sometimes lesse obedient to the Edge and Wisdome of the chizell and sometimes unhappily ready to cracke-off in the working yet conformity of the parts is still in it self the Art and Improvement of Perfection If we behold the Church of Rome shall we deny in it wit and Successe When as though it has almost been utterly disolved by some tedious Schismes the meer recovery to a Union and continuance has made it become Famous and seem Happy O then let us learn that Special wisdome which is to learn wisdome of an Adversary Let us diligently Imitate yet wisely Inverte the Roman Practice Let us become happy and seem Famous yea let us become happy though we seem not Famous And seing that in a private estate the best purchase is of Fee simple whereby one does at once with the best skill of Thrift both get and keep Let the Art of Unity be made the Study of Conscience Indeed without Study this Art is not attaind not fit to be attaind Whiles then the Apostle moves us to Unity and moves us also to an Endeavour to it he bestowes upon us as well a Discovery as an Exhortation shewing us not onely the End but also the means Endeavour then is that without which Unity is rather Desird then Attaind And therefore the Grecians to shew their wisdome in their Endeavour bound themselves to true Unity to concord by an Oath and bound themselves to such an Oath by a Law endevouring to preserve Peace by a double bond upon the Soul and upon the Body The Romans us'd a like wise Endeavour and whiles in a Higher in a wiser strain making Concord a Deity thus seeking Peace not by an Oath but by Prayer an Oath importing their Own best strength but Prayer implying the Aide of Heaven And even thus wise that is thus peaceable were very Heathen thus peaceable among themselves though without grace thus peaceable by wise Nature very like grace striving to make their Peace and their Country of a like circuite Who then would not study the nature of Endeavour Who would not study the Art of Endeavour Diligence there must be as in a Right Archer that makes his arrow as intentive as his eye Strength there must be either of Love or Warre even such contrary wayes leading to the same Unity which though in it self impli s Love yet in the attaining of it is especially like Heaven which is sometimes taken by violence Speed there must be when the Bond of Peace is in danger to slippe what hand will not be quick what hand can be too quick to repair it Skill there must bee a reciprocall skill 'T is not enough felicity for the most wise hand to direct the ball if by the hand that should receive it it be either neglected or diverted That therefore Diligence strength speed and skill may prosper the Roman deity must be rectified into Truth concord into God whose goodnesse is ready to make an exchange with us to give us Peace for Prayer The Sabine Women arm'd only with Love and Intercession conquer'd two armies getting a Victory more famous then the Sword can win and more sure then any but the Victory of Prayer Pray then we must for Peace peace to Advantage Prayer not corrupt it peace no lesse holy then firme nor more attended with gladnesse then with Innocence Which if our first parents had not lost they had rightly Dress'd and so kept their Paradise nor had that instant terrour expression of warre a fiery sword driven Man from God! Indeed the mercy of the Judgment drove him to the Fear of God whiles from the Fruition of him and so at last drove him from Paradise to God! But the Divine mercy preserve us from this way of mercy from this way of Unity by preserving us in our Paradise and in a Unity with God and our selves Preserve us in the Spirit by which whiles we cry Abba Father we may remember to make Brotherly Love a part of our Care as it is of our Inheritance Preserve us in peace so preserve us in peace that warre may be alwayes more Odious to us then Necessary Preserve us in the Bond of Peace a bond that may holily encompasse both Priest and people a bond that may happily encompasse and Vnite Nations Preserve us in the wisdome of keeping Vnity that neither desperate malignity may precipitate any nor mistaking devotion slide any into destruction Preserve us in the Endeavour of this wisdome the wisdome of preserving our British Vnion which being the happiest Bridge that was ever raisd over Tweede so may it prove as perpetual as the streame which it embraces And that this our Endeavour may prosper let it Employ and Improve it self by Imitation Let us either imitate the blessed tongues which as on this day appear'd by a holy Silence for they were not heard to speake any thing though the tongues of Others spake by Them or let us imitate the tongues of the Aposiles by holy Languague Let the Light of these wonderfull tongues teach us to speak with knowledge remembring that though Joel foretold that in the later dayes the Spirit should be pour'd upon all flesh Saint Peter in the Story of the Apostles Acts has told us it was perform'd in This day's wonder so that now the ability of instruction is not to be expected from Miracle but from Industry Let the fire likewise of these tongues teach us Charity and therefore that we never Preach Libel insteed of Reformation More especially in Peace let every one for his proportion practice a good Imitation of the good Constantine who cast the hand-writings of Complaints into the fire quenching so with natural flames the unnatural flames of contentions In Warre let the Loyall Example of our Forefathers goe forth with all our Forces Providence being the Bight Wing the left Power and Vnity the Body of the Army So shall Treachery the false Son of Zeal be as shamefull in its Fall as in its Rise and so shall Loyalty the true Sonne of Zeal at last Triumph in the just defence of the just Defender of the Faith Which grant we beseech thee O Lord of Hosts for thy Sonne 's sake the Prince of Peace and effect it by the power and Vnity of Thy Spirit To which Blessed and Eternal Trinity in Unity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be for ever ascribed the Glory Comfort of Victory and Peace OF Rebellion A SERMON Preached before the Right-Honourable the Members of Parliament assembled at Oxford At Saint Macis's May 19. 1644. By BARTEN HOLYDAY D. D. Arch-deacon of Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplaines OXFORD Printed by W. H. for S. Pocock 1661. 1 Sam 15.23 Rebellion is as the Sinne of Witch-craft IT was no lesse Truth then phancy in the Philosopher that said could vertue be seen it would Beget Love and Advance it not only into Admiration but Rapture as if for a time it would deprive the soul of its Happinesse by transporting
they can not be divided without the injury of the Spirit so can they not be join'd without the Unity of it Take Unity out of a Kingdome and it remains a Body rather large then sound nay which sometimes falls into such a diseas'd state that the unwilling Soveraigne cure as the Chymiques prescribe is a mummy made of its own tainted blood Take Unity out of a City and it is sooner conquerd then beseeg'd the surest and first triumph being not over the walls but the men T is discord makes the Battery the Canon but reports it and easily must they fall by an Enemy that fall without him Take Unity out of a Family and Divorce soon enters which is the unhappy palsy of marriadge deading the one side and grieving the other Unity then is that which should be kept yet as we must keep it so we must not mistake it the only Unity which we must keep being the only Unity the Unity of the Spirit There is a Spirit that rules in the aire but this Spirit is but an unruly one onely working an unhappy Obedience in the Children of Disobedience And sometimes it so works that it may rather seeme Flesh then Spirit swelling man into a tympany of Ambition which at last discovers it self to be not fruitfulnesse but disease Sometimes it works by such potent suggestions that as if it disdaign'd to informe a single natural body it dares venter to animate a People a whole body politique unnaturally striving to make it an unnatural body a body either without a head or weary of it Sometimes This Spirit works most potently by possession as it dealt with the madman in the Gospel that toar off his clothes and lay amongst the tombes a madman indeed that cast away so much as a winding sheet being so neer a grave And yet may there be no other Found as unhappy if not more unhappy who though they tear not their rayment yet esteem not a whole skin calling danger glory and peace sloath But unhappy Spirits they are that are more the Enemies then the companions of their own bodies as if they gave them life only to lead them to more infamy of death Unhappy Spirits that would leave no body behind them to remember them or not so much to remember them as to disclaim them Unhappy Spirits whose union is conspiracy and whose strength is Outrage As then the unity of the Spirit must be kept so must it be a true unity of Spirit and therefore of the true Spirit that is the unity of the Spirit of unity This is that Spirit whose wisdome teaches us that though we can not decide many things we must not differ in many things nay because we cannot decide them that therefore we must not differ not differ beyond opinion the difference being but from opinion This is that Spirit whose perfection teaches us that we can heere no more attain to a perfection of knowledge then of Holinesse that some ignorance in the arguments of Religion implies not an imperfection in Religion but a perfection in God that the Divine Law has indeed God for the Authour yet various man will be an outward Interpreter This is that Spirit whose providence teaches us that the Government of the World is like the structure of it it being founded upon imparities the naturall creatures having a Locall subordination the rational having a politicall and sometimes a sacred which differences as it it the Divine will to appoint so is it the Divine power to Compose This is that Spirit whose love teaches us that though he once appeared in the likenesse of firy Tongues yet that thâ—y took not their flame from the fire of Hell but of Charity that though they were divided it was not to Preach division but a Gospel that love is the soul of the soul uniting though not the parts of the naturall body yet the many bodies as so many parts of the mysticall body of the Church If then we would find the true subject of this Spirit we must seeke the true nature of this Spirit Where then we find wisdome withdrawing the will from the quarrels of the understanding and more esteeming of Peace then of opinion there is this Spirit where we find perfection rather Endeavourd then pretended and the Divine Law unanimously expounded not by Children but by Fathers there is this Spirit Where we find providence that does as willingly maintain as easily distinguish just imparities not more readily acknowledging a diversity in the Lights of Heaven then in the lights of the Church and making those differ in honour whom God has made to differ in gifts there is this Spirit Where we find love more tender then the eye it sees with looking upon Wife and Children as on the Instructive and deputy pledges of God himself looking on its Country as on a feat though not as pleasant yet as dear as Paradise being a place not of choyse but lot and so made sweet by the hand of the Patrone looking upon the Church as on the type of Heaven and studying the Peace of the Citty of God the God of Peace there is this Spirit there is the Unity of this Spirit This Unity then of the Spirit can not be preserv'd with a violation of the Spirit the Unity of the Spirit must not be preserv'd with the breach of Peace We may not doe evil though good might come there 〈◊〉 may not do evil that good may 〈◊〉 there of Not only carnal good from evil does not justify but no good no not a purpos'd good can make evil good Royalty then must not down for the advancement of Religion Nay the violation of that is alwayes the violation of this in being not glory but blasphemy for a Rebel to enstyle himself Defender of the Faith The old truth was object ingratitude and ye object all crimes and is it not as old a truth is it not a higher truth object Rebellion and ye object all crimes It being in effect neerer to a flout then a truth to call a Rebel a Christian Is not Christ our Lord the Prince of Peace And can men of blood the Children of Disobedience be the Subjects of that Prince Shall Christ give the Name and Mariana the Heart Shall Christ Character the forehead and Junius Brutus the Brain He is of a bad profession and so but a bad Professour whose profession is Disobedience The Pharisie was the precisest Artist in the Devotion of the Jews his pretence was the mastering of his passion his practice was the mastering of his Prince Let Saint Paul describe such he will call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most exact sect such a sect as made Paul a Sectary nay a Persecuutor till he was Persecuted Let Hegesippus describe them and he will call them a sort of Men zealous subtle busy covetous Let their wise Josephus describe them and he will tell us that their authority with the people was so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
last made but the Appurtenances of Empires and more usually draind then defended What were the Greekes though once they flourished in Wealth and Wit Though they withstood the Persians Insolence yet were they subdued by the Roman Wisdome and quite enslaved by the Turkish Fury But were they not divided before they were destroyed Did not their Distractions unite their enimies to Art and Victory Let them remember the designe of Unity in the Conveniency of defence Let the Roman Provinces be a witnesse which though at first they did a little struggle for mistaken Liberty yet did not usually their subjection become their purchase Feare was before still at the doore and afterwards Safety their terrour a Potent enimy by a rare felicity being turnd to their defence Let them remember the blessings of our Canaan would they see Solomon's days in his Peace in his Wisdome can they behold it more eminently then in his Temple and his Fleete And may they not see here high degrees of such Devotion and Wisdome for God's glory and our Country's safety And is it not the first if not the greatest Act of Wisdome to preserve it selfe Let no Sonne then become so unwise so unhallowed so unnaturall as to â—â—t up the hand against his Father When Kings are likened unto God is it not occasionally as well for their justice as for their mercy They beare not the Sword in vaine And if God's wrath as his mercy should be a patterne for Kings had not all need to remember with what exaltation of phrase the Almighty has express'd the exaltation of his wrath If I whet my glittering Sword and my hand take hold on Judgement I will render vengeance to my adversaries and will reward them that hate mee I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my Sword shall devoure flesh But Oh let the softnesse of nature the justice of Duty the Promise of this Commandement which is the first Commandement with promise Ephes 6.2 bend the heart and knee of every Israëlite unto their Lord their Soveraigne Lord their Soveraigne Father That so they may enjoy the Commandement in the Promise by living long in the Land which the Lord their God has given them And let the Annointed of the Lord the Father of our Israel march with the thousands of his people and with the protection of our God Let him be clad with the whole armour of God Let his Loines be girt about with Truth having on the breast-plate of Righteousnesse Let his feet be shod with the preparation of the Ghospell of peace Let him take the shield of Faith wherewith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Let him take the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of God's Spirit Let him march clad with the prayers of his People and let all his enimies perish O Lord. But let thine Annointed returne in Safety in Peace in Honour to the Honour of thy Name and the Peace of this thy Israel Amen Amen Of Vnitie A SERMON Preached before KING CHARLES the FIRST At Christ-Church in Oxford on Whit-Sunday May 21. 1643. By BARTEN HOLYDAY D. D. Arch-deacon of Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplaines OXFORD Printed by W. H. for S. Pocock 1661. Ephes 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace NO Times have more then These Pretended the Unity of the Spirit no Times have more then these violated the unity of the Spirit Which Spirit as on this day vouchsafing to descend to us we may by the figure and neernesse not unhappily understand it and most happily keep it We may by the Art of this daies Miracle see this Spirit though a Spirit the vertue of it whiles the resemblance of it A Resemblance not presented to the mistake of Sleep or Phansie but to the Inquisition and Loyalty of the Fye Was not the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace when this blessed Spirit did abide in the Society of the Apostles And may not such a blessing win us to an endeavour and such an Endeavour advantage us to keep such a Blessing That therefore we may perfect This Taske and by this Our selves we may with as much Hope as Desire of successe behold this Vnity a better then that of the Soule and body a Unity of Spirits the Spirits of Men united by the Spirit of God We may behold this Spirit which though it informes not the Body informes the Soule not by Nature but by Holinesse We may behold this Peace whose perfection passes all understanding whose comfort yet is in part apprehended by the Sense Wee may behold this Bond which does not Gird though Encompasse us nay whiles it Binds us gives us perfect Freedome We may behold the blessing of keeping this blessing both being receiv'd from the Love and Instruction of this Spirit We may lastly behold this Endeavour a greater Wisdome then a Labour and be allwaies found either Rejoycing or Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace The Highest Vnity is Gods property Inferiour Unity is his work a work of wisdome being a Unity in a Multitude a work of goodnesse being the preservation of a Multitude Which blessing yet is more frequently found in the inferiour creatures then in Man through the defection of the Will from the Understanding as afterwards through the defection of both from God Which degree of Disunion being once made Unity which should have been a comfort to man became his Taske so that now he must endeavour to be what he should be and what he was at Unity as a Creature with the Creator and with the Creatures In which worke he may Learne Unity from the Creatures they being unto him alwaies instruction and sometimes shame so wisely preserving themselves into flocks and heards as if they would advance the Unity of Instinct above the Unity of Reason He may learne it from the Body whose severall parts unite and submit their services to the Safety and Majesty of the Head He may learne it from the first Integrity and Abilities of his own Soul whose severall powers of Motion Sense Appetite and Will were so united in their obedience to Reason that they seem'd to improve themselves from the servants into the Associats of it To attain which Unity as it is Happinesse so to Desire it is Wisdome the way to Happinesse And to attaine it Nature raises Families Families Citties Citties Kingdomes as Faith erects the Church and all these make up the World Take Unity then out of the World and it dissolves into a Chaös in which Nature it selfe can not find it selfe whiles it can find neither End nor Way Yet even this Chaös will be worse then the first there being in that the materialls of a World but in this the Ruines That was God's worke but This Man's Take Unity out of the Church and Religion becomes Schisme excluding Love and so leaving the Deity without a Sacrifice which since mans creation being relatives as
〈◊〉 that if they spake any thing against the King or the High Priest it was presently beleev'd And he will tell us that they were Enemies to Kings that they were of power to disturbe their Kings to raise warre to doe mischief that is to be peace-breakers with extream devotion And he will tell us how they perplex'd their King Hircanus how they broke his Son King Alexander how they aw'd his Widow Queen Alexandre who was glad to be rul'd by them that so she might seem to rule others how they occasion'd quarrel about the Crown between his Sons who to end their difference but to begin their misery choosing the Roman for their Judge found him become their King and their Country at once with their Kingdome unexpectedly layd prostrate into a Province This was the work and reward of notorious zeal They sound the power but the Roman found the plot Nay these were they who not onely thus enthraled their Jerusalem but at last destroyd it whiles they would acknowledge no Lord but the Lord of Lords the Almighty professing that they never feard the destruction of Their City the destruction of God's City Yet the World now sees that neither they nor their Jerusalem is to be seen except the ruines of them as a witnesse And that whiles by Rebellion they labour'd to save their City for God God has abandond both it and them to His Enemy to Their Enemy Mahomet There is no art but must be allow'd some Principles which must be the ground-worke of superstructions so that the ground of art is not art but nature And surely in the Art in the high wisdome of Monarchy no more sure no more necessary that is no more natural foundation can be laid then this the sword may not be drawn nor sheath'd without supreame command And where shall such supremacy be found but in a King Shall persons not annointed be above or equal to the Lord 's annointed Behold Royalty in the Originals of Nature Is it not the power of a Father enlarged For some then to affirme that a King though greater then his Subjects divided is lesse then they when they are Unised what is it but to say that the Patriarch Jacob had indeed Authority over his twelve Sons considerd single but that they when United had Authority over Him A most unnatural assertion and as full of vanity as of falsehood Belike such new Vtopians would have a Round of Government as some the like in the Church not unlike the motion of a Wheele in which every spoak becomes uppermost in his turne But have we not learned that a King is the Head and the People the Body politique And has not Nature committed the Peace so the safety of the Body to the wisdome of the Head without whose direction the motion of the parts is but commotion Number which with order is a cause of Peace is without it too sure an argument of errour when a people runs into a tumult may it be call'd an Assembly or a great misrule Which degree of disorder as it commonly begins not without much mistake so does it goe on with much more mischief Such was the sedition of the Jewes against Paul when they cryed out away with such a fellow from the Earth The mischief was they violated his Person the mistake was they thought he had violated the Temple supposing he had brought certain Greeks into it and so polluted it On which supposal for a while the upvoare was so loud that the accusation it self could not be heard as if the outcry of the tumult had striv'd to exceed the malice of it and did continue with such outrage that authority arm'd with the Souldier was fain to be the violent Peace-maker Indeed that is usually the unhappy and necessary conclusion of sedition Thus Ephraim who would not be pacified by words so provok'd Jephtha that allmost a whole Tribe became the example as of the fin so of the punishment Thus Absolon provok'd suffer'd the justice of a Father whose tendernesse Alas bewaild his own Victory and his peace So that it fares with such fire-brands of a Kingdome as it did with those that cast the innocents into Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace they being the surest fuell of those flames Peace then must be kept the Bond of Peace and the Unity of the Spirit in that bond Is not this in the best extent of this blessing the Church in the Common-wealth as some phrase it Compare Peace with Unity and is not Peace the Larger Is it not the Bond Wee must not then make this bond too short Yet has it been the Witt and Mistake of some to make the Church a House and the Commonwealth the Hangings which ought to be fitted to the House But this similitude seems to be fitted more to their Aime then to the Truth And surely we may admire that such Authors the Authors of this comparison such overseers as the overseers of this building would be so overseen as to make that which is narrower contain that which is larger Themselves making the Church to contain only the Good but the Commonwealth to contain both Good and Bad More congruous it had been though not exact to have made the Common-wealth the Outside of the Church for that had been to grant it to be of more Capacity then the Church and to be what it is intended to be the Defence of the Church the Outside of a building being contrived by art to make void the violence of storme and Age. Yet this comparison were not exact the outside receiving its forme from the house it selfe where as the Church does not give forme to the Common-wealth but receives from it a devout Defence Otherwise the Common-wealth should still vary as the Church whereas we see in a long experience that the Jewish Church and the Christian though so different have yet in their severall ages subsisted and flourish'd under the like Outward rule Monarchique Government To settle the Church then as some now would upon the flat of a Presbytery and then to affirme that it must give forme to the Common-wealth what is it from such premises but dangerously and unjustly to inferre the degrading of Monarchy into Popular Goverment We may then more obviously yet truly liken the Civill State to Bulwarkes and the Church to a City for as when the fortifications are wonne the Citty is soon lost so when the Bond of Peace the Lawes of a Nation are broken the Unity of the Spirit the Doctrine of Religion will be quickly dissolv'd But surely the bond of Peace should be made surer and though by Practice some have somewhat weaken'd it yet have some by Doctrine somewhat weakned their own practice Conscience is a new Edition of Man's workes and words usually presenting them corrected and amended What the zeale of Knox was that is what his lise was let his Life witnesse What Doctrine his Death preach'd let his friends tell us who write his Life and they
will tell us that but a little before his death making an exhortation to his brethren of the Ministry and such Sermons should like death make deep impression he bad them beware of such and many such he told them there were there as had not only denied the Royall Authority but also fallen from the truth which they professed to whom if they repented not into the way whence they had erred he denounc'd the destruction of body and soule A speech that setts forth the just end of such unjust wayes errour and that justly claimes of us a fidelity of memory being express'd in the fidelity of Death What the zeale of Rollocke was let his Life witnesse what his candor of Loyalty let his Death witnesse who in an exhortation likewise to his Brethren of the Ministry did with Vehemency of Spirit in a dying body move them to Peace and Obedience to their Prince magnifying the felicity of their Times and King and seriously advising them to beware that they cast not downe the Church from its height of happinesse This was the Wisdome and Loyalty of Death that a man almost in the point of his own dissolution should endeavour to keep others in the Bond of Peace These mens examples are to men in some things precepts and would they would make these precepts in death their sure examples in their Life Then would not the Bond of Peace be so easily broken or would as easily be united In the dayes of Alexander the Second King of Scotland there was a marvelous breach of this holy Bond in an outrage of the multitude no lesse Mad then Cruell committed upon one Adam then Bishop of Cathnes whom inhumanely they burn'd alive in his own house A fire of wrath alas too cruell yet not so cruell as sometime the fire of zeale The circuit of that flame was but domestique but this sometimes over-runnes a Country Yet the Motive to this extraordinary act was not Episcopacy his Eminent Order in the Church but an Ordinary act of it his Excommunicating some for their Contempt and Obstinacy in not paying their Tithes They shew'd themselves to be as destitute of mercy as of Justice They first robb'd God and then kill'd his Priest A very congruous and gracelesse Method In which fact had not their fury been blind they might have seen the promise which they lost in the dishonour and cruelty toward their Spiritual Father even long Life in the Land which the Lord had given them and so whiles they had longer paid the Tithes of their estates they had longer with duty sound policy kept their estates But as this was a marvailous breach of the bond of peace so as marvailous was the repair of it there being no lesse a number executed for this crime then fower hundred persons A number subtilly as may be suspected conceal'd by Buchanan but faithfully mention'd by Boëthius And such was then the Justice and devotion of Scots upon Scots in behalf of a Bishop And surely it was well that the greater part was the wiser though the worse was too great being enough to undoe the bound of peace and themselves And as the fire of wrath is thus wild so zeal sometimes yields a worse wildfire But as in the fire which amongst the Jewes descended and burn'd up the Sacrifices that were accepted the face of a Lion as the Rabbines tell us did appear which not to question the truth of the relation may usefully seem to have implied the acceptance of all Sacrifices by the Messias the Lion of the Tribe of Judah So may we not as truly say when in the Fires of arm'd subjects zeal the face of the Lion the countenance of the Prince does not appear can such be acceptable flames Can such be acceptable sacrifices Obedience is better then such sacrifice The Bond of Peace then is like a just man's promise it is indeed his duty it must be kept To get and Enlarge are probably Acts of Wisdome and power but to keep what is gotten and enlarg'd implies some accession of Happinesse Inheritance though it comes by nature yet in best Tempers it comes with wisdome and does as well Instruct as Inrich whiles the mind prevented in the wisdome of Purchase employs it self in the wise happinesse of preservation It was the taske of Caesar to draw the sword it was the taske of Augustus to Sheath it the first was the work of power the last of Wisdome which more diligently studied how to Bound the Empire then posterity did to Enlarge it And surely though under Trajan yet happy then also it was of greater extent yet was it under Augustus of greater Happinesse This bringing it to a Height the other to a precipice whence if it mov'd forward it was with Ruine if backward with shame Trajan's felicity then was rather of the Man then of the Empire of Earthly happinesse That being the Truest which we doe as well Bequeath as Enjoy good men counting it their best felicity to make Succession rather the Partaker of their felicity then the Admirer A wisdome which should as effectually encline a people as a Prince to desires of Peace And this was that which in Story if we will look so farre backe has so renown'd the Assyrian Monarchy which triumph'd in power Thirteen Hundred years and since in Fame about Twise so long the length of their felicity supplying the defects of their story And this was that in a neerer example which unto this age has added such glory to the Scottish Monarchy which if story be not Poetical in Antiquities has farre out-liv'd the Assyrian date being now almost two thousand years old To which rare age that Body of people never attain'd by the calenture of Rebellion but by the sound constitution of obedience Obedience indeed was the beginning of their glory they swearing Obedience to their first King Fergusius and to his Successours for so speakes Buchanan for all his Dialogue Fergusio victore domum reverso Scoti ei posterisque ejus regnum jurejurando confirmarunt This was a Covenant no lesse wise then large Obedience being a subtle Victory over Kings the art of duty having been ever more powerfull then an unreverent sword This may sometimes get but That only can keep Now getting without keeping is but the prosperity of Melancholy the beginning of it being but in a false joy but the end of it being in a true sorrow As then the wise hand which knowes as well how to keep as get is of such moment and praise in civil life so needs must it be attended with successe and glory in the businesse of the Church Which if it keep but an Ontward Unity becomes Glorious as if it keeps an inward Unity the Unity of the Spirit it becomes happy Unity indeed is the Health of the soudest body yet uniformity is the beauty of it which is always the aime though not alwayes the successe of an exact statuary Knots or Crosse-veines may make the stuffe