are constant unto nothing halting as once the Israelites between two opinions divided betwixt God and Mammon in great distraction with our selves whether we shall adhere to Christ or follow Antichrist continue in old England or hoyst sail for New And for the sores upon the body the blemishes of our behaviour the stains and scandalls of our conversation by which we grieve the Spirit and disgrace Religion what are they but the frequent though most lewd effects of a perverted understanding and a poysoned will The Heresies of the Gnosticks and the Carpocratians what vile and wretched things they were A man might easily conjecture what fine points they held by the condition of their lives which were so filthy and obscene that for their sakes the name of Christian first grew odious to the sober Gentile Vide Christianos quid agunt In illis patitur lex Christiana maledictum as devout Salvian oft complained The errors of the Church of Rome in point of judgement have they not bred as grievous errors in the points of practice Whence else proceeds it that the Priests are debarred from Marriage and permitted Concubines that open Stewes are suffered and allowed of so they pay rent unto the Pope and supply his Coffers that Princes may have dispensation to forswear themselves and break those Covenants which they have solemnly contracted with their confederates that subjects may take arms against and depose their Princes if the Pope do but say the word and free them from the Oath of their Allegeance And on the other side when we behold men factiously bent to oppose the Church seditiously inclined to disturb the State disloyally resolved to resist their Soveraign rebelliously disposed to excite the people when men refuse to pay the King his lawful tributes and yet consume them on their lusts when they let loose such rogues as Barrabas that they may crucifie their Lord and Master may we not certainly affirm that they have hearkened to the Doctrines of Knox and Cartwright and their successors in the cause Such as the Doctrines are which the eare takes in such also are the lives which are framed thereafter Cavete itaque quid auditis take you heed therefore what ye hear lest whilest you lend an eare to those false Apostles you partake with them of their sins And certainly there is good reason why we should take heed The Devil never was more busied in sowing of his tares then now nor ever had he better opportunity to effect his purpose So dull and sleepy are men grown circa custodiam propriae personae suae in reference to themselves and their private safety that they are angry with the Prelates for being so vigilant and careful circa custodiam gregis sui and having more care of them then they have themselves so that if Satan be but diligent as no doubt he is and send his instruments abroad as no doubt he doth he may disperse his tares securely and bring them to fecissent fructum ere they be discovered And how comes this to passe but for want of heed for want of taking heed what it is we hear and unto whom it is we hearken False factious and schsmatical Doctrines are the seeds of Satan and many instruments he hath both in the Pulpit and the Parlor to disperse those seeds some speaking evil of Authority and despising Dignities others perverting of the people and forbidding to pay tribute unto Caesar some taking up provision of the choicest wits and persons of most power and quality for the Church of Rome and others leading out whole Families to seek the Gospel in the Desert He that doth look for better fruit from such dangerous Doctrines then discontent and murmuring against their Rulers associations and conspiracies against lawful Government and finally a flat Apostasie from the sincerity of that Religion which is here profest may as well look for Grapes from Thorns or Figs from thistles A good Tree bringeth forth good fruit but for these evil Trees which bear evil fruit what are they profitable for but for the fire that as they are the cause of combustions here they may adde fuel to the fire hereafter Thus have I brought you at the length to that which did occasion the discovery of the Devills practise The sowing of these Tares the Sevit we had seen before We have now took a brief view of them in crevisset herba and brought them to fecissent fructum There remains nothing further but apparuerunt that they appeared and how they were discovered but that must be the work of another day SERMON IV. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 27. 1638. MATTH 13. v. 26. Tunc apparuerunt Zizania Then appeared the tares also LAtet anguis in herba The Snake or Serpent doth delight to hide himself under the covert of the grasse so that we hardly can discern them till we tread upon them and treading on them unawares when we think not of it are in danger to be bitten by them when we cannot help it Et sic palleat ut nudis qui pressit calcibus anguem so is it also in the Text. Here is a Serpent in the grasse anguis in herba in the tares when they first peeped out and anguis in crevisset when the blade grew up Yet all this while the enemy was either in his latitat and so was not seen or else disguised and veiled with an alias dictus and so passed unknown And had he not been found in fecissent fructum when the fruit was ripe and men were able to discern him we might have bin worse bitten and more shrewly punished then were the Israelites in the Desert by the fiery Serpents But God was pleased to deal more mercifully with his Church then so And though it seemed good unto him for some certain space to let the enemy rejoyce and admire himself in the success of his designes yet it held not long for when his hopes were highest and his tares well grown so that they seemed to have preeminence of the wheat it self then did the Heavenly Husbandman awake his servants and let them look upon the tares in fecissent fructum when they appeared to be what indeed they were infelix solium frugum pestis and whatsoever other name the Poets and Philosophers have bestowed upon them But when the blade sprung up and had brought forth fruit tunc apparuerunt zizania then appeared the tares also The words you see are very few and so the parts not like to be very many We will observe only these two particulars 1. That the tares appeared at last apparuerunt zizania when or how they were discovered and that we finde in the word tunc then when the blade had brought forth fruit Of these in order begining what the Quod sit first and so proceeding to the Quando Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth seeks no corners saith the Proverb And therefore Christ our Saviour hath compared it unto a Candle set upon an
SERMON I. At CHRIST-CHURCH Septemb. 26. 1643. MATTH 13. v. 28. part ult Vis imus colligimus ea The Servants said unto him Wilt thou that we go and gather them up TAm vari se gessit ut nec laudaturum magna nec vituperaturum mediocris materia deficeret It is affirmed by the Historian of Caius Caesar how he behaved himself in such different manner that there wanted not forcible reasons to condemn yet excuse sufficient to commend him The like may we affirm of our Servants here he that doth look upon them in their sleep and negligence and findes them ut dormirent homines cannot but think them accessary to so great a mischief as Satan brought upon the Church in sowing Tares The opportunity they gave him by their dull security or at the least their supine carelesness makes them parcel-guilty And he that undertakes to defend them in it will questionless as much betray his Client as they their Cause But look upon them when they were awakened when they had seen their own error and the Churches danger and then how many things are there worthy at once of our applause and imitation In servis habemus tam quod laudemus quà m quod imitemur as my Author hath it First their fidelity quòd accesserunt in that they came unto their Master made him acquainted with the accident and so prepared him for the Remedy Their coming was an Argument of their good intentions and that they had not willingly betrayed the trust reposed in them they did not fly on the discovery And next we have their care quòd quaesierunt that they could never be at quiet till they were satisfied in the Original and Instrument of so great a mischief till they had learnt the unde whence the tares should come And when their Master had informed them in the fecit hoc and told them that the Enemy had done it yet they stayed not here as if the question had been made out of curiosity more to inform their understandings then reform the matter They thought it did concern them to redeem the time because their former fact was evill And as the enemy had entred by their sloth and negligence and thereby took occasion to destroy Gods Harvest so they conceived it did belong to them especially to labour in the Reformation and to reduce Gods Field to its primitive lustre by their zeal and courage This was the thing most aimed at in the Accescerunt this the chief reason of their coming No sooner had they heard that the enemy did it and that this enemy was the Devil Diaboli calliditate factum esse as it is in Lyra but presently they make an offer of their service to redress the mischief and by their joynt endeavours to root out those â—ares by which Gods Field was so indangered The servants said unto him Vis imus colligimus ea Wilt thou that we go and gather them up This is the last part which the Servants have to act in this present Dialogue and in this part they give a fair expression of their zeal and wisdom He that will take their Picture right shall finde that it consisteth of these five Lineaments For first we have a noble courage vis imus Sir Wilt thou that we go and give the onset T is not the Devil whom we fear nor any of his wretched Instruments how great soever they may be both in power and malice Vis imus Say but the word only and thy servants go And next we finde an honest zeal to rectifie what was amisse in the Field of God Vis imus colligimus ea Is it your pleasure that those Tares shall be rooted up T is not the Tares we are in love with how fair soever to the eye how plausible soever they may seem in the opinion and esteem of seduced people Say thou but faciat is hoc and thy servants will do it In each we have their readiness and unanimity First imus colligimus we go and gather in the plural number then imus colligimus we go and gather in the present tense and last of all we have their temper and obedience guiding their counsels by their Masters will and governing their zeal by his direction Vis imus colligimus ea This we are ready to perform if you please to have it so if otherwise we neither are so in love with danger nor so ambitious of imployment as not to take your Warrant and Commission with us for our justification And therefore fiat voluntas tua not our will but thy will be done Vis imus colligimus ea Wilt thou that we go and gather them up These are the features which I am to draw though I confess with an ignorant and unskilful pencil leaving them to be better limmed and polished by your more seasonable meditations And first I am to lay before you their heroick courage vis imus wilt thou that we go Scientia parum est nisi accedat virtus Knowledge is little worth when it comes alone when it is neither joyned nor seconded with vertuous purposes Some desire knowledge only that they may be known and this is vanity some only for the thing it self to know and this is curiosity others that they may edifie therewith and this is charity This last kinde was the desire of knowledge which these servants brought when they repaired unto their Master with an unde haec They only laboured to discern whence the Tares should come that so they might bethink themselves of some present Remedy And having found out what they sought for a man would easily have thought they had found enough to save them any further trouble To tell them that the enemy was abroad and that by his false Arts and Practises he had sowen those Tares might well have been a Supersedeas to all further care for who would willingly provoke an enemy especially in matters which concern the publick when by declining of the business quitting an employment of such dangerous nature he may preserve himself both in peace and quietness But when this Enemy is discovered further to be an enemy of no common rank but even the very Prince of darkness qui tot Legionibus imperitat one that commands so many Legions I trow it were no part of wisdom to incur his anger when by a plausible and discreet connivence we may hold fair with him To go against an enemy of such power and quality were a desperate madness such as no man of ordinary brains would be guilty of when he may safely sit at home and take such fortune as the success and issue of affaires should offer yet such was the undaunted courage of the servants here that none of all these cautions or considerations could preponderate with them or hinder them from venturing in their Masters cause vis imus Wilt thou that we go And 't was no mean note of a noble
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there is never any unity without one supreme The Theologues or Divines have affirmed as much in that the monarchie of all forms of government comes neerest to the Government of Almighty God who as he hath alone created all things by his Almighty hand so he alone doth govern all things by his mighty power Multoque facilius ab uno regi potest quod est ab uno constitutum said Lactantius truly which being so as so it is and that the Church is the most glorious State of all bodies aggregate good reason that it should be ordered according to the most complete and best kind of Government and be obedient to the voyce of one supreme Judge This being taken pro confesso what can follow next but that this supreme Government ought to have been in some one or other of the Lords Apostles And of that glorious company who so proper for it as divine St. Peter whom the Evangelistâ— alwayes make the Marshall in one constant place and that is primus Simon Petrus to whom our Saviour said Tâ—bi dabo claves super hanc petram pasce oves and whatsoever else might seem to intimate that he designed him for a Chief over all the rest Now being that these priviledges and prerogatives were not conferred on Peters person but upon him and his Successors as 't is said they were where should we look to finde them but in Peters See the Renowned City of Rome the Imperial Seat the Queen and Lady of all Nations Good reason that the Bishops of that most famous Church whose faith was spoken of through all the world Et quae dominaâ—i in caetera possit and had sufficient power to command the rest should sit chief amongst them chief President in all general Councels chief Justice in all publick controversies yea and Lord Treasurer too to dispense all indulgences and other graces of the Church Nay the commodities which the Christian world enjoyes by the sole benefit of the Popes Supremacie are said to be so great and weighty that they are able to bear down all cavils and objections which are made against it for what a signal blessing is it to have one common Father over all the Church to whom as to a Catholick Moderator and indifferent Umpire all Christian Kings and Princes may refer their quarrels one supreme head to whom as to a visible and infallible Judge the Prelates of the Church and other learned men may refer their controversies unity must begin from one and who more fit to be this one then he that can derive unto himself so faire a title And a faire title t is indeed and hath been so well pleaded by the Advocates of the Court of Rome that for long time together there was no suspicion that it would ever come in question whether true or false So fair a field could bring forth nothing but the purest Wheat the bread of life even manchet for the Lords own Table He that had thought or given it out that there was any tare amongst it much lesse tares all over might possibly have had some hearers but few believers The reason was because that all this while the Doctrine was but in crevisset herba in the blade or stalk not come unto the height to fecissent fructum But when it came to that and that the fruits thereof appeared in their proper likeness it proved to be so grosse a tare such an infelix lolium such a frugum pestis that a more dangerous was never sowen by Satan in the Church of God For then it was discovered plainly that the Popes in a manner had forsook the claim of being successors to Peter and would be Vicars unto Christ that they had changed Quodcunque ligaveris in terra into Omnis potestas data est mihi in coelis the Priestly and Prophetical power into the Kingly and built their rise not on the priviledges which Christ gave to Peter but upon those which God the Father gave his Christ and what did follow thereupon but that his Courtiers honoured him with the title of Vice-God or Vice-Deus as in the Inscription of Paulo Quarto Vice-Deo others with that of Dominus noster Deus â—apa our Lord God the Pope some giving him authority to make vertue vice and vice vertue as did Card. Bellarmine others to make a new Creed and coin new Articles of Faith as did Thomas Aquinas and finally some of them having gone so farre as to condemn our Saviour Christ of great indiscretion nisi unum post se talem vicarium reliquisset had he not left behind him such a Vicar so absolutely endowed with all manner of power as did Peter Berhardus So for the Popes themselves when they had layed the foundation of their Grandeur on those words of Christ Omnis potestas data est mihi how quickly did they turn that primacy which before they had in point of order into a soveraignty or supremacy in point of power with what subtile blasphemy did they shift the Scriptures to make them serviceable to their wicked and ambitious ends Instead of Tibi dabo claves one findes out ecce duos gladios behold here two swords the one spiritual the other temporall And thereupon Pope Julius passing over Tiber drew out his sword and threw his keyes into the River affirming openly that since St. Peters keyes would not serve his turn St. Pauls Sword should Instead of super petram hane a second brings in super aspidem basiliscum and that Pope Alexander useth to justifie his treading on the neck of the Emperor Frederick Instead of Pasce oves meas a third hath found out Surge Petre occide manduca Arise Peter kill and eat and this Pope Paul the Fifth alledged for an Authority that he might kill assassinate and murder disobedient Princes and by the same Authority for ought I can see he may eat them too And finally to mend the matter the Popes Supremacy thus founded and promoted by such wretched shifts mnst be reputed as an Article of the Christian Faith and that too primus praecipus Romanensium fidei articulus the first and principal Article of the Church of Rome certain I am that so it was defended in the time of Pope Clement the Eighth hath been since so ranked and marshalled in the new Creed of Pius Quartus Add unto these their practise in the points aforesaid proclaiming errors to be truth and publickly condemning truth for errors making new Articles of Faith and misinterpreting the old deposing Kings disposing of their Kingdoms and bringing them to be at their devotion and tell me if the ordinary fruits of the Supremacy do not discover it most manifestly for a dangerous tare Next for the single life of Priests when it first sprung up how lovely seemed it to the eye how few had reason to suspect that it was a tare Paul seemes to advocate the cause wishing that all men were as he
affirming also that for the present distresse it were good for all men so to be that the unmarried cares more for the things belonging to the Lord how he may please the Lord then the married doth The Fathers many of them are exceeding copious if not hyperbolicall in commendation of Virginity especially after that Jovinian seemed to undervalue it fideliumque matrimoniorum meritis adaequabat and made it of no greater merit then a vertuous Wedlock Which general Rules of the Apostle became appropriated to the Clergy first by conforming thereunto of their own accord as a matter voluntary next by the Authority of the Fathers who recommended it unto them for a more perfect state of life then that of marriage but left it howsoever as a matter arbitrary But after-ages finding out further motives to endure the business as viz. that being freed from domestick cares they might more readily attend Gods service more constantly pursue their studies more bountifully cherish and relieve the poor but specially that they might more chearfully infeoffe the Church with their possessions it came at last insensibly and by degrees to be imposed upon them as a matter necessary By meanes whereof the single life being generally imbraced by Clergymen in these Western parts it grew in time to be disputed whether ever it had been otherwise in the Church of God And in conclusion it was determined that however in some cases the Clergy were permitted to retain those Wives which they had taken before Orders yet that the Examples of men married after Orders were exceeding few if at all any could be found Thus was it in the blade or stalk no fault found with it But when it came to bring forth fruit to fecissent sructum then the case was otherwise and it appeared that howsoever continency and virginity were the gifts of God yet the restraint of marriage was a tare of Satans for what did follow hereupon but that the Clergy grew infamous by their frequent lusts Panormitan complaining plerosque coitu illi cito commaculari Cassander publickly affirming ut vix centesimum invenias that hardly one amongst a hundred did contain himself within the limits of his Vow the Canonists withall maintaining that Clerks were not to be deprived for their incontinency cùm pauci sine illo vitio inveniantur the mischief being grown so universal that it was thought uncapable of any remedy I willingly passe by their unnatural lusts for which they stand accused in the Poet Mantuan venerabilis ara cynaedis servit and that which followeth after nor will I tell you of the Fish-pond in Pope Gregories time wherein were found the skulls of 6000 Infants ex occultis fornicationibus adulteriis sacerdotum conceived to be the tragical effects of their loose affections And notwithstanding that these things were known and bitterly complained of by such devout and consciencious men as observed the same yet to so high an impudencie did they come at last that John the Cardinal of Cova preaching at noon against the marriage of Priests was the night following taken in adultery and Cardinal Campegius in the Diet of Norimberg did not shame to say that it was more lawful for a Priest to have many Concubines quà m vel uxorem unam ducere then one lawful Wife And why was all this suffered think you upon grounds of piety no but in point of policy to uphold the Popedom For when this matter was debated in the Coâ—ncel of Trent and that the Prelates there did not seem unwilling to ease the Clergy of that heavy but more scandalous yoke the Pope returned his absolute Negative and was much offended that they had suffered it to come in question Why so because that Church-men having Wives and Children to be as Hostages or pledges for their good beheaviour would become more obnoxious to the secular powers and more obedient to the pleasure and Command of their natural Princes adeoque Pontificem redigere ad solius Romae Episcopatum which would in fine prove prejudicial to the Popes Supremacy and limit his Authority to the Walls of Rome The fruits thus palpably discovering the true condition of the Doctrine begat withall a shrewd suspicion that possibly the reasons commonly alledged in defence thereof might be weak and wrested And upon search it did appear that the directions of St. Paul were general and did no more concern the Clergy then all people else some of them being only fitted to the present time and therefore not to make a rule for all future Ages that though the Fathers magnified and extolled the single life they imposed it not or if they did it was not more upon the Clergy then upon the Laicks and finally that Pope Siricius who imposed it first could find no Text in Scripture whereupon to ground it and therefore most prophanely wrested and abused that place Qui in carne sunt non possunt placere Deo to make it serviceable to his wretched ends And it was also found on further search into antiquity that this restraint of marriage being proposed unto the Fathers of the Council of Nice was by Paphnutius and the sounder part of that great Synod openly rejected that it was neither new nor strange to marry after holy Orders Eupsychius a Bishop of the Cappadocians whom Althanasius highly praiseth taking a Wife after he was advanced unto a Bishoprick and of a Bridegroom instantly become a Martyr dum adhuc quasi sponsus esse videretur saith the Tripartite History The like as to the point of marrying after holy orders Vincentius tells us of one Phileus an Egyptian Prelate The same may also be made good not only in the Eastern Church where the Priests are not yet debarred from marriage after Orders taken as it is noted on the Glosse on Gratian but for 1000 years together in these Western parts So lately it was before the Clergy were generally minded to yield to that slavish tyranny nor was it manifest on more mature deliberation that marriage in and of it self did any way disable men from Gods publick service the studying of the holy Scriptures oâ— the works of charity Greg. Nazianzen affirming of some friends of his which lived in Wedlock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That they were every way as eminent in all acts of godliness as those that did professe virginity Which with the wretched consequents before remembred being taken into consideration by our first Reformers and being it was observed withall that the restraint depended upon positive Lawes no Divine Commandement the wisdom of this State thought fit to take away those positive lawes on the which it stood and leave it arbitrary as at first And this they were the rather induced to do by reason that the rigorous necessity of a single life had formerly affrighted many a man of parts and learning from entring into holy Orders and filled the Church with ignorant and infamous persons By meanes of which indulgence granted as before the