will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
herein and that is that all and every one that had any hand or finger in that good King's Death or in the death of any of those His good Subjects that were unjustly and illegally sentenced to death I do not speak of them that were killed in the War because as the Poet Lucan saith Pharsal lib. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni And as the Prophet David saith The Sword devoureth the one as well as the other but of those that in cold blood by usu ping Judges under the Colour of Law were contrary to the Laws both of God and of the Land most unjustly condemned unto death should for that their unjust Proceedings be justly questioned and legally tryed for their former Offence the same being of so high a Nature as I shewed to you before But you will say many of them as blinde Bartimaeus might easily see that acted very highly against the last King and as it is conceived had their hands deep in his death were as active as any others and most special Instruments to bring His now Sacred Majesty unto His Right whereby they have fully expiated their foul offence and deserve rather to be well rewarded and honoured as some say they are then any ways questioned as their Adversaries would have them to be I answer that His Majesty is wise as the Angel of God and knoweth best what he should best do and the Policy of State is far beyond the Sphere of mine Intelligence and their doings therein ought highly to be commended and deserve not meanly to be rewarded though as Will. Sommers told King Henry the Eight that such a Gentleman threatned to kill him and the King answered that if he killed him he would have him hanged for it Will. Sommers replied Nay good King let him be hanged before he kills me or else his death will not preserve my life and his hanging will do me no good so I heard some say that they would have had the Enemies of the last King first punished for their Rebellion and the Murder of Him and then rewarded for their good Service to His now gracious Majesty or else reward them well for their good Service done to our now gracious King and then question them and punish them answerable to their Deserts for their Disloyalty and Treachery to our late King as I read it in the Turkish History and in some other Historians of some very wise Kings that did so to the like Offenders because we may believe it for a truth that they which have proved false to their own true just and lawful Prince will scarce ever prove faithful to any Prince nor seem to be but either for hope still to reap the fruit of their Subtlety to turn when the Winde turns or for fear to be dash'd in Pieces if they turn not their Sayls to escape those Rocks which they cannot otherwise avoid and no thanks to such men for any good they do when they do it perforce and therefore should be trusted perchance And it may be many of the very Murderers both of the good King and of his loyal Subjects have robbed and spoyled not the Aegyptians of their Jewels but the Israelites their Brethren of their Goods Lands and Possessions which they have gotten into their own hands and thereby became exceeding rich and enabled themselves to match their Sons and their Daughters to great Families and to bestow large Gifts that do blind the eyes of the wise on others to make to themselves Friends of their unrig hteous Mammon to preserve them from ther just deserts and to pull down the Wrath and Vengeance of God on others for this their obstructing of the straight rule of Justice that teacheth us to do otherwise Or if it were not so many men do wonder how so many men as were conceived to have been active and most of them to have their hands embrued in the good King's Blood and were likewise guilty of the death of His innocent Subjects should escape uncensured and so few of them sentenced to expiate and appease the Wrath of God for such horrible unparallebd and transcendent Murthers for I knew eight persons executed at Dublin for the Murther of one ordinary Traveller and is it not strange that we see no more brought to their Trial for such a Sâ—aughter as was done upon our good King and His innocent Subjects so judicially and yet so illegally and altogether unjustly sentenced to death or shall we think that no more were guilty then were condemned or not rather that the guilty Murtherers by their Wealth Subtlety and Friends made many others guilty of God's anger and the pulling down of God's vengeance upon many more for their excusing covering and clearing such abominable Transgressours for I would have all men to consider duly how destructive Murther is to mankinde and how odious and hatefull it is to God above all other sins whatsoever especially when an innocent man is judicially and illegally Murthered as you may rightly finde the truth hereof fully proved in the fifth Chapter of the first Book of The Great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Sermons following And I would the Protectours of the King's Murtherers would rightly weigh what the people sayd to King David that His life was worth ten thousand of the lives of the common people and how the Lord punished the whole house and posterity of Saul and all the Kingdom of Israel until his wrath was satisfied for the innocent death of the Gibeonites that were but a poor contemptible people but killed without cause 2. Sam. xxi and especially that there be not any more but two sins that I can finde in the whole Book of God that the Lord saith cannot be pardoned and obliterated without their due punishment and they are 1. The high Abuse of God's Messengers and Publishers of his Will 2. The unjust shedding of innocent Blood For Of the First the Spirit of God saith that when the Lord God sent his Messengers unto the Children of Israel and they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets the wrath of the Lord arose against his People until there was no Remedy as if he had said For other sins of these Israelites some ways and remedies might have been found out as Moses and Aaron by their prayers and censers appeased the wrath of God to turn away the Punishment of them and David and Ezra did the like from the Jews but when they mocked his Messengers despised his Word and misused his Prophets which were the onely Sâ—â—ve or Medicine that could heal their sickned Souls when they refused and cast away these Remedies from them then there was no Remedy in the World for them to preserve them from their just deserved Punishment and therefore saith the Text The Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in thâ— House of their Sanctuary and had no Compassion
that the Herodians are his bitter enemies and do intend to kill him and therefore he should do wisely to convey himself out of their reach But of every such Pharisee Cum tibi dicit Ave tanquam ab hoste Cave 5. For their observation of the Sabbath they are so zealous or rather superstitious that the Disciples must not pick an ear of corn and put it in their mouth to asswage their hunger nor Christ speak a word to heal a lame or a blind man on that day without danger of a Câ—uncell to be severely censured and we read that if a barrell or vessel of wine leakt and run out on the Sabbath they would rather suffer the same to be all spilt then stop it on that day and Stow writes it in his Chronicle that one of them dwelling in the Old Jury in London happened to fall into a Privie upon the Saturday which was and is their Sabbath day and he refused to be pluckt out because he would not have his neighbour to prophane the Sabbath and his neighbour being a Christian denied to help him out on the Sunday which is the Christian Sabbath saying If thou art so precise to observe thy Sabbath I will be as zealous for my Sabbath and before the Munday he was stifled with the ill savour of his lodging So religious were these Saints in their superstition so fair in their outward holinesse of fasting praying and hearing Sermons exceeding all other men so far as Religion seems to exceed prophanenesse But he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of all hearts and seeth the secrets of all thoughts tells us plainly they were but meer hypocrites appearing unto men like silly sheep but were indeed ravening Wolves that devoured widowes houses and plundered all their poor neighbours not leaving to many of them bread to put into their childrens mouthes under the colour of their long prayers and the pretence of Zeal and Religion this is the very truth of the matter How mighty these hypocrites increased in number in power and authority And yet these wicked men these holy hypocrites by their dissembling and faigned holinesse grew so great both in number and power that they soon over-spread the whole land and became as it were the only Oracles of the people and their faction ruled upon the matter not only the City of Jerusalem but almost all the land of Jury so farre that as Josephus saith Herod himself was afraid to displease them they had so infinitely bewitched the people with the opinion of their knowledge in the Scripture and their zealous profession that nothing was thought well done but what they did or approved of as it appeareth by that question unto the Officers Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But let such hypocrites go on in their hypocrisie John 7.48 â—â—arth 5.20 and let them be deceived that will believe them it is not these outward shewes of holinesse and shadows of Religion that pleaseth God who is not mocked as the Apostle speaketh but requireth truth in the inward parts as the Psalmist saith and therefore tells us and we may believe him that except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the hypocrites that do but deceive the world and bewitch the simple people we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven 2. 2 The Scribes The next Sect that were most sedulous to betray Christ and to murder their King were the Scribes such as were the continual Writers not of Bills and Bonds Like our Presbyterians in dependants and Lay-Preachers as our Scriveners do but of the Holy Scriptures and therefore they pretended that they alone had the perfect knowledge and understanding of the same consequently that they alone were the only people of God all the rest no better or but little better then cast-aways so censorious were these scribling gnosticks But if you would examin their Exposition you should find that praeter falsitatem hypocrisin uihil habent they were such Interpreters of the Scripture as Hogs are dressers of Vines and when they stuffe their impertinent discourses with more impertinent Texts of Scripture 2 pet 3.16 they do but as Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrest it and pervert it and as the word implies deal with it as Shoemakers do with their Leather stretch it and tear it oft-times with their teeth when it is so that of it self it cannot reach to fit their purpose And truly the Church of God never wanted such Scribes in every place Tertullian saith credunt Scripturis ut credant adversus Scripturas they alledge Scriptures to overthrow the Scriptures and no Scripture shall be believed but as themselves interpret it and to give you a taste of their Expositions 1. When the Prophet Joel saith Your sons and your daughters shall prophesie Joel 2.28 they will justifie their Revelations and their speciall inspiration of Gods Spirit when as the Prophet meant it only of the Apostles and the immediate disciples of our Saviour 2. When the Prophet Hosea saith The children of Israel shall remain without King Hos 3.4 and without Prince many dayes this is a sufficient proof they shall be independent from all Government but their own and therefore being thus inspired by the lying spirit they were earnestly set on to kill their King and to abjure their Prince that they might still continue Independents without any regal Government 3. When Obadiah saith Thy mighty men O Teman shall be dismaid to the end that every one of the Mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter Obadiah v. 9. Malach. 4.2 3. and Malachy saith To you shall arise the Sun of righteousnesse and you shall tread down the wicked as ashes under your feet this is a sufficient warrant to destroy all Malignants and to root them out of the world as the enemies of Gods people which they say are themselves and none else 4. Esay 61.6 When the Prophet Esay saith You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glorie shall you boast your selves this is a good warrant for them that take all the wealth and possession of their malignant neighbours they need no more but take them and seize upon them and never call them to answer Whether they have offended the Law and so forfeited their estates or not And is the world now free from such Scribes as do falsifie the sayings of the Apostles as these Jewish Scribes did the words of the Prophets No no for you may find many writings and Pamphlets of our Scribes that have most strangelie perverted the words of S. Paul Rom. 13.1 2 3. to cast off all Regall power and to establish the Democratical government and as peevishiy expounded the words of S. Peter to prove the lawfulnesse of deposing and decollating their Kings many more such Scriptures you may find perverted by our new-sprung Scribes if you cast your eye
take this office upon him but he that is as well outwardly approved by such as are lawfully authorized to approve him Exod. 4.16 as inwardly called by the restifying spirit of his own conscience so also Christ saith the Apostle glorified not himself to be made an high Priest and to become the great Shepherd of Gods flock Heb. 5.5 c. 17.21 but he that said unto him Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and hath sworn Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech And therefore if no man no not Christ himself taketh this holy office upon him but he that is lawfully called by such as have lawful authority to call him I wonder how any man dares to intrude himself into the Ministry without any mission from Christ or commission from such as are lawfully authorized by Christ to admit them You know what our Saviour saith As my father sent me so send I you and they that were his Apostles never went until he sent them for there must be an Ite go ye Mat. 28.19 Mar. 16.15 John 10.1 before Praedicate preach ye and you see what our Saviour saith here Verily verily I say unto you he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a thief and a robber that is he that is not lawfully called and comes not the right way into the Ministry to be the shepherd of Gods flock the same is none of Gods Ministers Jer. 23.21 14.14 but is a thief and a robber stealing to himself what of right belongs to another And yet I fear we have now too many of whom the Lord may say as he doth by the Prophet Jeremy I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken unto them yet they prophesied for we are not onely to consider whether they be called and approved to be the Ministers of Christ but we must likewise consider by whom they are called and approved for as idem est non esse non apparere so it is all one to be not called and not approved as to be called and approved by such as have no right nor authority to call and approve them as when a company of thieves and robbers gives power and authority to a man to be Justice of the Peace or a Judge of Assize we say his power and authority is null and of no validity so they that give orders and approve of Priests and have no right no power nor authority to give orders and to allow them do just nothing in the just way and their orders is worth nothing But you will say this may be true of the Lay-preachers but those that are ordained by the Presbyterians and approved by an assembly of Presbyters cannot be denied to be lawfully called and to enter in by the door into the sheepfold I answer that I will not at this time discuss who gave them this power and authority to ordain Priests but I say that I dare not I cannot approve and justifie their authority let them answer for it that presume to do it I have shewed you their error in my discovery of the great Antichrist So you see how this grand Shepherd did lawfully enter into his office and how all his under-Shepherds should imitate him in their lawfull entrance and not intrude themselves nor be unlawfully admitted into the Ministry 2. 2 A perfect performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Philo Jud. in l. de opificio mundi The other point here spoken of this great Shepherd is a perfect and most absolute performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Where first of all you must observe that Theocritus Virgil and others writing of this office of Shepherds do make three kindes of Pastors or Shepherds and so doth Philo Judaeus where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd Goatesman and Herdsman drive the flocks of sheep goats and bullocks and it is observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dici de pastore omnium animalium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum relatione tantum ad oves that the Greeks do call him onely that keepeth sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shepherd and our Saviour saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good goatsman or the good herdsman John 10.14 but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good Shepherd that taketh care for his sheep but not for goats because the Lord careth for the righteous but as the Prophet saith he scattereth abroad all the ungodly And seeing that he is a Shepherd you know what the Poet saith Pastorem Tytere pingues Pascere oportet oves Vagil Eglog 6. The Shepherd ought to feed his sheep for as the old proverb goeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spartam nactus es hanc orna every one should look to his own office as the learned Divine to preach the Word of God the Cobler to mend his shoes the Countrey-man to plough his ground curabit prelia Conon and the King or whosoever is the chief Magistrate to provide for war and to conclude peace which is the onely way to keep all things in the right way because that mittere falcem in alienam messem for the Coachman with his whip to lash the pulpit the Taylor with his shears to divide the Word of God the shepherd with his hook to rule the people and the unruly people to reign as Kings is that which as the Poet saith Turbabit fadera mundi Lucan phars l. 1. and is the readiest way to pull all things asunder to tear in pieces the whole course of nature and to subvert all the order of Gods creatures and indeed to reduce the total frame of the creation to a speedy dissolution whereas that man is worthy of all praise as Aelian saith which meddleth with nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pertaineth nothing unto him but looketh onely and carefully to his own duty and he is worthy to be reproved as our Saviour checkt Saint Peter for his curiosity to know what John must do that is a stranger in his own affairs and busieth himself onely with what onely belongs unto others And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others or to extend my discourse beyond my line to treat of the art of war with Phormio before Hannibal or to tell you the office of a King or a Judge when my text tels me I am to treat of a Shepherd but to keep my self contrary to the common practise ad idem to my own proper task I shall desire you to remember that the duty of a good Shepherd consisteth chiefly in these two points 1. Negatively what he should not do to his sheep 2. Affirmatively what he should do for them 1. The heathen man could tell us that boni pastoris est pecus tondere non deglubere it is the part of a good Shepherd to fleece
you have 1. What the sheep of Christ must do to hear the voice of Christ 2. What they must not do that is by no means to hearken and listen to any Syrens voice that intice them with fair promises or to be afraid of any thundring voice of Tyrants and Persecutors that terrifie them with foul threatnings to move them to change their Faith and to leave the right service of God to follow after the new directions and the idolatrous superstitions that are sounded in their ears by the voices of the false Prophets 1 What they must do of the Idol Shepherd 1. In the affirmative part that tells us what we that are Christs sheep are to do You may observe these two things 1. 1 The act to hear The act to hear For my sheep will hear my voice 2. The object my voice For my sheep will hear my voice 1. S. Paul saith that faith cometh by hearing for how can we believe in him of whom we have not heard Rom. 10.14 and therefore Samuel saith that to hearken was better then the fat of rams and this fat of rams was in the old time an holy Oblation instituted by God himself and therefore a most acceptable offering unto God and yet the Prophet tells us 1 Sam. 15.22 that to hearken to his voice was far more acceptable in the sight of God and it is far more profitable unto man for such Oblations when they were offered by wicked hypocrites Esay 55.3 were abominations unto God But the Lord saith Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live And therefore seeing that to hear the voice of Christ is so beneficial to the sheep of Christ it is no marvel that our Saviour doth so often cry unto us Luke 8.8 He that hath ears to hear let him hear because this hearing of his voice is not only a special means to beget faith and obedience in us but it is also the first staff in Jacobs Ladder and the first step that we make towards the Kingdome of heaven For S. Paul tells us that whom God hath predestinated them he hath called Rom. 8.30 and whom he hath called those also he hath justified and whom he justified them he also glorified So that there is no glorification without we be justified and no justification without we be called and in vain are we called if we do not hearken to the Voice that calleth us and therefore ad summum nisi a principio pervenire non potes thou shalt never be glorified in heaven except thou dost hear the Voice of Christ on earth and therefore S. James adviseth us to be swift to hear and slow to speak for which cause Ia. 1.19 Why God hath given us two ears and but one tongue that we may do so God hath given us two ears and but one tongue that we might hear much more then we speak and lest we should speak too much he hath hedged in out tongues with the strong walls of our teeth to the end that we should rather bite it then suffer it to speak too much but our ears he hath left wide open to the end we might hear very much and our hearing many things cannot so much prejudice us as our speaking may And yet our Saviour knowing how we fail in the performance of our best actions That there be four sorts of hearers of Christ his voice 1. The Heretick and Schismatick Elephantiasis what kind of disease bids us take heed how we hear And we have great reason to take heed how we hear for our Saviour Christ in the Parable of the Sower sheweth that there be four sorts of men that do hear his Voice and but one of them do reap any good thereby the other three much hurt and no good As 1. The Hereticks and Schismaticks that are infected with Elephantiasis which as the Physitians say is a very venomous disease full of poyson because it proceedeth from corrupt blood that invadeth all the inward and outward parts of the body and makes it so foul and filthy that the breath of this Leper is very infectious and it cleaveth so fast to his bones and is so fixed in his heart infecting all his powers and spirits that his understanding cannot comprehend things aright especially those things that appertain to the Spirit of God to be converted thereby But though this man will hear as well as the best and press to hear rather then the best and say that he can never hear too much yet as all were not Israelites which were of the house and seed of Israel and as all are not Christians that take upon them the Name of Christ so all are not the sheep of Christ that with Christ his sheep and like Christ his sheep do hear the voice of Christ for these Hereticks and Schismaticks in a singularity of wit will hold some false and erronious points and they are so obstinate and perverse in their own opinions that although they have the truth preached unto them yet saith Christ the devil cometh and taketh away the same out of their heart Luke 8.12 and hinders them to believe it And though we make the point never so plain and so clear unto them yet as S. Hierome saith of the Luciferians Hierom. adversus Lucifer Solent oculis clausis denegare qui non credunt factum esse quod nolunt They will shut their eyes against the truth and cannot endure to believe that which they would not have to be believed but as S. Aug. saith of the Donatists Vident se non habere quid respondeant putant tamen se habere quid faciant quid loquantur non inveniunt tacere tamen non permittuntur quia malunt perversis vocibus veritati reluctari quam confessis erroribus paci restitui Though they see they have not what to answer yet they know what to do though they cannot find what they should say yet they are not suffered to be silent because they had rather most peevishly and perversly to resist the truth then by confessing their errour to submit in peace and so as the same Father speaketh Cum eos obmutescere compellat veritas silere tamen non permittit iniquitas When the truth would have them to be mute their iniquity will not permit them to hold their peace And are not our Sectaries our new Divines and our Anabaptists Our Sectaries just like the old Donatists that have unsainted the blessed souls that are in heaven and have trodden the holy Festivals of the Church under foot and deny to the innocent Babes to be incorporated into Christ and have turned the true faith and right service of God topsie turvy such as these Donatists were judge you that do see what they do and how they do hear the voice of Christ for I am sure we have too too many that do hear his voice and yet as Job saith Nolunt intelligere