John Trapp on Matthew 7

CHAP. VII.

Verse 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged] HOc verbum [illegible: 1 word] induginem involvit. The word imports [illegible: 1 line]. a kinde of curious enquiry into other mens faults, [illegible: 1 word] we may the more severely censure and subject them to a [illegible: 1 word] interpretation. It signifies sometimes no more, I grant, then to [illegible: 1 line]. [illegible: 1 word] as Rom. 2. 1. But this (so it were wisely done) [illegible: 1 word] Saviour would never have reprehended. Thou shalt not hate [illegible: 1 word] brother in thy heart: but (for prevention of such a [illegible: 1 word]) thou shalt [illegible: 1 word] (not perfunctorily, or in [illegible: 1 word], bravery, [illegible: 1 word] derision) rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sinne upon [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 line]. (as some reade it:) lest thou suffer for his sinne: or (as others) [illegible: 1 line]. lift not up his sinne over him as an ensigne, blaze it not abroad [illegible: 1 word] his [illegible: 1 word] grief and disgrace; but clap a plaister on the sore, and [illegible: 1 word] cover it with thy hand (as Surgeons use to doe,) that the [illegible: 1 word] may be never the wiser. This were charity; which hides [illegible: 1 word] her mantle a multitude of sinnes: yea prepares covers and [illegible: 1 word] for the infirmities of others as fast as they breed them. And [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 line]. neglect [illegible: 1 word], the not giving vent to our hearts, by a wise [illegible: 1 word] plain reproof, causeth abalienation of affection, dwelling [illegible: 1 word] blinde censures, a very habit of misprision, and misinterpretation [illegible: 1 word] all things, till men grow rusty with rancour and malice, the [illegible: 1 word] whereof would be soon drawn out by a seasonable reproof. This, well and wisely done, were far better then judging and [illegible: 1 word] one against another: sith it is, Iudge not, that ye be not [illegible: 1 word], and Grudge not, that ye be not [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. 5 9. The [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 line]. of others we should hear of with indignation, fearfully and unwillingly [illegible: 1 word], acknowledge with grief, never speak of them but in [illegible: 1 word] Ordinance, rather hide them, as much as may be, with honest excuses, and make apology: as, that there are infirmities in the [illegible: 1 word], though we know them not, that as good gold, they are haply of the lightest, may want a grain or two of their just weight: but [illegible: 1 line]. give them their allowance, and they may [illegible: 1 word] for currant, &c. [illegible: 1 word] not rash in rejecting, or sowr in censuring your fellow-servants. That saying is [illegible: 1 word]: Three things are not [illegible: 1 word] tō [illegible: 2 words]; the counsels of God, the holy Scriptures, and the persons of men, Rom. 14. 10. That ye be judged] Judge we must our selves, and God will not judge us. [illegible: 1 word] from the barre ([illegible: 4 words] [illegible: 1 word], witnessed and pleaded guilty against thy self) to the [illegible: 1 word], and there passe sentence of condemnation, judging thy self [illegible: 1 word] to be turned into hell-torments. Thus judge your selves [illegible: 1 word] spare God. But judge not others, viz. rashly, sinisterly, [illegible: 1 word] and peremptorily, left ye be judged; both first, of God, into [illegible: 1 word] chair ye leap, [illegible: 1 word] whose children ye condemn, even the [illegible: 1 word] of the just; as David once did, and befooled himself well-favouredly for it when he had done. And second of men: I piter [illegible: 1 word] coeli [illegible: 2 words] juisset; [illegible: 2 words] sed [illegible: 1 word] ipse suae. Sic, in [illegible: 1 word]. Good men must suspect you, bad men scorn you, and all men shun [illegible: 1 word], and [illegible: 1 word] to be rid of you, as unfit to live in a civil society. Therefore judge nothing before the time, behold the Judge [illegible: 1 word] at the door. It is the office of Angels, to sever the sheep from [illegible: 1 word] goats, the tares from the wheat, the elect from the reprobate. Those that undertake [illegible: 1 word] to determine of mens finall [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] censorem scriptorum, quidam [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. they know not of what pirit they are, with those sons of [illegible: 1 word], they take too much upon them, with those sonnes of Levi, [illegible: 1 word] understand neither what they say, nor where of they affirm, with those impostors in Timothy. Neither may they escape here Sunt [illegible: 1 word] in Ecclesia Catholica plurimi, mali, sed ex [illegible: 1 word] nullus [illegible: 1 word] bonus, [illegible: 1 word] de not. [illegible: 1 word], that for particular acts, or petty failings, take upon [illegible: 1 word] rashly and harshly to censure their betters many times: Iob [illegible: 1 word] Ieremy met with such as watched-for their halting, [illegible: 1 word] made [illegible: 1 word] offendours for a word. These pry into every particular more [illegible: 1 word], then Laban did into Iacobs stuffe; waiting (as a dog for a bone) for any thing [illegible: 1 word] beseeming the Saints, that they Eccles l. 4 c. 13. may fasten upon with their [illegible: 1 word], that they may tear with theirNum. 16. 7. [illegible: 1 word], and swallow down with those open sepulchers, their throats,1 Tim. 1. 7. the good names of others: censuring them deeply for humane [illegible: 1 word], unchurching and unbrothering them for unavoidable [illegible: 1 word]. It is hard measuring of a man by his state and behaviour in a pelt, in a passion, which are violent, and have made the holiest, in their heat, little lesse then bestiall, 1 Sam. 25. 22. Psal. 116. 9. The like may be said of sinnes strengthened by ancient custom, or naturall [illegible: 1 word], or herditary, the sinnes of our parents, or furthered by multitude of [illegible: 1 word] and enticements. Handle [non-Latin text not transcribed]. these [illegible: 1 word] in the judgement of charity, and joint them again inGal. 0 1. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] suimus, aut [illegible: 1 word] esse [illegible: 2 words] est. the spirit of [illegible: 1 word], considering thy self, lest thou also be tempted. It is not to be liked, when men leap from the cradle of profession, into the chair of censure, blinder then beetles at home, sharper then Eagles abroad. Charity and humility would teach them to wink at small [illegible: 1 word], as God doth, and to pitch upon that in another that is praise worthy. Our Saviour is said to have loved the rich young Pharisee, for that little good he found in him; and Bucer never, rejected any, though different in opinion, in whom he discerned aliquid Christi, any thing of Christ. S. Paul bidds us, consider one another, to whet on to love: to pitch upon [illegible: 1 word]. 10. 24. such good parts and properties as may engender love, and sway [illegible: 1 word] to a good opinion of our brethren. The wisedom from above, is full of mercy and good fruits, without judging &c. But they shall [illegible: 2 words]. 17. have judgement without mercy, that [illegible: 1 word] no mercy in their [illegible: 1 word]. God shall bring home their own dealings to their own doors: For with what judgement ye judge, &c. Only our [illegible: 1 word] is to be understood here of private and corrupt judgement passed upon others, out of sinfull curiosity and ill-will (for [illegible: 1 word] curiosus quin malevolus) either to set up our selves above them, or by condemning them to countenance our own evil [illegible: 1 word]. Magistrates may and must judge between the righteous and the wicked. Ministers must take out the precious from the vile, and [illegible: 2 words]. 11. say to the wicked, it shall be ill with them, the reward of their [illegible: 1 word] shall be given unto them. Wilt thou judge them, Son of man, wilt thou judge them? yea thou shalt shew them all their Ez. k. 22. 2. [illegible: 1 word]. How often doth our Saviour call the Pharisees hypocrites, serpents, vipers &c? And how roundly dealt St Paul with the sorcerer, Acts 13. 10. and with the [illegible: 1 word] person?1 Cor 5. Lastly, Though we may not be many masters, Jam. 3. 1. [illegible: 1 word] and censorious. &c. yet we may all judge the [illegible: 1 word] by the fruit, call a spade a spade, a drunkard a drunkard, &c. and, leaving his finall doom to the searcher of all hearts, judge and censure him, for the present, to be Gods enemy, and in a most [illegible: 1 word] estate. We both may and must condemn all sinne in our selves and others. But it is a fault to be itchingly inquisitive after other mens [illegible: 1 word], [non-Latin text not transcribed] & [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 2 words] 2. [illegible: 7 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. to be an eves-dropper, Eccles. 7 21. or to censure them, when they come to our knowledge, unmercifully and above the royall Law. Let your [non-Latin text not transcribed], moderation of utmost right be known to [illegible: 1 word] men: The Lord is at hand, Phil. 4. 5.

Verse 2. For with what judgement ye judge, &c.] Our [illegible: 2 words] forth what he had said before by these two [illegible: 2 words]; as well known among them as those amongst us: you shall sow as ye reap, drink as ye brew, be [illegible: 1 word] with the same sawce &c. Compare herewith those divine Proverbs, Isa. 33 1. [illegible: 2 words] Rev. [illegible: 1 word]. 10. & [illegible: 1 word]. 6. Prov. 12. 14. & 13. 2, 21. & 14. 14, 22. & 22. 8. Iob 4. 8. Mark. 4. 24. God delights to give men their own, as good as they brought, to pay them home in their own coyn, or as the text here, and the Hebrew proverb hath it, to remete them their own measure,Middah cenegedh [illegible: 1 word]. Isa. 3. 10, 11. with the mercifull to shew himself mercifull, and with the froward to wrestle: he will be as froward asPsal. [illegible: 1 word]. 26. they for the hearts of them, beat them with their own weapons, overshoot them in their own bowes, shape their estates according to their own [illegible: 1 word], and cause others to write after their copies, as it fared with Pharaoh, Adonibezek, Agag, &c. [illegible: 1 word] sinned in fullnesse of bread, and it is [illegible: 1 word] noted, that their victualsGen. 14 11. were taken from them by their four Kings. Their eyes were full of uncleannesse, and they were smitten with blindnesse: they burned [illegible: 2 words], and were burned with fire: they sinned against nature, and, against the course of nature, [illegible: 1 word] and [illegible: 1 word] them: Eglon stab'd into the guts, findes his bane the same way with his sinne; Sisera annoys Gods people with his iron [illegible: 1 word], and is slain by a nayle of iron. Iesabels brains, that devised [illegible: 1 word] against the innocent, are strew'd upon the stones: by a [illegible: 1 word] to Iezreel she shed the bloud of Naboth, and by a letter from [illegible: 1 word], the bloud of her sonnes is shed. Nebuchadnezzar destroid Solomons Temple (that [illegible: 1 word] years work of so many thousands) therefore let him be turned a grazing, and seven seasons passe over him, saith the oracle, Dan. 4 16. The blasphemers in the Revelations, gnaw their tongues through pain, and Dives (for [illegible: 4 words]. like [illegible: 1 word]) was tormented in that part chiefly. Appion scoffing [illegible: 1 word] Religion, and especially at circumcision, had an ulcer at the same time, and in the same place. Phocas a wilde, drunken, bloudy, adulterousCyprian. [illegible: 1 word]. tyrant, was worthily slaughtered by Heraclius, who cut off his hands and feet, and then his genitals by peece-meale.Zonaras. The Donatists that cast the holy Elements in the Lords Supper to dogs, were themselves afterward devoured of dogs. Iohn Martin of Briqueras, a mile from Angrogne, vaunted every where, that he Dikes Worthy Communicant. would [illegible: 1 word] the Ministers nose of Angrogne, but was himself assaulted by a wolfe, which bit off his nose, whereof he died mad. Act and Mon. sol. [illegible: 1 word]. St [illegible: 1 word] Elerker, Knight Marshall of Callice, in Q Maries raign, being present at the death of Adam Damlip Martyr, bid the exetioner dispatch, saying, that he would not away till he saw the traytours heart out. Shortly after this Sr Rafe was slain, amongst others, in a skirmish at Bullein, and his heart cut out of his body [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. by the enemies: a terrible example to all mercilesse and bloudy men, &c. [illegible: 1 word] no cause was known, why they should use such indignation against him more then the rest, but that it is written, with what measure ye meat, it shall be measured to you again: B. Ridley told Steven Winchester, that it was the hand of God Ibid. 1232. that he was now in prison, because he had so troubled others in his time. And as he had inslamed so many good Martyrs, so he died miserably of an inflamation, that caused him to thrust out his tongue all swoln and black, as Archb. Arundell had died before [illegible: 1 word]. 1622. him. The Archbishop of Toures made suit for the erection of a Court, called Chambre [illegible: 1 word], wherein to condemn the Protestants to the fire. He was afterward striken with a disease called The fire of God, which began at his feet, and so ascended upward, Ibid 1911. that he caused one member after another to be cut off, and so did miserably. And there is mention made of one Christopher an unmercifull Courtier, who suffering a poor Lazar to die in a [illegible: 1 word] by him, did afterwards perish himself in a ditch. To return to Ibid. 1907. the present purpose, Laurentius Valla censured all that wrote before him, Erasmus comes after, and censures him as much: Beza findes as many faults with Erasmus, and not without cause, as appeareth by that one passage among many in his Annotations on Rom. 7. 21. I finde then a law, that when I would doe good, evil is present with me; Erasmus Originem secutus, scripsit Paulum hoc [illegible: 1 word] balbutire, quùm ipse potiùs ineptiat. Scaliger the Hyper-critick gives this absurd and unmannerlyScalig [illegible: 1 word] Poet cap 16. censure; Gothi belluae, Scoti non minus Angli perfidi, inslati, feri, contemptoris, stolidi, amentes, inertes, inhcspitales, immanes. The Gothes are beasts, so are the Scots. English men are perfidious, proud, fierce, foolish, mad-men, slow-bellies, inhospitall, barbarcus. Another comes after him, and saith, His bolt, you see is soon shot, and so you may happily guesse at the quality of [illegible: 1 word] Geog. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. the Archer. Tacitus speaks reproachfully of both Jews and Christians; [illegible: 3 words], [illegible: 2 words]; [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 3 words] appeliat. and is paid his own as well, both by Tertullian and [illegible: 1 word]. If men suffer in their good names, they may thank themselves, mostly. Contempt is a thing that mans nature is most impatient of: those that are given to slight and censure others, are punished with the common hatted of all. Imitation and retaliation are in all men naturally, as we may see in every childe. And that of Salomon is in this sense found most true; As in water face answereth to face; so doth the heart of a man to a man. None are so [illegible: 1 word] and censured, as those that are most censorious. The places they live in, groan for a vomit to spew them out.

Verse 3 And why beholdest thou] Here's the true method of preaching, by doctrine and vse, explication and application. [illegible: 1 word] must (as our Saviour in this text) bring hammers with their nails, Jer. 23. 29. and drive them into the very head, yea goad men to the quick, [illegible: 1 word]. 12. 11. that the peoples hearts may either break, as theirs, Act. 2. 37. or burst, as theirs, Act. 7. 54. A generall doctrine, not applyed, is as a sword without an edge, not in it selfe, but to us, through our singular sencelesnes: or, as a whole loaf set before children, that will do them no good: the bellows will be burnt in the fire, but the drosse remains still. A garment fitted for all bodyes, is fit for no body: and that which is [illegible: 2 words] quod siccum & [illegible: 1 word] est. [illegible: 1 word] anus [illegible: 1 word] vertit. spoken to all, is taken as spoken to none. The moat that is in thy brothers eye] The mote or straw: The word (beam) seems rather to have [illegible: 1 word] to a straw, then to a mote; And this is an evill desease that I have seen under the Sunne, that men (and those of the better sort sometimes) here nothing, talke of nothing so willingly, as they do of other mens [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 3 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. faults, Psal. 50. 20. thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, &c. There is no discourse that men will sit so long at, and be so taken with as this. The words of the tale-bearer are as [illegible: 1 word], and they go down to the bowels of the [illegible: 1 word]: Many are never well, longer [illegible: 1 word]. 18 8. then they are holding their fingers in other [illegible: 2 words], amplifying and aggravating their [illegible: 1 word] and failings, not onely most [illegible: 1 word], but almost tragically; not once mentioning their good parts and practises. These are like crows, that fasten onely upon carrion, Vultures ad [illegible: 2 words] feruntur. Basil. or the Horse-fly, that if he happen into a field that is [illegible: 1 word] so full of sweet flowers, yet if there be but a little filthy dung in it, his eye and sent is onely to that, and upon that onely will he light. [illegible: 4 words], [illegible: 1 word] non in fronte [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 1 word] habet. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 2 words] 14. David compareth such as these to the Aspe, that is quick of hearing but very ill sighted (having his eyes not in his forehead, but in his [illegible: 1 word]) weak but full of poison. Herein onely is the difference. That poison that Aspes vent to the hurt of others, they keep within them, without hurt unto themselves. But the malicious Non est [illegible: 3 words]; [illegible: 4 words] [illegible: 1 word]. censurer is his own worst enemy: for as he sets his mouth against heaven, and his tongue walketh thorow the earth Psal 73. 9. so by misjudging, (out of an inward hatred of another) all [illegible: 1 word] actions and intentions, he pulls upon himself, the hatred both of heaven and earth; for his trampling upon Gods jewels, because a little [illegible: 1 word]. God doth unwillingly see the faults of his children, Numb. 6. 23, 21. yea he passeth by their iniquity transgression and sinne, Micah 7. 18. with one breath both these are reported. The high-places were not removed, yet neverthelesse Asaes heart was perfect &c. So 1 Pet. 3. 6. compared with Gen. 18 12. Sarabs whole sentence was vile and profane: not one good word in it, but this, that she called her husband Lord. God of his goodnesse takes notice of that word, and records it, by St Peter, to her eternall commendation. He spyeth out and severeth gold, though but a dramme, from a messe of drosse; good grain, though but a handfull, from a heap of chaffe, cuts out that which is perisht, (as men do out of a rotten apple) and preserves the rest. Be ye [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. 2. therefore followers herein of God, as dear children: And walke [illegible: 1 word] Cor. 13 5. in love, &c. [illegible: 1 word] thinketh not evil, but beleeveth all things, hopeth all things, strains to hold a good opinion, where it hath least probability to induce it; rashly rejects none, in whom it seeth signes of grace: according to that of our Saviour, See that ye despise not [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], 10. one of these little ones, neither for errour in judgement, Rom. 14. 3. 10. nor for slips and infirmities in life and conversation, and that because God despiseth them not, but guards them by his [illegible: 1 word], vers. 10. and saveth them by his Sonne, whom he sent for the purpose, vers. 11. And 1 Thes. 1. 4. Knowing brethren beloved, your [illegible: 1 word] of God, viz. by your effectuall saith, laborius love, [illegible: 1 word] hope, vers. 3. although they were so compassed with [illegible: 2 words]. 3. [illegible: 1 word]. infirmities, as he doubted lest the Tempter had rempted them, and his labour had been in vain: he feared their utter Apostacy. So, Heb. 5. 10. he could not but be perswaded of them better [illegible: 1 word], and such as accompany salvation, though he had justly and sharply reproved them for their dulnesse of hearing, and slownesse of proceeding; [illegible: 2 words] before their eyes that terrour of the Lord upon Apostles, to quicken their pace, and excite them to proficiency. I am black [illegible: 1 word] the Church, but comely, as the tents of [illegible: 1 word] 1. 5. Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. The Kedarites dwelt in tents and open fields, where all was exposed to the parching Sunne in the [illegible: 1 word]; but in Arabias [illegible: 1 word], and they were very rich and glorious, (see Ezek. 27. 21. Jer. 49. 28, 29, Isa. 21. 13, 16, 17. full of precious jemms, gold, and pleasant odours. Arabia lookt [illegible: 1 word], yet by searching it regularly, there were to be found things of [illegible: 1 word] price. So is it with many of Gods people, especially [illegible: 1 word] the scorching heat of temptation, desertion, or outward affliction, &c. He that [illegible: 1 word] his own conjecture, may condemne a deer child of God, and approve a detestable heretick, as Philip did Simon Magus. If his eyes be too fast fixed either on the Saints infirmities or the hypocrites fair pretences. they may bring forth, as Jacobs sheep did, spotted fruits. But considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye] Most mens mindes are as ill set as their eyes: they can turne neither of them inwards. They tell us of a kinde of witches, that stirring abroad [illegible: 1 word] apud [illegible: 1 word]. would put on their eyes, but returning home, they boxed them up again. The Philosophers call upon us, to look to the hinder part of the wallet. And St James saith, Be not many [illegible: 1 word] Jam. 3. 1, 2. or teachers: and mark the reason, which he prescribeth as a remedy: For in many things we sinne all. Now those that in the sense of their own sinfulnesse are poore in spirit, will soon be meek and mercifull to their fellow sinners: they that have proved their ownGal. 6. 1, 2, 4. works, and found all to be (not good and very good, as God didJcr. 24. [illegible: 1 word]. his, but) naught and starke naught, as the figgs in Jeremy, will be content to bear one anothers burdens, and restore such as are overtaken in a fault with the spirit of meeknesse, considering themselves, lest they also be tempted. They will be as willing to lendErratis veniam [illegible: 2 words] par est. mercy now, as they may have need to borrow mercy another time. And consciousnesse of their own corruptions will make them compassionate towards others in this kinde. The [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. word, that signifieth to censure, signifieth also, and in the first place, [non-Latin text not transcribed] arguo, [illegible: 1 word] serior, post, [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. to be idle. Whereunto agreeth that of St Paul, (speaking of [illegible: 1 word] widdows,) they learn to be idle, wandring about from house to house: and not onely idle, but [illegible: 1 word] also and busy-bodies, speaking of things that they ought not. Those that travel not1 Tim. 5. [illegible: 1 word]. with their own hearts, have both leasure and list to be medling with others.

Verse 4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother &c.] How impudent are hypocriticall finde-faults, that can say such things to others, when themselves are most obnoxius? whence is this, but either from a secret desire of purchasing an opinion of freedome from the faults they so boldly censure in others, or that they may thereby the sooner insiouate and ingratiate with them they deal with? The Vulgar Translation reads here Frater sine, &c. Brother, [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 2 words]. let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, &c. [illegible: 1 word] lips and a wicked heart, are like a potsheard covered with silver [illegible: 2 words] 13. cap [illegible: 1 word] drosse. When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven [illegible: 1 word]. 26. [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. abhominations in his heart; but there lyes a great beam of hypocrisy between him and himself, that he cannot discern them. These are they, that by good words and fair speeches deceive the [illegible: 1 line] hearts of the simple, as the serpent did Eve. You would think, by their [illegible: 1 word], soothing hony-words, they were wholly set [illegible: 1 word] seeking your good: when they meerly serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, as those Popish flesh-flies. Faithfull are the wounds of a friend, (fair they are and pleasant, saith the Chaldee here) but the kisses of an enemy are [illegible: 1 word], as were those of Ioab to Amasa, and Iudas to Christ. [non-Latin text not transcribed] non [illegible: 1 word]. 27. 6. [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed], saith Philo. Love is not alwaies in a kisse: there are that [illegible: 1 word] and kill. David would not taste of their dainties, nor endure that [illegible: 1 word] should pouer upon him the [illegible: 1 word] oyntments (as at [illegible: 1 word] it was the custome among that people, Luke 7. 46.) [illegible: 1 word] if the [illegible: 1 word] smite him, he would take it for a singular [illegible: 1 word]. Let him reprove me, saith he, it shall be an excellent oyle, and [illegible: 3 words], [illegible: 1 word]. shall soak into me, as [illegible: 1 word] oyle doth into wooden [illegible: 1 word]. It shall [illegible: 1 word] break my head; my heart it may; and so make way for the [illegible: 1 word] of Gods grace which is not poured, save onely into broken [illegible: 1 word]: for [illegible: 1 word] whole [illegible: 1 word] are full [illegible: 1 word], and so this precious [illegible: 1 word] would run over, and be spilt on the ground, as Bernard [illegible: 2 words].

Verse 5. Thou hypocrite] This is a dull generation, and must [illegible: 1 line] be [illegible: 1 word] sharply or cuttingly, that they may be [illegible: 1 word] in the [illegible: 1 word]. And Ministers, by our Saviours example here, must learn, so [non-Latin text not transcribed]. to instruct, as to sharpen and set an edge upon the word, so as it [illegible: 1 line] may gore the [illegible: 1 word] consciences of their hearers with smarting [illegible: 1 word], that they may hear and fear, and God may heal them, [illegible: 1 word]. 13. 15. Christ turnes [illegible: 1 word] here to such, and bitterly [illegible: 1 word] against them, as elsewhere likewise he [illegible: 1 word], but [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. 23. of the Gospel, dragging them down to [illegible: 1 word] by a chain of eight [illegible: 2 words], as so man, links, and closing up all with that [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 1 word] serpents, ye generation of vipers, How [illegible: 3 words]. [illegible: 1 word] ye [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word] of hell? verse 33. and all to shew us, how such kinde of [illegible: 1 word] should be handled. As for those that are [illegible: 1 word] proud and [illegible: 1 word], that none dare declare their way to [illegible: 2 words], God will lay them in the slimy valleyes where are [illegible: 2 words] like them, and more shall come after them: [illegible: 2 words] they [illegible: 1 word] be brought forth to the day of wrath, and, [illegible: 1 line] [illegible: 3 words] they, here Ite Maledicti, go ye [illegible: 1 word], &c. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam, &c.] St James telleth us, that the [illegible: 1 word] from above is first [illegible: 1 word], and then peaceable, without judging without hypocrisy. And these two last are setIt was said of [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 2 words] a [illegible: 1 word], not [illegible: 1 word]. It [illegible: 1 word] as truly [illegible: 2 words] of the [illegible: 1 word]. He hates [illegible: 1 word] not sins These he [illegible: 1 word], those [illegible: 2 words]. Dike. Act. [illegible: 2 words] fol. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], to [illegible: 1 word] us, that the greatest censurers, are commonly, the [illegible: 2 words]; and as any one is more wise, he is more [illegible: 1 word] of his [illegible: 1 word]. Hence also St Peter, after he had said, Lay [illegible: 3 words], guil, hypocrisy, envy, addeth, and evil [illegible: 1 word]: to note, that censuring, and all other evils of the tongue, are gendred of any of the fore-mentioned. For wicked men are apt to [illegible: 1 word] as [illegible: 1 word] use; as the envious devil accused God to our first parents of envy; the covetous person thinkes all the world to be made of covetcusnesse. Caligula did not believe there was any chast person upon earth. And Bonner said to Mr [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word], I dare say that Cranmer would recant, if he might have his living again: so measuring him by himself. Those that have a blemish in their eye, think the skie to be ever cloudy: and such as are troubled with the [illegible: 1 word], see all things yellow: so do those that are [illegible: 1 word] with malice and hypocrisie, think all like themselves. Contrarily, Mary [illegible: 1 word] thought the gardiner should have had as much good-will to Christ as shee had. Little did Jacob suspect that Rachel had stole her fathers Idols: or the [illegible: 1 word], that Judas had harboured such a traytor in his heart, as [illegible: 1 word] against his Master. They rather suspected [illegible: 1 word] man himself then Iudas. And when our Saviour bad him, what thou doest, do Iohn 13 26. [illegible: 1 word], they thought he had meant of making provision, or giving something to the poor. Also when the woman poured the precious [illegible: 1 word] upon our Saviour, and Iudas [illegible: 1 word] the fat as a waste, though he did it because he was a thief, and cared not a pin for the poor, yet all the Disciples approved of what he said, and [illegible: 1 word]. 26. [illegible: 1 word]. are therefore made authors of his speech by one of [illegible: 2 words]; so little did they perceive his [illegible: 1 word] or his [illegible: 1 word]. True goodnesse is not [illegible: 1 word], censorious, quarellous. It is for an Esau to complain of his fathers store; Hast thou but one blessing? of his brothers subtilty; was he not rightly called Jacob? The godly man casts the [illegible: 1 word] stone at himself, and with Iacob [illegible: 1 word] out, I am not worthy Lord, the least of thy loving [illegible: 1 word]. Loe, I have [illegible: 1 word], and I have done wickedly, [illegible: 1 word] these [illegible: 1 word] what have they done? Let thine hand I pray thee be against me, &c. said2 Sam. 2. 7. David, when he was come to himself; who before this, when he had [illegible: 1 word] his conscience with the stain and sting of [illegible: 1 word], both [illegible: 2 words] fact of the cruel rich man (complained of by Nathan) with too much severity, even above the Law; and shortly Ibid. [illegible: 1 word]. 31. after tortured the miserable Ammonites without all mercy, putting them under saws, harrows, and axes of iron, and making them passe thorow the brick-kilne, &c. This he did before [illegible: 1 word] conscience was awaked out of that dead Lethargy (whereinto Satan had cast him) by the trumpet of the Law: before he was convinced of sinne by the sanctifying Spirit, and purged thereby from those pollutions he had [illegible: 1 word] wallowed in. But if God will but once more make him to hear of joy and gladnesse, [illegible: 1 word], 51. 8. 12, 13 that his broken bones may [illegible: 1 word]; if he will but restore unto him the joy of his salvation, and stablish him with his free Spirit, then, insteed of censuring, and setting against others, he will teach transgressours Gods waies, and sinners shall be converted unto him. He will no longer insult, but in meekness: instruct those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them (as he had done him) repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may awake [illegible: 1 word] of the [illegible: 1 word] of the devil, who (as the Ammonites were by David) are taken captive2 Tim. 2. 26. by him at his pleasure. Put them in minde, saith Paul, to speak Tit. 3. 2, 3. evil of no man. And why? For we our selves also (even I Paul, and thou Titus) were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, &c. and have yet still a world of work within doors about the discovering and [illegible: 1 word], the mortifying and mourning over our own unruly lusts, and unchristian practices. A fincere heart is ever most censorious and severe against it self. But it is set here by our Saviour, as a visible brand upon the face of the [illegible: 1 word], that as he is ever tampering and medling with other mens motes; so he never hath either leisure or pleasure to look into his own rotten heart, and rebellious courses. Galileus used [illegible: 2 words], to [illegible: 1 word] mountains in the Moon: so doe these to finde faults in those that are farre better then themselves; they can pierce beyond the Moon, and spy the least moat in the Sunne, the smallest infirmity in the most glorious Saint; yea, some errours and exorbitancies that never had any [illegible: 1 word] but in their imagination, detesting those sins in others that they [illegible: 1 word] in themselves. And then shalt thou see clearly, &c.] There is in every godly man an holy bashfulnesse, an ingenuous modesty, that he would be foully ashamed to charge others with those crimes, which [illegible: 2 words] allow in himself. Not so every profligate [illegible: 1 word], frontlesse Pharisee, censorious hypocrite. These think, belike, to binde [illegible: 1 word] their own bleeding souls with a palliate cure, as they call it, by goring very bloudily into other mens consciences, whereas they never yet purged their own. Thus dealt the Priests [illegible: 2 words]. and Elders with our Saviour, the false Apostles with Paul, Porphyry Iisdem [illegible: 2 words] & [illegible: 4 words]. Arch. [illegible: 1 word] in gravis. ques. In [illegible: 1 word] & vita sunt boni veraces in sermone, in [illegible: 3 words]: sed [illegible: 2 words] est [illegible: 1 word] & [illegible: 1 word]. Jacob. Lielensten. [illegible: 1 word]. (and others of the same brain) with the Primitive Christians, and the Papists with the Waldensis; whose freedom of speech, in blaming and reproving the dissolute manners, and actions of the Clergy, Effecit, ut plures [illegible: 2 words] iis [illegible: 1 word] a quibus [illegible: 2 words] alieni, saith [illegible: 1 word], was the cause that they were reported to be Manichees, Catharists, what not? And yet a certain Dominican was forced to confesse, that [illegible: 1 word] were good in their lives, true in their speeches, full of brotherly love one towards another, but their faith, saith he, is incorrigible, and as bad as may be. And why? but because they maintained, that the Pope was Antichrist, that the Court of Rome was intolerably corrupted, the Clergy debauched, &c. Novum [illegible: 1 word] Caie Caesar, &c. S. Paul was become the Galathians [illegible: 1 word], because he told them the truth, and so were these, the [illegible: 1 word]. There was found a certain Postiller, that meeting withOmnis vita [illegible: 2 words] est, & nihil bonum [illegible: 1 word] summo [illegible: 1 word]. this [illegible: 1 word] passage in S. Augustine. The whole life of [illegible: 1 word] is [illegible: 1 word]; neither is there any thing good without the chiefest good; [illegible: 1 word] est [illegible: 1 word] sententia, said he, This is a cruell sentence. This was a sinfull censure, say I, passed by a man that was never trulyAug. de vera innocen. cap. 56. humbled with the sight and sense of his own wicked and wretched [illegible: 1 word] by nature and practice; a stranger to himself, and therefore so uncharitable to another. It is not evil to marry, saith one, but good to be wary. So, it is not [illegible: 1 word] to reprove an [illegible: 1 word], but let a man take heed he hear not; Phisitian healthy self. [illegible: 1 word], Nihil [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 2 words]. first pull the beam out of thine own eye. The Apostle after he had given rules for reproving, Ephes. 5. 11, 12, 13. [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. 15. See that ye walk circumspectly, or exactly, that none may [illegible: 1 word] blame or blemish you, with any foul fault. Infirmities are [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 2 words] o [illegible: 4 words], qui [illegible: 5 words]. in the best, and will be, till they come to be the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12. 23. And this is a means to make them warn the [illegible: 1 word] with more feeling experience and compassion, Heb. 2. 17. But say they be [illegible: 1 word] of grosse sinnes (as these [illegible: 1 word]) though they should begin at home, and first cast out the beam of their own eye, yet if they speak according to Gods Word, and the thing be so indeed, hear them hardly, Matth. [illegible: 1 word]. 2, 3. [illegible: 1 word] by them. An Angel may speak in an [illegible: 1 word], and God by Balaam. The words doe but passe thorow him (as when [illegible: 1 word]. 13. [illegible: 1 word]. a man speaks [illegible: 1 word] a trunke) they are not polluted by him, because not his.

Verse 6. Give not that which is holy to dogs, &c.] Having [illegible: 4 words] [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. shew'd How, here our Saviour shews Whom we should [illegible: 1 word], Give not holy things, wholsome counsels or rebukes (called [illegible: 1 word] where reproofs of life, precious balms, excellent ointments, [illegible: 1 word] may [illegible: 1 word] a wound, but make none) to dogs, that will not [illegible: 2 words] by the [illegible: 1 word]; or swine, that if they light upon such a [illegible: 1 word], will only [illegible: 1 word]. and go their waies. Beware of dogs, beware of [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. evil workers, such especially [illegible: 2 words] wrought so hard, walked so [illegible: 1 word] and so [illegible: 1 word], that now they [illegible: 1 word] set down to rest in the seat of [illegible: 3 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. the [illegible: 1 word]. Beware of such botches; [illegible: 1 word] no good to be [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. done upon [illegible: 1 word], or to be gotten by them, but a great deal of danger. The [illegible: 1 word] admonished all they met; if men [illegible: 1 word] not [illegible: 1 word], they connted it an easie losse, to cast away a few words upon [illegible: 1 word]. But our Saviour prescribeth us prudence and caution. He will not have holy [illegible: 1 word] spent and [illegible: 1 word] upon [illegible: 1 word], his pearls trampled on by swinish [illegible: 1 word]. Mourn weJer. 9 1. may, with Jeremy for such mad dogs, as [illegible: 1 word] flee in the face of them that fairly tell them of their faults. Pray we must and [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] So [illegible: 3 words]. pity such [illegible: 1 word] swine, such [illegible: 1 word] and scurrilous wretches, as grunt against goodnesse, and feed insatiably upon the garbage of carnall contentments. As dogs and swine were unclean creatures and unfit for [illegible: 1 word]; so are those for admonition, that would entertain it with cruelty [illegible: 2 words]. Speak not in the ears of [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 9. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], saith Solomon, for he will despise the wisdome of thy words. And again, [illegible: 1 word] not a scorner, lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man, and he will love [illegible: 1 word]. David praies for a friendly reprover, Psal. 141. [illegible: 1 word] 13. 23. [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 5. Job [illegible: 1 word], Make me to know my transgression, and my sinne Hezekiah [illegible: 2 words] at that sharp and sad message. Jonah, though tetchy enough, laies his hand upon [illegible: 1 word] mouth, and seals up his prophecy with [illegible: 1 word] after Gods [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 2 words] licet [illegible: 1 word] perstricta. The Virgin Mary held her peace, Joh. 2. 5. when her sonne took her up so [illegible: 1 word] for her [illegible: 1 word], afore [illegible: 2 words] company: So did S. Peter, when S. Paul took him up for [illegible: 1 word] at [illegible: 1 word], Gal. 2. 14. and commendeth that Epistle, [illegible: 1 word] S. Paul had witnessed that reproof, among the rest, 2 Pet. 3. 16. The two Disciples going to Emaus constrained that [illegible: 2 words]. stranger, that had chidden them for their unbelief, to abide and eat with them. And luke warm Laodicea, so roundly reproved, and [illegible: 2 words] with shamefull spewing out, repented, and was reformed; as some ground and gather from that title our [illegible: 1 word] assumes in the Preface to the Epistle, The beginning of the Creation of God. Eusebius also testifieth, that there was a [illegible: 1 word] Post tam [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed] haud [illegible: 1 word] resipuit. [illegible: 1 word]. Church there in his daies. Next to the not deserving of a reproof, is the well taking of it. No suggar can bereave a pill of his [illegible: 1 word]. None but the gracious can say, Let the righteous smite me. Bees only passe by Roses and violets, and sit upon Thyme, which is hot and biting. Most men, when we seek to fetch them [illegible: 1 word] of their sins, to awaken them out of the snare of the devil, they [illegible: 1 word] and snarl, as [illegible: 1 word] that are wakened out of sleep are apt to do. They snuf and take scorn, are as horse and mule, untameable, untractable, the more you rub their galled backs, the more they kick. These stray-asses will not be brought home, Exod 23. 45. These old bottles will break with such new wine: The more you touch these toads, the more they swell: the more you meddle with these serpents, the more they gather poison to spit at you. Go about to cool them, you shall but adde to their heat, as the Smiths forgefries, when cold water is cast upon it; and as hot water, if stirred, casteth up the more fume. Joseph [illegible: 1 word] for his good will in this kinde, hated of his brethren: [illegible: 1 word] of Saul, who cast a javelin at him: Micaiah of [illegible: 1 word], Amos of Amaziah, Jeremy of his [illegible: 1 word] Countrey-men, Christ of the Jews, Paul of the Galathians, Iohn Baptist of Herod. If [illegible: 2 words] his white sin (and who will stand still to have his eyes pickt [illegible: 1 word]) Iohn must to prison. In other things he will dance [illegible: 1 word] Iohns pipe; but if his incest be medled with, Iohn must hop [illegible: 2 words]. Say to wrest that string in tune, and it will snap, and break upon you. Now for such scoffing Ishmaels and furious [illegible: 1 word], that refuse to be [illegible: 1 word], hate to be healed, let them read their doom, Psal. 50. 21, 22. and see [illegible: 1 word] their destiny. Every good man is [illegible: 3 words] to passe by them as incorrigible, [illegible: 1 word], and not to [illegible: 1 word] them so much as a pull out of the fire, so much as a [illegible: 1 word] to prevent those curses [illegible: 1 word] are comming upon them. [illegible: 1 word] he that is [illegible: 1 word], muse be [illegible: 1 word] still; he must wallow as [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 2 words] in his own corruptions; he must rage [illegible: 1 word] mad dog, [illegible: 1 word] run on to the pit of hell, no body must offer to stop [illegible: 2 words] him in his [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 7. Ask and it shall be given you, &c.] Whereas it might be objected, These are hard lessons, neither know we how to quit our selves in the discharge of them. Our Saviour answers, as Esay did before him, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, [illegible: 1 word]. 55. 6. call ye upon him whiles he is neer: and as S James adviseth after him:Jam. 1 5. If any man want wisdom, let him ask [illegible: 1 word] of God. Ask saith he, and it shall be given you. Run to the great Doctour of the [illegible: 1 word], as Agur did to Ithiel and Ucal, Prov. 30. 1. and he will teach you: seek his face and favour, and ye shall surely finde it; Knock at the beautifull gate of Heaven with the hand of faith, and itAct. 12. shall open unto you (as the Iron gate did to Peter,) of its one accord. Elishaes staffe was laid (by his appointment) upon the dead childes face, but [illegible: 1 word] was neither voice nor hearing. He went therefore himself, and shut the door upon them twain, and 2 King. 4 31, 33. praied unto the Lord. This staffe he knew was long enough to reach up to heaven, to knock at those gates, yea to wrench them open. Ask therefore that your joy may be full. Hitherto ye have asked me nothing, saith Christ, disliking our dulnesse to this duty. Quidest cur nihil petis? pete [illegible: 1 word] privatus, de me queraris; said [illegible: 1 word]. in [illegible: 2 words]. Severus the Emperour to his Courtiers, What meanest thou to ask nothing of me? Ask, that thou maiest have no cause of complaint against me. And Pope Nicolas the fifth (a great favourer of learning) When he was told of some in Rome that made good verses: They cannot be good Poets, said he, and I not know them. Why come they not to me, if good, Qui Poetis etiam [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 1 word]. pateo, Who am a friend to Poets, though not so good? [illegible: 1 word] so iciteth sutours, and the Father seeketh such to worship him, Joh. 4. 23. not for any thing he gets by it, but meerly for our benefit: as the Sun draws up vapours from the earth, not for it self, but to moisten and fatten the earth therewith. And although he come not ever at first call, yet be not discouraged with silence or sad answers. He is neerest to such sutours as with Mary, cannot see him for their teats and griefs: if, with her, they continue to seek him in humility, If they rest not rapping and bouncing at his gates, he will open unto them, for their importunity, Luk. 18. 5, 7. The Saints [illegible: 1 word] have present audience, as Eleazer, Gen. 24. 15. Daniel, Chap. 9. 23. The Disciples, Act. 4. 31. And [illegible: 1 word], who came leaping out of his [illegible: 1 word], with Vicimus, Vicimus in his [illegible: 1 word]. But what if they have not? far be it from them, to think that God is asleep, or gone a journey, as the Prophet jeareth at Baal: or that he wanteth ears, as the Image of Jupiter did [illegible: 3 words] imago. auribus carens. Plut. at Creet. [illegible: 1 word] he that bids us ask, meaneth to give: as when we bid our children say. I pray you father give me such a thing: We doe it not but when we mean to give it them. If he deferre help, let it humble us, as it did David, Psal. 22. I cry in [illegible: 1 word] day time, but [illegible: 1 word] hearest not, &c. But thou art holy, &c. Others have praied and sped, Our fathers trusted in thee, they cryed unto Psal. 22. [illegible: 1 word]. 3, 4, 5, 6. [illegible: 1 word] and were delivered: But I am a worme and no man, yet will I call upon him (not onely in my sinking, but) from the bottom of the deeps. Let it also quicken us to further fervency, as it did2 Cor. 12. S. Paul, and the Church, Psal. 80. 3, 7, 19. never giving over theLuk. 18. 11. fuit (with the importunate widdow,) till we have obtained it. He that prayeth, moveth God, not as an [illegible: 1 word] moveth hearers, but as a childe, his father. The end of oratory, is to speak perswasively, not alwaies to perswade: but the end of prayer is to prevail, and speed; Ye which are Gods remembrancers, giveIsa. 62. 7. [illegible: 1 word] no rest, till ye have what ye beg. Ask, scek, knock: use anIt shews instantissimam necessitatem. unwearied importunity: slip not any opportunity, pray without [illegible: 1 word], pray continually: set aside all for prayer, wait upon it,Aug. (as the word signifieth) Col. 4. 2. with Act. 10. 7. But must we [non-Latin text not transcribed] Colol. 4. 2. never leave praying? (may some say) till we have our request granted? there are other things to be done? True: and you must give over the words of prayer for a season, but never the suit ofRom. 12. 12. praier. A begger (for example) comes to a rich mans gate, and triesOb. Sol. for an alms, but none there answers him. He being a poor man, hath something else to doe, then to beg: and therefore he sits him down, and knits or knocks, or patcheth, &c. and betwixt whiles, beggs and works, works and beggs. So should we, follow our necessary businesse, and yet continue our suit for grace. And the rather, because beggers hold out to ask, where yet, they have no promise it shall be given them: nay when (many times) they are frowned upon, threatned, punished for begging. And whereas beggers come no neerer house, then the porch or entry, and so know not whether the master of the house be providing for them an alms or a cud gell. All Gods petitioners, that call upon him in truth, are admitted into the parlour, as I may so say, into Gods speciall presence. An hypocrite shall not [illegible: 1 word] before him, Job 13. 16. Bat the upright shall dwell in his presence, Psal. 140. 13. He hideth not his face from such, but when they cry, he [illegible: 1 word], Psal. [illegible: 1 word]. 24. And it shall be given you] It is not said what shall be given, because the gift is above all name, saith Austin. Like as Amos 4. 12. Thus will I doe unto thee: Thus? how? Non nominat mala, ut omnia timeant, saith [illegible: 1 word] out of Hierom: No evil is named, that they may fear all.

Verse 8. For every one that asketh receiveth, &c.] And he is worthily miserable, that will not be happy for asking. Praier (saith Lambert the Martyr) is in Scripture much commended, and many great and unmeasurable benefits are shewed to [illegible: 1 word]: [illegible: 3 words]. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. thereupon, that men should the more lustily give themselves thereunto. Thus Jacob wrestling with God, both by might and [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word], (as the word signifieth) both by the strength of his body, and force of his faith, he grounded his praier upon Gods gracious [illegible: 1 word]; which he rolls as sugar in his [illegible: 1 word], and repeats it again [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. and again. See the same course taken, 2 Sam. 7. 25. 1 King. 8. 25. &c. Dan. 9. 2, 3, Psal. 12. 5, 6, 7. Act. 4. 25, &c. Cast [illegible: 1 word] of hope in the darkest desertion, wait for day, and pray, as those in the shipwrack, Act. 27. pleading that precious [illegible: 1 word], Isa. 50. 10. This help if we use not, we shall either pray [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 2 words] without fire: or, as the Pharisee, proudly, or as the Thessalonians, as men without hope: which is to deny our own praiers. He cannot possibly be poor, that can pray in faith: because God is rich to all such, Rom. 10. 12. and giveth [illegible: 1 word] to such as so ask, Jam. 1. 5. Never did the hand of faith [non-Latin text not transcribed]. knock in vain at Gods gate. The AEdiles (or Chamberlains) amongst the Romans, had ever their doors standing open, for all that had occasion of request or complaint, to have free accesse to [illegible: 1 word]. Gods mercy-doors are wide open to the praiers of his [illegible: 1 word] people. The Persian Kings held it a [illegible: 1 word] of their silly glory, to deny an easy accesse to their greatest Subjects. It was death to sollicite them uncalled. [illegible: 1 word] her self was afraid. But the King of heaven manifesteth himself to his people, Joh. 14. 21. calls to his spouse, with, Let me see thy face, let me hear thy voice, [illegible: 1 word] 1. 14. &c. and assigneth her negligence herein, as the cause of her [illegible: 1 word], The door of the Tabernacle was not of any hard or debarring matter, but a veil; which is easily [illegible: 1 word]. And whereas in the Temple none came neer to worship, but onely the high-Priest, others stood without in the outer-Court; Gods [illegible: 1 word] are now a [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word], and are [illegible: 1 word] to worship in the [illegible: 1 word], and [illegible: 1 word] the Alter, Rev. 11. 1. Let us therefore draw neer with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; Let us comeHeb. 10. 22. boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, andHeb. 4 16. finde grace to help in time of need.

Verse 9, 10. Or, what man is there of you, whom if his sonne ask [illegible: 1 word]. 1. 6. [illegible: 1 word], &c.] By an argument from the lesse to the greater. Our [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 1 word]: sententijs [illegible: 2 words]. Saviour [illegible: 2 words] what he had said; that we may ask in faith, nothing wavering, or being at an uncertainty, or at variance with himself, doubting whether he should believe or not.Budaeus in Cō. This is no lesse unpleasing to God, then vnprofitable to us. God is the Father of all mercies, and loveth his, farre more then any naturall father doth his own childe; then Abraham did Isaack, or David Absolom. And according to his affections, such are his expressions: for as he knoweth their needs, so he gives them all things richly to enjoy. He giveth them not, as he doth the1 Tim. 6. 18. wicked, panem [illegible: 1 word], a stone for bread: he feeds them not Alterâ mann fert lapidem, altera panem [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. Gen. 47. 12. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Say the [illegible: 1 word]: whereunto our Saviour seems to allude. (as we say) with a bit and a knock. He puts not into their hands. [non-Latin text not transcribed], (as the Greek proverb hath it, whereunto [illegible: 1 word] Saviour here alludeth) for a fish a scorpion: No, he feedeth them with the finest wheat, Psal. 81. 16. and filleth them with fat things [illegible: 1 word] of marrow, Isa. 25. 6. He nourisheth them with the best, as Joseph did his fathers houshold in Egypt, according to the mouth of the little ones, or as so many little ones (saith the Originall) tenderly and lovingly without their care or labour. And whereas some naturall parents have (monstrously) provedLuk. 12. 42. unnaturall; as Saul to Ionathan, and those [non-Latin text not transcribed], Rom. 1. 31. Not so God: as himself is an everlasting father, Isa. 9. 6. So is his [illegible: 1 word], Isa. 49. 14. Ioh. 13. 1. Men may hate their children whom they loved: but he rests in his love, Zeph. 3. 17. they may cast outPsal. 27. [illegible: 1 word] babes, but he gathers them. Father Abraham may forget us, and Israel disown us, Isa. 63. 16. But thou O Lord art our never-failing Father, our Redeemer, &c. The fathers and governours of the Church, may (out of an over-flow of their misguided zeal,) cast us [illegible: 1 word], and for a pretence, say, Let the Lord be glorified. But then shall he appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed, Isa. 66. 5. The fathers of our flesh [illegible: 1 word] their children after their own [illegible: 1 word]: but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinesse. Heb. 12. 20. He feeds his people sometimes with the bread of adversity, and the Ier. 30. 20, water of affliction: or gives them (as it were) a thump on the backPsal. [illegible: 1 word]. 9. with a stone, to drive them downwards, and makes them eatEzek. 12. 18. ashes for bread, as David; their bread with quaking, as [illegible: 1 word] did: holds them to hard meat (some of the Martyrs were fed with bread made, most part, of saw-dust, and [illegible: 1 word] with bread [illegible: 1 word] 4. 15. prepared with cow-[illegible: 1 word]) He chasteneth them also, other-whiles, not only with the rods of men, but with the severe discipline of scorpions: and this seemeth not, for the present, to be joyous but grievous: Neverthelesse, afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse, to them that are thereby exercised. They shallHeb. 12. 11. sit down with Abrahram, yea in Abrahams bosome (as they used to lean at feasts) in the Kingdom of heaven: and shall have (not a Benjamins [illegible: 1 word] only, but) a royall diet as Ieconiah had, everyMatth. 8. 11. day a portion. Then shall the Lord stand forth, and say to those [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 34. men of his hand, who had their portion here, and whose bellies he filled with his hid treasure. (The Inne-keeper gives the best bits to his guests, but reserves the patrimony for his children) Behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry, &c. Isa. 65. 13.

Verse 11. If ye then being evil] Even ye my Disciples also: [non-Latin text not transcribed] Never a [illegible: 1 word] better [illegible: 1 word]. For by nature there is never a better of us. But as the historian [illegible: 1 word], that there were many Marij in one Caesar, so there are many Cains and Judasses in the [illegible: 1 word] of us all. Homo est inversus decalogus, saith one: whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil; [illegible: 1 word] in the devil, whose works (even in the best of his Saints) ChristThe [illegible: 1 word] Cretians before conversion were lyers, evil [illegible: 1 word], &c. [illegible: 1 word] must be [illegible: 1 word] rebuked that they may [illegible: 2 words] in the [illegible: 1 word]. came to destroy; to dissolve the old frame, and to drive out the Prince of darknesse, who hath there entrencht himself. And although sinne in the Saints hath received its deaths-wound, yet are there still in the best, [illegible: 1 word] stirrings, and spruntings thereof (as in dying creatures it useth to be) which (without Gods greater grace, and the countermotion of the holy Spirit within them) would certainly produce most shamefull evils. This put S. Paul to that pittifull outcry, Rom. 7. 24. and made him exhort [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] 1. [illegible: 1 word]. (though he were a young man rarely mortified) to exhort [non-Latin text not transcribed] 1 [illegible: 1 word]. 5. [illegible: 1 word]. the younger women with all [illegible: 1 word], or chastity; intimating, that, thorough the corruption of his nature, even whilst he was exhorting them to chastity, some unchast motions might steal upon him unawares. A tree may have withered branches, by reason of some deadly blow given to the root, and yet there may remain some sap within, which will bud and blossome forth again. Or, as if some wilde fig-tree, saith a Father, that grows in the walls of a goodly building, and hides the beauty of it, the boughs and branches may [illegible: 1 word] cut or broken of, but the root, which is wrapped into the stones of the building, cannot be taken away, till the walls be thrown down, and the stones cast one from another: So sinne that dwelleth in us, hath its roots so inwrapped and intertwined in our natures, that it can never be utterly [illegible: 1 word]; but pride will bud, Ezek. 7. 10. and the fruits of the flesh will be manifest, though we be daily loppingGal. 5. 19. off the branches, and labouring also at the root. Sinne is an inmate, that will not out, doe what we can, till the house fall upon the head of it; an hereditary disease, and that, which is bred in the bone, will never out of the flesh; a pestilent Hydra, somewhat akin to those beasts in Daniel, that had their dominion taken away, yet were their lives prolonged for a time, and a season. [illegible: 1 word]. 7. 12. How much more will your father which is in Heaven give good things] Give the holy Spirit saith S. Luke: for Nihil bonum Luk. 11. 13. sine summo bono, saith S. Austin, when God gives his Spirit, he gives all good things, and that which is more then all besides. For it is a Spirit of judgement and of burning, of grace and of deprecation,Isa. 4. 4. Zech. 12. 10. of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, of strengthIsa. 11. 2. and of might, enabling both to resist evil of sinne, and to endure evil of sorrow. And for good things, temporall, to trample on them; spirituall, to reach after them. It is a free spirit, setting a2 Cor. 3. 17. man at liberty from the tyranny of sin, and terrour of wrath; and oyling his joints, that he may be active and abundant in the Lords worke. This holy spirit is signified by those two golden pipes, Zech. 4. through which the two Olive-branches, the [illegible: 1 word], empty out of [illegible: 1 word] the golden oyles of all precious graces into the candle-stick, the Church. And how great a favour it is to have the holy Spirit [illegible: 1 word] inhabitant: See Joel 2. where, after God had promised the former and latter rain, floores full of wheat, and [illegible: 1 word] full of wine and oyl, a confluence of all outward comforts and contentments; he adds this as more then all the rest, I will also Ioel [illegible: 1 word]. 23, 28. [illegible: 1 word] out my spirit upon all [illegible: 1 word]. He will pour out, not drop downPsal 51. only sparingly and pinchingly as some penny-father, but pour [illegible: 1 word] carni [illegible: 1 word], i. res praest antissima rei plane fragili, & caducae: quam tamen [illegible: 3 words] spiritus. sui munere. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], like a liberall housholder, as it were, by pailes or bucket-fulls. And what? my spirit, that noble spirit, as David calleth it, that comforter, counsellour, conduit into the land of the living. And upon whom? upon all [illegible: 1 word]: spirit upon flesh, so brave a thing upon so base a subject. Next to the love of Christ in dwelling in our nature, we may well wonder at the love of the holy Ghost that will dwell in our defiled souls; that this spirit of glory and of God will dain to rest upon us, [illegible: 1 word] the cloud did upon the Tabernacle. How glad was Lot of the Angels, Micha of the Levite, Elizabeth of the mother of her Lord, Lydia of Paul, Zacheus 1 Pet. 4. 14. of Christ, Obed-Edom of the Ark? And shall not we be as joyfull and thankfull for the holy Spirit, whereby we are sealed (as merchants [illegible: 1 word]. 4. 30. set their seals upon their wares, unto the day of redemption. If David for outward benefits brake out into, What is man that thou art mindefull of him? and Iob, for fatherly chastisements, [illegible: 2 words] 4. [illegible: 1 word] 7. [illegible: 1 word]. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him &c? how should this best gift of his holy Spirit affect and ravish us? sith thereby all mercies are seasoned, and all crosses sanctified; neither can any man say (experimentally and savingly) that Iesus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost. 1 [illegible: 1 word]. 12. [illegible: 1 word] Give good things to them that aske him] sc. If they aske in faith, bring honest hearts, and lawfull petitions, and can weight Gods leisure. Let none say here, as the Prophet in another case, I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought: I haveIsa. 49. prayed and sped not, the more I pray, the worse its with me. The manner of our usage here in prison doth change (saith B. Ridley in Act and Mon. fol. [illegible: 1 word]. a [illegible: 1 word] to Bradford) as sowr ale doth in summer: and yet who doubts but they praid earn and earnestly, when they were in Bocardo, that Colledge of Quondams, when those Bishops were there prisoners? God is neither unmindfull nor unfaithfull, but waits the fittest time to [illegible: 1 word] mercy, and will surely avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear Luk. [illegible: 1 word]. 7. [illegible: 1 word] with them. The seed must have a time to grow downward, before it grows upward: And as that seed which is longest covered, riseth the first, with most increase: so those prayers which seem lost, are laid up in heaven, and will prove the surest grain: the more we sowe of them into Gods bosom, the more fruit and comfort we shall reap and receive in our greatest need.

Verse 12. Therefore all things what soever ye would &c.] q. d. To winde up all in a word (for it would be too tedious to set down each particular [illegible: 1 word];) let this serve for a generall rule of direction in common conversation, and mutuall interdealings one with another: whatsoever ye would that men should doe to you, [illegible: 1 word] ye [illegible: 1 word] so to them. This is the royall Law, the standard of all [illegible: 1 word] in this kinde, a [illegible: 1 word] weight and rule, according to which we must converse with all men. Severus the Emperour had this sentence of our Saviour often in his mouth; and commanded it to be proclaimed by the Cryer, whensoever he punished such of his souldiers as had [illegible: 1 word] injury to others: For there is no doubt (saith Mr Calvin upon this text) but that perfect right should rule amongst us, were we but as faithfull disciples of active charity (if we may so speak) as we are acute Doctours of passive; did we but love our neighbour as our self. Charity (tis true) begins at home in regard of order, but not in regard of time: for so soon as thou [illegible: 1 word] to love thy self, thou must love thy neighbour as thy self; neither may any man at any time hide his eyes from his own flesh, that is from his neighbour, of the same stockIsa. 58 7., with himself. For this is the law and the Prophets.] i. e. This is as much as either of them have said touching love to our neighbour. Yea, this is the summe of all that Christ and the Apostles have spoken of it: For love (that seeketh not her own things) is both the complement 1 Cor. 13. 5. of the Law, and the supplement of the Gospel. Rom. 13. 8, 10. Gal. 5. 14. Ioh. 15. 12. & v. 14. Christ maketh love to our brethren, the same with keeping the Commandments. So Acts 15. 20. St [illegible: 1 word] in that sacred Synod gives this suffrage, to lay upon the [illegible: 1 word] Gentiles, no greater burden then these necessary things: that they abstain from pollutions of Idols, and from fornication, from [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] in loc. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. things strangled, and from bloud: And in certain ancient [illegible: 1 word], as also by Irenaeus and Cyprian, it is added, and what thing soever ye would not, that others should doe to you, that ye doe not the same to them. Timothy naturally cared for the Philippians, which was rare, Phillip. 2. 20. 22. So should all Christians [illegible: 1 word] for another, Gal. 5. 13. 1 Cor. 10. 24. Rom. 15. 1, 2. Self-lovers begin the black bed-role, 2 Tim. 3, 2.

Verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate] Our Saviour havingTruth may [illegible: 3 words] by the [illegible: 1 word] hitherto pointed out the right way of well-doing, and shew'd how to steere a straight course to the haven of happinesse; now gives warning of certain dangerous rocks (against the which divers have dashed, to their utter destruction, and are therefore) carefully to [illegible: 5 words] be declined. Of these, the first he nameth is, the following of a multitude to do evil, the joyning hand in hand with the rude rable that are running apace toward the pit of perdition, which is but a little before them; the doing as most men do, which is to be [illegible: 1 word] undone for ever. The wicked (though never so many of [illegible: 1 word]. 9. 17. [illegible: 1 word]) goe [illegible: 1 word] to hell, and whole nations that forget God: Hence Per [illegible: 2 words] ne [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. the gate thereto is grown so wide, and the way so well-beaten. But none that goe that way returne again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. Enter therefore in at the streight gate, saith our Saviour. Vive ut pauci, &c. Live as those few live that enterIn epist. into life eternall, saith Cassianus: for if you will needs imitate theSi [illegible: 1 word] imitari [illegible: 1 word], inter [illegible: 1 word] angustam viam [illegible: 3 words]. multitude, saith Austin, ye shall not be numbred among the living in Jerusalem, Isa. 4 3, 4. Save your selves from this untoward generation, saith St Peter, shine amidst them, as lamps, saith St Paul, as Abrahams lamp that shone out in the smoaky furnace, as the wise-mens star, that shewed it self in the midst ofAug. darknesse, like the moon that holds on her course, though the dogs bark at her never so long, never so loud; like the Sun that rejoycethPlin. as a bride-groom to run his race, though the Alantes (a certain people) curse him at his rising, because scorched with his heat:1 Pet. 1. 5. with [illegible: 2 words]. 3. 3. & 2 Tim. 3. 1, [illegible: 1 word]. Hos. [illegible: 1 word]. 13. Argumentum [illegible: 1 word] est turba. Sen. Esa. 6. [illegible: 1 word]. [non-Latin text not transcribed], Cosos. 2. [illegible: 1 word]. Or rather like God himself, who then doth his best works, when men are at worst, overcoming our evill with his good, and not suffering mens perversnes to interrupt the course of his [illegible: 1 word]. Swim not down the stream of the times as dead fishes doe; neither be carried along by the swinge and sway of the place you dwell in. Let not your lips be polluted by living among a people of polluted lips, with Esay, swear not with Ioseph, curse not with Peter, comply not with the common sort, learn not the manners of the mad multitude. The worse they are, the better be you; the more outragious they, the more couragious you, violent for heaven, and valiant for the truth; therefore walking exactly, and therefore [illegible: 1 word] the time because the daies are evil, and most men walk at all adventures. To walk with God (saith Bishop Babington) isLevit. 26 In Gen. 6. 8. a pretious praise, though none do it but my selfe: and to walk with man, with the world, with a town or parish in wicked wayes, is a deadly sin, though millions do it besides. And, it matters not (said Numerus [illegible: 1 word] non [illegible: 1 word], ubi [illegible: 1 word] pietas, nec [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 2 words] impiet as, [illegible: 1 word] epist. ad [illegible: 1 word] Imp. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 2. [illegible: 1 word] Nicolas Bishop of Rome) how small the number be, if godly, nor how great, if ungodly. Noah condemned a world of wicked people, by his contrary courses, and became heir of the [illegible: 1 word] which is by faith, Heb. 1 1 7. whilest he continued righteous, even in his generation, and kept himself unspotted in so foul a season. The Apostle telleth us, that to live according to the common course of the world, is no better then to be acted and agitated by the devill. But God hath promised to take this unclean spirit out of the land, Zech. 13. 2. Fiat, Fiat. And when Christ bids us Enter in at the straight gate, we must know that his words are operative, to cause us to enter, as when he said, Lazarus come forth, and in the creation, Let there be [illegible: 1 word]. His word and Spirit go together. He works all our works for us, Isaiah 26.

Verse 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, &c.] In Lollards tower, passing through six or seven doors I came to my lodging (saith Philpot Martyr) through many straits: where I called to remembrance, that strait is the way to heaven. Act. and [illegible: 1 word]. fol 1 46. The old copies read Oh how strait is the gate! by way of admiration, q. d. It is wondrous strait. Not of it selfe, for Christs yoke [non-Latin text not transcribed] i e. [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 2 words], [non-Latin text not transcribed] is easy, and his burden light: but we make it so hard and heavy to our selves, by our singular peevishnesse and perversnesse. Besides, the Prince of darknesse and his black guard favour this way, that is called holy, as little as the Philistim-Princes did David, yeasaith the [illegible: 1 word]. they persecute it to the death, as Saul did, Act 9. Hence the way to heaven is an afflicted way, a perplexed, persecuted way, crusht Non quia dura, sed [illegible: 1 word] molles [illegible: 1 word]. close together with crosses (as the word importeth) as was the Israelites way in the wildernesse, or that of Ionathan and his armour-bearer, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Pressa: res enim compressione fiunt [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. manibus pedibus que obnixe omnia facere. that had a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other. And, whilst they crept upon all four, flinty stones were under them, briers and thornes on either hand of them, mountaines, crags and promontories over them, sic petitur caelum, so heaven is caught, by pains, by patience, by violence, affliction being our unseparable companion. The crosse-way is the high-[illegible: 1 word] to heaven, said that Martyr. And another, If there Terent. be any way to heaven on horse-back, it is by the crosse. Q. Elizabeth Act. and Mon. is said to have swum to the crown, through a sea of sorrows.Engl. Elisab. They that will to heaven, must sail by hell gates. They that will have Knight-hood, must kneel for it: and they that will get in at [non-Latin text not transcribed]. the strait gate, must croud for it. Strive to enter in at the streight [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 1. gate, saith our Saviour. Strive and strain even to an agony (as the word signifieth.) Heaven is compared to a hill; Hell to a [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. hole. To hell a man may go without a staff (as we say:) the way thereto is easy, steep, strawed with roses. 'Tis but a yeelding to Sathan, a passing from sinne to sinne, from evill purposes to evil practises, from practise to custom, &c. Sed revocare gradum, but to turne short again, and make straight steps to our feet, thatBradford. we may force through this strait gate, (so strait that as few can walk in it, so none can halt in it, but must needs go upright,) [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. labor, hoc opus est, opus non pulvinaris sed pulveris, this is a workThere must [illegible: 1 word] both stooping and [illegible: 1 word]. of great pains, a duty of no small difficulty. Many I say unto you, shall seek to enter, but seeking serves not turn: men must strive, and strive lawfully; run, and run lustily, tug and take pairs till they sweat and faint, to get through this strait gate, this perplext way, as unpleasant to nature, as the way to Niniveh was to Ionas, as rough and rugged as that was to the Church, Hos. 2 6. as little traced and trod, as the high-[illegible: 1 word] to Sion-hill, which were over-grown with grasse, because few or none cameLam. 1. to the solemn feasts. And few there be that finde it] So hard is it to hit, and as dangerous to [illegible: 1 word]. Many by-waies there are (these are so many highwayes to [illegible: 1 word]) [illegible: 1 word] false-guides and back-biasses not a few, to divert us. The devil with his false directions leading men hoodwinkt to hell, as Elisha did the Syrians to Samaria. The world [illegible: 2 words]. with it's allurements and affrightments: Oh how hardly scape we through the corruptions that are in the world through lust! 2 Pet. 1. 7. Our own hearts, how heavy are they to be drawn this way! a bear comes not so [illegible: 1 word] to the stake. It goes hard with a man when he must peremptorily deny himself; when he must deny [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. 2. [illegible: 1 word]. all ungodlinesse and werldly lusts, as dear unto him as himself, and be [illegible: 1 word] to live holily, righteously and soberly in this present world; making conscience of those duties which the most mens hearts rise at, as to be hot in religion, servent in spirit, precise in his whole course, conscientious and cautelous of the least sin &c. Heaven is a stately pallace, with a narrow portall, hence so few enter it. The proud man with his high looks cannot stoope to it. The ambitious with his aspiring thoughts cannot bend to it. The malicious is swollen too big for it. The covetous with his load of [illegible: 1 word] clay cannot get through it. The drunkard with his rotten lungs: the adulterer with his wasted loines, can have no admittance into it. There can in no wise enter any thing filthy, or loathsome, [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 5 words] [non-Latin text not transcribed], [illegible: 1 word]. abhominable, or detestable, which a man would abhorre for the ill savour, (as the word signifieth, Reve. 21. 27.) such as for the basenesse thereof cannot be [illegible: 1 word] named, it is so noysome to the [illegible: 1 word]. Assoon may [illegible: 1 word] men finde [illegible: 1 word] swimming in a wood, [illegible: 1 word]-trees growing in the sea, heaven in hell, as enter into the [illegible: 1 word] gate, not living strictly. Which [illegible: 1 word] few can frame to, but [illegible: 1 word] those that do (counting and calling them as the Spaniards [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 63. are said to do the Partugalls, pocosy locos few and foolish) therefore few are saved. Our Saviour calleth his flock a little little [illegible: 1 word], two diminutives, Luk 12. 42. standing (as that small [non-Latin text not transcribed]. army [illegible: 1 word] Israel in Ahahs time) like two little flocks of kids, when the wicked, (as those Syrians then) [illegible: 1 word] the countrey. Was it not [illegible: 1 word], when Hierome complained that the whole world was turned1 King. 20. 17. [illegible: 2 words], et miratus est [illegible: 2 words] factumesse [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] Hier. Arrian? and Basil cryed out An Ecclesias suas prorsus dereliquit [illegible: 1 word]? Hath God utterly forsaken his Church? &c. The love of many shall wax cold, but he that endureth to the end, &c. It is but a He in the singular that endureth to the end, the Many fall away from their former stedfastnes.

Verse 15. Beware of false Prophets which come to you &c.] This is another dangerous rock, that the lesse carefull may easily split against. Take heed rherefore, lest whiles ye shun a shelf, ye fall not into a whirle-poole. By corrupt teachers Satan catcheth men, as a cunning fisher by one fish catcheth another, that he may feed upon both. He circuiteth the world, seeketh whom to devour, and [illegible: 1 word] beginneth with violence and cruelty. If this take not, then he puts off the frock of a wolfe, and makes his next encounter in sheeps-clothing. Now what havock he hath made by this means of silly soules laden with lusts, who knows not? The old Church was pestred with false Prophets, Deut. 1. 3. 1. 2 Pet. 2, 1. There were false Prophets among the people, and there shallbe false teachers among you, who privily shall bring [illegible: 1 word] haeresies and many shall follow their pernicious waies. This was Peters prophecy: and Paul saith the same, Act. 20. 30. Grievous wolves shall enter in amongst you (in sheeps-clothing you must think) speaking perverse things (whiles they pervert the scriptures to the defence of their own devices) to draw away disciples after them. The word signifieth to pull them limmeal, as wolves use to [non-Latin text not transcribed] do the sheep they seize upon. A like expression there is, Deut. 13. 13. where these [illegible: 1 word] men are said to thrust or drive away 2 King. 17 [illegible: 1 word]. folk from the true God, as Jeroboam is said to have driven Israel from following the Lord. This they do, not so much by [illegible: 1 word] as by craft, by force as by fraud: deceitfull workers St Paul calles2 Cor. 11. [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. them, transforming [illegible: 1 word] into the Apostles of Christ, and Rom. 16. 18. ministers of righteousnesse, and by good words and fair speeches [illegible: 1 word] the hearts of the simple and [illegible: 1 word]. This they have learned of the devil that grand jugler, who can soon transform himself into an Angel of light. St John in his first [illegible: 1 word] tells us of many petty Antichrists, even then gon out; who professing1 John 4. 1. Christs name, did yet oppose his truth. And in his [illegible: 1 word],Revc. 13. 11. that the beast, (which is the great Antichrist) hath two [illegible: 1 word] like the lambs, but speaks like the Dragon. The locusts also (which are his limbs and agents) have faces like women, insinuative and flattering. Tertullian tells us, that the [illegible: 1 word] Abduxit a [illegible: 1 word] plures [illegible: 1 word] versutia, quam [illegible: 1 word] omnium [illegible: 2 words] saevitia. D. Prid. haereticks had a trick to perswade before they taught, whereas the Truth [illegible: 1 word] by teaching, doth not teach by perswading. And how much hurt Julian the Apostate did by this art in the Church of God, is better known, then that I need here to relate it. It was not therefore without good ground of reason, that Placilla the [illegible: 1 word], (when Theodosius senior desired to conferre with [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word]) disswaded her husband very earnestly: lest being perverted by his speeches, he might fall into heresie; [illegible: 1 word] S zomen, lib. 7. cap 6, 7. knew their cunning and as it were, cogging of a dye, Ephe. 4. 14. where the Apostle compareth seducers to cheaters, and false [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 2 words] auctum est a [illegible: 2 words]. gamesters, who have a device, by cogging of a dye, to deceive the unskilfull: and further telleth us, that they are wittily wicked, by methods and crafty conveyances, winding up and down, and turning [illegible: 1 word]. every way, to get the greatest advantage. Neither was that [non-Latin text not transcribed] b. [illegible: 1 word] sunt [illegible: 1 word]. good Empresse ignorant, how catching we are this way and inclinable to the worse side: as the Israelites soon forgot their God, and called for a Calf, as the ten tribes were easily prevailed with [illegible: 1 word] go after the two golden calves, and as the whole world wondred and wandred after the beast. This to prevent, as much as may be, God in delivering the law is most large in the second and fourth Commandments, which we are most apt to transgresse; that [illegible: 1 word] superstition, this, by profanenesse.

Verse 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits] That is, chiefly by their doctrines, which tend either to the infecting of the judgement [non-Latin text not transcribed]. with errour, or tainting of the life with uncleanness:, or both: and commonly both, as those ancient Heretikes, whose2 Pet. 2 2. [illegible: 1 word] (or as other Copies reade) lascivious waies many followed; Aug de civ. by reason of whom the way of truth was evil spoken of. St Austin Dei. l 10. c. 51. observeth, that in the loose and lascivious Heretikes, manyNe [illegible: 2 words] nos ad [illegible: 3 words] — [illegible: 2 words] admovēt. foul-mouthed men met with matter of blaspheming the Name of Christ, because they also would needs be held Christians. And Epiphanius adds, that for their sakes many Heathens would not so much as have any conversation with Christians, or hear them speak. Who hath not heard what a stumbling-block and backbiasEpiphan. to the conversion of the Jews is the Idolatry of the Papists,Joh. 9. 16. and the blasphemies of other Christians? By their fruits they know such persons not to be of God, as their Predecessours [illegible: 1 word] of our Saviour. This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. The proposition here was sound (had they not mistook themselves in the assumption) he that keepeth not the Sabbath is not of God. We may also safely reason in like sort. Such and such deny or question principles, as the Antitinitarians, [illegible: 1 word], Eutychians, and others not a few in the Primitive Church, so pester'd with arch-he [illegible: 1 word], that it was then as Erasmus hath it) an ingenious thing to be a Christian. Had these been of God, they would have hearkened to his Word ( [illegible: 1 word]. 8. 47.) which isMibicerte [illegible: 3 words] quam diabolus erit, [illegible: 1 word] Arianus, [illegible: 1 word] Hilarius: qui [illegible: 1 word] vocavit [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. plain in principles, and commandeth to hate false heterodox opinions, Psal. 119. 104. and those that broach them, buzzing doubts in mens heads, Rom. 16. 17. Joh. 10 5. That heretike confuted by Junius took an ungain course for his own satisfaction, who confest that he had spent two and twenty years in trying religions. He had been with Jews, Arians, Mahometans, and [illegible: 1 word] sects; that at length he might finde truth among them: which is (as he saith) Viam per avia quaerere, to seek truth by wandering thorow all sorts of errours. But truth, 1. is divine, grounded upon the Scriptures; wherein we have a most sure word, is Peter hath it, and self-sufficient, saith Paul, for instruction in 2 Pet. 1. 19. [illegible: 1 word], to make the man of God perfect, thorowly furnished unto 2 Tim 3. 16, 17. all good works. So that it is impossible Gods elect should be finallyMat. 24. 24. deceived (though for a time they may be fearfully miscarried, as the young Prophet was by the old Bethelite, and Barnabas by Peter) because they are all taught of God; they have an unctionIsa. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. within them, the holy Ghost that illighteneth both the Organ Ioh. 7 17. and the object; and so teacheth them all things, that they understandIoh [illegible: 1 word]. 20. the Scriptures, and grow to a certainty, Psal. 19. 7. Prov. Iob 22. 28. 1. 4. All Christs sheep are rationall, and will not follow a stranger, Iob. [illegible: 1 word]. 5. though they are simple to evil, yet they are wise to that which is good. If they be of any standing and worth their years (as we say) they have a full assurance of understanding, Coloss. 2 2. and vers. 7. they are rooted and stablished in the faith, and in the present truth, 2 Pet. 1. 12. so that, though man or Angel should1 Cor. 2. ult. object against it, yet they would not yeeld to him, Gal. 1. 8, 9.Heb. 5. ult. For he that is spirituall discerneth all things, as having the [illegible: 1 word] of Christ, a spirit of discerning, and senses exercised to difference good Rom. 12. 1. from evil, being able to give a reason of that he believeth, 1 Pet. 3.Rom. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 15. to perform a reasonable service, even the obedience of faith, whence floweth and followeth rest to his soul, [illegible: 1 word]. 6. 16. and [illegible: 1 word] consolation, Coloss. 2. 2. Say he cannot answer all the cavils of an adversary, yet he can hold the conclusion; and though he cannot dispute, yet he can die (as that Martyr said) in defenceRom. 14. 5. of the truth, whereof he is fully perswaded in his ownAcris [illegible: 1 word] su [illegible: 2 words] & [illegible: 1 word] saepè [illegible: 1 word] per inania se [illegible: 1 word] brat nubila; ne [illegible: 2 words] remigium praecipitent [illegible: 2 words]. minde, bottomed upon the Scriptures, and ballasted therewith, as S. Ambrose saith the Bee is with a little stone, that she be not blown away with the winde, 2. Secondly, Truth is single, one and the same, at agreement with it [illegible: 1 word]. But errour is manifold, dissonant, and contradictory to it self. How often doth Bellarmine deny that in one place, that he had affirmed in another? That the Scripture is the very word of God, saith he, it can by no means be assured out of Scripture. But in another discourseAmbr. (forgetting what he had said) he affirmeth, that among other [illegible: 1 word] argumenta alia, etiam habetur ex Scriptura ipsa. lib. 1 c. 2. de verbo [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] de remittendis [illegible: 2 words] qui confitentur Deo non videtur ulla extare in [illegible: 1 word] literis. B [illegible: 1 word]. de justis l. 1. c. 21. arguments of the Divinity of the Scriptures, there is sufficient proof to be had out of the Scriptures themselves: So, he cannot bethink himself (if you'l believe him) where in all holy Writ, there is any promise made of pardon of sins to such as confesse [illegible: 1 word] to God. Again, he teacheth that the substance of the bread in the Sacrament, is not turned into the substance of Christs body productivè, as one thing is made of another: but that the bread goes away, and Christs body cometh into the room of it adductivè, as one thing succeeds into the place of another, the first being voided. And this, saith he, is the opinion of the Church of Rome, himself being Reader of controversies at Rome. But [illegible: 1 word], Reader at Salamanca in Spain confutes Bellarmines opinion Cade of the Church. 247. terming it Translocation, not Transubstantiation; and saith it is not the Churches opinion. So the greatest Popish Clerks cannot determine how the Saints know our hearts and praiers: whether by hearting, or seeing, or presence every where, or by GodsB. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] 2. cap. [illegible: 1 word]. sect. 1. relating, or revealing mens praiers and needs unto them. All which waics some of them hold as possible or probable, and others deny them, and confute them as untrue. Thus these great master-builders are confounded in their language, and thus [illegible: 1 word] it is to know what the Church Malignant holdeth: Her own dearest and learnedest sonnes know not; God having2 [illegible: 1 word]. 2. delivered them up to the efficacy of errour, which frets as a gangrene, [illegible: 1 word] Tim. [illegible: 1 word]. 17. and spreds as leaven, sowring the whole lump. Look how the heathens were at a meer uncertainty in their opinions and [illegible: 1 word]; as the [illegible: 1 word] in Jonah prai'd to their [illegible: 1 word] Gods, and bad him doe likewise. Others of them usually closed [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. up their praiers with Dij que Diae que omnes. Lest haply they might mistake in any one: so are [illegible: 1 word]. Having once stept over the pale of truth, they know not where or when they shall stop, [illegible: 1 word] Tim. 3. 13. or stay, but run on from bad to worse, [illegible: 1 word], and being deceived. Bertius and Barret, of Arminians become professed Papists: which differ no more, saith a learned man, then the Stoicks Cameron. of old did from the Cynicks, by the wearing of their cloaks onely. If the Lutherans admit of universall grace, the Huberians will thereupon bring in universall election, the Puccians naturall [illegible: 1 word] Prideaux, Lect. faith, the Naturalists (as that Cestercian monster lately [illegible: 1 word] at London, did) will explode Christ and the Scriptures. Apestilent sect there was not long since in Arragon, (whose founders were a hypocriticall crew of their Priests) who affecting Sands his relation. in themselves and their followers, a certain Angelicall purity, fell suddenly to the very counterpoint of justifying bestiality. These called themselves Illuminati, as if they onely had bin in the light, and all the world besides in [illegible: 1 word]. So (besides theIrenaeus. Gnosticks, who held themselves to be the onely knowing men) the Manichees derived their name of Manica, because that whatsoever they taught, was to be taken as food from heaven. Irenaeus tells of some that counted their own writings to be gospels, AndDixerunt in Anabaptist arum [illegible: 3 words] inveniri, [illegible: 1 word] sanctos esse. the family of love set out their Evangelium regni. Anabaptists brag much of their Enthusiasmes: and the Jesuites vaunt that the Church is the soul of the world, the Clergy of the Church, and they of the Clergy: and yet for their wickednesse, though a man, saith One, should declaim against them, t ll all the sand of [illegible: 1 word] Annal. Ignatius his conclave. the Sea had runne thorow his houre-glasse, he could not possibly want matter. Can there any grapes be gathered of these thorns,The French have a berry which they name [illegible: 1 word] de spine, the grape of a thorn: but this were a [illegible: 1 word] commodity. any figs of these thistles? Our Saviour makes use of these common proverbs, to prove that this is so plain a truth, that none can be ignorant of it, if he have but his eies in his head, or doe not wink wilfully, as those, Qui ut liberius peccent, [illegible: 1 word] ignorant, who are willingly ignorant, that they may sin without controul.

Verse 17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.] i e. All [illegible: 1 word] doctrine tends to good life: and rotten opinions to wretched practises. As, besides the old haereticks, we see in the Papists [illegible: 1 word]. (their Priests especially) of whom the L. Audely (Chancellour [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. Martyr. of England in K. Henry the eights time) said to 13. Callice men prisoners for Religion, whom he discharged: For Gods sake, [illegible: 1 word], beware how you deal with Popish Priests: for I assure you, some of them be knaves all. After the one thousand year of Christ, Act. and [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 1117. there was no where lesse piety, then in those that dwelt nearest to Rome, as Machiavell himself observed: who yet was himself Disp. de rep. [illegible: 1 word] 1. cap [illegible: 1 word]. De principe, [illegible: 1 word]. none of the best, as is well known: for he professeth Caesar [illegible: 1 word] (not withstanding all his villanies) as the onely example for a Prince to imitate. The Romish Pharisees, like the devils, are [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 6. cap. [illegible: 1 word]. In [illegible: 2 words] bodie [illegible: 2 words]. then thought to doe well, when they cease to doe hurt, saith Joannes Sarisburiensis. In Popes (saith Papirius Massonius, a popish writer, speaking of those Popes that lived in the time of the [illegible: 1 word] -councell) no man now-adaies requireth holinesse. They are thought to be very good, if not exstream evil: or any thing Optimi put [illegible: 1 word], si vel levi tur mali, &c. In [illegible: 1 word]. Pauli 3. Bennio ait [illegible: 1 word] brand: [illegible: 2 words], adulterū, [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. better then the worst use to be. The Sea of Rome, saith Another, hath not merited alate, to be ruled by any better then reprobates. Divers Popes have been [illegible: 1 word], Atheists, Epicures, Monsters, as Bennio Cardinalis describes Hildebrand: and Luitprandus reports of John the twelfth, that he Ordained Priests in a stable among his horses, that he went into his fathers Concubines, that he drank a health to the devil, &c. Benedict the twelfth had this Epitaph set over him, Hic situs est [illegible: 1 word], Laicis [illegible: 1 word], vipera [illegible: 1 word]; Luit prand. lib. 6. de [illegible: 1 word]. gest is in Europa [illegible: 1 word] tempore. Devius a vero, turba repleta mero. I am not ignorant what is the common put-off of Papists, when urged with these and the like histories, viz. Luitprandi illud non est, sed [illegible: 1 word] cujusdam, [illegible: 1 word] hoc historiae ipsius appenderit. Luitprandus [illegible: 1 word] bist [illegible: 1 word] cles. pag. [illegible: 1 word]. Tertia classis continet papas, [illegible: 2 words] [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Alsted. Inde [illegible: 3 words] esse, illud non esse, [illegible: 2 words] pro me [illegible: 2 words] contra me. Faust. Manich ap. never wrote any such thing, but some other namelesse Authour, that hath [illegible: 1 word] it to his history, saith Bellarmine and Baronius: But who this namelesse Authour was, or when he lived, or how it may appear, that it was [illegible: 1 word] indeed, they say not a word. So if we cite Bemio Cardinalis. Imò potius Lutheranus, saith Bellarmine, and Florimund. How disdainfully they reject the Fathers when they make against them, I need not here recite. I would sooner believe one Pope, then a thousand Augustines, saith a Jesuite: And yet, when they cannot be heard, they are ready [illegible: 1 word] to cry out, as that haeretike Dioscorus didAug. in the Councell of Chalcedon. I am cast out with the Fathers, I defend Corn. Mus in Rom. 3. the doctrine of the Fathers, I transgresse them not in any point. If we produce their own Doctours and Schoolmen as witnessesSee Guild his popish glorying, &c. pag. 59. of the truth, these men, say they, are Catholike Authours, but they stand not recti in curia, they must be purged. So witty are [illegible: 1 word] rather to devise a thousand shifts to delude the [illegible: 1 word] Bellarm. saith to [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. then once to yeeld and acknowledge it. They will not [illegible: 1 word] the love of the truth, (as the intemperate patient, will not be ruled by the Physician,) And for this cause God delivers them up Eusebius, and Luther. I answer. [illegible: 1 word] manifesti [illegible: 1 word] sunt. De Christo lib. 1. cap. [illegible: 1 word] to strong delusions, vile affections, base and beastly practises: as committing and defending of Sodomy, and such like abhorred filth, not once to be named amongst Christians. But some having put away a good conscience, as concerning faith have made shipwrack, saith the Apostle. A good conscience is as it were a chest, wherein the doctrine of faith is to be kept safe: Mathew [illegible: 1 word] speaking of the Court of Rome, saith, Hujus [illegible: 1 word] usque ad nubes sumum [illegible: 2 words]. which will quickly be lost, if the chest be once broken. And they that turne from the truth, will prove abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

Verse 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil [illegible: 1 word], &c.] Heretikes then, and heterodoxes are not good honest men, as the vulgar [illegible: 1 word] them. For their pretended holinesse, and counterfeit humility, Col. 2. 18. Were they humble men indeed, they wouldTit. 1. [illegible: 1 word], 16. soon yeeld to the truth discovered unto them, and relinquish their erroneous opinions. [illegible: 1 word] could not be a good man, as Bucholcerus judged him, so long as he held fast his heresies, though he were much in the commendation of a new life, and detestation of an evil: though himself praid much, and lived soberly. He bewitched many with those magnificent words, and stately tearms that he had much in his mouth, of Illumination, Revelation, Deification: the inward and spirituall man, &c. but in the mean while, he denied the humane nature of Christ to be a creature; and called those that thought otherwise Creaturists. He affirmed the Scripture to be but a dead letter: which they that held not, he called them Scripturists. Faith he said was nothing else but God dwelling in us, as Osiander after him. In a word,Lev. [illegible: 1 word]. 44. he was a leper in his head, and is therefore pronounced utterly [illegible: 1 word]. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. That popish inquisitour [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 2 words] & modesti, [illegible: 1 word] in vestibus [illegible: 3 words] sed fides eorum, est [illegible: 1 word] & pessima. Arch [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] Gravis. quaest pag 155. was quite out, that said the Waldensian Haereticks may be discerned by their manners and words: for they are modest, true, grave, and full of brotherly love one towards another, but ranck haeretikes. This was somewhat like Pliny, his description of the Christians in that Province, where he was governour. And here I cannot omit, that when the B. of Worcester exhorted M. Philpot the Martyr (being brought to his answer,) before he began to speak, to pray to God for grace. Nay, my Lord of Worcester said Bonner, you doe not well to exhort him to make any praier: for this is the thing they have a singular pride in. For in this point they are much like to certain arrant haeretikes, of whom Pliny maketh mention, that they sang antelucanos [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] Mon. Psalms of praise to God before break-of-day. But had Bonner and his fellow-buzzards but observed the burning zeal, sweet assemblies, watchings, prayings, holinesse of life, patience in death, &c. of those that served God after the way that they called haeresy, they might well have seen and said as much, as the Centurion did of our Saviour, and they might have replyed, as our Saviour did of himself. I have not a devil, but I honour my Matth. [illegible: 1 word]. 54. father, and ye doe dishonour me. If I honour my self, my honour is nothing: It is my father that honoureth me, of whom ye say, that he is Joh. 8. 49, 54 your God. Cenalis Bishop of Auranches, wrote against the Congregation of Paris, defending impudently, that their assemblies were to maintain whoredom. How much better, and with more ingenuity the Bishop of Aliffe; who preaching at [illegible: 1 word] in the time of that Councell, Anno 1563. Spake of the faith and manners of the Catholikes and herericks, and said, that as the faith of the Catholikes was better, so the hereticks exceeded [illegible: 5 words]. them in good life: which gave much distast, saith the Historian. But Bellarmine (had he been then and there present) would not likely have been much offended: For we, faith he, although we believe that all the [illegible: 1 word] are to be found in the Church: yet that any man may be absolutely said to be a member of the true Church, defcribed in the Scriptures, we doe not think that any internall vertue is required of him: but onely an externall profession of the faith, and such a partaking of the Sacraments, as is perceived by the outward senses. A pretty description, and picture of a Papist: amongst whom if any be vertuous, it is by accident, and [illegible: 1 word] as they are members of that Church: As [illegible: 1 word] wittily said of the Epicures, that if any of that sect proved good, it was [illegible: 1 word] by the benefit of a better nature; for they taught all manner of loosenesse and libertinisme, But for the most part, such as their doctrine is, such is also their practise. The Friers (saith One that had seen it, and so could well avouch it) are a race of people alwaies praying, but seldom with signe of devotion: vowing obedience, but still contentious: [illegible: 1 word] yet most luxurious: poverty, yet ever scraping, and [illegible: 1 word]. And generally the devotions of papists, saith he, are prised more [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 8. by tale, then by weight of zeal: placed more in the m ssy materiality of the outward work, then purity of the heart, from which they proceed. They hold integrity for little better then [illegible: 1 word], and abjectnesse about Italy, and abuse the most honourable [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. Test. on Act, 11 sect 4. name of Christian, usually, to signify a Fool, or a Dolt, as is afore noted out of D. Fulke. Are not these the fruits of a rotten religion, of trees specious without, but putrefied and worm-eaten within, (as the word our Saviour here useth, properly signifieth) [non-Latin text not transcribed] of [non-Latin text not transcribed], to [illegible: 1 word], Suidas. which appears at length by their rotten [illegible: 1 word]? The true Christian will not cease to bear good fruit, what weather soever come, Jer. 17. 7. The hypocrite will either bear onely leaves as Pulchra ac [illegible: 1 word] est, sed fructu caret. [illegible: 1 word]. the [illegible: 1 word]-tree, or apples of Sodom, grapes of Gomorrah. Of such we may say, as of mount Gilboah, no good fruit growes on them: or as Siratonicus saith of the hill Haemus, that for eight moneths in the year it was very cold, and for the other foure, it [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed]. was winter: Or as the Poet said of his countrey, that it was bad in winter, hard [illegible: 1 word] summer, good at no time of the year. Campian of St Iohns in Oxford, [illegible: 1 word] of the University, Anno 1568. dissembled the Protestants Religion: So did Parsons in Balial, [illegible: 1 word]. untill he was for his dishonesty, expeld with disgrace Camdens Eliz. sol. 215. and fled to the Papists; where caelum mutavit non animum, neither good egge, nor good bird, as they [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, &c.] Fruitlesse trees are cut down to the fire. Short shooting looseth many a game. The idle servant is delivered to the tormentours:Euseb. and unsavoury salt is cast out to be trodden on, as Ecebolius [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 6. 8. The [illegible: 1 word] earth is nigh to cursing, whose end is to be burned. Pure gold discovers deadly poison. For there will sparkle out of the cup, certain rain-bowes, as it were, and there will be heard, [illegible: 1 word] One, a fiery hissing of the gold thrusting out the poison. Whereby is signified, saith he, that God threatneth judgement Sphinx philos. pag. 622. and hell-fire, to those that corrupt and poison heavenly Doctrine. See more of this above, chap. 3. 10. Let us study and [illegible: 1 word] to [illegible: 1 word] the tree of Paradise, that was fair to the eie, and good to eat, and that tree of life. Rev. 22. 2. That bringeth [illegible: 1 word] every moneth, twelve manner of fruits, &c. And those [illegible: 1 word], Psal 92. 13. that being planted in the housePsal. 52. 8. of the Lord, bring [illegible: 2 words] fruit in their old age. I am likeCant. 1. 16. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 14. 7. a green olive tree saith David: our bed is of green cedar, saith the Spouse. Ephraim was like a green firre tree, fat and sappy, &c. Barrennes is no [illegible: 1 word] a fault then ill fruit.

Verse 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.] See vers. [illegible: 1 word]. where the self-same words are used. Lest any, [illegible: 1 word] pretence of danger in hearing false prophets, should refuse to hear any though they come with never so much evidence of truth: [illegible: 1 word] Saviour wills and commands here, that examination and discretion go before both rejection of errours, and receiving of truths. Try all things, hold fast that which is good. As the mouth tasteth meat, so the ear must try and taste words, Iob. 12. 11. & 34 3. He is a fool that beleeveth every thing, nay any thing, that tends to the [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 27. cherishing of corruption and carnall liberty, or the advancing [illegible: 1 word] Sub [illegible: 5 words]. corrupt nature, which is nothing else but a piece of proud flesh, and must be abased to the utmost. Christians should [illegible: 1 word] in knowledge Aug. and in every sense, so as readily to discern things that differ: [illegible: 1 word]. 14 5. and not to be wherried and whirled about with every winde [illegible: 1 word] Ephes. 4 14. doctrine, as children, nor to be carried away as they are led, [illegible: 1 word] Gentiles, 1 Cor. 12. 2. He that will take for true and trusty whatsoever any Impostor puts upon him, shall be as fouly deceived, [illegible: 1 word] Iacob was by Laban. Search and see whereto they tend, and [illegible: 1 word] they drive at. If they would drive us from God, as Moses expresseth it, and draw us from the doctrine of godlines, that is [illegible: 1 word] upon the word, to the truth whereof we have found Gods [illegible: 1 word] perswading our hearts, and yeelding us comfort in it. Ioh. 6. 45. 1 Ioh. 2. 27. Abstain (or stand off) from all appearance of any [illegible: 1 word] evil. Shun the familiarity of seducers, that discredit the truth: hear them not, their mouthes should be stopped, Tit. 1. 11. & 3. 10. See how exceeding earnest the Apostle is in this argument, 2 Thes. 2. 1, 2, 3. he knew well the danger: So Rom. 16. 17. The [illegible: 1 word] and false Apostles would only have brought in a Jewish rite or two; yet are [illegible: 1 word] to subvert the Gospel, Gal. 1. 7. and the Apostle [illegible: 1 word] they were even cut off for it. Hymeneus and [illegible: 1 word] denied not the Resurrection, but affirmed it only to be [illegible: 1 word] already, and yet they are said to overthrow the faith of some, 2 Tim. 2. 18. And although we are wont to wonder at the [illegible: 1 word] of a contrary religion, and think a simple man may easily answer them: yet it is certain, the grossest adversaries of the truth, are able to urge such reasons, and use such perswasions, as have in them great probability of truth, and may deceive the simple. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware 2 [illegible: 1 word]. 3 17, [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] ye also, being led away with the errour of the wicked, fall from 1 [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 5. [illegible: 1 word]. 25. 9. your own stedfastnesse. Which to prevent, Grow, saith the same Apostle there, in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord [illegible: 1 word] Christ. Exact of your selves a groth in every grace, in humility, howsoever growing downward at least, if you cannot finde so comfortable a groth upward. Humility is both a grace and aNos [illegible: 2 words] magna, sed vivimus. vessel to receive grace: for God will give grace to the humble, and teach the lowly-minded. Grow also in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ: proving by experience in your selves, what that good, that holy and acceptable will of God is. Let your knowledge and practice run parallell, and be of equall extent. Study to live rather then to dispute, to act rather then to contemplate: learn and labour to feel in your selves the sweetnesse and goodnesse, the life and power of that you know. The devil confessed Christ as well as Peter, Mark. 5. 7. Mat. 16. 17. but the devil with [illegible: 1 word] knowledge, swimming in the brain, Peter with a saving knowledge soaking to the heart root, and working upon the affections, those immediate springs of action. This is that knowledge, not apprehensive only but affective too, that makes the minde good, full of incitations to good, glad of all occasions to doe good, [illegible: 1 word] from the stain and raign of former lusts, inclinable to serve God and our brethren by love, fearing the Gospel more then the [illegible: 1 word], and Gods goodnesse more then his justice. Now to grow in these graces and in this knowledge, is the ready way to secure our selves from seducers, to approve our selves to have been conscionable hearers of a sound Ministry, such as are founded upon a rock, and are therefore unmoveable, such as have gotten a knowledge so [illegible: 1 word] and certain as no haeretick can draw from us: And lastly, to save our selves from that untoward generation, our Saviour speakethActs [illegible: 1 word]. next of, in the subsequent verses, that have no more to shew or say for themselves then Lord, Lord, &c.

Verse 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall [illegible: 1 word], &c.] Not every verball professour, or forward pretender to me and my truth, shall be saved. That son of perdition, called Christ Lord, Lord, yet [illegible: 1 word] him wich a kisse; and is gone to his place. How many Judasses have we, that speak Christ fair, but by their loose and [illegible: 1 word] lives, deliver him up to the scoffs and buffetings of his [illegible: 1 word]? that bow the knee to him, and bid Hail King of the [illegible: 1 word], yet smite him on the face, and bid him prophecy who [illegible: 1 word] him, that put a reeden scepter in his hand, and make him a [illegible: 1 word] Lord only, having no more then a form of knowledge, Rom. 2. 20. a pretence of piety, 2 Tim. 3. 5. and a semblance of [illegible: 1 word], Luk. 8. 18. contenting themselves with the name of Christians: As if many a ship had not been called Safe-gard, or Goodspeed and yet fallen into the hands of Pirates. These are blots of goodnesse, botches of the Church, as Augustus was used to tearm his three untoward children, tres vomicas, tria carriomata, mattery [illegible: 1 word]. in Aug. cap. 65 [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 2 words] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 2. impostumes, ulcerous sores. Epictetus complained that there were many would be Philosophers, as far as a few good words would goe; but were nothing for practise. Socrates made no distinction between [non-Latin text not transcribed] and [non-Latin text not transcribed], knowing and doing: so to know good as to practise it, and evil as to avoid it, this he esteemed the only wisedom. Such as say well and doe well, are to be embraced, saith Aristotle: but their very profession is to be suspected, [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 5 words] cap. 4 that second it not with a suitable practice. Nesciunt insani [illegible: 1 word], [non-Latin text not transcribed], qui non vivunt honestè, saith another. There are that speak like Angels, live like devils: that have [illegible: 1 word] smooth tongue, but Esaus rough hands. Audi, nemo [illegible: 1 word] specta, nemopejùs: Loquitur hic ut Piso, vivit ut Gallomus. [illegible: 1 word] men admire Tullies tongue, saith S. Austin, not so his practice, [illegible: 1 word] could give excellent counsel to others, which himself did [illegible: 1 word] take. He is much taxed for flattery, luxury, covetousnesse, [illegible: 1 word] and something he confesseth hereof (though covertly) in that sentence of his, in his book de Tranquillitate, Necaegroto, [illegible: 2 words], I am neither sick, nor found. Lillies are fair in shew, but foul [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 line] [illegible: 1 word]. Coin is white in colour, but draws a black line after it: [illegible: 1 word] worms seem to have both light and heat; but touch them only, [illegible: 1 word] it will appear they have neither. Livy saith, that the [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] warre against Phillip of Macedon with letters and words [illegible: 1 line] So [illegible: 1 word] many against the devil; they defie him with their [illegible: 1 word] but [illegible: 1 word] him in their lives: they spit at his name, but admit [illegible: 1 word] his suggestions: they call Christ Lord, Lord, but in truth and [illegible: 1 word] the matter, the devil is their good Lord: for his servants they are [illegible: 1 word] whom they obey. They lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not [illegible: 1 word] Lord amongst us? none evil can come unto us. But he shall [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 11. them off with a discedite, depart ye. He likes not this Court-holy water, as they call it, these fair professions and deep protestations [illegible: 1 word] love, when mens hearts are not with him, when there is not [illegible: 1 word] power of religion, the practice of godlinesse. The leaves of profession he dislikes not, for as they are of medicinable use, Ezek. 47. 12. so they are good inducements to force a necessity of more [illegible: 1 word]. But he looks for more then leaves: he goes down to [illegible: 1 word] garden to see how it comes forward, in righteousnesse, peace, [illegible: 1 word] in the holy Ghost: in meeknesse, tender-heartednesse, love: [illegible: 1 word] patience, humility, contentednesse, in mortification of sin, moderation of passion, holy guidance of the tongue; in works of mercy, truth and justice; in self-deniall, love of enemies, life of faith; in heavenly-mindednesse, sweet communion with God, comfortable longing for the comming of Christ, &c. These be those fruits, and that doing of Gods will, without the which our Saviour here averreth there's no heaven to be had, no though men professe largely, preach frequently, pray ardently, eat and drink at his table, [illegible: 5 words]. dispossesse devils in his Name, &c. Judas did all this and was damned. Shalt thou to heaven that doest no more? no nor so much? Woe to all carelesse professours, and carnall Gospellers. The Lord will make all the Churches know that he searcheth the [illegible: 1 word], and will not be beguiled with the fig-leaves of formality. And for those that carry it more cleanly, as they conceive, and can walk undiscovered; let them know, that God (that [illegible: 1 word] may make the name of the wicked to rot) many times so detects their [illegible: 1 word], that their wickednesse is shewed to the whole Congregation, Prov. 26. 26. Or if not so, yet certainly he will doe it at that [illegible: 1 word] Judgement, that great Assize (as it follows in the next [illegible: 1 word]) when it shall be required of men, non quid legerint, sed [non-Latin text not transcribed] Agapet. [illegible: 1 word] egerint, non quid dixerint, sed quomodo vixerint, not how [illegible: 1 word] they have talked of heaven, but how well they have walked [illegible: 1 word] the way to heaven: not a proffering of words, but an offering [illegible: 1 word] works, as Agapetus hath it. The foolish Virgins were found with their sic dicentes: but the good servants with their sic [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 22. Many will say to me in that day, &c.] That day of judgement by an appellative proper, called that day; or at the day of death; for every mans deaths-day is his [illegible: 1 word], Heb. 9. Then they shall come bouncing at heaven gates, with Lord, Lord, [illegible: 1 word] unto us: and make no other reckoning but to enrer with the [illegible: 1 word]. Which shews, that an hypocrite may live and die in [illegible: 1 word]; and misse of heaven, in the height of his hopes. He hanged them upon nothing (as God hath hang'd the earth) they prove unto him therefore as the giving up of the ghost, which is but coldJob 1 [illegible: 1 word]. 10. comfort: and serve him no better then Absoloms mule did her [illegible: 1 word] master in his greatest need. What, saith Iob., is the hope of the Job 27. 89. [illegible: 1 word], though he hath gained much, when [illegible: 1 word] shall take away his soul? will God hear his cry when trouble [illegible: 1 word] upon him? Will his crying Lord, Lord, rescue him in the day of wrath? No, no: God will pour upon him and not spare, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be the portion of his cup. The just execution of that terrible commination, Rev. 3. 16. shall certainly crush his heart, with everlasting horrour, confusion and woe. Oh that this truth were throughly thought on and believed! but men are wondrous apt to deceive themselves in point of salvation. Therefore doth the Apostle so oft premise, Be not deceived, when [illegible: 1 word] reckoneth up reprobates, 1 Cor. 6, 9. Ephes. 5. 6, &c. Themselves they may deceive and others, but God is not mocked. [illegible: 1 word] seems, by his words and wishes, a friend to Israel: yet is he so [illegible: 1 word] from inheriting with them, that he is destroyed by them: this will be the portion of hypocrites from the Lord. If their hearts be not upright with him, he will never give them his hand, no though they follow him, as close as Iehonadab did Iehu. Their hopes [illegible: 1 word] 2 [illegible: 1 word]. 16. 15. fail them, when at highest; as Esaus did, returning with his venison, Have we not prophecied in thy Name] A man may preach profitably to others and yet himself be a cast-away, 1 Cor. 9. vlt. [illegible: 1 word] Act and [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. confirmed Saunders, and afterward turned tippet himself. Harding a little afore King Edward 6. died, was heard openly in his Sermons in London to exhort the people with great vehemency after this sort; that if trouble came, they should never shrink from the true Doctrine of the Gospel which they had received, but take it rather for a triall sent of God, to prove them whether they would abide by it or no. All which to be true, saith Mr Fox, they can [illegible: 1 word] that heard him, and be yet alive: who also fore-seeing the plague to come, were then much confirmed by his words. In Q. Maries daies he turned Apostate and so continued, notwithstanding an excellent letter of the Lady Jane Dudley written to him, while he was prisoner: wherein she stirrs him up to remember the horrible history of Julian of old, and the lamentable case of Spira a late, and so to returne to Christ; who now stretcheth out (saith she) his armes to receive you, ready to fall upon your neck and kisse you, and last of all to feast you with the dainties and delicacies of his own precious blood: which undoubtedly, if it might stand with his determinate purpose, he Act. and Mon. fol 1292. would not let to shed again rather then you should be lost. And so she goes on most sweetly: sed surdo fabulam, she lost her sweet Ibid 1557. words: as likewise did William wolsey the Martyr upon [illegible: 1 word] Ibid [illegible: 1 word]. the Smith of Wells in Cambridge-shire, and some others, upon Mr West Chaplain to Bishop Ridley: who refusing to die in Christs cause with his Master, said Masse against his conscience. B. Latimer, in a Sermon afore K. Edward, tells of one who fell away from the known truth, and became a scorner of it, yet was afterward touched in conscience for the same. Beware of this sinne, saith he, for I have known no more but this that [illegible: 1 word]. Joannes Speiserus, Doctor of Divinity and preacher at Ausborough in Germany, Anno 1523. began to teach the truth of the Gospel, and did it so effectually that diverse common harlots were converted, and betook themselves to a better course of life. But he afterward Scultet Anual. pag. [illegible: 1 word]. revolted again to the Papists, and came to a miserable end.Ibid. The like is reported of Brisonettus Bishop of Melda, a town of France ten miles from Paris. And who doubts but Iudas the traytour was a great preacher, a caster out of devils, and doer of many great works in Christ Name, as well as other of the disciples? Nicodemus was nothing to him. He, (saith one) was a night-professour only, but Iudas in the sight of all. He was a slow Dike of [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], Iudas a forward preacher. Yet at last when Iudas betrayed Christ in the night, Nicodemus faithfully profest him in the day. Therefore will Christ confesse him before God, Angels and men, when Iudas shall hear, avaunt, thou worker of iniquity, I know thee not. Neronis (Quantus artifex pereo?) quadrabit in te peritum et periturum. [illegible: 1 word] in labris Suada, sed et fibris Gratia; quae sola verè flexanima Suada, et medulla Suadae penetrantissima. D. [illegible: 1 word] ep ad [illegible: 1 word]. Summoperè cavendum divino praeconi, ne dicta, [illegible: 2 words], erubescant. Let not the preacher give [illegible: 1 word] the lie, by a life unsutable to his Sermons. And in thy name have done many wonderfull works] By a faith of miracles, whereby a man may remove mountains, and yet miscarry, 1 Cor. 13. 2. And here such as work wonders may deceive themselves in the main point of their own salvation: how much more may they deceive others in this or that particular point of doctrine? The coming of Antichrist is after the working of Satan with all power, and signes, and lying wonders, and with 2 Thes. [illegible: 1 word]. all deceavablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish. Lying wonders they are called in regard not onely of the end, which is to deceave, but of the substance. For the devil cannot do a true miracle, which is ever beside and against nature and second causes; [illegible: 1 word] as whereof there can be no naturall reason possibly rendred, no though it be hid from us. The devil I say, cannot do a [illegible: 1 word]. He may juggle and cast a mist. St Hierom writes that a certain damosell was brought to Macarius by her father, who complained that his daughter was, by witch-craft turned into a mare, Macarius answered that he could see no such thing in her, nothing but humane shape; and that their eies, that thought and said so, were blinded by Satan, wherefore turning himself to prayer, he obtained, that the mist might be removed from the parents eies, and [illegible: 1 word] they saw their mistake. The like is reported of Mr Tindall the Martyr, that being at Antwerp among a company of merchants, he hindred, by his presence and prayers, a certain jugler, that he could not play his feats: so that he was compelled openly to confesse, [illegible: 4 words]., 85. that there was some man there at supper, that disturbed and [illegible: 1 word] all his doings. So that a man even in the Martyrs of these daies (saith Mr Fox) cannot lack the miracles of true faith, if they were to be desired. Oye Papists (said Bainham, in the midst [illegible: 1 line] of the flame) [illegible: 1 word], you look for miracles: here now you may see a miracle: for in this fire I feel no more pain then if I were in a bed of [illegible: 1 word], it is to me as a bed of roses. But the devil is ashamed, (saith Gretser the Jesuite) to confirm Luthers doctrine with miracles. We could tell him and his fellows, of [illegible: 1 word] recovered out of a desperate disease by Luthers prayers, which Myconius acknowledged for a miracle to his dying day. And of another young man of Wittenberg that had sold himself to the devil, Act and [illegible: 1 word] sol 788. body and soul, for mony, and sealed the obligation with his own blood: But was delivered by Luthers prayers, out of the [illegible: 1 line] danger of the [illegible: 1 word], who was compelled (saith Mr Fox) at last to throw in the [illegible: 1 word] at the window, and bad the young man take it unto him again. But he that now requireth miracles for the confirmation of his faith, is himself a great miracle, saith Austin. [illegible: 2 words] when they came into Canaan; as if it would [illegible: 1 line]. [illegible: 1 word], ye need no miracles now you have means. The wonderfull [illegible: 1 word] of Luther, that man of God, amidst so many [illegible: 1 word] enemies, the publishing and carrying of his doctrine, in the space of a moneth, throughout all Germany and some forraine [illegible: 1 word], as it were upon Angels wings, the establishing of the Reformation to be done by so weak and simple means, yea by casuall and crosse means, against the force of so puissant and publike an [illegible: 1 word], this is that miracle which we are in these times to look for.

Verse 23. And then will I professe unto them, I never knew you] No not when you professed most love to me, and did me (to see to) greatest service, I knew you well enough for black sheep, or rather for reprobate goats, I knew you for hirelings and hypocrites, but I never knew you with a speciall knowledge of love, delight and complacency. I never acknowledged, approved and accepted of your persons and performances, see Psal. 1. 6. Rom. 11. 2. Gods sharp nose doth easily discern, and is offended with the stinking breath of the hypocrites rotten lungs, though his words be never so sented and perfumed, though his deeds be never so mantled and masked, with shews of holinesse. God utterly disowns and disavows all such, for if any man have not the spirit of God saith Paul Rom. 8. 9. the same is none of his; be he whose he wil be. And whereas he naturally delights in mercy, yet he will by no means clear the guilty;Pro. 1. 26. yea he will [illegible: 1 word] at their destruction, and laugh when their [illegible: 1 word] deus loquitur cum [illegible: 2 words] legas cum fletu, Aug. fear cometh. He will spue them out of his mouth. Ah he will ease him of his adversaries: and be as well apaid thereof, as a man is that hath rid his stomack of the surfet or sick matter thatReve. 3. 16. clogg'd it. [illegible: 1 word]. 1. 24. Depart from me] Oh direfull and dreadfull [illegible: 1 word] such as [illegible: 1 word] reprobis, Ite, venite, probis. shall make their very heartstrings crack (not their earest ngle onely) and their hearts fall asunder in their bosomes, like drops of water. Surely if the gentle voice of God in the coole of [illegible: 1 word] day were In aura diei. Gen. 3. so terrible to our first parents: And if his sweet voice in the preaching of the Gospel of grace be so formidable to the wicked, that Felix trembled, and the stoutest are quailed, the edge of their fury is rebated, their hearts often ake and quake within them: what will they do when the Lion of the tribe of Judah shall roar out upon them, this fearfull Discedite that breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone, stings and horrors, woe and alas, seas of vengeance and the worm that never dieth, torments without end, and past imagination? The desperate souldiers (that would not have dreaded to dare the devil to a duell) fell before him to the ground, when in the state of his humility, he said but, I am He: how will the wicked stand before him in his Majesty? If Gideons torches and trumpets so daunted the proud [illegible: 1 word], how shall these abide the terrour of the last day? Ye workers of iniquity] Ye that make it your trade and taske; [illegible: 1 word] me licinan [illegible: 3 words] dicunt [illegible: 1 word]. that do wickedly with both hands earnestly, that are wittily wicked, and can art out iniquity; that dig in the devils mines, row in his gallies, grinde in his mill, and are not wearied: that live by your sinnes, as the labourer doth by his trade; and esteem it as the means of an happy life. Ye that, although ye cannot be charged with any crying crime, but have Lord Lord in your mouthes, and a shew of holinesse in your lives, yet regard iniquity in your hearts: and when you [illegible: 1 word] most of all high-flowen have a leering eie upon some beloved sinne, as the Eagle hath upon her prey below, when she soreth highest. Your very preaching in Christs NameOur [illegible: 1 word] must be [illegible: 1 word] of God, wrought from God, for God, in God, according to God, [illegible: 1 word] are but shining [illegible: 2 words] [illegible: 1 word] at Pauls crosse. (if not for his name) is, with God a work of iniquity, and shall have the wages of sinne, which is death, when Christ comes to judgement. Then they that would not obey those sweet commands, Repent, for the kingdome of heaven is at hand, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy houshold, &c. shall have no other commandment left them to obey, but this horrible Depart ye: which imports an utter separation from the beatificall vision and fruition of God, and this is the very hell of hell, &c.

Verse 24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of [illegible: 1 word] &c.] Here we have the conclusion of this, if not first, yet, certainly, fullest of our Saviours Sermons; for matter most heavenly, and for order more then methodicall. Most men think, if they sit out a Sermon, it is sufficient: when the preacher hath [illegible: 1 word] done they have done to: Away they go, and (for any practice) they leave the word where they found it, or depart sorrowfull as he in the Gospel, that Christ requireth such things as they are not willing to perform. Our Saviour had four sorts of hearers, and but one good, that brought forth fruit with patience. When St Paul preached at Athens, some mocked, others doubted, a few believed, but no Church was sounded there (as at other places) because Christ crucified was preached; unto the Jews a stumbling [illegible: 1 word], Act. 17. and to those Greeks foolishnes; whiles the Jews required a signe, 1 Cor. 1. 22. 23. and the Greeks sought after wisedome. But what saith the Prophet? [illegible: 1 word]. 8. 9. Behold they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisedome is in them? He is a wise builder, a [illegible: 1 word] servant, a wise virgine, a wise merchant, (if our Saviour may be judge) that heareth these sayings of his, and doth them. And behold (saith Moses) I have taught you statutes and judgements: Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisedome, &c. A good understanding [illegible: 1 word]. 4. 6. have all they that do thereafter. David hereby became [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Act. 23. 1. wiser then his teachers, ancients, enemies: and Paul counted it his chief policy to keep a good conscience void of offence toward God and men: which cannot be untill it may be said of a man, as2 Chron. 34. 16 Rom. 2 12. Shaphan said of Josiahs work-men, All that was given in charge to thy servants, they doe it. For not the hearers of the Law, but theLuk. 11. 28. doers shall be justified, saith-Paul: shall be blessed, saith our SaviourJoh. 13. 17. often: shall be made thereby the friends of Christ, Ioh. 15.2 Cor. 8. 23. Isa. 62. 3. 14. the kindred of Christ, Matth. 12. 50. The glory of Christ, a Cant. 3. 11. royall diadem in the hand of [illegible: 1 word]; yea, such as have the honour to set the crown royall upon Christs head in the day of his espousals. Be ye therefore doers of the Word, saith S. Iames, and not hearers only, deceiving, or putting paralogismes, tricks and fallacies [non-Latin text not transcribed]. (sophister like) upon your own souls. They that place religion in hearing, and go no further, will prove egregious fools in the [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. end. Which to prevent, look intently and accurately, saith that [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Apostle, stoop down, and pry heedfully into the perfect law of [illegible: 1 word] (as the Cherubims did into the Propitiatory, as the Angels do into the mystery of Christ, as the Disciples did into the sepulchre1 Pet 1. [illegible: 1 word]. of Christ) and continue therein, till ye be transformed thereinto,Joh. 20. 5. Not being forgetfull hearers, but doers of the work: so shall ye be blessed in the deed. It is not enough to hear, but take heed how you hear. [illegible: 1 word] with you the loan of your former hearing. For to Mark 4. 24. explained. him that hath shall be given, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you. As ye measure to God in preparation and practice, he will measure to you in successe and blessing: and every time that you hear, God will come to you in the fulnesse of the [illegible: 1 word] Rom. 16. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. of the Gospel of peace. See that ye shift not off him that speaketh, [illegible: 1 word]. in ep. ad [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 12. 25. Veniat, veniat verbum Domini, & submittemus illi, sexcentasi nobis essent colla, said a notable Dutch Divine. Let God2 Cor. 8. 7. speak, and we will yeeld, though it were to the losse of a thousandRom. 6. 17. lives. The Macedonians delivered themselves up to God, and the Romans to the form of doctrine that was delivered [illegible: 1 word] them: they took impression from it, as the metall [illegible: 1 word] from the mould, or as the wax doth from the seal. David [illegible: 1 word] up his hands to Gods Commandments, Psal. 119. 48. he did all the wils of God, who hadAct. 13. 35. set him both his time and his task. He sets all his servants a work, and requireth their pains, Hos. 10. 11. Ephraim was an heifer used to dance, and delight in the soft straw, and could not abide to plow, but the Lord will make him both bear and draw. Religion is not a name, saith one, goodnesse a word; it is active like fire, communicative like light. As the life of things stands in goodnes: M. Harris at [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. so the life of goodnesse in action. The chiefest goods are most active, the best good a meer act. And the more good we do, the more God-like and excellent we be, and the better provided against a rainy [illegible: 1 word]. Which built his house upon a rock.] This rock is Christ; and [illegible: 1 word]. 2. 10. conscionable [illegible: 1 word] are living stones built upon him. The Conies [illegible: 2 words]. 3. 5. are a people weak and wise, saith Solomon; and their wisdomeProv. 30 16. herein appears; they work themselves holes and burrows in the bosome of the earth, in the roots of the rocks. Learn we to doLuke 6. 48. the like: and be sure to dig deep enough (as S. Luke hath it) [illegible: 1 word], sed [illegible: 1 word]. which while the stony-ground-hearers did not, their blade was scorcht up, and came to nothing. Some flashing joy they had upon the hearing of the Word, and many meltings (according to the nature of the Doctrine delivered) but these sudden affections, being not well bottomed, nor having principles to maintain them, they were but like Conduits running with wine at the Coronation, or like a land-floud, that seems to be a great sea, but is soon gone again. [illegible: 1 word] fluctum [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 25. And the rain descended, and the flouds came, &c.] Many are the troubles of the righteous: they come commonly [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 1 word] & [illegible: 3 words], brevior [illegible: 1 word] Sen. [illegible: 1 word] est propriè [illegible: 2 words] a [illegible: 1 word] seu [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 6 words] a [illegible: 2 words] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. thick and three-fold, one in the neck of another, as Jobs messengers. The clouds return after the rain, [illegible: 1 word]. 12. 2. there is a continuall succession of miseries and molestations, from the devil, the world, and the flesh, to them that hear and do the words of [illegible: 1 word]: like the weather in winter, when a showr or two do not clear the air, but though it rain much, yet the sky is still over-[illegible: 1 word] with clouds, which are [illegible: 1 word] upon the Saints, sometimes in [illegible: 1 word] and lighter [illegible: 1 word], as the smaller rain, sometimes in pressing and piercing calamities, like storm and hail: The rain fals, [illegible: 1 word] flouds rise, the winde blows, and many a sharp showr beats upon the Christians building; but like Noahs Ark, it is pitcht within and without: like Mount Sion, it abides for ever immoveable, [illegible: 1 word] founded upon the Rock of ages. Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus [illegible: 1 word], Ille [illegible: 1 word] mundi, said that noble Luther. If we [illegible: 1 word], Christ shall fall too, that Ruler of the world: and [illegible: 1 word] him fall: I had rather [illegible: 1 line]. [illegible: 1 word] with Christ, then stand with Caesar. The devil stirs up a [illegible: 1 word] against Gods children, saith Ambrose, Sedipse naufragium [illegible: 1 word], but himself maketh ship wrack. The Church, according to that [illegible: 1 word] Motto. Nec fluctu, nec [illegible: 1 word] movetur: and yet Venice hath but one street (they say) that is not daily over-flowed by the sea. And it fell not.] Saving grace is unleesable, though it may be impaired in the degrees, and may recoyl to the root, as sap doth in winter. Christ lives in the hearts of all his Saints, Gal. 2. 20. and can die no more, Rom. 6. 10. Die he may as well at the right hand of his father, as in the heart of a Christian. Object. A weak brother, for whom Christ died, may perish, 1 Cor. 8. 11. Sol. No thank to us, if he do not; who, by scandalous courses offend and wound his conscience: but Christ will not lose him so. Object. There are that deny the Lord that bought them, Destrui potest, ex parte, per interveniens scandalum: quod & verbum [non-Latin text not transcribed] aliquo modo denotat, non distrahi penitus ca[illegible: 3 letters], &c. 2 Pet. 2. 1. Sol. Bought they were by Christ in their own conceit, and in the esteem of others, but it proved otherwise. Or, they were bought, that is, delivered, in a generall sense (so the word here used, often signifieth) from their superstition to the knowledge of salvation (I say not to saving knowledge) whereby they might preach to others, themselves being cast-awaies. God hathD. Prideaux, Lect. charged Christ, as Mediatour, to see to the keeping of the bodies and souls of all true believers, Joh. 6. 39. 40. And he faithfully performed it. Those thou gavest me I have kept, saith he, and none of them is lost, Joh. 17. 12. Christ makes exception of one that was lost, Ibid. Ob. That shews he was never of his body: for can he be a Saviour ofSol. a son of perdition? Why is he then excepted?Ob. 1. Because he seemed to be one of Christs, by reason of hisSol. office. 2. He speaketh there in particular of the twelve: and to be an Apostle, was, in it self, but an outward calling. Christians may lose the things that they have wrought,Ob. Joh. 2. 8. 1. Temporaries may, and doe; and of them it may be understood,Sol. verse 9. 2. True Christians may: 1. In respect of the praise of men: All their former honour may be laid in the dust. 2. In regard of the inward sense and comfort, as David, Psal. 32. & 51. 3. In respect of the fulnesse of the reward in heaven, their glory may be much lessened by their fals. A righteous man may turn from his righteousnesse, and die,Ob. Ezek. 18. 24. From his righteousnesse imparted, or that of sanctification, heSol. may turn in part, and for a time, and die a temporall death for his offence, as Josiah: Not so from his righteousnesse imputed, or that of justification, so as to die eternally. Or the holy Ghost mayGal. 1. so speak, as of a thing impossible: as, if an Angel from heaven should preach any other Doctrine, &c. which cannot possibly be. So that this text concludes not categorically. The Comforter shall abide with us for ever, Joh. 14. 16. It is called an earnest, not a pawn. A pawn is to be returned again; but an earnest is part and pledge of the whole sum. What need then so many exhortations to perseverance?Quest. 1. True grace in it self is leesable, in respect of us, whoAns. should fall from it, as Adam; but we are kept by the power and promise of God to salvation; and we need Christs lefthand to be under us, and his right-hand over us to clasp and hold us up. He keepeth the feet of the Saints, and preserves us 1 Sam. 2. 9. from all such evil, as may frustrate our perseverance, 2 Thess. 3. 3. 1 Joh. 5. 18. 2. By these exhortations, as means, Gods grace is promoted, and preserved in us. 3. We are but in part renued, and are apt to backflide; if we row not hard, winde and tide will carry us back again. Heed therefore must be taken, that we look not back with Lots wife;Gen 37 3. that our Jacobs-ladder may reach to heaven; that our oyl fail not,Exod. 2[illegible: 1 letter]. 8. till the bride-groom come; that our coat reach down to our heels,Exod. 29 12. as Josephs, and the high-Priests did; that we sacrifie the beast [non-Latin text not transcribed]. with the tail; that we keep in this fire of the Sanctuary; or, if it2 [illegible: 2 letters]m. 1. 6. slackt, that we rake it out of the ashes, and blow it up again into a flame; that we turn not again, as we walk, with those livingD[illegible: 4 letters] 33. creatures, Ezek 1 12. nor be like Nebuchadnezzars image, thatG[illegible: 1 letter]l 3. began in gold, and ended in clay; that we begin not in the spirit, and end in the flesh: that we go not backward, as Hezekiahs Psal. 19 4. Sun, nor stand at a stay, as Joshuah's, but rejoyce toProv. 4 18. runne our race, as Davids; and goe on to the perfect day, as ,Ioshuah's [illegible: 1 line]. &c.

Verse 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them not, &c.] Which is the greater number of hearers. For most men hear to hear, and not to practise. Some hear meerly of form, or for fashion sake, or to save the penalty of the Statute, or to finde some Recipe to procure a sleep, or to still the clamours of their consciences, or to make amends and purchase dispensation for some beloved lust, as Herod. Or expecting from the preacher some choice novelty, as [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 8. some deep point, [illegible: 1 word]. 12. 37. or dainty expressions, as Ezek. 33. 32. Or they [illegible: 1 word] and [illegible: 1 word], Act. 17. 32. Hear and carp, as Doeg; hear and resist the holy Ghost, Act. 7. Or at least are no whit wrought upon, whether we pipe or lament to them. Or if they hear and admire, asMat. 11. 17. those. Matth. 22. 22. yet they amend nothing, or but for a season, as the stony-ground: they are hearers of forgetfulnesse, Jam. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 1 word]. 25. like hour-glasses, they are no sooner full, but [illegible: 1 word] out again: like nets or sives, they retain only the chaff or weeds, let go the pure water and good corn. The Word runs [illegible: 1 word] them, [illegible: 1 word] water thorow a riven [illegible: 1 word] (that's the Apostles metaphor, Heb. 2. 1.) or as that which is written upon moist paper, as others [non-Latin text not transcribed]. will have it. A generall cause of our not practising what we hear, is, that we put this spirituall treasure into broken bags, this [illegible: 1 word] liquour into leaking [illegible: 1 word]. Whereas our souls should be as the Ark, and our memories, as the pot of Mannah, to retain what we have received, that we may have it ready for [illegible: 1 word], as Saul had his cruse and spear at his head, and David his scrip and stones ready by his side. A heavy ear is a [illegible: 1 word] judgement, Isa. 6. 10. but a slow heart, and a heavy hand, to conceive and do what we hear, paves a way to remedilesse misery; besides the fool to boot, which the Judge here putteth upon him. Shall be likened unto a foolish man.] And he is a fool indeed whom Christ calleth fool. Conscionable hearers are counted good men (God wot) but simple, silly, and of no parts. But wisdome is justified of her children. To walk precisely, is to walk wisely, [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 15. And he that [illegible: 1 word] and guideth his feet in the way, is wife, Prov, 23. 19. And, Who is a wise man amongst you, and endued with knowledge? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works, &c. Ja. 3. 13. All others are fools, because they fail in the main point of their salvation: they are troubled about many things [illegible: 1 word] but neglect the one thing necessary: they trifle out their precious [illegible: 1 word], and in hearing or other services, they do worse then lose their labour, [illegible: 1 word] they commit sin, and heap up [illegible: 1 word]. Their house will down, as the spiders house doth, and all their building, plowing, planting sailing, come to nothing. Which built his house upon the sand.] Wherefore it soon sinks and shatters, as having not the loose earth thrown up first, by the practice of mortification and self- deniall. Men should first sit down, and cast what it would cost them to build the tower of godlinesse, or ere they leap into profession. They should put their hearts often to those grand questions of abnegation. Can I (as all must, that will be Christs Disciples) deny my self in all my selves (for a man hath many selves within himself, and must utterly and absolutely deny them all) take up my daily crosse ([illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] Christianus [illegible: 1 word]. every Christian is a [illegible: 1 word] or crosse-bearer, saith Luther: the rain will fall, the flouds flow, the windes blow, and beat upon his building, he shall have many trials and temptations, that looks toward heaven, troubles without, terrours within, his back-burden of both) and follow Christ thorow thick and thin, by doing and suffering his whole will? Many will follow Christ in such duties as sute with their humours, and no further, as the rusty hand of a diall; they will break the hedge of his Law, to shun a piece of foul way: They follow Christ, as the dog follows his [illegible: 1 word], till he come by a carrion, and then he turns him up. Orpha made a fair proffer of going along with Naomi, but when she had better considered it, she turned again. Lots wife set fair out of Sodom, but looked back. So do many forward hearers set their hands to Gods plough, but (loth to plough up the fallow [illegible: 1 word] of their hearts, and to lay a good foundation in humiliation.) they start aside like broken bowes, and steal away, like cowardly souldiers, [non-Latin text not transcribed], and so judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, and unfit [illegible: 1 word]. 10. for Gods Kingdom. For the foolish shall not stand in his sight,Luke 9. 62. he hateth all the workers of iniquity. Caleb was not discouraged [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 5. by the Giants, therefore he had Hebron given him, the place of the Giants, when the spies and [illegible: 1 word] were never suffered to enter: No more shall they that hold not out to the death, obtain the crown of life.

Verse 27. And the rain descended, &c.] The old heart cannot possibly hold out the hardship of holinesse, nor bear the brunt of persecution for well-doing. Like a Chesnut cast into the [illegible: 1 word], if not broken first on the top, it leaps out again; or like a false jade in a teem, which being put to a stresse, turns tail and tramples. When the godly hearer holds on his way to heaven, thorow all disasters; as those two kine of the Philistims, that bore home the Ark, held on their way, though they had calves at home, that might have made them turn back. And it fell.] The wise-man and fools house come under a double difference. 1. In the foundation: this to see to, and above ground, is little discerned. The Temple is said to be as low under ground, as it was high above. 2. In the building it self. The unprofitable hearer is not cimented to Christ by faith, but laid loose, as it were, upon a sandy foundation, and so slips beside the ground work in foul weather. He is not set into the stock as a science, but only stuck into the ground as a stake; and is therefore easily [illegible: 1 word] up. Whereas the true Christian is knit fast to1 Pet. 2. 5. Christ the Rock, by the ligament of a lively faith; and, as a lively stone, is built up a spirituall house, growing up in the mysticall body with so much sweetnesse and evennesse, as if the whole Temple (like that of Salomon) were but one entire stone, He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17. So that although 1. Shakings and waverings in the very purpose of holy-walking may befall a Saint by violent temptations, Psal. 73. 2, 13. Yea, 2. Intermissions of the exercise of grace, as of life in a palsey or [illegible: 1 word]. 3. Particular falls we are not exempted from. Peter himself, though a pillar fell from his former stedfastnesse, in part; yet from [illegible: 1 word], prolapsion, from utter and irrecoverable falling away, they are [illegible: 1 word], because founded upon a Rock, which can never be removed: He is both the Authour and finisher Heb. [illegible: 1 word]. of their faith: He hath praied and procured, that it utterlyLuk. 22. fail not. And the fall thereof was great.] Great and griovous, because irreparable, irreedifiable, as Hiericho and the Temple at Ierusalem. God laies them aside like broken [illegible: 1 word], of which there is no further use; and sith they will needs wallow again, as swine, in the filth of their former pollutions, he proncunceth upon them that fearfull sentence, Let him that is filthy be filthy still; that unclean spirit entereth him again; and his dispositions to evil are seven times more enflamed then ever. He hath despised and despighted the SpiritHeb. 10. 26. of grace, and is in the ready road to the unpardonable sin. The Apostate cannot lightly chuse unto himself a worse condition, Heb. 10. 26. He casts himself into hel-mouth, Heb 10. [illegible: 1 word]. where the back slider in heart shall be filled with his own waies; and have theProv. 14. 14. greater [illegible: 1 word], by how much he fell from greater hopes and possibilities of better; as [illegible: 1 word] from his Monarchy, and as Cranmer from his high preferment to so low a condition, as that there was left him neither hop: of [illegible: 1 word], nor place of worse.

Verse 28. And it came to passe, when [illegible: 1 word] had ended these sayings.] All this then was but one Sermon, though twice preached at severall times, as some collect out of Luke. A long Sermon it was, and yet the people staid it out. So did not those [illegible: 1 word], Joh. 6. and therefore fell away from Christ: So did not Judas, and therefore met [illegible: 1 word] devil at the door. It is a lamentable [illegible: 1 word] 13. thing, that a winters-tale shall be heard with more patience and pleasure then a powerfull Sermon: that if a Preacher exceed his glasse sometimes, [illegible: 1 word] sit at as little [illegible: 1 word], as if they were in a fit of an ague: and others prophanely turn their backs upon the [illegible: 1 word]. 44. Propitiatory, and depart without the blessing. In the CouncelCanon 32. of Agathon it was decreed that none should presume to go out before the Minister had blessed the Congregation. And in the fourth Councel of Carthage, Let him that goes out of the Auditory, when the Minister is speaking to the Congregation, be excommunicated, Ite missa est, [non-Latin text not transcribed], were the old forms of dismission. And although Zachary was long ere he came forth, yet theLuk. 1. people staied his coming. But the Word of the Lord is to the wicked a burthen, Jer. 27. 33. cords and bonds, Psal. 2. 3. Yokes and bonds, Jer. 5. 5. Hence they are so soon sated, and their attentions tired out and jaded, as it were. The people were astonished at his doctrine.] They were strangely transported and rapt with an ectasie of admiration and amazement. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Ubi [illegible: 1 word] quasi attonitus, [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 3 words], sed apertis oculis [illegible: 1 word] quietus [illegible: 1 word]. Lyser. They were at [illegible: 1 word] a passe, that they could neither say nor do, but stood amazed with their eyes set in [illegible: 1 word] heads, as the word importeth. And surely the word never worketh so kindely, as when it is received with admiration: yet may we not rest in that, as too many do; but get it mingled with [illegible: 1 word] in our [illegible: 1 word], that works by love, holding fast the faithfull word, as Paul bids Timothy, that part of it especially that in hearing he is pleased to sweeten unto us by the taste of his speciall goodnes.

Verse 29. For he taught them as one having authority.] Never man spake as he spake, said those Catch-poles that came to take him, but were taken by him. For matter, his doctrine was not his own, but his Fathers that sent him. For manner, this Prince [illegible: 1 word]. 7. 16. of Preachers had the tongue of the learned: yet without [illegible: 1 word] of learning, he delivered himself so plainly, that the simplest [illegible: 1 word] 50 4. might conceive him, and so powerfully that his enemies could not but confesse, that he was true, and taught the way of God [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 22. 14. And for end, he [illegible: 1 word] sought his Fathers glory, in the salvation of mens souls. A fair president for Preachers: who should Optimi ad [illegible: 1 word] bi sunt [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] Lutherus, qui pueriliter, trivialiter, populariter & simplicissime [illegible: 1 word]. Melch. Ad. in vita. thus seek to get within the people, and to maintain the credit of their ministry, that their words may carry an authority, and command attention. And not as the [illegible: 1 word]] Who first stuck in the bark of the law, and pierc'd not into the heart and sense of it. 2. Delivered for doctrines the commandements of men about washings, tithings, &c. 3. They sought not the glory of God, but praise of men: and were therefore mad at our Saviour, as one that bare away the bell from them, for a powerfull preacher. 4. They rejected [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Publicans and sinners, though penitent: So did not Christ. 5. They taught coldly and carelesly: but he zealously, and imperiously, as the Law-giver, and not as an Interpreter onely: as that Prophet like unto me, saith Moses: yea farre beyond him.Epiphan lib. 1. [illegible: 1 word]. or any other that ever spake with a tongue. For he could, and did speak to the hearts of his hearers: Together with hisScribarum doctrina erat [illegible: 1 word], elumbis [illegible: 1 word]. word there went forth a power, as to heal the bodies of those, Luk 5. 17. so the souls of his elect: he was a Minister of the spirit, and not of the letter onely, &c. Heb. 2.