the father done it it was thought needlesse and vnnecessary For as when a naturall father will adopt his naturall and base borne child to be his lawfull sonne the adoption wil hold vpon anie termes so it is in point of consecration let but the father tender his child to religion and there is nothing else expected For what if the daughter vpon som dislike or other would leaue Vestaes cloister and lay it to her grandfather or gardians charge that they had no such authoritie or commission to make her change her estate and manner of liuing that this power belongs only to him that hath power of her life and death that is her father as Seneca tels me For the grandfather had nothing to doe with it surelie he that makes a poore yong girle enter into an order of religion that liued before in the world at large doth in manner execute her aliue and make her a banisht woman in her owne country and therefore not without good cause the father alone was put in trust with this high authority For as for the chiefe Priests authoritie vsurped right were it not first giuen takē by the fathers leaue and permission it was iudged to all intents and purposes clearelie voide in lawe Now should it be vrged why but this which you speake of was of vse onelie in vest all Nunnes and that principallie by reason of their minoritie when they were professed Nunnes this obiection is easily answered and the contrarie opinion clearely euicted by Gellius his owne words which be these Manie be of opinion that onlie virgins should bee taken after this fashion to orders of religion nay but euen Iupiters Priests the Bishoppes the soothsaiers were to bee taken and admitted in the selfe same fashion And certaine it is that male children in their parents life time were so taken Doe we not read in Dion that when the great controuersie was about Cornelius Spinter his admission into the Chapter of the high Priests though Faustus were both his kinsman and an high Priest likewise in the Colledge that the naturall and adoptiue fathers did both ioine in this to make good their presentation for their sonne and not the sonne for himselfe questionlesse it is that children could not exempt themselues from filiall obedience had not the father first allowed them the libertie which needed neuer to haue been granted them if they might haue made vows at their owne pleasure and without their fathers consent But that I may come by little and little to times of christianitie for perchance these heathenish examples can doe little good with you I pray you as you think what lawe or custome had the Iewes for their precedent in this case first it is not said anie where in expresse tearmes to the sonne Leaue father and mother but with this prouisoe that he should cleaue to his wife If any thing be otherwise spoken it is by way of aduice and may not passe vpon trust without stricter examination as it shall else where be declared more at large In deed in case of mariage there is an absolute commandement penned without all limitation to renounce all naturall affection and dutie but in other cases it is done with so many cautels and deliberations that in my iudgement it were better still to keepe on the high rode way than to iourney by coasting But whatsoeuer it be that Adam in that place speakes of the relinquishment of our parents doth the argument thereupon conclude that the knot of wedlocke is of more force and power then the bond of filiall dutie nay verily for this proceeds and springs from nature and which is more from our owne indiuiduall and personall subsistence that other from a desire to propagate a mutuall societie and conuersation amongst men And whereas a man and his vvife be accounted as it were for one person this is in the intent and imagination of the law and therefore we see them easily to be parted againe as Anastasius speaketh in the tenth booke of his commentaries vpon the Hexameron But the sonne is altogether bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh he is one and the selfe same person with his father a parcell of the selfe same substance and as I may so say a verie piece carued out of his body and soule whence it followes that come what can come a sonne must euer be a sonne Disinherit him turne him into the wide world to shift for himselfe sell him leaue him to his owne libertie suffer him to be adopted into another family still nature holds her owne bloud and kindred will neuer be altered Before the Emperor Constantines daies had the father vnnaturally forsaken and cast off his daughter yet might she not marry an husband without his consent But a man might be rid of his wife God he knows many wais by the sentēce of a Iudge in Court by madnesse such a law the Emperor Leo made by a separation from bed and boord by bondage and lastly by diuorce but in children the case is admirable that though the principall obligation be extinguished as say I am diuorced from my wife yet the accessorie holds that is children which be wedlockes pledges though their mother be not my wife yet are they my children they be morgaged by nature and so must they euer continue But if the case stand so then why doth a sonne forsake father and mother to cleaue vnto his wife why doth he forsake the greater commandement and betake him to the lesse because in this case the parents vnderhand be willing hereunto as in a desire to haue the world peopled by propagation of children so to maintaine a lineall succession in posterity and the inheritance euer to descend vpon the grandchild after the death of the sonne and heire And yet to keepe house with a wife in anie construction is this to leaue or abandon ones father nay herein consists their principall dutie and obedience And if they marrie and keepe house together and so deduct as it were new Colonies all is done with leaue and reference to their parents And for my part I would faine know how it can in anie sence be construed that for a man to marrie a wife is to forsake and relinquish his father and mother whereas children though they be maried neuer so often are not thereby exempted from obedience and though they be eftsoones man and wife yet be they stil in subiection to their father and mariage changes not the lawes of nature and ciuilitie But be it as it may be almightie God calling to his remembrance the law which first he established in paradise added also this heauenlie diuine commandement to Adams sentence that whether children marrie or not marrie his oracle should continue without all exception and instance to the contrarie honour thy father and thy mother yea and that in more precise and determinate manner of speech than if he should haue said obey father or mother for obedience is
so highly commendeth maintaine the home discipline if Christians bee the men which especially ouerthrow it But before we passe any further in the discourse let vs satisfie this great Diuine and then consider whether it be true that now a daies there is any authority left vs ouer our children or no and if it bee any and yet but of verie small esteeme whether notwithstanding it bee such or so much as should be exposed to all contempt and wrong Certaine it is that the outragious cruelty which the ancient Lawmakers deuised to improue the power of parents withall was but a cast of policy that so in regard therof either out of pure constraint or of a ready mind children might conforme themselues to better behauiour and at no hand bee withdrawne from that reuerent obeysance which naturall affection and no law nor ordinance of man taught them as they were sucking of their mothers breasts They in their wisedom knew right well that youth was so prone to riot and lust so arrogant and lasciuious in behauiour so hard to bee tamed and menaged that they concluded it to bee a case of meere necessity by way of enacting such terrible punishments to renue and repaire that which was so far corrupted and depraued from natures primitiue institution that as in old time they kept debters to their word by tearing their lims in sunder drawing bloud from them the like so the very shew and representation of such horrible tortures and martyrdomes which parents might inflict vpon their children might lesson them obedience and beare them downe if they should euer attempt or vndertake any thing that past not first by their allowance and leaue by whom they liued had their education but yet thereby no checke was giuen to naturall affection for it was to be intended that although parents might be so tender of their childrens good as to enter into such seuere termes of consultation for them yet the law-makers neuer dreamed it would once so happen which they permitted that is that a son might be sold by the father for a bond-slaue disinherited and then kild Or if perchance it might so fall out that it should be vpon such as had worthily deserued it and with such circumstantiall considerations that iustice her selfe should sne haue giuen iudgement could neither haue said better or done more vprightly But God almighty handles matters otherwise that which he commands is plainly set down not with fetches and deuices For hee needs no compassing or prefacing to perswade that to be iust and good which he once requires he is so essentially good of himselfe and hath such a prerogatiue of iustice and equity cōsubstantiall to him as his bare command necessarily enforceth our precise obedience Religion keeps men more in aw than feare for were the son loose or dishonest of conuersation and for that cause oftentimes turnd out of doores nay lastly refused of the parents for their child because no gentle meanes preuailed ought with him Why if once he were conuerted to christianity presently saith Septimius he became to liue in good order and good counsell regaind him to duty and obedience Doubtlesse though God vnto these lawes of men and nature inserted also his heauenly behest yet did he nothing thereby preiudice those former lawes he commanded obedience but neuer abrogated any part of their authority Nay long time after Christs passion the commission of life and death which parents might exercise vpon their children was still currant amongst Christians and though the more ancient of them reproued some things amongst the Pagans as the murdering of yong infants the bloudy fencing of sword players yet against that terrible authority of parents they spake not a word And howsoeuer God in bare termes pronounced this Commandement honour thy father and thy mother yet notwithstanding for two reasons especiallie it farre exceeds the lawes of men The one is because what he commands is constant and perpetuall but our lawes bee mutable and repealeable if anything please vs to day to morrow we are out of loue with it a patterne whereof wee may see in that verie lawe which Romulus ordained For at first without all exception or bar it was free for a father to put his child to death Afterwards it might not bee done but vpon the assistance and aduice of others then the cause must bee heard iudiciallie lastlie the magistrate might decide it but no priuate iurisdiction nay in conclusion that rigorous lawe vtterlie vanished and became voide the other is because if the iniunction of a Consull bee greater than the Pretors and the Pretors greater than an order of the Edilis it will necessarilie follow in good proportion that the lawe of God is to bee preferred before any ordinance of man whatsoeuer And why so because men in their wisedomes may erre and therupon be of meane reputation by reason of such escapes ouer sights as saith the same Tertullian In God there is no such matter so then S. Gregory who vnderstood this well enough and was of opinion that this precept of our Lord God should be left at large and neuer concluded by any limitation when he had forsaken the world against the will and expresse commandement of his father and had betaken himselfe to a monastery and had refused a Bishopricke which before was his fathers yet at length he began to be toucht with a sence of inward regreeting and can I saith he be vndutifull and disobedient vnto so good a father and be blameles can I endure to be accused for a stubborne and contemptuous sonne to be guilty of violating and distaining my natural obedience vnto my father and thereupon leauing the solitary life he gets him home accepts the sea and Bishopricke which had been before his fathers and all this doe I saith he more for God almighties commandement sake than for any feare of mortall men therefore now good father I pray giue me your blessing And in this sence you see may S. Gregory be well vnderstood For euen S. Chrysostome in his eleuenth booke against such as discommend the monasticall life writes in this manner Thy son loues and obserues and honors thee not because the law of nature enioynes him so to doe but much more for that in so doing hee may testifie his duetie to the commandements of almighty God for whose loue he hath perfitly despised and relinquisht all the world But if notwithstanding all this it be true that now a dayes there be no trace left of this fatherly power which we so much hunt after and if this home bred authority be scarce remaining in shadow or shew among vs how may S. Gregory be then defended the power of life and death long since hath bin discontinued by an immemoriall custome to the contrary as before we mentioned you cannot pawne or sell your sonne much adoe you will haue to disinherit him If he get any thing it is for himselfe his father hath no part
nor property in it hee will serue his father with processe he will endite him at the common Assize without asking him any leaue And in a word such is the religion now adaies such is the Churches tradition as men say that let the sonne entet into any kind of life bee married bee a monke or so forth all this may he doe in spight of his fathers teeth and absolutely against his will How then good father Nazianzene or wherein stands that sanction so much inforced by God and nature honor thy father What didst thou see in that authority royall and preheminence of parents when thou vpon a timorous scrupulositie of conscience durst not once so much as to trespasse against it If in the cases before mentioned our children may disobey their parents and yet not be punshed by them put mee some cases out of the old law why they shold not now enioy the like libertie or what be the principall points of this domestique monarchie which the christian religion doth yet retaine and defend for lawfull can it bee possible that heathen parents haue punished euen to the pit of hell a shamelesse and vngratious sonne so far were they in loue with the childrens obedience it is a matter spoken of that father which as Pausanius relateth it in his tenth booke Polignotus drew in a picture of hell taking paines to bee his owne sonnes hangman for a speciall prancke of vndutifulnesse that he had plaid him in his life time And haue christians on the contrary inuented cases to authorise vnnaturall impietie and breach of duty against parents can it be possible as saith Theophilus in his third booke to Eutol that Platoes law for the communitie of wiues was principallie vpon that point disliked because the danger might be that the sonne might somtime honor him that was not his father and vpon ignorance at another time might also doe him no reuerence who was his father indeed a reuerence neuerthelesse so due by the rules of the lawe of nations and in such order marshalled by them that as Pomponius testifieth it is to be ranged in the second place first God after him our parents and then our country and should we vnder colour of religion in that one point principallie offend First and foremost therefore we will speake thus much in generall as men do vse to sell wares in grosse that the position and assertion is very sottish and impious because the gouernment of parents is weakned and rebated in some points and circled within an order that Ergo there is no such matter at all remaining because the preheminence of parents is abrogated to speake in the Romane dialect ergo it must follow there is no duty no naturall reuerence at all left vnto them Then descending to particular dueties wee will take a view whether euery one of them bee so important as that of pure necessitie parents ought to bee obeied in speciall or no Which will be soone found if we take some farther view and make a quire what that was which the ancients did so exactly require of their children when they past ouer such a large iurisdiction and power vnto the parents the case is cleere that they did it not therefore that parents should bee as magistrates to their children and so administer iustice at home to euery one that their children had offended againe as the Praetor did in the Court of the common pleas nor that there should be one authority publique another priuate and domestique For if the crime were publicke and committed without the verge of the fathers house the officer was to order it Nor is it a good conclusion the child hath offended therefore he must haue no other iudge but his father Indeed it is true that there were such fathers in times past at Rome and likewise amongst other nations whereof we haue written in the sixt book of our reports the seuenth Chapter that by vertue of such fatherly authoritie wold take cognisance of such crimes as their children had offended in abroad as Cassius Manlius Torquatus C. Flaminius and some others besides so then this was no occasion that gaue such a prerogatiue to the power of parents but that rather which Halicarnasseus in the life of Romulus alleadgeth that when children did perceiue how they were awed at home and that their subiection vnder their priuate parents was much more strict than vnder the publique Magistrate for they are commanded first to yeeld obedience to their parents after that to their country that the Prince himselfe might scarce doe any thing without iudiciall proceeding But the father might do euery thing at his own will pleasure for so speaks Aristotle in his politiques they might learne to be more dutifull to doe nothing without line and leuell that is without expresse commandement and iniunction from their parents might neither will nor nil ought saue that which proceeded first from their parents pleasure and by his allowance In a word that as the bit spur and switch makes the horse obedient to his rider so the feare of so great chastisements might enforce the sonnes conformity to his father as to a demie God on earth and sole founder of his being And surely had our forefathers meant no other thing hereby then to put a snaffle into youthes mouth to restraine them from such vices as nature is prone vnto why then they would haue determined this their authoritie at some certaine time or age of the sonne vpon some certaine office or honour that might haue befallen or some condition and estate of life whereunto they might possiblie be aduanced But the sonne were he neuer so old bare he neuer so great office yea had it been the high Priesthood was euer notwithstanding vnder his fathers checke And what thinke you was the issue thereof marry sir whatsoeuer the father had once determined concerning his children to what kind of life soeuer he had bound them yea and though it had been to the cart and plough as L. Manlius did vse his sonne why by reason of so eminent a power against which there was no helpe no remedie to be had he must of necessity rest content Hence it was that all the sonnes negotiations had such dependance on the fathers will as you see counterpaines haue that must accord with their originalls or riuers haue that must be fed from their fountaines head And though put case the sonne swaruing some deale from this course of duty as being stubborne and past all shame found his penalty thereupon executed sometime with more rigour sometimes with more clemency though the father by the ordinances of some countries might sentence his sonne to death by others complaine of him to the magistrate and only giue in euidence against him â—ay though by long prescription these domestique censures haue been altogether disused For to small purpose is their instance and God knowes it is a poore one that alleadge why but yong children be still yet vnder their
parents correction it will be no good inference to conclude that therefore it is not now any longer iust and reasonable because law had once determined it to be so it will be no good inference to conclude that the law and edict of all nations which decrees an absolute obedience to parents is now clearely vanished and out of vse Lawes be lawes still though they be not penall though there be no losse of life nor forfeiture of goods ensuing as for example adultery though there be smal adoe made about it now adaies yet in its owne nature it is alwaies foule and dishonest If either by negligence or coniuencie it be not sharply punished the law notwithstanding is stil chast and honorable which forbids it And so the law for childrens obedience is euer right conuenient though many times no penaltie ensue This is euident specially out of Moses it is true he would not that a father should put his child to death with his owne hands but rather seeke for it by petition from the magistrate and so haue it executed and that also without any other enquest or euidence than at the fathers suit from whence it is more then probably collected that in the common wealth of the Iewes the father had a soueraigne authority in cases of life and death for although by this order of Moses it were somewhat staid from speedy execution yet the matter is plaine that it is easier for me to bee a petitioner that another man should be executed and die than that I should be his executioner with mine owne hands But howsoeuer I would faine know and learn why and for what offence a father might endite his sonne by this Hebrew Law-makers decree that vpon such conuiction he might be presently stoned to death Was it because he was a murtherer a Church-robber a traitor a theef a fornicator or an vsual offendor against the peace of the King his crown and dignity Let vs heare his owne words deliuered to this purpose If any man haue a sonne that is stubborne and disobedient which will not harken to the voice of his father nor the voice of his mother and they haue chastised him and he would not obey them Then shall his father and his mother take him and bring him out vnto the Elders of his Citie and vnto the gate of the place where hee dwelleth And shall say vnto the Elders of his City this our sonne is stubborne and disobedient and he will not obey our admonition he is a robber and a drunkard Then all the men of the Citie shall stone him with stones vnto death I pray what manner of offences be there herein mentioned be they not trespasses against parents priuate misdemeanours and domesticall hatcht within doores not acted in publique view certainly as by order of military discipline contempt in a souldier is a crime very capitall because there is nothing so far endangers the state of an army as one mutinously disposed so by the same correspondencie of reason it is fit and requisite that all persons belonging to my charge as my seruants my children my wife my cattell all should be at my becke all should be vnder my conduct as the chiefe generall all should be actuated by my motion as hauing surrendred the interest of their liberty into my plenary disposition and authority Aelianus tells vs a story of one Rhaco Mardus who hauing brought his sonne Cartomes like a prisoner with his armes fast pinacled into the presence of King Artaxerxes to receiue iudgement of death vpon suggestion that he was a gracelesse desperate castaway and grew to be very earnest to that point why saith the King of Persia canst thou endure to behold thy sonnes life taken from him his answer was I haue in my garden a lettice rudely ouergrowne with leaues and though they be lims of the bodie yet doe I now and then crop off and prune some of the bitter stalkes and such as may be spared What doth my lettice thinke you die for griefe vpon the matter or doth it mourne because there is a limbe or two lopt off nay it flourisheth the better and such a maim makes him eat a great deale the sweeter In like manner may it please you O King to deeme of me for albeit I shall see and behold the death of this wretched varlot that hurts and anoies my household corrupts by his stubborne and lewde example his poore yong brethren I will neuerthelesse be still of the opinion to speed the better by it yea and rather thriue by such a maim than any waies be endamaged by it and this is sutable to that of Mâ—sâ—s and Halicarnasseus But that I may the better proue this point how is it that this question namelie whether a sonne in some case may lawfullie disobey his father first stepping aside out of priuate mens houses entred into the publique schooles of the vniuersitie to bee disputed and questioned there and after to be decided finallie at the seat of iudgement but that it was neuer in mans memorie heard of before nay the contrarie was euer held for certaine and true that such a question would neuer haue been propounded when Danaus much against his will had matcht his fiftie daughters to Egisthus his grandchildren and had charged the yong virgins that on the mariage day euerie one should murther hir husband with such a sword as to that end he had giuen them the iust like tale may you read in ChalcoÌ„dilas of a Physition of Florence that commanded his daughter to poison Lantislaus King of Naples the first night they should lie together euerie one did as their father had enioined them excepting only Hypermnestra which saued her husband Lynceus his life But what followed hereupon these murderous paricides were so far from being brought to answer the law and plead not guiltie for the matter or that their obedience herein was deemed culpable that contrariwise Hypermnestra for that she had not performed hir fathers behest was thereupon publiquelie arraigned and much adoe to be freed at the common Assisâ—s so that in point of obedience vnto parents no exception wold be taken to haue denied them or to haue doubled with them had vtterlie been vnlawfull The truth is freed she was but the verdict was brought in vpon euen voices with such demurring and so much hazard of life the record is famously knowne by her owne letter in Ouid that as though she had escaped some dangerous shipwracke she built a Temple vnto Venus and Diana and hung vp a table in memoriall of her deliuerie How then should that domestique dutie be blemisht or broken when children though they had offended in obeying their obedience notwithstanding was vnto them their chiefest commendation their refusall a crime vtterlie vnpardonable That great Oracle of the Law Vlpian holds this opinion that he may not properlie be said to haue any will of his owne that liues vnder commaund of a father or master and well worthie
they that obey the will of God All which words are thought to bee spoken of him in some contempt of his mother because wheras shee was properly called blessed others in opposition of her by him were tearmed blessed also But now since this most holy Virgin was chosen for the conception and birth of our Sauiour Christ how came it to passs that shee was accounted vnworthie to be called blessed Here Iustin Martyr maketh this answere These words what haue I to doe with thee were not spoken by way of obiurgation but as if he should haue saide in other tearmes I am not such a one as haue vndertaken the care of wine which is spent in marriages yet notwithstanding if your desire bee that there bee no want of wine bid the seruants doe whatsoeuer I shall say vnto you and you shall easily perceiue there shall bee no want of Wine which as he spake so it fell out Therefore it is not likely that he did checke his mother in wordes that did so much honour her in deedes As for other places Christ spake not so as if hee would depriue her of that honour which was due vnto a mother but he taught her how she was entituled to true blessednesse For if hee that heareth the word of God and keepeth it bee Christs brother sister and mother and Christs mother hath done both these then it is cleare that Mary in this respect ought rather to be called blessed And because God chose not an ordinary woman to be the mother of Christ but such a one that was 〈◊〉 other the most excellent in perfection and vertues therefore Christ would that his mother should bee most commended for that vertue which gaue her preheminence aboue all women that a Virgine should become his mother Moreouer Luke the Euangelist testifieth that Christ neuer did any thing in contempt or disgrace of his parents when he saith Hee went downe with Ioseph and Mary to Ierusalem and was obedient to them euen to his death And so also saith S. Augustine interpreting these wordes in his booke De Sancta Virginit Now Christ after that hee began to preach to the people and withall perceiued that the Scribes and Pharisies did erre most grosly in this commandement whereof we treat and retorted the same against their parents vnder this colour that forsooth they might performe any thing else in stead of their bounden duety so they did that which they thought to be as iust and holy said Why doe you transgresse the law of God by your tradition for God hath said Honour thy father and mother and hee that curseth father or mother let him die the death but yee say Whosoeuer shall say vnto his father or mother by the gift that is offered by mee thou mayest haue profite though hee honour not his Father and Mother he shall bee safe O yee hypocrites yee worship God in vain preferring mans precepts before Gods Why spake Christ this so seuerely was it because the Pharisies so greatly abused those offerings and that sacred treasure which they called Corban or was it because those oblations which were destinated vnto the Temple were by them misapplyed to themselues and to their owne lusts and not vnto God surelie no for then hee would haue noted onely their luxurie and abuse But hee checked the priests because they made comparison of precepts and preferred their owne which were otherwise good before Gods And because they tooke occasion by their gift howsoeuer holy to contemne their domesticke rites and lawes of piety and that bond of naturall duty which is more ancient thā any whatsoeuer And yet there is somwhat more in it then so For the first commandement that you stand so much vpon and the fifth you so lightly regard are both Gods commandements they both issue from the same Author and the same Law-maker It is necessary therfore that either the one hinder the other or that the latter be abrogated by the former which is against all law that euer I could reade or else that both of thē be kept as well the first pertaining vnto God as the fifth pertaining vnto parents But the truth is that some precepts are immutable and they are sayeth Hildebert in his last Epistle such as the eternall decree of God hath established Of which sort saith the Archbishop of Towres are these Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe And honour thy Father and thy mother and such like Other precepts are mutable which the eternall Law of God hath not decreede but the wisdome and policy of some later wittes haue inuented for some conuenience and vse not so principally tending to saluation And of this sort it is to be a Iesuite Certaine I am that the law whereby thou standest bounde vnto mee is perpetuall and vnchangeable But what if here we be bolde to say that God himselfe is lesse sollicitous for his owne honour than for our parents honor And therfore of those two commandements the latter in a sort is to be preferred before the former And shall yet these Pharisies please thee more than Christ It was not without a misterie that God gaue those commandements concerning his owne honour simply without imposition of punishment if any brake them or proposall of rewarde if any kept them but when he gaue this commandement concerning our duty towards our parents he added this clause that thy dayes may be long vpon earth For albeit hereby it bee clearely euident that nature cannot suffer that he should liue long vpon the earth that respectes not these of whom he hath receiued life nor endure that it should goe well with him any where that will hide himselfe for no other end but that he may not shew himselfe gratefull vnto them that with so great care and trouble after they had giuen him life haue nourished and sustained him yet that which wee so principally intend appeares from thence For he sayth that he is full of iealousie if a man worshippe strange and false gods but if he worshippe his parents God is so farre from enuying it that by all meanes possible he wils and commāds it that with such a reward which of mankind is most desired Why presseth he all these things so earnestly because when parents these second gods are honoured whom hee so much acceptes and so well accounteth of whatsoeuer is done vnto them he taketh it done vnto himselfe but if any duety bee left vndone vnto them let vs worship him in the best manner wee can deuise yet doth it not excuse vs. And perhappes this may be the reason that God if I may so speake is not so hard to please in that honour and worship which wee owe vnto him as euery man is curious in the duetie which is to bee done vnto him God is reuerenced as sufficiently as he would be if euerie one according to his sexe age and quality do honour him as