say let it alone it is mine not your seeing he speaketh truly and may not an other man or lord say let it stand it is mine not your it is Gods not your giuen as truly lawfully to his house and housholders as euer any right and title was giuen in the world by Gods word or mans by Gods written promise and couenant or by mans or by any other meanes Learne of Comes Purliliarum in his first booke of the art of war to abstaine from sacred things not to touch them your selfe being captaine and to punish them grieuously that touch them lesse you come to naught by making God and godly men your enemies which being a rule of warre with the best Admirals of the field toward the enemie must for horror of shame not once be broken in peace toward the neighbour Learne of Onosander Platonicus first to haue a cheefe eye to holy matters that by this skill of the generall other matters may prosper in his booke De optimo Imperatore Learne of Dions first precept De regno not to dally with God as if he were Prauus or Stultus but principally to adore him in his visible ministers the only way in this life to approue our faith Learne of Xenophon in his Hipparchicus to pray to the God of the world aboue all things for helth and glory and not to esteeme him vnder all learne of Pythagoras God immortall must be first honored of Phocylides worship God first of all teachers to excell pagans in that Eusebeia which hath the first place in Isocrates and al other gnomographers increasing daily in piety and vertue there is Meum in the clergie not only in the laity and if either of them plead lawfull inheritance and possession they say well and speake no lesse then truth and yet the clergie should in equity truth be first and more forward then the other by how much Gods plea interest must haue greater audience then the plea of men Yea reason and truth crie out vpon these Mosemastiges and Theomastiges too who when they heare Moses say in Gods law all the fat is the Lords Leuit. c. 3. v. 16. that is the best is the Lords offring as may appeare Num. c. 18. v. 12. Ps 81. v. 16. they answer him in their lawlesse mouths and malcontented harts let all the leane be his he hath no need the lambe is fat enough already his pasture is good enough neither needeth he either of them the fat or the leane or any thing els because he hath all things at commaundement without your leaue and is the Lord of Lords both ghostly bodily yet thus by your incōsiderate wits and spritish mockeries and new-founded minds which you beare you incur the danger of his heauy wrath ô ye sonnes of Belial with your incredible vanities and credulous followers that in S. Pauls eye c. 16. v. 17. Rom. fight all for the belly maintenance and bring al their zeale to the merchants shops their learning to mony matters their pure meditations to set vp shifters their discipline to bannish or imprison roialties now stablished their christianisme to open Iulianisme their wits to Lucianisme beware in time of Gods displeasure which being once kindled yea but a little blessed are al they that trust in him and cursed are they that make such a turkissing and furbushing of his omnipotent and irreprehensible word which hath bin euer hetherto the word of ioy and comfort and wil be hereafter the word of Iubilee it selfe of victorie herselfe which Iubilee is neither against the institutions grounds of our or of other soundest lawes or any way against the analogie of christian religion or regiment but a true restoratiue for decayed families and a good preseruatiue against the proud pouertie and is therfore so highly extolled and magnified by Moses Leuit cap. 25. v. 10. as these are professed of vs with heart and voyce and yet are dayly defaced and weakened among vs so farre as trueth may be enfeebled which is inuincible by priuie and open treacheries falsly called reformations O mercifull God seeing it is thy soueraigne maiesties most gratious and apparant worde not to touch thine annoynted or doe thy Prophets any harme Psal 105. v. 15. either execute thy will and poure out thy vengeance vpon such wicked ones as seeke both to touch thine annoynted and hurt thy Prophets or els shorten the day of thy second comming and quicklie sound the last thundering trumpet of thy greatest glorie that all these impostors and intruders may knowe that thou ô Lord art God aboue all men and emperor of all the world but specially of thy little flock to geue it a kingdome according to thy word which thy sonne and our Sauiour purchased with the inestimable and vnspeakeable price of his most precious life bloud which to vs is so heartie and full of life and in which lieth the life of our soules as the life of our bodies is in our owne bloud They went out from vs ô God of heauen earth they went out from among vs and why are they suffered to liue by vs that would betray vs and thy sheepeheards vpon no iust causes but by vaine vile meanes out they went from vs and were not of vs but they were of that malicious arch-rebel Caine and that pecuniarie Ringleader Iudas they were of themselues and their owne selfewil that haue rebelled against our reuerend spirituall fathers and our honourable spirituall Lords and but for feare of losing their heads woulde holde vp their pennes and Printes that come from Ouids Europa a metamorphosed defloured beast or rather from Aristotles Euripus a desperate probleme and throwe their bookes their libels their lies at temporal fathers and secular Lords for both these tenures holde alike by thy seruice in ruling the soules and bodies of thy people O Lord they haue opened a gappe to all obstinacie outrage and miserie their malicious proceedings haue put shamefull and peruerse paradoxes into Subiectes mindes how much better were it to hold them down and as it were to the grinstone as Moses and Lycurgus did by iust executions then thus to let go the reynes and to let them loose till they looze themselues and al as the Athenians and Rhodians which therfore at this day are of no account but slauish and vnknowen did play the part of childrē in breaking their lawes so soon as they made them or the part of spiders in catching small flies and letting goe great hurtfull hornettes and dors by the discipline of their reformatiōs many haue reached beyond the compasse of thy worde in these common places of accepting no persons of vnequall comparisons in striuing against externall decent ceremonies and customes as though they were principals of our saluation cases of life and death matters of hell and heauen they haue been disobedient to the Magistrates of thy Sanctuarie and congregation they would ouerrule thy rulers in indifferent things rather then be ruled by them as
euen I sent from the wildernesse as Esaias hath told you c. 40. v. 3. and I commend him of conscience vprightly not of any affection fondly and partially in regard of mine owne dutie and office not of any worldly affectation as you carnally and worldly suppose I will preach the law whereof the Lord hath commaunded me Prepare the way of the Lord and make his pathes straight A notable signe of true obedience and harmelesse simplicity He is sure to pay the best ioint of his body except he leaue to sing this song but neither life nor death nor present power nor any cause shal remoue him from the loue of God which he hath in Christ Iesus A resolution no lesse good then constant and therefore reuerently and religiously to bee resolued of vs according to Gods owne truth not according to mans fancie Wherefore he telleth them yesterday and to day and to morowe that Iesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and for euer and that he must testifie this of Christ to day and the next day and for euer as he did yesterday for the time of his prophesying was almost at an end therefore he would plie his businesse while he might which began in the 15. yeare of Tyberius Caesar when Christ began to be about thirty yeares old was finished ere the same whole yeare was expired Luke c. 3. v. 1 20 23. So wonderfully grew the word of God that in so short a time increased so greatly And albeit the Baptist taught thus freely preached thus vehemently and loudly like a crier in the desert for that was his surname ab officio yet hee did not willingly and wittingly thrust and throwe himselfe into danger as many hote and vnskilfull harebraines vse to doe few or no wise godly men euer did except they were extraordinarily sent from God as he here was for Elias fled from Iezabel 1. Kings c. 19. v. 3. and Obadias hid an hundred prophets of the Lord. 3. Kings c. 18. v. 13. and Paul alone fled from Damascus at a window in a basket through a wall 1. Corinth c. 11. v. 33. then he and Barnabas fled from Iconium to the regions round about Lycaonia Acts c. 14. v. 6. Christ himself cōueyed himselfe out of mans company Luke c. 4 v. 30. for he knew what was in man and thus it becommeth vs all to be wise as Serpents and saue our heads from the wounds of death seing that by Moses law certaine cities were appointed for refuge to saue innocent bloud Deuter. c. 19. v. 9 10. and by Christs owne rule when we are persecuted in one citie wee must flie into another Math. c. 10. v 23. who being innocent as anie doue as it were let out of Gods arke to flie into the wide world could not chooze but bring this Laurel branch I meane this diuine sentence in his mouth in token of obedience and zeale yea though it were the next day after his straight examination saith Gualter euen in the heat and furie of that Iewish tempest when after a sort the raging waues of superstition and a deluge of wilfulnesse had ouerflowne that blinde countrie and the surging billets of the Pharisees had risen aloft to ouerwhelme him the prouerbe is well knowne Quisquis benigno nauigabit numine Is vel saligno nauigabit vimine who so worketh in Gods name shall not miscary It is not the blindnes and frowardnes of the Iewes it is not their rage or outrage it is not any imminent or present danger any persecution any extremitie or execution that can terrifie Iohn or stop his mouth a prophet will be a prophet an apostle will be an apostle a good preacher crier will be a good preacher or crier whatsoeuer perill seemeth to threaten him or howsoeuer the world frowneth vpon him Iohn will be Iohn say the Scribes and Pharisees what they will the Baptist will be the Baptist doe hypocrites doe worldly potentates doe tyrants what they will or can zeale is not tongue tide for feare true deuotion is not ouer-awed right godlines respecteth dreadeth God more then man it is not mis-led or disguized vpon by occasiō no heate of persecution can exceed or ouercome the heat of zeale he litle knoweth what a propheticall or euangelicall or christian spirit meaneth that goeth about to daunt or quaile it for feare of punishment faith is a freewoman no bondwoman christian libertie is a brasen wall an inuincible for t an impregnable castle fire in the bosome cannot be smothered it will burst out it will shewe it selfe in the likenes true zeale is the right fire of the spirit it cannot it will not be concealed and smothered it will out in spite of all the tyrants in earth yea in despite of all the diuels in hell Iohn hath a propheticall eye to see and Iohn hath a propheticall eare to heare Iohn say or do the world what it listeth maugre the malice of the worlde will deliuer and deliuer boldly what he feeth knoweth Philosophers could say that daunger and perill is the obiect of vertue and Poëts could after their manner consecrate the palme bay tree I will not stand to amplifie or exaggerate the matter the truest philosophy teacheth the truest vertue and the truest vertue least dreadeth the greatest perill and all palmes in the world will sooner yeeld then the palme of faith planted and ingraffed in a right christian hart which seeth and beleeueth as Iohn seeth and beleeueth and therefore speaketh and crieth boldly as Iohn speaketh and crieth euen the next day after trouble euen the day and hower before trouble euen the day and houre and moment of most present trouble Then if the trumpet soundeth alarme to day wee must to day display our banners and fight inuincible vnder Christs banner if God calleth vs foure times in one day as he called Samuel foure times in one night 1. Kings c. 3. v. 8. we must arise euery time and go to our God as he did to Ely and say I am here for thou callest me Bid vs then speake thy truth this day O God and wee will speake thy truth this day Call vs the next day to thee ô Lord we will come to thee the next day for if a Centurion saith to his souldier goe the souldier goeth if he saith to another come the other commeth if he biddeth his seruant doe this his seruant doth this Math. c. 8. v. 9. or else he that heareth and knoweth his captaines will and neglecteth the charge shall be beaten with many stripes Luke c. 12. v. 47. or abide the peremptory discipline of Martiall law euen present death but thou art the generall in our armies ô king of heauen thou art our chiefe captaine ô God of Ingland bid vs thy souldiers go and we will go God graunt we go and runne the way of life bid vs come and we will come I pray God we come not out of the way commaund vs
of God for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world they are of the world and therefore speake they of the world and the world heareth them we are of God hee that knoweth God heareth vs he that is not of God heareth vs not hereby know we the spirit of veritie the spirit of errour thus much S. Iohn in that place O let vs still and still more and more eschue abandon this spirit of error this spirit of the world this spirit of Antichrist and euer imbrace and acknowledge the spirit of truth the spirit of God the spirit of Christ O let vs for the loue of God for the loue of Christ for the loue of our owne soules euermore seeke the lambe of God follow the lambe of God behold and imbrace the lambe of God looke for the health of our bodies the saluation of our soules the safegard of both not in or from or by any other but only in and from and by the only lambe of God repose our whole beliefe trust and felicity in the lambe of God that taketh away the sin of the world that redeemeth saueth vs wretched and wicked sinners of the world that with his owne precious bloud hath paid the great ransome for the release of our miserable bondage and captiuity vnder the yoke of sinne and hath suffered that great insufferable passion due to vs sinners to bring vs vnto heauen vnto God vnto himselfe sitting on the right hand of the father in all maiestie power and glorie for euer and euer Thus you haue a short confutation of those vngratious worldlings that either with wilfull or no better then beastly violence or with witlesse desperate blasphemy or with fond and obstinate self-loue haue proued themselues the most indiscreet rulers the most vnskilfull writers the most vile and vngodly sinfull men that euer were called men or euer liued in the world I meane first those vngodly antichristian hellish Aristotelists Auerroists Plinians call them in word as they were in deed men of more subtilty then surety which denying the immortalitie of the soule accounting it no better then heat and breath mouing and remouing the body only haue ignorantly and preiudicially denied the finall cause of Christs sorrowfull humiliation and glorious resurrection which saued our soules from damnatiō and death in the nethermost noisome deadly pit the lake of torment the prison of misery and all thraldome world without end and defending the eternity of the world iudging it without beginning and without ending which vndoubtedly was fashioned finished in six daies as we surely proue by the Genesis of Moses the wonderfull prophet of God the wisest lawmaker in Israël the mightiest captaine of armes by the Hexaëmerons of diuers both Greeke and Latin doctors and fathers by our Apostolicke beleefe most stedfastly builded on God the father almightie maker of heauen and earth the sea and all that is in them at whose last comming the earth shall melt away like wax and the heauens shal be folded vp like a garment haue defaced with all their might the maiestie of Christs ascension and denied the eternitie of his last dreadfull iudgement both which wee reuerence and magnifie with all godly loue and Christian zeale hauing visiblie and faithfully seen the one with the Apostles eyes and vnfaynedly looking for the other with liuely heartes with spirituall hunger and thirst with desire to leaue this mad and drunken world to liue infinitely raigne with him in euerlasting life Then I meane those hypocriticall Pharisies those impious Iewes and Iewish confederats succeeding the heathenish infidels and pagans in course and time of yeares but farre before them in all wickednes sinne in euery notorious iniquitie and enormitie that did treacherously and sophistically seeke to vndermine Christ and to take him in his words that in the gall of bitternes and bond of impietie mocked and spitte at him and most grieuously and vniustly disgraced him in spite of heauen and earth of angels and men euen as God had appointed in his secrete ordinance and wonderfull prouidence before the foundation of the world was layd that in the pride and rage of Iudaisme in the height of anger and depth of malice whipped him like an outcast the sonne of God crowned him with thorns like a mad bedlem the innocent lambe of God nay led and perced and wounded him to death like a hurtfull beast the triumphant king of angels and men mightie Sauiour of the world But they soone felt the heauy intollerable hande of God for these so Iewish and diuelish abhominations and when their brasen faces would not blush nor their iron heartes relent the very stones of the temple were riuen asunder the faire vaile was rent in twaine frō the top to the bottom those sensles stones were more soft and pensiue then the Iewes the dead carcases were more tenderly and mercifully affected toward Christ crucified at his one and last exclamation in one hower then the elders of Iury were in all their life time which heard many heauenly admonitions diuers happy promisses sundry blessings and cursings yet liued and died in their gainesayings being at last themselues as stones and carcasses reiected throwne out and troden vpon hauing their children and cities vtterly destroyed and their land layd wast and those mockings and spittings that thorny crowne and vineger and gall those nayles and that speare and that crosse and all the rods and crosses that were laid vpon Christ haue euer since bene laide vpon them being esteemed the most odious abiects of all men the very roges and runnegates of the earth against whom all men haue set themselues euen as they oppose and set themselues against all men like Ismaëites and Edomites more vile in Gods eyes then dunge and clay on the ground and all good and godly Christians are inuincibly confirmed in Christian faith by the shamefull ouerthrow of those Iewish and christians which is come to passe according to the gospell of Iesus Christ for his kingdomes sake and our endlesse comfort and instruction to him therefore be prayse for euer Then I meane the Turkes and turkish religion or rather hereticall superstition that in steed of noble prophets on our side hath but one fugitiue monke but the same one false monke on their part to defend it against our so many learned and constant professours that hath no history for his defence and in that respect condemneth historians that could neuer get any sober and learned orator to maintaine his cause and therfore disaloweth the graces and power of rhetorick that cannot be defended by disputation and therefore forbiddeth all disputations that is forced against his owne will law to prefer Christ before Mahomet our mercifull king before his bloudie captaine for honest and honorable birth for vertuous and wonderfull acts for blessed and heauenly translation himselfe being borne basely and liuing vitiously and dying of lewd causes more like a ruffian
and theomachies commonly made euen of poets in reuerence of religion the causes of greatest mischiefes and sorowes to which end and purpose all the most auncient tragedies haue beene written euē euery one of them as R. Haruey hath proued in his Logical and Enthymematicall Analysis dedicated to the valiant and vertuous noble Lord the Earle of Essex If Menelaus counted a light and idle pratler abuse Calchas or Agamemnon a great drinker in his hast and anger misuse Chryses or Pentheus in his frensie disturbe the Bacche or Creon in his pride disable Tyresias and so forth neither shall their passions hinder the spirites of those Prophets nor make Nestor or Vlisses or Cadmus or the Thebanes or the wiser sort or God himselfe in their phrase termed Apollo and Dyonisius of destroying euill thinges and working great matters to despise them one iote the more but the rather to defend them which decorum is euer kept in all their bookes in geuing the best ende of their controuersies to their religious persons hee that hath eyes to read let him reade Then let him thinke in his heart whether pacience and humility in one man should prouoke another man to presumption and rigour and the naked innocencie and innocent nakednesse of Gods holy prophets and teachers may in any heauenly or worldly reason cause busiebodies the rather to annoy them if he answereth in himselfe it should not it may not be why goeth he against his conscience and woundeth his owne soule in allowing these idle flies these troublesome waspes these stinging gnats these vnprofitable wormes if he saith it should be it may be he maketh loue a reason of hatred and submission a cause of oppression he taketh away the reward of vertue and doth euill for good which is worse then the worst beasts then diuels all Then I beseech him to consider how disalowable it is in good discipline which they and he stand vpon so much to change that order and breake downe those degrees that are nether diuers from Gods holy and reuerend word nor contrary to true and godly gouernment to be firie vehement in their innouatiōs wheras old standards haue more equity and safety in thē by much or else by such an infinite methode we shall neuer make an end of changings and euer trouble the world with needles questions besides that is the most inordinate vnlawfull thing in the world to haue priuate men speake and write their pleasures in publicke cases seeking on their owne heads without any good allowance or lawfull warrant of the rulers factiously and arrogantly to alter the state that is builded and framed on Gods and mans law Then I desire him to examine this question whether vertue and wealth godlines and riches may not be in one and go together if they may not why were the most soueraigne princes and godly puissant captaines of Gods church euer as welthy and rich as any other will they reforme God too for doing this and teach the Almightie to do better or if they may be in one being both good what meane these immoderate clensers of no faults to pull downe or spoile to beggar or abase with all their forces the countenance and maintenance of spirituall magistrates and fathers of ecclesiasticall teachers and rulers whose reuenues and iurisdictions are more necessary and lesse hurtful more charitable and natural then any other and whose children shall not be behind any in true vertue and true proofe How truly hath S. Augustine defined him to be an heretick which for profits sake or fame beginneth or followeth new opinions God in his goodnes and mercie forgiue all ignorant and weake offences as he will in his powerfull iustice ouerthrow all presumptuous and strong offenders to his owne immortall glory and the euerlasting comfort of his true church his peculiar people his faithfull children his obedient seruaunts which beleeue in him aboue al which feare him vnder all which loue him with all the powers of their soules and bodies in all thankfulnes and dutie in all visible inuisible offerings of their goods and goodwils For when the reasonable and honest soule remembreth in it selfe that the weight of Gods sanctuary was euer as much more as the weight of the congregation and the measure much more that the best fairest of all things were alwaies bestowed vpon Gods diuine vses and seruices who giueth vs the best all for his vses that the lands of the Leuites in that only little land of Canaan cōtained at the least in compasse one hundred and ninety miles Num. c. 35. v. 5. or if later times be better that of the whole land of Iurie diuided into foure seuerall parts two parts of them were giuen to the priests to the temple and the Leuites for their inheritance Ezech. cap. 45. vers 3 4 5. or if an interpretor be required herein in that S. Ierome in his notorious and notable epistle to Euagrius concludeth and calleth this an apostolical tradition that the Bishops and Priests and Deacons may aske and chalenge so much in the church as Aron and his sonnes and the Leuites did in the temple that the liuings of the Aegyptian priests euen idolatrous priests were not once touched or diminished in common dearth and famine and need and knoweth withall that these benefits and liberties were ordained by two of the most godly and politick lawmakers that euer liued except Christ euen by Moses and Ioseph men euery way most singular vnmatchable men taught of God himselfe from heauen it selfe by visions and reuelations and familiar conferences how can he iudge otherwise then honorably and graciously for the heads and parts of the church as he will iudge both graciously and honorably for the heads and parts of the congregation there is not I am sure any one of vs that reading S. Paul 2. Cor. c. 3. v. 7 8 9 10 11. of the glorious and continuall ministery of righteousnes more excellent then the ministery of condemnation or c. 4. Galat. humbling the law with the names of rudiments and bondage and those which liued vnder the law of children and seruants but exalting the gospell with the titles of fulnesse of time and redemption and the gospellers of sonnes and heires and such other concordances of like Scripture can once thinke that the law of Moses is greater then the gospell of Iesus but that the gospel is both for the godhead of the autor Hebr. c. 3. v. 3. and for the doctrine it selfe and for the first teachers of both greater and woorthier then the law which proposition of the gospels excellency and preferment beyng truly graunted and rightly grounded these consequents must necessarily be conioyned that they which teach the gospell ought euery way to liue in more honour and credite thereby among the Christians then they which taught the law liued in honour and reuerence thereby among the Israëlites as the perfitest state of the church must haue perfitest honour that he is the
extreme vengible reformatiues these new metrapolitanes that haue pasports and inuestitures of the deuils good holines to Nymrodize and Iudaize their filles these that care not if heauen fall downe and earth rise vp so they haue their willes and get themselues a day and a name being now wearie of their right surnames and christian and wishing to bee their owne godfathers or nicknamers for here is their great theme and maxime of pure and purpure misrule I warrant you largely and illuminately handled here is the goale and price they runne at and long for here is that crucifige which they cried so long here is a correctiue Leiger and Factor for their new-shapen worships their humors of all sortes here is their vpright patrico or Abraham man as they tearme him at a beck at an inch with his dieu garde that can and will at a dead lift proue it good by his lawes and canons by his reasons and senses by his fathers and brothers and sisters by his angels and perhaps paredrall diuels that bare such a sway in their booke Nemith vel legum Orci Inferorum That Hazael and Ioas princes were base kings and as it were flattering dogs to call the ecclesiasticall prophet Elisaeus their lord and father 4. Kings c. 8 v. 12. c. 13. v. 14. that the third Semicenturion or captain of king Ochoziah with al his fifty men was but a swaine to fall on his knee and do the ecclesiasticall prophet Elias reuerence and cal him his good lord 4. Kings c. 1. v. 13 14. that king Benhadad Naaman the captaine and the rest in holy Chronicle did amisse to call prophets their fathers and lords themselues being noble and mightie men 4. Kings c. 5. v. 17. c. 8. v. 9. that God did not well to make Moses that was but a lawgiuer and counseller the God of Pharao a king drad soueraigne Exod. c. 7. v. 1. that al men in the earth which haue called the heads rulers of the church their lords in bookes in sermons in other meetings shall for that idle word giue account at the last day but not for calling other mē their lords that our Church is maymed vnlesse we turne 7. into 4 and yet so we mayme it more that our bishops are blasphemers and traitors vnlesse they set downe 4. sortes of churchmen by those texts where S. Paul setteth downe 7. seuerall things Prophecie Office Teachers Exhorters Distributers Rulers Mercymen Rom. c. 12. v. 6 7 8 c. where he setteth downe nine gifts of the spirite wisedome knowledge faith healing great workes prophecie discerning of spirits diuersities of tongues interpretation of tongues 1. Cor. c. 12. v. 8 9 10. where he setteth downe fiue orders with the fruits of them apostles prophets euangelists pastors teachers c. Ephes c. 4 v. 11 12. that deacons must not teach wisdome but pastors that elders must not teach knowledge but doctors that pastors must not meddle with goods but deacons that doctors must not deale with manners but elders that wisedome knowledge manners accounts these foure things belong not to euery pastor to euery doctor to euery elder to euery deacon because euery one in himself belike and in other men must not looke to the soule and bodie to the mind and māners to the inward and outward man that our confessors and martyrs of late time men as carefull of euery worde they spake as men might be and specially that most innocent and righteous preacher M. Bradford was ouerseen in being so dutifull and curteous to call the Bishops lords that these our Eliae Elisaei Moses our spirituall captaines and fathers should not be called lords nor charret strength of England any more though they euer were and wil be so that teachers must be poorer then their inferiours and schollers that the magistracies for none or least causes must bee contemned and ouerthrowne that the sheepherd must not be richer then a sheepe and Christ put from his See in the church because he is not corporally resident that laughing and reioycing vpon supposed faults betokeneth Gods spirit that the watchman in the tower must be kept of the meanest that saueth me best and al that he may in conscience be fostered that standeth stifly in a lewde cause that Philemon did not owe himselfe to Paul his spirituall father v. 19. that physicians of the bodies shall be in great account for healing an outward maladie that would cast into the graue and looking to the mortall part of man and our ghostly and heauenly physicians of the soule must be out of account for preseruing the immortall part of a man and curing the inward diseases that otherwise would cast downe to hell that the minoritie of Saul and the Iudaisme of Paul must preiudice the ones title and roialtie and the others doctrine and diuinitie that Edgars and Iustinians and the first Williams or third Edwards Henries lawes or Magna charta should set their lawiers aflote in wealth in magnificencie in all ability and Gods lawe descending from heauen vpon the holy mountaine Sinai in all maiestie and honorable reuerēce the prophets words writtē by the wisest spirit of the whole world euē Gods own holy Ghost the gospell of Christ that hath by Gods prouidence conquered heauen and earth as I coulde easily shewe vnto you if puritanisme were not and the spirituall true decretals of the Apostles which keepe all men from follies and lawmen from iniuries these 4. chartae maximae of God himself that hold vp euen the foure corners or quarters of heauen ouer our heads that else for our sin would contrarie to all philosophicall quintessences fall vpon vs shall set their students their barresters their counsellers and iudges at an eb or in a drought in more penury in greater want and contemptible estate Such reasons and conclusions which either must be vpholden with many other like inconueniences and mischiefes or else these nouelties and quarrels must be cast downe are more fit for the oration of Catiline with the coniuration of Lentulus Cethegus once in Rome then for reformation of our English church which is not of the same manner of spirit that Elias was for so our Sauiour teacheth his Apostles in the gospell of S. Luke c. 9. v. 55. euen as this commonwelth is not in such distresse by Gods fauourable goodnesse wherein it liueth for according to the times God raiseth vp diuerse graces in the world as those regions were at that day vnder persecution when notwithstanding the prophet was thus highly honoured and reuerenced of princes which if it were otherwise in deede then it was yet in right what argument call you this by your reformatiō what consequence is this in your witcraft your new logicke which desire to seeme so logical and sensible wittie men To set worldly magistrates vp on height for good seruice done to their prince and countrie duly and iustly to thrust downe these magistrates of magistrates as