SIXE SERMONS Preached by EDWARD CHALONER Doctor of Diuinitie and Fellow of ALL-SOVLES Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY 1623. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM Earle of PEMBROKE Lord HERBERT of Cardiffe Lord Par and Rosse of Kendal Lord Marmion and Saint Quintin c. Chancellor of the Vniuersitie of OXFORD Lord Chamberlaine of his Majesties House-hold Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter And one of his Maiesties most honourable Priuie Councell Right Honourable THese fruits of mine receiuing warm'th from the good affections of some friends haue budded forth and blossom'd too early to withstand either the Nips or Blasts of this criticall Age vnlesse your Lordship shall vouchsafe to be so hospitable as to admit them within your Walls and make them secure vnder the Shadow of your protection For to whom should they flye for Patronage but to our Honourable Chancellor vnder whose Branches they both tooke Roote and grew vp it being the Ordinance of Nature that the same Hand which creates should conserue and that the benigne Influence which reignes at the Birth should bee propitious also in continuing Life Adde to these the contents of the Worke which consisting of diuers pieces as excitements to pietie maintenance of royall and subordinate Authoritie and a vindicating of our Naioth's or Nurseries of Pietie and Knowledge from the detractions of the Ignorant may by vertue of your seuerall Relations to God the State and Our Vniuersitie challenge a greater share in your Lordship then any other Nor can I suspect were these inducements wanting your Noble interpretation of my boldnesse considering that your Honor whose studie is to expresse the vertues of ancient times in Life hath for your zeale to Learning noble Patternes in holy Writ both to imitate and parallell For what was Daniel Dan. 2.28 but Counsellor to a great Monarch and Gouernour ouer the Schooles of the wisemen in Babylon 1. King 18.3 And what Obadiah other then Ruler in a Kings House and Patron of the Prophets the Vniuersitie men of Israel I for mine owne part since you succeede them in their Titles and Merits shall euer pray that you may partake with them in the Reward that so the Diuine protection of the One may attend you in this Life and the blessed memorie of the Other Crowne you hereafter Your Lordships humbly deuoted ED. CHALONER Errata Pag. 17 leg Merces 26 contayne leg contayned 64 leg Ieduthen 86 lin antepenult leg Thus. 89 circa medium of leg for 93 reches leg teacheth 99 Ecclesiasticall leg Enthysiasticall 104 leg Rucus 117 refine leg rescue ibid. reconciling leg recounâ—ing 123 leg assisting dele on 126. leg Kepplerus 137 dele either ibid. with leg which 143 leg Turner 144 lin antepenult dele that 149 leg Petrus 153 circamed leg no sooner 159 leg defect 168 vnremarkable leg remarkable 174 as leg and. 184 sayth he bis leg say they 187 leg Rock circamed 196 as Hercules pillars leg as farre as Herc. c. 202 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 204 ruine leg reuiue 206 disposing leg dispossessing 288 Verse leg Verge The Titles of the seuerall SERMONS Babel or the confusion of Languages Naioth or the Vniuersitie Charter Ephesus common Pleas. Iudahs Prerogatiues The Gentiles Creede Pauls Peregrinations or the Trauellers Guide BABEL OR THE CONFVSION OF LANGVAGES GEN. 11. vers 7. Goe to let vs goe downe and there confound their language that they may not vnderstand one anothers speech THe Holy Ghost hauing in the precedent Chapter set downe vnto vs the Propagation and Plantation of Noahs off-spring according to their Countries Heads and Families vpon the face of the Earth in this Chapter he proceedes Methodo Analytica by way of Ascent from the Effects to the Causes of this so great a dispersion and they were two the one Malum culpae Mans impietie which incensed God the other Malum poenae Gods vengeance which he inflicted vpon man The offence which the sonnes of men committed against God was that arrogant and presumptuous worke of building Babel Horat. Car l. 1. Ode 3. Audax omnia perpeti gens humana ruit per vectitum nefas The vengeance which God tooke vpon Man was the miraculous confounding of their Languages The proceedings of both are described much alike Goe to say they goe to saith God a kind of Consultation in either but the scope and conclusion of the Consultations were contrarie theirs was Aedificemus let vs build Gods was Confundamus let vs confound to note that where God is not a Builder he will be there found as a Confounder Suppose the reliques of mankind within little more then an hundred yeeres either in the Arke for twelue moneths continuance setting no foote in the buried Continent or â—ut of the Arke and yet not daring â—o descend Armenias Mountaynes at length increasing through that word which bade them multiply and replenish the Earth to bee compelled to leaue Ararat and iournying from the East westward to find a Plaine in the Land of Shinar This Shinar as most Geographers thinke was a part of the Garden of Eden fruitfull for the watering of two most famous Riuers Tigris and Euphrates fruitfull for the temperate situation in regard of the heauenly influence fruitfull for the nature of the soile returning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 1. cap. 193. Plin. lib. 6. cap. 26. if Herodotus and Plinie may be beleeued the seede sowne in it beyond credulitie Who would not haue thought that man lately preserued by Gods great mercy from the tyrannie of the Deluge would now by feeling so fresh a taste of his goodnesse haue consecrated vnto him some immortal monument of gratitude and thankfulnesse Who could haue imagined Mans affections to haue beene so obdurate as not to performe some memorable act redounding to Gods glorie When behold turning this blessing to a curse they say one to another Goe to let vs build Non Deo sed nobis ipsis let vs build vs a Citie and a Tower whose top may reach vp vnto heauen What would vaine and humane presumption haue done althogh it could haue built a Tower as high as heauen Tutam veramque in coelum viam molitur humilitas August de â—mit Dei lib. â—6 c. 4. saith Saint Augustine low humilitie is that which best conueyes vs vp to heauen Their desire belike was to leaue a monument to posteritie no matter how good so great enough and there are two ends set downe thereof the one finis vanitatis That we may get vs a name Horat Car. l. 1. Ode 3. Nil mortalibus arduum est coelum ipsum pâ—timus stultitia the other Finis impietatis Least wee bee scattered abroad vpon the face of the Earth Now what this scattering should meane some coÌ„trouersie amongst Interpreters rests yet vndecided Ioseph l. 1. Antiq. Iosephus thinks they feared the danger of a second Floud Cajetan would rather haue it that they would not bee dispersed
Heardsmen and gatherers of Sycomore fruit which is the affirmatiue condition or state of Amos and should come next to be handled But as to treat of Heardsmen is a point of husbandrie beyond the spheare of my profession and an admitting of them without licence from the Patriark of Philosophers Arist Polit. lib. 7. c. 9. first obtained within the precincts of the Chaire so were it to conspire with Amaziah the Priest in remouing our Prophet from Bethel to present him before you in the Plaines of Techoah amidst his flocks Amos 1. ◠and I cannot tell besides the vnseasonablenesse of the day for so long a iourney whether the learned palates of my Auditors could rellish such homely entertainment as those barren Desarts doe here in my Text promise of a dish of Sycomore fruits though it were of Amos his gathering I will therefore keep home for this time and circumscribe my Meditations within this present circle of the Prophets and Prophets sons And so to GOD the Father GOD the Sonne and GOD the Holy Ghost bee rendred all Honour and Glorie Might Maiestie and Dominion from this time forth for euermore Amen EPHESVS COMMON PLEAS Handled In a Sermon before the Iudges in Saint MARIES at the Assises held at OXFORD in Lent An. 1618. By ED. CHALONER Doctor of Diuinitie and Fellow of ALL-SOVLES Colledge in OXFORD London Printed by W. STANSBY 1623. EPHESVS COMMON PLEAS ACT. 19.38 Wherefore if DEMETRIVS and the Craftsmen which are with him haue a matter against any man the law is open and there are deputies let them implead one another HE which shall peruse the Annals of the Apostles shall find Sathan not like a Sage of the more ancient and better times apparelled still in one and the same fashion but in a copious Ward-robe no lesse attyring himselfe in change of sutes then Proteus amongst the Poets was painted out in varietie of hapes At Lystria he appenres like a Commediun Act. 14.12 Plautus Amphit as if a Scene of Plautus were to bee presented vpon the Stage would haue Iupiter and Mercurie bee thought to act the parts of Paul and Barnabas At Antioch he comes like a Iesuite with Traditions in his mouth Act. 15.1 and would choake the proceedings of the Gospell by the mixture of abolished Ceremonies At Athens hee sallies out of the Schooles like a Philosopher Act. 17. and vnder the habite of a Stoike or Epicure playes the Sophister here at Ephesus he presents himselfe in his Apron like an Artificer and yet surely of all these I know not wherein hee shewed more Arte and Cunning either then when hee masked vnder the Philosophers Gowne at Athens or now when hee makes himselfe no better then a Townes-man of Ephesus I am not ignorant what Sectes Philosophie hath beene distracted into at Athens nor what contentions haue arisen amongst the professors of each part witnesse the heart-burning which sometimes Aristotle cannot dissemble against Plato but the fray still ended with words neither was Saint Paul more discourteously entertained amongst them then with scoffes or sarcasmes What will this Babler say or Act. 17. Wee will hears thee againe of this matter In the conclaue of these Mechannickes the wits of Hell are scraped to the vttermost for a plot to ruine him Profit and Commoditie the most potent arguments of Rhetoricke are cull'd out Vers 27. by this man our Craft is in danger 〈◊〉 be set at nought and if by great chance Religion lurke in the skirt of some mans Conscience then a Climax promotes the businesse and the Theam◠is aggrauated from an amicle of their Creed the Temple of the great Goddesse Diana is despised by him and her Magnificencie is destroyed whom all Asia and the World worshippeth Demetrius a Siluer-smith by Trade that thus artificially blew the coales of commotion amongst his Fellow-artificers and one that made as the Text tells vs siluer Shrines for Diana yet pardon mee if I thinke not more curious in making of those Shrines then in the composure of this Oration Plin. l. 36. c. 14. What the Temple of Diana vilified and set at nought a place so magnificent for the structure hauing been as Plinie relates it two hundred twentie yeeres in building so renowned for the Oracles of the Goddesse so magnified for the Image supposed fallen downe from Iupiter V. 35. so honoured by the Oblations of all the Astatike Potentates no maruaile if the violence of these blasts shake the foundations of Ephesus Solin Polyhist c. 52. Plin. lib. 2. c. 84. and the Citie so subiect as Geographers relate to the rackings and tremblings of the inferiour Element doe now feele and vnwonted and vnheard of Earth-quake in the bowels of her Inhabitants And thinke it as soon done as said onely passe forwards if you please and imagine this done what place such a mixrand heady multitude would picke out to breath forth those sulphurious and restlesse vapours which disquiet them within But my Storie trauailes to your conceit when in briefe it names the Theater a place so dissonant to deliberat consultations and indeed to the acts of the reasonable facultie that wee may well hold those Commentators excused if they erre who would haue this Day to haue beene the Time and this Assemblie in the Theater the Beasts which Saint Paul in the 1. Cor. Theophilact in 1. Cor. 15 Thom. Gloss Haimo Carthus Bruno Anselm is said to haue fought with at Ephesus after the manner of men Let me spare for breuitie sake other passages of the Storie the Ephesians acclamations Saint Pauls couragious resolution his friends discreet counsel Alexander the Iewes enterprise and obscrue what my Text leads mee vnto The Towne-clerkes demeanour in stilling the vproare And here may you behold a Map of a perfect Polititian The commotion and insurrection he would allay and Paul with his associat for I know not what affection he would refine but the meanes he stands not vpon whether by reconciling the fabulous originall of Diana's Image or by an vniust excuse of Pauls companions that they were not speakers against their Goddesse This was not the desire of these Saints to be freed by such Pleas Paul thou hadst lost thine honour and Demetrius had wonne the day if thou hadst payed so deare for thy libertie The titles and names wherein thou now liuest had here perished and breathed their last hadst thou consented to redeeme thy safetie by such an Aduocate But see our Orator is somewhat mended he ends better then hee beginnes reseruing his weightiest stroakes for the fare-well of his speech where hee satisfies Passion with Reason Furie with Iustice and in my Text diuerts the rapid streame of an hare-brain'd Assembly by presenting the maiesty of an Assises or Sessions where you may obserue viz. First A producing of accusers Demetrius and the Crafts-men viz. Secondly Directions for their hearing The law is open and there are Deputies viz. Thirdly A prescription or
it or deferre it till his rooting vp of the Tares and winnowing the Chaffe from the Wheat It is an excellent saying of Chrysostomes in his sixe and fortieth Homilie ad populum Antiochenum God doth neither exact punishment of all men in this life lest thou shouldest despaire of a Resurrection and desist to expect a future Iudgement neither doth he suffer all men to goe vnpunished lest thou shouldest surmise his prouidence to be deficient but he punisheth and doth not punish in that he punisheth hee awakens the Sluggard with lessoning him that euen heere hee taketh notice and account of his offences in that he doth not punish hee summons the Insolent to a more fearefull Assises and strict Iudgement to come Thus haue I detayned you as Soiourners in a strange Land you haue all this while trauailed in the East where to your eyes haue beene presented the Iustices and Tribunals of Ephesus It might bee here expected that hauing finished this as I may well feare so tedious and irksome a voyage I should in the Port where our Ship is now arriued make some collation and application of that which in those remote Countries wee haue discouered I must confesse that the Climate is not the same the Meridians diuers the Cities many Degrees distant the one sometimes the Metropolis of lesser Asia the other at this time the Light and Pharos of great Brittanie And truely amongst other accidents wherein I cannot but note a great difference this is not the least vnremarkable that in the same cause which the Towne-clerke and my selfe haue vndertaken to manage my felicitie hath surmounted his in that my Auditors haue not been Demetrius or the Craftsmen in a turbulent Theater but the Pillars of peace and quiet in a Sanctuarie of Pietie where if my weake oratorie hath beene deficient the presence of Iustice hath I doubt not engrafted that which my Text aymes at with a silent Sermon and reall perswasion of its owne I shall thinke mine owne taske sufficiently discharged if I haue in such wise vnfolded the points deliuered that without much difficultie your selues may be so farre Preachers as to make the vses and applications your owne the Time suites the Occasion suggests my Text directs If Demetrius and the Crafts-men haue a matter against any man the law is open and there are Deputies let them implead one another To GOD the Father GOD the Sonne and GOD the Holy Ghost one essence and three Persons be rendred all Praise Honour and Glorie Might Maiestie and Dominion from this time forth for euermore Amen IVDAHS PREROGATIVES Deliuered In a Sermon at Saint MARIES in Oxford vpon the foure and twentieth of March being the day of thanks-giuing for his MAIESTIES happie and prosperous succession to this his Crowne of England c. An. 1619. By EDW. CHALONER Doctor of of Diuinitie and Fellow of ALSOVLES Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY 1623. IVDAHS PREROGATIVES IVDG 1. Vers 1. Now after the death of Iosua it came to passe that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying who shall goe vp for vs against the Canaanites first to fight against them and the Lord said Iudah shall goe vp GOD which created Man of the dust of the Earth hath in his Schoole of Nature framed a discipline so proper for our weake capacities and vsed a method therein so sutable and correspondent to our inbred dulnes that our meditations which Serpent-like feed vpon the dust or as Narcissus consume their very marrow vpon that earthly Cottage which they inhabite should not want euen there volumes I may say wherein to reade most excellent admonitions of our frailty as necessarie dependance vpon him In euery person are they engrauen in ordinarie Characters and in a lesser print so the Sonne hath them to view in the decease of his Father the Husband in the departure of his Wife the Seruant in the losse of his Master but they seeme to be written in Capitall letters in Funerals of Princes wherein as in one common booke the subiect reads not oftentimes so much his Princes as his owne mortalitie The Tribes of Israel might well hang vp their Harpes vpon the Willowes erect Banners of Sable and crie Alas that Moses alas that Iosua our victorious Captaines are dead and this they might well doe in remembrance of what was past but let them reflect an eye vpon the state and condition they are now in let them from the top of Nebo discouer the potencie of their Enemies whom they had incensed the Cities whose walls mounted to Heauen which they were to besiege the Giants and Monsters of men whom they were to encounter and lastly their owne dis-joynted and confused regiment being as Sheepe without a Shepheard and they might now with teares confesse that in out-liuing them they suruiued but their owne obsequies and that it had beene good that either these men had been neuer borne or else that being borne they had neuer died And with this mournefull Preface doth my Text beginne the summe whereof is a passage betwixt the Children of Israel and GOD the one in distresse crauing the other in mercie adjudging who should goe vp for them in the pursute of the warres with the Canaanites Wherein for our better proceeding may it please you to obserue with mee a Petition and a Grant In the Petition we discouer Viz. First The ground or motiue of it it was an Interregnum or a Vacancie intimated in the death of Iosua Now after the death of Iosua c. Viz. Secondly Whom they petition the Lord. It came to passe the Children of Israel asked the Lord c. Viz. Thirdly What they petition Who shall goe vp for vs against the Canaanites first to fight against them c. The Grant is Who should goe vp Iudah And the Lord said Iudah shall goe vp Thus haue I set out before your eies the seuerall parts of my Text I trust that Wee which perswade our selues to bee the Israel of God and euen now iourneying to a Canaan which is aboue shall not need arguments to stirre vp our attention to listen to what befell Israel in their passage into Canaan whilest I discourse first of their Petition and that of the ground or motiue of it being an Interregnum or Vacancie intimated in the death of Ioshua and comes in the first place to be handled Now after the death of Ioshua c. Ciuill gouernement vnder a supreme Magistrate is so naturall to a State that the Common-weale which is destitute of it altogether is like to one of those mis-shapen Blemmij Iul. Solin cap. 44. whom ancient Geopraphie hath made an headlesse Nation and that which is not linckt and vnited in one ouer-topping Scepter is as a bodie each member whereof liues by a seuerall soule and is prone as in the Tale of Menenius Agrippa to ioyne in a ciuill combustion against his fellowes Liu. hist lib. 2. And both these prodigies jumped together in the State of
refuge pointed out euen all this Canaan of ours was a Sechem and a Ramah euen our Citie of refuge to all the persecuted nations of the world Then did the light of the Gospel no lesse then the lights of Heauen at the prayer of Ioshua stand still in the midst of our Firmament vntill we had subiected our enemies to the obedience of it But Ioshua's though their fame and glorie bee of immortall temper and therein they seeme to outstrip the condition of man yet their earthly Tabernacles are not of so durable mettall as not to suggest vnto suruiuing Ages that they possesse so much of Man in them as makes them mortall They are lent vnto vs for our sakes but wee must restore them againe for their owne sakes And vpon the setting of such Sunnes how euer the necessitie of Natures law doe lessen the griefe of it yet the succeeding darknesse is not therefore awhit the lesse both the sonnes of Iacob and we must acknowledge in it our selues subiect to the chances and vsuall misfortunes of the night It is true indeed that the Canaanites both there and here were much diminished and brought vnder yet were they not wholly as yet cast out they dwelt still amongst the people God and were as a thorne in their sides and now or neuer when the Ioshua's are gone when the Cloud by day and Pillar of fire by night seeme to be vanisht are they in hope either to expell Israel out of the Land or at least ere a new Sunne should arise to compound for a toleration And let any speake whether in this point also the Children of Israel and wee shared not alike in our dangers after the death 's of our Ioshua's And if wee did then doubtlesse the same reasons must enforce vs also as did them to seeke for some one or other in our Ioshua's rooms to goe vp before vs. But of whom should we aske It is thought that the Children of Israel went to the high Priest in those dayes and therefore some would conclude that wee should aske of the Pope whom they faigne to succeed Aaron in the high Priests Office But before wee condescend to this two things are to be proued vnto vs First that there is a Vrim and Thummim fixt in his Chaire wherein God doth as visibly deliuer his Oracles as he did in the high Priests breast-plate otherwise the reasons will not be alike And secondly that the Pope is the true successor of Aaron and not rather of Adonibezek against whom wee wanted one to goe vp for vs for to whom may more properly be applied that saying of Adonibezek in the seuenth Verse of this Chapter Threescore and ten Kings hauing their thumbs and their great toes cut off gathered their meat vnder my table Then to the Pope whose cutting and paring of the authoritie of Princes and treading their Crownes vnder his feet speake no lesse Wee should haue also asked him they say who should goe vp to fight for vs that was indeed expected his Breues were readie drawne but I wis hee would haue serued vs with one of his Carpet Kings that could neither haue fought for vs for want of thumbs nor gone vp before vs for want of toes Well if wee were not to aske of the Pope of Rome should wee aske of any other Pope at home which some make to be the people But alas amidst so many Canaanites they lurked and whispered seditions in euery corner what abstract Statist could bow the hearts of so many thousands as it had beene the heart of one man and if some such were to bee found yet Crownes and Scepters as wee haue shewed are more then of a humane mold or a Gold-smiths composition they are of God Then to God were we to goe and as the Israelites to some extraordinarie reuelation so we to the ordinarie course which he hath established amongst vs for the knowing of who should goe vp before vs. Truly it was no small thing that wee were to aske of God in this case It was First who should goe vp to fight therein is intimated the behoofe of militarie skill Secondly against the Canaanites therein is specified genus belli the kind of warre which was to be vndertaken against the Canaanites of the Israelites it was to be performed ore gladij with the edge of the sword but against ours whom Christ is to destroy with the power of his Word it is rather to be acted gladio oris with the sword of the mouth not Marte but Mercurio not basta but calamo Thirdly it was who should goe vp for vs not pro se for himselfe onely or but for his owne lot as who should fight onely in questions of supremacie but pro nobis for vs also in the common cause and driue out the Canaanile as well out of the Countrie as the Court and the Suburbs as the Citie And Lastly it was who should goe vp to fight against the Canaanites first that is in the forefront of the battell in the first ranke and be able not onely to be directed by others but learned also to act himselfe and that inter primos primus chiefe amongst the chiefe and for such a man God and none but God hath answered that we should haue him in Iudah in the Tribe of the Kings in the seminarie selected by him for the furnishing of Leaders It was neither the combination of Inferiours nor the plot of Superiours nor the well-wishes of Forreiners that shapes vs our answere but it was the Lord that appointed vs a Captaine and such a one as was able to goe vp and expertagainst the Canaanites and willing to bee for vs and most worthie to be first and all this in domo lacobi in our Iudah that beautifull Garden wherein for so many Ages the soueraigntie of this I le hath taken root O Lord it is thine owne right hand that hath planted it water it with thy dew from aboue and blow vpon it that the Spices thereof may flow out that there neuer faile of that Stocke a Iudah to goe vp before vs vntill the full and perfect fruition of that Canaan which thou hast appointed for vs. This grant for Iesus Christ his sake to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be rendred all praise honor and glorie might maiestie and dominion from this time forth for euermore Amen THE GENTILES CREEDE OR THE NATVRALL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Deliuered in a Sermon by EDWARD CHALONER Doctor of Diuinitie and Fellow of ALL-SOVLES Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY 1623. THE GENTILES CREEDE ACT. 14. v. 17. Neuerthelesse hee left not himselfe without witnesse in that hee did good and gaue vs raine from heauen and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse THe vse of miracles in the Apostles time Caiet Tom. 2. opusc tract 1. de conceptione Virginis cap. 5. as Caietan shewes out of Gregorie if not onely yet specially in respect of Infidels serued to make the
our owne Genius's Doth our stocke multiplie and increase or are our fields fatted with dew and raine from Heauen we thinke not vpon the Cause aboue but our owne prouidence or industrie here beneath these are the gods O Israel which brought thee vp out of the Land of Aegypt Exod. 32.8 Are our Garners stored with food or our hearts through any earthly promotion filled with gladnesse we goe no further what though Saturne be deiected from his Throne Plutus be confined to Hell Phehus resigne his Chariot the world yet shall want no gods to worship Wee our selues will be Iupiters and Mercuries Act. 14. come downe in the likenesse of men A shame it is for vs Christians amongst whom God should bee all in all that we can be content to attribute the most to our selues the rest to fortune Is it so that we so lately abandoned Rome and rescued our selues from the worship of the Beast and are we now relapsed againe so suddenly to a new Idolatrie Doe we thinke much to inuocate and adore those glorious Starres of the Empyriall Heauen the Saints and Angels and shall wee be so sordid as to giue diuine worship to dust and ashes Where is the zeale of the Apostles in these our dayes Whither is the godly indignation of those patternes of true humilitie proscribed I wish you not beloued as they did to rent your clothes they are but superfluities in our times rent you your hearts I desire you not to run amongst the people or to contend with a headie multitude take a shorter iourney run but to your selues crie out but to your selues and bee the first that shall witnesse to your owne soules That it is God onely which hath done you good and gaue you raine from heauen and fruitfull seasons and filled your hearts with food and gladnesse tell me whosoeuer thou beest that makest an Idoll of thy selfe hath God left himselfe without witnesse to proue in despite of pride that thou owest him for whatsoeuer good thing thou possessest tell me if thou beest so stupid as not to feele the testimonie of thine own conscience which should be a thousand witnesses vnto thee whether yet thou canst auoid the clamorous cries euen of tonguelesse creatures God hath beene bountifull vnto many Nations France may boast her fertilitie Spaine her wealth Italie her beautie and magnificence but England hath had an happie and peaceable State of long continuance vnder most gracious and vertuous Princes and these will tell thee that God hath not witnessed himselfe so to any Nation in doing good But good may many wayes bee enioyed there may bee peace at home and warre abroad plentie of gold and siluer enough to lend vnto our neighbours and yet we may haue a famine vpon our Land lightnings and hailestones to consume the fruits of the earth as it was in Aegypt but the blessed times which we haue enioyed will tell thee that he hath not left himselfe without witnesse likewise in giuing vs raine and fruitfull seasons But say we haue fruitfull seasons yet inter pocula extremaque labra multa cadunt intestine commotions may bereaue vs of our haruest forraine inuasions may make vs turne our Mattockes into Speares and our Sythes into Swords but God hath affoorded vs hitherto this testimoniall of his bountie that he left not himselfe without witnesse in filling our hearts with food also But when we haue our desire satisfied in all these that God witnesseth himselfe vnto vs in doing good many wayes in giuing vs raine and fruitfull seasons and filling our hearts with food yet for all this our Harpe may be turned into mourning and our Organ into the voice of them that weepe there may be subtile whisperings rebellious doctrines Iudas-like practices traiterous attempts vpon the pillars both of Church and Common-wealth but hee which keepeth Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth the wicked hee hath made to fall into the pits they inuented for others and this generation may tell it vnto another that God hath not left himselfe without witnesse vnto vs in filling our hearts with gladnesse also To him therefore the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost one God and three Persons bee rendred all Praise Honour and Glorie Might Maiestie and Dominion both now and for euermore Amen PAVLS PEREGRINATIONS OR THE TRAVELLERS GVIDE Deliuered in a Sermon at Pauls Crosse Anno 1617. BY EDWARD CHALONER Doctor of Diuinitie and Fellow of ALL-SOVLES Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY 1623. PAVLS Peregrinations OR The Trauellers Guide ACT. 17. VERS 23. For as I passed by and beheld your deuotions I found an Altar with this inscription to the vnknowne God I Know not how the Pens of Heathen writers haue so bewitched the iudgements of many men that euen amongst Christians themselues they haue found not a few Patrons To omit Viues and Erasmus who hauing made their Lines their Consorts and Companions in this pilgrimage on earth pronounce with no small touch of affection that one day they shall enioy likewise their sweet companie and societie in Heauen Petrarch in the third of his Inuectiues goes thus farre Se non credere aliquem de Philosophis aut Poetis idola coluisse that it cannot sinke into his thoughts that any either of the Poets or Philosophers worshipped Idols And certainly I was almost perswaded that diuine Philosophie would haue preserued her Professors from vulgar infections or at least haue wrought her Disciples to a more readie acceptance of higher mysteries till I found her Royallest Palace renowned Athens so defiled with Idols and Saint Paul himselfe so banded and oppugned by a rout of Epicures and Stoikes How it should come to passe that humane learning forgetting as it were that diuine Originall it had should vnnaturally bend it selfe against Gods Diuinitie whether because like the Sunnebeames lighting vpon grosse and earthy subiects it doth recoile back againe vpon the Fountaine and Efficient or that aspiring to discouer the secrets of the God-head and wanting the light of the Gospell to direct it the farther it wades the farther it drawes the minde of man from the marke and makes its returne the more tedious or that God to confound the wise in their wisdome and the prudent in their prudencie doth oftentimes conceale that knowledge from the Learned which he reueales to Babes and Sucklings I stand not now to discusse In no place can we haue a more notorious instance to confute that old opinion that Arts and Disciplines haue no Enemies but the Ignorant then here where wee see the noblest of Arts of Disciplines euen Diuinitie it selfe assaulted by two most famous Sects of Philosophie Euery where did Saint Paul find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.12 Act. 20.29 euill Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and grieuous Wolues and yet I know not which seemed more difficult vnto him whether that when he fought with Beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men or this when he is encountred by Philosophers