Tymes past were so liberall to the clergy that for feare all would have runne into their handes there were statutes of mortmaine enacted to restrayne that current: but devotion at this day is grown soe cold, that the harts and hands of all are a verry mortmaine it self; they hold soe fast they will part from nothing; noe, not from that which hath bin of auncient given to holie uses. There are in England aboue 3000 impropriacions, where the minister hath a poore stipend; their bread is broken amongst strangers, the foxes and their cubbes liue in their ruines, the swallowe builds hir nest and the satyres daunce and revill where the Leuites were wont to sing, the Church liuings are seised vpon and possessed by the secular; it was the old lawe, that none should eate the bread of the aultar but those that wayted at the altar, those things which were provided for the pastors of our soules, with what conscience can they receive, which are not able to feede them. O miseram sponsam talibus creditam paranymphis.
It is strange that that abhominable synn of Symony should be so common, that it is no strang thing for a learned man to purchase his promotion; but the honest must say to their patron, as Paule to the lame, aurum et argentum non habeo, quod habeo dabo. I will liue honestly, I will preach diligently, I will pray for you deuoutly, but that quid dabitis liveth still with those of Judas his humor. They thinke all to much for the preacher, nothing to much for themselves; it must be enacted that they may not haue to much for feare of surfetting; they would haue them, according to the newe dyet, brought downe to the skin and bone, to cure them. "All their speaches and actions tend to our impouerishment," saith he, "as though fo. 51.
October, 1602.wee were onely droanes and they the bees of the State. The Lord commaunded to bring into his tabernacle, but these strive whoe may carry out fastest, and blesse themselves in the spoile, saying with that Churche robber, Videtis quam prospera nauigatio ab ipsis dijs immortalibus sacrilegis detur, but the hier of these labourers, this field of Naboth, &c., will cry out against them. Christ, when he was vpon the earth, wipped those out the Church which bought and sold in the Church, what will he doe with those which buy and sell his church itselfe? I speake not this, because I would perswade you to give your goodes unto ns; non vestra, sed vos, nay, non nostra sed vos, quero. I doe but advertise you to consider whether the withholding the tenth may not depriue you of the whole, the spoiling the Churche of hir clothes may not strip you of your living, the impropriating hir benefices may not dispropriat the Kingdome of Heaven to
you."
"A preacher of righteousnes" or a righteous preacher, such a one as Jo. Baptist was; he preached, as all ought to doe, by his lyfe, by his hands. By his lyfe; vel non omnino vel moribus doceto. He preached amendement from synn, he preached the lawes of nature and the judgments imminent, and as some thinke he preached Christ alsoe. And wee preache the lawe of nature: doth not nature teache you, &c. Wee preache faythe: then being justified by faythe. Wee preache the lawe of fo. 51b.
October, 1602.Moses: Christ came not to breake but to fulfill the lawe. We preach righteousnes, semen et germen, embued, endued, active, and contemplative, justificacion and sanctificacion, primitiue and imputed, the one in Christ absolute, the other in us. Righteousnes acted by Christ and accepted by us, which is the true justifying righteousnes, and aboue all the others.
The third example of Sodome and Gomorrhe. They were not condemned onely, but condemned to be ouerthrowne, and soe ouerthrowne that they should be turned, not into stones which might come togither againe, but into ashes; neither soe onely, for there had bin some mitigacion, yf they might soe have perished that they should not haue bin remembred, but they must be an example to all posteritie. Their remembraunce must not dye.
The cuntry is said to have bin a verry pleasaunt and fruitfull soyle, but terra bona, gens mala fuit, and therefore it was destroyed with fyre from a seven tymes hotter myne then that seven times heated ouen. It was hell-fyre out of heaven, fire from coales that were neuer blowne, it rayned fyre. As Kayne was sett as a marke to take heede of bloudshed, soe are those places an example to the ungodly; there remaines untill this day such a noysom water that some call it the Diuels Sea; others the Sea of Brimstone, for the ill savour; the Dead Sea, for noe fishe can liue in it, soe foule that noe uncleane thing can he clensed in it, soe thicke a water that nothing can sinke into it. fo. 52.
October, 1602.There are certaine apples fayre to the eye which being touched in fumum abeunt, tanquam ardent adhuc, et olet adhuc incendio terra. There is seen a cloud of pitche and heapes of ashes at this daye, their woundes are not skinned ouer, they appeare for ever.
"And deliuered just Lott." The word signified a kinde of force, as though he had pulled him out; here is Lottes commendacion that he liued amongst the wicked, and was not infected with them; bonum esse cum bonis non admodum laudabile; nihil est in Asia non fuisse, sed in Asia continenter vixisse, eximium. Soe was Abraham in Chaldea, Moses in the Court of Pharao, and yet noe partakers of the synnes of those places, "vexed with the uncleane conversacion." Non veniat anima mea in consilium eorum! The justice of Lott was professed enmity with the wicked. When Martiall asked Nazianzeene but a question, Nazianzeene told him he would not answere nisi purgatus fuerit. Wee must not say soe much as "God saue them!" to the wicked. But our stomakes are to strong; wee can digest to be drunke for companie, to rend the ayre with prodigious oathes in a brauery, but not rend our garmentes in contrition of heart; wee can telle howe to take 10 in the 100, nay 100 for 10, with a secure conscience; this synne of usury is a synn against nature, like the synn of Sodome. Wee will dissemble with the hyppocrite, temporise with the politician, deride with the atheist. Men thinke nowe a dayes that Arrianisme, Atheisme, Papisme, Libertinisme, may stand togither, and like salt, oyle, and meale be put togither in a sacrifice. Their conscience is sett in bonde, like Thamar when shee went to play the harlott. fo. 52b.
October, 1602.They had rather haue the shrift of a popishe priest then heare the holsome admonicion of a preacher; they have Metian, Suffetian myndes; Vertumni, Protei; any relligion, every relligion will serve their turne. Rome, that second Sodome, which still battlith our Church and relligion, lett it charge hir wheirein the Gospel hath offended this 44 yeares, and at last it will appeare all hir fault wilbe noe more but innocence and true godlines. Est mihi supplicii causa fuisse piam, &c.
God's mercy in particuler to our nation, in prosperity, in trade, auoydaunce of forrein attempts, appeasing of inbred treasons and dissensions, &c. soe that wee may say these 44 yeares of hir Majesties happie government is the kalender of earthly felicity wherein the Gospell hath growne old, yf not to old to some which begin to fall out of love with it, but were it as newe as it was the first day of hir Majesties entraunce, wee should hear them cry "Oh, howe beautifull are the feete of those that bring glad tydyngs of salvacion!" Eamus in domum Domini, &c. And lett us pray to Christ that, as the Evangelist writes he did, soe the Gospell may crescere ætate et gratia.
"The rule followeth," saith he, "which I promised, but tyme and order must rule me. It is but the summe of the examples, it is the same liquor that ranne from those spouts and is nowe in this cysterne. It runnes like that violl in the Gospell with wyne and oyle, wherewith Christ cured the wounded travailer; it runnes like Christes syde, with water and bloud, judgment and mercy; punishment and comfort," &c.
Consciencia est coluber in domo, immo in sinu.