more of that pitch their Ordo meritricum founded by Tisceranus the Minorit their new set up Iesuitrices c. without raveling of the worst wind I it up with Erasmus Blandientes sexui foemineo c. Whether it be as they pretend in praying to the Virgin Mary that they conceiue of Christ as a strict and seuere Iudge but of the Virgin as a milde and gentle advocat As if some other could bee more tender over us than hee that dy'd for us Or which I rather beleeue purposely to insinuat with the credulous sex so to devour widowes houses to leade captive simple women or serpent-like to vent tentations by the woman to read many riddles by plowing with those heiffers or to worke their sinister ends by the weaker vessell or whatsoever the Romish meaning be that which Iustin Martyr mislik'd in Homers Poetry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being exemplified in their practice verie womanish are they verie free and forward have they long time bin thus to magnifie yea for a need thus to deifie their Diana's That as he once bid his hearers take heed of the Zuinglians heaven seeing there they had set Hercules with his club a man has reason to bee shy both of the Ethnicall and Pontificiall heaven wherein the distaff bears such sway That whereas their Martinus said Se non optare sibi coelum in quo Lutherus esset that Martin would not wish for that Heaven wherein Luther was so I never wish to bee of that religion here nor goe to that heaven hereafter wherein such Diana's goddesses are In the kingdome of God I shall see Abraham Isaac Iacob the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble army of Martyrs but shall see no goddesses none of these Diana's there Then let others thus wander after their owne inventions imaginary goddesses but as David spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us adhere hold fast unto our iealous God for bee the gods of the Heathen good-fellowes as he said the true God is a iealous God will not share his glory with another In the Booke of Kings the Seventy for Dea reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for goddesse abomination let that mother of harlots have in her hand a cup full of abominations and fornication as in the Revelation but take wee the cup of salvation with David and call upon the Name of the Lord knowing we cannot drinke the cup of the Lord and the cup of Divells as Paul speaketh Let us tremble before the Maiesty of that glorious God that hath his way in the whirlwinde at whose reproofe the pillars of heaven tremble and quake whilst others trifle thus with their devised Deities Let us say with David Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised whilst others cry thus Great Diana Great is Diana of the Ephesians As a femall so a woman this Diana was but what manner of woman might shee be It were not worth the beating of the bush to range through all the woods and groves of the Heathen to bolt out all their Diana's upon every high hill and under every green tree Dianae plures saies Tully Diana's divers there were A man may wink and choose of them it matters not which of them it was all of them were nought He that has little to doe let him but turne Pausanias hee shall finde there a litter a whole kennell of them Diana the huntresse Diana the midwife and the rest of that multitude there But among the whole beavie of their Diana's Vna notissima one famous one above all the rest of whom Ierom and others interpret this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multimammiam they call her a kind of nurse of things Ephesia mammis multis verubus exstructa wrote Foelix vberibus exstructa as Lypsius happily help'd it Well and what was the same goodly one The Sampsaei in Epiphanius worshipt two women as goddesses because they were of the blessed seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but was Diana so no by their own records come of a cursed race a bastard daughter between Iupiter the adulterer as themselves stile him and Latona the drab Pellex as I finde her stiled the seed so of the adulterer and the whore an honest genealogy sure At the best hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens spake of all their gods serva vitiorum shee was some chambermaide to vice some light huswife or so or else lighter than so in naked truth sine veste Diana strip her but of fond fables and for all the image comming downe from Iupiter as they fable here in the 35. verse wee shall then finde her non Iovis sed Phydiae as one said of Minerva Diana not so of Latona but some Lapidary some stone or stock as good blocks as she lying on the back of the fire warming a man or roasting meat as in Esay or boyling Diagoras his turneps inutile lignum maluit esse deum or els som vain stone made by the hand of antiquitie as Wisdome mentions happely as good stone trampled and troden under feet nay yet lower to bee even nothing Idolum nihil est an Idoll being nothing in the world as Paul speaketh Great Diana come downe to this a block or a blank nothing Such a birth of the mountaines prove a mouse Such a clamour about a Diana of clouts Such a deale of doo about nothing All this bruit and no fruit All this crying and no wool I deny not but as Ignatius mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mysteria clamoris misteries there be to be cry'd aloud and spare not the voyce to be lifted up like a trumpet as in Esay to bee preached upon the house tops as in the Gospell and we that are the Lords Remembrancers not to keep silence for Sions sake not to hold our tongues and for Ierusalems sake not to rest Et vae mihi quia tacui as Esay Wo unto me because I have held my peace alas will one day come to be the cry of many men for not crying now when not crying out in sly discretion now shall make many howle in deepe damnation then when in bitterness of soule they shall wish too late they had beene borne dumb rather than in Gods cause not to have cryed out Yet were it but for this one instance about Diana here alone I shall hardly ever credit popular out-cryes As soone shall I measure wisedome by the acre as worth by noise or piety by passion or holinesse by eagernesse or religion by multitude or truth by crying This I perceive being customary with men conscious of defects to betake themselves to clamor as the lame man to his horse This the custome of pleasure concupiscence and the like with intensive clamours to importune their desires as Philo saies yea even in religious affaires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee said This the custome thus to make out-cryes their greatest defences as the Margeant there well noteth Were such exclamation demonstration
FOVRE SERMONS PREACHED AT THE COVRT VPON seuerall occasions BY THE LATE REVEREND AND LEARNED DIVINE DOCTOR SENHOVSE L. Bishop of Carlile AVSPICANTE DEO LONDON Printed for R. Dawlman at the Signe of the Bible neere the great Conduit in Fleetstreete 1627. A iust defence of the late L. Bish of Carliles honour sent to the iudicious Reader THose ancient Fathers on whom came daily a 2. Cor. â—1 28 the care of all the Churches seeme no way better to perfect no way so wel to perpetuate that vniuersall care as by wakening mens consciences with their quills b Vid. T. Liv. l. 5. c. 47. whose watchings saued the Capitoll and c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. l. 1. strom Euangelizo manu scriptione c. 1. Rainold l. de Rom. eccles idol Antipater cala mo vociferans Cael. l. 19. c. â—5 speaking with their pennes vnto the whole Church by causing their sanctified Labours trauell like so many holy pilgrims to the liuing after their death and in obedience to our Sauiours command d Mark 16 1â— Goe euen thus vpon their very hands into all the world to preach the Gospel that so by a strange kinde of midwifrie they may assist at the new birth of many thousand soules they neuer knew giue a spirituall deliuerance to many members of the Church they neuer saw after their owne bodies are gone downe with hope into the chambers of the graue those tabernacles of flesh resolued into sacred dust dust that lies expecting glory Now that this religious intention of spreading himself into a Catholique good and communicating the diffusiue blessings of God and great measures of his Grace vnto posteritie liued in the late Lord Bishop of Carlile Doctor Senhouse that was I am vnto you an vnworthy witnesse and yet a witnesse who presume not to giue any other attribute to that neuer sufficiently honoured Name all attributes that can fall from my dwarft expression falling beneath those transcendent parts those vnparalleld gifts those accumulated heapes of worth which lodg'd in Doctor Senhouse to whose d Vir calamo potens virilis eloquentiae Hieronymus Verul hist vit mort l. 1. masculine and soule-begetting discourses I had the happinesse of many yeeres accesses and in his later times heard him often to my comfort professe and I neuer heard him but to my comfort that his Lectures on King Dauids first and second Psalmes were by himselfe for who else could doe it perfected for the presse that so what was his Maiesties in the dutie of his originall seruice f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. l. 1. Strom. those children of his soules best strength might now when it ceaseth to be with him after the manner of men inherit the fauour of kissing that great Masters sacred hand and liuing in his Royall heart too and in the harts of other Christians And therefore being casually enformed by a friend that some Sermons of his Lordships had more than seene the Presse were ready to be preached againe to as many as would g Prou. 23.23 buy the truth h Cyprianus quotidie Tertullianum legeret notario Paulo dicens da magistrum Hieron cat vir illust Saint Cyprian call'd not oftner for his learned-strong-phras'd i Tertullianus homo doctissimus haereticorum errores fortiter contriuit Trith l. de script ecclesiast Tertullian than I enquired with diligence for this my iudicious Christian Gamaliel at whose reuerent feete I often sate and learned to speake by silence and now began to comfort that losse with this fresh hope that as k Dixit Chrysostomus se concionare nosse quod D. Paulum quotidie manu versaret Keck eccles rhet l. 2. c. 3. S. Chrysostome attained to an admired excellency of preaching by hauing the great Doctor of the Gentiles blessed Paul alwayes in his hand so I might improue that gift to a conscionable discharge of my duty by laying the laborious workes of this l Saluianus totius orbis Christiani magister Rittershus vit Saluian Master-Preacher a Preacher that had m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianz. ep 140 Romani vocabant Proaresium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cressol theat rhet l. 1. c 9. a royaltie of speech and commanded all mens attentions euer before mine eyes But when I opened this booke with that reuerence which belonged vnto his name and read with greedinesse a line a leafe or two and more I found the order of his worke so inuerted the periods in some places so vnperfected the sense by those periods so disioynted the Greeke here and there where the sense was good so negligently that I doe not say ignorantly corrupted and the entire frame so stript of those accessions vpon the by which would haue giuen much satisfaction to this learned age the more learned because he once was in it that whereas n Basil Mag ep 1. Saint Basil knew Nazianzenes Epistles as men know the children of their friends by their likenesse to their fathers these seemed in many things so vnlike that Reuerend Father whose name they beare that at the first sight I hardly knew them to bee his But when I viewed once and againe o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Mag. ep 41. these images of his soule though in some places too much shadowed in some places much defaced in many places set to a false light yet my memorie perswaded mine eyes that they were copies drawne from his originals And least induced by the like reasons you might suspect them to be some spurious supposititious pieces christened with his Name to giue them a fairer entertainement in the world and your good opinion I craued so much leaue from Authoritie as to prefixe this Epistle and to let you know they are indeed his but so his as a man that 's rob'd and wounded hath his tongue taken out is himselfe For first they want that which could best speake them his that which next the efficacious cooperating of GODS Spirit with his owne was the soule of euery Sermon the strong and powerfull elocution of his diuiner Tongue and this they must for euer want Next they are wounded many wayes wounded gramatically in the words wounded logically in the methode and wounded intellectually in the sense wounds which might easily haue been cured by his owne prescripts Lastly they are rob'd of those many rich apparellings with which they might haue been compleately furnisht too out of his owne Wardrope and shall be supplyed in the next Impression and those wounds some way healed by him who hauing with much difficultie obtained his owne Originals of these foure Sermons will study nothing more in them than the glory of his mercifull GOD the seruice of his Catholique Church the honour of his Reuerend friend and the satisfaction of his iudicious Reader Thomas Blechynden Revel 2. vers 10. the last words And J will give thee a Crowne of life OF all other things a
all true knowledge being Truth the inquisition after that conclusion keeping the candle burning the eies waking And this is the unvaluable advantage how-ever shallow men sleight it which a Philosopher a Student a man conversing with his understanding hath above other empty men of the world that whilst those sensualists fondly stand courting other vaine beauties some of them it may be naturall many of them artificiall most of them naught the Intellectualist the whilst hath frequent and familiar addresses approaches acquaintance with beautifull Truth So that of Truth we may say as did the Queene of Sheba of Salomon Happy are thy men happy are thy servants that stand continually before thee and heare thy wisedome learne thy Truth But in Hypothesi for this particular truth here about ceremonies wrigled in againe among the Galatians and whereunto they needes againe would bee in bondage a carriage concentrique with relapses at this day into Papisticall superstitions said Gualter of his time then to bring it no neerer Verily as Mirandula spake Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet that Truth was a thing which Philosophy sought Divinity found Religion possessed Other truths there be as Philosophicall truths which may so be glittering but they are these divine Truths that are the glorious Truths there bee not worth the wetting of a mans finger for much lesse the shedding of his bloud for them as sundry rules in sciences and curious arts and mathematicall principles Truth the toughest maintaining whereof will never make a true Martyr though ordinarily shall yee finde more obstinacy in maintaining those petty truths than constancy in upholding weightier truths and here and there some Heliodor yeelding rather to be cast out of his Bishoprick than to call in his bookes though but Aethiopicks having not so much as colour of truth And other sorts of truth there bee published yet ought not to bee practised veritates audiendae non imitandae as hee speakes as politick Theorems he that will speedily thrive in such and such places he must lye flatter dissemble and do worse truths which it may be some good man will trust but never try and such like other truths whereof a man may safely be ignorant but not safely practicant that as Christ bid the Minstrels Get you hence hence with such truths As Samuel said of Ishai's seven sonnes The Lord hath chosen none of these truthes no but as he defines Theologick truth to be the truth necessarie in the voyage to salvation divine truth saving truth truth respectively to Religion yea this is that truth of Christians incomparably fairer than Helen of the Grecians as Austin spake whilst as God himselfe is truth and everie man a lyar so are all those other but as trash to his truth who as one heroically spoke if hee were to be corporeal would sure have Light for his bodie and Truth for his soule and so as he is hath he Truth as his Vsher going before his face as in the Psalmist And whereas of other divine attributes some are especially ascribed to the Father as omnipotencie some to the Sonne as wisedome some to the holy Ghost as goodnesse Truth by the holy Spirit is peculiarly attributed to them all Lord God of Truth Iesus that Truth the Spirit of Truth Christ saith the cause of his comming his errand into the world was to beare witnesse unto the truth the Spirit of truth not onely so essentialiter but doctrinaliter leading into all truth his wayes truth his workes truth his word truth all truth who as fountaine of truth himselfe favoureth also truth in others too giving his placet to them that studie truth Qui student veritati placent ei The Lords eyes are upon the truth sayes Ieremy no tune more pleasing to God than truth Then come on ye that say Who will shew us any good Cui bono what good shall we get by this your painted pearle of truth this treasure in a traunce for all your letter of commendations of Truth Quid mihi prodest cognoscere Veritatem as in Austin Good Why say what is the good you would have Is it liberty O bona libertas why know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Iohn 8. the Truth there not onely Veritas Christus but Veritas Christi a Truth truely to be tearmed liberalis not onely as liberall sciences because they are worthy homine libero but this also hominem liberat for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and this is our liberty that wee are subiect to that Verity as Austin speaketh Or is it safety you seeke The world 's wrong the surest safety is not in subtilty no Truth is the Kings Guard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Salomon Truth that which helpes to keep and preserve the King Prov. 20. yea his Truth shall be your shield and buckler as David speaketh Is it comfort upon all occurrences you care for Why it was Hezekiah's cordiall lying sicke that he had walked before God in Truth Truth there not opposite onely falso but fucato when hypocrisie pollicie fraud falshood errour can minister no comfortable ingredient in extremity then faire fall Truth Beyond the comforts here is it heaven hereafter you would have hold of Why remember who it is shall dwell in Gods Tabernacle rest in his holy Mountaine hee that speaketh the Truth in his heart yea the blessed life it selfe is nothing else but gaudium de Veritate saies Austin a reioycing over Truth liberty safety comfort heaven if all things bee worth any thing Truth is worth them all Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Plato faire nor painter nor statuary that can expresse like beauty to Truths said Philemon Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Esdras strong strong above wine women king stronger than all Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clinias lasting Truth abideth is strong for ever said Zerobabel the lip of Truth shall be established for ever said Salomon That hence may even Nobles attend how the Romane Pretor wont alwaies to weare upon his breast the image of Truth as if the truest ensigne of Nobility were Truth Hence may even Senators attend how the Egyptian Iudges wore alwaies in a chaine about their neck the picture of Truth and 't was Iethro's counsell to Moses for Iudges over the people to choose viros veraces men of Truth in quibus sit veritas nor could the high Priest give sentence without the blest-plate of iudgement on wherein they put Veritatem as if Truth were the very forme of iudgement what ever the matter bee Hence may even the valiant attend how in that whole armour of God Ephes 6. Truth is there put the first peece of the Panoply as if the principall obiect of valour were Truth and that the prime care to have the loines girt about with Truth O then according to that excellent commendation Quintilian gives Vespasian patientissimus