alas whilest some too much neglectfull of their true scope do day and night lye digging and deluing and hewing out their wordly aduancement whiles it is too common a fault amongst men to ruffe cast and playster ouer their owne deformities that with Simon Magus they may affirme themselues to bee some body whilest not a few with liues and trauels stand either measuring others actions or else as if themselues were the Poles of the world are taking the eleuation of their owne worth how can one choose but say that here also may sit many of those Mechanickes who if I should speake with my Story doe make Bricke and burne it and carry slime and mortar to the building of this Tower Babylon beleeue it may as well be built in a Schollars braine as in the Plaines of Shinar and vaine glory may in the one be as fit an Instrument to promote the Deuils kingdom as in the other it serued for the erecting of Nimrods Monarchie Sciences and Disciplines were first inuented for vse and contayne themselues then within the bounds of Modesty but vaine glory raysing them aboue their proper Spheare made them in the end take folly for their Centre Whence grew those infernall Arts of consulting with foule spirits whence those scrupulous inspection of the higher bodies but that earth and clay knowing not it selfe which it was bound to know to get a name would needs know that which it ought not to know might I but particularize I thinke there is none ignorant in the seuerall Ages of Learning What corruptions of Arts arose from Pride What Sects arose like Locusts to deuoure the flowers of all good learning How by them Philosophy losing her profitable vses was turned to abstractiue and sophisticall speculations how Diuinitie was stuft out with curious and vnnecessary doubts how preaching it selfe through postelizing became verbal bent only as it were to delight the fancie of fond Auditors I cannot much censure therefore those Schoolemen which held Diuinitie it selfe to bee then a speculatiue Science when the Popes to build their Empire thought good to abstract it from the practice Non sic à principio it was not so from the beginning Agrip. de vanit Scient An Agrippa could supply my Meditations with Examples and tel you how all Disciplines assumed first their vanitie from the affectation of humane glory and a Viues could deriue vnto you the causes of the corruptions of Arts from aspiring cogitations Viues de causis corrupt arti Till Arrogancie beare Dominion ouer Truth the transcendencie of the Pope found no footing in the Church Till ambitious ends blinded the eyes of iudgement the doctrine of massacring Princes was not knowne Till Schoole-learning turned Aduocate to the pride of Antichrist we knew no higher Iudge of Controuersies then the Scriptures But my purpose is not to prosecute this subiect any farther I desire Beloued knowledge in you all but I would haue it vestita clothed with Humilitie for as it is in it selfe nuda it puffeth vp saith Paul 1. Cor. 8. but ioyned with loue it edifieth Let no man therefore presume to vnderstand aboue that which is meete to vnderstand but that hee vnderstand according to sobrietie as God hath dealt to euery man the measure of Faith lest striuing with these builders to get a name hee participate of their confusion which was the intention of Gods descent and commeth next to bee handled and there confound their Language Seuenthly bow dangerous a weapon the tongue of man is how liable either to vse or abuse no Author almost is silent to report With our tongue wee will preuaile say the wicked Psal 12. Death and life are in the power of it Prou. 18. And to conclude It is a fire a world of wickednesse an vnruly euill full of deadly poyson Iam. 3. No maruell therefore if the Lord when he saw that man by depriuing himselfe of his originall iustice had lost the true skil of vsing this weapon did now somewhat shorten the length of it to the end that some proportion might bee found betweene the wounded and worne Souldier and his vnweeldie blade Had Adam still continued in his first estate reason in him like a golden bridle would haue kept this member in subiection At hi iam mortui sunt those Armes which then were lusty and strong haue now lost their vigor and the tongue as an vntamed beast runnes ouer all it meetes with and tramples to the ground all such as giue it not way and passage God therefore since the Rider had not any longer the free power to restraine his beast thought good to shorten his race scantle his liberties and reduce the large Common where before it roued and went astray into seuerall inclosements Shemeis tongue may bee free in cursing but it shall boote no where now but in Iurie Athenian Demagogi may bee prompt in mouing seditions but their eloquence must end with the bounds of Greece and Caius Curio may be facundus malo publico but his Rethoricke shall be powerfull onely in Romes Territories From hence wee may obserue many points worth our consideration as first that all the punishments which it pleaseth God to inflict on the wicked in this life are no other then so many steps and staires to promote the welfare of his Church For howsoeuer the World abounded as much with wicked after as before yet men being deuided into as many factions as tongues and hauing not so free commerce as before the Church might now seeme to haue an indifferent share being compared with any one part though to all it beare no proportion Secondly wee may note the end of Gods punishments how it is to represse the ragings of sinne Greg. lib. 34 Moral Chrysost in Gen. c. 11. v. 6. and to restraine it from growing to that prodigious hight which these builders had raised it vnto For no doubt the Lord seeing the imaginations of mans heart to be euill continually and that this vnitie of speech so much serued the wicked to win them partners in their wickednesse vsed this confusion of Languages as a bridle to curbe their audacious spirits that if notwithstanding all this they should haue as much will to sinne yet should they haue lesse power to hurt and though perhaps there might bee as many wicked yet should there be fewer partakers in the same wickednesse Alas God might as hee did to Sodome haue rained downe fire and brimstone vpon them and so haue consumed their work with them but then he had not left vs the posteritie of that wicked consort as a perpetuall argument of his mercy he might with Lighthings or Earthquakes haue demolisht their worke and not them but then hee had onely deter'd them from proceeding in that mischiefe not taken away the meanes of beginning a new Wherefore hee like a prudent Iudge that this malum poenae this punishment which he would inflict vpon them might take some effect in all their Posterity
oftentimes abuse them to the preiudice of their Auditors the Apostle arguing their vanity tells them that Tongues are for a signe not to them that beleeue but to them that beleeue not As if he should haue said You see my Brethren that this hearing of vnknowne tongues which you so greedily affect is no benefit of God to the faithfull but rather a punishment and token of vengeance to come on vnbeleeuers For with men of other tongues and other lips will I speake vnto this people saith the Lord Esay 28. and it followeth that they may goe and fall backwards and be broken and snared and taken Vers 13. Thus the wicked do ofteÌ„times through their sinnes cause God to remoue from them euen those good meanes which might the better draw them vnto the knowledge and vnderstanding of the truth Twelfthly but there is a mysticall Babylon which bids me wander no longer in the Plaines of Shinar but returne homeward and take a short view of it by the way This is Rome which as in respect of her Ciuil estate she resembleth Babylon hauing lost her Language left her seuen Mountaines to plant her selfe in Campo Martio changed her face and fashion and is so entombed in her owne ruines Lips de mag Rom. l. 3. c. 11. that Lipsius cannot so much as trace the ancient tract of her walls euen so in respect of her state Ecclesiasticall that which not long since was the Garden of Eden is now ouer-growne with weedes and the Daughter of Sion is become the Whore of Babylon Many Writers haue obserued many seuerall circumstances by reason whereof the holy Ghost rightly termed Rome vnder Antechrist by the title of Babylon for Power Glorie Whoredomes Tyranny But to come home to my Text mee thinkes that nothing may seeme wanting to furnish out the similitude euen the confusion of Languages and not vnderstanding of one anothers speech in spirituall Babel may well hold play For is not their prayer in an vnknowne Tongue a present proofe of this confusion What is their prohibiting of vulgar Translations what their celebrating of Diuine Seruice in Latin onely What the intermixing of barbarous and vnsignificant termes in all their Missalls and Breuiaries but fore-head markes of this Babylonish confusion I am the willinger beloued to insist a little vpon this point because Bosius in his sixth Book de signis Ecclesiae and fifth Chapter hath made the gift of Tongues to be an euident note that the present Church of Rome is the true Church To let passe his brags of their Linguists we must obserue that this confusion of Languages consisted not simply in not vnderstanding of Languages and Tongues but whether we make this one another in my Text to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vicinum with the Septuagint and Chaldaick Paraphrase or proximum with Hierom or with Pagnine and Arias Montaâ—us to be socium our companion all argue that not only the finall cause but also the formall Ire of the confusion consisted in the not vnderstanding of their speech with whom they were to conuerse and to whom they did associate themselues in their Churches and publike meeting places to ioyne in Prayers and the worship of God that then I say they vnderstand not one anothers speech then they participate of the curse and punishment of these wicked builders But see how the Serpent is still a Serpent if hee cannot build Babylon by the vnitie of Languages hee will doe it by the confusion of Languages if hee cannot by a speech which men vnderstand he will doe it by not vnderstanding one anothers speech if he cannot by the abuse of Gods blessings he will doe it by the vse of his curses It is strange beloued how in other things men are Eagle-eyed and prie too farre onely in those things which concerne regnum coelorum the Kingdome of Heauen they desire to bee purblind and wilfully cast a vaile ouer their owne eyes we would esteeme him an improuident Champion which being to combat with a strong enemy will assaile him at such weapons onely as hee himselfe knowes not how to vse and is' t not the like case with our aduersaries who being encountred by a potent enemie the deuill will striue to put him to flight by such weapons only and such prayers as they know not the power of Say the best of their prayers that may bee said that many of them are zealous and feruent penned by the Fathers receiued by vs yet let them know that we haue the sword drawne they haue it but in the scabbard wee see the marke we shoote at they coward-like winke when they fight and sottishly hood-blind themselues when they should see how to direct their stroakes I denie not but that in their rapsodie of Tracts Sequences Responsoryes Graduells and the like some Pearles are here and there intermixed yet to the non intelligent Auditory they are but as the light which shined in darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not Ioh. 1. Or as that of Iacob in Bethel Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not Gen. 28. For what absurdities haue daily issued from this Romish confusion not the practice onely of the Lay ignorant doe testifie who promiscuously apply the same prayers to God to our Lady to the Nayles and other Reliques but the writings of the learned doe confirme It bootes not much though Aue Maria God saue thee Mary which is a pure prayer to God for her be turned to a prayer and petition to her neither breakes it square though to the Image of our Lady they say Pater noster qui es in coelis Our Father which art in Heauen as the Tredentine Catechisme in the fourth part and sixth Chapter permits men to doe and as Bellarmine seemes to allow who denies not but that that prayer may be applied to any Angell or a Saint in his booke de sanctorum beatitudine and twentieth Chapter How good their Linguists are which Bosius vaunts of in other things I know not in these cases I am sure the Delphian sword seruing for all purposes and the Philophers quidlibet ex quolibet comes to short either they make the Romish dialect more flexible then any other or else the world hath beene defectiue hitherto of an expurged Priscian But I will go no farther in the pursuite of our Common aduersarie O Thou which formest the hearts of thy seruants and openest their eyes that they may behold the worderful things of thy Law send knowledge we beseech thee out of thine holy heauen and from the throwe of thy glory that it being present the vnderstanding of all men may bee so enlightned and their iudgements so reedified that they may discerne Anâ—ec rist not only by the ruffenesse of his hands but also by the confusion of his Tongue and that those which are now in bondage to him as in the house of Aegypt may no longer speake the Language of Babylon not vnderstanding one anothers speech but the
faculties but seeing our sight exercises it selfe intramittendo Arist lib. 2. de Anim. c. 7. by suffering those Basiliskes to enter into vs and sease vpon vs and leaue their poysonous impressions within vs I appeale if that complaint of the Poets may not iustly too often bee taken vp Cur aliquid vidi cur noxia lumina feci Ouid. But who then will you aske may be a competent spectator of these things I answere hee which with Paul hath a sufficiet gratia a couragious heart and a discerning eye no man can see the Beame in his Brothers eye whilest a Beame remaynes in his owne we reade in latter Astronomers that in the most glorious of the Planets some spots appeare by the helpe of perspectiue instruments which the dulnesse of our sight cannot attayne vnto and may we not well conclude that in the mists of superstition farre more spots and blemishes may lie hid which the blindnesse of many mens vnderstandings conceales from them Wee could not enough deride the folly of him which would encounter his Foe without Armour drinke poyson without Antidotes enter a Pest-house without preseruatiues and shall wee deeme them better aduised which expose their soules to the blowes drugs and infectious breaths of Idoll worshippers without sufficient safeguard and yet me thinkes a greater folly is here committed when men altogether blind vndertake to iudge of colours and so are many in these dayes inpoints of difference so easie to be deluded the marke oftentimes lies quite contrarie to their ayme and yet they doubt not but to hit it much like blind Catullus in the Poet Nemo magis rhombum stupuit Iuuenal nam plurima dixit In laeuum conuersus at illidextra iacebat Bellua But let vs come then in the last place to sift the occasion which brought our Apostle to come where these deuotions of the Athenians were done he intimates that his way lay by them they stood as it were in his passage so that the occasion of his approach thither was not idolatrous to worship but rather ciuill to see them or rather to dispatch his affaires This seems to haue beene the case of Naaman the Syrian when hee besought Elisha to beseech the Lord for him if when hee entred the house of Rimmon and hee not to worshâ—p the Idoll but onely to performe his ciuill function which was to sustaine his master walking or kneeling did bow himselfe when his master bowed before the Idoll without which action sayth Abulensis Non poterat sustentare dominum flectentem genua Toslat in 4. Reg. 6.5 he could not haue borne his master vp when he bended his knee that then the Lord would be mercifull vnto him in that one thing This was the doubt moued as Sleidan in the seuenth of his comment hath it by a Duke of Saxonie to the Protestant Diuines when according to his place hee was cited by Charles the Fift to beare the Sword before him going to Masse and it was thus resolued that hee might lawfully doe it quod ad suum officium esset enocatus non ad Missam velut ad culium druinum because he was cited to bee present at the Masse onely to performe his office and not to commit any diuine worship And to this purpose is that which Teriullian concludes Tertull lib. de ido olat where handling the question whether it were lawfull to be present at the inuestitures of Heathens with the virill Gowne as also at their Sponsals and Nuptials because Sacrifices were wont to be offered at such solemnities That for so much as Idolatrie had enuironed the world with euils Licebit sayth hee adesse inquibusdam quae nos homini non Idolo officiosos habent si propter sacrificium vocatus adsistam ero particeps idololatriae si me alia causa coniungit sacrificanti ero tantum spectator sacrificij it is lawfull to bee present in some things which import an officious respect to the man and not to the Idoll if being called to the Sacrifice it selfe I come I am partaker of the Idolatrie if some other cause ioynes me to him which sacrificeth I shall bee onely a spectator of the Sacrifice The like iudgement he giues of Seruants Children and Subiects which performe ciuill duties to their Lords and Parents at such ceremonies Tostat lotâ— sup cit and no lesse thinkes Tostatus and Peter Martyr of captiue Maids whose office is Pet. Martyr in 2. Regum 6.5 to beare vp their Mistresses traines to the Temples of Idols so that no signe or token bee giuen by them of the least respect or reuerence to the Idoll Hitherto we haue traced Saint Paul as he walked the streets of Athens wee haue obserued his gestures carriage and demeanour I would to God that whom men presume to follow in seeing these nouelties they could as well imitate in his prudent and cautelous seeing of them Non omnes Pauli sumus all haue not Pauls constancie nor his knowledge at quot sunt Petri how many are there which haue Peters timiditie How many which like Balam aske counsell of God in things they know forbidden by him It was a noble answere of Cyprians which Austin relates of him Aug. serm in natali Cypriani com 10. when the Proconsul put it to his choice whether he would renounce his Faith at least in words or sustaine death in re tam iusta nulia est consultatio in so iust a cause there is no place left for consultation What no place for consultation why then a Nicodemite of our Age would replie that Christianitie seemes of all Sects the cruellest which will beare no corriuals nor allow her professors any guard but naked Trueth for preseruation of their liues and libertie But these obserue not the magnificencie and bountie of their Mistresse they ayme at the societie of men shee tells them of the companie of Angels they meditate vpon these rotten and decaying tenements vpon Earth shee wishes them rather those firme mansion houses in Heauen they would content themselues with vnder-offices shee shewes them the dominion ouer ten Cities they plead for their Prouinces she Kingdomes they desire a life which leads vnto death shee counsels rather to accept of that death which assures them of life But this counsell fits them best whom necessarie occasions detaine in Athens as for those which to satisfie their vnsatiat appetites in curiosities intrude themselues voluntarily into such perils Cyprians sermon de lapsis that of Cyprians sutes more fitly Hee may complaine of torments which is ouercome of torments and pretend paine for his excuse whom paine hath vanquished sed hic non fides congressa cecidit sed congressionem perfidia praeuenit nec excusat oppressum necessitas criminis vbi crimen est voluntatis but here Faith fayles not being encountred but the encounter perfidiousnesse preuented nor doth necessitie excuse the guiltie where the fault is voluntarie But they dissemble they will pretend to discouer
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
is the learned but also the Cattell and the Sheepe that is the rude and ignorant doe drinke and refresh themselues the Pope locking them vp in a tongue vnknowne that the people may not vnderstand them doth hee not what lyes in him make God to bee to the Laitie and common sort vnknowne Prayers which are the Masters of request to our heauenly Soueraigne when the Pope restraines them to Latine and commands them to be vttered in a strange tongue is not this to parlie with God as with a forraigne Prince and to present our supplications to him as to a God vnknowne Disputations whereby the falshood is winnowed from the Truth like Chaffe from Wheat and the great cause of mans saluation cleeres it selfe before the face of the world of false imputations the Pope by forbidding it to the Laytie vnder paine of Excommunication what doth hee but leaue men in suspence and doubtfulnesse of the truth and as farre as disputes can satisfie make God in many most needfull cases vnknowne Faith the hand which layes hold vpon the heauenly promises and is the very foundation of things hoped for the Pope extolling the implicit or vnfolded belief of the ignorant what doth he but by this course settle our confidence and trust and deuotions vpon the apprehension of God vnknown Much more might I adde to the same purpose but this ignorance of God is so foule a fault that if a man excell'd Salomon in all the wisedome of the world besides it would profit him little nay I may boldly say that in the maynest points of his knowledge the simplest Christian which knowes God would be able to tuter him and be his Teacher and therefore by these few instances of Popish blindnesse I hope you may see how little reputation our aduersaries doe gaine by nourishing ignorance and blinde deuotion in the minds of poore Christians Not to trauell farre for examples let vs consider the Athenians of whom my Apostle speakes in my Text famous for their wisedome and policie hauing had the most flourishing Empire of all Greece famous for their iustice and equitie hauing the renowned Areopage a Court to which Aristides attributed no lesse force in deliuering Iustice then to the Oracles in fore-telling things to come famous for their profound knowledge in Philosophie amongst whom Socrates Plato and Aristotle those great lights of Europe were admired and extolled how shallow yet they were in their professions how little they waded in many most necessary points of Philosophie and all because of this vnknowne God The Moralist wasted many a tedious night in the discussion of this one point what was summum bonum the chiefe good and felicitie of a man in this life Varro numbers in his time 288. seuerall opinions of Philosophers touching this one thing and yet scarce any of them which stumbled not at the very Threshold of his Art and all because that this God was vnknowne The Naturalists disputed as much concerning the subiect of his science the World what might be the first cause of it and yet after all their debatements and vnreconcileable contradictions hardly was any found which attained vnto it and all for that this God was to them vnknowne The Astronomers which gaze vpon the Starres slumber at the first moouer of the Spheares they which could foretell the Eclipses of the Sun and Moone to come saw not their owne Eclipse which was present and that because God was as then vnknowne The Statists and Politicians it were much to recount the seueral opinions they broached about the conuersions and period of Empires whether they were caused by numbers or destinie or coniunctions of the higher Planets or an excentricall motion of the Earth or Comets or Eclipses few or none archieued vnto the truth herein the reason whereof can bee no other then this that this God was to them vnknowne But le ts leaue Philosophie awhile and consider the Art of Arts Christianitie how God stands there in the fore-front of the Schoole and bids vs learne him first before we turne ouer a new leafe if we would bee perfect Schollers in other Precepts he is the rule wherby we are to order and conceiue of all things tending to his worship so farre is a man a good Diuine as he knowes him other subtilities are but hedges to fence the truth from the assaults of Heretikes they may scratch and teare both sides in handling but that vnum necessarium that one thing needfull needfull for thee Martha and euery good Christian is the knowledge of this God we may take a taste if we listed in those Religions which haue swarued from the truth whence is it that most of their errors haue proceeded if not from the not knowing as they should doe this God Did the Schoolè-men consider the power of God vprightly they would neuer attribute vnto him the working of contradictions in the Sacrament which argue an impotencie rather then a power in the Diuine Maiestie did the Iesuites truly estimate his truth and veritie they would not be so impudent as to make him the Patron of equiuocations and mentall reseruations did the Popish Doctors weigh but in right scales his iealousie they would not make Saints compartners with him in adoration or in the worke of our redemption nor if they knew his Prouidence would they many of them in the saluation of mens soules allow him a meere prescience onely or foreknowledge Nay we our selues would not doe many things as we doe if God were not to vs as he was to these Athenians yet vnknowne we runne to vnlawfull succours in our aduersities is not this because wee know him not to be Omnipotent we play the Hypocrites and double-dealers in his imployments is not this because we know him not to be simple we set our hearts vpon vaine pleasures and decaying treasures is not this because we know him not to be the soueraigne good we liue in sinne securely without any repentance is not this because wee know him not to bee a iust Iudge we doubt of his promises is not this because wee know him not to bee true why if we were but as learned as to know him we would admire him for his infinitnesse and perfection adore him for his vnmeasurablenesse vnchangeablenesse and eternitie seeke vnderstanding from his vnderstanding submit our selues to his will loue him for his loue trust to him for his truth feare him for his power reuerence him for his holinesse praise him for his blessednesse so that in fine hence growes our coldnesse in Religion hence our back-slidings in pietie hence our benumb'dnes in Christianitie in that our deuotions are as it were stil directed to the vnknowne God Now hee which conceal'd the truth of his God-head from the Prophets and Wise of the world and hath reuealed the same vnto the simple grant that we vsing the light aright walke not still as children of the darkenesse and by turning away from him the onely God whom we know settle our hearts and affections vpon false gods whom we know not through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost bee rendred all Praise Honour and Glory Might Maiestie and Dominion both now and for euer more Amen FINIS