upon them the vvaters of life vvhich they had not othervvise knowne or desired I heare vvhere he askt for vvater a common element and that for vvhich the giver vvas no whit the poorer I vvould faine heare vvhere hee askt for bread vvhere for meat I find vvhere he gave bread more then once to thousands and fish to boot but where ever did he ask a morsell or finne shortly then he vvho could have commanded all the pomp and royalty of the whole world would appeare in the forme of a servant that he might sanctifie a meane and moderate condition to us It is true there can bee no certaine proportion of our either having or desiring since the conditions of men are in a vast difference for that coat which is too bigge for a dwarfe will not so much as come upon a Giants sleeve and it is but just and lawfull for every man to affect so much as may bee sufficient not only for the necessity of his person but for the decency of his estate the neglect whereof may be sordid and deservedly taxable It is said of Gregory the great that he sharply reproved Paschafius Bishop of Naples for that he used to walk down to the Sea-side attended only with one or two of his Clergy without that meet port which his place required Surely he that goeth below himself disparageth his vocation and whiles he would seeme humble is no other then carelesse But all things considered he that can cut eavenest betweene want and excesse is in the safest easiest happiest estate A truth which if it were duely entertained would quit mens hearts of a world of vexation which now they doe willingly draw upon themselves for he that resolves to be rich and great as he must needs fall into many snares of sin so into manifold distractions of cares It was a true word of wise Bion in Laertius who when he was asked what man lived most unquietly answered He that in a great estate affects to be prosperous In all experience he that sets too high a pitch to his desires lives upon the rack neither can be loosed till he remit of his great thoughts and resolve to clip his wings and train and to take up with the present Very seasonable and witty was that answer which Cyneas in the story gave to ambitious Pyrrhus when that great Conqueror began speech of his designes Well said Cyneas when thou hast vanquished the Romans vvhat vvilt thou then doe I will then said Pyrrhus saile over to Sicily And vvhat wilt thou doe said Cyneas vvhen that is vvon then vvill vve said Pyrrhus subdue Africk Well and when that is effected vvhat vvilt thou said Cyneas then doe Why then said Pyrrhus we vvill sit downe and spend the rest of our time merrily and contentedly And vvhat hinders thee said Cyneas that vvithout all this labour perill thou canst not now doe so before-hand Certainly nothing lies crosse the vvay of our contentation but our owne thoughts and those the all-wise God leaves there on purpose for the just torture of great hearts It vvas a truly Apostolicall and divine counsell that the chosen vessell gives to his Hebrewes Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have vvhich unto his Timothy he limits to food and rayment and backs it irrefragably with a reason fetcht from our first and last estate For we brought nothing into this world and it is certaine wee shall carry nothing out Lo wee begin and end vvith nothing and no lesse then all can sate us vvhile vve are Oh the infinite avarice and ambition of men the Sea hath both bottome and bounds the heart of man hath neither There are those as our Bromiard observes who in a faire pretence of mortification like soaring Kites flie up from the earth and cry Fie Fie in their flight as if they scorned these lower vanities and yet when they have done stoop upon the first carrion that comes in their eye False Pharisees that under the colour of long prayers devoure widowes houses Pharisaicall votaries that under colour of wilfull poverty sweep away vvhole Countries into their Corban Amongst the very Mahumetans under the name of sanctity the Scirifii in Africk in our very age the sonnes of Scirifius Hascenus desire no more patrimony from their father but a drum and an ensigne and thus furnished religion being their sole pretext they run away with the large kingdomes of Fez and Morocco And what other spirit possessed Fryer Campanella a poore Dominican in our time who durst think of changing his cowle for a crowne ayming at no lesse in his secret treaty with the Turks then the now divided Empire of Italy How no lesse rise then insatiable are these desires of men One plots for a Lordship another for a Coronet One hath swallowed a crozier another a Scepter a third a Monarchy and a fourth all these Of all the ambitions that have come to my notice I doe most wonder at that of Maximilian the first who being Emperour affected also to be Pope and for that purpose in his letter written to the Baron of Lichtenstein offered the summe of three hundred thousand Ducats besides the pawne of foure rich and preciously stuffed chests together with the sumptuous pall of his Princely investiture vvhereof said he after we are seized of the Papacy vve shall have no further use Though vvhy not saith Waremundus as vvell as Pope Boniface the eight vvho girded vvith his sword and crowned vvith an Imperiall Diadem came abroad magnificently amongst the people and could openly professe I am both Caesar and Pope Vaine men whither doe our restlesse desires carry us unlesse grace and wiser thoughts pineon their wings Which if vve doe seriously affect there is a double remedy of this immoderation The first is the due consideration of our owne condition both in the shortnesse and ficklenesse of our life and the length and vveight of our reckoning Alas if all the vvorld were mine how long could I injoy it Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule as vvas said to the rich projector in the parable and then whose shall all these things bee Were I the great King of Babylon vvhen I see the hand writing my destiny upon the vvall vvhat should I care for the massie bowls of my cupboord or the golden roofe of my Palace vvhat foole vvas ever fond of the orient colours of a bubble vvho ever vvas at the cost to gild a mud-vvall or to embroyder that tent vvhich he must remove to morrow Such is my condition here I must alter it cannot It is the best ceremony that I could note in all the pack of those Pontificall rites that an herald burnes tovve before the nevv Pope in all the height of his pomp and cryes Holy Father thus passes the glory of the world Thus even thus indeed the glory passes the account passes not
the Iesuite Theodore Beza denyes that the body of Christ can be substantially in many places at once Therefore he denies Gods Omnipotence The Protestant ascribes to God more then a meere permission of evill therefore hee makes him the Author of sinne Contrarily no meane one of ours inferres a Papist makes Christ a creature therefore hee is an Arrian Makes Christ of meale therefore not of the blessed Virgin therefore an Apollinarist Consequences which the disputant thinks to make good but the accused on either part detests Thus the honest and ingenuous Christian is drawne from a commendable search of necessary truthes into a wild chase of envious inferences And now the quarrell is indeed fallen off from Divinity and is removed to the Schooles of Logique naturall Philosophy Metaphysicks and not hee that hath the most truth must carry it but he that can bring the most skilfull Sophistry What is it that distracts the Reformed Churches of Christendome but this injurious conceit of inconsequent inferences The humanity of Christ saith one part is omnipresent therefore saith the other no humanity at all sith this is onely proper to the Deity The ubiquity of Christs humane nature is denyed saith the other therefore the personall union is destroyed Away with these rigid illations when wee have to doe with brethren Each holdeth his owne both disclayme the inferences and in their sence may For as learned Bucer gravely It is our part to see not what doth of it selfe follow upon any Opinion but what followes in the conscience of those who hold that opinion which wee thinke contrary to a fundamentall Article Were this rule held how happy were the Church how certaine our peace when we have done our best there will be errours enow in the Church wee need not to make them more This was not the fashion in the plaine dealing world of the first ages of Christianity No heresie was then feoffed upon any man but upon open and acknowledged conviction and if he cleared himselfe from the maine crimination hee was pronounced innocent Looke into the records of times The contagion of Arrius beginning at the obscure Church of Baucalis soone reach't to Alexandria and there instantly infected seaven hundred virgins twelve Deacons seaven Priests and offered to diffuse it selfe into the very Episcopall Throane at last by Miletus his relation the Archbishop Alexander is made acquainted with the rumor of that heresie he presently sends for Arrius and charges him with the crime That impudent mouth sticks not to confesse his wicked error but there openly casts up the poyson of his damnable doctrine before his Governour The holy Bishop no lesse openly reproves him urges and aggravates the sacrilegious impiety of his opinion And finding him to second his error with contumacies expels him from his Church followes him as was meet with seventy letters of caution to other Churches yet still the mischiefe spreds The godly Emperour Constantine is informed of the danger hee calls a Synode Arrius with his all wicked Pamphlets is there cryed downe and condemn'd to banishment I doe not finde those holy fathers nibling at consequences strain'd out of his Thalia or some other of his abhominable papers but charging him with the right-downe positions of heresie such as these blasphemies concerning Christ Time was when hee was not Hee was made of things that were not He was not begotten of the Substance of the Father In time not from Eternity not true God of God but created of nothing Here were no tricks of inferences no quirkes of Sophismes no violent deduction of unyeelded sequels the heresie proclaymed it selfe and was accordingly sentenced Such were the proceedings with the Apollinarists in the third Councell of Rome and in the first Generall Councell of Constantinople with the Macedonians and where not in the cases of heresie And if for all the rest we would see a modell of the old Theologicall simplicity in the censures of this nature we need but to cast our eye upon that profession of faith and Anathematâ—me which Damasus ingeniously wrote to Paulinus whether Bishop of Thessalonica as Theodoret would have it or as others of Antioch wee pronounce Anathema saith he to those who doe not with full liberty proclaime the Holy Ghost to be of one power and substance with the Father and the Sonne We pronounce Anathema to them who follow the error of Sabellius saying That the Father is one and the same person with the Son Wee pronounce Anathema to Arrius and Eunomius who with a like impiety but in a forme of words unlike affirme the Sunne and the holy Spirit to be creatures We pronounce Anathema to the Macedonians who comming from the stocke of Arrius have not varyed from his impiety but from his name We pronounce Anathema to Photinus who renuing the heresie of Ebion confesses our Lord Iesus Christ made only of the Virgin Mary Wee pronounce Anathema to those that maintaine two Sonnes one before all worlds the other after the assuming of flesh from the Virgin Thus he Is there any man here condemned for an heretick but hee who dirctly affirmes confesses maintaines opinions truly damnable Neither indeed is it just or equall that a man should by the malice of an enemy be made guilty of those crimes which himselfe abhorres What I will owne is mine what is cast upon me is my adversaries And if I be by deductions fetch 't into such errour the fault is not in my faith but in my Logick my braine may erre my heart doth not Away then ye cruell Tortors of Opinions Dilaters of Errours Delators of your brethren Incendiaries of the Church haters of peace Away with this unjust violence Let no man beare more then his owne burden Presse an â—â—ring brother if ye please in way of Argument with such odious Consectaries as may make him weary of his Opinion but hate to charge him with it as his owne frame not imaginary monsters of error with whom you may contend Hee that makes any man worse then hee is makes himselfe worse then hee §. XII The eighth rule of Moderation To keepe opinions within their owne bounds not imputing private mens conceits to whole Churches EIghtly it will be requisite to a peaceable moderation that we should give to every opinion his owne due extent not casting private mens conceits upon publicke Churches not fathering single fancies upon a Community All men cannot accord in the same thoughts there was never any Church under heaven in which there was not some Ahimaaz that would run alone In all waters lightly there are some sorts of fish that love to swim against the streame there is no reason that the blame of one or few should be diffused unto all If a Pope John the 22 shall maintaine that the soules of the blessed shall sleep till the resurrection If a Dominicus a Soto shall hold that the whole Christian faith shall be extinguished in the persecutions of Antichrist shall wee impute these
which God hath revealed what is it but to make our selves more wise and carefull then our Maker Wo be to those men on whose heads lyes so much innocent blood of Orthodox Christians which hath beene shed for those causes which God never owned Wo be to those Anathemaes which are spent upon true-beleeving soules such as can say in sincerity of heart and clearenesse of judgement with Erasmus Either acquit me with the Apostle or condemne the Apostle with me §. VIII The fifth rule of moderation To be remisse and facile in unimporting verities both in our opinion and censure NOw as we cannot be too stiffe and zealous for the maintenance of those truths which are necessary and pure De fide as Gerson stiles them so fiftly it is required to Christian Moderation that in all collaterall and unimportant verities wee should be remisse and easie both in our opinion and censure Not too peremptorily resolving not too eagerly pressing not too sharpely judging In maine matters it is good to take up that resolution of Gregory commended by Gerson that it is more profitable to indure a scandall through breach of peace then an abandoning of truth and that honour of Roterdam I had rather be torne in peeces by the furious abettors of both sides then be safe and quiet on the wrong part but in points of a baser alloy Saint Austens rule is not more wise then modest I may thinke one thing another man may thinke another I doe neither prescribe to him nor he to me Learned and wise Erasmus observed well there are many things which doe no harme while they are neglected but when they are once stirred raise up grievous Tragedies in the world Even in the poorest matters what broyles are raised by contradiction what fearefull blood-sheds hath this Iland yeelded for but the carrying of a Crosse what stirs have beene in the whole Christian Church for the difference of an Easter day what broyles for a few poore harmelesse Ceremonies As for the Sacramentarian quarrels Lord how bitter have they beene how frequent how long in six severall successions of learned conflicts As if wee Christians meant to imitate those Heathens which dwelt about the Marshes of Triton the Auses and Machlyes amongst whom the manner was when they kept their anniversary feast to the honour of Minerva that their Virgins divided themselves into troopes and intertained each other with stones and clubs and if any of them received a deaths-wound in the fray shee was straight cry'd downe as no mayd In these cases the very victory is miserable and such as Pirrhus said of his as is enough to undoe the Conquerer As good Physitians then when they desire to recover their patient labour to make peace amongst the humours so must wee doe in a sicke Church and if we cannot compose them by a discreet moderation yet at least it will be fit to hold off from a passionate side-taking It is noted by Suidas that Heber was not amongst the builders of Babels Tower and therefore his language was not altered and it is worth observing that Corahs sonnes perished not in the common destruction of their parents and kinsfolkes for that they fled from the conspirators to Moses If we would find favour as Storkes we must not consort with Cranes Now that wee may be capable of this peaceable temper we must be free from these two vices pride and pertinacy whereof the one forestals the heart with an over-weening of our selves and our opinions not induring a contradiction the other obdures it against any meanes of reformation resolving to hold the conclusion in spight of the premises For the first only by pride commeth contention saith wise Salomon this is it that makes a man scorne the common tracke and lifts him up with the conceite of his owne abilities and of the validity of his owne grounds not without a contemptuous undervaluing of all others wee finde it thus in all experience for my part I never met with any as worthy Master Green-ham hath noted before me if but a schismaticall spirit whom I have not sensibly discerned thus tainted take but a separist a blew-aporn'd man that never knew any better schoole then his shop-bord if he doe not thinke himselfe more truly learned then the deepest Doctor and a better interpreter of Scripture then the greatest Divine I am no lesse mistaken then he hence it is that they affect a singularity and keepe aloofe from others both in practise and opinion Wherein a proud man is like unto oyle which will ever swim aloft and will by no meanes mixe with water Contrarily the only disposition that fits the heart for peace indeed all other graces is humility That cloth which the Fuller would perfectly whiten yeelds it selfe to be trampled upon They are low pits wherein the starres may be seen by day They are the valleyes and not the shelving hills that soke in the waters of heaven The Iewish Doctors say well that in a true disciple of Abraham there must be three things a good eye a meeke spirit an humble soule the first frees him from envy the second from impatience and the third from pride these two last will teach him to acknowledge and admire other mens better faculties and to abase his owne to be ready to submit to clearer reason and irrefragable authority and modestly to distrust his owne It was a word worthily commended in Potho a good Bishop neare 500 yeares agoe Are we more learned and more devout then the Fathers or doe wee presume proudly to determine of those things which their wisedome thought meet to be praetermitted Surely hee that beares this minde cannot easily erre cannot erre dangerously â—t is possible I confesse to goe too farre in our relyance upon others judgements I cannot like that of Erasmus who professeth to his Bilibadus that hee ascribed so much to the authority of the Church that if she had thought meet to have allowed the opinion of Arius or Pelagius hee should have assented thereunto This is too much servility In these manifest and maine truthes we have no reason to make flesh our arme If all the world should face me downe that the Sunne shines not I would be pardoned to beleeve my eyes And if all the Philosophers under heaven should with Zeno defend that there is no motion I would with Diogenes confute them by walking But in all those verities which are disputable and free for discourse let me ever be swayed by the sacred authority of that Orthodoxe Church wherein I live Pertinacy is the next which indeed is the onely thing that makes an hereticke Let the error be haynous yet if there be not a perverse stiffenesse in the maintenance of it it amounts not to the crime of heresie much lesse is it so in case of a relenting schisme It was a good speech of Erasmus I cannot be an hereticke unlesse I will
and since I neither am nor will be so I will endeavour to use the matter so as that I may not be thought to be one The course is preposterous and unnaturall that is taken up by quarrelsome spirits fâ—rst they pitch their conclusion and then hunt about for premises to make it good this method is for men that seeke for victory not for truth for men that seeke not God but themselves whereas the well-disposed heart being first upon sure grounds convinced of the truth which it must necessarily hold cares only in essentiall verities to guard it selfe against erronious suggestions and in the rest is ready to yeeld unto better reason Hee is not fit to be a gamester that cannot be equally content to lose and winne and in vaine shall hee professe morality that cannot with Socrates set the same face upon all events whether good or evill In all besides necessary truthes give me the man that can as well yeeld as fight in matters of this nature I cannot like the spirits of those Lacedemonian Dames which gave the shields to their sonnes with the peremptory condition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surely hee is better accepted of God that in these frayes of indifferency doth peaceably lay downe the Bucklers then hee that layes about him with the greatest ostentation of skill and valour In things of this kinde meeknesse may doe God more service then courage They say milke quenches wild-fire better then any other liquor and wee finde in all experience that the pores are better opened with a gentle heat then with a violent The great Apostle was content to become all things to all that hee might winne some How was hee all to all if hee did not sometimes remit of his right to some He that resisteth Peter the Prime Apostle to his face in the case of a perillous temporizing yet gave way to Iames and the other brethren to purifie himselfe with the foure votaries in the Temple shortly then as he is a wise man that knowes when it is time to yeeld so is hee a peaceable sonne of the Church that yeelds when hee sees it time and by this meanes provides for his owne comfortable discharge and the publique tranquillity that can be in necessaries truthes an Oake and a Reed in truthes indifferent §. IX Remissenesse in matter of Censure IN matters of this nature whereof wee treat true moderation requires the peaceable Christian to be not more yeelding in his Opinion then favourable in his Censures of the contrary-minded for it is a fearefull violation both of Charitie and justice to brand an adversarie in matter of slight Opinions with the odious note of Sect or Heresie and no lesse Presumption to shut that man out of Heaven whom God hath enrolled in the Booke of Life In all other things sayth the Chancelour of Paris besides those which are meerely matters of Faith the Church may either deceive or be deceived and yet hold Charitie still And as it is a good rule that is given to Visitors that they should be sparing in making Decrees lest the multitude of them should bring them into contempt so it is a rule no lesse profitable to spirituall Governours which Erasmus relates out of Gerson that they should not rashly throw about the thunder-bolts of their Censures We cannot be too severe in the maine matters of Religion though not without that wise Item of Cicero that nothing that is cruell can be profitable the remissenesse wherein may be no other then an injurious mercie but in things of slighter condition we must be wiser then to draw a Sword to kill Flyes neither is it for us to call for Scorpions where a Rod is too much It is remarkable that of Galienus who when his Wife had complained to him of a Cheater that had sold Glasse-pearles to her for true made as if hee would have cast him to the Lions the Offender looking for those fierce beasts was onely turn'd loose to a Cock In some cases shame and scorne may be a fitter punishment then extreme violence Wee may not make the Tent too bigge for the Wound nor the Playster too broad for the Sore It was grave counsell that S. Austin gave to his Alipius that heed must be taken lest whiles wee goe about to amend a doubtfull complaint wee make the breach wider And that rule was too good for the Authour Iohn 22. that in a case uncertaine wee should rather determine within the bounds then exceede them Even in plaine convictions violence must be the last remedie as in outward bodily extremities by Hippocrates his prescription Ignis and Ferrum must be last tryed for generous spirits as Erasmus well desire to be taught abide not to be forced it is for Tyrants to compell for Asses to be compelled and as Seneca observes a good natur'd Horse will be govern'd by the shadow of the Wand whereas a sullen restie Iade will not be ordered by the Spurre S. Paul puts it to the choyse of his Corinthians Will ye that I come to you with a Rod or with the spirit of meekenesse as loth to use the Rod unlesse he were constrained by their wilfull disobedience Much have they therefore to answer for before the Tribunall of Heaven who are apt to damne Christians better then themselves sending all the Clyents of the North-westerne Grecian Russian Armenian Ethiopick Churches downe to Hell without redemption for varying from them in those Opinions which onely themselves have made fundamentall And herein are wee happy that wee suffer for our Charitie rather chusing to incurre the danger of a false Censure from uncharitable men then to passe a bloudie and presumptuous Censure upon those who how faultily soever professe the deare name of our common Saviour Let them if they please affect the glory of a Turkish Iustice in killing two Innocents rather then sparing one Guiltie let us rather chuse to answer for Mercie and sooner take then offer an unjust or doubtfull Violence §. X. The sixt rule of Moderation Not to beleeve an opposite in the state of a Tenet or person SIxtly to a man of Peace nothing is more requisite then a charitable distrust viz. That wee should not take an adversaries word for the state of his opposite They were amongst the rest two necessarie charges that Erasmus gave to his Goclenius To be sober and incredulous For as there is nothing that rayses so deadly hostilitie as Religion so no Criminations are either so rife or so haynous as those which are mutually cast upon the abettors of contrarie opinions Wee need not goe farre to seeke for lamentable instances Let a man beleeve Andrew Iurgivicius hee will thinke the Protestants hold no one Article of the Apostles Creed Let him beleeve Campian hee shall thinke wee hold God to be the Authour of Sinne That the Mediator betweene God and man JESUS dyed the second death That all sinnes