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
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
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
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
findes not any present cause of comfort one is hanted with his sinne another distracted with his passion amongst all which he is a miracle of all men that liues not some-way discontented So we liue not while we doe liue onely for that we want either wisdome or will to husband our liues to our owne best aduantage O the inequality of our cares Let riches or honour be in question we sue to them we seeke for them with importunity with seruile ambition our paines neede no sollicitor yea there is no way wrong that leads to this end wee abhorre the patience to stay till they inquire for vs. And if euer as it rarely happens our desert and worthinesse winnes vs the fauour of this proffer we meet it with both hands not daring with our modest denyals to whet the instancie and double the intreaties of so welcome suiters Yet loe here the onely true and precious riches the highest aduancement of the soule peace and happinesse seekes for vs sues to vs for acceptation our answers are coy and ouerly such as we giue to those clyents that looke to gaine by our fauours If our want were through the scarcitie of good we might yet hope for pity to ease vs but now that it is through negligence and that wee perish with our hands in our bosome we are rather worthy of stripes for the wrong wee doe our selues than of pity for what we suffer That wee may and will not in opportunitie of hurting others is noble and Christian but in our owne benefit sluggish and sauouring of the worst kinde of vnthriftinesse Saiest thou then this peace is good to haue but hard to get It were a shamefull neglect that hath no pretence Is difficulty sufficient excuse to hinder thee from the pursuit of riches of preferment of learning of bodily pleasures Art thou content to sit shrugging in a base cottage ragged famished because house clothes and food will neither be had without money nor money without labour nor labour without trouble and painfulnesse Who is so mercifull as not to say that a whip is the best almes for so lazie and wilfull need Peace should not be good if it were not hard Goe and by this excuse shut thy selfe out of heauen at thy death and liue miserably till thy death because the good of both worlds is hard to compasse There is nothing but misery on earth and hell below that thou canst come too without labour And if wee can bee content to cast away such immoderate and vnseasonable paines vpon these earthly trifles as to weare our bodies with violence and to encroach vpon the night for time to get them what madnesse shall it seeme in vs not to afford a lesse labour to that which is infinitely better and which onely giues worth and goodnesse to the other Wherefore if we haue not vowed enmity with our selues if we be not in loue with misery and vexation if wee bee not obstinately carelesse of our owne good let vs shake off this vnthriftie dangerous and desperate negligence and quicken these dull hearts to a liuely and effectuall search of what onely can yeeld them sweet and abiding contentment which once attained how shall we insult ouer euils and bid them doe their worst How shall we vnder this calme and quiet day laugh at the rough weather and vnsteady motions of the world How shall heauen and earth smile vpon vs and wee on them commanding the one aspiring to the other How pleasant shall our life bee while neither ioyes nor sorrowes can distemper it with excesse yea while the matter of ioy that is within vs turnes all the most sad occurrences into pleasure How deare and welcome shall our death bee that shall but lead vs from one heauen to another from peace to glory Goe now yee vaine and idle worldlings and please your selues in the large extent of your rich Mannors or in the homage of those whom basenesse of minde hath made slaues to your greatnesse or in the price and fashions of your full ward-robe or in the wanton varieties of your delicate Gardens or in your coffers full of red and white earth or if there be any other earthly thing more alluring more precious enioy it possesse it and let it possesse you Let mee haue onely my Peace and let me neuer want it till I enuie you FINIS THE ART OF DIVINE MEDITATION EXEMPLIFIED WITH TWO LARGE Patternes of Meditation The one of eternall Life as the end The other of Death as the way Reuised and augmented By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR RICHARD LEA Knight all increase of true honour with God and men SIR euer since J began to bestow my selfe vpon the common good studying wherein my labours might be most seruiceable J still found they could be no way so well improued as in that part which concerneth deuotion and the practice of true pietie For on the one side I perceiued the number of Polemicall bookes rather to breed than end strifes and those which are doctrinall by reason of their multitude rather to oppresse than satisfie the Reader wherein if we write the same things wee are iudged tedious if different singular On the other part respecting the Reader J saw the braines of men neuer more stuffed their tongues neuer more stirring their hearts neuer more emptie nor their hands more idle Wherefore after those sudden Meditations which passed me without rule J was easily induced by their successe as a small thing moues the willing to send forth this Rule of Meditation and after my Heauen vpon Earth to discourse although by way of example of Heauen aboue Jn this Art of mine J confesse to haue receiued more light from one obscure namelesse Monke which wrote some 112. yeeres agoe than from the directions of all other Writers J would his humilitie had not made him niggardly of his name that we might haue knowne whom to haue thanked It had beene easie to haue framed it with more curiosity but God and my soule know that J made profit the scope of my labour and not applause and therefore to chuse J wished rather to bee rude than vnprofitable Jf now the simplicitie of any Reader shall beâ—eaue him of the benefit of my precepts I know hee may make his vse of my examples Why I haue honoured it with your name J need not giue account to the world which alreadie knoweth your worth and deserts and shall see by this that J acknowledge them Goe you on happily according to the heauenly aduice of your Iunius in your worthy and glorious profession still bearing your selfe as one that knoweth vertue the truest Nobilitie and Religion the best vertue The God whom you serue shall honour you with men and crowne you in heauen To his grace J humbly commend you requesting you only to accept the worke and continue
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
this day wherein religion is not onely warmed but locked in her seat so fast that the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against it There haue beene Princes and that in this land which as the heathen Politician compared his Tyrant haue beene like to ill Physitians that haue purged away the good humors and left the bad behind them with whom any thing hath bin lawful but to be religious Some of your gray haires can be my witnesses Behold the euils we haue escaped shew vs our blessings Here hath bin no dragging out of houses no hiding of Bibles no creeping into woods no Bonnering or Butchering of Gods Saints no rotting in dungeons no casting of infants out of the mothers belly into the mothers flames nothing but Gods truth abundantly preached cheerefully professed incouraged rewarded What nation vnder heauen yeelds so many learned Diuines What times euer yeelded so many preaching Bishops When was this City the City of our ioy euer so happy this way as in these late successions Whither can we ascribe this health of the Church and life of the Gospell but next to God to His example His countenance His endeuours Wherein I may not omit how right he hath trod in the steps of that blessed Constantine in al his religious proceedings Let vs in one word parallel them Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 36. Constantine caused fifty Volumes of the Scriptures to bee faire written out in parchment for the vse of the Church Lib. 3.61.62 King Iames hath caused the Bookes of Scriptures to bee accurately translated and published by thousands Constantine made a zealous edict against Nouatians Valentinians Marcionites King Iames Lib. 3.63 besides his powerfull proclamations and soueraigne lawes hath effectually written against Popery and Vorstianisme Constantine tooke away the liberty of the meetings of Heretickes King Iames hath by wholesome lawes inhibited the assemblies of Papists and schismatickes Constantine sate in the middest of Bishops Lib. 1. c. 37. In media istorum frequentia ac congressu adesse vna considere non dedâ—gnatus Basil dor as if hee had beene one of them King Iames besides his solemne conferences vouchsafes not seldome to spend his meales in discourse with his Bishops and other worthy Diuines Constantine charged his sonnes vt planè sine fuco Christiani essent that they should be Christians in earnest King Iames hath done the like in learned and diuine precepts which shall liue till time bee no more Yea in their very coynes is a resemblance Constantine had his picture stampt vpon his mettals praying Lib. 4.15 King Iames hath his picture with prayer about it O Lord protect the kingdomes which thou hast vnited Lastly Constantine built Churches one in Ierusalem another in Nicomedia Lib. 3.43 King Iames hath founded one Colledge which shall helpe to build and confirme the whole Church of God vpon earth Yee wealthy Citizens that loue Ierusalem cast in your store after this royall example into the Sanctuary of God and whiles you make the Church of God happy make your selues so Brethren if wee haue any relish of Christ any sense of heauen let vs blesse God for the life of our soule the Gospell and for the spirit of this life his Anointed But where had beene our peace or this freedome of the Gospell without our deliuerance and where had our deliuerance beene without him As it was reported of the Oake of Mamre that all religions rendred their yeerely worship there Socr. l. 2. c. 3. The Iewes because of Abraham their Patriarch the Gentile because of the Angels that appeared there to Abraham The Christians because of Christ that was there seene of Abraham with the Angels So was there to King Iames in his first beginnings a confluence of all sects with papers in their hands and as it was best for them with a Rogamus Domine non pugnamus like the subiects of Theodosius Ribera in prophet min. ex Ioseph Antiq. lib. 9 vlt. â— mritam Iudaeos cognatos appellari soliti quamdiu illis bene erat At vbi contra c. 1 King 12. Flectâ—re si nequco c. But our cozens of Samaria when they saw that Salomons yoke would not bee lightned soone flew off in a rage What portion haue wee in Dauid And now those which had so oft looke vp to Heauen in vaine resolue to dig downe to Heli for aid Satan himselfe met them and offered for sauing of their labour to bring Hell vp to them What a world of sulphur had hee prouided against that day What a brewing of death was tunned vp in those vessels The murderous Pioners laught at the close felicity of their proiect and now before-hand seemed in conceit to haue heard the cracke of this hellish thunder and to see the mangled carcasses of the Heretickes flying vp so suddenly that their soules must needs goe vpward towards their perdition their streets strewed with legges and armes and the stones braining as many in their fall as they blew vp in their rise Remember the Children of Edom O Lord in the day of Ierusalem which said Psal 117.7 Downe with it downe with it euen to the ground O daughter of Babel worthy to bee destroyed blessed shall hee bee that serueth thee as thou wouldest haue serued vs. But hee that sits in Heauen laught as fast at them to see their presumption that would bee sending vp bodies to heauen before the resurrection and preferring companions to Elias in a fiery Chariot and said vt quid fremuerunt Consider now how great things the Lord hath done for vs The snare is broken and wee are deliuered But how As that learned Bishop well applied Salomon to this purpose Diuinatio in labijs Regis Pro. 16.10 B. Barlow p. 350 If there had not beene a diuination in the lips of the King wee had beene all in iawes of death Vnder his shadow wee are preserued aliue as Ieremie speaketh It is true God could haue done it by other meanes but hee would doe it by this that wee might owe the being of our liues to him of whom wee held our well-being before Oh praised be the God of heauen for our deliuerance Praised bee God for his anointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. by whom wee are deliuered Yea how should wee call to our fellow creatures the Angels Saints heauens elements meteors mountaines beasts trees to helpe vs praise the Lord for this mercy Addit neque me liberosque meos cariores habebo quam Caium eius sorores Clodoneus Otho Fris l. 4. c. 32. Clodoucus Otho Fris l. 4. c. 31. And as the oath of the Romane souldiers ranne how deare and precious should the life of Caesar bee to vs aboue all earthly things how should wee hate the base vnthankfulnesse of those men which can say of him as one said of his Saint Martin Martinus bonus in auxilio charus in negotio who whiles they
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
written p. 9 the truth of his Ministerie vpon the approbation also of his people he receiued this answer from him Though you had such allowance it could nothing auaile but rather ouerthrow your Ministerie they being as yet vngathered to Christ and therefore neither may not in this estate chuse them a Minister nor any exercise a Ministerie vnto them without hainous sacrilege O desperate iudgment we neither are Christians nor can be No Christianitie without Faith no Faith without the Ministerie of the Word Fr. Iohns seuen Reas against Iac. p. 46. G. Iohns Pref. to the Pastor no Word to vs without Sacrilege What are we that the very offer of bringing vs to God should bee criminall These are your acknowledgements of our good who haue learned of your Pastor to kisse and kill all at once to blesse and curse with one breath your mercies are cruell SECTION XV. The vnnaturalnesse of some principal Separatists Ruffin l. 2. Eccles Hist c. 3. Aug. ep Posid in vita Aug. BVT who can wonder at your vnnaturalnesse to the Church that heares what measure you mete to your owne Error is commonly ioyned with crueltie The outragious demenors of the Circumcelliones in Augustines time and more than barbarous tyrannie of the Arrians before him are well knowne by all Histories and not enough by any God forbid that I should compare you to these Heare rather of Nonatus the father of a not vnlike Sect of whom Cyprian reports Euseb Hist Eccl. Dâ—mnis grauissimis caedibus afficiebant armati diuersis telis Socrat. l. 2. c. 22. 30. Cyprian l. 2. epist 8. Nouati pater in vicâ— fame mortuus nec postea ab ille sepultus Sic Optat. lib. 1. Purpurius Donatista occidit seroris filios c. that hee would neither bestow bread on his father aliue nor burial on him dead but suffered him both to starue and stinke in the street and for his wife lest he should be mercifull to any he spurned her with his heele and slew his owne childe in her body What neede I seeke so farre I grieue to thinke and report that your owne Pastor hath paralleld this cruelty His owne brother which is no lesse sauage though one of your Sect is the publike accuser and condemner of him in this crime to all the World who after a pitifull relation of his eight yeeres quarrells with him and foure yeeres Excommunication in his Epistle before a large Volume to this purpose writes thus After all these hath not our kinde carefull and olde Father come a long iourney to make Peace Hath he not laboured with you the Elders and the Church to bring you to peace Hath he not vsed the helpe and counsell of the Reformed Churches herein Yet will you not be reclaimed but adding that sinne aboue all * * G. Iohns Discourse of troubles excommunications at Amsterdam printed 1603. Ibid. p. 5. haue also monstrously excommunicated your Father the Peace-seeker c. And straight How oft desired he you as if hee had beene the sonne and you the father euen with teares that you would repent In a word how came He and I to your doore shewing you that it might be vpon his departing you should see his face no more c. Yet you forced him by your ill dealing still to leaue vpon you his Curse and all the Curses written in Gods Booke against vnthankfull and disobedient children Thus farr a brother concerning a brother against father and brother Other strangely-vnkinde vsages of both I had rather leaue to the discouery of Master White and this miserable Plaintife Discouery of Brownisme Vid. G. Iohns Booke who haue written enough to make an enemie ashamed But wherevpon was all this fearefull broyle in a pure Church For nothing but a little lace and Whale-bone in his wiues sleeue The Troiane war could not bee slandered with so weighty a beginning As for your Elder Daniel Studly whom your Pastor so much extolleth if Master Whites Apostasie may be your shift against his Relation Inq into Th. Whites Discou let him speake who should haue beene a Fellow-Elder with him banished for your truth though eiected by your censure Marke saith G. Iohns of this Studly how the Lord hath iudged him with vnnaturalnesse to his owne children suffering them to lye at other mens feet and hang on other mens hands Same Epist 15. whiles he his wife and her daughter fared daintily and went prankingly in apparell They say Filia Sponsae Mihi accusatio etiam vera contra fratrem displacet Hieron aduersus Ruffin euen in this place of banishment It is no ioy to me to blazon these or your other sins would God they were fewer and lesse in vs all Onely it was fit the World should know as how vndutifull you are to your common Parent so that Father Brother Children beare part with your Mother in these your cruelties SEP The superabundant grace of God couering passing by the manifold enormities in that Church wherewith these good things are inseparably commingled and wherein we also through ignorance and infirmity were inwrapped But what then should we still haue continued in sinne that grace might haue abounded If God haue caused a further truth like a light in a darke place to shine in our hearts should we still haue mingled that light with darknesse contrary to the Lords owne practise Genes 1.4 and expresse precept 2 Cor. 6.14 What the Separatists thinke themselues beholden to the Church of England for Bar. Exam. before the Archbishop and L. Anderson Browne state of Christians p. 39 Qui non habet quod dei quâ—â— dâ— dei vox Donat Opt. lib. 1. SECTION XVI IF then such be the good things of our Church What good can you acknowledge to haue receiued from her Nothing giues what it hath not A Baptisme perhaps Alas but no true Sacrament you say yea the seale of gracelesnes and mischiefe As little are you beholden to the Church for that as the Church to you for your good acceptation Why are you not rebaptized You that cannot abide a false Church why doe you content your selues with a false Sacrament especially since our Church being not yet gathered to Christ is no Church and therefore her baptisme a nullitie What else doe you owe to the liberality of this Step-dame You are close your Pastor is lauish for you both who thus speaks of himselfe and you and vs I confesse that whiles I was Minister in your Church of EnglaÌ„d Bar. supra Fr. Iohn against M. Iacob p. 41. Exc. 2. I stood in an Antichristian estate yet doubt I not but euen then being of the Elect of God I was partaker through faith of the mercy of God in Christ to saluation but as for you Ma. IACOB his fellow-Christians whiles you thus remaine you cannot in that estate approue your selues to haue the promise of saluation Behold here the Church of England gaue you but
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
carrie it The Church of Rome hath beene ancient not the errors neither doe we in ought differ from it wherein it is not departed from it selfe I did not more feare your wearinesse than my owne forgetting the measure of a Preface I would passe through euery point of difference betwixt vs and let you see in all particulars which is the old way and make you know that your Popish Religion doth but put on a borrowed visour of grauitie vpon this Stage to out-face true antiquitie Yet lest you should complaine of words let mee without your tediousnesse haue leaue but to instance in the first of all Controuersies betwixt vâ— offering the same proofe in all which you shall see performed in one I compare the iudgement of the ancient Church with yours see therefore and bee ashamed of your noueltie Especially Toby Iudeth Wisd of Salomon Ecclesiasticus Maccabees Euseb l. 4. c. 25. Exposit Symboli veteris instrumenti primi omnium Mosis quinque libri c. Haec sunt quae patres intra Cánonem concluserunt ex quibus fidei nostrae assertiones c. Alij libri sunt qui non Canonici c. First our question is Whether all those bookes which in our Bibles are stiled Apocryphall and are put after the rest by themselues are to be receiued as the true Scriptures of God Heare first the voice of the old Church to let passe that cleare and pregnant testimonie of MELITO SARDENSIS in his Epistle to ONESIMVS cited by EVSEBIVS Let CYPRIAN or RVFFINVS rather speake in the name of all Of the old Testament saith he first were written the fiue bookes of MOSES Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers Deuteronomie after these the booke of IOSHVAH the Son of NVN and that of the Iudges together of RVTH after which were the foure bookes of the Kings which the Hebrewes reckon but two of the Chronicles which is called the booke of Dayes and of EzRA are two bookes which of them are accounted but single and the booke of ESTER Of the Prophets there is ESAY HIEREâ—â—E EzEKIEL and DANIEL and besides one booke which containes the twelue smaller Prophets Also IOB the Psalmes of DAVID are single books of SALOMON there are three books deliuered to the Church the Prouerbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs In these they haue shut vp the number of the bookes of the old Testament Of the new there are foure Gospels of MATTHEVV MARKE LVKE and IOHN the Acts of the Apostles written by LVKE of PAVL the Apostle fourteene Epistles of the Apostle PETER two Epistles of IAMES the LORDS brother and Apostle one of IVDE one of IOHN three Lastly the Reuelation of IOHN These are they which the Fathers haue accounted within the Canon by which they would haue the assertions of our faith made good But we must know there are other bookes which are called of the Ancients not Canonicall but Ecclesiastical as the Wisedome of SALOMON another Book of Wisedome which is called of IESVS the sonne of SIRACH which book of the Latines is termed by a generall name Ecclesiastiâ—us of the same ranke is the book of TOBY and IVDETH and the bookes of the Maccabees Thus farre that Father so HIEROME after that he hath reckoned vp the same number of bookes with vs in their order hath these words This Prologue of mine saith hee may serue as a well defenced enâ—rance to all the bookes which I haue turned out of Hebrew into Latine In prologâ— gâ— to Tem. 3. p. 6. Hic prologus Scripturam quasi GaleatuÌ„ principium omnibus libris quos de Hebraeo c. Vt scire valeamê° quicquid extra bos est inter apocrypha esse ponendum igitur Sapientia quae vulgo Salomonis inscribitur Iesu c. non sunt in Canone c. Euseb l. 6. c. 24. Haud ignoranduÌ„ autem fuerit veteris instrum libros sicut Hebraei tradunt 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec sunt Apocrythae Iesus Sapientia Pastor MaccabaeoruÌ„ libri Iudeth atque Tobia Hugo Card. Concil Trident. Decr. de Canon Script April 8. promulg in quar Sessione SacroruÌ„ vero librorum indicem huic decreto adscribendum censuit c. Sunt autem infra scripti Testamenti veteris quinque libri Mosis c. Tobias Iudeth Sapientia Salomonis Ecclesiasticus Maccab. 2. Si quis autem libros ipsos integres cum omnibê° suis partibus pro vt in Ecclesia Catholica legi consueuerunt in veteri vulgata Latina Editione habenter pro sacrit canonicis non susceperit Anathema sit Aug. de Ciuit. Dei l. 15. c. 13. Sed quomodo libet istud accipiatur c. Ei linguae potius credatur vnde est in aliam facta translatio Ludouic Viues ibid. Hoc ipsum Hieronymus clamat vbique â—c ips◠〈◊〉 ratio c. Sed frustra honorum ingraciorum consensus hoc dâ—cet Hieron l. 3 â—â—m in Esaiam Quod si aliquis dixerit Hebraeos libros pesâ— Ã Iudâ— falsatos c. Sâ— autem dixerint post aduentum Domini saluatoris c. Hebraeos libros fuisse falsatos cachiâ—num tenere non poteâ— vt salâ—r Apostoli c. cap. 6. Decr. p. 1. dist 9. c. vt veterum Vt veterum librorum fides de Hebraeis voluminibus examinanda est ita nouerum Graeci sermonis normam defiderat Ad Decr. p. 1. d. 19. c. 3. Ad diuina reâ—urre scripta Graeca that we may know that whatsoeuer is besides these is Apocryphall therefore that booke which is intituled Salomons Wisdome and the booke of Iesus the sonne of Syrach and Iudeth and Tobias and Pastor are not Canonicall the first booke of the Macabees I haue found in Hebrew the second in Greeke which booke saith hee indeede the Church readeth but receiueth not as Canonicall The same reckoning is made by Origen in Eusebius word for word The same by Epiphanius by Cyrill by Athanasius Gregorie Nazianzen Damascen yea by Lyranus both Hugoes Caietan Carthusian and Montanus himselfe c. All of them with full consent reiecting these same Apocryphall bookes with vs. Now heare the present Church of Rome in her owne words thus The holy Synode of Trent hath though good to set downe with this Decree a iust Catalogue of bookes of holy Scripture lest any man should make doubt which they bee which are receiued by the Synode And they are these vnder-written Of the Old Testament fiue bookes of MOSES then IOSHVAH the Iudges RVTH foure bookes of the Kings two of the Chronicles two of ESDRAS the first and the second which is called NEHEMIAS TOBIAS IVDETH ESTER IOB the Psalter of DAVID containing one hundred and fiftie Psalmes The Prouerbs of SALOMON Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs the booke of Wisdome Ecclesiasticus ESAY HIEREMIE c. two bookes of the Maccabees the first and the second And if any man shall not receiue these whole bookes with all the parts of them as they are wont to
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
Clingius the Franciscan aduise in this case that is Let all false conceit and preposterous confidence bee remooued from it that the trust which should onely be put in the merit of Christ bee not placed vpon these courses and let no man thinke that hereby he deserues righteousnesse remission grace and lastly which I adde remoue but idlenesse superstition necessitie from this kinde of life and we doe not we will not disallow it Neither doe we take our Colledges for any other than certaine sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 monasticall Academies wherein according to the precept of Pelagius the Pope we may be maturely fitted for these holy seruices of God and his Church such were the Monasteries of the Ancient insomuch as Possidonius can witnesse that Saint Austen out of one little house Possid in vita Aug. sent forth ten labourers into the haruest of the Church SECTION XIIII Concerning the Canon of the Scripture NOw lest I be too tedious it is time for mee from these points which doe directly concerne our selues to hasten vnto those which do more closely touch the Maiestie of God and doe as it were send plaine challenges into heauen And those do either respect the Scripture which is his expressed word or Christ which is his naturall and substantiall Word or lastly the worship due vnto his Name And first the Scripture complaines iustly of three maine wrongs offered to it The first of addition to the Canon The second of detraction from the sufficiencie of it The third of hanging all the authoritie thereof vpon the sleeue of the Church For of that corrupt Translation of Scripture which the Trent Diuines haue made onely and fully authenticall I forbeare purposely to speake although it were easie to shew that which Reuchline following the steps of Hierom hath auerred That the Hebrewes drinke of the Well head the Greekes of the streame Hier. aduers â—eluidium and the Latines of the puddle neither will I so much as touch the iniurious inhibition of those holy bookes to the Laity Who can endure a piece of new cloth to bee patched vnto an old garment Or what can follow whence but that the rent should bee worse I referre the reader for the citation of these to my disswasiue from Popery Who can abide that against the faithfull information of the Hebrewes against the cleere Testimonies of Melito Cyril Athanasius Origen Hilary Hierom Ruffinus Nazianzen against their owne Doctors both of the middle and latest age six whole bookes should by their fatherhoods of Trent be vnder pain of a curse imperiously obtruded vpon God his Church Whereof yet some propose to their Readers no better than magicall iugglings others bloudy selfe murders other lying fables and others heathenish 〈◊〉 not without a publike applause in the relation These indeed Caâ—â—â—â— ingennously as his fashion is according to that he had learned of Hierome would perswade vs to haue beene admitted onely by the Ancients into the Canon of Manners not of Faith And surely there be many precepts in Syracider the counterfeit Salomon and Esdraâ— which sauour of excellent wisedome but I wonder what kinde of good manners can be learned from such like histories Catechâ—â—â—eni euen by those Nouices to whom Athanasius bequeaths these bookes Well may I say of these as that Chian seruant of his Master which sold his wine Epith. l. 1. sect 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis l. Hester Dan Baeruc Eccl. Iudith Tob. Macca pro Canonicis non recipâ—rit Anathema fit sect 4. Apoc. vlt. and dranke his lees while they haue good they seeke for naught But let these bookes how questionable soeuer to Ephiphanius be all sacred let them be according to the meaning of the councell of Carthage and of Austen so oft cited to this purpose after Canonicall yet what man or Angel dare presume to vndertake to make them diuine Wee know full well how great impietie it is to father vpon the God of heauen the weake conceptions of an humane wit neither can we be any whit moued with the idle cracke of the Tridentine curse whiles we heare God thundring in our eares If any man adde vnto these words God shall adde vnto him the plagues written in this book SECTION XV. Of the Insufficiencie of Scripture NEither know I whether it be more wickedly audacious to fasten on God those things which be neuer wrote or to weaken the authority and denie the sufficiencie of what he hath written The Papists doe both We affirme saith Bellarmine that there is not expressely contained in Scriptures all necessary doctrine either concerning faith Lib. 4. de verbo non scripto c. 30. sect 1. Pari veneratiâ—â—e pari pietatis affectu or manners And the Tridentine Fathers giue charge that Traditions be receiued with no lesse Pietie and Veneration than the Bookes of Scripture Vnwritten Truths saith our wittie Chancellour More are equiualent to the Word of God What place is there for peace There are we confesse certaine things of a middle nature indifferent rites wherein much must be yeelded to the Church much to Traditions but that those things which are simply necessary to saluation whetherto be knowne or to be done should not be found in the holy Scriptures either in their words Per verba per sensum or in their sense as Aquinas distinguishes we iustly hold absurd and with Erasmus contrary to all true diuinitie Some Constitutions for publike order are from the Church but all necessary determinations of faith are to be fetcht from the voyce of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Can. Nic. Graec. con Pisan â—innius Conc. Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is as Nissen truely commends it the right and euen rule of life The law of God is perfect saith Dauid yea and makes perfect saith Paul And what can be added to that which is already perfect or what perfection can there be where some necessary points are wanting yea if we may beleeue Hosius the greatest part How much is the Spirit of God mis-taken Hee wrote these things that wee might beleeue and in beleeuing be saued But now if Trent may be iudge although we beleeue what he hath written yet wee cannot be saued vnlesse we doe also receiue and beleeue what he hath not written How ill was Constantine taught of old how ill aduised in that publike speech for which yet we doe not finde that any of those Worthies of â—ice Theod. l. 1. c. â— Tert. de praeser l. â—â—â—er Her Origin c. 16. 〈◊〉 Rom. Achae in synops Ambr. lib. 3. Hex c. 3. did so much as iogge him on the elbow in a milde reproofe whiles hee sayd The bookes of the Euangelists Apostles as also the Oracles of the Ancient Prophets doe plainely instruct vs in the message and meaning of God How miserably were euery one of the learned Fathers of the Church blinded that they could neuer either see or acknowledge
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
before Montanus infected the World with a preiudice against second Mariages after decease they were held vnlawfull for any calling or person Refut p. 98. and we will grant him clamorous to some purpose To proue this opinion and practice of the Church like a wise Master hee brings in * * Tert Exhort ad castit c 7. Tertullians authoritie in his Book which he wrote in the time of his Heresie whiles he was ouer the eares in Montanisme where he tels vs hee hath knowne some eiected for second Mariages But if he had euer read the Booke following of Monogamie hee might haue found his Tertullian then Montanizing to vpbraid the true and Catholike Church which he cals Psychicos with the vsuall practice and allowance of the second Mariages of their Bishops * * Tert. dâ— Monog mia c. 12. Quot enim aigami praesident apud vos insultantes vtique Apostolo c Miror te vnum protraxisse in medium cum omnis munduâ— his ordinationibus plenus sit non dico de presbyteris ad Episcopos venio quoâ— si figillatim voluero exuâ—erare tantus numerus congregabitur vt Ariminensis Synodi multitudo superetur Her ad Ocean de Cart â—io Hisp Ep. digamo c. Refut p. 99. Quot enim digami c. For how many Bishops are there amongst you twice maried But who-euer was matcht with so vaine a Babler I proued from Saint Paul that a Bishop might haue one Wife he proues by Councels and Fathers that he may not haue two It is pitie that his Masters the Iesuites haue no more Trees for him to set with the rootes vpward Any thing rather then to weary the World with his foolish clacking Out of this indiscreet and odious verbositie lest he should want noise he stumbles vpon the Councell of Constantinople before it come in his way and spends a vvhole leafe onely to tell vs that he will talke of it hereafter Hereafter he shall receiue answer enough What needs this disorderly anticipation To conclude then this place of our Apostle stands for vs vnshaken by any the impotent blasts of his friuolous Elusions and shall warrant vs against Earth and Hell that a Bishop may be the Husband of one wife SECT XX. Refut p. 100. 101. MY next place of the honorablenesse of Mariage amongst all hee smoothes ouer with a pretended concession professing with Fulgentius and Hierom to giue all high Titles to that state only preferring the rule of a better life praising Mariage but more extolling Virginitie But vvho euer made the comparison These are faire Nets to catch Fooles Whiles hee heapes vp all the reproachfull termes that spight can deuise against the very state of Mariage in some callings not so much as preiudiced by Vow how doth he grant Mariage honorable amongst all If the comparison be the matter he stands vpon let him say Mariage is good and lawfull for all conditions Virginitie is better he shall haue no aduersarie And whereas to call him to reckoning for arrerages he turned off this place when it was with a scoffe out of Bellarmine That Mariage is honorable amongst all Refut p. 13. yet not between Father and Daughter c. the Man alluded sure to their great good Alexander the sixt and the chaste Lucrece of whom he knowes the Riddle d d Here lyes Lucrece in name Thais in liâ—e The same Popes Daughter Lemmon and his owne sonne Wife Filia Sponsa Nurus For vs that it is honorable in all estates of men by Apostolicall warrant is sufficient assurance that to no calling or estate it can bee dishonourable and vnlawfull But to vntye Bellarmines trifling knot I say Mariage is honourable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all but not betweene all That is euery man may marry with a woman but not with any woman whatsoeuer as with his Mother or Sister So Father and Daughter may marry but not one the other See now what a worthy Messe of Sophistry is laid in S. Pauls dish by these Caruers and how easily ouer-turned So as I might very vvell proclaime to all the world which I do now confidently second that if God might be Iudge of this Controuersie Refut p. 102. it were soone at an end If my Refuter make faces at this their whole Schoole shall beare mee out in it Et e e Espenc l. 1. de Cont. c. 3. Caiet Opus de Castle sanè communis est scholae resolutio c. And in truth it is saith their Espencaeus the common resolution of the schole that if we insist only in those things which were spoken by Christ and written by the Apostles in the Canon of the New Testament secluding the Lawes of the Church holy Orders neither as Orders nor as holy are any hindrances of Matrimonie Thus he And said I any more any other Ibid. p. 102. 103. By their confession then God neuer imposed this Law My proofe was that euen in the time of that legall strictnesse he allowed Wedlock to the Ministers of his Sanctuarie Herein how am I refuted If he meane saith my Detector that for puritie and perfection of life the Law of Moses was more strict then the Gospell the vntruth is notorious To which he addes out of Hierome that the greater perfection of the Euangelicall Sacrifice exacteth greater Holinesse and concludes that the permission of Wiues in the Aaronicall Priesthood argues euidently the imperfection of that Law So he Surely God wanted this Counsellor vpon Mount Sinai hee could haue aduised him better Rules of his mis-contriued Priesthood Would my Refuter make himselfe so ignorant as not to know that notwithstanding the rather greater perfection of Moralitie required vnder the Gospell yet that Leuiticall Law placed impuritie in many of those creatures and actions wherein the Euangelicall findeth none Did not the touch of some Vessels or Garments make a man legally vncleane Did not the lawfull act of Coniugall Beneuolence Did not the accidents of the holyest Child-bed carie in them an expiable impuritie If he be not a Iew he will not say it is still thus vnder the Gospell How iustly therefore might I inferre that if our holy God vnto whose Wisdome it seemed good to stand of old vpon such points of outward vncleannesses did notwithstanding allow Wedlocke to his Priesthood much more at least no lesse vnder the Gospell doth he allow it when as all those imputations of impuritie are vanished SECT XXI I Produced the Testimonie of their Pope their Cardinall their Doctor Refut p. 103. 104 Basils Rule is a sure one that the Witnesses of Enemies are most conuictiue Their Cardinall was Panormitan Their Pope Pius the second Their Doctor Gratian. For Panormitan My Refuter likes his words so well that like a sawcy Fellow hee dare pull off his red Hat and trample it in the Floore denying his Cardinalship and charging him With participation of
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
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
so Romish as our Baptisme If therefore Romish because they came thence we haue disproued it If therefore Romish because they haue beene vsed there wee grant and iustifie it That ancient confession of their faith which was famous through the world wee receiue with them If they hold one God one Baptisme one Heauen one CHRIST shall we renounce it Why should we not cast off our Christendome and humanitie because the Romans had both How much Rome can either challenge or hope to gaine in our Clergie and Ministration is well witnessed by the bloud of those Martyrs eminent in the Prelacie which in the fresh memories of many was shed for God against that Harlot and by the excellent labours of others both Bishops and Doctors whose learned pens haue pulled downe more of the walls of Rome than all the corner-creeping Brownists in the world shall euer be able to doe while Amsterdam standeth It is you that furnish these Aduersaries with aduantages through your wilfull diuisions Take Scilurus his arrowes single out of the sheafe the least finger breakes them while the whole bundle feares no stresse wee know well where the blame is our deseruings can be no protection to you you went from vs not we from you Plead not our constraint you should not haue beene compelled to forsake vs while CHRIST is with vs But who compells you not to call vs brethren to denie vs Christians your zeale is so far from iustifying the wicked that it condemnes the righteous SEP And for the suspition of the rude multitude you need not much feare it They will suspect nothing that comes vnder the Kings broad seale They are ignorant of this fault Though it â—ere the Masse that came with authoritie of the Magistrate they for the most part would bâ— witâ— out suspition of it so ignorant and profane are they in the most places 1 Sam. 10.10 It is the wise hearted amongst you that suspect your dealings who will also suspect you yeâ— more in your vnfound dealing shall be further discouered SECTION LVIII The Brownists scornefull opinioo of our people HOw scornefully doe you turne ouer our pooâ—e rude multitude as if they were beasts not men or if men not rude but sauage This contempt needed not These sonnes of the earth may goe before you to Heauen Indeed it was of old said that all Aegyptians were Physitians So may it now of you All Brownists are Diuines no Separatist cannot prophesie No sooner can they loose at the skirts of this hill but they are rapt from the ordinarie pitch of men Either this change is perhaps by some strange illumination or else your learned paucitie got their skill amongst our profane and rude multitude we haue still many in our rude multitude whom wee dare compare with your Teachers neither is there any so lewd and profane that can not pretend a scandall from your separation Euen these soules must bee regarded tho not by you Such were some of you but yee are washed c. The wise-hearted amongst vs doe more than suspect finde out our weaknesses and bewaile them yet doe they not more discouer our imperfections than acknowledge our truth If they be truely wise wee cannot suspect them they cannot forsake vs Their charitie will couer more than their wisdome can discouer SEP Lastly the terrible threat you vtter against vs that euen whoredomes and murders shall abide an easier answer than separation would certainely fall heavy vpon vs if this answer were to be made in your Consistorie Courts or before any of your Ecclesiasticall Iudges but because we know that not Antichrist but Christ shall be our Iudge we are bold vpon the warrant of his Word and Testament which being sealed with his bloud may not be altered to proclaime to all the world Separation from whatsoeuer riseth vp rebelliously against the Scepter of his Kingdome as we are vndoubtedly perswaded the Communion Gouernment Ministerie and worship of the Church of England doe SECTION LIX The Conclusion from the fearefull answ of Separation Troub and excom at Amst G. Ions professes he found better dealing in the Bishops Consistories might haue found better in the Inqusition Ierom. Cypr. de simplit praelat Ad pacis praemium venire non poterunt qui pacem Domini discordiae furâ—re ruperunt Ibid. Inexpiaebilis grauis culpa discordâ—a nec passione purgatur MY last threat of the easier answers of whoredomes and adulteries than Separation you thinke to scoffe out of countenance I feare your conscience will not alwayes allow this mirth Our Consistories haue spared you enough let those which haue tryed say whether your corrupt Eldership be more safe Iudges If ours imprison iustly yours excommunicate vniustly To be in custodie is lesse grieuous than out of the Church at least if your censures were worth any thing but contempt As Ierome said of the like it is well that malice hath not so great power as will you shall one day I feare finde the Consistorie of Heauen more rigorous if you wash not this wrong with your teares That Tribunall shall finde your confidence presumption your zeale furie You are bold surely more than wise to proclaime wee haue no need of such cries doubtlesse your head hath made Proclamations long now you hand beginnes What proclaime you Separation from the Communion Gouernment Ministery and worship of the Church of England what need it Your act might haue saued your voice what should our eyes and eares be troubled with one 〈…〉 But 〈◊〉 â—eparate you from these Because they rise vp rebelliously against the Scepter of Christ The Scepter of Christ is his Word he holds it out we 〈◊〉 and â—sse it That one sentence of it doe we wilfully oppose Away with these follish 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 into your Sauiours hand and say Haile King of the Iewes and will needs perswade vs none but this is his rod of yron Lastly vpon what warrant Of his will and Testament You may wrong vs But how dare you fasten your lies vpon your Redeemer and Iudge What clause of his hath bid you separate We haue the true Copies As we hope or desire to be saued we can finde no sentence that soundeth toward the fauour of this your act Must God be accused of your wilfulnesse Before that God and his blessed Angels and Saints we feare not to protest that we are vndoubtedly perswaded that whosoeuer wilfully forsakes the Communion Gouernment Ministery or worship of the Church of England are enemies to the Scepter of Christ and Rebels against his Church and Anointed neither doubt we to say that the Mastership of the Hospitall at Norwich or a lease from that City sued for with repulse might haue procured that this separation from the Communion Gouernment and worship of the Church of England should not haue beene made by IOHN ROBINSON FJNJS A TABLE OF ALL THE SECTIONS CONTAINED in this BOOKE THE entrance into the Worke. 549 The Answerers Preamble 550 The
parties written to and their crime 551 The Kindes of separation and which is iust 552 The Antiquity and examples of separation 553 What separation is to be made by Churches in their planting c 555 What separation the Church of England hath made 556 Consititution of a Church 557 Order 2. Part of constitution how farre requisite c. ibid. Constraint requisite 558 Constitution of the Church of England 559 The Answerers Title 561 The Apostasie of the Church of England ibid. The Separatists acknowledgements of the graces of the Church of England 564 The vnnaturalnesse of some principall Separatists 565 What the Separatists thinke themselues beholden to the church of England for ibid. The motherhood of the Church of England how farre it obligeth vs. 566 The want of pretended Ordinances of God whether sinfull to vs c. 567 The bonds of Gods word vniustly pleaded by the Separatists 568 The necessity of their pretended Ordinances 569 The enormities of the Church in common ibid. The Church of England is the Spouse of Christ 570 How the Church of England hath separated from Babylon 571 The separation made by our holy Martyrs 573 What separation England hath made ibid. The maine grounds of separation 574 The truth and warrant of the Ministery of England 575 Confused Communion of the profane 576 Our Errors intermingled with Truth 577 Whether our Prelacy be Antichristian 578 The iudgement and practise of other Reformed Churches 579 Our Synods determination of things indifferent 580 Sinnes sold in our Courts 581 Our loyalty to Princes cleered theirs questioned 582 Erros of free-will c. fained vpon the Church of England 583 Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 583 Whether our Ordinarie and Seruice-booke be made Idols by vs. 584 Marriage not made a Sacrament by the Church of England 587 Commutation of Penance in our Church 588 Oath ex Officio ibid. Holy-dayes how obserued in the Church of England 589 Our approbation of an vnlearned Ministerie disproued 590 Penances inioyned in the Church of England ibid. The practises of the Church of England concerning the Funerals of the Dead 591 The Churches still retained in England 592 The Founders and Furnitures of our Churches 593 On what ground Separation or Ceremonies was obiected 594 Estimation of Ceremonies and subiection to the Prelates 595 The state of the Temple and of our Church in resemblance 597 Whether Ministers should endure themselues silenced ibid. Power of reforming abuses giuen to the Church and the issue of the neglect of it 598 The view of the sinnes and disorders of others wherevpon obiected and how farre it should affect vs. 600 The neerenesse of the State and Church and the great errors found by the Separatists in the French and Dutch Churches 601 Conuersation with the World 603 The impure mixtures of the Church of England 604 The iudgement of our owne and our neighbours of our Church 605 The issue of Separation 607 The Brownists scornefull opinion of our people 608 The Conclusion from the fearefull answer of Separation ibid. A SERIOVS DISSWASIVE FROM POPERIE To W. D. Revolted c. YOV challenged me for my bold assertion of your manifold diuisions I doe here make it good with vsurie Those mouthes that say they teach you the truth say also and you haue beleeued them that they all teach the same As you finde them true in this so trust them in the other For me I cannot without indignation see that in this light of the Gospell God and his truth should thus bee losers by you and that a miserable soule should suffer it selfe thus grossely cozened of it selfe and glory Many can write to you with more profoundnesse none with more sincere feruencie and desire to saue you I call heauen and earth to record against you this day that if you relent or answer not your perishing is wilfull Wee may pittie your weaknesse but God shall plague your Apostasie if you had bin bred in blindnesse your ignorance had bin but lamentable now your choice and loue of darknes is fearefull and desperate Alas you cannot be condemned without our sorrow and shame What should we doe We can but intreat perswade protest mourne and gage our soules for yours if these auaile not who can remedie that which will perish Here this yet you weake Revolter if there be any care left in you of that soule which you haue thus prostituted to error if you haue any regard to that God whose simple truth you haue contemned and forsken what is this that hath driuen you from vs allured you to them For Gods sake let me but expostulate a little ere my silence Either be conuicted or inexcusable Our bad liues haue set you off Woe is me that they are no holier I bewaile our wickednes I defend it not Onely aske how they liue in Italie if they be not for the more part filths to the worst of ours goe with them and prosper Let all indifferent tongues say whether that very See whereon your faith depends euen within the smoke of his Holinesse be not for vitiousnes the sin be of the world we may condemne our selues their liues shal iustifie vs But you list not to looke so farre you see their liues at home you see ours The comparison is not equall They take this for the time of their persecution we of our prosperitie The stubbornest Israelite and the most godlesse Mariner could call vpon God in his trouble we are all worse with liberty Looke backe and see how they liued in former times while they prospered No Turkes saith ERASMVS more abominably though now as the worsâ— how 〈…〉 profeâ— might you 〈…〉 which would scorne that the most 〈…〉 should goe before them in a gracious life and in true 〈…〉 amon◠〈◊〉 there will be one Deuill I wish they were so good that wee â—gâ—ulate them but for my part I neuer yet could know that Papist which made conscience of all Gods ten morrall lawes Shortly whatsoeuer is vpraided to vs the truth is pure though men be vnholy and God is where he was whatsoeuer becomes of men For you if you had not fallen to coole affections and a loose life you had beene still ours It is iust with God to punish your secure negligence with error and delusion and to suffer you thus to lose the truth who had lost your care of obedience and first loue And now you doe well to shift off this blame to others sins which haue most cause to accuse your owne From maners to looke towards our doctrine the noueltie of our Religion you say hath discouraged you theirs hath drawne you with reuerence of her age It is a free challenge betwixt vs let the elder haue vs both if there be any point of our Religion yonger than the Patriarchs and Prophets CHRIST and his Apostles the Fathers and Doctors of the Primitiue Church let it be accursed and condemned for an vpstart shew vs euidence of more credit and age and
cannot but witnesse that I name diuers in all ages recorded for maried Bishops and Presbyters This Breadrole he saith is idle because I shew not that they then vsed their Wiues when they were Bishops An hard condition Refut 254. That I must bring witnesses from their Bed-sides Is it not enough that we shew they had wiues that they had children No saith my Refuter It must be proued that they had these children by these wiues after Ordination Wee were neither their Midwiues nor their Gossips to keepe so strict an account But what meanes * * They sleepe with their wiues and in the time of being Bishops beget children of their owne wiues Socr. Vbi supr Cum vxoribus dormiunt and Tempore Episcopatus filios gignunt ex propriis vxoribus This we haue shewed out of Socrates What was that which Dionysius the ancient B. of Corinth before euer Paphnutius was wrote to Pinytus charging him Ne graue seruanda castitatis onus necessariò fratribus imponat x x That hee doe not necessarily impose the heauy burden of continencie vpon his Brethren Euseb l. 4. hist c. 22. What was that for which Eustathius B. of Sebastia the vnworthy sonne of Eulanius B. of Caesarea was censured was not this one of the Articles y y Socrat. l. 2. c. 33. Refut p. 155. Benedictionem c That he taught men to decline the blessing and communion of maried Priests Away then with this either ignorant or impudent facing of so euident a falshood The testimony of Hierom the example of Vrbicus B. of Claramont and of Genebaldus B. of Laudune shew what was the conceit practice of those particular places wherin they liued And yet Hierome in the same Booke can say z z Hier. l. 1. aduers Jouin. As if now adayes many Priests also were not maried Quasi non hodie quoque plurimi sacerdotes habeant matrimonia In that story of Vrbicus related by Greg. Turonensis I can but wonder how far men may be transported by superstition so as to make the Apostles charge giue way to an humane opinion The vvife of a a Greg. Tur. l. 1. c. 44. Cur coniugem speruis cur obturatis auribus Pauli praeceptae non audis Scripsit enim Reuertimini ad alterutrum c. Ecce ego ad te reuertor nec ad extraneum sed ad proprium vas recurro c. Why despisest thou thy Wife why dost thou shut thine eares against the precept of S. Paul For he hath written Meet together againe lest c. Vrbicus comes to his doore and alledges S. Pauls charge Meet together againe lest Satan tempt you c. Cur coniugem spernis c he yeelds to do the duty of an Husband and now in remorse inioynes himselfe a perpetuall penance What penance do we think S. Paul was worthy of for giuing this charge which she alledged Let my Reader iudge whether of the two was tâ—e better Diuine How insolent is tradition thus to trample vpon Scripture But since it pleased my Refuter to lend me this one example of Greg. Turonensis I am ready to giue him vse for it In the 2. booke of Turonensis he shall find b b Greg. Turon l. 2 c. 21. Nat. Theodos Iun. Valent. 3. Imperat. vxor Papianilla cum qua concorditer vixit liberosque ex ea suscepit v. triusque sexus 4d Apoll. epist 16. l. 5 Sidonius a maried Bishop and his Wife a Noble Matron in all likelihood liuing with him for nesciente coniuge without his wiues knowledge he gaue siluer plate to the Poore c c Turon 4. c. 12. In the fourth Booke he shall find Anastasius a maried Presbyter feoffed in some Temporalties which he would rather die then not leaue to his issue d d Tur. l. 8 c. 39. In the eight Booke he shall find Badegisilus the cruel Bishop of the Cenomans matched with an ill wife who yet liued with him as it seemes all his time and had altercations with Bertram Archdeacon of Paris for his goods deceased In these there is strength of legall presumption though no necessity of inference But what doe I instance in these or any other when Balsamon tels vs clearely that before the sixt Synod e e After their Episcopall dignitie Balsam in Can. Apost 5. Are ioyned in Mariage vid. supr Vse Mariage contracted it was lawfull for Bishops to haue wiues Etiam post dignitatem Episcopalem And his own Canon law can tell him that in the East Church their Priests Matrimonio copulantur which his wariest Masters expounding would interpret by copulato vtuntur Iudge then Reader what to think of the metall of this mans forehead who would beare vs downe that no one Bishop or Priest was allowed after Orders to haue any wife Yea euen for the very contraction of mariage it selfe after Orders f f Ispen l. 1. c. 11. honest Espencaeus can cite one g g Io. Maior comptuar Concil Refut p. 159. Ioannes Marius a Dutch-man by birth but a French Historian to whom hee allowes the title of non indiligeris who writes that he knowes that in the times of Pope Formesus Ludonicus Balbus Priests were maried Et iis licuisse sponsam legitimam ducere modò Virginem non verò Viduam and that it was lawfull for them to marry a Wife so she were a Virgin not a Widow As for that base slander wherewith this venemous Pen besprinkles the now glorious face of our renowned Archbishop and Martyr Doctor Cranmer whom hee most lewdly charges with lasciuiousnesse and incontinent liuing with I know not what Dutch Fraw it is worthy of no other answer then Increpet te dominus It is true that the holy man wisely declining the danger and malignitie of the times made not at the first any publike profession of his Mariage as what needed to inuite mischiefe But that hee euer had any dishonest conuersation with her or any other it is no other then the accent of the mouth of Blasphemy And if any one of our Clergie after a legall and iust Diuorce long since haue taken to him selfe that liberty which other Reformed Churches publikely allow as granting in some case a full release both à thoro and à ivinculo what ground is this for an impure wretch to cast dirt in the eyes of our Clergie and in the teeth of our Church Malicious Masse-Priest cast backe those emissitious eyes to your owne infamous Chaire of Rome and if euen in that thou canst discerne no spectacles of abominable vncleannesse spend thy spightfull censures vpon ours I reckoned diuers examples of maried Bishops and Priests out of Eusebius Refut p. 160. Ruffinus others amongst the rest Domnus Bishop of Antioch which succeeded Samosatenus for which my Margent cited Eusebius in his 7 Booke and 29. Chap. My Detector taxes me for citing Authors at random as Euseb lib. 7. cap. 29. when as there are he saith but
26. Chapters and for things which are not found in him As if the man had desperately sworne to write nothing but false Trust not me Reader Trust thine â—â—â—e eyes Thou shalt finde that Booke of h h Vid Et. sch Eaiâ— Basil Anno 1587. Eusebius to haue one and thirty Chapters and in the cited place thou shalt duly finde the History of Domnus Whose patience would not this impudency moue If I reckoned not examples enow or such as he likes not as vniustly seeming litigious there is choice enough of more Tertullian Prosper Hilary Eupsychus Polycrates and his seuen Ancestors to which let him adde 24 Diocesses at once in Germanie France Spaine Anno 1057 of maried Clergie-men recorded by their own i i For Act. Mon. in buâ— quaest Gebuilerus and make vp his mouth with that honest confession of Auentine k k Auent hist Boior l. 5. Their Wiues called praesbyterissa ibid. c. honesto vocabulo as he there speakes Sacerdotes illa tempestate publicè vxores sicut caeteri Christiani habebant filios procreabant Priests in those dayes publikely had wiues as other Christians had and begat children which the old Verse if he had rather expresses in almost the same termes Quodam Praesbyteri poterant vxoribus vti which his Mantuan hath yet spun in a finer thred as we shall shew in this Section What l l Hodie apud Graecos Sacerdotes post susceptum ordinem ducere vxorem sed vnicam ac virginem à Graecis didici Proposit Er asmicorum censur cum declaratione c. de caâ—â—ibaetu danger is there now therefore either of the breach of my promise to my worthy friend Master Doctor Whiting or of my diuorce or of his victory If the man and his modesty had not been long since parted these idle crackes had neuer beene But whereas this mighty Champion challeges mee with great insultation in many passages of his brauing discourse to name but one Bishop or Priest of note which after holy Orders conuersed coniugally with his Wife without the scandall of the Church branding such if any were for infamous and daring to pawne his cause vpon this tryall I doe here accept his offer and am ready to produce him such an Example as if all the Iesuites heads in the world stood vpon his shoulders Tu vero si quid minus per aetatem in hymnâ— Epistola intelligis His children hurt him not not his Wife lawfully conioyned in Wedlocke in those dayes God misâ—â—â—d 〈◊〉 the Mariage bed nor the cradle 〈◊〉 they could not tell how to wrangle against I doe not vrge to him that Prosper of Aquitane a Bishop and a Saint whose Verses to his Wife are famous and imply their inseparable conuersation Age iam precor mearum Cornes irremot a rerum c. Nor yet the fore-named Hilary Bishop of Poitlers who in his old age if that Epistle be worthy of any credit writing to his Daughter confesses her yeares so few that through the incapacitie of her age shee might perhaps not vnderstand the Hymne or Epistle of whom the honest Carmelite Mantuanus could ingenously confesse Non nocuit tibi progenies non obstitit vxor Legitimo coniunct a thoro Non horruit illa Tempestate Deus thalamos cunabula taedâ—â— Nor Bishop Simplictus of whom m m Sidon Apol. Conc. adâ—unct Cp. 9. l. 7. Sidonius giues this praise that his Parents were eminent either in Cathedris or Tribunalibus and that his Pedigree was famous either Episcopis or Praefectis and for his wife that she was of the Stock of the Palludii qui aut literarum aut altarium cathedras cum sui ordinis laude tenuerunt of whom also Sidonius can say she did respondere Sacerdotiis vtriusque familiae answer the Priesthoodâ— of either Family Nor Alcimus n n Alcim Auit Vien Gal. Arch. l. ad sororem circa An. 492. Auitus the French Archbishop who writing to his Sister of her Parentage hath thus Stemma Parentum I will not deare Sister make report of the Pedegree of thy great Grandsâ—â—â—eâ— c. 〈…〉 renowâ—ed life of Priests made famous to the World Quos licet antiquo mundus donârit honore Et titulis à primaeuo insigniuerit ortu Plus tamen ornantur sacris insignibus illi c. Nec jam atauos soror alma tibi proanosque retexam Vita Sacerdotum quos reddidit inclyta claros Nor Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania to whom Ausonius writes Tanequil tua nesciat istud And Formidatamque iugatam objicis c. These and such like might suffice reasonable men but since wee haue to doe vvith those Aduersaries whom S. Paul cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if we vrge hundreds of such euident examples turne vs off with bold shifts and will needs put vs to proue those acts which seeke secrecie Let him and all his complices whet their wits vpon that cleare and irrefragable place of Gregory Nazianzen a man beyond all exception who brings in his Father Gregory whom the world knowes to haue beene Bishop of the same See speaking thus of him Greg. Naz. Car. de vita sua Edit Marel Parâ— To. 2. p. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nondum tot anni sunt tui quot jam in sacris mihi sunt peracti victimis c. That is The yeares of thy age are not so many as of my Priesthood Words that will conuince the most importunate gain-sayer that Greg. Nazianzen was borne to his worthy father after the time of his holy Orders And lest any man should suspect that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nondum may reach onely to the birth not to the begetting of Gregory Nazianzen so as perhaps he might be borne after his Fathers Orders begotten before them Let him know to make all sure and plaine that Gorgonia and Caesarius the sister and brother of this Gregory were by the same father begotten afterwards as is euident both by that Verse of Nazianzen who speaking of his mother as then childlesse when she begged him of God sayes Ibid. de vita sua c. Iamâ— Cupiebat illa masculum foetum domi Spectare magna vt pars cupit mortalium Elias Cretens In Orat. Greg. Naz. 19. And the cleare Testimonie of Elias Cretensis Quamvis enim si natiuitatem spectes c. Although saith he if you regard his birth he was not the onely child of his Parents forasmuch as after him both Gorgonia and Caesarius were borne Thus he O infamous Gregories the scum of the Clergie O irregular Father that durst defile his sacred function with so carnall an act O shamelesse sonne that blushes not to proclaime his owne sinfull generation Goe now petulant Refuter and see whether you can either yeeld or answer As for that glorious shew of Antiquity where with C. E. hopes to bleare his Readers eyes gracing himselfe herein