that giues the inward grace But hath not God giuen inward grace by our outward Ministerie Your hearts shall be our witnesses What wil follow therefore but that our Ministerie is his peculiar appointment SEP Where say you are those rotten heaps of Transubstantiating of bread And where say I leâ—â—ned you your deuout kneeling to or before the bread but from that error of Transubstantiation Yea what lesse can it insinuate than either that or some other the like idolatrous conceit If there were not some thing more in the Bread and Wine than in the water at Baptisme or in the Word read or preâ—â—â—ed Why should such solemne kneeling bee so seuerely pressed at that 〈◊〉 rather than vpon the other occasions And well and truely haue your owne men affirmed that it were farre lesse sinne and appearance of an Idolatrie that is nothing so grosse to tye men in their Prayers to kneele before a Crucifixe than before the Bread and Wine and the reason followeth for that Papists commit an Idolatrie far more grosse and odious in worshipping the Bread than in worshipping any other of their Images or Idols whatsoeuer Apol. of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Dioc. part 1. pag. 66. SECTION XXXVI OVR kneeling you deriue like a good Herald from the errour of Transubstantiation but to set downe the descent of this pedigree will trouble you Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper De Consecr d. 2. Ego Bereng Apol. we doe vtterly denie it and challenge your proofe How new a fiction Transubstantiation is appeares out of Berengaries Recantation to Pope Nicholas The error was then so young it had not learned to speake shew vs the same noueltie in our kneeling Till of 〈◊〉 bleâ—â—eld not the Bread to bee God of olde they haue held it saâ—â—ed This is the gesture of reuerence in our Prayer at the receit as Master Burgesse wâ—ll interpreted it not of idolatrous adoration of the Bread This was most-what in the eleuation the abolishing whereof cleares vs of this imputation you know wee hate this conceit why doe you thus force wrongs vpon the innocent Neither are we alone in this vse The Church of Bohemy allowes and practises it and why is this error lesse palpable in the wafers of Geneua If the King should offer vs his hand to kisse wee take it vpon our knees how much more when the King of Heauen giues vs his Sonne in these Pledges But if there were not somthing more than iust reuerence why doe we solemnely kneele at the Communion not at Baptisme Can you finde no difference In this besides that there is both a more liuely and feeling signification of the thing represented we are the parties but in the other witnesses This therefore I dare boldly say that if your partner M. Smith should euer which God forbid perswade you to rebaptize your fittest gesture or any others at full age would be to receiue that Sacramentall water kneeling How glad you are to take all scraps that fall from any of ours for your aduantage Would to God this obseruation of your malicious gathering would make all our reuerend Brethren wary of their censures Surely no idolatry can be worse than that Popish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bread and the Crucifix striue for the higher place if we should therefore be so tied to kneele before the Bread as they are tied to kneele before the Crucifix their sentence were iust They adore the Crucifix not we the Bread they pray to the Crucifix not we to the Bread they direct their deuotions at the best by the Crucifix to their Sauiour we doe not so by the Bread we kneele no more to the Bread than to the Pulpit when we ioyne our praiers with the Ministers But our quarrell is not with them you that can approue their iudgements in dislike might learne to follow them in approbation and peaceable Communion with the Church if there be a galled place you will be sure to light vpon that Your charity is good whatsoeuer your wisdome be SEP To let passe your deuout kneeling vnto your Ordinary when you take the Oath of Canonicall obedience or receiue absolution at his hands which as the maine actions are religious must needs be religious adoration what is the adoring of your truly humane though called Diuine Seruice booke in and by which you worship God at the Papists doe by their Images If the Lord Iesus in his Testament haue not commanded any such Booke it is accursed and abominable if you thinke he haue shew vs the place where that we may know it with you or manifest vnto vs that euer the Apostles vsed themselues or commended to the Churches after them any such Seruice booke Was not the Lord in the Apostles time and Apostolike Churches purely and perfectly worshipped when the Officers of the Church in their ministration manifested the spirit of prayer which they had receiued according to the present necessities and occasions of the Church before the least pâ—rcell of this pacchery came into the World And might not the Lord now be also purely and perfectly worshipped though this printed image with the painted and câ—â—â—ed â—â—â—ges were sent backe to Rome yea or cast to Hell from whence both they and it came Spâ—â—ke in your selfe might not the Lord be intirely worshipped with pure and holy worship though 〈◊〉 other Booke but the holy Scriptures were brought into the Church If yes as who can denyâ—â— that knowes what the worship of God meaneth what then doth your Seruice booke there The Word of God is perfect and admitteth of none addition Cursed be he that addeth to the Word of the Lord and cursed be that which is added and so he your great idoll the Communion booke though like Nabuchadnezzars Image some part of the matter be Gold and Siluer which is also so much the more detestable by how much it is the more highly aduanced amongst you SECTION XXXVII Whether our Ordinary and Seruice booke be made Idols by vs. YEt 〈◊〉 Idolatry And which is more New and strange such I dare say as will nâ—â—er be found in the two 〈◊〉 Commandements Behold here two now Idols Our Ordinary and our Seruice booke a speaking Idoll and a written Idoll Calecute hath â—ne-strange Deitie the Deuill Siberia many whose people worship euery day what they see first Rome hath many merry Saints but Saint Ordinary and Saint Seruice booke were neuer heard of till your Canonization In earnest doe you thinke we make our Ordinary an idoll What else you kneele deuoutly to him when you receiue either the Oath or Absolution This must needs be religious adoration is there no remedy You haue twice kneeled to our Vice-Chancellor when you were admitted to your degree you haue oft kneeled to your Parents and Godfathers to receiue a blessing did you make Idols of them the party to be ordained kneeles vnder the hand of the Presbyterie doth he religiously adore them Of old they were wont to kisse the
haue much wickednesse in the City where wee liue you in the Church But in earnest doe you imagine wee account the Kingdome of England Babylon or the Citie of Amsterdam Sion It is the Church of England or State Ecclesiasticall which wee account Babylon and from which we withdraw in spirituall Communion but for the Common-Wealth and Kingdome as we honour it aboue all the States in the World so would we thankfully imbrace the meanest corner in it at the extremest conditions of any people in the Kingdome The hellish impieties in the Citie of Amsterdam doe no more preiudice our Heauenly Communion in the Church of Christ than the Frogs Lice Moraine and other plagues ouer-spreading Aegypt did the Israelites when Goshen the portion of their inheritance was free Exod. 8.19 nor than the Deluge wherewith the whole World was couered did NOAH when he and his Familie were safe in the ARke Genes 7. nor than Satans throne did the Church of Pergamus being established in the same Citie with it Reuel 2.12 13. SECTION LIII THe Church and State if they bee two yet they are twins and that so The neerenesse of the State Church the great errours found by the Separatists in the French and Dutch Churches as eithers euill proues mutuall the sinnes of the Citie not reformed blemish the Church where the Church hath power and in a sort comprehends the State shee cannot wash her hands of tolerated disorders in the Common-Wealth hence is my comparison of the Church if you could haue seene it not the Kingdome of England with that of Amsterdam I doubt not but you could bee content to sing the old song of vs Bona terra mala gens Our Land you could like well if you might bee Lords alone Thanks be to God it likes not you and iustly thinks the meanest corner too good for so mutinous a generation when it is weary of Peace it will recall you you that neither in Prison nor on the Seas nor in the Coasts of Virginia nor in your way nor in Netherland could liue in Peace What shall wee hope of your ease at home Where yee are all you thankfull Tenants cannot in a powerfull Christian state moue God to distinguish betwixt the knowne sinnes of the Citie and the Church How oft hath our Gracious Soueraigne and how importunately beene sollicited for a Toleration of Religions It is pittie that the Papists hyred not your Advocation who in this point are those true Cassanders Cassand de Offic. boni viri which Reuerend Caluin long since confuted Their wishes herein are yours To our shame and their excuse his Christian heart held that Toleration vnchristian and intollerable which you either neglect or magnifie Good Constantine winkt at it in his beginning Bellar. de Laicis Euseb in vita Const but as Dauid at the house of Zeruiahâ— Succeeding times found these Canaanites to bee prickes and thornes and therefore both by Mulcts and banishments sought either their yeeldance or voydance If your Magistrates hauing once giuen their names to the Church indeuour not to purge this Augean Stable how can you preferre their Communion to ours But howsoeuer now lest wee should thinke your Land-lords haue too iust cause to packe you away for Wranglers you turne ouer all the blame from the Church to the Citie yet your Pastor and Church haue so found the Citie in the Church and branded it with so blacke markes as that all your smooth extenuations cannot make it a lesse Babylon than the Church of England Behold now by your owne Confessions either Amsterdam shall be or England shall not be Babylon These eleuen crimes you haue found and proclaimed in those Dutch and French Churches Fr. Iohns Artic. against the French and Dutch Churches FIRST That the Assemblies are so contriued that the whole Church comes not together in one So that the Ministers cannot together with the Flocke sanctifie the Lords day the presence of the members of the Church cannot be knowne and finally no publike action whether Excommunication or any other can rightly be performed Could you say worse of vs Where neither Sabbath can bee rightly sanctified nor presence or absence knowne nor any holy action rightly performed what can there be but meere confusion SECONDLY That they baptize the seede of them who are no members of any Visible Church of whom moreouer they haue not care as of members neither admit their Parents to the Lords Supper Meere Babylonisme and sinne in constitution yea the same that makes vs no Church for what separation can there bee in such admittance what other but a sinfull commixture How is the Church of Amsterdam now gathered from the World THIRDLY That in the publike worship of God they haue deuised and vsed another forme of Prayer besides that which Christ our Lord hath prescribed Matth. 6. reading out of a Booke certaine Prayers inuented and imposed by man Behold here our fellow-Idolaters and as followes a daily Sacrifice of a set Seruice-Booke which in stead of the sweet Incense of spirituall Praiers is offered to God very Swines-flesh Barr. against Gâ—ff a new Portuise and an equall participation with vs of the Curse of addition to the Word FOVRTHLY That rule and commandement of Christ Matth. 18.15 they neither obserue nor suffer rightly to bee obserued among them How oft haue you said that there can bee no sound Church without this course because no separation Behold the maine blemish of England in the face of Amsterdam FIFTHLY That they worship God in the Idoll Temples of Antichrist so the Wine is marr'd with the Vessell their seruice abomination with ours neither doe these Antichristian stones want all glorious ornaments of the Romish Harlot yet more SIXTLY That their Ministers haue their set maintenance in another manner than Christ hath ordained 1 Chron. 14. and that also such as by which any Ministerie at all whether Popish or other might be maintained Either Tythes or as ill Behold one of the maine Arguments whereby our Ministerie is condemned as false and Antichristian falling heauy vpon our Neighbours SEVENTHLY That their Elders change yeerely and doe not continue in their Office according to the Doctrine of the Apostles and practise of the Primitiue Church What can our Church haue worse than false Gouernors Both annuall and perpetuall they cannot be What is if not this a wrong in Constitution EIGHTLY That they celebrate marriage in the Church as if it were a part of the Ecclesiasticall Administration a foule shame and sinne and what better than our third Sacrament NINTHLY That they vse a new censure of suspension which Christ hath not appointed no lesse than English presumption TENTHLY That they obserue daies and times consecrating certaine daies in the yeere to the Natiuitie Resurrection Ascension of Christ Behold their Calendar as truely possessed Two Commandements solemnly broken at once and we not Idolaters alone ELEVENTHLY which is last and worst that they receiue vnrepentant Excommunicates
What do you vnder these colours if you regard the fauour of that whose amitie is enmitie with God What care you for the censure of him whom you should both scorne and vanquish Did euer wise Christians did euer your Master allow either this manhood or this feare Was there euer any thing more strictly more fearfully forbidden of him then reuenge in the challenge then in the answer paiment of euill and murder in both It is pitie that euer the water of Baptisme was spilt vpon his face that cares more to discontent the world then to wrong God He saith Vengeance is mine and you steale it from him in a glorious theft hazarding your soule more then your body You are weary of your selfe while you thrust one part vpon the sword of an enemie the other on Gods Yet perhaps I haue yeelded too much Let goe Christians The wiser world of men and who else are worth respect will not passe this odious verdict vpon your refusall valiant men haue reiected challenges with their honours vntainted Augustus when he receiued a defiance and braue appointment of combat from Antonie could answer him That if Antonie were weary of liuing there vvere vvayese now besides to death And that Scythian King returned no other reply to Iohn the Emperor of Constantinople And Metellus challenged by Sertorius durst answer scornefully vvith his pen not vvith his sword That it vvas not for a Captaine to dye a souldiers death Was it not dishonorable for these wise and noble Heathens to turne off these desperate offers What law hath made it so with vs Shall I seriously tell you Nothing but the meere opinion of some humorous Gallants that haue more heart then braine confirmed by a more idle custome Worthly grounds whereon to spend both life and soule vvhereon to neglect God himselfe posteritie Goe now and take vp that sword of vvhose sharpnesse you haue boasted and hasten to the field vvhether you die or kill you haue murdered If you suruiue you are haunted vvith the conscience of blood if you die with the torments and if neither of these yet it is murder that you vvould haue killed See whether the fame of a braue fight can yeeld you a counteruailable redresse of these mischiefes how much more happily valiant had it been to master your selfe to feare sinne more then shame to contemne the world to pardon a wrong to preferre true Christianitie before idle manhood to liue and doe vvell To Mr MAT. MILWARD EP. III. A discourse of the pleasure of study and contemplation with the varieties of schollar-like imployments not without incitation of others thereunto and a censure of their neglect I Can wonder at nothing more then how a man can be idle but of all other a Scholar in so many improuements of reason in such sweetnesse of knowledge in such variety of studies in such importunity of thoughts Other Artizans do but practise we still learne others runne still in the same gyre to vvearinesse to satietie our choice is infinite other labours require recreations our very labour recreates our sports wee can neuer want either somewhat to doe or somewhat that we would do How numberlesse are those volumes vvhich men haue vvritten of Arts of Tongues How endlesse is that volume which God hath written of the vvorld wherein euery creature is a Letter euery day a new Page vvho can be weary of either of these To finde wit in Poetry in Philosophy profoundnesse in Mathematicks acutenesse in History wonder of euents in Oratory sweet eloquence in Diuinity supernaturall light and holy deuotion as so many rich metals in their proper mynes whom would it not rauish with delight After all these let vs but open our eyes we cannot looke beside a lesson in this vniuersall Booke of our Maker worth our study worth â—aking out What creature hath not his miracle vvhat euent doth not challenge his obseruation And if vveary of foraine imployment we list to looke home into our selues there wee finde a more priuate world of thoughts which set vs on vvorke anew more busily not lesse profitably now our silence is vocall our solitarinesse popular and we are shut vp to doe good vnto many And if once we be cloyed with our owne company the doore of conference is open here interchange of discourse besides pleasure benefits vs and he is a weake companion from whom we returne not wiser I could enuy if I could beleeue that Anachoret vvho secluded from the vvorld and pent vp in his voluntary prison-wals denied that hee thought the day long vvhiles yet hee vvanted learning to vary his thoughts Not to be cloyed with the same conceit is difficult aboue humane strength but to a man so furnished vvith all sorts of knowledge that according to his dispositions he can change his studies I should wonder that euer the Sunne should seeme to pase slowly How many busie tongues chase away good houres in pleasant chat and complaine of the haste of night What ingenuous minde can be sooner weary of talking vvith learned Authors the most harmelesse and sweetest of companions What an heauen liues a Scholar in that at once in one close roome can dayly conuerse vvith all the glorious Martyrs and Fathers that can single out at pleasure either sententious Tertullian or graue Cyprian or resolute Hierome or flowing Chrysostome or diuine Ambrose or deuout Bernard or vvho alone is all these heauenly Augustine and talke vvith them and heare their wise and holy counsels verdicts resolutions yea to rise higher with courtly Esay with learned Paul with all their fellow-Prophets Apostles yet more like another Moses with God himselfe in them both Let the vvorld contemne vs while we haue these delights we cannot enuy them wee cannot wish our selues other then wee are Besides the way to all other contentments is troublesome the onely recompence is in the end To delue in the mynes to scorch in the fire for the getting for the fining of gold is a slauish toyle the comfort is in the wedge to the owner not the labourers where our very search of knowledge is delightsome Study it selfe is our life from which vve would not be barred for a world How much sweeter then is the fruit of study the conscience of knowledge In comparison whereof the soule that hath once tasted it easily contemnes all humane comforts Goe now yee worldlings and insult ouer our palenesse our needinesse our neglect Ye could not bee so iocund if you vvere not ignorant if you did not vvant knowledge you could not ouer-looke him that hath it For me I am so farre from emulating you that I professe I had as leiue be a brute beast as an ignorant rich man How is it then that those Gallants vvhich haue priuiledge of blood and birth and better education do so scornfully turne off these most manly reasonable noble exercises of scholarship An hawke becomes their fist better then a booke No dogge but is a better companion Any thing or
vnholy places vnholy garments persons beasts fowles vessels touches tastes Vnder the Gospell all is holy All was made vnholy when the first Adam sinned when the second Adam satisfied for sinne all was made holy Moses the seruant built his house with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 2.14 A partition wall in the midst Christ the Sonne pulled downe that screene and cast all into one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iewes and Gentiles whole hoofes and clonen dwell now both vnder a roofe Moses branded some creatures with vncleannesse he that redeemed his children from morall impuritie redeemed his creatures from legall What should S. Peters great sheâ— let downe by foure corners teach us but that all creatures through the foure corners of the world are cleane and holy S. Paul proclaimes the summe of Peters vision Omnia munda mundis It is an iniurious scrupulousnesse to make differences of creatures iniurious to God to the creature to our selues To God while we will not let him serue himselfe of his owne To the creature while wee powre that shame vpon it which God neuer did To our selues while wee bring our selues into bondage where God hath inlarged vs. When Iulian had poysoned the wells and shambles and fields with his heathenish Lustrations the Christians saith Theodores are freely of all by vertue of PAVLS Quicquid in macellâ— To let passe the idle curiousnesse of our Semi-Anabaptists of the feparation at whose folly if any man bee disposed to make himselfe sport let him reade the Tragicomicall relation of the Troubles Excommunication of the English at Amsterdam There shall hee see such warres waged betwixt brothers for but a buske or whale-bone or lace or cork-shooe as if all Law and Gospell stood vpon this point as if heauen and earth were little enough to be mingled in this quarrell Nec gemina bellum Troianum To passe ouer all other lighter nicenesse of this kinde Who can choose but be ashamed of the Church of Rome which is here in a double extremitie both grosse In denying wiping out holinesse where God hath written it and in writing it where God hath not written it In the first how doe they driue out Deuils out of good creatures by foolish exorcismes I would hee were no more in themselues How doe they forbid meats drinks dayes mariage which God hath written holy Hee that reades Nauâ—rs Manuall shall finde cholericke blasphemie a veniall sinne pag. 91. some theft veniall p. 140. Common lying veniall p. 191. Cursing of parents if not malicious veniall p. 100. and yet the same Author chap. 21. nu 11. p. 209. to eat of a forbidden dish or an allowed dish more than once on a forbidden day is a mortall sinne And now these venials saith Francis a Victoria by a Pater-noster or sprinkling of holy water or knocke of the breast are cleared but that mortall eater is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guiltie of iudgement yea of hell it selfe Scribes Pharisies Hypocrites which prate of Peters chaire but will neuer take out Peters lesson That which God hath sanctified pollute thou not In the other What Holinesse doe they write in religious Cowles Altars Reliques Ashes Candles Oyles Salts Waters Ensignes Roses Words Graines Agnus Dei Medalls and a world of such trash So much that they haue left none in themselues Let mee haue no faith if euer play-booke were more ridiculous than their Pontificall and booke of holy Ceremonies It is well that Ierome reads these words super froenum not super Tintinnabulum Else what a rule should wee haue had tho hee had said Equorum not Templorum What comparisons would haue beene If Holinesse to the Lord must bee written on the bells of Horses much more on the bells of Churches What a colour would this haue beene for the washing anointing blessing christening of them What a warrant for driuing away Deuils chasing of ghosts stilling of tempests staying of thunders yea deliuering from Tentations which the Pontificall ascribes to them By whose account there should be more vertue in this peece of metall than in their holy Father himselfe yea than in any Angell of heauen But their vulgar bridles them in this which reads it super froenum which some superstitious man would say were fulfilled in Constantines snaffle made of the nailes that pierced Christ How worthie are they in the meane time of the whip not of men onely but of God which thus in a ridiculous presumption write Holinesse where God would haue a blanke and wipe out Holinesse where God hath written it For vs there is a double holinesse for vse for vertue All things are holy to vs for vse nothing is holy for vertue of sanctification but those things which God hath sanctified to this vertue his Word his Sacraments We may vse the other and put no holinesse in them we must vse these and expect holinesse from them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing vncleane is Peters rule but with Pauls explication Munda mundis All things are cleane in themselues to thee they are not cleane vnlesse thou be cleane Mine owne clothes shall make me filthy saith Iob. 9.31 Many a one may say so more iustly The proud mans gay coat the wanton womans beastly fashions both shew them to be vncleane and make them so But the lewd man makes his owne clothes filthy his meats drinks sports garments are vncleane to him because he is vncleane to God they are cursed to him because he is cursed of God God hath written on the outside of his creatures Holy to the Lord wee write on the inside Vnholy to men because our outside and inside is vnholy to God yea we doe not onely deface this inscription of holinesse in other creatures toâ—â—â— but wee will not let God write it vpon vs for himselfe O our miserie and shame All things else are holy Men Christians are vnholy There is no impuritie but where is Reason and Faith the grounds of Holinesse How oft would God haue written this title vpon our foreheads and ere he can haue written one full word we blot out all One sweares it away another drinks it away a third scoffs it away a fourth riots it away a fift swaggers it away and I would to God it were vncharitable to say that there is as much holinesse in the Bridles of the Horses as in some of their Riders Oh holinesse the riches of the Saints the beautie of Angels the delight of God whither hast thou withdrawne thy selfe where should we finde thee if not among Christians and yet how can we be or be named Christians without thee I see some that are afraid to be too holy and I see but some that feare to be too prophane We are all Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1.2 All by calling and some but by calling By calling of men not of God As the Church of Rome hath some Saints which are questioned whether euer they were in nature others whether they be not in Hell burning Tapers to
them on earth to whom perhaps the fiends light firebrands below As Caesarius the Monke brings in Petrus Cantor and Roger the Norman disputing the case of Becket so wee haue many titular Saints few reall many which are written in red Letters in the Calendar of the world Holy to the Lord whom God neuer canonizes in heauen and shall once entertaine with a Nescio I know you not These men yet haue Holinesse written vpon them and are like as Lucian compares his Grecians to a faire gilt bossed booke looke within there is the Tragedie of Thyestes or perhaps Arrius his Thalia the name of a Muse the matter heresie or Conradus Vorstius his late monster that hath De Dev in the front and Atheisme and Blasphemie in the text As S. Paul saies to his Corinths Would God yee could suffer me a little Yee cannot want praisers yee may want reprouers and yet you haue not so much need of Panegyricks as of reprehensions These by how much more rare they are by so much more necessarie Nec-censura deest quae increpet nec medicina quae saâ—et saith Cyprian A false praise grieues and a true praise shames saith Anastasius As Kings are by God himselfe called Gods for there are Dij nuncupatiuè and not essentialiter as Gregorie distinguishes because of their resemblance of God so their Courts should be like to heauen and their attendants like Saints and Angels Decet domum tuam sanctitudo agrees to both Thus you should be But alas I see some care to be gallant others care to be great few care to be holy Yea I know not what Deuill hath possessed the hearts of many great ones of our time in both sexes with this conceit that they cannot be gallant enough vnlesse they be godlesse Holinesse is for Diuines or men of meane spirits for graue subdued mortified retired mindes not for them that stand vpon the tearmes of honour height of place and spirit noble humours hence are our oaths duels profanesses Alas that wee should be so besotted as to thinke that our shame which is our onely glory It is reason that makes vs men but it is holinesse that makes vs Christians And woe to vs that wee are men if wee be not Christians Thinke as basely of it as yee will you shall one day finde that one dram of holinesse is worth a whole world of greatnesse yea that there is no greatnesse but in holinesse For Gods sake therefore doe not send holinesse to Colledges or Hospitals for her lodging but entertaine her willingly into the Court as a most happy guest Thinke it a shame and danger to goe in fine clothes while you haue foule hearts and know that in vaine shall you bee honour'd of men if you bee not holy to the Lord. Your goodly outsides may admit you into the Courts on earth but you shall neuer looke within the gates of the Court of heauen without holinesse Without holinesse no man shall see God O God without holinesse we shall neuer see thee and without thee we shall neuer see holinesse write thou vpon these flinty hearts of ours Holinesse to thy selfe Make vs holy to thee that wee may bee glorious with thee and all thy Saints and Angels All this onely for thy Christs sake and to whom c. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART ZACH. vlt. 20. IT is well-neere a yeere agoe since in this Gracious Presence we entred vpon this mysticall yet pertinent Text. You then heard what This day is what these Bells or Bridles what this inscription what these Pots and Bowles And out of That day you heard the proficiencie of the Church out of Holinesse written on the Bells the sanctification of the Church You shall now heare out of these bells or bridles of warlike horses thus inscribed the change of the holy warre and peace of the Church out of these pots aduanced to the likenesse of the bowles of the Altar the degrees of the Churches perfection and acceptation All which craue your gratious and honourable attention That conceit which yet is graced with the name of some Fathers that takes this in the literall sense of Constantines bridle wee passe as more worthy of smiles than confutation Questionlesse the sense is spirituall and it is a sure rule that as the historicall sense is fetcht from signification of words so the spirituall from the signification of those things which are signified by the words For this inscription then it shall not be vpon the bells for their owne sakes but for the horses not as bells but as bells of the horses And on the horses not for their owne sakes but as they serue for their Riders The horse a military creature there is no other mention of him in Scripture no other vse of him of old when the eyes of Elishaes seruant were open he saw the hill full of horses 2. King 6. Euen the celestiall warfare is not expressed without them Hence you shall euer finde them matcht with Chariots in the Scripture And the Poet Nunc tempus equos nunc poscere currus hee rusheth into the battell saith Ieremy and he is made for it for he hath both strength and nimblenesse He is strong there is fortitudo equi Psalm 47. and God himselfe acknowledges it Hast thou giuen the horse his strength Iob 39. He is swift saith Ieremy 4.13 yea as Eagles or Leopards saith Abacuc We must take these horses then either as continuing themselues or as altered If the first The very warres vnder the Gospell shall be holy and God shall much glorifie himselfe by them He saith not There shall be no horses or those horses shall haue no bells or those bells no inscription but those horses and their vse which is warre and their ornaments which are bells shall haue a title of Holinesse While Cornelius Agryppa writes of the vanity of Sciences wee may well wonder at the vanity of his opinion that all warre was forbidden vnder the Gopell But let Agrippa bee vaine in this as a meere Humanist and the Anabaptists grosly false as being franticke heretiques it is maruell how Erasmus so great a Scholler and Ferus so great a Text-man could miscarry in this Manichean conceit Alphonsus a Castro would faine haue our Oecolompadius to keepe them company but Bellarmine himselfe can hardly beleeue him No maruell when he sees Zuinglius die in the field tho as a Pastor not as a Souldier and when our swords haue so well taught them besides our tongues that the hereticks are as good friends to warre as enemies to them It is Gods euerlasting title Dominus exercituum To speake nothing of the old Testament What can Cornelius Agrippa say to Cornelius the Centurion I feare no man would giue that title to him that opposed warre which Gods spirit
that all the reall brables and suits amongst men arise from either true or pretended iniustice of contracts Let me leade you in a terme morning to the spacious Hall of Iustice What is the cause of all that concourse that Hiue-like murmure that noise at the Bar but iniurious bargaines fraudulent conueyances false titles disappointment of trusts wrongfull detentions of money goods lands coozenages oppressions extortions Could the honesty and priuate Iustice of men preuent these enormities silence and solitude would dwell in that wide Palace of Iustice neither would there be more Pleas than Cob-webs vnder that vast roofe Euery way therefore it is cleare that the worke of Iustice is peace In so much as the Guardians of Peace are called Iusticers This for the Common-wealth If it please you to cast your eyes vpon her Sister the Church you shall finde that the outward Peace thereof also must arise from Iustice Alas thence is our hopelesnesse Neuer may they prosper that loue not that wish not peace within those sacred wals but what possibility of Peace in the peremptory repulses of Iustice What possibility of Iustice in the long vsurped tyranny of the successor of Romulus Could we hope to see Iustice once shine from those seuen hils we would make account of Peace but oh the miserable iniustice of that imperious Sea Iniustice of claime iniustice of practice Of claime ouer Kings Church Scriptures Conscience Ouer Kings there is S. Pauls super-exalted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of the world His vsuall title is Orbis Dominus Dominus vniuersorum in the mouthes and pens of his flatterers And lest Princes should seeme exempted He is Rex Regum as Paulus 4. saies of himselfe Ouer Emperors and Kings he is super Imperatores reges saith their Antoninus Triumphus Capistranus and who not How much you know the calculation of the magnitude of the two great lights How ouer them As the master ouer the seruant they are the words of their Pope Nicholas The Imperiall throne is vnde nisi à nobis saith Pope Adrian What should I tell you of his bridle Whence but from vs stirrup toe cup canopy Let the booke of holy Ceremonies say the rest These things are stale The world hath long seene and blushed Ouer the Church There is challenged a proper head-ship from whom all influences of life sense motion come as their Bozius why said I ouer He is vnder the Church For he is the foundation of the Church saith Bellarmine Ouer as the head vnder as the foundation What can Christ be more Thence where are generall councels but vnder him as the streame of Iesuites Who but he is regula fidei as their Andradius he alone hath infallibility and indefectibility whether in decretis fidei or in praeceptis morum In decrees of faith or precepts of manners as Bellarmine He hath power to make new Creeds to obtrude them to the Church the deniall wherof was one of those Articles which Leo the tenth condemned in Luther Ouer Scriptures There is claimed a power to authorize them for such A power to interpret them sententialiter Obligatoriè being such A power to dispense with them ex causā though such Ouer the consciences of men In dispensing with their oathes in allowance of their sins It is one head of their Canon Law He absolues from the oath of Allegeance A Iuramento fidelitatis absoluit Decret p. 2. Caus 15. qu. 6. And in euery oath is vnderstood a reseruation and exception of the Popes power say his Parasites I am ashamed to tell and you would blush to heare of the dispensation reported to be granted by Sixtus 4. to the family of the Cardinall of S. Lucie and by Alexander 6. to Peter Mendoza Cardinall of Valentia And as there is horrible iniustice in these claimes so is there no lesse in practise Take a taste of all What can be more vniust than to cast out of the lap of the Church those that oppose their nouelties to condemne them to the stake to hell for Heretikes What more vniust than to falsifie the writings of ancient or moderne Authors by secret expurgations by wilfull mis-editions what more vniust than the withholding the remedy of generall Councels and transacting all the affaires of the Church by a pack't conclaue What more vniust than the suppression of the Scriptures and mutilation of the Sacrament to the Laity What more vniust than allowance of equiuocation than vpholding a faction by willing falshood of rumors than plotting the subuersion of King and State by vnnaturall conspiracies Well may wee call heauen and earth to record against the iniustice of these claimes of these practises What then Is it to hope for Peace notwithstanding the continuance of all these So the worke of Iniustice shall be Peace And an vniust and vnsound Peace must it needs be that arises from iniustice Is it to hope they will abandon these things for Peace Oh that the Church of God might once be so happy That there were but any life in that possibility In the meane time let God and his holy Angels witnesse betwixt vs that on their part the Peace faileth we are guiltlesse What haue we done What haue we attempted What haue we innouated Only we haue stood vpon a iust and modest negatiue and haue vniustly suffered Oh that all the innocent bloud we haue shed could wash their hands from Iniustice from enmity to Peace That from them we may returne to our selues For the publike we enioy an happy Peace Blessed be God for Iustice and if in this common harmony of Peace there be found some priuate iarres of discord whence is it but from our owne Iniustice The world is of another minde whose wont is to censure him that punishes the fault not him that makes it Seuerity not guiltinesse in common opinion breakes the Peace Let the question be who is the great make-bate of the world begin with the family Who troubles the house The like discourse to this ye shall finde in Coara Schlusselburgius in his preface to his thirteenth booke Catal. Haeret. Not vnruly headstrong debaucht children that are ready to throw the house out of the windowes but the austere father that reproues that corrects them would he winke at their disorders all would be quiet Not carelesse slothfull false lime-fingred seruants but the strict master that obserues and rates and chastises them would he hold his hands and tongue there would be peace Not the peeuish and turbulent wife who forgetting the rib vsurps vpon the head but the resolute husband that hates to leese his authority in his loue remembring that though the rib be neare the heart yet the head is aboue the shoulders Would he fall from the termes of his honour there would be peace In the Country not the oppressing Gentleman that tyrannizes ouer his cottagers incroches vpon his neighbours inheritance incloses commons depopulates villages scruzes his Tenants to
his Church must be framed your ciuill State c. Iust as that Donatist of old in Augustine Quid vobis c. What haue you to doe with worldly Emperours and as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatoricum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to doe with the Church Yea your Martyr feares not to teach vs that Gods seruants being as yet priuate men may and must together build his Church though all the Princes of the World should prohibit the same vpon paine of death Belike then you should sinne hainously if you should not be Rebels The question is not whether we should aske leaue of Princes to be Christians but whether of Christian Princes we should aske leaue to establish circumstances of Gouernment God must be serued though we suffer our bloud is well bestowed vpon our Maker but in patience not in violence Priuate profession is one thing Publike Reformation and Iniunction is another Euery man must doe that in the maine none may doe this but they of whom God saies I haue said Ye are Gods and of them There is difference betwixt Christian and Heathen Princes If at least all Princes were not to you Heathen If these should haue beene altogether stayed for Religion had come late If the other should not be stayed for Religion would soone bee ouerlayd with confusion Lastly the body of Religion is one thing the skirts of outward Gouernment another that may not depend on men to be embraced or with loyaltie prosecuted these vpon those generall rules Christ both may and doe and must If you cut off but one lap of these with Dauid you shall bee touched To deny this power to Gods Deputies on Earth what is it but Ye take too much vpon you Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 24.6 Numb 16.3 all the Congregation is holy wherefore lift ye your selues aboue the Congregation of the Lord See if herein you come not too neere the wals of that Rome which yee so abhorre and accurse in ascribing such power to the Church none to Princes Counterpoys pag. 2.30 Let your Doctor tell you 2 Chron. 13. 2 Chr. 14. 15. 2 Chron. 29. 2 Chron. 30. 2 Chron. 34. whether the best Israelites in the times of Abisah Asa Iehosaphat Ezekiah Iosiah tooke vpon them to reforme without or before or against their Princes Yea did Nehemiah himselfe without Arâ—â—hshat though an Heathen King set vpon the wals of Gods City Or what did â—erubbabel and Ieshua without Cyrus In whose time Haggâ—â— and Zechariah prophesied indeed but built not And when contrary Letters came from aboue they â—â—id by both Trowels and Swords They would be Iewes still they would not be Rebels for God Ezr. 4.23 24. Had those letters inioyned Swines flesh or Idolatry or forbidden the vse of the Law those which now yeelded had suffered and at once testified their obedience to authority and piety to him that sits in the Assembly of these earthen gods I vrge no more Perhaps you are more wise or lesse mutinous you might easily therefore purge your conscience from this sinne of wanting what you might not perforce enioy Say that your Church should imploy you backe to this our Babylon for the calling out of more proselytes you are intercepted imprisoned Shall it bee sinne in you not to heare the Prophesies at Amsterdam The Clinke is a lawfull excuse If your feet bee bound your conscience is not bound In these Negatiues outward force takes away both sinne and blame and alters them from the patient to the actor so that now you see your straight bonds if they were such loosed by obedience and ouer-ruling power SECTION XIX The bonds of Gods Word vniustly pleaded by the Separ BVT what bonds were these straight ones Gods Word and your owne necessitie Both strong and indissoluble Where God hath bidden God forbid that we should care for the forbiddance of men I reuerence from my soule so doth our Church their deare sister those worthy forraine Churches which haue chosen and followed those formes of outward Gouernment that are euery way fittest for their own condition It is enough for your Sect to censure them I touch nothing common to them with you * * Aug. Epist 58. Pastores autem Doctores quâ—â— maxime vt discernerâ—m voluisti eosdem puto esse sicut â—ibi visum est vt non alios Pastores alios Doctores intelligeremus sed ideo cùm praedixisset Pastores subiâ—â—xisse Doctores vt intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam Barr. against Gyff inueighs for this cause against the Consistorie of Geneua Fr. Iohns complaints of the Dutch and Fr. Churches Description of a visible Church cannot make a Distinct in the Definition of their Offices State of Christians 119. Description of visible Church H. Clap. Epist before his Treatise of Sinne against the Holy Ghost Brownists 4. Position Trouble and Excom at Amster Fr. Iohns in a Letter to M. Smith While the world standeth where will it euer be shewed out of the Sacred Booke of God that hee hath charged Let there be perpetuall Lay-Elders in euery Congregation Let euery Assembly haue a Pastor and Doctor distinct in their charge and offices Let all Decisions Excommunications Ordinations bee performed by the whole multitude Let priuate Christians aboue the first turne in extremitie agree to set ouer themselues a Pastor chosen from amongst them and receiue him with Prayer and vnlesse that Ceremony be turned to pompe and Superstition by imposition of hands Let there bee Widowers which you call Releeuers appointed euery where to the Church-Seruice Let certaine discreet and able men which are not Ministers bee appointed to preach the Gospell and whole truth of God to the people All the learned Diuines of other Churches are in these left yea in the most of them censured by you Hath God spoken these things to you alone Plead not Reuelations and we feare you not Pardon so homely an example As soone and by the same illumination shall G. Iohns proue to your Consistory the lace of the Pastors wiues sleeue or rings or Whalebones or others amongst you as your Pastor confesseth knit-stockings or corke-shooes forbidden flatly by Scriptures as these commanded Wee see the letter of the Scriptures with you you shall fetch bloud of them with straining ere you shall wring out this sense No no M.R. neuer make God your stale Many of your ordinances came from no higher than your owne braine Others of them though God acknowledges yet he imposed not Pretend what you will These are but the cords of your owne conceit not bonds of Christian obedience SECTION XX. THe first of these then is easily vntwisted your second is necessity The necessity of their pretended ordinance Than which what can be stronger what law or what remedy is against necessity What wee must haue wee cannot want Oppose but the publike necessity to yours your necessity of hauing to the publike necessity of withholding and
seuerall members without distinction a substance without quantity and other accidents or substance and accidents that cannot bee seene felt perceiued So they make either a Monster of their Sauiour or nothing A Religion that vtterly ouerthrowes the perfection of Christs satisfaction If all be not paid how hath he satisfied If temporall punishments in Purgatory be yet due how is all paid and if these must be paid by vs how are they satisfied by him A Religion that makes more Scriptures than euer God and his ancient Church and those which it doth make so imperiously obtrudes vpon the world as if God himselfe should speake from heauen while it thunders out curses against all that will not add these Bookes to Gods regards not Gods Curse If any man shall add vnto these things God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this Booke A Religion whose Patrons disgrace the true Scriptures of God with reprochfull termes odious comparisons imputations of corruption and imperfection and in fine pin their whole authority vpon the sleeues of men Papa facit protestationem ante Canonizationem se nihil intendere facire quod fit contra fidem aut Ecclesiam Catholicam Aliqui tamen clarissimi viri dicunt c. Quia Papâ— quodammodo cogebatur ad Canonizandum quendam contra suum voluntatem lib. Sacr. Ceremon A Religion that erects a throne in the Conscience to a meere man and giues him absolute power to make a sinne to dispense with it to create new Articles of Faith and to impose them vpon necessitie of saluation A Religion that baffoules all Temporall Princes making them stand bare-foot at their great Bishops gate lye at his foot hold his stirrup yea their owne Crownes at his Courtesie exempting all their Ecclesiasticall Subiects from their Iurisdiction and when they list all the rest from their Allegiance A Religion that hath made wicked men Saints and Saints Gods Euen by the confession of Papists lewd and vndeseruing men haue leapt into their Calendar Whence it is that the Pope before his Canonization of any Saint makes solemne protestation that he intends not in that businesse to doe ought preiudiciall to the glory of God or to the Catholike Faith and Church And once Sainted they haue the honour of Altars Temples Inuocations and some of them in a stile fit only for their Maker I know not whether that blessed Virgin receiue more indignitie from her enemies that deny her or these her flatterers that dâ—ifie her A Religion that robs the Christian heart of all sound comfort whiles it teacheth vs that we neither can nor ought to be assured of the remission of our sinnes and of present grace and future saluation That we can neuer know whether we haue receiued the true Sacraments of God because we cannot know the intention of the Minister without which they are no Sacraments A Religion that rackes the conscience with the needlesse torture of a necessary shrift wherein the vertue of absolution depends on the fulnesse of confession and that vpon examination and the sufficiencie of examination is so full of scruples besides those infinite cases of vnresolued doubts in this fained penance that the poore foule neuer knowes when it is deare A Religion that professes to be a 〈◊〉 of sinne whiles both in practise it tolerates open stâ—wes and preferres fornication in some cases to honourable Matrimonie and gently blanches ouer the breaches of Gods Law with the name of Venialls and fauourable titles of Diminution daring to affirme that Veniall sinnes are no hinderance to a mans cleannesse and perfection A Cruell Religion that sends poore Infants remedilesly vnto the eternall paines of Hell for want of that which they could not liue to desire and fâ—ighâ—s simple soules with expectation of fained torments in Purgatory not inferiour for the time to the flames of the damned How wretchedly and fearfully must their poore Layicks needs die for first they are not sure they shall not goe to Hell and secondly they are sure to be scorched if they shall goe to Heauen A Religion that makes nature namely proud in being ioyned by her as copartner with God in our Iustification in our Saluation and idlely puffed vp in a conceit of her perfection and abilitie to keepe more Lawes than God hath made A Religion that requires no other faith to iustification in Christians than may bee found in the Deuils themselues who besides a confused apprehension can assent vnto the Truth of Gods reuealed will Poperie requires no more A Religion that instead of the pure milke of the Gospell hath long fed her starued soules with such idle Legends as the Reporter can hardly deliuer without laughter and their Abettors not heare without shame and disclamation the wiser sort of the World read those Stories on winter Euenings for sport which the poore credulous multitude heares in their Churches with a deuout astonishment A Religion which lest ought should bee here wanting to the Doctrine of Deuils makes Religious Prohibitions of meat and difference of dyet superstitiously preferring Gods workmanship to it selfe and willingly polluting what he hath sanctified A Religion that requires nothing but meere formalitie in our deuotions the worke wrought suffices alone in Sacraments in Prayers So the number be found in the Chappelet there is no care of the affection as if God regarded not the heart but the tongue and hands and while he vnderstands vs cared little whether we vnderstand our selues A Religion that presumptuously dares to alter and mangle Christs last Institution and sacrilegiously rob Gods people of one halfe of that heauenly prouision which our Sauiour left for his last and dearest Legacie to his Church for euer as if Christs Ordinance were superfluous or any Shaueling could be wiser than his Redeemer A Religion that depends wholly vpon nice and poore vncertainties and vnproueable supposals that Peter was Bishop of Rome that hâ—e left any heires of his graces and spirit or if any but one in a perpetuall and vnfaileable succession at Rome That hee so bequeathed his infallibilitie to his chaire as that whosoeuer sits in it cannot but speake true that all which sit where he sate must by some secret instinct say as hee taught That what Christ said to him absolutely ere euer Rome was thought of must be referred yea tyed to that place alone and fulfilled in it That Linus or Clemens or Cletus the Schollers and supposed Successors of Peter must bee preferred in the Headship of the Church to Iohn the beloued Apostle then liuing That hee whose life whose pen whose iudgement whose keyes may erre yet in his Pontificall chaire cannot erre That the Golden Line of this Apostolicall Succession in the confusion of so many long desperate Schismes shamefully corrupt Vsurpations and Intrusions yeelded Heresies neither was nor can be broken Denie any of these and Poperie is no Religion Oh the lamentable hazard of so many Millions of poore soules that stand vpon these slipperie
there should bee granted by Iohn 22. a Pardon for no lesse than a million of yeeres Who can endure since by their owne confession this fire must last but till the conflagration of the world that yet in one little Booke there should be tendred vnto credulous poore soules Pardons of but eleuen thousand thousands of yeeres What should we make many words of this There is now lying by me a worme-eaten Manu-script with faire Rubrickes in which besides other absurd and blasphemous promises there is power giuen to one little prayer to change the paines of hell due perhaps to him that sayes it into Purgatory and after that againe the paines of Purgatory into the ioyes of Heauen Lib. de Indulg Bellarmine had wisely respected his owne reputation if hee had giuen his voice according to that which he confesseth to haue beene the iudgement of some others That these like Bills were not giuen by the Popes but lewdly deuised by some of his base Questuaries for an aduantage But that which he should excuse hee defends What ingenuity of shame is to be expected of Iesuites and how cleane hath an old Parrot as he said of old forgotten the wand Who may abide this vniust and inhumane acceptation of persons that the wealthier sort may by their purses redeeme this holy treasure of the Church and by money deliuer the soules of themselues and their friends from this horrible Prison while the needy Soule must be stall frying in this flame without all hope of pardon or mature relaxation vntill the very last Iudgement day Lastly who can endure that whiles it is in the power of Christs Vicar to call miserable soules out of this tormenting fire which hell it selfe is said to exceed onely in the continuance yet that he should suffer them to lie howling there and most cruelly broyling still and not mercifully bestow on them all the heapes of his treasure as the spirituall ransome of so many distressed spirits Ambr. de Nabâ—th A wretched man is he as Ambrose said of the rich man which hath the power to deliuer so many soules from death and wants the will Why hath God giuen him this faculty of Indulgences if hee would not haue it beneficiall to Mankinde Auth. operis imperfect and where the Owner of the house will bee bountifull it is not for the Steward to bee niggardly Let that Circè of Rome keepe these huskes for her hogges SECTION XIII Concerning the distinction of Veniall and Mortall sinnes PArdons doe both imply and presuppose that knowne distinction of Mortall and Veniall sinne which neither hath God euer allowed neither whiles he gaine-sayes it will euer the Protestants That there are certaine degrees of euill we both acknowledge and teach so as we may here iustly tax the dishonesty and shamelesnesse of Campion Durcus Coccius and the Monkes of Burdeaux who haue vpbraided vs with the opinion of a certaine Stoicall and Iouinianish parity of sinnes yea Bellarmine himselfe hath already done this kinde office for vs. Some offences are more hainous than other yet all in the malignitie of their nature deadly As of poysons some kill more gently and lingringly others more violently and speedily yet both kill Moreouer if wee haue respect vnto the infinite mercy of God and to the obiect of this mercy the penitent and faithfull heart there is no sinne which to borrow the word of Prudentius is not veniall but in respect of the Anomy or disorder there is no sinne which is not worthy of eternall death Euery sinne is a Viper there is no Viper if we regard the nature of the best but kils whom she bites but if one of them shall haply light vpon the hand of Paul she is shaked into the fire without harme done Let no man feare that harmefull creature euer the lesse because he sees the Apostle safe from that poyson So is sinne to a faithfull man Saint Iohns word is All sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transgression of the Law 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 6. Saint Pauls word is The wages of sinne is death Put these two together and this conceit of the naturall pardon ablenesse of sin vanishes alone Our Rhemists subtill men can no more abide this proposition conuerted than themselues All sinne indeed say they is anomia a transgression of the Law but euery transgression of the Law is not sinne The Apostle therefore himselfe turnes it for vs All vnrighteousnesse saith he is sin But euery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is vnrighteousnesse saith Austen vpon the place For the Law is the rule of righteousnesse therefore the preuarication of the Law is vnrighteousnesse Yea their very owne word shall stop their owne mouth for how is sinne vniuocally distinguished into Veniall and Mortall if the Veniall be no sinne and the wages of euery sinne is death That therefore which the Papists presume to say that this kinde of sinne deserues pardon in it selfe vnlesse they will take the word merit catachrestically with Stapleton And that which Bellarmine and Nauarus adde that Veniall sinnes are not against but beside the Law and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Fr. à Vict. summa sacr Poenitentiae nu 100. p. 63. That which Franciscus à Victoria writes that a Bishops blessing or a Lords Prayer or a knocke on the breast or a little holy water or any such like slight receipt without any other good motion of the heart is sufficient to remit Veniall sinne is so shamefully abhorring from all piety and iustice that these open bands both of nature and sinne must be eternally defied of vs. It is an old and as true a ride Decr. 23.4.4 est iniusta c. Petr. Alagâ—â—nae Comp. Manual Nauarri p. 91. p. 267. p. 140. p. 191. p. 352. p. 100. Socr. l. 5.21 â—asinesse of pardon giues incouragement to sinne And beside what maner of sinnes doe they put in the ranke of Venials Drunkennesse adultery angry curses or blasphemies couetousnesse yea stealing lying cursing of parents horrible offences shroud themselues with them vnder this plausible title of veniall He must needs be shamelesly wicked that abhorres not this licentiousnesse Surely Socrates the Historian prophecied I thinke of these men There are some saith he that let goe whoredome as an indifferent matter which yet striue for an holy-day as for their life The ordinarie and not slight Controuersie as Cassander thinketh of the name nature condition punishment of the first sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Originall as Chrysostome calls it I willingly omit Neither doe I meddle with their Euangelicall perfection of vowes nor the dangerous seruitude of their rash and impotent Votaries nor the incoueniences of their Monkerie which yet are so great and many that the elect Cardinals of Paul the third doubted not with ioynt consent to affirme All the Orders of Couents we thinke fit to be abolished but for the condition of that single and solitary life let that be done which Cassander and
ought that is memorable in the way he takes it vp but how many thousand matters of note fall beside him on either hand of the knowledge whereof he is not guilty Whereas some graue and painfull Author hath collected into one view whatsoeuer his Countrey affoords worthy of marke hauing measured many a foule step for that which wee may see dry-shod and worne out many yeeres in the search of that which one houre shall make no lesse ours than it was his owne To which must be added that our vnperfect acquaintance may not hope to finde so perfect information on the sudden as a naturall inhabitant may get by the disquisition of his whole life Let an Italian or French passenger walke thorow this our Iland what can his Table-bookes carry home in comparison of the learned Britaine of our Camden or the accurate Tables of Speed Or if one of ours should as too many do passe the Alpes what pittances can his wild iourny obserue in comparison of the Itinerarie of Fr. Schottus and Capugnanus Or he that would discourse of the Royalties of the French Lillies how can he be so furnished by flying report as by the elaborate gatherings of Cassaneus or of Degrassalius What should I bee infinite This age is so full of light that there is no one countrey of the habitable world whose beames are not crossed and interchanged with other Knowledge of all affaires is like musicke in the streets whereof those may partake which pay nothing Wee doe not lie more open to one common sinne than to the eies and pens of our neighbours Euen China it selfe and Iaponia and those other remotest Isles and Continents which haue taken the strictest order for closenesse haue receiued such discoueries as would rather satisfie a Reader than prouoke him to amend them A good booke is at once the best companion and guide and way and end of our iourney Necessity droue our forefathers out of doores which else in those misty times had seene no light wee may with more ease and no lesse profit sit still and inherit and enioy the labours of them and our elder brethren who haue purchased our knowledge with much hazard time toyle expence and haue beene liberall of their bloud some of them to leaue vs rich SECT XII AS for that verball discourse wherein I see some place the felicity of their Trauell thinking it the only grace to tel wonders to a ring of admiring ignorants it is easie to answer that table-talke is the least care of a wise man who like a deepe streame desires rather to runne silent and as himselfe is seldome transported with wonder so doth he not affect it in others reducing all to vse rather than admiration and more desiring to benefit than astonish the hearer withall that the same meanes which enable vs to know doe at once furnish vs with matter of discourse and for the forme of our expression if it proceed not from that naturall dexteritie which we carry with vs in vaine shall wee hope to bring it home the change of language is rather an hinderance to our former readinesse and if some haue fetcht new noses and lips and eares from Italie by the helpe of Tagliacotius and his schollars neuer any brought a new tongue from thence To conclude if a man would giue himselfe leaue to be thus vaine and free like a mill without a scluse let him but trauell thorow the world of bookes and he shall easily be able to out-talke that tongue whose feet haue walkt the furthest what hath any eye seene or imagination deuised which the pen hath not dared to write Out of our bookes we can tell the stories of the Monocelli who lying vpon their backs shelter themselues from the Sunne with the shadow of their one only foot We can tell of those cheape-dieted men that liue about the head of Ganges without meat without mouthes feeding only vpon aire at their nosthrils Or of those headlesse Easterne people that haue their eyes in their breasts a mis-conceit arising from their fashion of attire which I haue sometimes seene Or of those Coromandae of whom Pliny speakes that couer their whole body with their eares Or of the persecutors of S. Thomas of Canterbury whose posteritie if we beleeue the confident writings of Degrassalius are borne with long and hairie tailes souping after them which I imagine gaue occasion to that prouerbiall iest wherewith our mirth vses to vpbraid the Kentish Or of Amazons or Pigmees or Satyres or the Samarcandean Lambe which growing out of the earth by the nauell grazeth so farre as that naturall tether will reach Or of the Bird Ruc or ten thousand such miracles whether of nature or euent Little need wee to stirre our feet to learne to tell either loud lies or large truths We haue heard a bird in a cage sing more change of notes than others haue done in the wilde liberty of the wood And as for the present occurrences of the time the world about vs is so full of Presses that it may and is growne so good a fellow that it will impart what it knowes to all the neighbours whose relations if sometimes they swarue from truth we may well consider what variety of report euery accident will yeeld and that therefore our eares abroad are no whit more credible than our eyes at home Yea rather as Tully could say that at Antium he could heare the newes of Rome better than at Rome so may we oft-times better heare and see the newes of France or Spaine vpon our Exchange than in their Paris or Madrill Since what liberty soeuer tongues may take to themselues a discreet man will be ashamed to subscribe his name to that whereof hee may be afterwards conuinced SECT XIII SINCE therefore Trauell cannot out-bid vs in these highest commodities which concerne the wealth of the minde all the aduantage it can afford vs must bee in those mixt abilities wherein our bodies are the greatest partners as dancing fencing musicke vaulting horsemanship the onely professions of the mis-named Academies of other Nations Who can denie that such like exercises are fit for young Gentlemen not onely for their present recreation but much more for the preparing of them to more serious action Yet must these learne to know their places what are they else but the varnish of that picture of Gentry whose substance consists in the lines and colours of true vertue but the lace or facing of a rich garment but the hang-bies of that royall court which the soule keeps in a generous heart He that holds Gentilitie accomplished with these though laudible qualities partakes more of his horse than his horse can possibly of him This skill then is worthy of our purchase yet may not be bought too deare and perhaps need not to be fetcht so far Neither my profession nor my experience will allow me to hold comparisons in this kinde but I haue bin heartned by no meane masters of these Arts to
Especially since the reason that Ioseph Acosta fetches from the persons which should be the subiect of those Wonders holds as equally for both Indies Ios Acosta l 2. de sâ—l Ind. c. 9. as an Almanack made for the Meridian of one Citie serueth the Neighbours Hitherto then the Prologue of my infamous falshoods such as if all my Writings could haue afforded any equally hainous these had neuer beene chosen out to grace the front of his Detection There must needs be much terrour in the sequel The rest of this storme fals vpon our learned Professor D. Collins one of the prime ornaments of our Cambridge the partnership of whose vniust disgrace doth not a little hearten my vnworthinesse The world knowes the eminency of that mans Learning Wit Iudgement Eloquence His workes praise him enough in the Gate Yet this Malapert Corner-creeper doth so basely vilifie him for ignorance fillinesse pratling rusticitie lying as if in these onely he were matchlesse Indeed whom doth the aspersion of that foule hand forbeare Vilium est hominum alios viles facere I appeale to all the Tribunals of Learning thorow the World whether all Doway haue yeelded ought comparable to that mans Pen whether he haue not so * * This Booke of Doctor Coll. C. E falsly insinuateth to haue bin suppressed All Stationers shops can conuince him of a lye Nothing euer fell from that learned hand without applause coniured downe his Caco-Daemon Ioannes that he neuer dares to look backe into the light againe whether his Ephatha be not so powerfull that if his Aduersarie were any otherwise deafe then the blocke which hee worships it might open his eare to the Truth It angers C.E. to heare that Kings should not dye or perhaps that they whose heads are anointed should dye by any other then anointed fingers The sentence of his Cardinall and Iesuites both de facto and de jure of deposing and murdering Kings is now beside our way Onely we may reade afarre off in capitall Letters Arise Peter kill and eate Hee knowes the word with shame enough I will not so much wrong that worthy Prouost as to anticipate his quarrell rather I leaue the superfluitie of this malice to the scourge of that abler hand from whom I doubt not but C. E. shall smart and bleed so well that he may spare the labour of making himselfe his owne Whipping-stocke on Good-Friday THE HONOVR OF THE MARIED CLERGIE maintained c. The first Booke SECT I. NEither my Charitie nor my Leisure nor my Readers Patience vvill allow me to follow my Detector in all his Extrauagancies nor to change idle vvords of Contumely with a Babbler Declarationes ambitiosorum o era otâ—â—orum cihi sunt Scal. Exer. His twelue first Pages are but the light froth of an impotent Anger wherein hee accuseth my bitternesse and professeth his owne For me I appeale vnto all eyes if my Pen haue been sometimes zealous it was neuer intemperate Neither can he make me beleeue that my Passions need to appeare to my shame in calling Rome Prostitute or himselfe shamelesse Prostituta illa Ciuitas or in citing from the Quodlibet of his owne Catholike Priests the Art of his Iesuites in a a â—he particulars of this â—istorie he shall receiue in due place Drurying of young Heires There is neither Slander nor Shame in Truth For himselfe hee confesseth to haue sharpened his Pen and to haue dipt it perhaps too deepe in Gall But where his Inke is too thicke hee shall giue mee leaue to put a little Vineger to it that it may flow the better In the meane time he shall goe away with this glory That a fouler Mouth hath seldome euer wip'd it selfe vpon cleane Paper After those waste flourishes his thirteenth page begins to strike Refut p. 13. wherein hee chargeth me with odious basenesse and insufficiencie in borrowing all my proofes from Bellarmines Obiections dissembling their Solutions The Man were hard driuen that would go to borrow of an Enemy If al my proofes be fore-alledged and fore-answered by his Bellarmine to what purpose hath this Trifler blurred so much Paper There he saith shall the Reader see all my Scriptures answered the Doctrine of Deuils explicated there that other Let him bee the Husband of one Wife and Mariage is honorable Answered indeed but as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerlessely Such cleare Beames of Truth shine in the face of these Scriptures that all the Cob-web Vayles of a Iesuites subtiltie cannot obscure them Their very Citation confutes their Answer And where had we this Law That if a Iesuite haue once medled with a Scripture all Pens all Tongues are barred from euer alledging it If Satan haue mis-cited the Psalme Hee shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee for Temptation may not we make vse of it for the comfort of Protection Briefely let my Cauiller know that it is not the friuolous illusion of any shuffling Iesuite that can driue vs from the firme Bulwarke of the holy Scriptures In this they are clearely ours after all pretences of Solution as he shall well feele in the Sequel and shall secure vs against all humane Opposition Before the disquisition whereof somewhat of must force be premised concerning the state of our Question SECT II. WHere that all Readers may see how learnedly my wise Aduersary hath mistaken me and himselfe I must tell my Detector That all his tedious Discourse sits beside the Cushion Refut p. 12. For thus he writes of my Epistle so as his whole Scope is to disproue the single life of Catholike Priests and thereby to oppugne our Doctrine in that behalfe vpon which conceit he runs into a large proofe of the strong Obligation of Vowes the necessitie of their Obseruation the penaltie and danger of their Violation the praise of Virginitie the possibilitie of keeping it and vpon this very ground builds he the tottering wall of his whole ensuing Confutation insomuch as pag. 130 he sayes That Mariage all times without contrary Iniunction was lawfull is not denyed nor will it be proued in haste That Priests or such as had vowed the contrary might vse that libertie and we say not that Virginitie is violently to be opposed on any for it commeth by free election but where the Vow is free the Transgression is damnable Thus he Now let all indifferent eyes see whether the onely drift of mine Epistle be not to iustifie our Mariages not to improue their Singlenesse to defend the lawfulnesse of the Mariage of our Clergy not to iustifie the Mariages of the Romish to plead for the mariage of our Ecclesiastiques not of Popish Votaries In expresse tearmes I dis-auowed it The interuention of a Vow makes a new state Let Baal plead for himselfe What is it to me if the Romish Clergie may not bee Husbands or if according to the French Prouerbe they haue a Law not to marry and a Custome not to liue chaste Let it be
distinguish in the Sea but he cannot now either consider or feare it is his time to perish God makes him faire way and lets him run smoothly on till he be come to the midst of the Sea not one waue may rise vp against him to wet so much as the house of his horse Extraordinary fauours to wicked men are the forerunners of their ruine Now when God sees the Aegyptians too far to returne he finds time to strike them with their last terror they know not why but they would returne too late Those Chariots in which they trusted now faile them as hauing done seruice enough to carie them into perdition God pursues them and they cannot flye from him Wicked men make equall haste both to sin and from iudgement but they shall one day finde that it is not more easie to run into sin then impossible to run away from iudgement the sea will shew them that it regards the Rod of Moses not the Scepter of Pharaoh and now as glad to haue got the enemies of God at such an aduantage shuts her mouth vpon them and swallowes them vp in her waues and after shee hath made sport with them a while casts them vpon her sands for a spectacle of triumph to their aduersaries What a sight was this to the Israelites when they were now safe on the shore to see their enemies come floating after them vpon the billowes and to find among the carkasses vpon the sands their knowne oppressors which now they can tread vpon with insultation They did not cry more loud before then now they sing Not their faith but their sense teaches them now to magnifie that God after their deliuerance whom they hardly trusted for their deliuerance Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES OF THE Holy Storie The second Volume IN FOVRE BOOKES By I.H. D.D. LONDON Printed for THO PAVIER MILES FLESHER and Iohn Haviland 1625. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES PRINCE OF GREAT BRITAINE Most excellent PRINCE ACcording to the true dutie of a seruant J entended all my Contemplations to your now-glorious Brother of sweet and sorrowfull memorie The first part whereof as it was the last Booke that euer was dedicated to that deare and immortall name of his so it was the last that was turned ouer by his gracious hand Now since it pleased the GOD of spirits to call him from these poore Contemplations of ours to the blessed Contemplation of himselfe to see him as Hee is to see as hee is seene to whom is this sequell of my labours due but to your Highnesse the heire of his Honor and Vertues Euery yeare of my short pilgrimage is like to adde something to this Worke which in regard of the subiect is scarce finite The whole doth not onely craue your Highnesses Patronage but promises to requite your Princely acceptation with many sacred examples and rules both for pietie and wisdome towards the decking vp of this flourishing spring of your Age in the hopes whereof not onely we liue but be that is dead liues still in you And if any piece of these endeuours come short of my desires J shall supply the rest with my prayers which shall neuer be wanting to the God of Princes that your happy proceedings may make glad the Church of God and your selfe in either World glorious Your Highnesses in all humble deuotion and faithfull obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations THE FIFTH BOOKE The Waters of Marah The Quailes and Manna The Rocke of Rephidim The Foyle of Amalek Or The hand of Moses lift vp The Law The Golden Calfe BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HENRY EARLE OF HVNTINGDON LORD HASTINGS BOTERAVX MOLINES MOILES HIS MAIESTIES LIEVTENANT IN THE COVNTY OF LEICESTER A BOVNTIFVLL FAVOVRER OF ALL GOOD LEARNING A NOBLE PRECEDENT OF VERTVE THE FIRST PATRONE OF MY POORE STVDIES J. H. DEDICATES THIS PIECE OF HIS LABORS AND WISHETH ALL HONOVR AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE FIFTH BOOKE The waters of Marah ISRAEL was not more loth to come to the Red Sea then to part from it How soone can God turne the horrour of any euill into pleasure One shore resounded with shriekes of feare the other with Timbrels and Dances and Songs of Deliuerance Euery maine affliction is our Red Sea which while it threats to swallow preserues vs At last our Songs shall be lowder then our cryes The Israelitish Dames whē they saw their danger thought they might haue left their Timbrels behinde them how vnprofitable a burden seemed those instruments of Musick yet now they liue to renue that forgotten Minstralsie and Dancing which their bondage had so long discontinued and well might those feet dance vpon the shore which had walked thorow the Sea The Land of Goshen was not so bountifull to them as these Waters That afforded them a seruile life This gaue them at once freedome victorie riches bestowing vpon them the remainder of that wealth which the Aegyptians had but lent It was a pleasure to see the floating carkases of their Aduersaries and euery day offers them new booties It is no maruell then if their hearts were tyed to these bankes If we finde but a little pleasure in our life wee are ready to dote vpon it Euery small contentment glues our affections to that we like And if here our imperfect delights hold vs so fast that we would not be loosed how forcible shall those infinite ioyes be aboue when our soules are once possessed of them Yet if the place had pleas'd them more it is no maruell they were willing to follow Moses that they durst follow him in the Wildernesse whom they followed through the Sea It is a great confirmation to any people when they haue seene the hand of God with their guide O Sauiour which hast vndertaken to cary me from the spirituall Aegypt to the Land of Promise How faithfull how powerfull haue I found thee How fearelesly should I trust thee how cheerefully should I follow thee through contempt pouerty death it selfe Master if it be thou bid vs come vnto thee Immediately before they had complained of too much water now they go three dayes without Thus God meant to punish their infidelitie with the defect of that whose abundance made them to distrust Before they saw all Water no Land now all dry and dustie Land and no Water Extremities are the best tryals of men As in bodies those that can beare sudden changes of heats and cold without complaint are the strongest So much as an euill touches vpon the meane so much help it yeelds towards patience Euery degree of sorrow is a preparation to the next but when we passe to extreames without the meane we want the benefit of recollection and must trust to our present strength To come from all things to nothing is not a descent but a downfall and it is a rare strength and constancy not to be maymed
be brought to nothing and Atomes and dust is neerest to nothing that in stead of going before Israel it might passe thorow them so as the next day they might finde their god in their excrements To the iust shame of Israel when they should see their new god cannot defend himselfe from being either nothing or worse Who can but wonder to see a multitude of so many hundred thousands when Moses came running downe the Hill to turne their eyes from their god to him And on a sudden in stead of worshipping their Idoll to batter it in pieces in the very height of the noueltie In stead of building Altars and kindling fires to it to kindle an hotter fire then that wherewith it was melted to consume it In stead of dancing before it to abhorre and deface it in stead of singing to weepe before it There was neuer a more stiffe-necked people Yet I doe not heare any one man of them say He is but one man We are many how easily may we destroy him rather then hee our god If his brother durst not resist our motion in making it Why will we suffer him to dare resist the keeping of it It is our act and wee will maintaine it Here was none of this but an humble obeysance to the basest and bloodiest reuenge that Moses shall impose God hath set such an impression of Maiestie in the face of lawfull authoritie that wickednesse is confounded in it selfe to behold it If from hence visible powers were not more feared then the inuisible God the world would be ouer-runne with out-rage Sinne hath a guiltinesse in it selfe that when it is seasonably checked it puls in his head and seekes rather an hiding place then a fort The Idoll is not capable of a further reuenge It is not enough vnlesse the Idolaters smart The gold was good if the Israelites had not beene euill So great a sinne cannot be expiated without blood Behold that meeke spirit which in his plea with God would rather perish himselfe then Israel should perish armes the Leuites against their brethren and reioyces to see thousands of the Israelites bleed and blesses their executioners It was the mercy of Moses that made him cruell He had been cruell to all if some had not found him cruell They are mercilesse hands which are not sometimes imbrued in blood There is no lesse charitie then iustice in punishing sinners with death God delights no lesse in a killing mercy then in a pitifull iustice Some tender hearts would be ready to censure the rigour of Moses Might not Israel haue repented and liued Or if they must dye must their brethrens hand be vpon them Or if their throats must be cut by their brethren shall it be done in the very heat of their sinne But they must learne a difference betwixt pity and fondnesse mercy and vniustice Moses had an heart as soft as theirs but more hot as pitifull but wiser He was a good Physician and saw that Israel could not liue vnlesse he bled hee therefore le ts out this corrupt blood to saue the whole body There cannot bee a better sacrifice to God then the blood of Malefactors and this first sacrifice so pleased God in the hands of the Leuites that he would haue none but them sacrifice to him for euer The blood of the Idolatrous Israelites cleared that Tribe from the blood of the innocent Sichemites Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE The Vayle of Moses Nadab and Abihu Aaron and Miriam The Searchers of Canaan Corah's Conspiracie BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deaue of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOVNT FENTON CAPTAINE OF THE ROYALL GVARD ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST HONOVRABLE PRIVY COVNSELLORS ONE OF THE HAPPY RESCVERS OF THE DEARE LIFE OF OVR GRACIOVS SOVERAIGNE LORD A WORTHY PATTERNE OF ALL TRVE HONOR I. H. DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS AND WISHETH ALL INCREASE OF GRACE AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE Of the Vaile of MOSES IT is a wonder that neither Moses nor any Israelite gathered vp the shiuers of the former Tables Euery sheard of that stone and euery letter of that writing had beene a Relike worth laying vp but he well saw how headlong the people were to Superstition and how vnsafe it were to feed that disposition in them The same zeale that burnt the Calfe to ashes concealed the ruines of this Monument Holy things besides their vse challenge no further respect The breaking of the Tables did as good as blot out all the Writings defaced left no vertue in the stone no reuerence to it If God had not beene friends with Israel he had not renewed his Law As the Israelites were wilfully blind if they did not see Gods anger in the Tables broken so could they not but hold it a good signe of grace that God gaue them his Testimonies There was nothing wherein Israel out-stripped all the rest of the world more then in this priuiledge the pledge of his Couenant the Law written with Gods owne hand Oh what a fauour then is it where God bestowes his Gospell vpon any Nation That was but a killing letter this is the power of God to saluation Neuer is God throughly displeased with any people where that continues For like as those which purposed loue when they fall off call for their tokens back againe So when God begins once perfectly to mislike the first thing he with-drawes is his Gospell Israel recouers this fauour but with an abatement Hew thee two Tables God made the first Tables The matter the forme was his now Moses must hew the next As God created the first man after his owne Image but that once defaced Adam begat Cain after his owne Or as the first Temple razed a second was built yet so far short that the Israelites wept at the sight of it The first workes of God are still the purest those that he secondarily works by vs decline in their perfection It was reason that though God had forgotten Israel they should still find they had sinned They might see the footsteps of displeasure in the differences of the Agent When God had told Moses before I will not goe before Israel but my Angell shall lead them Moses so noted the difference that he rested not till God himselfe vndertooke their conduct So might the Israelites haue noted some remainders of offence whiles in stead of that which his owne hand did formerly make hee saith now Heâ— thee And yet these second Tables are kept reuerently in the Arke when the other lay mouldred in shiuers vpon Sinai like as the repaired repaired Image of God in our Regeneration is preserued perfited and layd vp at last safe in Heauen whereas the first Image of our created innocence is quite defaced so the second Temple had the glory of Christs exhibition though meaner in frame The mercifull respects of God are not tyed to glorious out-sides or the inward worthinesse of things or persons He hath chosen the weake
attract the heart of a Publican Hee arose and followed him We are all naturally auerse from thee O God doe thou but bid vs Follow thee draw vs by thy powerfull word and we shall runne after thee Alas thou speakest and wee sit still thou speakest by thine outward Word to our eare and wee stir not speake thou by the secret and effectuall word of thy spirit to our heart The world cannot hold vs downe Satan cannot stop our way we shall arise and follow thee It was not a more busie then gainfull trade that Matthew abandoned to follow Christ into pouertie and now hee cast away his Counters and strucke his Tallies and crossed his bookes and contemned his heapes of cash in comparison of that better treasure which he fore-saw lie open in that happy attendance If any commoditie bee valued of vs too deare to bee parted with for Christ we are more fit to bee Publicans then Disciples Our Sauiour inuites Matthew to a Discipleship Matthew inuites him to a feast The ioy of his call makes him to beginne his abdication of the world in a banquet Here was not a more cheerefull thankfulnes in the inuiter then a gracious humilitie in the guest The new seruant bids his Master the Publican his Sauiour and is honoured with so blessed a presence I doe not finde where Iesus was euer bidden to any table and refused If a Pharisee if a Publican inuited him he made not dainty to goe Not for the pleasure of the dishes what was that to him who began his worke in a whole Lent of dayes But as it was his meat and drinke to doe the will of his Father for the benefit of so winning a conuersation If he sate with sinners he conuerted them If with conuerts he confirmed and instructed them If with the poore he fed them If with the rich in substance he made them richer in grace At whose board did hee euer fit and left not his host a gainer The poore Bridegroome entertaines him and hath his water-pots filled with Wine Simon the Pharisee entertaines him and hath his table honoured with the publique remission of a penitent sinner with the heauenly doctrine of remission Zacheus entertaines him saluation came that day to his house with the author of it that presence made the Publican a sonne of Abraham Matthew is recompenced for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertaine him and besides diuine instruction receiue their brother from the dead O Sauiour whether thou feast vs or we feast thee in both of them is blessednesse Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no maruell if the guests be Publicans and sinners whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew inuited them to be partners of that plentifull grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and sinners will flocke together the one hatefull for their trade the other for their vitious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an vnanimitie and sends them to seeke mutuall comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruell seueritie makes men desperate and driues them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many haue gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table full was here The Sonne of God beset with Publicans and sinners O happy Publicans and sinners that had found out their Sauiour O mercifull Sauiour that disdained not Publicans and sinners What sinner can feare to kneele before thee when he sees Publicans and sinners sit with thee Who can feare to be despised of thy meeknesse and mercy which didst not abhorre to conuerse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thiefe confessing vpon the Crosse nor the sinner weeping vpon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way not the blushing adulteresse nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutor of Disciples nor thine owne executioners how can wee bee vnwelcome to thee if wee come with teares in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands Oh Sauiour our brests are too oft shut vpon thee thy bosome is euer open to vs wee are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should wee despaire of a roome at thy Table The squint-eid Pharisees looke a-crosse at all the actions of Christ where they should haue admired his mercy they cauill at his holinesse They said to his Disciples why eateth your Master with Publicans and sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soone haue conuinced them This winde they hoped might shake the weake faith of the Disciples They speake where they may bee most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanicall instruments haue learnt this craft of their old Tutor in Paradise We cannot reuerence that man whom wee thinke vnholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspition of his impuritie which the murmure of these enuious Pharisees would faine insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is vncleane He cannot but be vncleane that eateth with Publicans and sinners Proud foolish Pharisees ye fast whiles Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whiles Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your owne whiles Christ feasts with sinners but if ye fast in pride whiles Christ eates in humilitie if ye fast at home for merit or popularitie whiles Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conuersion your fast is vncleane his feast is holy ye shall haue your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speake not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they goe about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quicke eye of our Sauiour hath soone espied the packe of their fraud and therefore hee takes the words out of the mouthes of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himselfe The whole need not the Physitian but the sicke According to the two qualities of pride scorne and ouer-weening these insolent Pharisees ouer-rated their owne holinesse contemned the noted vnholinesse of others As if themselues were not tainted with secret sinnes as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and finds those iusticiaries sinfull those sinners iust The spirituall Physitian findes the sicknesse of those sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it cals for the