howsoe­ver, sometimes for their own advantage, they approved the fact, yet they coulde never away with the author of it. It was Augustus his saying of Rimotalchus the king of Trace, which vanted himselfe for the betraying of Antonie: [...]. I may loue the treason but I hate the traitour. And it was the say­ing of Antigonus: Proditores tantisper a­mo dum produnt, ast vbi prodiderint odi. I loue a traitour whē he cōmits the treasō, but when he hath done it, I detest him. These speeches, though plausible at the first, argue corruptiō in the speakers. For if the traitour be evill, surely the treason cannot be good. The old Romanes could abide neither. For when Pyrrhus his phy­sitiā, seeking to gratifie the Romāes, pro­mised to giue his master poison, the Ro­manes made Pyrrhus acquainted with it, & willed him to look vnto himselfe. And when the schoolemaster of the Phalasci­des childrē offered to betray those which were committed to him,Liv. dec. 1. lib. 5. to Camillus his hand: Camillus sent them backe againe, [Page 41] and made his own schollers to beat him.

This fact, of it selfe so hainous,Him. is fur­ther aggravated by the person betrayed. If Iudas had betrayed one of his fellows, the sin had bin horrible: but he makes it farre worse, he betrayeth his master. He goes yet further, for (behold whither mā doth fal,Vnto you. Luk. 1.71. if the spirit of God do not direct his steps) he delivereth him into the hāds of his hatefull enimies, who came to deli­ver vs from our enimies and from the hāds of all that hate vs. He delivereth him to death, who came to restore vs, that were dead in our sinnes, to life; who to satisfie for our hunting after vanities, was him­selfe hunted like a Pelican in the wilder­nesse; to satisfie for our carnall, and sensu­all pleasures, left the bosome of his father with whom is fulnesse of delights, and at whose right hād is pleasure forevermore: to satisfie for our pride, humbled himself and tooke vpon him the forme of a servant: Phil. 2.7. to answere for our gluttony, tasted gall, and vineger; to answer for our covetous­nes, paid not gold, nor silver, but the ran­some of his owne blood. These things I do but point at, having discoursed of thē elsewhere, when I handled our Saviours [Page 42] milde speech vnto Iudas, when he went to betray him. Therefore I passe them o­ver, & come to apply this fact vnto these present times.

14 Iudas is dead, and al men cry, fie vp­on him, and say that it if they had bin in Iudas his daies, they would not haue bin partners with him in the blood of our Saviour. And so said the old Pharisees, if they had bin in the daies of their fathers, they would not haue bin partners with them in the blood of the Prophets.Mat. 23.30. And yet they fulfilled, nay they exceeded the measure of their fathers wickednes. And now adaies howsoever many will build the tombes of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, yet wee haue Iudasses, which wil betray Christ vnto the high Priests. I cannot reckē thē al, but there are 3. transgressors, nay 4. which I cannot passe over. 1. the sacrilegious Churchrobber, 2. the grinding oppressor. 3. the close briber. 4. the deceitfull lawyer. Al these do their best (nay their worst) to betray Christ, if not in his person, yet in his mēbers, into the hands of the hellish Cai­phas. And me thinks they do somwhat re­sēble those 4. great plagues mentioned in [Page 43] the 1. of Ioel: which were: the Caterpiller, the Locust, the Cankerworme & the gras­hopper. The Caterpiller eats the first fruits when they are in setting. To him I com­pare the Church-robber, which liues of the first fruits & tithes, which by the law are due to God. The Locust (as Natura­lists describe him) is a great flie, which li­veth vpon the lesse, and with no difficul­ty can burst a spiders webbe, wherein the smaller flies are quickly catched. To him I compare the oppressour, which devours his inferiours, and will with no lesse diffi­culty passe through those good statutes that are made against him, then a g [...]eat Locust will burst through a spiders web. The Canker-worme doth secretly shaue off the tender barks of hearbs & trees be­fore he can be perceived. To him may be likened the briber, which doth so closely cary himselfe, that none cā perceiue him, but the plant which he feeds vpon. The Grashopper hath a chirping voice to al­lure a man after him, but yet so nimble is his motion, that he which followeth him shall scarsely finde him. Like to it, is the deceitfull lawyer, which with faire pro­mises, and sugered hopes, draws his cli­ents [Page 44] after him; but so nimbly hee hops vp and downe, for his owne advantage, that ye shall perhaps not finde him twise in one tune, insomuch that ye shal be worse resolved in the end, then ye were in the beginning. These 4. lie as heavy vpō our land, as those 4. plagues did vpon Iudah: so that wee may say, that which is left by the Locust, the grashopper hath eaten, and the residue of the grashopper, hath the can­kerworme eaten, and the residue of the can­kerworme hath the caterpiller eaten. Be­fore I begin to speake of these in particu­ler, let me vse the Apostles protestation. I say the truth in Christ Iesus, I ly not, my cō ­science bearing me witnes in the holy ghost. Rom. 9.1. I do not seeke the disgrace of any parti­cular, it is the truths cause, and Gods cause that moveth me to speake (and let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth when I shal be afraid to discharge a good conscience in Gods behalfe.) If then my musicke seeme harsh, & vnplea­sant in the eares of any that heare me, I would haue thē to know thus much, that the strings vpon which a I am to play are farre out of tune. If any man shall finde himselfe wounded with my speech, I say [Page 45] vnto him as our Saviour did to the adul­teresse, Hath no man condemned thee? nei­ther do I condemne thee; yet I adde with Iohn, if thine owne heart do condemne thee, Ioh. 8.10.11. 1. Ioh. 3.20 God is greater then thy heart and knoweth all things, & therfore I dismisse thee with that speach of Christ to the impotent mā: go thy way, and sinne no more, Ioh. 5.14. least a worse thing happen vnto thee. Now to the par­ticulars.

15 In the first place come the Simoni­acall patrons, the heires and eldest sons of Iudas, the caterpillers of our church, & the notablest theeues in all our lande. Which will not part with that portion which is due vnto the sons of Levi, and which is cōmitted vnto them, as the gol­den apple was vnto Paris, with this mot­to ingraven vpon it, detur digniori, let the most worthy haue it, vnlesse with Iudas they covenāt for a price before hand. Let a mans gifts of minde bee 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 speake with the tongue of men, & angels yea arke-angels, he shall haue little hope to prevaile in his suit. He that wil insinu­ate [Page 46] himselfe into their favors, must come, as Iupiter came into Danaes lap, per im­pluvium, secretly in at the chimney top, (not in at the dore) and he must come as Iupiter then came, in a shower of gold. This is the way, this is the best meanes to ef­fect his desire: for he that is as blockish and stupid,Plut. Apoth. as Philips Asse in Plutarch, if he bee loaden with gold (with that asse) oh he is a man of excellent gifts, of rare endowments, no exception must keepe him backe; that which hee wants in lear­ning, he hath it in simplicity: as if it were simplicitas Asinina, Mat. 10.16. & not simplicitas co­lumbina, which the Lord would haue in his ministers. And what if he lacke La­tine? he hath gold enough, & that is a far more pretious mettal. But if this way wil not hold, then they will take another course, they will act the parts of Ananias and Saphira▪ & keepe backe part of that possession, which they should voluntari­ly lay downe at the Apostles feete. Act. 4.12. There must be an exception in the general rule, a reservation of their owne tithes, a limi­tatiō of such a towneship, or such a field. Or they will say with the harlot, 1. Kin. 3 Let it neither bee thine nor mine, but let it be [Page 47] divided. Here is treason in another kind; they doe not sell the king of heauen, by covenanting for a price before hand, as Iudas did, but (which is all to one effect) they clip his coine and make it so light, that it will not sustaine the sonnes of Le­vi. And this verily is a principall reason, that we haue so many mutes, and so fewe vowels in our crosse rowe: that many lap­wings which hopped out of their neasts with their shels on their heads, before e­ver they get a feather on their backes, haue builded in those rocks where eagls should nestle; and many which haue ne­ver put downe their buckets, into either of the two fountaines of this land (or if they haue, it hath beene but tanquam ca­nis ad Nilum, they haue onely wet their lips, and taken a lappe by the way) are advanced to Ecclesiasticall preferments, and made Pastors of flocks being not a­ble to feed themselues, and are become captaines in the Lords field, being not a­ble of themselues to take one stone out of Gods brooke to cast at the forehead of the spirituall Goliah. I confesse some of them will now and then be flinging in the pulpit, but they be mētita tela, other [Page 48] mens weapōs they fight with: they haue, indeed, as good a propertie in them, as they haue 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. Iudg. 18. which he vsed to bragge off. Such wādring Le­vites as these are the fittest marchants that sacrilegious Iudasses cā meet with­all: for they will bee contented to dwell with every base filching Michah: & will serue him for ten shekles of silver by the yeare, and a suit of apparell, and meate, and drinke, and withall their hearts, will bee contented to part with beautifull Rahel, (though they serue for her) so that they may be assured of blear-eyed Leah. Gen. 29. They will never say as much as Iacob did to Laban: Wherefore hast thou done thus with me? did I not serue 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 Patrons bountie, which though it bee little, yet it is more perhaps then they deserue. 2. Their owne promise, or hand writing, which if it bee not of sufficient validitie, then comes a [Page 49] third cord to make all sure, and that is want of abilitie. A spiders webbe (you knowe) is strong enough to hang a sillie flie withal. God forbid that I should ob­iect this sacrilege, as a generall fault of these times, not admitting any limitatiō; or say that these devouring Caterpillers haue eaten vp all the houses of God in the land. 1. King. 19. I remember what the Lord answe­red Elias, when hee complained against Israel, that they had killed his Prophets, and digged downe his altars, and that he was left alone.Ro. 11.3.4. I haue (said the answer of God) reserved vnto my selfe seaven thou­sand men, which haue not bowed their knees vnto Baal. Even so, at this present time, by the grace of God, there is a remnant (though I thinke farre fewer then seaven thousand) yet a remnant there is, which haue never digged downe the altars of God to build their own houses with the ruines thereof; which haue not bowed vnto their angle, nor sacrificed vnto their net, nor burnt incense vnto their yarne, nor monopolized that vnto thēselues, which of right belongs vnto Gods ministers. So that in this case they may say with good Samuel, Whose oxe haue I taken, 1. Sam. 12.3 or [Page 50] whose asse haue I taken, or of whose hand haue I receaued any bribe? They hate such sins of vnfaithfulnes, & they wil not suffer the least chip of Gods bread to sticke on their fingers. By the meanes of such faith­full Nehemiahs (thankes bee to God, and remember them herein O God, and wipe not out that kindnesse that they haue shewed on thy house, Nehem. 13 14. & on the offices thereof) the glo­rious gospel of Christ doth giue a good­ly lustre in many places of this land. But the great number of the other (which I purpose not to leaue as yet, for I would gladly make a rod of such small cords as I haue, to whip these buyers and sellers out of the Tēple) is such, that it doth al­most overshadow these, that they seeme but as it were a handful, and doe beare (I take it) the like proportion, that Gedions army did to the huge hoast of the Midi­anites. Iud. 7.

Hospin. de orig. templor.16 The donation of Ecclesiasticall li­vings, was at the first, for avoiding of fa­ction and confusion, amongst the igno­rant and seditious multitude, which o­therwise should haue made choice of their Pastours, commended to some par­ticulars, which for their worth, and wis­dōe, [Page 51] & vprightnes were thought fittest, both to make choice of such, as could sufficiently discharge the places, and to protect them, & their right against such ravenous harpyes, and Eagle-clawed Na­buchadnezzars, as would scrape and ga­ther into their hands the vessels of the temple: and herevpon they were called Patrons. But time is like a river,

That is not my meaning, but as a river sinkes that which is heavy and substanti­all, & carryeth down that which is light & naught, so hath time in this point. The vprightnesse & faithfulnesse, that is sunke long agoe in a great number: their care­fulnesse in protecting the ministers right, that swims not downe so low as to our time: and yet as Tully said of a tyrant, that he giues life to those that he doth not kill; so we could willingly accoūt them worthie maintainers of the Levites portiō, if they would take nothing from them. But the name of patron, this is light, and the cur­rent of time hath cōveied it vnto vs. But (alas alas) it is but as he said, ‘—sine corpore nomen.’ [Page 52] It is secunda not to, a shadow of a name; & yet a name is no more then a shaddow of a thing. And verily it may be feared that the great abuse of the thing wil in future ages make the word to be of a contrary signification: as the nameIsidor. orig lib. 9. cap 3. tyrannus, which at the first signified any prince, which had a care of his subiects safety, & protected them against their foes; by the cruelty of the governours (handling thē, as1. Sam. 8. Samuel tolde the Iewes their king should vse them; or as the Storke in the fable dealt with the frogs, when he was made their king; or asSueton. in Vespas. Ʋespasian vsed his nobles squeazing them like a spunge, when they were full) is now degenerate from its ancient sense, & vsed for the cō ­trary. We haue occasion of doubting the same in this point. For Iudas claimeth Christs bag by prescription. Is not now the Advouzan of a benefice accoūted as a mans proper inheritance? Is it not offe­red to him that will bid the most, as an Oxe in the shābles, or an Asse in the mar­ket? Is it not accounted a good patrimo­ny to many younger brothers, which scorne for sooth to be Priests; and would God they would scorne the Priests por­tion [Page 53] too, then would they abate a little from the height of their owne conceipts: & would at length be enforced, for their delicate fare, to eate huskes; and to turne their satten suits into coūtry russets. But they are of the same opiniō that was Wil­liā Rufus sometimes king of this Realme,Mat. Pari­siensis in vita Guil. 2 Rex in proprio te­nebat, (die qua obiit) Archiepisco­patum Ca [...] 8. Episcopatus Wint. & Sa­risb. cum 11. Abbatiis. who kept divers bishopricks in his own hands as they fell, and would not restore them vnto ecclesiasticall persons. Being demanded a reason hereof, he saide that Gods bread was sweete, and good for kings. Or like our old countrymanIustin. Bre­nus, who (when he went about to rob the temple at Delphos) saide that God was rich, and therfore should part with some­thing to supply his wants: and, withAelianus variae hist. l b 1 Di­onysius, they count golde too colde to cloath Apollo with, a garment of worse stuffe is good enough.In Synodo, Triburiensi An. Do. 895. Whē the questiō was proposed whether golden chalices or woodden were to bee vsed in the admini­stratiō of the sacrament. Boniface bishop and afterwards Martyr,Beat. Rhe­nanus lib. 2. rerum Ger­manicarum. madeIn Synodo, Triburiensi An. Do. 895. answere that in former times they had golden mi­nisters, & wooddē chalices: but in his time woodden Priests vsed goldē chalices. I may say the contrary, in the times of our fore­fathers [Page 54] were blockish, and woodden Priests, and then they had golden cups. Then the people would evē haue pulled out their own eies to haue given to those blind guides; and were so ready to offer their free gifts to the building of the ta­bernacle, thatExod. 36.5, 6. Moses was constrained to say, the people bring too much, and more then is enough: nay moreover, to make a proclamation, & enact a statute, (which yet is in force, but needlesse) that neither man, nor womā should prepare any more for the oblation of the sanctuary. But now (thanks be to God) wee haue golden pa­stors, and woodden dishes are thought good enough for them.

Persius. Dicite pontifices in tēplo quid facit aurū? What should the church doe with gold? Peter said vnto the lame mā,Act. 3 6. gold & sil­ver haue I none. Ps, 45.14. The kings daughter is al glorious within, (they forget what fol­lows, her clothing is of wrought gold) the ministers kingdome is not of this world, a cōpetent living is sufficient, that is 40. or 50^l. [...]ush, he must not be troubled with the thorny cares of this world,Num. 16. yee take too much vpon you yee sonnes of Levi: thus would these wilde asses & fat buls of Ba­san [Page 55] beat out of the manger the oxen that tread out the corne, that they may haue the best themselues, & leaue only the orts for them, which should haue all. Alas be­loved, that Gods legats, which should be harbarous, & beneficial vnto the poore, and provide for their family, should thus be stinted by such, whose harts are never satisfied with earth, till their mouthes be filled with gravel. But let them not think that the ministers living is ever cōpetent, where any part of his right is detained. And therfore let them beware how they play the Iudas in stealing out of the bag, which is committed vnto them, part of that reliefe, which should sustaine Christ, & his Apostles: or betray him in his maintenance, & by a cōsequēce in his mēbers, the flocke, by withdrawing their food. For if Succus pecori, then it must needs follow that lac subducitur agnis: if the pasture be without the fleece, the flocke shal want their fodder. It is an obiection which some would fasten as a scandal vp­on our Vniversities, that many of our preachers drone-like lurke in their owne hiues, and flee not abroad; that they bury their talent at home in their own studies [Page 56] as in the ground; whereas, by setling thē ­selues in some coūtry charge, they might put it out to their masters best advātage. But (shall I tell you?) the case is with thē as it was with the sicke impotent man by the poole Bethesda in the 5. of Iohn, glad­ly would they be in the poole, but there is none to put them in: an angell troubles the water, and presently, while they are comming, an other steps downe before them. The fountaines are stopped; no streame can flow abroad vnlesse Tagus-like it haue goldē sands; or, like vnto Eu­rotas and Alpheus, it passe vnder the earth as it were by some sleight and secret con­veyance, and so burst vp on the suddaine in some place where it cannot be prevē ­ted: or like vnto Tigris, that fierce and swift running river, which perforce wil burst down such dammes, and bankes as would hinder his course: or last of all like vnto Maander that insinuating, and pa­rasiticall river (as I may call it) which windes, & turnes it selfe into every plea­sant vally, that it may, as it were, get the good wil, and favour of the places where it comes. These 4. rivers finde the easiest passage, rich Tagus, fierce Tigris, subtill [Page 57] Eurotas, & winding Maeandar. The rest, for the most part, (for I speake not of all) though their waters be as pleasant as theGen. 2.10 4. rivers of Eden, yet shall theyIos. 3. stand on a heap, like the waues of Iordane whē the Israelites passed over; or as a poole, or the dead sea without any vent: wheras if there might, at the vacancy of livings, an offer be made vnto one of the Vniver­sities, & a choice made thence, no doubte but the gospell of Christ would flourish in every quarter of this realme from Dan to Beersheba, from the river of Twede vn­to the lands end. And God would for this cause even open the windowes of heavē vn­to the inhabitants thereof, and powre down vpon them a blessing without measure, and rebuke the devourer for their sakes, that he should not destroy the fruits of their groūd, neither shoulde their vine bee barren in the field, as the Lord speakes by the ProphetMal. 3.10, 11. Malachie.

17 I haue dwelt too long vpō this point. Only to end, I would these men woulde remember Iudas his end. Demiror te An­tonî quorum facta imitaris eorum exitū nō phorrescere. It is the saying ofPhilippice 2. Tully to Antony. I wonder Antony that thou art [Page 58] not afraid of those mens deaths, whose liues thou imitatest. And it is strange that these men will bee like vnto Iudas in the premises, and never thinke of the conclu­sion that was inferred therevpon.Amos 7.14. I am not a Prophet, nor am I the sonne of a Pro­phet, that I should foretell the manner of their particular ruines. Thus much vpon good grounds I wil say, that these goods wil in time profit them no more, then the price of him, that was valued, availed Iu­das: they will bee likePlin. lib. 10 cap. 3. Eagles feathers; they will eate, & consume the rest of their substance: or like equui Scianus & aurum Tolossanum inA Gell. lib. 10 cap. 9. Gellius, which were still infortunate to those that had them. And those goodly buildings, which they make for themselues with the ruines of Gods house (I will speake in the words of Isaiah against the enemies of the church)Isa. 34.11 13. &c. the Pellican and the hedgehogge shall possesse them, the great raven, and the owle shall dwell in them, and he shall stretch out vpon them the line of vanitie, and the stones of emptinesse: they shall bring forth thornes in the palaces thereof, nettles and thistles in the strong holds thereof, & they shall be habitatiōs for dragons, & courts for [Page 59] Ostriches: there shall meet Zim, & Iim, & the faeries shall dance there, & the skrich­owle shall rest there, and shall finde for her selfe a quiet dwelling: there shall the owle make her nest, and lay, and hatch, & gather them vnder her shadow; there shall the vul­tures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seeke in the booke of God and read: none of these shall fayle. For more confir­mation hereof, consider the subversion of Abbies: they were founded by religi­ous men in their generations, to a good purpose: their situation was as theGen. 13.10. gar­den of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou goest vnto Zoar; as Moses speakes of the plaine of Iordan before the destruction of Sodome and Gomorah: they stretched their towers vp to the heavens, like the Pyramides of Egypt; but, behold, the Lord hath wiped them as a man wipeth a dish, which hee wipeth, and turneth vpside down. They are now the fittest places for the raven to build in, habitations for dragons, and courts for Ostriches, they stād, (but asPhys. c. Aristotle saith, quod stat move­tur, they stand so as they are mouing to a fall) in the pleasantest vallies of the land, as the reliques of Babel in the vallie of [Page 60] Sinar: orIsa. 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 ioints, as a theefe rotteth frō the gib­bet. What were their sins which brought so heavie a iudgement vpon them? sup­pose they were (as they were indeed) the sinnes of Sodome, Ezech. 16 [...]3. pride, fulnesse of bread, mercilesnesse towards the poore, and abun­dance of idlenesse. Now if these sinnes of some fewe, or suppose the greater part (certaine it is that al were not such, some were industrious, some humble, some mercifull towardes the needy, some of a moderate and spare dyet,) if these sinnes, I say, brought so heavy a iudgement vp­on those houses, that they are, in compa­rison of that they were before, like the stumpe of1. Sam. 5.4. Dagon, when his head, & the two palmes of his hands were cut of vp­on the threshold in Ashdod; or the re­mainders of Iezabel, when the hungry dogges had eaten her vp, so that2. King 9.35.37. there was no more found of her, then the skull, and the feet, and the palmes of her hands; inso­much, that none can say this is Iezabel; these bee the houses they were before: shall wee thinke that their houses shall [Page 61] continue for ever, which turne Bethel in­to Bethaven; the house of God, into a house of vanitie; which take the childrēs bread and cast it vnto dogges? which, with the consecrated things of the altar, maintaine their owne pompe, feed their Haukes, their Horses, keepe—? but I stay my selfe.

18 After the Church-robber comes the grinding oppressour, another great plague, which sits sore vpon the skirts of our land. He saith vnto his gold, thou art my God,Iob 31.24 and to the wedge of gold, thou art my confidence. And insteed of counting1. Tim. 6.5, 6. godlinesse great gaine, hee accounteth gaine great godlinesse: he addeth house to house, and land to land, as if the way to the spirituall 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 poore.Amos 8. [...] Hee selleth the poore for silver, and the needy for a paire of shooes: hee eateth vp the poore as if they were bread.

As a Pike devoureth the little fishes, and as a goshauke kills the smaller birds: hee [Page 62] gathereth the livings of the poorer sort into his owne hands, as the great Ocean drinketh the rivers: hee enhaunceth his rents, and pilleth his poore tenants, and doubleth, yea, treableth their fines, tel­ling them, with youngKin. 12.10 Rhehoboam, that his little finger shall be heavier then his fa­thers loines. Not contented with this crueltie, he thrusteth them out of their hou­ses, and depopulateth whole townes, & villages, making those streets which vsed to be sowne with the seed of men,Isa. 7.25. Pa­stures for the sending out of bullocks, and for the treading of sheepe. Apud Cād. in descript. Northampt. One iustly cō ­plaineth of our English sheep: that where­as in former times, they were the mee­kest beasts of the field, & contented thē ­selues with a little, are now become so fierce, & greedie, that they devoure men, and towne fields, and houses, & villages, & lay all wast; insomuch that that which the Psalmist speaketh of Israel, spoiled by his enimies, may be verified of our Ia­cob also: They haue devoured Iacob, and laid wast his dwelling places. Surely, theHab. 2.11 12. very stone out of the wall doth cry against these men, and the beame out of the timber doth answer it: woe vnto him that buildeth [Page 63] his house with blood, and erecteth his walls by iniquitie.

While the spleene swelleth, the body languisheth: and it may iustly bee feared, that if our good Physitian doe not in time purge these tumorous, and swelling mē ­bers, they will cause a lienterie in the bo­dy politicke. God forbid that this flori­shing kingdome, which sometime hath deserued that title whichIustin Cyneus, Em­bassadour vnto Pyrrhus, gaue vnto Rome when he called it a Citie of Kings, should ever deserue that title, whichAventinus one giues vnto France, when he calls it a kingdome of asses, by reason of the burdens, that are laid vpon the baser sort by their superi­ours.

19 Therefore it behoues you, & as ma­my as sit at the sterne of iustice, not to sleepe with Ionas, while the ship is tossed with these mightie winds: nor to be care­lesse in a matter so neerely concerning the good of this Common-wealth.Psal. 48.4.5. Gird you with your swordes vpon your thighes, O yee men of might, accor­ding to your worshippe, and renowne, ride on because of the word of truth, and righte­ousnes, & let your right hand teach you ter­rible [Page 64] things. But if you shal be negligent herein, surely, as Mordecai said to Hester, Est. 4.14. helpe, and deliverance shall come from an­other place. For doubtlesse the crie of the afflicted, is already ascended, into the cares of the Lord of hosts, & he will take the matter into his owne hand. Beleeue it, it is his owne promise:Ps. 12.5, 6 Now for the comfortlesse troubles sake of the needie, & because of the deepe sighing of the poore, I will vp, saith God, and will deliver him frō such as vex him, & will restore him to rest. I will prosecute this point no further: only let mee tell these locusts, that their goods whervnto they trust2. King. 28 21. are but a bro­ken staffe of reed, wherevnto if a man leane it w [...]ll peirce into his hand: that their plea­sures are but asIud. 16. Dalilah was to Samson even giues and fetters of Satan, to entan­gle them: that their gold will be as a mil­stone about their neckes, to carrie them downe headlong into the pit: that their lands & goods are as a bunch vpon a Ca­mels backe, which will not suffer them to enter in at the needles eie, Mat. 19.24. the narrow way that leadeth to heaven: that those goods, which by grinding, and oppressing they haue scraped together, the Lord will fan [Page 65] them away with the fan of vanitie, vnlesse (asDan. 4.24 Daniel said to Nabuchadnezzar) they breake off their sinnes by righteousnes, and their iniquitie by mercy towardes the poore; & that which they haue by vnlaw­full meanes gotten (with Zachaeus)Luk. 19.8 they restore it againe foure-fold.

20 From the Locust, wee come to the Cankar-worme; from oppressing Ahab, to bribing Gehazi: of whom I may truely af­firme that whichHist. lib. 8. Tacitus speakes 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 beene still gaine said, and yet never more common, and frequent then now; an ofspring, not so degenerate from the Ioines of Iudas, as is the oppres­sour. Because the oppressour like the fat Buls of Basan, closeth the poore on every side, and gapes vpon him with his mouth, as it were a ramping, & a roaring lion; wher­as the briber Psa. 10.8.10. lieth closely in the theeuish corners of the streets, that hee may ravish such as he shall get into his net. The oppres­sour takes it perforce, the briber gets all by secret compact▪ What will yee giue me? [Page 66] Est 4.11. None might come to the inner court of king Ahashuerosh, saue hee, to whom the king held out his golden scepter. But none may come to the bribers inner court, saue hee, that shall hold out a golden scepter vnto him. Be thy cause never so light in the balance of equitie, it is not material, if thou canst make it vp in gold, it shall be currant through his liberties. Right and wrong, truth, and falshood are onely distinguished by their attendants. If in­iustice get the overthrowe, it is because shee is not garded with such companies, as are expected. But I haue not Elishaes eies, to point out Gehazi, and to obserue what he hath done in secret, & therefore I will passe him over: onely thus much I would haue him to knowe, that Iudas cā ­not so secretly compact with the Priests, but Christ knoweth it. That speech of our blessed Saviour (which that worthy Martyr Hugh Latimer vsed for his posie) is an vndoubted truth: There is nothing so secret, but it shall bee revealed. Thou maist well flatter thy selfe with an out­ward shew of iustice, like that monster in theHor. epi [...] ▪ lib. 1. ep. [...]6. Poet:

O beautifull Laverna, grant that I may deceaue the world with a counterfeit shew of holinesse: cover my sinnes with a cloud of obscuritie, that they may bee hid. Deceaue the world thou maist, but thou canst not deceaue God.

God, whose eies are ten thousand times brighter then the sun, cā pierce through this cloud, if it were darker then hell, and behold thy doing. It is no heathenish coūsell, which a heathen man giues, nei­ther doth it smell of Epicurisme, though it was his dictate, who was the father of that swinish sect,Epicurus apud Sence. that whatsoever thou art about to doe, though never so secret, thou shouldst still imagine, that some doth behold thee, and obserue thy actions. Ʋt sic tanquam illo spectante vivas, & omnia tā ­quam illo vidente facias, saith Seneca. And therefore whatsoever thou art about to doe, saith the same writer, imagine that Cato, a severe reprehender of the least vi­ces, [Page 68] or (if this be too much) suppose that Laelius, a man of a quiet disposition, but such as cannot brooke any notable of­fence, doth behold thee. This is good counsell of a heathen man, which knewe not God aright. But thou, which doest professe Christianitie, shouldst goe a step further, and fully assure thy selfe, that not a sinfull man, but that a sinne-revenging God doth watch thee. Propè à te Deus est, tecū est, intùs est. And, Sacer in te spi­ritus sedet, bonorum malorum (que) observa­tor, & custos, as the heathen Stoicke di­vinely speaketh: there is a holy spirit within thee, which seeth whatsoever thou doest, good or bad. Do not then de­ceaue thy selfe like that Sophister in [...]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 triāgle in his fist, which othe [...]s did not knowe of. Be it Nummus, or Numerus, triangle, or crosse, or what­soever it bee, thou canst not keepe it so closely in thy hand, but God lookes into it, and will one day call thee to an accoūt for it.

21 In the last place, comes the Gras­hopper, [Page 69] the cozening Lawyer, who feedes his client with sugered words, & golden hopes, but al proues in the end for a quid mihi dabitis? Here, as Tullie said vnto the Romans touching the Catilinarians; Cu­pio me Patres Cōscripti esse clementem, cu­pio non dissolutum videri; I would gladly hold my peace, and not bee iudged by a­ny to exceed the limits of modestie. But Ʋoces reip. imò totius regni me nequitiae inertiae (que) condemnarent: the voice of the whole kingdome, exclaiming against the great abuses of these times, would condemne me of negligence. The time is protracted, vnnecessarie delaies are vsed, newe doubts are dayly inven­ted, insomuch that the causes are of­tentimes more vncertaine in the latter end, thē they were at the first beginning. What postings off from court to court! what delaies and procrastinations from tearme, to tearme, from yeare to yeare! in somuch, that a man may sooner travel a­bout the whole globe of the earth, then passe through an English court. The laws are made like a game at the cards, where­in all the players are loosers, and all the gaine comes to the butler, which founde [Page 70] them cards to play on. And the lawyers proue such arbitratours, as was Quintus Fabius in Tullie; who, being appointed a daiesman betweene the Nolanes, and the Neopolitanes, touching the borders of their grounds, tooke a great part of their right from both: or rather like to Philip of Macedon; who, being chosen a iudge betweene two brethren, touching their fathers kingdome, took it from thē both, and reserved it to himselfe. They take frō both the parties, though not the same numero, which they contend for, yet the same specie, (I meane the value of the same) and gaine it to themselues. The sil­ly sheepe in a tempest runnes to a briar­bush for a shelter: when the storme is o­verblowne, he is so clasped in the briars, that before hee get out, he is enforced to leaue some good parte of his fleece be­hinde him, so that he is made vnable to endure the next storme. And yet better it is that he should indure it with patience, then, by having recourse to such an har­bour, haue 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 [Page 71] by Gods word. And I make no que­stion but there are many of this professi­on, which doe study to approue their do­ings in the sight of God and man. And so I am perswaded of you all, though I thus speake: but as the1. Cor. 4.4 Apostle saith of him­selfe: I know nothing of my selfe, yet am I not iustified, so say I, though I know no­thing by any of you, yet I am not iustifi­ed. I do not discharge a good cōscience, vnlesse I should admonish you of these things; that if any be guilty of that which I haue spoken, he may learne to amend it: if not, he may do his endeavour to a­voide it.

22 If I should speake vnto you, (R. H.) and offer to instruct you in the particular duties of a iudge, I might perchance be iudged by many, withAelian. Var. hist. lib. 2. [...]ap. 2. Megabizus to discourse of the art of painting, before the schollers of Zeuxis. To say nothing, that my text giues me no fit occasion to discourse of this subiect, notwithstāding I beseech you, in one word giue me leaue to moue you to that, which yee both know, & are ready, I am sure, to put in practise. You know the saying of the Poet,

The obiect of your office is either life, [...]or liuing. About both these, it is requisite you haue 3 properties; an eagles eie, a la­dies hand, and a lyons heart. An eagles eie, to diue into the bottome of such matters as shall come before you: for the wound is never soundly cured, vnlesse the bot­tome be first searched. A ladies hand, to deale softly, and gently with your pati­ents. A lyons heart, to be couragious, and resolute, when there is no place for lenity. Herein yee must imitate a good Surgeon, who cuts the wound, though his patient weepe never so sore.Aug. in Mat. Ser. 15. Plorat secandus & secatur plorat vrendus & vri­tur. The sicke weepes, and yet the Surge­on cuts, the sicke laments, & yet the Sur­geon seareth. Is this cruelty in the Surge­on? none at all. For, saevit in vulnus, vt ho­mo sanetur: quia si vulnus palpetur, homo perditur. Where there is hope of cure without sea [...]ing, or cutting, vse there a ladies hand; in this case a plaster is better then a knife. But where the member is in­curable, and incorrigible, and like to en­danger [Page 73] the whole, cut it off, Melius est vt pereat vnus, quàm vnitas. And, ‘—immedicabile vulnus’ Ense recidēdum, ne pars syncera trahatur. But yet Cūcta prius tentanda; fire must be the last medicine. All gentle meanes must be first tried: and even in this act of iu­stice, yee must not altogither exclude mercy.Plutare. de audiendis poetis, When many of the Lacedaemoni­ans were drunke with wine, Lycurgus gaue charge that the vines should be cut downe; but Platoes counsell was better, who willed, that the fountaines shoulde be caused to run amongst the Vines, and that the rage of Bacchus, should be tem­pered with the sobernes of Neptune, that is, that the water should be mingled with the wine. Though the extremity of iu­stice 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 iustice must be mixed with cle­mency, as his counsell was, that the rage of wine shoulde bee asswaged with the coolenesse of the water. For iustice with­out mercy is bloudy cruelty, mercy with out iustice is foolish pity; but iustice with [Page 74] mercy is perfect Christianity. Oh then, those which God would haue ioined to­gither, doe not you put asunder. But let them both be so linked togither, that yee may verifie that of thePs. 85.10. Psalmist, Mercy and truth are met togither, righteousnes, and peace haue kissed each other. To this purpose, in all your consultations, and a­ctions set God before your eies. Let him be on your right handes, and so yee shall not greatly fall. A Poet, when he is to bring a person vpon the stage, wil haue this care, that the action, and speech be agreeable to the person.

Cicero. Id histrio videbit in Scena, quod non sapi­ens in vita? shall a stage-player obserue that decorū on the theater, which a wise man will not looke to in his life? The world is a stage, & every man acteth his part vpon this stage. You (R. H.) doe act the part of God himselfe. The more wary ought 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 [Page 75] iudge of the earth must one day hold vp his hand at the barre, and answer for him selfe, when the iudge of the world shall sit on the bench. This do, & when it shall please God to call you hence, yee shalbe advanced to a higher court, the court of heavē, where, for your scarlet garments, yee shall be investedRev. 7.15 in long white robes, your bench shall be the throne, your at­tendants the Angels, the parties yee shall iudge,1 Cor 6. [...] the world, your sentence an Hal­leluiah: Amen, praise, and glory, and wise­dome, and thankes, and honour, and power, and might bee vnto our God for evermore Amen.

THere are 3. sortes of men, who, if they bee faithfull in their places, and followe the directiō of their bookes, are the chiefe pillars, to support a Christi­an commonwealth: the Physitian, the Di­vine, and the Magistrate. These 3. are in the body politicke; as the three principall parts, the liver, the heart, and the braine are in the body of man. The Physitian is the liver, the Divine is the heart, and the Magistrate is the braine of the common­wealth. The liver is called the beginning of the naturall faculty; it segregareth the humours, it ingendreth alimental blood, & by vaines sends it into each part of the [Page 78] body, whereby the whole is nourished, and preserued. Like vnto it is the Physi­tian, 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 vitall facultie, it in­gendreth the vitall spirits, and by arte­ries sendeth them into every particular member. To which I cōpare the Divine. For as the heart is the fountaine of the vitall spirits, & the beginning of the vi­tall facultie: so is the Divine the foūtaine and beginning, though not [...] of generation, nor [...] of radication, yet [...] (to vse the Physitians tearmes) of the dispensation of the true vitall spirit. Hee is the meanes to make thee, of a naturall man (such as the Phy­sitian leaueth thee) a spirituall substance. The braine, which is called the beginning of the animal facultie, is the chiefe com­māder of the whole: it sitteth in the high­est roome, as in a stately palace, being compassed about with the pericranium, the cranium, and the two meninges, as so many strong castles, and countermures, [Page 79] against all forraine invasion. It hath the fiue externall senses as intelligencers, to giue notice, what is done abroad, the cō ­mon sense, the phantasie, and the vnder­standing as privie counsellers, the memo­rie as a booke of recordes. But yet it is not idle, but is continually busied in tē ­pering the spirits receiued from the hart: which it sendeth by the nerues, through the whole body, thereby giuing sense, & motion to every part. A fit embleme of a good Magistrate, who as hee hath his forts, and gard, and counsellours, and re­cords, &c. so must he remember that hee hath not these for his owne proper vse, but for the whole, and therefore should bestir himselfe, for benefitting the whol, especially in tempering the spirits recei­ved from the heart; I mean in vsing those spirituall admonitions, and instructions, which he shall receaue from the minister of the Gospell, for the good, and benefit of all those that are vnder him. As the body is in best estate, when all these are wel disposed, so it is most miserable, whē there is a dyscrasie, and distemperature in any of them. So in the state likewise: Wo vnto that Common-wealth where the [Page 80] Physitian for wholsome physicke mini­streth hemlocke: & the Divine, for sound doctrine, broacheth heresie, and the Ma­gistrate turneth iustice into wormwood. Of all these three, the braine is subiect to most diseases: and of all these three, the Magistrate is most obnoxious to falls; both because he hath many incitements vnto sin, which others want; & because he is depriued of a benefit, which others haue, that is, he is not so freely reproued for his offences, as commōly others are; And lastly because of those Cubiculares consiliarij, (asPolit. lib. 3 cap. 9. Lipsius cals them) tineae & sorices Palatij, (as Constantine tear­med them) the very mothes and rats of a court, which liue by other mens harmes; à quibus bonus, prudent, cautus venditur imperator, (asVopi [...]c. in Aureliano. Dioclesian an ill Empe­rour said well) which sell the magistrates favours, as if one would sell smoake, (as didLamprid. Ant. Heliog. Zoticus the faire promises of Helio­gabalus) and are alwaies ready, for their own advantage, to giue an applause vn­to his worst actions. By these he is ledde whithersoever they will haue him, ‘Hor.Ducitur vt nervis alienis mobilc lignum.’ [Page 81] Evē as an arrow is led by the bow-string. Therefore David in this Psalme maketh a sharpe sermon against the corruption of Magistrats, out of which I haue made choice of this one branch. I haue said, yee are Gods; but yee shall die like men. As if he had said: truth it is, your autority is great, your power extraordinary, (yee are Gods) yetPs. 75.6. set not vp your hornes on high, and speake not with a stiffe necke, yee are no transcendents, ye haue no more reason to boast of your superioritie, then the moon hath to bragge of the light, which shee borroweth from the sunne, or the wal of the beame, which it receaues in at the window; yee haue it only from me (I haue said:) & though yee be Gods, yet yee are but earthly Gods, yee are Gods in office, not Gods in essence, yee are made of the same mettall that others are, & your end shall be like other mens (you shall die like men.) In which words, not to stand vpon the divers acceptiōs of any of them, may it please you to obserue these 3 points. 1. The partie from whom Magistrates re­ceiue their authoritie, it is from God, (I haue said) and Gods saying is his doing. 2. Their preheminence aboue others, in [Page 82] that they are called Gods (yee are Gods) 3. The limitation of their dignity, ye shall die as men. Out of which I collect these 3. propositions. 1 Magistrats and Iudges of the earth doe receaue their autoritie from God. 2. They are Gods deputies to minister iustice, & to iudge between party & partie. 3. Though they be extolled aboue their bre­thren according to their office, yet they must dy as other mē: where is implied this generall 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 plainely entreat, in the same order, that I haue now proposed them, I beseech you all to afford me your Christian attention.

2 Of all the corporeall creatures that God made,1. Part. none is more exorbitant then man. The highest moueable is constant in his motion. He doth not hasten, nor neg­lect his course. The sunne is precise in his course vnder the Eclipticke line, & turneth not an haire breadth, vnto the right hand or vnto the left, butPsal. 19.5 commeth forth as a bridegroome out of his chamber, and reioy­ceth as a giant to run his race. The rest of the Planets, though they turne to both sides of the Zodiake, and are (the most of [Page 83] them) sometimes direct, and sometimes stationarie, and sometimes retrograde (as Astronomers speake) by reason of their motion in their imaginarie Epicicles, yet they haue their constancie in this incon­stancie. Thou (O God) hast giuen them a law that shall not be broken. The elements keepe themselues within their boundes. The beasts of the forrest, in their kinde, haue their policie, and societie. The ra­ging sea goes not beyond his limits: God hath bound it (to vseIob. 38. Iobs words) as a child in swadling bands: hee hath giuen it doores, and barres, and said vnto it, hither shalt thou goe, & thou shalt goe no further, here shalt thou stay thy proud waues. But man is more exorbitant then all these: no bounds can keepe him in. Therefore God hath written in the heart, and conscience of every man, that comes into the world, a law, which wee 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 wouldest not another man should doe vnto thee, thou must not doe to another mā. And according to these generall noti­ons, hee would haue every person to di­rect his actions. But this law (like an old [Page 84] inscription vpon a stone) is writtē in the stonie heart of man in such blind charac­ters, that he is put to his shifts before hee cā spell it. And howsoever he vnderstand it in Thesi, yet in Hypothesi, in the particu­lar, he makes many soloecismes, and oftē ­times calls good evill, and evill good. Therefore God hath written with his own finger a paraphrase vpon it, which we call the morall law, and added a large commentarie of iudiciall lawes, by the hand of Moses. Which benefit (though not the same numero) he hath not onely granted vnto Christiā Commonwealths, but even to the heathen also, amongst whom, in all ages, he hath stirred vp men of excellent spirit to make lawes, for the better government of their several states. The best of which did acknowledge that they had them from God. Howbeit after the custome of nations, which held a plu­ralitie of Gods, they did not all agree in one name;Diodorus Siculus. Lycurgus affirming that hee receaued his lawes from Apollo, Mino [...] from Iupiter, Solon, and Draco from Mi­nerva, Numa from the Nymph Egeria, Anacharsis from Zamolxis the Scythian God.

[Page 85]3 But all this will not confine man within his boundes, for it is true of him, which was spoken of the Athenians, that they knewe what was to bee done, & yet did it not. And, which was obiected by the Cynicke, against the old Philosophers of Greece, that they gaue good rules, but put none in practise.

said Medea whē 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,Rom. 1.31 yet they do not only the same themselues, but al­so favour them that doe it. The law of it selfe is but a dead letter. It is like a sword in the warres without a souldier to draw it. Many make no more account of trans­gressing it, thenLiv. lib. 1. dec. 1. Remus did of going o­ver the furrow, which Romulus had cau­sed to be drawne. Or the frogs in the fable of skipping over the Lion, when he was fast a sleepe. Therefore God hath added the Magistrate, as the life, and soule of the lawe, as a Captaine to manage this sworde. Him hee hath made (if I may so speake) the summum genus of the cōmon­wealth, [Page 86] by two genericall differences of poena, and praemium, to coarct, and keepe his inferiours in their severall ranks: that as Iehu, and Iehonadab, went hand in hād togither, for the rooting out of Ahabs posterity, & destruction of Baals Priests; so the magistrate being (asEthicorū, lib. 5. cap. 4. Aristotle cals him) a living law, and the law, being a mute, & dead Magistrate, should ioine hand in hand, and proceed valorously, to the rooting out of sin, the suppression of Idolatry, the protection of iustice, and maintenance of true religion.

4 Now that they haue this autority only from God, it is a point, which I hope in this place, I shall not need long to insist vpon.Iam 1.17 For if every good and perfect gift be frome aboue, even from the father of lights, much more this excellent, and superemi­nēt gift of governing Gods people, must proceed frō this fountaine. And to think otherwise is but with the Epicures, to be of opinion, that though God made the world, yet the government thereof, hee leaveth to fortunes discretion, to be dire­cted by her. One of the stiles wherewith God is invested, is this, that1. Cor. 14 he is the au­thor of order, and not of confusion: if of or­der [Page 87] then of Civill government, seeing that an Anarchie is the cause of all disorder, & confusion in the state. Insomuch that the reason of al the sinnes that were commit­ted in Israel, is often in the booke of Iud­ges ascribed vnto this, that they wanted a Magistrate: There was at that time no king in Israel. Iudg. 17. 6. 18. 1. 19. 1. 21. 25.

It is a miserable life, to liue vnder a Ty­rant where nothing is lawfull; but farre worse, to liue in an Anarchie where no­thing is vnlawfull. But I shall not need to trouble my selfe, or to tire out your attē ­tion, by heaping vp multituds of reasons for proving of this point, seeing it is a cō ­clusion so plainely averred by the holy Ghost:Prov. 8.15, 16. by me kings reigne (saith the wis­dome of God by the mouth of Solomon) & princes decree iustice; by me princes rule, and the nobles, and all iudges of the earth. As if he had said: it is not by the wit, and policie of man, that the government of states is committed vnto kings, & other inferiour Magistrats: it is effected by the wisdome, and providence of God. With which theRom. 13.1. Apostle agreeth, when hee tels vs, that there is no power but of God, & the powers that be, are ordeined of God. It [Page 88] was sometime said ofDan. 5.19 Nabuchadnezzar, that great king of Babylon, that whom hee would, he pulled downe, and whom he would, he set vp. But it is alwaies true of the king of heaven, who is ‘— [...]’ the king of kings, and Lord of Lords; he pul [...]eth down one, & setteth vp an other, he disposeth of their roomes, at his plea­sure: For ifPro. 21.1 the harts of kings, much more their kingdomes, are at his dispositiō. This is a truth to which the very heathen thē ­selues haue subscribed. It was2. Chr 9.8 God a­lone that did exalt Solomon vnto the throne of his father David, so the Queene of the South affirmed; that did exalt Cyrus to the kingdomes of the earth, so2. Chr. 36 23. he himselfe confessed. Agreeing with that of the prophetPs. 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 iudge, he putteth downe one, and setteth vp another.

Vse. 5 And is this true? Here then first the Anabaptists come to be censured, which withdraw their neckes from the yoke of civill governement, and condemne it, as not beseeming the liberty of a Christian [Page 89] man. A lesson which they never learned from the prophet Esay, who foretolde, that in the time of the gospell (an assertiō which they cānot away with; for though they graunt, that the Iewes, at Gods ap­pointment, had their Magistrats, yet they thinke it not sit for a Christian to be sub­iect to such slavery) in the time I say of the gospell he will appoint kings to bee patrons, & propugnators of his Church.Is. 49.23. Kings shall bee thy nursing fathers and Queenes shall be thy nurces. Nor from our Saviour Christ, who though he told his disciples,Luk. 22.25. when they stroue for superio­rity amongst themselues, that one of thē shoulde not domineere over another, as did the kings of the nations, yet it was never his meaning to withdraw them from obedience to superiour governours, but thatMat. 22.21. Caesar should haue that which did be­long to Caesar. Nor from1 Pet. 2.17 Peter, who cō ­mandes vs to honour the king. Nor from1. Tim. 2. [...] Paul, who commaundes vs to pray for kings, and all that are in autority, and that to this end, that we may lead a quiet, and peaceable life in all godlinesse, and honestie. God knows better what is meet for chri­stians thē the Anabaptists do. He knows [Page 90] that we are strangers on earth, & not an­gels in heaven. And being1. Pet. 2.11. strangers and pilgrims, stand in as great need of these helps, as of fire, of water, of aire, of appa­rell, of any thing, which is necessary for the sustentation of our liues; seeing that they are not only the meanes that we are partakers of all these while they effect, that we may liue togither in civill socie­tie, but also the promoters of true religi­on, the advācers of vertue, the rewarders of piety, the punishers of sin, the destroi­ers of Idolatry, superstition, and al misde­meanours amongst Christians. So that as God saide vnto Samuel concerning the Iewes, whē they disliked their present go­vernment,1. Sam. 8.7. they haue not cast thee awaie, but they haue cast mee away, that I shoulde not reigne over them: so I may say of these fanaticall spirits, it is not the Magistrate, but God himselfe, whom they haue reie­cted, that he should not reigne over thē.

Vse. 2 6 There is an other sort of men, who, though not directly with the Anabaptists yet indirectly, & by a consequent, crosse my propositiō. I meane the Papists. These doe not altogither take away the civill Magistrate, but they tie his thummes & [Page 91] abbridge his autority. It must be only in temporalibus: for spirituall matters, hee must haue no more dea [...]ings with thē, thē 2. Sam. 6 [...] Vzza had to touch the arke of God. This they willingly grant, that the magistrats are Gods, but as the Aramits said of the Israelites, 1. King. 20.28. that their Gods were Gods of the mountaines, & not Gods of the vallies: so say they, the civill Magistrates, are Gods of the mountaines, and not Gods of the vallies; they are Gods of the Laity, but not of the Clergie.

This is naught in respect of that which followeth. For whereas God challengeth this as a prerogatiue vnto himselfe, to bestow kingdomes on whomsoever he wil, and placeth the Princes of the earth in authoritie next vnto himselfe, this they haue perforce taken from God, and be­stowed it vpon him, that2. Thess. 2.4. sitteth in the temple of God, and advanceth himselfe, a­boue all that are called Gods. It is hee to whom (if yee will beleeue him, & his pa­rasites) all power is committed, both in hea­ven and in earth. He is that King of kings, & Lord of Lords, by whom Princes rule, and on whom the right of kings depen­deth: all nations must fall downe before [Page 92] him, and al kingdomes must doe him ho­mage. The greatest Monarch of the earth must prostrat himselfe before him, & kisse his holy feet. The Emperour, if he be pre­sent when he taketh horse, must hold the bridle, when hee lighteth, hee must hold the right stirrup, when hee walketh, hee must beare vp his traine, when hee wash­eth, hee must hold the bason, when hee would be borne, he must be one of the 4 that must carie him vpon their shoulders in a golden chaire.

7 And as hee takes vpon him to giue kingdomes to whomsoever he will (like the Divell, who told our Saviour ChristLuk 4.6 that all the kingdomes of the world were his, and hee gaue them to whomsoever he would (wherevpon saith an ancient fa­ther,Irenaeus. mentitur diabolus, quia cuius iussu homines creantur, huius iussu reges consti­tuuntur, the divell is a liar, for by whose autoritie men were created, by his are kings appointed) as he takes vpon him, I say, to giue kingdomes at his pleasure, so wil he take them away when he liketh. So farre is he from that obedience, & re­verēce, which every soule should giue to the higher power. Who knoweth not [Page 93] thatChron. Cha­rion lib. 3. Leo Isaurus for putting in executi­on, a decree of a Councill held at Constan­tinople in his time, touching the taking away of images, was first excommu­nicated, and then depriued of al his reve­newes in Italie? That Pope Zacharie de­posed Childericke, the French king, that he might gratifie Carolus Mertellus, and his sonne Pipin? That the proud Ʋenetiā pedler,Bonfin. re­rum Vng. dec. 4. l. 1. Paul the second, by a publique edict depriued of crown and kingdome, George the king of Bohemia, because hee was an Hussite, & stirred vp Mathias the king of Hungarie, (his son in law) to war against him? What shall I tell you of the indignities, offered in our owne land, a­gainst Henry the second, and Iohn, king of England? or of the buls of Pius Quintus, sent against Queene Elizabeth of never dying memorie, whereby hee hath excō ­municated her, absolued her subiects, from their oaths of allegiance, stirred vp rebellions in these middle parts of Bri­taine, and taken vpon him, to bestow the regall diademe vpon strangers. God bee thankedPs. 2.4. he that dwels in heaven (and, of right, challengeth the autoritie of dis­posing the kingdomes of this worlde [Page 94] to himselfe) 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 provinciall Synod durst scarse vē ­ture to baite them, proved such coward­ly dastards, that every single adversarie hath beene ready to tugge them. Much resembling the counterfeite shews of Se­miramis, when shee warred against the king of India, which, a far off, seemed to be Elephants, & Dromedaries, but when they were throughly tried, proved no­thing but Oxen hides stuffed with strawe. Apoc. 16.7. Even so Lorde God Almightie true and righteous are thy iudgementes.

Vse. 3 That I may cut off this first brāch of my text: my third, & last inferēce shal cōcern you (R. H.) whom the Lord hath placed at the seat of iudgment. Haue Magistrates their authoritie frō God? this concernes you in your places, as wel as the greatest potētate of the earth. And therfore as on the one side it should be incouragment vnto you, to hold on in all godly courses ye haue begunne; so on the other side, it should worke in you, an humble, & thāk­full [Page 95] acknowledgement of so rare a bene­fit. Say not then within your selues, that it was your owne deserts, the excellencie of your wits, the ripenesse of your iudge­ments, the deepnesse of your knowledge in the laws, the integrity of your persons, that did advāce you, vnto those roomes: It was none of al these, it was God alone that did promote you. If these were meanes of your preferment, yet haue yee nothing whereof yee can iustly boast, be­cause yee haue them al from him. For Dei dona sunt, quaecun (que) bona sunt. Vse then your places as received from him, ac­knowledge God to be the author of your advancement, and say withLuk 1. Mary in her Song: hee that is mighty hath done great things for vs, and holy is his name. And so much of the first proposition. The second followeth.

8 God as he is iealous of his honour, so is he of his name too. He will not giue it vnto any other, but only so far as he hath some resemblance with him. I finde only 3 in Gods booke, (to say nothing of that eternal essence, to which it principally a­greeth) which haue this name given thē. [Page 96] The first is Satan, who, by reason of his great, & almost v [...]limited power, which he hath for a time, here on earth, by ru­ling & raigning in the hearts of the chil­drē 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 inferiour 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 Psalme, & sundry other places of Scripture, is called a God. His master shall bring him to the Gods, Exod. 21.6. Thou shalt not rayle vp­on the Gods, Exod. 22.28. that is, the Iud­ges: implying thus much, that as they haue a commaundement, and autoritie from God; so they haue, in some sense, the autoritie of God, and doe supply his roome. Therefore, said Moses vnto the Iudges which he appointed in every ci­ty,Deut. 1.36. ye shall not feare the face of man, for the iudgement is Gods. And Iehosophat to those Iudges, which hee had set in the [Page 97] strong cities of Iudah: 2. Chr. 19 6. take heed what you doe, for yee execute not the iudgement of man, but of the Lord.

Vse. 1 9 Now then, if Magistrates bee Gods deputies, what reverence, it behoueth each private person, to exhibit vnto thē, I appeale to the conscience of every parti­cular. There bee many at this day, who howsoever in common civilitie, they wil seeme to giue an outward reverence vn­to the Magistrate, yet in heart they scorn and contemne sundry of them: as per­chance not being able to equalize them in wealth, peradventure not discending of so ancient a house as they.

It was an olde obiection in the Satyrist: what? darest thou, being thus, & thus de­scended, presume to giue iudgement vp­on a man that is better borne then thy selfe? yes; why not? hee is now in Gods place. Hee that lifteth the poore out of the myre, & raiseth the beggar out of the dūg­hill, that he may set him with the Princes of his people, hath styled him, with his owne name, and set him in his roome. I remem­ber [Page 98] a storie inHerod. l. 2 Arist. polit. lib 3. Herodotus, of Amasis an Egyptian king, who, in the beginning of his reigne, was scorned of his subiects, by reason of the basenesse of his parentage: which when the king obserued, he tooke a golden basen, wherein his guests were wont to wash their feet, and vse to some homely purposes, and thereof made an image of one of their Gods, and set it in an eminent place of the citie; which whē the Egyptians saw (as they were marvei­lous superstitious) they came flocking on heapes vnto it, & worshipped it. Here­vpon Amasis, calling the people toge­ther, told thē, that hee was like vnto that basen, which before was vile and abiect, yet now was worshipped, because of the forme it bare: so hee, though before hee was meane, and base, yet now was to bee honoured, because he was the king, for the persons sake whom he did represent. It skilleth not, what the Magistrate hath beene, or what hereafter he may be. For the present, bee thy reputation never so great, thou art to honour and reverence him, if not for the mans sake, yet for Gods sake, whose person he beareth. The story ofLiv. dec. 3. lib 4. Plu▪ in vit. F [...]bii. Quintus Fabius is very worthie the [Page 99] noting. Quintus Fabius was sent by the Senate of Rome to his sonne, who was Consul, and resided at that time in Apu­lia. The old man, either by reason of his age, or to trie his sonnes courage, went riding to his sonne: which when his son obserued, hee sent a Sergeant, and com­manded him to light, and come on foot, if he would speake with the Consul. The by-standers thought it great arrogancie 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 hee did no more then did be­seeme him: experiri volui fili (said he) sa­tin' scires Consulem te esse. It is not for a Magistrate to debase himselfe: neither is it for others, of what reputation soever, to equalize themselues with the Iudge whom God hath placed over thē: whom Solomon would haue to be feared; Prov. 24.21. whomPet. 2.14. Peter would haue to be honoured; whomRom. 13.5. Paul would haue to bee 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 byDeut 17. Moses, which make Gods law of their privie Counsell, and turne not [Page 100] aside to the right hand, or to the left: but of wicked and vngodly governours too; such as are described by1 Sam. 8. Samuel, which take mens sons, & appoint them to his cha­rets, & to be his horsemē, & to rū before his charets, & take their fields, & giue them to his servaunts, and their vineyards, and giue them to his Eunuches. The reason, is, because as wel the badde, as the good are of God. The one he giues in his loue the other in his anger. Hee that gaue the regiment of a Commonwealth to Caius Caesar, a milde, and gentle Prince, gaue it also vnto Marius a bloody Consul. Hee that gaue it vnto Augustus, a myrrour of humanitie, gaue it vnto Nero, a monster of crudelitie. Hee that gaue it vnto Ʋes­pasian, gaue it vnto Domitian. Hee that gaue it vnto Constantine, a religious de­fender of Christianity, gaue it vnto Iuliā, an authour of apostasie, saithAugust. de Civil Dei lib 5. cap. 21 Austine. And bee they good or bad, wee haue no commandment from him, but parendi, & patiendi: of obeying them, whē their pre­cepts are not repugnāt to Gods statutes, and of suffering with patience whatsoe­ver they shall lay vpon vs. It was a wor­thie saying of the mother of the twoBonsin. re­rum Vag. dec. 3. lib. 2. Garaes, when they kept Sigismond in [Page 101] prisō, that a crowned king, if he were worse thē a beast, could not be hurt without great iniurie done to God himselfe. A lessō which she learned from1. Sa [...]. 24 David, whose hearte smote him, when hee had cut the lappe of Sauls garment, because he was the anoin­ted of the Lord: although hee1. Sam. 13 14. himselfe was before that time anointed to be king over Israel, and was without cause, hun­ted by Saul like a Pelican in the wildernes, and an owle in the desart.

11 Then to draw thy sword, & to seek perforce to depose such as God hath pla­ced over thee, either because they are not sutable to thy affections, or not faithfull in their places, what is it but, with the old gyants, [...], to fight with God: with the curre dog, to bite at the stone, & not regard who casteth it: or, with the rebel­lious child, to snatch at the rodde, & ne­ver remember who smiten with it. The weapons of a Christian, in this case (whē such a case doth happē) must be preces & lacrymae, prayers, that either God would turne the heart of an evill magistrate, or set in his roome a man1. Sam. 13 14. David-like after his owne heart: and teares, for his sinnes, which as they are the cause of warre, fa­mine, [Page 102] pestilence, and all other calamities, so are they also of wicked & vngodly ma­gistrates. Otherwise they haue reason to feare, that, if God should displace an evil magistrate, he would sett a worse in his roōe. According to that of th [...] Val Max. lib. 6. cap. 2. old wife of Syracuse, who when others praied for the death of Dionysius the Tyrant, shee prayed for his long life, being sent for by Dyonysius, & demaunded wherin she was beholden vnto him, that she so devoutly prayed for him: in nothing, said she, am I beholden to thee, & yet I haue great rea­son to pray for thee. For I remember whē I was a yong wench, there was a cruel ty­rant, that reigned over vs; and all of vs prayd for his death, I as fast as any: short­ly after he was slayne, and then came a worse in his roome. 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 then all thy predecessours. And who knowes but, when thou art gone, God may (if it bee possible) send a worse in thy roome? This they may iustly expect, which cōtinue in their sinnes, & think by their private en­deavours to crosse Gods ordinance. Thus [Page 103] much of those duties, which are required at the hand of every private man towards the Magistrate.

Vse. 2 12 My secōd inference shal touch those duties that are required at the hands of Magistrates, in that God hath made thē 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 owe God the most, pay him the least: and those, who of al others should be most carefull of their places, of al others make the least cōscience of their waies.Annal. l. 6 Tacitus reporteth of Claudius that he was a good subiect, but an ill Emperour: Hist. lib. 2. of Titus, that he was an ill subiect, but a good Emperour. Where one proues like Titus; two proue like Claudius. Honours change manners. And those goodly blos­somes, which did appeare in many when they were private men, when they come in Gods place, like frost-eaten buds, wi­ther away, & proue like thunder-blasted fruit, not worth the touching, much lesse the tasting. It is noted ofBuchc [...]c. Ind. Chron. Aeneas Syluius, that when once he became Pope, and got his name changed into Pius secundus, he condemned divers of those things which [Page 104] he had written, whē he was a private mā. Whervpon one came over him with this quippe, quod Aeneas probavit, Pius dam­navit: that which Aeneas commended, Pius condemned. A fault to which men of eminent place are too much subiect, to condemne and dislike those good things when they are in autority, which they ap­proved when they were privat men. Quod Aeneas probavit, Pius damnabit. Thus, those whō God cals Elohim, change their natures, and proue Elilim idols, and vani­ties. The heathen persecuters (asAbbas Visp. some writers haue recorded) in the place where Christ was crucified had placed the i­mage of Ʋenus, a heathen idoll, that if a­ny should worship Christ, he might seem to adore Venus. This is the devils practise, to set an idoll in Gods roome; sometimes a Ʋenus, a Cupid, that vse their autho­rity for the enioying of their owne carnal pleasures; sometimes a Mars, vsing his power to blood and revenge; sometimes a Saturne, that eateth vp his childrē (that is, his inferiours, which he should affect as a father doth his own children) as if they were bread; sometimes a Mercurie, who is eloquent in speaking, but withall nim­ble [Page 105] in fingring, having a smooth tongue like Iacob, but rough hands like Esau, nay Eagle clawes like Nabuchadnezzar, to scrape, and scratch togither whatsoever comes in his way, vsing his place only for his owne advantage. Here is the vndoing of all: for, besides that Gods place is pol­luted, and the people wronged, there is an evill president given to private mē, to fol­low the wicked example of their gover­nours. For as the lower spheres, follow the motion of the higher: so in the common­wealth, those that are of an inferior ranke are ready to follow the practise of those that are set over them. When a shrub, or bramble falleth, they hurt none but them­selues; but when a Cedar of Lebanon, or an oke of Basan falleth, down goes al the vn­der-wood that grows about thē. It is the nature of the plague to infect vpwards, from a lower, to a higher roome: but the plague of sin is more forcible in infecting downewards, from an higher, to a lower room. It discends frō the top to the toe & frō the head to the skirts of the clothing. IfMat. 2.3. Herod be troubled about the birth of Christ, all Ierusalem will be in an vproare with him. And if1. Kin. 12 Ieroboam be an idola­ter,

all Israel wil go a whoring after him. And herevpō it is, that yee shall seldome meet with his name in the books of Kings, but you shall finde him branded in the fore­head with this marke, that he made Israel to sinne.

13 God be thanked, wee haue no great occasion of complaint at this day; especi­ally in our chiefe Magistrates (& I wish, I might without checke of conscience say as much of those, that are of an inferi­our ranke) The Lord hath set over vs (his name for ever bee blessed for it) a most godly and religious King, of whom (asRarâ tem­po [...]um feli­citate, vbi sentire qua velis & quae sentis dice­re licet Hist. lib. 1. Tacitus [...]aith of Traiane, and Cocceius Nerva) a man may thinke what he wil, & speake what he thinkes. God hath giuen him (as hee did vnto1. King. 4 29. Solomon) a large heart as the sand that is vpon the sea shoare to iudge his people according to right, and to1. Kin. 3 9 discerne betweene good and bad. Whose princely care is to obserue the practise of the olde Romanes, August. de Civ. Dei l. 5. cap. 12, to set Ho­nors temple close on the backside of Ʋer­tues temple and not wittingly to suffer a­ny to come into the Temple of Honour, [Page 107] which haue not first done their devotion in the Temple of Vertue: not to make his Iudges, and chiefe Magistrates (like ^f Ie­roboams Priests) of the basest,1 Kin. 12.31. & lowest of t [...]e people; but such asEood. 18.21. Moses, at Iethro's perswasion, made Iudges over Israel, men of courage, fearing God, men dealing truly, and hating covetousnesse.

14 And such (R. H.) you haue by good demonstrations evidently proued your selues to bee. So that to make any large discourse before you, of your particular duties, may pervadventure seeme vnto some, as needlesse a peece of work, as it was forTull. de orat. lib. [...] Ph [...]rmio, to make a military dis­course before Annibal; or for Plotin to read a lecture in Philosophie in the pre­sence of Origen. Yet because it comes within the limits of my text, I beseech you that you, wil with patiēce heare me, while I shall say somewhat of that dutie which God requires at your hands, in that hee hath seated you in those high roomes. Many will tell you of the great­nesse 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 thinkes I may say vn­to [Page 108] you, asLiv. dec. 1. lib. 10. Lucius Posthumius sometimes said vnto the Senatours of Rome: Non sum Patres-conscripti adeò vestrae dignitatis memor, vt obliviscar me esse Cōsulem. I am not so mindfull of the greatnesse of your places, that I should in the meane time forget mine owne, how that God hath made me his Ambassadour, & comman­ded mee to acquaint you with some part of his will.

15 It is our parts, & duties, to giue you that reverence, and honour, which is due vnto men of your place. But yet as the people said vnto the Asse that caried 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 beene giuen vnto it, and not vnto the image: religioni nō tibi, said they, it is not thee, but the goddesse, whom wee wor­ship. So it is not to you as yee are men, but as you are in Gods place, & do beare, and resemble his person, that we exhibit this reverence. You are Gods, but yee are Gods on earth, and Gods of earth, as wee shall heare anon. Mathematitians tell vs, that the whole earth is but a point in re­spect of the highest moueable: it is no [Page 109] more in respect of that heaven, which is Gods throne, thenAelian. Var. hist. l. 3. Alcibiades his lands were in that mappe of Greece that Socra­tes shewed vnto him. The greatest Iudge in the world, if his circuit should extende over the whole globe of the earth, is but a God of Gods footstoole. Your circuit is farre lesse: you are but Gods of an outcor­ner, nay, a little portion of an out-corner of Gods footstoole. Let mee then speake vnto you in the words of the Tragoedian,

you whom the God of heaven, and earth hath so highly extolled, as to make Iud­ges of life and death, bee not proud of your autorities, but thinke with your selues, that,

What hurt soever your inferiours shall sustaine by your meanes, there is a grea­ter God, that threatneth the same (nay a worse) vnto you.Psal. 2. Be wise now therefore O yee Gods: be learned yee that are Iudges of the earth: serue the Lord with feare, and reioice before him with trembling: kisse the [Page 110] sonne, least 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 vntruth, which should be Gods instru­ments to confirme a right? with what fa­ces can those mouthes pronounce an vn­iust sentēce, which should be the organes of God to confirme a right? When you do amisse, you are not only iniurious vn­to man whom yee wrong, but contume­lious vnto God, whose sacred iudgments yee pollute. Giue mee leaue then to say vnto you with good king2. Chr. 19 6, 7.10. Iehosophat: take heed what yee doe, for yee execute not the iudgements of man, but of the Lord, & he will be with you in the cause, and iudge­ment. Wherefore now let the feare of God be vpon you; take heed and doe it: for there is no iniquitie in the Lord our God, neither respect of persons, nor receauing of reward. Therefore in every cause that shall come vnto you, between blood and blood, between law and precept, statute and [...]udgement, yee shall iudge the people according vnto right, and admonish them that they trespasse not against the Lord. Let me say withDeut. 1.16, 17. Moses, Iudge righteously betweene every man, and [Page 111] his brother, and the stranger that is with him: yee shall haue no respect of persons in iudgement, but shall heare the small, as well as the great. WithIer. 22.3. Ieremiah vnto the king of Iudah: Execute iudgement and righteousnesse, deliver the oppressed from the handes of the oppressour, vexe not the stranger, the fatherlesse, nor the widow, doe no violence, nor shed innocent blood in this place. And finally with my Prophet in this Psalme: Defend the poore and fatherlesse, see that such as be in need, & necessity haue right, deliver the outcast, and poore, saue them from the hands of the vngodly.

16 I speake not this, as if I would haue you to exceed the limits of iustice, for cō ­miserating the cause of the poore. I know the poore may offend as well as the rich: & as the poore is to be pitied, so the rich is not to be wronged. And he that hath given this law vnto the Magistrate, that he should not respect the persō of the mightie, hath giuen this also,Lev. 19.15 that he should not favour the person of the poore. It is not the miserie of the one, nor the felicitie of the other, that the Iudge is to respect. For the matters in question, sound them to the bottome, anatomize them to the [Page 112] least particle, and sift them to the branne [...] but for the parties whom they doe con­cerne, further then this, that yee are to iudge betweene a man and a man, yee ought not to enquire. The [...] of [...]. lawe in the Greeke tongue comes from a verbe that signifieth to divide, because it divideth to every man, that which is his own. You then which are dispensers of the lawe should giue to every one, poore or rich, that which is his right. Herevpon it is thatArist. Eth. lib. 5. cap 4. Aristotle cals the Iudge in com­mutatiue iustice [...], or as some co­pies haue it [...] medianus, or medi­iurius, a meane betweene two; because he should not propend to the one partie, more then the other, but only so farre as the weight of the cause carieth him, and should giue to every man that which is his right, and that not according to geo­metricall, but according to arithmeticall proportion: that is, not with Xenophons young Cyrus giue the greater coat vnto the greater man, and the lesser coate vnto the lesser man, but to giue the greater coat (if it be his due) vnto the lesser man, and let the greater man (if hee haue right to no more) be contented with the lesser coat.

[Page 113]17 But the principall thing, which it beseemeth me to put you in mind of, and which is chiefly required at your hands, as yee are factors for the God of heaven, is the care of religion, and the true wor­ship of God. Nothing is so deare vnto God, as his owne worship. He that tou­cheth it, woundes him to the heart, and pearceth the apple of his eie. It is an iniu­rie which he will not put vp at the hands of any man, but will come against him, as the fire that burneth vp the stubble, and as the hammer that breaketh a stone. There­fore it most neerly concerneth you, who are his deputies, to maintaine his service, and to put what strength you can vnto the hammer of iustice, that yee may (as far as the lawes will giue you leaue) burst into peeces, whatsoever shall advance it selfe against his worship.

18 The sicknesses in religion, that are amongst vs, are not Novatianisme, Brow­nisme, Catharisme. No, no: these hot phrē ­zies are scarse heard of in this cold climat wherein we liue. They are cold Epilepsies and dead Apoplexies, and sleepy Lethar­gies, & dangerous Consumptions, that vex vs. The main root, whence they al spring, [Page 114] is a disease, with which this lande is sicke. And that is the bold profession of Popery: for hereby the true Christians are mightily discouraged, those that are infected with Romish superstitiō take oc­casion, by little and little, to fall away frō vs; The ignorant are doubtfull, & knowe not what to do, but are ready to embrace any religion, or no religion, as time and occasion shall require; The Atheist (a ver­mine wherewith this whole countrey swarmes, though they cannot be well dis­couered, by reason that they weare vi­zards vpon their faces) is hardned and heartned in his impietie.

For vs, we doe what wee can to cut in sunder this bitter root. Gladly would wee heale them of Babylon, but they will not bee healed. For our private conferences with any of them, if they want wit to answere our reasons, they haue will to let them a­lone. For our publike worke of the mini­stery, least we should catch some of them they will not come within the compasse of our nets. The last weapō of the church is fulmen excommunicationis, to driue thē out of our Synagogues. And what care they for this, who wil not come in them, [Page 115] no, when we doe entreat them? they coūt it but brutum fulmen, a thunder clap, without a bolt, a canon-shot without a bul­let: it hurts them no more then the dart which old Priamus in theVirg Aen. li. 2. Poet shot at Pyrrhus:

Further then this we cannot go: the wea­pons of our warfare are spirituall. Coac­tiue iurisdiction is beyond our spheare. what is now behind? Ʋbi desinit Philoso­phus, incipiat medicus; where the word leaues them, let the sword find them. Bra­chium seculare, was the help, & assistance that the holy fathers of the Councill of Constance implored against the poore Hussites. And brachium seculare is the helpe and assistance, that wee implore a­gainst these Cananites, that are amongst vs. Which (howsoever vnto the halting Mephibosheths, and lukewarme Laodice­ans of our time, which cā blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth: & weare linnen and wollen in the same garment, and yoke an oxe, and an asse in the same plowe, & care not if their fields be sowne [Page 116] with mingled seedes, they bee never a whit noysome: yet vnto the true Israe­lite, Num. 33.55. they are thorns in his sides & pricks in his eies; and giues him iust occasion to exhibit that bill of complaint against thē which the Iews framed most falsly against theAct. 21.28 Apostle, yee men of Israel (nay yee Gods of Israel) helpe, these are the men that teach all men every where, against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreo­ver they haue brought (not Grecians, as it is in the text, but a more pestilent sect) Romans into the land, and haue polluted this holy place.

19 I speake not only of those children of Babylon, those sonnes of Belial, the fol­lowers of the beast, the viperous brood of Rome, the Seminary Priests & Iesuites, that crawle in every quarter of this land, like the Exod. 8. frogs of Egypt; andMat. 23 15 travel sea & land, to make one of their owne professiō, that he may be twofold more the child of the devill, then they themselues are: but also of these limmes of Antichrist, these factors, and panders for the great whore, that are at home, & sit vnder their own fig trees, & drinke the water of their own cesterns.Cic. 2. Cal. Quos video volitare in foro, quos stare ad [Page 117] curiam, quos etiā 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, Ps. 45.4. vpon your thighes, & be not faint harted (likeIud. 8.20. Iether the first borne of Gedeon) but let your right hand teach you terrible things. No doubt but they wil complaine of cruelty, & persecution (they do that already, whē they haue no cause) but let not that dis­courage you, but rather let it be a means that they may haue the same law, which the oldTull. pr [...] Rosci [...]. Capitolian dogs had: when they barked without a cause, their legs were to be brokē. If the differēce between thē and vs, be de lanâ caprinâ, about toyes & trisles, let them be ashamed of their bloo­dy cruelty, that haue butchered, & massa­cred so many thousands of our brethren, for toies and trifles. Yea, & let vs be asha­med likewise, that haue cōtinued so long in schisme, & divisiō frō the Romā church for matters of so smal moment. If they be (as I take thē to be) fundamētal points of Christianity, (alas) what worldly respect shal be sufficient to coole the heat of our zeale in Gods cause? If our religion be a [Page 118] new religion, & theirs the old, & Catho­lique, let vs forsake our new-fangles, & ioine with thē. The old, is the true religi­on. If ours be the old, & Catholique reli­gion, which the Apostles haue taught vs, the martyrs haue cōfirmed vnto vs, & the faithfull till this day haue mainetained & taught: & theirs a new and an vpstar [...] re­ligion an hotch-potch & Pandora com­posed of al religions in the world, scarce heard off (for any material point of diffe­rence between them & vs) in the church of God, for sixe hundreth yeares after Christ: let them pare away these rotten rags, theseIs 64.6. filthy and menstruous clouts, andGal. 4.9. beggarly rudiments, & let thē ioine with vs. Either let vs all sweare by God or all byZeph. 1.5. Malcham. Either let vs all serue God, or all Baal; if God be God, let vs all follow him, if Baal be God, let vs al go af­ter him.

20 I know what some will be ready to answere me, though in matters of religiō they be different from vs, yet for civil du­ties they will bee subiects good enough. You say true, sir, and so the kite will be a doue good enough: but wote yee when? marryIsto pacto & milv [...]s quando pul­los rapere territus non po­tuerit co [...]um­bum se nomi­nat. Aug. contra lit. [...]etil. lib 2. c. 83. when he cānot seaze vpon a chic­ken, [Page 119] and make her his pray, as Augustine speakes. Is it likely that he will be true to an earthly king, that in matters of religiō is his opposite, who is false to the king of heaven? Philoso [...]hers, though they hold that it is not the same vertue that makes bonum virum, & bonū civē, yet the best of thē 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 secōd 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 vnto his prince?

Canst thou binde Proteus, that turns him­selfe into every shape? Or canst thou make a coate for the moone, that is never at a stay? Was there ever oath so wisely contrived, so religiously taken, but the slippery snakes, and stretching horselea­ches of Rome, could finde some chinke to creepe out at? or their Holy Father, out of his Papal, and transcēdent power can dis­pense with it, or cut it, as [...] Alexander did [Page 120] Gordians knot, or breake it, asIud. 16.12 Sampson did the new ropes, wherewith the Phili­stines had bound him, which he brake frō his armes, as a threed?

21 Verily I think there is no probabili­ty, to be a true Papist, & a true subiect. A few simple seduced creatures amōgst vs, that vnderstād not the mysteries of pope­ry, but only in a generality, I speak not of them: (and yet I know how easilie the yong cubbes may be taught to learne the tricks of the old Foxes) but for the rest, the time past wil helpe vs to discover thē in the time to cōe. To say nothing of their dānable, & treacherous practises a broad against forreine princes, & here at home against Queene Elizabeth of never dying memory, and the breath of our nostrils King Iames; that one gunpowder-plot, a devise set from the bottome of hell, may be an everlasting memento of their disloi­altie,

By this one fact wee may iudge of all the rest, as an asse may be known by his long eares, & as the bignes of Hercules might [Page 121] be gathered by the print of his foot. And thoughP. R. some of them, to make it lesse hainous, call it a particular fact of a few, and that temerarious too, as though, for­sooth, it had been farre from their hearts to haue attempted any such cruelty a­gainst the Lords annointed: yet it may be truely said of them al, as Tullie said of the Catilinarians, alijs facultas defuit, alijs oc­casio, volūtas profectò nemini. And he, that in outward shew seemes most against it, would haue lent both heart, and hand, & put to the very match, so that he might haue effected that matchlesse treasō. And why should it be otherwise? For what, I pray you, is any Prince in the world, if he doe not adhere to the Apostaticall See of Rome? shall I define him vnto you out of their Logique books?Bell. Sand. Creswell. Ba [...]cherius. Rainolds. A wolfe devouring the sheepe; an Ahab or Iezabel, destroying the Lords Prophets; an Holofernes, a pro­sessed enimy to the true Israelite; a Goli­ah, reviling the hoast of the living God; a seducer, and deceiver of the people, as our Saviour was called by their old grād­fathers. And must not such a one be made away by one meanes or other, by open hostility, or secret conspiracy, it makes [Page 122] no matter?

Shall not the shepheard do well to kill a wolfe? shall notIud. 13.8. Iudeth be highly extol­led if she can kill Holofernes though slee­ping in his bed? And ifSam. 18.7 David kill Goli­ah, deserues he not to be met with the women of Israel with timbrels, and instru­ments of ioy, singing thus, Saul hath kil­led his thousand, but David his ten thou­sand? In a word, is it not their assertiō that Princes must not be suffered to reigne, whē they draw the people into heresie, but must be made away, yea by all meanes possible. And therefore I lesse marveile, why that reviling Rabshekeh, that brasen-faced fu­gitiue Parsons, who blusht not to say any thing in his yonger yeares, in his old age tooke vpon him a kinde of modesty, and durst promise no more for his fellowes then this; that there was no impossibility for Papists to liue in subiection, and dutifull o­bedience vnto the king of great Britaine. For possibility it is not the question, but for probability it is no more, thē that the winde, and the sea, light, and darknes, the Arke and Dagon, God, and Mammō, the vnbeleever and the infidell shall be togi­ther. [Page 123] For what I pray you is it, which knits mē, as it were with chaines of ada­māt, in loue amōgst thēselues, & in loial­ty and obedience vnto their Prince? Is it feare of punishment? Oh no, for malus est custos diuturnitatis metus. Hee never reignes long, whom every man feareth; Cave [...] multos, quem timēt singuli, let him beware of a multitude whom every par­ticula [...] dreadeth. Is it hope of rewarde? 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 feare of God. This, this is it which knits the heterogeneall parts, of the same kingdome vnto the prince, as the severall parts of mans bo­die are by arteries knit, and vnited vnto the heart, and as the lines of a circle, though they be far distant about the cir­cumference, yet concurre in one middle point: so must it be with them. Though they be different about the circumferēce of worldly affaires, yet must they concur in one cōmon center of religion. A good Christian commōwealth is likevntoAct. 10. Pe­ters sheet, wherein were al maner of foure footed beasts, and creeping things, & fowles [Page 124] of the heaven. There are in it all sortes of men. There are nobles flying aloft, like the fowles of the heaven; there are of the baser sort, creeping as it were below; and there are of a middle sort, men of all conditions, and callings. But this sheet is knit togither (as that was) at the 4 cor­ners (the most distant and remote parts thereof) with the vnitie of religion.

22 This is so plain, thatArist. Pol. lib. 5 cap. 11 Aristotle giues it as an especiall rule for a Tyrant, if hee meane to continue his government, to make an outward shew of religion. For such kings (saith he) as seeme to bee reli­gious, are in least danger of treacherous practises by such as are vnder them. Now where this vnitie of religion is wanting, (as wanting it is, seeing we differ frō the Papists, not in a few circumstances, but in sundry fundamental points of Divini­tie) how can this knot be made fast? Nay, seeing they are so farre from counting a­ny Protestant Prince religious, that they count him an hereticke; and the more di­ligent he is, in clensing and refining his kingdome from the dregges of Romish superstition (as our Saviour Christ was in purging the law from the absurd glosses [Page 125] of the Scribes and Pharisees) the greater persecuter he is holden with them to bee of the Catholike faith. Verily I see no probabilitie, I had almost said, no possi­bilitie, that they wil hereafter proue true and dutifull subiects to the King of great Britaine. They may well make protesta­tions, and outward shewes, of loue, and duty, and obedience towards the Prince: but Lupus pilum, non ingenium mutat, a wolfe is a wolfe though hee bee cloathed in a sheepe-skinne; well may hee cast his old haire, but still he keepes his own na­ture. Shal their faire speeches make vs be­leeue them?

Is the craft of the Romish foxes no bet­ter knowne vnto vs?

I feare their fawning farre more, thē their frowning, it was but a frivolous tale, which the people of Alexandria told Ti­mothy, etsi non communicamus tecum, tamē amamus te, although we do not commu­nicate with thee, yet wee loue thee. For how can a man loue him in his hart, with whom he cānot finde in his hart to com­municate?

I am in a field, in which I might course at large, but I am mindfull of the time, & will not presume too long vpon your pa­tience. Some of our worthies do stoutly with their pens oppose thēselues against these men, & I pray God every magistrate in his place would be as careful in vnsheathing the sword of iustice against them.Catilin. 1^a Habemus in eos Senatusconsultum satis vehemens, & grave; we haue an act, & sta­tute strong enough against thē. But their boldnesse, not waining, but daily encrea­sing, makes me almost say, as it followeth in the oratour, habemus inclusum, in tabu­lis, tanquam gladium in vaginâ reconditū. It is closed in the book as a sword in the scabbart, or (as1. Sam. 21 Goliahs sword was) wrapt in a cloath behinde the Ephod. The best that I cā say in this case, is to vse the prophesie of the Crow inSuet. in Domitiano. Suetonius, [...], all will be well: ‘Est benè non potuit dicere, dixit erit.’ Plin. nat. hist. l. 8. c. 16 Pliny writeth that the tricks of an ape, wil so vex & moue a Lyō, that he wil dis­gorge, and cast vp, whatsoever lies on his stomach. I doubt not but their apish tricks will in time moue the heart, & sto­mach, of our gracious, & merciful Coeur [Page 127] de Lion, & other magistrates in their pla­ces, to cast vp, and shew such tokens of their inward griefe, as they shall haue iust occasion to conceiue against them; and to purge the body politique frō these no­xious humours wherewith it is endange­red. And without this there is no assurāce of peace. For as2. King. 9.22. Iehu said vnto Iehoram whē he went against the house of Ahab: is it peace Iehu! (said Iehorā.) What peace said the other, while the whoredomes of thy mother Iezabel, and her witchcraftes are great in number? So say I, what peace can bee expected, as long as the whore­domes of the Romish Iezabel, and her witchcrafts, and inchanting cups, where­with shee withdraweth the people from their obedience to their Soveraigne, and stealeth their harts from him (as did2. Sam. 1 [...].6. Ab­solon the hearts of the Israelites, from David his father,) are in great nūber. As long as the Pope can set any foot-hold in Britaine, he will still bestirre himselfe to molest the peace of our Sion.

Et si non aliquâ nocuisset, mortuus esset. But enough (if not too much) of this sub­iect. It is a point which I vowed to han­dle; not out of any spleene to any parti­cular [Page 128] person whosoever (hee that seeth the thoughts of my heart, knowes that I lie not) but for the loue of the truth, the zeale of Gods glory, the integritie of my conscience, & the discharge of my duty. And herein liberavi animam meam: look yee vnto it. The third proposition fol­loweth.

23 Yee shall die.) What mettall other creatures were made of, whether imme­diatly of nothing, or of some preexistent matter, I finde no expresse mention in Gods booke. This I finde, that man was made of a matter, and that not gold, nor silver, pearle or pretious stones, but of earth, the basest and vilest of all the ele­ments, yea of the dust of the earth, even of drie dust, which is good for nothing: that if hee shall with proud Phaeton in the Poet, boast that Apollo, God is his fa­ther, hee might presently call to minde, that poore Clymene, the earth is his mo­ther; that hee wasGen. 2.7. made of dust, that hee isPs. 103.14 but dust, & thatGen. 3.19 hee shall returne to dust. And yet I knowe not how it comes to passe, but I am sure it is true, that many in autoritie resemble the dust in no pro­perty better then one, that as the dry dust [Page 129] in the streets, is with every blast of wind blowne aloft into the aire: so are their hearts blowne aloft, and swelled vp with a windie tympanie of their owne great­nesse. But let them climbe as high as they can, God will one day send a shower, and lay this dust. They are but naturall men; & the threed of nature (as a Poet fayneth) is tyed vnto the foot of Iupiters chaire: he can loose it, when it shall please him. Though Adams wit was such, that hee could giue names vnto 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 affinitie that was between him and the earth. These sonnes of Adam are very like their old grandfather, they are wittie in seeking out the names, and properties of other creatures, but they forget their owne names, and their na­tures too. And this is the cause why they be so holden with pride, and overwhelmed with cruelties. They wil withIs. 14.13. Nabuchad­nezzar, striue to advance themselues a­boue the starres of God; and to match their olde grandfather, the first Adam, who though hee was made of earth, yet [Page 130] with the wings of pride and arrogancie would needs soare vp into heaven, and care little for resembling their elder bro­ther, the second Adam, who tooke vpō him our weaknesse, that wee might bee strengthned: our povertie, that we might be enriched; our nakednesse, that wee might bee cloathed; our basenesse, that we might be exalted; our mortalitie, that we might bee invested in the robe of im­mortalitie; and was contented to descēd from heauē, to earth, that he might make a way for vs, to ascend from earth to hea­ven. But let them secure themselues as much as they will; their houre-glasse is continually running; the tide of death will tarry no man. OurE [...]ec. 18. father hath eaten a sower grape, and his childrens teeth are set on edge. Our grādfather for eating of the forbidden tree, had this sentence denounced against him; that he should re­turne to dust. And his children are liable vnto it, till heauen and earth be renewed, and there be no more death.

Those gr [...]at and mightie Gods of the earth, wh [...]ch cloath themseluesLuk. 16 19 in pur­ple, and fine linnen, and dwell in houses of Cedar, andIs. 5.8. adde house to house, and land [Page 131] to land, as if the way to heaven laid all by land, haue a time appointed them, when their insatiable desires shall bee conten­ted with a Golgotha, a place of dead mens skulls, a little portion of the great pot­ters field, as much as will serue to hide, & cover a dead carkasse in it. You which sit on the seat of iudgemēt, whom the Lord hath so highly extolled as to bee called Gods, you haue your daies numbred, your months determined, your bounds ap­pointed which yee cannot passe. It is not the ripenesse of your wits, nor the digni­tie of your places, nor the excellency of your learning, nor the largenesse of your commission, that can adde one inch vnto the threed of your daies.

Deaths arrowe will as qui [...]kly pierce through the strong castle of a king, as the muddie wall of a countrie swaine. Were yee wiser then Solomon, stronger then Sampson, richer the [...] Iob, mightier then the greatest mo [...]arch of the earth, faith­fuller in your places then Samuel, that faithfull Iudge of Israel; ‘[Page 132]Ire tamen restat Numa quò devenit & Ancus.’ This must be the conclusion; Yee must die as men, and yeeld your bodies to deathes sergeant, to be kept prisoners in the dun­geon of the earth, till the great and gene­rall Assises that shal be holden by our Sa­viour Christ, in the cloudes of the skie, at the last day. The conclusion is most cer­taine, howsoever the premises be fallible, and doubtfull.Seneca. Alexander, when by his followers hee was called a God, forgot that he was to die as a man, till by a poy­soned arrow hee was put in minde of his mortalitie, & then he confessed the truth: Ʋos me Deum esse dixistis, sed iam me ho­minem esse sentio. You said that I was a God, but now I perceiue I am but a man. And shortly after hee perceiued it with a witnesse, when he was poisoned by Antipater, and then inclosed in a small parcell of ground, whose aspiring minde the whole world could not fill.

He, whom the whole earth could not cō ­tent, [Page 127] was at length contented with a par­cell of ground of eight, yea of six foote long.Act. 12. Herod when vpon a day hee was arayed in royall apparell, and sate on the bench, & gaue such an excellent charge, that the people cryed, ‘—non vox hominem sonat—’ It is the voice of God, and not of man, immediatly after proued neither God nor man. For he was eaten vp of wormes, and gaue vp the Ghost. Rare examples for the Gods of the earth, to looke downe into their owne bosomes, and to remember that they must die as men. It is a good cu­stome of the Emperour of the Abyssenes (Prester Iohn) to haue every meal, for the first dish, that comes on his table, a dead mans skul, to put him in mind of his mor­talitie. So was that which was vsed by Philip: namely, to haue a boy every daie to put him in minde, that he was to die as a man. Not much vnlike was the old pra­ctise of theMunst. Cosmogr. Egyptians, who when their Princes went to banquet, vsed to beare before them the picture of a dead man, to put them in mind of their mortalitie.

24 Seeing then that yee must die, study to haue your accounts in readinesse, that [Page 134] whensoever t [...]e Lord shal cal you hence, he may finde you provided▪ Be faithful in those high [...]oon [...]es wherein God hath placed you.2. Chr. 19 [...]. Ye execute not the iudgemēts of man, but of the Lord. Aske coūsel there­fore of God, & weigh your proceedings in the ballance of the sanctuary. Doe no­thing but what God commands you, and the testimony of a good conscience will warrant to be lawfull, remembring that yee m [...]st one day (God knowes howe soone that day will come) be summoned to appeare before the common Iudge of all flesh; who is a burning, &H [...]b. 12. [...]9. consuming fire, who is not blinded with sec [...]et clos­nesse, nor corrupted with bribes, nor mo­ved with friends, nor allured by flatte­rers, nor perswaded by the importunity of intreaters, to depart an haires breadth frō the course of iustice: no though theseEzech. 14 14. three men Noah, Daniel, & Iob, shoulde stand before him, and make intercession in your behalfe. These things remember, and do, and ye shall haue comfort in your liues, comfort at your deaths. And when your so [...]l [...]s shall be removed from those earthly co [...]ges wherin they now dwel, they shalbe tr [...]ted [...] [...]verlasting ha­bitations, [Page 135] and received with this ioyfull, and comfortable welcome:Mat 25.21. it is wel done good servants and faithfull [...] yee haue beene fa [...]thfull in a little, I will make you rulers o­ver much; enter into your masters ioy.

25 Like men] It is implyed in the con­clusion of my text, that it is the lot & con­dition of all men to die. And therefore as it concernes magistrates, so it concernes al others to provide thēselues for their end, becauseEccl. 11.3. as the tree fals, so it lies: that is, as the day of death shall leaue them, so the day of iudgement shall finde them.

Remember this yee that are to be wit­nesses,Application. 1. to witnes­sses, &c. for giving testimony vnto the truth, and iurers for giving a verdict ac­cording to the truth. And as you loue & reverēce the truth it selfe, as ye desire the benefit of your Christiā brethren, which yee should loue as your selues, as ye wish the glory of God, which ye should tender more then your selues; let it be a forcible motiue vnto you to deale vprightly in e­very cause with every man, without de­clining to the right hand, or to the left, then shall yee sanctifie the name of God, by whom yee do sweare to speake truely, to deale truely: ye shall giue occasion to [Page 136] good men to praise God for you, and yee shall not neede to bee ashamed to meete God in the face, when he shall cal you to a reckoning for your doings. But on the other side, if rewards shall blind you, or feare enforce you, or pitty moue you, or partiality sway you, or any respect what­soever draw you to smoother the truth, and favour an evill cause: yee pearce your selues through with many darts. For first you are false witnesses against your neighbour: secondly, ye are theeues, yee rob him of his right: thirdly, yee are mur­therers, yee kill him in his body, or in his name, or in his maintenance: fourthly, & which is worst of all, ye take the name of your God in vaine, yea as much as in you lyeth, yee take his godhead from him, & make him who is the trueth from everla­sting, to be all one with the devill, who is a lyar from the beginning. If yee must be countable vnto God, when he shall call you hence, for every idle worde that goes out of your mouthes; and if the least vngodly thought of your harts, in the rigour of Gods iustice, deserue eternall death, how shal ye be able to stand in iudgement vn­der this pōderous Chaos of so many cry­ing [Page 137] sinnes. I cannot prosecute this point: only for conclusion I say withDeut. 30.19 20. Moses, behold this day haue I set before you life & death, blessing and cursing, choose life, & ye shall liue. If not, I pronounce vnto you this daie, ye shall surely perish. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

26 You,2. To lawyers Atturnies, &c. whose profession is to opē the causes in controversie, & by your know­ledge in the laws to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and falshood, re­member that ye must die. And therefore I beseech you in the feare of God, to stu­dy to make the cause of your clients sure, as that yee do not in the meane time for­get S. 2. Pet. 1.10 Peters counsell, to make your owne election sure.

I vrge this the rather, because (—absit reverentia vero) I will speake the truth in despite of all scoffes, & I hope such as are ingenuous wil beare with my plainenes, if asPlut. Apot. Philip said of the Macedonians, I call a boat a boat, and a spade a spade; be­cause it seemeth to bee much neglected by many of your profession, who with Martha trouble themselues about many businesses, but vnum necessarium, to meet Christ, and talke with him, they scarce re­member [Page 138] it. I remember the saying of De­mades touching the Athenians, whē they refused to make Alexander one of their Gods, & Cassander (who was his succes­sour) threatned that vnlesse they woulde doe it, hee woulde presently overthrowe their city: the Athenians (said Demades) haue reason to looke to themselues, least, while they are too curious about heaven, they loose the earth. But these men haue need to looke to themselues, least while they trouble themselues too much about the earth they loose heaven: by whose meanes especially it is effected, that our courts, do too much resemble the Lyons den, which howsoever other beasts in simplicity went flocking on heapes vn­to, yet the foxe, that found by experience how others sped, durst not come neere it.

All comes to them, little from them: they haue as attractiue a force so [...] silver, as the loadstone hath for yron.Hom. Iliad lib. 6. Glaucus made no good market with Diomedes, whē he changed his golden armour, for armour of brasse: but many clients cōplaine that [Page 139] they meet with worser merchants, who for a purse ful of angels giue thē nothing but a blacke boxe full of papers. Procra­stinations, & vnnecessary delaies, for fil­ling of the lawyers coffers, and pilling of the poore clients, is a fault which I haue glanced at heretofore, and might a thou­sand times hereafter yer ever it be refor­med. For never was it more spokē against then now, & never was it so much practi­sed as now. Well fare the old Athenian lawes, which (as Anacharsis once said) were like vnto spider-webs, that catched the little flies, and let the waspe, [...]d the Bee, and the Beetle burst through them▪ in respect of them that hold w [...]p, & B [...], and Beetle and al, and scarce any cā [...]urst through them. But what do I now? Con­demne I the law? I do wrong. Is the law sinne? saithRom 7.6 7.12 14. Paul (he speaks of the moral law.) Nay the law is holy, and iust, and good, but I am carnall, sold vnder sinne. So say I, is our law sin? Nay our law is iust, & good. Here is the breaknecke of all: too many of our solliciters, atturnies, & lear­ned scribes, are merely carnal & sold vn­der sin, vsing it not to that end for which it is ordeined, the glory of God, and the [Page 140] peace of the commonwealth, but as the fowler doth his not, for catching of plo­vers to inrich themselues withal: making that which shoulde bee for the common good, a monopolie for themselues, a pro­fession of mockerie, and a meere shop of most horrible, & detestable covetousnes.

But it is the worst thriving in the world to rise with an other mans fall. It was a short, but a sharpe quip, which a captiue gaue vnto Pompey the great, Nostrâ mise­riâ es Magnus, It is our misery that gaue thee thy surname. It is so in this case, No­strâ misera es magnus, may the cliēt say to his coūsellor. As the swelling of the splene argueth the consumption of other parts: so the inriching of the lawyer, the impo­verishing of the client. If thē 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 thē nought. Vnderstād me rightly: it may be a Coūsellours hap to be a speaker in an ill cause, and yet he not worthie any blame. The party may misinforme him in the truth of the cause. Iudgements in the like case may be different, or some other cir­cumstance may deceiue him. But where it plainely appeares to be nought indeed, [Page 141] by nimblenesse of wit, and volubility of tongue, to smooth it over with coloura­ble probabilities, thereby (as far as thou canst) to giue the truth an overthrow, this is but to guild over a rotten post, to call good evill, and evill good, to let loose Barabbas, and destroy Iesus, to make the devill, who is a feend of darknes, to ap­peare in the likenes of an angell of light, and therefore worse then nought. Better with Papinian to haue thy head parted from thy shoulders, then to be a commō Advocate in such causes.

There is a kind of men in the worlde, who though they know before they be­gin their suits, or at least before they haue waded far in them, as well as they know their owne names, & the number of their fingers, that the matter which they pro­secute, by extremitie of law, is manifest wrong: yet either out of a malitious hu­mour, to giue their adversaries an over­throw, or because their abilitie is such, that it will hold them out, or because o­thers doe ioine with them, and make it a common quarrell, or because they loue (Salamander-like) to bee broyling in the fire of contention, can by no meanes bee [Page 142] disswaded from their wicked enterprise. This matter so wickedly, & mischievous­ly begun, one counsellour or other, (that loues (with the eele-catchers in the olde comedie) to bee fishing in muddie wa­ters, and desires alife to bath himselfe in any poole that an Angell shall trouble) must manage. He must finde some proba­ble title in the lawe for it: hee must as long as the lawe will afford him any kinde of weft, weaue it out in length, and when it failes, hee must spider-like spinne it out of his owne bowels. Hee must prolong iudgment, and de­ferre the matter frō one day to an other, from one tearme to an other, from one yeare to an other, from one court to an other; till at length hee who hath both God, and the law, and a good conscience on his side, for very wearinesse, be enfor­ced to giue it over, or be brought to ex­treame beggary, that hee can follow his suit no longer, or till Atropos haue cut in sunder the threed of his daies, & so made an [...]nd of the quarrell. Well were it for the cōmonwealth if such seditious quar­rellers, and make-bates were by some se­vere punishment, taught not to delude [Page 143] iustice, and oppresse the truth: that others by their example might be terrified from such wicked attempts, and that honest & godly men might liue in more peace, and t āquillity. If my words do sound harsh­ly in the eares of some of my hearers, I must say of them asHierom [...] ▪ Hierom saith of some in his epistle to Rusticus: dum mihi irascū ­tur, suam indicant conscientiam, multo (que) peiùs de se, quàm de me iudicant. If they be offended with me, they bewray their own guilty consciences, and haue a farre worse opinion of themselues, then they haue of me. I name none; I know none. I speake in generall against sinne, and 1. Ioh. 3.20. if any mans conscience condemne him, God is greater then his conscience, and knoweth all things, and thereforeIoh. 5.14 let him goe his way, and sinne no more, least a worse thing happen vnto him. My hope is that all of you are of a better disposition. But I knowe yee are all men, and there­fore subiect to the like passions, & infir­mities that others are. Let mee therefore once againe (to returne to that frō which I haue a little digressed) beseech you in all your pleadings, & legall proceedings to remember that account, that yee must [Page 144] make vnto God, when yee shall bee cal­led hence. Remember that there is a woe denounced against themIs. 5.20. that call good evill, and evill good. Remember the end of your profession; it is not to sowe dissen­tion, to fill your own coffers, to make a mart to vtter your owne wares, to shewe your ready wits, and voluble tongues in speaking probably of every subiect good or bad: but to helpe every man to his right, to cut away strife and contention, and to restore peace and vnitie in the cō ­mon-wealth, that all the members of the body politicke may be of one heart, and one soule.Eph. 4.4, 5, 6. Even as there is one hope of our vocatiō, one Lord, one faith one baptisme, one God, and father of all, which is aboue all and through all, and in vs all. Remember that our God is called the2. Cor 13 11. God of peace, his Gospell, theEph 6.15 Gospell of peace, his mi­nisters theIs. 52 7. Ambassadours of peace; his naturall sonne, theColoss. 1. author of peace, his adopted sonnes, the children of peace: if then yee will bee the sonnes of the most highest, your endeavour must be this,Eph. 4.3. to preserue the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace. 2. Tim. 2.7 Consider what I say, & the Lord [Page 121] giue you wisdome, and vnderstanding in all things.

Finally to speake vnto 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 doores, of these earthly tabernacles, whensoever it shal please our great land­lord to call vs hence: let vs haue our loines girt, and our lampes continually burning, that whensoever the Lord shall call vs hence, in the evening, or in the morning, at noone-day, or at mid-night, hee may find vs ready. Happy is that man whom his master when he comes, shall find watching. Let vs every day summe vp our accounts with God.Hierom. Ita aedificemus quasi semper victuri, ita vivamus quasi cras morituri: let vs build as if wee would ever liue, but let vs liue, as if we were ever ready to dy. Then may every one of vs in the integri­tie of heart, and synceritie of conscience, when the time of his departing is at hand say with the blessed Apostle, I haue fought a good fight, and haue finished my course. 2 Tim. 4 7.8. I haue kept the faith; Frō hence forth is laid vp for me a crowne of righteousnesse, which God, the righteous Iudge shall giue mee at that day. Vnto this God, one eternal, om­nipotent, [Page 146] and vnchangeable Iehovah in essence, three persons in manner of subsi­stence, the Father, the Son, and the Ho­ly Spirit, be ascribed all honour, & glory, power, might, and maiestie, both now & forevermore. Amen.