him or no. And this saith he may be done two manner of waies either Explicitè expressely doubting and through that doubting with a formall intention experimenting or Implicite Interpretatiue when though one doubteth not of any perfection in God yet doth that which in effect and in its owne nature is nothing else but an experiment of Gods perfection and this happens when one neglecting the ordinarie meanes constituted by Gods prouidence doth some action expecting the effect therof from God alone no iust or necessarie cause mouing him thereunto So then the rules whereby wee are to examine this tempting of God are chiefly two First we must look into the end and see whether it bee too make an experiment of some perfection in God whereof wee doubt Secondly we must examine the Meanes and Necessitie whether though we doe it not as doubting of any perfection in God yee wee either neglect therein the owne ordinarie meanes afforded vs by God for the effecting of the same thing or else haue no iust and necessary cause to flie so to him in such a matter If wee erre in the former it is an expresse tempting of God if in the latter then is it an implicite and an Interpretiue as they terme it tempting of him Now to bring this home to the Israelites in my text and apply their vsing of this extraordinarie meanes to the question in hand First the end they had in it was not to tempt God or to make an assay either of his power or wisedome or will towards them but only to relieue their owne necessities being now destitute of an Head and in that of safetie Now God is tempted saith Austen cum signa flagitantur non ad salutem sed ad experientiam desiderata when signes are sought not for safetie but for experiments sake and to speake with Valentia the enquiring of God in such a case Greg. de Valent. Tom. 3. in Thom. disp 6. q. 14. is not ex dubitatione de diuina perfectione from any doubt of Gods perfection but onely ex dubitatione de obiecto quod terminat diuinam voluntatem as if one should say the doubt was onely in the obiect which terminated the will of God they beleeued that God would deliuer the Canaanites into their hands but by whom they knew not this then they aske Secondly as they did it not to a bad end so neither did they it in a needlesse case without iust reason or neglecting any meanes which God had left them besides this True it is that in ordinarie States the ordinarie meanes left to decide such a controuersie as the nomination of a Generall or Captaine is either election of men or succession of nature but the state of the children of Israel both in their passage into Canaan and in the enioying of it was quid extraordinarium an extraordinary thing of a diuine constitution and religious signification and therefore required in both of them a diuine assistance and direction All things befell them for a figure saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 10. their passage through the Sea their baptisme in the Cloud their Rook and Manna meat and drinke were Sacramentall Their Hierusalem below a type of that heuenly Hierusalem which is aboue Gal. 6. Their country a shadow of a bettet country Heb. 11. to be briefe Aug. cont Faustum l. 22. dico illorum hominum saith Austen non tantam linguam sed etiam vitam fuisse propheticam totumque illud regnum gentis Hebraeae magnum quendam quia magni cuiusdam fuisse prophetam it is not onely the tongues of those men but also the verie liues of them were propheticall and all that Kingdome of the Iewish nation was euen a great Prophet because the Prophet of a great one So that the land of Canaan being but a Memento and a lecture vnto them of the celestiall Canaan which wee expect what did they in this asking of God concerning the Tribe which should goe vp for them but acknowledge first their owne insufficiency and impossibility of gaining heauen without the light of his direction Secondly the dispaire they had of euer casting out the Cananitish affections within them vnlesse he dained them his owne grace to guide and assist them and lastly that so excellent a Countrie could neuer bee recouered against the encounters of such vast and Giant-like enemies the Flesh the World and the Deuill who like the sonnes of Anake doe amaze and affright vs vnlesse hee should bid the Tribe of Iudah or rather the Lion of that Tribe Christ Iesus to goe vp first for them to fight against them And thus wee see that this asking of God in my Text who should goe vp against the Canaanites was not a tempting of God but rather a consulting with him in an enterprise of religious vse and holy signification this extraordinarie manner of enquirie of things of so high a nature whether by lots or by Vrim by dreames or Prophets being permitted to the Church in her infancie to supply the obscuritie of types and the paucitie or scarcitie of sacred bookes then extant which to vs in the new Testament who haue both the one illustrated and the other augmented were no lesse then a tempting of God and a running to extraordinarie courses where ordinarie meanes are plentifully offered One vse notwithstanding may Christians make of this asking of the Israelites and that is that in the warfare against our spirituall enemies and voyage to the land of Promise wee follow not leaders of mans constitution but of Gods ordination The Israelites had for their direction herein God himselfe speaking in dreames and visions in the Vrim and Thummim and in his Prophets wee haue all these included in the written Oracles of God the old and new Testament the reuealed mysteries whereof are now published complete and promise no second Edition wee are not to enquire either of the Popes Vrim what King or Friars dreames what Saint or Amsterdamian visions what Teacher must goe vp before vs Behold the Lord hath in his Scriptures proclaimed our Captaine and nominated our Generall it is that holy One of the Tribe of Iudah which is alreadie gone vp before vs it is he that hath subdued the Canaanites for vs and hath taken possession of the Land in our behoofe the holy Martyrs and best of Gods Children march but aloofe after and feast vpon the spoiles the Onset Combat and Battaile is his and his alone Others being more passiue in putting on of the armour of God then actiue are rather carried vp by his Grace then goe vp and if they goe vp yet the victorie being wonne it is rather mortificare then pugnare to kill then to fight and if to fight yet their actions being not communicable it is pro se for themselues not pro nobis for vs and suppose for vs yet not primi but secundi they fight not as Firsts but as Seconds of Christ onely wee can say who shall goe vp and for vs
by them turne them from those vanities vnto him alone which made Heauen and Earth the Sea and all things that are therein But because they make England as before it masked vnder Poperie to be such a paterne of a happie Church I demand one question Wherein consisted that plentie which they so talke of certainly so wealthy it was not when the Pope termed it puteum inexhastum Matth. Paris pag. 683 423.626 a Well neuer drawne drie and yet saith Matthew Paris full often almost emptied to the bottome by his Procurations Prouisions and Taxes vpon the Clergie and Laytie To be briefe therefore plentie or cheapnesse can no way proue their Religion and I cannot but herein condemne them of an ouersight to make cheapnesse in the Market or things out of the Church to be a note of the true Religion and yet to require no cheapnes in things in the Church there Pardons Dispensations Masses Dirges Absolutions euery thing shall bee set at a racke Rent by his Holinesse and the Church must bee fayne to borrow its marke from the Market Bee not deceiued beloued though we may contend with any Nation for these out ward blessings yet we may not obtrude these to our Aduersaries but puritie in Doctrine and sanctitie in life It was not our Sauiours turning stones into Bread but vrging the Word written Matth. 4. which subdued Satan in the wildernes plentie and want are common both to good and bad and Saint Austin in his Booke de ciuitate Dei 8. chap. giues the reason Vt nec bona cupidiùs appetuntur quae mali quoque habere cernuntur nec mala turpiter euitentur quibus boni plerunque afficiuntur that neither these earthly goods should be greedily affected which wee see euen wicked men to possesse nor any euill vpon earth to be basely auoided wherewith we see euen the godliest full often to be afflicted But of this I spake somewhat in the former Part my purpose is to insist at this time especially vpon the â—â—ings mentioned in my Text the first whereof is as it were a generall cause effecting the rest which follow but yet exists without a man hee giues vs raine from heauen and fruitfull seasons the rest are effects of the former but yet exist within a man the one touching the body he fils our hearts with foode the other concerning the minde he fils our hearts with gladnesse Seeing therefore God witnesseth himselfe vnto vs both by giuing vs things which belong to vs internally and externally to our bodies and to our mindes we may well inferre this obseruation That whatsoeuer concernes the happinesse or felicitie of a man in this life is wholly deriued from God I will prosecute them as they lye in order in my Text first therefore for outward blessings which here are pointed out by the most eminent species of them raine from heauen and fruitfull seasons Paraphrastes Hierosolymitanus saith Paraphrast Hieros in c. 30. Gen. they are one of the Keyes which God deliuers neither to Angell nor to Seraphin how God effects them the Schooles much labour I list not to dispute with Fonseca and Suarez in their Metaphysicks Fonsec l. 5 Metaph. c. 2. q. 9. Suarez Tom. 1. pisp 22. whether the action wherby God produceth raine and fruitfull seasons be the same in number with the action of the Heauens and other secundarie causes it is sufficient that Gods prouidence hath a hand in all things wee attribute vnto it notwithstanding the ordinarie course of nature effection direction cohibition in a word God worketh not by second causes as Magistrates gouerne their CoÌ„mon wealths by inferior Officers for they so gouern by them that they doe nothing or very little themselues and peraduenture neuer know what is done God gouernes not the World so but in euery particular worke hath his particular stroke The Heauens indeed are the ordinarie instruments whereby hee effects these things but yet we must remember that they are but second Agents concerning which it is a memorable saying of the Philosopher in the second of his Metaphys and second chapter Omnia secunda agentia it a essentialiter subijciuntur primo agenti Arisâ—ot 2. Metaph. 2. vt primum agens in eorum actione magis agat quam ipsa agant all secundarie agents are so essentially subordinated to the first Agent that the first Agent doth more in their action then they themselues The chiefe end wherefore God ordayned the heauens was not for their owne sakes but for mans vse as therefore they conduce to execute his Decrees towards man so he either binds the sweet influences of the Pleyades or looses the bands of Orion Iob 38.31 It were long to recount how often the Lord promiseth in the Prophets to declare his fauour towards men by watering their Fields with dew and raine from Heauen and againe to testifie his indignation by making the Heauens to wax hard like Iron and yeeld no raine as it did in the time of Ahab 1. King 17. but one thing in the Law Prophets is worth our obseruing when God fore-tells either raine fruitfull seasons or times of scarcitie he lookes not vpon the starres aboue but vpon our sinnes he giues vs to vnderstand that the best Almanack which we should relye vpon is our obedience to him our loue towards our Neighbours and our care of our selues He tells vs not of the conjunctions and oppositions of the Starres nor the Eclipses of the greater Lights but what saith he If thou shalt hearken diligently vnto the voyce of the Lord thy God to obserue and doe all his Commandements the heauens shall giue the raine into thy land in his season but if thou wilt not hearken vnto the voice of the Lord thy God to obserue to doe all his commandements and his statutes the heauen that is ouer thy head shall be brasse and the earth that is vnder thee shall be iron the Lord shall make the raine of thy land powder and dust from heauen shall it come downe vpon thee vntill thou be destroyed Deuteron 28. O foolish Astrologers how is it that you looke vpwards towards heauen to descrie the seasons of succeeding yeeres you should looke downwards into your selues the constellations are on earth which produce these effects Wee are those wandring Starres which decline from the true Ecliptike of Gods Word Wee those more earthly Globes which stand in opposition or at least eclipse the light of the Sunne of righteousnesse Wee those irregular Planets which are stationarie or rather retrograde in the Sphere of Christianitie There is not Scorpio aboue nor Saturne with his maleuolent influence beleeue it they are below here are Lions and Beares and Dragons and Serpents and Serpentarius's and Hydraes and Dog-starres and I am almost of Copernicus his opinion that the Sunne stands still in the Centre and we mouing in a Lunatike Orbe with the Moone are the causes of such direfull and menacing aspects as are aboue The
the mysteries of iniquitie Weake impietie thou seest them perhaps commit folly but in the meane time seest not that thou thy selfe committest greater villanie thou mayest obserue them woshipping like these Athenians a god whom they know not but alas thou obseruest not that thou denyest a God which thou knowest thou mayest perhaps discrie in them some treacherie to thy state and yet discriest not that thou thy selfe art more treacherous to thy God thou mayest bee proud that thy papers are replenished with vanities of others and loe thy heart more blacke then thy inke is dyed with perfidiousnesse of thine owne In a word when thou art returned home thou hast a few sheets to shew of their absurdities and whole volumes were they written of thine owne impieties Mistake me not beloued I intend not by this discourse to condemne trauelling but to propose Saint Paul Ortel pereg D. Pauli whose peregrinations haue filled a Mappe of more then halfe the inhabired World to be a patterne to trauellers Ambroslib 1. Epist. ep 6. Ambrose vpon those words of Esay Vae ijs qui descendunt in Aegyptum Woe be to those which goe downe into Egypt Non vtique sayth hee transire in Aegyptum criminosum est sed transire in mores Egyptiorum transire in corum persidiam escae cupiditatem luxuriae defor mitatem qui eò transit descendit qui descendit cadit I English it It is not criminous or vnlawfull to goe into Egypt but to goe into the manners of the Egyptians to goe into their perfidiousnesse to lust after their Pepins and Onions hee which so goes thither doth descend Vid. Caluin opusc and who descends falls I am not ignorant how farre Diuines allow a Traueller to sute and conforme himselfe to the fashions of Idolaters as first in ciuill things which are common to their Nation not notes of their Idolatrie Tertull. lib. de idololat such as Tertullian termes Natiuitatis insignia non pietatis generis non honoris ordinis non superstitionis Distinctions of their births or families not of any idolatrous honour or authoritie and markes of their order not of superstition Secondly in things which though they be necessarily imposed vpon the conscience yet in themselues are indifferent as abstayning from certaine meats or obseruing of certaine dayes which the Apostle mentions in the 1. Corinth so that we giue no signe of agreement in subiecting the conscience to them but in these wee must goe ad aras vsque till our Faith interposeth her right when that is toucht or questioned no man may be still or silent he which hath a tongue to speake he must speake hee which hath eares to heare hee must heare hee that hath hands to lift vp he must lift them vp neither action voice nor gesture may bee deficient in a cause which so neerely concernes our Lord and Master Tertul. ibid. Quid refert sayth Tertullian Deos nationum dicendo Deos an audiendo confirmes What matters it whether thou confirmest the Gods of the Nations by speaking or by hearing The Lord might haue commanded his people as Baruch hath it when yee see in Babylon gods of siluer and of gold and of wood borne vpon mens shoulders which cause the Nations to feare say yee in your hearts O Lord wee must worship thee Ier. 10.11 But Ieremiah in his tenth Chapter and the eleuenth Verse tells the remnant of Iuda this must not serue the turne it is not enough that the heart speake but the tongue also must tell Babels Inhabitants The gods that haue not made the heauens and the earth euen they shall perish from the earth and from vnder these heauens In which words one thing is worth the obseruing that whereas all the rest of Ieremie is written in Hebrew this Verse alone is written in the Chaldaicke Tongue Caluin in loc to note say Interpreters that though the Israelites were now in captiuitie and bondage vnder the Babylonians yet the profession of their Faith should bee free and ingenuous still and they should boldly defie the Babylonians Idols euen in the language of Babel that these Idolaters might vnderstand it If therefore wee would as Saint Paul here in my Text did walke vp and downe Athens I meane any place giuen to Idolatrie if wee would as freely as hee take an inuentorie of their superstitions let vs make his constancie knowledge and prudencie companions to vs in our trauels the former lest wee hurt our selues the later lest wee offend our brethren Tertul. ib. What Tertullian spake of Heathens Licet conuiuere cum Ethnicis commori non licet I may say of any Idolaters it is lawfull to liue with them not to die with them Let vs liue with all men and reioyce with them in the communitie of Nature not of Superstition pares anima sumus non disciplina compossessores mundi non erroris wee are alike in soule not in discipline or doctrine ioynt possessors of the world but not of errour And so I come from the things hee beheld their deuotions to what in beholding he found an Altar with an inscription to the vnknowne god but first of the thing it selfe the Altar and afterwards of the Title I found an Altar c. That it was lawfull for the Gentiles to erect Altars and offer sacrifices needs no prouing for before the Lâ—uitical law were these in practice amongst the Patriarchs Abel and Cain before the Floud are mentioned to haue sacrificed though Altars are not there expressed but since the Floud Noah is said to haue offered sacrifices and also to haue built an Altar Gen. 8. Now though Altars and Sacrifices were of such antiquitie and generalitie amongst the Nations yet as Tostatus notes Tostat in 16. Leuit. the case betweene the Iewes and the Gentiles in offering them was differing for the Gentiles might sacrifice first where they would secondly with what liuing Creatures they listed so as cleane thirdly with what ceremonies they pleased so as decent whereas the Iewes were limited and restrayned for the Place to the Sanctuarie for the Oblations to certayne Creatures and for Rites to such as were prescribed in the Mount The mayne doubt is how the Gentiles which were ignorant of that immaculate sacrifice Christ Iesus of whose crosse the Altar was but a type and shadow should light and jumpe vpon so fit a ceremonie I am not ignorant that many men are of diuers minds and opinions concerning it but I take that the summe of all in briefe spoken by them may bee this Partly they might vse them by Tradition from those which had beene the first planters of Colonies in the World after the confusion of Babel and had themselues seene them obserued by Noah and other Patriarchs which then liued partly they might creepe in by the Deuils cunning who the sooner to cloake his deuices and to paint them ouer with faire colours turnes oftentimes Gods Ape and imitates him in his best actions