Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 24
SERMON XXIV.
Preached at White-Hall.
EZEK. 34. 19.
And as for my flock, they eate that, which yee have troen with your feet, and they drink that which yee have foulded with your feet.
THose four Prophets, whom the Church hath called the great Prophets, Esay, and Ieremy, Ezekiel and Daniel, are not onelyonly therefore called great, because they writ more, then the lesser Prophets did, (for Zecbary, who is amongst the lesser, writ more then Daniel who is amongst the greater) but because their Prophecies are of a larger comprehension, and extent, and, for the most part, speake more of the comming of Christ, and the establishing of the Christian Church, then the lesser Prophets doe, who were more conversant about the temporall deliverance of Israel from Babylon, though there be aspersions of Christ, and his future government in those Prophets too, though more thinly shed. Amongst the four great ones, our Prophet Ezekiel is the greatest. I compare not their extraction and race; for, though Ezekiel were de genere sacerdotali, of the Leviticall and Priestly race; (And, as Philo Iud…us notes, all nations having some markes of Gentry, some calling that ennobled the professors thereof, (in some Armes, and Merchandize in some, and the Arts in others) amongst the Iews, that was Priesthood, Priesthood was Gentry) though Ezekiel were of this race, Esay was of a higher, for he was of the extraction of their Kings, of the bloud royall. But the extraordinary greatnesse of Ezekiel, is in his extraordinary depth, and mysteriousnesse, for this is one of those parts of Scripture, (as the beginning of Genesis, and the Canticles of Solomon, also are) which are forbid to be read amongst the Iews, till they come to be thirty years old, which was the Canonicall age to be made Priests; In so much, that Saint Gregory says, when he comes to expound any part of this Prophet, Noctunum iter ago, that he travelled by night, and did but ghesse at his way. But, besides that many of the obscure places of the Prophets are more open to us, then they were to the ancients, because many of those prophecies are now fulfilled, and so that which was Prophecy to them, is History to us, in this place, which we have now undertaken, there never was darknesse, not difficulty, neither in the first emanation of the light thereof, nor in the reflection; neither in the Literall, nor in the Figurative sense thereof; for the literall sense is plainly that, that amongst the manifold oppressions, under which the Children of Israel languished in Babylon, this was the heaviest, that their own Priests joyned with the State against them, and infused pestilent doctrines into them, that so themselves might enjoy the favour of the State, and the people committed to their charge, might slacken their obedience to God, and surrender themselves to all commandements of all men; This was their oppression, the Church joyned with the Court, to oppresse them; Their own Priests gave these sheep grasse which they had troden with their feet, (doctrines, not as God gave them to them, but as they had tampered, and tempered them, and accommodated them to serve turnes, and fit their ends; whose servants they had made themselves, more then Gods) And they gave them water to drink which they had troubled with their feet, that is, doctrines mudded with other ends then the glory of God; And that therefore God would take his sheep into his own care, and reduce them from that double oppression of that Court, and that Church, those Tyrannous officers, and those over-obsequious Priests. This is the literall sense of our text, and context, evident enough in the letter thereof. And then the figurative and Mysticall sense is of the same oppressions, and the same deliverance over againe in the times of Christ, and of the Christian Church; for that's more then figurative, fully literall, soon after the Text, I will set up one shepheard, my servant David, And I will raise up for them a plant of renoune, which is the same that Esay had called A rod out of the stem of Iesse, and Ieremy had called A righteous br…nch,ver. 23. 29. 11. 1. 23. 5. a King thus should raigne, and prosper. This prophecy then comprehending the kingdome of Christ, it comprehends the whole kingdome of Christ, not onelyonly the oppressions, and deliverances of our forefathers, from the Heathen, and the Heretiques in the Primitive Church, but that also which touches us more nearly, the oppressions and deliverance of our Fathers, in the Reformation of Religion, and the shaking off of the yoak of Rome, that Italian Babylon, as heavy as the Chald…an. We shall therefore at this time fix our meditations upon that accommodation of the Text, the oppression that the Israel of God was under, then, when he delivered them by that way, the Reformation of Religion, and consider how these metaphors of the holy Ghost, The treading with their feet the grasse that the sheep were to eae, and the troubling with their feet the water that the sheep were to drink, doe answer and set out the oppressions of the Roman Church then, as lively as they did in the other Babylon. And so, having said enough of the primary sense of these words, as they concern Gods Israel, in the first Babylon, and something by way of commemoration, and thankfulnesse, for Gods deliverance of his Israel, from the persecutions in the Primitive Church, insist we now, upon the severall metaphors of the Text, as the holy Ghost continues them to the whole reigne of Christ, and so to the Reformation.
First,Pastores concurrebant. the greatest calamity of those sheep in Babylon, was that their own shepherds concurred to their oppression. In Babylon they were a part, but in Rome they were all; In Babylon they joyned with the State, but in Rome they were the State.Mal. 1. 7. Saint Hierome notes out of a Tradition of the Iews, that those loafes which their priests were to offer to the Lord, were to be of such corne as those Priests had sowed, and reaped and threshed, and ground, and baked all with their own hands. But they were so farre from that at Babylon, Iob 4. 8.and at Rome, Ier. 12. 20.as that they ploughed iniquity, and sowed wickednesse, and reaped the same; and (as God himselfe complaines) trod his portion under foot; That is, first, neglected his people, (for Gods people are his portion) And then whatsoever pious men had given to the Church, is his portion too, and that portion they had troden under foot; not neglected it, not despised it, for they collected it, and audited it providently enough, but they trod it under foot, when that which was given for the sustentation of the Priest, they turned upon their own splendour, and glory, and surfet: Christ will be fed in the poor that are hungry, and hee will be cloathed in the poore that are naked, so he would be enriched in those poor Ministers that serve at his Altar; when Christ would be so fed, he desires not feasts and banquets; when he would be so cloathed, hee desires not soft rayment fit for Kings houses, nor embroyderies, nor perfumes; when he would be enriched in the poor Church-man, he desires not that he should be a spunge, to drinke up the sweat of others, and live idly; but yet, as he would not be starved in the hungry, nor submitted to cold and unwholesome ayre in the naked, so neither would he be made contemptible, nor beggerly in the Minister of his Church. Nor, was there in the world, (take in Turky, and all the heathen) (for they also have their Clergy) a more contemtible & more beggerly Clergy then that of Rome; I speak of the Clergy in the most proper sense, that is, they that minister, they that officiate, they that execute, they that personally & laboriously do the service of the Church. The prelacies, and Dignities of the Church, were multiplyed in the hands of them, who under pretext of Government, took their ease, and they that labored, were attenuated & macerated, with lean, & penurious pensions. In the best governed Churches there are such Dignities, & supplies without Cure of soules, or personall service; but they are intended for recompence of former labours, and sustentation of their age, of whose youth, and stronger days, the Church had received benefit. But in the Roman Church these preferments are given almost in the wombe; and children have them not onelyonly before they can merit them, but before they can speake for them; and they have some Church-names, Dean, or Bishop, or Abbat, as soon almost as they have any Christian names. Yea, we know many Church dignities, entailed to noble families, and, if it fall void, whilest the child is so incapable, it must be held for him, by some that must resigne it, when it may, by any extent of dispensation, be asked for him. So then the Church joyned with the State, to defraud the people; The Priest was poorly maintained, and so the people poorely instructed. And this is the first conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean and the Italian.
Pursue we then the holy Ghosts purpose and manner of implying,Gramen. and expressing it the food ordained for sheep, Grasse. In which make we onelyonly these two stops, that the sheep are to eate their grasse super terram, Super terram.upon the ground; And they are to eate it sinerore, when the dew is off. First, upon the ground; that is, where the hand of God hath set it; which for spirituall food is the Church. In hard winters we give sheep hay, but in open times open grasse. In persecutions of Tyrans, in Interdicts of Antichristian Bishops, who sometimes out of passion, or some secular respect shut up Church dores and forbid service, and Sacraments, to whole Cities, to whole nations, sheep must live by hay, Gods Children must relieve themselves at home, by books of pious and devout meditation; But when God affords abundant pastures, and free entrance thereunto, Gods sheep are to take their grasse upon the ground, Gods grace at the Church. Impossibile est eum corrigere, qui omnia scit, Chrysost: It is an impossible thing to correct him, that thinks he knows all things already. As long as he will admit counsaile from another, he acknowledges the other, to know more then he; but if he thinks, he knows all before, he hath no room for farther instruction, nor love to the place where it is to be had. We read in the Eastern Histories, of a navigable River, that afforded all the inhabitants exportation, and importation, and all commerce. But when every particular man, to serve his own curiosity, for the offices of his house, for the pleasures of his gardens, and for the sumptuousnesse of Grots and aqueducts, and such waterworks, drew severall channells, infinite channells our of this great River, this exhausted the maine channell, and brought it to such a shallownesse, as would beare no boats, and so, took from them the great and common commodities that it had afforded them. So if every man think to provide himselfe Divinity enough at home, for himselfe and his family, and out of laziness and singularity, or state, or disaffection to the preacher leave the Church unfrequented, he frustrates the Ordinance of God, which is, that his sheep should come to his pastures, and take his grasse upon his ground, his instructions at his house at Church. And this we could not doe in the Roman Church, where all our prayers, and all Gods service of that kinde, were in a language, not onelyonly not understood by him that heard it, but for the most part, not by him that spoke it, It is not of their manifold, and scornfull, and ridiculous and histrionicall Ceremonies in their service, nor of the dangerous poysons, the direct Idolatries (in the practise of the people) in their service, that we complain of now, but of this, that though it had been never so wholesome grasse, it was not so to those sheep, they could not know it to be their proper aliment, for certainly they aske without faith, that aske without understanding; nor can I beleeve or hope that God will give me that I aske, if I know not what I asked. And what a miserable supply had they for this in their Legends; for many of those Legends were in vulgar tongues and understood by them.B. Virgo femoralia. B. Tho. Cantuar, veparavit. Cantiprat. l. 2. c. 29. In which Legends, the Virgin Mary was every good mans wife, and every good womans mid-wife, by a neighborly, and familiar, and ordinary assistant in all houshold offices, as we see in those Legends, and revelations. In which Legends, they did not onelyonly faine actions, which those persons never did, but they fained persons which never were; and they did not onelyonly mis-canonize men, made Devils Saints, but they mis-christened men, put names to persons, and persons to names that never were. And these legends being transferred into the Church, the sheep lacke their grasse upon the ground, that is, the knowledge of Gods will, in his house, at Church. And this is another conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that the sheep lacked due food in the due place.
So is it also,Ros super gramen. that the sheep eat their grasse, whilest the Dew was upon it, which is found by experience to be unwholesome. The word of God is our grasse, which should be delivered purely, simply, sincerely, and in the naturall verdure thereof. The Dews which we intend, are Revelations, Apparitions, Inspirations, Motions, and Interpretations of the private spirit. Now, though we may see the naturall dew to descend from heaven, yet it did first ascend from the earth, and retains still some such earthly parts, as sheep cannot digest. So howsoever these Revelations and Inspirations seem to fall upon us from heaven, they arise from the earth, from our selves, from our own melancholy, and pride, or our too much homelinesse and familiarity in our accesses, and conversation with God, or a facility in beleeving, or an often dreaming the same thing. And with these Dews of Apparitions and Revelations, did the Romane Church make our fathers drunk and giddy; And against these does S. Augustine devoutly pray, and praise God, that he had delivered him from the curiosity of sipping these dews, of hearkning after these apparitions and revelations. But so ordinary were these apparitions then, as that any son, or nephew, or friend, could discern his fathers, or uncles, or companions soul, ascending out of Purgatory into heaven, and know them as distinctly, as if they kept the same haire, and beard, and bodily lineaments, as they had upon earth. And as a ship which hath struck Sail, will yet goe on with the winde it had before, for a while, so now, when themselves are come to acknowledge, That it was the unanime opinion of the Fathers, Maldon.that the souls of the dead did not appeare after death, but that it was still the Devil, howsoever sometimes that that he proposed were holy & religious,Coccius. yet we see a great Author of theirs attribute so much to these apparitions, and revelations, that when he pretends to prove all controversies by the Fathers of the Church, he every where intermingles that reverend Book, of Brigids Revelations, that they might also have some Mothers of the Church too; which is not disproportionall in that Church; if they have had a woman Pope, to have Mothers of the Church too. I speak not this, as though God might not, or did not manifest his will by women; The great mystery of the Resurrection of Christ was revealed to women before men; and to the sinfullest woman of company, first. But I speak of that bold injury done to the mysteries of the Christian Religion, by pouring out that dew upon the grasse, the Revelations of S. Brigid, upon the controversies of Religion. A book of so much blasphemy, and impertinency, and incredibility, that if a Heathen were to be converted, he would sooner be brought to beleeve Ovids Metamorphoses, then Brigids Revelations, to conduce to Religion. And this is also another conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that we could not receive our grasse pure, but infected, and dewed with these frivolous, nay pernicious apparitions, and Revelations.
But press we a little closer to the very steps,Gramen conculcatum. & metaphor of the holy Ghost, who here lays the corrupting of the sheeps grasse in this, That the shepheards had troden it down. And this treading down will be pertinently considered two ways. Tertullian in his Book De habitu muliebri, notes two excesses in womens dressing; One he cals Ornatum, the other cultum; One mundum muliebrem, the other, (according to the liberty that he takes in making words) Immundum muliebrem; the first is a superfluous diligence in their dressing, but the other an unnaturall addition to their complexion; the first he pronounces to be always ad ambitionem, for pride, but the other, ad prostitutionem, for a worse, for the worst purpose. These two sorts of Excesses doe note these two kindes of treading down the grasse, which we intend; of which one is, the mingling of too much humane ornament, and secular learning in preaching, in presenting the word of God, which word is our grasse; The other is of mingling humane Traditions, as of things of equall value, and obligation, with the Commandements of God. For the first, humane ornament, if in those pastures, which are ordain'd for sheep, you either plant rare and curious flowers, delightfull onelyonly to the eye, or fragrant and odoriferous hearbs delightfull onelyonly to the smell, nay, be they medicinall hearbs, usefull, and behovefull for the preservation, and restitution of the health of man, yet if these specious and glorious flowers, and fragrant, and medicinall hearbs, be not proper nourishment for sheep, this is a treading down of the grasse, a pestering and a suppressing of that which appertained to them. So if in your spirituall food, our preaching of the Word, you exact of us more secular ornament, then may serve, as Saint Augustine says, Ad ancillationem, to convey, and usher the true word of life into your understandings, and affections, (for both those must necessarily be wrought upon) more then may serve ad vehiculum, for a chariot for the word of God to enter, and triumph in you, this is a treading down of the grasse, a filling of that ground which was ordained for sheep, with things improper, and impertinent to them. If you furnish a Gallery with stuffe proper for a Gallery, with Hangings and Chairs, and Couches, and Pictures, it gives you all the conveniencies of a Gallery, walks and prospect, and ease; but if you pester it with improper and impertinent furniture, with Beds, and Tables, you lose the use, and the name of a Gallery, and you have made it a Wardrobe; so if your curiosity extort more then convenient ornament, in delivery of the word of God, you may have a good Oration, a good Panegyrique, a good Encomiastique, but not so good a Sermon. It is true that Saint Paul applies sentences of secular Authors, even in matters of greatest importance; but then it is to persons that were accustomed to those authors, and affected with them, and not conversant, not acquainted at all, with the phrase and language of Scripture amongst us now, almost every man (God be blessed for it) is so accustomed to the text of Scripture, as that he is more affected with the name of David, or Saint Paul, then with any Seneca or Plutarch. I am far from forbidding secular ornament in divine exercises, especially in some Auditories, acquainted with such learnings. I have heard men preach against witty preaching; and doe it with as much wit, as they have; and against learned preaching, with as much learning, as they could compasse. If you should place that beast, which makes the Bezoar stone, in a pasture of pure, but onelyonly grasse, it is likely, that out of his naturall faculty, he would petrifie the juyce of that grasse, and make it a stone, but not such a medicinall stone, as he makes out of those herbes which he feeds upon. Let all things concur in the name of God, to the advancing of his purpose, in his ordinance, which is, to make his will acceptable to you, by his word; onelyonly avoid excesse in the manner of doing it. Saint Augustines is an excellent rule, when after in his book De Doctrina Christiana, he had taught a use of all Arts in Divinity, he allows them onelyonly thus far, ut cum ingenia his reddantur exercitatiora, cavendum ne reddantur maligniora, that when a man by these helps is the more ful, and the more ready & the more able for Church service, he be not also thereby made the more bold and the more confident; Nec ament decipere verisimili sermone, lest because he is able to make any thing seem probable and likely to the people, by his eloquence, he come to infuse paradoxicall opinions, or schismaticall, or (which may be beleeved either way) problematicall opinions, for certain and constant truths, and so be the lesse conversant, and the lesse diligent in advancing plaine, and simple, and fundamentall doctrines and catechisticall, which are truely necessary to salvation, as though such plaine, and ordinary, and catechisticall doctrines were not worthy of his gifts and his great parts. In a word, in sheep-pastures you may plant fruit trees in the hedge-rowes; but if you plant them all over, it is an Orchard; we may transfer flowers of secular learning, into these exercises; but if they consist of those, they are but Themes, and Essays. But why insist we upon this? Was there any such conformity between the two Babylons as that the Italian Babylon can be said to have troden down the grasse in that kinde, with overcharging their Sermons with too much learning. Truly it was far, very very far from it; for when they had prevailed in that Axiome, and Aphorisme of theirs, that it was best to keep the people in ignorance, they might justly keep the Priest in ignorance too; for when the people needed no learned instruction, what needed the Church a learned instructer? And therefore I laid hold of this consideration, the treading down of grass, by oppressing it with secular learning, there by to bring to your remembrance, the extreme ignorance that damp'd the Roman Church, at that time; where Aristotles Metaphysicks were condemned for Heresie,Hosius. and ignorance in generall made not onelyonly pardonable, but meritorious. Of which times, if at any time, you read the Sermons, which were then preached, and after published, you will excuse them of this treading down the grass, by oppressing their auditories with over-much learning, for they are such Sermons as will not suffer us to pity them, but we must necessarily scorne, and contemne, and deride them; Sermons, at which the gravest, and saddest man could not choose but laugh; not at the Sermon, God forbid; nor at the plainness, and homeliness of it; God forbid; but at the Soloecismes, the barbarismes, the servilities, the stupid ignorance of those things which fall within the knowledge of boys of the first forme in every School. This was their treading down of grass, not with over-much learning, but with a cloud, a dampe, an earth of ignorance. After an Oxe that oppresseth the grass, after a Horse that devours the grass, sheep will feed; but after a Goose that stanches the grass, they will not; no more can Gods sheep receive nourishment from him that puts a scorne upon his function, by his ignorance.
But in the other way of treading down grass,Conculcatum per traditiones. (that is, the word of God) by the Additions and Traditions of men, the Italian Babylon Rome abounded, superabounded, overflowed, surrounded all. And this is much more dangerous then the other; for this mingling of humane additions, and traditions, upon equall necessity, and equall obligation as the word of God it selfe, is a kneading, an incorporating of grasse and earth together, so, as that it is impossible for the weake sheep, to avoid eating the meat of the Serpent, Gen. 3.Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life. Now man upon his transgression, was not accursed, nor woman; The sheep were not accursed; But the earth was, and the Serpent was; and now this kneading, this incorporating of earth with grasse, traditions with the word, makes the sheep to eate the cursed meat of the cursed Serpent, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
Now, in this treading down this grasse, this way, this suppressing it by traditions, be pleased to consider these two applications; some traditions doe destroy the word of God,Scicut Porcus. extirpate it, annihilate it, as when a Hog doth root up the grass; In which case, not onelyonly that turfe withers, and is presently useless, and unprofitable to the sheep, but if you dig never so low after, down to the Center of the earth, it is impossible ever to finde any more grass under it: so some traditions doe utterly oppose the word of God, without having under them, any mysterious signification, or any occasion or provocation of our devotion, which is the ordinary pretext of traditions, and Ceremoniall additions in their Church. And of this sort was that amongst the Iews, of which our blessed Saviour reproches them,Mat. 15. that whereas by the law, children were to relieve decayed parents, they had brought in a tradition, of Commutation, of Compensation, that if those children gave a gift to the Priest, or compounded with the Priest, they were discharged of the former obligation. And of this sort are many traditions in the Roman Church; where, not onelyonly the doctrines of men but the doctrine of Devills, (as the Apostle calls the forbidding of Mariage, and of meats) did not onelyonly tread down,1 Tim. 1. but root up the true grass.
The other sort of Traditions,Sicut Talpa. and Ceremonies, doe not as the Hog, root up the grass, but as a Mole, cast a slack, and thin earth upon the face of the grass. Now, if the shepheard, or husbandman be present to scatter this earth againe, the sheep receive no great harme, but may safely feed upon the wholesome grass, that is under; but if the sheep, who are not able to scatter this earth, nor to finde the grass that lies under, be left to their own weakness, they may as easily starve in this case, as in the other; the Mole may damnifie them as much as the Hog. And of this sort, are those traditions, which induce Ceremonies into the Church, in vestures, in postures of the body, in particular things, and words, and actions, in Baptisme or Mariage, or any other thing to be transacted in the Church. These ceremonies are not the institutions of God immediately, but they are a kind of light earth, that hath under it good and usefull significations, which when they be understood conduce much to the encrease and advancement of our devotion, and of the glory of God. And this is the iniquity that we complaine of in the Roman Church, that when we accuse them of multiplying impertinent, and insupportable ceremonies, they tell us, of some mysterious and pious signification, in the institution thereof at first; They tell us this, and it is sometimes true; But neither in Preaching nor practise, doe they scatter this earth to their own sheep, or shew them the grass that lies under, but suffer the people, to inhere, and arrest their thoughts, upon the ceremony it selfe, or that to which that ceremony mis-leads them; as in particular, (for the time will not admit many examples) when they kneel at the Sacrament, they are not told, that they kneel because they are then in the act of receiving an inestimable benefit at the hands of God, (which was the first reason of kneeling then) And because the Priest is then in the act of prayer in their behalfe, that that may preserve them, in body and soule, unto eternall life. But they are suffered to go one, in kneeling in adoration of that bread, which they take to be God. We deny not that there are Traditions, nor that there must be ceremonies, but that matters of faith should depend of these, or be made of these, that we deny; and that they should be made equall to Scriptures; for with that especially doth Tertullian reproch the Heretiques, that being pressed with Scriptures, they fled to Traditions, as things equall or superiour to the word of God. I am loth to depart from Tertullian, both because he is every where a Patheticall expresser of himselfe, and in this point above himselfe. Nobis curiositate opus non est, post Iesum Christum, nec Inquisitione, post Evangelium. Have we seen that face of Christ Jesus here upon earth, which Angels desired to see, and would we see a better face? Traditions perfecter then the word? Have we read the four Evangelists, and would we have a better Library? Traditions fuller then the word? Cum credimus… nihil desideramus ultra credere; when I beleeve God in Christ, dead, and risen againe according to the Scriptures, I have nothing else to beleeve; Hoc enim prius credimus, non esse quod ultra credere debeamus; This is the first Article of my Faith, that I am bound to beleeve nothing but articles of faith in an equall necessity to them. Will we be content to be well, and thank God, when we are well? Hilary tells us, when we are well; Bene habet quod iis, quae scripta sunt, contentus sis; then thou art well, when thou satisfiest thy self with those things, which God hath vouchsafed to manifest in the Scriptures. Si aliquis aliis verbis, quàm quibus à Deo dictum est, demonstrare velit, if any man will speake a new language, otherwise then God hath spoken, and present new Scriptures, (as he does that makes traditions equall to them) Aut ipse non intelligit, aut legentibus non intelligendum relinquit, either he understands not himself, or I may very well be content not to understand him, if I understand God without him. The Fathers abound in this opposing of Traditions, when out of those traditions, our adversaries argue an insufficiency in the Scriptures. Solus Christus audiendus, says Saint Cyprian, we hearken to none but Christ; nec debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putarit, neither are we to consider what any man before us thought fit to be done, sed quid qui ante emnes est, fecerit; but what he, who is before all them, did; Christ Iesus and his Apostles, who were not onelyonly the primitive but the pre-primitive Church, did and appointed to be done. In this treading down of our grasse then in the Roman Church, first by their supine Ignorance, and barbarisme, and then by traditions, of which, some are pestilently iufectious and destroy good words, some cover it so, as that not being declared to the people in their signification, they are uselesse to them, no Babylon could exceed the Italian Babylon, Rome, in treading down their grasse.
Their oppression was as great in the other,Aqua. Psal. 23. 2. In troubling their water, My sheep drink that which you have troubled. When the Lord is our shepherd, he leadeth us ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, of quietnesse; of these, in the plurall, quietudinum, quietness of body, and quietness of Conscience too. The endowments of heaven are Ioy, and Glory; joy, and glory are the two Elements, the two Hemispheres of Heaven; And of this Joy, and this Glory of heaven, we have the best earnest that this world can give, if we have rest; satisfaction and acquiescence in our religion, for our beleefe, and for our life and actions, peace of Conscience. And where the Lord is our shepherd he leads us, and ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, multiplyed rest; all kind of rest. But the shepherds, in our text, troubled the waters; and more then so; for we have just cause to note the double signification of this word, which we translate Trouble, and to transfer the two significations to the two Sacraments, as they are exhibited in the Roman Babylon; The word is Mirpas; and it denotes not onelyonly Conturbationem, a troubling, a mudding, but Obturationem too, an interception, a stopping, as the Septuagint translates it, Prov. 35. and in these two significations of the word, a troubling, and a stopping of the waters, hath the Roman Church exercised her tyranny, and her malignity, in the two Sacraments. For, in the Sacrament of Baptisme, they had troubled the water, with additions of Oile, and salt, and spittle, and exorcismes; But in the other Sacrament of they came Ad obturationem, to a stopping, to an intercision, to an interruption of the water, the water of life, Aquae quietudinum, the water of rest to our souls, and peace to our consciences, in withholding the Cup of salvation, the bloud of Christ Jesus from us.Psal. 116. 12. So that if thou come to Davids holy expostulation, Quid retribuam, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me; And pursue it to Davids holy resolution, Accipiam Calicem, I will take the Cup of salvation, you shall be told, Sir you must take Orders first, or you cannot take that Cup. But water is as common as Aire; And as that Element Aire, in our spirituall food, that is preaching, (which is Spiritus Domini, the breath of God) is common to all, I…e, praedicate omni Creaturae, Mar. 16. 15. Mat. 26. 27.goe preach the Gospell to every Creature, so is this water of life in the Sacrament, common to all, Bibite ex eo omnes, Drink yee all of this; and thereby doe the names of Communion, and participation accrew to it, because all have an interest in it. This is that bloud, of which Saint Chrysostome says, Hic sanguis facit, ut Imago Dei in nobis floreat; That we have the Image of God in our souls, we have by the benefit of the same nature, by which we have our souls; There cannot be a humane soule without the Image of God in it. But, ut floreat, that this Image appear to us, and be continually refreshed in us, ut non Languescat animae nobilitas, that this holy noblenesse of the soule doe not languish not degenerate in us, we have by the benefit of this bloud of Christ Iesus the seale of our absolution in that blessed and glorious Sacrament; And that bloud they deny us. This is that bloud of which they can make as much as they will, with a thought, with an intention; so, as they pretend a power, of changing a whole vintage at once, all the wine of all the nations in the world, into the bloud of Christ, if the Priest have an intention to doe so, in the time of his Consecration; And yet, as easily as they come by it, they will givesus none. They have told us, that we had it per Concomitantiam, by a necessary concomitancy; That because we had the body in the bread, and that body could not be without the bloud, that therefore we had the bloud also. But if the bread alone be enough, if the Cup be impertinent, why did Christ give it? If we have no losse in their detaining it from us, what gain have they in retaining it to themselves, let all have it, or none? It is true that they can performe all the ill, that they would doe, by the bread alone. They can worke the spirituall ill, of inducing adoration to a Creature, by the bread alone; And they could work the temporall ill, of poysoning an Emperour in the Sacrament, by the bread alone. They can come to all their purposes, to all their ill, by the bread alone, but we have not all our good, because we have not Christs intire Institution. And so in this troubling, and in this stopping of these waters, in these confusions, we challenge any Babylon, in the behalfe of this Italian Babylon, Rome.
All these oppressions are aggravated by the last,Pedes. and (as weightiest things sink to the bottome) so is this in the bottome the heaviest pressure, that they did this with their feet, they corrupted the grasse with their feet, and troubled the waters with their feet. Now in the Scriptures, when this word, feet, doth not signifie that part of mans body which is ordinarily so called, but is transferred to a Metaphoricall signification, (as in our text it is) it does most commonly signifie Affections, 1 Sam. 2. 9.or Power. So the Lord will keep the feet of his Saints; that is, direct their desires, and affections in the ways of holinesse. And then for Power, (which is the more frequent acceptation of the word) he will not suffer thy foot to be moved, that is, thy power to be shaked; And all such places, qui festinus, he hath hasteth with his feet sinneth, our interpreters expound of a hasty abuse of Power; Psal. 121. 3.And those, they have not refrained their feet, and then,Prov. 19. 2. thy feet are sunk in the mire, are still interpreted of Power, of a wonton abuse of Power,Ier. 14. 10. 38. 22. or of a withdrawing this Power from man, by God; feet signifies Affections, and them corrupted and depraved, and power, and that abused. David seems to have joyned them, (as when they are joyned, they must necessarily be the most heavy) in that prayer,Psal. 36. 11. Let not the foot of pride come against me. The hand of pride, nay the sword of pride, affects not a tender soule so much, as the foot of pride; to be oppressed, and that with scorne; not so much in an anger, as in a wantonnesse. Rehoboams people were more confounded, with that scornfull answer of his to them, when they were come, (My little finger shall be thicker then my Fathers loynes; my father chastised you with whips, 1 King. 12. 10.but I will chastise you with Scorpions) then they were with the grievances themselves, for which they came; when the King would not onelyonly be cruelly sharp, but wittily sharp upon them, this cut on every side, and pierced deep. And so doe the Rabbins, the Jewish expositors expound this text, literally, that in the captivity of Babylon, the great men of their Synagogues, compounded with the State, and for certain tributes, had commissions, by which they governed their people at their pleasure, and so milked them to the last drop, the last drop of bloud, and sheared them to the naked skin, & then flead off that, & al this while laughed at them, contemned them, because they had no where, to appeal, nor relieve themselves: And this we complain to have been the proceeding in the Italian Babylon, Rome, with our Fathers, They oppressed them, with their feet, that is, with Power, and with scorne.
First,Pes-potestatis. for their illimited and enormous Power, they had so slumbred, so intoxicated the Princes of the Earth, the weaker by intimidations, the stronger by communicating the spoile, and suffering those Princes to take some fleeces, from some of the sheep in their dominions, as there was no reliefe any way. They record, nay they boast, gloriously, triumphantly, of three score thousand of the Waldenses, slain by them in a day, in the beginning of the Reformation; and Possevine the Jesuit will not lose the glory of recording the five hundred thousand, slain in a very few years, onelyonly in France, and the low Countrey, for some declarations of their desire of a Reformation. Let all those innumerable numbers of wretches, (but now victorious Saints in the Triumphant Church) who have breathed out their souls in the Inquisition (where even the solicitations of Kings, and that for their own sons, have not prevailed) confess the power, the immensness of that power, then, when as under some of the Roman Emperours, it was treason to weep, treason to sigh, treason to look pale, treason to fall sicke, and all these were made arguments of discontent, and ill affection, to the present government: so in Rome, there were Hereticall sighes, Hereticall teares, palenesse, and Hereticall sicknesse; every things was interpreted to be an accusation of the present times, and an anhelation after a Reformation, and that was formall heresie, three pil'd, deep-died heresie: so that a man durst scarce have prayed for the enlarging of Gods blessings to the Church, because to with it better, seemed a kind of accusing of it, that it was not well already; and it was heresie to thinke so. Let those Israelites, which found no way from this Egypt, but by the red sea, no way out of Idolatry, but by Martyrdome, as they have testified for Christ, so testifie against Antichrist, how heavy his feet, as feet signifie Power, trod upon the necks of Princes and people.
But that that affected and afflicted most,Pessuperbiae. was the scorne and the contempt, that accompanied their oppressions. To bring Kings to Kisse his feet, was a scorne; but that scorne determined in man; but it was a scorne to God himselfe, to say that he had said, it should be so, to apply Scripture to the justification thereof, Kings and Queens shall bow down to thee, Esay. 49. 23.their faces towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. But limit we all considerations of their scorne in one; In this, that they did these wrongs professedly, and without any disguise. Great men will oppress and ruine others, a great while before they will be content to be seen and known to doe it. There is such a kinde of reverence, not onelyonly to Law, but even to honour, and opinion, as that men are lothe to publish their evill actions; To sinne as Sodome did, and not to hide it, is an evidence, of neglecting, and scorning of all the world. And therefore the Roman Historiographers would not forbeare to note the insolency of that young gallant, who knowing what any man whom he strook could recover by action against him, would strike every poor soul or inferiour person, whom he met in the street and then bid his man give him so much money, as the Law would for damages. And this oppressing with scorne, this proceeding without any respect of fame, we note (for hast) but in two things, in the Italian Babylon Rome; Taxa camerae.first, in that Book, their Taxa Camerae, and then in that doctrine, their Reservatio Casuum, that they durst compose, and divulge such a book, as their, Taxa Camerae, which is an Index, a Repertory for all sinnes, and in which every man may see beforehand, how much money, an Adultery, an Incest, a Murder, a Parricide, or any other sinne, whose name he would never have thought of, but by that Remembrancer, that book will cost him, that so, he may sinne, and not undoe himself, sinne according to his means, and within his compasse, that they durst let the world see such a book, was argument enough that they were fear'd up, and scorned all that all men could think, or say, or doe in opposition.
So also is their Reservation of Cases; that though all Priests have an equall power of remitting all sins,Reservatio casuuim. yet are some sinnes reserved onelyonly to Prelates, some onelyonly to the Popes Legats, some onelyonly to the Pope himselfe. Is not this a scornfull spurning and kicking of the world, a plain telling them that all is done for money, and shall be so, say all the world what it can. They have a nationall custome in civill curtesies in that place in Italy, to offer entertainments and lendings of money, and the like, but it must not be accepted. It is a discurtesie, to take their courteous offers in earnest. Will they play so with the great Seale of heaven, the remission and absolution of sins, and send out their Priests with that commission, whose sinnes yee forgive, are forgiven, but see you forgive none upon which we have set a higher price, and reserved to our selves. They had such a fashion in old Rome, whilest the Republique stood; He that was admitted to Triumph must invite the Consuls to the feast, and the Consuls must promise to come, but they must forbeare, lest their presence should diminish the glory of the Triumpher. So the Priest must professe that he hath (as he hath indeed) power to remit all sinnes, but there are a great many, that he must not meddle withall. They practise this reservation upon higher persons then their ordinary Priests, upon Cardinals. A Cardinall is created, and by that creation he hath a voice in all the great affairs of the world, but at his creation Os clauditur à Papa, he that made him, makes him dumbe, and he that out of the nature of his place is duly to be heard over all the world, must not be heard in the Consistory, the Pope gives him an universall voice, and then shuts his mouth; He makes him first a Giant, and then a dwarfe in an houre; He makes him thunder, and speechlesse, all at once; fearfull to the Kings of the earth, if he might speak, but he must not. They were not content to make Merchandize of our souls, but they make plays, jests, scornes, of matter of salvation, and play fast and loose with that soveraign Balsamum of our souls, the absolution and remission of sins. Though, no doubt, many of them confess in their own bosomes, that which one of them professes ingenuously,Tapperus. and publiquely, Diffiteri non possumus abusum Reservationum, & stragem animarum in iis; we cannot deny the abuse of reservations, even to the butchery of those poor souls, who, by reason of these reservations, want their absolution, Dolendum, deflendum, pecuniâ numeratâ, omnia dispensare; This deserves all our teares, all our sighs, that for money, and not without it, all sinnes are dispensed withall; but there are fixed seasons for salvation, (some remissions and pardons are reserved to certain times of the year) and there are fixt shops of salvation, (some remissions and pardons are appropriated to certain Fairs and Markets, and cannot be given (that is sold) at any other time, or place. And farther we cannot (we need not) extend this accommodation of the words of our text, literally intended of the condition of Gods Children in Babylon, but pregnantly appliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon, Rome. But having at this time seen the oppressions that those shepheards inflicted there, for the rest which are many and important considerations, as first that they staid, that they eate that grasse, that yet they remained Gods sheep, and remained his flock, his Church, though a Church under a greater Church; And then the behaviour of the sheep, whilst they staid there, their obedience to Gods call in comming from them when he called them, and made them way; And lastly the little ground that our Separatists can have, for their departing from us either by Israels departing from Babylon, or our Fathers departing from Rome, must be the exercise of your devotion another day.