our God set upon your heades that they have made you the meath of ther religious wishes they haue with vehement desires longed to see the things that ye have seene And have not spared to profess that in your case they would rather suffer themselves to be dissolved then that one pinne of that holy Tabernacle so divinelie compacted should be loosed Within and amongst your selves that puritie of profession received universallie with so full consent that Prince and Peeres Pastors and people were all for Christ one heart one soule of these who beleeved with such evidences of Gods favour that the windowes gates of heaven seemed to be opened to raine downe upon this Land spirituall gifts to save you as sometime they had beene readie to powre downe raine to destroy the world every hand almost received some gift and every head crowned with some grace with such successe that it brought a rare unitie prosperitie peace upon Kirk cōmon wealth With such power and presence of the spirit of God in converting comforting confirming his people that Satan was seene fall like lightening from heaven the infidel and unbeleever casting himselfe downe on his face and confessing that undoubtedlie God was amōgst yow and in the middest of your meetings as the soules of his own secret ones can best beare witnesse who have beene most submitted to that holie and happie simplicitie the effectes whereof yet remayning in the harts of many all worldly power be it never so violent sall not be able to remove it And with such terrour from God and the Kings Lawes that ye wanted not your Theodosians publikly humbling themselves The hardest hearted and haughtiest were made to stoup The Atheist either changed in heart or in countenance and forced to play the hypocrite the proudest papist eyther made like you or made to leave you Heresie never hatched within your walles and the Babylonish brood of schisme in the infancie till this tyme was dashed against the stōes Ye sought not then my dere children with Iohn and Iames like great Princes one to sitt on the right hand another on the left nor to be busked with earthly glorie and Persian pompe better beseeming the kings of the world then the kingdome of Christ. The Carbuncles the Saphyres the Emeraulds the Chrysolites the gold the precious stones wherewith my foundation walles windowes gates were set and adorned were out of the Lords own thesaurie Your ambition was then set upon spirituall glorie the cōquest of syn and Satan by the powerfull puritie of the Word Sacraments and discipline The joy of your soules was to see Christ reigning in the middest of his enemies his sword dividing the father from the sonne and the sonne from the father yea a man frō himself parting the soule and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and ending in glorie to God and peace upon earth Then were the tabernacles of God amiable then provoked ye one another with cheerefulnes to go up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob ye were sure there to learne his wayes and how to walke in his pathes Then found ye the Lord his glorie filling his Sanctuarie and one of the largest springs of the blood of Christ from Eden watring the citie of God and glaiding your soules wearied with sinne This was my beautie so truelie glorious in the sight of God and his Angels that all the glorie of this lyfe is unworthie to enter in comparison with it Better to you to have this glorie under a crowne of thornes with our Saviour in a chaine with Paul in the Lyons den with Daniel then all the splendor of Tiberius of Nero of Darius wherewith the weak eyes of the world are dazled and pitifullie to my great griefe bewitched And surely your forgetfull ingratitude were inexpiable if with the mater ye remembered not the finger of God wonderfully working in the meanes of that glorious reformation We have to regrate that the Atheisme of these dreggs of tymes and manners is become so gross that all events now are sacrilegiously ascribed to second causes If Naaman his cure or Anna her fruitfulnes or the Egyptiā or Babylonian libertie had fallen out in these godles tymes it had beene counted foolishnes and simplicitie of men over religious upon the ignorance of alterations wroght by nature or policie to attribute them to God Yet God is the Lord Of him and through him and for him are all things Ezrah Nehemiah and the godly of that time acknowledge no less the wonderfull working of God in their redemption from the bondage of Babylon then their fathers did their deliverance out of Egypt Although the power of God was not so miraculous in the one as in the other Consider a little and mark the constitution of the tyme before this reformation was wrought the grandeur pride insolencies of my office bearers thē the averse disposition induration of the personages both at home abroade upon whom in mans eyes it did depend the heathenish darknes of idolatrie and palpable blindnes of superstition wherin the multitude was wrapped and ye shal be forced to say that he who would have intended a change of religiō might have received that desparing answer which a man of great spirit and place an enemie of Romish pride and a desirer of reformation gave concerning Luthers purpose Brother brother goe to your cloyster and say have mercy on me ô God All seene second causes were posting on in a contrarie course or if any possibilitie of alteration could haue beene imagined what hope could there have beene therof except it had beene wrought with the edge of the sword bathed in blood as Grostead the hammer of Rome said a little before his death Yet to the endles praise and wonderfull goodnes and wisdome of our God be it remembred the great worke was so singularly brought about and perfected that almost without blood except the blood of a few martyres wherein through the same wisdome and goodnes for commending and ratifying the truth the mouth of the sword of persecutors was dipped the whole bodie and shadow substance and ceremonies roote and branches of Romish Idolatrie were at once cut off Thus by reason of the wonderfull manner of Gods working of my own feeling and yours of the wonders wrought amongst you and of the testimonie of others both friends and foes about us may not ye with one voice say and sing with the Kirk Psal. 126. When the Lord turned againe the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dreamed then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Then sayd they among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them the Lord hath done great things for us wherof we are glad And would God as your deliverāce was in many things like that of Israel so your infidelitie and unthankfulnes were not like theirs there arose an other
THE SPEACH OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND TO HER BELOVED CHILDREN HEu heu Domine Deus quia ipsi sunt in persecutione tuâ primi qui videntur in Ecclesia tua primatum diligere gerere principatum impedire salutem est persequi Saluatorem Bernard Alace Alace ô Lord God for they are cheesest in thy persecution who love the first and chief places and to bear rule to stay the course of salvation is to persecute the Saviour Bernard SImplicitas amentia malitia sapientia nomen habet virique boni usque adeo irridentur ut fere nullus qui irrideri possit appareat Petrarch Simplicitie now carieth the name of madnes malice the name of wisdome and good men are so derided that almost no man can be found to be derided Petrarch Imprinted in the yere 1620. THE KIRK OF CHRIST IN SCOTLAND TO HER DEARLY beloved Children wisheth purity and peace AS I your loving mother fearing to be finally deserted of my glorious Spouse the Lord Iesus and to be childles hereafter haue weeped sore in the night this time bypast my teares are on my cheekes Among all my lovers few to comfort mee my friendes haue dealt treacherously with me they are become my enemies Lament 1. 2. So would ye my dear children dolefully cry out The joy of our heart is ceased our daunce is turned into mourning the crown is fallen from our heads woe unto us that we haue sinned Lament 5. 15. 16. If ye were touched with the sense and feeling of your present estate and could by the thick shaddowes of this evening be brought to consider the comfortles desolation of that approaching night of darknes after so bright a day of visitation But so much the more dangerous is defection and the mysterie of iniquitie the more pernicious that it proceeds from so subtile beginnings as to your simplicitie ar almost insensible It is not time then for me your dolorous mother to keepe silence But love and feare presse me to put you in minde that it hath been in all ages the holy disposition happy practise of all Gods people wayting for the appearing of Iesus their Lord tēdring the weal of his spouse and taking to hart the aeternall salvation of their own soules to set continually before their eyes 1. His inaestimable goodnes towardes his Kirk 2. Her case and condition while she is militant here on earth And 3. in consideration of the one and the other the duetie required and expected at their handes wherthrough in the goodnes of God they have beene safe from that dreadfull ruine that hath overtaken the wicked And which I wish you my beloved children to escape by calling to minde in like manner at this tyme of your danger and my distresse First how wonderfull the Lordes mercies have been towards me his Kirk in this nation Secōdlie my present case crying with the complaints of a mother for help at your hands And thirdly what is due from your affection places and callings to me in whose wombe ye were conceived and by whose care ye are brought up to that which ye now are That whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven it may be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven For why should he be wroth against the realme of the King and his sonnes Ezra 7. 23. And that Christ may say to me yet once againe Thou art beautifull my love as Tirzah comelie as Ierusalem terrible as an army with banners Cant. 6. 3. Words and motions of this sort as they have been so they will be but oyle to feede the fire of the furie of such incēdiaries as make their own earthlie particulars their highest projects for the wicked shall doe wickedlie and none of them shall understand yet by the grace of God manie shal be purified and tryed the wise shall understand The greatest wisdome of the greatest of you in other matters and your gracious countenance towards me and the meanest of your brethren at other tymes suffereth me not to doubt of your audience of any message or motiō from heaven but especiallie be my mouth which may either dis cover or prevent anie spirituall or temporall danger Now the spirit of wisdome and knowledge give unto yow all wise hearts that in the sight of God ye trying thinges that differ may approve things excellent which is above the reach of the naturall man that ye may be sincere without offence till that day of Christ your Lord mine THe riches of the unsearchable favours of my spouse towardes me have beene so greate he hath made his glorie to dwell so sensiblie in this land that I may bouldlie say Mercie and truth righteousnes and peace had never since Christs comming in the flesh a more glorious meeting amiable embracing on earth then ye have seene amongst your selves in the roughe end of this northern Yland which therfore hath justlie obteined to my no small comfort a great name among the cheefe Kirkes and Kingdomes in the World A people that sat in darknes hath seene a great light and to them who sat in the region of death light is sprung up To what nation under heaven when now the sunne of righteousnes hath shined upon the most part of the world hath the Lord communicated the Gospell for so large a time with such puritie fulnes prosperitie power libertie and peace The hottest persecutions had never greater puritie and power the most halcyon hereticall tymes had never more prosperitie and peace the best reformed Kirks in other places can hardlie parallel your fulnes and libertie And all these with such continuance that not onlie hath he made the truth to stay with you as he did the sunne in the daies of Iosuah but when the cloud of your iniquities did hasten it to goe downe in his mercie hath he brought back the glorious sunne by manie degrees as in the tymes of Ezekiah Oh that ye had known the long pleasant day of your visitation and in this your day the things belonging unto your peace Christ hath not onely beene one his name one in respect of his propheticall office for your information of his priesthood for the expiation of your sinnes and intercession for you but also hath displayed his banners and hath shewed himself few can say the like a soveraigne King in our Land to governe you with his owne scepter erected in his Worde to cutt off with his sword all monuments of Idolatry and superfluitie of pompous ceremonies to restore all the meanes of his worship in Word Sacraments and discipline to the holy simplicitie and integritie of the first paterne shewed in the mount frō the which by that wisdome of man which is ever foolishnes with God they had fearfully and shamefully swerved The sincerer sort of the bordering nations about you haue been so ravished with that beautie of the Lord upon your Sion with that crowne of glorie and rich diademe by the hand of
cause is the unaequal proportion seen in the Kirk where one is hungrie and starved an other drunk by reason wherof it cannot be that the state of the Kirk can long endure As he cleareth by the comparison of the proportions in Musik in common wealths and in the bodie of man wherupon he inferreth If in the bodie of the wealth Ecclesiasticall some who be the heads be so enormously overgone in riches and dignity that the weak mēbers of the body be scant able to beare them up there is a great token of dissolution and ruine shortly A third cause is the pride of Prelates declared in their great horses troupes of horsemen the superfluous pomp of their waiting men and great families To them the Lord speaketh by the Prophet Amos ch 4. Hear you fatted kine of Samaria ye that doe poore men wrong oppresse the needy the day shall come upon you c. Besides these he allegeth the tyranny of Prelates which as it is a violent thing so it cannot long indure the promoting of the unworthie and neglecting of the worthie the tribulations of outward policie cōmotions of people the refusing of correction in the Princes and Rulers of the Kirk the backsliding from righteousnes lack of discreet and learned preachers promoting of children unto Kirk offices and such other like This sermon changing the name time might seem to haue bene studied for our present estate And happy were we if we were not miscaried with the perillous opinions which he ascribes to the Prelates of that time One opinion is of them who thinke the Prelates to bee the Kirk which the Lord will alwayes keep and never forsake An other who deferred time thinking that the causes tokens before rehearsed have been in the Kirk at other times no lesse then now The third of such as say Let come what will come let us conforme our selves to this world and take our time with temporizers And the last is of such as being unfaithful beleeve not that any such thing shall come But so long as men are drunken with one or moe of those errors what hope is there of happinesse of recovery We might heare Henricus de Hassia in the yeare 1371. speaking that of our times which he said of his own That the Ecclesiasticall governours in the primitive Kirk were compared to the Sunne shining in the day time and the politicall to the Moon shining in the night But the spiritual men which now are doe neither shine in the day nor in the night But rather with the darknesse of impiety ignorance and licentious living doe obscure both the day and the night The renowned Bishop of Spalato as holy Bernard before him complaines more bitterly of that damned couple of crying sins Avarice and Ambition two monstrous beasts and ravenous Harpies which have seized upon the harts of Kirkmen in the time of peace then of the crueltie of persecution and craft of heresies which seeme to you to be the most desperate and onely evils Then saith hee speaking in the person of the Kirk was I at my highest and at my best esteeme whiles I went in a thin coat such as I was cloathed with when my spouse Christ Iesus betrothed himselfe to me c. And afterward They have thrust upon the world their owne inventions and established their own ordinances not drawn out of that testament which my spouse left to me and them namely the holy Scriptures but craftily hammered out of their own capricious projects and tending to the prejudice of your poore soules my deere children So true it is that wealth is a viperine brood of devotion Riches heaped together for reverence of so great a function almost have removed the cause of reverence And lest my calamity should seeme common or my present miseries to be lesse then the greatnesse of my by-past felicities may not every feeling soule rightly affected towards unity verity mournfully deplore this my estate in the words of Nazianzen describing the case of the Kirk in his time to this meaning My mind sayes he leads me seeing there is no other remedy to flee and convoy my selfe unto some corner out of sight where I may escape frō the cloudy tempest of maliciousnesse whereby all parts are entred into deadly warre amongst themselves and that little remnāt of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godlines we glory in is to find out somewhat whereby we may iudge others to be ungodly One of us observes the faults of another as matters of upbraiding and not of mourning By these meanes we are growne hatefull even in the eyes of the heathen themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply we cannot deny but we have deserved their hatred with the better sort of our own our credit and name is quite lost the lesse wee are to marvell if they iudge vily of us who although wee did well would hardly commend us On our backes they also build that are leaud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorne and disgrace of us all But I come now my beloved brethren to the conscience of your duty in this case which was the third and principal purpose the religion whereof will bind so many as think seriously of the exceeding bountifulnesse of God to mee his Kirk and upon my manifold crosses here on earth One common dutie of all is that seeing they be all under the guiltines of ingratitude and are become a sinfull nation loaden now with iniquities as ye have been with mercies before which doe provoke the Lord to remove his kingdome altogether from you and to give it to others that would bring forth the fruits thereof according to the constant course of the severity of his Iustice both with his own people the Iewes and with many other famous Kirkes in the East and West given over to beleeve that great lye because they received not the love of the truth and rendred not to the great King the fruits of his kingdome in due season that now before the fiercenesse of his wrath come on all of you from the house of David to the house of Levi look with melting hearts and mourning eyes upon him whom you have pierced with your iniquities Oh that yee had lights to search your hearts and hearts to repent for your sins in the evening of this your day that ye could turne unto the Lord with one heart before yee bee overwhelmed with darknesse At least if in these godlesse and devotionless dayes wherein all your wonted fasting is turned into feasting a general humiliation cannot be obtained ye that are the Lords owne and delight in his tents yee that love the beauty of Sion and have accesse to the face of God contend with him by the spirit of deprecation fill your chalmers with strong cries fill heaven and earth with the grones of his owne spirit poure out
teares day and night take hold of the king of glory wrastle with him as becomes Israel pray againe and againe with Abraham let him not depart out of your hearts nor from his owne tabernacles in this land your God lookes to be intreated loves to be importuned he is loth to leave you altogether No sudden eclipse comes upon you but like that of old when the glory of the Lord departed by degrees first from the Cherub to the doore of the house Ezek. 10. 4. then to the entry of the gate of the Lords house v. 19. then from the midst of the citie to the mountain towards the East side of the citie chap. 11. 23. Better keepe his presence now then seeke him through the streetes when hee is gone Choose rather to mourn in Sion for preuenting comfortles Babel then sitting desolate by the rivers of Babel to burst out in bitter teares in remembrance of sweet Sion The triall begins upon Pastors but ye know not upon whom it shall stay The large time of so faire occasion in the schoole of Christ requires two things now at your hands One is that yee bee able to try the spirit and to know with certainty what to follow The way to establish your selves is not with the Romans to rest upon a blinde faith receiving for truth whatsoever carries my name or authority nor with the rich man in the Gospell to wish that one may rise from the dead for your satisfaction Neither as it was in the time of Eliah to seek for a miracle from heaven nor yet to run to any on earth for decision of all questions for within and amongst your selves all are divided and without Papists are your enemies Protestants are strangers to your secrets and unacquainted with your covenants and oathes your comfort may be that your father died not intestate Let his testament bee read with attentiue reverence Search his latter will which he hath left for a plain and perfect direction to his comming againe Consider what is most agreeable to his wisedome what makes most for his honour for the edification of your owne soules for the restraint of the liberty of the flesh and for the comfort of a distressed conscience without respect to the appearances of wisedome and humility among men or to that which seems most to serve to your worldly credit that wooes your flesh or courts your carnall senses for this will bee a meager consolation when the horrors of God are upon your soules ready to be presented before his Iustice Continue in the things yee have learned and are perswaded of knowing of whom yee have learned them Have yee attained by a conscientious use of prayer hearing meditation conference unto a perswasion of that which is now in debate have ye an inward witnes testifying to your soules that your teachers by their fidelity the effectual blessing of God upon their labours have caried with thē the seale of their ministery Then cōtinue bee not caried about with every wind of doctrine to the hellish disturbance of the heavenly peace of your soules In the time of tentation ponder with your hearts what better warrants yee have for some practises of religion more substantiall in mens estimation and whether the motives of the one alteration may not as wel inforce the other As ye should be able to try your selves whether ye are in the faith or not which Paul requireth of the whole Kirk of Corinth so should ye have skill to try the spirits whether they be of God or not For such are perverted as are ever learning never come to the knowledge of the truth And as in respect of the time yee ought to be teachers and to be able to edifie every one another in the most holy faith so are yee charged by the Apostle Peter to be ready to give an account even to your enemies of that hope which is in you He that hath faith can try himselfe can try the spirits and teach others and give a reason both of his hope and practise before the adversary The other is that once having gained a godly resolution of the truth you suffer nothing earthly to divert you from the profession maintenance of the same It is now high time for you who have been hearing of Christ so many yeares to be put to your trial how yee have learned Christ to give proof of your passive obedience when the Lord calles you no lesse then of your active Offences schismes troubles persecutions have been in all times in every period of the Kirk hath opened a back doore for a worldling to slip forth at Others before us have had their own trials these in the dispensation of God are now made ours Hee hath never been a Christian in action that hath not been a martyr in affection And let the world still sit in the chaire of the scorners that professor that will not bee a ceremoniall confessor would refuse to bee a substantiall martyr The smallest threed of the seamlesse coat of thy Saviour the lowest hem of his garment the least pin or latchet of that heavenly tabernacle may be a matter of a glorious and comfortable suffering to thee And the lesse the cause be it being Christs cause the more rare acceptable is thy testimony The heart may be sound and voyd of Idolatrie and yet the outward action of adoration may prove Idolatrous Knowledge is greater and Christ now more glorious by confessions martyrdomes prescription of time and profession of all nations then in the primitive times He that now counteth it no religion to renounce a Christian rite and receive an Antichristian in place therof would not have spared of old to set Antichrist himself in the throne of Christs kingdome We are unthristie bankerupts wasting that thesaurie unworthily every penny whereof was painfully and narrowly gathered together The worthy martyrs of preceding times and glorious instruments of reformation if they were alive in these decaying dayes how would they bee ashamed of so degenerated children How ready would they be in your places to suffer for the name of Christ Or if yee had lived in their troublesome times spoyled of your goods hated of the world pinched in prison sequestrate from wife house and children looking every houre for death consider what would have been your thoughts of infidelity your words of blasphemy your deeds of defection If it please my glorious head to call you to suffer for his name let your care bee as Peter hath taught you 1. to sanctifie him in your hearts and not to feare the feare of men 2. to bee ready with your mouthes to make apologie to every one that craveth a reason of your hope and 3. to have a good conversation in Christ that they who speak evill of you may be ashamed And let your comfort be 1. a good cōscience arising upō two grounds One that ye suffer for wel doing the other that the
will of God bee so For howsoever all Christians be called to suffer yet every one is not called to every suffering 2. your conformitie with Christ. And 3. the assurance of an happy out-gate by his power who was put to death in the flesh but was quickned in the spirit and now stands on the right hand of the father to maintaine his owne and to revenge himself upon his enemies Deceive not your selves with worldly policie under the name of that heavenly vertue of Christian prudence which doth nothing intendeth nothing admitteth nothing in deed in word or in shew neither by dissimulation nor simulation against the honour of God in prejudice of the least truth against the love of your brethren or the duties of your own vocation Prudence never doth the least evill for procuring the greatest good for avoyding the greatest evill Shee is carefull of her own duty and commits the care of the event to God to whom it pertaines She is never so perplexed betwixt two evils but her eye seeth an out-gate without falling into a third evill of sin She teacheth her followers either with Cyprian in a matter so holy as is the casting of a little incense into the fire of an idoll not to enter in deliberation or else after deliberation with that worthy Prince of Conde to make the right choyce never to choose sin to remit punishment to the pleasure of superiours and the successe to the providence of the most high Beside that common necessitie layd upon you all in generall there is a speciall dutie at this time required of my Pastors and leaders The schooles of divinity which of late were a pleasant Lebanon fortimbeâ— to my buildings are become dennes of ignorance and impiety sinkes of schisme and sedition for my subversion The sonnes of the Prophets are made enemies to prophesie in stead of convictions of heresie hearing nothing almost but the censures of sincerity in place of the harmony of Christs Evangel deaued with dyted contentions about Antichristian geniculation Among their schoole Doctors sonnes of Ismael descended of Hagar Mismah Duma and Massa our toung-tied teachers all men of profound and hid learning the greatest Rabbi but that hee hath no hebrew at all whom God hath marked many wayes in his speeches preachings and practises bitterly condemneth them for heretickes who stand constant against that which of late he himselfe condemned of superstition idolatry both by word and by writ yet extant among his scollers in his patched and plagiarie collections written by many of their hands Thus alas my glory is become my shame my fouÌ„taine a puddle my Naâ—oth my beauty is become my loathing my deformity Hence forsooth shall bee furnished that plentie of excellent labourers cracked of to fill the places of my faithfull watchmen for their fidelity silenced and deprived Had my worthy Pastors but the favour of papists now or popish monkes of old casten forth of their places but not out of their livings our young divines fore-runners if ever any of religions ruine would neither like the lyons whelps make so great haste by their pricking pawes to get out of the matrix and in into their roomes nor yet make their mother so pregnant and parturient I may hope for some of Luthers spirit forth of these Cloysters and I beseech my God to give them the spirit of discerning But for the most part they were never taught to speak against papists for the truth to deale with the soules of people nor to live as Christians and yet must lay their hands upon the Lords Arke temerating my sacred mysteries entring unrevereÌ„ly with shooes and all into my Temple and making that holy ministery a meane of temporall life unto themselves more then a power of spirituall life to others The discharge of their calling is conforme to their education and entry and answerable to the wishes of the wicked people and wiles of the worldly patrones In conversation they and others before them so lewd that now it is esteemed puritanisme in a Pastor not to be prophane Every man and minister carefull to walk before God studious of Scripture and given to any abstinence in his diet as of old hee was set down by Ithacius in his Kalendar of suspected Priscillians so now by men of Ithacius spirit in the roll of Puritanes who cannot better to their iudgement approve the soundnesse of faith then by a more licentious and loose behaviour The authority of many preachers is so farre from procuring credit to their doctrine that to my great griefe and discredit of the Gospell that is thought by many in earnest which by a learned man was uttered in jesting of a profane preacher that hee would not willingly heare him say the Creed lest hee should take it for a lye comming foorth of his mouth This is it which carieth with it a secret cause of the conformity of the most part For how shal he that makes no conscience of morall duties in his conversation count it religious to stand against ceremonies in his vocation Or how can he be a director of thee in rites who is a neglecter of himselfe in substance The sonnes of Eli made the people to abhorre the offering of the Lord and they were slaine When Nadab and Abihu were consumed with fire from the Lord for failing in the outward duty of the ministry in a matter as might seeme of smal moment Moses told Aaron his brother that the Lord would bee sanctified of them that came neere unto him Few of the best sort can plead innocent of the matter in hand If people had been more painfully instructed in times past they had been better prepared for the present difficulties Had ye cleared your selves by your Apologetickes to your friends in forraine parts I had not been despised in the world neither had your reprochful defection been proclaimed among your adversaries Had you made your meane to your gracious soveraigne and layd before his mercifull eyes the pittifull cause of his own deere people lamentably scandalized and ready to make shipwrack of their souls upon these dangerous sands and uncouth rockes of novelties â—et in their way his maiesties clemency had not suffered matters to come to this desperate passe If yee who are the remembrancers of the Lord had not kept silence had ye blowen the silver trumpet in the middest of the congregation in the dayes of the holy assemblies had ye instantly denounced curses against the re-edifiers of Iericho had ye informed judicious professors in private and publicke of their owne interest and my danger had ye withdrawn your presence your countenance concurrence from the ring-leaders of that course had every watchman been watchfull in his own watch-tower defection had not gone on so farre at least your uncessant proclaimes and continuall protests would both have witnessed to the world and to the posterity after you that defection was not universall and also would have given your selves some
things the one that our orders condemned by them we ought to abolish the other that theirs wee are bound to accept in stead thereof And the other he that would bring in the use of the surplice into the reformed Kirkes where iâ— hath no place cannot be excused from schisme and superstition whatsoever hee alledge for his excuse As he speakes of one so hee speakes of all The drierie lamentations heavie complaints of the unsupportable burthen of the ceremonial yoke powred out in all ages by the holy men of God may provoke the compassion of the hardest hearts Augustine in his time complained that the Kirke was pressed contrarie to Christs mercifull institution with such a servile burthen of ceremonies that the state of the Iewes under the law was more tollerable then the condition of Christians seeing they were subject onely to Gods ordinances not to humane presumptions as Christians are How would hee at this time have mourned for the case of other Kirks and for the perill that I am in Erasmus Polidorus Virgilius c. â—ing the same ditta It is a certaine truth many ceremonies little faith Look how much is added to the midding of rites as much is withdrawen not onely from Christian liberty but from Christ himself and his faith while the multitude seeketh for that in rites which they should seek in the onely sonne of God Iesus Christ. The greater bulk of bodily ceremonies the lesse spirit of true devotion The true worshippers under the Gospel shall not say The Ark of the Lord they shall forget all those outward ceremonies and never revive them Moses his vaile farre more all other things that neither were nor are froÌ„ God is removed and now may we with open face behold the glory of God Then the sea about the altar was of brasse and could not be pierced with the sharpest sight but now our sea about the throne is glasse clearly convoying the knowledge of God unto our minds The Amphiscij can tell that the more shadow the lesse light The shadow alwayes accompanies the body sometimes it followes behinde but sometimes also it comes before Ye may be sure the dark body of error is not farre off when the shadowes of ceremonies are at hand and iustly may feare that they are the harbingers sent before by Satan whatsoever be mans intention to make place for their owne substance Oh if the Lord would open your eyes to see the subtill working of that mystery of iniquity The web may be divided in mens intentions who possibly mind no more for time to come then they urge for the present But in the iustice of God punishing the world for the contempt of the truth and in respect of Satans malice bringing in his lye it is all of one threed And that which is begun by one may be wrought out by another entring upon the preceeding labours Ye see not this weed growing but it will be perceived to have growen The seeds of Popery were secretly sowen in the Primitive Kirke and by degenerating ages grew up to that monstrous height which now the world wonders at But alas all our countrey wit is Mâ—tanoia after wit My people are like the Athenians who as Demades objected to them never intreated for peace but in mourning gowns that is after they had suffered great calamitie in battell When afterward ye are poysoned with errour and over laden with crosses ye and your children after you shall be forced to cry out upon your owne madnesse and folly that would not see and resist the beginnings of so great evils The remanent sparkles of natures light looking upon the common providence of God may let your Honours see that it serves most for the prosperity of Kirkes and Kingdomes that ilk constitution and order in a societie should sort with the nature disposition and condition of the people My people have from the liberal hand of their God externall abundance for the honest sustentation of their bodies with a substantial sound and simple religion for the salvation of their soules Yet farre from the artificial fulnes whereby the Tyrian spirits of the world do disquiet their neighbour nations striving to subject all to their formes that they may reigne over all as Queenes against the protestations made in all the confessions of faith of other Kirkes A single forme of policie is more fit for a plain people and mean provisions then the gorgeous shew of a pompous port necessarily requiring rents complements and carriage that neither this land may beare neither wee nor our fathers have learned Rites must have rents their service is both cumbersome costly they scorne the assignations of our plotted povertie they strive with Statesmen Earles and Lords for place precedencie they loath the preaching of the Gospell and like better the chief places of estate The restitution of the Kirk to her wonted possessions to her worldly dignities must goe on together with equall speed Neither can so long experience be denied but that ordinarily the estate of the common wealth accompanies the constitution of the kirk as the morning starre goes with the Sunne which Constantine acknowledged in his grant to the Kirkes of Africa thus beginning his Epistle Considering that the due observation of things pertaining to true religion and the worship of God brings great happinesse to the whole estate and common wealth of the Empire of Rome and Charles the 8. of France lamentably experienced For when he had faire occasions to reforme the Kirke of Rome at his pleasure and to help the Kirk of God he neglected both wherefore shortly after striken with a sudden sicknesse he died according to the forewarning of Savanarola who told him plainly that he should have great successe in his voyage to Italy for reforming the corrupt state of the Kirk which if hee did not he should returne with dishonour and God would reserve the honour of that work unto some other All the policie of Achitophel and wisdome of Salomon cannot establish a kingdome wherein the kingdome of Christ is misregarded His true worship is the pillar and wall of policies If the Lord remove his truth from you hee will deprive you also of your civill liberties and give you over into the hands of mercilesse enemies If he spare not his own strength and glory but give over the one to captivity and the other to the hands of his enemies he shall respect you no more theÌ„ the mire in the street The nation and kingdome that will not serve the Lord shal perish and these nations shall be utterly destroyed My faithfull ministers and obedient children to the meanest are all Gods people and his majesties loyal subjects and faithfull servants The testimonies of his love belong to them all for their comfort in this world and safe conduct to the world to come As they feare God they honour his highnesse they pray for him and his children and all