any Jeroboam or Julian or Licinius could have brought to passe against us This noble Realme which ever was famous for the name of Learning is like thereby to come to such Ignorance and Barbarisine as hath not bin heard of in any memory before our time I know that there are grievous complaints made that the Bishops appoint Priests Ministers that are ignorant and have no understanding in the Latine tongue Would God it were not true or would God that they which be the causers hereof would somewhat help to amend it But alas are we able to make learned men upon the sudden Or can we make others then such as come unto us or will come to live in misery But there are many which can say such as be Ministers in the Church should teach freely without hope of recompence or hire for their labour Our preaches are no better then Peter and Paul and the other Apostles they are no better then the holy Prophets who lived poorely poverty is a commendable estate So say some in like devotion as did Judas What needed this wast this might have been sould for much given to the poore not that he cared for the poore but because he was a theife and had the bag and bare that which was given I doubt not there are many w th teach Christ for Christs sake which say in their soule the Lord is my portion who in that heavy time from which God delivered the if they might have received their life only for a recompence would have been glad to take the paines who seek you and not yours which have forsaken all they had to follow Christ I doubt not there are such But for the hope of posterity I report me to all you which are Fathers have childrē for whom yee are carefull Although your selves have a zeale and care for the house of God yet will you breed them up keep them at schoole untill 24 yeares old to your charges that in the end they may live in glorious povertie that they may live poorly naked like the Prophets and Apostles Our posterity shall rue that ever such fathers went before them and Chronicles shall report this contempt of Learning among the punishments murraines other plagues of God They shall leave it written in what time under whose raigne this was done Or if we grow so barbarous that we consider not this or be not able to draw it into chronicle yet forraine nations will not spare to write this publish it to our everlasting reproach and shame In the mean time what may be guessed of their meaning which thus ravin and spoile the house of God which decay the provisiō thereof so basely esteem the Ministers of his Gospell they cannot say to God the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up Howsoever in other things they doe well howsoever they seem to rejoyce at the prosperity of Sion and to seek the safety and preservation of the Lords anointed yet needs must it be that by these meanes forraigne power of which this Realme by the mercy of God is happily delivered shall again be brought in upon us Such things shall be done unto us as we before suffered the truth of God shall be taken away the holy Scriptures burnt and consumed in fire a marvellous darknesse and calamity must needs ensue For if the tempest be so dark in the sea that the load-star loose her light and the needle faile to give token of the North Pole no marvell though the ship lose her course and be swallowed up in the sands The Gospell of Christ is the fountaine of light and of knowledge It cannot be maintained by ignorance and darknesse these be the props of their kingdome which take away the Scriptures which hold the people in blindnesse which fly the light which have their Common-prayers administer the Sacraments marry bury their dead in a strange tongue that the people may understand nothing which make a famine of hearing the word of God which stop up the springs of the water of life which take away the keyes of the kingdome of heaven neither enter in themselves nor suffer them that would enter which say ignorance is the mother of devotion and the Church is then in best order and the people most devout when they are hood-winkt and blinded see nothing These are not fit instruments wherewith we may overcome the adversaries this is not the sword of the Spirit these are not the spirituall weapons which cast downe holds and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God What man that would keep out his enimie will pull downe his holds What Captain that meaneth to give a forcible assault upon the enimy will discourage his fighting souldiers but our souldiers are out of courage our Castles are falne therefore that which we feare will fall upon us The Oxe that treadeth out the corne is mussled he that goeth to warfare receiveth not his wages the cry hereof goeth up into the eares of the Lord of hosts He will not abide so great contempt of his word and preachers his owne name is thereby dishonoured Our Saviour saith he that despiseth you despiseth me And S t Paul he that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God And think we that he will suffer his holy name to be despised nay his wrath is already kindled he hath already begun his judgements therfore many places are left desolate There is none that can warn them of their sin none that can move them to repentance none that can preach unto them forgivenesse through Christ none that can instruct them in the comfort of everlasting life because they work such things against the Lord the hearts of many are astonished though they heare they understand not they scorn jest at the word of salvation it is unto them a savour of death unto death they are earthly minded whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame For this cause you liue still in your sins in adultery in covetousnes in pride without any feeling of conscience without any feare of God Your daughters your Heires to whom you shall leave your lands are stolne away from you Robberies and thefts are so common as if it were not only lawfull but also commendable as if sin were no sin and hell fire but a fable Thus we provoke God to anger many walk of whom we cannot think but with weeping they are the enimies of the crosse of Christ the name of God is blasphemed through them Many are so ignorant they know not what the Scriptures are they know not that there are any Scriptures they call them hereticall and new Doctrine many will believe neither side whatsover they alleadge bring they truth bring they falshood each they Christ teach they Antichrist they will believe neither they have so hardned their hearts Be the Preacher rough or gentle learned or unlearned let him use authority of
the Scriptures of the Doctors of the Councels of Decrees or Decretals of Gods law of mans law nothing will move them nothing will please them because the Ministery of God and thereby God himselfe is despised These words haply seem sharp over vehement but the darknes of our hearts against God and the lack of zeale to his house inforce me to them We are almost fallen into the lowest pit we are left without zeale as senslesse men and as if we had clean forgotten our selves as the heathen which know not God Therefore unlesse we repent the kingdome of God shall be taken away from us he will send upon this land a famine of the word Hierusalem shal be overthrowne and made an heap of stones the man of sin they which have not the love of the truth shall prevaile with many and withdraw them from obedience to the Prince this noble Realm shall be subject to forraigne nations All this will the zeale of the Lord of hosts bring to passe I could have spent this time in opening some other matter but nothing in my judgement is more worthy your good consideratiō speedy redresse I would be loath rashly or rudely to abuse the reverence of this place but unlesse these things be cared for unlesse we shew forth greater zeal then hitherto if the yeares to come eat up and take away from the Ministery as the late yeares have done there will not be left within a while any to speak the word of God out of this place the Pulpits shall have none to use them the people shall grow wilde and void of understanding When Xerxes beheld the great company of Souldiers suddēly he brake into teares wept bitterly one said to him ô Sir you have cause to rejoice you have a goodly company they are able to fight for you against any nation But what shall become of them saith Xerxes after a 100 yeares not one of all these shall be left alive If the view of the small number of Preachers might be taken how few they are and how thin they come up we have greater cause then Xerxes to lament if we have any zeale to the house of God for of the Preachers which now are within few yeares none will remaine alive And Xerxes his souldiers left issue behind them which might afterwards serve their country But there is like to be small increase for the supply of learned men The Lord shall lack men to bring in his harvest the litle ones shall call for bread and there shall be none to give it them They that shall come after us shal see this to be true there is no house so spoiled as the house of the Lord there is no servant so litle rewarded as the servant of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God Oh that your Grace did behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church or that you might foresee the calamities which will follow It is a part of your Kingdome and such a part as is the principall prop and stay of the rest I will say to your Majestie as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian Ab ea quae erga Deum est pietate Reipub vestrae status pendet the good estate and welfare of your Commonwealth hangeth upon true godlinesse You are our governour you are the Nurce of Gods Church we must open this griefe before you God knoweth if it may be redressed it hath grown so long and is run so farre but if it may be redressed there is no other beside your Highnesse that can redresse it I hope I speake truly that which I speake without flattery that God hath endued your grace with such measure of learning knowledge as no other Christian Prince he hath given you peace happinesse the love and true hearts of your subjects Oh turne and employ these to the glory of God that God may confirme in your Grace the thing which he hath begun To this end hath God placed Kings and Princes in their State as David saith that they may serve the Lord that they may see cause others to see to the furniture of the Church The good Emperour Justinian cared for this as much as for his life Constantine Theodosius Valentinian and other godly Princes called themselves Vasallos the subjects and bond-servants of God they remembred that God furnished them in their houses and were not unmindfull to furnish his house When Augustus had beautified Rome with setting up many faire buildings he said 〈◊〉 later it iam marmore am reddidi I found it made of brick but I leave it made of marble Your Grace when God sent you to your inheritance the right of this Realme found the Church in horrible confusion in respect of the true worship of God a Church of brick or rather as Ezechiel saith daubed up with unseasoned morter Your Grace hath already redressed the doctrine now cast your eies towards the Ministery give courage and countenance unto Learning that Gods house may be served so shall you leave to the Church of God a testimony that the zeal of the Lords house had eaten you up And you ô dearely beloved if there be any such which are neither hot nor cold which doe the work of the Lord negligently which esteem the word of God but as a matter of policy which are ashamed to be called Professours of the Gospell of Christ pray unto God that he will increase your zeal Let us continue rooted and built in Christ and stablished in the faith let us have care for the house of God Whosoever is not after this sort zealous is a man of a double heart We may not halt between two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Ball be he then goe after him he that is not with Christ is against him Many talke of the Gospell and glory in their knowledge but it is neither talke nor knowledge which shall save them in that day He that feareth the Lord and serveth him with a pure heart and may truly say the zeal of thine house hath consumed me he shall be saved If they shall not escape which have zeale without knowledge what shall become of us which have knowledge without zeale And you whosoever you are that by such meanes have decayed the Lords house and abridged the provision and maintenance thereof and see the miserable wrack of Gods Church if there be any zeale of God in you if you have any fellowship of the spirit if any compassion and mercy if you love God if you desire the continuance of the Gospell Oh remember you have the Patrimonie due unto them that should attend in the Lords house You take unto your selves wrongfully that which was not lotted for you Give unto Caesar those things which belong to Caesar and unto God the things which appertaine to him and make for the beautie furniture of his house Enrich your selves by lawfull meanes without the spoile and wast of Gods Church Let not the Ministery by your meanes be despised you enriched them which mocked blinded and devoured you spoile not them now that feed and instruct and comfort you Let us seek the glory of God let us at length serve the Lord and not our belly and greedie wantonnesse So shall God blesse you and prosper you in all your affaires so shall he strike a terrour of you into all forraigne Princes that dwell about you so shall your heart be kept stedfast in the hand of God so shall your heart be perfect before the Lord so shall you leave such as shall alwaies praise the Lord in Sion so shall you see your childrens children and peace upon Israel And thou ô most mercifull Father grant that thy words be not spoken in vain it is thy cause Thou art our Father we are as clay in thine hands Thou hast the key of our hearts give zeale to them that have knowledge give knowledge to them that have zeale that they may be enflamed and ravished with the love of thy house to sorrow for the decay thereof and to doe all their endeavour to build up and establish the same for ever AMEN FINIS Novitiorum prima Ratio Secunda ratio Tertia ratio * Erasm in arguments epist ad Titum * Chrysost in 1. cap. Tit. Quarta Ratio Prov. 22. Eccl. 1. Eccles 12. Psal 122. Ierem. 9. Esay 49. Zach 2. Act 7. Mark 14. Rom 10. 1. Tim. I. Origen in 10 Rom. lib. 8. Wisd 14 Esai 55. Prov 3. Deut 5. 1. King 19 Exod. 32. Ierem. 20. Exod. 32. Mat. 23. Rom. 9. Psal 118. Psal 79. Ioh. 2. Numb 12. Luk. 9. Luk. 10. 1. Thess 4. Cyrill Epist ad Theodos valent
eye is ever in danger of falling Such kinde of zeale the greater it is the worser it is the more vehement it seemeth the more vehemently it fighteth against God For our good meaning maketh not our doings good our zeale is not a rule whereby we may measure out either our faith or our works but only the knowne will and pleasure of God Therefore speaketh God in this manner by the Prophet say my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your waies my waies Therefore saith Solomon Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and leane not to thy own wisdome in all thy waies acknowledge him and he shall direct thy doings This counsell also doth Moses give take heed that yee doe as the Lord your God hath commanded you turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left But the true and godly zeale proceedeth not from hypocrisie or intention but is led and trained by understanding and is molten into the heart and the vehemency and heat of it no man knoweth but he that feeleth it It taketh away the use of reason it eateth devoureth up the heart even as the thing that is eaten is turned into the substance of him that eateth it as iron while it is burning hot is turned into the nature of the fire so great and so just is the griefe that they which have this zeale conceive when they see Gods house spoiled or his holy name dishonoured So saith Elias I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hoasts for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant broken down thy Altars and slaine thy Prophets with the sword and I only am left and they seek my life to take it away So when Moses found that the people had forsaken God and were fallen down before a molten Calfe did put their trust in the work of their own hands his wrath waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hand and brake them in peices beneath the mountaine his heart was so inflamed with zeale that he considered not what he had in his hand nor what he did Jeremy when he saw the disorder of the people How they were not mended with his preaching and would inwardly conceale the griefe he conceaved and purposed not to make mention of the Lord nor to speak any more in his name yet could he not for his zeale found way and brake out His word saith he was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with for bearing and I could not stay And albeit there is much likenesse between the rage and fury of hypocrites the godly zeale of good men for either are hot either are vehement either wisheth redresse yet this is an evident difference godly zeale is tempered and seasoned with charity the ungodly is joyned with bitternesse and revenge the godly seeketh to win the ungodly to kill and to destroy the ungodly have their hands full of bloud they kill the Prophets they say we have a law and by our law He must dye they say come let us destroy them that they be no more a nations Let not the name of Israel be had any more in remembrance they burn the holy books of the Scriptures as did Aza and Antiochus they say ransack it pull it down rase it to the foundation let not one be left alive they dig up the bodies of the dead out of their graves they shew their crueltie upon the bones and ashes which were long before buried and well nigh consumed It grieveth them when they lack upon whom they may whet their bloudthirstie and cruell zeale It grieveth them no one thing else so much that they did not work surely and cut up the root Such is the zeale of the ungodly even such a zeale as was in Nero in Caligula of whom it is reported he wished that all the Romans had but one neck that he might cut off all their heads at one stroke as was in Herod in Annaâ— and Caiphas the like murtherers But the godly when they see any disorder they doe nothing like the other they mourne in their hearts to see that the truth is not received to see the mindes of their brethren so obstinately hardned they make prayer to God for them they are deeply touched with the feeling of such calamities which God layeth upon other The zeale of Moses could not like the Idolatry of the people yet he went unto the Lord againe and said Now if thou pardon their sinne thy mercy shall appeare but if thou will not I pray thee rase me out of thy book which thou last written Christ lamented over Jerusalem ô Jerusalem JerusaleÌ„ which killest the Prophets stonest them which are sent to thee how often would I have gathered thy childreÌ„ together as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and yee would not behold your habitation shall be left unto you desolate Paul suffered much at the hands of the wicked Jewes they troubled the Church of God they hindered the course of the Gospell they were enimies of the Crosse of Christ they were dogs they were ConcilioÌ„ yet he saith I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in mine heart for I would wish my selfe to be separated from Christ for my brethren that are my kindsmen according to the flesh which are the Israelites David saith Mine eyes gush out with rivers of water because they keepe not thy law And again My zeale hath even consumed me because mine enimies have forgotten thy words Againe I saw the transgressours was grieved because they kept not thy word And when he saw the whole nation of Israel wasted by the enimies how mournfull a complaint made hee to God O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thine holy Temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem heapes of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the foules of the heaven and the flesh of thy Saints unto the Beasts of the earth At this time when the Tabernacle was lost when Saul was unquiet and the Priests were slaine and the Prophets despised and the people left without all comfort he powreth out his heart in these words Zelus domûstuae comedit me O Lord the zeale I beare unto thy house hath eaten me up it inflameth my heâ—rt dryeth my bloud consumeth my marrow such a care had he for the house of God it was death unto him to see it so destroied and laid wast So Christ when he saw the Temple of God foulely and unseemly abused that they made the holy place a place for their unlawfull and unhonest gaine by usury that they turned Religion into robbery sold Oxen Sheep and Doves and kept their banks for exchange in the Temple when the Priests and Levites which should serve God were become Merchants and served themselves when the Temple or house of God which David
revolutions of the Heavens And so they judged that man which either had most abundance of naturall reason or beheld and considered the heavens best to be most perfect of all others and that he came nearest to the end of his creation Thus said they as men without feeling of God onely endued with the light of nature But as God himselfe declareth who fashioned us and made us and knoweth us best the very true end why man was made was to know to honour God Therefore whoso knoweth him best and honoureth him with most reverence he is most perfect he commeth neerest the end of his creation When Solomon had described the deceaveable vanities of the world and said vanitie of vanities vanitie of vanities all is vanitie When he had concluded by long discourse that riches Empires honour pleasures knowledge and whatsoever else under the Sunne is but vanity he knitteth up the matter with these words Feare God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole dutie of man that is this is truth and no vanitie this is our perfection to this end are we made not to live in eating and drinking not to passe our time in pleasure and follies not to heap up those things which are daily taken from us or from which we are daily taken away but that in our words in our life in our bodie in our soule we doe service unto God that we look above the Sunne and Moone and all the heavens that wee become the Temples of the holy Ghost that the holy Spirit of God may dwell in us and make us fit instruments of the glory of God Therefore God gave his holy word and hath continued it from the beginning of the world untill this day notwithstanding the Philosophers and learned men in all ages who scorned it out as the word of folly for so it seemeth to them that perish notwithstanding the wicked Princes and Tyrants high powers of the world who consumed and burnt it as false and wicked and seditious doctrine notwithstanding the whole world and power of darknesse were ever bent against it yet hath He wonderfully continued and preserved it without losse of one letter untill this day that we have whereby truly to know him the true and onely God and his sonne Jesus Christ whom he sent Therefore have we Temples Churches places to resort unto all together to honour to worship and to acknowledge him to be our God to joyne our hearts and voices together and to call upon his holy name In such places God hath at all times used to open his Majestie and to shew his power In such places God hath made us a speciall promise to heare our praiers whensoever wee call upon him Therefore are they called the dwelling place and house of God In such places all godly men set their greatest pleasure thought themselves miserable when they were secluded or put off from the same as the Prophet and holy Prince David Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum Domini ibimus O saith that holy man my heart rejoyced within my body when my fellowes called upon me and said let us goe into the house of the Lord. Againe I am in love with the beauty of thy house And againe O how beautifull is thy Tabernacle O Lord O thou the God of hosts my heart longeth and fainteth to come within thy Courts His spirits were ravished with the sight majesty of the Tabernacle not for that the place it selfe at that time was so beautifull for in Davids time it was almost rotten ruinous a homely thing to behold nothing in comparison to that Temple that was afterwards built by Solomon But therein stood the shew worthinesse of that holy place that Gods truth and law was opened and proclaimed in it and the Sacraments ceremonies so used in such forme order as God had commanded them to be used and the people receaved them obediently lived thereafter Therefore when the Tabernacle was restored when the Arke was fet home from Obed-edom and set in the mount Sion when religion Revived which through the negligence and malice of Saul was forsaken when he saw his Nobilitie his Bishops his Priests all his people willing forward he could not refraine himselfe but brake out and sang Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus exultemus laetemur in ea This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it Let us be merry and joy that ever we lived to see it Even so Paul when in his time he saw the Gospell take root and prosper that the savour of life was powred abroad that the kingdome of God was enlarged the kingdome of Satan shaken downe his heart leaped and sprang within him Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile behold now is the acceptable time behold God hath looked downe mercifully upon the world behold the day of salvation is come upon us But the godly man as he rejoyceth at the beauty of Gods house so when contrariwise he seeth the same disordered filthily when he seeth the Sacraments of God abused truth troden under foot the people mocked the name of God dishonoured he cannot but lament and mourne and finde himselfe wounded at heart When the good King Iosias saw the book of God which was so long hid in the wall and out of remembrance when he considered the blindnesse in which they had lived and the unkindnesse of their fore-fathers he could not forbeare but fell a weeping he feared least God should take vengeance upon them for so great contempt of his word When Ieremy saw the wilfulnesse and frowardnesse of the people which would not submit themselves and be obedient unto God he cried Oh that my head were full of water and mine eies a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night c. Such care had they for Gods people Thus the zeale of Gods house had eaten them up Zeale if any man know not the nature of the word is an earnest affection and vehement love as is the love of a mother towards her children or of the naturall childe towards his mother This zeale cannot abide to see that thing which it loveth despised or hurt Such zeale care carrieth God over his people he loveth them as a mother loveth her children he will not suffer them to be hurt By the Prophet Esay he saith can a woman forget her childe and not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe Though they should forget yet will not I forget thee Zachary also saith he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye For God hath said they shall be my people and I will be their God Such care likewise beare all the godly towards their God they love him with all their soule with all their heart with all their strength they reverence him as their father they are grieved with any
blasphemy and with any contempt of his holy name But as every man be he never so wicked yea even he that saith in his heart there is no God which is become filthy and abominable in all his doings yet in his talke outwardly saith he hath a God and that he believeth in him even so there is none so wicked or so forsaken of God in his heart but he perswadeth himselfe he hath the zeale of God and what he doth in selfe-love of his owne fantasie he will beare in hand he doth it for the loue of God The overthrowers wasters of the Church will seem to shew a speciall care for the Church dissemblers hypocrites despisers scorners even such as sin against the holy Ghost which deny the truth of God after they have knowne it which witting and knowing fight against the truth which say of Christ we will not have him to rule over us which worke that sin which will never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come yet notwithstanding will pretend and seem to have the zeale of God Thus the Scribes Pharisees set up their bristles against Christ thy Disciples keepe not the common fast thou sufferest them to pull and to eat the eares of corne thou sufferest them to eat with unwashed hands thou breakest the tradition of the Elders thou breakest the law of God which he gave us by Moses thou art a seditious teacher thou art a Schismatick thou art an Heretick They said We fast twice in the week we have Abraham to our Father we are Moses Disciples Therefore when they heard Stephen speaking those heavenly words Behold I see the heavens open and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God through zeale they gave a shout with a lowd voice and stopped their eares and ran upon him all at once When Christ had said Yee shall see the Son of man fit at the right hand of God and come in the clouds of heaven the high Priest through zeale rent his cloathes and said yee have heard the blasphemie this naughty man speaketh blasphemy against God he called a Councell the Scribes and Pharisees met together not one man amongst them but of themselvs they looked about them as if they only were the pillars buttresses of the Church and were only zealous and carefull for the house of God But their meeting was as David forespake and as Peter declareth and as We know against the Lord and against his anointed they were touched with the zeale of their own glory and not with the zeale of Gods truth they sought their own praise but not the praise which is of God they made cracks that they knew the Scriptures that they were the Temple of God that they had the consent of all Antiquity as others have done since that time and as wee see many doe this day in very deed these men have now even as much as they had then as by proofe and triall it will appeare There are others which have a feeling of God and a great care for his Church but such a feeling and care as cometh either of their own fantasies or of some opinion credit they have in their fathers which were before them not of the understanding of Gods pleasure Such are they which offend God not of malice or wilfulnesse but onely for lack of teaching understanding Such were they which withstood S. Paul in all his preaching for that they took him for an Heretique and thought his preaching was against God I beare them witnes saith he that they have the zeale of God but not according to knowledge Such a zeal have many who forbid that which God commandeth command that which God forbiddeth such a zeale had Paul himselfe I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an oppressor but I was receaved to mercy for I did it ignorantly without beliefe Such a zeale have they who think they doe God good service when they kill and murther the righteous and good servants of God Such a zeale have they who as saith Nazianzen defend Christ against Christ and defend the Church against the Church And these things doe they not of malice nor of wilfulnesse nor against their conscience but because they know not God the father nor his Christ whom he hath sent therefore they stumble at Christ and spurne away the Gospell of God and think ill and speak evill of the word of life because they know not the Gospell of God nor the word of life Thus they perswade themselves that they defend the Church that they honour the sonne of God that they doe God great service and that they have the zeale of God But this pride was ever in the heart of man and it appeared even in our grandfire Adam whatsoever liketh us well we think that cannot but please God Such is the opinion we fondly conceive in our fantasies in trust whereof whatsoever we doe we think our selves sure and safe Origen writing upon the place of the Apostle Zelum Dei habent sed non secundùm scientiam they have the zeale of God but not according to knowledge saith similiter potest dicere Apostolus de aliis quòd timorem Dei habeant sed non secundùm scientiam de aliis c. in like manner the Apostle may say of others they have the feare of God but not according to knowledge of others they have the love of God but not according to knowledge of another hee hath the faith of God but not according to knowledge and another may be said to fast but not according to knowledge And so in all things whatsoever we doe unlesse we have knowledge and understanding it may be said unto us that we have the zeale of a good worke but not according to knowledge I deo danda est praecipuè opera scientiae ne res nobis infeliciter accidat ut in fide pofitifrustremur à fide zelum habentes bonorum decidamus à bonis Therefore all heed is chiefly to be given to the attaining of knowledge least it goe not well with us least wâ— faile from our faith when we think we believe thinking we have a zeale of good works we be found void of all good works The wise man saith this was not enough for them that they erred in the knowledge of God but whereas they lived in great warres of ignorance thâ—se so many so great plagues they called peace The zeale that they had and the contentation of their hearts made them believe that all their superstition and idolatry and other enormities was Catholique unitie This zeale as on the one side it hath many tokens of goodnesse for that it hath a conscience and a feare and an obedience towards God so on the other side it is very dangerous because it lacketh knowledge even as a ship for lack of a governour is ever in danger of the Rocks and as the body which hath no