growth the changes likely to ensue within this land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon 3. First concerning the supreame power of the highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the forme of your discipline will restraine it to resigne Againe it may justly be feared whether our English Nobility when the matter came in Tryall would contentedly suffer themselves to bee alwayes at the talye and to stand to the sentence of a number of meane persons assisted with the presence of their poore Teacher a man as sometimes it hapeneth though better able to speake yet no whit apter to judge then the rest from whom bee their dealings never so absurd unlesse it bee by way of complaint to a Synod no appeale may bee made unto any one of higher power in as much as the order of your discipline admitteth no standing inequality of Court no spirituall Iudge to have any ordinary superior on Earth but as many supremacies as there are Parishes and severall Congregations 4. Neither is it altogether without cause that so many doe feare the overthrow of all Learning as a threatned sequell of this your intended discipline For Sapien. 6.24 if the Worlds preservation depend on the multitude of the wise and of that sort the number hereafter be not likely to waxe overgreat Eccle. 26 29. when that wherewith the sonne of Syrack professeth himselfe at the heart greived men of vnderstanding are already so little set by how should their minds whom the love of so precious a Iewell filled with secret Iealousy even in regard of the least things which may any way hinder the flourishing estate thereof chuse but misdoubt least this discipline which alwaies you match with divine doctrine as her naturall and true Sister bee found unto all kinds of knowledge a stepmother seeing that the greatest worldly hopes which are proposed unto the cheifest kinde of learning yee seeke vtterly to extirpate as weeds and have grounded your Platforme on such propositions as doe in a sorte undermine those most renowned habitations where through the goodnesse of Almighty God all commendable Arts and Sciencies are with exceeding great industry hitherto and so may they for ever continue studied proceeded in and profest To charge you as purposely bent to the overthrow of that wherein so many of you have attained no small perfection were injurious only therefore I wish that your selves did wel consider how opposite certaine your positions are unto the state of Collegiate Societies wherein the two Vniversities consist Those degrees which their Statutes binde them to take are by your lawes taken away your selves who have sought them yee so excuse as that yee would have men to thinke yee Iudge them not allowable but tolerable only and to be borne with for some helpe which yee finde in them unto the furtherance of your purposes till the corrupt estate of the Church may be better reformed Your Lawes forbidding Ecclesiastical persons vtterly the exercise of Civill power musts needs deprive the Heads and Masters in the same Colledges of all such authority as now they exercise either at home by punishing the faults of those who not as Children to their Parents by the Law of Nature but altogether by Civill authority are subject unto them or abroad by keeping Courts amongst their Tenants Your Lawes makeing permanent inequality amongst Ministers a thing repugnant to the Word of God enforce those Colledges the Seniors whereof are all or any part of them Ministers under the government of a Maister in the same vocation to choose as oft as they meet together a new President For if so yee judge it necessary to doe in Synods for the avoyding of permanent inequality amongst Ministers the same cause must needs even in these Collegiate Assemblies enforce the like Except peradventure yee mean to avoyd all such absurdities by dissolving those Corporations and by bringing the Vniversities unto the forme of the Schoole of Geneva Which thing men the rather are inclined to looke for in asmuch as the Ministery whereinto their Founders with singular providence have by the same Statutes appointed them necessarily to enter at a certaine time Humb. motion to the L. L. P. 50. your lawes binde them much more necessarily to forbear till some parish abroad call for them Your opinion concerning the Law Civill is that the knowledge thereof might bee spared as a thing which this Land doth not need Professors in that kinde being so few yee are the bolder to spurne at them and not to dissemble your minds concerning theire removall in whose studyes although my selfe have not much beene conversant neverthelesse exceeding great cause Isee there is to wish that thereunto more encouragement were given as well for the singular treasures of Wisdome therein contained as also for the great use wee have thereof both in decision of certaine kinds of causes ariseing dayly within our selves and especially for commerce with Nations abroad Whereunto that knowledge is most requisite 5. The reasons wherewith yee would perswade that Scripture is the only rule to frame all our Actions by are in every respect as effectuall for proofe that the same is the only Law whereby to determine all our Civill Controversies And then what doth let but as those men have their desire who frankly broach it already that the worke of Reformation will never be perfected till the Law of Jesus Christ bee received alone so pleaders and Counsellours may bring their bookes of the Common Law and bestow them as the Students of curious and needlesse Arts did theirs in the Apostles time Act. 19.19 I leave them to scan how farre those words of yours may reach wherein yee declare that whereas many houses lye waste through inordinate sutes in Law Humb. motino P. 74. This one thing will shew the excellency of Discipline for the wealth of the Realme and quiet of Subjects that the Church is to censure such a party who is apparently troublesome and contentious and without REASONABLE CAVSE upon a meere will and stomacke doth vex and molest his Brother and trouble the Country For my owne part I doe not see but that it might agree very well with your Principles if your discipline were fully planted even to send out your writs of surceace unto all Courts of England besides for the most things handled in them A great deale further I might proceed and descend lower 6. But for as much as against all these and the like difficultyes your answer is Counterp 6. P. 108. that wee ought to search what things are consonant to Gods word not which be most for our owne ease and therefore that your discipline being for such is your errour the absolute commandement of Almighty God it must bee received although the world by receiving it should be cleane turned vpside downe herein lyeth the greatest danger of all For whereas the name of divine Authority is used to countenance these things
A DISCOVRSE Presented to those who seeke the Reformation of the CHURCH of ENGLAND WHEREIN IS SHEWED THAT THE new CHVRCH Discipline is Daungerous both to Religion and also to the whole state TOGETHER with the OPINIONS of Certaine Reuerend and Learned Divines Concerning the Fundamentall Poynts of the true Protestant Religion WITH A short exposition vpon some of DAVIDS Psalmes pertinent to these times of SEDITION Printed for W W. and I B. 1642. A DISCOVRSE to them who seeke the Reformation as they terme it of the CHVRCH of ENGLAND BRETHREN THe wisdome of governours you must not blame in that they forecasting the manifold strange and dangerous Innovations which are more then likely to follow if your Discipline should take place have for that cause thought it hitherto a part of their duty to withstand your endeavours that way The rather for that they have seene already some small beginnings of the fruits thereof in them who concurring with you in Iudgment about the necessity of that Discipline have adventured without more adoe to separate themselves from the rest of the Church and to put your speculations in execution These mens hastynesse the waryer sort of you doe not Commend you wish they had held themselves longer in and not so dangerously flowne abroad before the feathers of the cause had bene growne Their errour with mercifull termes yee reprove nameing them in great commiseration of mind 1. Pet. 22. your poore Brethren 2. They on the contrary side more bitterly accuse you as their false Brethren and against you they plead saying From your brests it is that wee have sucked those things which when yee delivered vnto us ye termed that heavenly sincere and wholsome milke of Gods word howsoever yee now abhorre as poyson that which the vertue thereof hath wrought and brought forth in us Yee sometimes our Companions Psâ—l 55.13 Guides and familiars with whom we have had most sweet consultations are now become our professed Adversaries because wee thinke the statute-Congregations in England to be no true Christian-Churches because wee haue severed our selves from them and because without their leave or licence that are in civill Authority wee have secretly framed our owne Churches according to the platforme of the word of God For of that point betweene you and us there is no controversie Alas what would you have us to doe At such time as yee were content to accept us in the number of your owne your teachings wee heard wee read your writings and though wee would yet able wee are not to forget with what zeale yee ever have profest that in the English Congegations for so many of them as bee ordered according unto their owne Lawes the very publique service of God is fraught as touching matter with heaps of intolerable pollutions and as concerning forme borrowed from the shop of Antichrist hatefull both waies in the eyes of the most holy the kind of their Government by Bishops and Arch-Bishops Antichristian that Discipline which Christ hath essentially tyed that is to say so united unto his Church that wee cannot account it really to be his Church which hath not in it the same Discipline that very Discipline no lesse there despised Pref. against Docter Baner then in the highest Throne of Antichrist all such parts of the word of God as doe any way concerne that Discipline no lesse vnsoundly taught and interpreted by all authorized English Pastors theÌ„ by Antichrists factors themselves at Baptisme Crossing at the lords supper kneeling at both a number of other the most notorious badges of Antichristian recognisance vsuall Being moved with these and the like your effectuall discourses whereunto wee gave most attentive eare till they entred even into our soules and were as fire within our bosomes wee thought wee might hereof bee bold to conclude that sith no such Antichristian Synagogue may bee accompted a true Church of Christ yee by accusing all Congregations ordered according to the Lawes of England as Antichristian did meane to condemne those congregations as not being any of them worthy the true name of a Christian Church Yee tell us now it is not your meaning But what meant your often threatnings of them who professing themselves the inhabitants of Mount Sion were too loath to depart wholy as they should out of Babilon Whereat our hearts being fearfully troubled wee durst not wee durst not continue longer so neere her confines least her plagues might suddenly overtake us before wee did cease to bee partakers with her sinnes for so wee could not chuse but acknowledge with greife that wee were when they doing evill wee by our presence in their Assemblies seemed to like thereof or at leastwise not so earnestly to dislike as became men heartily Zealous of Gods glory For adventuring to erect the Discipline of Christ without the leave of the Christian Magistrate happily Yee may condemne us as fooles in that wee hazard thereby our estates and persons further then you which are that way more wise thinke necessary but of any offence or sinne therein CoÌ„mitted against God with what Conscience can you accuse us when your owne positions are that the things wee observe should every of them bee dearer unto us then 10000 lives that they are the peremptory Commandements of God that no mortall man can dispence with them that the Magistrate greivously sinneth in constraining thereunto Will Yee blame any man for doing that of his owne accord which all men should be compelled vnto which are not willing of theÌ„ selves when God Commandeth shall wee answer that wee will obey if so be Caesar will grant us leave Is Discipline an Ecclesiasticall matter or a Civill If an Ecclesiasticall it must of necessity belong to the duty of the Minister And the Minister Yee say holdeth all his Authority of doing whatsoever belongeth unto the spirituall Charge of the house of God even immediatly from God himselfe without dependency upon any Magistrate Whereupon it followeth as we suppose that the hearts of the people being willing to bee under the scepter of Christ the Minister of God into whose hands the Lord himselfe hath put that scepter is without all excuse if thereby he guide them not Nor doe we find that hitherto greatly yee have disliked those Churches abroad where the people with direction of their Godly Ministers have even against the will of their Magistrate brought in either the doctrine or discipline of IESVS CHRIST For which cause wee must now thinke the very same thing of you which our SAVIOUR did sometimes vtter concerning falsehearted Scribes and Pharisies THEY SAY AND DOE NOT. Thus the foolish Barrowist deriveth his schisme Mat. 3.23 by way of conclusion as to him it seemeth directly and plainly out of your principles Him therfore wee leave to bee satisfied by you from whom he hath sprung And if such by your owne acknowledgment be persons dangerous although as yet the alterations which they have made are of small and tender
Hebrew It is true it is not but is it not in the i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. Gracè Greeke or in the Septuagint Is it not in that from whence the Psalter is translated for the most part without reference to the Hebrew Were it a matter in controversie that the Greeke and the Hebrew were contrary no doubt but we should be tried by the Hebrew rather but seeing it is about such Additions as more copiously explicate the meaning of the Text what need so much adoe about Trifles and Nifles only Wherefore now to the Matter in hand Worldly Ioy when it is caused by reason of Wealth is commonly but briefe and of a short continuance How many Rich Men Yesterday l Aug. de Verb. Dom. Ser. 5. saith S. Austen and to Day but Poore how many haue gone Wealthy to Bed and by reason of Theeues that haue robd them in the Night haue awaked in the Morning as poore as poore might bee Our Age hath seene within the space of an m The lamentable burning of Teuerton Aº 1612. Houre by casualty of Fire and that at Mid-day to the Wealthiest in a City as poore as Iob. Vae tibi Ridenti quia mox post Gaudia Flebis is a Verse one n Goclen de Risu saith that comprehendeth in it all the Eight parts of Speech like as o Plutarch Platon Quaest Quaest 9. Homer in a Greeke Verse comprehended the like I shall not need now at this time to examine that in the Latine but sure I am it compriseth in it all Worldlings whatsoever our Saviour speaking to all when he spake vnto them in Prose p Luc. 6.25 Woe be to you that Laugh now for you shall Mourne But is the Ioy of the Godly such and shall it last no longer then so Nay but he saith to them Your Heart shall Reioice and your Ioy nee Man taketh that is shall be able to take from you q Ioh. 16.22 Verse 9. I will lay me dowâ—e in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safty The Prophet in the former Psalme told vs what he had done I lâ—id me downe r Ps 3.5 saith he and slept and rose vp againe for the Lord sustained me he tells vs here what he would doe Both come to one reckoning both intimating vnto vs that for all our Nights past which wee haue slept heretofore for all we shall sleepe hereafter as long as our Liues shall last we haue beene wee are to be beholding to the Lord. Except the Lord keep the City Å¿ Ps 127.2 saith David the Watchman waketh but in vaine and except the Lord keep our Bodies at that time the Cities of our Soules the Sleepers sleep but in vaine nether How quickly are we gone in the turning of an Hand Truly as the Lord liueth and as thy Soule liueth t 1. Sam. 20.3 saith Dauid to Ionathan there is but a Step between me and Death Truly many times there is in this case not so much Let but our Spittle mistake the Passage which is easily done in the Night time by reason of the Rewme how irrecouerably may we be gone The u French Academ Part. 2. c. 16. The Epiglottis or little Tongue that closeth the amplitude of Larinx or the top of the Rough Artery as the Cover of a Pot how doth it still saue vs from dayly and deadly Dangers Howbeit the Dangers here meant are not so much in regard of such Infirmities as of the Cruelty of Enemies who would haue done by our Prophet as Abishai would haue done by King Saul when he found him fast asleep would but David haue said the word God x 1. Sam. 26.8 saith Abishai to Dauid hath deliuered thine Enemie into thine Hand now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the Speare even to the Earth at once and I will not smite him the second time But I haue spoken on this Argument in the Psalme y Exposit on Ps 3.5 p. 70. before I now conclude with that of David in another of his Psalmes z Ps 124.1 If the Lord himselfe had not beene on our side now may Israel say if the Lord himselfe had not beene on our side when Men rose vp against vs they had swallowed vs vp quicke when they were so wrathfully displeased at vs. Yea the Waters had drowned vs and the Streame had gone ouer our Soules And thus much of this Fourth Psalme concerning which if any be desirous to haue more said of it then is I referre him to that which S Austen hath in his Booke of Confessions where speaking of the Psalmes in Generall and Particularly of this Fourth Psalme I would the Manichees a Aug. Confess l. 9. c. 4. saith hee had beene by me so I had not knowne of it when I had occasion to read the Psalms especially the Fourth Psalme and then he recites it wholy word by word and makes a Paraphrase therevpon as if it touched those Hâ—reticks as neere as neere might bee Nor can I here forget what Erasmus saith of this Psalme This one Psalme alone b Erasm Op. Tom. 5. in Ps 4. p. 246. saith he as short as it is would suffice vs for Salvation did we but Vnderstand what we read therein and what we Vnderstand did we but Practise in our Liues Indeed Practise is all in all For haue we in our Crosses Calamities that doe betide vs any recourse vnto the Lord No surely not a whit Little difference now adaies nay none at all betwixt Turkes and Infidels once wronged those that beare the Name of CHRISTIANS Euery Man now quits himselfe with like for like and is his owne Caruer Or if he be of a brauer Spirit then ordinary then is hee a c Gen. 4.23 Lamech streight or a d Examinat and true Relâ—t .. c. of the Murther of S â— IOHN TYNDAL Aº 1616. Bertram though he play the part of Mat. 27.5 Act. 1.18 Iudas too in murthering himselfe when he hath done We are like for all the World the Cat in the f Aesop Fab. Gr. Lat. Fab. 172. Fable as demure as may be till wee are crossed but then let a little Mouse runne by suppose some petty Iniury not worth the speaking of and all our demurenesse is quite dasht and streight wee prooue Cat after kinde Strange it is to consider vpon what slight occasions what Hurly burlies haue beene in the World Let me speake it in Michael Montaigne his Words g Nos plus grandes agitations ont des ressorts causes ridicles Poure la querelle d'vne charrette de peaux de mouton L' engraueure d' vn caâ—bet Les Essates de Michael Seigneur de Montaigne l. 3. c. 10 Our greatest Agitations haue strange Springs and ridiculous Causes What ruine did our late Duke of Burgundie run into for the Quarrel of a Cart load of
those he hath made tame as the OXE to plow the SHEEP to cloath the Nakednesse of our Bodies other labouring BEASTS to cary those things that are to be carryed in or out FOWLE FISH whereby our Table may bee the better furnished b Iam. 3.7 And yet as S. Iames noteth Every kinde of Beasts and of Byrds of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and hath beene tamed of Mankinde but the TONGVE can no Man tame it is an vnruly Evill full of deadly poyson But to returne where I left First concerning SHEEPE they are c Plin. Nat. Hist l. 8. c. 47. saith Pliny in great request both in regard that they serue as Sacrifices to pacifie the Gods and also by reason their Fleece yeeldeth so profitable an vse For even as Men saith he are beholden to the Boeufe for their Principall Food and Nourishment which they labour for so they must acknowledge that they haue their cloathing and coverture of their Bodies from the poore Sheepe As touching Sacrifices though the Gentiles had great vse of them as also the Iewes yet we Christians haue none at all and yet I knowe not how the vse of them is such with some Christians that as d Sr Th. Moore Vtop l. 1. Sr Th. Moore obserueth very wittily They that were wont to be so Meeke and Tame and so small Eaters now bee become so great Devourers and so Wild that they eat vp and swallow downe the very MEN themselues They Consume Destroy and Devoure whole FIELDS HOVSES and CITIES Meaning as he there speaketh in the person of another that Noblemen and Gentlemen yea certaine Abbots not contenting themselues with the yearely Revenues and Profits that were wont to growe to their Forefathers and Predecessors of their Lands nor being content that they liue in rest and pleasure nothing profiting yea much noying the Weale-publique left no ground for Tillage they Inclosed all in Pastures they threw down Houses they pluckt downe Townes left nothing standing but only the CHVRCH to bee made a SHEEPE-HOVSE Secondly concerning OXEN they are so profitable to Man that a certaine Roman as e Plin Nat. Hist l. 8. c 45. Pliny reports was iudicially Endited Accused and Condemned by the People of Rome for that to satisfie the minde of a Wanton Minion and Catamite of his who said he had not eaten any Tripes all the while he was in the Country hee killed an Oxe although hee was his owne yea and for this fact was Banished as if he had slaine his Grangier and Bailife of his Husbandry These also serued the Heathen and the Iewes for Sacrifices and though to vs Christians they are needles in that respect yet are they so necessary otherwise as that in many respects we cannot be without them Verse 8. The Fowles of the Aire and the Fishes of the Sea and whatsoever walketh through the Pathes of the Seas When these liuing Creatures here mentioned and in the next Verse before were first created this was the order of them First the First Secondly the Fowle Thirdly the Beasts of the Earth for so we read in the f Gen. 1.21 Booke of Genesis Here and in the Verse before the order is inverted the last first and the first last Beasts in the first place with their kindes Sheepe and Oxen Fowles in the second and Fishes in the third But howsoeuer the order is inverted the meaning is all one both in this place and in that namely that all Creatures of what kinde soeuer which are all comprehended vnder these are put in subiection vnto Man Pecora voluptatis Volucres Superbiae Pisces Curiositatis By Beasts g Aug. in hunc Ps saith S. Austen may Pleasure by Birds Pride by Fishes Curiosity bee meant alluding to that of S. Iohn The Lust of the Flesh h 1. Ioh. 2.16 the Lust of the Eyes the Pride of Life Howbeit I had rather goe more literally with i Chrys in hunc Ps S. Chrysostom to worke and to vnderstand as he doth that we haue Dominion of all these and they are put in subiection vnder our Feet in that God hath giuen vs Art and Cunning to take them Whether they bee the Fowles on high or Fishes beneath in the Deepe or Beasts as it was in the former Verse The Fowles Fishes are thus ioyned here together for that both of them had their first l Vid. Zanch de Oper. Part 2. l. 7 c. 3. Creation out of the Waters though concerning Fowles Aristotle is of another minde Here a Note would be remembred and that a worthy one which Antoninus hath both of the Verse going before as also of this marry I dare not commend it for Currant but onely to our Romish Catholiques and I wonder our Rhemists made here no vse of it The Note is this The m Antonin in summa Part. 3. Tit. 22. c. 5. Man here meant is the POPE The Beasts of the Field Men liuing on Earth The Fishes of the Sea the Soules in Purgatory The Fowles of the Ayre the Soules in Heauen Hee that would see more hereof I referre him to n B. Iuel Defence of the Apol. Part. 1. c. 10 Divis 1. B. Iewel as also to my o Serm. on the Queenes day p. 695. Lord of London and thirdly to p Pseudo-Mart c. 3. p. 91 D. Dunne Verse 9. O Lord our Governour how excellent is thy Name in all the World This Psalme is like a Bracelet it beginneth and endeth with one and the same Linck It is like vnto the Yeere which beginneth where it endeth and ends where it doth beginne q Virg. Georg. l. 2. Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur Annus In a word it is a true Rhetoricall Epanalepsis The Prophet no doubt had great Cause to begin with Admiration but hauing now considered these particulars in this sort hee had greater Cause as here he doth to end with Admiration For if so be we looke vpon Man in himselfe we shall see him so poore a Creature as it may well seeme strange vnto vs admirably strange that God should haue any respect or cast so much as an Eye vpon him And therefore as Elisabeth r Luc. 1.43 said Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me So whence is it may wee say in our Soliloquies vnto God that hee should visite vs in this sort and haue this respect vnto vs. But is it of Man only that this Psalme doth thus speak Nay doubtlesse but of God and Man of the promised MESSIAS and in that respect this Psalme was a Å¿ Christs Serm. going to Emaus p. 104. p. 105. Vid. Iansen Epist Dedicat p. â— 5. b. Prophesie and many Mysteries of our Faith contained therein to wit our Saviours Passion his Resurrection and Dominion which hee hath over all Creatures both in Heauen and Earth Witnesse the Apostle S. Paul which doth open this Psalme vnto