in meere carelesnesse and incogitancy many are iustly liable which never perhaps so much as in their secret thoughts expresly deny the Godhead or divine providence but rather haue some surmise of their existence But this blossome comes to no proofe because it springs not from the internall notion in graffed by nature in their hearts whose growth the cares of life doe quickly choake but is acqui'rd by custome vnwitting assent or consonancy to others asseverations with whom they converse This customary beleever or carefull worldlings carelesse temper in matters spirituall is like to a man in a dead sleepe or so drowsie that he apprehends no impression of any phantasmes yet can answer yes or no to any that vrges him with a question Briefly the vtmost degree of beliefe that men thus buryed in cares of this world haue of the Deitie is no better than such idle perswasions of loue to Christ and Christianity as haue beene observed in the former booke The onely ground of it in many did they well obserue it is their vnwillingnesse to be accounted what indeed they are meere Atheists a title displeasing to such as liue amongst professed Christians To charge a man though on a suddaine with matters distastfull will extort◠peremptory deniall of that whereto he had formerly beene altogether indifferent as knowing nothing either for it or against it As what souldier is there of better spirit which hearing his Countrey-men vpbrayded with cowardize or his Countrey blemished with trecherous base infamous dealing would not vndertake to make good the contrary with his body against the obiecter albeit altogether ignorant what domesticke and forreigne vnpartiall Chronicles had testified to his preiudice concerning the carriage of the impeached proceedings The more peremptory the one were in avouching the more confident the other would be in disclaiming the crime obiected But should a practicall head skilfull in humoring such an hot braine strike in with them aright and by way of sociable and friendly conference insinuate plausible reasons to misperswade him of his Countrey-mens deserved prayse which in generall to beleeue he had better positiue reasons than to deny the former particular imputations a lesser matter than losse of good fellowship would make him willing to let all controversie fall or put it off with a iest Should we thus resolutely charge the most groveling minded earth-worme this day breathing with open shame for never looking vp to heaven for living without a God in this present world we might perhaps provoke him to pollute his first positiue and serious thoughts of his creator with false and fearefull oathes in his name that he had thought on him that he feared and loved him ever before as much as others But with greater cunning than can be matched with any skill of man can the old serpent insinuate himselfe into our most secret thoughts and covertly fortifie our inclinations toward such baits as he hath laide alwayes watching opportunities of pushing them whether he sees them most inclined for his advantage Finally by this sleight he workes the wisest of worldly men to confesse that to him ere they be aware with their hearts which with their lips they would deny before men even vnto death whiles vrged with it vnder the style of disgrace Or if he cannot thus farre worke them he puts fayre colours of discretion vpon indifferency for positiue resolutions whether there be a God or no or whether it goeth better with him that serveth or with him that serues him not 7. And albeit either the strength of intended argument or casuall occurrents of some strange mishaps befalling others by meanes more than humane may often rowse some actuall and expresse acknowledgement of a divine providence in this worldling yet these imaginations comming once to opposition with his stiffe desires or being counterpoised with fresh proposals of Satans riddles or instantly dispelled as vtterly as if they had never beene conceived His beliefe then of this first Atticle in the Creed is at the best no better than his was of the soules immortalitie which held it as true so long as Platoes booke of this argument was in his hand but let the truth slip out of his minde as soone as he laid the booke aside or had not the Philosophers reasons in his eye what shall we thinke of him then as of an Atheist or as a true beleever No man holdeth it any point of wisedome to attribute much vnto a misers oath in matters of gaine yet he that is ready to sweare falsely by his God doth in this taking loose his former beliefe of him if any he had For periury is the naturall broode of Atheisme sometime best knowne by the parents name though now it hath changed his coat and covered it selfe with protestations of Christianitie renouncing nature with the tongue as it doth the Deitie in the heart Iuvenall condemnes a generation of Naturalists in his time as more Atheisticall and periurous than Rome formerly had knowne Sunt qui in fortunae iam casibus omnia ponunt Et mundum nullo credunt rectore moveri Naturâ volvente vices lucis anni Atque ideo intrepidi quaecunque altaria iurant Some now there be that deeme the world by slipperie Chaunce doth slide That dayes and yeares doe runne their round without or rule or guide Siue Nature and dame Fortunes Wheele and hence sance shame or feare Of God or Man by Altars all they desperately doe sweare 8. This carelesse Neutralist holdeth the same correspondency betweene the true Christian and the Heathenish Idolater or Infidell that Mungrels doe with the diverse Countreyes betweene whose wast borders they haue beene so promiscuously brought vp that no man knowes to whether people they belong vsually traffiking with both without profession of absolute alleigeance or personall service to either saue onely as private occasions or opportunities shall induce them The contradicting Atheists are as halfe Antipodes to the Neutralist and full Antipodes to true Christians Their seate is darkenesse alwayes destitute of the Sunne seldome partaker of any twilight To impell the one sort as farre from truth as may be and the other no farther than the mid way betweene it and the most opposite errour is alike behoouefull to Satans purpose a great part of whose chiefe cunning is to suite his temptations to mens severall dispositions Now some men there be of heavier mettall who as they haue mindes perpetually touched with hopes of gaine so their gaine is not gotten by gluts or heapes but receiues a slow and constant increase by continuall cares and paines These if he can but bring to this kind of incogitant Atheisme or dull ignorance of God and his goodnesse he hath as much as he desires of them Those whom he labours to malignant or disputing Atheisme haue vsually such nimble wits and resolutions vntill they settle vpon their lees so ticklish that did he suffer them to hover a while betwixt light and darkenesse they would quickly turne
weale publicke and fortitude though as the Philosopher excepts against it not the most laudable vertue in it selfe was most honoured among the people because most profitable to them Hence the valourous in lieu of their readinesse to sacrifice their bodies for their natiue Country had sacrifices and other acknowledgements of honour divine publiquely assigned to them after death The most curious and superstitious solemnitie in this kinde that comes to my present remembrance was that Festivitie annually celebrated every September by the Citizens of Platea in honourable memorie of those Worthies which there had laid downe their liues for the libertie of Greece Amongst other conditions vpon which the Oracle promised the Grecians victory over the Persians in that famous battell a principall one was offering of sacrifice to the auncient Heroicks of Greece one of whom by name Andrâ—crates had his Temple neare to that place environed with a thicke and shadie groue a fit nest for hatching that superstition which had beene conceived from other circumstances As they had vanquished the Persians in fight so they scorned to be overcome by them in lavish ceremony towardes their well deserving dead The pompe and magnificence of this festivitie continuated from Aristides to Plutarchs time did much exceed the sooner decayed solemnities decreed to Cyrus by the Persians the gardians of whose sepulcher notwithstanding had every day a sheepe every moneth an horse allowed them to sacrifice vnto the soule of this chiefe founder of their great Monarchie the patterne of valour and royalll government 5. Thus this superstitious adoration of the dead at the first extorted from the fullnesse of respectiue affection wanting right vent did afterwards mightily overspread the world by imitation In the later and more dissolute times of the Romane Empire it was annexed by flattery as an essentiall part of civill ceremony or solemnitie due to greatnesse without any respect of goodnesse And whereas the olde worlds custome had beene onely to deifie the inventors of vsefull trades or authors of publicke good later Epicures or worthlesse favourites did adore beastly Tyrants as great Gods because they fed them with some offalls of publicke spoiles or authorized them to sucke the bloud of the needle Tullie vrgeth it as an argument of Romulus prayse that he should merit the reputation of a god in that civill and discreete age wherein he died for so he accounts it in respect of former times wherein rifenesse of error and ignorance mingled with rude affection had brought downe the price of the gods by too great plentie But from Romulus the fabulous occasion of whose consecration was an illustrious type of moderne Romish forgerie for canonizing Saints vntill the Emperours the Romanes I take it consecrated no King or Governour as gods though great benefactors to their states They onely adored such gods as tradition had coÌ„mended vnto them committing Idolatrie to vse S. Austines wordes Errando potius quam adulando through error rather than out of flatterie And as the same father obserues the vse of images vnknowne vnto their auncestors did much increase this impious superstition in posteritie and according to the wisemans observation concurred as a concause or coadiutor to base flattery The same observation is wittily exprest by Minutius Felix As for those that were so farre of that men might not worship them presently they did counterfeit the visage that was farre of and made a gorgious image of a King whom they would honour that they might by all meanes flatter him that was absent as though he had beene present And partly by this devise and partly by that other of deceiptfull Oracles many fabulous crimes which more civill and sober times had never charged their gods with were by posteritie thus polluted set forth in solemne shewes or playes in honour of these counterfeit or painted powers Not the Poet onely but the picture-maker also did helpe to set forward the superstition The relations and representations of their gods vicious liues might well embolden the most dissolute amongst the â—ace of Caesars to looke for such divine honour after death as flattery had proffered to them liuing Much worse they could not be than their forefathers or Poets did make their gods nor did they perhappes conceit any fitter cloake to cover their shame than the publicke and solemne representation of their lewdnesse who had already purchased the fame and reputation of celestiall inhabitants And hath not the tacite consent of our times almost established it as a Law That greatnesse may giue authoritie vnto villany and exempt filthinesse from censure of impietie What hath beene committed by any whilest private men ceaseth in their owne opinion to be theirs by their becomming publicke Magistrates For then they thinke not themselues to be the same men they were and what is another mans sinnes to them This is a roote of Idolatrie which did not determine with the destruction of heathenish groues or Idolls nor with the dissolution of Romish Abbies the very dregs of their impietie are yet incorporated in mens hearts of whatsoever Religion they be that seeke to be great before they be good But of this and of other branches of transcendent Idolatrie that is of Idolatrie alike frequent and daungerous throughout all ages all Nations amongst the professors of all Religions elswhere by Gods assistance The next Inquirie is Whether the Idolatrie of Rome-Christian by profession be fully aequivalent to the Idolatrie of Rome-Heathen SECTION IIII. Of the Identitie or aequivalencie of superstition in Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian CHAPTER XXII That Rome-Christian in latter yeares sought rather to allay than to abrogate the Idolatrie of Rome-Heathen that this allay was the most commodious policie which Sathan could devise for venting his detected poysons vtterly condemned by primitiue Professors of Christianitie 1. HAD either the Romish Church no Orators at all or heathen Temples as many as skilfull and subtill as it hath to plead the lawfulnesse of their service such as devoutly serue God in spirit and truth would in the one case make no question in the other admit no dispute whether were worse The formes of their Liturgies represented to vnpartiall eyes without varnish or painting would appeare so like that if the one were adjudged nought the other could not be approved as good or both equally set forth by art if the one seemed good and currant the other could not justly be suspected for naught or counterfeit That the Romanists generally make better profession of the vnitie the nature and attributes of the true and onely God than most Heathens did argueth not their daily and solemne service of him to be better but rather referres the issue of the controversie betweene them to the determination of another like case Whether the setled and habituall carriage of a drunkard be worse in him that is daily drunk indeed hath his senses continually stupified or in one that hath wit at will to
chiefe enemy to their greatest good Thus they fall from one mischiefe to another vntill their consciences become cauterized with the flames of lust and being past all feeling they giue themselues over vnto lasciviousnesse to worke all vncleannesse with greedinesse 3. All dissolute behaviour is dangerous and serues as fewell to this infernall fire which will excruciate that soule after death whose conscience it seares in this life but that is much worse which is matched with hautie vastnesse of minde for the most part transfused from gluttonish appetite or the Epicurean disposition As Boares and Bulls or other creatures by nature or breeding tame onely through hugenesse of body or fulnesse of plight grow often wilde fierce or mankene so men from a like disposition of body or indulgence to brutish appetites come to a gyantly temper of minde readie to proclaime warre against heaven and heavenly powers What shall wee thinke the Gyants were saith Macrobius but a wicked generation of men which denied the gods who for this reason were thought to haue attempted their deposition from their heauenly thrones He was not pacified sayth a better Writer towards the old Gyants who fell away in the strength of their foolishnesse Hence the same Author prayes ioyntly against these sister sinnes and twinns of hell O Lord father and God of my life leaue me not in their imagination neither giue me a proud looke but turne away from thy servant a Gyantly minde Take from me vaine hope and concupiscence and retaine him in obedience that desireth continually to serue thee Let not the greedinesse of the belly nor lust of the flesh hold me and giue not me thy servant over to an impudent or gyantly minde This he prayes against was the very temper of the Cyclops as Homer and Euripides haue pictured them After Vlysses and his mates had besought the Gyant to be good vnto them for Iupiters sake the supposed protector of the helplesse stranger He answered him in this or like language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My pettie guest a foole thou art or sure thou comm'st from farre Thou hop'st with names of heavenly Gods the Cyclops stout to scarre Vnto the Gods wee owe no feare wee no observance shâ—w Our selues to be as good as they or better well wee knowe For Goate-nurst loue his loue or hate I waigh it not a whit Nor thee nor thine for him I 'le spare but as I thinke it fit His picture as Euripides hath taken it is more Gyantly vast For he paints him proclaiming his belly to be the onely or greatest God vnto whose sacrifice the fruits increase of the earth are due by title so soveraigne as neither heaven nor earth could withdraw or deteyne them Speeches altogether as vnsavoury will the belly-servers of our time belch out though not directly against God because they liue not in an Anarchie destitute of humane lawes as the Cyclops did yet against the messengers of his sacred will revealed for their salvation whiles we dehort them from these shamefull courses wherein they glory to their destruction And albeit they vse no such expresse forme of liturgie as did the Cyclops while they sacrifice to their bellies yet S. Pauls testimony is expresse that their bellie is their God And of the two Priests or grand sacrificers to this domesticke Idoll the dry Glutton me thinkes resembles the Land-serpent as his brother the beastly Drunkard doth the Water-snake This latter is more vnsightly and vgly to the eye the former more noysome and venemous to religious societie His enmitie against the Womans seed more deadly but lesse avoydable because the working of his poyson is lesse offensiue and more secret 4. Simple Atheisme consists in an equilibration of the minde brought as it were so to hang in its owne light as it cannot see whether way to encline but hoovers in the middle with Diagoras de Dijs non habeo quid dicam c. Concerning the Gods I haue nothing to say for them or against them Howbeit to men thus minded it seemes the safest course lite pendente to sacrifice onely to their owne desires and to hold Gods part by sequestratioÌ„ The curious or disputing Atheist striues to draw himselfe downe a little below this levell by matching the attractions of divine goodnesse with the motions of his owne imaginations But the malignancy of this Atheisme which ariseth from combination of the late mentioned distempers may grow so great as to turne the notions of good and evill topsie turvie transposing these inclinations which nature hath set on heaven and heavenly things towards hell As all inordinate affections more or lesse abate or countersway our propensions vnto goodnesse so the excesse of such as are most malignant bring the soule to an vtter distaste or loathing of whatsoever is truely good and to delight in doing mischiefe Now the very procurers or advancers of mischiefe much affected shall be deified with rites and titles due to God alone as it were in factious opposition to the holy spirit The same vnwildy or vast desires of sensuall pleasures or contentments which disenables men to distinguish that which is truely good from that which seemeth best to their distempers will with the same facilitie draw them blindfold to a like sinister or preposterous choyce of their patrones As the truely godly worship the true God because his greatnesse is so good to all so vnto these wicked or malignant Impes That shall be Lord That shall be God whatsoever it be which they esteeme their greatest good or vnder whose protection they may quietly possesse what they already enioy We see it too often experienced that stubborne desires of lucre honour lust or revenge draw men destitute of other meanes for accomplishing their hopes vnto expresse and wilfull compacts with Devils or performances of sacrifices to infernall powers The observant Poet makes Iuno speake as great Personages in like remedilesse crosses vsually resolue Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo nor doth the language of that other ought vary from the common practise of forlorne hopes suggested by vast desires Vos mihi manes Este boni quoniam superis aversa voluntas If these and the like prayers or wishes of heathen supplicants found gratefull successe their second edition in plaine English was thus What Heavens haue marr'd whiles Hell amends Fiends goe for Gods and Gods for Fiends 5. With many men otherwise of sober disposition onely too much wedded to the world or to their own wills a sorcerers charme will be as acceptable as a godly prayer so the event ensuing giue present content or satisfaction to their desires Yet many Atheists as Vasques counts it a point of speciall observation vpon wicked practises sometimes recoyle and come to beleeue there is a God or guide of nature by evident experience of magicke feates farre surpassing the power of man or creatures visible 6. It
might attaine vnto an exact modell or right proportion of faith and assent vnto the obiects themselues rightly conceived as evident and most certaine whilest their truth were oppugn'd onely by speculatiue contradiction yet these perswasions would quickly vanish and his assent once assaulted with grievous tentations of the flesh or suggestions framed by Satan forthwith recoyle Vnto every Article then in this Creede faith infused by the spirit of God is necessary in two respects First for framing an entire exact forme of things beleeved Secondly for quickning or fortifying our assent vnto them as good in the practise against all assaults of the Devill world or flesh Or more briefly it is necessary both for refashioning and reviving the decayed image of God in our soules Or to notifie the manner of our renovation by the manner of creation the ingraffed notion is the matter or subiect out of which Gods spirit raiseth the right and entire frame of faith as it did the frame fashion of this visible world out of that masse which was first without forme though created by him The indefinite truth of this notion which is the subiect whereon as the spirits instrument we are to worke will better appeare from the consent of the Heathen the originall of whose errours or misconceipts about the essence vnitie or nature of the God-head will direct vs for the right fashioning of his image in our selues 4. But as it is the safest course for any man to make tryall of his skill at foyles before he adventure to giue proofe of his valour at sharpe so it will be behoouefull for vs in the next place to obserue the originall of misapprehensions or misleadings of the Imagination in matters ordinary and secular wherein errour is vsually greater than the losse that wee may be the better provided for preventing the like in matters sacred wherein errour is alwayes accompanied with danger wherein finally to loose the way is vtterly to loose our selues SECTION II. Conteyning the originall manner of right apprehensions and errours in matters naturall or morall THough light of Nature and consent of Nations moued Tully to that vndoubted acknowledgement of divine powers which wee mentioned before yet when he came to discusse the nature of the Gods or God-head in particular the very multiplicitie of opinions in this argument caused him to reele and stagger And had we no better guide then Nature to direct vs in this search the best of vs perhaps would quickly subcribe to his opinion in his Preface to that Treatise Non sumus ij quibus nihil verâ—m esse videatur sed ij qui omnibus veris falsa quedam adiuncta esse dicamus tanta similitudine vt iâ— ijs nulla insit certa iudicandi assentiendi nota c. Wee are not of their opinion which thinke nothing is true but rather of theirs who thinke all truths haue some falsehoods annexed vnto them in such cunning and suteable disguise as there is scarce any certaine rule left for discerning the one from the other c. Cicero ad M Brutum de natura Deorum lib. 1. To a meere naturall man or Philosopher it might well in the first place be questioned how he can possibly attaine by light of nature to any knowledge of things spirituall or imperceptible by sense CHAPTER X. The severall opinions of Philosophers concerning the manner how Intellection is wrought or produced what is to be thought of intelligible formes 1. TWo Maximes there be in our vulgar Philosophy which were they fully stretched according to that proprietie of speech wherein Maximes should be conceived would sound too harsh to ordinary experience to consort well with Philosophicall truth The one that our vnderstanding is Similis rasa tabula like to a plaine Table wherein nothing is but what you list may be written The other consonant enough to this Nihil est intellectu quod non prius erat in sensu that the Intellectiue soule is like an emptie roome into which nothing can be admitted but what passeth first through the gates of sense The necessary consequences of these Axioms were they true would be these Wee can vnderstand nothing but what wee heare see smell touch or taste nothing otherwise than it appeares to these senses Doth sense then bring vs in loue with vertue doth it make vs hate vice or is the shape of good and evill imprinted vpon our sight our hearing or other organ or how doe we gather the Sunne to be alwayes splendent though it appeare red or wanish in a foggle or duskie morning or in the night appeare not at all To say the Actiue vnderstanding doth refine the Phantasmes or representations made by the Sense from all materiall conditions annexed to them as drosse to mettall as it no way meetes with the former so neither can it fully put off the latter obiected inconvenience The reply it self were it tryed by the touch as accurately as some haue done it hath no fundamentall soliditie of pure Philosophicall truth to coÌ„mend it vnto forraigners but a bare stamp of artificiall language current onely by compact in the Latine schooles as brasse or leather tokens are in some particular places The very inscription it selfe would be misliked in Greece or Athens which never admitted any intelligible formes representatiue Let such as haue coyned them tell vs how they should be instampt vpoÌ„ our vnderstandings by the Phantasmes after the same maner that the Phantasmes are imprinted vpon the senses by sensible obiects so should the vnderstanding be a facultie as meerely passiue and brutish as sense and the obiect of sense should be the principall agent in this worke It is true at least in our first contemplations though denied by Aristotelian Interpreters of best note to be necessary in perfect Contemplators that as there is no actuall sight or vision but by beholding colours so non intelligimus nisi speculando phantasmata wee actually vnderstand not but whiles wee speculate the Phantasmes Yet hence it followeth not that as vision so intellection should be accomplished by intromission of the refined phantasmes into the vnderstanding but rather by extromission of the intellectiue raies or beames into the Phantasie Not altogether averse from this opinion is an acute Schoolemans Interpretation of the former Axiom Intellectum conuerti ad phantasmata nihil aliud est quam mouere imaginationem ad formationeÌ„ Phantasmatum Forrariensis in cap. 65. Aq contra Gentes Admitting then the actiue vnderstanding doe irradiate agitate divide and compose the phantasmes I would demand whether it know the things represented before it behold their representations in the phantasie If it knew them before it had somewhat in it selfe which was not commended to it by sense Or iâ— no vnderstanding be gotten but by impression of extracted phantasmes or intelligible formes vpon the passiue vnderstanding seeing this extraction is wrought in the phantasie the vnderstanding should know no more than the phantasie doth because it
hath nothing in it which was not first in the phantasie illuminated by the actiue vnderstanding nor could it euer reiect any information given in by the phantasie thus inlightned as is supposed by the noblest facultie of the reasonable Soule 2. Others there be who haue well refuted all intelligible formes or impressions of abstract Phantasmes vpon the vnderstanding which neverthelesse by going too farre against Platonicall Ideas or notions imprinted by nature haue made their owne opinion otherwise allowable obnoxious to the former inconveniences Actuall Intellection or vnderstanding to their apprehensions consists wholy in the true imitation of things presented and then we are said to vnderstand when the reasonable soule Proteus-like transformes herselfe into new similitudes not when it puts on their forme as it were alreadie made fit for her by the actiue vnderstanding and the phantasie All this being granted the former difficulties full remaine first how we should rightly vnderstand the materiall entities never presented by sense secondly how the reasonable soule should make vndoubted triall whether her own imitations of what sense presents vnto her be exact and true The great Philosopher himselfe from whose discourses the former broken Axioms are borrowed graunts that brute beasts haue no sense or apprehensions of their sensitiue functions although they haue oftimes a more liuely sense of externall obiects than man hath it is then mans peculiar to haue a true sense and iudgement of all his own functions whether sensitiue or intellectiue This reflexed apprehensions or revise whether of sensitiue impressions or intellectuall functions excited by them necessarily supposeth some rule or copy pre-existent by which their examination should be tryed Imposble it is this rule or copie should be taken from sense or any actuall intellection by sense occasioned both these being to be ruled or examined by it Regula autem est prior regulata CHAP. XI How farre Platoes opinion may be admitted that all Knowledge is but a kind of reminiscence or calling that to minde which was in some sort knowne before 1. PLATOES opinion that all acquired science is but a kind of reminisence though it suppose a grosse error is not altogether so erroneous but that it may lead vs vnto that truth from whose misapprehension happily it first sprung That our soules whiles they liued as he supposed long time they did a single celestiall life should be plentifully furnisht with all manner of knowledge but instantly loose all by matching with these harlotrie bodies was a conceit more wittie in him than warrantable in vs vnto whom God hath revealed the true reason of that Probleme the desire of whose resolutioÌ„ enforced him to this supposall of the Soules existence before the bodie More divine wee know by much then Plato could imagine any was that knowledge wherewith our first Parents soule though concreated with his bodie was instamped Not Aristotle himselfe with the helpe of all the Philosophers which had gone before him not after his laborious workes de Hist animal could so readily haue invented names for living creatures so well expressing their seuerall natures as Adam not a full day old gaue them at their first appearance Such notwithstanding as his was might our knowledge of all things haue beene vnlesse his fall by Gods iust iudgement had beene our ruine That oblivion then or obstupefaction wherein our soules as Plato dreames are miserably drencht by their delapse into these bodily sinks of corruption wee may more truely deriue from that pollution which we naturally draw from our first Parents wherewith our soules at first commixture with our bodies are no lesse soiled the characters of truth imprinted in them no lesse obliterated then if they had beene perpetually soakt in them since the first creation All of vs by nature seeke after knowledge as an inheritance whereto we thinke we haue iust title and auncient copies could we reade them of the originall evidences which our auncestors sometimes had 2. For what should impell vs to this sollicitous search no humane wit can divine vnlesse we graunt some such reliques or fragments of vniversall truth once had but now lost to reside yet in our collapsed natures as oftimes runne in our thoughts whiles surprised with oblivion of some particulars which we much desire to call to minde As wee cannot call ought to minde which we haue not actually and expresly knowne before so is it impossible wee should certainly know any things actually or expresly whose notion or Character was not in some sort formerly imprinted in our intellectiue facultie Remembrance knowledge expresse or actuall and these ingraffed notions differ onely as Adam Seth and Enoch did not by nature but in manner of descent Seth had a father as well as Enoch yet a father not begotten by a former father but created In like manner knowledge expresse or acquired cannot but proceede from knowledge pre-existent not acquired or expresse but implanted vnapprehended And as remembrance is but a reiteration of actuall knowledge so is actuall knowledge but an apprehension of imprinted notions pre-existent though latent These two parts of Platoes assertion we must admit as absolutely true First We can vnderstand nothing without vs but by recourse vnto these Ideall notions which are within vs not abstracted or severed from vs as he is wrongfully charged to haue taught Secondly As for a Master to seeke his fugitiue servant amongst a multitude were vaine vnlesse he had some pre-notions markes or notice of his shape or favour or carried some picture drawne by others to compare with his face never seene by him before so for vs to seeke the knowledge of any matters before vnknowne vnlesse we had some modell or character of them framed by nature would be altogether as bootlesse Those Ideall notions whereof this Philosopher and his followers so much speake are in true Divinitie the prints or characters of truth ingraven vpon our soules by the finger of our Creator And so many of these prints or reliques of divine impressions as wee can distinctly hunt out or discover so much of Gods image is renued in vs. CHAP. XII After what manner the Ideall or ingraffed Notions are in the soule 1. THe difficulties whose accurate discussion would cleare this whole businesse are especially two first the manner of these notions inherence or implantations in our soules Secondly by what meanes their distinct notice or apprehensions are suggested Their opinion which thinke these characters though latent should be in our soules after the same manner as Letters written with the iuice of Onions are in paper though not legible admitteth some difficultie For were they so distinct well severed in the soule though not apparant error would not be so riâ—e when they appeare nor should the sense delude the vnderstanding with such false shewes or resemblances as it often obtrudes vnto it the flesh could not intice the spirit to embrace that for an vndoubted and inestimable good which hath lesse similitude with true
XVI The generall fallacie by which Sathan seduced the World to acknowledge false Gods 1. THe manner how indefinite notions of the Deitie did branch themselues into Idolatrie though many haue attempted to handle at large none in my judgement haue so directly hitt as the Philosopher doth in a touch or glaunce The fallacie was in converting that Maxime or generall notion simply which was convertible onely by Accident All conceived of God as the best obiect they could conceiue whence many finding contentment to their desires beyond all measure of good distinctly knowne before forthwith collected that to be God which had given them such contentment Others more desirous to gratulate their extraordinary benefactors with more then vsuall respect then able to distinguish betweene the severall degrees or sorts of honor made bold to borrow such as was due vnto the divine power therewith to gratifie men and so by custome or bad example brought posteritie to pay that as an ordinary debt which in heate of affection or vnwildie exuitation of minde had beene mis-tendered by way of complement or lavish gratuitie In mindes not well acquainted with the severall kindes of things desireable nor with the degrees of their goodnesse it is alwayes easie for any good of higher degree or ranke then hath beene formerly tasted to intercept that respect or affection which by rule of justice belongeth onely to the best And the affection thus alienated or misguided disenables our inclinations for aspiring any higher For although the capacitie of the humane soule be in a manner infinite and all of vs infinitely desire to be happy yet our apprehensions of goodnesse or happinesse it selfe are confused and indistinct The best of vs vntill Gods spirit become our guide are no better then blind men in the choyce of things good From this natiue blindnesse of our appetites and apprehensions we infinitely desire that which first or most frequently possesseth our soules with delight though in its nature but a finite good and our desires being infinitely set on that which is but finitely good doe dull our sight dead our appetite and abate our capacities of that infinite goodnesse which we naturally long after Thus as heretofore is observed our desires of good ends which admit no bound or limit are often taken vp by the meanes whose acquaintance was onely sought for better compassing the end And many yong wits finding vnusuall refreshing in extemporary exchange of jâ—sts of pleasant discourse or in opening some veine of Poetry are in short time brought to confine themselues wholly to this kinde of dyet contented to be continually fed with froth otherwise framed for contemplation of such mysteries as might perpetually distill Nectar and Ambrosia 2. By a wittie resemblance directly subordinate to this generall occasion of error â—re intimated doth the noble Mornay expresse the manner of some Heathens seducements to worship the Hoast of Heaven This saith he so fell out as if some Rustique that thinkes a great deale better of himselfe when he hath on his holy daies suite permitted to come within the Court should mistake the first gawdie coate he mette with for his Prince or Soueraigne Heaven they conceived to be the seate or court of divine powers and the Sunne Moone and Starres being bodies glorious in themselues and sensible procurers of common benefits to men partly by reason of their place partly by that high ranke of excellency or goodnesse which they enioy amongst the partes of this visible world might easily be adored for gods by such as had small or no relish of any other good than what was sensible Some Barbarians as is said to this day thinke vs Christians but a kinde of senselesse creatures for worshipping a God whom we neither see heare nor feele neglecting the Sunne to whose comfortable beames more senses then one are beholding This report though not avouched by any authentique Relator whiles related in my hearing by some who avouched themselues eare-witnesses of such expostulations with Barbarians I could not reiect as incredible because not vnconsonant to Caesars Narration of the auncient Germanes The Germanes saith he which worshipped no Gods besides the Sunne the Moone c. of whose beneficence they were sensible Their manner of life as is well knowne was but simple without varietie of trades for supplying of necessities much more destitute of good arts or curious inventions for ornament of publique State otherwise their gods had beene more Had the mystery of Printing to omit other profitable inventions of moderne Germanes beene invented in those auncient times whereof Caesar writes Gutenberg of Ments to whom the Christian world is vnder God most beholding for this sacred Art might haue beene a God of higher esteeme throughout Germany than Mercury or Iupiter himselfe or any other God of the Germanes by Caesar mentioned For with most people of those times as Zenoes scholler had observed any profitable Invention was title sufficient to chalenge the esteeme or honor of a God even the things themselues so invented if rare or extraordinarily beneficiall were enstiled with the attributes of divine powers Thus as the wise man had observed the Heathens multiplied their gods according to the varietie of the matters which they principally desired or feared And Cotta deriding the Somnolent and sluggish gods of the Epicures doth in comparison acquite the Aegyptians from their grosse foppery in that they consecrated no beasts but for some publique benefit in their opinion received from them 3. Of publique benefits freedome from daunger was held a part whence those beasts how loathsome soever vnto whose annoyance they were most obnoxious were reverenced and feared as gods Not the Crocodile but had his peculiar rites or pacificall ceremonies howbeit his worshippers held it a point of religious policy to hold like correspondency with Iohneumon a kinde of water Rat which devoured this gods young ones To attribute divine honour vnto beasts how beneficiall soever may seeme to vs very grosse and without some other collaterall impulsiue causes scarce derivable from the former originall of this error But whatsoever the causes might be experience hath proued the effect not vnusuall amongst barbarous people in this age There be at this day in Samogithia many Idolaters which nourish a kinde of Serpents that go or creepe vpon foure short feet like Lizzards their bodies blackish and fat about some three handfulls in length and these they nourish as their houshold Gods And whilest they come or creepe vpon set daies by ceremoniall invitation vnto their meate the Master of the house with his familie attends them with feare and reverence to their repast at their repast vntill they returne vnto their place It is a strange Narration which this Author in the same place commends vnto vs vpon the credit of his Hoast Which how farre it is to be taken I referre it to such as will take paines to reade the Author himselfe or his words here quoted in
title to Gods honour offered to them by their Parasites But as the Heathen fathered vnobservable or strange events vpon new fained gods or Lady Fortune so the trencher-mates of our times resolue all good successe of state into some great mens wit or valour whom they admire or loue to flatter for their owne gaine Not the discovery of the Powder-Treason it selfe but hath beene in our hearing ascribed to the Oracle of Intelligence as if the plotte had beene knowne to some Demi-gods of state before the plotters fell a digging He should not much wrong this Table-tatling crewe in word or thought that thinkes and speakes of them as of Idolaters more detestable than the most superstitious Heathen Romanes or if they come short of them in the proper nature of this particular summe we are to take the abatement not so much from any lesse measure of false religion as from excesse of Atheisme and irreligion But from what Schoole they take these lessoÌ„s I know and must hereafter haue Machievill their Maister in examination for his impudent animadversions and hypocriticall corrupt glosses quite contrary as well to the professed meaning of that very Text he tooke vpon him to expound as to the vnanimous tenent of best Romane Writers even Senators themselues concerning the causes of their States advancement 8. But questionlesse such of the Romanes as adored Foelicitie for a goddesse were not of those Philosophers minde which denied felicitie to be the gift of God for what could haue nurst in them this desire to please her saue onely hope that shee could reward with happinesse such as diligently sought her and could prosper industrious and carefull indevours for private or publique weale in which cases onely they did sollicite her furtherance Such good successes as grew rather from meere happe than good husbandry were taken as favours of Mris Fortune not graces of the great Queene Felicitie or Lady Vertue The worshippers likewise of this inferior goddesse did by their service acknowledge that some divine power must giue increase and maturitie to such seeds of morall honestie as by nature had be one planted or watered by civill education or good discipline That the blessings of this supposed goddesse were as necessary and beneficiall to the labour or culture of the minde as the blessings of Ceres or Segetia were to tillage or workes of husbandry Hence we may gather Cotta's mouth to haue beene a great deale too wide when it vttered that vnsavory observation which Tully as I conceiue observing the decorum of the parties disposition or the part which he was to act brings him in rather bâ—lching than speaking his tautologies are so abrupt and tedious part of which are to this effect No man did ever acknowledge God for the Author or donor of vertue And this stands with reason for we are iustly commended by others for vertues and we our selues rightly glory in our vertues which could not be so if vertue were the gift of God not a qualitie of our providing But for the increase of honour or revennues for the attayning any good which might haue mist vs for eschewing any evill which might haue befallen vs we thanke the Gods disclaiming our owne praise or deseruings Doubtlesse he had never asked the consent of his honest Neighbours to this peremptory determination which alike concerned them all but vsed his owne proud irreligious spirit as an allowed measure of others thoughts Did any man ouer thanke the Gods for making him a good man For what then For his riches honour or safetie Iupiter had his titles of greatnesse and goodnesse from these effects not for making vs iust and temperate or wise men nor did ever any man vow tithes to Hercules for being made wise by him From these vnsavory ejaculations of Cotta and also from the Romane Poet who acknowledged himselfe to haue beene of Epicures broode we may inferre That this Sect amongst the ancient Romanes did not absolutely deny the divine providence but onely as it respected the soule of man A speciall providence over mens bodies and temporall estates they did with reverence acknowledge herein much better than the Libertines of our times than carelesse professors of Christianitie or those Heathen Epicuraeans before mentioned in Iuvenalls time Sit mihi quod nunc est etiam minus vt mihi vivam Quod superest aevi si quid superesse volunt dij Sit bona librorum provisae frugis in annum Copia neu fluitem dubiae spe pendulus horae Sed satis est orare Iovem qui donat aufert Det vitam det opes aequum mi animum ipse parabo With what I haue or if 't be lesse vnto my selfe to liue I am content if longer life the Gods shall please to giue Of bookes I chiefly plentie wish of other things such store As may my mind froÌ„ floting thoughts to setled state restore Of Ioue who giues and takes away all that I mean to craue Is life and meanes an vpright mind I of my selfe can haue 9. Not to cloy the Reader with multitude of instances without varietie of observation scarce was there a blessing or good gift any manner of punishment or reward which wee Christians deriue from God whose forme or abstract the Romanes and Grecians did not conceipt as a God or goddesse according to the Grammaticall gender of the noune or word whereby the nature was signified Pauor Dread was a god Paena Punishment a goddesse Praemium reward I know not whether a god or goddesse but to them a deified power Though in no case we may legitimate this misconceite of these Heathens yet must we acknowledg it to be but one degree removed from that truth wherof it is the degenerate of-spring He that wills vs to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect supposeth the ideall perfection or exemplary forme of all goodnesse required in vs to be originally essentially and supereminently in him Of which truth this is the immediate consequence That the exact definition of vertues especially intellectuall or of any essentiall branch of goodnesse is more proper to the divine patterne or Idea than to the participated impressioÌ„ which it leaues in vs. That definition which did either breede or abette some needlesse controversies amongst Schoolemen and moralists whether Iustice be a morall or intellectuall vertue was intended by Vlpian the author of it for a description of the heathen goddesse Iustice as the learned Hottoman with some other good Lawyers avouched by Salmuth to my remembrance haue rightly collected from the words annexed Iustitia est perpetua constans voluntas suum cuique tribuendi cuius noâ— Iurisconsulti sacerdotes sumus Iustice is a perpetuall and constant will of rendring to every man his due whose Priests we are that professe the Law 10. There is no attribute of God as conceived by vs or rather no conceipt we haue of his attributes but hath its distinct bounds or limits We cannot say
many of Plutarchs coniectures of the inspiration and expiration of Oracles Iulian it seemes from Plutarchs Principles hoped to encourage these divining spirits to follow their former studies and recall them to their wonted seats by reviving their auncient rites and reestablishing their priviledges as if Honos alit artes had place amongst these pettie gods 6. This Philosophicall opinion did fit the forementioned temptation to superstition as the claspe doth the keeper And with their impulsiue helpe were able to draw the present Christian world not well catechized into the bottomlesse sinke of foulest Idolatrie And though from consciousnesse of our ignorance in the workes of Nature we allow the issue of many practises whereof we can assigne no probable speciall cause but onely in charitie to our selues and others suppose they haue some right vnto their being by the ordinary course of nature yet some disorderly over-growne stemmes there be of this charitable credulitie which bring forth little better fruit than that which the Christian world condemned in Iulian. As for example such as from vncertaine traditions can conceiue hope and attempt the practise of curing diseases by Amulets or by application of supposed medicines apparantly destitute of any naturall actiue force will quickly be set over to acknowledge some hidden vertue or supernaturall efficacy concomitant or assisiant which in plaine tearmes they will not call their God or Creator yet will thinke of it as of a good spirit ready to helpe in time of neede so it be sought vnto by such meanes as the Cabalists of these secret mysteries shall prescribe Whatsoever the matter of the medicine may be though oftimes it be rather verball than materiall the manner of applying it is for the most part meerely magicall and serues though not in the intention of the patient or Physician as a solemne sacrifice to the founders of these Arts. Or if the manner of applying or wearing medicines be not superstitiously ceremonious the solemne professing though alwayes not verbally expressed of credence or beliefe prerequired vnto their efficacy is Idolatrous Of practises in this kind though the practitioners will or can assigne no reason saue onely traditions of lucke good or bad to follow yet may we safely presume the most part to be naught because we may evidently deriue the originall of many from conceits meerely heathenish and Idolatrous Such is the vse of Vervine of our Ladies gloues and S. Iohns grasse at this day in no lesse request amongst some rude and ignorant Christians than sometimes they were amongst the auncient Grecians or Romanes to whose manners Theocritus and Virgil in their Poems doe allude Bacchare frontem Cingite ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro Lest naughtie tongue whil'st Poet's yong his braine doe blast Let luckie grasse 'bout his Temple passe to binde them fast That other peece of the same Poet concerning the vse of Vervine smells too rankly of magicall sacrifice or incense Verbenas adole pingues mascula thura It may be questioned whether the Romane Legates did weare Vervine vpon superstitious confidence of some hidden vertue in it or as an emblematicall allusion to the superstitious conceit of the vulgar But wonted they were to weare bunches of it in their solemn embassages whether in token that their persons ought not or out of vaine hope that their persons could not be violated so long as they were vnder the protection of this hearbe accounted sacred The most superstitious hopes implied in these or the like practises of the Heathen may be more then paralleld by the vaine confidence which some ignorant Christians put in the secret vertue of these and like hearbes for curing strange diseases or for their safegard against thunder fiends or wicked spirits To this purpose I well remember a tradition that was olde when I was yong better beleeved by such as told it then if it had beene Canonicall Scripture It was of a maide that liked well of the devill making loue to her in the habit of a gallant young man but could not enioy his company nor he hers so long as shee had Vervine and S. Iohns grasse about her for to this effect he brake his minde vnto her at last in rime If thou hope to be Lemman mine Lay aside the St Iohns grasse and the Vervine To robbe a Swallowes nest built in a fire-house is from some old bell-dames Catechismes held a more fearefull sacrilege than to steale a chalice out of a Church Besides tradition they haue no reason so to thinke The prime cause of this superstitious feare or hope of good lucke by their kinde vsage was that these birds were accounted sacred amongst the Romanes Dijs penatibus to their houshold gods of which number Venus the especiall patronesse of swallowes was one 7. Such a presidency as Ammianus assigned to Themis and the substantiall vertues of the Elements is to this day given by these magicke Cabalists vnto spirits over mettalls stones and hearbes each haue their severall Patrons And if the practise be for the practitioners conceived good the spirit which prospers it shall not be reputed evill Thus are the Fayries from difference of events ascribed to them divided into good and bad when as it is but one and the same malignant fiend that meddles in both seeking sometimes to be feared otherwhiles to be loued as God for the bodily harmes or good turnes supposed to be in his power And permitted no question he is to doe both in iust punishment of their heathenish superstition or servilitie that can esteeme him worthy either of religious loue or feare 8. It was my happe since I vndertooke the Ministerie to question an ignorant soule whom by vndoubted report I had knowne to haue beene seduced by a teacher of vnhallowed arts to make a dangerous experiment what he saw or heard when he watcht the falling of the Ferne-seed at an vnseasonable and suspitious houre Why quoth he fearing as his briefe reply occasioned me to conjecture lest I should presse him to tell before company what he had voluntarily confessed vnto a friend in secret about some foureteene yeares before doe you thinke that the devill hath ought to doe with that good seed No it is in the keeping of the King of Fayries and he I know will doe me no harme although I should watch it againe yet had he vtterly forgotten this Kings name vpon whose kindnesse he so presumed vntill I remembred it vnto him out of my reading in Huon of Burdeaux And having made this answer he beganne to pose me thus Sr you are a schollar and I am none Tell me what said the Angell to our Lady or what conference had our Lady with her cousin Elizabeth concerning the birth of St Iohn the Baptist As if his intention had beene to make by-standers beleeue that he knew somewhat more in this point than was written in such bookes as I vse to reade Howbeit the meaning of his riddle I quickly
slaine in such a stile as were enough to cast a musing Reader into a waking dreame or imagination that the walls the houses the very soile whereon shee trod had beene animated with some peculiar Genius capable of friendship and foehood Horruit Argia dextrasque ad moenia tendens Vrbs optata prius nunc tecta hostilia Thebe Si tamen illoesas reddis mihi coniugis vmbras Nunc quoque dulce solum With griefe o'regrowne to Theban-walls her suppliant hands shee bends Oh Cittie late too dearly lou'd since loue in sorrow ends Now hostile Thebes yet so thou willest my Consorts Corps restore Still shalt thou be a Soile to me as deare as heretofore These or the like speeches of heathen Poets if by Christians they may not be vttered without reproofe Lactantius his censure of Tullie for his too lavish Rhetoricall Prosopopeia made vnto Philosophie shall saue me a labour O Philosophie the guide of life the searcher out of vertue the banisher of vice without thee not onely wee thy followers should be no bodies but even the life of mankinde could be nothing worth for thou hast beene the Foundresse of Lawes the Mistresse of manners and discipline As if forsooth saith this Author Philosophie it selfe could take any notice of his words or as if He rather were not to be praised which did bestow her He might with as good reason haue rendered the like Rhetoricall thanks to his meate and drinke for without these the life of man cannot consist howbeit these are things without sense Benefits they are but they can be no Benefactors As they are the nourishment of the bodie so is wisedome or true Philosophie of the soule 3. That the seminaries of Poetrie should be the chiefe nurses of Idolatry argues how apt the one is to bring forth the other or rather how both lay like twinnes in the wombe of the same vnpurified affection vsually begotten by one spirit Woods and fountaines as every Schoole-boy knoweth were held chiefe mansions of the Muses to whose Courts the Poets resorted to doe their homage invoking their aide as the goddesses whom they most renowned hereto allured by the opportunitie of the place The pleasant spectacle and sweete resounds which woods and shadie fountaines afford will sublimate illiterate spirits and tune or temper mindes otherwise scarce apt for any to retired contemplations They are to every noise as an organized bodie to the soule or spirit which moues it Gentle blasts diffused through them doe so well symbolize with the internall agitations of our mindes and spirits that when wee heare them we seeme desirous to vnderstand their language and learne some good lesson from them And albeit they vtter not expresly what we conceiue yet to attentiue composed thoughts they inspire a secret seede or fertilitie of invention especially sacred 4. But is or was the notion of the Deitie naturally more fresh and liuely in these seminaries of heathenish Poetry than in other places Yes every vnusuall place or spectacle whether remarkeably beautifull or gastly imprints a touch or apprehension of some latent invisible power as President of what we see Seneca's observation to this purpose will open vnto vs one maine head or source of heathenish Idolatrie which well cleansed might adde fertilitie to Christian devotion In vnoquoque virorum bonorum quis deus incertum est habitat deus To proue this conclusion that God is neare vs even within vs thus he leads vs. If thou light on a groue thicke set with trees of such vnusuall antiquitie and height as that they take away the sight of Heaven by the thicknesse of their branches ouer spreading one another the height of the wood the solitarinesse of the place and the vncouthnesse of the close and continued shade in the open aire doe ioyntly represent a kinde of Heaven on earth and exhibit a proofe vnto thee of some divine power present Or if thou chance to see a denne whose spatious concauitie hath not beene wrought by the hand-labour of men but by causes naturall which haue so deepely eaten out and consumed the stones that they haue left a hanging mountain to ouer spread it like a Canopie the sight likewise will affect the minde with some touch or apprehension of Religion We adore the heads of great Rivers c. Vide Parag. 8. 9. of this Chapter 5. And because superstition can hardly sprout but from the degenerate and corrupt seeds of devotion wicked spirits did haunt these places most which they perceived fittest for devout affections As sight of such groues and fountaines as Seneca describes would nourish affection so the affection naturally desirous to enlarge it selfe would with the helpe of these Spirits sleights and instigations incite the superstitious to make their groues more retired and sightly Thus like cunning anglers they first baite the places and then fish them and their appearance being most vsuall when mens mindes were thus tuned to devotion the eye would easily seduce the heart to fasten his affections to the place wherein they appeared as more sacred than any other And to the spirits thus appearing as to the sole Lords and owners of the delightfull soile and chiefe Patrons of these bewitching rites and customes they thought their best devotions were not too good 6. Throughout the story of the Iudges and Kinges of Israel we may obserue how groues were as the banquetting houses of false gods the trappes and ginnes of sacrilegious superstition For this cause in all suppressions of Idolatrie the commission runnes joyntly for cutting downe groues and demolishing Altars So God Deuteronomie the 5. after commandement given to destroy the Amorites addeth this iniunction withall Ye shall overthrow their Altars and breake downe their pillars and ye shall cut downe their groues and burne their graven Images with fire And vnto Gideon the first in my remembrance to whom this warrant was in particular directed Throw downe the Altar of Baal that thy Father hath made and cut downe the groue that is by it Iudg. 6. v. 25. And Ezekiah whiles he remoued the high places and brake the Idolls cut downe the groues 2. King 18. v. 4. The like did Iosias after him 2. King 23. v. 14. How availeable either this destruction of groues was to the extirpation or the cherishing of them to the growth and increase of Idolatrie the good successe of â—agello his like religious policie in winning the Lithuâ—nians his stifly Idolatrous and strangely superstitious Country men vnto Christian Religion may enforme vs. I relate the Story at large as I finde it because it conteines fresh and liuely experiments as well of this present as of diverse other observations in this Treatise And no man will easily distrust auncient reports when he sees them parallele by moderne and neighbour examples The common sort saith mine Author speaking of the Lithuanian about two hundred yeares agoe was very stiffe and would hardly indure to be intreated to relinquish their
greatest Angell and the least amongst the sonnes of men are fellow-servants Doe wee speake this as men vnwilling to bow their knees vnto their betters without hope of gaine or loath to spend their breath without a fee or doth not the Scripture say the same Doe not such of our Lord and Masters servants as are cloathed with glory and immortalitie and daily behold his presence in perfect ioy inhibite the first proffers of such obeysance to them present as the Romish liturgie solemnly consecrates to the shrines and statues of others much meaner in their absence How beautifull were the feete of that heavenly Embassador how glorious and ioyfull were the tydings he then brought vnto the Inhabitants of the earth Blessed are they which are called vnto the marriage supper of the Lambe these are the true sayings of God Such was the state of the messenger and such his message as did well deserue to haue an Apostle for his Scribe for He bid him write And yet when this his Secretary fell at his feete vers 10. to worship he said vnto him See thou doe it not I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren that haue the testimony of Iesus worship God Did S. Iohn want wit to reply So I will cultu latriae but Thee my Lord his Embassador also cultu duliae This is a distinction of such subtiltie that it surpasseth all skill or spirit of prophecies Otherwise S. Iohn might haue knowne the vse of it when he had better opportunitie to vse it than any had since Yet if he had beene so disposed the Angell prevented him I am thy fellow servant and it is the dutie of servants not to seeke honour one of another but to be yoke-fellowes in their Masters service conforts in setting forth his honour Bellarmine was conscious that his first answere to this place though borrowed from Antiquitie was erroneous or impertinent Corrigendus fuit adorator non propter errorem adorationis sed propter errorem personae Saint Iohn was not to be reformed for offring to worship Him whom be tooke to be Christ but in that he mistooke the Angell for Christ Saint Austines words vpon which Bellarmine was too wise to rely too much are these Talis apparuerat Angelus ut pro Deo posset adorari et ideo fuerat corrigendus adorator The Angel did so appeare as he might seeme to be God or to be worshipped as God and therefore the worshipper was to be rectified 3. But let vs try whether his second cogitations be any sounder Saint Iohn did well in preffering to worship the Angell as Abraham Lot and other of his godly auncestors had done but the Angel did prohibite him in reverence to Christs humanitie For since the Angels themselues haue done homage to Christs humanitie they will not receiue that homage from men which before Christs incarnation they did Let him pretend what authoritie he list for the truth of this reply it is impertinent to the point in question and we may driue him to another shift by pressing this evasion For if the Angels since Christs incarnation haue released men of their wonted homage or rather wholly resigned it into Christs hand abandoning the least acknowledgment of religious worship when they come as Gods Embassadors in person wee demaund whether the Romish Church did well or ill in commaunding her sonnes and daughters to worship them still in this latter age wherein wee expect Christs comming in glory to Iudgement The forme of Bellarmines second answere is very strange and such as he derides Brentius for vsing in a matter farre more capable of it Wee rightly worship Angels and the Angels rightly refuse to be worshipped by vs. For after the Angell had given out his prohibition Vide ne feceris cap. 19. ver 10. See thou doe it not the Apostle offers to doe the like againe cap. 22. ver 9. as well knowing that he did well in worshipping and the Angell as well in refusing to be worshipped Nor may wee suspect that Saint Iohn was either indocile or forgetfull Much lesse may we suspect that God Almightie would haue his children of the Church militant and triumphant to complement it all the yeare long in such manner as strangers will for a turne or two at their first meeting the one in good manners offring and the other better refusing the chiefe place or precedence least of all may we thinke that one of Gods glorious Embassadors could out of maydenly modestie be driven to maintaine false doctrine To haue avoided the first proffer of worship so peremptorily forbidden See thou doe it not had beene enough to disprooue the solemne practise of it in whomsoever But not herewith content he giues a generall reason of his prohibition See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow-servant worship God May wee not supply his meaning by Analogie of our Saviours Comment vpon the Text of the Law Worship him alone whom the Angels can never worship too much nor any man on earth enough 4. It is a warrant to our Churches fully sufficient not to doe homage vnto Angels absent because in presence they refuse and forbid it By what warrant the Romish Church can obtrude it vpon them against their wills let her sonnes looke to it Wee haue cause to suspect and they to feare that the Devill and his swift messengers haue played Gehazies with their Naamans runne to their Rulers in these heavenly Prophets names to demaund such gratifications vpon false pretences in their absence as they resolutely refused when in all reason they best deserved them if at any time they might haue taken them The Disciple is not aboue his Maister much lesse is the pupils practise to be imitated before the Tutors doctrine S. Iohn in this Dialogue was the pupill doe they then grace him by taking his proffer to worship this Angel for their warrant or rather wrong the Angel in not admitting his two-fold inhibition at both times obeyed by this his schollar for a sufficient caveat to deterre them from making the worshipping of Saints and Angels a speciall part of their solemne service But this is the curse which by Gods just judgement is fallen vpon them for detayning the truth in vnrighteousnesse That as the Horse-leach sucketh onely the melancholy humor out of mens bloud so these Locusts having relinquished the pure fountaine of truth must long after the dregs of Antiquitie in their doctrine and in their practise feede principally vpon such infirmities of the flesh as sometimes mingle them selues with the spirituall behaviour of Gods Saints For even the soules of Gods dearest Saints haue their habitation during this life with flesh and bloud And albeit we sinfull men may not passe our censures vpon S. Iohn nor measure his carriage in the Angels presence by any the least oversight in our selues who are never raught beyond our selues in such admiration of spirit as he then was yet the holy Angel with whose glorious appearance
be often given but not executed so may this apprehension be in the vnderstanding without the inclination of the will or affection as greatest school-men haue not beene alwayes devoutest Saints Or againe as many things are acted vpon presumption of some custome without iust or expresse warrant of law so the inclination of the will in which the nature of religious worship in their divinitie consists doth often prevent the distinct or right apprehension of the vnderstanding as many things are often most affected sometime or other by all of vs which the vnderstanding seasonably consulted would not esteeme the worthiest of our best affection And is there any likelihood that he which conceiues a vow in one and the same thought and professeth it with one and the same breath ioyntly to God to the blessed Virgin and to other Saints should scholastically distinguish their severall excellencies or proper titles and proportion the degrees of severall worships to them The very termes whereby they expresse them as Latria Dulia Hyperdulia argue onely difference in the apprehension of the obiect no diversitie of internall habits or graces in the heart much lesse diverse inclinations of the will or elevations of the mind and spirit wherein religious worship doth consist Or admit the apprehension of Gods excellencies and the Saints were alwayes expresse and distinct and had severall degrees or rankes of internall affection exactly proportioned vnto them and expresly intended in the conception or first profession of the Vow it is no way credible that our speculatiue conceipts or apprehensions of the vnderstanding should carry their correspondent affections so levell and paralell in the practise or performance as they should not intermingle or one crosse another We see in other cases of common life wherein the danger in all likelihood is much lesse how quickly our affections flag in pursuite of those marks whereto our soaring contemplations did first direct them No mans heart in his first ayme is set on money for it selfe but as it is the viaticum to some better end And yet how rare a thing is it to see a man much acquainted with this mettall not to affect it as his God to whose service he consecrates his best intentions True felicitie is the center whereto all our thoughts doe naturally sway but most mens cogitations are vsually drencht in the dregges of misery and basenesse being drawne awry or pulled downe by the contagious filth which their senses haue sucked in from too much familiaritie with their naturall obiects 2. And shall not the affectionate apprehension of such excellency as these men ascribe vnto Saints whom they conceit as liue spectators of their inward thoughts and outward carriage get much greater attractiue force than gold or pearle can haue over their soules these being daily powred out vnto them in prayers in vowes and other inticing issues of devotion Especially seeing their worship of what kinde soever is not intended onely as a meane or passage to the worship of God but as the marke or scope of that religious affection which they call Dulia Or admitting there were a twofold affection or inclination of the will as they imagine it were impossible that this inferior one which they call Dulia seizing so heartily vpon the Saints should not interrupt the others flight towards God and misperswade men that his worship did consist in devotion towardes them as men are drawne as it were in a dreame to thinke felicitie is seated in those meanes which are subordinate and subservient to it Finally it would so fall out in this case especially as by corruptiō of nature it generally doth in others Communia negliguntur The common good though most magnified is most neglected and Qui multis benefacit a nemine gratiam reportat Publicke benefactors though their bountie extend in large measure to each particular are lesse remembred or respected than such as gratifie vs in our priuate superfluous desires though perhaps to the preiudice of others necessities Thus howsoever the divine excellencie as well in respect of it selfe as of the benefits flowing from it to all mankind might still be most admired in every mans speculatiue apprehension or conceipt yet in as much as he is good to all without respect of persons few or none will respect him so much in their affections as otherwise they would if every one may haue his supposed private benefactors or the inhabitants of severall places their peculiar patrons in heaven The distinction of Dulia and Latria though ministred fasting to such as vow fasts or pilgrimages vnto Saints will not purge their hearts especially if they be rude and illiterate from that grosse humor which Tullie observed in the Alabandenses or Cominaeus in the Inhabitants of Pauia If such as builded them Cities or endowed their Churches with lands may haue their Images curiously wrought and adorned to be daily saluted with the same outward signes of submission which they tender vnto God or Christ the Wise-mans observatiō is not out of date in respect of these latter dayes And S. Augustine tells vs that the erection of a stately Temple vnto Iupiter eclipsed the honour of Summanus who had beene held the more honourable God before CHAPTER XXXII A paralell betweene the affectionate zeale which the Iewes did beare vnto Moses and his writings and the like zeale which the Romanist beares vnto Saints deceased and their Legends That the Romanists zeale is obnoxious to greater hazard of miscarriage and the miscarriage of his affection more dangerous by his daily practise of worshipping Images 1 WHether Images of the Godhead of the Trinitie or of the severall persons of Angels or other invisible substances may be lawfully made whether of these or other Images any lawful profitable or pious vse be granted to Christians which was denyed vnto the Iewes are parcels of that maine Question Whether the second Commandement according to our division were morall or ceremoniall of which if God permit in the exposition of the Decalogue In the meane time it is to vs it ought to be to the whole Catholicke Church a great presumption that the Commandement is one and the same to both Iew and Gentile of as great authoritie now as ever in that the primitiue Church did not reenter vpon this auncient libertie if at any time it had beene free to bow downe to graven Images to adore the pictures of Gods appearances or of men deceased The vse of Images in Churches or sacred Liturgies was held so incompatible with Christian worship of God in spirit and truth that when Adrian intended to honour Christ as a God he commaunded Temples to be erected without Images But his good purpose wanting effect the Temples so erected did beare his name not Christs or any other Gods as wanting Images to take possession of them And not their names onely but their revenewes might quickly Escheate vnto the Emperour without some visible patron to lay some claime vnto them Varroes testimony
their purposes or affections change they are so ready to sing Canticum novum ditties so strangely contrary to their late passionate songs that no devise can better emblazen the inconstancy of their boysterously blind perswasions than Polyphoemus as the Poet pictures him in his woeing fit Candidior folio nivei Galataea ligustri Floridior prato longa procerior alno Spendidior vitro tenero lascivior haedo Laevior assiduo detritis aequore chonchis Solibus hybernis aestiva gratior vmbra Nobilior pomis Platano conspectior alta Lucidior glacie maturâ dulcior vua Mollior cygni plumis et lacte coacto Et si non fugias riguo formosior horto This was his note whiles his loue did kindle in hope much changed with alteration of his possibilities Saevior indomitis eadem Galataea iuvencis Durior annosa quercu fallacior vndis Lentior salicis virgis vitibus albis His immobilior scopulis violentior amne Laudato Pavone superbior acrior igne Asperior tribulis faeta truculentior vrsa Surdior aequoribus calcato immitior hydro Et quod praecipuè si possem demere vellem Non tantum cervo claris latratibus acto Verùm etiam ventis volucrique fugacior aura 6. Is it not a miserable condition whereunto the vnconstancy of humane passions seekes to bring the inflexible rule of truth vsually wrested to hold as exact consort with our Palinodies or recantations as with our first approved lessons although the one be more dissonant to the other than the latter part of Polyphoemus his song was to the former For without some apprehension of consort with Gods word no dogmaticall assertion can be conceived or maintained as true by any Christian though a Christian onely in his owne conceit So true it is which was before generally observed and often intimated that even the worst of Heathenish humors for the most part alter onely their course not their nature in those parts of the world which of heathens haue turned Christians As the Sea-water is no lesse salt in the reciprocation or stanch than while it boyles or over-flowes the bankes And if it be not tedious to resume the burden of this discourse As the common notion of Gods goodnesse occasioned the heathen to conceit every procurer of any good much affected for a God so this affectionate loue of divine truths in generall fastens our vnpurified perswasions vnto whatsoever we vehemently loue or much affect as to a truth divine or practice either warranted or commended to vs by the word of God Loue or hatred towards any object divine or humane if it be vnpurified affectionate or excessiue is alwayes prone either to slaunder divine justice where men are faultie or to miscensure mens actions in cases overruled by divine justice Priamus doting affection towards his vnlawfull daughter-in-law misswayed his minde to accuse the gods as authors or direct causes rather than to suspect her as any occasion of the evills which he feared or suffered And that vnpurified affection which many beare vnto truths or goodnesses divine confusedly apprehended will not suffer them to see or acknowledge Gods speciall providence in their punishments Ready they are at all assayes to inveigh against or meditate revenge vpon their brethren for chastisements appointed to them by the finger of God though executed by the hand of man God is too good to be the author of evill vnto them though of evill onely temporall That is in the true resolution of their secret thoughts they are so well perswaded of themselues that nothing to their apprehension is borne or bent to doe them harme besides the envy or malice of other men Every portion of Scripture which reproues or forbids malice doth by their interpretation in this taking condemne all such of malice or envy as any way vexe or displease them 7. What poysonous humor can wee condemne in any Heathen whose very dregges are not incorporated in the grand tyrannous monster of our times faction I meane with its members To eares animated with the spirit of this blind beast the least iarre in opinion though concerning matters of greater difficultie than consequence and better able to abide long search than speedy determination sounds as a deadly heresie alreadie condemned by Gods owne mouth Not to consort with these men in their occasionlesse vociferations against others presumed errors is in their verdit to be backward in religion to renounce the vnitie of faith to giue our hearts to the enemy As he that in singing obserues due time or a constant tone amongst such as regard neither but following the eare rise and fall with most or sweetest voyces shall by immusicall hearers be censured as the author of discord No sect or profession almost throughout any age but hath beene haunted with one or other violent humor with whose tincture if a man can cunningly temper or colour his discourses he may vent whatsoever he pleaseth albeit compounded of the very lees and refuse of that heresie which he seemeth most to oppugne Blasphemy breathed from some mens mouths so it be spiced or interspersed with holy phrase is suckt in as greedily by their followers as if it were the Spirit of life the very poyson of Aspes distilling from others lippes so it be tempered with the infusion or expression of propheticall fervencie in reproving sinne doth relish to their factious consorts as the quintessence of zeale Finally whilest one factious minde inveighs against his opposites bitternesse it selfe becommeth sweete to his associates but if an indifferent man shall lift the doctrine refute the error or reproue the passions of the one or other his discourses though seasoned with the spirit of meekenesse of sinceritie and judgement breeds a grievous disgust in both 8. The true originall or roote of this accused partialitie in putting good for evill and evill for good hony for gall and gall for hony will better appeare from a more particular inquiry or Philosophicall search of the meanes by which it comes to passe That the selfe same sence or exposition of Scriptures which ere whiles did most offend should forthwith best please the very same parties And lest I should giue offence to any Christian Reader the instance shall be chiefly in those with whom all Christians are justly offended CHAPTER XLVI Shewing by instances of sacred Writ that the same sense of Gods word which sometimes most displeased may shortly after most affect or please the selfe same parties with them manner how this alteration is wrought 1. ACtuall fruition of excessiue pleasure either hinders the working or dulls the apprehension of inherent griefe So doth satisfaction of vehement desires because most pleasant drowne all taste of petty annoyances and dead the impression of such vngratefull qualities as accompany the qualitie eagerly afected Extremitie of thirst will make a man to be in charitie almost with any kinde of moysture and cover a multitude of faults in drinke of which no one but would be very offensiue
to a taste not misaffected For thirst is but an appetite of cooling moysture and this appetite being intended by violent heate or drinesse the organ wherein it resideth takes no notice of any other quality besides that which best contents it for the present All others that accompany it are well-come or passe vnquestioned for its sake so the sence of cooling moysture be not abated by their presence From a cause in true Philosophie much what the same it is that if one string be stiffely bent and another slacke onely one doth sound though both be touched For the same reason violent passions intensiue desires or strong affections either straine out or sucke in onely so much of the sence of Scriptures as symbolizeth with themselues Such circumstances as in sober examination would make most against vs leaue no impression in our mindes much bent vpon any private purpose What could haue beene more offensiue to the Pharisees not moved with bitter opposition to the Sadduces then S. Pauls doctrine of Christs appearance to him after his resurrection The very mention of his appearance to him once in the way to Damascus afterwards in the Temple perswading him the second time to preach his resurrection to the Gentiles had made them ere while cry out Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should liue But as the Philosopher sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common dread will vnite most disagreeing hearts For this reason professors of contrary opinions so both stedfastly hold the generall will joyne forces against the third that contradicts or vndermines the common foundation All inclination to exercise enmitie is rooted in a hope or possibilitie of preserving proper entitie safe entire What could it then boote the Pharisees to brangle with S. Paul about Christs resurrection or appearance whilest the Sadduces by denying all apparition of spirit or Angell or hope of resurrection from the dead did not so much oppugne him as the very foundation of their Religion Vnto this passionate and vehement distast of the Sadduces doctrine Pauls conformity with the Pharisees in birth education and generalitie of beliefe doth relish so well that his particular differences or dissentions from them no way disaffect them He avouched expresly that Christ whom they had crucified did appeare vnto him but they apprehended it to be after such a manner as Gods Angells did in times past to their fathers Now this kind of appearance witnessed the truth of the Pharisees opinions that there be spirits or Angells and Pauls seasonable proffering of this testimony doth so please their humour that the Scribes which were on the Pharisees part acquitted him by Proclamation Wee finde no evill in this man but if a spirit or Angell hath spoken vnto him let vs not fight against God Act. 23. vers 9. That thus farre they favoured him was not out of true loue either to his person or any part of the truth he taught but from loue of themselues and their opinions from jealous impatiency of contradiction in publique place by an inferior sect So likewise we reade in the Gospell when our Saviour from Gods word to Moses had most divinely proued the Resurrection I am the God of Abraham c. and fully satisfied a curious question so captiously proposed by the Sadduces as would haue puzled the greatest Rabbi amongst the Pharisees certaine of them answered Maister thou hast well said Luk. 20. ver 39. They like well he should be a witnesse of the Resurrection that being one speciall point which their credit lay vpon to make good vnto the multitude against the Sadduces but as ready they are to adjudge him to death for avouching himselfe to be the great Iudge of such as were raised from the dead howbeit his raising of himselfe from the dead did proue his words to be most true and so would the manner of his appearance vnto S. Paul which now they grant haue clearely evinced both his Resurrection and comming in glory vnto judgement whereof it was a transient but reall representation so their assent vnto S. Paul in that assembly had beene sincere and free not forced by factious opposition to the Sadduces The inconsequent issues of this generall truth acknowledged by them testifie that their approbation of our Saviour for being a witnesse of the resurrection and their condemnation of him for avouching himselfe judge of such as were raised from death did issue from one and the same corrupt fountaine from loue of authority over the people and applause of men from a stubborne and envious desire to excell their opposites and not to be excelled by any With their affections thus set our Saviours doctrine indefinitely considered sometimes had coniunction and then they mightily applaud him but oftner opposition and then Polyphoemus-like they more maligned him 2. Admit we could iustly acquit our selues from other points of Pharisaisme that spirit of contention and waiward emulation which this day raignes throughout Christendome and rageth oftimes no lesse in defence of good causes then in maintaining or abetting bad will as easily set over such as retaine the generall or publique forme of sound doctrine to concurre with heretiques or godlesse men in transforming particular places of Scripture which make for private desires as factious opposition to the Sadduces did the Pharisees to consent vnto our Saviour and to S. Paul in the points late mentioned albeit they did detest the principall Articles the very patterne of that beliefe which they propagated to the world That admonition to the Philippians as it concernes these times as much as former so doth it the maintainers of true Religion most of any The admonition was Let nothing be done through contention or vaine-glory but that in meekenesse of minde every man esteeme other better than himselfe Phil. 2.3 CHAPTER XLVII Of dreaming fancies concerning the sense of Scripture in the Romanist in the Iew in the Separatist or Enthusiast 1. IT were easie to instance in many controversie Writers which in hotte pursuite of their adversaries haue swallowed downe passages of Scripture or other authorities whose true sense if so sifted as every circumstance might make full impression vpon their composed and setled apprehensions would be more against them then for them as their authors no question agreed no better with the allegators doctrine than Paul did with the Pharisees The impertinent collections of Monkes and Fryars to proue Purgatorie from such places of Scripture as haue no other semblance with it saue onely that they mention metaphoricall fire would make an vnpartiall Reader call to minde if so he had read it the fable of the Apes which espying a Glow-worme in a winters night gathered stickes and blowed themselues breathlesse to make them burne Did not this imaginary flame produce such a reall warmth to the malignant crue as is able to hatch an extraordinary desire of having the fire by what meanes soever still maintained impudency it selfe would blush and
conceiue and speake well in matters speculatiue or remote from vse but wants will or grace to temper his carnall affections with sobrietie of spirit or season his conversation with civilitie Were rats-bane as simply and grossely ministred to men as it is to rats few would take harme by it And of Popes and Cardinalls more haue vsed the helpe of ratsbane than of ratcatchers to poyson their enemies It were a brutish simplicitie to thinke the devill could not a preposterous charity to thinke he would not minister his receipts in a cunninger fashion since the promulgation of the Gospell than he did before although the poyson be still the same To eare figgs or other more cordiall foode with the infusion of subtill and deadly poyson exempts not mens bodies from daunger Much lesse can speculatiue orthodoxall opinions of the God-head free mens soules from the poyson of Idolatrous practises wherewith they are mingled 2. Taking it then as graunted what without paradox we may maintaine that the devill had as great a longing since Christ triumphed over him as he had before to worke the bane of mens soules throughout Europe He had beene the arrantest foole that ever either vndertooke to contriue a daungerous and cunning plott or adventured to act any notorious mischiefe or difficult villanie if he had solicited men to grosse Heathenisme or open profession of allegiance to those gods in whose service they had knowne their fathers perish the sodaine downfall of whose Idolls they had seene miraculously accomplished To haue perswaded them hereto had beene a more palpable importunitie then if a man in kindnesse should profer a cup wherein he had squeized the poyson of Spiders to one which had seene his mate fall downe dead by taking the same potion Now admitting a resolution in the great professor of destructiue Arts so to refine or sublimate his wonted poysons as they might the more secretly mingle with the foode of life where can we suspect this policie to haue beene practised if not in the Romish Church whose idolatrous rites and service of Satan in former ages haue beene so grosse that if we had seene the temptatiō vnacquainted with the success we should certainly haue thought the great Tempter had mightily forgotten himselfe or lost his wonted skill in going so palpably about his businesse Nor could any policie haue so prevailed against Gods Church vnlesse it had first beene surprised with a lethargie or brought into a relapse of Heathenish ignorance To entise men vnto Heathenisme since Romish rites and customes haue beene authorized or justified in solemne disputes he had lesse reason than to haue tempted the olde world vnto Atheisme whiles there was no delight or pleasure which the flesh can long for but had some seigned god for it's patrone And what branch of implanted superstition can we imagine in any sonne of Adam which may not sufficiently feed it selfe with some part or other of the Romish Liturgie or with some customes by that Church allowed concerning the invocation of Saints the adoration of reliques or worship of images By entertaining either more orthodoxall conceipts of the God-head than the Heathens had or better perswasions of one Mediatour betweene God and man than the morderne Iewes or Mahumetans do they giue contentment to many carnall desires especially covetousnesse preposterous pride and hypocrisie which would be readie to mutinier if simple Idolatrie should be restored to it's wonted soveraigntie CHAPTER XXIII Of the generall infirmities of flesh and bloud which did dispose divers auncient professors of Christianitie to take the infection of Superstition Of the particular humors which did sharpen the appetite of the moderne Romish Church to hunger and thirst after the poysonous dregs of Rome-Heathens Idolatrie 1. IN Churches of Pauls planting and Apollo his watering the seedes of sound and wholesome doctrine tooke roote with greater facilitie than sundry heathenish rites whereto they had beene so long accustomed could be extirpated That caveat But I would not haue you to be ignorant brethren concerning them that sleepe c. given to the Thessalonians otherwise most chearfull imbracers and zealous professors of the Gospell argueth some reliques of such superstitious demeano◠towards the dead as they had practised whiles they liued without hope of a resurrection to a better life vnto which practises perhaps they were so much more prone than others as they were naturally more kinde and loving Now if the first receipts of life ministred by a Physitian so wise and well experienced as S. Paul did not forthwith purifie this good natured peoples affections from the corrupt humors of Gentilisme it was no wonder if other lesse skillfull doctors by seeking the speedy cure of this disease did cast more vntoward patients then these Thessalonians were into a relapse of a contrary more hereditary and naturall to most Heathen Whether for preventing vnseemly and immoderate mourning for the dead or for encouraging the living to constancy in persecution the solemne celebration of their Funeralls and publique blazoning of their blisfull and glorious state after death which had liued Saints and died Martyrs was a method very effectuall and compendious Howbeit in hearts not throughly purified and setled by grace these panegyricall encomiasmes did reviue the seeds of superstitious respect to famous men deceased as fast as they quelled the reliques of hopelesse feare or abated naturall inclinations vnto immoderate mourning And happily that point of truth wherewith the Romanist seekes to condite or sweeten the poysonous fruit of his idolatrous and superstitious speculations might in part occasion or embolden the auncients to scatter some seedes of them before they had experience vnto what degree of malignācy they might grow when they grew ripe When the first Reformers of Religion demanded a difference betweene Heathenish adoration of inferior gods and Popish worshipping of Saints the vsuall and almost onely answer was that the Heathens adored naughtie and wicked men either altogether vnworthie of any or worthy of disgracefull memory after death whereas the Church did worship such as deserved as much respect as men are capable of men to whom who so omitted performance of sacred respect or religious worship did thereby commit most grievous sacrilege 2. To outstrip our adversaries in their owne policies or to vse means abused by others to a better end is a resolution so plausible to worldly wisedome which of all other fruits of the flesh is for the most part the hardliest and last renounced that almost no sect or profession in any age but in the issue mightily over-reached or intangled themselues by too much seeking to circumvent or goe beyond others The knowne successe of worldly policie in nursing Martiall valour and resolute contempt of life by decreeing divine honor to their heroicks after death did quickly set over the Christian world being almost out-wearied with continuall opposition of Gentilisme to foster and cherish spirituall courage by the like meanes The practise whereof notwithstanding as doe