Preacher toucheth no mans commoditie for what was Aristotle the richer for denying Vacuum in the World or Democritus the poorer for affirming it what is Galilaeus the wealthier for discrying mountaines in the Moone or Kepplenus the lesse landed for not seeing them to be a Nominalist or to be a Realist are held matters of great importance amongst some and yet make the most they can of Vniuersals genus species cogitur ire pedes I thinke that neither of them will make any great market of either But descend to other Problemes conuince Briberie tax Oppression disswade Depopulation or if you list to looke ouer sea and denye the Popes Ecclesiasticall and Temporall Iurisdiction or question Purgatorie his Market-towne Indulgences and Pardons his Ware now you touch Saint Peters copie-hold these bold Preachers must looke to themselues there want not Demetriuses and Crafts-men enough to accuse them But here you may behold as in a Mirrour the state of Christs Messengers in this Church militant vpon Earth you may see what Bands of Atheists what Armies of Epicures what Legions of couetous Mammons they necessarily doe prouoke and incense against them The Generall of these Troupes is not a bodily but a spirituall Enemie whose Dragon eyes pries into all aduantages against them intermits no time to entrap them no stratagem to subdue them Now what safetie can there be for simple Innocencie where there is so vigilant a Captaine so officious Souldiers Antichrist may come with Peace in his mouth when hee hath Warre in his heart hee may court it with the flatteries of an Harlot when either hee hath Poyson in his cup or Powder-plots in his head wee where Christ hath set vp his Flagge of defiance must deliuer his Message in his words wee may not either by mentall reseruations or verball equiuocations or secret euasions whatsoeuer turne either to the right hand or to the left but that which hee puts in our mouthes that must wee speake Quid proderit non puniri suo qui puniendus est alieno peccato sayth Prosper What will it boot a man not to be punished for ones owne sinnes when if he cease or omit to reprehend others hee shall be punished for their sinnes so that in this naked Warfare which we vndergoe in this plaine Song of the Word which we sing we find a weapon offensiue perhaps to some no way defensiue to shield vs from their malignitie hence Backbitings hence Slandrings hence Reuilings hence false Accusations how few Pauls how many Demetriuses how few Patrons of Religion how many Crafts-men And how should the chance fall otherwise for thinke you that the world will now brooke a checke of our rudenesse when the Diuine eloquence of the Apostles was so harsh vnto it or will the sonnes of the Earth suffer without indignation the least diminution of their riches by our meanes when they welcommed S. Paul himselfe with such affronts for attempting it nay rather perish Religion fall Churches cease prayers be forfeited all the treasures and conduits of grace to the vttermost racke of Saluation the losse of Heauen to boote But I hope better things of this Auditorie I trust right Honourable that your graue wisedomes will bee a Sanctuarie vnto those which are accused by Demetrius or their factious complices Magistrats as the best coÌ„mission they can shew for their authoritie is the Word written so the best Agents they haue to cause that their commands are executed are the Ministers of this Word You deale not with Barbarians but Christians this is our labour your lawes are executed not of constraint but willingnesse this is our diligence you are obeyed not for feare but conscience this is our industrie O what an happy thing were it then for England if the place which I now stand in to defend against the Crafts-men were lesse contemned more reuerenced and obeyed we should then need no Assises but the Iudgement Seat of God no Accusers but Conscience no Bloud to shed but Teares no Torments to affrighten but Hell no Death to die but to Sinne and Iniquitie As for the rest of this iudicious Assemblie whereof the greater part are interested in Pauls cause my best hopes are that they will not leaue any which possesse his roome to the bitings of such Dogs if their merchandise haue corrupted any to be fauourers of their gaines or touched with their losse I should rather hold them meet to bee admitted into the Corporation of Demetrius and the Crafts-men then to be reputed successors either of Paul or his companions And so I passe from the accusers produced Demetrius and the craftsmen to the directions for hearing which come in the second place to be treated of The law is open and there are Deputies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Originall which in Latine may bee rendred Forenses aguntur or to vse Cicero's phrase Forum agunt the Pleas are held or the Courts are kept Now what these Courts should be I find some difference amongst Writers The Syriack translation implies as Tremellius obserues the Corporations of Artificers to which either Numa Dionys Halicar lib. 1. Plin. lib. 34. c. 1. Flor. in Epist Baron Annal Tom. 1. as Dionysius Halycarnassaeus and Plinie report or Seruius Tullius as Florus affirmes gaue these immunities to haue Causes heard and determined within their owne Halls Baronius would haue them to bee vnderstood of certaine Circuits which the Roman Proconsuls deputed for Asia whom hee would haue here meant by Deputies made at set seasons in those Prouinces and were not altogether differing from those which at this time are presented to our view Lorin ad loc and this Lorinus moreouer confirmes out of Dion Chrysostomus and Festus de verborum significationibus Howsoeuer two things worth our consideration at this time doe in these words offer themselues to be discussed the one the free accesse which â—ourts of Iustice doe yeeld to all Plaintiffes argued in that hee saith The Law is open The other the due Ministers of Iustice for the satisfaction of all complaints where he addes And there are Deputies For the first where it is here said The Law is open the question ariseth how farre the borders of this Libertie doe extend Some distinguish betweene the dutie of the Magistrate and the dutie of priuate Persons Sot lib. 4. de inst q. 4. art 2. The Magistrate saith Sotus is to proceed according to the iniurie of the Patient because the forgiuenesse of trespasses which our Sauiour enioynes his followers to performe is an act appertaining to a man in his absolute state of Christianitie and not as he is respectiuely considered in some Office or Function of the common-wealth therefore vnlesse the pardoning of a crime in an Offendor bee more expedient for the common good to which euery priuate person is to submit his Cause the Law saith he is open on the Magistrates side to all the consideration whereof made the Courts of Iustice in all times to set
the World the punishment of offences is as various as the multitude of offenders numerous let euery man consider not what another man hath suffered but what hee himselfe deserueth to suffer We are many of vs more backwards then old Eli in reprouing perhaps as impatient as Ieroboam to heare those men of GOD which reprooue vs wee are most of vs more distrustfull of Gods promises then righteous Zachary nay some perhaps as presumptious as these builders of his mercie Why may not that which befell them befall vs Why may not wee sustayne the like punishment which doe commit the like offences Examples of this nature are more frequent amongst vs then wee are aware of Though wee perceiue not many so obuious to the senses yet are there not a few more hurtfull to the soule It is Satans mayne ward when God permits him not to offer vs violence himselfe more cruelly to perswade vs to bee Murderers of our selues and by our owne parts to worke our owne confusion Cyp. serm de zelo liuore He obiects illuring formes to the eyes that the eyes may expell pure thoughts from the vnderstanding he fils the eares with the melodie of bewitching harmony that by the eates hee may mollifie the vigour of Christian zeale he instigates the tongue to reuilings Cyp. ibid. the hands to blowes Vt dum zelo frater in fratris odio conuertitur gladio suo nescius ipse perimatur sayth Cyprian That whilest one Brother is incensed with hatred against the other hee may vnwittingly become his owne Murderer Famam quidem fratris aut corpus vulneret at propriam animam excidit Hee may hurt his Brothers fame or wound his bodie but hee kils his owne soule It is a wonderfull aduantage and strange oddes that a good man hath of a bad in all quarrels For alas men consider not when they let their hands to doe mischiefe they doe but heape on more coales for themselues against the day of Wrath when their feet are swift to shed bloud or they suffer them to walke in the broad way they vse them but as Carts or Hurdles which daily conuey them on their way to their place of execution when they are bitter in censuring one another they doe but teach God how to iudge them in another life which in this life were so seuere Iudgers of their Brethren In obseruing therefore these home-bred and domesticke Traytors it behooues a Christian Souldier to keepe narrow watch and to lye as it were perpetuall Centinell For as those Vlcers which breed of themselues are farre more incurable then wounds which proceed from outward causes because the euill is inward and the complexion and constitution feed it so the mischiefes which befall vnto vs from our selues and of which our owne members or affections are the Authors are hardlyest remedied because they are such sinnes as to which wee giue expresse entertainement and besides are tabled and countenanced by the corruption of our natures And so I come ab intentione adrationem from the intention to the reason of this confusion which followeth in the last place to be spoken of That they may not vnderstand one anothers speech Tenthly Vt non exaudiant implies the originall that they may not heare one anothers speech whereupon some would haue a generall deafenesse either to haue gone before or at the least to haue accompanied the beginning of this confusion But what saith the common Rule rebus in obscuris quod minimum est sequimur I am sure that many of the best Interpreters doe make great doubt whether any such deafenes were prefixed or annexed to this Miracle or no but that they vnderstood not one anothers speech all doe ioyntly agree Wherefore I rather follow herein our owne Churches Translation which by a vsuall Metaphore hath rendred it that they may not vnderstand in stead of that they may not heare for Cic. Tusc quaest l. 5. in ijs linguis quas non intelligimus surdi profecto sumus in those tongues which we vnderstand not we are but deafe saith Cicero And this giues vs a good foundation for the answering of that obiection which some make vpon this place how the gift of Tongues in the second of the Acts could be as a blessing giuen to the Apostles when as here the multiplying of Languages was a curse inflicted vpon mankind for their arrogancie and pride Wee answere therefore beloued that the punishment consisted not in hauing many Tongues but in the not vnderstanding of them The Apostles they indeed had seuerall Tongues but to the end that others might vnderstand them and they others and therein was the blessing these builders of Babel had many Languages likewise but to this end as my Text speaketh that they might not vnderstand one anothers speech and therein consisted the curse so that so farre I am from assenting any thing to our aduersaries which pretend Latin Seruice to be most profitable and conuenient for an illiterate Auditorie that me thinkes if other proofes were deficient yet this one punishment of the builders might sufficiently confirme vs in this position That it is a curse and no benefit for men in Ciuill matters much more in Diuine and religious not to vnderstand one anothers speech Eleuenthly but this may easily bee confirmed by other places for first Deut. 28. when Moses had told the people if they serued not the Lord their God with ioyfulnesse and with gladnes of heart how hard a Captiuitie it was they should vndergoe he amplifies it from their iron yoakes presseth their hunger and thirst describes their nakednesse which they must sustaine quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis but hee goes one degree farther and signifies That God will bring a Nation from far against them a Nation whose Language they shall not vnderstand Poore men the tongue is the instrument of imparting the affections it is the Character of the mind and bond of humane societie might this but pleade his owners cause the furie of the enemie perhaps would be asswaged by the supplications of the Captiue the victorious Conquerour would melt and relent at the crie of the oppressed but when this is taken away Pitie alas is banished Mercy stops her eares and the sorrowfull sighings of the Afflicted are no more heard Ieremy therefore Chap. 5. after that for their Atheisme and carnall securitie hee had denounced the terrible Iudgements of the Lord against the men of Israel addes this as the accumulation of their misery to ensue that God would bring vpon them an ancient Nation a Nation whose Language they knew not neither vnderstood what they said In Ciuill conuersation therefore we will see what a tyrant to our wills and how aduerse to our earnest desires is this not vnderstanding of one anothers speech But in Ecclesiasticall and Diuine matters Saint Paul 1. Cor. 14. seemes more purposely to dispute it for when the Corinthians much glorying in the gifts of strange tongues did impertinently
faculties but seeing our sight exercises it selfe intramittendo Arist lib. 2. de Anim. c. 7. by suffering those Basiliskes to enter into vs and sease vpon vs and leaue their poysonous impressions within vs I appeale if that complaint of the Poets may not iustly too often bee taken vp Cur aliquid vidi cur noxia lumina feci Ouid. But who then will you aske may be a competent spectator of these things I answere hee which with Paul hath a sufficiet gratia a couragious heart and a discerning eye no man can see the Beame in his Brothers eye whilest a Beame remaynes in his owne we reade in latter Astronomers that in the most glorious of the Planets some spots appeare by the helpe of perspectiue instruments which the dulnesse of our sight cannot attayne vnto and may we not well conclude that in the mists of superstition farre more spots and blemishes may lie hid which the blindnesse of many mens vnderstandings conceales from them Wee could not enough deride the folly of him which would encounter his Foe without Armour drinke poyson without Antidotes enter a Pest-house without preseruatiues and shall wee deeme them better aduised which expose their soules to the blowes drugs and infectious breaths of Idoll worshippers without sufficient safeguard and yet me thinkes a greater folly is here committed when men altogether blind vndertake to iudge of colours and so are many in these dayes inpoints of difference so easie to be deluded the marke oftentimes lies quite contrarie to their ayme and yet they doubt not but to hit it much like blind Catullus in the Poet Nemo magis rhombum stupuit Iuuenal nam plurima dixit In laeuum conuersus at illidextra iacebat Bellua But let vs come then in the last place to sift the occasion which brought our Apostle to come where these deuotions of the Athenians were done he intimates that his way lay by them they stood as it were in his passage so that the occasion of his approach thither was not idolatrous to worship but rather ciuill to see them or rather to dispatch his affaires This seems to haue beene the case of Naaman the Syrian when hee besought Elisha to beseech the Lord for him if when hee entred the house of Rimmon and hee not to worshâ—p the Idoll but onely to performe his ciuill function which was to sustaine his master walking or kneeling did bow himselfe when his master bowed before the Idoll without which action sayth Abulensis Non poterat sustentare dominum flectentem genua Toslat in 4. Reg. 6.5 he could not haue borne his master vp when he bended his knee that then the Lord would be mercifull vnto him in that one thing This was the doubt moued as Sleidan in the seuenth of his comment hath it by a Duke of Saxonie to the Protestant Diuines when according to his place hee was cited by Charles the Fift to beare the Sword before him going to Masse and it was thus resolued that hee might lawfully doe it quod ad suum officium esset enocatus non ad Missam velut ad culium druinum because he was cited to bee present at the Masse onely to performe his office and not to commit any diuine worship And to this purpose is that which Teriullian concludes Tertull lib. de ido olat where handling the question whether it were lawfull to be present at the inuestitures of Heathens with the virill Gowne as also at their Sponsals and Nuptials because Sacrifices were wont to be offered at such solemnities That for so much as Idolatrie had enuironed the world with euils Licebit sayth hee adesse inquibusdam quae nos homini non Idolo officiosos habent si propter sacrificium vocatus adsistam ero particeps idololatriae si me alia causa coniungit sacrificanti ero tantum spectator sacrificij it is lawfull to bee present in some things which import an officious respect to the man and not to the Idoll if being called to the Sacrifice it selfe I come I am partaker of the Idolatrie if some other cause ioynes me to him which sacrificeth I shall bee onely a spectator of the Sacrifice The like iudgement he giues of Seruants Children and Subiects which performe ciuill duties to their Lords and Parents at such ceremonies Tostat lotâ— sup cit and no lesse thinkes Tostatus and Peter Martyr of captiue Maids whose office is Pet. Martyr in 2. Regum 6.5 to beare vp their Mistresses traines to the Temples of Idols so that no signe or token bee giuen by them of the least respect or reuerence to the Idoll Hitherto we haue traced Saint Paul as he walked the streets of Athens wee haue obserued his gestures carriage and demeanour I would to God that whom men presume to follow in seeing these nouelties they could as well imitate in his prudent and cautelous seeing of them Non omnes Pauli sumus all haue not Pauls constancie nor his knowledge at quot sunt Petri how many are there which haue Peters timiditie How many which like Balam aske counsell of God in things they know forbidden by him It was a noble answere of Cyprians which Austin relates of him Aug. serm in natali Cypriani com 10. when the Proconsul put it to his choice whether he would renounce his Faith at least in words or sustaine death in re tam iusta nulia est consultatio in so iust a cause there is no place left for consultation What no place for consultation why then a Nicodemite of our Age would replie that Christianitie seemes of all Sects the cruellest which will beare no corriuals nor allow her professors any guard but naked Trueth for preseruation of their liues and libertie But these obserue not the magnificencie and bountie of their Mistresse they ayme at the societie of men shee tells them of the companie of Angels they meditate vpon these rotten and decaying tenements vpon Earth shee wishes them rather those firme mansion houses in Heauen they would content themselues with vnder-offices shee shewes them the dominion ouer ten Cities they plead for their Prouinces she Kingdomes they desire a life which leads vnto death shee counsels rather to accept of that death which assures them of life But this counsell fits them best whom necessarie occasions detaine in Athens as for those which to satisfie their vnsatiat appetites in curiosities intrude themselues voluntarily into such perils Cyprians sermon de lapsis that of Cyprians sutes more fitly Hee may complaine of torments which is ouercome of torments and pretend paine for his excuse whom paine hath vanquished sed hic non fides congressa cecidit sed congressionem perfidia praeuenit nec excusat oppressum necessitas criminis vbi crimen est voluntatis but here Faith fayles not being encountred but the encounter perfidiousnesse preuented nor doth necessitie excuse the guiltie where the fault is voluntarie But they dissemble they will pretend to discouer