and but summe up with Bishop Iewell the heavie multitude of payments and perquisites the Pope heretofore had out of this Land the Proverbe will be easily beleeved their keennesse for that cause then notoriously manifested the very Geese for the Capitoll not more vigilant more vocall If we list not to look backward on others looke we but downe now upon our selves present how carefull and crying and keene wee are in worldly occurrences If but a house bee on fire there 's crying out Stentor cry'd no louder if but our childe or brother or friend miscarrie there 's bleating crying upon crying Clamassent ut littus Hyla Hyla omne sonaret As the sonne of Croesus though formerly dumbe is said yet to have cry'd out in his fathers danger we are not so dumbe but that wee can finde tongue enough to cry out in many cases of our owne causes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he spake boystrous and swelling passions impetuous enough obstreperous enough loude enough in secular passages And shall then only we and we onely in spirituall affaires the matters of our God even languish be feeble flaging often Ferventissimi in terrenis frigidissimi in coelestibus Shal many of us as in Ieremy have tongues bent like Bowes for lyes but not be valiant for the truth Shall false weights set the wheeles of so manie other tongues a going and we not be readie to utter a word in due season for the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius phraseth it free-mouth'd for the truth of the Gospell Shall others drive like Iehu earnestly and we like the Egyptians with their wheeles off heavily As t is observed of Iob and his friends that they had an ill cause in hand but defended it craftily and Iob a good cause to defend but handled it unadvisedly Shall Turkes shall Papists shall Idolaters shall Heathen sollicite their bad cause so earnestly and wee our good cause our Gods cause so faintly Acriùs ad perniciem quà m nos ad salutem As in that sea-tempest the prophane Mariners cry'd every man unto his God whilst Ionah the Lords Prophet was gone downe into the sides of the ship and lay fast asleepe Shall prophane men shall Papisticall men clamour so for their woodden or breaden gods and shall any of the houshold of Faith by any sluggishnesse seeme to preiudice and betray the cause of their great and glorious God As when Callidus once declared against Gallus with a faint and languishing voice O saies Tullie Tu nisi fingeres sic ageres Wouldst thou utter it so feebly if thou werst in earnest Mens faint appearing for Gods cause gives shrewd suspition that many do but feine their coldnesse for religion probably concludes they doe but counterfeit that being in tongue such mutes for the true they are many in heart consonants to the false hardly would hee lend religion his bloud who list not spare it so much as his breath hardly would he die for it who will not so much as cry for it For what though there bee a time an evill time when the prudent man shall keep silence as in Amos yet even in those worst times that time of great and universall corruption They that feared the Lord spake then every one to his neighbour spake often one to another and the Lord hearkned and heard it Malach. 3. And even when the iniquity of the house of Israel and Iudah was so exceeding great that the land was full of bloud and the city of corrupt iudgement yet even then Gods children mourn'd and cry'd for the abominations done in the midst thereof Ezek. 9. and their sighes were then sollicitors for their affections That what though such turbulent crying beseeme not true Christians have they not in secret the voice of weeping with David Have they not cry for cry the cry of praier which goeth through the clouds and ceaseth not till it come nigh and will not depart untill the most High have respect unto it even wrastling with God and will not let him goe untill hee blesse his Church his Cause Religion That as when Hannah powring out her soule before the Lord spake in her heart even when her voice was not heard and when Moses spake not a word vocally yet said the Lord unto him Wherefore cryest thou unto mee Wee may cry and out-cry these even without crying out it being not with the true God as hee said of the false 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hee was to bee wooed and wrought upon with noise clamour but even without this strong winde wee may appeare before God as God himselfe appeared in the soft and still voice humbly begging a blessing upon religion As Bodin spake well of obtaining so for retaining religion Non disputationibus sed rogationibus not so much by disputation as devotion not by vociferation but praier as I heard of a good Bishop to spend foure houres a day in prayer to that purpose I would we were all such cryers out otherwise be it never so true which is commented here and wherewith cold professors are ready ever and anon to cloake themselves That great is the difference betweene the distempered passion of some phantastique men and the discreet zeale of sober men between turbulent fancy and true sanctity betweene the winde of giddinesse and the spirit of holinesse between the busling and noyse of those who are yet but about the doore of religion and the moderation and stilnesse of those who are got within as Plutarch wittily spake of Philosophy And many of the same Cryers out like Cyclops roring without his eye attempting things with great tumult and no iudgement and many hot blouds having but cold discretion and all that other for all that bosome idoll of discretion unlesse our earnestnesse equalize nay as Christ said Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees except our earnestnesse this way exceed the earnestnesse of these and those other like men Si non praestet fides quod exhibuit infidelitas as Ierom said If faith make not us at least as forward and keen for Gods cause as infidelitie here made them for theirs Haec in sugillationem nostri dicta sint as he spake to our utter discredite and infamy be it said They cryed out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians So have yee the second particular their Earnestnesse Nor was this crying out here the monology of some one odde one no nor the impetuous passion the furious salley of some few hot spurs amongst them but the cry of them all none here excepted a common crying out as for a common cause that their keennesse backt with consent Their Ioyntnesse that 's now in this first part the third and last particular As all of them were called together about the danger so all of them cryed together in the defence the following verse seeming to second this observation of consent where it saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that for all the
citie was then full of confusion yet rush'd they into the common place with one assent Vno animo and though in the assembly out of order some cry'd one thing some another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet to this point about Diana's defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the 34. verse Vox vna omnium they cry'd all with one voyce all in a tune especially these companions here in the Text Clamaverunt vnanimiter saies Comestor A ioynt cry of the whole croud of them Socios artis assumit socios tumultus so Chrysostome As many as were fellowes of that company were also ioynt fellowes of that crying out A frequent coniunction as in these so in other like people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as David speakes in the 83. Psalme vnanimiter simul With one consent to consult together and bee confederate as in the seventh of this Booke to run upon Steven with one assent as in the Chapter before this to rise against Paul with one accord to say as in Salomon Come with us cast in thy lot amongst us we will all have one purse agreeing like theeves in a Faire all sharers the congregation of the wicked like towe wrap'd together saies Ecclesiasticus compact and sealed like the Leviathans scales in Iob as they are resembled As the Prophet Micah likens the wicked to briers and Nahum to thornes folded one in another they clap and twine and enterweave themselves as birds of a feather they frequently fly together and as in consort of communion ioyntly here cryed out And shall such brethren in evill tune so like bells and want but hanging as he said shall Sathans kingdome be at such agreement within it selfe that it may endure shall Christians that professe one Lord one Fath one Baptisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Paul a threefold cord which a man would thinke could not easily bee broken wee that have one word as one breath from one spirit as Dionysius speakes wee that have the same temples and sacrifices as the Athenians alledged wee that are espoused to one husband as Paul spake of the Corinthians shall wee be so carnall as to have amongst us envying and strife and division and one to say I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo and like the divisions of Reuben cause great thought of heart Shall these here have vnitatem contra vnitatem shall there be such conspiracy in error and shal there not be unitie in truth If ye eye and observe but this Booke of the Acts yee shall finde the veine of those primitive Christians to run all along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 1. 2. 4. ever and anon one accord one assent to be specified in them and shal we risen up in their stead a worse generation so run after the apple of discord the ball of contention and so agree like the Bricklayers at Babell that as division of tongues hindred the building then so division of hearts hinder the building of Christianitie now For conferre with the Iew one of the maine scandals the Iewes take from Protestants is their mutuall dissention which they interprete to proceed from want of unitie of truth in their foundation and so they thereby are startled and scared from the Gospell Come neerer what sayes the Papist to like purpose heare but one for all one of them is enough unlesse they were better heare but their Bartholdus What one of the Heretickes sayes hee preaches in the morning another of them denies after dinner and what peace what accord in that house sayes hee where the husband is a Calvinist the wife a Lutheran the serving-man an Oecolampadian the maid Pittardicall and the rest of the family Diabolicall So charitably their Bartholdus Pontanus We could pay them in their owne coyne by telling them and that truely that their white and blacke Friars differ as much in opinion as colour and Harpe and Harrow as consonant as many of them But I shall never hold recrimination for a remedie this must I hold as they say of Bees that stirre and strife among them is a signe their King is about to remove to leave the Hive and to be gone somewhere else so strife and schisme in religion to be a signe God eyther hath or is about to leave that people Boords ioyned make a Ship dis-ioyned they cause shipwracke connexion of stones make a house dissipation of them a ruine agreement of Christians builds up the spiritual Ierusalem dissention of them puls it downe The daughter of dissention is dissolution said divine Nazianzene and that which is divisible is corruptible even Nature dictates and every subdivision in cause of Religion is a strong weapon in the hand of the contrary partie as hee upon the Councell of Trent wisely observed The wisedome of Solon when Athens was distracted into three factions Diacriorum Pedeorum Paralorum his civill wisedome could dictate unto him to mingle himselfe with none of the sides but to direct all his sayings and doings towards common concord O that there were in Christian people such a wisedome such a heart as without siding to apply all their words and workes to the common good of Gods cause Religion As the Scripture speakes of David that hee bowed the hearts of all the men of Iudah even as the heart of one man that under our David all our hearts as of one man were bent and ioyned for Gods cause for the Gospell Then as hee said that shield ioyning to shield helmet to helmet man to man was a sufficient wall For to him that demanded why Sparta had no wals the King shewed Citizens well armed and unanimous in such unanimitie religion would both be impregnably wall'd on earth and as the petition of a whole Corporation ioyntly uses to be more availeable our prayer our crying for it would be more effectuall in heaven and when all is said and done as the learned Papinian said Summa ratio est quae pro Religione facit That that was the best reason which made most for Religion our sweetest harmony would bee consent in Gods cause our truest valour courage for the truth our best constitution tendernesse over religion That as Master Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward made supplication that they would contribute as bountifully towards the finding of schollers to exercise the office of salvation as they wont to bestow in pilgrimage trentals masses pardons purgatory matters as he there expounds himselfe he desired no more but that they would bestow so much godly as they were wont to bestow ungodly a reasonable petition as he then call'd it so mee thinks no reasonable man now can refuse to be intreated to be once at least as tender as earnest as united for the holy cause as these here were for the heathenish at the cheapest to hold God as deare as they did Diana Otherwise as God in Esay rebukes Israel even from the verie oxe and asse and in Ieremie Iudah from the storke and turtle and crane and
thou contempt here thou shalt have a Crowne there Hast thou death here thou shalt have life there And I will give thee a Crowne of life Which Crowne of life after your good fight fought in this life the Lord Iesus give you for his mercies sake To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be ascribed c. Laus Deo GALAT. 4.16 Am J therefore become your enemie because I tell you the truth AN Argument unadvisedly chosen will some wise one at first hearing say to undertake to treate of Truth the telling wherof your very Text aforehand tells you procures enmity as if wittingly you meant to run upon some rocke of distaste displeasure But as Paul spake perswaded better things of you according to the Preachers counsell without observing those windes come I now to sow and without those cloudes to reape and so I may prove true to the Text shunne not though the Text prove true to me for telling truth to undergoe enmity Am I therefore become your enemy c. As if holy Paul according to the tenour of the context here had zealously thus expostulated with that people I have bestow'd labour upon you as in the 11. vers I have preached the Gospell unto you as in the 13. vers I have heretofore beene welcome unto you for my Ministeries sake received of you as an Angell of God in the 14. vers Your very eies not more precious unto you as in the 15. vers And having given no cause I wote of why your good wills should now be alienated from mee unlesse it bee for seeking to reclaime you from erroneous doctrines of weake and beggarly rudiments and freely and truely putting you in minde of the things that belong to your salvation if that be the cause what an unworthy part is it to maligne him that hath beene so mindefull of you to trouble him that hath beene so true to you to repay truth with enmity to render enmity for telling truth Am I therefore your enemie c. From out which woufe of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some expert workman would quickly draw many curious threds like to the Spouses lips in the Canticles dropping as the hony combe from every word distilling pearles of precious observation As first from the person here maligned I Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Iesus Christ and God the Father Apostolus per Antonomasiam I that laboured more aboundantly than they all Paul whom to have seene in the Pulpit was one of Austins three wishes Constantissimus gratiae Praedicator as he stiles him yet hee thus become to be held an enemy inferres the accustomed lot of best deserving men enmity Next from the quarrell here Therefore for telling truth to be hated irrationabiliter malignati as he spake the unreasonable dealings of malignant men as in the second of Wisedome He is not for our turne hee checketh us for offending professing to have the knowledge of God c. Therefore let us lye in waite for the righteous Therefore let us examine him with rebukes Therefore Then from the change here come to passe of formerly such a friend thus to become held an enemy The giddy inconstancy of the people what a tickle tenure he holds by that hold of the multitude Neutrum modò mas modò vulgus Hating here whom heretofore they affected As ere-while in the 14. of the Acts prone to sacrifice to him and by and by perswaded to stone him But dismissing those Minims upon the by and aiming onely at the maine truth here to cleare that chuse I hence now to present before you onely these three essentially materiall meditations The dignity of truth in it selfe The indignity offred truth by others enmity The enduring of that enmity by the tellers of truth The high excellency of truth The harsh entertainment of that excellency The hearty enduring of that entertainment For to naturalize these parts to the Text As 't is an increpation ' gainst their bad dealing with truth so de jure it magnifies verity As 't is an interrogation the keenest forme of assertion so de facto it certifies their enmity As 't is an expostulation pregnant with firme resolution so de debito it ratifies his constancy De jure truth deserveth better de facto it receiveth worse De debito for all that worse we ought not to abandon that better within these lists limiting what now is intended to be uttered The spies that can try the whole land by one cluster measure whole Hercules by a foot discerne the whole web by the list may save a labour ease themselves and others by departing as Pilate when hee had asked what is truth went out to the honest hearts remaining remain these in order to be served in A true valuation of truth in it selfe so what good entertainment it deserveth The undervaluing of truth ' mongst men and so what bad entertainment enmity it findeth The due practice of the professors of truth whom no such enmity discourageth from telling truth Am I therefore become your enemy c. For the first then the excellency of truth in it selfe as we use to speake of the end last in execution first in intention Truth here in the Text though last in situation yet first in sense and substance accordingly as Plato againe and againe gives truth the leading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And hee saies he that will be happy in the end ought to lay hold on truth in the beginning The beginning of thy Word is truth saies David As 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that of any work beginning the forefront ought to be faire like to that beautifull gate of the Temple Enter wee first here upon the beautifull excellency of Truth in Thesi for truth in generall whether yee list conceive truth an adequation a conformity of the thing and the understanding as some define or rather for it is here a telling of truth an adequation of speech to the thing Truth being in the minde as in subjecto cognitivo in speech as in signo repraesentativo in the minde as knowing in the mouth as manifesting each way glorious things are spoken of Truth Truth the meate of the minde saies the Platonist Animi cibus Truth the sustenance of the soule sayes Lactantius Animae pabulum Truth the spouse of the understanding say others Sponsa intellectus Verity the virginity of the soule as falshood the adultery As hee ignorantly but luckily said they were called Mechanick Arts because the understanding quodammodo in ijs moechatur said he because the understanding principally created for spirituall apprehensions in those arts leaving Truth the Spouse of the understanding adulterates pollutes it selfe with corporall employments not only Mechanicall Arts are such digressions besides truth but even the most liberall sciences knowledges in the world are but as pages torch-bearers to truth quae etsi non ducunt conducunt the scope and conclusion of