was this absolute Primacy and Headship of old as that when the Roman Dition was brought down to a Dukedome and subjected to the Exarchate of Ravenna the Archbishop of Ravenna upon the very same grounds stuck not as Blondus tels us to strive with the Bishop of Rome for Priority of place So necessarily was the rising or fall of the Episcopall Chair annexed to the condition of that City wherein it was fixed But in all this we well see what it is that was stood upon an arbitrable precedency of these Churches in a priority of order and according thereunto the Bishop of Rome is determined to be primae sedis Episcopus the Bishop of the first See A style which our late Learned Soveraign professed with Justinian not to grudge unto the modern Bishops of that See But as for a Primacy of Soveraignty over all Churches and such an Headship as should inform and inliven the body and govern it with infallible influences it is so new and hatefull as that the Church in all Ages hath opposed it to the utmost neither will it be indured at this day by the Greek Church notwithstanding the colourable pretence of subscription hereunto by their dying Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople in the late Florentine Council and the letters of union subscribed by them Anno 1539. Yea so far is it from that as that their Emperour Michael Palaeologus for yielding a kinde of subjection of the Eastern Bishops to the Roman would not be allowed the honour of Christian Burial as Aemilius hath recorded And in our time Basilius the Emperour of Russia which challengeth no small part in the Greek Church threatned to the Pope's Legate as I have been informed an infamous death and burial if he offered to set foot in his Dominions out of a jealous hate of this Usurpation Sect. 2. The Newnesse of challenged Infallibility THE particularities of this new arrogation of Rome are so many that they cannot be pent up in any streight room I will only instance in some few The Pope's Infallibility of Judgment is such a Paradox as the very Histories of all times and proceedings of the Church doth sufficiently convince For to what purpose had all Councils been called even of the remotest Bishops to what purpose were the agitations of all controversal causes in those Assemblies as Erasmus justly observes if this Opinion had then obtained Or how came it about that the Sentences of some Bishops of Rome were opposed by other Sees by the Successors of their own by Christian Academies if this conceit had formerly passed for current with the World How came it to passe that whole Councils have censured and condemned some Bishops of Rome for manifest Heresies if they were perswaded beforehand of the impossibility of those Errours Not to speak of Honorius of Liberius and others the Council of Basil shall be the voice of common observation Multi Pontifices c. Many Popes say they are recorded to have faln into Errours and Heresies Either all stories mock us or else this parasitical dream of impeccancy in judgment is a mere stranger And his disguise is so foul that it is no marvel if Errare non possum I cannot erre seemed to Eberhardus Bishop of Saltzburgh no other then the suit of an Antichrist Sect. 3. The Newness of the Popes Superiority to General Councils HOW bold and dangerous a Novelty is that which Cardinal Bellarmine and with him the whole Society and all the late Fautors of that See after the Florentine Synod stick not to avouch Summus Pontifex c. The Pope is absolutely above the whole Church and above a General Council so as he acknowledges no Judges on earth over himself How would this have relished with those well-near a thousand Fathers in the Council of Constance who punctually determined thus Ipsa Synodus c. The Synod lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost making a Generall Council representing the Catholick Church militant upon earth hath immediately power from Christ whereunto every man whosoever he be of what state or dignity soever although he be the Pope himself is bound to obey in those things which pertain to Faith or to the extirpation of Schism And fifteen years after that the General Council of Basil wherein was President Julianus Cardinall of Saint Angelo the Popes Legate defined the same matter in the same words It is no marvell if Cardinal Bellarmine and some others of that strain reject these as unlawfull Councils but they cannot deny first that this Decree was made by both of them secondly that the Divines there assembled were in their allowance Catholick Doctors and such as in other Points adhered to the Romane Church insomuch as they were the men by whose sentence John Husse and Hierome suffered no lesse then death and yet even so lately did these numerous Divines in the voice of the Church define the Superiority of a Council above the Pope What speak we of this when we finde that the Bishops of the East excommunicated in their assembly Julius the Bishop of Rome himself amongst others without scruple as Solzomen reporteth How ill would this Doctrine or practice now be endured Insomuch as Gregory of Valence dares confidently say that whosoever he be that makes a Council superior to the Pope fights directly though unawares against that most certain Point of Faith concerning Saint Peter's and the Roman Bishops Primacie in the Church Sect. 4. The new presumption of Papall Dispensations FRom the opinion of this supereminent Power hath flowed that common course of Dispensations with the Canons and Decrees of Councils which hath been of late a great eye-sore to moderate beholders Franciscus à Victoria makes a wofull complaint of it professing to doubt whether in the end of the year there be more that have leave by this means to break the laws then those that are tied to keep them Thereupon wishing for remedy that there were a restraint made of those now boundlesse Dispensations and at last objecting to himself that such a Decree of restriction would be new and not heard of in any former Council he answers Tempore Conciliorum antiquorum c. In the time of the antient Councils Popes were like to the other Fathers of those Councils so as there was no need of any act for holding them back from this immoderate licence of dispensing yea if we do well turn over the laws and histories of the Antient we shall finde that Popes did not presume so easily and commonly to dispense with Decrees of Councils but observed them as the Oracles of God himself yea not onely did they forbear to doe it ordinarily but perhaps not once did they ever dispense at all against the Decrees of Councils But now saith he by little and little are we grown to this intemperance of dispensations and to such an estate as that we can neither abide our mischiefs nor
more to the enemy of God of whom we say commonly As proud as the Devil For that once-glorious Angel looking upon his own excellency wherewith he was invested in his creation began to be lift up in himself made himself his own Alpha and Omega acknowledging no essential dependance upon God as his beginning no necessary reference to God as his end and therefore was tumbled down into that bottomless dungeon and reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day This is it which some think Saint Paul alludes to when he charges that a Bishop should not be a novice left he should be puffed up and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Now there are so many kinds of Pride as there are imaginary causes of self-exaltation and there are so many causes imagined hereof as there are things reputed more precious and excellent in the eyes of the world I might send you to Hugo's Chariot of Pride drawn with four horses that Age knew no more and the four wheels of it if I listed to mount Pride curiously but I will shew you her on foot To speak plainly therefore These five things are wont commonly to be the matter of our Pride Honour Riches Beauty Strength Knowledge Every of them shall have a word Those that are tainted with the first are State-proud Bladders puft up with the wind of Honour Thus Ninive Behold I sit as a Queen I am and there is none else Thus the insolent officer of Sennacherib Who art thou that thou despisest the least of my Masters servants Vicina potentibus superbia as that Father said Pride is an usual neighbour to greatness How hard is it for eminent Persons when they see all heads bare all knees bowed to them not to be raised up in their conceits not to applaud their own glory and to look overly upon the ignoble multitude as those which are Terrae filii mushroms worthy of nothing but contempt Hence it is that proud ones are incompatible with each other Look upon other Vices ye shall see one Drunkard hug another one debauch'd Wanton love another one Swearer one Profane beast delight in another but one Proud man cannot abide another as one twig cannot bear two Red-breasts Both would be best Caesar will not indure an equal nor Pompey a superiour The second are Purse-proud Vermis divitiarum superbia as St. Austin wittily Pride is in the Purse as the worm in the Apple Thus Nabal because he hath money in his bags and stock on his ground sends a scornful message to poor David though a better man then himself Many servants run away from their Masters now adaies How many examples meet us every where of this kind of them which having scrap'd together a little money more then their neighbours look big upon it and scorn the need of the better deserving and bluster like a tempest and think to bear down even good causes before them Secundas fortunas decent superbiae as the Comedian Pride becomes the wealthy Thus Solomon notes in his time that the rich speaks with commands the words weigh according to the Purse The third are the Skin-proud for Beauty goes no deeper such as with Jezebel lick themselves and with Narcissus dote upon their own Faces thinking it a wrong in any that sees them and admires them not spending all their thoughts and their time in fashions and complexion as if their Soul lay in their hide despising the ordinary forms of vulgar persons yea of the most beneficial nature Elatus erat animus tuus propter pulcritudinem Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty saith Ezekiel 28. 17. The fourth are the Sinew-proud which presume upon their own Strength and vigor Elatum cor robore saies the same Ezekiel 28. 5. As Goliah who dares in the confidence of his own arm challenge the whole hoast of God and scorns the dwarfs and shrimps of Israel The fifth is the Skill-proud puffed up with the conceit of Knowledge as Knowledge is indeed of a swelling nature There is much affinity betwixt Knowledge and Pride both came out of one Country for Pride is also natione coelestis as Hierom well and since she cannot climbe up thither again she will be mounting as high as she can towards it Every smatterer thinks all the Circle of Arts confined to the closet of his breast and as Job speaks of his haughty friends that all wisdome lives in him and dyes with him Hence is that curiosity of knowing vain querks of speculation hence singularity of opinion hating to go in the common track hence impatience of contradiction hence contempt of the mediocrity of others Out of this impatience Zidkijah could smite Michaiah on the eare and as buffeting him double say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to thee Out of this contempt the Scribes and Pharisees could say Turba haec this Laity that knows not the Law is accursed But besides these five a man may be proud of any thing yea of nothing yea of worse then nothing Evil. There may be as much Pride in rags as in tissues Diogenes tramples upon Plato's pride but with another pride And we commonly observe that none are so proud as the foulest In what kind soever it be the more a man reflects upon himself by seeking loving admiring the more proud he is the more damnable is his Pride But as in all other cases Pride is odious to God so most of all in point of Religion and in those matters wherein we have to doe with God A proud face or a proud back or a proud arm or a proud purse are hateful things but a proud Religion is so much worse as the subject should be better Let this then be the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of true or false Religion That which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most pranck up our selves and detract from God is the false It was the rule of Bonaventure whom the Romanists honour for a Saint Hoc piarum mentium est c. This is the part of pious Souls to ascribe nothing to themselves all to the Grace of God So as how much soever a man attributes to the Grace of God he shall not swerve from Piety in detracting from Nature but if he substract never so little from the Grace of God and give it to Nature he indangers himself and offends In the safety of this proof our Doctrine triumphs over the Romish in all those Points wherein it opposeth ours Ours stands ever on Gods side exalting his free Grace and mere Mercy as the causes of our Salvation theirs dividing this great work betwixt God and themselves Gods Grace and mans Free-will and ascribing that to Merit which we to Mercy Herein Popery is pure Pharisaisme and comes within the verge of Spiritual Pride Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insolent men
Drunkenness we must fly in the face of it with so much more fierceness as the eminence of the sin may make it more dangerously-exemplary quò grandius nomen eò grandius scandalum as Bernard Let the clearest water mix with the best earth it makes but mire If we be the true Sons of Thunder even the tallest Cedar-sins must be blasted with our Lightning and riven with our bolts Cato would not they say have a dumb souldier I am sure Christ will not Wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel yea wo be to us if we preach not the Law too if we do not lash the guilt of the Great with the scorpions of Judgement What stand we upon bulk if the Sin be an Elephant harnessed and carrying Castles upon his back we must with Eleazar creep under his belly and wound that vast enemy with the hazard of our own crushing It is the charge of God Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Es 58. 1. The words are Emphatical whereof the first signifies a straining of the throat with crying and the next the trumpet implies a sound of war This same belluÌ„ cum vitiis war with sins must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncapable of so much as a truce yea as a respiratió As that undaunted souldier therefore held first with his right hand and when that was cut off with his left and when both were cut off with his teeth so must we resolve to doe That which is the praise of the Mastives of our Nation must be ours to leave our life with our hold Profectò stabimus pugnabimus usque ad mortem We will stand and fight it out to the very death as Bernard speaks The manner of the Fight follows and that must needs vary according to the divers fashions of the onset For all beasts assail not alike one fights with his tusks another with his paws another with his horn another with his heel another with his sting one rampeth upon us another leaps in to us a third either rusheth us down or casts us upward a fourth galls us afarre a fifth wounds us unseen one kils by biting another by striking another by piercing another by envenoming According to these manifold changes of assaults must the expert champion dispose of himself To speak morally as these Men-beasts are either Beasts of Opinion or beasts of Practice and both of them maintain the fight either by close subtilty or by open violence so did S. Paul's opposition suit them so must ours whether for defence or for offence The beasts of Opinion were either Idolatrous Ethnicks or refractary Jews the one worshipping Diana for their Goddess the other refusing the true Messias for their Saviour The one he beats with the down-right blows of right Reason the other he hews with the two-edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God The beasts of Practice he smites through with the darts of the Law whereof Exod. 19. 13. If a beast touch the Mount he shall be shot through Their subtilty he declined by a wise evasion their violence he repelled with an irresistible force The particularities would be infinite neither do any of you exspect that I should turn the Pulpit into a Fence-school or a Paris-garden Onely let me reduce S. Paul's practice herein to some few useful rules as to express his beast-combat so to direct our own Whereof the first to begin with the beasts of Opinion was and shall be To fight still at the head When he comes to the Theatre of Ephesus he deals not with collateral matters of a secondary nature but flies upon the main heads of the highest contradiction whether one true God onely should be worshipped whether Christ should be acknowledged for the Messiah No doubt Ephesus was full of curious and nice scruples the wise Apostle waves all these and as some magnanimous Mastive that scorns to set upon every Curre that barks at him in the way he reserves himself for these Lions and Tigers of Errour Oh how happy were it for Christendome if we that profess to sit at S. Paul's feet as he at Gamaliel's could learn this wit of him It is true which Chromatius hath Non sunt parva quae Dei sunt None of Gods matters are slight but yet there is a difference and that would be observed The working brains of subtile man have been apt to mince Divinity into infinite Atomes of speculation and every one of those speculations breeds many questions and every question breeds troubles in the Church like as every corn of powder flies off and fires his fellow Hence are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. foolish and unlearned disquisitions 2 Tim. 2. 23. that have set the whole Christian world together by the ears Ex utraque parte sunt qui pugnare cupiunt as Tully said of his time There are enough on both sides that would fight The main Fort of Religion is worth not our sweat but our blood thus must we strive pro aris so even Heresie shall be found as Chrysostome observes not more dangerous then profitable But if it be onely matter of rite or of unimporting consequence de venis capillaribus as he said Oh what â—adness is it in us to draw the world into sides and to pour out the souls of Gods people like water what is this but as if some generous Bandog should leave the Bear or Lion primae formae feram which he comes to bait and run after a Mouse Melanchthon cites and approves that saying of Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius that Schisme is no less sin then idolatry And if the Fish be the better where the seas are most unquiet I am sure the Souls are worse where the Church is tumultuous I cannot skill of these Swans eggs that are never hatcht without thunder nor of that unnatural brood that eats through the dam to make passage into the light of reputation Oh for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Justly did Agesilaus lament the state of Greece that had lost as many souldiers in domestick wars as might have made them Masters of the world Let me say Had all our swords and pens been happily bent against the common enemy of Christendome long agoe had that Mahumetan Moon waned to nothing and given way to the glorious Sun of the Gospel Our second rule must be When we do smite to strike home It is S. Paul's I so fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not beating the aire 1 Cor. 9. 26. Here is not a blow lost non verberat ictibus auras How doth he cut the throat of the Ephesian beast Idolatry whiles he argues They are not Gods that are made with hands All the Silver-smiths of Diana cannot hammer out a reply to this charge It is no flourishing when we come to this combat Weak proofs betray good causes Demonstrations must have
place here not Probabilities How powerfully doth he convince the unbelieving Jews of Ephesus and Rome out of Moses and the Prophets Act. 28. 23. This this is the weapon whereby our grand Captain vanquished the great challenger of the bottomless pit Scriptum est All other blades are but Lead to this Steel Councils Fathers Histories are good helps but ad pompam rather then ad pugnam These Scriptures are they whereof S. Augustin justly Hac fundamenta haec firmamenta What do we multiply volumes and endlesly go about the bush That of Tertullian is most certain Aufer ab haereticis quaecunque Ethnici sapiunt ut de Scripturis solis questiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Take from Hereticks what they borrow of Pagans and hold them close to the trial by the Scriptures alone they cannot stand Bring but this fire to the wildest beast his eye will not indure it he must run away from it for these kind of creatures are all as that Father Lucifugae Scripturarum What worlds of volumes had been spared how infinite distractions of weak and wavering souls had been prevented if we had confined our selves to S. Paul's fence Our third rule must be To redouble our strokes uncessantly unweariably not giving breath to the beast not fainting for want of our own S. Paul laid on three months together in the Synagogue of Ephesus two years more in the school of Tyrannus Act. 19. 8 9. and accordingly gives us our charge State ergo Stand close to it Eph. 6. 14. If when we have dealt some few unsuccessful blows we throw up the bucklers or lean upon our pummels we lose our life with the day I could as the case might stand easily be of the minde of that souldier who when he heard Xenophantus by his musick stirring up Alexander to the fight wisht rather to hear a Musician that could take him off but since we have to doe with an enemy which nec victor nec victus novit quiescere as Annibal said of Marcellus there is no way but to fight it out Ye have not yet resisted unto blood faith the Apostle If need be we must do so Serpens sit is ardor arena Dulcia virtuti as he said Oh be constant to your own holy resolutions if ever ye look for an happy victory Well did the dying Prophet chide the King of Israel that he struck but thrice Thou shouldst have smitten often then thou shouldst have smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it 2 Kings 13. 19. Let neither buggs of fear nor suppalpations of favour weaken your hands from laying load upon the beast of Errour Fight zealously fight indefatigably and prevail In the battails of Christ as S. Chrysostome observes the issue is so assured that the crown goes before the victory but when ye once have it hold fast that you have that no man take your crown Revel 3. 11. Our last rule is To know our distance and where we find invincible resistance to come off fairly So did S. Paul in the Theatre of the Ephesian Synagogue when after three months disputation some were hardened and in stead of believing blasphemed the way of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he departed and separated Act. 19. 9. Those beasts we cannot master we must give up If Babylon will not be cur'd she must be left to her self To apply this to the Theatre of the times There is no challenge either more frequent or more heavy then that we have left that Church which they miscal our Mother Had we gone from her that is gone from her self we had but followed her in leaving her had we left her that hath blasphemed her forsaken truth we had but followed S. Paul but now let the world know we have not left her she hath abandon'd us Non fugimus sed fugamur as Casaubon cites from our late Learned Soveraign It is her violence not our choice that hath excluded us Because we could not but leave her errors she hath ejected our persons This schism shall one day before that great Tribunal of Heaven fall heavily upon those perverse spirits that had rather rend the Church then want their will and can be content to sacrifice both Truth and Peace together with millions of Souls to their own ambition Let this suffice for the beasts of Opinion which are Errours Turn your eyes now if you please to S. Paul's fight with the beast of Practice Vices And in the first place see how the Ephesian beasts fought with S. Paul Act. 19. 28 29. Ye find them as so many enraged Bulls scraping the earth with their feet and digging it with their horns snuffing up the aire with their raised nostrils rushing furiously into the Theatre tossing up Gaius and Paul's companions into the aire and with an impetuous violence carrying all before them This hath been ever the manner of wickedness to be headstrong in the pursuit of it's own courses impatient of opposition cruel in revenge of the opposers Doth Eliah cry out against the murders and Idolatries of Ahab the beast hath him in chace for his life and earths him in his cave Doth Michaiah cross the designes of the false Prophets in the expedition of Ramoth the beast with the iron-horns pusheth him in the face and beats him down into the dungeon Doth John Baptist bend his Non licet against Herodias's incest the beast flies in his throat and with one grasp tears his head from his shoulders So it ever was so it ever will be Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth saith S. Paul Stetisse lego judicandos Apostolos saith Bernard If still therefore heart-burnings and malicious censures attend the faithful delivery of Gods sacred errand the Beast is like it self Sagittant in obscura luna rectos corde as St. Chrysostome reads that in the Psalm In the mean time what doth S. Paul Doth he give in doth he give out No here was still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 6. 20. He traverses his ground indeed for his advantage from Ephesus to Macedonia but still he galls the beast where-ever he is as Idolaters so all sorts of flagitious sinners felt the weight of his hand the dint of his stroke all which wheresoever he finds them he impartially pierces through with the darts of denounced Judgement that is the verbum asperum and sagitta volans in Psal 91. the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. See how he wouuds those other beasts of Ephesus No whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man which is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of God Ephes 5. 5. and For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience verse 6. Tribulation and anguish to every soul that doth evil In flaming fire rendring vengeance to those that know not God and obey him not And why do not we in imitation of this noble champion of God strike through the loyns of wickedness whereever we finde it that if