feet and cannot goe the goggle-eyed bleare-eyed and pur-blinde haue two eyes to see and yet cannot perfectly discerne euen so many haue both eares who either with the Adder stop both and so heare nothing or being of the generation of Malchus they haue neuer a right-eare rightly to heare hearken and conceiue as they should In this place therefore obaudire is obedire so Christ himselfe saith in a double paralell of the Gospel In Saint Luke Christ saith concerning his Apostles Hee that heareth you heareth mee and in Saint Matthew If thy brother heare thee thou hast woone him In both which places hearing is obeying But what is it that these parties summoned must heare Euen a plaine Demonstration of their sinnes and a iust Iudgement awarded against them for the same Whereby we learne that It deerely and neerely concernes all degrees in Court Church and Common-wealth that they attend as well to the ripping vp of their sinnes and to the denunciations of Gods iudgements for the same as to the Promulgation of Gods mercies in fauour to the Penitent that all estates hauing a sence and sight of their iniquities may breake them off by repentance and obtaine pardon by Iesus Christ our Lord. What doth all preaching auaile else if it hath not this concurrence relation For they that heare and doe not vnderstand all Preaching to them is a dreame They that haue eares and heare not all Preaching to them is as a fearefull slumber They that haue eares to see are they not monsters and they that haue eares to attend vaine and vile things are they not contemners of God and all godlinesse But here you see is enioyned as the elegancy and efficacy of this phrase requireth that wee not onely beleeue what we heare from God but assent also thereunto and submit our selues by the obedience of faith to be taught by the Spirit of God as a Childe submits himselfe to his Tutor They that thus heare whether they be sceptered mytred or inferiors come with graue modesty and great reuerence to heare God speake vnto them So came Elias casting his mantle before his face when he heares the voyce of God So came Abraham with submission and much modesty when he makes suite for Sodome So came Ezechiel prostrating himselfe vpon the ground and made the earth his vayle So came Peter crying out Depart from me for I am a sinnefull man So came the Syrophenician trembling standing behind and desiring but to touch the hem of Christs garment So affected come all blessed faithfull and deuoute soules whom doubtlesse the Lord doth heare and in his good time will grant their godly requests To this purpose you see also that Preachers are in Scripture called Trumpeters Proclaymers Embassadors to whom all audience euen from the greatest is vsually giuen Moreouer is it not the House of God where we come to heare Gods voyce shall we there offer the sacrifice of fooles Come wee thither to make a Tabernacle for God or a golden Calfe for the Diuell Earings and Iewelâ— were giuen to the making of both but by diuersly affected people But some happily may say What need all this Vociferation The World was neuer more attentiue to preaching True it is blessed and beloued as long as Placentia are preached but to some giddy kinde of people Zidkeiah is more welcome with his deceiptfull falshoods then Michaiah the sonne of Iimlah with the glorious sunne-shine of Gods truth Others as long as Preachers please them they are pleased but if Amos tell the rich that they sell the poore for shooes and the miserable for a graine of salt If Hoseah tell Ephraim that he is like a cake on the harth not turned and Iames cry out Woe to the rich and Esayas tell the Daughters of Syon that they are proud and goe mincing and so forth Tell me then what entertainment respect and audience Church-men shall haue that speake in Gods voyce vnto such kinde of people God speakes out of a Whirle-winde that is either by outward affliction as he spake to Iob or else by the inward sting of conscience and so we reade the Iewes were pricked to the heart by Peters preaching as is extant in the Acts. It is the property of the voyce of the Lord to breake the Cedars as the Psalmist saith and to diuide the flames of fire that is to rebuke them that are of a high spirit and to subdue the proud hearted For God had rather haue one Publicaâ— that doth despise and abhorre himselfe then a thousand Pharises that doe iustifie and boast themselues The sonnes of follie indeede reiect the words of Exhortation but the sonnes of Wisedome say Let the iust smite me for the wounds of a friend are farre better then the balmes of a flatterer Tell me who loueth vs more then God and yet hee doth afflict the godly Patriarkes with famine and his owne deare Israel growing rebellious with sundry punishments The vse of this is manifold First of Enquiry for the Lord Iesus We reade in Iob that in an holy Assembly of the Children of God the Diuell being not called came thither also So in diuers Christian Congregations according to the old English Prouerbe Where God hath his Church the Diuell hath his Chappell Whence it is that many in Christian Assemblies when they should heare Gods voyce behaue themselues as if they were Gothes Vandales Guelphes and Gibellineâ— For while other well-affected Christians attend reade lift vp their hands to Heauen pray sing sigh fit still vnto the end these ill-affected ones sleepe prare put out the foole-finger curse grinne scoffe and hasten away as vnworthy of the peace of God Maruell not therefore why so many come so often to Church and are neuer the better For their hearts are waxen grosse and their eares and eyes and all are stupified by the Diuell Hence is it that they come without heart to God and are but halfe Christians at the best like Agrippa or like Hagar who sate right euer against the waters and did not see them Nothing likes these kinde of people but a hunting Masse as Henry of France was wont to say and a straw-berry Sermon But happily you will say The Pulpits ought to be mercy-seates and Chaires of consolation but they are become Tribunals where the Auditory is arraigned accused and condemned I answere Behold I shew you a Paradoxe It is a plague vnto you when you are not plagued and you are vndone when you are not vndone It was neuer worse with the Israelites then when their mouthes and stomakes were full of Quailes The dolors of Synai to some are more wholsome then the songs of Syon Indeede he that endeauoureth to teach a foole gleweth a potshard together and he that speaketh vnto a heart that doth not attend is as if he should speake to one newly raised from sleepe Weepe therefore ouer the dead but seauen dayes because they are depriued of the light but weepe ouer
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
which hath caused diuers men to the end that they might make good their owne fancies not to spare the sacred Booke of God but to abuse it to their owne Destruction both by cogging wresting and patching as holy Hilary once said that it may seeme to patronise their licentious tongues and to such men who in Church or Court that thwarts their Cassandrian conceits is not a foole Racha or Rake-hel or I know not what The other is a wicked Desire which some haue to be-smut others and to lay the blame of common calamities vpon persons of great and eminent place whereby they seeke nothing else but by debasing and vilifying others to magnifie themselues that they with Diotrephes may haue the preheminence and with Simon the Magitian be accounted the onely Statizing Polititians The foundations whereon these frothie dizzie exotique and barmie humours doe build are nothing but as the Apostle saith Vaine deceits proud mens conceits and the worlds beggarly Rudiments whiles euery man will be a Suffenuâ— to himselfe conceiting that he is either too high or too holy to be equall much lesse inferior to any The swarme of mischiefes in Church Court and Common-wealth that issue from this invndant euill who seeth not Hence comes Flatterie that ayerie Chamaelion learning no other Lesson but Vti foro scenae tempori inseruire palbably and grosely besmearing with the smoothing truell of an Oyly tongue the facile and meane humors of those whom it desires to abuse for the accomplishment of some intended proiect Infamous Libels spring hence those Vipers of States that sow seditious treacherous and treasonable thoughts purposes and plots in the baser mindes Secret and suspitious whisperings those Scorpions that dread not to strike with the virulencie and violence of an hellish tongue both Princes Prelates and People Bold brasen-faced Insolency that like an armed Dragon hath no other imployment but to speake euill of all them that are in authoritie Base Detraction that fretteth like a canker and blacke-mouthed Obliquie that like a Cuttleâ—ish staines all about it Hence proceeds Home-bred Garbviles in an house betweene man and wife male-contents in a State betweene King and Subiect priuate iudging of others publique grudging at most strayning of Gnats swallowing of Camels and Selfe-loue in all making Relatiues Disâ—unctiues whereby we admire our selues and despise others as if the whole World had none like vs and that others whom we neglect and sleight be their place paines and incomparable excellencie what it will are not worthie forsooth to be named that day wherein we are spoken of The consideration of which premisses lessons vs if we will be lessoned by God to leaue this Tennise-play of bandying our sinnes from one to another The King is thy dread Soueraigne and Gods Annointed how darst thou traiterous wretch touch to hurt him either with thy hand tongue or thought The Church-men are Gods Angels by office how darest thou offer them any harme seeing God saith Doe my Prophets no harme The inferiour Magistrates are the Kings Delegates thou owest them honour How dare our tongues cast imputations on such Principals or how dare wee smite with the tongue those persons whose places and faces ought euer to be of pretious esteeme with vs The Prophet counsels vs That euery man consider his owne waies not anothers Shall the King because hee cannot giue content to euery priuate mans occurrence within his territories be censured and taxed in his gouernement Who knowes not that the present State be it neuer so gracious sweet and amiable is euer greeuous to some whose nature is alwaies querulous and troublesome Shal the Churchman because he cannot preach to euery palate bee censured in his ministration Who knowes not that Manna is worse then Mummi to some Yea God himselfe shall no longer be God if he please not some sort of men as Saint Augustine noteth vpon the Booke of Exodus in the case of the male-contented Israelites It was the cursed madnesse of the persecuting times when either Sword Famine or Tempest was vpon the State to cry To the Lyons with the Christians casting the imputation of all euills vpon them as if they had bin the only garbage filth of those times It was the Pharasaicall phrensie of the great Iewish Rabbies to despise and lode others with all foule obloquies when they forsooth must not be touched with the least finger like the Iesuiticall fry whom none of theirs must once mutter at yea the Iesuits are the now new vpstart Pharisees for Nazianzens rule is true Non genus sed genius non gens but Mens make a Pharisie It were therefore good for vs all of all sorts and conditions if we haue not the principals of Prudencie to become Secondaries in the formes of Modestie and so to leaue this selfe-louing ouerweening â—urquedry For if wee continue to bite and deuoure one another take heed lest wee be consumed one of another It were good for all rankes and conditions to remember that part of the Wallet that hangeth on our owne backes behind It were good for the King to begin and to knocke his owne breast with Dauid and say I haue sinned what haue these poore Sheepe done The Peeres and Courtiers must follow and with good Nehemiah bewaile their owne sinnes It were good for the Prelates and Preachers to acknowledge with Paul that Christ came to saue sinners whereof they are chiefe The Commons of euery ranke and condition to crie out as people truly touched with a sight and sence of their owne guilt as the honester Iewes did Men and Brethren what shall we doe to be saued It will be good for all rankes both Church-men Commons and Courtiers to say and practise with blessed Bernard We will be presented before Gods Tribunall already iudged not to be iudged for if we would iudge our owne selues wee should not be iudged of the Lord. So would this Panicall noise cease in clamoring one against another and we should more diligently attend what God saith to euery state in particular as followeth O yee Priests Iudgement begins at Gods owne house and Church-mâ—n if they offend but as others yet shall they be punished euen because they are Church-men more then others vnlesse they repent THE Church-men first summoned in tearmes of displeasure for God by his Prophet calles them Priests simply without any modificatioÌ„ as Priests of the Lord or the like but in terms of Indignation O ye Priests And for this there was great reason in Gods iustice The Church-men being Gentinells for the Lord should not onely haue spent their voyces and best endeuors but their bloud also if need had required that they might haue rectified as much as was in them and as much as their places required of them the grieuous disorders both in Court and Countrey But they as the Prophet sheweth had Reiected the sounder knowledge that their brethren held in Iuda