all true knowledge being Truth the inquisition after that conclusion keeping the candle burning the eies waking And this is the unvaluable advantage how-ever shallow men sleight it which a Philosopher a Student a man conversing with his understanding hath above other empty men of the world that whilst those sensualists fondly stand courting other vaine beauties some of them it may be naturall many of them artificiall most of them naught the Intellectualist the whilst hath frequent and familiar addresses approaches acquaintance with beautifull Truth So that of Truth we may say as did the Queene of Sheba of Salomon Happy are thy men happy are thy servants that stand continually before thee and heare thy wisedome learne thy Truth But in Hypothesi for this particular truth here about ceremonies wrigled in againe among the Galatians and whereunto they needes againe would bee in bondage a carriage concentrique with relapses at this day into Papisticall superstitions said Gualter of his time then to bring it no neerer Verily as Mirandula spake Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet that Truth was a thing which Philosophy sought Divinity found Religion possessed Other truths there be as Philosophicall truths which may so be glittering but they are these divine Truths that are the glorious Truths there bee not worth the wetting of a mans finger for much lesse the shedding of his bloud for them as sundry rules in sciences and curious arts and mathematicall principles Truth the toughest maintaining whereof will never make a true Martyr though ordinarily shall yee finde more obstinacy in maintaining those petty truths than constancy in upholding weightier truths and here and there some Heliodor yeelding rather to be cast out of his Bishoprick than to call in his bookes though but Aethiopicks having not so much as colour of truth And other sorts of truth there bee published yet ought not to bee practised veritates audiendae non imitandae as hee speakes as politick Theorems he that will speedily thrive in such and such places he must lye flatter dissemble and do worse truths which it may be some good man will trust but never try and such like other truths whereof a man may safely be ignorant but not safely practicant that as Christ bid the Minstrels Get you hence hence with such truths As Samuel said of Ishai's seven sonnes The Lord hath chosen none of these truthes no but as he defines Theologick truth to be the truth necessarie in the voyage to salvation divine truth saving truth truth respectively to Religion yea this is that truth of Christians incomparably fairer than Helen of the Grecians as Austin spake whilst as God himselfe is truth and everie man a lyar so are all those other but as trash to his truth who as one heroically spoke if hee were to be corporeal would sure have Light for his bodie and Truth for his soule and so as he is hath he Truth as his Vsher going before his face as in the Psalmist And whereas of other divine attributes some are especially ascribed to the Father as omnipotencie some to the Sonne as wisedome some to the holy Ghost as goodnesse Truth by the holy Spirit is peculiarly attributed to them all Lord God of Truth Iesus that Truth the Spirit of Truth Christ saith the cause of his comming his errand into the world was to beare witnesse unto the truth the Spirit of truth not onely so essentialiter but doctrinaliter leading into all truth his wayes truth his workes truth his word truth all truth who as fountaine of truth himselfe favoureth also truth in others too giving his placet to them that studie truth Qui student veritati placent ei The Lords eyes are upon the truth sayes Ieremy no tune more pleasing to God than truth Then come on ye that say Who will shew us any good Cui bono what good shall we get by this your painted pearle of truth this treasure in a traunce for all your letter of commendations of Truth Quid mihi prodest cognoscere Veritatem as in Austin Good Why say what is the good you would have Is it liberty O bona libertas why know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Iohn 8. the Truth there not onely Veritas Christus but Veritas Christi a Truth truely to be tearmed liberalis not onely as liberall sciences because they are worthy homine libero but this also hominem liberat for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and this is our liberty that wee are subiect to that Verity as Austin speaketh Or is it safety you seeke The world 's wrong the surest safety is not in subtilty no Truth is the Kings Guard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Salomon Truth that which helpes to keep and preserve the King Prov. 20. yea his Truth shall be your shield and buckler as David speaketh Is it comfort upon all occurrences you care for Why it was Hezekiah's cordiall lying sicke that he had walked before God in Truth Truth there not opposite onely falso but fucato when hypocrisie pollicie fraud falshood errour can minister no comfortable ingredient in extremity then faire fall Truth Beyond the comforts here is it heaven hereafter you would have hold of Why remember who it is shall dwell in Gods Tabernacle rest in his holy Mountaine hee that speaketh the Truth in his heart yea the blessed life it selfe is nothing else but gaudium de Veritate saies Austin a reioycing over Truth liberty safety comfort heaven if all things bee worth any thing Truth is worth them all Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Plato faire nor painter nor statuary that can expresse like beauty to Truths said Philemon Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Esdras strong strong above wine women king stronger than all Truth 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clinias lasting Truth abideth is strong for ever said Zerobabel the lip of Truth shall be established for ever said Salomon That hence may even Nobles attend how the Romane Pretor wont alwaies to weare upon his breast the image of Truth as if the truest ensigne of Nobility were Truth Hence may even Senators attend how the Egyptian Iudges wore alwaies in a chaine about their neck the picture of Truth and 't was Iethro's counsell to Moses for Iudges over the people to choose viros veraces men of Truth in quibus sit veritas nor could the high Priest give sentence without the blest-plate of iudgement on wherein they put Veritatem as if Truth were the very forme of iudgement what ever the matter bee Hence may even the valiant attend how in that whole armour of God Ephes 6. Truth is there put the first peece of the Panoply as if the principall obiect of valour were Truth and that the prime care to have the loines girt about with Truth O then according to that excellent commendation Quintilian gives Vespasian patientissimus
FOVRE SERMONS PREACHED AT THE COVRT VPON seuerall occasions BY THE LATE REVEREND AND LEARNED DIVINE DOCTOR SENHOVSE L. Bishop of Carlile AVSPICANTE DEO LONDON Printed for R. Dawlman at the Signe of the Bible neere the great Conduit in Fleetstreete 1627. A iust defence of the late L. Bish of Carliles honour sent to the iudicious Reader THose ancient Fathers on whom came daily a 2. Cor. â—1 28 the care of all the Churches seeme no way better to perfect no way so wel to perpetuate that vniuersall care as by wakening mens consciences with their quills b Vid. T. Liv. l. 5. c. 47. whose watchings saued the Capitoll and c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. l. 1. strom Euangelizo manu scriptione c. 1. Rainold l. de Rom. eccles idol Antipater cala mo vociferans Cael. l. 19. c. â—5 speaking with their pennes vnto the whole Church by causing their sanctified Labours trauell like so many holy pilgrims to the liuing after their death and in obedience to our Sauiours command d Mark 16 1â— Goe euen thus vpon their very hands into all the world to preach the Gospel that so by a strange kinde of midwifrie they may assist at the new birth of many thousand soules they neuer knew giue a spirituall deliuerance to many members of the Church they neuer saw after their owne bodies are gone downe with hope into the chambers of the graue those tabernacles of flesh resolued into sacred dust dust that lies expecting glory Now that this religious intention of spreading himself into a Catholique good and communicating the diffusiue blessings of God and great measures of his Grace vnto posteritie liued in the late Lord Bishop of Carlile Doctor Senhouse that was I am vnto you an vnworthy witnesse and yet a witnesse who presume not to giue any other attribute to that neuer sufficiently honoured Name all attributes that can fall from my dwarft expression falling beneath those transcendent parts those vnparalleld gifts those accumulated heapes of worth which lodg'd in Doctor Senhouse to whose d Vir calamo potens virilis eloquentiae Hieronymus Verul hist vit mort l. 1. masculine and soule-begetting discourses I had the happinesse of many yeeres accesses and in his later times heard him often to my comfort professe and I neuer heard him but to my comfort that his Lectures on King Dauids first and second Psalmes were by himselfe for who else could doe it perfected for the presse that so what was his Maiesties in the dutie of his originall seruice f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. l. 1. Strom. those children of his soules best strength might now when it ceaseth to be with him after the manner of men inherit the fauour of kissing that great Masters sacred hand and liuing in his Royall heart too and in the harts of other Christians And therefore being casually enformed by a friend that some Sermons of his Lordships had more than seene the Presse were ready to be preached againe to as many as would g Prou. 23.23 buy the truth h Cyprianus quotidie Tertullianum legeret notario Paulo dicens da magistrum Hieron cat vir illust Saint Cyprian call'd not oftner for his learned-strong-phras'd i Tertullianus homo doctissimus haereticorum errores fortiter contriuit Trith l. de script ecclesiast Tertullian than I enquired with diligence for this my iudicious Christian Gamaliel at whose reuerent feete I often sate and learned to speake by silence and now began to comfort that losse with this fresh hope that as k Dixit Chrysostomus se concionare nosse quod D. Paulum quotidie manu versaret Keck eccles rhet l. 2. c. 3. S. Chrysostome attained to an admired excellency of preaching by hauing the great Doctor of the Gentiles blessed Paul alwayes in his hand so I might improue that gift to a conscionable discharge of my duty by laying the laborious workes of this l Saluianus totius orbis Christiani magister Rittershus vit Saluian Master-Preacher a Preacher that had m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianz. ep 140 Romani vocabant Proaresium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cressol theat rhet l. 1. c 9. a royaltie of speech and commanded all mens attentions euer before mine eyes But when I opened this booke with that reuerence which belonged vnto his name and read with greedinesse a line a leafe or two and more I found the order of his worke so inuerted the periods in some places so vnperfected the sense by those periods so disioynted the Greeke here and there where the sense was good so negligently that I doe not say ignorantly corrupted and the entire frame so stript of those accessions vpon the by which would haue giuen much satisfaction to this learned age the more learned because he once was in it that whereas n Basil Mag ep 1. Saint Basil knew Nazianzenes Epistles as men know the children of their friends by their likenesse to their fathers these seemed in many things so vnlike that Reuerend Father whose name they beare that at the first sight I hardly knew them to bee his But when I viewed once and againe o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Mag. ep 41. these images of his soule though in some places too much shadowed in some places much defaced in many places set to a false light yet my memorie perswaded mine eyes that they were copies drawne from his originals And least induced by the like reasons you might suspect them to be some spurious supposititious pieces christened with his Name to giue them a fairer entertainement in the world and your good opinion I craued so much leaue from Authoritie as to prefixe this Epistle and to let you know they are indeed his but so his as a man that 's rob'd and wounded hath his tongue taken out is himselfe For first they want that which could best speake them his that which next the efficacious cooperating of GODS Spirit with his owne was the soule of euery Sermon the strong and powerfull elocution of his diuiner Tongue and this they must for euer want Next they are wounded many wayes wounded gramatically in the words wounded logically in the methode and wounded intellectually in the sense wounds which might easily haue been cured by his owne prescripts Lastly they are rob'd of those many rich apparellings with which they might haue been compleately furnisht too out of his owne Wardrope and shall be supplyed in the next Impression and those wounds some way healed by him who hauing with much difficultie obtained his owne Originals of these foure Sermons will study nothing more in them than the glory of his mercifull GOD the seruice of his Catholique Church the honour of his Reuerend friend and the satisfaction of his iudicious Reader Thomas Blechynden Revel 2. vers 10. the last words And J will give thee a Crowne of life OF all other things a
citie was then full of confusion yet rush'd they into the common place with one assent Vno animo and though in the assembly out of order some cry'd one thing some another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet to this point about Diana's defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the 34. verse Vox vna omnium they cry'd all with one voyce all in a tune especially these companions here in the Text Clamaverunt vnanimiter saies Comestor A ioynt cry of the whole croud of them Socios artis assumit socios tumultus so Chrysostome As many as were fellowes of that company were also ioynt fellowes of that crying out A frequent coniunction as in these so in other like people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as David speakes in the 83. Psalme vnanimiter simul With one consent to consult together and bee confederate as in the seventh of this Booke to run upon Steven with one assent as in the Chapter before this to rise against Paul with one accord to say as in Salomon Come with us cast in thy lot amongst us we will all have one purse agreeing like theeves in a Faire all sharers the congregation of the wicked like towe wrap'd together saies Ecclesiasticus compact and sealed like the Leviathans scales in Iob as they are resembled As the Prophet Micah likens the wicked to briers and Nahum to thornes folded one in another they clap and twine and enterweave themselves as birds of a feather they frequently fly together and as in consort of communion ioyntly here cryed out And shall such brethren in evill tune so like bells and want but hanging as he said shall Sathans kingdome be at such agreement within it selfe that it may endure shall Christians that professe one Lord one Fath one Baptisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Paul a threefold cord which a man would thinke could not easily bee broken wee that have one word as one breath from one spirit as Dionysius speakes wee that have the same temples and sacrifices as the Athenians alledged wee that are espoused to one husband as Paul spake of the Corinthians shall wee be so carnall as to have amongst us envying and strife and division and one to say I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo and like the divisions of Reuben cause great thought of heart Shall these here have vnitatem contra vnitatem shall there be such conspiracy in error and shal there not be unitie in truth If ye eye and observe but this Booke of the Acts yee shall finde the veine of those primitive Christians to run all along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 1. 2. 4. ever and anon one accord one assent to be specified in them and shal we risen up in their stead a worse generation so run after the apple of discord the ball of contention and so agree like the Bricklayers at Babell that as division of tongues hindred the building then so division of hearts hinder the building of Christianitie now For conferre with the Iew one of the maine scandals the Iewes take from Protestants is their mutuall dissention which they interprete to proceed from want of unitie of truth in their foundation and so they thereby are startled and scared from the Gospell Come neerer what sayes the Papist to like purpose heare but one for all one of them is enough unlesse they were better heare but their Bartholdus What one of the Heretickes sayes hee preaches in the morning another of them denies after dinner and what peace what accord in that house sayes hee where the husband is a Calvinist the wife a Lutheran the serving-man an Oecolampadian the maid Pittardicall and the rest of the family Diabolicall So charitably their Bartholdus Pontanus We could pay them in their owne coyne by telling them and that truely that their white and blacke Friars differ as much in opinion as colour and Harpe and Harrow as consonant as many of them But I shall never hold recrimination for a remedie this must I hold as they say of Bees that stirre and strife among them is a signe their King is about to remove to leave the Hive and to be gone somewhere else so strife and schisme in religion to be a signe God eyther hath or is about to leave that people Boords ioyned make a Ship dis-ioyned they cause shipwracke connexion of stones make a house dissipation of them a ruine agreement of Christians builds up the spiritual Ierusalem dissention of them puls it downe The daughter of dissention is dissolution said divine Nazianzene and that which is divisible is corruptible even Nature dictates and every subdivision in cause of Religion is a strong weapon in the hand of the contrary partie as hee upon the Councell of Trent wisely observed The wisedome of Solon when Athens was distracted into three factions Diacriorum Pedeorum Paralorum his civill wisedome could dictate unto him to mingle himselfe with none of the sides but to direct all his sayings and doings towards common concord O that there were in Christian people such a wisedome such a heart as without siding to apply all their words and workes to the common good of Gods cause Religion As the Scripture speakes of David that hee bowed the hearts of all the men of Iudah even as the heart of one man that under our David all our hearts as of one man were bent and ioyned for Gods cause for the Gospell Then as hee said that shield ioyning to shield helmet to helmet man to man was a sufficient wall For to him that demanded why Sparta had no wals the King shewed Citizens well armed and unanimous in such unanimitie religion would both be impregnably wall'd on earth and as the petition of a whole Corporation ioyntly uses to be more availeable our prayer our crying for it would be more effectuall in heaven and when all is said and done as the learned Papinian said Summa ratio est quae pro Religione facit That that was the best reason which made most for Religion our sweetest harmony would bee consent in Gods cause our truest valour courage for the truth our best constitution tendernesse over religion That as Master Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward made supplication that they would contribute as bountifully towards the finding of schollers to exercise the office of salvation as they wont to bestow in pilgrimage trentals masses pardons purgatory matters as he there expounds himselfe he desired no more but that they would bestow so much godly as they were wont to bestow ungodly a reasonable petition as he then call'd it so mee thinks no reasonable man now can refuse to be intreated to be once at least as tender as earnest as united for the holy cause as these here were for the heathenish at the cheapest to hold God as deare as they did Diana Otherwise as God in Esay rebukes Israel even from the verie oxe and asse and in Ieremie Iudah from the storke and turtle and crane and