whom at last he stabb'd to the Heart even before the Altar in a Church O the Purity of this Duke-stabbing under the roof of the Temple and the white Canopy of Holinesse There wants nothing to the top and top-gallant of this Angelicall Devilishnesse but the presenting of the poison'd Sacrament to a devout Emperour on his Knees which likewise they have devoutly done I would have open'd the door to Jesuiticall examples and let them â—orth tumbling one over another like the Waves in a foul troubled Sea As of Garnet and Oldcorn Jesuites and chiefe Actors in the matchlesse Powder Treason who are English Martyrologe printed in the year 1608. Chronicled for Martyrs of Sixtus Quintus a Favourer and Patron of the Jesuites who consecrated a Panegyricall Oration to the immortall praise of Clement the Jacobin Fryer that Murthered Henry the third King of France by searching into his Belly with a religious knife And of Barrier who endeavoured Arnault â— Frenchman in his Pleadings against the Jesuites on the behalfe of the King and Parliament of France the killing of Henry the fourth with a poisoned Altar-Dagger which Raviliach afterwards expedited animated thereunto by holy Father Varad a Jesuite And I should have sifted the Originall Question An Deus dispensare possit in Lege Nature vel Decalogi Can God the Pope's Lord dispense in the Law of Nature or the Decalogue Wherein Occam Gerson Occam in 2. q. 19. ad 3. 4. dub Gerson in Tract de vita spiritali Lect. 1. Corol. 10. in Alphabeto 61. literâ E. Almainus Tract 3. Morall cap. 15. Scot. in 3. Distinct 37. q. 1. paragrapho Hic dicitur Bonavent in 1. Distinct 47. q 4. Gabr. in 3. Dist 37. q 1. Art 2. Concl. 1. Durand in 1. Dist 47. q 4. num 16. and Almain affirme that he can dispense in every Law of the Decalogue And their Foundation is Every sin is a sin because it is forbidden by the will of God if therefore God will a thing to be no sin hoc ipso it shall not be a sin And in the which Question Scotus Bonaventure and Gabriel defend that God can dispense in the Precepts of the second Table but not in the Precepts of the first Table that is can dispense in those commandements which manage us towards our Neighbour but not in the Commandements which conform us towards God And in the which Durandus declares that God may dispense in the affirmative Precepts of the second Table but not in the negative Precepts thereof And I should have determined that God himselfe cannot dispense directly and formally in any Precept of the Law of Nature The Reason is Because the Lawes of Nature contain and command that which is good intrinsecally and in it's Nature therefore the Things opposed to these Lawes are in their Natures and intrinsecally Evill and not because they are prohibited by the will of God but because of their own Natures they are dissentaneous and contrary to Naturall Reason and reasonable Nature quà talis est As possible Things are possible not because God hath willed them to be possible but because it is not in it selfe Contradictory that they may come into Being Wherefore God cannot make pace Occami the Hatred of God to be Godly good or Lawfull because this Turn of Things overturns all and is contrary not only to Nature and Reason but also to the Divinity of God And God cannot perswade us to these Evils much lesse will them command them to be and make them good lawfull and honest As therefore the Creatures have their existence from the will of God but their possibility from the very Nature of God because if we consider the Nature of God in his Omnipotency it naturally followes and results that there is a possibility of Things by Creation which Things if per impossibile God were not were impossible So the positive Law both Divine and Humane depends upon the will of God but the Law of Nature is derived from the Law Eternall in Mente Dei Yet God can dispense indirectly and materially in these Lawes by changing the matter of the Thing commanded and thereby subtracting it from the Law of Nature and obligation of the Decalogue For God can give to one Man Power over the Goods Body and Life of another But when where or how did God give Power to the Church of Rome over the Goods Bodies and Lifes of Princes And if the Laity be subject to the Clergy as the Body to the Soule yet the Soule hath not absolute Dominion over the Body and therefore may not lop off the Members or pluck an eye out having offended her and cast it from her otherwise than in a spirituall and morall Sense the literall Sense being repugnant with other Precepts though shee may willingly suffer them or freely give them up to be lopped off passively in the Confession of the true Faith or surrender the whole Body to be destroyed in Martyrdome Desist then O ye cruell Jesuites from this your making odious the most acceptable Name of our most mild and meek Jesus CHAP. XLI BUT in regard it is onely Objected by the Aduersary that the Text Except one be born againe c is used by the Papists Per me liceat They may use it without opposition from me their using a Text in a righteous manner and Matter being no sufficient and reasonable Ground of Quarrell As I may not quarrel with them for their using sacred Scripture in the proof of the most sacerd Trinity against the old Arrians those of Transyluania or in the proof of the Incernation of Christ for the Prepossession and corroboration of Christians against the cursed Insinuations of Mahomet The Spirit of Contradiction and the works of it are not unknown to my Adversary And does he think it would become me to be like the Ilanders adjoyning unto China who by reason of some Traverses of discord and jealousies which oftentimes arise betwixt neighbouring Countries and Provinces falling betwixt them and the Chinenses salute one another by putting off their shooes because the men of China performe the morality of their Salutation by putting off their Hats The violent motions of spirit Jesuiticall and Presbyterian cannot be of God in the long Catalogue of whose blessed works their is no violent Thing I would have the World to understand that I now understand the difference betwixt the Doctrines which Pride and private Interest have publikely raised in the Church of Rome and which are not destructive of its being a Church as the sins and errours of the Pharisees destroied not the Chair of Moses and the Doctrines of the Church of Rome lineally descended from Apostolicall Antiquity or included Virtually in their seed and root And that my Quarrell is not with Truth or Integrity but with the Corruption of Integrity and Truth And in the Truth and Integrity of a sincere and unleven'd Soule If I dye on my Bed and with knowledge of
I am dumb in this that when the Presbyterians had pared rounded and brought the Baptizing of Infants from the setled and immoveable Font to the moveable and unsetled Pue-Dish the Anabaptist did quickly wring it out of his Hands and move it quite away Yea one thought in a Dream that he saw the Presbyterian come dauncing in a Mask with his Pue-Dish in his Hands and our Gib-Anabaptist as round as a Hoop dauncing to him grapling with him pulling it from him and furiously dashing it against the Ground But â—è videar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest I should seeme to sell Dreames I say waking that they have done like Things The Presbyterians have stamped and bissed away the Use and Virtue of the Sacraments the virtue of which is essentially virtuous and edificatery to the Church of God The Presbyterians have unfather'd renounced the Fathers The Presbyterians have unprayer'd rejected the Lords Prayer which it is known to the Readers of the Jewish Writers our Vide Seder Tephill Lusitan p. 115. Sepher Hammussar 49. 1. Comm. in Pirk. Auoth fol. 24. Seph Hammussar 9. 12 Saviour the divine and Eternall Wisdome gather'd and borrow'd as represented to him by divine Light and Infusion out of the old Elders and Rabbins that he might commend and dignifie the Authority of Ecclesiasticall Writers and Prayer-Makers I could ride a great circuit here And the Anabaptists have followed them at the Heels with a Trip. Let them therefore be again ashamed because they have followed the unruly Presbyterians when they should have followed the Rule And let them learn from a Learner That Man above his naturall End and the Law of Nature corresponding with it hath a supernaturall End and a supernaturall Law by which the Law that is naturall is perfected and to which he should be conformable in naturall and Supernaturall Things and whereas humane Lawes which are made in conformity to the Law of Nature and by the Light of Nature tend and are extended only to the regulating of outward Actions and rendring the Agent punishable in consideration of their exorbitancies he should now rule his very Thoughts and compose the first Motions of his erring Heart according to the Divine Law and Rule CHAP. LXXXXIX GOD threatned his People then living Harlot-like and will Osee 2. 9. recover my wooll and my flax given to cover her nakednesse The Vulgar Interp. vulgat Latine Adopts Et liberabo lanam meam linum meum and I will set free my wooll and my flax God made all things for his Glory and Service and when a Thing is diverted from this End it is captivated and held in Captivity In an excellent Manner God hath Ordained Scripture and his revealed Will for our Edification in the Work of his Worship and Glory Which revealed Will if preverted and wrought as Wax to mens Ends fals besides this divine End and is detained in Captivity And God will in his Time set it free in which Time the nakednesse and selfe-ends of Hereticks shall be discovered to the shame of such as cover their known Ignorance and miserable nakednesse with God's Holy Covering Thus the good Meats and Drinks being God's blessed creatures which are greedily devoured by wicked Men have a strong reluctancy because they shall now be maligned and tainted in regard that in all Nutrition there is Conversio Alimenti in Substantiam Aliti A Conversion of the Aliment into the Substance of the Thing nourished by it and because they are carried away by violence for the support of those who are in the field and in arms against God Much more have Scriptures a reluctancy when abused by Hereticks because they are perverted to hereticall Senses and because they are profanely handled as Arms against God It is the Language of St Paul The earnest expectation of the Creature Rom. 8. 19. waiteth c. Where the Originall sanctifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Glac that is such an expectation as Men expresse by standing upright holding up the Head stretching out the neck and looking earnestly and anxiously for the Thing expected So in a manner doe the Scriptures expect the coming of Christ looking as it were towards the East and crying Come O blessed Author of Scriptures glorifie thy selfe deliver us and shame our naked ignorant and profane Abusers Amen Even so come Lord Apoc. 22. 20. Jesus The Metaphysitians have well said Perfectio se tenet ex parte Formae Perfection arises from the essentiall Form the Matter being incompleat and imperfect and perfected by the Form The Reason is Forma dat esse Rei the Forme gives the Being Yea As the Form is so is the Action the Action following the Form and being proportioned to it For Unumquodque sicut est operatur Every Thing Acts or Works as it is And the more simple Elements are the more active and perfect as having the more Form and therefore the Heavenly Bodies are more perfect and active than the Elements Amongst knowing Things those have more knowledge and activity the Forms of which are more elevated from the Matter Of Men those are more active and knowing whose Souls are more exalted above their bodily Matters and materiall Things If the Souls of these Anabaptists immers't into their Bodyes were extracted from the lees and set upright and could as an active Mistresse lady it over their Bodies and over externall Things attending upon them as the favour and applause of Ignorant Men c. They would walke more innocently sincerely perfectly and not unsoul and dispirit Scripture and the Law of God as they doe Who if they expect to discover the pure will of God by making and hewing their own wilfull way through the Law of God and against the propensity of his Word may Vide Albert. de Saxon. l. 3. Physic q. 6. art 62. Conclus 3. Menduz Virid lib. 4. Problem 47. with more Prudence expect untill the Aire be found navigable and they be able to saile in a Ship upon the Convexity thereof towards Heaven as Men sail at Sea when they discover new Stars CHAP. C. THE second Inference is Let those whom God strengtheneth against these and such his Enemies rejoyce in God their strength and be confident of his future Mercy Many there be which say of my Psal 3. 2 3 Soul saith holy David There is no helpe for him in God Selah But thou O Lord art a shield for me or about me my Glory and the lifter up of mine Head The Vulgar lifts it up Edit vulg Multi dicunt Animae meae Non est Salus ipsi in Deo ejus Many say unto my soul There is no helpe for him in his God The Hebrew Text senses it non emnimodò salus ei There is no Text. Hebr. helpe for him though he should search all manner of waies It was then a Proverbe say the Rabbins amongst David's Enemies Ei qui furatus est ovem occidit Rabbini
Plummet to move altogether and run within their own small Sphere and Circle and so they would shoulder it with the tallest Divines because they have been Abecedarii and can after much hammering and stammering and many a smarting Lash put the Letters together and cast a spell I shall never be so forward and hardy as the late English Rabbi Dr Featly who delivers for positive Dr Featly in his Dipper dipt not far from the beginning and avouches plainly That no Translation is authenticall or the Word of God But I shall touch every suspicious Text of a Translation with the Lydius Lapis of the Originall And if I make a false step let the Learned tread upon me and crush me I answer therefore to the shallow thoughted Censurers in St Gregory's St Greg. Homil. 7. in Ezech. D. Tho. 2. 2 q. 43. art 7. Words alleaged by the Angelicall Doctor Si de Veritate scandalum sâ—mitur utiliùs nasci permittitur scandalum quà m Verit as relinquatur If a Scandall be taken from Truth the Birth of a Scandall is more profitably permitted than Truth may be relinquished The Scandall is passivum non activum passive not active non datum sed acceptum not given but taken CHAP. VIII VVHereas Christ the Son of the living God by his Humanation his Passion and his Death is the Universall Cause of our everlasting Life and Salvation And whereas Universall Strength or Virtue even in these naturall Things is not bowed to us and applied to particular effects but by particular causes it was convenient and reasonable that some Remedies should be prescribed and adhibited to us in a ruinous Condition that should as particular causes convey and confer to us the Virtue of the Cause which is Universall These excellent Remedies are the Sacraments And as the second Causes and Instruments of the first and particular Causes attend the worke of the Universall Cause So these our Sacraments are the means and Instruments of Christ for the effecting of his divine and saving Worke upon us And because there are always required to the worke of the principall Cause proportionable Instruments it was congruous that these our Sacraments should be presented to us under practicall and visible Signes and efficacious Words which are audible the Universall Cause of our Salvation being the Word of God Incarnate and made sensible by assuming humane Nature elevating it in the Person of Christ And because there is no salvation without Grace as being previous and singularly proportionable to Glory it is likewise conformable to right Reason and Measure that Sacraments should be the divine Instruments of Grace in us not as introducing the last effect of Grace by their virtue but after the manner as the Sun and a man beget a man which notwithstanding touch not in their operation the Essence of the Intellective Soule because it comes ab extra from without by Creation and is not educed ex potentia Materiae from the passive power of the Matter And therefore as the materiall Causes of our production in Generation are attendant only upon the last disposition of the Matter and aime precisely at the union of the Soule with the Body So the Sacraments doe not physically produce Grace it selfe being a supernaturall and proper gift of God the sole fountaine of Grace but only touch inclusively the last disposition to it pretending to the Union and moving God to the production of it in a worthy Receiver In relation to which virtus motrix moving virtue moving the Will of God upon his promise the Prophet Micah saith Thou wilt cast all their Mich. 7. 19. sins into the depths of the Sea Where Arias Montanus notes out of the Rabbins that it was customary with Benedictt Arias Montan in Mich. ex Rabbinis in Misnaroth the Jewes to throw all things they did execrate and abominate into the Lake Asphaltites called Mare Mortuum the dead or salt Sea And conformably the Indians who had expressed in them some footsteps of Judaisme being now lightly impressed expresse their sins in writing or by some other Symboll which they cast into a River that it may be carried into the Sea out of all sight and memory as Acosta hath deliver'd to Acosta li. 5. de novo Orbe cap 25. memory from his owne sight But our Prophet alludes properly to the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red Sea which was a type of Baptisme made blood-red by the death of Christ and in the which our Aegyptian sins are destroyed Whence Theodoret Theod. Rupert in hunc locum and Rupertus doe here by the depths of the Sea allegorically understand Baptisme And Saint Gregory drawes out in a long-spun thread this efficacy of Baptisme from the drowning of the Aegyptians and inferres Qui ergò dicit peccata in Baptismate funditùs Gregor Magnus in lib epist ep 39. ad Theoctistam Patriciam non dimitti dicat in Mari rubro Aegyptios non veracitèr mortuos He therefore that sayes our sinnes are not forgiven in Baptisme may as truly say that the Aegyptians were not drowned in the Red Sea and if he will give this he must grant the other And he fortifies himselfe with a reason of Proofe Quia nimirum plus valet in absolutione nostrâ veritas quùm umbra veritatis Because the Truth is of more validity in our deliverance and absolution than the shadow of the Truth The Nicen Creed is after Scripture the warrant of these writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symb. Nicen. I beleeve one Baptisme for the remission of sins CHAP. IX THe Signes also and Matter of the Sacraments are by divine Institution most divinely and conveniently instituted Behold this divine conveniency in Baptisme wherein we are spiritually regenerated which analogy to material generation For Whereas materiall Generation is Motus vel mutatio de non-esse adâ—â—sse A Motion or mutation from not-Being to Being and Man in his first Being is for the transfusion of Originall sin debarred of his first Birthright the prime infusion of spirituall Life from the which he doth afterwards analogically recede more and more as he is more and more implicated in the bonds and sins of Death it was orderly that unto Baptisme which is the Laver of spirituall Regeneration there should be ascertain'd on the part of the Sacrament and annexed the spirituall virtue of washing away and removing sin by the infusion of Grace and of translating by the same Grace man to a gracious life above Nature And because Signum respondere debet significato the signe must alwaies and signally answer to the thing signified and the ablution of the outward filth of the body is effected instrumentally by water it was consonant for the practicall signifying of the spirituall and inward ablution of sin that this initiatory Sacrament should be dispensed outwardly with water sanctified by the word of God And as one thing is once only generated so is it concordant that Baptisme once rightly
the Testimony of their Nicol. Lyra Comment in cap. 14. Dan secundùm Edit Vulgat Nicolaus Lyra Aliquandò in Ecclesia fit maxima Deceptio Populi in Miraculis factis à Sacerdotibus vel eis adhaerentibus propter Lucrum Sometimes the People are very greatly deluded in the Church by forged Miracles the Priests or their Adherents forging them for gain Secondly by the Authority of their own Alexander Hales In Alex Halens p. 4 q. 53. Meâ—â—b 4. art 3. Solut. 2. Sacramento apparet Caro interdùm humanâ procuratione interdùm operatione Diabolicâ Flesh appeares in the Sacrament sometimes by humane Procuration and sometimes by Diabolicall Operation the Priests and the Devill doing the same work fraudulently and the Devill whatsoever the Priests may pretend alwayes working for an Evill end And thirdly by the infallible Sentence 〈◊〉 Cl mentis Oâ—â—â—vi transmissum ad Regulaâ—es and most known Precept of their own dear Clement the Eighth commanding the Regulars to surcease from the deceitfull and fraudulent Abuse of their Knowledge acquired in Confessions by the which they made them burdensome to promote their own advantage in their outward Government And having proved the Things I should have strongly and boldly proved against the lawfullnesse of them of these their pious Frauds First because all proper Meanes are naturally suteable to the End and if the End be good the Meanes must be proportionably good and if the Truth of God published be the End the Meanes of Publication must be true void of deceit and godly Secondly because by fraudulent carriages in the way to our good Ends a vile aspersion is cast upon the Providence of God as if good Meanes were not adequately prepared by divine Providence for good Ends Thirdly because by such fraudulent Conveyances in holy Things holy Things in direct motion and issue and not per accidens are disesteemed the most excellent Truths of God question'd and Men become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without God and Atheisticall Fourthly because as evill produces evill and false Actions produce false speeches in the same Subject so much deceit of the Tongue is produced by this deceit of the Heart and action before and after it as pernicious Lying impertinent Equivocation multiplication of idle Words And lastly Because the Devill is the Father of Lies and of double dealing and the old heathenish Priests his impious Instruments were expert in reducing to praxis this pious Art the Holy Ghost is the Author of all Truth and of Holy simplicity Therefore these being so different in their Causes Meanes Ends may not be joyned in their Terms and Logicall Predications and fraud cannot be pious nor piety fraudulent CHAP. XXXIX HAD my Adversary said that Scripture hath been prostituted by some Papists to sanctify the licentiated Stews at Rome I should have come to his hand as a Hauke to the Lure and zealously protested against them First because the Evill in this Permission doth infinitely surmount and preponderate the Good as appeares by the consequents more by thousands being incouraged in this permission to the most grievous Commissions of Adultery Fornication and other Uncleannesse than the Good is or can be that the filth and stinke of the common sinke is restrained from certaine Houses Secondly because the filth might be more perfectly restrained by severe Lawes and a Coercive Power Thirdly this publike permission of the Stews is not like the permission of Usury because in Fornication Adultery c. the Actors both sin but in Usury the Taker or Borrower upon whom he that permitteth Usury keeps the single Eye of his Intention Sinneth not his Concurrence being materiall not formall and he not willing but un willing Fourthly because God hath dealings towards sin before the Commission prohibendo by forbidding it impediendo by hindering it permittendo by suffering it as after the Commission ordinando ad bonum by actuall and executionall ordering it to good ignoscendo by pardoning it puniendo by punishing it and this Permission of the Stews is larger than the divine Permission in such a latitude for God sometimes in all places absolutely hindereth sin but in the Reign of this Permission of sin by the Romanists there is no absolute hinderance there being so much of furtherance on their parts and there is but a dull cool and weak prohibition in consideration of penalties to be inflicted upon sense and these only of all humane Acts work effectually upon a Soul steeped in the Lees of corrupt Nature Fiftly because this permission proves a double Allurement to the single Clergy Lastly because the Jews there are greatly disturb'd and nardened by this Permission And I should have garnished this Reason with a prevalent Example commended to Eternity by Bishop Espenceus who relates of a Jewish Maid that she renounced the Jewish Religion and became a Christian that she might freely exercise the Romish-Christian Art of Ribauderie not unsoundly permitted as amongst Christians but soundly punished by the Jews And the Bishop bewailes the sadnesse of the matter with many a mournfull Accent Dici nequit quà m incredibili Christianorum Espâ—ncaeus de Contin l. 3. cap 4. tum pudore tum etiam eorum qui verè tales sunt cordolio factum est ut Judae filiae scortâ—rs non liceat Dei filiae liceat Imò Israelis filia meretricari non aliter ante possit quà m facta per Baptismum sanctum Christi soror filia It cannot be said with what incredible shame of Christians and also with what heart-griefe of such as are truly such it is come to passe that a Jewish Daughter may not become Whore a Daughter of God may Yea that a Daughter of Israell cannot otherwise play the Harlot than when she is made by Holy Baptism the Sister and Daughter of Christ She was made so quoad externanâ— apparentiam according to outward appearance and she had been really made so remotis impedimentis ex parte Subjecti had the impediments been removed on the part of the Subject CHAP. XL. ROme I Honour thee in thy Truths which are many and excellently obeyed by many But I detest thy Corruptions and I see a large Field before me and could proceed farther against them should I not wander beyond the Lines of Communication with my Matter Finally therefore Had my Adversary said that the Scriptures have been rifled spoil'd exanimated and murthered by some Papists of the Jesuiticall Division to set aloft the Scarlet-coloured practise of the murdering of Princes in the dark by private and obscure Persons I should have cried Murder and Treason too and have fortified my selfe in the Preamble with the forerunning History of the preposterously-Heroicall M. Claudius Paradinus in Heroïcis Courtier of Millain Andreas Lampugnanus who when he desired to Murther Galeazus Marius the Millain-Duke for a Tyrant did practise it long before by stabbing privately the Duke's Image that his hand might not shake or he misse his aim in his stabbing the Duke
not as yet Seducers and righteously worthy of Silentiall Punishment if we Preach against Anabaptism I am bold and I cannot hold because I never learned to be afraid in the defence of the mighty God's cause And if I suffer I shall suffer the strong God looking upon me and strengtening me and moreover in the view of the Christian World Many whereof rejoice to hear and see me already made a miserable Sufferer by my own dear Country-Men to whom I have hopefully ran for Appeale and safety Now if any Romanist shall take offence at my taking and publishing these Offences I shall joyfully enter the lists even with him and shall undertake to make the Offences I have taken so numerous and so ponderous that al the Catholike perfumers in the new Exchange shal not be able to suppresse and pacify the stink raised in the stirring of Romishpuddels In the mean time all the world must grant as they grant Postulata Mathematica Mathemeticall Postulates That although Motus Coeli semper sit Uniformis Velocitatis the Motion of the Heavens be alwaies of a most Uniform Swiftnesse because it hath already the highest Perfection of its Motion yet Man upon Earth being short of his highest Perfection hath not a motion that is Uniform but moves unequally is fast and slow sometimes humanely moves one way ignorantly sometimes another way a third way imperfectly sometimes and moves neerer to the highest Perfection as he makes progresse in the way of divine Knowledge CHAP. XLIII THE sixt objection beares up to us If I understand in the Text by the Kingdome of God as I seeme to doe the Kingdome of Glory then the Text including Baptism excludes and excommunicates all Unbaptized Persons from the Kingdome of Heaven To this Argument Doctor Featly according to his Grounds would have answered That all unbaptized Persons are excluded the Kingdome of Heaven de lege ordinariâ by God's Ordinary Law Christ here speaking strictly to binde Parents to their duties Yet that God hath a Prerogative quae est supra legem Ordinariam which is above his Ordinary Law and by this he doth as worke miracles â—o extraordinarily execute the secret Decrees of his Benevolence and good Pleasure in extraordinary Cases these requiring extraordinary Proceedings And if we consider him as having a royall Prerogative he may not be confined otherwise than he hath confined himselfe And how God may be above himselfe in differenâ— respects is presently understood For As he is Author Gratiae the Author of Grace he works above himselfe as he is Author Naturae the Author of Nature the Supernaturall Order being so called because it stands above the Order of Nature and Supernaturall Grace perfecting humane Nature in order to a supernaturall End without which Grace we cannot arrive unto it And extraordinary Cases even in the same Order beget the different respects and Considerations of God in his Prerogative and God in his ordinary Course Now the Kingdome of Glory is chiefly most commonly understood by the Kingdome of God because it is the first and most noble thing understood by it and the Kingdome of Grace is not so called but with denomination from the Kingdome of Glory Which as of all Kingdomes it is the most excellent this being the best highest and most profitable Sense of the Kingdome of God so it most urgently obligeth us to Baptism under such Terms Eucharisticall Nourishment or Manducation though it conduceth also to the nourishing of the Body yet is more constituted under the Kinde of Spirituall Meat under which Reason it is more profitable to us than under the Kinde of materiall and corporeal Aliment As also an Iron or Steel-Breast-Plate although it be a kinde of Garment as it covers our Body and defends it from heat and cold yet goes more in the mouths and estimation of men for a kinde of Armour as which it exerciseth it's chiefest office and under which notion it is more profitable to Men than for a Garment In like measure proportionably although the Kingdome of God signifies the Kingdome of Grace and the Kingdome of Glory yet doth it more and more often signifie the Kingdome of Glory under which Sense it is most profitable and advantagious to Mankinde than it signifies the Kingdome of Grace And when a word signifieth diverse Things and one of them chiefly the Thing which it chiefly signifieth is the Sense if the Sentence will claspe with it the chiefe Things being to be chiefly consider'd as alwaies first apprehended in our Goings from the Cause to the Effect The word Body may be understood of a naturall Body a mysticall or Ecclesiasticall Body a Civil or Politick Body Which Word if it's place will endure it must be understood of a naturall Body because the naturall Body is a true Body and more properly a Body than the rest and because from the naturall Body the mysticall and the Civill Body are called Bodies the naturall Body being so realiter really the mysticall and Civill Bodies being so only denominative by denomination And we shall thus know when a Thing hath his name by denomination from another Thing It hath if another thing so named being taken away by intellectuall Ablation or Separation it therefore and immediately vanisheth as such Take away the naturall Body and the Civil and mysticall Bodies lose their Names Take away the Kingdome of Glory and there will be no Kingdome of Grace For Sublato Principali tollitur Accessorium Sicuti Sublatâ Causâ tollitur Effectus Sublaâ—â Formâ Essentiali Res ipsa tollitur The principall being taken away the Accessory is also removed As the Cause being taken away the Effect is taken away also which Essentially depends on the Cause And As the Essentiall Form being taken away the Thing it selfe is abolished And the naturall Body is the principall Body considered as a Body and the Relations betwixt these Bodies as Essentially and Fundamentally depending on the naturall Body fal to the ground if the naturall Body which is Fundamentum Relationis the Foundation of the Relation be set apart The Body of an Ape is in many parts and particles like to the Body of a Man and therefore Galen addicted himselfe more to the Anatomising of Apes than of Men as Franzius in Sâ—miaâ—j Franzius recounts out of two famous Anatomists Vesalius and Columbus Yet the Transition from Apes to Men is not alwaies happy and successefull If the Adversary had studied humane Arts and Sciences or Anatomized Corpus Theologicum the Body of Divinity not only read the History of Apes in his learning to make ilfavoured mouths and Vide Quintil in Rhet. evil faces or learn'd only conformare os to fashion his mouth to an untuneable Tone he might himselfe have smooth'd his own way through these knottie Matters and I now question if his unopen'd understanding can follow when the way is opened and playned before him for him by another CHAP. XLIIII BUT while the Adversary
the strength of the Divine Helps what in him lieth But in the curing of naturall Diseases We use not such Instructions or Exhortations if the Patient hath not the right use of his Understanding and Senses neither doth the Physitian wait or attend the time of his comming to them but presently apply his best Helps Likewise in Supernaturall Wants and emptiness with respect to which God is the professed Physitian we may not expect untill the Patient comes to the right use of Reason but must help as in the Case of present necessity according to the Rule of Right Reason which direct us to beleeve that God is super excellently provident and more copious in every kinde of Help for Spirituall Cures and for Cures wherein he is the immediate and only Physitian with sanative application to the Spirit than he is for bodily Cures whereby he works more mediately by others and more joynedly with them Therefore having also a reasonable and outward Ground for our inward Direction in his Word and in either Sense of it we may and must and are more bound to it apply our Helps as we doe in the Baptizing of Infants David tunes his old Harp to a new Psal 102. 17. Text Hebr. Song He will regard the Prayer of the destitute In the Originall the Words are high though they are â—ung with an humble Voice and treat of a low Thing Respexit ad Orationem Myricae He hath loâ—ked Targ. Josephi Caeci backe or had respect to the Prayer of the low Shrub The Targ ad orationem desolatorum to the Prayer of desolate Persons The Septuagint Humilium Sept. of the humble Doth God look back or hath God respect to the Prayer of one good Man in a low Estate And doth he not accept of the Faith and Prayers of the whole Church which reserveth continually holy Prayers and pious Intentions for such holy Works and pious Performances offered with the Application of a divine Ordinance for these many low Child-Shrubs these little Babes desolate in the judgement of ignorant Men these humble Sweet-ones CHAP. LXX I Prove it fiftly The Church of God is like the Body of Man and is therefore called a Body as the Apostle teaches who diversely argues Rom. 12. 4. 5. and 1 Cor. 12. 12. and onwards from the body of Man to the Church of God Now though Simile non est omnino Simile Like is not altogether like or Simile non est Simile quoad omnia Like is not like in all Things And it be sufficient to the sufficiency of a Like that it be grounded and erected upon the position of one Conveniency yet the likenesse betwixt the Body of Man and the mysticall Body is manifold and stands unblasted and inviolate in respect of the Parts and Actions by the which the Body of Man is a compleate humane Body and does the chiefe and necessary Actions of such a Body the reservation of their Properties being supposed namely that the Parts and actions of the one are naturall the parts and Actions of the other Spirituall or mysticall otherwise the mysticall Body could not be called in Scripture a Body with respect to such a Body Whence I argue In the humane Body we see many and diverse kinds of Parts whereof some live and have Sense as the fleshly Parts some live and have no sense as the Bones some neither live nor have sense as our excrementitious Parts the nailes and haires So neither is it strange or against the nature of a mysticall Body but rather omnimodously agreeable to it that there are some in the Church who have Spirituall Life and give sensible Effects of it as good signes though they are not evident signes in respect of us these actually exercising Faith Hope and Charity and some who live inwardly without any sensible manifestation or appearance as Baptized children having only habituall Faith Hope and Charity as there be some grown Persons who have only Faith and some also who have neither actuall nor habituall Faith but only an externall and relative Conjunction with the Body I double the Files in this Matter that the Conveniency may be seen to be started at every turn Spirituall Regeneration by Baptism is like our carnall and bodily Condition in this meeting-Point That as children in their Mothers Wombs neither live of themselves nor carve or care for themselves but live by a Soul given of God and are susteined in life by the nourishment of their mothers so Children which have not the use of Reason being now in the Womb of the Church their Mother receive Life and the Badge of Salvation and the Seal of Spirituall Cure and Sustentation not by themselves but by the meer Gift of God and Act of the Church It is the Office therefore of the Curers to cure them In Joël where the English inoculates call a solemn assembly the Septuagint Joël 1. 14. preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. S. Dionys de Eccles Hier c. 10 preach ye a Curation Whence Dionysius the Areopagite names the Persons wholly devoted and addicted to God's Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Undertakers of Cures or Curers of themselves and others If the Conveniencies betwixt the naturall and mysticall Bodies be many and great and one be that the Parts of both are sometimes ill-affected and want Curation to be performed by the undertakers of Cures or by the Curers of themselves and others it is the part of the Curers on both parties to perform their parts in curing the diseased parts under God who as a Supernaturall Curer is All in All wholly belonging to their Cure CHAP. LXXI I Prove it sixtly All that are not Spirituall are excluded from Heaved Either therefore all Infants dying without Baptism are excluded from Heaven or they are made Spirituall without Baptism And they cannot be made Spirituall in our Sense but by the Communication of Spirituall Gifts against the like Communication of which in Baptism our Anabaptists rebell Besides If they be made Spirituall without Baptism then is there in respect of Infants a divine Election amongst equall Things which divine Election as divine Judgement pertains to divine Wisdome and God Elects and receives absque fundamento in Re posito ante praevisionem Operum without any Difference and Foundation in the Thing and without any variation on their part in regard of our Christian Duties or application to God's Ordinances Again Either all Unbaptized children are saved or some are saved and some accordingly to the Concessions and Confessions of the Anabaptists damned to everlasting Torments and Perdition and their Perdition is of God and not of themselves which enterfeers with the Text O Israell thou hast destroyed Hos 13. 91 Edit Vulg. thy selfe or as the Vulgar Edition Perditio tua ex te O Israel O Israell thy Perdition is of thy selfe which Text with our Context our ablest Independents grant animo Volente Volently and Violently Pulpit for And if
I answer If this Text excludes Infants from Baptism then all Infants dying in their Infancy and before they have actuall Faith shall be damned And if Infants may be debarred from Baptism by the judgement and Act of this Text because they cannot actually beleeve they may be denyed to eat by the Sentence and Act of a like Text because they cannot labour actually the Apostle giving a law If any will not work neither shall he eat 2 Thes 3. 10. But it is most undeniably certain that this place of St Mark aims alltogether at grown Persons as is admirably evident by the steerige of the precedent Verse And he said unto them Goe ye into all the World and V. 15. Preach the Gospell to every Creature For the Gospell is not Preached but unto the grown Person as only capable of being edified by Preaching And therefore the place that it may be righteously and modestly understood must of necessity receive this Ingredient derived from the precedent Verse He of them to whom the Gospell is Preached that beleeveth and is Baptized shall be saved but he of them to whom the Gospell is Preached that beleeveth not shall be damned And the grown Persons must likewise adequate the sense of every Creature though every Creature be not a grown Person Where the English puts into the mouth of the Psalmist God setteth Psal 68. 6. the solitary in families or in a House Interp. vulgat The Vulgar offereth Qui habitare facit unius moris in Domo who makes Persons of one carriage and behaviour to live in a House together The Vulgar Interpreter drew his water from the Nile of the Septuagint Sept. who have in the Current of their Version 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of the same Manners and having the same scope Aquila Scripture-makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila Men singled forth and living alone Christ in St Mark separates grown Persons from Children and puts Persons of the same carriage together affirming that in the conversion of grown Persons Faith which comes by hearing and Baptism are necessary to Salvation and also subinferrs that Children may be Baptized and saved without hearing the Word Preached and without actuall Faith as not being capable of either CHAP. LXXX THey argue secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from an absurd Thing which would follow if Children were Baptized For as Hurtado diggeth out of Hurtado in Logica ex Organ Aristot Aristotle Ex vero nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Truth no absurd or inconvenient Thing follows nor a Thing impossible Signum frustrà datur non intelligentibus quid significet A Signe is in vain given to those who understand not the meaning of it As a beautifull Picture though the Master-peece of a Master-workman is in vain presented to the Void Circles in the face of a blind Man He does vainly that Musicks a deafe Man or sounds a silver Bell or Trumpet at the double-barred Doore of his Ear He vainly works who physicks a dead Body I answer The Proposition is moderated and regulated by some after this manner SignuÌ„ frustrà datur non intelligentibus velintellecturis quid significet A signe is in vain given to those who understand not or shall not afterwards understand what it means But let others take this rough rugged brier-bearing path I will not Because many Children dye quickly after Baptism who neither knew nor shall know in the State wherein the Signes are in force what the Signe signifies And some Children putting off their childhood with their coats climb up to years who know not wisely themselves or any Thing pertaining to them but are themselves wisely known to be Fools And therefore in downright Truth this argument is not upright but is it selfe most absurd and blasphemous it spitting fire at God and kicking with an equall foot against Circumcision and God the Author of it the Signe whereof was not in vain though given to such as understood not what it meant Wherefore the Proposition is false it not being in vain to offer to any Person what may doe him good though he be not sensible of the Thing offered or of the good it doth or can doe Physick is ministred to Children Fools Mad men A Man sunk to the Ground in a Swoon and unsensible of Help is raised again and forcibly brought back to sense by strong water forced upon him or something of a strong sent by force applied to his nose One sick of a lethargy or epilepse or grievously wounded is used accordingly The man who travelled betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho and was left Luk. 10. 30. halfe dead in the way having been assaulted by Theeves though he was neglected by the Priest and Levite was rightly succoured by the Samaritane who bound up his wounds Verse 34. pouring in Wine and Oyle The Answer which wholly and through-cuts the throat of the Argument is The Signe is not in vain which doth not signify to the Persons whom it principally concernes But the Sign is in vain which cannot at any time signify to them by reason of defect and default in it selfe As we say Frustra est Potentia non quae non reducitur ad Actum sed quae reduci non potest The Power is in vain not which is not reduced but which is not reducible to Act. As also according to the divine Dictates of my most eminent Master in Rome Joannes de Lugo Cardinalis in Materia de Christo Non est frustrà in Deo Potentia assumendi plures Naturas humanas The Power in God of assuming more humane Natures is not in vain For although he will not yet he is able by his absolute Power Which Ability diverts and forestals the Vanity of the Power CHAP. LXXXI THey argue thirdly à Congruo from the Congruity betwixt Persons of a like Condition No Man Baptizeth grown Persons that are blinde deaf and dumb Therefore neither ought we to baptize Infants the same Reason interposing it selfe and Infants being blinde deafe and dumbe in respect of the Ordinance Lessius Emmanuel Sa Medina Mariana alâ—â— in Castbus Conscientiae I answer to this Case-Argument according to the most sound Doctrine of the most profound Casuists If the grown Persons which are blinde deaf and dumb could by any means expresse of themselves a pious Wâ—ll by which they willed or desired to be Baptized or denoted their preparation to Baptism or if they were not born so and have manifested such a desire or will and preparation immediately before they were vanquished by the Calamites of dumbnesse deafnesse blindnesse or if one having declared his good will to Baptism become presently sick and by a sudden extraposition be exposed out of himselfe and his Senses and there be no Indic a Sanitatis signes of his Health and Recovery Such Persons might may and must be Baptized Yea the Baptism is valid which is given
to Persons either a sleep or mad if Baptism were formerly desired by them But if their will and preparation cannot be known they are not Baptized Because in those who have the flourishing use of Reason their expresse consent is required to baptism and also their preparation by Faith and Repentance otherwise grown Persons would not be reconciled to God according to their capacity and the Condition of Humane Nature agreeably to which Condition and Capacity God alwaies works And the Persons in the Argument as they have no capacity of expressing their consent and preparation because it cannot be riveted into them what Baptism is wherein they agree with Infants so have they no capacity of expressing that they doe not ponere obicem put an hinderance or obstacle to Sacramentall Grace and herein they differ from Infants who cannot put any such obstacle or hinderance And therefore except we have an outward Signe from them of their inward qualification we as being guided onely by outward Signes doe not apply to them the outward signe of a Sacrament as having morall signes of inward prevention and abuse of the Sacrament Hence on the one side though sons or daughters wanting the use of Reason may not be Baptized invitis Parentibus their Parents being unwilling yet if such being rip'ned shal expresse their consent and manifest their preparation we Baptize them notwithstanding the unwillingnesse of their Parents And on the other side we Baptize a Mad man that hath been mad from his Nativity without or against his coÌ„sent because although he may outwardly oppose the outward Ceremony of the Sacrament yet he hath no inward opposition to the inward Grace and Effect of it Thus their Congruum is incongruum and the blind and deaf Persons in the Argument are not so deaf and blinde as the Forgers of it CHAP. LXXXII THey argue fourthly We cannot be assured of Childrens inward qualification for Baptism therefore we may not Baptize them I answer We are assured of a negative qualification in them namely that there is nothing in Children by the which according to their childish condition they are unqualified And as they cannot have a positive qualification so they need it not And in this respect we are much more assured of their qualification than of the qualification of grown Persons who though they professe the true Faith of Christ and seem faithfully to promise amendment of Life yet cannot make it plain answerably to our assurance or make certaine to us certitudine Scientiae aut Fidei by the certainty of Science or Faith that they cordially professe the one or faithfully promise the other or that the Motive of their Promise and Profession is the Love of God and not a temporall Consideration the Garb of Hypocrites comprehending all the outward postures of Godlinesse And as in grown Persons the Secrets of the Heart are known to God not to Men or Angels so there is a secret worke of Sanctification in Baptized Infants which God knoweth as omniscient and as the Author of Sanctification and Man knoweth not I will not seclude the Angels being Spirits from the sight of infused Grace either in the actuall infusion or in the residence of the sanctifying Habit upon whose royall knowledge of Spirituall Things in themselves we may not wish or think to intrude That the Pancrasie of this Answer may farther exert it selfe to view Let the Anabaptists consider first the Nature of divine Faith which is A firm Adhesion of the Understanding to the revealed will of God which Adhesion is commanded by our Wils acting by Love the will of God Which Faith and Love are the Gift of God For an imperaâ—t Act of the will concurs with the Understanding to an Act of Faith And as Biel scholastically Biel in 3. Sent. d. 23. q. 2. aâ—l 1. Creâ—ere est Actus Intellectûs Vero assentientis productus ex voluntatis Imperio An Act of Beliefe is an Act of the Understanding assenting to Truth and produced by the command of the Will Let them ponder secondly that this actuall Faith is connexed with 1 Tim 1. 5. Text. Graeâ— actuall Charity which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charity â—ut of a pure Heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned or unhypocriticall Thirdly let them advisedly recount that the Catechumeni comming to make the Profession of their Faith before Bapiism must come obediently to the Exhortation of the Apostle Let us draw neer with a Heb. 10. 22. true Heart in full assurance of Faith or as the Originall speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Graec. in the fullnesse or certaine perswasion of Faith Now if the Anabaptists require assurance in the Baptizers the Baptizers must be assured that the Persons whom they Baptize are thus qualified of the which they cannot be assured but by divine Revelation And we are all already assured without a new Light of divine Revelation that these extraordinary Matters are not the ordinary Matter of Divine Revelation CHAP. LXXXIII THey argue fiftly De Baptismâ— non repetendâ— in sacris Tabulis nihil occurrit We are not prohibited in Scripture to itâ—raâ—e Baptism therefore we may be rebaptized I answer Neither is the iterating of Baptism in a Person Baptized with Christ's Baptism commanded commended or tolerated in Scripture the Answer being as full and Scripture-strong as the Argument The Rabbins anxiously dispute upon Rabbini in Gen. 4. Gen. 4. 15. the Text and the Lord set a Marke upon Cain lest any finding him should kill him What Signe or Mark this was wherewith Cain was mark'd or sign'd Some think it to have been a woundrous and unnaturall howling yelling by the which he did bewaile his lost wandering condition Others imagine that it was a wildnesse or Fury Others a wandring Flight Others a perpetuall shaking and Trembling of his body and especially of his Head signifying his continuall Instability and horrible Fears and that therefore he built a City for his Defence he having in his Fears and wandrings dilucida Intervalla the first and this opinion being anchour'd upon the Septuagint where Sept. Gen. 4. 12. for a fugitive and a vagabond they allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mourning and trembling Some give abroad that he crept on all four as Children sometimes doe Some that he was braâ—ded cauteriz'd with a particular Mark So Aben Ezra Yea R. Solomon Aben Ezra in Gen. 4. R. Solomon ibid. avoucheth that God imprinted a Mark in his Forehead And intruth some Arabick Versions of the Septuagint translate it And the Lord imprinted The Hebrew Word Oth signifieth also a Letter and we may without injury to the Text interpret it And the Lord set a letter upon Cain Which Letter some Hebrew Doctors wisely surmize to be Thau being the last Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and the first of the Hebrew Word Teshuba signifying Repentance that all people seeing Cain might be silently admonished to Repent of their sins lest
may be strong and lively both in their Souls and Senses CHAP. CIII BUT let us all be silent while Scripture speaks Ephraim also is Osee 7. 11. like a silly Dove without Heart The Vulgar Et factus est Ephraim Lectio vulg quasi Columba seducta non habens Cor And Ephraim is made as a seduced Dove not having a Heart that is not having Prudence or Understanding For silly and seduced the Hebrew Text alloweth Potha which Text. Hebr. is easie to be bent Seduced wryed turned any way The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. unwise or as Isidor Pelusiot distils it mad Aquila and Symmachus decepta Isid Pelus Aq Sym. Editio Tigurina deceived Leo Hebraeus or the tigurin Bibles stolida foolish because the Dove foolishly suffers her selfe to be deceived and her young to be taken The Syriack Interpreter Syrus Interp Factus est Ephraim quasi Columba Puella as a Girl Dove The Arabick Arab. Alex. of Alexandria Factus est Ephraim ut Aves insipientes non est illi IntelligeÌ„tia Ephraim is become as the uÌ„wise Birds and there is no Understanding in Ephraim The Arabick of Antioch Arab. Antioch Factus est Ephraim sicut Columbae non habens intellectum neque Cor Ephraim is made as the Doves not having understanding nor Heart Now the Heart and Understanding of the Matter lies in the Reason why Ephraim was like a silly Dove a seduced Dove a Dove easily bent any way aâ— unwise Dove a mad Dove a deceived Dove a foolish Dove a girl Dove like the unwise Birds and like the Doves insomuch that if any Dove or Bird be more Unwise then the other Birds or Doves Ephraim is like it This Reason is The Ephramites did offer their Children to Moloch and though they saw them destroyed yet because they were diverted by Musick from hearing their outcries in their Consumption by fire still they came with their laughing Children to Moloch And the silly tame Dove fill'd with a prolificall Virtue laies her Eggs and brings up her young in a known place and though she finds them taken away and finds that they cannot be found yet still she laies her other Eggs and hatches her other Young in the same place And the Parents of Children amongst the Anabaptists hear from the Pulpit-Raven a noise of words devoutly champed and themselves whiningly produced before God and called poor Cre-a-tures with which they are so minstrel-fooll'd and Taber-Catch't by the Ears that they neglect their miserable Children though they see them dy every day without Baptism which Christ so vehemently commends and laies home to us and though they see their Babell-Towred Arguments demolished Let not our Presbyterian mint it in his Thoughts that he is the only Tongue-Man the only Singing-Master of the Pulpet The Anabaptist can tone it exactly and utter his Impurities to a Tune as pure and heavenly as the most tinkling-ton'd Presbyters It is not exempted froÌ„ sacred Mystery that these are set sorted together as unclean Creatures or Cre-a-tures The little Owl and the Cormorant Lev. 11. 17. and the great Owl The little Owl resembles the Unbaptized Child the great Owl is the Anabaptist-Parent And Corvus Marinus the Cormorant betwixt them is the wide-throated Preacher that hath divided the Child from the Parent dives into them and swallows their Souls You question it What shall become of Children dying without Baptism I answer I cannot either damn them or save them and therefore I referr them to the Divine Providence and to the necessary Consequences of Scripture-Sentences But it will not be refractory to the Matter here if I relate the Opinions of Catharinus and Salmeron 2 Pet. 3. 13. Catharinus Salmeron in hunc Petri locum These Authors in their Comments upon the Text We according to his promise looke for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousnesse give their Cogitations blended into one after this manner That after the Judgement-Day these Children shall inhabit this new Earth refined and flourishing as the old terrestriall Paradise and there have the fullest and most vivid naturall Use of humane Reason and of their Senses with all Perfections inward and outward agreeable to the Nature of Man in a râ—fined Condition and be perfected in the Knowledge of naturall Things and enjoy the Visitations and Revelations of Angels and love God above all Things as found by naturall indagation in his Creatures and admire and praise him and that the losse of the Beatificall Vision shall not afflict or molest them because they did not lose it by their own fault and offence of God Thus these and more tolerably then the Chiliasts CHAP. CIIII. IN God's Name O ye Anabaptist-Parents presume not upon the new direction of your private Illuminations in the publike Matters of Faith but be better taught The English Bible exalteth for I Psal 71. v. 15 16. know not the numbers thereof thereof if we look into the Originall is not thereof I will go in the strength of the Lord God The Vulgar Edit vulg Quoniam non cognovi literaturam Sept. the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 introibo in potentias Domini Because I have not known literature letters or learning I will enter into the strengths of God This Text if there were not an Originall Text above and beyond it would frustrate or impare Learning and all ordinary Meanes and Helps and urge an extraordinary Suppliance of them in ordinary and quotidian Vocations and Matters from the Strength of God The Hebrew Word from which the Seventy Interpreters and the Author of the Vulgar Edition have extracted Learning or Literature is Text. Hebr. siphrot that is numbers or Ciphers which being added to numbers in Arithmetick make them grow as the Rabbins and Symmachus unbind Rabbini Symmach S. Aug. S Chrysost Arnob. in in Psalmos Psalteriuâ— Romanum and open the word St Austin St Chrysostom and Arnobius reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 negotiationem this Word is retained in the Roman Psalter negotiation which requires numbers and ciphers to the casting of Accounts And such Literature or Learning as involving the continuall imployment and businesse of the World is a grand impediment to the manuduction and carrying on of our Soule in the Strength of God or in our Spirituall Commerce and traffick with God wherein his Strength is most excellently manifested to us Circumcise therefore the foreskin Deut. â—â— 16. Sept. of your Heart and be no more stiff-necked The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hardnesse of your Heart these aime at the Circumcision of the obdurate will The Chaldee Paraphrast Chaldaeus Paraphrastes insipientiam Cordis vestri the foolishnesse of your Heart he wisely directs his arrow towards the Circumcision of the imperfect Understanding Perfection imperfection wisdome and Folly as Contraries attending upon the same Power And if O Parent thou dost acknowledge thy weaknesse and