The Arraignment of Licentious Liberty

Die Jovis, 25, Febr. 1646.

ORdered by the Lord's in Parliament assembled, that Mr. Hardy is hereby thanked for his great pains taken in his Sermon preached yester day before their Lordships in the Abbey-church Westminster, it being the Monethly Fastday: And he is hereby desired to cause the same to be Printed and published, and that no person whatsoever do p • esume to print or reprint the same, but by warrant under his own hand.

THE ARRAIGNMENT OF LICENTIOVS LIBERTY AND OPPRESSING TYRANNY.

A Sharpe and harsh Scripture, unsuitable therefore may some perhaps say for a Noble Auditory, Great men's delicate ears cannot endure scratching expressions, it is granted, yet their corrupt hearts have need of searching instructions; and every good Preacher must act the part, not so much of a Cook to dress savoury meat for the palate, as of a Physician to prescribe wholesome (though bitter) potions for the soul.

• , but it is a terrible threatening text, unseasonable, may others say, for these conquering times. Nothing more unwelcome then in days of Serenity, to sound out woes of Severity; when God seems to open his hand in blessings, that Ministers should open their mouths in menacing, what more di •• as • full • it is true, but yet what more needful? We must not think (with the Athenians ) that we have clipt the wings of victorious prosperity, so that it cannot fly from us; or with David, that our Mountain is so strong it cannot be moved ; that our Nest • is made in the stars, and our 〈◊〉 exa • ted above the Region of mutability: no, (Beloved) deceive we not ourselves with vain dreams; God hath not poured out so many favors upon us like oil, but the sins of Princes and People may after all provoke him to pour out wrath like water ; and though the violent effusion of blood be ceased, yet the fretting moth of division remains. Deservedly therefore doth the Magistrate renew these Fasts, and no less justly ought the Minister facere opus Dei in die suo on these days of humbling to use means of humbling, both by tart reprehensions of sin, & smart denunciations of wrath, that the one may be repented, the other prevented: which was the aim of God by the Prophet, in the words now read; The Princes of Judah, &c.

It is the observation of learned Rivet on this Book that Hosea in its several parcels puts on the habit of various persons, Vati • , Praeconis, Patris, 〈◊〉 , Judicis, of a Prophet foretelling, Herald proclaiming, Father chiding, Friend counseling, and Judge censuring; this latter he seemeth in God's Name to take upon him here, not only bringing in as a Plaintiffe a bill of Indictment against, but passing as a Judge an heayy sentence upon both Judah and Ephraim.

So that the words naturally fall asunder into these two branches:

• Accusatio vera.
• Comminatio severa.

• An accusation of Sin.
• A commination of Punishment.
• A charge full of Verity.
• A doom full of Severity.

The charge is laid against the two Tribes, and the ten: the two under the name of Judah, the ten under the name of Ephraim, so called Synedochically, because that was Tribus amplissima & Regia, the greatest and the highest Tribe; The Princes of the one, yet so as that the People are not exempted: The people of the other, yet so as that the Princes are not excused. The former in the beginning of the tenth Verse, The Princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound. The latter in the end of the 11 ^th . Verse, because he willingly walked after the commandment. The doom is as ample as the charge, pronounced severally against Judah and her Princes in the close of the 10 ^th . Verse, I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. Against the people of Ephraim in the first clause of the 11 ^th . Ver. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment. Jointly, against both Ephraim and Judah, Vers. 12 ^th . therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

And now (me thinks) my text like an ingenuous picture looks upon all here present, in which both Nobles and People may behold their sin and danger represented. In the description of which it shall be my endeavor to be brief, and plain; brief, that I fall not into the error of the text, and be like them that remove the bound of the time; plain, that not the meanest Auditor be oppressed and broken in his judgment ; and let it be the prayer of us all that the grace of the Spirit may be poured on us like water, so as we may willingly walk after the commandments which shall from God be delivered to us, and the Word of the Lord (so the Cald • e reads it) may be as a moth to our sins, and rottenness to our corruptions.

And so I begin with the first general, to wit, the charge, and that as it is drawn up concisely, yet fully;

First, against Judah and her Princes; the Princes of Judah, &c.

This Prophet was one of the sharpest Preachers that ever God sent to his people; his commission was primarily intended for Ephraim, yet collaterally extended to Judah ; his Sermons contain plain detections, full convictions, and impartial arraignments, of all sorts of sinners, none are spared, neither Prince, Priest, nor People; he summons all three, Verse the first, and chargeth the chief in this, even the Princes of Judah.

A pattern worthy of imitation by all God's Messengers; those who are fishers of men must catch as well great as small fishes in the net of reproof; faithful Ministers must not despise the meanest for the sins sake, nor spare sin in the highest for the man's sake; it is God's command to Jeremiah, that he should not be afraid of any of their faces to whom he sent him ; Chap. 1.8. the truth is as Maurice said of Phocas, Si timidus est homic •• a est, if we fear their faces, we kill their souls; if we flatter their sins, we murder their persons; of all places a Parasite worst becomes the Pulpit; for a Minister then to pick feathers off great men's coats, and sow pillows under their elbows, when he should be shooting arrows at their sins, and pricking their consciences with the needle of rebuke, what more odious? Of all persons, Nobles stand in most need of plain (though humble) admonitions these are the best dainties we can present them with, as being Novelties all the year long, since, whilst they abound in the confluence of all other things for the most part they want faithful reprovers. Let therefore the Philosophers resolve be taken up by all Preachers, mori malo quam simulare, rather to die then to dissemble, ever remembering that as Philosophy, so Divinity, Stemma non i • s • icit, must know no man after the flesh; accept no man's person, but impartially divide to everyone their portion, reproof to whom reproof belongeth, yea, though they be Princes, for so doth our Prophet here accuse the Princes of Judah.

But what is the offense that these great Delinquents are charged withal? they were like them saith the text, that remove the bound. Saint Jerome calls Hos • a, vatem commaticum & per senten • ias loquentem, one whose expressions are both sententious and aenigmaticall, couching much in a little; such is this, I have now in hand: I will not waste my precious time, nor tire your Honorable patience with the various conceits Expositors have upon this clause; give me leave only to present you with a double construction, the one literal, the other metaphorical, both probable and profitable for our instruction.

1 Those that literally understand the words, read the particle caph as a note not similitudinis, but veritatis, of likeness, but truth, as the Greeks sometimes use for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and so the fault here taxed is Avaritia Principum the covetousness of the Princes in that they were, in alienas fortunas invadentes, unjust usurpers of other men's Rights and possessions.

How heinous a sin this is appears by that strict prohibition which God himself gives against removing of neighbors Landmarks, Deut. 19.14. backed with an execration, chap. 29.17. and that seconded with a woe by the Prophet Isaiah 5.8. A vice so injurious that it was odious to the Heathen, and therefore the Romans condemned the meaner sort who were guilty of it to the metal houses, and banished the better sort with the loss of the third part of their estates: so that I cannot but wonder with what face our Anabaptists assert, and I fear if (permitted, would endeavor) a Community of goods. I grant the primitive Christians had all things common, but that was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in regard of use, not right, and that by voluntary consent, not necessary command; the truth is that moral prohibition of stealing must be abolished, and the Evangelical precept of Charity is needless, if either men might not erect bounds of their possession, or others might lawfully remove them at pleasure.

A crime then it is, and that most incident to Princes, it too often falling out that potentiae incrementum sceleris occasio majoris, the greatness of their power seems to warrant the vastness of their desires: Two instances among others are most remarkable; the one in sacred, the other in profane story, the one of Ahab who falls sick for Naboth's Vineyard, and at last determines to burn the Bees rather then lose the honey, cruelly writing his title to the land in the owners blood. The other of Alexander—cui non sufficit orbis, whose triangular heart the round World cannot fill, and therefore weeps that there was no more to conquer, to whom that Pirate wittily replied when checked by him for pillaging ships at Sea: & cur tu orbem terrarum? why do you ransack the whole world? Indeed that Proverb of the Sea is too often verified of great men, that they are ill neighbors, their covetous desires being aptly resembled by Saint Basil to fire which burns from house to house, and Wood to Wood, while there is any materials to feed it.

O beware we of this Caninus appetitus, dog-like greediness to swallow up all we can; if Dives is tormented quia cupide servavit sua ; what shall be his portion, qui avide rapit aliena? if those fists which too closely keep their own, shall be cut off, what shall become of those hands that are opened to grasp other men's estates; we see all creatures know and keep their bounds, fishes the water, beasts the earth, birds the air; let men learn of them, and especially let Magistrates remember that note of Cajetan upon Exod. 18.20. though it might suffice a private man not to be covetous, yet it is required of them to be haters of covetousness.

I end this with one short consectary, if it be a sin with an Anathema to remove our neighbors, what is it to alienate the Churches bounds? Solomon's Proverb resolves it fully, it is a snare to him who devours that which is holy, chap. 20.25. O take heed of a sacrilegious surfeit, a disease so perilous, that envy itself cannot wish a worse to an enemy. Cecil Lord Burleigh gave advise to his son, that he should build no great house upon any Impropriation, well-knowing it would be built upon a sandy foundation; surely for the spoils of the Church, private families, yea the whole Kingdom mourns. May this Parliament so f • r honor God, rather God so far honor this Parliament as not to be removers, but restorers of these bounds.

2 The other interpretation, though Metaphoricall in regard of the phrase, yet is most proper in respect of the sense, suitable to the note of similitude, and generally received by Expositors, for the better understanding whereof we shall inquire what this bound is, and wherein the sin of removing it consists.

1 For the former we must know that after the ten Tribes revolted from God, only the two were as his field and possession; the bound of this field considered as a State, was those rules of equity and justice; as a Church, those precepts of true Religion and worship which was given to their Fathers by God: those in the Judicial, these in the Ceremonial, both summarily and substantially in the Moral Law. Pareus seems to understand it of the latter only, Zanchius chiefly, yet comprising both, and not without good reason, since not only the names (which in the Latin are derived from binding) but the natures of Religion and Law have Analogy with a bound; for as without bounds no man would know his own, or if he did know it, not retain it, or if retain it, not in quiet, so neither can a people without God's true worship and good laws.

1 The bound is Segregans distinguishing between meum & tuum, one man's possession from another; so do wholesome Laws civil Nations from Barbarians; by them were the Jews severed from all the people of the World. So doth the true Religion; by it were the Jews known from the Apostate Israelites and the Idolatrous Heathen, in which regard, God saith of them, I have severed you from other people that ye should be mine. Levite. 20.26. and this it is which separates us Protestants from Papists and Pagans, Heretics within, and Ethnics without the Pale of the Church.

2 The bound is conservans, preserving men's rights that one may not injure another; the Romans esteem Terminus as a God to whom they committed the safeguard of their Lands, and in honor of whom they kept Feasts; and surely it is the Law which administers too, and upholds everyone in their due, that might overcome not right, upon which ground the Philosopher was wont to say we must fight for our Laws rather then cur Walls, since a City may be safe without these, but not without them. Much more is this verified of Religion which Plato divinely calls, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the foundation of all Laws, and preservation of all society. Sine religione non princeps officium suum non subditi facient ; it is true devotion towards God that keeps us in orderly relation one to another.

3 The bound is pacifica • s, that which prevents controversies▪ and so preserves peace; it is true of good Laws which end all quarrels, most true of Religion which as it binds man to God in duty, so man to man in unity: While the Twelve Tribes continued one in Religion, they remained one in affection and subjection; peace is both the Nurse and Daughter of Piety. No knot so firm as that which this tyes; so true is that of Saint James, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, Chap. 3.17.

You have viewed the bound, now see the fault of the Princes in reference to this bound, for which I shall make use of a double translation.

First, some read it transferentes or moventes terminum, according to our English translation, they did remove or take away the Bound, and thus the crime reproved is socordia prinoipum, the Princes extreme sluggishness in not administering justice and maintaining God's worship according to his laws, neglectis legibus neglectoque cultu divino 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 induxerunt, they cast off all care of Equity and Piety, quod libuit licuit, every man did what was right in his own eyes.

And surely the accusation of the Princes for this as an iniquity, is a plain intimation of the contrary, as a duty, that they ought not only (which few deny) to uphold Civil Laws but (which many in this skeptical age impugn) to command God's Worship. It is the command given to all Kings and Judges of the earth, serve the Lord in fear, Psal. 2.11. upon which Saint Augustine well observes aliter servit qua homo, aliter quarex, A Magistrate must serve God, not only as a a man, but as a Ruler; and when is that, but as the same Father excellently, cum bona jubeat, mala prohibeat, non solùm quae pertinent ad humanam societatem, verùm etiam quae ad humanam religionem? When they both command those goods things, and forbid the evils which appertain as well to divine worship, as to human society. Among those many offices which Plato conceives belonging to Magistrates, he mentions this as the chief; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to take care of God's service. Indeed strange it were that those who are expressly styled God's, should have nothing to do in the matters concerning God, or that this care should less concern Christian Governors (which some affirm) then the Jewish Kings. It is prophesied of the Church of the New Testament, that Kings should be their nursing fathers, and Queens their nursing mothers, Isa. 49.23. Sure then the child of Religion is entrusted to their charge. That which S. Paul requires to be the end of the people's prayer for the Magistrate, ought doubtless to be the end of the Magistrates care for the people, namely, That we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness & honesty, 1 Tim. 2.2. I grant, as Law is the bound of a Commonwealth, so right Reason is the limit of Law; and as Religion is the bound of a Church, so Scriptures are the limit of Religion, beyond which nothing ought to be required as essential and necessary: yet this hindereth not but that Magistrates through their own industry, and the advice of learned Councils or Synods, ought to find out and establish that Religion which is most consonant to sacred Writ. It is true, men's consciences cannot be compelled to embrace the faith professed; no more can their hearts, to the love of moral virtues: yet in regard of outward conformity, they may and ought to be enjoined the frequenting of God's public Worship and Ordinances, the means of both. It is better to be compelled to a Feast, then run to a Fray; and it is a just Quaere, whether they who would not have the Magistrate compel them, (had they power) would not compel the Magistrate? We must indeed distinguish inter violentam conscientiarum coactionem, & publici exerciti • prohibitionem. That all men's judgments should in everything assent to the rule established, cannot be expected; That none should dare publicly to practice the contrary, ought to be required. The power of Religion lies in its purity, and purity in its unity: divers kind of grain in one ground, of beasts in one yoke, of clothes in one garment, are forbidden in the Law; and shall divers Religions be allowed in the Gospel? I have read indeed of a Turk who resembled the diversity of Religions in his Empire, to the variety of flowers in a garden; but Christian Magistrates must account them as weeds, which if not plucked of, will soon overtop the flowers of Orthodox doctrine: so true is that saying Religionem • vertit, quisquis religionum varietat • m inducit; Mixtures in, are the undoubted bane of sincere worship. A strict obligation of weaker consciences • o things merely indifferent, may prove injurious: sure I am, a free toleration of divulging errors in matters necessary, will prove pernicious. Nullum pejus malum libert ate erran •• . What more dangerous for the ship then to sail with every wind, since it must needs dash upon the rock? For the sheep, then to wander through every pasture since it will quickly be devoured of the Wolves? And what then can be more perilous for the people, then to have liberty, or rather a licentiousness of transgressing Religions bound, to the eternal hazard of their souls? It is the offenee here charged upon the Princes of Judah, they were like them that remove the bound.

Secondly, others read it mutantes, as those that change the bound: and so the sin condemned is instabilitas Principum, that not being content with the worship which God had delivered to, and was received by their ancestors, they went to the Israelites bounds of Bethaven, yea, to the Heathen at Damascus, and imitated their Idolatry. An heinous and pernicious sin in Magistrates, to affect novelties in Religion. True it is, the bound of human Laws is alterable, and yet not easily; Salvenda, non rumpenda consuetudo ; Customs must be moved, before they be removed: but it is otherwise with Religion. Stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest to your souls, saith the Lord by the Prophet, Jer. 6.16. S ^t . Paul willeth Timothy to avoid 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; S ^t . Ambrose reads it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : they are near a kin: Novelties for the most part prove vanities, not verities. I deny not but the fringe of divine worship may be variable; and yet in this, venerable antiquity is not to be forsaken for novel fancy: however, the garment of truth never waxeth old. Guevara saith, a wise man is a friend to old books, and an enemy to new opinions. Solomon adviseth his son, not to meddle with them that are given to change, Prov. 24.21. It is the crime that is here charged upon the Princes, that they were like them that change the bound.

But was this only the Princes fault? nay, the sin was epidemical; the generality of the people disregarded equity, followed Idolatry. Non excusat populum, sed ostendit Principes corruptissim • status fu • sse autores & praecipue reos: The Prophet doth not altogether excuse the people, but chiefly accuse the Princes as being the authors, and so guilty of the people's sin. Guilty they were,

1 Conticendo, by conniving at and suffering them in their Idolatry. Qui peccata-non corripit aliena, facit sua ; He that having power, corrects not others faults, contracts them to himself. It is a witty and true conceit a Rabbin hath upon these words, taking them in a literal sense: The Princes were like them that remove the bound, because they did not censure those who removed their Neighbors bounds. That Apothegme of King Lewis is most memorable: The Prince who can punish a fault, and doth not, is no less guilty then the offender himself. It was a serious speech a Jester used to the King who pardoned one of his Courtiers, saying, It was the third murder that he committed ; Nay, replied he, this Petitioner committed but one, the second and third was thine▪ had justice been executed at first, he would have done no more. It is but equal, the fault of the inferiors should be imputed to, when they are not impeded by their superiors.

2 Praecipiendo, in that some of them did not only permit, but command the removing of the bound. So we read, that wicked King Ahaz sent a pattern of the Altar at Damascus to Uriah the Priest, enjoining him to build one according to it, and offer on it, 2 Kings 16.10, 15. When subjects do evil by precept, they increase the Rulers sins so fast, as they increase their own. If Saul charge Doeg to kill the Priests, Jezebel require the Nobles to stone Naboth ; and Ahaz, Uriah to alter God's altar; they may well be taxed as deeply engaged in those sins.

3 Praecedendo, by not only conniving, but commanding, nor commanding only, but practicing themselves the violation of this bound, being like those Kings of the earth, mentioned Psal. 2.3. who said, Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords far from us. It is the unhappy privilege of greatness, to warrant by example, as well others as its own sins; whilst the unadvised vulgar take up crimes on trust, and perish by credit. Actions of Rulers are rules for the people's actions; their both good, and ill patterns, become useful, and hurtful to those that are under them. If the Mountains overflow with waters, the Valleys are the better; and if the head be full of ill humors, the whole body fares the worse. Vita Principis censura, Princes lives are more read then their laws, and their Exmple passeth as currant as their Coyn:

If Nero like Musique, all Rome will turn Fiddlers: The Egyptians, if their Kings be lame or blind, will maym themselves. Let but a Pharisee say, Christ ought to die, the vulgar dare blaspheme themselves to hell. If a Peasant meet Luxury in a scarlet robe, he dares be such, having so fair a cloak for it: the common people are like tempered wax, easily receiving impressions from the seals of great men's vices. The truth is, a wicked Magistrate, tantis obest quanti • praeest, injurieth as many as he governs: Qui in conspectu populi male vivit, quantum in se est omnes se videntes interficit ; by licentious living; he proves ofttimes a murderer, little better then a Basilisk, only this kills by seeing others, He by being seen of others. No wonder then the Prophet puts the people's sin on the Princes account, chiefly complaining of them, that they were like those that remove the Bound.

To end this part of the Accusation, in some nearer Application.

Oh that there were not too just cause of removing the Bound from Judah to England! Shall we reflect upon the former times? Might we not then have beheld in the Commonwealth the Bound of Legal rule too much changed into Arbitrary government; in the Church, the Bound of Orthodox Protestant Religion grossly invaded and innovated? what else meant the open allowance of Sabbath profanation, the manifest connivance at preaching, nay printing Arminian, yea Popish doctrines? the illegal introductions of superstitious Ceremonies, Tables removed, Crucifixes erected, Adoration towards Altars practiced? So truly was it then said (by a reverend Divine now with God) England was a little place, but a great deal of Rome in it. And oh that Principes Judah, i. e. Ecclesiae, (so Ribera allegorizeth the Text) the then Governors of our Church, had not through their allowance and practice been the fautors, yea, authors of these abuses.

But to come nearer to these days: Is not the Bound still removed in Families, City, Country, yea, the whole Kingdom? The well compacted hedge of our Laws is trodden down; so true is that Maxim, Inter arma silent leges, The voice of Law cannot be heard for the noise of Drums. The well-wrought vestment of our Religion rent (with Jeroboams garment) into twelve, nay, indeed into a hundred pieces, by schismatical Sectaries. There were some amongst the Philosophers of old, qui jactabant solaecismos suos esse laudes & gemmas philosophiae ▪ Who accounted their rude Barbarismes as the ornaments of Philosophy. Such are our new Opinionists, who present their vain fancies as the exquisite patterns of God's mind. How are our Pulpits made stages, for every man to act his humor in; and our Presses market-places, for men to vent their false wares and counterfeit doctrines? They all pretend to set the right bound, build the Lord's house; but it is Babel, not Bethel, if we may guess by the division of their languages; and whilst they pretend to depart from a mystical Babylon, they run into a literal one, I mean that of confusion: Our women are not more sick for new fashions, then both men and women are for new Opinions. Shall I sigh out my sad thoughts in that pathetical complaint of Vincentius Lyrenensis? The raging madness of many men's minds, impiety of their blinded eyes, and itching humor after errors, cannot be sufficiently wondered at whilst not content with those beams of Divine truth that have shone among us, they daily seek for NEW LIGHTS; yea, too many make it their only study how to add, or change, or detract somewhat from our Religion.

And now, ô ye Sons of the Highest, be pleased to call yourselves to an account; Remember you are not now in the House of Lord's, but in the House of the LORD; not sitting to judge others at your Bar, but to judge yourselves at God's Bar. As for me, I censure you not▪ lest I be found amongst Jude's filthy dreamers, who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Only suffer a word of seasonable exhortation, That ye would be pleased to set the Bound,

1 To yourselves and your own families: Reprehension is most natural, when it begins with modesty at the Inferiors; Reformation is most effectual, when it begins with Majesty at the Superiors. Pareto legi, quisquis legem s • nxeris: Nothing more unjust, than that they who place bounds to others, should exempt themselves. It was a good answer Solon gave, when asked how a Commonwealth might be safe, Si populus Magistratui obediat, Magistra • us autem legibus ; when the people are regulated by the Magistrate, and the Magistrate by the Law, You must not think looseness and licentiousness to be the proper fruits of Greatness, to swallow up your sins in your wide Titles, as though Authority did consist in nothing but giving men liberty to do what they list. It was a profane speech of him in the Tragedian, That Holiness, Piety, and Fidelity, are for private men, not Princes: nay, rather, in maxima fortuna minima licentia, the higher you are advanced, the more you are obliged; they had need go more warily who ride upon the ridge of a hill, than those that travel on foot below. That which is a mote in other men's, is a beam in your eyes. Quo grandius nomen, eo grandius scandalum ; I, and eo gravius peccatum. The eminency of your Honor aggravates others offenses against You, and yours against God. As he said of ill Christians, so may we say of bad Great ones: Ideo deteriores estis, quia meliores esse debetis ; they are by so much the worse, by how much they ought to be better: And the day is coming, when every licentious Nobleman shall cry out (as Leo the eleventh said to his Confessor, Quam melius fuisset mihi si Mon • st • rii quam Coeli claves tenuissem? How much better had it been for me to have climbed the ropes, then sat at the stern? To have been confined to a cottage, then inherited a palace? O then, though you are exalted above others, be not carried beyond yourselves: consult not what may stand with the might of your greatness, but the authority of your place. Say to yourselves, O ye Princes of the earth, with Nehemiah, Shall such an o • e as I fly? shall I whom God hath honored so much, dishonor him by oaths so greatly? who am placed in an higher sphere then others be either a dim, or a wandering star? Shall I who am most obliged to God by the bonds of wealth and power, exceed the bounds of truth and justice? Whom he hath made a ruler of the people, not rule myself and my own family? God forbid.

2 To the Land and Kingdom. Improve your place and power (my honored Lord's) that the bound of Law between people and people may be maintained, without which a Common-wealth is but a wild Forest, wherein like beasts one devours another; or a Pond, wherein the greater fish swallow up the less; non populus, sed turba, not a building, but a heap of stones. Endevour (what lieth in you) that the limits between King and people may be preserved, so as neither Royal Majesty may invade the Subjects liberty, nor the Subjects liberty intrench too far on Royal Majesty. But I will not look into Whirl-pools of State, lest my head turn giddy: Religion is my errand, that the Bound thereof may be upheld against Error and Prophanesse; those Pyramids which are reared up in the air, and support nothing, are the vain testimonies of frivolous men's inventions, but Pillars are raised up to uphold something. O! remember you are the Pillars of the earth, and Religion can neither be despised without danger, nor supported without reward.

Right Honorable, our Mother the Church is now in sore travel, you are her Midwives, the Child she brings forth will be either Ichabod or a Benoni, if it prove the Ichabod of a Toleration, the glory will depart from her; but if the Benoni of Reformation, the Father God will call it Benjamin, the Son of his right hand.

Me thinks (most Noble Patriots) I see Religion like a forlorn Damsel in ragged attire, with her disheveled hair, weeping eyes, and bleeding wounds lie prostrate at your feet; crying out like that woman of Tekoah, help O ye Nobles to rescue me from those Wolves and Foxes, Heretics and Schismatics that prey upon me ; Oh be pleased to take her by the hand, raise her up; Set her upon her legs: place a guard about her, and drive away her enemies. Far be it from Christian Rulers, so much as to think what Tiberius said Deorum injurias diis curae esse, Let God revenge his own injuries; nay, rather do you vindicate his truth, that he may your honor. Remember I beseech you, you are within the bounds of a Covenant ; for what? a Toleration? No, an extirpation of all Heresies, Schisms, and profaneness ; what if while the Ark was floating on the waters of strife, you were enforced to entertain Wolves and Lambs together, yet now that the waters are abated, and the Ark in some measure settled, send out the Wolves from the fold; Oh let your thankfulness to God for preserving the bounds of your possessions appear, by your mayntaining the bound of his worship, suffer not yourselves I beseech you by self-respects and political Principles to be withdrawn from this work▪ he that pieceth God's providence with carnal policy, is like a greedy Gamester who having got all his game in his own hand, steals a needless card to assure himself of winning, and thereby looseth all. It is an hard question, whether is greater Idolatry to prefer reasons of State, before Principles of Piety, or to worship a golden Calf. Oh let Policy ever give place to Piety, your private aff • ctions be swallowed up in the common cause, as small Rivers lose their name in the Ocean. That practice of Pompey deserveth your observation and imitation, who when his soldiers would needs leave the Campe, threw himself down at the narrow passage, and bid them go, but they should first trample upon their General. Oh let Heretics tread down your Honors, ere you permit them to throw down the bound of God's worship; it was the ennobling Epitaph of Rodolphus, Ecclesiae cecidit ; may it be your glory in after ages that you were the Guard of good Laws, Champions of Justice, Promoters of Peace, and Patrons of Religion.

For the better preserving of this Bound be pleased to

1 Encourage and enlarge the Disciplinary power of the Church; let not her shepherds want sufficient means to keep out the ravening Wolves, and fetch in the straying sheep.

2 Effectually prohibit all from entering into the work of the Ministry but by the door of Ordination ; let not those be admitted to sit in Moses chair, who have not first sat at Gamaliel's feet; it is true, the Vineyard of the Lord wants laborers; But I hope now the Kingdom is in some measure established, those may be re-admitted, whom not scandal, but conscience made uncapable for a time, may it never be the reproach of this once famous Church of England, that her Priests were made the lowest of the People, and the lowest of the People made her Priests▪ that her grave and learned Preachers were forced to turn Mechanics, and simple ignorant Mechanics entertained to be her Preachers.

3 Speedily appoint due penalties for those who willfully remove the bound, such as are odious Blasphemers, obstinate Heretics, and notoriously profane persons.

My Lord's, you have done worthily in appointing a solemn Fast for that invasion which Heresies have made of late upon the bound of our Religion, but as you take with you words, so take to you the sword, and think God saith to you as he did to Joshua, Wherefore lie you on your faces? up and be doing, take away the accursed ••• ours from among you? That of Saint Bernard is true, if taken cum gr • no s • lis, fides suadenda, non imponenda, Faith is wrought by persuasions, not compulsions; yet that of Tertullian is as true, durities vincenda non suadenda, obstinacy must be forced, not wooed; it was a Divine speech of Seneca, Violatarum religionum apud diversas gentes diversa statuitur peena • pud • mines aliqua, divers Nations appoint various punishments, all some, for those that violate Religion, tell me, I beseech you, It is a capital crime to speak Treason against the three Estates of the Land, and shall it deserve less to belch out blasphemy against any of the three Persons in the sacrd Trinity? Is it an offense worthy of punishment to abuse the Son of a King, and is it less to dishonor the Son of God? shall they who rob your houses be condemned, and those that rob your souls escape? are those women which adulterate their husbands b • ds justly sentenced, and shall those that adulterate God's sacred Word go free? Fidem • e servare Deo levius quàm homini? Is it a more venial offense to break faith with God then man? I speak not this to cast a blemish upon your Honors; I have learned so much State-Divinity as to distinguish between voluntas sign • & beneplaceti, I well know the by • s'd Boul may fe • ch a compass to touch the Jack; dumb Zach •• y begat him who was the voice of a crier, neither doubt I but your former silence will end in a loud decrying of all hetrodox opinions and practices; my only aim is to add spurs to your pious intentions, that they may appear by such peremptory actions, as the people may not deceive themselves with vain hopes of unsufferable liberties. It is to be supposed that as in the sweating sickness in England, the sick persons, when beaten on the face with sprigs of Rosemary by their friends▪ would cry out, Oh you kill me you kill me, whereas indeed they had killed them in not doing it, for had they slept, they had died; so those whom the sickness of Error hath surprised, being suppressed, will exclaim and say, Oh you persecute them, you persecute them ; whereas indeed it is not a persecution that lets out the life blood, but a prosecution that lets out the corrupt blood: Oh happy violence which pulls men out of the fire, blessed bonds that tie men to Christ, comfortable fetters which keep our feet in the way of peace: Let this work be wisely, faithfully speedily accomplished, so shall the power of Religion be advanced, the name of God honored, the mouths of your enemies stopped, the feet of wanderers reduced, the hearts of the Gospels friends comforted, and God's Ministers have no cause to complain of England's as here the Prophet did of Judah's Princes; they were like them that remove the Bound ; and thus I have given a dispatch to this first branch of the charge, referring to the Princes of Judah, to which as being most suitable to the Auditory, I have allowed an elder brothers portion of time; I hasten now to a brief discussion of

The second Branch relating to the people of Ephraim in [ 2] the close of the eleventh Verse, because he willingly walked after the commandment. The last word of this clause is variously rendered; the 70 read it as if it were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vanity; the vulgar Latin as if it were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 à 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that signifieth filthiness; by both expressions they understand Idols, which the Scripture thinks worthy of no better names; in regard of the former they are sometimes called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 not God's, without strength, or rather from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 nothing, of no value; so true is that of Saint Paul, an Idol is nothing in the World ▪ in regard of the latter they are elsewhere styled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a stercus, dunghill-gods sending up an unsavory smell in the nostrils of the true Jehovah ; and thus the phrase is most usual in Scripture of walking af • er Idols, and going after vani • y, in both which constructions the accusation seems to be framed against the Kings as well people of Israel who were guilty of gross Idolatries.

The most received reading is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 praecepit according to our translation, the Commandment, and so the fault was the people's in walking after it; what this commandment was, you may read 1 Kings 12.28. The occasion and matter of it was this.

Jeroboam being the head of ten rebellious Tribes, thinks it not safe that they should go up to Heirusalem to worship; his suspicious heart, no doubt, told him that Religion is a friend to loyalty, and if they still continued to worship the true God, they would ere long have embraced th • ir right King; what then? rebellion against the King must be attended with defection from God; his politick brain finds out two nearer, and as he pretends, fitter places within their own territories Dan and Bethel ; there he sets up golden Calves for them; makes woden Priests; and invites the people to worship them; thus one sin draws on a greater; Cain's anger is seconded with murder; Ahab's covetousness attended with cruelty; Peters denial backed with an oath; And Jeroboams rebellion with Idolatry.

But in what posture is the people? the text tells you, they willingly walk after his command; in the Original there are two Verbs, the former whereof hath a double signification and translation.

1 Coepit, so the Vulgar, he began to walk, the old way of worship was superannu • ted, and like an old Almanac grown out of date; a new invention is but presented, and the giddy people begin to walk after it; nor is it any wonder that ivit followeth coepit ; having began, they walk on; sin is of a pleasing nature; especially Idolatry; the Prophet calls Idols delectable things ; which being once embraced are not easily rejected.

It is a swimming down the stream; to stop is difficult; it is good advice therefore, Principiis obsta crush sin in the egg, and dash these Babylonish Infants against the stones.

2 Voluit, lubens ivit, the most general and suitable reading; He willingly walked. [Jeroboam coyns Religiō in the Mint of his own brain, sets the stamp of a command upon it, and it passeth with the people for Currant, he 〈◊〉 golden Calves, & the brutish Vulgar like an herd of Beasts run lowing after them. It is no marvel, where Voluit goes before, that Ivit comes after; that Ephraim being willing, resolves to walk: the Hebrews say that this Verb is never without another at his heels; sure I am, the will ne • ver wants attendance, What the primum mobile is in the heavens, that the Wall is in the soul, carrying all the faculties about with its own motion: the Brain is a projector, the Eye an Intelligencer the Tongue an Orator, the Hand a Factor, and the Foot a Lacquey to the Will: where she commands, the Head plots, the Mouth talks, the Eye looks, the Hands work, and the Feet walk. He willingly walked. ]

The Prophet lays the Accusation against Ephraim in this form, for these two reasons:

1. Ut omnem excusationem tolleret, that their fig-leaves of excuse might be plucked off. It is not seldom seen that People devolve their faults upon the Princes, Subjects on their Kings: so it is likely did this people upon Jeroboam ▪ and say, it was his invention to erect • he calves, his prescription 〈◊〉 required us to worship. But here the Prophet silenceth all such objections: True, he commanded; but you soon embraced▪ he set them up but you fell down before them. It would not serve Eve's turn, that the serpent Seduced her; nor Adam's, that Eve beguiled him, since the true cause in both, was the abuse of their own free-will: Nor doth it excuse Ephraim, that Jeroboam chalked out the way, since he willingly walked in it.

2 Ut duplicatam culpam ostenderet, that they might appear beyond measure sinful: though it be not essentially the nature of sin, yet circumstantially it is an high aggravation of sin, when it is committed willfully; the more sin pleaseth us, the more it displeaseth God, & eo plus malitiae quo plus complacentia, the more complacency we take in, the more maliciousness goeth along with any wicked action. The word here used notes a fullness of consent to, and acquiescencie in any object, their obedience was not a mixed act of the will, partly forced through fear; here was no fiery furnace, nor roaring lions prepared to awe them, only a bare command, with a plausible pretence of ease, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem ; and the people are well pleased with it, rest satisfied in it.

Learned Zanchius upon the Text makes three degrees of voluntary sins.

The lowest, is when the will consents, but drawn with fear, and forced with apparent dangers.

The next, when the will consents freely and fully, upon a mere command from another.

The highest, when the will plenarily consents to what corrupt judgment dictates only upon diabolical instigation.

The former of these excuseth in part, but not wholly; the latter greatly aggravate.

The first was Peters case, whom carnal fear induced to deny his master.

The second was Ephraim's sin, to whom no sooner doth Jeroboam hold out his finger, but he puts forth his feet to follow Idols.

The last was the crime of Jeroboam himself, who through the Devils persuasion invented and pursued Idolatrous worship. The King goeth before, and the people are not far behind; he was the Father, and they are Nurse of a monstrous Child, which afterwards proved the death of both: the principal blame was his, yet they are not at all excusable, since it was not compulsio, but electio ; they chose to embrace the Kings command before God's, and willingly walked after it.

Oh see how forward the Vulgar are to receive injunctions from their Rulers! the most (as Themistius saith) Purp •• ram pro Deo colunt ; are like the Indians, that worship a rag of red cloth: Every man will be of the Kings religion: if Governors prove nursing Fathers to Piety, the People will love the Child for the Nurses sake; and if they countenance a New worship, these care not to sin by subscription, and damn themselves with authority; thou art my King O God, saith David, thou art our God O King, is the voice, at least the thought of the multitude.

Oh what heed ought Magistrates to take of what they establish as a law, since as the first sheet is composed, all the rest are speedily imprinted.

Finally, in Ephraim's sin let us see our duty, in matters of Religion, no further to walk after rulers command, then they walk after God's; fatherly power is the rice of all authority; and yet our Savior tells us, he that loves father or mother more then him, is not worthy of him ; Mat. 10.37. Amandus generator, sed praep • nendus creator, Parents must be honored, but God preferred; it is as true in regard of Regal as paternal authority; the instances of the Hebrew Midwives, the three Worthies, and Daniel are obvious to all. That Epithet that was given to Bacon of Doctor resolu • us, in this case well becomes every Christian; it was a just resolve of Luther in divine matters, cedo nulli, a remarkable speech of Socrates though an Heathen 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 not much unlike that of the Apostle. We ought to obey God rather then men, it is true, when the supreme authority enjoins what God inhibits, we must patiently undergo the punishment inflicted. but not willingly walk after the Commandment prescribed; it was a pious speech of King Henry the eighth to Sir Thomas More when he made him Chancellor, look first at God, then at me. Saint Austin's rule is excellent, Contemne potestatem timendo potestatem ; the supreme power hath a superior in heaven: for fear of this we must contemn that, that may threaten the prison, but this hell. In a word, neither must Princes leave the people to their own will, nor the people conform themselves to the Princes will, but both to God's will in matters of Religion, lest other ways both Prince and people be consumed: which leads me to a compendious discourse of

The second General, to wit, the severity of the doom, and that as it is pronounced severally. 1 Against the Princes of Judah, in the end of the tenth verse, I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. An heavy burden▪ (so the Prophets use to call threatenings) non tam verba quam tonitrua, to use S ^t . Jerome's expression; every word breaths terror into the bosom of degenerate Princes: whether you look,

1 Upon the matter or thing threatened; it is wrath, here taken for revenge, inflicted by an incensed God; and this not an ordinary, but the utmost degree of anger: the Hebrew word notes a boundless wrath, quae nullis repagulis possit contineri, which knows no limits but those of his own mercies. The Seventy translate it by a word as emphatical, being a military expression, noting that violence which the Soldier useth aga • nst a City scaling the W • lls, batt • ring the forts, till he hath force • a passage. Divine wrath is not lessened, but augmented by opposition: so true is that of the Psalmist, Who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry? Psal. 76.7.

It is not unworthy your observation, the fit analogy between the sin and the punishment ; No bounds could keep them from sinning, and therefore God's wrath knows no bound in punishing; as their transgression was above measure, so God's judgment is without measure. It is S ^t . Chrysostom's Note concerning that fiery s • owre ▪ which God rained upon Sodom : that as the Sodomites inverted the course of nature, by seeking woman in man; so God changed the order, by showring down fire instead of water. Thus doth the Almighty's justice ever proportion the smart to the fault: so that here we may at once behold the greatness of the sin, in the punishment; and the fitness of the punishment, to the sin; boundless wrath, for boundless transgressors.

Or secondly, on the manner of executing this wrath: I will pour▪ ] God's administrations of judgments are various, his justice walks not always in the same path, nor with equal pace. God hath vials and vessels of wrath; out of them he drops, out of these he pours: Dropping is a gentle successive act; such is God's anger to his children when they offend him: Pouring is a violent and simultaneous act; such is God's wrath against the wicked.

Nay more; I will pour it like water. ] I find one upon the Text, taking the Metaphor in way of mitigation: Aqua est mundare sordes ; as though the wrath here spoken of, were not so much revenging, as correcting; to cleanse their sins, not drown their souls. In which regard he propos • th this as a pattern to all Magistrates, whose aim in punishing offenders should be, ut el •• nt, non obruant, to purge them from their faults, not overwhelm them in ruin. A conceit witty indeed, but not we • ghty.

I rath • r take it by way of Aggravation▪ further expressing the fierceness of his anger. Effusio aquae symbolum abuntiae ; it is usual in Scripture to represent abundance by water: When Christ, in the person of David, would express the extremity of his sorrows, he saith, I am poured out like water: When the Church would aggravate the cruelty of her enemies, she saith, They shed the Saints blood like water round about Jerusalem. And here when God would delineate the severity of his wrath, he threatens to pour it out like water : conceive the allusion to the pouring out of a vessel; that of water, is the most absolute; Wine poured out leaves a scent, Milk a color▪ Honey a taste; but Water, nor scent, nor color, nor taste behind it. Conceive the allusion to the Flood, when the windows of heaven were opened, th • fountains of the great deep broken up, and the whole face of the earth cover • d with waters? what more violent? in which neither men nor beasts (but those in the Ark) escaped, A further demonstration of God's inevitable and irresistable wrath: you have sometimes seen a little River stopped for a time by a Dam, never ceasing till it hath got the mastery, and then setting (as it were) its foot upon the Dams neck, leaps into the channel, not without some noise of triumph: A petty Emblem of God's conquering anger, which over-runs all ob •• acles. Imagine rather you saw, in that universal deluge, the amazed people climbing to the tops of houses, scrambling up the height of mountains, and yet there overtaken by the churlish waters, and swallowed in the depth. A fit description of God's over-topping wrath poured out on the highest mountains, as well as the lowest valleys; the greatest, as well as meanest offenders.

To apply this:

1 Oh let licentious Princes tremble at this indignation; they would have others fear their wrath; let them stand in awe of God's, though they care not for the wrath of any man, yet let them tremble at God's anger. Oh you that have Danaes golden showers poured into your bosoms, think on God's wrath ready to be poured upon your heads; you whose houses are paved with Pearls and walled with Diamonds; remember you have no roof, but are open to heavens thunder. Artemon's servants in Plutarch, when he went out, carried a Canopy over his head, lest the heavens should fall upon him; fond man, no Canopy can keep the showers of heavens wrath from falling on us; it is the custom of greatness to challenge to its self impunity; when as indeed potentes potenter mighty sinners shall be mightily punished; let then the Council of the Psalmist be acceptable to all Kings and Judges of the earth; Kiss the Son with a Kiss of affection and subjection; hang at his lips for the rule of your life, depend upon his word for your Religion; exalt his Scepter above your own honors least he be angry and ye perish from the right way; when his wrath is kindled, yea but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

2 Let both Princes and People endeavor by all good means to prevent the effusion of this wrath; to this end: learn we to

1 Pour out our tears like water. Tears of compassion like strong water; to comfort the hearts of our distressed brethren; our showing mercy to other, will mitigate God's fury to us.

Tears of devotion like sweet water in the nostrils of God, when we seek him weeping, we shall find him smiling.

Above all tears of contrition like clean water, to wash away those sins which have provoked his anger; that wrath which is here said to be poured out like water, is elsewhere said to be poured out like fire and no way to quench it; but by these tears Artificers use to fasten Marble statues upon their bases with Molten lead, no better way to fasten our Kingdom, and Cities, Families, upon a sure foundation, then by melting ourselves into tears of repentance.

2 Pour out our hearts like water in humble supplications at the throne of grace, both for pardon of sin and preventing of judgment, fervent prayer keeps the keys of heaven: both opening the treasury of love, and looking up the Armory of wrath; let us then not only say a prayer, but pour out a prayer ; and not only our words, but our hearts before God, that he may not pour out his anger on us.

When we open our mouths in humility, God withholds his hand of Severity; it was the way prescribed the men of Athens by the Oracle for the removing of a great plague duplare Aram to double their sacrifices on the Altar, indeed Oratio posita est per quamira Dei suspenditur, venia procuratur, poena refugitur, & praemiorum largitas impetratur, devout prayers are the best means of appea • ing anger, procuring pardon, avoiding punishments, and obtaining mercy at the hands of the Almighty.

3 Pour out our sins like water, to wit, speedily, as in pouring, the drops of water run one upon another. Willingly, as in pouring, the water runs out without any opposition. Universally, as in pouring, the water ceaseth not till all be out. Finally, as the water that is poured on the earth can never be gathered up again, thus let us pour out all our sins, and God will not pour out all his wrath, let us speedily cast away the filth of our transgressions, and he will soon stop the current of his indignation; let us cheerfully reform, and he will not willingly afflict; let us having cast away our sins never more return to them: and then though his anger have been poured out on us, he will graciously return to us. In a word, repent we of our provocations, and he will repent of this commination, to pour out his wrath like water.

I have done with that; and hasten to the second part of the doom, uttered against

The people of Ephraim. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment.

The Seventy read the words actively, understanding it of Jeroboams wars with Rehoboam, in which he oppressed him. Idolatry and cruelty are two usual companions; it is no wonder that they who offer injury to God use violence to man: Jeroboam walks after Idols▪ and therefore oppresseth his neighbor King.

The Hebrew participles are of the passive voice, and so better rendered, Ephraim is oppressed, &c. According to which version they admit of a three-fold reference; to their domestic governors, foreign enemies, and God himself.

1 Ephraim was oppressed by his governors, Oppresserunt • um reges, & deceperunt ; so Ibn Ezra: their Kings by violence oppressed, and fraud deceived them. It is the Prophet Micah's complaint of the head • of the house of Jacob, and the Princes of the house of Israel, that they abhor judgment, and pervert all equity ▪ chap. 3.9. In this sense the Chaldee reads the whole verse: Inique premuntur vir • Ephraim, & apprimuntur judiciis suis, qui • • e verterunt judices eorum, ut errarent post mammona iniquitatis : their Heads judging for hire, injured the people, being more pleased with receiving rewards, then doing right. It is the complaint of Israel, in the 16 verse of the former chapter, That her Rulers with shame do love, [ Give ye▪ ] No marvel if bribes obstruct the course of justice, and covetousness prove the mother of oppression.

A sore judgment upon any people, when their Princes are not shepherds, but wolves; Rulers, but ruiners; Bucklers, but butchers of the people; when they who should support, supplant; underprop, undermine; dress destroy the vines of the Commonwealth. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Injustice is the root of all mischiefs.

The word which we translate broken, notes a crime peculiar to inferior Officers, who ofttimes affright the people with the Magistrates power, that they may extort money from them for their own profit. The other word which we read oppressed, notes a fault in superior Judges: the signification of it is large referring both to words, and actions; to open, and secret enterprises, either for withholding from others what is due to them, or withdrawing what they duly possess: such is the too usual course of men in autho • i • y, to ma • e the inferior sl • ves to their covetous and malicious wills; sometimes by stout words and violent practices, sometimes by soft speeches and fraudulent pretences, taking from those under them what they have; or detaining what they ought to have. All which the sins of a people oft times bring upon them. Secundum merita Subdi • orum disponuntur acta Regentum, saith Gregory. Extorting Magistrates are used as whips to scourge the wickedness of the multitude: And as, for the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof, so those may become injurious and destructive to the Land.

How much England hath groaned under the burdens of oppressions by the violence of former Courts, and still sighs under the irregular practices of present Committees, your Honors cannot be ignorant: The number of our Samuel's is very small that can say to the people▪ Behold, here I am, witness against me before the Lord and before the Parliament, whose ox have I taken, or whose • ss • have I taken, or whom have I defrauded, whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? However, I could wish they would take up the last clause, and say, I will restore. I am afraid it hath been cause enough to bring many sheep to the slaughter, because they were fat: yea▪ some amongst us have been no better then bushes or brambles to tear off the fleece of innocent sheep, who have come to them for shelter; That complaint o • the Prophet Micah being too plainly verified, The best of them is a briar, and the most upright sharper then a thorn-hedge, chap. 7.4. But let such oppres • ors know, that as for the present they have been instruments, so one day they shall be subjects of God's wrath. The same word in Hebrew signifies both a wedge of gold, and a tongue ; and some say that the wedge of gold that Achan stole, had the shape of a tongue. Sure I am, bags of gold unjustly gotten c • y loud in God's ears against those that hoard them up. As for you, my Noble Lord's, let your ears be open to the cries of the oppressed, let your eyes be open to take notice of these oppressors: Remember you are the shield of the earth, to protect the people from injury; and let Alfonsus his emblem be yours, A Pelican feeding her young with her own blood, with this Motto, Pro rege & grege. I say no more, but know, the acceptable Fast to God, is to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke.

2 Others refer this oppression to a foreign enemy, to wit the Assyrians, by whom they were carried captive, used as slaves, & omne judicii levamentum periit, and all the doors of justice were shut upon them. This though it came not upon the Israelites till afterwards, is (according to the Prophetical manner) set down in the present tense, to note the certainty of the accomplishment. Destruction is inseparably linked to corruption. God is as true in his threatenings, as he is faithful in his promises. Christ saith of the unbeliever, that he is condemned already, to wit in Divine decree, and the certainty of the execution: And here the Prophet saith, that Ephraim is oppressed ; so surely should it come to pass, as if it had then been inflicted.

Captivity is the usual wages of Idolatry: it was so threatened by Moses, that if Israel would not serve the Lord in abundance, they should serve their enemies in cold, hunger, and nakedness. It was afterwards frequently verified upon them in the time of the Judges; we find God selling them into the hands of spoilers, even their enemies round about, because they forsook him to follow Idols. The Midianites oppressed & broke them seven years ; the Philistines and Ammonites vexed them 18 years, and after that they were delivered into the hands of the Philistines 40 years: & in the time of their Kings, when Ephraim walked after Idols, God often sent the Assyrians to ride over them. The word oppressed according to the Chaldee, is read Praedae expositus, Ephraim became a prey ; not only their goods, but themselves were spoiled by the enemy. The Vulgar read it, calumniam patiens: Indeed what greater disgrace, then that Ephraim, God's own people, should be oppressed by Heathen, that were worse & viler then themselves? It is the heighth of reproach a father casts on his child, when he commands his slave to beat him. Of all outward judgments this is the sorest, to have strangers rule over us, as being made up of shame and cruelty. If once the Heathen come into God's inheritance, no wonder the Church complaineth, her blood is shed round about Jerusalem, and she becomes a reproach to her neighbors, a shame and derision to all round about her. It was not without just cause that David being put to his choice by God, resolveth rather to fall into the hands of God then man. Strange invaders can never find in their hearts to say that to themselves, which God did to his destroying Angel, It is enough, put up thy sword: Yea, even their tender mercies are cruel ; the greatest kindness they show, is but a lesser kind of cruelty.

To close up this:

1 What singular cause have we then to magnify the goodness of our God, who in the midst of our home insurrections preserved us from eternal invasions! That when we were unnaturally tearing each other in pieces, a third party came not to devour us both, what was it but his mercy? How should we say in David's words▪ Blessed be the Lord that gave us not as a prey to the teeth of other Nations!

2 What a prevailing motive ought this to be against all sin, especially Idolatry? When the people of Israel had made them gods to go before them, the Text saith, they were naked among their enemies ; wanting the protection of the Almighty, which is the only garment of defense to any people. When Phocas had built a strong wall in his palace, he heard in the night a voice thus saying, O King, though thou build as high as the clouds, the City will easily be taken, for the sin in the City will mar all. Oh let us not flatter ourselves in our strong Castles, mighty bulwarks, potent Navy! Idolatry and profaneness will weaken all.

Sin will pluck up our hedges, lay waste our fields for strangers, like ravenous beasts, to come and devour all. The ruined Monuments, battered Walls of many depopulated Cities, seem to tell the passengers, Hic fuit hostilitas, here hath been an oppressing enemy; And do they not withal tell, Hic fuit iniquitas, here hath been ruining iniquity. And while our Idolatries (though not so much corporal as spiritual, in worshipping not Images, but Imaginations) cry loud in God's ears what can we expect but that God should lift up an ensign to the Nations from far, and hiss unto them from the end of the earth, that they may come with speed to destroy us? Let us therefo • e by timely repentance break off our sins, that we be not broken in judgment ; let us suppress our Prophanations, that no Enemy may oppress our Nation; and let it be our earnest petition to the Almighty, that however he deal with us, he would not sell us into the hands of barbarous Turks, or Idolatrous Papists ; that he would be a wall of fire round about our Land, a Wall to defend us; and a fire to consume those that shall approach to hurt us. In a word, let us all on our bended knees, with weeping eyes, lift up our voices and cry▪ From further civil dissensions at home, and cruel invasion of enemies abroad, (if it be thy blessed will) good Lord deliver us.

3 Some refer it to God himself, who by the unjust and tyrannical judgments of men, is oft times pleased to execute his own justice. But what, may some say, is oppression no sin? or can the p • re God be the author of sin? I answer: as God is holy, and therefore cannot authorize sin; so he is wise, and therefore hath a hand in sin; a hand not only in permitting sin to be act • , but ordering it for his own most sacred purposes, yea • ssisting to the action, but not the evil and maligni • y of it. Thus did God not only suffer the Assyrians to oppress Ephraim, but gave them that strength that did overcome, appointed the time how long, and the measure how great their oppression should be, making all to serve for his own ends, and the manifestation of the glory of his justice in correcting a rebellious people. Besides, this oppression, though in regard of the enemies it was a sin, and so to be imputed to their malice, yet in regard of Ephraim it was a punishment, and so to be ascribed to God's justice. Observe the story of Job: You find God, Satan and wicked men concurring in his oppression; Res una quam fecerunt, Causa non una ob quam fecerunt ; they all concurred in one action, the taking away Jobs goods, yet upon a different ground. The Devil instigates the Sabaeans, out of malice; they surprised his possessions, out of covetousness; God permitted and ordered it in wisdom and justice; so that neither did the enemies partake of God's righteousness; nor He of their cruelty. The case is a like here: Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment: the judgment of his Princes, through their covetous desires; of his enemies, through their inveterate hatred; and of God, through his just severity.

Indeed what more just, then that God should make Princes as Devils to that people, who set up their Princes as high as God; that they who left him to serve strange gods, should be forced to serve strangers ; and whilst they made a prey of God's honor by their Idolatry, God should give them as a prey to their enemies malignity?

Oh let us remember this in all oppressions we meet with, that they fall not upon us without divine providence. What Eliphaz saith of affliction in general, is true of oppression in particular; it comes not forth of the dust, neither doth it spring out of the ground. Joseph, though sold by his envious brethren into Egypt, saith, God hath sent me hither. David being railed upon by Shimei, said, God had bid him curse. Job being robbed by the Sabaeans, said, God hath taken away: And concerning the Israelites bondage under the Egyptians, the Psalmist saith, He turned their heart to hate his people, and deal sub •• lly with his servants. Let us not therefore with the foolish Dog bark at the stone, but rather look at the hand, acknowledging GOD in all.

As for oppressing adversaries (whether domestic or foreign) let them not account themselves safe, because they execute God's judgment; since though they act his secret will, they contradict his revealed will, the only rule of our actions: the truth is, they perform his will against their will, their aim being to fulfill their own lusts, not his pleasure. So God himself saith of the Assyrian, He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think and therefore resolveth after he hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and Jerusalem, to punish the fruits of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. The just reward of unjust oppressors.

Finally, whatever injuries are brought upon us by man, let us acknowledge them as deserved punishment of our sin, in regard of God. Though we have given no cause to the one, and so are innocent, yet we have given just cause to the other, and so are nocent; and therefore as the Athenians, when an Ox was killed for sacrifice, condemned the sword, but acquitted the Priest; so let us, whilst we accuse the cruelty of our enemies who are the instruments, excuse the severity of God who is the efficient of all those evils (as they are punishments) which fall upon us; ever saying with Maurice, justa, Domine, judiciatua, Thy judgments (O Lord) are just and righteous altogether.

And so I pass to the last, and fatal doom, which was denounced jointly against both the Kingdoms, in the 12 ^th . verse, I will be unto Ephraim as a moth, and unto the house of Judah as rottenness. The Original wants the Verb, which is easily supplied by Interpreters, only with this difference (which is not material) some render it I have been ; others, I will be: Non quod Deus tinea aut putredo sit, sed quod sustinentibu • poenas talis videatur, saith Jerome well: Not that God is, but seemeth to be as a moth and worm in his punishment; it is a good note of Pareus, that it is not only sinam, but ero, I will suffer, but, I will be ; since God is not otiosus spectator, but operosies effector, not an idle spectator or bare permitter, but powerful worker and wise appointer of those calamities which befall a people. The 70 much vary in the translation of the words, mistaking and misplacing, and so read for moth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifieth a trouble; and for rottenness 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a prick: losing hereby the emphasis and energy of the Prophets expressions which consists much in the resemblances here used, and therefore well rendered by our translators, I will be a moth, and as rottenness.

The words you see are metaphorical, the one taken from garments which are subject to be eaten of moths; the other from bones and trees, which are apt to be rotted by worms: both which do ap • lie represent th • qualities of divine punishments, and in them, many of his choice Attributes; such as are,

1 Misericordia in tarditate, the sweetness of God's mercy in the slowness of his judgments; the moth is long in consuming the garment, so is God before he destroy a people: cito struit, tarde destruit ; He was longer in marring one City; to wit Jericho, then in making the whole world; he finished this in six day • , he accomplished that not until seven: When he went to receive the penitent Prodigal, the text saith he ran ; but when he went to pass the sentence on our rebelling Parents, he is said to walk: God is swift in showing mercy, but slow to wrath. Oh let Magistrates learn to write after this copy! The Romans Axe which was carried before the Consul, had a bundle of rods tied about it, that while it was unloosing he might bethink himself of the sentence past. The Ancients feigned the chariot of Justice to be drawn by two women, una fractum ensem portabat, altera conto nitebatur ; whereof the one carried a broken sword that that cut but slowly, the other leaned upon a long pole which is moved but easily; to intimate how slow Judges ought to be in execution of judgment.

2 Potentia in efficacitate, the greatness of his power in the prevalency of his punishments. Trees and bones are of a stronger nature then garments, and yet the worm eats them out; the stoutest spirit cannot stand before God's judgments; He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against him and prospered? Let Magistrates remember this, to be not only tineae, but teredines, Moths to the meaner, but Worms to the greater sort. Rulers laws should be like Vulcans iron-net, that caught the gods; censuring the highest as well as lowest. Besides, a Moth is a small creature, the least touch kills it, and yet it will destroy the garment: such is God's power, that by an host of Lice, an army of Frogs, a few poor Worms, he can subdue the mightiest Princes.

3 Sapientiain vari • tate, the fullness of his wisdom in the variety of his judgments. The moth consumes faster then the worm. Ephraim sinned before Judah, and therefore is sooner punished: A good item for Governors, Vari • m delinquentibus poenam imponer • , pro criminum vary • ate, to make a just distinction between delinquents out of malice and conscience, principals and accessories, ringleaders and followers.

4 Ira in occultatione, the harshness of his anger in the insensibleness of the misery. Tinea damnum facit, s • nitum non facit ; the moth frets secretly, the worm eats insensibly, so doth God destroy a people ( nemin • observant • aut cavent • ) by those ways and means which they least think of; Divine justice winks many times, when it doth not sleep; and then gives the greatest blow, when it makes the least noise. What they say of little sins, that being the less sensible, they are more dangerous; is true of punishments: Diseases which we least feel, we have most cause to fear; the silent Arrow doth many times more mischief then the roaring Cannon; still rain sinks deeper then violent showers; and those judgments which proceed slowly and secretly, strike both surely and sorely.

5 Justitia in aequitate, the clearness of his justice in the equity of his punishments. The moth is bred of the garments filth which is devoured by it, the worm of th • tree which is rotted by it. The Vulgar read the last clause of the former Verse, He walked after filthiness ; and so very fitly follows the resemblance of a Moth which is caused by filth, even the filth of that vestment which it ea • s. Cognatum▪ imo innatum, omni sceleri soeleris supplicium ; Punishment is the daughter of sin; and sometimes the daughter is so alike the mother, that you may read ab • sin in the punishment. God is unwilling to destroy—

But we compel him through our sinfulness to deal severely with us: so true is that of Salvian, A Deo p • nimur, sed ipsi facimus quod p • nimur ; He striketh, but we provoke▪ he inflicts, we deserve▪ J • lian gave for his Arms in his Escuchion, an Eagle struck to the heart with a shaft feathered by his own wings; and the Motto, Pr • pr • is configimur alis. It is our own iniquities that prove our ruin. The Hedg-hogs (say Naturalists) make that urine which disarms them of their prickles; No man is hurt (saith the Morali • t) but by himself. Great States, as buildings, (say Politicians) are crushed with their own weight; Persons and Kingdoms are destroyed (saith the Divine) through their own wickedness; so true is that of the Prophet, Thy destruction is of thyself, ô Israel, Hos. 13.9.

It is farther observed of the Worm▪ that it is br • d of juci • trees, especially when cut in the Full moon. Jud • hs outward felicity became the occasion of her misery. Bees are many times drowned in honey, ships cast away on the soft sands, birds caught in twig-lime, and people strangled by prosperity; too many of the worlds dar ••• g • ma • cry out as the sick woman in the fable, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Woe to us, the good things we enjoy wound • s by their embraces: It was Judah's prosperous state occasioned her forgetting God. Agur seemeth, in this respect, to make riches worse then poverty, since this causeth to steal from man, but that to deny God. And no wonder, if her riches cause her to deny God, God be provoked to forsake her, and so all evil come upon her. By all which resemblances we may pick out the Prophets meaning to be thus much: That Ephraim being first in sin, should be first in punishment; yet Judah being like to him in sin; should be like in suffering: That both Judah and Ephraim ▪ notwithstanding their prosperity, because of their iniquity, shall by little and little be secretly and certainly ruined.

And now if any ask when, or how this was verified? I answer, God was as a moth to Ephraim partly by those many intestine conspiracies among themselves, and partly by the frequent invasions made upon them by the Ass • rians, till at the last Samaria was taken, and the Israelites were carried captive by Shalmaneser. God was rottenness to the house of Judah ; in the assaults made upon them partly by their brethren the Israelites, chiefly by the Kings of Assyria and Babylon, till at length Jerusalem was besieged and taken, the Temple burnt, and the Jews captivated by Nebuchadnezzar ; the stories of both you may peruse, Kings 2, from the 15 ^th . chap. to the end of the book.

To draw to a conclusion—

Give me leave to change the Scene, from Ephraim to England ; and the two Tribes of Judah, to these two adjoining famous Cities ; that we may see how far this threatening is denounced against, and inflicted on us, That God is as a moth and rottenness to us.

It is not long (beloved) since God was a Lyon, when two Armies were roaring one against another in the noise of Cannons, ye tearing each others bowels in pieces: Oh how then did God's wrath pour put our blood like water! But is there not yet a secret vein inwardly bleeding, and though the bloody issue be stopped, are we not still sick of a Consumption?

Consider, I beseech you, is not God as a moth to many Countries, by the quartering of an Army, who, though friends yet are wasting? is he not as a worm to the Kingdom, in our renewed Taxations, which though just, yet are impoverishing? I mention not these, to blame the wisdom of that Authority which sees cause still to continue both; Reasons of State are without my sphere; only I am bold, as a Divine, to tell you, that God is by them as a moth, secretly, and not altogether insensibly▪ consuming us.

Again tell me, is not God a moth to the State, in the general decay of Trade, especially that Staple-trade of the Kingdom, by which so many Poor are maintained, and Merchants enriched? Is he not as a worm to the Church▪ in the impairing and with-holding of our Ministers maintenance? It is hard to say whether was the worse▪ Julians persecution, who substracted fuel ; or Diocletians, who threw on water. The links of this chain are inseparable; Religion upholds the Commonweal • h, Ministers propagate Religion, and Mayntenance encourageth Ministers, guess then yourselves, whether the subtraction of this will not prove a worm to the Land.

Once more, Who is there that with weeping eyes beholds ou • bleeding divisions, in the body of the State▪ by a too long and unhappy separation of Head from Members, till the reunion of whom neither can be happy; In the womb of the Church, by the struggling of her untoward Chil • ren viper-like eating out her bowels; And not say, that God is a moth and rottenness to us? It is true, there are some particular persons, Privatins degeneres in public • m exitiosi, qui nihil spei nisi per discordias habent ; Who have weaved for themselves garments of fair estates, and probably out of the threads that others have spun. These (no doubt) like a Surgeon more corrupt then the soar he dresses, would prolong the Kingdoms cure for their own gains: But sure I am, the garment of the Church, and Land in general, is exceedingly moth-eaten and ready to fall in pieces. Accept therefore of a word of exhortation.

1 In special. Let not my Noble Lord's be angry, and I will speak but this once more; humbly to beseech, that you would improve • he utmost of that power God hath put into your hands for • ebrushing away of these Moths, and killing these Worms. It is true, these things befall us not without divine providence, yet God expects our endeavor to remove them by human prudence.

Be pleased then to consult in your wisdoms, a safe and speedy way for easing the Country of Quarters, and the Kingdom of Taxes; that our Swords may be turned into Plough-shares, and our Speares into Pruning- • ooks, and every man may sit under his own vine and under his fig-tree, and none make them afraid. Let not Industry be disheartened, when the reward of that, and Idleness, through the weight of Taxations, shall prove alike▪ Beggary.

Be sensible of, and apply all good means presented by Petitioners, or invented by your Wisdoms, to the cure of that wound which the decay of Clothing hath made. Nor let the Church be altogether forgotten; Suffer not any to cut off the Flesh of her honorable Maintenance, pretending to cure her of a Timpanie of Superfluities. What if some have turned the spur of Virtue into a St •• rop of Prid • , y • t let not the Bees starve, to punish the Drones. Shall other Sciences have a portion, and must Divinity be put off only with her beauty? Nay rather, if it seem not good to allow her her Dowrie, afford her a fair Jointure in lieu of it.

Above all, let your plous thoughts, best wishes, and most serious endeavors bend themselves to an happy union of our Ecclesiastic, an honorable Accommodation of our Civil dissensions; so as the purity of Truth may be preserved, and the prosperity of Peace res • ored. Then shall Milo's lo • (whose hand which he thrust in a cleft Oak to make it bigger, by the closing thereof was caught, and himself devoured of wild beasts) be the portion of all malignant Incendia • i • s, whilst th • whole Kingdom shall build up altars to the Lord and call them Jehovah Shalom, saying, The Lord hath blest his people with Peace.

2 In general. What counsel more suitable to the Text or Time, then that of Repentance? Our sins have been a moth to the Land, let Repentance be a moth to our sins, every day gnawing our corruptions till they die. Peccatum • ristitiam peperit tristitia peccatum conteret ; Let our sins cause sorrows, and godly sorrow will kill our sins: This is the best daughter of the worst mother, the sweet fruit of the root of bitterness.

Oh remember, for this end is God a moth in his judgments, consuming slowly, that we might repent speedily; and therefore doth he retard his corrections, that we might hasten our conversions. Deus cùm beneficia infert, supplicia offert ; while God holds his rod in the one hand, he offers mercy with the other, desiring rather that we should return and live, then go on and perish. Oh let us not frustrate God's expectation, lest we more provoke his indignation. Say then to thyself; as Caesar did, Mene servare ut sint qui me perdant? Shall I hug a snake in my bosom, to poison me? nourish Wolves young ones, to tear me? shall I embrace that in my soul which will be a worm to gnaw my conscience, and a moth to devour my estate? God forbid. Oh let such meditations as these work us to holy resolutions, saying of our lusts as the Philosopher did of his gold, Mergamte, ne mergar à te ; we will crucify them, that they may not damnify us.

To end all:

I have read of the picture of a Godd • sse in a c • rtain Temple so contrived▪ that she frowned on her worshippers as they came in, and smiled on them as they went out. Such I desire this Scripture may be, that though it hath frowned upon you in its menaces, yet it may end in smiling promises, that it may be a plaster not only corrosive, but incarnative, that it may prove to you like Josephs coat to his father, wherewith he was at once both grieved and comforted; or like a cloud which seems to be composed both of envy and bounty; envy, in hiding the Suns golden beams from the earth; bounty in dropping down golden showers to refresh it.

Know therefore that in the cragged shell of these threatenings are contained the pearls of pr • cious Comforts, Mutatus mutatum inveniet: If we change our sinning into repenting, God will change his thunderbolts of anger into shining beams of love.

Let our Pri • ces establish God's bound, and he will maintain their honor: Let the people prefer his precepts before men's inventions, and he will preserve their estates from men's oppressions. In a word, let both Prince and people, by a penitent reformation, be moths to their sins, and worms to their corruptions, and then He will not pour out his wrath, but his mercy like water ; we shall no longer be oppressed and broken in judgment, but he will break the yoke of our oppressors; he will no more be a worm to consume, but a Sun to revive the once flourishing tree of this Kingdom; He will no longer be a moth to consume our garments, but he will put upon us new garments of joy and praise; When we shall see Plenty triumphing over Famine in the Country, Riches over Poverty in the City, Justice over Tyrannie in our Courts, Reformation over Toleration in the Kingdom: Finally, when we shall behold the King rejoicing over danger, in the loyalty of his Subjects ; the People over fears in the fidelity of their Sovereign ; the Parliament over their troubles in the settlement of the Land ; the Church over her adversaries in the unity of her Government ; and which is above and beyond all, CHRIST over Antichrist, in the purity of his Gospel among us and our posterity forever. Which GOD of his mercy grant us, &c.

LONDON, Printed for Nathanael Webb, and William Grantham, at the sign of the Grey-hound in Paul's Church-yard. MDCXLVII.