limits of the loyalty and alleageance of good subiects for I meane hereby such Cleriques and Laiques amongst vs as are poysoned with the Cup of the Whore of Babylon albeit they receiue great immunities both of life limbe and liberty from our dread Soueraigne King but they must attempt both by open violence and sulphurious Gunpowder and by what not to ensnare the whole frame and fabrique of our common-wealth euen to the vtter ruine thereof and for no other cause if the most intelligent amongst them be consulted but for that our dread Soueragine King will not admit a tolleration of Religion as they tearme it a hodge-pot of Gods seruice as if his Maiesties owne wisdome his prudent Sanedrim and the experience of our State could not ascertaine his Maiestie that it is impossible for this entire Nation of ours to beare a Lipsicum Interim a Sphinx Augustana a Pandora Francofordiana a Cothurnus Neoburgicue or the like in all which there must needes be a fearefull Amnesty of the integrity of Gods true and reall worship But leauing reuolted Israel let vs returne to staggering Iuda for GOD will search euen his owne Ierusalem with lights And if Iuda become hypocriticall in her selfe and critically looke onely vpon reuolted Israel and taxing it forget their owne obliquities then these Iudaites will bee like those witches called Lamiae that see onely Extramittendo For it seemes by this accusation that both Court Church and Common-wealth were all in one predicament They were all become Birders and Fowlers Hunters and hauers and therefore they had deuised Nets and Snares trammels and trickes to effect their proiects and purposes I haue alwaies hated Chams vnnaturall and cursed disposition to make bare pudenda parentum But it is lamentable and a thousand pitties that in high places which are as the Sunne-risings of a State there should be any such persons like Nets and Snares that for Quid dabitis will bring Ideots and Asses into the Church of God That there should be temporizing and Cassandrian great ones which bend their wits to nothing else but like Iesuites to seduce the simple and like Machauillians to supplant the great that oppose them That there should be such great ones in Church or Court that should thinke that all the World was borne for them and they for no body such Iudges that should be basely and scandalously obnoxious and such Lawyers that should be dishonest and insatiable But blessed be God our good Iosiah the King hath reasonably well purged his house Church and Common-wealth of such dangerous nets and snares Time would faile me and my senses would be stupified with teadiousnesse if I should take vpon mee to enumerate all the nets and snares in Church and Common-wealth notwithstanding all his sacred Maiesties care to purge them all the wholesome Lawes ordained by Parliament to restraine them all prudent and pious courses endeuour to reforme them yet that there should be chicken-Iustices Knights that like Kites feede on the garbage of their Countrey Iudges who like Druggists and Apothecaries giue Quid pro quo Hab for Nab this for that Or to number the time-seruers time-sellers the false-ballancers the Simoniakes and such like All which enormities proceed of nothing else but from a Conscience morgaged to the World which beeing like to a ship-mans hose or a large bowling-alley a Franciscan sleeue-hand resolued with the Neopolitane that if euer a man will be rich he must turne his backe vpon God or with the Florentine who was wont to say that three things bred him all his wealth an Iron arme to take any paines an Ants belly to liue pinching basely and a dogges soule to make no conscience of any thing Whereupon as the Prophet saith These worldings sacrifice to their owne net and burne incense to their drag because by them their portion is fat their meatplenteous What heart vnlesse it bee a heart of flint doth not relent to heare the grieunaces in streets and high-waies that brother makes against brother and neighbour against neighbour the summe whereof I may instance in the words of the Psalmist who complaineth That there was priuily laid a snare for him and without cause they hid their Net in a pit yea without cause had digged for his soule And what say the wicked in all this The Lord hath forgotten it he hideth away his face and will not see it These are the deepenesse of Sathan and the bellowings of hell Yet in all this these madde fooles doe lye for I haue heard the prayers and prayses of the godly Draw mee saith one out of the Net which they haue laid for my soule Our soule saith another is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler the snare is broken and wee are deliuered And doe we thinke that God doth not heare the cries of his children Yes assuredly GOD saith to the fooles Deale not so madly and to the vngodly Set not vp your horne you shall he slaine all the sort of you yea as a tottering wall shall yee be and as a broken hedge Woe vnto thee that spoylest and thou wast not spoyled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee When thou shalt cease to spoyle thou shalt be spoyled and when thou shalt make an end to deale treacherously they shall deale treacherously with thee Yea God hath his nets also for such Fowlers and Hunters I will spread my net vpon him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon to the Land of the Caldeans yet shall be not see it I will spread my net vpon them I will bring them downe as the Fowles of the Heauen I will chastise them as their Congregations hath heard He will raine vpon the wicked snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cuppe Yet after all this if they doe deferre to turne vnto God God hath his great draw-net in the end of the world For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the Earth And this draw-net is already cast into the Sea of the World and shall gather of euery kinde which when it is full the Angels shall draw it to shore and shall sit downe and gather the good into vessels but cast the bad away Euen so shall it be at the end of the World the Angels shall come forth and seuer the wicked from among the iust In that day what wil become of those that haue beene snares in the Church abusing their knowledge to filthie lucre that studie Bodines Commentaries Lipsius Pollitiques and Machiuells Prince and such like Quod-libets more then the holy Scriptures What will become of them that haue beene nets and snares in the Court by scraping Monopolies proling proiects and cruell cursed stratagems What will become of all the fry and rabble in the Common-wealth who become nets and snares vnto one another
VOX clamantis MARK 1. 3. A STIL VOICE TO THE THREE Thrice-honourable Estates OF PARLIAMENT And in them to all the Soules of this our Nation of what state or condition soeuer they be By William Loe Doctor of Diuinitie and Chaplaine to the Kings most excellent Maiestie Printed by T. S. for Iohn Teage and are to be sold at the Signe of the Golden-Ball in Pauls Church-yard 1621. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE GEORGE Marquesse of Buckingham Lord high Admirall Viscount Villiers Baron of Whaddon Maister of his MAIESTIES Horse Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Gentleman of his Highnesse Bed-Chamber one of his most honourable Priuy-Councell a Patron of good Letters and a Patterne of true Nobility Grace and fauour be from Heauen by CHRIST MOST Noble and most worthily honoured LORD The true and hearty Zeale which I owe vnto my God King Church and Country hath moued and made me to prostrate before the Three thrice honourable Estates of PARLIAMENT assembled And in them to all the Cleriques Courtiers and Commons within our Nation euen from Sea to Sea and from the Riuer to the Lands end being ledde hereunto by the words of the Prophet prefixed the still passages of this small Voyce which hath laine suppressed some yeares by meanes of a certaine Great-one who not long sithence was great but now is not so mutable and nutable is the state of things on earth taking offence at some passages herein Whos 's ouer-weening greatnesse and wilfulnesse had then at the least shut me vp if not sent me as there was great cause to suspect and feare not the way of all flesh in respect of the manner but of mortalitie if some reuerend Fathers of the Church the blessed Beaue-Peeres of Diuinitie had not stayed that enraged fury against mee But not long after the hand of Almightie God surprized that greatnes clipped it restrained it that it might doe no more harme so it remaines to this day Happy had it beene for that man that hee had then hearkened to that Voyce from God deliuered by the weake ministry of him who neuer saw his face to this day that if it had pleased the Almightie his soule might thereby haue beene awakened out of that fearefull slumber wherein hee then lay bewitched with the Circean Cups of Ambition Wantonnesse and sensuall securitie Then had not his fingers nor the hands of others his Agents in euill dropped with the cruell bloud-guiltinesse neyther had their consciences beene tortured and tormented with the Hellish horrour of heart-bleeding wickednesse What I then spake in the accent and action of a liuing man to the greatest Auditorie of this Land I now present to publique view in the lesse effectual elements of a dead Letter To no other purpose God is my record but intending and endeuouring hereby the aduancement of Gods glory some good of his Church and in all Estates a remembrance vnto these present times a manifestation of our happinesse vnder so Christian a King whose heart detesteth all vniustice the maintenance of the truth then deliuered and that these palpable and pisculent imputations and aspersions of Faction and Sedition might in some sort be spunged out which it pleased that Great-one mentioned to cast vpon me at that time in an honourable Assembly and since that time some others strangely alienated both from our Church and State who haue endeuoured to be-sprinkle me with the like for that I vndertooke and did reconcile and compose by directions from his Maiesties owne mouth some differences in Ecclesiasticall discipline happened into a famous Fellowship to which I am much obliged resident in part beyond the Seas whither I was not long sithence sent by authority allowance and Recommendation of his sacred Maiesty and the most Reuerend Archbishop of Canterbury Which imployment and seruice albeit it hath in some part impayred yea almost impouerished mee in my poore personall eflate and lost me some friends whom I thought had beene better minded and may in Gods good time bethinke themselues better Yet were either the one abroad or this seruice at home to be done againe for the vnfained loue I beare vnto the free passage of Gods glorious Gospel and to the present setled subsistants of the discipline of our Church I would not onely as a Merchant Aduenturer hazard my weake body poore estate and liuelihood but also would willingly as a free Minister of the Gospell expose my selfe to all the Snibbes Quippes Taunts Reproaches Disgraces and Punishments that any wicked and vngodly Great-one little or not at all affected to God should preuaile against mee in that at the least I might herein manifest to the World my Willingnesse and Indeauour to maintaine and make good quantum in me the sacred freedome of the one and the Christian Discipline of the other both which our Nation most comfortably enioyeth vnder God by the blessing of so Christian a King as is our most gracious Soueraigne vnder Christ Iesus the breath of all our nosthrils my most dread Liege-Lord and Master Desiring all true honest English hearts which are not poysoned with preiudicate opinion of exotique niceties and imitation of strangers to iudge if there be any passage herein that deserueth either manicles or menaces or ought but what becommeth a sober and a true English-hearted Diuine But be this little Hin of mine either accepted or reiected by such as care not how the World goes so they may atchieue their owne ends I passe not so it may please your most noble Worth that it may shelter it selfe vnder your honourable protecting fauour When I went ouer to that seruice mentioned beyond the Seas I made bold to present his Highnesse with a Tract entitâ—led The Mystery of Mankind and vpon my returne I vowed This to your Honour It is the poore Mite of him that will euer remaine a Votary to God for you That the magnificence of Gods fauors and the munificence of his mercies may euer be multiplied vpon you and vpon all your godly endeuors That so both you and all you take in hand in discharge of your eminent places may be sanctified to the good of Gods Church his Maiâ—stie and the State to your owne soules safetie and that you may be great in the Kingdome of your heauenly Master through the sauing mercies and fauour of Iesus Christ. Your Lordships to be commanded in the seruice of IESVS CHRIST William Loe. To the well-disposed Readers IN the worlds birth God spake to our first Parents by a still voyce in the coole of the day in the worlds middle age to Elyah after the winde earthquake and fire in a still small voyce and in this last age of the world by a didirecting voyce from Heauen concerning Christ Iesus his Sonne our Lord saying Heare him In the beginning was the word yet that word was before all beginning but the world knew not that Word but by the voice of men and Angels And albeit the Word be in
rottennesse vnto them their young lings should be dashed in pieces and their women great with childe should be ripped vp The Courtiers Iudgements were That God would be as a Lyon vnto them and as a Lyons whelpe he would teare them in pieces and there should be none to deliuer He would destroy the King as the foame vpon the water and bind vp all their iniquities for their greater plague In a word Gods voyce to all Estates by the Prophet is this O ye Church-men Commons and Courtiers Iudgement is toward you all and vnlesse you all repent you shall all of you be as the morning cloud and as the early deaw that passeth away as the chaffe which is driuen with a whirle-wind out of the floore and as the smoake out of a chimney but he that is wise among you will vnderstand these things and he that is prudent will know that the wayes of the Lord are right and the iust shall walke in them but the transgressors shall fall therein Thus haue you the summe and substance of the Text euen in the words of the Prophet now let vs see what we may learne from the parcels and pieces thereof Forasmuch as that wee heare all the estates summoned none excepted none exempted we may see hereby that The Spirit of God by summoning all Estates and exempting none preuenteth that wretched preuarications of all rancks and conditions of mankinde now a dayes whereby they vse so frequently and foolishly to cast transferre and bandy the sinnes of the time from one to another IT could heartily be wished that this mutuall and vsuall fault of translating our sinnes from one to another were so super-annate that it were vtterly abrogated and antiquated but alas it hath beene and is too fresh and too frequent in all ages and too triuial both in Courts Churches and Common-wealthes In the Court Hypocriticall Saul the King casts the fault vpon the Prince Ionathan his sonne Trayterous Absolon the Prince puts it vpon Dauid his Father the King Ill guided Rehoboam the King obtrudes it vpon the people Shamelesse Shemi the Subiect shifts it vpon Dauid the King In the Church Caiphas the Caitiffe giues out that one must die for the sinnes of the people as if the Churchmen had beene sinlesse and not of the people The piert Pharises say The common people know nothing and are accursed The prating people put it as fast vpon the Priests The mis-perswaded Iewes say to Ieremie It was well with vs and we had peace and plenty in our Land when wee offered spiced cakes to the Queene of Heauen but since thou hast prophesied amongst vs we see no good In the Common-wealth The giddy-headed Multitude sometime retort it vpon their King as appeares in the reuolt from Rehoboam sometime vpon the Magistrates as did the murmuring Israelites in the Conspiracie against Moses sometime vpon the whole Nation as if they were not Conterranei or Indigenae but Inquilini especially in an eminent calamitie how quickly Iobs exulcerating friends can obtrude the cause of his calamities to his sinfulnesse growne as they say out of measure sinnefull The Galilaeans whose bloud Pilate mingled with their sacrifices and the eighteene Labourers vpon whom the Tower of Siloam fell by the Pharisaicall fry are taxed and censured as the most grieuous and most hainous sinners in all Ierusalem All which passages shew to what a strange outreâ—udance our corrupted nature is enhaunsed For euery one almost becomes a Pharisie proudly and piertly insulting ouer others and soothing himselfe in his sleeue with I am not as other men are I am a none-Parell I haue no Paralell I was borne at None-such and the like All which ariseth from that bitter roote of that originall guilt in the Worlds birth God askes Adam of his transgression and he bands it to Euah Euah being questioned shifts it to the Serpent So that vpon the poynt euery one would very faine bandie and father their euill what euer it be vpon their God This is too true euen in our times For it is almost growne our very English Idiome Many great ones disdaine and grudge at Inferiours the cart casts dyrt at the Court like dyrtie thornes which both pricke and defile The Peeres as if they were peerelesse censure the people The people sparing none taxe both Peeres and Prelates Insomuch that it is come to this passe that the discontented cast the fault any where and the rude multitude like Diogenes trample vpon Platoes pride with prouder disdaine Some like Dictators conceit all others to be borne for their greatnesse and they for no mans good yea albeit euen in our times Ephraim be against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim and both against Iuda as Euangelicall Esay spake in his time yet this noyse will not cease amongst vs The Scripture therefore concludes the poynt with this Like people like Priests like Princes like people I am sumus ergo pares We haue seene the veritie the vanitie and antiquitie of this mutuall broyle now let vs examine the causes thereof The prime and principall causes hereof are three to wit Ambition Couetousnesse and an euill Conscience Ambition that grieuous gangrene of the minde causeth the sonnes and daughters of men for to be extreame in pursuit of all their purposed designes The Church-men will be more then Reason and Religion permitteth the Pope will be aboue all that is called God and to maintaine that his transcendent conceit vpon whom will hee not endeuour to bruse the beane The buâ—ie-headed Lawyer will be more then Law and bigger then the Bench to pry and intermeddle with State affaires and to rush vpon Princes prerogatiues and that he may seeme some body what stone will he leaue vnturned or what letter of the Law ouer-curiously vndiscussed In a word all sorts striuing and strugling to be more then they are and bigger they can be basely and ambitiously stoope to their owne wilfull and head-strong desires not caring whom they smite and wound by base Detraction and censure so they may seeme to cast it from themselues and fasten imputation of euill vpon their betters Couetousnesse that driry dropsie the more it hath the more it would haue and whom will not this Canker â—ret both in Church Court and Common-wealth if any doe but touch its Purse-strings Hence the very set Courts of Law and Conscience censure and taxe each other most dangerously and all to bring the Water to their owne Mills And an euill conscience like the Iliaca passio is alwaies querulous and greeuously griping feeding on no other viands but on Mischiefe Discontent Detraction Censure and vniust imputation of euill vnto others yea this froward and wayward Xantippe will murmure against the highest and will not spare to implead the holy Magnificat The secondary or accessory causes of this ouerspreading euill are two The first is an houen imagination and foolish leuitie of minde