him faithfully The Prophet never forbade Naaman his service to his Master after he was become a Jew that is a servant of God He speakes to those who are free not to bind themselves to such 2 King 5.23 hereto may we apply that 1 Cor. 7.20 21 22. not to deny service but to alter the manner of service before for feare of Masters displeasure now for conscience of Gods command before their Masters onely now Christ in their Master Reas 1 Because as was noted in Children out of Chrysost it is due to their place not person as Non principi sed principatui so Non magistro sed magisterio The feare is due not to his person and so good or bad high or low gentle or churlish but to his place and authority as a master which he may be of what quality or condition soever he be and from them as servants whatsoever their persons and quality and gifts may be Reas 2 Particularly for such as are religious that they bring not dishonour upon Gods Name and Doctrine 1 Tim. 6.1 but may honour him Reas 3 For both because it shall be more respected of God the lesse it is deserved by any thing in thy master for then it is done of conscience and for God as a good worke ought to be Vse 1 This will condemne the Doctrine of the Church of Rome howsoever bragging it selfe to be Apostolicall yet holds it but few of the Apostles doctrines which it hath not either corrupted or taught something to the contrary And in this point most directly to Peter and Paul forbidding feare and faithfulnesse to be performed of servants to their masters and them who put them in trust Symacha saith Instit Cathol Tit. 46. sect 74. that all keepers of forts and all other vassals and slaves are freed from the oath of subjection to their Lord and Master he being an Heretick affirming that by it he is deprived of his civill power he hath over his servants the ground of the unfaithfulnesse of Sr. William Stanly in yeelding up Daventer an act approved and commended by Cardinall Allen how unlike are these spirits to the spirit of Saint Peter and Saint Paul who will have faithfulnesse to the good and bad to the Infidell aswell as the beleever shall not that be verified of them Math. 5.19 But they will say Heresie is a greater sinne then infidelity first I answer not as they make Heresie ut ante secondly be that true of August Sanata vulnere infidelitatis sed gravius percussa vulnere Idololatriae yet all Heresie is not Idolatrie neither can this if it be destroy the knot and bond of this duty which is not faith nor the foundation of divine religion but a politique title having force and strength from the law of nature which is not to be dissolved by Heresie not contrary to it And the Apostles reason will be here aswell as in Infidelity it will make the name of God and his doctrine ill spoken of But the truth is this is but a shift of theirs for they teach no faith to be kept with such and so no faithfulnesse with such as are heathen or Infidels If we may gather the lesse from the greater Vladislaus he was I take it the King of Hungary and Poland in a battaile against the Turkes Amurath the second of that name had the better hand so that the Turke offered to yeeld to any conditions whereupon Vladislaus and the Turke swore to Articles of Agreement but presently a Legate came frome the Pope and urged Vladislaus to set upon the Turke againe Eugenius 4. neere vanquished already telling him that the Pope had power to dispence with his Oath which he attempted though sore against his will Then the Turke cryed out O Crucifixe crucifixe vide gentem tuam perfidam Oh thou crucified thou crucified take notice of thy treacherous people And so bestirred himself that he overthrew Vladislaus which hath ever since turned to the greatest detriment of all Christendome out of this by proportion we may see it is but a colour of their distinction of Heresie and Infidelity Vse 2 To reprove all such servants as thinke they owe no feare nor duty or lesse feare and duty to their Masters because of some defects in them or some excellency in themselves if he be base borne and they of worshipfull Parents if he be irreligious and they have somewhat or more taste of piety if he be poore so when they came to him or impoverished after c. But they must know that none of these will dispense with omission of any duty Is he their Master If they give him not all respect they sinne against his place and dominion and so against God that hath given it him If God had allowed only rich men or religious men or good and courteous Men to be his Vicegerents in the family then it were somewhat but he hath given this to the rich and the poor alike he hath lightned both their eyes the good and the bad hath the seale of the Commission alike therefore they who doe not alike reverence their masters one as other are guilty of sinne before God and shall have no reward from God because he doth it not in conscience to Gods Commandement but for sinister respect for which they may receive their reward from men but a heavy one from God Vse 3 To perswade servants to feare and doe all duty to their Masters whatsoever they are one or other he that is well borne must forget his father and his fathers house and looke not upon his master whence he came but what he is he that is religious remember he must adorne his profession and looke not upon his master what he is of himselfe corrupt and prophane but what God hath made him his owne Vicegerent and his master and thinke what unworthinesse soever be in thy master yet that thou art most unworthy to doe him any disgrace or to deny him any duty Remember that what is due to him it is not to his person but place indeed not to him but God and to him in Gods stead and the more unworthy he is of any duty the more readily thou perform'st it the more reward thou shalt have from God yea for the present it is a speciall proofe of true grace in the heart For as it is Rom. 5.7 8. so every one will obey a great and a good master but that is true obedience when the master is neither great nor good or great and not good or good and not great for so have good servants and holy men done in times past unto their masters If I be a father where is my honour Here is the application of the former ground and rule to himselfe and them not speaking in generall but applying it particularly teaching in his example what is the best and most profitable kind of preaching when application is joyned with doctrine Vide Heb. 12.1 If I be a
why we may pray to Saints living but not to Saints departed For us He separates not himselfe from this Church for all the corruption of it in Priest and people hee forsakes not their assemblies but cōmunicates with them in their service sacrifices Doctrine Men ought not to separate themselves from a visible congregation or assembly a visible Church for the abuse of it and the corruption of it it being not in fundamentalls As here the Prophet did not neither read we of any Prophet who left the Church but in most corrupt ages remained there reproving and threatening them praying and mourning for them but not forsaking them It is that Ezek. 9.4 they are noted as St. Augustine observeth that mourne for the corruptions of the time not who separate themselves from the Church In the New Testament we find not Christ nor his Apostles to forsake the Church but remaine in it though marvellous corrupt teaching reproving correcting mourning for it So of the Pastors of the six Churches of Asia their corruptions noted and their Angels biding with them To this purpose is that Hebr. 10.24 25 38 39. Reas 1 Because no man ought to separate himselfe from the true Church of Christ Now such is an assembly professing the true faith notwithstanding other corruption for as holinesse if it might be supposed without true faith cānot make a true Church but false doctrine and errour in the foundation overthrows it for being a Church So è contrà corruptions in manners cannot make it no Church when true faith is taught and maintained Reas 2 Because separation and excommunication from a particular Church is the most heavy and greatest censure of the Church which as no man should incurre by his evill behaviour so no man ought to inflict upon himselfe for the corruptions of others who happily deserve to be separated themselves Vse 1 To condemne all those who withdraw themselves from our assemblies because of corruptions amongst us crying out of those who will remaine among them to the benefit of the good that is there to be had But to such an one I say as Augustine answered Petilian Non habes quod objicias frumentis Dominicis paleam usque ad ventilationem ultimam sustinentibus à quibus tu nunquam recessisses nisi levior palea vento tentationis ante adventum ventilatoris avolasses Aug. contr Petilian Cap. 1.18 That he did not well to leave Christs heape of Corne because the chaffe was in it till the great winnowing day and that he shewed himselfe to be lighter chaffe driven out by the wind of temptation that flew out before the comming of Christ the winnower What folly is it for a man to leave the Jewells and Plate in the Gold-finers shop because of the Iron tongs and black coals What warrant have they when as Noah left not the Arke for all the uncleane beasts Vse 2 To teach every man not to be so offended for the corruption of the times as to separate himselfe from the Church for them * Si amarent pacem non discinderet unitatem Aug. contr lit Petiliani lib. 24. If they had loved peace they had not broken unity saith August And in another place A vessell of honour ought to tolerate those things that are vile * Vas in honore sanctificatum debuit tolerare ea quae sunt in contumelia nec propter hoc relinquere domum claritatis Dei ne vel vas in contumeliam vel stercus projectum de domo sit Aug. contr epist Parm. lib. 3.5 and not therefore to forsake the house of God lest himselfe be cast out as a vessell of dishonour or as dung That certainly which is 1 Cor. 5.13 Put away from your selves the wicked person is to be understood of those who have authority which if they exercise not is their sinne not mine or thine Shall I forsake the good and the Church where I may be safe for their evill Nec quisquam sine consensu cordis sui ex ore vulneratur alieno Let no man then separate himselfe for why should a good pure and sound member separate it selfe from those that are corrupt and cut it selfe off both to make the whole worse and to lose to it selfe the good it might have by abiding For us The Prophet who had the least hand in the sinnes and was the least cause of the burden he feares and as it were mournes and seeketh how to avoid it when the Priests who were the cause of it are secure and carelesse Doctr. It often falls out that the faithfull mourne and feare the plagues they foresee when they who have deserved them sleep securely and rather provoke God still Mich. 1.8 Therefore will I mourne This hath beene by your meanes Here is the reason why God will not accept their prayers because they are authors and principall causes of the evill and sinnes amongst them Doctrine The prayers of hypocrites and wicked men whether Ministers or Magistrates or private men whether superiours or inferiours cannot be profitable to the Church nor others for whom they pray nor accepted of God This is manifest here as also by that where the prayers of the wicked are rejected with divers such places This the Lord taught when in his Law he commanded that the Priest should first offer for himselfe Levit. 4.3 and Heb. 5.3 Reas 1 Because they are not profitable for themselves neither shall be accepted much lesse for others Not for themselves Isaiah 1. and 66. Reas 2 Because they are in Gods sight abhominable Prov. 15.8 such cannot prevaile with him Object Balaam prayed for the people of God and was heard for them and yet he was a wicked man Numb 23.19 20. Answ A truth it is St. August so answereth Parmen contr Epist Parm. lib. 2. cap. 8. proving they ought not to separate themselves as they taught because men are polluted But for the example I think we may say Balaam was not heard saving his judgment because he certainly never prayed hee did prophesie indeed in a certaine forme of prayer therefore that speech of his is accounted a blessing because he did ominate and foretell happy things which would befall to the people of God But he never prayed indeed for his heart went against it it was utterly against his will who for the wages of Balac would rather have desired to curse onely hee was compelled to it by the Spirit of God Therefore he was not heard which prayed not but the Spirit of God which in the good worketh the affections and suggesteth words did onely put such words into his mouth for any good that should come by them to the people of God as for the terrour and destruction of Balac who had set himselfe against the people of God to shew him that not they before him but he should fall before them Vse 1 This sheweth the folly and the vanity of the reason of some Popish and Popishly affected who plead for lenity connivence
and know themselves but men It is a thing that cannot be denied because stories of all times do manifestly prove it that sometimes errours and heresies have so much prevailed that the most part of them who held and possessed great places of office and dignity in the Church of God either for feare flattery hope of gaine or honour or else mis-led through simplicitie or directly falling into errour and heresie and departed from the soundnesse of the faith so that the sincerity of religion was upholden and the truth defended and maintained onely by some few and they molested persecuted and traduced as turbulent and seditious persons enemies to the common peace of the Christian world To say nothing of the times of Christ and after him of the first Churches in the Acts. This was the state of the Christian world in the time of Athanasius when in the Councell of Selencia and Ariminium the Nicence faith was condemned and all the Bishops of the whole world were carried from the soundnesse of the faith save Athanasius and some few Confessors banished with him So that Hieron contra Luciferam Ingemuit totius orbis miratus est factum se Arrianum So Hilarius contra Aux Episc Mill. complained that the Arrian faction had confounded all Paphnutius in the Councell of Nice for the marriage of Ministers was alone But yee are gone out of the way Though they succeeded them in their places yet not in their faith not in the truth of doctrine Doctrine There may be an ordinary and externall succession of place and person without succession of faith and truth of doctrine Manifest here in these Priests who held the places and did ordinarily succeed the Priests who were specially approved of God yet did not succeed them in faith and in soundnesse of truth And as it was in the times before often a succession of the one without the other And this is first manifest by the former doctrine for when it often happened that all the ordinary Priests such as had the outward succession were in errour God exciting extraordinary Prophets to reprove them as Isaiah Ieremie c. It must needs be that there was a separation of these two In particular it is manifest in the time of Elijah 1 King 19.14 So when wicked Ahaz was King 2 King 16.11 Vriah the high Priest corrupting the worship In the Church of the Jewes in Christs time it was so for they condemning Christ and his followers as schismaticall Joh. 9.22 and 12.42 This is further proved Acts 20.29.30 These had their succession from the Apostles and held the same seats the same places which the Apostles held yet had not the same truth and faith So out of the Ecclesiasticall stories it is manifest that the Arrian Bishops as Eusebius Nicomediens and Eustathius and others did derive their succession of place persons seats and Churches from the Apostles For they were called chosen and ordained after the custome of the Church and had no new but the lawfull calling So of the Donatists and Paulus Samosatenus in the Church of Antioch succeeded Peter as well as they did at Rome And the Greeke Church judged by the Papists schismaticall hath her personall succession not onely 1200. yeares as they confesse from Constantines time but long before from Andreas the Apostle as Nicephorus lib. 8. Chronol cap. 6. Reason 1 Because the grace of God and the truth is not hereditary that men should leave it at their pleasure to their heires and successors as they can their places and seats for John 3. as the winde so the Spirit blowes where it lists Not living men can make others whom they gladly would partakers of their faith and truth how should the dead and departed living men more likely Reason 2 Because as in a common wealth new Lords new lawes and succeeding men have different mindes affections wills desires ends c. and so change many things so it is in the Church And though they should leave them it as an inheritance yet we see children hold not their patrimony but many spend all so of this And as is said of Himeneus and Alexander that they made shipwrack of faith 1 Tim. 1.19.20 So of others Vse 1 Then falls to the ground the doctrine of Popery making this externall and personall succession a note of the Church and by it would prove theirs to be the true Church But if there may be such a succession without true faith and if true faith onely makes a true Church then can it be no true nor certaine note Besides it is not certaine nor expressed in the word of God that the Pope was Peters successor no not in place but to be proved onely by tradition and not to be deduced out of the Word as Bellarmine de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 12. confesseth And so the maine point whereon the government and Hierarchy of the Papacie dependeth hath no word in the Scriptures to prove it and so the whole is hanged upon the conjectures of men as upon a rotten threed For the Scripture not affirming it what assurance can there be for matter of faith the matter must needs be suspitious and doubtfull Againe even the histories which is their proofe are in such various opinions that a man can hardly tell whom to follow touching Peters comming to Rome and his immediate successors Some say he came to Rome in the first yeare of Claudius the Emperour some in the second some in the fourth some in the tenth and it may be that none of these is true sure it is all cannot be true For his successors Tertullian maketh Clement his next successor Optatus nameth Linus and then Clement Irenaeus maketh Linus then Cletus then Clement If they differ thus what certainty where should faith finde any sure ground If then the succession at best is questionable and doubtfull if it may be certaine and yet be dis-joyned from the succession of faith as it is most certainly in them and true faith onely makes a Church then can this be no true note of the Church Vse 2 To teach us not to be deceived with the glorious shew and great boast of such succession specially when there is an apparant digression from the faith or a probable doubt of corruption in it For what succession soever be it never so long or glorious as a greater could not be then these Priests and people could have objected unto the Prophet yet if it be without truth of doctrine and true faith which is the very soule of succession it is nothing else but a very dead carkasse whereas true faith without any such outward succession establisheth and maketh a Church And indeed one of the purest and most excellentest Churches was without such a succession For the Church of which Christ in his owne person was Authour and Master in which the Apostle was brought up instructed had no succession And yet none will or dare deny that it was the best and
purest Church For whom succeeded Christ and his Apostles Did he succeed Aaron and the Leviticall Priesthood Did he elect his Apostles out of them Nothing lesse For he succeeded not Aaron but Melchisedech being a Priest after his order not the others and so the succession was interrupted for many hundred yeares and so may be still And on the contrary there may be succession and no true Church when the faith is corrupt and not sound which made the Fathers when they speake of succession not urge a naked and externall succession but a true succession and such as was joyned with the succession of faith and religion * Non sanctorum filii sunt qui tenent loca sanctorum sed qui exercent opera eorum S. Hierom. They are not the children of the Saints who hold their seats but who follow their workes * Non ex personis fidem sed ex fide personaes probari oportet Tertul. lib. de Preser avers Haeret. We must not prove the faith from the persons but the persons from the faith So say we let them prove the persons from the faith and not faith from the persons They have not the inheritance of Peter who have not the faith of Peter All which shewes they would not have us to stand upon the succession of the place and person but the faith and doctrine * Non habent haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent Ambr. lib. 1. de poenit c. 6. Vse 3 This wil prove our Church to be a true Church though we have no succession externall and personall which separated from faith makes no Church but we have succession of faith which makes a Church for if these may be separated if there may be a Church where there is no personall succession as before If a personall succession and no Church as also before we holding the true faith of Christ the true doctrine of salvation are notwithstanding the want of personall succession the Church of Christ If they understand an extraordinary succession such as hath oftentimes been in the Church we say we have it Neither hinders that which the adversaries object that an extraordinary succession ought to be confirmed with miracles which we have not for the calling of the Prophets was extraordinary yet had they no miracles to confirme it let them shew us what miracles Ieremy Ezekiel Ioel Hosea Amos had who were called extraordinarily or Iohn Baptist John 10.41 Besides what miracles needs there when as our Pastors either deceased or living bring in no new doctrine or new faith nor erect a new Church but restore the old faith and repaire and purge the Church foully corrupted And whereas they deny us any ordination of Ministers because they which are lawfully ordained must be by an Apostle or one succeeding him immediately they be all fictions of their owne without a word of the Scripture for they are true Pastors which are called of their flockes and of the lawfull Magistrate teaching the people and doing those things which good Pastors should do And for Bellarmines distinction of calling or election which he acknowledgeth was sometime alone of that the people did chuse and grants may be good but not ordination It is answered if election be good we contend not much about ordination for they who have authoritie to chuse and call have to ordain If an orderly ordination be not to be had And finally if all Bishops should be Arrians and such as would ordaine none but them of their owne sect as sometimes they were must ordination by them be necessary or we must have no Ministers Vse 4 Then ought men to labour for knowledge that they be not deceived by the face of men and the Church but that they may know what is the true faith and who they are that bring it knowing them to be the Pastors of the Church by their doctrine Mat. 7.15.16 This fruit is doctrine Yee have caused many to fall by the Law The second thing reproved in them in seducing or mis-leading others making them to fall into sinne Doctrine It is a manifest corruption in the Ministers of the Church a thing wherein they are farre unlike to their faithful predecessors whereby they are made unacceptable unto God when their preaching or carriage is such as men by them are kept in sin caused or occasioned to sinne As this proves it and Isaiah 3.12 Ezek 13.22 And this is done either by not preaching or very negligently that they cannot know what to doe and so must needs sinne and offend Or by not reproving by which they doe not thinke thir sinnes to be sinnes but remaine in them according to that Levit. 19.17 or by dawbing as Ezek. 13.10 and promising life unto them notwithstanding their sinnes as vers 22. or by bad example as Gal. 2.12.13 Reason 1 Because it is against the main and principall end of his calling which is to turne men from sinne and Satan to God and godlinesse and righteousnes As then it is a fault for men to go contratry to the main end of their calling or trade any Artificer as when he should build to pull downe when he should make to marre when he should cure to wound And if we may speake familiarly as we complaine of Tinkers for making two holes when they undertake to stop one or of Chyrurgions that make two wounds when they professe to cure one made already so must it needs be a corruption in these Reason 2 Because he crosseth the desire of God who delighteth much in the conversion of a sinner and would have men converted from sinne and not kept in them Vse 1 This will convince many Ministers of corruption degenerating from the Prophets faithful Ministers of God who so walk in their Ministery as men are hardened by them caused and occasioned to sinne they preach so seldome and carelesly instruct the people they have charge of they reprove so little or smooth so much or are so corrupt and licentious And this not in the Church of Rome only but in the reformed Churches which haue justly separated from her so that sinne abounds every where Now woe be to such watchmen for they shall answer for the bloud of those perishing soules and that which perisheth shall be made good foule for soule And woe unto such dawbers Ezek. 13.13 Vse 2 This may serve for an Apologie for the Ministers of God when they preach and exhort and reprove and threaten but with small thankes from those that heare them yet seeing the contrary is corruption and a degenerating from the faithfull and their steps and a meanes to make them unacceptable to God their Lord and Master It may speake for them if they thus preach and practise It may be if they preached all peace all placentia and waken never a secure man out of his sinne they would cunne him more thanke and all speake well of him But woe unto you when all men speake well
walke not in this and many other things as others have done but as God hath spoken Now wee may adde to the former words and collect out of them that when it is said Did not he make one who is the Author of marriage Doctrine The first instituter of marriage is God the Author of the conjunction that is betwixt man wife as at the first so now is God and he alone Manifest as here So Gen. 2.22 And the rib which the Lord had taken from the man made he a woman and brought her to the man Hence that Prov. 2.17 It is called the Covenant of God called so properly because he is the Author of it Hence Math. 19.6 whom God hath joyned together Reason 1 Because the breach of this ordinance either in man or woman by his law is death when either hath broken he ordained that the nocent party should dye yea hee that abused a woman but betrothed it was death Deut. 22.22.23 Now God for no ordinance of man ever ordained death Reason 2 Because though parents friends and parties themselves take care to provide matches after their humors some one some another yet is it not in the power of them all or any to make liking or knit hearts but only the Lord. To this some apply that Mat. 19.6 whom God hath coupled he working secretly and leading their hearts one to another Hence that Pro. 19.14 House riches are the inheritance of the fathers but a prudent wife commeth of the Lord and 18 22. he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and receiveth favour of the Lord. Vse This teacheth us that this is as the Apostle an honourable estate having such an honourable Author as the God of Gods And it notes unto us the spirit of Antichrist in the Popes and Church of Rome yea the spirit of Satan teaching such doctrine of divells Innocent saith it is to live in the flesh and calleth it Bed pleasure and uncleannesse when he would condemne Ministers marriage by it so Siricius and others have spoken most wickedly and despitefully of it allowing simple fornication before it in their Priests And wherefore one because he sought a godly seede The end of marriage in the holy intent of God to have a holy seede the Church and religion propagated and increased The meaning is not as if holinesse and sanctification came by nature which is onely of grace for of such holinesse he doth not speake but the word is the seed of God that is that their children might be the sonnes and daughters of the true God and pure religion for it is here as the contrary was before Verse 11. The daughters of a strange God such as professed the worship not of the true God The meaning of this is manifest by that which we have in Ezra 9. 1.2 the holy seed matched with the people of the land namely they who professe true religion and the true God with those who falsifie both Also 1 Cor. 7.14 where holinesse is nothing but to be within the Covenant and professors of the true God and religion God then ordained marriage for the procreation of Children and that holy ones the propagation of the Church and the increase of such as should truely worship him Doctrine The end of marriage the most proper and excellent end of it is the procreation of children for the propagation of Gods Church and Gods worship That it is an end is here affirmed that it is the most proper and excellent I manifest because it was the end of it before the fall in mans perfection though sinne had never come yet this end was ordained of God as Gen. 1.28 propagation of mankind but specially the Church Nay by that is onely meant the Church seeing they were in their perfection and if then they had given themselves to propagation or had continued in their first estate they had brought forth still holy men in their perfect image who should have beene the seed of God Lombard hath a speech * Post lapsum hominis conjugium remedium est quod ante lapsum duntaxat officium fuit Lombard After mans fall marriage is a remedy which before the fall was onely an office The whole is true but it is not the whole truth for it is now officium as well as then to procreate children and propagate the Church now that this is the end that shewes that he prohibiteth and reproveth so often unequall matches with infidells because though that may encrease mankind yet not the Church for that will spread rather idolatry then the true worship Deut. 7.3.4 and Ezra 9.1.2 Hence it is that amongst the people of God that virginity was a griefe and barrennesse a shame and so taken and accounted because they could not increase the Church for the first see Judges 11.37.40 for the second see Luke 1.25 Hence the Apostle forbiddeth to take into the Church young widdowes for the service of the Church but will have them marrie for the increase of the Church 1 Tim. 5.14 Reason 1 Because this to bring forth children to increase his Church and true worshippers most procures that which is and ought to be the maine end of all that is the glory of God For not every one that brings forth children doth this but the contrary as the Heathen and Infidels who bring them forth for idolatry and dishonour of God This being to the contrary is a principall end Reason 2 Because this is the duty enjoyned them from God to bring up their children in his true worship Eph 6.4 Now the end of conjunction for procreation ought to be the same that their end of education must be of bearing and bringing forth which is of bringing up Vse 1 To reprove many who when they seeke a wife or a husband never thinke of this I say not they intend not procreation of children and increasing of the world as they say but not the increase of Gods Church and a religious seede that should further and set forward the true worship of God Certaine it is many of them take barrennesse for a crosse and a reproach unto them but it is onely because they have not little ones to solace themselves withall when they are young or to leave their wealth to when they are of yeares but never to propagate by them the Church and true worship of God It may be in our times they leave not unto them false worship but that is onely thankes to the state not them who if the state did so beare it would as well leave the one as the other to them And that I may not slander them I prove this from their choyse and from their use of their marriage estate The first is apparent that they choose onely for beauty though they be the daughters of men or for riches for portion or person never respect religion nay if there be the other to be had though their religion be suspected and it be either none
the feeling of it I feared the Plague by a naturall infirmity though God enabled me to abide upon my calling in the hottest brunt of it and mercifully preserved me hitherto to his Church and to speake this to you this day But if it should now come by the providence of God upon me that he beginnes to threaten it to the City I should willingly embrace it as thinking God to be marvellous mercifull unto me and whosoever he should smite by it to take it thus into his owne hand and not to leave us to more fearefull judgments which I cannot say but I marvellously feare is even at the doore to the wakening of dead men and women or the sweeping of them away I am no Prophet I pray God my words be no prophecy but what peace c. This ought to teach men in affliction if a judgment come and imposed by the hand of God to beare it patiently and meekely as David 2 Sam. 15.25 26. for it is a burden The way to be eased is not strugling with it but meekely to beare it for a prisoner to be free from his fetters is not in the Jaylors sight to seeke to breake them or to file them off that is the way to procure more or the longer lying in them So to be eased of a burden is not to wrestle with it when one is under it but to goe softly there is more ease while it is on his back and sooner comes he to be released of it A man may with impatiency wrestle and use unlawfull meanes to ease himselfe and God happly will let them prosper for a while but after he will bring a more heavy and inevitable burden on him that with his former shifts shall make more heavy to him There is a fable but it hath his Morall for this purpose A certaine Asse laded with Salt fell into a river and after he had risen found his burthen lighter for the moisture made it melt away whereupon he would ever after lye him downe in the water as he travailed with his burthen and so ease himselfe His owner perceiving his craft after laded him as heavy with Wooll the Asse purposing to ease himselfe as before laid himselfe downe in the next water and thinking to have ease rising againe to feele his weight found it heavier as it continued with him all the day The Morall is that they who impatiently seeke meanes contrary to the will of God to ease themselves of their burden shall have it more and more encrease upon them Vse 3 That men should make a speciall restraint to themselves to keepe from sinning because an heavy and grievous burden else is ready to be laid upon their shoulders Sinne it selfe is an heavy burden but few feele it and fewer feare it but to this burden shall the burden of punishment be added and who is sufficient for these things if the first burden feare them not because there is some pleasure in sinne to the flesh yet let the second which hath no pleasure at all When thou art tempted to sinne by which thou must needs tempt and provoke God learne to cast thy accompts well consult if thou bee able to meete him that comes against thee Luke 14. so if thou bee'st able to meete him and beare his burden goe on and spare not delight in all thy wayes restraine thy selfe from no sinne but if not if we may invert and resolve Doe we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he 1 Cor. 20.22 then let this restraine us if nothing else will let us imitate Porters who called and offered money to beare a burden will poise and weigh the burden in their hands first which when they see they are not able to beare no gaine will entice them so in this case let us doe Of the Word of the Lord The circumstance of the person sending the efficient and authour as of other prophecies so of this he comes not unsent he spoke not of himselfe hee came not without the Lord but from him so he affirmeth and truely to get more reverence credit and authority with them and that it was thus from the Lord and so Canonicall the testimonies of Christ and his Apostles alledging him divers times for confirmation of Doctrine and reformation of manners proveth it but he addeth the Word of the Lord not onely to shew that he had but the word the rod and execution would come after God making his word good but as some thinke to shew that he had not a free Embassage but that he was to deliver it in certaine and set prescribed words Sometime when Prophets were more frequent and perpetuall in the Church and God spoke to them by dreames or by visions and apparitions they had divers kinds of words and had liberty for divers manners of speaking and delivery But our Prophet was such a messenger that the Commandement hee had received and was credited with he must deliver in so many words and the same he received them in and so he doth for in the whole he never useth his owne person but the Lord onely as Chap. 1.2 and 2.1 and 3.1 and 4.1 Here we might observe that the Writers of the Scriptures are not the Authors but God himselfe of which Rev. 2.7 But one particular may we herein observe this following Doctrine This Prophesie is the very word of the Lord it is of divine not humane authority which is not onely here affirmed but lest it should be doubtfull it hath the testimony of the new Testament the 3. Chap. ver 1. hath testimony Mark 1.2 and Chap. 4.2 hath testimony Luke 1.78 and Chap. 1 2 3. Rom. 9.23 Reas 1 Because this was written by a Prophet for as all the Old Testament was written by the Prophets so whatsoever was written by them was and is Canonicall Scripture therefore 2 Pet. 1.19 Luke 16.39 Heb. 1.1 Ephes 2.20 now all men hold Malachy for a Prophet the last among the Jewes till the comming of John Baptist Reas 2 Because the Church of the Jewes the onely Church of God did receive this and so acknowledged it as the word of God That they did so appeares Matth. 17.10 and the Apostles and the Evangelists alleadging of it for it is a farre more impious and heinous thing to take away Scripture than corruptly to interpret them or to adde Scripture if it were not of it Vse 1 I take instructions from hence entering the opening and expounding of this prophesie how I ought to labour with my owne heart and to seeke from the Lord assistance and grace to handle this as his word not carelessely handling the word and worke of God negligently taking his name in vaine comming to speake out of it without due preparation and constant study and speaking so talke as of the word of God 1 Pet. 4.11 not handling it with vanity and affectation not making merchandize and playing the huckster with it delivering it with a sincere affection dealing faithfully
and all the Cities and habitations of them are destroyed Which thing as it is true and wee doubt not in part the meaning of this place yet not the whole because the Lord aimes not so much to set out his hatred to Esau and his posterity as his love to Jacob and his therefore there must needs be somewhat more in it that is the dissimilitude or dislike effect to shew his love to them which riseth thus Those whom I love I keepe them in their countrey and suffer them not to be led captive yet if for correction I suffer the enemy so farre to prevaile I doe againe reduce them into their owne countrey and give them their owne land and the comforts of it On the contrary those whom I hate those for their sinnes I cast into banishment and never bring home againe but let their land to be a dwelling for beasts Dragons and such like Now the former I have done to you who are Jacobs posterity and the latter to Esaus now contrary effects have contrary causes So then as they may see in them my hatred so in your selves ye may apprehend my love who are now at home in your owne Land and Countrey and enjoy your comforts in your Countrey This then apparently shews his hatred to Esaus posterity as in spirituall things the Apostle being interpreter Rom. 9. so here in temporall things and closely and by comparison his love to Jacobs seed and to this people The first onely to the children of promise but this to all even the whole seed and not they onely which were blessed in Isaac Doctrine Exile and banishment when it falls to a man or multitude to a family or a whole nation it is a signe and a proofe of the wrath and displeasure of the anger and hatred of God So is it here made and proved because God threatneth by his Prophet usually that which men threaten and menace when they are angry that proves their anger when it is effected Deut. 28.41 64 68. Thou shalt beget sonnes and daughters but thou shalt not enjoy them for they shall goe into captivity And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth even to the other and there thou shalt serve other gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have knowne even wood and stone And the Lord shall bring thee into Aegypt againe with ships by the way whereof I spake unto thee thou shalt see it no more againe and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women and no man shal buy you Going into captivity scattering and serving the enemy are threatned as tokens of wrath Mic. 1.15 and 2.4 2 Chro. 36.16 17. Reas 1 Because it is a judgment of God upon whomsoever now the judgment of God shews his wrath and displeasure Reas 2 Because it is a blessing and so a token of the favour of God to have houses or lands and so to enjoy them Object Many are banished and cast into exile for Christ and the profession of his truth Ergo. Sol. It is true that as among the Grecians they had an Ostracismus a Law to banish every one that excelled other in riches or in honour or favour or eloquence and wisedome yea in their outward justice As Aristides was banished Athens by the voyces of all even a rustick who knew him not by face but because they called him just so falls it out in the world and in the kingdomes of it that they doe expell those who professe Christ and piety but that is nothing against this First for that which Justine Martyr saith Epist ad Diognetum de Christianis Omnis peregrina regio patria est eorum omnis patria est peregrina Every forreigne Countrey is their home and at home they are strangers and so they not banished wheresoever Againe because this comes onely from the malice and displeasure of men and is a favour of God that they are enabled to part with all for his sake as Act. 5.41 so wee may rejoyce if we be counted worthy to be exiles for his name but this here spoken of comes both from the wrath and displeasure of God and man Further as Causa non poena the cause not the punishment makes a Martyr Salvian Ex duobus lethalibus malis levius ut reor est captivitatem corporis Christiani quà m captivitatem animae sustinere So Salvian speaketh of a double captivity or of two sorts of captives one who are extrinsecus carne captives outwardly in the body others intus mente captivi inwardly in their mindes and affirmeth Of two great evills I suppose 't is more easie for a Christian to sustaine the captivity of his body than the bondage of the soule Now they which are captives in body for this are freed in their minds and è contr they who hold them captive are most captive for they are in their minds so as 2 Pet. 2.19 Vse 1 This may teach all such as may fall into captivity and exile that when it betides them If any should not we may then use the words of Salvian An credimus forte quod captivus animo populus ille non fuerit qui laetus tunc in suorum captivitatibus fuit captivus corde sensu non erat qui inter suorum supplicia ridebat qui jugulari se in suorum jugâ—lis non intelligebat qui mori se in suorum mortibus non putabat Quo ante they should learne to groane under it as under the manifest signe yea and the thing that is the wrath of God for if they may and ought to apprehend Gods displeasure when their land brings not forth abundance to them and their use what when it beares not them any longer But this lesson you may teach those that are in captivity we neither are neither are we in feare of it I answer that men carefull of themselves will learne and regard medicines or prescriptions before they have need of them especially if there be any likelyhood they may fall into a disease lest the remedy not ready the danger may be and prove the greater and the knowledge of any thing is no burden So in this But have we no feare of this that we have no need to learne it What then meant this late and most horrible treason or practice that every Nation Christian or barbarous whether Turkes Tariars or whosoever heard of If our Papists the greatest enemies of Christ this day the world hath if our Pseudo-catholicks the most despightfull enemies to the King and his posterity to the State and the prosperity of it to the Church and the peace of it had prevailed in their designes what would have beene our condition but this Questionlesse either must it have come to cutting of throats and the spilling of our blood after which the Scarlet-whore and her whorish brood hath a long time thirsted or else this captivity and exile if not carryed out of
done and men thinke by them to doe God good service but when things commanded are done and they know not the command but for some other respects doe them for as good no commandement in respect of them as they not know it And if things done which he had commanded be rejected as will-worship Isaiah 1.12 because they were not done in that manner he had commanded though they knew his will More this for as they in Isaiah did their works not in conscience to God but for some other end so these can not because they know it not and so it cannot be acceptable He that doth a man a good turne and meant it not but aimed at himselfe profit or glory or whatsoever cannot look for any great thankes from him for whom it fell out so well Vse 1 This confuteth Papists as touching ignorance which they much advance and commend though they be ashamed of the old position that ignorance is the Mother of devotion yet they accuse knowledge for want of devotion they practise to keepe the people in ignorance and defend it still to be good For when we urge the necessity of knowledge for all our actions and that whether from the Word Fathers or reason they oppose themselves against all Besides their manifold reasons for which they have beaten their braines to prove the people ought not to have the Scriptures in a knowne tongue and so not knowledge when we object unto them Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures and justly complaine of their spirit contrary to Christs Dureus denies that this is spoken to all Christians for how should saith he the ignorant and unlearned search them We answer that if Christ had then spoken to the learned onely his exception had beene good but if he preached to the whole people as then he did if to all the Jewes why not to all Christians Let them shew a difference but if none but that both Jewes and Christians must by them have the knowledge of Christ and eternall life when these are common to all in the Church why not to other when we urge that Acts 17.11 The Bereans searched the Scriptures whether those things were so Bellarmine answereth that was because they doubted whether he was an Apostle or no. The matter is not why they examined but that they did and are commended for it by the holy Ghost that they compared his doctrine with the doctrine of the Prophets Then ought all Christians thus to doe to try the Spirits for now may doubt be made more then at that time 1 John 4.1 and no search can be but by the Scriptures and knowledge of them When we urge that Collo 3.16 then they exempt the ignorant and say it is not for all but commend unto us the decree of the Councell of Trent who have allowed such to read as have licence from their Ordinary upon testimony from their Curates that they are humble and devout persons Rhemist praefat that is none but their Pope-holy devout Catholiques and yet the Apostle speakes generally and if the People be rude and as they still object ignorant we answer that is no reason or of no force to prove they must be kept from the Scriptures this is the way to make them still rude this ought not to be so and that which is a fault in them can be no argument against this as if a man should be denied the benefit not of light but of salve because his eyes are sore When we object unto them the fathers as Chrysost upon the place of the Collossians and divers other places or that of him Hom. 2. in Math. aliis Heare I pray you O yee layty buy you Bibles the medicines of your soules if you will buy you nothing else get the new Testament the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles To this the Rhemists praefat sect 14. answer that he speakes this as a Pulpit man not as giving rules in the Schooles As if he would speake one thing in the Pulpit another thing out of it or made the Pulpit a place to utter lyes These who thus censure the fathers no marvell though they often be sawcy with Luther and Calvin But Bellarmine answereth de verbo Dei lib. 2. cap. 16. that he spoke that then because many men were given to be at theaters and stage playes and other vanities and never read the Scriptures no not such as had understanding and he exhorteth all not that he would have all to read them but that they should doe it which could doe it with profit for he knew he had to deale with those who need such amplifications marke that Chrysost is made an Orator no Preacher one that for advantage would speake more then he thought When upon Col. the 3.16 hee exhorts not only in generall tearmes but specially heare O you worldly men that have wives and children he commands you to read the Scripture and not lightly and slightly but diligently and painfully How can they restraine those with any conscience to some which is spoken generally to all And for this reason holds it not now have we not playes they and we theaters fuller then Churches to the corrupting of the minds and manners of our people finde we not many of good capacitie more affected with any thing then the scriptures Then as necessary it is they should be exhorted and read them and yet with them may a man read any thing but Scriptures by all which as they themselves make gaine of them so they make them and their sacrifices service and obedience whatsoever it is unacceptable unto God because they are blind sacrifices specially that when they teach them to pray in an unknown tongue where every word must needs be a blind service Vse 2 To reprove all such as keep themselves in ignorance and without knowledge being blind they will be blind still they need not that any law forbid them the reading of the Scriptures they can be a law unto themselves and what soever others can object that they have against themselves of the difficulty the hardnesse the obscurity and danger of reading them Or if not that yet that they must learne from their ministers that which Duraeus the Jesuite said impiously that Christ left Pastors to to the people not Bibles they so practise for they will not once almost look in them only they will heare from the Ministers and would to God they would heare constantly and carefully they might have more knowledge but while they onely heare they remaine still ignorant and hearing so carelesly by ignorance they doe the things that God hath commanded now and then but without all true knowledge and so make them unacceptable to God when they worke by imitation and often enquire of the lawfulnesse after the deed Vse 3 To perswade every man that hath any desire that his service may be acceptable to God whatsoever it be to labor for knowledge that it may bee a seeing sacrifice for that which
keep himselfe from actuall and outward sinne and the practise of it is to labour to keep his heart pure and to take heed to that On the contrary if he neglect his heart he shall be sure to be corrupt in the outward man and to fall into outward sinnes against God and man He may happily in some sinister respect and by some circumstances of time place or person for want of opportunity ability and meanes refraine them but those things befalling him he will easily fall into that So much this exhortation sheweth So much also that sheweth Prov. 4.23.24.25 Keep thine heart with all diligence for thereout commeth life Put away from thee a froward mouth and put wicked lips farre from thee Let thine eyes behold the right and let thine eye lids direct the way before thee Matth. 15.19 Out of the heart proceed evill thoughts adulteries c. and Jam. 1.13.14 1 Pet. 2.11.12 Reason 1 Because the heart and spirit is the fountaine of actions whence they all spring the other parts are but the chanels and it is a flowing fountaine not a standing water which ever sends out such water as it hath if then the fountaine be clean and sweet so will the chanels be and è contra Reason 2 Because it is the commander of the whole man the whole life Now such as the Commander such is the Subject such as the Captaine such are the Souldiers Much more here for the conjunction is neerer and when they are subject to it as the weapon is to him that useth it Rom. 6.13 So that it commanding any thing that they all doe more then the Centurions servants Luke 7. Quest Rom. 7.25 Then the flesh and outward parts follow not the minde and the heart Answ There is no opposition there betwixt the inward and outward the heart and the body but betwixt the part regenerate and the unregenerate for by flesh it is usuall with the Apostle not to understand the body but the unregenerate part as in that place Gal. 5.17 not any opposition betwixt soule and body but the fight of the unregenerate with the regenerate and vers 24. not the crucifying of the body but of the unregenerate part For the heart and inward parts as farre as they are unregenerate are flesh also and understood under the outward by the Apostle Vse 1 Then may a man certainly judge a man to have a corrupt heart when hee hath a polluted outward man life and conversation Vide Malach. 1.8 Doctrine 1. Use 2. Vse 2 To reprove such as judge men to have corrupt hearts for the care and uprightnesse of their lives Vide ibid ex Use 1. Vse 3 To teach men who desire any outward holinesse or to be free from externall corruption or pollution to looke well to the heart to keep sinne or to kill it within for this is the best and the first to purge the heart and the other will be so And let none transgresse The dehortation from the evill and the outward practice of it Of the particular hath been spoken in the former verses yet somwhat hence It may be that some may think this speech hangs that way that it may seem to favour free-will to call upon them to abstaine from evill which if it were not in their power it were in vaine thus to speake to them I answer this is no more then other precepts and exhortations in the word which doe but teach us what we ought to do not what we are able which is but to make us assay and when we finde not power then to seeke it elsewhere Lege operū dicit Deus fac quod iubeo lege fidei dicitur Deo da quod iubes Aug. de spirit lit In the law of workes God saith to us Do what I command thee In the law of faith wee say to God What thou commandest us inable us to doe God therefore thus speakes to man to make him speake againe to him commanding that he may require and obtaine to doe seeing Phil. 2.13 It is God which worketh in you both the will and the deed even of his good pleasure Bernard in the audience of some commending the grace of God as that which he acknowledged in God did prevent him and he found did make him to profit and he hoped would perfect it in him Bernard de gratia lib. Arbit initio giving all to grace and taking nothing to himselfe One replied what then hast thou done or what reward can thou looke for if God worke all To whom he answered What counsell then doest thou give me or how wouldst thou advise me Give glory saith he to God who hath prevented thee excited thee and begun this good in thee and for that is to come live worthily that thou mayest approve thy selfe not unthankfull for those thou hast received and fit to receive more Bernard replies You give good counsell but that is but if you could make me able to obey and doe it For it is not so easie a thing to doe as to know what ought to be done for these are divers things to lead a blinde man and to give strength to the weary * Nec quivis doctor statim dator erit boni quodcunque docuerit Duo mihi sunt necessaria docere juvari Tu quidem homo rectè consulis ignorantiae sed si verum sentit Apostolus spiritus adjuvat infirmitatem nostram Rom. 8. Imo vero qui mihi per os tuum ministrat consilium ipse mihi necesse est ministrat per spiritum tuum adjutorium quo valeant implere quod consulis Ecce enim ex ejus munere velle adjacet mihi perficere autem non invenio nisi qui dedit velle dot perficere pro bona voluntate For whosoever is a teacher whatsoever he teacheth cannot bestow goodnesse Two things are needfull to me to be taught and to be helpt thou being a man doest well instruct my ignorance but the spirit helps our infirmities Rom. 8. yea he that gave me counsell by thy mouth must also send me helpe by his owne spirit that I may be able to doe what thou advisest by his grace I am willing but cannot performe unlesse he that wrought the will doe also worke the deed of his good pleasure And when to this he replied * Vbi ergo sunt merita nostra aut ubi est spes nostra Where then are our rewards or where is our hope He answereth with that Tit. 3.5 Not by the workes of righteousnesse which we had done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost Hence I gather and upon this inferre that God that calls upon us by his word to do must give us also power to do then therefore he calleth because he would have us cry to him for helpe And as S. Augustine O man acknowledge in every precept * O homo in praeceptiono
themselves and need not the helpes of others If any thinke I wrong men in judging thus of them I answer no because I judge by their fruit and practice For when their little love to the assembly of the Church appeareth by their negligent frequenting of them when prayers are made and the word Preached Saint Hierome tels me directly that some thinke they need not the preaching of the Church some not the prayers but thinke they are able enough to instruct themselves of themselves to prevaile with God which riseth commonly either from ignorance or knowledge the ignorance of their infirmities or the knowledge of their graces that makes them not desire the helpes of others as Moses tooke Aaron and Hur with him when he went to pray being privy to his own infirmities This makes them disdain others being puffed up with pride and self conceit Vse 2 To instruct every man be his excellency what it may be to affect and desire the prayers of others of the Ministers and publique congregations and the people of God for besides that God is in a speciall manner there present the cause why David and his men so desired the Temple Psal 84.1 3 7. So men in desiring them shew themselves to delight in the presence of God as gracious children in beholding the face of their father there is much profit to be had by them Non parvus est fructus domine ut à multis tibi gratiae aguntur de nobis à multis regeris pro nobis August confess 10.4 The benefit is not small O Lord that thou shouldest bee praysed by many of us and prayed unto by many for us For a man shall have not only the benefit of the prayers of one or two but many hundreds and if one faithfull prayer prevaile much Jam. 5. how much more many Thus shall he enjoy the communion of Saints which is a worthy thing so shall he better increase in the graces blessings received and keep that he hath for the best here and the most perfect must not imagine himselfe to bee already a burning and shining light within the house of heaven Sic ardens lucens nondum in domo se esse confidat ubi sine omni timore ventorum accensum lumen deportatur sed meminerit se esse sub dio utraque manu studeat operire quod portat nec credat aeri etiamsi videat esse tranquillum Repenâ—è enim hora qua non putaverit mutabitur si vel modicum manus remiserit lumen extinguetur Bern. ser 3. in vigil nat Dom. l. where once kindled there is no danger of any winds to blow it out but must remember that he is yet in the open ayre and must cover and defend the light he carries with both hands nor be confident though the ayre seeme to bee calme for sooner then he is aware if he take away his hand his light may be puffed out saith Saint Bernard Quest If the prayers of living Saints bee so needfull and profitable whose prayers we may desire and intreat why not also of dead Saints why may not their prayers be profitable to us and we desire them Answ How profitable soever their prayers may be to us and how certaine soever it may be that they doe pray for us as some think with Bernard ser 2. in vigi Nat. Dom. that Apocal. 6.10 doth prove it because of the answer vers 11. yet to desire their prayers as those who are living is not lawfull because it is without precept or president in the Scripture because it is against reason and the Scripture For first that they know not what we doe nor heare our prayers is manifest Isaiah 63.16 againe how should they come to the knowledge of them they in Heaven we in Earth and dispersed in many severall places As for the answer of the Rhemists out of Hierome against Vigilantius that they are in every place because they must follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth Revel 14.4 if the place be understood of them who imitate Christ upon earth and not of the soules departed as it may be at least it must bee unstood of all the elect whereof part are in the Church in the earth then the conclusion must be they who are upon earth must be every where as well as they who are in heaven which is most absurd But admit it of the Saints in heaven how is it possible they should be every where Not at one and the same instant they say but such is their motion speed and agility to be where they list and their power and will is answerable as well as the devill can be every where to worke mischiefe To which I answer that their comparison is absurd for the Devils by propriety of nature and the Lords permission have such passage in the world So have not the soules of the Saints for they are appointed by God to rest Revel 6.11 and 14.13 What rest if they must be tossed up and downe by the breaths of men sometime in England sometime in France c But say they did how were it possible they should heare the prayers of all that call upon them at one and the same instant if they be not in many severall places at one and the same instant And if it be impossible the prayers must needs be vaine Besides if it were not yet in that which Papists give their reason for it is made more abhominable that is to make way for themselves to the favour of God even as by Nobles and great men we procure accesse to the King Numquid tam demens est aliquis c. Is there any so mad saith Ambrose in Epist ad Rom. cap. 1. or so carelesse of his life that he will give the honour of the King to a Noble man to procure him accesse to him when he shall be guilty of treason when hee commeth before him And yet they thinke they are not guilty of treason to God who under pretence of seeking God by Saints doe give unto the Creatures the honour of God the Creator and forsaking the Lord worship their fellow-servants And though there be saith he some reason why they should make way to a King by his Nobles and Pensioners because hee is a man and knows not who are fit to be trusted with the Common-wealth yet unto the Lord who knows all things and knows the worths and worthinesse of men there needs no spokes-man but onely a holy mind Thus farre he But to adde to him that this thing is without precept in Old or New Testament confessed by themselves Eccius grants not in the Old because the Fathers were then in limbo a good reason against him and the Israelites were marvellous prone to Idolatry Not in the New lest the Gentiles should returne to their Idolatry and lest the Apostles should be too vaine-glorious and ambitious if they had commanded it and so a great difference and strong reason