c. In these words we will consider these three things 1. The Person David And David's heart smote him 2. David's Sollicitousness his care and jealousie very significantly expressed in the next words his heart smote him 3. The cause of this his care and anxiety of mind in the last words because he had cut off Saul's skirt In the first point that is in the Person we may consider his greatness he was a King in expectation and already Anointed A circumstance by so much the more considerable because that greatness is commonly taken to be a privilege to sin to be over careful and conscientious of our courses and actions are accounted virtues for private persons Kings have greater businesses then to examine every thought that comes into their hearts Pater meus obliviscitur se esse Caesarem ego vero memini me Caesaris filiam It is the answer of Iulia Augustus the Emperour's daughter when she was taxed for her too wanton and licentious living and counsel'd to conform her self to the sobriety and gravity of her father My father saith she forgets himself to be Caesar the Emperour but I remember my self to be Caesar's daughter It was the speech of Ennius the Poet Plebs in hoc Regi ante-stat loco licet lachrimari plebi Regi honeste non licet Private men in this have a privilege above Princes but thus to do becomes not Princes and if at any time these sad and heavy-hearted thoughts do surprize them they shall never want comforters to dispel them When Ahab was for sullenness fallen down upon his bed because Naboth would not yeild him his Vineyard Iezabel is presently at hand and asks him Art thou this day King of Israel When Ammon pined away in the incestuous love of his sister Thamar Ionadab his companion comes unto him and asks Why is the King's son sad every day so that as it seems great Persons can never be much or long sad Yet David forgets his greatness forgets his many occasions gives no ear to his companions about him but gives himself over to a scrupulous and serious consideration of an Action in shew and countenance but light Secondly As the Person is great so is the care and remorse conceived upon the consideration of his action exceeding great which is our Second part And therefore the holy Ghost expresses it in very significant terms His heart smote him a phrase in Scripture used by the holy Ghost when men begin to be sensible and repent them of some sin When David had committed that great sin of numbring the people and began to be apprehensive of it the Scripture tells us that David's heart smote him when he had commanded Ioab to number the people Wherefore by this smiting we may not here understand some light touch of conscience like a grain of powder presently kindled and presently gone for the most hard and flinty hearts many times yeilds such sparks as these He that is most flesh'd in sin commits it not without some remorse for sin evermore leaves some scruple some sting some loathsomeness in the hearts of those that are most inamour'd of it But as Simeon tells the Blessed Virgin in St. Luke's Gospel Gladius pertransibit animam tuam A sword shall peirce through thine heart so it seems to have been with David It was not some light touch to rase onely the surface and skin of the heart but like a sword it peirced deep into him To teach us one lesson That actions spotted though but with the least suspicion of sin ought not carelesly to be pass'd by or sleightly glanced at but we ought to be deeply apprehensive of them and bestow greatest care and consideration upon them The third part of our Text containeth the cause of David's remorse in the last words because he cut off Saul's skirt In the two former parts we had to do with greatness there was 1. a great Person and 2. great Remorse can we in this third part find out any great cause or reason of this so to make all parts proportionable Certainly he that shall attentively read and weigh these first words of my Text and know the story might think that David had committed some notable errour as some great oppression or some cruel slaughter or some such Royal sin which none but Kings and great men can commit But Beloved this my Text seems to be like the Windows in Solomon's Temple broad within but narrow without or like a Pyramide large and spatious at the Basis and ground of it but small and sharp at the top The Person and Remorse which are the ground and subject of my Text both are great and large but the Cause which is the very crown and top of all that is very small yea peradventure none at all For whether it be that my self accustomed to greater sins and now grown old in them have lost all sense of small and petty errours or whether indeed there be no errour at all in this action of David but onely some fancy some jealousie arising out of that godly and careful watch he kept over all his ways or whatsoever else it was that caused this scruple or remorse in David it is a very hard matter to discover and yet notwithstanding that we may make more open pass unto such Doctrines as I shall raise out of these words let us a little scan and consider what it was in this action that made David thus strangely scrupulous And first of all was it for that he had touch'd and taken that which was none of his own and therefore might seem to fall within compass of the Law against injury and purloining This seems not probable for when afterward in the like case he came upon Saul as he was sleeping in the Camp and took from him the Spear and the pot of water which stood at his head we do not read that his head that his heart smote him and yet he took what was none of his Or 2 ly was it that he did wrong and dishonour Saul in mangling his garment Indeed the Iews have a Tradition that this was the sin of which David was here so sensible And therefore say they whereas we read in the first of Kings that when David grew old they covered him with clothes but he gat no heat this was the punishment of his sin committed against Saul God so providing that garments should not be serviceable to him who had offended in wronging Saul's garments But this I must let go as a fable Or 3 ly was it that he had unadvisedly given way to some disloyal thought and at first resolved to revenge himself on Saul having him at the advantage though afterward he repented Indeed St. Chrysostom thinks so and therefore on those words at the latter end of the verse next before my Text And David arose he notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See you not saith he what a tempest of rage and anger begins to rise in him for he supposeth him
it Last of all it is Tertullian's speech Quanto facilius illicita timebit qui etiam licita verebitur It is wisdom sometimes to suspect and shun things that are lawful For there are many actions in themselves good which yet to many men become occasions of sin and scandal For it is with our actions as it is with our meats and drinks As divers meats fit not to divers constitutions of body so all actions accord not well with all tempers of mind As therefore what dish it is we easily surfeit of though it be otherwise good it is wisdom totally to abstain from so look what actions they be in which we find our selves prone to sin it is good spiritual Physick to use abstinence and quite to leave them For if our Saviour commands us to pluck out our eyes and pare off ours hands if once they become unto us cause of sin how much more then must weprune away all inward thoughts all outward circumstances which become occasion of offence unto us A second reason why I would perswade you to entertain a jealousie of all your thoughts and actions is a natural over-charitable affection which I see to be in most men unto their own ways and which is strange the worse they are the more are we naturally inclined to favour them The reason is because the worse they are the more they are our own When question was sometime made Why good herbs grow so sparingly and with great labour and pains whereas weeds grow apace without any culture and tilling it was answered That the earth was a natural Mother to the one to the other she was a Step-mother the one she brought forth of her self to the other she was constrain'd Beloved it is with our hearts as it is with the Earth the natural fruit of them is weeds and evil thoughts unto them our hearts are as mothers injusta virescunt they spring up in us of themselves without any care or manuring but as for good thoughts if they be found in our hearts they are not natural they are set there by a high hand they are there by a kind of spiritual in-oculation and graffing as men graff Apples and kind fruits upon Thorns and Crabs No marvel then if like choice herbs and fruits they grow so tenderly and need so much care and cherishing As therefore Parents though their own children be very deformed yet love them more then others though more beautiful so corrupt and evil thoughts are naturally dearer unto us then good because we are as Mothers unto them to the rest we are but Step-dames Two notable fruits there are of this over-charitableness to our own actions First a willingness that we have to flatter to deceive and abuse our own selves by pretences and excuses There is a plain a downright and as it were a Countrey reprobate one that sees his sin and cares not much to excuse it and is content to go on and as it were in simplicity to cast himself away There is a more witty more refined and as it were a Gentleman-like reprobate one that strives to smooth and gild over his sin to deceive others and himself with excuses and apologies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks to take great pains and with the expense of a great deal of wit and art to damn himself When Saul being sent against Amalek had spared Agag and the best and fattest of the prey at Samuel's coming to visit him how doth he wipe his mouth as if all had been well and trimly composes himself to entertain him Blessed art thou of the Lord I have performed the commandment of the Lord And when Samuel had shewed him his errour how quickly hath he his excuse at his fingers ends We have spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord Et Deo adulatur sibi lenocinatur as Tertullian speaks he thinks to gull Almighty God with fair and flattering pretences and becomes a baud to his own vice nimium idem omnes fallimur it is the common errour of us all and in most of our actions we do as Saul did endeavour to put tricks upon our selves Beloved were we not partial but rigid censurers of our own thoughts this corrupt fruit would quickly rot and fall away Again there is a second fruit springing out of this favour and dotage in our own actions an errour as common though not so dangerous for we are content many times to acknowledge that something is amiss in our actions we will confess them to be sins but we account of them as little sins sins of a lesser fize not so fearful easily pardonable There is a sinner who by committing some great and heinous crime crimen devoratorium salutis as Tertullian calls it such a sin as with open mouth devours salvation doth as it were with one step leap into hell and of this kind of sinners the number is fewer But abundance there are who avoiding great and heinous sins by committing lesser sins as they think can be content to go by degrees and as it were step by step into hell Beloved let us a little put on the spectacle I but now spake of that we may see whither any sin be so small as we take it I know there is difference of sins our Saviour tells us that there is a beam and there is a mote but withall this I know that the best way to keep us from sin is minima pro maximis cavere to loath even the least as if it were the greatest if we look through this glass it will make us think every mote a beam Sins in themselves are unequal but in regard of us and of our endeavour to avoid them they are all equal Fly from evil saith the Psalmist he tells us not that there is one greater evil from which we must fly and another less from which 't is enough if we do but go but he bids us fly and to make haste alike from all To think that a sin is less then it is may be dangerous for it makes us the less careful to avoid it but to mistake on the other hand and think a sin greater then it is this is a very profitable errour Vtinam sic semper erraremus would God we did always thus erre for besides that there is no danger in it it makes us more fearful to commit sin Our Saviour reprehends the Phaâ—isees in the Gospel because they could strain at gnats but swallow camels but yet it is true that men learn at length to swallow camels by swallowing gnats at first Nemo repente fuit turpissimus no sinner so hardy as to set upon the greatest sins at first The way by which men train up themselves to the committing gross and heinous sins is by not being at first consciencious of lesser sins Et sane nescio saith Paulinus in St. Hierom an possimus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in Dei contemptum admittitur who
women laden with iniquity were the cheif Ring-leaders in the errours of the Monnaâ—ists and as it is commonly said Bellum inchoant inertes fortes finiunt Weaklings are able to begin a quarrel but the prosecution and finishing is a work for stronger men so hath it fared here For that quarrel which these poor souls had raised Tertullian a man of great Wit and Learning is drawn to undertake so that for a Barnabas to be drawn away to errour there needs not always the example and authority of a Peter A third reason is the marvellous violence of the weaker sort in maintaining their conceits if once they begin to be Opinionative For one thing there is that wonderfully prevails against the reclaiming of them and that is The natural jealousie they have of all that is said unto them by men of better wits stand it with reason never so good if it sound not as they would have it A jealousie founded in the sense of their weakness arising out of this that they suspect all to be done for no other end but to circumvent and abuse them And therefore when they see themselves to be too weak in reasoning they easily turn them to violence The Monks of Egypt otherwise devout and religious men anciently were for the most part unlearned and generally given over to the errour of the Anthropomorphitae who held that God had hands and feet and all the parts that a man hath and was in outward shape and proportion like to one of us Theophilus a learned Bishop of Alexandria having fallen into their hands was so roughly used by them that ere he could get out of their fingers he was fain to use his wits and to crave aid of his Equivocating Sophistry and soothly to tell them I have seen your face as the face of God Now when Christian and Religious doubts must thus be managed with wilfulness and violence what mischeif may come of it is already so plain that it needs not my finger to point it out Wherefore let every such Weak person say unto himself as St. Austin doth Tu ratiocinare ego mirer disputa tu ego credam Let others reason I will marvel let others dispute I will beleive As for the man strong in passion or rather weak for the strength of passion is the weakness of the passionate great reason hath the Church to except against him For first of all from him it comes that our Books are so stuft with contumelious meladiction no Heathen Writers having left the like example of choller and gross impatience An hard thing I know it is to write without affection and passion in those things which we love and therefore it is free so to do to those who are Lords over themselves It seems our Saviour gave some way to it himself For somewhat certainly his Kinsmen saw in his behaviourâ— when as St. Mark reports they went forth to lay hold upon him thinking he was beside himself But for those who have not the command of themselves better it were they laid it by St. Chrysostom excellently observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan were by this notoriously differenced that they which gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much impatience and confusion with a kind of fury and madness but they which gave Oracles from God by Divine Inspiration gave them with all mildness and temper If it be the cause of God which we handle in our writings then let us handle it like the Prophets of God with quietness and moderation and not in the violence of passion as if we were possess'd rather then inspir'd Again what equity or indifferencey can we look for in the carriage of that cause that falls into the handling of these men Quis conferre duces meminit qui pendere causas Qua stetit inde â—avet What man overtaken with passion remembers impartially to compare cause with cause and right with right Qua stetit inde â—avet on what cause he happens that is he resolute to maintain ut gladiator in arenam as a Fencer to the Stage so comes he to write not upon conscience of quarrel but because he proposes to contend yea so potently hath this humour prevail'd with men that have undertaken to maintain a faction that it hath broken oâ—t to the tempting of God and the dishonour of Martyrdom Two Friers in Florence in the action of Savonoralla voluntarily in the open view of the City offer'd to enter the fire so to put an end to the controversie that he might be judged to have the right who like one of the three children in Babylon should pass untouch'd through the fire But I hasten to visit one weak person more and so an end He whom we now are to visit is a man Weak through Heretical and erring Faith now whether or no we have any Receit for him it may be doubtful For St. Paul advises us to avoid the man that is a maker of Sects knowing him to be Damned Yet if as we spake of not admitting to us the notorious sinner no not to eat so we teach of this that it is delivered respectively to the weaker sort as justly for the same reasons we may do we shall have a Recipe here for the man that errs in Faith and rejoyceth in making of Sects which we shall the better do if we can but gently draw him on to a moderation to think of his conceits onely as of opinions for it is not the variety of opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church were we not so ready to Anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and not Identity of conceit which the Holy Ghost requires at the hands of Christians I will give you one instance in which at this day our Churches are at variance The will of God and his manner of proceeding in Predestination is undiscernable and shall so remain until that day wherein all knowledge shall be made perfect yet some there are who with probability of Scripture teach that the true cause of the final miscarriage of them that perish is that original corruption that befell them at the beginning increased through the neglect or refusal of grace offered Others with no less favourable countenance of Scripture make the cause of Reprobation onely the will of God determining freely of his own work as himself pleases without respect to any second cause whatsoever Were we not ambitiously minded familiam ducere every one to be Lord of a Sect each of these Tenets might be profitably taught and heard and matter of singular exhortation drawn from either for on the one part doubtless it is a pious and religious intent to endeavour to free God
or to avenge their own wrongs and so to decline the sentence of the Magistrate is quite to cut off all use of Authority Indeed it hath been sometimes seen that the event of a Battel by consent of both Armies hath been put upon single Combat to avoid further effusion of bloud but Combats betwixt Subjects for private causes till these latter Ages of the world was never allowed yet I must confess the practise of it is very ancient For Cain the second man in the world was the first Duelist the first that ever challenged the Feild in the fourth of Genesis the Text saith That Cain spake unto his Brother and when they were in the Feild he arose and slew him The Septuagint to make the sense more plain do add another clause and tell us what it was he said unto his brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go out into the feild and when they were in the feild he arose and slew him Let us go out into the feild it is the very form and proper language of a Challenge Many times indeed our Gallants can formalize other words but evermore the substance and usually the very words are no other but these of Cain Let us go out into the Feild Abel I perswade my self understood them not as a challenge for had he so done he would have made so much use of his discretion as to have refused it yet can we not chuse but acknowledge a secret judgment of God in this that the words of Cain should still be so Religiously kept till this day as a Proem and Introduction to that action which doubtless is no other then what Cain's was When therefore our Gallants are so ready to challange the Feild and to go into the Feild let them but remember whose words they use and so accordingly think of their action Again notwithstanding Duels are of so antient and worshipful a Parentage yet could they never gain so good acceptance as to be permitted much less to be counted lawful in the civil part of the world till Barbarism had over-ran it About five or six hundred years after Christ at the fall of the Roman Empire aboundance of rude and barbarous people brake in and possest the civiller part of the world who abolishing the ancient Laws of the Empire set up many strange Customs in their rooms Amongst the rest for the determining of quarrels that might arise in case of doubtful title or of false accusation or the like they put themselves upon many unusual forms of Trial as to handle red hot Iron to walk bare-foot on burning coals to put their hands and feet in scalding water and many other of the like nature which are reckoned up by Hottoman a French Lawyer For they presumed so far on Gods providence that if the party accused were innocent he might do any of these without any smart or harm In the same cases when by reason of unsufficient and doubtful evidence the Judges could not proceed to Sentence as sometimes it falls out and the parties contending would admit of no reasonable composition their manner was to permit them to try it out by their swords that so the Conquerour might be thought to be in the right They permitted I say thus to do for at the best 't was but a permission to prevent farther mischeif for to this end sometimes some known abuses are tolerated So God permitted the Jews upon sleight occasions to put their wives away because he saw that otherwise their exorbitant lusts would not be bounded within these limits which he is Paradise in the beginning had set And it is observed of the wise men which had the managing and bringing up of Nero the Emperour that they suffered him to practise his lusts upon Acte one of his Mothers Chamber-maids Ne in stupra foeminarum illustrium perrumperet si illa libidine prohiberetur Lest if he were forbidden that he should turn his lust upon some of the Noble-women Permission and toleration warrants not the goodness of any action But as Caiaphas said Better one man die then all the people perish so they that first permitted Duels seem to have thought better one or two mutinous persons and disorderly die in their folly then the whole Common-wealth to be put into tumult and combustion yet even by these men it was never so promiscuously tolerated that every hasty couple upon the venting of a little choler should presently draw their swords but it was a publick or solemn action done by order with inspection either of the Prince himself or of some other Magistrate appointed to order it Now certainly there can be no very great reason for that action which was thus begun by Cain and continued onely by Goths and Vandals and meer Barbarism Yet that we may a little better acquaint our selves with the quality of it let us a little examine the causes and pretences which are brought by them who call for trial by single Combat The causes are usually two First disdain to seem to do or suffer any thing for fear of death Secondly point of honour and not to suffer any contumely and indignity especially if it bring with it dis-reputation and note of cowardise For the first Disdain to fear death I must confess I have often wondred with my self how men durst die so ventrously except they were sure they died well In aliis rebus siquid erratum est potest post modum corrigi in other things which are learnt by practising if we mistake we may amend it for the errour of a former action may be corrected in the next we learn then by erring and men come at length not to err by having often erred but no man learns to die by practising it we die but once and a fault committed then can never afterward be amended quia poena statim sequitur errorem because the punishment immediately follows upon the errour To die is an action of that moment that we ought to be very well advised when we come to it Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas you may not look back upon the opinion of honour and reputation which remains behind you but rather look forward upon that infinite space of Eternity either of bliss or bale which befalls us immediately after our last breath To be loath to die upon every sleight occasion is not a necessary sign of fear and cowardise He that knew what life is and the true use of it had he many lives to spare yet would he be loth to part with one of them upon better terms then those our Books tell us that Aristippus a Philosopher being at Sea in a dangerous Tempest and bewraying some fear when the weather was cleared up a desperate Ruffian came and upbraided him with it and tells him That it was a shame that he professing wisdom should be afraid of his life whereas himself having had no such education exprest no agony or dread at all To whom the Philosopher replied there
it is It is Iacob the person of whom all this while I have spoken One and the same Iacob is to us both a Precept and a Reason and an Example thus to do For which of you all Beloved who seriously and religiously reading this passage is not prompted by his own heart thus Si Iacob cur non ego If Iacob so great a person so powerful with God and man if he thought it fit thus to do then how much more should I And so much the more powerful is this reason because it brings an Example with it For in precepts of difficulty no reason so effectual as an Example especially of some great and worthy personage such a reason is of force above all other reasons and precepts whatsoever For first of all bare precepts and reasons are speculative much may be said and yet still room left for doubting either of possibility or of conveniency and profit or the like and every such doubt and scruple abates much of desire to enter into action But a reason accompanied with an example and that of some memorable and great Person this leaves in us no doubt at all neither of possibility nor conveniency Again of Reasons and Precepts that may sometimes be said which one speaks in Herodotus This Shoe was made for Hestiaus but Aristagoras wears it For many times to give a precept and to do it is more then one man's work A thing which doth exceedingly hinder the practise of many good lessons for he that will perswade a good lesson shall hardly do it if he follow it not himself But here we have one that perswades us by the strongest and most effectual manner of perswasion namely by example and action And that you may see I have cause to please my self in this reason I must confess I do not see to what Logic place I can go to draw thence a more forcible motive For let all the precepts all the examples of Christians tending this way be laid in the scale and this one example shall weigh them all down For many things many circumstances are there which should make this resolution familiar and easie to us which to Iacob must be very hard and therefore of the greater merit For first St. Paul hath given us the precept Having food and raiment we ought therewith to be content and many Christians have left us their examples upon record But who gave Iacob any precept or left him an example For ought appears himself was to himself both precept and example Again he had not the like promises so far forth as we can conjecture by what is written at least he had them not so fully so evidently so plainly laid down as we have he saw them but obscurely under Types and Figures but with us all the vail of Types and Figures is quite removed Last of all he had not the like abilities as we have For if what we teach in our Books be true there is a larger measure of grace enabling us to the fulfiling of this duty shed in the hearts of us Christians then was given the Fathers before the coming of our Saviour All these laid together serve to shew the strength of this our first reason Si Iacob cur non ego If Iacob who was to meet with so many disadvantages to wrestle with so many difficulties from all which we are free If Iacob I say could make such a vow then how much more ought we to do it And let this suffice for a first reason Our second reason let be this To us in this life there is nothing necessary but food and raiment and therefore ought we as Iacob here doth covenant with God for nothing else A reason of very good consequence For Beloved while we are in this life it doth much import us not to trouble our selves with superfluities The Scripture every where tells us that we are strangers and pâ—lgrims upon earth that the world is not our countrey and that we seek a city to come Now Beloved our own experience tells us how dangerous a thing it is for strangers pilgrims and wayfaring-men to be incumbred with unnecessary stuff and baggage First it hinders us in the way and makes us drive on but slowly Secondly it exposes us to the danger of theives and robbers How dangerous it is to grow rich in a strange place Iacob himself of whom we speak is a notable instance for whil'st he sojourned with his Vncle Laban and kept his estate but low no man envied no man troubled him But no sooner was his flock increased and he grown wealthy but presently the countenance of Laban was changed his sons give out harsh and angry words and he is fain to flie for his life Magno consilio jacturam sarcinarum impedimentorumque contempsit saith one of Alexander the Great It was a singular part of wisdom and of good advise which Alexander used in the Battel against Darius that he contemned the loss of his stuff and carriages And when Parmenio complains of it Go tell him said Alexander that if we gain the Battel we shall not onely recover our own again but possess our selves of what was our enemies Beloved this spiritual Battel that we fight against the world is much like to that of Alexander against Darius sine jactura sarcinarum it will never be won without loss of our stuff and carriages And let no man be dismayed for this for behold a greater then Alexander even the Captain of the Lord of Host our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ hath assured us that if we gain the Battel and gain it we shall if we be not too careful of our stuff we shall not onely recover our own again but possess our selves of what was our enemies with a thousand-fold encrease When Ioseph sent for his Father and Brethren into Egypt he sent them bread and meat and provision for the journey for the way but withall he sends them this message also Regard not your stuff for the good of the land of Egypt is yours Beloved our Saviour Iesus Christ that true Ioseph who is gone before to provide us a place as himself told us hath sent us bread and meat and provision sufficient for our way but for that superfluous stuff of the world he wills us not to regard that for the good of a better land then that of Egypt is all ours But all this while I have not proved the main That nothing else is necessary but food and raiment Indeed if nothing be necessary but food and raiment then shall we do well to let all the rest fall away But how appears it that all things else are superfluous Thus Let your conversation be in heaven saith the Apostle If it must be in heaven then must it be like to that of the Angels Do the Angels care for silver and gold for the treasures and honours of the world Or if thy self wert an Angel wouldst thou do it The Body we bear about
Father's Brother's Daughter I answer No for my Father's Brother's Widow is my Aunt but my Father's Brother's Daughter is my Cousin German but my Aunt is nearer to me then my Cousin Look but upon the Draught of Degrees which I have before drawn and if you count from Me to my Father's Brother which is the place of my Aunt you shall find but three Degrees but from Me to my Cousin-german or First-Cousin you shall find four Degrees And whereas we are told that to make amends for this we must take notice that my Vncle's Widow is tied to me onely by outward affinity but my Cousin-German is near to me by bloud and consanguinity I answer that the difference betwixt Affinity and Consanguinity in this place helps not at all It is confess'd that look what degree of Consanguinity is forbidden the same degree of Affinity likewise is forbidden if any be contracted For as I may not marry my Mother so I may not marry my Father's Widow my Daughter and my Son's Wife my Neice and my Nephew's Wife are all alike forbidden to me And by the same Analogy as I may not marry my Aunt so I may not marry my Vncle's Widow Yet to help the lameness of this reason we are told but not for news I trow for who knew it not that in Consanguinity some degrees further removed are excluded marriage for instance my Brother's Grandchildren to the Fourth and Fifth Generation yet all this wind blows no corn for it is already granted that I am excluded the whole Line of my Neices not onely to the Fourth and Fifth but to all Generations possible And here the Line of Neices suffers the same which the Line of Mothers of Aunts of Daughters doth which are wholly excluded in the furthest degree imaginable so that the total exclusion of Neices proves not the marriage of First and Second Cousins unlawful much less doth the exclusion of them to the Fourth and Fifth Generation So that any Law of God or sound Reason notwithstanding Marriage betwixt First Cousins may very well pass for lawful But whereas some of the Antients and likewise some of the Modern Churches out of scrupulosity have excluded marriage betwixt First Cousins yet neither any of the Antients nor any Churches at this day that I know the Church of Rome onely excepted have prejudiced the marriage of Second Cousins so that whosoever they be that marry in that degree if themselves be perswaded of the lawfulness of their Action they have no cause to doubt of the Blessing of God upon them and their posterity That which remains of the Discourse yet untouched is of no great weight though of some heat for indeed it is nothing else but Rhetorical and passionate amplification and to return Answer to it were but to lose my labour If this which I have done give you content I have my desire Onely thus much I request of you for my pains that you will cause your Amanuensis to transcribe a copy of my Letters and at your leisure send it me For whereas I was long since desired to deliver my self in this point in the behalf of a great Person of this Land who is now with God I kept no copy of my Meditations by which errour I was now as far to seek as ever which was the cause which made me slower in returning Answer to your Letters This courtesie if you shall be pleased to grant me you shall for ever oblige unto you Your true Freind and Servant JOHN HALES The Method of Reading Profane History IN perusal of History first provide you some Writers in Chronology and Cosmography For if you be ignorant of the Times and Places when and where the things you read were done it cannot chuse but breed confusion in your reading and make you many times grosly to slip and mistake in your discourse When therefore you set to your Book have by you Helvicus his Chronology and a Map of the Countrey in which you are conversant and repair unto them to acquaint you with time and place when and where you are If you be versing the Ancient Histories then provide you Ptolomy's Maps or Ortelius his Conatus Geographici if the latter then some of the Modern Cards As for Method of Reading History note that there are in Story two things especially considerable First the Order of the Story it self and secondly Moral or Statical observations for common life and practise For the latter of these there needs no method in reading all the method is in digesting your reading by bringing it into Heads or Common places or Indices or the like For in this kind read what Books and in what order ye list it matters not so your Notes may be in some such order as may be useful for you For the former that is the course and order of the Story The order of reading ought to be the same with the order of the things themselves what was first done that is to be read in the first place what was next in the next place and so forward the succession and order of time and reading being the same This if you mean to observe exactly which I think it is not so necessary for you to do you must range your Authours according to the times wherein the things they writt were acted and in the same order read them But before you come to read the acts of any people as those that intend to go to Bowls will first see and veiw the ground upon which they are to play so it shall not be amiss for you first to take a general veiw of that ground which you mean more particularly to traverse by reading some short Epitome So ere you read the Roman Story for that way you mean your studies shall bend first read carefully L. Florus who breifly continues the story from Romulus till Augustus shut the Temple of Ianus And if you would yet go lower adde then unto Florus Eutropius his Breviarium who from the same point brings the Story unto Iovianus the Emperour This will give you a general taste of your business and add light unto particular Authours This done then take Livie in hand Now because Livie is very much broken and imperfect and parts of him lost it may be question'd whether were better to read Livie throughout bawking his imperfections before you meddle with any other or when you come to any imperfection to leave him and supply his wants by intercalation of some other Authour and so resume him into your hands again toties quoties For answer Were it your purpose exactly to observe the course of the Story it were not amiss where Livie fails you before you go to his next Books to supply the defect out of some other Authours but since this is not that you principally intend but some other thing and again because variety of Authours may trouble you it will be better for you to read Livie throughout without interruption When you have
near the Synod House and immediatly was it proposed unto the Synod what time was to be set for to begin The time prefixt was the morrow after Io. Polyander took hold of those words ad Collationem and told the Synod that it was fit the Remonstrants were told the end of their coming and the manner of proceeding which should be taken with them that they might know what they were to look for and so provide They were to be informed that they came not to conference neither did the Synod profess themselves an adverse party against them Conferences had been heretofore held to no purpose They ought to have heeded the words of the Letters by which they were cited They were called not to conference but to propose their Opinions with their Reasons and leave it to the Synod to judge of them The Synod would be a judge and not a party Then were they call'd in again and all this was told them Episcopius answered that for the word Collatio he stood not on it and how they would carry themselves it should appear the day following Mean while one thing they would request of the Synod that is that Grevinchovius and Goulartius should be sent for to the Synod as Patrons of this cause That they had this last week exhibited a Supplication to the States General to this purpose and received this answer that they should put this matter to the Synod and if the Synod thought it fit to be granted they would not be against it Neither did they propose this to seek delayes For they were ready whilst these men should be sent for to proceed to the action Only they thought fit that to maintain their cause they should be sent for who could best do it Then were they again dismist and one was sent to them to call for their Supplication to the Lords and the Lords Answer To this they returned that the Lords gave this answer not in writing but by word of mouth and for the copy of their Supplication they called not for it any more Then was the thing proposed unto the Synod and the Secular Deputies replyed that they would return their answer on the morrow the same was the answer of the Synod Mr Praeses thought that Grevinchovius might be admitted salvis censuris Ecclesiasticis yet notwithstanding he thought good to acquaint the Synod with the quality of this man thereupon he produced the Act of the Provincial Synod of South-Holland wherein it was witnessed that the Synod because he did refuse to appear when they cited him and because of many Blasphemies in his Book and of many reproachful speeches against the Magistrates and against the Ministers had suspended him ab omni munere Ecclesiastico From this Grevinchovius had not appealed to the National Synod to do what they thought fit Then were the Remonstrants again called in and it was signified unto them that on the morrow they should understand the will of the Synod concerning their motion made and so were they again dismist and the Session ended the Praeses having first premised that all other things yet depending as the Decree concerning the Proponentes together with the Remedies concerning the abuses in Printing and what else soever must be deferred and the business in hand alone attended My Lord Bishop was desirous that Mr. Carleton should stay this day to see the coming of the Remonstrants I would have had him stay to morrow likewise that he might have seen the manner of proceeding with them but he would not Here is speech that Scultetus is to make the next Latin Sermon but when we know not There is a rumour that Vorstius is gone from Tergone but of this I suppose your Honour may have better information than I can give therefore ceasing to trouble your Honour any longer I humbly take my leave Dort this 6. of Novemb. 1618. Stylo novo Your Lordships Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord IN my last Letters to your Honour I related a doubt concering the Deputies for the Remonstrants of Vtrecht whether they were to be a part of the Synod or in the number of the Remonstrants who were cited to appear before the Synod The reasons of that doubt which then I understood not were these First because in their Credential Letters they were charged to defend the cause of the Remonstrants Now it could not be that they should be both Defendants and Judges in the same cause Secondly it was objected that their case was the same per omnia with Episcopius who was to have been of the Synod if he would have brought his Credential Letters as the rest of the professors were But he refused it because in the Remonstrants cause he was to be a party except he would have laid by the defence of that cause Thirdly when the question was of citing the Remonstrants out of each Province it was then concluded in the Synod that out of the Province of Vtrecht none should be cited to appear because of that Province there were some already and therefore it was superfluous to oite any more In the judgement of the Synod therefore they were in numero citatorum as far as concerned that cause and not in the number of the Members of the Synod Unto these Reasons were they charged to give their answer upon Saturday and then to resolve whether they would forsake the words of their Credential Letters and so remain Judges or else stand unto them and become in the number of the citati Wherefore upon Saturday the 8. of December stylo novo The Synod being met in the morning the Deputies for Remonstrants gave up their Answer in scripto to these Reasons And to the first concerning the Clause in their Credential Letters they answered that they were not so limited but that in their private instructions they had leave to do otherwise if they thought good To the second concerning the Parity of their case with Episcopius they answered that their case was quite another for they were sent from their Provinces as Members of the Synod which plea Episcopius could not make To the third concerning the intent of the Synod at the Citation they answer'd that they never so understood the words of the Synod neither did they know but that they might shew themselves for the cause of the Remonstrants and yet sit as Judges since they were there to defend their opinion no otherwise than the Contra-Remonstrants were to defend theirs and therefore they were purposed to take theoath and to keep their places The Praeses then required them to shew that clause in their private instructions wherein that reservation was which they pretended They stuck a little at first to bring forth their instructions-but at length seeing there was no other remedy they consentted to do it provided that no more should be read than what they would suffer which was granted them In the mean time whilst they were providing
by himself at the latter end of this Session the first three their judgements began to be read but by that time two pages were read the hour was passed and so the rest of it was continued till the next occasion only my Lord I must tell you that so much as was read giveth us little hope of agreement among them for whereas other Colleges had taken it as granted only that homo lapsus was subjectum Praedestinationis they in these two pages did only dispute by many arguments against Gomarus his opinion and proved that largely which others had only taken as a ground their arguments Gomarus I see him note what difference shall further happen in their judgements your L. shall understand by my next Sessio 107. eodem die post meridiem This Session was publick all auditours being admitted in which D. Deodatus did at great length handle these two questions 1. Quantum differat fides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu temporaneorum à vera et justificante Regenitorum fide 2. Quousque conceditur Diabolo progredi in oppugnanda justificatorum fide he did very sweetly just as he useth to preach not as Doctours use to do in Schools This is all which is done this week for this day being Saturday we have no Session The last Sunday I in which I returned the Letter your L. was pleased to send me sent to your Lordship all which had passed the week before which I hope your Lordship had your Lordship seeth there are but ordinary passages yet in the Synod if there were any thing worthy of extraordinary note I should not fail with all diligence to give your Lordship notice of it in mean time with many thanks to your Lordship for all your Lordships courtesies and the remembrance of my humblest service to your L. and your worthy Lady I take my leave ever entreating your Lordship that I may be accounted by your Lordship as I am I doubt not but your Lordship hath seen this pamphlet yet if you have not here it is Dordrecht this 9. of March 1619. Your L. in all true respect and service Walter Balcanqual My very good Lord SUch things as have passed in our Synod since my last Letters unto your Lordship I here send your Lordship as briefly as I can I hope now at length towards the latter end of the next week we shall come to the making of the Canons Sessio 108. 11. Martii Stylo Novo Georgius Fabricius a Nassovian Divine substituted in the place of Dr. Bisterfield who died here was with the accustomed solemnity admitted into the Synod◠We go on in reading the judgement of the three Belgick professours which was very sound and of a just length it was subscribed by their three names Iohannes Polyander Antonius Thysius Anthonius Wallaeus and a little beneath that it was thus written Ego Sibrandus Lubertus hoc collegarum meorum judicium perlegi per omnia probo Gomarus his name was not at it but he presently rose and testified viva voce that he had read it and did in all things approve the judgement of his Colleagues excepting only that part of it which did determine hominem lapsum to be the object of Predestination which he said had not as yet been determined in the Belgick Churches in the French nor English Churches and many others Next was read the judgement of Dr. Sibrandus upon the same Article which differed nothing from that former of his Colleagues but that it was longer it was subscribed with his own name and a little beneath the former three Professors by their subscriptions testified that they had read it and did approve it Gomarus stood up and viva voce gave this same testimony to this judgement which he had given to the former making the same exceeption Next was Gomarus his judgement read upon the same Article he said nothing of that question of the object of Predestination whether it was homo lapsus or not which silence in that point being excepted his judgement in all points agreed with the former judgements of his Collegues it was only subscribed with his own name but D. Polyander did vivâ voce testifie in the name of himself his Colleagues that they did approve all things in Gomarus his judgement excepting only that opinion of the object the contrary whereof they professed themselves to hold the President instructed us concerning some particulars of the business of Camps and desired us against three of the clock in the afternoon to consult about it the particulars whereof your L. shall see in the next Session Sessio 109. eodem die post meridiem The president told us first that the time of fourteen days granted to the two suspended Ministers of Camps for their comparence was now passed and so that they contemned this favourable respite granted by the Synod and persisted in their contumacy Next that the other two Ministers of Camps who were here among the cited Remonstrants had been appointed by the Synod to give in within fourteen dayes an answer to the accusations layed against them by the Deputies of the Reformed-Church of Camps the Copy of which accusations at their own earnest request had been delivered to them by one of the servants of the Synod but that now in place of their answer which was expected they had sent to him a Letter which was read unto the Synod it had two great faults it was exceeding long exceeding foolish to this sence or rather non-sence they did show that they could not at the day appointed give in their answer to the accusations and why they could no more go on in this Synodical action which was commenced against them for many causes such as were first because they were wholly taken up making ready some writings for the Synod concerning the five Articles which were imposed on them by the commandment of the Delegates 2. Because the Copy of the accusations brought unto them by one of the Synod officers was not subscribed by the President nor by either of the Scribes of the Synod and therefore they thought it not an authentick Copy or of any Credit 3. Because crimes in it were objected to them both promiscuously and that laid to both their charge which only one of them had delivered and therefore their accusation was not exact according to form of law 4. That there were many things in it objected to them not warranted by any witness unless it were by some proofs taken out of their Colleague Foskculius late book which they christened with the name of stultum aud tenebricosum scriptum 5. Because it was full of false spellings and writing therefore they thought it was but negligently slubbered over for these and many more such causes as idle as these with which I hold it not fit to detain your L. though they might decline the judgement of the Synod especially since against the practice of the Belgick Church their own Consistory Classis and