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from the heart. According to which rule, if any man live uprightly, of him it may be fafely pronounced, that he hath the Holy Ghoft within him: if not, then it is a plain token that he doth ufurp the name of the Holy Ghost in vain. Therefore, dearly beloved, according to John iv. the good counfel of St. John, Believe not every Spirit, but first try them whether they be of God or no. Many Shall Matt. xxiv. come in my name, faith Chrift, and fhall transform themselves into angels of light, deceiving (if it be poffible) the very elect. They thall come unto you in fheep's clothing, being inwardly cruel and ravening wolves. They fhall have an outward fhew of great holiness and innocency of life, so that ye fhall hardly or not at all difcern them. But the Matth. vii. rule that ye muft follow is this, To judge them by their fruits. Which if they be wicked and naught, then it is unpoffible that the tree of whom they proceed fhould be good. Such were all the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part, as doth well appear in the story of their lives, and therefore they are worthily accounted among the number of falfe Prophets, and falfe Chrifts, which deceived the Luke xxi. world a long while. The Lord of heaven and earth defend us from their tyranny and pride, that they never enter into his vineyard again, to the disturbance of his filly poor flock; but that they may be utterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the world: and he of his great mercy fo work in all men's hearts, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghoft, that the comfortable Gospel of his Son Chrift may be truly preached, truly received, and truly followed in all places, to the beating down of fin, death, the Pope, the Devil, and all the kingdom of Antichrift, that like scattered and difperfed fheep, being at length gathered into one fold, we may in the end reft all together in the bofom of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, there to be partakers of eternal and everlasting life, through the merits and death of Jefus Chrift our Saviour. Amen.

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IAM purposed this day, good devout Christian people, to declare unto you the most deserved praise and commendation of Almighty God, not only in confideration of the marvellous creation of this world, or for the confervation and governance thereof, wherein his great power and wisdom might excellently appear to move us to honour and dread him; but moft efpecially in confideration of his liberal and large goodnefs, which he daily bestoweth on us his reafonable creatures, for whofe fake he made the whole univerfal world, with all the commodities and goods therein; which his fingular goodness well and diligently remembered on our part fhould move us, as duty is, again with hearty affection to love him, and with word and deed to praife him and ferve him all the days of our life. And to this matter, being fo worthy to entreat of, and fo profitable for you to hear, I trust I shall not need with much circumftance of words to ftir you to give your attendance to hear what fhall be faid. Only I would with your affection inflamed in fecret wife within yourself, to raise up fome motion of thanksgiving to the goodnefs of Almighty God, in every fuch point as fhall be opened by my declaration particularly unto you. For elfe what fhall it avail us to hear and know the great goodness of God toward us, to know that whatsoever is

good

good proceedeth from him, as from the principal fountain and the only author; or to know that whatsoever is fent from him muft needs be good and wholesome ; the hearing of fuch matter moveth us no further but to know it only? What availed it the wife men of the world to have knowledge of the power and divinity of God, by the fecret infpiration of him, where they did not honour and glorify him in their knowledge as God? What praise was it to them, by the confideration of the creation of the world, to behold his goodness, and yet were not thankful to him again for his creatures? What other thing deferved this blindness and forgetfulness of them at God's hands, but utter forfaking of him? And fo forfaken of God, they could not but fall into extreme ignorance and error. And although they much esteemed themselves in their wits and knowledge, and gloried in their wisdom; yet vanished they away blindly, in their thoughts became fools, and perifhed in their folly. There can be none other end of fuch as draw nigh to God by knowledge, and yet depart from him in unthankfulness, but utter deftruction. This experience faw David Pfal. Ixxiii. in his days. For in his Pfalm he faith, Behold, they which withdraw themfelves from thee fhall perish, for thou haft deftroyed them all that are frayed from thee.

This experience was perceived to be true of that holy Jer. xvii. Prophet Jeremiah: O Lord, faith he, whatsoever they be that forfake thee fhall be confounded; they that depart from thee fhall be written in the earth, and foon forgotten. It profiteth not, good people, to hear the goodness of God declared unto us, if our hearts be not inflamed thereby to honour and thank him. It profited not the Jews, which were God's elect people, to hear much of God, feeing that he was not received in their hearts by faith, nor thanked for his benefits bestowed upon them: their unthankfulness was the cause of their deftruction. Let us efchew the manner of thefe before rehearsed, and follow rather the example of that holy Apoftle St. Paul, who when in a deep meditation he did behold the marvellous proceedings of Almighty God, and confidered his infinite goodness in the ordering of his creatures, he burst out into this conclufion: Surely, faith he, of him, by him, and in him, be all things. And this once pronounced, he stuck not still at this point, but forthwith thereupon joined to these words: To him be glory and praise for ever. Amen. Upon the ground of which words of St. Paul, good audience, I purpose to build my exhortation of this day

Rom. xi.

unto

unto you. Wherein I fhall do my endeavour, first, to prove unto you that all good things come down unto us from above, from the Father of light. Secondly, that Jefus Chrift, his Son and our Saviour, is the mean, by whom we receive his liberal goodness. Thirdly, that in the power and virtue of the Holy Ghoft, we be made meet and able to receive his gifts and graces. Which things diftinctly and advisedly confidered in our minds, muft needs compel us in moft low reverence, after our bounden duty, always to render him thanks again, in some teftification of our good hearts for his deserts unto us. And that the entreating of this matter in hand may be to the glory of Almighty God, let us in one faith and charity call upon the Father of mercy, from whom cometh every good gift and every perfect gift, by the mediation of his well-beloved Son our Saviour, that we may be affifted with the presence of his holy Spirit, and profitably on both parts, to demean ourselves in fpeaking and hearing, to the falvation of our fouls.

In the beginning of my fpeaking unto you, good Chriftian people, fuppofe not that I do take upon me to declare unto you the excellent power, or the incomparable wisdom of Almighty God, as though I would have you believe that it might be expreffed unto you by words; nay, it may not be thought, that that thing may be comprehended by man's words, that is incomprehenfible. And too much arrogancy it were for duft and ashes to think that he can worthily declare his Maker. It paffeth far the dark understanding and wifdom of a mortal man, to fpeak fufficiently of that divine Majefty, which the angels cannot underftand. We fhall therefore lay apart to speak of that profound and unfearchable nature of Almighty God, rather acknowledging our weaknefs, than rafhly to attempt what is above all man's capacity to compafs. It fhall better fuffice us in low humility to reverence and dread his Majefty, which we cannot comprife, than by overmuch curious fearching to be overcharged with the glory. We fhall rather turn our whole contemplation to anfwer a while his goodness towards us, wherein we fhall be much more profitably occupied, and more may we be bold to fearch. To confider the great power he is of, can but make us dread and fear. To confider his high wifdom, might utterly discomfort our frailty to have any thing to do with him: but in confideration of his ineftimable goodnefs, we take good heart again to truft well unto him. By his goodness we be

D d

affured

Dan. xi.

affured to take him for our refuge, our hope and comfort, our merciful Father, in all the courfe of our lives. His power and wifdom compelleth us to take him for God Omnipotent, Invifible, having rule in heaven and earth, having all things in his fubjection, and will have none in council with him, nor any to ask the reason of his doing. For he may do what liketh him, and none can refft him. For he worketh all things in his fecret judgment Prov. xvi. to his own pleasure, yea, even the wicked to damnation, faith Solomon. By the reafon of his nature, he is called in Scripture confuming fire, he is called a terrible and fearful God. Of this behalf, therefore, we may have no familiarity, no accefs unto him; but his goodnefs again tempereth the rigour of his high power, and maketh us bold, and putteth us in hope that he will be converfant with us, and eafy unto us.

Heb. xi.

It is his goodness that moveth him to fay in Scripture, Prov. viii. It is my delight to be with the children of men. It is his goodness that moveth him to call us unto him, to offer us his friendship and prefence. It is his goodness that patiently fuffereth our ftraying from him, and fuffereth us long, to win us to repentance. It is of his goodness that we be created reasonable creatures, where else he might have made us brute beafts. It was his mercy to have us born among the number of Chriftian people, and thereby in a much more nighness to falvation, where we might have been born (if his goodness had not been) among the Paynims, clean void from God, and the hope of everlasting life. And what other thing doth his loving and gentle voice, spoken in his word, where he calleth us to his prefence and friendship, but declare his goodness only, without regard of our worthinefs? And what other thing doth ftir him to call us to him, when we be ftrayed from him, to fuffer us patiently, to win us to repentance, but only his fingular goodness, no whit of our deferving? Let them all come together that be now glorified in heaven, and let us hear what answer they will make in these points before rehearfed, whether their firft creation was of God's goodnefs, or of themselves. Forfooth, David would make anfwer for them all, and fay, Know ye for furety, even the Lord is God; he hath made us, and not we ourfelves. If they were afked again, who fhould be thanked for their regeneration, for their juftification, and for their falvation? whether their deferts, or God's goodnefs only? although in this point every one confefs fufficiently the truth of this matter in his own per

Pfalm c.

on;

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