Rule of Life shall inlighten them unrepented of no other Rule or Authoritie shall teach them the way to Life 4 Since we thus grant that the Scriptures may be Obscure to most men by their own default but perspicuous to others free from like fault or Demerit it remains we further enquire whether the same Scriptures do not most plainly set down First the Causes why they are so Obscure to some and Perspicuous to others Secondly the Remedy or means how their Obscurity or difficulty may be prevented If they plainly teach these two Points this is a sure Argument that they are if not that they cannot be so excellent a Rule of Faith as we acknowledge them For this very Point That the Scriptures in respect of diverse Persons are Obscure and Perspicuous though Obscure to none but through their own Default is a Principle of Christian Faith and therefore must be plainlie set down in the absolute complete Rule of Faith And to omit others in their due place to be inserted what can be more perspicuonsly taught either by Scriptures or other Writings than this Truth God giveth grace to the Humble and resisteth the proud or this He will confound the Wisdom of the Wise or such as Glory in their Wisdom These and like Rules of Gods Justice in punishing the proud and disobedient hold as true in the search of Scripture as in any other matter yea especially herein Thus were the Scribes and Pharisees men of extraordinary skill in Scriptures blinded in the most necessary Points of their Salvation though most plainly set down in Scriptures For what could be more plainly set down then many Testimonies of their Messias Many places of far greater Difficultie they could with Dexteritie unfold how chanced it then they are so Blinded in the other They were scattered in the proud Imagination of their hearts and glorious conceits of their Prerogatives in being Mosis Successours and in their stead simple and illiterate but humble and meek spirited Men raised up to be infallible Teachers of the Gentiles to unfold those Mysteries of Mans Redemption which the Scribes and Pharisees could not see with evidence of Truth to enlighten the sillie and ignorant and convince the Consciences of their learned proud Oppugners By their Ministerie Prophetical and Mosaical Mysteries became a Light unto the Gentile whose life had been in the shadow of death whilest a Veil was laid before the hearts of the most learned Jewes so that even whilst the Sun of Righteousnesse which enlightens every man that comes into the World did arise in their coast and ascend unto their Zenith they groap their way as men that walk in dangerous Paths by dark-night 5 Was the Scripture therefore no Rule of Faith unto these Jews to whom it was so Dishcult and Obscure Or is it not most evident that this Blindnesse did therefore come upon Israel because they hated this Light being carried away with Lowd cries of Templum Domini Templum Domini as the Papists now are with The Church The Church And for words of supposed Disgrace offered to It onely upon a Surmise that Christ had said he would destroy and build It up again brought to seek the destruction of the Glory of It even of the Lord of Glory Thou that wouldest make others beleave the Pope is such dost thou beleeve the Scriptures to be Infallible How is it then whilest thou readest Gods Judgements upon thy Brother Jew thou doest not tremble and quake lest the Lord smite thee also thou painted wall with like Blindnesse seeing thou hast justified thy brother Pharisees stubborn Pride wilfull Arrogancie and witting Blasphemie in oppugning Scriptures And as for all such whose hearts can be touched with the terrour of Gods Judgements upon others in fear and reverence I request them to consider well whether one of the greatest Roman Doctours were not taken with more than Jewish madnesse in mistaking Scripture in it self most plain and easie who to prove the Scriptures Obscurity to be such as in this respect it could not be the Rule of Faith alledgeth for his proof that place of the Prophet And the vision of them all is become unto you as the word of a Book that is sealed up which they deliver to one that can read saying Read this I pray thee then shall he say I cannot for it is sealed 6 The Prophet relates it as a wonder that they should not be able to discern the Truth What Truth an obscure or hidden Truth Impossible to be understood This had been a wonderfull Wonder indeed that men should not be able to understand that which was Impossible to be understood Wherein then was the true Wonder seen In this that they whose eyes had formerly been illuminated by the evidence and clearnesse of the Divine Truth revealed by Gods Messenger should not be able to discern the same still alike clear and perspicuous but now to be shut up from their eyes as appeareth by the similitude of the sealed Book whose Character was legible enough but yet not able to be read whilst sealed A man might as well prove the Sun to be dark because Polyphemus after 〈◊〉 had put out his eye could not see it as the Scriptures by this place to be Obscure The Prophets words entire are these Stay your selves and Wonder they are blind and make you blind they are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with drink For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes The Prophets and your chief Seers hath he covered And the vision of them all is become unto you c. And more plainly Therefore the Lord said because this people come near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but have removed their heart from me and their fear towards me was taught by the precepts of men doth he not mean the Blind Obedience of Modern Papists as well as ancient Jews Therefore behold I will do a marvellous work in this People even a marvellous work and a wonder For the Wisdom of the wise men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent man shall be hid The Lord himself foretels it as a wonder that this People should be so ignorant in the Word of God and yet will the Jesuite make us beleeve the Word of God is so Obscure that it cannot be unto us the Rule of Faith when as without the knowledge and light of it not which it hath in it self but which it communicates to us there is no Vision no Knowledge in the Visible Church but such wonderfull Darknesse as the Prophet here describes 7 Let the Reader here give sentence with me whether it were not wonderfull Jewish Blindnesse or wilfull Blasphemie in Valentian so confidently to avouch that the Veil which Saint Paul saith is laid before the Jews hearts was woven a great part out of the Difficulty of Scriptures such Scriptures as the
doth the Pope challenge to himself the gift of Prophecie but only of legal Decisions which are no otherwise written then many write and contain no deeper nor more Supernatural Matter then many may invent most of them usually penned in a base and barbarous Logick Phrase his Stile at the best is not peculiar his Character easie to be counterfeited by any man that can pen a Proclamation or frame an Instrument in Civil Courts 7 To recollect what hath been said First seeing God is more to be Believed then Men secondly seeing we have better Arguments to perswade the People that these Scriptures daily read in our Church are Gods own Words then the Priests and Jesuites have that the Tidings which they bring from beyond Sea are the Popes or Churches Decrees or Sentence we may and ought Teach them to relie immediately upon Gods Word preached or read unto them as the surest and most Infallible Rule of Faith the most lively most effectual and most forcible Means of their Salvation Or if the Jesuites will teach them to Believe the Popes Decrees given ex Cathedra or the Churches Opinion indefinitely taken Fide divina by Infallible Faith but the Jesuites or Priests Expositions or Translations of them only Conditionally and with this Limitation If so they be the Pope or Churches Decrees we may in like sort with far greater Reason teach the People to Believe the Scriptures or the Word of God absolutely and our Translations or Expositions of it but Conditionally or with Limitation so far as they are Consonant to the Word of God Seeing it is as probable that we may expound Gods Word as rightly and sincerely as the other can the Church or Popes Edicts we have better Reason to exact this conditional Obedience and Assent in the Vertue and Authoritie of Gods Word which we make the Rule of Faith then they can have to exact the like Obedience by Vertue of the Pope or Churches Edict which is to them the Mistresse of Faith For it is more certain to any man living that Gods Word is most Infallibly True then that the Pope cannot Erre Wherefore if the Absolute Belief of the Popes Infallibilitie and Conditional Belief of the Jesuites or Priests his Messengers Fidelitie or Skill be sufficient to Salvation much more may the Absolute Belief or Assent unto the Infallibility of Gods Word and such Conditional and limited Belief of his Ministers Fidelitie be sufficient for the Salvation of his People who as hath been proved cannot be more certain that the Romish Church saith This or That then we can be of Gods Word For they never hear the Church or Pope speak but in Jesuites or Priests Mouthes And although they knew he said just so as those say yet may a man doubt in Modestie whether the Popes Words be alwayes Infallible but of the Infallibilitie of Gods Word can no man doubt 8 And Here I cannot but much wonder at the preposterous courses of these Romanists who holding an Implicite Faith of Believing as the Church Believes in many Points to be sufficient unto Salvation will yet fasten this implicite Faith upon the present Church of Rome and not refer it rather unto that Church as it was under S. Peters Jurisdiction and Government For if Universalitie be as they contend a sure Note of undoubted Truth then must it needs be more undoubtedly True that S. Peter could not Erre in Matters of Faith then that this present Romish Pope and his Cardinals cannot so Erre For all Papists hold this as True of S. Peter as of this present Pope and all Protestants hold it True of S. Peter not in the present Pope and so did all the Fathers without controversie hold it most True that S. Peter did not teach amisse in his Apostolical Writings So that Universalitie is much greater for S. Peter then for this Pope that now is or the next that shall be 9 For these Reasons fully consonant to their own Positions all Papists me-thinks in Reason should make the same Difference in their Estimate of S. Peter and later Popes which a French Cardinal as the Tradition is at Durham once made betwixt S. Cuthbert and venerable Bede Abeit S. Cuthbert was accounted the greater Saint amongst them whose greater Benefactour he had been in which respect they brought the Cardinal first unto S. Cuthberts Tomb yet because he knew him not so well but only by their Report he praies very warily Sancte Cuthberte si Sanctus es or a pro me But afterwards brought unto Bedes Tomb then in the Consistory because he had been Famous in Forrain Nations from the Commendations of lesse partial Antiquitie he fell to his prayers without Ifs and And 's Vener abilis Beda quia tu Sanctus es or a pro me 10 Proprotional to this Caution in this French-mans Prayers should every modern Papist limit his Belief of the present Popes Infallibilitie in respect of S. Peters And say thus in his heart As for S. Peter I know he Believed and Taught aright And I beseech God I may Believe as he Believed and that my Soul may come whither his is gone as for this present Pope if he believe as S. Peter did be likely to follow him in LIfe and Death I pray God I may Believe as he Believes and do as he Teacheth but otherwise believe me I would be very loath to pin my Belief upon his Sleeve lest happily he run Headlong to Hell to that which should have drawn me up to Heaven For in this Life I walk by Faith and by Faith I must ascend Thither if I ever come There and therefore I dare not fasten my Belief upon any Man whom I would be loath to follow in his Course of Life But most surely might this Implicite Faith be fastned upon Gods written Word contained in the Writings of Moses the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists We know O Lord that Thou hast Taught them All Truth that is Necessary for thy Church to know And our Adversaries confess that thy Word uttered by Them rightly understood is the most sure Rule of Faith for by This they seek to establish the Infallibilitie of the Church and Pope They themselves speak aright by their own Confession where they speak consonantly unto it Wherefore the safest Course for us must be to search out the True Sense and Meaning of it which is as easie for us as them to find as in the Processe of these Meditations God willing shall appear 11 Unto the main Objection concerning the Means of knowing Scripture to be Scripture we have partly answered or rather prevented it in the first Treatise and throughout this whole intended discourse we shall God willing explicate the former general Means or Motives as also bring other peculiar Inducements for the establishing of True Faith unto the particular Articles in this Creed contained For the present Difficultie concerning the Rule of Illiterate Lay-mens Faith or such as understand not those Languages in which
former Precept except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you as peremptorie as any can be for communicating as well sacramentally as spiritually in both kinds it were uncharitable to mistrust Gods mercie towards such poor souls as long for the Cup of Salvation which no man giveth them yea which the Romish Church hath by Decree as peremptorie as she could make denied to all the Laitie without exception to all the Clergie except such as may by a peculiar right challenge his blood as their own by way of exchange because they have made him a Bodie which he had not before 14 Yet is it a small thing with this great Whore to deprive the Christian World of the Lords unlesse she urge it instead thereof to pledge her in the cup of Devils full of the wine of fornication coloured with her adulterate Scriptures authorized no doubt for such purposes Where our Apostle Saint Paul saith that he and his Ministers were Stewards of the mysteries of God the vulgar Roman Edition renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latin Dispensatores and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly rendred in this place elsewhere upon carelesnesse rather then any intention of harm as I am perswaded by the Latin Sacramentum Whether upon set purpose of some more learned in that Councel presuming to gull the simple and illiterate by their cunning as Chemnitius probably thinks or whether the mysterie of iniquitie as is more probable wrought unawares in the brains of the ignorant which were the major part and as some have related did oversway the learned uncapable of such impudencie as should give countenance to this ignominious Decree partly from the equivocation of the Latin Dispensatores partly from the synonymical signification which the vulgar hath made of Mysterium and Sacramentum the Beetle-heads have hammered out an interpretation of Saint Pauls words before cited so scurrilously contrarie to his meaning that the Black Dog which is said to have appeared unto Cardinal Crescentius might he have spoken in the Councel could scarce have uttered it without blushing For the Apostle meant such Dispensatores or Stewards as our Saviour speaks of in the four and twentieth of Saint Matthew such as should give their Fellow-servants their just portions without purloining such as daily expected their Masters Return to call them unto a strict Account of their Stewardship For so it is expressely added Moreover or as much as belongs unto our office it is required of Stewards that they be all found faithfull 1 Cor. 4. 2. 15 Not to dispute of the Churches Authority in disposing of Sacraments nor to exagitate the impietie of this decree be the one for the present supposed as great the other as little as they list to make it onely this I would demand of any that is so himself whether he can imagine any men sober or in their right mindes would not assoon have urged that text The fool hath said in his heart there is no God for establishing Atheisme or S. Peters check unto Simon Magus to prove Simonie lawful as derive the Churches authoritie for detaining the least part of the Word of life much lesse the Cup of Salvation from these words Let a man so think of us as of the Ministers of Christ and disposers of the secrets of God What secrets of the Gospel before hid but now to be published to all the World of which the same Apostle elsewhere had said A necessity is laid upon me and wo unto me if I preach it not Of the use or necessity of the Lords Cup not a word in this place not a syllable for the Lord had sent him not to administer this Sacrament but to preach the Gospel of which the Doctrine of the Lords Supper was a part indeed but where expressely and directly he delivers that doth he intimate by any circumstance that either it had been was or might be otherwise administred then according to the patern prescribed by our Saviour at the first Institution Rather his often repetition of these conjunctives This bread and this cup eating and drinking the bodie and bloud c. argue he never thought the one should be received without the other that this prohibition of the Cup was a particular branch of the mysterie of iniquitie not to break out till latter Ages hid from his eyes that had seen the Mysterie it self begin to work As often as ye shall eat this bread saith the Apostle and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death till â—e come Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. Let a man therefore examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this 〈◊〉 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own dâ—… tion because he discerneth not the Lords Bodie Yet unto the Trent Councel Saint Paul in the former place where he had no such occasion as not speaking one word either of the Doctrine necessitie or use of the Sacraments seems to intimate and that not obscurelie the Churches Authority in dispensing them as the Trent Fathers have done What then might every Minister of Christ every distributer of Gods secrets have used the like authoritie before the Church representative did at least by tact consent approve the practise This place doubtlesse proves either altogether nothing or thus much for the Apostles words are indefinite for their literal sence equally appliable to every faithfull Minister or private dispenser of such secrets not appropriate to the intire publick bodie Ecciesiastick or the Capital or Cardinal parts thereof Of the Corinthians to whom he wrote one said I am Pauls another I am Apollos the third I am of Cephas all boasting in the personal excellencies of their first Parents in Christ as the Papists now do in Saint Peters and his successours Catholick Primacie To asswage these carnal humours in his children their Father that great Doctor of the Gentiles seeks more in this then in any other place of all his Epistles to debase himself and diminish others high esteem either of his own worth or of his calling Who is Paul then and who is Apollos but the Ministers by whom ye believed and as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase And he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his wages according to his labour For we together are Gods labourers ye are Gods husbandry and Gods building And after a serious incitement of master builders to fidelitie with the like admonition to Gods husbandry or building not to rejoyce in men he concludes as he had begun Let every man esteem us such as I have said
they become their chief accusers That opinion which at first brought in neglect of the Chalice and as the Trent Councel presumed would have warranted them in making this decree doth most condemn them for the measure of their iniquity could not have been so fully accomplished unlesse they had held a transubstantiation of the wine into Christs bloud 19 What part of Scripture can we presume they wil spare that dare thus countermand the most principal of all Gods Commandments what reckoning may we think they make of our Saviour Christ that adventure thus shamefully to disanul and cancel his last wil and testament defrauding almost the whole Christian World of half their Lord and Masters royal allowance partly without any shew of Scriptures either to restrain or otherwise interpret these Soveraign precepts partly upon such idle and frivolous allegations as may further witnesse their sleight estimate of Gods Word save only so far as it may be wrested to serve their turns 20 But grant the places there alledged by the Councel did so mitigate either the form of the institution or the peremptory manner of our Saviours speeches in the sixth of John as to make it disputable in unpartial judgments whether they did plainly injoyn any necessity of communicating under both kinds the former decree notwithstanding would manifestly infer an usurpation of Soveraignty over Gods word quite contrary to the general Analogie of faith reason and conscience by all which in cases doubtful and for the speculative form of truth disputable with equal probability affirmatively or negatively we are taught to frame our choice when we come to practise according to the difference of the matter or of consequences which may ensue more dreadful one way then the other alwayes to prefer either a greater good before a lesse or a lesse evil before a greater though both equally probable Suppose then these two contradictory propositions The denial of the Cup is a mutilation of Christs last will and testament the denial of the Cup is no mutilation of Christs last will and Testament were for their speculative probabilities in just examination equipendent yet the doctrine of faith delivered in Scripture reason and conscience without contradiction instructs us that to alter abrogate or mutilate the son of Gods last Will and Testament is a most grievous most horrible most dreadful sin but to permit the use of the Chalice hath no suspition of any the least evil in it Had the Trent Fathers thus done they had done no worse then our Saviour then his Apostles then the Primitive Church by their own confession did This excesse of evil without all hope of any the least compensative good to follow upon the denial should have swaied them to that practise which was infinitely more safe as not accompanied with any possibility or shew of danger although the speculative probability of any divine precept necessarily injoyning the use of the cup had been none Thus peremptorily to adventure upon consequences so fearful whereto no contrary fear could in reason impel nor hopes any way comparable allure them thus imperiously to deprive the whole Christian World of a good in their valuation testified by their humble supplications and frequent embassages to that Councel so inestimable without any other good possible to redound unto the deniers save only usurpation of Lordly Dominion over Christs heritage plainly evinceth that the Church is of far greater authority with them then GODS Word either written in the Sacred Canon or their hearts then all his Laws either ingrafted by nature or positive and Supernatural For 21 Admit this Church representative had been fully perswaded in conscience rightly examined and immediately ruled by Scripture that the former decree did not prejudice the institution use or end of this Sacrament yet most Christians earnest desire of the Cup so publickly testified could not suffer them to sleep in ignorance of that great scandal the denial of it needs must give to most inferiour particular Churches Wherefore the rule of charity that moved the Father of the Gentiles to that serious protestation If meat offend my brother I will eat no flesh while the world standeth that I may not offend my brother should in all equity divine or humane have wrought these Prelates hearts to like profession If want of their spiritual drink offend so many Congregations and such a multitude of our brethren we will rather not use our lawful authority acknowledged by all then usurp any that may be offensive or suspicious unto others though apparantly just unto our selves for they could not be more fully perswaded this decree was just then Saint Paul was that all meats were lawful to him 22 But may we think these Prelates had no scruple of conscience whether the very form of this decree were not against our Saviours expresse command Bibite ex hoc omnes drink ye all of this For mine own part whiles I call to mind what else-where I have observed that the Jews were never so peremptory in their despightful censures of our Saviours doctrine nor so outragiously bent against his person as when their hearts were touched in part with his miracles or in some degree illuminated with the truth he taught The Councels extraordinary forwardnesse to terrifie all Contravenaries of this decree makes me suspect they were too conscious of their own shallow pretended proofs to elude Gods word whose light and perspicuity in this point had exasperated their hardned hearts and weak-sighted faith to be so outragious in the very beginning of that session as if they had meant to stifle their consciences and choak the truth lest these happily might crosse their proceedings or controul their purposes if this cause should once have come to sober and deliberate debatement For as theeves oftentimes seek to avoid apprehension by crying loudest Turn the Thief so these wolves hoped wel to smother their guilt and prevent al notice taking of their impiety by their grievo us exclamations against others monstrous impious opinions in this point interdicting all upon penalty of the causes following ere they had determined ought to teach preach or believe otherwise then they meant to determin 23 Yet though the Councel accurse all that hold communication under both kinds as a necessary doctrine it doth not absolutely inhibit all use of the Chalice but leaves it free unto their Lord the Pope to grant it upon what Conditions he please either unto private men or whole Nations Upon what conditions then may we presume wil it please his Holinesse for to grant it upon any better then Satan tendred all the Kingdomes of the Earth unto our Saviour For this fained servant of Christ a true Gehazi repining at his Lord and Masters simplicity that could refuse so fair a profer made after Satan in all haste saying in his heart I wil surely take somewhat of him though my Master spared him and pretending a message in his name to whom all power was
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost For the promise is made unto you and to your children And the same day were added to the Church about three thousand souls Saint Paul for Conclusion takes his Farewel of them as no part of his peculiar charge only tels them it was his and his fellow Barnabas duty to admonish them Then Paul and Barnabas spake boldly and said It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles For so hath the Lord commanded us saying I have made thee a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be the salvation unto the end of the World And when the Gentiles heard it they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed Thus the Word of the Lord was published throughout the whole Country But the Jews stirred certain devout and honourable women and the chief men of the City and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts Acts 13. 46. 7 Thus it is as true of graces as natures ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power and efficacy of Christs chief Apostles is restrained unto their proper and limited Sphere God alwayes blessing those endeavours best that are imployed within the precincts of that peculiar charge whereto he appoints us By that which hath been said it may appear that Saint Peters and Saint Pauls prerogatives how great soever were both personal to expire with themselves although a title of supremacy over the Gentiles might be pretended with much greater probabilitie from S. Paul then from S. Peter whose peculiar charge was the Jew as may be yet further manifested by the place most urged for his and his Successors oecumenical jurisdiction bequeathed as the Romanists suppose in these words Peter feed my lambs Peter feed my sheep 8 But the natural circumstances of that place compared with the late exposition of the former deads all their blows thence intended against us ere they can rightly frame themselves to fetch them A little before these words were uttered Peter desirous to approve his excessive love to our Saviour and manifest more then an ordinary desire of his company that had appeared unknown unto him but from Johns notification girt his coat about him and cast himself into the Sea whiles the other Disciples not above two hundred Cubits from Land came by ship to meet him After a short dinner passed as the text seems to insinuate in silence at least not entertained with such variety of discourse as might either interrupt some private intimation made to Peter of future conference or put the former occasion of this following exhortation out of the other Apostles memory our Saviour enjoyns Simon the son of Jona to feed his Lambs and again and again to feed his Sheep He sees him then like a loving Souldier desirous by his adventurous approach unto him to recover his former reputation much impaired by denying him Whether our Saviour check or cherish this desire I question not much lesse determin His speeches with the former circumstances import thus much Thou hast made profession of more then ordinary love unto me of readinesse to lay down thy life for my sake though all others even these thy fellows should forsake me willing I see thee by thy present hazard of it to make thy former words good But wouldest thou have me yet to shew thee a more excellent way I have told thee it long since Thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren SIMON the Son of JONA if thou desire to prove thy self a CEPHAS or testifie the sincerity of thy faith and love which by the powers of darknesse were of late so grievously shaken Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Yea seeing thou thrice deniedst the Shepheard of thy soul I say unto thee the third time Feed my sheep Let the memory of thy fore-passed threefold sin also let this my present threefold admonition excite thee unto triple diligence in thy charge to shew such pitty and compassion as I have shewed to thee unto that lost and scattered Block which have denied me or consented to my crucifying Let thy faithful performance of what I request thee at my farewel be the first testimony of thy love to me to be lastly testified by the losse of thy life which thou didst promise me when I gave mine for my sheep but shalt not pay until thou hast fulfilled this my request Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thine hands and another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldest not John 21. 18. 9 But here Bellarmin alwayes exceeding witty either to elude Scriptures whose natural meaning is evidently against him or to collect a gulling sence from such as nothing at all make for him would infer that the Possessive Mâ— necessarily refers Peters charge or jurisdiction unto all the flock that called Christ their Lord Owner For seeing after his resurrection there was but one Fold for this great Shepherd to say My sâ—… could not distinguish one sort from another and therefore none to be exempted from Peters oversight But the Flock though One in respect of the Oâ—… which had purchased all with one price did consist of sheep much different in Breeding and Retaining their several Marks some were of the Circumcision others of the Uncircumcision the former had been our Saviours peculiars charge in his life time for he was not sent but unto the lost sheep of Israel these he might with note of distinction call My sheep As if a Shepherd raised to better fortunes should purchase a great many more sheep then he was wont to look to himself and refer both sorts to severall keepers though both to Fold together in the evening he might Signanter say to the one look well to my sheep though both Flocks were his by right of possession but onely the one his by a peculiar relation of former charge or over-sight And thus as we have said before the Jews were committed peculiarly to Saint Peters care Albeit consonantly to the former exposition of both places alledged our Saviour by My sheep might onely intimate his tender care over his flock without distinction that Peter might more carefully feed as many as he could personally look to seeing the proof of his love to his Lord and Master and of his fidelity which had failed did consist herein As for Bellarmines other collections that our Saviour by mentioning his sheep should mean Prelates or Superiours by his little sheep so their vulgar distinguisheth inferiour Pastors by his lambs meer Laicks such as have Fathers but
and feeling of his goodnesse and truth of his word 7 Though no Law-giver or Governour whether temporal or spiritual especially whose calling was but ordinary could possibly before or since so well deserve of the people committed to his guidance as this great General already had done of all the host of Israel were they upon this consideration forthwith to believe what soever he should avouch without further examination sign or token of his favour with God without assured experience or at the least more then probable presumptions of his continual faithfulnesse in that service whereunto they knew him appointed Albeit after all the mighty works before mentioned wrought in their presence they had been bound thereunto the meanest handmaid in that multitude had infallible pledges plenty of his extraordinary calling lockt up in her own unerring senses But from the strange yet frequent manifestation of Moses power and favour with God so great as none besides the great Prophet whom he prefigured might challenge the like the Lord in his al-seeing wisdom took fit occasion to allure his people unto strict observance of what he afterwards solemnly enacted as also in them to forwarn all future generations without express warrant of his word not absolutely to believe any governour whomsoever in al though of tried skil and fidelity in many principal points of his service That passage of Scripture wherein the manner of this peoples stipulation is registred wel deserves an exact survey of all especially of these circumstances How the Lord by rehearsal of his mighty works so epassed extorts their promise to do whatsoever should by Moses be commanded them and yet will not accept it offered until he have made them ear-witnesses of his familiarity and communication with him First out of the Mount he called Moses unto him to deliver this solemn message unto the house of Jacob Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you upon â—agles wings and have brought you unto me Now therefore if you will hear my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be my chief treasure above all people though all the earth be mine After Moses had reported unto God this answer freely uttered with joynt consent of all the people solemnly assembled before their Elders All that the Lord commanded we will do was the whole businesse betwixt God and them fully transacted by this Agent in their obsence No he is sent back to sanctifie the people that they might expect Gods glorious appearance in Mount Sinai to ratifie what he had said upon the return of their answer Lo I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear whilest I talk with thee and that they may also believe thee for ever They did not believe that God had revealed his word to Moses for the wonders he had wrought but rather that his wonders were from Gâ—d because they heard God speak to him yea to themselves For their principal and fundamental lawes were uttered by God himself in their hearing 〈◊〉 Moses expresseth These words to wit the Decalogue the Lord spake unto â—… 〈◊〉 â—ulâ—â—tude in the â—ouâ—t out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the 〈◊〉 with a great voice and addâ—d no more And lest the words which they had heard might soon be smothered in fleshly hearts or quickly slide oâ—â— of their brittle memories the Lord wrote them in two Tables of stone and at their transcription not â—oses onely but Aaron Nadaâ— and Aâ—thâ— with the seventy Elders of Israel are made spectators of the Divine glory ravished with the sweetnesse of his presence †They saw saith the Text thâ—… of Isrâ—â—l and unâ—er his feet as it were a work of a Saphire stone and as the 〈◊〉 hâ—aâ—â—n when it is clear And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel â—e 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 also they saw God and did eat and drink After these Tables through Aâ—â—sâ—s anger at the peoples folly and impiety were broken God writes the 〈◊〉 same words again and renews his Covenant before all the people promising undoubted experience of his Divine assistance 8 Doth Moses after all this call fire from heaven upon all such as distrâ—â—t his words â—aron and Mâ—riam openly derogate from his authority which the Lord consirmes again viva voce descending in the †pillar of the 〈◊〉 coâ—…ng these dâ—tractors in the doore of the Yabeâ—â—acce Wherefore were you 〈◊〉 aâ—raid to spâ—ak against my servant even against Moses Thâ—â—s the Lord was 〈◊〉 aâ—gâ—â—e and depaâ—tâ—d leaving his mark upon Miriam cured of her leprosie by Moses instant prayers No marvell if Korah Dathan and â—â—irams judgements were so grievous when their sin against Moses after so many documents of his high calling could not but be wilfull as their perseverance in it after so many admonitions to desist most malitious and obstinate Yet was Mâ—sâ—s further countenanced by the appearance of Gods glory unto all the Congregation and his authority further ratified by the strange and fearfull end of these chief malefactors †foretold by him and by fire iâ—luing from the Lord to consume their confederates in offering incense ungratefull to their God Tantae molis erat Judaeam condere gentem So long and great a work it was to â—…ie Israel in true faith But without any like miracle or prediction such as never saw him never heard good of him must believe the Pope as well as Israel did their Law-giver that could make the Sea to grant him passage the clouds send bread the windes bring flesh and the hard rock yeeld drink sufficient for him and all his mighty host that could thus call the heavens as witnesses to condemn and appoint the earth as executioner of his judgements upon the obstinate and rebellious yet after all this he inflicts no such punishments upon the doubtfull in faith as the Romish Church doth but rather as is evident out of the places before alledged confirms them by commemoration of these late cited and like Experiments making †God 's favours past the surest pledges of his assistance in greatest difficulties that could beset them To conclude this people believed Moses for Godâ— testimony of him we may not believe Gods Word without the Popes testimony of it He must be to God as Aaron was to Moses his mouth whereby he onely speaks distinctly or intelligibly to his people CAP. XVII That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable to his precepts and predictions the faithfull without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the Law as their fore-fathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles 1 TO proceed unto the ages following Moses How did they know Moses law either indeed to be Gods Word or the true sence and meaning of it being indefinitely known
take it and the City is given into the hand of the Caldeans that fight against it by means of the sword and of the famin and of the pestilence and what thou hast spoken is come to passe and behold thou seest it And thou hast said unto me O Lord God Buy unto thee the field for silver and take witnesses for the City shall be given into the hand of the Caldeans Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah saying Behold I am the Lord God of all flesh is there any thing too hard for me The Lord had stricken Jacob with the wound of an enemy and with a sharp chastisement for the multitude of his iniquities wherefore he cried for his affliction and said My sorrow is incurable not considering who it was had done all this unto him for because the Lord had killed they must believe he would make alive again Their present wounds inflicted contrary to the rules of politick defence were the best pledges of their future health beyond all hope of State-Chirurgions And this is the very Seal of Jeremiahs assurance from the Lords own mouth Thus saith the Lord like as I have brought all this great plague upon this people so will I bring upon them all the good I have promised them And the fields shall be possessed in this land whereof ye say It is desolate without man or beast and shall be given into the hand of the Caldeans Men shall buy fields for silver and make writings and seal them and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin and round about Jerusalem So absolute and al-sufficient was Moses's his law in particular actions much more in general or doctrinal resolutions that God himself for confirmation of his Prophets and this distrustful peoples faith in a point by humane estimate most incredible thought it sufficient to be a remembrancer to the Law-giver For the Lord here saith to Jeremiah concerning this particular Moses many generations before had universally foretold Now when all these things shall come upon thee either the blessing or the curse which I have set before thee and thou shalt turn into thine heart among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee then the Lord thy God will cause thy Captives to return and have compassion upon thee and will return to gather thee out of all the people where the Lord thy God had scattered thee Though thou wast cast unto the uttermost part of heaven from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee and from thence will he take thee And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed and thou shalt possesse it and he will shew thee favour and will multiply thee above thy fathers By this rule of Moses according to the prediction of Jeremiah doth Nehemiah afterwards frame his prayers to God and direct his enterprise for restauration of Jerusalem We have grievously sinned against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgements which thou commandedst thy servant Moses I beseech thee remember the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses saying Ye will transgresse and I will scatter you abroad among the people But if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them though your scattering were to the uttermost part of the heaven yet will I gather you from thence and will bring you unto the place that I have chosen to place my name there Now these are thy servants and thy people c. O Lord I beseech thee let thine ear now hearken to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and I pray thee cause thy servant to prosper this day and give him favour in the presence of this man He saw the truth of Moses divine prediction confirmed by the Kings present grant of his petition and speedy restauration of Jerusalem albeit a Prophet by profession had disswaded the enterprise as likely to prove dangerous to his person CAP. XVIII That the Society or visible Company of Prophets had no such absolute authority as the Romish Church usurps 1 DId the Records of Antiquity afford us any the least presumption to think that absolute belief or obedience might safely be tendered by inferiours as due to any visible Company of men without examination of their proposals by Moses writings since they were extant the society of Prophets in all respects the Romanists can pretend had the most probable title to this prerogative Their profession or calling was publick and lawful their distinction from all others eminent their persons and places of residence visible and known their promises for enjoying the extraordinary presence or illuminations of Gods spirit peculiar many of them venerable for their integrity in civil dealings and sanctity of private life some of them endued with the gift of miracles In all these and many like considerations that fraternity or collegiate society might justly have pleaded all the priviledges a publick spirit can grant to one sort of men before others For if the more or lesse expresse testimony of Gods word for extraordinary assistance of his spirit or the different measure of his illumination or manner of immediate teaching be that which makes some mens spirit more publick then their brethrens this difference was greater between the Priests or Prophets and people of old then since God spake unto the world by his Son yet what Prophet did once intimate the necessity of his proposal for notifying the truth of Scriptures What one did ever bewray the least desire to have his interpretations of them universally held authentick or his particular predictions absolutely assented unto without further trial then his bare assertion without examination of them by Moses doctrine already established 2 Had they been the infallible Church representative had their assertions though given by joynt consent ex Cathedra or in the most solemn manner used in those times been of such authority as the Romanist would perswade us a Councel of their Prelates lawfully assembled is Gods people had stood bound to embrace whatsoever a major part of that profession had resolved upon but this inference though necessarily following the supposed premises the Jesuite I know dare not affirm lest Ahabs bloud untimely shed by confidence in their infallibility cry out against him Yet Bellarmin too wel knowing the liquorish temper of this prâ—â—â—a age for the most part acquainted with none but table-talk Divinity to be such as wil swallow down any doctrine be it never so idle profane or poisonous so it be saneed with pleasant conceit and merriment would put us off with this jest That as in Saxony one Catholicks verdict were to be taken before four hundred Lutherans so should one of the Lords Prophets have been followed in those times before five hundred of Baals And Ahab no doubt had so done had not the Devil taught his Divines then as he hath done Bellarmin and his fellows
erring is more stedfastly to be believed as more credible in it self then either the Canon of Scriptures or any thing therein contained because these become actually credible unto us onely by the Churches Declaration which cannot possibly ought avail for their belief unless it were better believed 6 Perhaps the Reader will here challenge me that this last instance proves not all that I proposed in the Title of this chapter For it onely proves the Popes supremacie is better to be believed then that Christ is come in the flesh that God did ever speak to men in former ages by his Prophets and â—…tter by his Son But this infers no absolute alienation of our belief from Christ seeing even in this respect that we believe the Church or Pope so well we must needs â—elieve that Christ is come in the flesh and that God hath spoken to us sundry ways for thus much the Pope avouâ—â—eth Yea but what if the Church teach us that Christ is our Lord and Redeemer and â—et urge us to do that which is contumelious to his Majesty What if it teach us that these Scriptures are Gods Word and yet binde us by her infallible dâ—â—â—â—es to break his Laws and give his spirit the lye Should we make profession of believing as the Pope teacheth and yet take his meaning to be only such as Marnixius whom we better believe would make it His Holiness would quickly pronounce us Apostat's from the Catholick faith Or if this suffice not the indifferent Reader for satisfying my former promise let him have patience but for a while and I will pay him all 7 Their first main position That no private man can certainly know the Canon of Scriptures to be Gods Word but by relying upon the present Church infers as much as hath been said much more will follow from their second That no man can certainly be perswaded of the true sense and meaning of particular propositions contained in the general Canon without the same Churches testimony unto whom the authentick interpretation or dijudication of Scriptures â—holly belongs Imagine the former parties now fully perswaded of the Scriptures divine truth in general should by the Consistory which late Câ—â—â—chized them be questioned about the meaning of some particular plaâ—â—â— Consist We hope you adore the consecrated host with Divine worship as oft as you meet it in procession Cat. Desirous we are to do any thing that becomes good Christians and obedient Sons unto our holy mother the Church but we cannot satisfie our consciences how this may stand with the principles of Christianity Your Holinesses for which we rest yours unto death have assured us these sacred volumes are the very words of God and his words we know must be obeyed Now since we know these to be his words we have found it written in them Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve It is we doubt our simplicity that will not suffer us to conceive how the consecrated Host can be adored as God without open breach of his commandement For to our shallow understanding there is no necessity to perswade us Christ God and man should be hid in it These words Hoc est corpus meâ—m may bear many interpretations no way pregnant to this purpose And it is doubtful whether Christs Body though really present in the Sacrament should retain the same presence in procession whereas the former commandement is plain We must worship the Lord our God and him only must we serve Consist Ye think this Text is plain to your late purpose we think otherwise Whether is more meet ye to submit your private opinions to our publick spirits or us that are Pastors to learn of you silly sheep Cat. Therefore are your servants come unto you that they may learn how to obey you in this decree without Idolatry well hoping that as ye enjoyn us absolutely to obey you in it so ye can give us full assurance we shall not disobey the Spirit of God in the former great commandement whose exposition we most desire 8 Would these or like supplications though conceived in Christian modesty though proposed with religious fear and awfull regard of their persons though presented with tears and sighes or other more evident signes of inward sorrow find any entrance into Romish Prelates ears or move the Masters of the Inquisition house to forbear exaction of obedience to the forâ—er or other Decree of the Trent Councel Were the Form of the Decree it self unto private judgements never so contradictory to Gods expresse written lawes or the consequence of practizing as it prescribes never so dreadful to the doubtful conscience How much better then were it for such silly souls had they never known the Books of Moses to have been from God for so committing idolatrie with stocks and stones or other creatures they had done what was displeasing to their Master and justly punishable yet with fewer stripes because his will was not made known unto them But now they know it and acknowledge the truth of this Commandement To what end That they may be left without all excuse for not doing it They see the general truth of Gods Oracles that they may be more desperately blinded in wilfull perverting the particulars For what glory could the allurement of silly ignorant men to simple idolatry be unto great Antichrist Let them first subscribe to the written Lawes of the everliving God and afterwards wholly submit themselves to his determinations for their practise and so the opposition betwixt him and the Deity betwixt his injunctions and the Decrees of the Almighty may be more positive more directly contrary The Heathen or others not acknowledging Gods Word at all are rightly termed unbelievers men thus believing the Scriptures in general to be Gods Word from the testimony of the Church and yet absolutely relying upon her judgement for the meaning of particular places are transported from unbelief to misbelief from grosse ignorance to wilfull defiance of God and his Lawes Finally they are brought to know Gods Word that they may doubt in this and like fearful practises enjoyned that so first doubting and afterwards desperately resolving absolutely to follow the Churches injunction against that sence and meaning of the divine decrees which the holy Spirit doth dictate to their private consciences they may without doubt be damned for not abiding in the truth Like their first parents they hear Gods sentence but prefer the interpretations of Sathans first-born before their own because it must be presumed he is more subtle then they Or to referre the two main streames of thâ—s iniquity to their proper heads The first That we cannot know the old or new Testament to be Gods Word but by relying upon the Church makes all subscribers to it real Atheists or Infidels and Christians onely in conceit or upon condition If the Church whose authority they so highly esteem be as infallible as is pretende Heretofore I have
are set Free by the Son of God The eleventh Book in Adversarijs Conteining a Treatise upon the Articles of Christs comming to judgement The Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting The twelfth of the Catholick Church part whereof is Printed and mentioned above Besides a great number of Treatises and Sermons respective Appendices to the Books aforesaid So many as would fill a Page with a Particular Catalogue For the Publishing whereof in due Time and manner and suiting with this Volume The Worthy persons whom the Author made Supervisors of his Will will be conscientious and Prudent Accountants to the Church of Christ And some others Pious and Learned men of that University Chearfull Assistants thereto But here if the Reader be of my Temper Secretum peto I must lead him aside a little to Condole the losse the Great loss of one most Considerable piece Finished and Alas for the Day lost some yeers ago It was The Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood I am bold to say Reader Write this a Prodigie And to render it the more Prodigious take notice that it was lost in the Authors Life Time as his ingenious Amanuensis Mr. B. told me inquiring after it above 9 yeers ago What shall be said or thought of This Surely The World was not worthy of such a Blessing It sentenced it self unworthy thereof by the stupid totall neglect of what he Preached at Court and Printed at Oxon in the Yeer 1637. about The Signes of the Times a Subject neer of Kin to that Treatise The longing impatient desire of Retreiving this Treatise makes me not blush to transform this Preface into a kind of Proclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather into a most humble and earnest Supplication unto the Person that hath this Treatise in keeping if yet it be kept from the Malice of the Destroyer That he will please to bring it in unto the Stationer for whom this Book is Printed upon assurance to receive it again or for it twelve or twenty Copies or a sum of Money Aequivalent if it be Printed For it is the desire and designe of more and more able men then my self to Collect and Publish This Authors Works as Compleat as possibly may be The Earnest whereof is Given in this First Volume with this further Account The Quarto Impression was scarce and dear and ill Printed The weighty and many Quotations of Authors so exceeding falsly figured and disfigured too that it cost so much Time and great Turning sometimes to finde out One single place as none can believe that hath not tried the like nor could all the Authors be found in London This the Famous Library of Oxon and the chearfull Candor of a learned Friend there supplied I am hopefull that the Authors Sence is not altered in the least measure for the least sin in that kind is sacriledge I am sure I was so scrupulously carefull of changing as that I have omitted what I thought necessary correction For example in the Epistle to the Reader line 12. I think I ought to have changed the word Conscience into Conscious or lesse conscience into more conscientious unlesse you will say Conscience there signifies Guilt So Page the 12. Line 3. after And yet These two words They persecuted should be inserted as I conjecture unlesse the comparison betwixt the Roman and Turkish Emperours Subjects make them needlesse So in the 250 page in the Margin surely it ought to have been R. P. but it was R. B. in the old Copie and in the search of Parsons Resolutions not finding absolute evidence that he was the party meant I let R. B. stand Yet have I added now and then a Citation or Note in the Margin As where the Great Businesse of Charles Martell is Related page 110. I have cited divers Authours whom the Reader may consult for his own better satisfaction To conclude There is a saying and men may think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the pecuniary profit be to the Tradesman If my heart deceive me not as divers Nutus Dei did invite the beginning and many remarkable momenta providentiae did encourage the Progresse in a Time of greatest trouble for outward estate so the Glory of God Almighty the Benefit of his Church and Children the doing of some small Thing in a Time of Cashierment that may tend to the discharge of a most unprofitable servants account at the last Day is the gain aimed at And if our Pr Brethren Sons of the same Fathers with us that cast us out viewing well the second and third Books and being here advertised That twenty of those men whom they have put from the Stations wherein God had set them in the Church of England as Factors for the Church of Rome have contributed each man their Symbolum to this Impression will by this be brought to see their mistake and taking this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confess themselves deceived and unwittingly made Proctors for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and transported in this particular became partial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be an Accession above expectation The Good Lord lay not this sin to their Charge but reconcile them to their former selves and be Reconciled both to them and us in Christ and prosper the work both dispatched and intended to his Glory and the good of his Church for our Lord Jesus's sake The Prayer of the most unworthy One of all his servants B. O. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 483. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both the Ark and his Habitation But if he say I have no delight in Thee Let him do to me as seemeth good unto Him Good is the Word of the Lord. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple Let the Word of God dwell in you plenteously Search the Scriptures Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation In which are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the Other Scriptures to their own destruction Remember them which are the Guides or have the Rule over you The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth He that heareth you heareth me Lo I am with you alway even to the End of the World THE LIFE and DEATH of the Venerable Dr. JACKSON Dean of PETERBROUGH and President of Corpus-Christi Colledge in OXFORD Written by a late Fellow of the same Colledge BEing earnestly desired by an intimate and Powerful Friend to deliver some Character of that Reverend and Learned Doctor Jackson late President of our Colledge I might very well excuse my self from my unworthiness to undertake so weighty a Task I must seriously confess it was not so much the Importunity of that
Friend which prevailed with me as the Merit of the man which Extracted it and made me resolve rather to run any hazard of my own Reputation then not to pay the Honours due to his Memory The Respect and Interest which he gained in the hearts of all men that he conversed with and most from them that knew him best was too great to be buried in this Grave or to be extinct with his Person A good Name is compared to a rich and pleasant Odour which not only affects the Sense whilest he that wears it is in presence but fils the the house and makes you enquire who had been there although the Party be gone out of the Room For his Birth He was descended from a very worthy Family in the Bishoprick of Durham His Life seemed to be Consecrated to Vertue and the Liberal Arts from his very child-hood He had a natural Propensity to Learning from which no other Recreation or Employment could divert him He was first designed by his Parents to be a Merchant in Newcastle where many of his near Friends and Alliance lived in great Wealth and Prosperity but neither could that Temptation lay hold upon him Therefore at the instance of a Noble Lord he was sent to the University of Oxford for which highly esteemed Favour he returns his solemn thanks in the very First Words and Entrance of this Book He was first Planted in Queens Colledge under the Care and Tuition of the Profound D. Crakanthorp and from thence removed to Corpus Christi Colledge who although he had no notice of the vacancy of the Place till the day before the Election yet he Answered with so much readiness and applause that he gained the admiration as well as the Suffrages of the Electors and was chosen with full Consent although they had received Letters of Favour from Great Men for another Scholer A sure and Honourable Argument of the incorruptedness of that Place when the peremptory Mandamus of the Pious Founder Nec prece nec pretio presented with the Merits of a young man and a Stranger shall prevail more then all other Sollicitations and Partialities whatsoever This Resolution hath been often assured unto me from one of the Electors yet living M. John Hore of West Hendred a man of Reverend years and Goodness There was now a welcome necessity layd upon him to preserve the High Opinion which was conceived of him which he did in a Studious and Exemplary Life not subject to the usual intemperances of that Age. Certainly the Divel could not find him idle nor at leisure to have the Suggestions of Vice whispered into his ear And although many in their youthful times have their Deviations and Exorbitancies which afterwards prove Reformed and Excellent men Yet it pleased God to keep him in a constant Path of Vertue and Piety He had not been long admitted into this place but that he was made more Precious and better Estimated by all that knew him by the very danger that they were in suddenly to have parted with him For walking out with others of the Younger company to wash himself He was in imminent peril of being Drowned The Depth closed him round about the Weeds were wrapt about his head He went down to the bottom of the Mountains the Earth with her bars was about him for ever yet God brought his soul from Corruption Jonah 2. 5 6. that like Moses from the flags for the future Good of the Church and Government of the Colledge where he lived there might be preserved the meekest man alive or like Jonas there might be a Prophet revived as afterwards he proved to forwarn the people of ensuing destruction if peradventure they might Repent and God might revoke the Judgements pronounced against them and spare this great and sinful Nation It was a long and almost incredible space of time wherein he lay under water and before a Boat could be procured which was sent for rather to take out his Body before it floated for a decent Funeral then out of hopes of recovery of Life The Boatman discerning where he was by the bubling of the water the last signs of a man Expiring thrust down his hook at that very moment which by happy Providence at the first Essay lighted under his arm and brought him up into the Boat All the parts of his Body were swollen to a Vast proportion and although by holding his head downward they let forth much water yet no hopes of Life appeared therefore they brought him to the Land and lapped him up in the Gowns of his Fellow-Students the best shrowd that Love or Necessity could provide After some warmth and former means renewed they perceived that Life was yet within him conveyed him to the Colledge and commended him to the skil of Doctor Channel an Eminent Physitian of the same House where with much Care Time and Difficulty he recovered to the equal joy and wonder of the whole Society All men concluded him to be reserved for High and Admirable Purposes His grateful Acknowledgements towards the Fisherman and his Servants that took him up knew no limits being a constant Revenue to them whil'st he lived For his thankfulness to Almighty God no heart could conceive nor Tongue express it but his own often communicating the Miracle of Divine mercy in his deliverance and resolving hereafter not to live to himself but to God that raiseth the dead Neither did he serve God with that which cost him nothing I must ranck his abundant CHarity and Riches of his Liberality amongst the Virtues of his first years as if he would strive with his Friends Patron and Benefactors Utrum illi largiendo an ipse dispergendo vinceret Whether they should be more bountiful in giving or he in dispersing Or that he was resolved to pay the Ransome of his life into Gods Exchequer which is the Bodies of the Poor His heart was so free enlarged in this kind that very often his Alms-deed made him more Rich that received it then it left him that gave it His progress in the study of Divinity was something early because as he well considered the journey that he intended was very far yet not without large and good Provisions for the way No man made better use of Humane knowledge in subservience to the Eternal Truths of God produced more Testimonies of Heathens to convert themselves and make them submit the Rich Presents of their Wise-Men to the Cradle and Cross of Christ He was furnished with all the Learned Languages Arts and Sciences as the praevious dispositions or Beautifull Gate which led him to the Temple but especially Metaphysicks as the next in attendance and most necessary Hand-maid to Divinity which was the Mistress where all his thoughts were fixed being wholly taken up with the Love and admiration of Jesus Christ and him Crucified The Reading to younger Scholers and some Employments imposed by the Founder were rather Recreations and Assistances then divertisements from
custome before any other businesse discourse or care of Himself were he never so wet or weary to call for a retiring room to pour out his soul unto God who led him safely in his journey And this he did not out of any specious pretence of Holiness to devour a Widows House with more facility Rack their Rents or Enhance their Fines for excepting the constant Revenue to the Founder to whom he was a strict accountant no man ever did more for them or less for himself For thirty years together he used this following Anthem and Collect commanded by the Pious Founder in Honour and Confession of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Salva nos Libera nos Vivifica nos O Beata Trinitas c. Save us Deliver us Quicken us O Blessed Trinity Let us praise God the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit let us praise and Super-exalt his Name for ever Almighty and everlasting God which hast given unto us thy servants Grace by the Confession of a true Faith to acknowledge the Glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the Power of the Divine Majesty to Worship the Unity We beseech thee that through the stedfastness of this Faith we may evermore be defended from all Adversitie which livest and raignest c. This he did perform not onely as a Sacred Injunction of the Founder upon him and all the Society but he received a great Delight in the performance of it No man ever wrote more highly of the Attributes of God then he and yet he professes that he alwaies took more comfort in admiring then in disputing and in praying to and acknowledgeing the Majesty and Glory of the Blessed Trinite then by too curiously prying into the Mysterie He Composed a Book of Private Devotions which some judicious men having perused the same much Extolled and Admired as being replenished with Holy Raptures and Divine Meditations which if it be not already annexed to this Book I hope the Reader will shortly enjoy in a Portable Volume by it self Thus have many other Famous Scholars and Polemical men in their Elder times betaken themselves to Catechizing and Devotion as Pareus Bishop Andrews Bishop Usher and Bellarmin himself seems to prefer his Book De Ascensione Mentis ad Deum Of the Ascension of the Soul to God before any other part of his Works Books saies he are not to be estimated Ex multitudine foliorum sed ex fructibus By the multitude of the Leaves but the Fruit. My other Books I read onely upon necessity but this I have willingly read over three or four times and resolve to read it more often whether it be saies he that the Love towards it be greater then the Merit because like another Benjamin it was the Son of mine old age He seemed to be very Prophetical of the Ensuing times of trouble as may evidently appear by his Sermons before the King and Appendix about the signs of the Times or Divine Fore-warnings therewith Printed some years before touching the Great Tempest of Wind which fell out upon the Eve of the Fifth of November 1636. He was much astonished at it and what apprehension he had of it appears by his words This mighty Wind was more then a Sign of the Time the very Time it self was a Sign and portends thus much That though we of this Kingdom were in firm League with all Nations yet it is still in Gods Power we may fear in his Purpose to plague this Kingdom by this or like tempests more grievously then he hath done at any time by Famin Sword or Pestilence to bury many living souls as well of Superiour as of Inferiour Rank in the Ruin of their stately Houses or meaner Cottages c. Which was observed by many but signally by the Prefacer to M. Herberts Remains I shall not prevent the Reader or detain him so long from the Original of that Book as to repeat the Elogies which are there conferred upon Him I cannot forbear one passage in that Preface wherein he makes this profession I speak it in the presence of God I have not read so hearty vigorous a Champion against Rome amongst our writers of his rank so convincing and demonstrative as D. Jackson is I bless God for the confirmation which he hath given me in the Christian Religion against the Athean Jew and Socinian and in the Protestant against Rome As he was alwaies a Reconciler of differences in his Private Government so he seriously lamented the Publick Breaches of the Kingdom For the Divisions of Reuben he had great Thoughts of Heart At the first Entrance of the Scots into England he had much compassion for his Countrymen although that were but the beginning of their Sorrows He well knew that War was commonly attended with Ruin and Calamity especially to Church and Church-men and therefore that Prayer was necessary and becoming of them Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris c. Give peace in our time O Lord because there is no other that fighteth for us but onely thou O God One drop of Christian blood though never so cheaply spilt by others like water upon the ground was a deep Corrosive to his tender heart Like Rachel weeping for her children he could not be comforted His body grew weak the chearful hue of his countenance was impaled and discoloured and he walked like a dying Mourner in the streets But God took him from the evil to come It was a sufficient Degree of punishment for him to foresee it it had been more then a thousand Deaths unto him to have beheld it with his Eyes When his Death was now approaching being in the chamber with many others I overheard him with a soft voice repeating to himself these and the like Ejaculations I wait for the Lord my Soul doth wait and in his Word do I hope my Soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness And he ended with this Cygnean Cantion Psal 116. 5. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Return unto thy Rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee And having thus spoken soon after he surrendered up his Spirit to Him that gave it If you shall curiously enquire what this Charitable man left in Legacie at his death I must needs answer that giving all in his Life time as he owed nothing but Love so he left nothing when he Dyed The Poor was his Heir and he was the Administrator of his own Goods or to use his own Expression in one of his last Dedications he had little else to leave his Executors but his Papers onely which the Bishop of Armagh being at his Funerals much desired might be carefully preserved This was that which he left to Posterity in pios usus for
God said unto him by a dream I know that thou didst this even with an upright minde and I kept thee also that thou shouldest not sin against me therefore suffered I not thee to touch her Now then deliver the man his wife again for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee that thou mayest live but if thou deliver her not again be sure that thou shalt die the death thou and all that thou hast And Moses witnesseth the ordinarie Prophecie of Ancient times to have consisted of dreams and visions Numb 12. 6 7. If there be a Prophet of the Lord amongst you I will be known unto him by a vision and will speak unto him by a dream My servant Moses is not so that is he is no ordinary Prophet unto him will I speak mouth to mouth and by vision and not in dark words but he shall see the similitude of the Lord. 3 These allegations sufficiently prove that night-dreams and visions were frequent and their observation if taken in sobriety to good use in Ancient times even amongst the Nations until they forgot as Joseph said That interpretations were from God and sought to finde out an Art of interpreting them Then night-visions did either cease or were so mixt with delusions that they could not be discerned or if their events were in some sort fore seen yet men being ignorant of Gods providence commonly made choice of such means for their avoidance as proved the necessary occasions or provocations of the events they feared 4 Much better was the temper of the Nations before Homers time They amongst other kindes of prophecyings and Sooth-sayings held dreams and their interpretations as all other good gifts to be from God As no evil was done in the Grecian Camp which the Gods in their opinion did not cause so Homer brings in Achilles advising Agamemnon to consult their Gods interpreters with all speed for what offence committed against them they had sent the Pestilence into their Camp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to what Priest or Prophet shall we wend Or Dreamer for even Dreams from Jove descend All those kindes of Predictions had been in use amongst the Heathens as they were amongst the Israelites albeit in later times they grew rare in both for the encrease of wickednesse throughout the World the multiplicity of businesse and solicitude of Humane affairs and mens too much minding of politick means and other second causes of their own good did cause the defect of true dreams and other divine admonitions for the welfare of mankinde 5 This cause the Scriptures give us 1 Sam. 28. 6. Saul who had followed the Fashions of other Nations not the prescripts of Gods Word asked counsel of the Lord but the Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Urim nor by Prophets His sins had made a separation between him and the God of Israel who for this cause will not afford his presence to his Priests or Prophets that came as mediators betwixt Saul and him much lesse would he vouchsafe his Spirit unto such Priests or Prophets as were carnally minded themselves This was a rule so well known to the people of God that Strabo from the tradition of it for Moses his story he had not read reckons up this as a special point of Moses his doctrine concerning the worship of the God of Israel his words are to this effect Moses taught that such as lived chastly and uprightly should be inspired with true visions by night and such men it was meet should consult the Divine Powers in the Temple by night-visions but others who were not so well minded ought not to intrude themselves into this sacred businesse or if they would they were to expect no true visions but Illusions or idle Dreams from God they were not to expect any Yet may it not be denied but that the Heathens were oft-times by Gods permission truly resolved by Dreams or Oracles though ministred by Devils of events that should come but seldome were such resolutions for their good So the Witch which Saul most Heathen-like consulted when God had cast him off did procure him a true prediction of his fearful end This is a point wherein I could be large but I will conclude As the Heathens relations of sundry events usual in Ancient times confirm the truth of the like recorded in Scripture so the Scriptures give the true causes of their Being Ceasing or Alteration which the corrupt and Polypragmatical disposition of later Ages without revelation from the cause of causes and disposer of times could never have dreamed of as may partly appear from what hath been said of Dreams more fully from that which follows next of Oracles CAP. X. Of Oracles I Have often and daily occasion for the satisfaction of my minde in sundry questions that might otherwise have vext me to thank my God that as he made me a Reasonable Creature and of a Reasonable Creature a Student or Contemplator so He did not make me a meer Philosopher though Plato thought this deserved the greatest thanks as being the greatest benefit bestowed upon him by his God but never was I more incited in this respect to blesse the day wherein I was made a Christian then when I read Plutarchs Tract of the causes why Oracles ceased in his time Whether Heathen Oracles were all illusions of Devils or some uttered by God himself for their good though oft-times without successe by reason of their curiosity and superstition I now dispute not That Oracles in ancient times had been frequent that such events had been foretold by them as surpassed the skill of humane reason all Records of unpartial Antiquity bear uncontrollal le evidence Nor did the Heathen Philosophers themselves which lived in the Ages immediately following their decay call the truth of their former use in question but from Admiration of this known change they were incited to search the cause of their ceasing Plutarch after his acute search of sundry causes and accurate Philosophical disputes refers it partly unto the Absence of his Demoniacal Spirits which by his Philosophy might dy or flit from place to place either exiled by others more potent or upon some other dislike and partly unto the alteration of the soyl wherein Oracles were seated which yeelded not Exhalations of such a divine temper as in former times it had done and without a certain temperature of exhalations or breathing of the Earth the Demoniacal Spirits he thought could not give their Oracles more then a Musitian can play without an Instrument And this decay or alteration of the soyl of Delphi and like places was in his judgement probable from the like known experience in sundry Rivers Lakes and hot-Baths which in some places did quite dry up and vanish in others much decay for a long time or change their course and yet afterwards recover their former course or strength either in the same places
hath fulfilled his word that he had determined of old time he hath thrown down and not spared he hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee and set up the Horn of thine Adversaries Arise cry in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord lift up thine hand towards him for the life of thy young children that famish for hunger in all the corners of the streets These words perhaps were meant in divers measures of both Calamities but the Complaint following of the later only under Titus Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done thus Shall the women eat their fruit children of a span long shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord the young and the old lie on the ground My Virgins and my Young-men are fallen by the sword thou hast slain them in the Day of Thy Wrath thou hast killed and not spared Thou hast called as in a Solemn Day my Terrors round about so that in the day of the Lords wrath none escaped or remained Those that I have nourished and brought up hath mine Enemy consumed 2 Many particulars here set down by Ieremy are not so much as once intimated by the Sacred Story which describes the Siege by Nebuchadnezzar But no calamity either intimated by any Historical Relations of those times or prefigured in Ieremies complaint but in this later Siege by Titus is most exactly fulfilled as if the Lord had but sown the seeds of destruction desolation by Nebuchadnezzar which now being come to their ful growth ripeness this People must reap according to the ful measure of their Iniquity They are as dry Stubble the Romans as a consuming Fire Nebuchadnezzars Host perhaps slew some but had no occasion to make a General Massacre in the Temple destitute of Defendants ere it was taken the King and his greatest Cōmanders being first fled into the Wilderness nor was it destroyed until the heat of war was past and most of the People lead into Captivity But whilest in this later destruction by Titus it fel by the furious Heat Brunt of War the number of such as were either willing or forced to end their days with it was of all sorts exceeding Great and which was most Miserable many who had taken their Farewel of Life had bid Death Welcome revived again to renew their more then deadly Sorrows to reiterate their bitter Complaints which This Lamentable Accident could only teach them to Act aright and utter with such Tragical and Hideous Accent as was befitting a Calamity so Strange Fearful as never had been known before Even such as Famin had caused to faint having their Vocal Judgements clung together and their Eyes more then half closed up with death upon sight or noise of the Temples crackling in its last and Fatal Fire rowsed up their spirits and resumed their wonted strength to proclaim unto all Neighbour-Regions in shril and lowdest Out-cries That there was Never Any Sorrow like unto this Sorrow wherewith the Lord had afflicted them in the Day of his Fierce Wrath and yet they blow the fire which it had kindled ventilating and inlarging the devouring flame whose extinction the abundance of their Bloud did otherwise seem to threaten by violent Breathing out their last Breath into it The gastly Confusion of this Fearful Spectacle and hideous noise are so lively expressed by Josephus and others that they may well serve the Christian Reader as a map of Hellish misery I onely prosecute the fulfilling of Jeremies Prophecy in particulars related by Josephus as of The Womans Fating Her Child a Thing never heard of in that or any Nation before of the Priests Slaughter both in the Temple and after the destruction of it For Titus otherwise inclined to Mercy seeing it consumed by Fire which he sought by all means to save commanded such of the Priests as had escaped the flame in a By-room adjoyning to be Executed telling them It was fit they should perish with the Temple for whose sake might it have stood he willingly would have saved their lives Again the Massacre of the promiscuous multitude of women and children unfit for War are particularly described with all the circumstances by Josephus Book 7. Chapt. 11. of the Jewish Wars Of six thousand perswaded by a False Prophet to repair unto the Temple there to expect Signs from God of their deliverance not one Man Woman or Child escaped 3 Thus Moses fore-shews the grievous Plagues which hung over this Nations head but then a-far Off Jeremy after points out the Very Place where they shall fall our Saviour Christ onely knew the distinct Period of Time wherein Both the former Prophecies should be accomplished I will not trouble the Reader with Rehersal of particular Calamities fore-told by Him their observation is already made unto his hand by Eusebius and will apply themselves being compared with Josephus so perhaps will not some places of Scripture following though as much concerning the same times For the better understanding of which we must call to mind what was observed before That Hierusalem was the Lords own Seat and the Jews a People set apart by Him and distinguished of purpose from others to Exemplifie his Mercy and Justice in their Prosperity and Distresse Consequent hereunto his pleasure was that in the desolation of Jewry and destruction of the Temple other Nations should be put in mind of their mortality and not think in their hearts that these were Greater Sinners then any other Nation but rather that he who plagued them was Lord of the whole Earth as well as Jewry that the like and more Fearful Judgements did hang over their heads unlesse they would learn by the known Calamities of this People to avoid them So saith the Lord to All the Earth without Exception For Lo I begin to plague the City where my name is called upon and should you go free ye shall not go quit for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore Prophecy thou against them all these words and say unto them The Lord shall roar from above and thrust out his voice from His Holy Habitation he shall roar upon his habitation and crie aloud as they that presse the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth The sound shall come to the ends of the earth for the Lord hath a controversie with the Nations and will enter into judgement with All Flesh and he will give them that are wicked to the sword And thus saith the Lord God of Hosts Behold a plague shall go forth from Nation to Nation and a great whirl-wind shall be raised from the coasts of the earth and the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth they shall not be
recenti spiritu evect a deinsenescente eo destituta aut etiam ponderesuo victa in latitudinem vanescebat candida interdum interdum sordida maculosa prout terrant cineremuè sustulerat Magnum id propriusque noscendum ut Eruditissimo Viro visum est It was told Him That there Appeared a Cloud for Bignesse and Shape never the like seen Up the Gets and goes to an Advantage whence he might the Better see that Strange Sight A Cloud Rose as yet the Beholders knew not from what Mountain afterwards it was found to be Vesuvius much Resembling a Pine-tree For it seemed to have as it were a Long Trunk and Boughs spreading out above Sometime it appeared White other-while Duskie and Dapled or stained and spotted according to the blended proportions of Earth and Ashes He thought it a strange Sight indeed and worthy his Adventuring nearer to View it c. That the Sun was turned into Darknesse that with this Smoak was mixed Fire may appear from the same Authors Words a little after Jam dies alibi illic nox omnibus noctibus nigrior densiorque quam tamen Faces multae variaque lumina solvebant Plin. Ep. 1. 6. Ep. 16. This which occasioned Wonderment to the Heathen was no doubt a sufficient Warning to all Godly Christians to betake themselves to their Prayers to expect the confirmation of their Faith by their mighty deliverance from those dangers wherein innumerable Heathens utterly perished which made the hearts of all man-kind besides to fail This corporal preservation of the Elect from fear or danger whilest Cast-awayes perished and trouble raged among the Nations was that Redemption which our Saviour speaks of And when these things begin to come to passe then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh For this was a sure Type or pledge of their and our Everlasting Redemption And before the bursting out of that Fire and the erection of those Pillars of Smoak before mentioned God as our Saviour foretold had sent his Angels to gather his Elect together either to places free from those general Calamities or miraculously to preserve them in the midst of them For to deny or suspect the truth of Dions relations I have no reason and yet what other Cause to assign of those Giants Apparitions in Vesuvius and the Towns about it immediately before that danger I know not but only that which our Saviour had given And He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the Four winds and from the one end of the Heaven to the other Thus Dion Ita verores acta Viri multi magniomnem naturam Humanam excedentes quales exprimuntur Gigantes partim in ipsomonte partim in agro circumjacente ac in oppidis interdiu noctuque terram obire at que acra permeare visebantur Posthaec consecuta est maxima siccitas ac repentè ita graves terrae motus facti c. L. 66. The like Gathering of the Elect Ecclesiastick Writers mention in the Siege of Jerusalem and Jewish wars the Godly sit at ease and in peace whilst the Obstinate and Seditious were overwhelm'd with Calamity upon Calamity And yet all the Calamities which accompanied Jerusalems Destruction did in greater measure afflict the Heathens within few years after It was destroyed Above other places Gods plagues hanted the Roman Court that all the world might take notice of our Saviours Prophecies And the Romans albeit they knew not who had given the Advice resolved yet to practise as our Saviour advised Let him saith our Saviour that is upon the house top not come down into the house neither enter therein to fetch any thing out of his house And let him that is in the field not turn back again unto the things which he left behind him to take his clothes So Pliny testifies that in the times above mention'd albeit the Pumice stones did flie about mens ears in the open fields yet they held it more safe during the Earthquake to be abroad then within doors arming their heads with Pillows and Bolsters against the blows they expected In commune consultant intratecta subsistant an in aperto vagentur nam â—…bris vastisque tremoribus tecta nutabant quasi emota sedibus suis nunc huc nunâ— illuc aâ—ire aut referri videbantur Sub dio rursus quanquam levium exesorumque pumicum casus metuebatur quod tamen malorum collatio elezit Cervicalia capitibus imposita linteis constringunt Id munimentum adversus incidentia fuit Plin. Ep. 〈◊〉 6. Ep. 16. This was the beginning of that Great and terrible Day of the Lord foretold by the Prophet wherewith the world was for a long time shaken by Fits as it were by a deadly Fever as may appear from the like calamities in Trajans times related by Dion Our Saviour himself expounds the Prophets words not of One Day but Dayes for there shall be in Those Dayes such tribulation as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created neither shall be So terrible were these dayes that as our Saviour in the next word addeth except the Lord had made an end of them they had quickly made an end of all man-kind Even at that time the world by the Ordinary Course of Gods Justice should have been destroyed but He spared it at the instant prayers of his Chosen as he would have saved Sodom after Judgement was gone out had there been but a few such Faithful men in it as in the fore mentioned times the world had many So merciful is our God so loving unto all the works of his hands that his Son cannot come to Judgement so long as he shall find faith upon the earth Whosoever saith the Prophet shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved yea he shall save others as our Blessed Saviour more fully foretels what the Prophet saw but in part Except that The Lord had shortned those dayes no flesh should be saved but for the Elects sake which he hath chosen He hath shortned those dayes Other Prophesies there be of those times which seem to intimate a final destruction of all Flesh without delay and so no doubt the Prophets themselves conceived of the world as Jonah did of Nineve which he looked should instantly have perished upon the Expiration of the time he had foretold Wrath they had seen go out from the Lord of force enough to have dissolved the Frame of Nature but could not usually foresee either the Number of the Faithful or the dispositions of mens hearts upon their Summons but This Great Prophet who onely foresaw all things not onely foretels the Calamities or Judgements due unto the world but withall foresees the Number of the Elect their inclination to hearty prayers and Repentance by which he knew the fierce Wrath of God whose representation the Prophet saw should be diverted from the world
England under William Rufus whose conditions were such that whosoever would give enough might have whatsoever lay in his power to grant Their estate in England during other three Kings raign until Richard the first yields little matter of observation this people hate had not as yet broken out against them but was all this time in gathering and after their first planting here they were to have a time to bring forth fruit for others to eat a time to gather wealth for others to spend as Moses had foretold 8 Most miserable in the mean time was their estate throughout the Eastern Empire as one of their own Writers Benjamin Tudelensis who went on Pilgrimage to visit his Country-men wheresoever dispersed throughout the world complaineth of their general hard usage amongst the Graecians instancing in such as were seated about Constantinople within whose wals they might not come but upon occasion of publick commerce or business in which case they were allowed passage onely by Boat having their habitation as it were in an Island Amongst two thousand of this servile Congregation there residing not one permitted to come on horse-back save only Solomon the Emperours Physitian whose exaltation perhaps not fourteen handfuls above ground was held as a publik grace of the whole Nation the chief solace of that miserable and servile usage which all the rest without difference good or bad did sustain dayly beat and scourged in the open streets Yet must we believe this Relator That these Jews were wealthy good and merciful men observant of the Law such as could patiently endure this miserable captivity But Patience perforce according to the Proverb is no Patience If GOD had granted them ability or opportunity they had quickly shewed their Jewish minds by Jewish actions And why he keepeth them continually under unwilling to hear their cry though They cannot we Christians may easily perceive the cause For so his Prophet Samuel had fore-told And ye shall cry out at that day because of your King whom ye have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you at that day Which words as a learned convert Jew rightly observeth were not fulfilled in Samuels time whose opinions may be fortified by these reasons 9 Samuels authority over that people was not so strictly linked with GODS but that they might reject the one for their present Judge still retaining the other for their supream Lord and who can deny that the God of their Fathers did rule over them in Davids Solomons Jehoshaphats and Ezekiahs times Sin no doubt they did in abandoning Gods Priest and Prophet to follow the fashions of other Nations in submitting themselves unto a King And Samuel like a good Physitian forewarneth them of that incurable disease which this new-fangle and intemperate act did even then Prognosticate whose Fatal Crisis notwithstanding did not insue until they overgrown with desperate wilful and intemperate malice had rejected Hint with open mouth who was both Priest and Prophet and their lawful King whose kingdom was not of this world whose Soveraignty was so united with the divine Majesty that in casting him away they could not but cast off God that he should not reign over them 10 Again before that time God alwayes heard their cry and redeemed them from all Forrain Bondage and such as Samuel there describeth was neither general nor perpetual under their own Kings neither did the best of such use any nor the worst all or most part of the natural Israelites in such sort as he there threatneth yet all the miseries there threatned 1 Sam. 8. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. have been since accomplished in full measure if I may so speak in length breadth and profundity First this Serviâ—â—â—y hath been extended over All the Nation without exception Secondly the continuance of it hath been exceeding long and perpetual without interruption and so must continue until they confesse their forefathers rebellion and acknowledge him for their King whom rejecting they rejected God for he that will not so honour the Son cannot Honour the Father as King Lastly those marks of servility set forth by Samuel have been so deeply imprinted in this generation rejected of GOD that his Prophecy compared with Modern Histories concerning them will seem but as Painted Wounded men in a cloth of Arrasse to the bleeding reliques of a scattered vanquished army For neither under any Caesar though they made choice of Caesar for their King nor under any other Kings or States have they lived as Free-denizons capable of publick Office or Honour the best of them are but as slaves prohibited to use the meanest of Christians so The most of them as Samuel fore-told are admitted in Common-wealths for manual services or other handy-crafts imployments Captains I think none of them have been unlesse perhaps in some desperate services many of them in greater Cities are suffered to follow Merchandize that they may serve the State as Spunges alwayes surer to be squeezed for the moysture they have sucked then to be nourished by it Sundry of them are curious Artificers and professe ingenious Trades like silly Silk-worms permitted to exercise their skill in precious stuff to fill Princes Coffers and find their Countries cloathing 11 The possession offields and Vineyards hath not been so usual amongst this people as their spoil amongst such as possessed any so this Jew relateth it as a special prerogative of Calonymus the son of Theodorus both in their life-times chief of the Synagogue in Narbona and lineally descended as he pretendeth from David that he might quietly possesse the fruits of his grounds The Princes it seemeth of that and like places did take other Jews fields and vineyards and best Olive trees and gave them unto their servants rather tything then taking the tenth of their seed and Vineyards for that usually was the Jews part the other nine as Samuel foretold 1 Sam. 8. 14 15 16. fell unto Princes Officers lot 12 But the greater these dispersed sons os Isaac Servility was the more it commendeth the fidelity of Gods word concerning the sons of Rechab who as this Author relateth live united in form of a Kingdom or Nation not subject to any forrain yoak rather able to offend their neighbours then likely to receive harms from them Their estate to this Authors dayes continued such as they themselves acknowledged unto Jeremy Onely experience it seemeth had taught them to build Cities for their better security against the incursion of forrainers which was not against their oath in case of necessity as appeareth from Jeremy 35. 9 10 11 12. Because in other points they have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab their Father and kept his precepts and done according to all that he had commanded them therefore Jonadab hath not wanted a man to stand before him until this day that is their estate hath continued such as their Father left them much better then the estate of Abrahams Sons by Sarah Though
this Jew at his return to Paris then flourishing with all manner of Arts and Sciences found his Country-men marvellous great Students in Divinity and in much better state then might be expected to continue any long time 13 Lewes the seventh albeit instigated thereto as was said before had not shorn them so near upon his Expedition to the Holy Land but that they might bear Fleece again for his Son to pluck off Their Synagogues had remained still beautified and their private wealth either before his death much increased or in his time not much impaired But Almighty GOD who in Testimony of his rejoycing to do them good had raised up Cyrus to Balthazar 's Throne to release their Nation from that Captivity which Nabuchad-nezzar had brought upon them to give the world as perfect a proof of his Rejoycing over them to destroy them and bring them to nought Deut. 28. 63. did Advance Philippus Augustus son unto the former Lewes unto the Crown of France to defeat the Jews throughout that Kingdom in an instant of all their former hopes No sooner was he enthroned King but presently he giveth forth his Edict That their Synagogues should be spoiled of all Donatives and ornaments belonging to them and enformed of the grievances which Christians sustained by them granteth a general Release of all debts due unto them from Christians consiscating all their lands and immoveable goods This was done that Moses his prophecy might be fulfilled in part Deut. 28. 30 31 33. Thou shalt build an house and not dwell therein thou shalt plant a Vineyard but shalt not eat the fruit thereof Thine Ox shall be slain before thine eyes but thou shalt not eat thereof Thine Asse shall be violently taken away before thy face and shall not be restored unto thee Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies and no man shall rescue them for thee the fruit of thy I and and all thy labours shall a people which thou knowest not eat And thou shalt never but suffer wrong and violence alwayes CAP. XXIX Of the fulfilling other particular Prophecies of Moses in the Jews persecutions in England Germany France and Spain 1 THat they should not once or twice in this or that Age in some one or few Kingdoms only but alwayes in every place where they have come since their rooting out of their own Land suffer such wrong and violence must needs be thought to have proceeded rather from Divine Justice then mans Injustice which could not but have varied with the diversity of times places and the several dispositions of parties amongst whom in this their long Pilgrimage they have lived And yet this brief Enumeration following of their particular spoils and hard usages since Philippus Augustus time throughout the most civil and best governed States of Europe will abundantly confirm the truth of Moses general Induction in the place now cited Thou shall never but suffer wrong and violence alwayes To begin with their persecutions in this Land 2 Had Henry the eldest son of Henry the second who was present at the fore-named French Kings Coronation acquainted with these severe Edicts against the Jews lived to enjoy the Crown of England after his Father as he was entituled King with him the grievous wrongs and violence immediately after befalling these Jews throughout this Kingdom had been ascribed to this politick imitation of the French King his Brother at least men would have thought they had been done by his sufferance or connivence But God had taken him away and yet these Jews Intreaty continues much worse under Richard the first who never intended them like harm onely upon his Coronation day with his Raign begins their Wo which ends not till their final Extirpation hence not willing to be beholden unto them for their presents or as some think partly afraid lest admitted to his presence they might practise some Sorcery upon his body he gave command that no Jew should come either within the Church where he was Crowned â—or the Palace where he was to dine But they desirous to present him with some gift in hope to have their Charters and other Priviledges granted by other Kings confirmed by him presse in at the Palace gate amongst others making perhaps more hast but worse speed one of them receiving a blow for his forwardness by one of the Kings servants who might well justifie the fact by the Kings command to keep them out The people about the gate apprehend the matter so as if this Jew had been beat by the Kings commandment and so they thought might all the rest of that crew and hence fall upon them with such weapons as they could find as it was easie to find bats to beat these doggish Jews home to their kennels where they found but silly shelter For albeit their houses were strong yet the rage of the people was too great against them With the multitude the former rumour was enlarged that it was the Kings pleasure to have all the Jews destroyed And as the Axiom is Mens own desires are quickly believed So far more apt they were to apprehend this rumour as true then to examin whether it were true or no that the Lord chief Justice and other Officers sent from the King to appease the tumult were more likely to catch harm themselves then to free these Jews from present danger some of whose houses now flaming gave the people light to spoil and rifle others in the dark For so violently were they set to wrong them and eat their labours that they could not be satisfied from dinner time on the one day to two a clock on the other many of these Jews in the mean time being rosted or smothered with their goods other leaping out of the fire fell upon their enemies weapons Although the outrage was such as in a peaceable state might seem intolerable yet was the hainousness of the offence quite swallowed up by the multitude of the offenders But as the English escapt unpunished so the Jews were not amended by their correction Their Stubbornness as the Scripture tels me did first procure their Blindness and their Blindnesse becoming Hereditarie hath confirmed their Stubbornness to posterity 3 The former violence which they suffered would have been a sufficient Caveat to any people in the world besides to have carried themselves with more moderation in a strange land but not the flies so stupid and senselesse in discerning the causes of their smart as this people is Their perfidiousnesse and daily sucking of Christians bloud had made them most odious in this as in other Lands and though a number of them be Massacred to day for like attempts yet the rest are as ready again to morrow to seize upon every sore either to exhaust the reliques of life from such as are shrunk in their estate by cruel exactions and damned usurie or else to intrude themselves as wedges or instruments of divisions into every breach that shall appear
betwixt the better sort of the Ancient and the worse of later then betwixt the best and worst of such as lived in the middle Age greatest of all betwixt the good and bad in our Saviours time or immediately after These words again of the Prophet verse 6. and 7. are altogether as Literally more peculiarly meant of Christs Apostles and Disciples then of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and the rest which returned from the captivitie of Babylon For I will set mine eyes upon them for good and I will bring them again to this Land and I will build them and I will plant them and not root them out and I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart So is that curse Verse 9 10. more fully verified of the Jews about or after our Saviour Christs time then of Zedechiah and his complices I will even give them for a terrible plague to all the Kingdoms of the Earth and for a reproach and for a proverb for a common talk and for a curse in all places where I shall cast them And I will send the sword the famin and the pestilence among them till they be consumed out of the Land that I gave unto them and to their Fathers In like sort I must needs with all Orthodoxal Antiquitie not contradicted for more then a thousand years acknowledge the Psalmists prayer Psalm 59. to have been more directly meant at least more notably fulfilled in the Jews of later times then of his enemies amongst whom he lived Slay them not O God lest my people forget it but scatter them abroad by thy power and put them down O Lord our shield for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips and let them be taken in their pride even for their perjury and lies which they speak The infallible grounds of thus interpreting these two places and the like shall be fortified GOD willing when I come unto the Prophecies concerning Christs Incarnation Passion or Exaltation My warrant at this time for the later here alledged shall be the end of the Psalmists wish verse 13. Consume them in thy wrath consume them that they be no more and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the world Their strange Massacres in these ends of the world whither they have been scattered do better confirm our Faith of Gods Providence and Mercy towards us then Davids Enemies exile and scattering did his people of Gods favour towards him and them And it is to be observed that he saith not Let them know in Jacob that God ruleth unto the ends of the world For we the adopted sons of Abraham though living in these extream parts of the world which he never knew are the true Jacob and the natural sons of Abraham according to the flesh though living in the Promised Land have no inheritance in Jacob All are Jews So doth he which sits upon the Circles of the Heavens weigh all the kingdoms of the earth as in a Ballance debasing some and advancing others at his pleasure and so doth the Light of his gratious Countenance towards any Land or People change or set in Revolution of Times as the Aspect of Stars doth unto such as compasse the Earth And yet as the same observation of the Suns motion from contrary Tropicks to the Line serveth our English in Summer and the Navigators of opposite Climes in Winter So is the same light of Gods countenance which shone upon the Jews before turned to the Gentiles after the fulnesse of time Abraham had the Promise of Canaan often renewed unto him but neither he nor his posteritie possessed it until the fulnesse of the Canaanites iniquitie were accomplished We Gentiles had the promises of being Engrafted into Israel as it were conveighed unto us in the building of the Second Temple and afterwards renewed in the Translation of these Sacred Writings the Instruments of our inheritance into the Greek tongue but were not partakers of the blessings of Jacob until the Iniquitie of Abrahams Posteritie according to the flesh was full Again as the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed albeit the Israelites were commanded so to do but some reliques were reserved in the promised land to a good purpose by the wisdom of God so neither were these Jews utterly extinguished but a remnant was scattered abroad amongst the Gentiles that they might know Gods mercy towards them by his judgements upon the other and though Christian Princes have oft received them upon as unjust respects as the Israelites did permit the Canaanites to dwell amongst them yet God hath still rectified their Errour and turned their evil Imaginations to the great good of his Chosen Gods favours towards them of old and us of late might be thus parallel'd in many points and as Moses made nothing about the Ark but according to the fashion that was shewed him in the Mount so is there no Event or Alteration of moment under the Gospel but had a patern in the Law and Prophets The Celestial observations which were taken for these Israelites good might continually serve for the direction of the Gentile if he would observe the several signs of divers Ages as Mariners use divers Constellations in divers Latitudes and gaze not alwayes upon the same Pole The ignorance in discerning the Signs of Times was a Symptom of the Jews Hypocrisie and cause of his continual ship-wrack in Faith For suffering the Fulnesse of time where he and the Gentiles should have met as at the Aequator to pass away without Correction of his course or due observation of the sodain change of Heavens aspect he lost the sight of his wonted Signs and since wanders up and down as Mariners destitute of their Card deprived of all sight either of Sun Moon or Stars or rather like blind men groaping their way without any Ocular direction yet even this Their blindnesse is or may be a Better Light and direction unto us then their wonted sight and skill in Scriptures could afford us First this might teach the wisest amongst us not to be High minded but Fear seeing wisdom hath perished from the wisest of mankind even from Gods own chosen people Secondly this palpable blind Obstinacie which hath befallen Israel might perswade us Christians were not we blind also to use that Method which God himself did think most sit for planting true Faith in tender hearts Christian parents whether Bodily or Spiritual should be as careful to instruct their children what the Lord had done unto these Jews as the Israelites should have been to tell their sons what God had done unto Pharaoh His Hardnesse of heart was nothing to their Stubbornnesse Egyptian Darkness was as noon-tide to their Blindness all the Plagues and Sores of Egypt were but Flea-bitings to Gods fearful Marks upon these Jews yet is all
the knowledge of the truth And as the Philosopher said of his moral Auditors Indocilitie that it skilled not whether he were Young or of Youthful affections so is it not the difference of Sex but resolution that makes a good Scholler or non proficient in the School of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST Many men have weak and Womanish and many women Manly and Heroick resolutions towards God and godlinesse 5 The infirmitie which vexed the religious Hanna was not so grievous as that of Naamans she was in our corrupt language as many honest women at this day are by nature Barren or if we would speak as the Prophet did in the right language of Canaan the Lord had made her barren weary she was of her own and according to the ordinary course of nature she saw no hope of being the author of life to others Yet in this her distresse she prayed unto the Lord her God and he granted her desire From this Experiment of Gods Power though not altogether so remarkable in ordinarie estimation as Naamans cure she fully conceives not only the truth of the former Oracle acknowledged by Naaman but more Emphatically expressed by her There is none Holy as the Lord yea there is none besides thee and there is no God like our God nor that other Attribute only of Wounding or making whole so lively uttered vers 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up but Gods Word planted in her heart by her fresh Experience grows up like a grain of Mustard-seed and brancheth it self into a faithful acknowledgement of most of his Attributes The Lord is a God of knowledge and by him enterprises are established the Bowe and the mighty men are broken and the weak have girded themselves with strength they that were full are hired forth for bread and the hungry are no more hired so that the barren hath born seven and she that hath born many children is feeble the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich bringethlow and exalteth he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among Princes and to make them inherit the seat of glory for the Pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them He will keep the feet of his Saints and the wicked shall be silent in darknesse for in his own Might shall no man be strong Nor doth it contain it self within the bounds of ordinary Belief but works in her heart like new wine filling it not only with Songs of Joy and Triumph over her envious Enemies Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoyce in thy salvation but also with the Divine Spirit of Prophecy The Lords adversaries shall be destroyed and out of Heaven shall he thunder upon them the Lord shall judge the ends of the world and shall give power unto his King and exalt the horn of his Anointed verse 10. 6 The like docilitie was in the blessed Virgin of whom perhaps Annah was the Type both of them verified that saying Verbum sapientisat est One Experiment taught them more then five hundred would do most of us The reason was because their hearts were so much better prepared For as heat in some bodies by reason of the indisposition of the matter causeth heat and nothing else in some scarce that in others brings forth life and fashioneth all the Organs and Instruments thereof so Experiments of Gods power in some mens hearts breed onely a perswasion of his Might or operation in that particular as in those foolish Aramites who vanquished in Battel by the Israelites whom he favoured questioned whether he were a God as well of the Vallies as of the Mountains in others the same or lesse Apprehension of his Power or Presence begetteth life and fashioneth this image in their hearts which thence will shew it self unto others in such ample and entire Confession of his Attributes as Hannah and the blessed Virgin uttered Some again are so ill disposed and indocile that the whole Moral Law of God might sooner be engraven in hardest Marble or Flint then any one precept imprinted in their hearts by such wonderful Documents of his Power as would teach the godly in an instant both the Law and Prophets Imagine some men in our dayes had been cured by like means of such a maladie as Naaman was or some women blessed from above with fruit of their wombes after so long sterilitie as Hannah endured Who could expect that one of ten in either Sex should return to give like thanks to God in the presence of his Priests or Prophets Were Elisha now living he must be wary to work his cure by his bare word and so perhaps he should be censured for a Sorcerer in any case he might not use the waters of Jordan or other like second causes otherwise curious wits would find out some hidden or secret vertue caused in them at least for the time being by some unusual but Benign â—â—â—ect of some Planet or Constellation in whose right they should be entitled either ful Owners or Copartners of that glory which Naaman ascribed wholly unto God And poor Hannah in this Politick Age should not be so much praised for her devotion or good skill in divine Poesie as pitied for a good Hâ—â—â—st wel-meaning silly Soul that did attribute more to God then was his due upon ignorance of Alterations wrought in her Body by natural causes For it is not the custome of our Times to mark so much the ordering or disposition as the particular or present operation of such Agents If any thing fall out amisse we bid a Plague upon ill Fortune or curse mischance if ought aright we applaud our own or others Wits that have been employed in the businesse or perhaps thank God for Fashion sake that we had Good Luck He is to us in our good successe as a friend that lives far off who we presume wisheth well to such projects as he knows in general we are about being unacquainted with the particular means that must effect them or no principal Agent in their contrivance Hence do not I marvel though many do if such men in our times as reap the fruits of the fields which God hath blest in greatest Abundance make no conscience of returning the Tenth part to him that gave the whole when as not one of a thousand either in heart or deed or out of any distinct or clear apprehension of his power or efficacie or true resolution of all effects into the First Fountain whence they flow doth attribute so much as the Tenth nay as the Hundreth part to Gods doing in any Event wherein the industrie of man or operation of second Causes are apparant We speak like Christians of matters past recorded in Scripture but in our discourses of modern affairs our Paganismes and more then Heathenish Solecismes bewray the
through mine Hypocrisie for a little time of a transitory Life they might be deceived by me and I should procure malediction and reproach to mine old Age. This eating which he refused could never have been of Faith that is no way Warrantable by the Doctrine or Principles of Faith which had taught him the contrary as he well exprest in the next words following for though I were now delivered from the Torments of Men yet could I not escape the Hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead Wherefore I will now change this Life manfully and will shew my self such as mine Age requireth 9 And it should be considered that the Parties of whom our Apostle speaks in the forementioned place were never injoyned by any Lawful Superiours either Civil or Ecclesiastick to eat such Meats as they made scruple of yea the very original or fountain of their Scruple was from the expresse Law of God denouncing fearful Judgements against all such as polluted themselves with Unclean Meats so that their eating albeit solemnly injoyned by the greatest Powers on earth could not fall within the Subject of true Obedience because the Laws injoyning it as they conceived stood actually condemned by the expresse Law of God to the contrary in defence whereof many of their Ancestors had exposed their Bodies to most grievous Tortures and the refusal of such Meats as they made Scruple of had been alwayes accounted the justest Title of glorious Martyrdom amongst the Jews And albeit these Laws concerning Unclean Meats were indeed Antiquated at the Alteration of the Priesthood yet should we not marvail if at the first planting of the Gospel many good Christians did make great Conscience of eating such Meats as were forbidden by them when S. Peter himself long after our Saviours Ascension durst scarce take Gods own word against his written Law then not Abrogated as he supposed in this Case For when there came a voice unto him saying Arise Peter kill and eat Peter said Not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is Polluted or Unclean And the voice came unto him again the second time saying the things that God hath purified do not thou account Polluted Nor was Peter as it seems yet fully satisfied for it is added in the next words This was so done thrice and the vessel was drawn up again into Heaven All these Circumstances abundantly evince that it was not the bare Doubt or Scruple but the Quality of the things doubted of and the inveterate Opinion or abominable Conceit which the Jews or other of their Instruction had of the Meats themselves that made their eating to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far from being of Faith that it rather seemed to overthrow it Had the excesse of the Danger they feared been lesse or had there been any ordinary Possibility of any proportionable Good to set against it their Sin in eating had been lesse albeit the Grounds of their Scruple had been greater or their Perswasions one way or other lesse setled 10 Albeit this Exposition of our Apostle may seem strange and new to many honest and well disposed Minds in our Church yet in truth the manner of the deduction only is new the Doctrine it self is generally held by all Divines though not expresly in Conclusion yet in the Premises wherein it is essentially contained and may be most evidently deduced Thus. 11 All Sin consists either in preferring none before some the lesse before a greater or a Corporal before a Spiritual Good the Hainousnesse of Sin in the excesse of difference betwixt the true good neglected and the seeming good embraced which is either absolutely evil or else a far lesse good which in competition with the greater good is likewise to be accounted evil Now if whatsoever be not of Faith be a Sin then by the former Rules it is a Sin because a lesse good is preferred before a greater or some evil chosen without any proportionable good that might serve as a sufficient Recompence But if the nature of all Actual Sin consist in one of these two It is questionable how or in what case Doubting or Scruple of what we do doth make our Actions Sinful Briefly it is an External Cause or Circumstance concurring to the making of a Sinful Action not any essential part or internal Circumstance of the Sin it self once caused And it thus concurs only when that which in it self is Evil or proves so in the event would not be â—vil unto us unlesse we had some doubt or scruple that is some Notice or Apprehension of it as Evil In such Cases indeed we should not Sin unlesse we had formerly doubted but to speak exactly we do not sin because we do what we doubt of but because in doing some Actions when we Doubt we exactly prefer Evil before Good which otherwise we should not albeit we did the self same Action For it could not be Evil to us without the Apprehension of its Nature so as the Apprehension of it concurs to the making of it Evil. And because in all Doubts or Scruples there is some Apprehension of Evil therefore when we Doubt in Cases above mentioned our Actions are not of Faith but Sinful But if either we could be fully perswaded to the contrary that is if we could out of sincerity of Conscience setled Judgement discern that very thing which either we our selves sometimes did or others yet Apprehend as Evil not to be truly Evil the same Action which before had been shall not be now sinful unto us because we now prefer not Evil before Good Or again albeit the thing were in it self Evil being prohibited by some positive Law but we upon invincible or unculpable Ignorance did not Apprehend it for such we should not actually sin in doing it because in this Case we could not truly be câ—nsured for preferring Evil before Good seeing the Apprehension maketh it evil to us albeâ—t we did prefer that which was evil before that which was good As for example If a Proâ—â—â—yte should have eaten Swines Flesh being altogether ignorant not by his own but the Priests Negligence of the Israelites Law to the contrary he had done that which was evil because forbidden by the Law but not ill because he had no Apprehension of it as evil but did eat it without all scruple as well as the strong in Faith did in S. Pauls time As doubting in those Cases wherein we have an Apprehension of some excesse of evil makes mens Actions not to be of Faith and want of doubt so all other Circumstances be observed makes them to be according unto Faith †so it oft-times fals out that such as nothing Doubt whether they do ill or no do Sin far more then such as not without great Scruple of Conscience make the same sinisâ—er Châ—ice For oft-times the Causes why men make no scruple or why they Apprehend not the evil which they do are such
by meer Natural precepts For we suppose what afterwards wil manifest it self that all Truths necessary for men to Believe have a distinct relish from all falshood or other unnecessary or superfluous Truths and may be known by their fruit so men wil be careful to preserve the Sincerity of their Spiritual Taste 4 Gods written Word then is the only pure Fountain and Rule of Faith yet not such immediately unto all as it is written but the Learned or Spiritual Instructors only whose Hearts and Consciences must be ruled by it as in all other spiritual duties so especially as they are Instructors in this That they may not commend any Truths or principles of faith unto the illiterate but such as are expresly contained in Gods written Word or at least are in substance the self same with these written Truths If the Unlearned through Gods just Judgement absolutely admit of other principles and equalize them with these such shal lead them into Errour and pervert their faith If they doubt of any mans Doctrine whether it be truly Spiritual or consonant to the foundation of faith they may appeal to Scriptures as they shal be expounded to them by others Finally they are tied to no visible Company of men whom they must under pain of damnation follow but for their Souls Health they may trie every Spiritual Physitian If they wil be Humorous they may but at their own peril both for Temporal Punishment in this life and for Eternal in the life to come 5 For conclusion the Scripture according to our doctrine and the general Consent of Reformed Churches is the only Infallible rule of faith in both respects or conditions of a Perfect Rule First in that it contains all the principles of faith and points of salvation So that no Visible Church on earth may commend any doctrine to others as a doctrine of Faith unlesse it be commended to them for such by the Scriptures by which every ones doctrine that acknowledgeth God for his Lord must be examined as by a Law uncontrollable Secondly in that these principles of faith are plainly perspicuously and distinctly set down to the Capacities of all that faithfully follow their practical rules most plain most perspicuous and easie to all capable of any rule or reason So that this Sacred Canon needs no Associate no Addition of any Authoritie as equally infallible nor more perspicuous then it self to supply what it wants only the Ministery of men skilful and industrious in the search or Exposition of it is to be supposed And all these be they never so excellent and wel conversant in them are unto Scriptures but as the ordinary Expositors of Classick and Authentick Books are unto the chief Authors or Inventors of the science contained in them Supposing that the first Authors were men of extraordinary and infallible skil and their Expositors as they usually are but of ordinary Capacity or Experience in those faculties 6 Finally the Books of Scriptures are to be reputed a more absolute Rule for all Matters of Faith and Divine Mysteries then any Books or Writings of men are for natural sciences or secular professions as in sundrie other Respects so in This that they give as more facile so more infallible directions for finding out their true Sense and Meaning then any other Writings do or Writers could have done who though present could not be so fully Assistant but cannot so much as affoord their presence to their Expositours in the search of Truths rather professed then fully conceived much lesse infallibly taught by them whereas the Spirit of Truth which first did dictate is every where present alwayes Assistant to such as seriously and sincerely seek the Truth contained in these Divine Oracles conducting them from Knowledge to Knowledge both by all such Means as Artists have for increasing their skil and by other Means extraordinary such as none in any other Faculty can have nor any may hope for in the Search of Scriptures but only such as Delight in and Meditate upon them Day and Night SECT II. That the pretended Obscurity of Scriptures is no just Exception why they should not be acknowledged the absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-Objection of the Romanist CAP. XII How far it may be granted the Scriptures are Obscure with some Premonitions for the right state of the Question 1 IT is first to be supposed that these Scriptures for whose Soveraignty over our Souls we plead against the pretended Authority of the Romish Church were given by God for the Instruction of all succeeding Ages for all sorts of Men in every Age for all Degrees or divers Measures of his other Gifts in all several sorts or Conditions of Men. This diversitie of Ages and Conditions of Men in several Callings who so wel considers may at the first sight easily discover our Adversaries Willingnesse to wrangle in this point whose usual practise as if they meant to cast a Mist before the weak-sighted Readers eyes is to pick out here and there some places of Scriptures more Hard and difficult then Necessary or requisite to be understood of Every man perhaps of Any man in this Age. The Knowledge of all or any of which notwithstanding those that live after us though otherwise peradventure men of far meaner gifts then many in this present Age shall not therefore need to give for lost or desperate when they shall be called unto this Search For God hath appointed as for every thing else so for the Revelation of his Word certain and peculiar Times and Seasons Daniel though full of the Spirit of Prophecie and one that during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar and Balthasar his son had as it were continually travelled of Revelations concerning the Estate of Gods Church and the affairs of forrain Kingdoms for many generations to come yet knew not the approaching Time of his peoples deliverance from Captivity until the first year of Darius son of Ahashuerosh And this he learned by Books even in the first year of his Raign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years whereof the Lord had spoken unto Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem And of his own Revelation he saith And Daniel was commanded to shut up his words and seal up his book unto the end of the Time or as some read unto the appointed Time and then many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased For at the Time appointed as he intimates in the words following others though no Prophets were to know more of this Prophecy then the Prophet did himself Then I heard it but I understood it not then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the end of the Time 2 The Prophets of later Ages did see Revelations of matters which had been hid from the Ancient
but like Lessons got by rote It must be quite forgotten at least utterly renounced and laid aside before we can be admitted into the School of Christ in which all in this life are but parvuli petties or children for their simplicity and harmlesse minds for Lowlinesse and Nullity of self-conceit Hence saith our Apostle If any man think himself wise let him become a fool that he may may learn wisdom aright And our Saviour Christ saith unto his disciples except ye be converted and become like litle children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven that is they cannot be capable of this Heavenly Doctrine For true and sanctifying Grace must be ingrafted in this harmlesse simplicity and child-like Disposition 9 It is the Nature and Property of Gods Word to be plain and facile unto such as are of Disposition semblable to it as to the sincere of heart single in life and plain in dealing but obscure and difficult unto the worldly-wise The simplicity of It and the subtilty of the Politician or secular Artist parallel as ill as a straight Rule or Square with a distorted crooked stick The testimony of the Lord saith the Psalmist is sure and giveth wisdom to the Simple The word in the Original silly or credulous such as in worldly affairs are more easie to be deceived then apt to deceive and is rendred by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parvuli which word it pleased our Saviour to use when he intimates this Perspicuity of Gods Word unto such little ones I thank thee O father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and men of understanding and hast opened them unto Babes It is so O father because thy good pleasure was Such Such as in this whole discourse we have supposed and this place doth prove that is Such as had decreed that the Doctrine of Life should be most difficult and hard to proud disobedient or craftily-minded men but most perspicuous because to be revealed by God unto such little ones And again lest any man should presume upon his Wisdom or Dexterity of Wit he tels us expresly no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And his Will is to reveal himself and his Word unto all and only such as we have said to little Ones or such as become little Children casting off the burthen of Age which hath brought such Faintnesse and wearinesse upon their Souls that they cannot hope for any good successe in the Course which tends to everlasting Life until they be disburthened of all former Cares And hence in the next verse his words are general Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden So they will take up his Yoak which is easie and his Burthen which is light he wil free them from all the grievances and discommodities of their former Yoak learning but this one Lesson of Humility and Meeknesse of him it wil teach them all the rest for by it they shal find rest unto their Souls which Christ wil refresh not as the Pope doth with Anathema's binding unto Negatives but with the true taste of this Water of Life 10 Nor wil any of our Adversaries I hope be so perverse as to say our Saviours Doctrine in this place did hold true only for that time wherein the Knowledge of Christ and Doctrine of his Gospel was to be first published For such perversity would bewray so great ignorance in Scriptures and little experience in the course of Christianity as they would be ashamed to be suspected of For who sees not this Opposition between worldly wisdom and heavenly knowledge to continue stil in their several Professours throughout all Ages Nor can any man be sure his Faith is not humorous or Hypocritical unlesse he be transformed into such a little One as Christ here speaks of and have true Humility surely planted in his heart This is the Fundamental or first Principle whereinto Faith must be resolved even all those Graces or Pledges of Gods favour whereon most rely in trial of their Spiritual Estate must be apparantly seated in this Lowlinesse and Simplicity or else eveâ—y man through the Multiplicity and Subtilty of his own heart shal be over-seen in his perswasions 11 A lively Experiment of our Saviours Doctrine and our Assertion in this point we have in S. Austin as himself witnesseth I purposed to look into the sacred Scriptures that I might see what manner of Writings they were And â—o 〈◊〉 light on a matter altogether hid from the proud and yet not laid open unto children in progresse lowly in processe or issue stately and wrapped in mysteries Finally such as my quality made me uncapable of entrance unto it For the property of it was to grow up with little ones but I disdained to be a little one and swolne with fastuous conceit in mine own eyes I seemed a great one Here Valentian â—ucking poyson out of this reverend Fathers Hony demands importunatly whether it be a matter of no difficulty to procure our freedom from this tumour of viciousnesse To have our hearts purged from that Soot which is as the Jewish veil unto them And finally whether it be so easie a matter as we to his seeming make it to become Humble and meek without which vertues the Scriptures were obscure and difficult unto Austin himself otherwise A man of excellent wit 12 Me thinks this cumbersom Jesuites cholerick strain and Fool-hardy passionate carriage in this whole Controversie doth lively resemble a Strong Sturdy Lubber that had thrust himself unawares into a Quarrel which he is no way able to make good yet so stubborn that he wil not give over but fights and winks and cries and hit he misse he laies about him For can any man think he sees where these fierce Blows would light As much as we have said is most clear out of this very place of Austin which he would throw upon us Most clear it is that unto such as follow our Saviours Method set down before that is unto such as wil become like little Children and begin as it were anew again the Scripture which for the present seems hard to all far entred into the Worlds School is perspicuous clear and easie to be learned â—ut whether it 〈◊〉 hard to become Such a One or whether it be a difficult matter to lay aside all Pride and Self-conceit is no part of the Point now in question nothing at all to this intended Purpose To Man no doubt it is most Hard or rather altogether Impossible But what it is to man once made partaker of the Grace of God and Power of his Spirit let Christ Jesus the Fountain of Grace be Judge He hath told us that his Yoak is easie and his Furthen light Or wil they reply that his Yoak is easie indeed to bear when it is taken up but hard to
heard or learned from his godly Ancestors doth but trace out the Print of Moses footsteps almost obliterate and overgrown by the sloth and negligence of former Times wherein every man had trod what way he liked best And though the same Prophet descend to later Ages as low as Davids Yet he proceeds still by the same Rule relating nothing but such Historical Events or Experiments as confirm the Truth of Moses divine Predictions such as are yet extant in Canonical Scriptures So perfect and absolute in his judgement was that Part of the Old Testament which then was written to instruct not only the Men such as he was but every Child of God that he presumes not to know or teach more them in It was written And thus much this people should have done by Moses Precept without a Prophet for their Remembrancer And these Words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart And thou shalt rehearse them continually unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou tarriest in thine house and as thou walkest by the way and when thâ—… liesi down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a Sign upon thine hand and they shall be as Frontlets between thine eyes Also thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates And again Sâ—t your hearts unto all the Words which I command you this day that you may command them unto your children that they may observe and do all the Words of this Law For it is no vain Word concerning you but it is your Life and by this Word you shall prolong your dayes 2 Questionlesse they that were bound to observe and do this Law were bound to know it and yet Moses refers them not to his Successor as if it were so obscure that it could not possibly be known without his Infallibility but on the contrary he supposeth it so plain and easie that every Father might instruct his Son in it and every Mother her Daughter It was their own daily Experience of the fruits and benefits in Obeying of their harms and plagues in Disobeying his Precepts which was to seal their Truth unto their Consciences For without such Observation without squaring their Lives and comparing their Thoughts and Actions unto this streight and plain Rule all other Testimonies of men or Authorities of their most infallible Teachers were in vain The Miracles which they had seen to day were quite forgotten ere nine dayes after Nor could their Perswasions or conceit of Moses Infallibility serve them for any Rule when they had shaken off these inward Cogitations and measured not the Truth of his Predictions by Experiments In their Temptations they were as ready to disclaim Moses as alwayes they were to distrust God whose mighty Wonders they had seen To what use then did the sight of all Gods Wonders or of Miracles wrought by Moses serve Motives they were necessary and excellent to incline their stubborn hearts to use this Law of God for their Rule in all their Actions and proceedings and to cause them set their hearts unto it as Moses in his last Words commands them For this Law as he had told them before was in their Hearts 3 Would any man that doth fear the Lord or reverence his Word but set his heart to read over this Book of Deuteronomy or the one hundred and nineteenth with sundry other Psalms but with ordinary Observation or attention that so the Character of Gods Spirit so lively imprinted in them might be as an Amulet to prevent the Jesuites Inchantments It would be impossible for all the wit of Men or Angels ever to fasten the least suspicion on his thoughts whether the Ancient Faithful Israelites did take this Law of Moses for their Infallible Rule in all their proceedings For nothing can be made more evident then this Truth is in it self That the Israelites Swarving from this Rule was the Cause of their departure from their God and the Occasion or Cause of their Swarving from it was this devilish Perswasion which Satan suggested to them then as the Jesuites do unto the Christian People now That this Law was too Obscure too Hard too Difficult to be understood no compleat Rule for their actions without Traditions or relying upon their Priests or Men in chief Authority This Hypocrisie Moses did wel foresee would be the beginning of all their Miseries the very Watch-word to Apostasie For which Cause he labours so seriously to prevent it Deut 30. 14. For this Commandment which I set before thee this day is not hid from thee neither far off but the Word is very near unto thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart to do it How was it in their Mouthes and in their Hearts when it was so obscure and difficult unto them after Moses Death It was in their Hearts and in their Posterity too had they set their hearts to it But as it is true Pars sanitatis est velle sanari It is a part of Health to be willing to be healed so was it here Pars morbi nolle sanari more then a part of this their grievous Disease their Blindnesse of heart was their pronenesse to be perswaded that this Word or Doctrine which Moses here taught was too Obscure and Difficult for them to follow They first began as the Jesuites do to pick Quarrels with God for which their Stubbornnesse he gave them over to their hearts desire And this his Sacred Word which should have been a Lantern unto their feet and a Light unto their paths as it was to Davids became a stumbling Block and a Stone of offence 1 Cor. 1. 23. What was the reason By their swarving from this plain and straight Rule their wayes became crooked and their actions unjust And it is the Observation of the wise Son of Sirach As Gods wayes are right and plain unto the just so are they stumbling Blocks unto the wicked Not Moses himself had he been then alive could have made this or any other true Rule of Faith plain unto these Jews whilest they remained perverse and stubborn And had they without Moses or any infallible Teachers help cast off this Crookednesse of heart Moses his infallible Doctrine had stil remained easie streight and plain unto them For it was in their Hearts though hid and smothered in the Wrinkles of their crooked Hearts In our Saviours time they wil not assent unto the Word written nor unto the Eternal Word unto which all the Writings of the Prophets gave Testimony unlesse they may see a Signe What was the Cause They had not laid Moses Commandments to their hearts For had they from their hearts Believed Moses they had Believed Christ For all whose Miracles wrought for their good in their sight and presence they cannot or wil not see that his Words were The Words of Eternal Life as Peter confesseth John 6. 68. Nor would any Jesuite
Understanding and to moderate Affection which makes us blind 2 The same Method our Saviour useth in a like dispute with the last Clause whereof if we compare the Romanists Doctrine in this Controversie ' it may appear in some sort the same Theirs is our Saviours indeed but quite inverted truly Antichristian They teach we cannot know Mosaical or other Scriptures but by the Popes infallible Proposal The great infallible Teacher tels the Jews they could not Believe him or know his Doctrine though Proposed by him mouth to mouth because they had not Believed Moses Writings If ye beleeve not his Writings how shall ye beleeve my Words yet Christs Words registred by his Apostles and Evangelists must be at the least of like force and use to us as Mosaical Writings were then to the Jews Our Conclusion therefore is invincible If Moses Doctrine alone were a Rule to trie Christs Controversies with the Jews then must it and Christ conjoyned be the Rule whereby all Christians Controversies must be tried From the Opportunitie of this place the judicious Reader though not admonished would observe that our Adversaries unlesse possessed with Jewish phrensie or phantastick madnesse diseases causing men usually misdeem other for such as they most are but least think themselves could not possibly account it a part of folly in us to make the WRITTEN WORD sole Umpire in all Controversies of Religion though not impossible to be thus perverted by these Jews or others of Jewish disposition as are all Hereticks more or lesse For we will give their imaginations a yeers respite to rove about upon condition they will then return an answer what Rule either written or unwritten can possibly be imagined which would not be perverted what Authoritie either living or dead which would not be either disclaimed abused or contemned by men so minded as these Jews who in the live presence of the Son of God the heir of all things by whom the world was made and must be judged thus sought to Patronage the Murther of his Royall Person by the Authoritie of his Fathers Word unto whose Sence they thought themselves as strictly tied as any Papist to the Councel of Trent The Hereticks with whom Saint Augustine had to deal strangely wrested his words against a plain and natural meaning Though so they had done the Bishops of Rome or any others then living not disdaining to call God his Lord their practise had not seemed strange to this reverend Father for he knew the Servant was not above his Master and therefore could not expect his or any mans should be free from any such wrong or violence which he saw offered to Gods Word 3 Our Saviour in the fore-cited Controversies saw well how earnestly the Jews were set to pervert Scriptures for their purpose how glad to find any pretence out of them either to justifie their dislike of his Doctrine or wreak their malice upon his Person Reason he had as great to distast their practise herein as the Pope himself can have to inveigh against Hereticks for the like Neither is there any person now living against whom any intention of Harm can be more heinous then the intention of Murther against him nor any sort of men unlesse the Jesuites Spanish Inquisitors or such as they suborn so cruelly bent as these Jews were to seek blood under a shew of love to pure immaculate Religion Yet doth not our Saviour accuse the Scriptures though capable of so grievous and dangerous misconstruction of Obscurity or Difficultie or of being any way the Occasion of Jewish Heresie or his persecution thence caused nor doth he disswade those very men which had thence sucked this poisonous Doctrine much lesse others from reading but exhorts them in truth and deed not in word and fancie onely to relie on Scriptures as the Rule of Salvation Search the Scriptures for in them ye think and that rightly to have Eternall Life Joh 5. 9. Not intimating the least necessity of any external Authority infallibly to direct them he plainly teacheth it was the internal distorture of their proud affections which had disproportioned their minds to this straight Rule and disinabled them for attaining true Belief which never can be rightly raised but by this square and line 4 It was not then the reading of Scriptures which caused them mistake their meaning and persecute Him but the not reading of them as they should Erre they did not knowing the Scriptures and know them they did not because they did not read them thorowly sincerely searching out their inward Meaning And thus to read them afresh as our Saviour prescribed them laying aside ambitious desires was the onelie Remedie for to cure that distemper which they had incurred by reading them amisse It were a mad kind of counsel better befitting a Witch or cunning woman then a wise man to disswade one from vsing Medicines prescribed him by men of skill because he had incurred some dangerous disease by taking the like out of his own humour or in a fancie either without or contrary to the prescript of professed Physitians yet such and no better our Adversaries advice heretofore hath been and the strength of all their Arguments in the Point now in hand to this day continues this We must not make Scriptures the Rule of Faith because many Heresies have sprung thence and great Dissensions grown in the Church whiles one follows one Sence and another the contrary Whereas in truth the only Antidote against Contentions Schismes and Heresies is to read them attentively and with such preparation as they prescribe as not to be desirous of vain glory not to provoke or envie one another To lay aside all malicionsnesse guile dissimulation and evil speaking like new born babes desiring the sincere milk of the Word whereby we must grow not fashioning our selves according to this present world c. 5 These were delivered as soveraign Remedies against all Epidemical diseases of the Soul by Physitians as Both acknowledge most Infallible For better unfolding and more seasonable applying of these and infinite other like Aphorismes of life we admit varietie of Commentators but are as far from suffering any of whose spirit we have no proof especially any not ready to submit the trial of his Receits unto these sacred Principles and Experiments answerable to them to trie what Conclusions he list upon our souls as the Pope would be from taking what Potions soever any English Emperick should prescribe though disclaiming all examinations of his prescripts by Galen Hippocrates Paracelsus or any other Ancient or Modern well esteemed Physitians Rules 6 If since this late invention of the Popes Infallibilitie our Adversaries do not now as heretofore condemne all Reading Scriptures simply what marvell For as Sathan after once God had spoken to the world by his Son began to change his old note and sought to imitate the Gospels stile by writing his Heresies as God did his new Covenants
circumstances of the time were such as required an extraordinary Medicine which whilst we administer without mixture of like Ingredients or not upon the same Occasions we may chance to poyson both our selves and our Patients Others of us again are so much accustomed to politick Observation that we commonly make no other trial of Divine Truths then by some such forinsecal form of proceeding as is used in secular Inquisitions wherein determinations go by calculation of most Voices But unlesse the Lord did suffer us to have plausible shews and goodly inducements in the worlds sight for Believing that which is contrary unto Truth our Faith should not be sincere nor as an Armour of proof to resist all temptations seeing there is no man almost but is apt by Nature to follow a multitude to do that which publick Laws have judged evil much more to think or Believe as most men or men most esteemed do On the contrary if we look into our Calling Not many wise men after the flesh not many noble are chosen of God Such as are His ought to be like Him in this that they see not as men not as Natural men be they never so many see nor judge not as they judge 7 The stay whereupon they as in all other Difficulties so especially in this Trial of Spirits must rely is his Providence which in time wil bring the Truth to light and daily diffuseth the odour of life able were not our Senses dull or prepossessed with the fragrant Smel of earthly Pleasures to lead us to that invisible Truth which in this life we must follow not by View but by Faith Yet not by Faith if we take the Jesuites for our Guides who in this present Controversie play false Huntsmen alwayes seeking to bring us from the Prints of Gods Providence unto the Pathes and foot-steps of Men that have corrupted their wayes casting the form of secular Proceeding before our eyes so to withdraw us from following him who hath sweetned the 21 wherein we breath with the words of Eternal Life If men would be so mad as to frame their lives according to their Doctrine Hell it self could not wish a more Devilish Means to make men Christians in conceit and At heists or Infideis in heart And yet besides the Impiety of all other kinds of Heresies or Infidelities that are or have been this of theirs is the most palpably absurd and most contradictory to the Rules of Reason and Principles of Arts received by all For if the Arguments they bring against us conclude any thing at all they conclude as much against all Certainty of secular or natural Sciences 8 And because whether purposely or as meer Instruments managed by Satan to what use they know not they still labour to make civil Modesty but a mask for Infidelity rightly judging though to a wrong end ingenuous Humility and mens lowly conceipts of their own worth the fittest disposition whence utter distrust of Gods Favour towards such poor Creatures as men so minded deem themselves can be wrought and if once wrought and deeply planted in soft minds or humble hearts the only sure Foundation whence they can hope to raise their Blind Implicit Faith It shall not be amiss whilst we prosecute the second Branch of their immoderate Folly last mentioned to discover withall and partly dissolve The Snares which they have set for the Simple and Ingenuous CAP. XXV How far upon what terms or grounds we may with Modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent Gifts then our selves That our Adversaries Arguments impeach as much the Certainty of Human Sciences as of private Spirits 1 LEt it be granted that many Places of great Moment are diversely expounded by learned men what will hence follow That not the greatest Schollars in reformed Churches can be as sure of their true Sense and Meaning as the Pope Not unlesse you first can make it evident that Learning or Subtility of wit is the only Means whereby the true sense of Scriptures can be found out And this being proved you must assure us that the Pope is alwayes better learned then others otherwise he may fail as wel as they Or if you admit not Learning for the only Means of distinguishing Doctrines as indeed it is not yet must you secure the world that the Pope hath all those other good Qualifications whose want caused the learned to erre Or if you require neither one nor other of these you must prove that the best Gifts of God the peculiar Attribute of whose Glory is to be no Respecter of persons are infallibly entailed to a certain succession of men without all respect of Learning Wit or Honesty Lastly you must prove that the Holy Ghost was a Private Spirit and might erre when he said The Lord giveth Grace to the Humble Or the Law of the Lord Wisdom unto the Simple And that our Saviours words Ventus spirat ubi vult did not import as he meant that his Spirit might enlighten whom he pleased For if all these and that Deus cujus vult miseretur be true who can hinder Him or His Spirit to open the eyes of some less learned to behold clearly the true Sense and Meaning of that Scripture wherein many excellent Writers have either erred or been overseen or who can hinder God if these places be true to reveal his Will to little ones and keep it secret from the wise and mighty because it is his pleasure so to do and that for this end that men should learn to rely upon his Mercy and Providence not upon the Authority or Skill of Men. Or who can hinder his Omnipotency even in this Age to make his Power seen in our Weaknesse If this his Power be not limited now then may he stil both reveal the true Sense and Meaning of his Word in some points unto men of lesse Capacity in others and furnish them with ability too for demonstrating by Evidence of Argument and surest Grounds of Reason unto others that this sense must needs be the true sense and that all other Interpretations given of the same places by men otherwise excellent for their Learning and Skill in Scripture cannot stand with those Principles of Christian Faith which all sorts of Believers stedfastly Believe Must such a man or those to whom God reveals the Truth by his Ministry doubt of the Evidence of the Truth revealed and mistrust Gods Word because others as learned or more learned then either he that hath the Truth revealed unto him first or they that take it from him are of another mind He must verily by this Objection For a Jesuite would say Why should he not think others as likely to have the Spirit as himself Let him esteem of them as far better Scholars and men indued with as great or greater Measure of Gods Spirit then himself for so the Scripture teacheth us not to be wise in our own conceipt but to think better of others then
justlie challenge him of Partialitie and Disobedience in not giving as much to his Authoritie as to the former But as the Truth revealed unto him by the meanest of Gods Servants binds his Conscience to Believe it so the Varietie of other mens Opinions be it never so great the Authors and Favourers of them never so well learned never so stiff and confident in maintaining them ought to be no Motive either to disswade him from assenting unto the Truth known or to discourage him in the industrious and sober search of it by such good Means as God hath appointed for his Calling For there hath been as great Varietie of Opinions in other Sciences and Faculties as in Divinitie yet no later Jesuite nor other learned Papists that I have read or heard of for these diverse hundred years have sought to prove that no man can be certain he knows any thing because many think they know that which they do not Or if any Jesuite will renounce Aristotle and revive the old Academicks Opinion That there can be no certainty of any thing but onely an Opinion our Universities shall be ready to answer him albeit hereby they should disenable their supposed infallible Rule as much as ours In the mean time holding Aristotles Doctrine about the certaintie of Sciences for true they answer themselves in all they can Object against us in this Point For they neither denie a Certaintie in secular Arts because many erre nor do they perswade young students in their Schools to give over their studious and industrious searching into speculative Sciences because many have taken much pains in them to little purpose Nor do they hold it sufficient for good scholars in such matters to relie wholly on other mens judgements without any triall of Conclusions or examination of Arguments according to the Principles of those Sciences which they have professed In a word the Varietie of Opinions hath not yet occasioned them to create a Pope of Arts and secular sciences albeit such a Creature were by their Arguments much more necessarie or at least lesse harmefull in those Faculties then in matters of Religion For in them we have no promise for the assistance of a secret Teacher the true Illuminator of our souls whose Authority is as infallible as the Spirit of Truth Aristotle takes it for an infallible token that there is a Certaintie to be had in Sciences because all men think themselves certain in their Perswasions of things that may be known as well those that know not the Truth but onely think they know it as those that know it indeed If Aristotles Argument which the Jesuites so acknowledge be good then is their Argument in this Cause most absurd Many men say they perswade themselves they know the right sense of sundry places in Scripture when they do not therefore no man no private man no man but the Pope qui neque Deus est neque homo by any search or industrie can be sure that he hath it Whereas by Aristotles reason which indeed is a Rule of Reason the contrarie rather followes That there is a Certaintie to be had concerning the Truth and true sense of Scripture by all such as seek it aright because even such as erre and seek it amisse are strongly perswaded of their Certaintie in it From the same Topick do the Schoolmen and other judicious Contemplators prove a Certaintie of true and perfect Blisse able alone to satiate the greedie Appetite and stay the unconstant longing of mans Soal because even misereants and such as indefatigablie hold on like Dromedaries in those ungracious Courses which in wiser Heathens sight lead directly unto Infalicitie and true Miserie cannot cast away all conceit of Happinesse from which they wander but rather suppose it to be seated in those sensuall Pleasures which they follow Yet would our Adversaries Arguments disprove all Certaintie in apprehension of true Happinesse with greater probaâ—… then they can impeach the assurance of private Spirits in any other point-of Faith as might to omit other reasons be proved by this one Because some of their Popes none of which as they suppose can erre in ordinary matters of Faith never have any tast or apprehension of true Happinesse 4 Of the manner of knowing the true Sense of Scripture occasion will be given us in the last part of this Discourse of the Impediments which trouble most men in this search and of the Original of all Errors in Divine Mrters and the Means to avoid them we shall speak by Gods assistance in the Article of the Godhead Thus much may now suffice that no man ought to be disinayed in seeking or despair to find the true Sense and Meaning of Scriptures in all Points necessarie for him in his Calling because other men much more expert in all kind of Learning then himself have foully erred in this search and finally missed of that they sought For out of the Rules of Scripture already set down when such Temptations shall arise in our brests we may quell them thus They who have gone astray were much better learned then I in all kind of Knowledge It may be they were hence more confident of their Gifts for scientia inslat their excellent Knowledge might puss them up with self-conceit and he that is wisest of all hath said I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and the understanding of the Pruden shall be bid it may be as they were exceeding Wise so they much gloried in their Wisdom but I will seek to glorie onely in the Lord of whom I have received every good Gift I have and will alwaies esteem this best which shall teach me not to rejoyce above that which is meet in any other As they were Prudent so it may be they were Proud and the Scripture saith Deus resistat superbis God resisieth the Proud and such as trust too much to their own conceit As for me I will not be high-minded but fear for the same Scripture tels me Deus dat gratiam humilibus yea grace to understand the true Sense and Meaning of his gracious Promises made in Christ And in confidence of them I will continue these my daily Prayers Lord grant me true unfained Christian Humility and with it grace to know the wonderfull things of thy Law Others have erred of far more excellent natural parts even men of deepest reach and surest Observation It may be as their Wits were stronger and their Understandings riper so their Wills were unrulier and their Desires or Affections greener But O Lord break the stubbornnesse of my Will purifie my Heart and renue a right Spirit within me so shall I see thee and thy goodnesse in thy Word which shall enlighten me to teach thy Waves unto the wicked and convert sinners unto thee so shall thy Law thy perfect Law convert my Soul for thy Testimonies are sure and give Wisdom to the Simple Yea but they who first instructed me in thy Word do dissent
partly Lucians partly Jeroms partly Theodotions the Heretick partly anothers he knows not ‖ whose Do we think the Trent Councel did examin every part of that translation or did they know as much as Bellarmin hath confessed that it should call so many Fathers and one Heretick amongst the rest Doubtless this is a miraculous Power of their Holy Church that the Holy Ghost doth but keep men from errour whilest they are living but the Pope and his councels Infallibilitie can keep an Heretick whom they knew not living from having erred after he is dead And whereas the Almighty Creatour of Heaven and Earth did but make Light shine out of Darknesse the incomprehensible Omnipotence of the Popes Infallibilitie can make Darknesse Light and Light Darknesse For otherwise why might not the Pope and the Councel have yielded the assurance of their Omnipotent Spirit unto some then living for authentick Translation Or why did they not admit Franc. Foreriâ—s Correction of the Vulgar for authentick seeing his skil in the Hebrew and good wil to the old Vulgar was so great The Reason sure why they would admit of this hodgepodge Translation before any better was as I have said to shew hereby the Popes Infallibilitie to be more then most Omnipotent and Incomprehensible They contend for the Vulgar under the Title of Hierom and yet where it is evident that Hierom did not translate the Psalmes which they use they wil not admit that Translation of them which is every where extant and without controversie is Hieroms own 7 Yet thus much I perceive by Bellarmines Answer That as an Heretick or unknown Author may erre in a Translation because he is not infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost but yet it must be Believed that an Heretick did not erre in that Translation which the Pope and Councel hath approved So a Jesuite may perhaps commit a Murder because his order is not so holy as can warrant him from falling into mortal Sin but if it should please the Pope or Clergie of Rome to interpret the sixth Commandment otherwise we must Believe that no Jesuite doth commit any Murder in that man-slaughter or bloud-shed which the Church approves albeit he treacherously stab his Soveraign Lord the Lords anointed If it please the Pope he may antedate his Pardon or legitimate such hellish brood ere it come to light as wel as authenticate an Heretick's Translation a thousand years after his bones be rotten These are the sweet fruits of this supposed infallible Rule of Faith and Manners but of the Villanies included in this Position hereafter I now only give the Reader notice of the ridiculous Use of the same amongst themselves For what a sweet Decision was that concerning Grace and Free-Wil but lately so eagerly controversed in Spain to the publick scandal of that Church First Silence was enjoyned all for four years and afterwards Vasquez set as a brach to hunt a prey for the Romish Lion to take if he could have rouzed any to his liking Is this the Use of your infallible Rule Should Christians trouble the Turk with their Contentions he could decide as wel on this fashion as the Pope The Moscovite already hath far surpassed him in this kind of composing or rather avoiding Controversies For he not many years ago how affected now I cannot tell would have no preaching in his Dominions lest Schismes and Heresies might thereby be occasioned 8 Were not the Consequences of this Opinion so commodious to the Roman Clergie for matters of this life and so prejudicial to all other good Christians Hopes of attaining that other far better life I should have thought that Valentian Bellarmin and other such as have been most copious in this Argument had but sought to set out Commentum aliquo â—… ridiculum some artificial Foolerie to make the World sport For what better merriment could an ingenious Student wish then in his hours of recreation to descant upon their serious pains in setting a shew of Gravity upon idle foolish Arguments as uncapable of Theological as an Ape of Tragick attire But why should we consort with Hell which no doubt makes it self merry at these great Disputers Folly thus unwittingly employed to purchase the miserable solace of infernal Powers by their own eternal Sorrow without Repentance As the Opinion it self is most ridiculous to any unpartial judgement so even for this reason is the Consequence most lamentable to any indued with Humane Affection For what greater or more just Occasion of most grievous Sorrow could be presented to a religious true English Heart then to see so great a part of the Christian World especially so many of his Native Countrey-men for such ridiculous apish Impostures and false pretences of bringing Gods People under such a Government in matters of Faith as is usually in Secular States increase old Israels Rebellion and incur their grievous Curse not yet expired by casting off their Redeemer the Wisdom of God and judge of quick and dead from being their King or Supreme Judge of Controversies in Religion For why should it seem uncouth unto any Christian that Christ himself though sitting in his Throne of majestie in Heaven should be the onely Supreme infallible Judge in all Controversies concerning his own or his Apostles Precepts or Gods Laws in general For who could justly except against us if we should say That to most Physitians thorow Europe Hippocrates or Galen to Lawyers Justinian were the sole Authentick Judge No Physitian in any other Countrey exacts Subscription to his Opinions of any living in this further then upon examination they shall prove consonant either to Galen or Hippocrates or be evidently grounded on Reason Or do we exclude all use or certainty of Juridical Decisions in matters of Right and Wrong though the Judges be but ordinarie because Lawyers have no Authentick living Judge to determine infallibly of such Controversies as may arise amongst themselves in speculative points of their Profession 9 It is supposed that good Students in any Facultie have wit and art with other good means for finding out their classick Authours Sentence alreddie given whose Writings in this respect may be truly said to be their followers Judges though every one of them be a private Judge in matters of Practise Yet is it a Paradox in us to say Gods written Word is the Judge of such Controversies as arise amongst professed Divines or Ecclesiastick Judges themselves What if all of them do not agree about the true Sense and Meaning of that Word whereto all appeal No more do Physitians alwayes in their interpretations of Hippocrates or Galen yet have not their disagreements for ought I have read bred Civil Warres in the Countreys wherein they live nor doth their variance bring any danger to wise-mens Bodies but rather all dangers are by this means discovered and safer choice left others what Opinions or Prâ—… to follow or refuse or in what Cases it is most safe or dangerous to
testimony of the Church whereon all private mens faith must be immediately grounded believing this we shal from it at least conjoyned with Scripture believe all other parts of Gods Word necessary to salvation as wel as the Pope doth these former from the testimony of his publick spirit Wherefore his authority must be unto us altogether as great as the authority of the Godhead is unto him which is far greater unto him then it is or can be to any others for even that which is acknowledged for Gods Word both by him and us must be lesse authentick unto us then the words of this mortal man 11 For though we pardon our adversaries their former absurdities in seeking to prove the Churches authority by the Scripture and the Scriptures by the Churches though we grant them all they can desire even what shal appear in due place to be most false That whiles they believe the Popes particular injunctions or decisions from a presupposal of his universal transcendent authority they do not only believe him or his words but those parts of Gods Word upon which they seem to ground his infallibility yet our former argument holds stil most firm because that absolute Assent which private men must give unto the supposed grounds of their Religion before other portions of Scripture is not grounded upon any preheminencie incident to these words as they are Gods as if they were more his then the rest in some such peculiar sort as the Ten Commandments are in respect of other Mosaical Laws nor from any internal propriety flowing from the words themselves as if their secret character did unto faithful minds bewray them to be more divine then others nor from any precedent consequent or comitant circumstance probably arguing that sence the Romish Church gives of them to be of it self more perspicuous or credible then the natural meaning of most other Scriptures all inspired by one and the same spirit all for their form of equal authority and perspicuitie All the prerogative then which these passages can have before others must be from the matter contained in them and that by our adversaries position is the Churches Infallibility Wherefore not because they are Gods word or were given by his Spirit in more extraordinary sort then others but because they have more affinity with the Roman Lord in late years exalted above all that is called God Father Son or Holy Ghost these places above cited must be more authentickly believed then all the words of God besides As I have read of pictures though not more artificial in themselves yet held in greater estimation amongst the Heathen and freer from contemptuous censure then any other of the same Painters doing only because they represented their great God Jupiter 12 Another difficultie whereunto we demand an answer is whether whiles they assent as they professe not only to the Infallibility taught as they suppose in the fore-cited places but also unto the Infallibility of Scriptures which teach it they acknowledge two distinct assents or but one If but one let them shew us how possibly the Church can be said to confirm the Scriptures if two let them assign the several properties of either whether is more strong whether must be to the other as Peter to his brethren or if neither of them can confirm the other let them declare how the one can be imagined as a mean or condition of believing the other 13 An Hereticks Belief of the Minor proposition in the former Syllogism saith Bellarmin is but weak A Romanists Belief of the same most strong Let this be the Minor Peter feed my sheep or Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail what reason can be imagined why a Romanists Relief of these Propositions should be so strong and ours so weak The one hath the Churches Authority to confirm his Faith the other hath not What is it then to have the Churches Authority only to know her Decrees concerning those portions of Scriptures If this were all we know the Romish Churches Decrees as wel as the Romanists but it is nothing to know them if we do not acknowledge them To have the Churches Authority then is to Believe it as Infallible and for this reason is a Roman Catholicks Belief of any portion of Scripture more certain and strong because he hath the Testimony of the Church which he Believes to be most Infallible and believing it most infallibly he must of necessity Believe that to be Scripture that in every place to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost which this Church commends unto him for such Let the most learned of our adversaries here resolve the doubt proposed whether there be two distinct assents in the belief of the forementioned propositions one unto the truth of the proposition itself and another unto the Churches infallibility It is evident by Bellarmins opinion that all the certainty a Roman Catholick hath above a Sectary is from the Churches Infallibility For the proposition it self he can believe no better then an Heretick may unlesse he better believe the Church i. e believe the Churches exposition of it or the Churches infallibility concerning it better then the proposition it self in it self and for it self And so it is evident that the Churches authority is greater because it must be better believed 14 Suppose then one of our Church which believes these propositions to be the word of God should turn Roman Catholick his former belief is by this means become more strong and certain This granted the next question is what should be the Object of this his strong Belief the propositions believed Peter feed my sheep I have prayed for thee or anyother part of Gods written word or the Churches authority not the propositions themselves but only by accident in as much as the Church confirms them to him For suppose the same man should estsoones either altogether revolt from that Church or doubt of her authority his belief of the former propositions becomes hereby as weak as it was before which plainly evinceth that his belief of the Church and this proposition were two distinct Beliefs and that this strong Belief was fastened unto the Churches authority not unto the proposition it self immediately but only by accident in as much as the Church which he believeth so firmly did teach it for his Belief if fastened upon the proposition it self after doubt moved of the Churches authority would have continued the same but now by Bellarmins assertion as soon as he begins to disclaim his belief of the Churches infallibility his former strong belief of the supposed proposition begins to fail and of this failing no other reason then already is can be assigned The reason was because the true direct and proper object of his strong belief was the Churches authority on which the belief of the proposition did intirely depend as the conclusion doth upon the premisses or rather as every particular doth on the universal whereunto it
Ministers of Christ and disposers of the mysteries of God Of whom were they so to esteem Of Saint Paul himself and every faithfull Minister Doth he then intimate here any such Prerogative above the meanest of his brethren as the Romish Clergie usurps over the whole Christian World any authority to prohibit either the Dispensers of Gods mysteries from administring or men so carnally minded as were these to whom he wrote from communicating Christs bloud as well as his bodie So the Trent Fathers think and as if for their wilfull denial of the Lords Cup unto the people the Lord had given them the cup of giddinesse to cast them into a Babylonish slumber whilest they consulted about this decree and their Scribes through wretchlesnesse had written what their raving Masters in their sickly or drunken dreams had uttered we find in the same Decree another place of S. Paul immediately annexed though as disproportionable to the former as it is placed in their discourse as a mans head to an horses neck both as unsutable to their intended Conclusion as a super-addition of Fins or Feathers would be to such a monstrous Hippocentaurick combination The place is S. Pauls Conclusion of that discourse concerning the Sacraments Other things will I set in order when I come 16 Granting what is not necessary he spake of ordering matters concerning this Sacrament to receive the wine as well as the bread was no part of their present disorder whose misbehaviour at the Lords Table did minister more just occasions to Saint Paul then long Beards did to the Councel of Constance to denie the use of the Cup might Christs blood and bodie which he had jointly tendered to all be upon any occasion justly severed by man in the administration of his last Will and Testament Whatsoever the number or qualitie of the guests be the great Lords Table must be alwayes so furnished as it was at the first Institution for he hath no respect of persons If a rich stately Prelate come in with a gold ring in goodly vestiments and a poor honest Laick in vile raiments he saith not to him in Pontifical robes come sit you here at my messe where you may drink of my wine as well as eat of my bread nor to the poor Laick stand thou there apart or sit down here under my footstool where thou maiest be partaker of the crummes which fall from my Table though not of my cup which must be kept for thy betters High and low rich and poor all were redeemed with one price all at this offering equal all alike free to tast of every dish so they come with wedding-garments without which even the best must be cast out as unworthy to tast of any part if not of all That part which the Councels of Constance and Trent upon pretences of reverence to the Lords Supper have detained from Modern Christians the Corinthians had received unworthily yet was not the Cup for this reason held superfluous by Saint Paul who onely sought to represse the abuse as knowing the use of it to be most necessarie The matters then he meant to order when he came was to set out this Heavenly banquet with greater decencie and solemnitie not to abridge them of any substantial or material part thereof 17 Nor do the Trent Fathers if we may trust them upon their words For they desirous as it seems to make the whole Christian World as sottish as themselves were impious would make men believe they could juggle away the Cup and never touch the very substance of the Sacrament as if the wine were not as substantial a part of the Lords Supper as was his blood of his bodie or humanitie An integral or material part they cannot denie it to be and such if it be there Apologie is as shamelesse as if a man should let out most of anothers blood cut off his arm or leg or maim him in some principal part and plead for himself I did not meddle with his substance meaning as the Councel I take it here doth his Essence seeing he is yet as truly a reasonable Creature as before 18 But to debar them of that refuge it may be they sought or their followers may yet hope to find in the equivocation of this word substance importing as much sometimes as a material or integral sometimes as an essential part If the Cup be an essential and substantial part of this Sacrament the Councel by their own confession did foully erre in prohibiting Communion under both kinds If no such part it be they might by their own rule have altogether denied the use of it so much as to the sacrificer or conficient but so the very use and end on which the essence of the Sacrament as of all other matters of moral practise immediately depends and by whose expiration instantly most determine should utterly have perished The end and use of this sacred Institution as our Saviour expressely teacheth and the Councel grants was to represent the Testators Death yea so to represent it as we might be partakers of his bodie and blood not spiritually onely but withall as the Trent Fathers contend Sacramentally Admitting then all they can pretend against the necessity of the Cup That whole Christ were in the Bread alone yet this will not preserve the true and fruitfull use of the Sacrament nor salve that deadly wound the essence of it must perforce receive from frustration of the end necessarily ensuing the Cups absence For this Sacrament was ordained as to represent so to exhibit Christs body unto all faithful Communicants not as intire and whole his bloud not as it was inclosed in the veines but the one as torne and rent the other as shed and powred out upon the crosse This is my bloud of the new Testament saith our Saviour which is shed for many for all that receive it faithfully for the remission of sins His Bloud then as shed and powred out is as the loadstar of penitent and contrite hearts whereon the eyes of their faith that seek remission of sins in this Sacrament must be fastened for as the ‖ Apostle saith without shedding of bloud is no remission This was the complement of that inestimable all-sufficient Sacrifice that which represents his precious bloud thus poured out the principal part of this Sacrament as wel in respect of representing his death as in applying remission of sins thereby in general purchased and by this Sacramental Type sealed to every one in particular especially if the Trent Councels Doctrine be true that Christs very bloud which was shed upon the crosse is really present in the Chalice and might be as immediately sprinkled at least upon the lips or doors of every faithful receivers heart as the bloud of the Paschal Lamb was upon the door-posts of the Israelites Thus as Satan the Father of lies so false opinions suggested by him draw men with pleasure into those evils for whose practise in the end
yet do that not Peter but His and Their Master onely was to be the Chief Corner Stone in that Temple they had often heard he should and now he tels them he was to build The present Dialogue would abundantly instruct them that not the Son of man himself howsoever considered but in such sort as his heavenly Father had revealed him to Saint Peter truely apprehended as God and Man was a Foundation competent for so incomparable a Structure Such as before his time had gone the farthest such as thought he had been Moses who had no Peer among the Prophets greater then whom it was scarce expected any son of mortal man should be had not come unto ground firm enough to build their own and all mens Faith upon To them the gate of the Lord by which the righteous were to enter was not fully opened They came not to a distinct direct and perfect view of this Chief Corner Stone for this reason they could not be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stones actually wrought and so well fitting this precious Foundation as that others might be framed by their Patern and then joyntly fastned to it This was Peters Prerogative unto whom the Keyes are first given as unto the first of all the faithfull that had passed this gate and power by them to admit as many as were to exclude all that were not fashionable to this Rock and Corner-stone 4 Seeing then neither the Apostles then thought nor can any man yet conceive that Peter could be an extraordinary stone or second Foundation in the aedisice there spoken of but must withall admit Christ to be The Chief Corner Stone or Surest Fundamental Rock I would appeal to my Adversary in his sober mood to any not actually drunken with the Babylonish Cup unto whether foundation unto what stone the principall or lesse principall these words and upon this Rock will I build my Church must be referred We must judge of the foundation by the aedifice and of the aedifice by the attribute Now as there is no one Title wherein the spirit doth more delight to expresse the Strength and Praises of the living God then this of Rock so was there never any more puissant effect attributed to any Rock then the eternal stabilitie of this aedifice What Saint Paul saith of the foundation I may truely say of the Edifice and the Attribute Another Edifice more strong then this Church can no man build no Attribute can be imagined more glorious then This That the gate of hell shall never prevail or as Maldonate more fully expresseth the majestie of the Hebraisme shall not be able to stand against it or confront it To ascribe the supportance of such a structure to the strength of Peters Faith not as it was in him onely but as it is perpetually propagated to his successours is to impeach him of disloyalty and rob Christ of his greatest glory For even such as plead for this prerogative in Peters successours confesse that this they give to Peter is our Saviours most usuall stile we may with the Prophet demand Who is the Rock besides our God The Lord is the Rock of our salvation of such salvation as the gates of Hell cannot oppugne the same He is the Lord our Rock and our Redeemer Psal 19. 14. 5 The former interpretation will yet further approve it self to be most consonant to the general Analogie of faith most native to the place before alledged and in respect of Romish glosses such as is the Church of Christ unto the gates of Hell or the Ark of old unto Dagon if we observe what is most frequently and perspicuously taught in other Scriptures pertinent to the main point in Controversie First that the immediat subject of Peters Confession God incarnate or dwelling as S. Paul speaks bodily in Christ is presupposed by all sacred Writers as the great Mysterie of mans Redemption the Fundamental Rock of Salvation Secondly that all and onely they which in sincerity of heart conceive and with stedfast perseverance retain this confession which Peter made are true and lively parts of that Edisice which the Son of the living God here promised to erect 6 The Reader I know in this fruitfull age of learned Expositors may finde varietie of Comments but none that can more fully satisfie him then Saint Peters own Paraphrase upon our Saviours Promise to him if we compare it with other Scriptures in sence and meaning equivalent That Christ was the onely Rock whereupon this Saint himself as a living member of the Church was built is apparant because intending to make his flock lively parts of the same aedifice he tels them they come not to himself as to a second Rock but unto the Lord as unto a living stone disallowed of men yet chosen of God and pretious As if he had said Not flesh and bloud not the wisest of men but onely our heavenly Father did first reveal him unto me for such and in the words following as if he had purposely intended to certifie us that the name of Peter did descend to him from this affinitie with this elect and pretious stone not because he was a Rock or fundamental stone himself he addes and ye as lively stones be made a spiritual house a lively Priest-hood Priests as living and altars as stones to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Though they were not all to have the title or name of Peters for so there could be no distinction yet so they would believe and confesse as he did that Christ was the living stone they were to have the realitie or substance to be stones of that spiritual house against which the gates of hell should not be able to prevail 7 And seeing he now endeavoured to fasten them unto Christ as unto the onely sure Rock of their redemption it could not be so available to tell them in our Saviours own words that becoming such a spirituall house and continuing in offering up sacrifices acceptable unto God the gates of hell should not prevail against them Until this Day-star had more fully shined in their hearts he knew it for the better method to kindle the same hope in them by the Prophets light which in time would break forth clearer of it self for that glorious promise of our Saviour differed from the prophetical prediction which S Peter gives them for their assurance but as the light which goes before doth from the brightnesse following the Suns rising What Christ had told him was in effect contained before in that Scripture Behold I lay in Ston a chief corner stone elect and pretious and he that believeth therein shall not be ashamed Why not ashamed because his hope should be most sure and Hope as the Apostle saith maketh not ashamed he meant It supporteth against all shame or terrour the world flesh or Devil can oppose against us They may threaten but not so deject us as to
cause us either through fear of disgrace or other danger skulk or run from mens presence as a learned Hebrician expresseth the Hebrew word rendred by the vulgar non festinabit he shall not hasten or to expresse the full value of both these Apostles speeches by the last and most potent object of shame Believing in Christ we shall not be Found naked in that last day nor wish the Mountains for a covering to our shame but enabled by sure Hope to stand before the Son of man for not ashamed of him before men in this life he will not be ashamed of us in that day Then shall that victory of this spiritual house over the impotent assaults of Hell gates be manifested Thus by Saint Peters own exposition The Son of the living God whom he confessed was that living Stone from whose strength this spiritual house whereof he and his flock were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively stones becomes so strong To make either Saint Peter or his successors joynt though secondary supporters of this glorious work were to divide our Faith betwixt Christ and Them For it only stands by faith and confidence immediately fastened upon the Foundation or supporters If then we may not so fasten our faith either upon Peter or his successors we can receive no other strength from them then we do from Christs other Apostles and that is only from their Ministerial Function in squaring and fastening us unto this living stone To this purpose saith S. Paul Other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Whosoever was himself builded on him albeit he never heard of S. Peter albeit the doctrines he heaped upon this foundation were but hay and stubble or matter alike apt to take fire yet the flame wherein these idle speculations of his brain were to perish should but singe his clothes not devour his substance because by faith united unto that living stone which without any other intermediate sconce or fence doth quench the flames of hell and keep them from scorching any even the last and uppermost that shall be built upon him unto the worlds end For the same Apostles rule is universal both in respect of time and persons If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him up from the dead thou shalt be saved 8 But did S. Paul by special revelation utter this as a mysterie altogether unknown before unto the faithful Rather by participation of the same spirit which spake in the Prophet he only unfolds the Oracle late expounded I must confesse without distinct apprehension of so good warrant then as is now suggested For the Apostle to prove his former assertion urgeth that place of the Prophet Whosoever believes in him shall not be ashamed So then with S. Paul it is all one to believe in Christ raised from the dead or in the corner stone rejected of men allowed of God And it seems the declaration made unto S. Peter that Christ whom he confessed howsoever a Rock to fall upon to both the houses of Israel was the sure Foundation of the faithful which the Prophet foretold should be laid in Sion made his ignorance to say no worse in disswading his master from suffering such disgrace and ignominy of the Elders bigh Priests and Scribes more inexcusable because it had been so plainly foretold that the corner stone was to be basely esteemed of them ere advanced of God Hence our Saviour reproves him so sharply Then he turned back and said unto Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me because thou understandest not the things that are of God but the things that are of men As if he had said shall this Rock become a stumbling stone unto thee also unto whom it was first revealed What I now told thee the Prophet long since foretold It was the Lords doing and should have been marvellous not offensive in thy sight Hast thou never read how the builders must first refuse That Stone which the Lord wil afterwards appoint Chief in the corners From remembrance of this check S. Peter it may be whiles he paraphrased upon this place used not the Psalmists but our Saviours words Ye come saith he as unto a living stone disallowed not by the builders but of men chosen not of the Lord but of God howsoever elsewhere he more fully parallels these two as S. Paul had done Christ crucisied and raised again the stone cast aside and constituted as head of the corner Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazaret whom ye have crucified whom God raised again from the dead even by him doth the man stand here before you whole This is the stone cast aside of you builders which is become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in any other for among men there is given none other Name under heaven whereby we must be saved Then is there no other whose name imported as much as a Rock or stone to support men against all commotions the powers of hell could raise against them 9 So our Saviour takes the husbandmen killing of the Lord of the Vine-yard son and the builders rejecting the head stone of the corner as equivalent First he demands When therefore the Lord of the Vine-yard shall come what will be do to those husbandmen that had slain his son they reply he will cruelly destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vine-yard unto other husbandmen which shall deliver him the fruits in their seasons And this judgement they had given against themselves he ratifies by the like expresse sentence which the Lord already had past upon them Read ye never in the Scriptures the stone which the builders refused the same is made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore say I unto you the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation which shall bring forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder 10 This may suffice for proof that S. Peters confessing the Son of man to be The Christ the son of the living God was all one with our Saviours declaration Upon this Rock will I build my Church c. because Christ and the livingstone which God had promised to found in Sion are unto sacred Writers and all participants of that spirit by which they wrote The self same Nor is there any thing more usual with the holy Ghost then to refer like speeches of our Saviour unto places of Scripture more different in words then the two former alledged albeit there be no such identity of persons time and place or continuation of discourse to manifest their mutual coherence
either Antichristian blindnesse not to see or impudency of no meaner stock not to acknowledg that the Pope by this mean might appropriate unto himself the honour due unto God play upon his Creator in such sort as if a corrupt Lawyer having evidences committed to his trust should by vertue of them take up rents and let leases to the Land-lords dammage and Tenants overthrow And what is most villanous unto whatsoever prerogatives though most prejudicial to the divine majesty his Parasitical Canonists shal blasphemously entitle this most holy Father The Son of God and his faithfullest servants Apostles or Prophets must be brought forth to abet the forgery as if evidence given in Court by infamous Knights of the Post should in the final day of hearing be produced under the hands and seals of free Barons or other chief Peers of the Land for as was intimated before whatsoever the Pope though in his own cause shall say it must by this doctrine be supposed that Christ doth say the same Yea if it should please his Holiness to avoach ex Cathedra that these words Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melechisedech are truly and literally meant of himself as Christs Viâ—ar or of perpetual succession in Peters Chair the evidence must be taken as upon the Almighties oath who in that place hath sworn as much as these words import but what that is the Pope must judge That then he permits Christ the title of his soveraign Lord and urges others to subscribe unto his laws as most divine is just as if some Polititian should solicit the whole body of a kingdom solemnly to acknowledge one othewise lawful heir unto the Crown for their Monarch most omnipotent and absolute whose wil once signified must be a law for ever inviolable to all his subjects not with intent that he should in person retain such perpetual soveraignty over them but that he might have absolute power to dispose of his kingdom as he pleased unto the worlds end or to nominate others as absolute in his place whilest he spent his dayes as a sojourner in a forrain land Finally not the most treacherous and detestable plot the most wicked Pope that hath been is or shall be could desire to effect but may by this device be countenanced with as great and sacred authority as were the best actions our Saviour ever undertook which as may better appear from what shall be said in the next Section is to make every Popes authority as much greater then our Saviours as their lives and actions are worse then his was 3 Suppose some Devil should possesse the Popes place in similitude of a man as some Papists think the great Antichrist who shall challenge as great authority as the Pope doth shall be a Devil incarnate or the son of a Devil might he not hold his dignity by the same plea the Jesuites make for their Lord and Master Could he not be content to pretend Christs name or succession from S. Peter as Simon Magus might he have obtained what he desired would have done for his own advantage could he not urge the authority of Gods word to confirm his own over it and all that is called Gods If in such a case it might not be permitted men to examin his allegations out of Scriptures how could the devil himself be convinced by Scriptures or deposed from his supremacy thence pretended And can we doubt whether he which makes no other plea then the Devil were he in place might is not that Filius Diaboli The great Antichrist Were we not taught that the sons of this world are wise only in their own generation we might justly wonder that any men indued with natural wit could be so blind as at the first sight not to descrie the politick Sophisins used by the Romanist to cozen Christ of his kingdom As their whole Religion is but the image of the old Roman policy so their main plot of Templum Domini Templum Domini the Church the Church as if all were rebels against Christ that wil not swear absolute fealty to the Church Romish may be most fully paralleled by the like practise of such cunning States-men as having alwayes one eye to the advancement of their own private fortunes live under an absolute Monarch of himself royally minded but not much intermedling in the affairs of greatest moment Opportunity of high place under a king upon what occasion soever thus sequestred that poor mens complaints cannot possesse his ears tempts politicians to effect their own purposes under pretence of his right and to condemn all of treason or disroyalty that will not obey their designs directed in their Soveraigns name though most abhorrent from the disposition of his Royal heart were he acquainted with such lamentable grievances of his poor Subjects as are the usual consequents of Princes gracious Favours upon great Ones The more absolute such a Princes lawful authority the greater is native subjects love unto him is the more may both be abused by such unthankful officers As it is the Soveraign conceit all men have of Christs kingdom which keeps the silly in such servility unto the Pope his pretended agent 4 This is the only difference in these two cases otherwise most like An earthly Prince may live and die deluded of his Machiavillian States men over whom he hath no power after he himself is once subject But Christ lives and reigns a King for ever and though his throne be in the highest heavens beholds the things done on earth He sees and yet suffereth his pretended officers to detain such as love darknesse more then light in grossest ignorance and blind subjection to the Prince of darkenesse and his associates he sees and yet suffers them detain all such as delight in lies more then in truth from acquaintance with his Holy spirit He sees and yet suffers their foulest villanies to be countenanced by his sacred laws he sees and yet suffers his holy name to be abused to the establishing of Antichristian Heresies he sees and yet suffers his glory made a stale for maintenance of their secular pomp He is the keeper of Israel and cannot so slumber as any abuse should escape his notice his indignation shall not sleep for ever but in due time he wil rouse himself as a Lion awaked to take vengeance upon all the workers of iniquity on them above others who have thus usurped his throne on earth taking that judgement during the time of his supposed absence wholly into their hands which beloâ—…nly unto him Even so come Lord Jesu Holy and True and with the breath of thy mouth destroy him that hath destroyed truth and sincerity from amongst the Sons of men SECT III. Containing the second degree of great Antichrists Exaltation in making his authority more absolutely infallible then any the visible or representative Church of the Jews Moses or the Prophets ever had Finally in making it greater then Christs or
dayes they were to undertake what the Priests appointed and to obey his advice at least by cautelous obedience untill the event did prove the truth But neither was this certain manifestation of Gods will so absolutely promised unto the Priests but not living according unto the direction of Gods Law he might fail in his Oracles Nor was this peoples Prerogative above others without all limit that if they lived no better then others did they should as often as they asked counsel of God infallibly know whether the answer were from him or no albeit there were no defect in the Priest For this reason the Lord answered not Saul when he asked Counsel of him neither by dreams nor by visions nor by Urim nor by the Prophets for Saul was now cast off by God not willing to vouchsafe an answer unto his demands which argues that the revelation made to the Priests was also manifested to the party solemnly and in sincerity of heart proposing the questions whereof he desired to be resolved 5 That the Priest had no such priviledge or absolute promise of Gods infallible presence as the Pope challengeth is apparant from the law of temperance prescribed And the Lord spake unto Aaron saying thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when ye come into the Tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die This is an ordinance for ever throughout your generations that ye may put difference between the holy and unholy and between the clean and unclean and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes the Lord had commanded thee by the hand of Moses If these Priests themselves were unholy and unclean they could not infallibly discern between the holy and unholy between the clean and unclean if they lived not according to this they could not teach the children of Israel the rest of Gods expresse lawes much lesse could they infallibly manifest unto them his will in all doubts and controversies But the Pope so absolute is his Prerogative which the Jesuites attribute unto him must be thought to be infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit albeit he lead a most unhallowed unclean polluted life 6 But for the promise made unto Levi and his seed God himself by his Prophet Malachy most expresly interprets the meaning of it And now O ye Priests this commandement is for you if ye will not hear it nor consider it in your heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings yea and I have cursed them already because ye do not consider it in your heart behold I will corrupt your seed and â—â—st dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn feasts and you shall be like unto it and ye shall know that I have sent this commandement unto you that my covenant which I made unto Levi might stand saith the Lord of hosts My covenant was with him of life and peace and I gave him fear and be feared me and was afraid before my Name the law of truth was in his mouth and there was no iniquitie found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equitie and diâ— turn many from iniquity for the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and theysâ—â—ll 〈◊〉 thâ— law at his mouth As if he had said Such Priests I have had in former times and such might your praises from my mouth and your estimation with men have been had you framed your lives according to the Rules which my servant Moses had set you But were these Priests against whom he here speaks infallible in their doctrine still because Gods promise was so ample unto Levi If they were not why doth Bellarmin bring this place to prove the Popes infallible Authority in teaching divine truths If they were why doth the Lord complain in the words immediately following But ye are gone out of the way ye have caused many to fall by the law ye have broken the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts Therefore have I made you also to be despised and vile before all the people because you keep not my wayes but have been partiall in the law 7 This place alone though many others might be brought clearly evinceth Gods promise unto Levi and his posterity during the time of their priesthood to have been Conditional not Absolute And as Gods promise of Infallibility was unto him and his seed such was the Obedience due to them and their Authority not absolute but conditional and where the precepts may seem universal yet are they to be limitted oft-times by the Condition of the Priests life 8 But sundrie Propositions there be in Scriptures for their Form Universal which are also absolutely true in their proper subject whose full extent or limits not withstanding are not always Evident Whence many mistake in stretching them too far others seeing them fail in some particulars which seem comprehended under the universality of their forme suspect the absolutenesse of their truth and account them rather morally probable or conditionally true then necessary and certain yet are they most absolutely necessary and certain onely their universality is to be limited by their proper subjects This is a common difficulty in all Arts though lesse apparent in the Mathematicks or Metaphysicks or other like abstract contemplative Sciences But in Philosophie as well natural as moral many general rules there be most true and evident to such as know the nature or quality either of the subject or matter whereunto they are applied or of these particulars whence the induction was gathered and yet are obscure and doubtfull unto others who mark the universality of their form not so well acquainted with the nature of those subjects in which their truth is principally and most evidently seen not so able to discern the Identitie or Diversity the proportion or disproportion which other subjects may have with the former but of the triall of rules in Arts if God permit elsewhere I will now instance in Scripture onely what proposition could be for the form more universal what precept conceived in words more general then that of sanctifying the Sabbath In it thou halt do no manner of work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non facies ullum opus The Scribes and Pharisees putting a Religion in the letter of the Law as the Jesuites now do when it may make for their advantage did conclude from the generalitie of this precept that our Saviour brake the Sabbath when he healed the sick upon it Their pretences if we respect the universalitie of the Proposition only were far more probable then the Papist can pick any for their purpose Yet Jewish still in that they considered not the end of the Sabbath which might have limited the universal form of the precept and restrained it unto some kind of works onely for not all but onely all those works which were
repugnant to the end of this Precept were forbidden The end of the Sabbath was to sanctifie themselves unto the Lord to set forth his praise both in words and works Such works then onely are here forbidden as did distract the mind or make men unapt to hear read or meditate on heavenly matters all works of secular vocation or private consequence which might hinder mens endeavours for procuring the health or wel-fare of others not works of charity or present necessity not works tending to greater publick good or to the avoidance of greater harmes which could not be prevented but by present working for men are to read hear and meditate upon Gods Word that by it they may be fruitfull in good deeds by which Gods Name is more immediately glorified then onely by speaking well and not doing so Wherefore oru Saviour Christ did better observe the Sabbath by working upon it to save mens lives or recover their health then the Pharisees did by abstaining from such works of mercy as might have glorified Gods Name more immediately then any speculative or precise Rules how it should be kept Yea by not working these good works when fair occasion was offered they did the works of Satan even murther it self as our Saviour Christ implies in that question proposed unto the Scribes and Pharisees which sought an accusation against him I will ask you a question whether it is lawfull on the Sabbath dayes to do good or to do evil to save life or to destroy it 9 The like limitations this precept had in case of necessity or for the avoidance of some great extraordinary calamity not otherwise avoidable then by doing such works as upon ordinary and daily occasions were unlawfull to be done upon the Sabbath day It was an opinion received as it seems amongst the Jews that they might not fight nor build the breaches or places whereby their enemies did hope for entrance upon the Sabbath In this perswasion about the number of a thousand Jewes did lay down their lives But when Matthias heard of this his people and Countrey mens massacre more general then it needed to have been but for this their strict and precise interpretation of the former general commandment he and his friends wisely resolved Whosoever should come to make battell with us upon the Sabbath day we will fight against them that we die not all as our brethren that were murdered in the secret places Which they might have stopped but would not for fear of violating the Sabbath The reason of this their resolution contained in the 40 verse was most strong drawn from the end of the Sabbath For they said one to another If we all do as our brethren have done and fight not against the Heathen for our lives and for our Lawes then shall they incontinently destroy us out of the earth And if the whole Jewish Nation had been at that time utterly rooted out who should either have sanctified Gods Sabbaths or preserved his Lawes from the injurie of times or fury of the Heathen Nature had taught the Heathen that it was foolish propter vitam vivendi perdere causas much more might religious discretion teach all men how preposterous a course it were for the precise keeping of one to crosse or overthrow the end of all Sabbaths 10 Yet our Adversaries I am sure cannot bring any precept so peremptory or general for absolute obedience unto the High Priests and Governours as the former was for not working upon the Sabbath And yet this we see â—…ts restraint from the End and holds onely absolutely true in certain kind of works not in all The like restraint either from the End or from the Circumstances may all those places likewise suffer which seem to be most general for absolute obedience unto Gods messengers or spiritual governours 11 The end of obeying Gods messengers is that men thereby may obey God himself Suppose then God had said Thou shalt obey the Priest in all things whatsoever he shall command thee A Wise man not withstanding all this would thus resolve Suppose the Priest command me to do that in doing which I shall disobey God or to omit that continually in performing of which I sboul I obey God am I bound to obey him in all such commands so should I frustrate the End of the Law and commit the same offence by this my Blind Obedience which others do by presumptuous and wilfull disobedience unto spirituall governours But it will be replied who shall judge whether the spiritual Governour command thee such service as argues disobedience unto God or no If the case be Doubtfull and I be commanded by my lawfull Pastor I have answered already in what sence obedience must be performed But if the case be Evident men must openly disobey their Pastors before they certainly disobey God But who shall judge of the Evidence Every mans conscience Shall that then be Evident which every man shall say is Evident unto him No but what in deed and conscience is and so shall appear in his judgement that searcheth the heart and reins Such as do not fear his censure will make no conscience of disobeying men pretending authority from him Such as with fear and trembling expect the Son of mans appearance will not much esteem how they be judged by men further then in reason they may be perswaded their sentence shall be ratified in the last day of judgement And because God hath endued spiritual Governours with power of retaining and remitting sins every one that fears him which gave will fear to disobey them to Whom this power is given lest if they retain he will not remit and retain they justly may or rather must the sins of all such as adde thirst to drunkennesse contempt of Gods Messengers summons to repentance unto actual breaches of his Law This is as open rebellion upon a riot perhaps first attempted upon ignorance of the Law inconsideratenesse or foolish passion but continued after Proclamation made in the Kings Name by a publick Magistrate authorized for such purposes The parties admonished upon such high termes to desist from any suspitious enterprise though no more must be certain of the Princes or chief Law-givers future approbation of what they go about if they persist otherwise disobedience to a lawful Magistrate or inferiour Officer will be found rebellion against the State or Soveraignty 12 Though it be most true what hath been before delivered that unto Pastors conditional obedience is onely due yet is not the condition precedent to all acts of obedience but subsequent at least to some and to be inserted by way of Limitation or Caution for desisting upon discovery of farther danger rather then interposed as a stop to breed delay or prohibition of all obedience untill evident proof be made that it is expresly due in the particulars enjoyned The want of this distinction between a condition Precedent and a condition Subsequent or annexed unto actual obedience
universal or absolute amongst the Jews as the Papists make it but was to be limited by the former Rules 1 ONe especial place on which they stand is from that Law in Deuteronomy If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement between bloud and bloud between plea and plea between plague and plague in the matters of controversie within thy gates then shalt thou arise and go up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse And thou shalt come unto the Priests of the Levites and to the Judge that shall be in those dayes and ask and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgement and thou shalt do according to that thing which they of that place which the Lord hath chosen shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee According to the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgement which they shall tell thee sealt thou do thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee neither to the right hand nor to the left And that man that will do presumptuously not hear kning unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to minister there or unto the Judge that man shall die and thou shalt take away evil from Israel so all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously 2 This precept admits of many restrictions any one of which doth take away all the force of our adversaries objections First it may without prejudice to our cause be granted although it cannot out of these words be necessarily inferred that God here prescribes obedience in the abstract such as was to be performed unto those Priests and Judges that lived according to that pattern which he had set them Thus may this precept of obedience for the extent be universal and concern all causes whatsoever spiritual or temporal doubts of conscience or matters of this life in all which such governours were to be obeyed but conditionally if they were such as God in his law required they should be unto such as you heard before he gave illuminations extraordinary such as the parties that were to obey might have perfect notice of But how great soever the extent of this precept be not one syllable in it makes more for absolute obedience unto spiritual then unto civil governours for it is said indefinitely vers 10. thou â—… do according to that thing which they either spiritual or temporal of that placâ—… which the Lord hath chosen shall shew thee And again the words are diâ—…ctive That man that will do presumptuously not hearkening unto the Prâ—… unto the Judge that man shall die whether the Priest were to be supream Judge or no it is not said at the least the High Priest was not the chief man alwayes in the Councel for he was not alwayes admitted into the supream Consistory or Sanhedrim which is established in this place yet Bellarmin will have the definitive sentence belong unto the Priest and the execution of it to the civil magistrate so indeed the present Romish Church in spiritual cases would be judge and mâ—ke Christian Princes her hang-men but their practise must not be taken for an infallible exposition of that Law whence they seek to justifie their practise quite contrary to the practise of the Jewish Church and Synagogue Nor doth Bellarmin or any other beside the base parasitical Canonists or the Popes trencher chaplains deny but that in many civil causes the Prince or temporal Magistrate hath a definitive sentence can he then gather out of any circumstance of this place that only spiritual causes are here meant nay he confesseth that the law is general concerning all doubts that might arise out of the law yet it is most probable that it only concerns civil controversies and Bellarmins reason to prove that it includeth spiritual causes or matters of Religion is most idle The occasion of this Law saith he was for them that did serve other Gods as appears out of the beginnning of the Chapter now the service of other Gods is a point of Religion But what though Moses in the former part of this Chapter speak of Idolaters must this law therefore concern Idolaters In the former part he speaketh only of Idolaters but this law is not only for them by Bellarmins confession Yet the circumstances of the place and the expresse law against Idolaters mentioned before evince that in this Chapter as in the former he first sets down laws concerning the true service of God and in the later part gives precepts for the observation of the second Table the maintaining of love by the final composition of all controversies that might arise betwixt neighbours In the former law Idolaters are sentenced to death and Idolatry saith Bellarmin is a point of Religion Was the Priest alone then to give sentence and the civil Magistrate only to execute it There is not the least pretence for it out of this Text. Any ordinary Magistrate might execute him that was lawfully convicted of this crime nor was it so hard a matter to judge who was an Idolater amongst the Jews as it is to determin what is an Heresie amongst the Romanists This was to be proved by witnesses not by Logical proof or force of speculative reason Had the cunningest Jesuite in the world been taken amongst them kneeling down before an Image and praying to it all the distinctions in the Master of sentences or Aquinas or both their Commentators could not have redeemed him against two honest men that had sworn he had done thus much there had been no appeal from any City in Judah unto any higher Court his doom had been read in the gates and without them he should as Homer speaks have put on a stony coat 3 That the Kings of Judah were only to execute the Priests definitive sentence in all hard controversies is a position well deserving execution without appeal at Princes hands And no doubt but it did so amongst the Jews The former Court as is most probable was to cease when they had a King amongst them And Moses in the former Chapter after he had given the other law for ending controversies gives the law for the election of their King if so be they would have one as if the former Court had then ceased to be the supream Tribunal seeing all Subjects might appeal unto the King from it in which this Soveraignty did before reside as being the supream Tribunal whence there could be no appeal 4 The King in the Law concerning his qualification is commanded to have the Law of his God written out And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of his Law and these Ordinances for to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not from the commandment
he heal them Then said I Lord how long And he answered until the cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed men far away and there be a great desolation in the midst of the land The truth of our assertion is so pregnant that Maldonat the most judicious expoâ—â—tor amongst the Jesuites takes it as granted the words late cited were literally meant only of that generation with whom the Prophet lived and brings this very Text as one of the aptest instances to illustrate the third kind as he makes it of fulfilling prophesies to wit when that which is truly and literally meant of one is fitly applied unto another matter or sort of people for the similitude of their nature or disposition Although to speak the truth he might have referred it more justly at least more artificially to the fourth kind there mentioned by him For as shal appear hereafter this prophesie was alike literally properly and directly meant of both but verified of the former times more immediately as first in order because that part of its object had precedency in actual existence of the later more compleatly as principally intended by the holy Ghost 4 The blindnesse there spoken of was even then begun but did encrease from that age until the captivity and continued until Christs coming in whole dayes it was augmented and the prophesie fully accomplished as the desolation which followed their blindnesse in putting him to death was greater then that which Nebuchadnezzar brought upon the City and land for the provocations wherewith Manasseh Jehoiachim and other wicked Rulers as wel Priests as Laicks had provoked the Lord by cruel persecution of his messengers sent unto them This was a disease in their Prelates and 〈◊〉 lineally desâ—â—nding to the Scribes and Pharisees who took themselves for infallible teachers and free from oppugning such doctrine as therefore-fathers had persecuted unto the death The sin of these later in crucifyiag Christ was in degree more grievous because his personal worth was much greater then the Prophets but the ignorance was of the same kind in both for as our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 32. the later did but fulfil the measurâ—… their fathers iniquity in murthering Gods messengers And as afterwards shall be declared such as the Romanists account the Church representative most infallible did continually cause or countenance these persecutions The original likewise of this cruelty continued from former to later generations was the very same in both the one distasted Gods words whilest the Prophet spake them the other understood them not whilest they were read every sabbath day unto them both fulfilled them in condemning Gods messengers and thedding innocent bloud upon such gross and palpable blindness as Isaiah describes 5 It wil recreate the attentive Reader to observe how the Lord hath confounded the language of these cunning builders whâ—es they seek to raise up new Babylon from the foundation of the old Synagogue Bellarmin would seem to make a conscience of blaspheming and therefore hath rather adventured to be reputed ridiculous in avouching as you heard before without all ground or shew of reason that the infallible authority formerly established in the Synagogue did expire upon our Saviours entrance into his Ministerial function Many of his fellows knowing how necessary it is for them to defend the publick spirit of the Synagogues and conscious withal how frivolous it would be to say it should vanish by our Saviours presence who came rather by doctrine and practise to establish then overthrow any ordinance of the law resolve though by open blasphemy to maintain the Scribes and Pharisees infallibility until the aboâ—…ing of Aarons Priesthood That they condemned our Saviour was in these mens judgements an â—riour only in matter of Fact not of â—…th or â—…rine and in such case the Pope himself may err whiles he speaks ex Caâ—… That the High Priest did not erre in Faith they take it as proved because the Evangelist saith he prophesied It were good one should die for the people John 11. 50. 6 Such infallibility as this I never shall envy the Pope and I desite no more then that he would confirm this last cited doctrine ex Cathedra For no question but all such throughout the Christian world as bear any love to Christ at all any besides the Jesuites who make no conscience of vilisying their Redeemer for advancing the Popes dignity by desending his insallibilin would renounce his decrees and take him for Antichrist ever after For this was no errour de facto upon false information or privy suggestion Even the High Priests themselves for the inveterate hate which they had born unto our Saviours person and doctrine such as the Romish Church did unto Hus and Jerom of Prage hold a Councel how they might put him to death and so far were they from being missed with false information that they suborn fals witnesses against him and failing in this seek to insnare him in his own confession and finally condemn him with joynt consent for avouching one of the main points of Christian Belief the Article of his coming to judgement I think might Satan himself speak his mind in this case he would condemn Gretzer and his fellows if not for their villany yet for their intolerable folly in questioning whether it were an errour in Faith or no to pronounce the sentence of death with such solemnity against the Judge of quick and dead for professing and teaching the main points and grounds of Faith This villany is too open and evident to maintain the policy of the Prince of darknesse And if neither fear of God nor shame of the world could bridle the Jesuites mouths or stop the pens from venting such doctrine yet certainly this Prince of darknesse their Lord and Master for fear of some greater revolt wil lay his command upon them and make them in this discoursing age speak more warily though they niean still no lesse wickedly 7 Because this is a point worth the pressing let us overthrow not only their answers already given or arguments hence drawn for their Churches authority but in brief prevent all possible evasions If any Papist shal here reply that these High Priests and their assistants did not speak ex Cathedra when they so far missed the cushion this answer as it might perhaps drop from some ignorant Jesuites mouth or pen who is bound by oath to say something and therefore must oftentimes say he knows not what for the defence of the Church so we may wel assure our selves that the Pope himself dare not for his triple Crown deliver it ex Cathedra nor wil the learned Papists hold this point if it be wel urged For as these High Priests errour was most grosse and grievous so was it received upon long and mature deliberation their manner of proceeding was publick and solemn They took Jesus saith the
another manner then the Lacedâ—monians did Lycurgus laws were from Apollo For when the Law which enjoyns the worship of one God was given unto the people it did appear as far forth as the divine providence did judge sufficient by strange signs and motions whereof the people themselves were spectators that the creature did perform service to the Creator for the giving of that Law But we must believe as firmly as this people did Moses that all the Popes injunctions are given by God himself without any other sign or testimony then the Lacedemonians had that Lycurgus laws were from Apollo Yet is it here further to be considered that the Israelites might with far lesse danger have admitted Moses laws then we may the Popes without any examination for divine seeing there was no written law of God extant before his time whereby his writings were to be tried No such charge had been given this people as he gives most expresly to this purpose Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the ordinances and to the Laws which I teach you to do that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Ye shall put nothing unto the word which I command you neither shall ye take ought there from that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you But was the motive or argument by which he sought to establish their belief or assent unto these commandments his own infallible authority no but their own experience of their truth as it followeth Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor For all the men that followed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed every one from among you but ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day so gracious and merciful is our God unto mankind and so far from exacting this blind obedience which the Pope doth challenge that he would have his written word established in the fresh memory of his mighty wonders wrought upon Pharaoh and all his host The experiment of their deliverance by Moses had been a strong motive to have perswaded them to admit of his doctrine for infallible or at the least to have believed him in his particular promises When the snares of death had compassed them about on every side and they see no way but one or rather two inevitable wayes to present death and destruction the red sea before them and a mighty host of bloud behind them the one serving as a glasse to represent the cruelty of the other they as who in their case would not cry out for fear He that could have foretold their strange deliverance from this imminent danger might have gotten the opinion of a God amongst the Heathen yet â—… confidently promiseth them even in the midst of this perplexity the utter destruction of the destroyer whom they feared Fear ye not stand 〈◊〉 and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will shew to you this day for the Egyptians whom you have seen this day you shal never see again The Lord shal fight for you therefore hold you your peace Notwithstanding all this Moses never enacts this absolute obedience to be believed in all that ever he shall say or speak unto them without farther examination or evident experiment of his doctrine For God requires not this of any man no not of those to whom he spake face to face alwayes ready to feed such as call upon him with infallible signs and pledges of the truth of his promises For this reason the waters of Mâ—rah are sweetned at Moses prayer And God upon this new experiment of his power and goodnesse takes occasion to re-establish his former covenant using this semblable event as a further earnest of his sweet promises to them If thou wilt diligently hearken O Israel unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear unto his commandments and keep all his ordinances then wil I put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee As if he had said This healing of the bitter waters shal be a token to thee of my power in healing thee Yet for all this they distrust Gods promises for their food as it followeth cap. 16. Nor doth Moses seek to force their assent by fearful Anathema's or sudden destruction but of some principal offenders herein For God wil not have true faith thunder-blasted in the tender blade but rather nourished by continuance of such sweet experiments for this reason he showres down Manna from heaven I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel tell them therefore and say At evening ye shall eat flesh and in the morning you shall be filled with bread and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God For besides the miraculous manner of providing both Quails and Manna for them the manner of nourishment by Manna did witnesse the truth of Gods word unto them They had been used to grosse and solid meats such as did fill their stomacks distend their bellies whereas Manna was in substance slender but gave strength and vigour to their bodies and served as an emblem of their spiritual food which being invisible yet gave life more excellently then these grosse and solid meats did So saith Moses Therefore he humbled thee and made thee hungry and fed thee with Manna which thou knowest not neither did thy Fathers know it that he might teach thee that man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. 6 Yet in their distresse so frail is our faith until it be strengthned by continual experiments they doubt and tempt the Lord saying Is the Lord amongst us or no Nor doth Moses interpose his infallible authority or charge them to believe him against their experience of their present thirst under pain of eternal damnation or sufferance of greater thirst in hell such threats without better instruction in Gods word and the comfort of his spirit may bring distrusts or doubts to utter despaire and cause faith to wither where it was wel nigh ripe they never ripen and strengthen any true and lively faith Moses himself is fain to cry unto the Lord saying What shall I do unto this people for they be almost ready to stone me As the Papists would do to the Pope were he to conduct them thorow the wildernesse in such extremity of thirst able to give them no better assurance of his favour with God then his Anathema's or feed them only with his Court-holy-water or blessings of wind But even here again God feeds Israels faith with waters issuing out of the rock making themselves eye-witnesses of all his wonders that so they might believe his words and promises nay himself from their own sense
to possesse it then shalt thou put the blessing upon Mount Gerâ—…m and the curse upon Mount 〈◊〉 And elsewhere Moses chargeth the People saying These all sons of the free-woman shall stand upon Mount Geriâ—… to 〈◊〉 the peâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—e passe over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Iâ—â—aâ—har andâ—oseph â—oseph and Benjamin and these sons of the bond-woman shall stand 〈◊〉 Mount Eâ—al to â—urse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulon Dan and Nephtali 〈◊〉 the Levites shall answer and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voyce Cursed c Nor was this rehersall more strictly enjoyned by Moses then faithfully performed by Iosuah And all Israel and their Elders and Officers and their â—…ges stood on this side of the Ark and on that side before the Priests of the Levites which bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord as well the stranger as he that is born in the Countrey half of them were over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should blesse the children of Israel Then afterward he read all the words of the Law the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the Law There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Josuah read not before all the Congregation of Israel aswell before the women and children as the stranger that was conversant among them The like solemnity was to be continued every seventh yeer as Moses commanded them saying Every seventh yeer when the yeer of freedom shall be in the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel shall come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall 〈◊〉 thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that they may hear it Gather the people together men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and keep and observe all the wordâ— of this Law and that their children which have not known it may hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possesse it 5 Children were to be instructed first privately then publikely that the solemnity of the spectacle might work in them a modest fear and reverence without whose precedent impression true faith hardly findes entrance into the heart of man And without miracles it seldom takes but where the seed of it have been sowen in tender yeers nor doth it usually sink into younger breasts unlesse sucked in with admiration All that Moses all that Josuah all that Priests and Levites all that Parents or other Instructers private or publick could do to such all they aimed at was to propose the infallible word in such sort as might stir up their hearts to receive it with attention and admiration and afterwards to make sure triall of it alwayes sufficient to prove it self by their practise No instructer in that people ever taught his hearers either finally or jointly to rely upon the infallibility of his proposals 6 But the Jesuites heart though his mouth will not utter it thus indictes Did all this stir these Scripturians would seem to make or tatling parents daily invitation of their children to strict observance of this rule take such effect as Moses dreamed of in posterity No. But the reason why it did not was because they sought not in time to supplie the defect or raritie of miracles in latter with more frequent and solemne memorial of such as had happened in former ages or with more abundant meditation upon their written law and diligent observation of their ordinary successe alwayes correspondent thereunto Take heed to thy self saith Moses and keep thy soul diligently that thou forget not the things thine eyes have seen and that they depart not out of thine heart all the dayes of thy life but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb when the Lord said unto me Gather me the people together and I will cause them to hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the dayes that they shall live upon the earth and that they may teach their children The necessity of this and like premonitions was too well manifested by the event The people saith another Pen-man of the sacred Canon had served the Lord all the 〈◊〉 of Josuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Josuah which had seen all the great works of the Lord that he aid for Israel Not the avouchment or presence of infallible teachers but their sure experience of Gods power and mercy did more surely fasten this peoples assent unto the truth of that which Moses had left written then Moses live-personal proposal could do their Fathers to his words uttered in their audience But after that generation with whom Josuah had conversed was gathered unto their fathers and another generation arose after them which neither knew the Lord nor yet the works he had done for Israel then the children of Israel did weekenly in 〈◊〉 sight of the Lord and served Baal Whence it came to passe that whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was sore against them as the Lord has said and as the Lord had sworn unto them so he punished them sore Notwithstanding the Lord raised up Judges which delivered them out of the hands of their oppressors yet when the Iudge was dead they returned and did worse then their fathers in following others gods to serve them and worship them they ceased not from their own inventions nor from their rebellious way What rule then was left to reclaim them the infallible proposals of their Priests Though these or an Angel from heaven should have proposed any other Doctrine then what was consonant to their written law whose true meaning in this respect every one of them should have known Moses curse before mentioned had overtaken them following it So much were they addicted unto Baals Priests proposals that Angels could scarsly be heard though suggesting nothing but what their Law-giver had taught though assuring them by their presence of such assistance from their mighty God as he had promised Thus when the general of these heavenly souldiers sought to encourage Gideon The Lord is with thee thou valiant man He replies ah my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this come upon us and where be all his miracles which our Fathers told us of and said Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites As if he had said I will not deny but the Lord hath done of old as our fathers have declared unto us Moses story I distrust not but am sure he hath
dealt far otherwise with us 7 But doth this defect of faith in him convince the Law of imperfection rather the object of his distrust might have taught him to have believed the perfection of Moses Law which had so often forewarned them of such oppression by their enemies when they forsook the God of their fathers These forewarnings had Gideon believed aright he had not distrusted the Angels exhortation What was the reason then of his misbelieving or rather overseeing that part of the law Not ignorance of Gods word in general for the miracles related by Moses he had in perfect memory What then want of sufficient authority to propose unto him these particular revelations or their true meaning This is all the Romanist can pretend Yet what greater authority could he require then that Angel had which spake unto Gideon Our Apostle supposeth any Angels proposal of divine Doctrines to be at the least equivalent to Apostolical Though we saith he whether Paul or Cephas or which he supposeth to be more an Angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise then we have preached unto you let him be accursed Or if we respect not onely the personal authority of the proposer but with it the manner of proposing Gods word What proposal can we imagine more effectual then this great Angel of the Covenants replie unto Gideons distrustfull answer and the Lord looked upon him and said Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites have I not sent thee 8 Whether Gideons diffidence after all this were a sin I leave it to be disputed by the Jesuites A defect or dulnesse no doubt it was and onely in respect of the like in us they hold a necessity of the visible Churches infallibilitie unto whose sentence whosoever fully accords not is by their positions uncapable of all other infallible means of divine faith To pretend doubt or distrust of Gods Word once proposed by it yea to seek further satisfaction or resolution of doubts then it shall vouchsafe to give is more then a sin extreme impiety Yet had this great Angel stood upon his authority in such peremptory termes Gideon had died in his distrust For after a second replie made by Gideon Ah my Lord whereby shall I save Israel behold my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my fathers house and a further promise of the Angels assistance not like the former have I not sent thee but I wil therefore be with thee and thou shalt smite the Madianites as one man he yet prefers this petition I pray thee if I have found favour in thy sight then shew me a signe that thou talkest with me Depart not hence I pray thee until I come unto thee and bring mine offering and lay it before thee After he had by more evident documents fully perceived it was an Angel of the Lord that had parlied with him all this time erecting his dejected heart with these comfortable words Peace be with thee fear not thou shalt not die He yet demands two other signes before he adventures upon the Angels word But after it is once confirmed unto him by experience of his power in keeping his fleece drie in the middle of moisture and moistning it where was nothing but drinesse about it he is more confident upon a Souldiers dream then a Jesuite in like case would be upon the Popes sentence or blessing given ex Cathedra When Gideon heard the dream told and the interpretation of the same he worshipped and returned to the host of Israel and said Up for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian 9 Nor he nor his people could at any time have wanted like assurance of Gods might and deliverances had they according to the rule which Moses set them turned unto him with all their heart and with all their soul but as far were they as the Papists from admitting his words for their rule of faith The unwritten traditions of Baal were at the least of equal or joint authority with his writings and in deed and action though not in word and profession preferred before them Longer then their assent was by such miraculous victories as Gideon had now gotten over the Midianites as it were tied and fastned to the blessings and cursings of Moses law this stiff-necked generation did neither cleave to it nor to their God But when Gideon was dead they turned away and went a whoring after Baalim and made Baal-Berith their God and remembred not the Lord their God which had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side Miracles after the Law-given were usually either tokens of precedent unbelief or for signes to unbelievers serving especially to put them in mind of what Moses had foretold the attentive consideration of whose predictions wrought greater faith and confidencie in such as without miracles laid this law in their hearts then this people conceived upon the fresh memory of Gideons extraordinary signes and glorious victory 10 The like occasions of such distrust as were observed in Gideon were frequent in those times wherein the four and fourtieth Psalm was written yet the Authour of it is not so daunted with the oppression of his people as Gideon was The manifestation of such reproach contempt and scorn as Moses said should befall them did alwayes animate such as indeed had used the Law as a perpetuall rule to notifie the diversitie of all successe good or bad by the degrees of their declining from it or approach unto it The greater calamities they suffered the more undoubted Experience they had of divine truth contained in Mosaical threats the more undoubted their Experience of their truth upon consciousnesse of their own transgressions the greater motives they had upon sincere and hearty repentance to apprehend the stability of his sweetest promises for their good No depression of this people but served as a countersway to accelerate intend or enlarge the measure of their wonted exaltation so long as they rightly weighed all their actions and proceedings in Moses ballances equalizing their permanent sorrow for sins past unto their wonted delight in transient pleasures 11 Thus when Jeremy more admired then distrusted Gods mercies in tendering the purchase of his kinsmans sield to him close prisoner for denouncing the whole desolation of his Countrey when the Kings and Princes of Judah had no assurance of so much possession in the promised land as to inherit the sepulchres of their fathers the Lord expels not his suspensive rather then dissident admiration with signs and wonders as he had done Gideons doubt or his stiff-necked fore-fathers distrust By what means then by the present calamities which had seized upon the Cities of Judah and that very place wherein his late purchased inheritance lay When he cast these and the like doubts in his mind Behold the Mounts they are come into the City to
manifested to the peoples consciences was to over-sway the contrary proposals of known Prophets though never so peremptory Nor was it impossible for Prophets to avouch their own conceits under the name of divine Revelations more immediately sent from God then the Pope pretends witnesse the †man of God that went from Judâ—h to Bethd seduced by his fellow Prophets faigned revelation from an Angel counselling him to divert into his house contrary to the Lords commandment given before The ones dealing was I confesse most unusual so was the others death yet a lively document to cause all that should hear of it until the worlds â—nd take heed of dispensing with the word of the Lord once made known unto themselves upon belief of more manifest revelations or instructions by what means soever given to others either for recalling or restrainingâ— Hence may the Reader desâ—ry as wel the height of our adversaries folly as the depth of their impiety making their Churches authority which by theâ— own acknowledgement cannot adde more books to the number of the Canon already finished but only judge which are Canonicâ—… which not â—ar greater then theirs was that did preach and write these very books which both we and they acknowledge for Canonical For the Prophets words were no rule of faith until examined and tried by the written word precedent or approved by the event the Popes must be without trial examination or further approbation then his own bare assertion CAP. XIX That the Church representative amongst the Jews was for the most part the most corrupt judge of matters belonging to God and the reasons why it was so 1 â—… Ut was the neglect of Moses law or this peoples inward corruption abounding for want of restraint by it the sole cause of their dulnesse in perceiving or of their errour in perverting the things of Gods spirit This overflow of wickednesse served as a tide to carry them but the continual blasts of such vain doctrine Templum Domini Templum Domini the Church the Church was like a boisterous wind to drive them headlong into those sands wherein they alwayes made shipwrack of faith and conscience The true Prophets never had greater opposites then the Priests and such as the Papists would have to be the only pillars yea the only material parts of the Church representative Not withstanding whom the Fathers had traduced for impostors or Sectaries and oft times murdered as Blasphemers of the Deity or turbulent members of the State the Children reverenced as men of God and messengers of peace unto the Church and common-weal What was the reason of this diversity in their judgement or doth it argue more stedfast Belief in posterity No but more experience of the events foretold oft-times not fulfilled until the Priests and other opposits either coaevals or ancients to the Prophets were covered with confusion The childrens motives to believe particulars oppugned by their parents were greater and the impediments to withdraw their asâ—â—nt from them lesse That the children should thus brook what their fathers most disliked in the Prophets is no more then we may observe in other Writers Few much reverenced in any faculty by posterity but had eager detractors in their flourishing dayes Vicinity alwayes breeding Envy And even of such as did not aemulate them for their skil nor would have been moved with envy at their fame or glory they were not esteemed as they deserved being defrauded of due praise by such of the same profession as better pleased the predominant Humor alwayes next in election to the lavish Magnificats of present times but usually rejected by posterity when that particular humour evermore shorter lived then the humorous began to change Thus in every Faculty have those Authors which most applied themselves to solidity of truth neglecting new-fangle tricks or flashes of extemporary wit endured in greatest request and best Credit throughout all ages as meats strongest and most nourishing not most delicate are fittest for continual diet What the Latin Poet said of his Poems every Prophet might have more truly applied unto his writings Mox tibi si quis adhuc pretendat nubila livor Occidet meriti post me referentur bonores Though clouds of envy now may seem thy splendent rayes to choak These with my ashes shall dissolve and vanish as their smoak What whilst I breath sharp censures blast when my leaf fals shall spring Thy fame must flourish as I fade Grave honour forth shall bring It was a method most compendious for attaining such eternity of fame as the continual succession of mortality can affoord us which is given by another Poet but in Prose Dum vivas virtutem colas invenies famam in Sepulchro He that hunts after Vertue in his whole course of Life shall be sure to meet with Fame after Death but hardly sooner least of all could these Prophets be much honoured in their own Country whilest men of their own profession carnally minded possessed the chief seats of dignity sometimes the best stay and pillars of faith in Gods Church most capable of that infallibility which their proud successors did more boast of Yet were even these seducers alwayes willing to celebrate the memory of ancient prophets because the authority given to their sayings or reverence shewed unto their memory by the present people over whom they ruled did no way prejudice their own dignity or estimation which rather increased by thus consorting with the multitude in their Laudatoes of Holy men deceased Thus from one and the same inordinate desire of honour and praise from men did contrary effects usually spring in these masters of Israel The dead they reverenced because they saw that acceptable unto most and likely to make way for their own praise amongst the people but fear lest the living Prophets should be their corrivals in Suites of Glory whereunto their souls were wholly espoused did still exasperate and whet the malice of impatient minds conscious of their own infirmities against their doctrine which could not be embraced but their estimation must be impaired their affections crossed their politick projects dashed The higher in dignity the Priests and Rulers were the more it vexed them such poor men as the true Prophets for the most part were should take upon them to direct the people Their objections against those men of God their scurrilous taunts and bitter â—… their odious imputations forged to make way for bloudy persecutiâ—… are most lively represented by the like practises of the Romish Clergâ—e â—…d almost as many years against the Albigeans Hussites and geâ—… against all whom they suspect to have any familiarity with the Spirit â—… testimony against them is as authentick as evident only overâ—…gh Gods permission in the worlds sight by prejudice of privateâ—… Thus when poor Michaiah would not say as the King would have â—… the politick State-Prophet Zidkiah son of Chenaanah gave him a â—… the cheek to beat an answer out to
this demand Wehn went the â—… the Lord from me to thee As many a proud Prelate would in like â—… upon his poor brother that should crosse his opinion specially â—…er belonging though but a far off unto the State Sirrha I â—… know your place before whom and in what matter you speak Nor did â—… only but 400. more no otherwise discernable for false Pâ—…â—uch trial as we contend for as if they would have bound the â—… followed most voices in besâ—owing victory perswade the King â—… Ramoth Gilead But my former assertion is fully ratified by â—… reply to the others demand When went the c Thou shah see â—… that day when thou shalt go from chamber to chamber to hide thee â—… but such as were neuters before after they see his 〈◊〉 in Ahabs overthrow did take Micaiah for a Prophet as true as 〈◊〉 â—… 3 In like manner when Jeremy a poor Prophet and Priest of Anathoth had â—… Jerusalem among the Prelates and Prophesied the truth but truth â—… to the State beâ—… â—… upon that City and her towns Pashur the son of Immer the Priest which was appointed governour in the house of the Lord intreats him worse then Zidkiah had done Micaiah He could have flouted him with as good applâ—â—se of his complices as the Inquisitors can a Protestant now â—â—u that can read State fortunes a far off can you tell where you shall lodge your self this next night if you cannot take him for a better prophet that can And by Pashurs Prophesie he was to take up his lodging in his way home in the Stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin near unto the house of the Lord whose desolation he had threatned The like entertainment he found again at the whole multitudes hands but by the Priests and Prophets instigation Now when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord bad commanded him to speak unto all the people then the Priests and the Prophets and all the people took him and said Thou shalt die the death Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Lord saying This house shall be like Shiloh and this City shall be desolate without an inhabitant As if the Church of God could possibly erre or the gates of hell prevail against the splendor of it would the Romish Clergie adde should the Lord send a Prophet with such tidings unto Rome And did they not learn this interpretation of Christs promise unto his Church from the hypocritical Jews their predecessors which made the like comment in Jeremiahs time upon Gods words as pregnant for the High Priests succession as S. Peters Come and let us imagin some devise against Jeremiah for the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor counsel from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words Away with the Heretick The manifestation of like affection in the Prelates towards Gods Prophets did embolden Shemâ—… the Nehelemite to write from Babylon unto Zephaniah the high Priest and his associates to this effect The Lord hath made thee Priest for Jeâ—oiada the Priest that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord for every man that raveth and maketh himself a Prophet to put him in prison and in the stocks Now therefore why hast not thou reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth which prophesâ—â—d unto you This captivity is long build houses to dwell in and plant gardens and eat the fruits of them 4 But when Pashur found the Omen of that name which Jeremiah gave him when he and his mates proved indeed Magor-Missabib a terror to themselves and all about them when they saw with their eyes all the miseries there expressed then was Jeremiah held for a true Prophet especially by such as out-lived the captivity to see the truth of his Prophesie for their good as exactly fulfilled as this had been for their harm whilest according to his prediction Shemaiah and his seed were rooted out from amongst Gods people happily replanted in their native soil For from the reasons set down before posterity did alwayes better judge of prophesies then the age wherein their Authors lived at the least the younger and meaner sort of that age which out-lived the event usually better digested their doctrine then the ancient or men of dignity that envied them Credit amongst the people yet were not such as lesse maligned them greater believers universally as was said before but only of some few particulars For if a new Prophet should have risen amongst them he was almost as evil entreated by the present Clergie or others whose humors he contradicted This is evident by the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief Rulers of the Jewish Church in our Saviours time They builded the tombs of the Prophets and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous and said as they verily thought If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the bloud of the Prophets yet made they the people of their own time so mad as to be partakers with them in the bloud of that great Prophet their long desired Messiah the only Saviour of the world Throughout the whole Story almost of the old Testament the truth proposed may appear that the visible Church if it be taken in such a sence as the Romanists take it was the most corrupt Judge either of the truth or true meaning of Gods word that the people seduced by their goodly shews and glorious titles of Moses successors were stil brought into the combination of bloud until they brought upon themselves their postetity and the holy City All the righteous bloud that was shed upon the earth from the bloud of Abel the righteous until the bloud of their Messiah 5 But though their cruelty and hypocrisie be so notoriously known as it even seems to point out the like in the modern Romanist yet some honestly minded wil perhaps demand how the people of those ages wherein the Prophets lived could possibly know the truth of their Prophesies seeing for the most part they saw a major part of men in Ecclesiastick authority bent against them This happily may tempt unsetled minds to think the Lord had determined his Prophets should have Cassandra's Fates never to be believed till remedy were past The peoples mistaking of their predictions was in a sort Fatal yet not necessary but upon supposition of former neglect God sent them Prophets for their good but their wickednesse turned his blessing into cursings their hypocrisie and folly made them so blind that they could not discem The Signs of the Times until woful experience the fools only School-master began to teach them when their time for lore was ended A prudent man saith the wise-man seeth the plague and hideth himself but the foolish go on still and are punished But wherein doth that prudence consist
which might have prevented this plague surely in reading Gods law and continuall meditation thereon for this gives wisdom to the simple Men in this case should have asked counsel of their own heart for there is no man more faithful unto thee then It for a mans mind is some times more accustomed to shew more thenseven Watchmen that sit above in an high Tower And aboue all this pray to the â—… High that he will direct thy way in truth Had they thus done without partialitie to their corrupt affections or without all respect of persons in which Christian faith cannot be had Moses law had been a lantern unto their feet for the discerning of true Prophets and those discerned had been a light unto latter Ages for discerning the true Messias 6 The evidence of this truth not without cause so often inculcated will better appear if we consider how most prophetical predictions of particular alterations were but determinations of Mosaical generalities out of which they grow as branches out of the stock As for example the Lord told Moses before his death and he gave it to Israel for a Song to be copied out by all That when they went a whoring after the Gods of a strange laâ—â— forsaking him he would forsake them and hide his face from them After Ihoia labs death Zechartah his son seeing the Princes of Iudah leaving the house of the Lord to serve Groves and Idols albeit he were moved as the Text saith by the Spirit of God yet onely applies Moses generall prediction to the present times Thus saith God Why transgresse re ye the commandement of the Lord Surely ye shall not prosper because he have forsaken the Lord he also will forsake you Saint Paul himself useth his own advise not the Lords authority in such points as were not evidently contained in Moses law Unto the married command not I but the Lord Let not the wife depart from her husband for so Moses had expresly commanded But to the Remnant I speak not the Lord If any brother have a wife that believeth not if she be content to dwell with him let him not forsake her And again concerning Virgins I have no commandement of the Lord but I give mine advice as one that hath obtained mercie of the Lord to be faithfull This was his judgement and as he thought warranted by the Spirit of God yet he prescribes it not as a general rule of faith to all but rather leaves every man to be ruled by his conscience and the Analogie of Moses law So likewise though God use an extraordinary revelation to instruct Saint Peter in the free use of meats forbidden by Moses yet he perswades him it by manifesting the true meaning of another clause of the same law for what he uttered upon this instruction and the Experiment answerable thereto was but a further specification of what Moses had said I perceive of a truth saith Saint Peter Acts 10. 34. that God is no accepter of persons Moses had said Deut. 10. 17. The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible which accepteth no persons nor taketh reward who doth right unto the fatherlesse and widow and loveth the stranger giving him food and raiment 7 These passages sufficiently informe us that the extraordinary spirit wherewith the Apostles themselves were above the measure of Gods former messengers inspired oft-times onely made the Stems whether of the Tree of Life or of Knowledge planted by Moses to blow and flourish in them by little and little after the manner of natural growth it did not alwayes bring forth new ones in an instant as the earth did at the first creation Much more usually did prophefies during the standing of the first Temple spring out of Mosaical predictions If we compare his writings with latter prophe â—ies not long before the Babylonish captivity though he had departed this life before their fathers entred into the land of Promise yet he speaks unto this last generation as an intelligencer from a far Countrey that great preparation was made against them but who should be the executioners or managers of mischief intended he leaves that to such Prophets as the Lord should raise them up for the present Jeremie and Ezechiel upon his admonition following his direction are sent by God as it were to scowre the coast to descrie when the Navie comes for what Coast it is bound and how near at hand Here had the people faithfully examined their hearts by Moses law whether not guilty of such sins as deserved the plagues threatned by him they had quickly assented unto Moses writings and the Prophets words For as consciousnesse of their sins in general might cause them fear some plague or other indefinitely threatned by their Law-giver whose writings they best believed so might the diligent observation of their particular transgressions and their progresse in them have taught them to presage the determinate manner of their plagues and punishments foretold by the present Prophet For God in his usuall course of justice so suites his punishments to the most acâ—ustomary habits or predominant sins as unto men religiously observant of Times and Seasons the growth and processe of the one will give a certain Crisis of the other Besides Every age hath peculiar signes subordinate to the general predictions of good or evil foretold by Gods messengers whereby the faithfull learn to know the day of their visitation and as Solomon saith to hide themselves in latâ—bâ—â—lo altissimi from the plague if not by their hearty repentance godly prayers and religious endeavours to prevent it And because we in this age are not so well acquainted with the particular Signes of former Times wherein true Prophets lived it is hard for any living now though easie to all the faithfull then to give any certain or particular rule how the truth of their prophesies might have been at least probably known before the event did finally and absolutely approve them Would to God we could discern the Signes of Times present and the Lord of his infinite mercie give us grace to know the day of our visitation But of this argument elsewhere by Gods assistance It shall suffice in the next place to shew that our Saviours Doctrine was by the same means to be discerned CAP. XX. That the Soveraignty given by Jesuites to the Pope is greater then our Saviours was 1 IT is a Rule in Divinity whatsoever can rightly be conceived as an absolute perfection hath Reall Existence in the Almightie From this notion of the Deitie swimming in the brains of such as in heart and deed make the Pope their Lord and God do the parties thus affected usually take whatsoever power might possibly be delegated by God to any as actually granted unto his holinesse And thus I imagine some Jesuite or other when he shall bethink himself will except against our disputes in this present case Deny
immediately sent from Heaven not made by multiplication of such bread as they might have bought of ordinary Bakers Nor doth our Saviour seek to win them by out-vying Moses in multitude or magnificence of his miracles but by alluring them to taste and prove his heavenly doctrine For The Experiments that give us the seal and assurance of lively faith must of necessety he within us even in our hearts and in our souls and these are they Had this people without miracles been dicto audiens as they were enjoyned by Moses in that they took him for a Prophet they might in short time have known what Peter confessed Verba vitae aeternae habes Thou hast the words of eternal life whose sweetness once inwardly tasted was much more then all the miracles that could be wrought without his hearers or upon them But of such works these proud Jews never dreamed as not knowing the Scriptures nor the vertue of their Messias who as the Prophets had soretold was to preach the Gospel unto the poor to comfort such as mourned in Sion to whom no miracles could be more welcome then such as he did for what could be more acceptable to the blind then restitution of sight to the lame then right use of his limbs what more grateful message could be uttered to the deaf then Ephata to have his ears opened what to the dumb then unâ—ying of the tongue what to the possessed then to be freed from the tyrannie of Satan or his Ministers Finally as the Evangelist notes he did all things well and unto the best contentment possible of every afflicted soul far above the exigence or significations of their peculiar necessities but further beyond their expectation In every work he shewed his willingnesse in all his power to ease and refresh all that were weary and heavy laden but unto such as thought themselves so whole and sound as no way to need his Physick rather desirous to feed their curious fancies with superfluous or unnecessary wonders he was not willing to give satisfaction by turning Gods graces into wantonnesse or vain ostentation of his power or skil Another especial occasion of this peoples stumbling at this stone elect and pretious was their not considering that many of Moses greatest wonders were types partly of those glorious miracles which Messiah was to work secretly by his spirit manifested only to the â—earts and consciences in whom they were wrought partly of that his glory and power which was outwardly revealed to his Disciples and might so have been to more had they not stumbled as the Proverb is in the very Entry and so departed from him in despair bred from a foolish prejudice that no great good could be expected from a Nazarite of parentage birth and education so mean CAP. XXI Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying Prophesies of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 1 AS well for farther discovery of Romish blasphemy as ratification of our former assertion let us view with diligence that place of Moses wherein such strict obedience and attention to the Messias doctrine is enjoyned as no where else such as no other may exact without incurring the curse there threatned to the disobedient The Lord thy God will raise thee up a Prophet like unto me from among you even of thy brethren unto him ye shall hearken According to all that thou desiredst the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly when thou saidst Let me hear the voice of my Lord God no more nor see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me they have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him This prophesie by joynt consent of best interpreters as well modern as ancient Pontificians as Protestants may be truly and literally applied to other Prophets whether of the old or new Testament according to that measure of the spirit they had from him of whose fulnesse all as well such as in time went before him as those that came after him had received grace for grace True it is if we rightly value the strict propriety of every word or clause in the whole context what all historical circumstances put together import or the ful extent of S. Peters paraphrase on the last sentence it cannot be exactly fitted unto any but Christ unto whom only the whole discourse is as fully commensurable as a well made garment to the body that wears it yet is this no impediment why the same rule taken according to some literal circumstances might not usually serve for certain discretion of true Prophets from false as we use to notifie lesser but indefinite quantities of things by the known parts of some greater measure commensurable if we take the whole to substances of a larger size 2 Evident it is out of the literal meaning of this law acknowledged by all that Israel was strictly bound to hearken unto such Prophets as God at any time should raise them up though with most attention and greatest reverence to hear The Prince of Prophets But the question is upon what tearms or how far they were bound to hear all Absolutely and at first proposal of their doctrines without examination of them by the written law So might he that could have set the best leg foremost and stept up soonest into Moses chair have kept the rest of his profession in aw by thundering out Anathema's thence as the Pope doth from S. Peters to all gain-sayers priest or people By what rule then were true Prophets to be distinguished from false By miracles These were means of times effectual but as was intimated more usual for enforcing men to an acknowledgement of the truth in general then for trying particular controversies by amongst true professors in respect of whom they were subordinate to that rule given by Moses in the words immediately following But the Prophet that shall presume to speak a word in any Name which I have not commanded him to speak or that speaketh in the name of other Gods even the same Prophet shall die And if thou think in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to passe that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not therefore be afraid of him 3 Before this or any other part of the law was written somewhat in proportion answerable to
it did alwayes necessarily concur with miracles for distinguishing true professors from seducers When the controversie was betwixt Moses Pharaohs Enchanters the Lord confutes his adversaries by an ocular demonstration of his power yet further ratified by their confession whose words were the best Oracles which that people knew These fair warnings concurring with the Egyptians consciousnesse of their mercilesse practises against poor Israel stil thriving in despight of policy could not but witnesse even to the most unnatural men amongst them that the God of Jacob and his seed was a Father to the fatherless an Help to the helpless a God of mercy and a God of strength willing and able to right such as suffered wrong to succour all in distresse that with faith and patience commended their cause unto his patronage The most devoutly superstitious or idolatrous might at the least more then probably have gathered that the God of Moses was greater than any they or their cunning Magicians worshipped But it is a curiosity incident to superstitious hypocrites at their first entrance into Gods school scrupulously to demand full satisfaction in all doubts or difficulties than can be suggested and as if they sought to obtain mercy by way of bargain not by faith or favour to have their assurance precisely drawn and fully sealed before they surrender up the least part of their interest in any pleasure commodity or custome long enjoyed though never so destitute of reason As in this case imagin some Romish Schoolman or Jesuite had been in such favour in Pharaohs Court as that crew is now in too many Princes what other collections could we imagin he would have made but these How do these wonders prove the God of Israel to be so great a God as Moses boasts of He hath more skil we see in these particulars then the Gods adored by us Egyptians therefore in all or more in these then the Gods of any other nation Thesewere stranger works indeed then we expected such poor silly fellows could have wrought but may not others by the same reason work more strange hereafter And to speak the truth more that victory Moses had over the Egyptians could not prove unto the natural man so long as he considered the wonders only in themselves without any concurrence of other circumstances or truth presupposed then that this God of Israel was greater then any other he yet knew of not greater then any that might manifest himself hereafter Notwithstanding these few Documents or Essaies of his power compared with the End and occasions for which they were exhibited were so fully conformable to those natural notions even the heathen had of the Deity that no man free from passion or prejudice of their main estate for whose good the cunningest were thus foiled at their own weapon and the mightiest among the Egyptians plagued but might have seen The Finger of a good a just and merciful God in all their troubles had he in sobriety of spirit seriously consulted his own heart And who so sincerely had glorified his name according to this measure of knowledge or apprehension of his justice to him no doubt more had been given daily of this bread of life 4 The Jews I am perswaded could have given as instances of Devils cast out by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils as might have defeated any Induction gathered from the manifold practise of such works considered alone to prove the divine powers assistance Most apparently most malicious not withstanding was their application of such instances to our Saviour whose usual manner of dispossessing wicked spirits of those mansions wherein they have revelled most did abundantly witnesse he wrought by the Finger of God who only was greater then that strong man whom he vanquished bound and spoiled of his goods servants and possessions For though Devils sometimes suffer themselves to be commanded by men neither of greatest wisdom best place nor fashion yet this they do as any wel instructed in Gods law or illuminated with the notions of good and evil wil easily discern alwayes with purpose to bring men unto a perpetual acknowledgment of some divine power in them or to performance of some Magical service unto them no otherwise then cheating mates or cunning gamesters can be wel content to suffer bunglers beat them the first or second Set in hope to entise them to hold play longer or for greater wagers On the contrary the only Fee our Saviour demanded for all his admirable cures in this kind was the parties should give such glorie unto God alone as that infernal crew most detested but which the law of Moses so highly esteemed by his calumniators did purposely require in defiance of Beelzebub and all the powers of darknesse The end of every particular dispossession was such and the multitude of legal consessions sincerely uttered by poor souls set free so many as his bitterest adversaries own consciences could not but witnesse against themselves that all the chief Titles of Satans wanted triumphs over Gods people were utterly overthrown that he could not urge them either unto such blasphemies against God or outrages against themselves or their neighbours as he most delighted in Besides few or no instances could I think be brought of Devils cast out in any Magicians name in Christs they were and as it seems by such as had better acquaintance or more alliance with his accusers then with himself Thus much our Saviour in my conjecture intimates in that speech By whom then do your children cast them out therefore they shall be your judges Which words I neither would refer to Christs Disciples as some good Interpreters do nor as others unto such Exorcists as those mentioned Acts 19. 15. which attempting to throw out this strong man were overthrown in their own play but unto such as John complained of Master we saw one casting out Devils in thy name which followed not us and we forbad him This man though no Disciple was neither so ill disposed in himself nor so malitiously affected to our Saviour as these Jews were as appears by our Saviours answer unto John Forbid him not for there is no man that can do a miracle in my Name that lightly speaks evil of me for whosoever is not against us is on our part In the same words he concludes his disputation against the Jews in the fore-cited place 5 Such as this man was none of Christs followers but rather a friend as seems of his accusers yet using Christs not Beelzebubs name to cast out Devils were competent witnesses of his heavenly vertue and his adversaries malitious partiality Many other circumstances wel known then not now especially the long want of miracles more then prophesies before his coming did manifest their malice to be more impudent and shamelesse then we in such distance of time can discern That Finger of God from such Signs of the Time as we in general may suppose far more apparent in his victories
over Satan himself then in Moses over his Schollers the Enchanters especially whiles compared with known Prophesies of the Messias did point him out to be The womans Seed ordained of old to bruise the Serpents head to be the Son of man appointed to erect the everlasting Kingdom foretold by Daniel unto whose and other prophesies he refers his enemies in that speech But if I by the spirit or as S. Luke reads by the Finger of God cast out Devils then is the Kingdom of God come unto you Yet were not all his miracles of this kind thus considered so effectual to confirm the faithful or so pregnant to condemn all unbelievers as the former Rule of Moses For this cause after the former dispute ended he gave his adversaries such a Sign as if it did follow would infallibly prove him to be that great Prophet Moses there speaks of and consequently leave them liable to Gods heavy judgement without excuse for not hearkening unto him Of which hereafter 6 Here I may once for all conclude that the power of doing miracles was as effectual to assure such as did them of salvation as sight of them done was to establish spectators in saving faith But the power of casting Devils out or doing greatest miracles was no infallible pledge of salvation to such as did them much lesse could the acknowledgement of this divine power in them breedful assurance of true faith in others but only serve as a means to cause them rely upon the Law and Prophets as their only rule and to taste and prove the bread of life proffered to them by our Saviour which alone could ascertain them their names were written in the book of life But to proceed by the former rule 7 If others by Experiments answerable to it were known to be true Prophets Christ likewise by his known supereminency in that which approved them was to be acknowledged for The Prince of Prophets Now if we revise the History of the old Testament how few Prophets shall we find endowed with the gift of miracles such as were did exercise their power rather among Idolaters then true professors So when Gods messengers were brought to as open competition with Baals Priests in the King of Israels as Moses had been with the Enchanters in Pharaohs Court Elias makes his Calling as clear as the light by calling down fire from heaven which Baals Priests attempting in most furious manner could not effect but Elias professed thus much before as Baals Priests no question had done so as the event answering to his prediction not to the others did by Moses rule demonstrate him to be them not to be Prophets of the living God But when the like controversie was to be tried between Zidkiah and his four hundred complices on the one part and Micaiah on the other before King Ahab in whom Elias late miracles and later threats had wrought such a distaste of Baal and such a liking of the truth in general as he would not consult either any professed servant of the one or open oppugner of the other for his future successe Micaiah as was observed before appeals to this law of Moses as most competent Judge between such as joyntly did embrace it If thou return in peace the Lord hath not spoken by me as if he had said what Moses there doth he hath not put his word in my mouth And having brought his controversie to this trial he desires the people to contestate the issue thus joyned and he said hearken all ye people From this and many like cases ruled by the former express and pregnant law of Moses Jeremy pleads his warrant being born down by the contradictions of Hananiah a professed Prophet of the Lord as he was but of greater favour in the Court because he prophesied peace unto the present state and good successe to the Projects then on foot Even the Prophet Jeremiah said So beâ—it the Lord so do the Lord confiâ—…ly words which thou hast prophefied to restore the vessels of the Lords house and all that is carried Captive from Basel into this place But hear thou now this word that I will speak in thine ears and in the ears of all the people The Prophets that have been before me and before thee in times past propheted against many Countries and against great kingdoms of war and of plagues and of Pestilence And the Prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the Prophet shall come to passe then shall the Prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him Ezechid likewise refers himself to the same trial amongst such as were professed heared of the word in general which they would not obey in particular And to thou art unto them as a jesting song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can sing well for they hear thy words and do them not And when this â—oweth to passe for lo it will come then shall they know that a Prophet hath been among them 8 From these debatements we may gather in what cases the former rule held for certain First negatively it was universally true for he that prophesied any thing which came not to passe did sufficiently prove himself to be no true Prophet but a Counterfeit So did not every prediction of what afterwards came to passe necessarily argue it to have been from God Yet as the force and vertue of many things not such of themselves became evident from vicinity or irritution of their contraries so though God permitted some to foretel strange events for trial of his peoples faith yet this power he restrained when the controversie came to a Formal trial then he caused the true Prophets words to stand whiles the predictions of the false and the Princes bloud which relied upon them fell to the ground like Dagon before the Ark. So as the fulfilling of what the one and frustrating of what the other had said did sufficiently manifest the one had spoken of himself presumptuously the other what the Lord hath put into his mouth Hence is the determination easie what means this people had to discem amongst true Prophets which was That Great one in all things like to Moses First if events foretold did sufficiently testifie of his divine spirit his own witnesse of himself would be authentick because a true Prophet could hardly lie or make himself greater then he was This is an argument which directly confutes such as acknowledge Christ to have been a Prophet sincere in doctrine and mighty in deeds and yet deny him to be The Prince of that profession The great Mediator of the new Covenant both which he often avouched Because the quantity of that spirit whose sincere quality manifested him to be a Prophet would notifie his excessive Greatnesse in that rank and order or more directly to the question 9 The great Prophet there spoken of was to be known by his similitude with Moses who was as the Symbol or
proportional Mean between him and lesser Prophets Other in these few gifts wherein they resembled their father came far short of him Christ in all far exceeded him Others were all of Jacobs line raised up by Gods appointment so to instruct their brethren in doubtful cases as they should not need to consult sorcerers or entertain familiarity with wicked spirits Christ to omit the eminency of his Prophetical function till hereafter besides this common fraternity with his people was in more especial manner Abrahams seed and in particular sort raised up by Jehovah his God by intrinsick assumption into the unity of his person not by external assistance or impulsion of his spirit Ruseâ—… likewise he was in a strict and proper sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from amid this people being as it were extracted out of the pure virgin as the first woman was out of the man by Jehovahs own immediate hand from his cradle to his crosse most exactly answering to that delineation of the Great Prophet and Mediatour to be revealed which was exhibited first in Moses when he stood before the Lord in Horeb. His strange deliverance from Herodian butchery whiles all the Infant males besides did perish was fully parallel to the others exemption from Pharaohs cruelty like to Moses he was in the number of his Disciples in communication of his spirit unto them in admitting them to more special participation of his secrets in the peculiar testifications of his familiarity with God in his fasting in his transfiguration in multitude of miracles But these and the like I leave to the Readers observation 10 The peculiar and proper undoubted notes of the great Prophet there spoken of wil be most conspicuous in our Saviour if we compare him first with Moses then with ordinary Prophets according to that difference the Lord himself made between these and Moses If there be a Prophet of the Lord among you I will be known to him by a vision and wil speak unto him by dream My servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all mine house Unto him wil I speak mouth to mouth and by vision not in dark words but he shall see the similitude of the Lord. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant even against Moses It is said signanter he should see the similitude of of God not God for as the Evangelist saith No man hath seen God at any time so was it told Moses from the Lords own mouth that he could not see his face and live Yet saw this great Prophet more of God then all the Prophets beside Herein then was Christ like unto him but far above him that He was in the bosome of his father not admitted to see his back parts only and hath declared him to the world Moses from the abundance of his Prophetical spirit so perfectly foretold the perpetual estate of his people from the Law given to the time of their Messias as the best Prophets may seem to be but his schollers From participation of that fulnesse which was in Christ hath that Disciple whom he loved far exceeded Moses as wel in the extent weight and variety of matters foretold as in the determinate manner of foretelling them And I know not whether if it were possible to call both Christ and Moses from heaven their presence though more glorious then it was upon Mount Tabor would be more forcible to illuminate the Jew or Athiest then serious reading the books of Deuteronomy and the Revelation comparing the one with the Jews known misery the other with Ecclesiastical Stories the late abominations of the Papacy and Romanists more then Jewish blindnesse The one shews Moses to have been the father of Prophets the other Christ from whose immensurable fulnesse John had that extraordinary measure of the spirit to be The Fountain of Prophesies whose supereminencies and inexhaustible fulnesse may yet be made more apparent by comparing him not with Moses the Symbol or Mean but with the other extream to wit the rank of lesser Prophets 11 It is rightly observed by the Schoolmen Lumen Propheticum erat aliqualiter aenigmaticum these ordinary Prophets illuminations were not so evident or distinct as certain they discerned rather the Proportion then Feature of truth which they saw but as it were through the cover or in the case not in it self And albeit the event did alwayes prove their answers true oft-times in an unexpected sence yet could they not alwayes give such answers when they pleased Nor did the light of Gods countenance perpetually reside upon them as the Suns brightnesse doth by reflexion upon the stars they had their vicissitude of day and night daily Eclipses overcastings many their chief illuminations came but as it were by Flashes Thus Jeremy in the late cited controversie dares not adventure to give the people a sign for confirmation of his doctrine or other more distinct or determinate prediction besides that of the general event about which the contention was That he knew because the Lord had put it into his mouth would in the end condemn his adversarie of presumption But after Hananiah had outfaced him with a sensible sign of his own making breaking the yoak which he had taken from Jeremiahs neck on which the Lord had put it and boldly avouched in the presence of all the people Thus saith the Lord even so will I break the yoak of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel from the neck of all nations within the space of two years the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah again and sends him back with this message to his adversary Hear now Hananiah the Lord hath not sent thee but thou makest this people to trust in a lie Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I wil cast thee from off the earth this year thou shalt die because thou hast spoken rebelliously against the Lord. So Hananiah the Prophet died the same year in the seventh moneth Not long after this event were both Prince and people of Jâ—dah rooted out of the land the Lord had given them because contrary to Moses adminition they reverenced the Prophet that spake presumptuously and would not hearken unto the words which the Lord put in Jeremiahs mouth Elisha likewise to whom Elias had given a double portion of his spirit in respect of his fellows of all the Prophets unlesse Elias might be excepted most famous for the gift of miracles a lively type of the Messias in raising from death and giving life had his spirit of Divination but by Fits needed Musick to tune his spirits unto it He gave the barren Shunamite a son of death notwithstanding he knew not as the Lord of life did of Lazarus in his absence nor could he by her unusual gesture or strange signs of sorrow distinctly divine the true cause of her coming only when Gehezi went to thrust her away he said as much as he knew Let her
Come and see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did is not he The Christ Upon their like experience fully consonant to the same common notion on conceit of the Messias did a many of that City conceive Faith from the womans report but moe because of his own words And they said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that This is indeed The Christ the Saviour of the World From the like but more lively experience of his discovering secrets did his Disciples make that confession Now know we that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee By this we believe that thou art come out from God 16 The manifestation of this Prophetical Spirit did give life unto his greatest miracles in working Faith for his Disciples believed in him after his resurrection because he had foretold his reedifying the Temple in three dayes space Which speech of his the foolish Jews not knowing His Body to be the true Temple wherein their God did dwell after a more excellent manner then between the Cherubins take as meant of the materiall Temple which had been fourty six yeers in building But saith Saint Iohn Assoon as he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he thus said unto them and they believed the Scripture and the word which Iesus had said Nor did they compare these two together by chance for our Saviour often inculcated this Method as of purpose to imprint the former Oracle of Isaiab in their hearts To assure them of his going to his Father he expresly tels them Now I have spoken unto you before it come that when it is come to passe ye might believe Foretelling the persecution of his Disciples he addes These things have I told you that when the hour shall come ye might remember that I told you them That glory likewise which God had professed he would not give to any other he foretels should be given Him and so demands it as if He that did glorifie and He that was glorified were both One Father Glorifie thy Name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified is and will glorifie it again How had he glorified it before By glorifying this great Prophet who did fully expresse but for exceed Moses in all things wherein Former Prophets did resemble him but came far short of him When was he so glorified At his transfiguration upon Mount Tabot which none without Sacrilegious impiety could have foretold as likely to befall him self save he alone that had not as Moses onely seen the Similitude of the Lord but being in the Forme of God thought it no robbery to be Equal with him Yet this Prophet of whom we speak though like to his Brethren in shape and substance to assure them he should come in the Glory of his Father foretells his Disciples that some of them should not die untill they had seen the Kingdom of God come with Power which was accomplished in that Transfiguration where as Saint Peter witnesseth He received of God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voyce unto him from the excedent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Yea so well pleased as for his sake the world might henceforth know how ready he was to hear all that through faith in his Name should call upon him even such as had displeased him most For this cause the Codicil annexed to the divine Will and Testament here signified immediately after to be sealed with the bloud of this Best Beloved Son was that reciprocal duty before intimated in the Law Hear Him as is specified by three Evangelists For more publick manifestation of his Majesty as then revealed but to a few was that glorious commemoration of it lately mentioned celebrated again in the audience of the multitude This voice saith our Saviour came not because of me but for your sakes And in that place again after his wonted predictions of things should after come to passe as of his victory over death he testifies aloud to all the people that he was the great Prophet foretold by Moses sweetly paraphrasing upon his words And Jesus tried and said He that believeth in me believeth not in me but in him that sent me And if any man hear my words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world He did not accurse such as would not acknowledge his authority or derogated from his person or miracles nor needed he so to do for he that refuseth him and receiveth not his words hath one that judgeth him the word which he had spoken it shall judge him in the last day This was that which Moses had said And whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he the great Prophet shall speak in my Name I will require it of him to wit in the last day of accompts For I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandement what I should do and what I should speak And I know that his commandement is life everlasting the things therefore that I speak I speak them so as the Father said unto me What is this but that speech of Moses improved to it Full Value according to the circumstances and signes of those times and as it concerned the Lord and Prince of Prophets I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him 17 This being the last conference our Saviour was willing to entertain with the Jews this his last farewell given in Moses words warrants me to construe that speech of Saint Iohns though he had done so many miracles before them yet believed they not on him as I have done the like before to wit That not his miracles considered alone but with Mosaical and Prophetical writings or common notions of the Messias thence conceived or especially as they concurred with his own predictions did immediately condemn the Jews Under the name of works his words are comprehended such at the least as foretell his admirable works or in generall all those solemn invocations of his Fathers name in such predictions as had he not been the Son of God would rather have brought speedy vengeance from heaven upon his head then such glorious testimonies of his Divinity And to me our Saviour seems to call his very words works in that speech to philip Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works Howsoever as all the works of God were created by this Eternall Word so
did his words give life unto his greatest works his Divinations were to his Miracles as his humane soul was to his body And no question but the conception of their Faith that heard him preach was as immediately from those words of eternal life which issued from his mouth as ours is from the Word preached by his Messengers To what other use then could miracles serve save onely to breed a praeviall admiration and make entrance for them into his hearers hearts though his bodily presence at all times was not yet were his usuall works in themselves truly glorious more then apt to dispell that veil of prejudice commonly taken against the meannesse of his person birth or parentage had it been meerly naturall not occasioned through wilfull neglect of extraordinary means precedent and stubborn opposition to present grace most plentifully offered His raising others from death to life was more then sufficient to remove that offence the people took at that speech If I were lift up from the earth I should draw all men unto me To which they answered We have heard out of the Law that the Christ bideth forever and how sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lift up Who is that Son of Man 18 To conclude then his distinct and arbitrary foretelling Events of every sort any Prophet had mentioned many of them not producible but by extraordinary miracles withall including divine testifications of farre greater glory ascribed to him then Moses or any Prophet ever challenged was The demonstrative Rule according to Moses prediction whereunto all visible signes and sensible miracles should have been resolved by their spectators as known effects lead contemplators unto the first and immediate causes on which their Truth and Being depends That Encomium This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him with the like given by John Baptist Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world unto all such as took him for a true Prophet did more distinctly point out the similitude peculiar to Him with Moses expressed in the forecited place of Deuteronomy literally though not so plainly as most Readers would without direction observe it seeing even interpreters most followed either neglect the words themselves in which it is directly contained or wrest their meaning Unto him shall ye hearken according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly Their request then was Talk thâ—â— with us and we will hear but let not God talk with us lest we die Here the whole multitude bound themselves to hear the word of the Lord not immediately from his mouth but by Moses For whiles the people stood afar off he onely drew neer to the darknesse where God was This their request and resolution else-where more fully expressed the Lord highly commended I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever If we observe that increment the literal sence of the same words may receive by succession of time or as they respect the Body not the Type both which they jointly signifie the best reason can be given of Gods approving the former petition and Israels peculiar disposition at that time above others will be this That as posterity in rejecting Samuel rejected Christ or God the second Person in Trinity so here the Fathers in requesting Moses might be their spokesman unto God requested that Great Prophet ordained to be the Author of a better Covenant even that promised womans seed their brother according to the flesh to be Mediator betwixt God and them to secure them from such dreadfull flames as they had seen so they would hearken as then they promised unto his words as unto the words of God himself esteeming him as the Apostle saith so farre above Moses As he that builds the house is above the house And in the Emphasis of that speech Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him purposely resumed by Moses with these threats annexed as if he had not sufficiently expressed his mind in the like precedent Unto ‖ him ye shall hearken The same difference between Moses and the Great Prophet then meant is included which the Apostle in another place expresseth He that despiseth Moses Law dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye he shall be worthy which treadeth under foot the Son of God and counteth the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing Untill the soveraignty of the Law and Prophets did determin that Encomium of Moses did bear date There arose not a Prophet siâ—â—e in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knâ—w face to face but vanished upon the Criers voice when the Kingdom of heaven began to appear The Israelites to whom both promises were made did far exceed all other nations in that they had a Law most absolute given by Moses yet to be bettered by an Everlasting Covenant the Former being as an earnest penny given in hand to assure them of the Latter In respect of Both the name of a Soothsayer or Sorcerer was not to be heard in Israel as in the nations which knew not God much lesse expected a Mediator in whom the spirit of life should dwell as plentifully as splendor doth in the body of the Sun from whose fulnesse ere he visibly came into the world other Prophets were illuminated as those lights which rule the night are by that great light which God hath appointed to rule the day at whose approach the Prince of darknesse with his followers were to avoid the Hemisphere wherein they had raigned In the mean time the testimonies of the Law and Prophesies served as a light or candle to minish the terrors of the night Even Moses himself and all that followed him were but as messengers sent from God to sollicit his people to reserve their alleageance free from all commerce or compact with Familiar spirits until the Prince of glory came in person 19 Thus without censure of their opinion that otherwise think or teach albeit the continuance of Prophets amongst this people were a mean to prevent all occasions of consulting sorcerers or witches yet the chief ground of Moses disswasion from such practises according to the literall connexion of these words The nations which thou shalt possesse hearken unto those that regard the times and unto sorcerers as for thee the Lord the God hath not suffered thee so with those following hitherto expounded The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet was the consideration of their late mighty deliverance by Moses the excellencie of
their greatest wonders seemed but Apish toyes howsoever difficiles nugae And some of these juglers either out of the strength of their own illusions or upon the presumption of their profane skill in deceiving others have adventured to foretell their resurrection but were not able to dissolve the bands of death their everlasting durance in whose prisons hath openly shewed they spake presumptuously that not Mahomet himself the greatest of them was that Great Prophet foretold by Moses What was the reason then the Jews would not the Turks unto this day will not believe in Christ crucified For the inhabitants of Jerusalem Saint Paul hath answered Because they knew him not nor yet the words of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him The same Apostle though indued with the power of miracles yet in that place rather useth Davids words then his own works to prove Christs resurrection Of which that saying of Christ was most truly verified in the obstinate Jews Not hearing Moses and the Prophets so as to be moved by them to true repentance neither were they perswaded though this great Prophet of whom they wrote was raised from the dead again 22 Were we well acquainted either with that manner of interpretation or those prenotions the Apostle supposed as known when he used that testimony of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee to prove our Saviours resurrection it would not be hard to perswade us Moses words hitherto expounded were as literally meant of Gods raising his Son out of his Maiden grave as out of his virgin Mothers womb And I make no question but the conclusion of S Peters Sermon Unto you whom a little before he had termed children of the Prophets hath God raised up his Son were meant by him of his raising Christ from the dead And yet are these words but an application of the former principal text he there insists upon Moses said unto the Fathers The Lord your God shall raise up unto you a Prophet even of your brethren like unto me ye shal hear him all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And unto this resurrection doth the strict propriety of that phrase from the middest of thee well agree For these things were not done in a corner but in Jerusalem the Metropolis of Judea not without expresse notice given to the rulers Moses indeed foretold his own death and whatsoever other Prophets raised up by God unto this people did foretell came still to passe yet none ever foretold his own raising up But seeing Christ First raising from the virgins womb though most miraculous was yet more private he forewarned the world to expect This Second altogether as powerful but more publick And in it again he is like to Moses raised up by God to be a Saviour of his people out of that Ark which without divine especial providence had been his Tomb. This similitude amongst the rest betwixt Christ and Moses as wel in their later as first birth but especially the notice our Saviour gave unto his enemies of the later hath made them unwittingly Prophets to their wo. For seeing it hath left their unbelief without excuse their last errour concerning his Resurrection is become worse then the first concerning his Birth Neither could have seemed incredible though both most miraculous to this ungratious seed of Jacob had they looked as the Prophet willed them unto the rock whence they were hewn and to the hole of the pit whence they were digged The mighty increase of Sarahs womb no better then dead and strange multiplication of Isaacs seed beyond the posterity of all the people with whom he sojourned did but portend the fruitful of-spring of the Virgins only Son should in number and dignity far surmount the sons and daughters of all the fertile mothers in Judea Isaacs posterity had been great yet able to be numbered by David But his generation who shall declare that was cut out of the land of the living Therefore strang there even of one and him as dead or destinated to death as Isaac was yea of one truly dead that made his grave with the wicked as many as the stars in the skie in multitude in dignity greater and as the sand by the sea store innumerable Mightier was the encrease of that Rock wherein he made his grave whence we are hewen then of that pit whence Israel according to the flesh was digged His exaltation since hath been their fall For seeing they would not believe his predictions as their Lawgiver had commanded the world may clearly see the curse indefinitely there denounced against all such as would not hear fulfilled upon that stubborn generation according to the full extent of S. Peters paraphrase upon it Not one or a feâ—â—only were destroyed out of the people as Korah Dathan and Abiram for disobedience unto Moses but the whole people or nation were utterly rooted out of the land All which with all particular circumstances and signs precedent or ensuing this great Prophet in his life time had so distinctly foretold that if we compare former Prophets with him they may seem to have but dreamed he alone that put these unknown ditties into their heads to have had the perfect skill of right interpreting their meaning CAP. XXII That the method used by the great Prophet himself after his resurrection for planting faith was such as we teach The excesse of Antichrists exaltation above Christ The Diametrical opposition betwixt the spirit of God and the Spirit of the Papacy 1 MOses was to be acknowledged a great Prophet because the whole host of Israel infallibly knew the Lord was with him in all he did every Prophet after him to be known by the Rules which he had given for their discernment Christ Jesus to be taken for The Great Prophet and Mediator of the everlasting Covenant because in words in works in all his wayes exactly answerable to Mosaical and prophetical Characters of the Messiah that was to come This sweet Harmony of legal Types or ancient prophecies as wel with the whole course of his blessed life as with his ignominious and cruel death or manner of his glorious resurrection I should either have esteemed or regarded lesse had not my Saviour himself preferred the assurance of prophetical testimonies before the certainty of their senses that had conversed with him in their life time admitted to conference with him after his rising from the dead For so we read of two Disciples which had seen his miracles heard his doctrine and acknowledged him for a Prophet mighty in word and deed but yet distrusted the report of his resurrection after it had been the second time confirmed by such of their fellows as had doubted with them yea their Master himself had told them as much before his death And had he not good reason then to upbraid them with distrust having now
Ariadna's thread as now it is thought to guide us through the Labyrinth of errors Such was S. Peters love to truth that he would have so fastned it to all faithful hearts as none should ever have failed to follow it in following which he could not erre Doubtlesse had any such conceit lodged in his breast this discourse had drawn it out his usual form of exhortation had been too mild his ordinary stile too low This doctrine had been proclaimed to all the world with Anathema's as loud and terrible as the Canons of any Papistical Councel report 2 But he followed no such deceitful Fables when he opened unto them the power and coming of Christ whose Majesty as he had seen with his own eyes so would he have others to see him too But by what light By Scriptures What Scriptures Peter feed my sheep Nay but by the Light of Prophesie That is a Light indeed in it self but unto private spirits it is no better saith Valentian then a light put under a bushel unlesse the visible Church do hold it out Where did the visible Church keep residence in those dayes In S. Peter I trow How chances it then he saith not fix your eyes on mine that have seen the glory of the Lord and the Prophets light shal shine unto you If by his commendation and proposal it were to shine he had said better thus Ye do well in that you give heed unto me as to your only infallible teacher that must confirm you in the truth of Prophetical Writings and cause them shine in your hearts but now he saith 2 Pet 1. 19. Ye do well in that ye take beed unto the Prophets as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day-star arise in your hearts This light of Prophets illuminated the eyes of Peters faith albeit with his bodily eyes he had seen Christs glory For speaking comparatively of that testimony which he had heard in the Mount he adds We have also a surer word of the Prophets That the Lord hath been glorified in the Mount his Auditors were to take upon his Credit and Authority nor could he make them to see this particular as he himself had done but that Christ Jesus whom he saw glorified in the Mount was the Lord of Glory he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a surer testimony then his bodily sense the light of Prophets This then was the commendations of his flock that they looked upon it which shined as wel unto them as him to all without respect of persons that take heed unto it able to bring them not to acknowledg Peters infallibility but to the day-star it self whole light would further ascertain them even of the truth the Prophets and the Apostles taught For Christ is in a peculiar manner the first and the last in the edifice of faith the lowest and the highest stone in the corner refused by the master builders or visible pillars of the Jewish Church their faith was not grounded up on the Prophets whose words they knew not and not knowing them they knew not him but unto such as raise their faith by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true square and line Chist is both the Fundamental Rock which supporteth and the chief corner stone that binds the whole house of God and preserves it from clefts and ruptures 3 But lest his followers might look amisse upon this prophetical light rightly esteemed in the general S. Peter thought it necessary to advertise them not to content themselves with every interpretation or accustomary acknowledgment of their truth grounded on others relations reports or skill in expounding them or multitude of voices that way swaying This had been as if a man that hath eyes of his own should believe there was a Moon or stars because a great many of his honest neighbours had told him so A thousand witnesses in such a case as this were but private testimonies in respect of that distinct knowledge which every one may have that list That the Lord should preserve light in Coshen when darknesse had covered the whole face of Egypt besides seems unto me lesse strange but more sensibly true then before whilest I consider how in this age wherein the light of his countenance hath so clearly shined throughout those parts of Europe whence the Gospel came to us Ingolstade should still sit in darknesse environed with the shadow of death That her great professor Valentian born I take it within these fourscore years should grope at noon day as if he had been brought forth in the very midnight of Popery or died welnigh three hundred years ago Scarce Scotus himself not Ockam questionlesse though shut up in a prison where no light of any expositor had ever come could have made a more dunstical collection of the Apostles words then he hath done Saint Peter meant one of these Three First that there can be no certain or probable way of expounding Scriptures by our proper wit or industry or Secondly that one or other place of Scripture cannot be rightly expounded by human wit or industry but so compared they rightly may or Thirdly that the Scriptures cannot certainly and infallibly be expounded every where without the sentence of some other common infallible authority which in this respect is to be held as judge of faith in the Church The Apostle he infers did not mean the first or second ergo the third So as the force and wisdom of the Apostolical admonition is this No man by his private industry or study howsoever imploied either he thought not of the holy Ghosts direction or assistance or did not except it no not by any search of Scripture it self can certainly and infallibly understand the doctrine of Scriptures in controversies of which S. Peter in that place speaks not one word but it is necessary he learn this of some other publick authority in the church by which the Holy Ghost speaks publickly and teacheth all His reason follows more dunsticall then the collection it self For the Apostle straight subjoyns As the holy men of God did speak in Scriptures not by human authority but divine so likewise cannot the Scriptures be possibly understood by any human or private industry of this or that man but by some other authority likewise divine by which the holy spirit which is the Author of Scriptures may be likewise the most certain interpreter of Scriptures 4 Had another read thus much unto me and bid me read the Author or his works wherein it was found I should presently have named either Erasmus Moriae Encomium Frishlins Priscianus Vapulans or some such like Comedian disposed in merriment to pen some old Dunces part Cannot the Sun of righteousnesse infuse his heavenly influence by the immediate operation of his spirit or doth his influence want force without conjunction with this blazing Comet or falling star Was it not the authority of this spirit which made S. Peter himself to
Were that Register of Hierusalems Tragical Funerals to use his words now extant as entire as he intended it what other Conclusion from the former Premisses could we expect then such Wo and Miseries as Moses and Jeremy had foretold and others have related to us Josephus as if Jeremiahs spirit had directed his pen saith their Misery did far surpasse all Plagues inflicted upon any Nation either by God or Man The multitude of Jewâ— dead in the Wars was equal to the number of living men in Israel under King David when Jacobs posterity flourished most besides Fifty Thousand taken Captives The number albeit he maketh it eleven hundred Thousand cannot seem strange if we consider the Confluence of this people from all Nations almost under Heaven unto Hierusalem at their Passeover Dion telleth us that besides the natural inhabitants of Jewry strangers not onely of Jewish Progeny but such as observed their Rites and Customes did flock to the Cities defence both from those parts of the Roman Empire through which they were scattered and from the Countries beyond Euphrates not Subject to the Romans Consonant herein to Josephus where he telleth us that the greatest part of the slain were strangers but most of Jewish Progeny The whole Nation to use his words was shut up by Fates as in a Prison or to speak more significantly Foyled by the Romans in the Field they were driven into the City as into a Slaughter-House And here the Psalmists curse beginneth to seize upon the Nation that which should have been for their Good proves the occasion of their Fall the Effect of Gods blessing upon Abraham proves a Plague to his Seed the huge number wherewith God had multiplied them which had late made them swell with hopes of Victory in the Open field brings grievous Famin suddenly upon them once inclosed in the City and Famin no sooner got within the Wals but le ts in her Fellowmessengers of Gods Wrath first breeding the Pestilence by the Carkases of the famished then disposing the Bodies of the living to receive this and such other loathsome infectious diseases as hunger and the huge Multitude of the besieged in such a streit place would quickly breed and yet they so desperately set to increase these Miseries as even in their greatest penury to receive Fugitives from Titus Camp For as Dion storieth divers of his Souldiers sled to the besieged being partly wearied of the difficult Siege partly animated thereto by a Rumour bruted throughout the Roman Army that this City could not be taken 8 Thus All Occasions conspire to work them wo whom God will plague The general perswasion of the East that Jewry about this time should bring forth the Monarch of the world ministers matter for their False-Prophets to work upon and from their trust in their Prophets it was that neither the present Adversity which they felt nor Prodigious Signs from heaven could disswade or terrifie the Seditious from their enterprise unhappily undertaken God no doubt had so disposed that the Roman Souldiers should despair of Victory to give Countenance to these false Prophets and make these Cast-a-wayes who still delighted most in Lies more confident in the wayes of death Though the Signs recorded by Tacitus and Josephus in his 7th Book 12. Chapt. of the Jewish Wars might seem Fearful yet their Interpretation was Ambiguous they might as wel menace Their Enemies Harm as Their Destruction howsoever to regard them much might argue Heathenish Superstition and In-discreet avoidance of Superstition makes Hypocritical Professors of true Religion preposterously stubborn in Imitation of true Confidence They could pretend the Prophets admonition Learn not the ways of the Heathen and be not afraid of the signs of Heaven though the Heathen be afraid of such For the customs of the people are vain Jer. 10. 2. and hence assume his Resolution to themselves Paveant Illi ne autem paveas Tu Let the Idolatrous Heathen tremble and quake but why should Israel be afraid of these Apparitions of their God Or if a man would have measured all by Politick Observations it was more likely the Romans should have for saken the Siege then the besieged have fallen into their hands But God was against Them and They could not be for Themselves For as Dion notes which I think Iosephus omitteth they themselves by making way for their more commodious defence did against their will demolish the chief Muniment of the Temple at which breach the Romans entred but net without some Stay Amated only with Reverence of The Place Nor did the Successe answer their Resolution in the Assault albeit they were far more in number then the defendants until Titus commanded part of the Temple to be set on fire But then as the same Author witnesseth Some offered their bodies for sheaths unto the Romans swords Some killed their Fellows requited instantly with like kindnesse from them again Some leapt into the fire All accounted it their Happiness to perish with the Temple Dion l. 66. 9 The Lord had often professed his dislike unto their Solemn Feasts and his loathing of their Sacrifices both fully manifested in this their last Calamitie Such as the Stench of their Dead was now to their polluted senses Such had the Abomination of their sweetest Incense long been to His Holiness now to be purged with the Priests own Bloud sacrificed in the flames and ruins of the Temple the City as oft before was now taken upon the Sabbath day Other particular Miseries described by Iosephus and Eusebius I leave for this time to the Readers private Meditations desirous onely in these Generalities to justifie theirs or other Ecclesiastical Writers reports against all Suspitions cast upon them by Atheists or Infidels from the Testimony of such as Infidelity it self cannot suspect for partial Both sorts afford us Evident Documents of the divine Truth of Scripture and might afford us more then we are aware off were we better acquainted with the Ancient manner of interpreting Scriptures amongst the Jews in our Saviours and his Apostles time of which hereafter If now upon Occasions of these relations concerning Ierusalems last Day and the Signs of the Times ensuing I interpret One or Two places otherwise then such as are most followed in our times do the Christian Reader I hope will grant me Pardon upon promise of such Satisfaction as shall befit one Ingenuous Christian to expect of another to be made when I shall come to explicate the divers kinds of Prophecies amongst Gods People with the right manner of their Interpretations CAP. XXIV The Fulfilling of our Saviours Prophecy Mat. 24. with others concerning the Times ensuing Jerusalems Destruction 1 REading Josephus I cannot but acknowledge Hieremiahs Lamentation as well for a Prophecy of these late times under Vespasian and Titus as an History or Elegie of the miseries that had befallen Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar The Lord I know had then done that which he purposed but now more properly