Two Sermons Upon Jude, Sermon 1
THE FIRST SERMON.
EPIST. IVDE.
17 But yee, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ,
18 How that they told you, that there should be mockers in the last time, which should walke after their owne vngodly lusts.
19 These are makers of sects, fleshly, having not the spirit.
20 But yee, beloued, edifie your selues in your most holie faith praying in the holy Ghost.
21 And keepe your selues in the louelove of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ, vntounto eternall life.
THE occasion wherevpon, together with the ende wherefore, this Epistle was written, is opned in the front & entrie of the same. There were then, as there are now, many evill and wickedly disposed persons, not of the mysticall body, yet within the visible bounds of the Church, men which were of old ordained to cō demnation, vngodly men which turned the grace of our God into wantonnesse and denied the Lord Iesus. For this cause the spirit of the Lord is in the hand of Iude, the servant of Iesus, and brother of Iames, to exhort them that are called, and sanctified of God the father, that they would earnestly contend to maintaine the faith; which was once delivered vntounto the Saints. Which faith because wee cannot maintaine except wee knowe perfectly, first against whom, secondly in what sort it must be maintained; therefore in the former three verses of that parcell of Scripture which I hauehave read, the enimies of the crosse of Christ are plainely described; and in the later two, they that louelove the Lord Iesus hauehave a sweet lesson giuen them how to strengthen & stablish themselues in the faith. Let vsus first therefore examin the description of these reprobates concerning faith; and afterwards come to the words of the exhortation; wherein Christians are taught how to rest their hearts on Gods eternall and everlasting truth. The description of these godlesse persons is two fold; Generall and Speciall. The generall doth point them out and shew what manner of men they should be. The particular pointeth at them, and saith plainely these are they. In the generall description we hauehave to consider of these things. First, when they were described, they were told of before. Secondly, the men by whom they were described, They were spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly, the daies when they should bee manifested vntounto the world, they told you they should bee in the last time. Fourthly, their disposition and whole demeanure, mockers and walkers after their own vngodly lusts.
2 In the third to the Philippians, the Apostle describeth certaine. They are men, saith hee of whom I hauehave told you often, and now with teares I tell you of them, their God is their belly, their glorying and reioycing is in their owne shame, they mind earthly things.
These were enimies of the crosse of Christ, enimies whom he saw, & his eies gusht out with teares to behold them. But we are taught in this place, how the Apostles spake also of enimies, whom as yet they had not seen, described a family of mē as yet vnheard of, a generation reserved for the end of the world, & for the last time, they had not onelyonly declared what they heard and saw in the daies wherein they lived, but they hauehave prophecid also of mē in time to come. And you doe well, saith S. Peter, in that yee take heed, to the words of prophecie, so that yee first know this, that no prophecie in the Scripture commeth of any mans owne resolution. No prophecie in Scripture commeth of any mans owne resolution. For all prophecy, which is in Scripture, came by the secret inspiration of God. But there are prophecies which are no scripture, yea there are prophecies against the Scripture: my brethren beware of such prophecies, and take heed you heed them not. Remember the things that were spoken of before;Of the spirit of prophecie receaued frō God himself. but spoken of before by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Take heed to prophecies, but to prophecies which are in scripture. For both the manner and the matter of those prophecies doth shew plainely that they are of God.
3 Touching the manner, how men by the spirit of prophecie in holy Scripture hauehave spoken & written of things to come, wee must vnderstand that as the knowledge of that they spake, so likewise the vtterance of that they knewe came not by these vsuall and ordinary meanes whereby we are brought to vnderstand the mysteries of our salvation, and are wont to instruct others in the same. For whatsoever wee know, we hauehave it by the hands and ministrie of men, which lead vsus along like children from a letter to a syllable, from a syllable to a word, from a word to a line, from a line to a sentence, from a sentence to a side, and so turne over. But God himselfe was their instructour, he himselfe taught thē partly by dreames and visions in the night, partly by revelations in the daie, taking them aside from amongst their brethrē; and talking with them, as a man would talke with his neighbour in the way. Thus they became acquainted even with the secret and hidden counsels of God. They saw things which themselues were not able to vtter, they beheld that whereat men and Angels are astonished. They vnderstood in the beginning, what should come to passe in the last daies.
4 God, which lightned thus the eies of their vnderstanding giving them knowledge by vnvsuall and extraordinarie meanes,Of the Prophers māner of speech. did also miraculously himself frame and fashion their wordes and writings, in so much that a greater difference there seemeth not to bee betweene the manner of their knowledge, then there is between the manner of their speed & ours. When we hauehave conceiued a thing in our hearts and throughlie vnderstand it, as wee thinke within our selues, yet we can vtter it in such sort that our brethrē may receaue instruction or comfort at our mouths, how great, how long, how earnest meditation are we forced to vse? And after much travaile, and much paines, when we open our lips to speake of the wonderfull workes of God, our tongues doe faulter within our mouthes, yea many times wee disgrace the dreadfull mysteries of our faith, and grieue the spirit of our hearers by words vnsavory,Iob. 15. 2. 3. and vnseemely speeches. Shall a wise man fill his bellie with the easterne vind, saith Eliphaz, shall a wise man dispute with words not comely? or with talke that is not profitable? Yet behold, even they that are wisest amongst vsus living, cō pared with the Prophets, seem no otherwise to talke of God, then as if the children which are caried in armes should speake of the greatest matters of state. They whose words doe most shew forth their wise and standing, and whose lips doe vtter the purest knowledge, so long as they vnderstand and speake as men, are they not faine sundry waies to excuse themselues. Sometimes acknowledging with the wise mā, hardly can we discerne the things that are on earth, Wisd. 9. 16.and with great labour finde wee out the things that are before vsus, who can then seeke out the things that are in heauen? Sometimes confessing with Iob the righteous, intreating of things too wonderfull for vsus▪ we hauehave spokē we wist not what. Sometimes ending their talke, as doth the history of the Macchabees, if we hauehave done, wel, & aa the cause required it is that we desire if we hauehave spok̄ stenderly and havely we hauehave done that we could. But God … Esai. 49. 2.saith, Esay And we hauehave receiued, saith the Apostle, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that wee might know the things, which are given to vsus of God, which things also we speake, not in words, which mans wisdome teacheth, but which the holy Ghost doth teach. This is that which the Prophets mean by those books writtē ful within, & without, which books were so often delivered thē to eat, not because God fed thē with inke, & paper, but to teach vsus, that so oft as he employed them in this heavenly worke, they neither spake, nor wrote any word of their owne, but vttered sillable by sillable as the spirit put it into their months, no otherwise then the Harp or the Lute doth giuegive a sound according to the discretion of his hands that holdeth & striketh it with skill. The difference is only this. An instrument whether it be a pipe or harpe maketh a distinction in the times and sounds, which distinction is well perceived of the hearer, the instrument it selfe vnderstanding not what is piped or harped. The Prophets and holy men of God not so. I opened my mouth; Ezechiel. 3.saith Ezechiels and God reached me a scroule, saying son of man cause thy belly to eat & fill thy bowels with this I giuegive thee, I eate it, and it was sweet in my mouth as hony, saith the Prophet. Yea sweeter, I am perswaded, then either hony or the hony combe. For herein they were not like Harps or Lutes, but they felt, they felt the power and strength of their owne words. Whē they spake of our peace, every corner of their hearts, was filled with ioy. Whē they prophecied of mournings, lamentations, and woes, to fall vpan vsus; they wept in the bitternes and indignation of spirit; the arme of the Lord being mighty and strong vponupon them.
5 On this manner were all the prophecies of holy scripture. Which prophecies, although they containe nothing which is not profitable for our instruction, yet as one starre differeth from another in glory, so every word of prophecy hath a treasure of matter in it, but all matters are not of like importance, as al treasures are not of equal price. The chiefe & principal matter of prophecie is the promise of righteousnesse, peace, holinesse, glory, victory, immortality vntounto every soule which beleeveth, that Iesus is Christ, of the Iew first, and of the Gentile. Nowe because the doctrine of salvation to bee looked for by faith in him, who was in outward appearance as it had beene a man forsaken of God, in him who was numbred, Iudged, and condemned with the wicked, in him whom men did see buffited on the face, scoft at by Souldiers, scourged by tormentours, hanged on the crosse, pearced to the heart, in him whom the eies of many witnesses did behold, when the anguish of his soule enforced him to roare as if his hart had rent in sunder, O my God, my God why haste thou forsaken me? I say, because the doctrine of salvatiō by him is a thing improbable to a natural man, that whether we preach it to the Gentile, or to the Iew, the one condemneth our faith as madnes, the other as blasphemy, therefore to establish and confirme the certainety of this saving trueth in the harts of men; the Lord togither, with their preachings, whom hee sent immediately from himselfe, to reveale these things vntounto the world, mingled prophecies of things both civill and Ecclesiasticall, which were to come in everie age from time to time, till the very last of the latter daies; that by those things, wherein we see daily their words fulfilled and done, we might hauehave strong consolation in the hope of things which are not seene, because they hauehave revealed as well the one as the other. For when many things are spoken of before in scripture, whereof we see first one thing accomplished, and then another, and so a third, pereeiue wee not plainely, that God doeth nothing else but lead vsus along by the hand, til he hauehave setled vsus vponupon the rocke of an assured hope, that no one iote or title of his word shall passe till all be fulfilled? It is not therefore saide in vaine, that these godlesse wicked ones were spoken of before.
6 But by whom? By them whose words, if men or Angels from heauen gainesaie, they are accursed; by them, whom whosoever despiseth, despiseth not them, but me, saith Christ. If any man therefore doth louelove the Lord Iesus (and woe worth him that loueth not the Lord Iesus!) hereby wee may know that hee loveth him indeed, if hee despise not the things that are spoken of by his Apostles;A naturall man perceaveth not heavenly things. whom many hauehave despised even for the basenesse and simplenesse of their persons. For it is the propertie of fleshly and carnall men, to honour and dishonour, credit, and discredit the words and deeds of every man according to that he wanteth or hath without, If a man with gorgeous apparell come amongst vsus, although he bee a theese or a murtherer (for there are theeues and murtherers in gorgeous apparell) be his heart whatsoever, If his coat be of purple,Iam. 2. or velvet, or tissue, every one riseth vp, and all the reverent solemnities wee can vse, are too little. But the man that serveth God, is contemned and despised amongst vsus for his povertie.Act. 12. Herod speaketh in iudgement, and the people cry out, The voice of God, Act 1….and not of man. Paul preacheth Christ, they tearme him a trifler. Harken beloued: hath not God chosen the poore of this world, that they should be rich in faith? hath hee not chosen the refuse of the world to be heires of his kingdome, which hee hath promised to them that louelove him? hath he not chosen the ofscowrings of men to be the lights of the world, and the Apostles of Iesus Christ? Men vnlearned, yet how fully replenished with vnderstanding? fewe in number, yet how great in power? contemptible in shew, yet in spirit how strong? how wonderfull? I would faine learne the mysterie of the eternall generation of the sonne of God, saith Hilary. Whom shall I seeke? shall I get me to the schooles of the Grecians? why? I hauehave read, vbi sapiens? vbi scriba? vbi conquisitor huius seculi? These wise men in the world must needs bee dumbe in this, because they hauehave reiected the wisdome of God. Shall I beseech the Scribes and Interpreters of the law, to become my teachers? how can they knowe this, sith they are offended at the crosse of Christ? It is death for me to be ignorant of the vnsearchable misterie of the sonne of God; of which misterie notwit standing I should hauehave been ignorant, but that a poore fisherman, vnknowne, vnlearned, new come from his bote with his cloathes wringing wet, hath opened his mouth and taught me, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, & the word was God. These poore sillie creatures hauehave made vsus rich in the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ.
7 Remember therefore that which is spoken of by the Apostles. Whose words if the children of this world doe not regard, is it any marvaile? They are the Apostles of our Lord Iesus; not of their Lord but of our. It is true which one hath said in a certaine place, Apostolicam fidem seculi homo non capit, a mā sworne to the world, is not capable of that faith which the Apostles doe teach. What meane the children of this world then to tread in the courts of our God? What should your bodies doe at Bethel, whose hearts are at Bethaven? The God of this world, whom yee serue, hath provided Apostles and teachers for you, Chaldeans, wisards, Southsayers, Astrologers, and such like: Heare them. Tell not vsus that yee will sacrifice to the Lord our God if wee will sacrifice to Ashteroth or Melcom; We must not halt between 2. opinions.that yee will read our Scriptures, if wee will listen to your traditions; that if yee may hauehave a Masse by permission, wee shall hauehave a Communion with good leaue and liking; that yee will admit the things that are spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus, if your Lord and Master may hauehave his ordinances observed, and his statutes kept. Solomon tooke it (as well he might) for an evident proofe, that she did not bear a motherly affection to her child, which yeelded to hauehave it cut in diverse parts. He cannot louelove the Lord Iesus with his heart, which lendeth one care to his Apostles, and another care to false Apostles: which can brooke to see a mingle mangle of religion and superstition, Ministers and Massingpriests, light & darknesse, truth and errour, traditions and Scriptures. No; we hauehave no Lord but Iesus; no doctrine but the Gospell, no teachers but his Apostles. Were it reason to require at the hands of an English subiect, obedience to the lawes and edicts of the Spaniard? I doe marvaile that any man bearing the name of a servant of the servants of Iesus Christ, will goe about to drawe vsus from our allegeance. Wee are his sworne subiects; it is not lawful for vsus to heare the things, that are not told vsus by his Apostles. They hauehave told vsus that in the last daies there shall be mockers; therefore wee beleeue it: Credimus quia legimus, we are so perswaded because we read it must be so. If we did not read it, we would not teach it: Nam quae libro legis non continentur, eanec nosse debemus, saith Hilary, those things that are not written in the booke of the law, wee ought not so much as to be acquainted with them. Remember the words which were spoken of before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ.
8 The third thing to be considered in the description of these men of whom wee speake is the time, wherin they should be manifested to the world. They tolde you there should bee mockers in the last time.Mockers in the last time. Noah at the commaundement of God built an Arke, and there were in it beasts of all sorts, cleane & vncleane. A husbandman planteth a vineyard & looketh for grapes, but when they come to the gathering, behold togither with grapes there are found also wilde grapes. A rich man prepareth a great supper and biddeth many, but when hee sitteth him downe he findeth amongst his friends here and there a man whom he knoweth not. This hath beene the state of the Church sithēce the beginning. God alwaies hath mingled his Saints with faithlesse and godlesse persons; as it were the cleane with the vncleane, grapes with sowre grapes, his friends and children with aliens and strangers. Mervaile not thē, if in the last daies also yee see the men, with whom you liue and walke arme in arme, laugh at your religion and blaspheme that glorious name whereof you are called. Thus it was in the daies of the patriarckes & prophets; and are we better then our fathers? Albeit we suppose that the blessed Apostles in foreshewing what manner of men were set out for the last daies, meant to note a calamity speciall and peculiar to the ages and generations which were to come. As if he shoulde hauehave said; As God hath appointed a time of seed for the sower, and a time of harvest for him that reapeth; as he hath givē vntounto every hearb & every tree his own fruit, and his own season, not the season nor the fruit of another, (for no man looketh to gather figs in the winter, because the Sommer is the season for them, nor grapes of thistles, because grapes are the fruite of the Vine,) so the same God hath appointed sund…ie for every generation of men, other men for other times, and for the last times the worst men, as may appeare by their properties, which is the fourth point to be considered of in this description.
9 They told you that there should be Mockers. Mockers.He meaneth men that shall vse religion as a cloake to put off, and on, as the weather serveth; such as shall with Herod heare the preaching of Iohn Baptist to day, and to morrow condescende to hauehave him beheaded; or with the other Herod say, they will worship Christ when they purpose a massacre in their hearts, kisse Christ with Iudas, and betray Christ with Iudas. These are mockers. For as ishmael the sonne of Hagar laughed at Isaak, which was heire of the promise; so shall these men laugh at you as the maddest people vnderunder the sunne, if yee be like Moses, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enioy the pleasures of sin for a season. And why? God hath not given them eies to see, nor harts to cōceiue that exceeding recompence of your rewarde. The promises of salvatiō made to you are matters, wherein they can take no pleasure, even as Ishmael tooke no pleasure in that promise, wherein God had said vntounto Abraham, In Isaac shall thy seed be called, because the promise concerned not him but Isaac. They are tearmed for their impiety towards God, mockers, and for the impurity of their life and conversation, walkers after their owne vngodly lusts. S. Peter in his second epistle and 3. chapter soundeth the very depth of their impiety: shewing first, how they shall not shame at the length to professe themselues prophane, and irreligious, by flat denying the gospell of Iesus Christ, and deriding the sweet and comfortable promises of his appearing: secondly, that they shall not be only deriders of all religion, but also disputers against God, vsing truth to subvert the truth; yea scriptures themselues to disproue scriptures. Being in this sort mockers, they must needs be also followers of their owne vngodly lusts. Being Atheists in perswasion, can they choose but be beasts in conversatiō? For why remoue they quite from them the feare God? Why take they such paines to abandon and put out from their harts all sense, all tast, all feeling of religion? but only to this end and purpose, that they may without inward remorse and grudging of conscience giuegive over themselues to all vncleanenes. Surely the state of these mē is more lamentable, then is the condition of Pagans and Turkes. For at the bare beholding of heaven and earth the infidels heart by and by doth giuegive him, that there is an eternal,Mockers worse then Pagans, and Infidels. infinite, immortal, and everliving God; whose hands hauehave fashioned and framed the world; hee knoweth that every house is builded of some man, though he see not the man which built the house, and he considereth, that it must be God which hath built and created all things; although because the number of his daies be few he could not see whē God disposed his workes of old, when he caused the light of his clowds first to shine, when he laid the corner stone of the earth and swadled it with bands of water and darknes; when he caused the morning star to know his place, & made barres and doores to shut vp the sea within his house, saying, hitherto shalt thou come but no farther: he hath no eie switnesse of these things. Yet the light of natural reason hath put this wisdome in his reines, and hath given his heart thus much vnderstanding. Bring a pagan to the schooles of the prophets of God; prophecie to an infidell, rebuke him, lay the iudgements of God before him, make the secret sinnes of his heart manifest, and he shall fall downe and worship God. They that crucified the Lord of glory were not so far past recovery, but that the preaching of the Apostles was able to moue their hearts and to bring them to this, Men & brethren what shall we doe? Agrippa, Act. 2. Act 26.that sate in iudgement against Paule for preaching, yeelded notwithstanding thus farre vntounto him, almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian. Although the Iewes for want of knowledge hauehave not submitted themselues to the righteousnesse of God; yet I beare them record,Rom. 10. saith the Apostle, that they hauehave a zeale. The Athenians, a people hauing neither zeale nor knowledge, yet of them also the same Apostle beareth witnesse, yee men of Athens I perceaue yee are foreign, some way religious But mockers, walking after their owne vngodly lusts t…ey hauehave smothered every sparke of that heavenly light, they hauehave stiflled even their very naturall vnderstanding. O Lord, thy mercy is over al thy workes, thou savest man and beast! yet a happy case it had beene for these men if they had never beene borne: and so I leaue them.
10 St Iude hauing his mind exercised in the doctrine of the Apostles of Iesus Christ concerning things to come in the last time,Iudas vir sapiens & certi iudicii. became a man of a wise and staid iudgement. Grieued hee was, to see the departure of many, and their falling away from the faith, which before they did professe: grieved, but not dismayed. With the simpler and weaker sort it was otherwise: Their countenance began by and by to change, they were halfe in doubt they had deceiued themselues in giuing credit to the Gospell of Iesus Christ. St Iude to comfort & refresh these silly lambs taketh them vp in his armes, and sheweth them the men at whom they were offended. Look vponupon them that forsake this blessed professiō wherein you stand: They are now before your eyes; view them, marke them, are they not carnall? are they not like to noysome carrion cast out vponupon the earth? is there that spirit in them, which cryeth Abba father in your bosomes? Why should any man be discomforted? hauehave you not heard that there should be mockers in the last time? These verily are they, that now doe seperate themselues.
11 For your better vnderstanding, what this severing and separating of themselues doth meane, we must knowe, that the multitude of them which truly beleeue (howsoever they be dispersed farre and wide each from other) is all one body, whereof the head is Christ, one building, whereof he is the corner stone, in whom they as the mēbers of the body being knit, & as the stones of the building, being coupled, grow vp to a man of perfect stature, and rise to an holy tē ple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to vsus is his meere mercy and louelove towards vsus. That which tieth vsus to him is our faith in the promised salvation revealed in the word of truth. That which vniteth and ioyneth vsus amongst our selues, in such sort that wee are now as if we had but one heart and one soule, is our louelove. Who be inwardly in heart the liuely members of this body, and the polished stones of this building, coupled and ioined to Christ, as flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones by the mutuall bond of his vnspeakable louelove towards them, & their vnfained faith in him, thus linked and fastned each to other by a spirituall, sincere, and hartie affection of louelove without any manner of simulation, who be Iewes within, and what their names be, none can tell, saue he whose eies doe behold the secret disposition of all mens hearts. We, whose eies are too dimme to behold the inward man, must leaue the secret iudgement of every servant to his owne Lord, accounting and vsing all men as brethren both neere and deare vntounto vsus, supposing Christ to louelove them tenderly, so as they keep the profession of the Gospell and ioyne in the outward communion of Saints. Whereof the one doth warrantize vntounto vsus their faith, the other their louelove, till they fall away and forsake either the one, or the other, or both; and then it is no iniurie to tearme them as they are. When they separate themselues they, are foreign, not iudged by vsus, but by their owne doings. Men do separate thēselues either by heresie, schisme, or apostasie. If they loose the bond of faith,Threefold … which then they are iustly supposed to doe, when they frowardly oppugne any principall point of Christian doctrine,1 Heresie. this is to separate themselues by Heresie. If they breake the bond of vnitie, whereby the body of the Church is coupled and knit in one, as they doe, which willfully forsake al externall communion with Saints in holy exercises purely & orderly established in the Church, this is to separate themselues by schisme. …. Schisme.If they willingly cast of and vtterly forsake both profession of Christ, & communion with Christians, taking their leaue of all religion, this is to separate themselues by plaine Apostasie. 3. Apostasy.And Saint Iude, to expresse the manner of their departure, which by Apostasie fell away frō the faith of Christ, saith they separated themselues: noting thereby, that it was not constraint of others, which forced them to depart, it was not infirmitie and weaknes in themselues, it was not feare of persecution to come vpō them, whereat their hearts did faile; it was not griefe of torments, whereof they had tasted, and were not able any longer to endure them. No, they voluntarily did separate themselues with a fully setled, and altogether determined purpose never to name the Lord Iesus and more, nor to hauehave any fellowship with his Saints, but to bend all their counsell and all their strength to raze out their memoriall from amongst men.
12 Now because that by such examples, not only the hearts of Infidels were hardned against the truth, but the mindes of weake brethren also much troubled, the holy Ghost hath given sentence of these backsliders, that they were carnall men, and had not the spirit of Christ Iesus, least any man hauing an overweening of their persons should be overmuch amazed and offended at their fall. For simple men not able to discerne their spirits, were brought by their apostasie thus to reason with themselues. If Christ be the sonne of the liuing God, if hee hauehave the words of eternall life, if he be able to bring salvation to all men that come vntounto him, what meaneth this Apostasie and vnconstrained departure? Why doe his servants so willingly forsake him? Babes be not deceived, his servants forsake him not. They that separate themselues were amongst his servants, but if they had been of his servants, they had not separated themselues. They were amongst vsus, not of vsus, saith Saint Iohn: and Saint Iude proveth it, because they were carnall, and had not the spirit. Will you iudge of wheat by chaffe which the winde hath scattered from amongst it? HaueHave the children no bread because the dogs hauehave not tasted it? Are Christians deceived of that salvatiō they looked for, because they denied the ioies of the life to come which were not Christiās? What if they seemed to bee pillers and principall vpholders of our faith? What is that to vsus, which know that Angels hauehave fallen from heaven? Although if these men had beene of vsus indeed, (O the blessednes of a Christian mans estate!) they had stood surer then the Angels, they had never departed from their place. Whereas now we mervaile not at their departure at all, neither are we prejudiced by their falling away, because they were not of vsus, sith they are fleshly and hauehave not the spirit. Children abide in the house for ever; they are bondmen and bondwomen which are cast out.
13 It behoveth you therefore greatly every mā to examine his owne estate, and to try whether you be bond or free, children or no children. I hauehave tolde you already, that we must beware we presume not to sit as Gods in iudgement vponupon others, and rashlie, as our conceipt and fancie doth lead vsus, so to determine of this man he is sincere, or of that man, he is an hypocrit, except by their falling away they make it manifest and knowne what they are. For who art thou that takest vponupon thee to iudge another before the time? Iudge thy selfe. God hath left vsus infallible evidence,infallible evidence in the faithfull that they are Gods child… ̄ whereby we may at any time giuegive true & righteous sentence vponupon our selues. We cannot examine the harts of other men, we may our owne. That we hauehave passed from death to life, we knowe it, saith St Iohn, because we louelove our brethren: & knowe yee not your owne selues, how that Iesus Christ is in you, except yee bee reprobates? I trust, beloued, wec knowe that wee are not reprobates, because our spirit doth bear vsus record, that the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ is in vsus.
14 It is as easie a matter for the spirit within you to tell whose yee are, as for the eies of your body to iudge where you sit, or in what place you stand. For what saith the Scripture? Yee, which were in times past strangers and enimies, because your minds were set on evill workes, Christ hath now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to make you holy, and vnblameable, and without fault in his sight: if you continue grounded and established in the faith, and bee not moved away from the hope of the Gospell, Colos. 1. And in the third to the Coloss. yee knowe that of the Lord yee shall receiue the reward of that inheritance, for yee serue the Lord Christ. If wee can make this account with our selues; I was in times past dead in trespasses and sinnes, I walked after the prince that ruleth in the aire, & after the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience; but God, who is rich in mercy, through his great louelove, wherewith he loued me, evē when I was dead, hath quickned me in Christ. I was fierce, heady, proud, high minded; but God hath made me like the child that is newly wained: I loved pleasures more then God; I followed greedily the ioies of this present world; I esteemed him, that erected a stage or theatre, more then Solomon which built a Temple to the Lord; the Harpe, Viole, Timbrell, & Pipe men singers & womē singers were at my feasts, it was my felicity to see my children dance before me, I said of every kind of vanitie, O how sweet art thou vntounto my soule! All which things now are crucified to me, and J to them: now I hate the pride of life, and pompe of this world; now I take as great delight in the way of thy testimonies, O Lord, as in all riches, now I finde more ioy of heart in my Lord and Saviour, then the worldly minded man, when his wheate and oyle do much abound: now I tast nothing sweet, but the bread that came downe from heaven, to giuegive life vntounto the world: now mine eyes see nothing, but Iesus rising from the dead: now my eare refuseth all kind of melodie to heare the song of them that hauehave gotten victory of the beast, and of his image, and of his marke, and of the number of his name, that stand on the sea of glasse, hauing the harpes of God, and singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lambe, saying, Great and marvailous are thy workes, Lord God Almightie, iust, & true are thy waies, O king of Saints. Surely if the spirit hauehave been thus effectuall in the secret worke of our regeneration vntounto newnesse of life; if wee endeavour thus to frame our selues anew, then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle in the 10. to the Hebrewes, we are not of them which withdraw our selues to perdition, but which follow faith to the conservation of the soule. For they that fall away from the grace of God, and separate themselues vntounto perdition, they are fleshly and carnall, they hauehave not Gods holy spirit. But vntounto you, because yee are sonnes, God hath sent forth the spirit of his sonne into your hearts, to the end yee might knowe, that Christ hath built you vponupon a rocke vnmoueable, that he hath registred your names in the booke of life, that hee hath bound himselfe in a sure and everlasting covenant to be your God, & the God of your children after you, that hee hath suffered as much, groned as oft, prayed as heartily for you as for Peter, O father keepe them in thy name! ô righteous father the world hath not knowne thee, but I hauehave knowne thee, and these hauehave knowne that thou hast sent me, I hauehave declared thy name vntounto them, and will declare it, that the louelove wherewith thou hast loued me, may be in them, and I in them. The Lord of his infinite mercy giuegive vsus hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assurance of faith vntounto the end.
14 Here I must advertise all men, that hauehave the testimonie of Gods holy feare within their breasts,The Papists falsly accuse vsus of Heresie and Apostasie to consider how vnkindly, and iniuriously our owne countrimen and brethren hauehave dealt with vsus by the space of foure and twentie yeares, from time to time, as if we were the men of whom S. Iude here speaketh; never ceasing to charge vsus, some with schisme, some with heresie, some with plaine and manifest apostasie, as if we had cleane separated our selues from Christ, vtterly forsaken God, quite abiured heaven, & trampled all truth and all religion vnderunder our feet. Against this third sort, God himselfe shall pleade our cause, in that day, when they shall answer vsus for these words, not we them. To others by whom we are accused for schisme and heresie, wee hauehave often made our reasonable, and in the sight of God, I trust, allowable answers.Act. 25. For in the way which they call heresie, wee worship the God of our fathers, beleeuing all things which are written in the law & the Prophets. That which they call schisme, wee knowe to bee our reasonable service vntounto God, and obedience to his voice, which cryeth shrill in our eares,Apoc. 18. Go out of Babylon my people, that you be not partakers of her sinnes, and that yee receaue not of her plagues. And therefore when they rise vp against vsus, hauing no quarrell but this, we need not to seeke any farther for our Apologie, then the words of Abiah to Ieroboam & his armie, 2. Chr. 13. O Ieroboam and Israel, heare you me, ought you not to knowe, that the Lord God of Israel hath giuen the kingdome over Israel to David, for ever, even to him & to his sonnes by a covenant of salt? that is to say, an everlasting covenant. Iesuits & Papists, heare yee me, ought you not to knowe, that the Father hath giuen al power vntounto the some, and hath made him the only head over his Church, wherein he dwelleth as an husbādman in the midst of his vineyard, manuring it with the sweat of his owne browes, not letting it forth to others?Cant. 8 11. For as it is in the Canticle, Solomon had a vineyard in Baalhamon, he gaue the vineyard vntounto keepers every one bringing for the fruit thereof a thousand peeces of silver; but my vineyard which is mine is before me, saith Christ. It is true this is meant of the mysticall head set over the body which is not seene. butas he hath reserved the mysticall administratiō of the church invisible vntounto himselfe, so hee hath committed the mysticall government of cōgregations visible to the sonnes of David by the same couenant; whose sonnes they are in the governing of the flock of Christ, whōsoever the holy ghost hath set over thē to goe before them & to leade them in their seuerall pastures, one in this cōgregation, another in that: as it is written, Take heede vntounto your selues, and to all the flocke, Act. 20.whereof the holy ghost hath made you over seers, to feed the church of God, which hee hath purchased with his owne blood. Neither will ever any Pope or Papist vnderunder the cope of heaven bee able to proue the Romish Bishops vsurped supremacy over all Churches,The Popes vsurped supremacie. by any one word of the covenant of salt, which is the Scripture. For the children in our streets doe now laugh them to scome, when they force, thou art Peter, to this purpose. The Pope hath no more reason to draw the charter of his vniversall authoritie from hence, then the rethren had to gather by the wordes of Christ in the last of S. Iohn, that the Disciple, whome Iesus I ued, should never die. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? saith Christ; Straight waies a report was raysed amongst the brethren, that this disciple should not die, yet Iesus said not to him, Hee shall not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Christ hath said in the 16 of S. Matthewes Gospell to Simon the sonne of Ionas, I say to thee, thou art Peter. Hence an opinion is held in the world that the Pope is vniversall head of all Churches, yet Iesus said not the Pope is vniversall head of all Churches, but, Tues Petrus, Thou art Peter. Howbeit, as Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat the servant of Solomon, rose vp and rebelled against his Lord, and there were gathered vntounto him vaine men and wicked, which made themselues strong against Ieroboam the sonne of Solemon, because Roboam was but a child, and tender hearted, and could not resist them: so the sonne of perdition and man of sinne, being not able to brooke the words of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ, which forbad his disciples to be leke princes of nations, They beare rule and are called gracious, it shall not bee so with you, hath risen vp and rebelled against his Lord, & to strengthen his arme, he hath crept into the houses almost of all the noblest families round about him, and taken their children from the cradle to be his Cardinals, he hath fawned vponupon the kings and princes of the earth, & by spirituall coufenage hath made them sell their lawfull authoritie and iurisdiction for titles of Catholicus, Christianissimus, Defensor fidei, and such like, he hath proclaimed sale of pardons to inveigle the ignorant, built seminaries to allure young men desirous of learning,Consil. delector. Cardin. Laurent. Surius Commde reb. gest. à Pio 5 Franci…cus Sansovin. de gubernat. regnorū & Rerumpub. lib 11 cap. de Iud Marescal & Soldan. erected Stewes, to gather the dissolute vntounto him. This is the rocke wherevpon his Church is built. Hereby the man is growne huge and strong, like the Cedars, which are not shaken with the wind, because Princes hauehave beene as children, over tender hearted, and could not resist.
Hereby it is come to passe, as you see this day, that the man of sinne doth warre against vsus, not by men of a language which we cannot vnderstande, but he commeth as Ieroboam against Iuda, & bringeth the fruit of our owne bodies to eat vsus vp, that the bowels of the childe may be made the mothers graue, that he hath caused no small number of our brethren to forsake their natiue country, & with all disloialty to cast off the yoke of their allegeance to our dread Soveraigne, whom God in mercy hath set over them, for whose sauegard, if they caried not the hearts of Tygers in the bosomes of men, they woulde thinke the dearest blood in their bodies wel spent. But now, saith Abiah to Ieroboam, yee thinke yee be able to resist, the kingdome of the Lorde, which is in the hands of the sonnes of David. Yee be a great multitude, the golden calues are with you, which Ieroboam made you for Gods, hauehave yee not driven away the priests of the Lord the sonnes of Aaron, and the Levites, & hauehave made you priests like the people of natiōs? whosoever commeth with a young bullocke and seaven rammes, the same may bee a priest of them that are no Gods. If I should follow the comparison, & here vncover the cup of those deadly and ougly abominations, where with this Ieroboam of whom we speake hath made the earth so drunke that it hath reeled vnderunder vsus, I know your godly hearts would loath to see them. For my own part I delight not to take in such filth, I had rather take a garment vponupon my shoulders, and go with my face from them to cover them. The Lord open their eies, and cause them, if it be possible, at the length to see, how they are wretched, and miserable, and poore, and blinde, and naked! Put it O Lord in their hearts to seeke white raiment, and to cover themselues, that their filthy nakednes may no longer appeare! For, beloved in Christ, we bow our knees, & lift vp our hands to heaven in our chambers secretly, & openly in our churches we pray hartily, & howrely even for them also; though the Pope hauehave given out as a Iudge in a solemne declaratory sentence of excommunication against this land, that our gracious Lady hath quite abolished praiers within her realme, and his schollers, whom he hath taken from the midst of vsus, hauehave in their published writings charged vsus not only not to hauehave any holy assemblies vntounto the Lorde for praier, but to hold a common schoole of sinne & flattery, to hold sacrilege to be Gods service, vnfaithfulnesse and breach of promise to God to giuegive it to a strumpet to be a vertue; to abandon fasting, to abhor confession, to mislike with penance, to like well of vsury, to charge none with restitution, to finde no good before God in single life, nor in no well working; that all men, as they fal to vsus, are much woorsed, and more, then afore, corrupted. I do not adde one word or sillable vntounto that, which Mr Bristow, a man both borne and sworne amongst vsus, hath taught his hand to deliver to the view of all. I appeale to the cō science of every soule, that hath beene truely converted by vsus; whether his heart were never raised vp to God by our preaching; whether the words of our exhortation never wrong any teare of a penitent heart from his eies; whether his soule never reaped any ioy, any comfort, any consolation in Christ Iesus, by our sacraments, and praiers, and Psalmes, & thansgivings; whether he were never bettered, but alwaies worsed by vsus. Omerciful Godlif heaven and earth in this case do not witnesse with vsus, and against them, let vsus bee razed out from the land of the living! let the earth, on which we stand, swallow vsus quicke, as it hath done Corah, Dathan, and Abiram! But if we belong vntounto the Lord our God, and hauehave not forsaken him, if our priests the sonnes of Aaron minister vntounto the Lord, and the Levites in their office, if wee offer vntounto the Lord every morning and every evening the burnt offrings, & sweet incense of praiers, land thanks givings, if the bread be set in order vponupon the pure table,2. Chr. c. 13. & the candlesticke of gold with the lamps thereof to burne every morning, that is to say, if amōgst vsus Gods blessed sacraments be duly administred, his holy word sincerely and daily preached, if we keep the watch of the Lord our God, and if yee hauehave forsaken him; then doubt yee not this God is with vsus as a captaine, his priests with founding trumpets must cry alarme against you,Ver. 12. O yee children of Israel fight not against the Lord God of your fathers, for yee shall not prosper.