or to Breathe and this Notion belongs to the FATHER and the SON alike for Pater Filius spirant Spiritum Sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God If any man think this Confession to be Defecti for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives be deficient and I shall thank him for his favour How we come to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God HOw come I to know that the Works which we call Livie's are indeed his whose name they bear Hath God left means to know the prophane Writings of men hath he left no certain means to know his own Records The first and outward means that brings us to the knowledge of these Books is the voice of the Church notified to us by our Teachers and Instructors who first unclasp'd and open'd them unto us and that common duty which is exacted at the hand of every learner Oportet discentem credere And this remaining in us peradventure is all the outward means that the ordinary and plainer sort of Christians know To those who are conversant among the Records of Antiquity farther light appears To find the ancient Copies of Books bearing these Titles to find in all Ages since their being written the universal consent of all the Church still resolving it self upon these writings as sacred and uncontrolable these cannot chuse but be strong Motioners unto us to pass our consent unto them and to conclude that either these Writings are that which they are taken for or nothing left us from Antiquity is true For whatsoever is that gives any strength or credit to any thing of Antiquity left to posterity whether it be Writings and Records or Tradition from hand to hand or what things else soever they all concur to the authorising of holy Scriptures as amply as they do to any other thing left unto the world Yea but will some man reply this proves indeed strongly that Moses and the Prophets that St. Matthew and St. Paul c. writ those Books and about those times which they bear shew of but this comes not home for how proves this that they are of God If I heard St. Paul himself preaching what makes me beleive him that his Doctrine is from God and his words the words of the holy Ghost For answer There was no outward means to perswade the world at the first rising of Christianity that it is infallibly from God but onely Miracles such as impossibly were naturally to be done Had I not done those things saith our Saviour which no man else could do you had had no sin Had not the world seen those Miracles which did unavoidably prove the assistance and presence of a Divine power with those who first taught the will of Christ it had not had sin if it had rejected them For though the world by the light of natural discretion might easily have discover'd that that was not the right way wherein it usually walk'd yet that that was the true path which the Apostles themselves began to tread there was no means undoubtedly to prove but Miracles and if the building were at this day to be raised it could not be founded without Miracles To our fore-fathers therefore whose ears first entertain'd the word of life Miracles were necessary and so they are to us but after another order For as the sight of these Miracles did confirm the doctrine unto them so unto us the infallible records of them For whatsoever evidence there is that the Word once began to be preach'd the very same confirms unto us that it was accompanied with Miracles and Wonders so that as those Miracles by being seen did prove unanswerably unto our fore-fathers the truth of the doctrine for the confirmation of which they were intended so do they unto us never a whit less effectually approve it by being left unto us upon these Records which if they fail us then by Antiquity there can be nothing left unto posterity which can have certain and undoubted oredit The certain and uncontrolable Records of Miracles are the same to us the Miracles are The Church of Rome when she commends unto us the Authority of the Church in dijudicating of Scriptures seems onely to speak of her self and that of that part of her self which is at some time existent whereas we when we appeal to the Church's testimony content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time viz. since its first beginning and out of both these draw an argument in this question of that force as that from it not the subtilest disputer can find an escape for who is it that can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable men by opposing not onely the present Church conversing in earth but to the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages So that in effect to us of after-ages the greatest if not the sole outward mean of our consent to holy Scripture is the voice of the Church excepting always the Copies of the Books themselves bearing from their birth such or such names of the Church I say and that not onely of that part of it which is actually existent at any time but successively of the Church ever since the time of our blessed Saviour for all these testimonies which from time to time are left in the Writings of our fore-fathers as almost every Age ever since the first birth of the Gospel hath by God's providence left us store are the continued voice of the Church witnessing unto us the truth of these Books and their Authority well but this is onely fides humano judicio testimonio acâ—quaesita what shall we think of fides infusa of the inward working of the holy Ghost in the consciences of every beleiver How far it is a perswader unto us of the Authority of these Books I have not much to say Onely thus much in general that doubtless the holy Ghost doth so work in the heart of every true Beleiver that it leaves a farther assurance strong and sufficient to ground and stay it self upon But this because it is private to every one and no way subject to sense is unfit to yeild argument by way of dispute to stop the captious curiosities of wits disposed to wrangle and by so much the more unfit it is by how much by experience we have learn'd that men are very apt to call their own private conceit the Spirit To oppose unto these men to reform them our own private conceits under the name likewise of the Spirit were madness so that to judge upon presumption of the Spirit in private can be no way to bring either this or any other controversie to an end If it should please God at this day to adde any
St. Paul saw this well and therefore he prescribes limits to our affections and having in the former part of my Text counselled us as Christ did S. Peter to let loose our nets to make a draught to do as Ioseph did in Egypt open our garners and store-houses that all may come to buy to admit of all to exclude none from our indulgence and courtesie in this second part But not to doubtful disputations he sets the bounds how far our love must reach As Moses in the 19. of Exodus sets bounds about Mount Sinai forbidding the people that they go not up to the Hill or come within the borders of it so hath the Apostle appointed certain limits to our love and favour within which it shall not be lawful for the people to come Inlarge we the Phylacteries of our goodness as broad as we list give we all countenance unto the meaner sort admit we them into all inwardness and familiarity yet unto Disputations and Controversies concerning profounder points of Faith and Religious Mysteries the meaner sort may be by no means admitted For give me leave now to take this for the meaning of the words I know they are very capable of another sense as if the Apostles counsel had been unto us to entertain with all courtesie our weaker brethren and not over-busily to enquire into or censure their secret thoughts and doubtings but here to leave them to themselves and to God who is the Judge of thoughts For many there are otherwise right good men yet weak in judgment who have fallen upon sundry private conceits such as are unnecessary Differencing of Meats and Drinks distinction of Days or to exemplifie my self in some conceit of our Times some singular opinions concerning the state of Souls departed private interpretations of obscure Texts of Scripture and others of the same nature Of these or the like thoughts which have taken root in the hearts of men of shallow capacity those who are more surely grounded may not presume themselves to be judges many of these things of themselves are harmless and indifferent onely to him that hath some prejudicate opinion of them they are not so and of these things they who are thus or thus conceited shall be accomptable to God and not to man to him alone shall they stand or fall Wherefore bear saith the Apostle with these infirmities and take not on you to be Lords of their thoughts but gently tolerate these their unnecessary conceits and scrupulosities This though I take to be the more natural meaning of the words for indeed it is the main drift of our Apostles discourse in this Chapter yet chuse I rather to follow the former interpretation First because of the Authority of sundry learned Interpreters and because it is very requisite that our age should have something said unto it concerning this over-bold intrusion of all sorts of men into the discussing of doubtful Disputations For Disputation though it be an excellent help to bring the truth to light yet many times by too much troubling the waters it suffers it to slip away unseen especially with the meaner sort who cannot so easily espy when it is mix'd with sophistry and deceit Infirmum autem in fide recipite but not to doubtful disputations This my Text therefore is a Spiritual Regimen and Diet for these who are of a weak and sickly constitution of mind and it contains a Recipe for a man of crazie and diseased faith In which by that which I have delivered you may plainly see there are two general parts First An Admonition of courteous entertainment to be given to the weaker sort in the first words Him that is weak in the Faith receive c. Secondly The restraint and bound of this Admonition how far it is to extend even unto all Christian Offices excepting onely the hearing of doubtful disputations In the first part we will consider First who these weak ones are of whom the Apostle speaks and how many kinds of them there be and how each of them may be the subject of a Christian mans goodness and courtesie Secondly Who these persons are to whom this precept of entertaining is given and they are two either the Private man or the Publick Magistrate In the second general part we will see what reasons we may frame to our selves why these weak ones should not be admitted to questions and doubtful disputations Which points severally and by themselves we will not handle but we will so order them that still as we shall have in order discover'd some kind of weak man whom our Apostle would have received we will immediately seek how far forth he hath a right to be an hearer of Sacred Disputation and this as far onely as it concerns a private man And for an upshot in the end we will briefly consider by it self whether and how far this precept of bearing with the weak pertains to the man of Publick place whether in the Church or in the Common-wealth And first concerning the weak as he may be a subject of Christian courtesie in private And here because that in comparison of him that is strong in Christ every man of what estate soever may be said to be weak that strong man onely excepted we will in the number of the weak contain all persons whatsoever For I confess because I wish well to all I am willing that all should reap some benefit by my Text. As therefore the Woman in the Gospel who in touching onely the Hem of Christs garment did receive vertue to cure her disease so all weak persons whatsoever though they seem to come behind and onely touch the hem of my Text may peradventure receive some vertue from it to redress their weakness nay as the King in the Gospel that made a Feast and willed his servants to go out to the high-ways side to the blind and the lame and force them in that his house might be full so what lame or weak person soever he be if I find him not in my Text I will go out and force him in that the Doctrine of my Text may be full and that the goodness of a Christian man may be like the Widows Oyl in the Book of Kings that never ceas'd running so long as there was a vessel to receive it Wherefore to speak in general there is no kind of man of what life of what profession of what estate and calling soever though he be an Heathen and Idolater unto whom the skirts of Christian compassion do not reach St. Paul is my Authour Now whilest you have time saith he do good unto all men but especially to the houshold of faith The houshold of faith indeed hath the preheminence it must be chiefly but not alone respected The distinction that is to be made is not by excluding any but not participating alike unto all God did sometimes indeed tie his love to the Iewish Nation onely and gave his Laws to them alone but afterward
from all imputation of unnecessary rigour and his Justice from seeming Injustice and Incongruity and on the other side it is a noble resolution so to humble our selves under the hand of Almighty God as that we can with patience hear yea think it an honour that so base creatures as our selves should become the instruments of the glory of so great a Majesty whether it be by eternal life or by eternal death though for no other reason but for Gods good will and pleasures sake The Authours of these conceits might both freely if peaceably speak their minds and both singularly profit the Church for since it is impossible where Scripture is ambiguous that all conceits should run alike it remains that we seek out a way not so much to establish an unity of opinion in the minds of all which I take to be a thing likewise impossible as to provide that multiplicity of conceit trouble not the Churches peace A better way my conceit cannot reach unto then that we would be willing to think that these things which with some shew of probability we deduce from Scripture are at the best but our Opinions for this peremptory manner of setting down our own conclusions under this high commanding form of necessary truths is generally one of the greatest causes which keeps the Churches this day so far asunder when as a gracious receiving of each other by mutual forbearance in this kind might peradventure in time bring them nearer together This peradventure may some man say may content us in case of opinion indifferent out of which no great inconvenience by necessary and evident proof is concluded but what Recipe have we for him that is fallen into some known and desperate Heresie Even the same with the former And therefore anciently Heretical and Orthodox Christians many times even in publick holy exercise converst together without offence It 's noted in the Ecclesiastick stories that the Arrians and Right Beleivers so communicated together in holy Prayers that you could not distinguish them till they came to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gloria Patri which the Arrians used with some difference from other Christians But those were times quorum lectionem habemus virtutem non habemus we read of them in our books but we have lost the practise of their patience Some prejudice was done unto the Church by those who first began to intermingle with publick Ecclesiastical duties things respective unto private conceits For those Christian offices in the Church ought as much as possibly they may be common unto all and not to descend to the differences of particular opinions Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the stories we shall find that the Church did not at their first arising thrust them from her themselves went out and as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Ecclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quae facit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schisms first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seem'd not for a long time to have known any use of a Sword but onely of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and cheifest Captains much misliked it The first Law in this kind that ever was made was Enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but onely such as were tumultuous and till that time they were not so much as touch'd with any mulct though but pecuniary till that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with bats and clubs even as he stood at the Altar So that not so much the errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Laws restrained That the Church had afterward good reason to think that she ought to be salubrior quam dulcior that sometimes there was more mercy in punishing then forbearing there can no doubt be made St. Austin a man of as mild and gentle spirit as ever bare rule in the Church having according to his natural sweetness of disposition earnestly written against violent and sharp dealing with Hereticks being taught by experience did afterward retract and confess an excellent use of wholesome severity in the Church Yet could I wish that it might be said of the Church which was sometimes observed of Augustus In nullius unquam suorum nccem duravit He had been angry with and severely punish'd many of his kin but he could never endure to cut any of them off by death But this I must request you to take onely as my private wish and not as a censure if any thing have been done to the contrary When Absolom was up in arms against his Father it was necessary for David to take order to curb him and pull him on his knees yet we see how careful he was he should not die and how lamentably he bewail'd him in his death what cause was it that drove David into this extreme passion Was it doubt of Heir to the Kingdom that could not be for Solomon was now born to whom the promise of the Kingdom was made Was it the strength of natural affection I somewhat doubt of it three years together was Absolom in banishment and David did not very eagerly desire to see him The Scripture indeed notes that the King long'd for him yet in this longing was there not any such fierceness of passion for Absolom saw not the Kings face for two years more after his return from banishment to Hierusalem What then might be the cause of his strength of passion and commiseration in the King I perswade my self it was the fear of his sons final miscarriage and reprobation which made the King secure of the mercies of God unto himself to wish he had died in his stead that so he might have gain'd for his ungracious child some time of repentance The Church who is the common Mother of us all when her Absoloms her unnatural sons do lift up their hands and pens against her must so use means to repress them that she forget not that they are the sons of her womb and be compassionate over them as David was over Absolom loth to unsheath either sword but most of all the Temporal for this were to send them quick dispatch to Hell And here I may not pass by that singular moderation of this Church of ours which she hath most Christianly exprest towards her adversaries of Rome here at home in her bosom above all the reformed Churches I have read of For out of desire to make the breach seem no greater then indeed it is and to hold eommunion and Christian fellowship with her so far as we possibly can we have
which would have wrought the same effect and been less subject to censure but it is not now in integr◠to look back and rectifie what is amiss without much disparagement They must therefore go forward and for the countenance of their action do the best they may leaving the events to God There hath been an overture made to His Majesty by Du Moulin the Minister at Paris of a General Confession to be composed by this Synod for all the Reformed Churches a Form whereof is by His Majesties Order privately conceived by some select persons in the Synod which when it is perfected it will be then sent to His Majesty to be by him governed as shall seem best to His Wisdom either by suffering the same to go no farther or if he approve thereof with such change and alteration therein as he shall think fit to recommend the same publickly to the Synod and by consequence to the several Churches which have their Deputies there Du Moulin doth recommend further a project of mutual toleration betwixt the Calvinists and Lutherans which doth ill suit with our present business of suppressing the Arminians and therefore I believe it will not be thought fit to make mention thereof in the Synod Our English Divines have from the first time of Mr. Balcanquall's arrival there admitted him to their Consultations and now they joyn likewise in Suffrage and in the distribution of the divers parts of the business as those who all make but one College I do not find by what I hear from Dort or what I observed here that Mr. Balcanquall doth give any just subject for the report which is raised of undecencie in apparrel but on the contrary that in all respects he gives much satisfaction Doctour Goad was well received at the Synod as one who can better go through this laboursom business than the Dean of Worcester was able to do by reason of his languishing indisposition The Dean went from Dort towards England the Eighth of this present but I doubt he is not yet arrived there by reason of the contrariety of the Winds For conclusion I will tell your Grace that which is no news unto you that I have ended the last year with the most angry message and begun this with the most agreeable that I ever yet delivered this State And as the former was interpreted by those who best understood the nature of those Provinces for the greatest of all their present Calamities so this later doth give them heart and life again and as they may go on without arriere-pense in the course wherewith His Majesty hath so well and so constantly aided them by his countenance so my hope is that His Majesty will in time reap more assuredly the fruits of these mutations in that he is pleased to use Patience until they be better ripened Thus I most humbly take leave from the Haghe this 14. of Ianuary 1618. Your Graces most humbly to be commanded Dudley Carleton POSTSCRIPT I do hear even now of a bitter writing the Remonstrants have presented to the Synod in answer of Bogermannus for his sharp exit wherein they for a conclusion do optare Synodo meliorem mentem Lord Bishop of Landaff to Sir Dudley Carleton Embassadour at the Haghe Febr. 8. 1618. Right Honourable my very good Lord BY my long silence in that particular whereof your Lordship wrote last to us in general you may perceive how unwilling I am to write thereof Unto your Lordship have I written nothing till now which some of my Colleagues think strange though I suppose they do believe me upon my word I should not as yet have written hereof but that I think my self bound to give an account to your Lordship of these things not only in respect of mine affection to your Lordship but in respect also of the place which you carry When we were to give up our sentence to the second Article having first thought of certain Theses we parted our labour so that each one had his part of the Theses to confirm When all was conferred together it was found that Dr. D. and Dr. W. had proceeded so far in declaring their parts that the rest could not follow them whereupon we were at a stand for a time They perceiving that neither my self nor the rest of my fellows could approve that which they had set down took occasion of divers conferences which did rather set us farther asunder yet this was private among our selves They held that the Redemption of Christ and the Grace thereof was general to all without exception which being put I could not see why we should not grant general grace in the largest sence that the Remonstrants would have it Their answer was that it was so far to be granted and we were to yield so much to them Upon this there was some difference I took it neither to be a Truth of the Scripture nor the Doctrine of the Church of England and they thought it was both After some time and discourses spent I told them that there was a necessity of our agreement if we could not agree in all things we must come to such Points wherein all may agree and willed them to give me liberty to remove the things wherein we could not agree that we might all agree in the rest To this they yielded and so we agreed in some things After this we received your Lordship's Letters for which all without exception thought our selves much beholding to your Lordship We sent your Lordship an answer in common which I suppose your Lordship sent to my Lord's Grace for there the question in controversie is set down Whether the Grace of Redemption is general to all men in the World without exception or to be Restrained only to the Church I know there be some Bishops in England that are of opinion that it is general without exception to all men but I never thought that their Opinions were the Doctrine of the Church of England Dr. W. when in private conference we have occasion to speak of these things being driven by some evidences of Scripture which prove that wheresoever the Grace of Redemption goeth there goeth also remission of sins So that if he admit the grace of Redemption common to all he must admit also that all men have remission of sins To avoid this deviseth a word to express the generality thus not Redemptio but Redimibilitas and not Reconciliatio but Reconciliabilitas Which devising of Words makes me more to suspect the Doctrine for I think a devised School term should not determine a Truth in Divinity I told him if this Opinion be granted we must have new terms to express it for the old will not serve He answereth that it is good and fit to make new terms as this word was devised in the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as it seemeth he could be well contented that new words were devised in this Synod to receive this Doctrine As where the
Austine for example For it is not depth of knowledge nor knowledge of antiquity or sharpness of wit nor authority of Councels nor the name of the Church can settle the restless conceits that possess the minds of many doubtful Christians onely to ground for faith on the plain uncontroversable Text of Scripture and for the rest to expect and pray for the coming of our Elias this shall compose our waverings and give final rest unto our souls Thus instead of a discourse which was due unto this time concerning the glorious Resurrection of our blessed Saviour and the benefits that come unto us by it I have diverted my self upon another Theam more necessary as I thought for this Auditory though less agreeable with this solemnity Those who have gone afore me in that argument have made so copious a harvest that the issue of my gatherings must needs have been but small except I had with Ruth glean'd out of their sheaves or strain'd my industry which is but small and my wits which are none to have held your attentiveness with new and quaint conceits In the mean time whether it be I or they or whatsoever hath been delivered out of this place God grant that it may be for his honour and for the Churches good to whom both it and we are dedicate To God the Father c. Rom. XIV I. Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations MIght it so have pleased God that I had in my power the choice of my ways and the free management of my own actions I had not this day been seen for so I think I may better speak seen may I be of many but to be heard with any latitude and compass my natural imperfection doth quite cut off I had not I say in this place this day been seen Ambition of great and famous Auditories I leave to those whose better gifts and inward endowments are Admonitioners unto them of the great good they can do or otherwise thirst after popular applause Vnto my self have I evermore applied that of St. Hierom Mihi sufficit cum auditore Lectore pauperculo in Angulo Monasterii susurrare A small a private a retired Auditory better accords both with my will and my abilities Those unto whose discretion the furniture of this place is committed ought especially to be careful since you come hither to hear to provide you those who can be heard for the neglect of this one circumstance how poor soever it may seem to be is no less then to offend against that Faith which cometh by hearing and to frustrate as much as in them is that end for which alone these meetings were ordained We that come to this place as God came to Elias in the mount in a soft and still voice to those which are near us are that which the grace of God doth make us unto the rest we are but Statues such therefore as my Imperfection in this kind shall offend such as this day are my spectatours onely know I trust whom they are to blame At my hands is onely required truth in sincerely discharging a common care at others care of profitably delivering a common truth As for me the end of whose coming is to exhort you to a gracious intepreting of each others imperfections having first premised this Apology for my self it is now time to descend to the exposition of that Scripture which I have propos'd Iâ—firmum in Fide recipite c. Him that is weak in the Faith receive c. GOodness of all the attributes by which a man may be styled hath cheif place and sovereignty Goodness I say not that Metaphysical conceit which we dispute of in our Schools and is nothing else but that perfection which is inwardly due unto the Being of every creature and without which either it is not at all or but in part that whose name it bears but that which the common sort of men do usually understand when they call a man Good by which is meant nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and sweet and flexible disposition For all other Excellencies and Eminent qualities which raise in the minds of men some opinion and conceit of us may occasion peradventure some strong respect in another kind but impression of love and true respect nothing can give but this Greatness of place and authority may make us fear'd Depth of Learning admir'd Aboundance of Wealth may make men outwardly obsequious unto us but that which makes one man a God unto another that which doth tie the Souls of men unto us that which like the Eye of the Bridegroom in the Book of Canticles ravishes the heart of him that looks upon it is Goodness Without this Mankind were but as one speaks Commissiones merae arena sine calce stones heapt together without morter or peices of boards without any cement to combine and tie them together For this it hath singular in it above all other properties of which our nature is capable that it is the most available to Humane Society incorporating and as it were kneading us together by softness of disposition by being compassionate by gladly communicating to the necessity of others by transfusing our selves into others and receiving from others into our selves All other Qualities how excellent soever they are seem to be somewhat of a melancholick and solitary disposition They shine then brightest when they are in some one alone or attain'd unto by few once make them common and they lose their lustre But Goodness is more sociable and rejoyceth in equalling others unto it self and loses its nature when it ceases to be communicable The Heathen speaking of God usually stile him by two Attributes Optimus Maximus the one importing his Goodness the other his Power In the first place they call'd him Optimus a name signifying his Goodness giving the precedency unto it and in the second place Maximus a name betokening his Power yea Goodness is that wherein God himself doth most delight himself and therefore all the Acts of our Saviour while he conversed on earth among men were purely the issues of his tenderness without any aspersion of severity two onely excepted I mean his chasing the Prophaners out of the Temple and the Curse laid upon the innocent Fig-tree and yet in both these mercy rejoyced against judgment and his goodness had the preheminence For the first brought some smart with it indeed but no harm at all as Fathers use to chastise their Children by means that fear them more then hurt them The second of it self was nothing as being practis'd on a creature dull and senseless of all smart and punishment but was meerly exemplary for us sterilitas nostra in ficu vapulat Christ whips our fruitlesness in the innocent Fig-tree like as the manner was among the Persians when their great men had offended to take their Garments and beat them Now that gracious way of goodness which it
unto himself a Church and to begin it in Abraham Come forth saith he unto him out of thy countrey and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house When Israel being in Egypt it pleased God to appoint them a set Form and manner of serving him before this could be done they and all theirs must Come forth of Egypt they must not leave a hoof behind them When the time of the Gospel was come our Saviour holds the same course none must be of his company but such as come forth leave all and follow him And therefore the Apostle putting the Hebrews in mind of their duty expresses it in this very term Let us go forth therefore unto him saith he without the camp bearing his reproach And in the original Language of the New Testament the Church hath her name from this thing from being called forth so that without a going forth there is no Church no Christianity no Service to God the reason of all which is this We are all by nature in the High Preists Court as St. Peter was where we all deny and forswear our Master as St. Peter did neither is there any place for repentance till with St. Peter we go forth and weep For our further light we are to distinguish the practise of this our going forth according to the diversity of the times of the Church In the first Ages when Christianity was like unto Christ and had no place to hide its head no entertainment but what persecution and oppression and fire and sword could yeild it there was then required at the hands of Christians an actual going forth a real leaving of riches and freinds and lands and life for the profession of the Gospel Afterward when the Tempests of persecutions were somewhat allay'd and the skie began to clear up the necessity of actual relinquishing of all things ceas'd Christians might then securely hold life and lands and whatsoever was their own yet that it might appear unto the world that the resolution of Christian men was the same as in times of distress and want so likewise in time of peace and security it pleased God to raise up many excellent men as well of the Laity as of the Clergy who without constraint voluntarily and of themselves made liberal distribution of all they had left their means and their freinds and betook themselves to deserts and solitary places wholly giving themselves over to Meditation to Prayer to Fasting to all severity and rigidness of life what opinion our times hath of these I cannot easily pronounce thus much I know safely may be said that when this custom was in its primitive purity there was no one thing more behoovful to the Church It was the Seminary and Nursery of the Fathers and of all the famous Ornaments of the Church Those two things which afterwards in the decay and ruine of this discipline the Church sought to establish by Decrees and Constitutions namely to estrange her Preists from the world and bind them to a single life were the necessary effects of this manner of living for when from their childhood they had utterly sequestred themselves from the world and long practised the contempt of it when by chastising their body and keeping it under with long fasting they had killed the heat of youth it was not ambition nor desire of wealth nor beauty of women that could withdraw them or sway their affections That which afterwards was crept into the Church and bare the name of Monkery had indeed nothing of it but the name under pretence of poverty they seized into their possession the wealth and riches of the world they removed themselves from barren soils into the fattest places of the land from solitary desarts into the most frequented cities they turned their poor Cottages into stately Palaces their true Fasting into Formalizing and partial abstinence So that instead of going forth they took the next course to come into the world they left not the world for Christ but under pretence of Christ they gain'd the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks One of their own St. Ierom by name long ago complain'd of it Nonnulli sunt ditiores Monachi quam fuerant seculares clerici qui possideant opes sub paupere Christo quas sub fallaci locuplete diabolo non habuerant ut suspiret eos ecclesia divites quos tenuit mundos ante mendicos But I forbear and come to commend unto you another kind of going forth necessary for all persons and for all times There is a going forth in act and execution requisite onely at some times and upon some occasions there is a going forth in will and affections this let the persons be of what calling soever and let the times be never so favourable God requires at the hands of every one of us We usually indeed distinguish the times of the Church into times of Peace and times of Persecution the truth is to a true Christian man the times are always the same Habet etiam pax suos martyres saith one there is a martyrdom even in time of peace for the practise of a Christian man in the calmest times in readiness and resolution must nothing differ from times of rage and fire Iosephus writing of the military Exercises practised amongst the Romans reports that for seriousness they differed from a true Battel onely in this The Battel was a bloudy Exercise their Exercise a bloudless Battel Like unto this must be the Christian exercise in times of peace neither must there be any difference betwixt those days of persecution and these of ours but onely this Those yeilded Martyrs with bloud ours without Let therefore every man throughly examine his own heart whether upon supposal of times of trial and persecution he can say with David My heart is ready whether he can say of his dearest pledges All these have I counted dung for Christ's sake whether he find in himself that he can if need be even lay down his life for his profession He that cannot do thus what differs his Faith from a temporary faith or from hypocrisie Mark I beseech you what I say I will not affirm I will onely leave it to your Christian discretion A temporary faith that is a faith resembled to the seed in the Gospel which being sown on the stony ground withered as soon as the sun arose a faith that fails as soon as it feels the heat of persecution can save no man May we not with some reason think that the Faith of many a one who in time of peace seems to us yea and to himself too peradventure to die possess'd of it is yet notwithstanding no better then a temporary faith and therefore comes not so far as to save him that hath it Rufus a certain Philosopher whensoever any Scholars were brought unto him to receive education under him was wont to use all possible force of argument to disswade them from it if nothing could prevail
to the Land of Promise Yea it is generally thought a matter of congruity that the world go well with every good Christian man Against those I will lay down this one conclusion That if we look into the tenour of the New Testament we shall find that neither the Church nor any Christian man by title of his profession hath any certain claim to any secular blessing Indeed if we look into the Iews Common-wealth and consider the letter of Moses Law they may seem not onely to have a direct promise of Temporal felicity but of no other save that For in the Law God gives to Moses the dispensation of no other but temporal Blessings and Cursings in the xxvj of Leviticus and the xxviij of Deuteronomy where God seems to strive with all possible efficacy to express himself in both kinds there is not a line conteining that which should betide them at their ends all their weal all their woe seem'd to expire with their lives What sense they had of future rewards or with what conceit they passed away to immortality I list not to dispute This suffices to shew that there is a main difference in the hopes of the Church before and since Christ concerning outward prosperity as for Christians to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom they have greater and harder races to run greater prizes to take in hand then our Fathers before Christ. The Church was then in her youth she was to be led by sense as a child we are come to the age of perfect men in Christ. That the Church therefore might not deceive her self with this outward peace which is but a peace of ornament he strips her as it were of her borrowed beauty and washes off her Fucus gives her no interest in the world sends her forth into a strange Land as he did Abraham not having possession of a foot and which is yet more not having so much as a promise of any which yet Abraham had If Christ and his Apostles teach as sometimes they do Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and these things shall be cast in upon you That Godliness hath the promise both of this life and of the life to come It is not presently to be conceived that every true Christian man shall doubtless come on and thrive in the world That which they teach is no more but this That we ought not to despair of the Providence of God for look what is the reward and portion of vertue and industry in other men the same and much more shall it have in Christians their goodness shall have the like approbation their moral virtues shall have the like esteem their honest labours shall thrive alike If sometimes it hath fallen out otherwise it is but the same lot which hath befallen virtue and honesty even in the Pagan as well as the Christian. In the fifth of St. Matthew where Christ teacheth us That the meek spirited shall possess the earth think we that it was the intent of the holy Ghost to make men Lords of the earth to endow them with Territories and large Dominions That which he teaches us is but a moral lesson such as common reason and experience confirms That meek and mild spirited men are usually the quietest possessours of what they hold But that these speeches and such as these in the New Testament be not wrong'd by us by being drawn to our avaritious conceits and thought to halt if sometime the meek-spirited become a spoil to the extortioner and be stript of all he hath give me leave to commend unto you one rule for the interpretation of them which will give much ease to unstable minds The holy Ghost delivering general propositions in things subject to variety and humane casualties is to be understood for the truth of them as far as the things themselves are capable of truth and according to the certainty of them There are many propositions fram'd even in Natural things of Eternal truth no instance neither of time nor person can be brought to disprove them our daily experience evermore finds them so There is a second order of things created by God himself subject to mutability which sometimes are not at all and being produced owe their being sometimes to one cause sometimes to another the efficacy of the cause no way being determined to this effect but of it self indifferent to produce it or not The managing of affairs whether in publick of Common-weals or in private of any man's particular state or calling Moral rules of behaviour and carriage yea all the things that are spoken concerning the temporal weal or woe of actions good or bad they are all ranged in this second order Now in all these things it is impossible there should be propositions made of unavoidable certainty If the rules and observations drawn for our direction ut plurimum usually and in the ordinary course of events hold currant it is enough to make them Maxims of Truth it matters not though at some time upon some occasions in some person they fail Now from the condition of these things the propositions made by the holy Ghost himself are by their Authour not exempted In the Book of the Proverbs the holy Ghost hath registred such store of Moral wisdom and Precepts of carriage in temporal matters that all the wisdom of the Heathen most renowned for Morality come far short of it These Precepts though with us they have as indeed they ought to have much more credibility as delivered unto us by an Authour of surer observation and exempted from all possibility of errour yet notwithstanding in regard of the things themselves they are of the like certainty of the same degree of truth when we find them in the Writings of these famous Ethnicks whom it pleased the holy Spirit to endue with Natural wisdom and Moral discretion which they have when we read them registred in the Oracles of God and thesame uncertainty have they in regard of some particulars when they be spoken by Solomon which they have when they are uttered by Plato or Euripides Solomon much inveigheth against the folly of Suretiship was it therefore never heard of that a wise man was surety for his neighbour with good success I. Caesar when he thought to have upheld his estate through mercy and clemency lost his life is it therefore false which Solomon teacheth that Mercy upholdeth the throne of the King He knew well and his son had dear experience of it that the peoples hearts are won and kept by mild and merciful dealing rather then by rough and tyrannous proceedings yet he could not be ignorant that even Kings sometimes reap mischeif and death there where they have plentifully sowed love and mercy Thus then and no otherwise are we to understand the holy Ghost preaching unto us the reward of the meek-spirited and the promises of this life to the godly For we are not to suppose that God in
in commendation that constancy and unswayedness in our lives and actions that Rock which no tempest can move that perpetual and habituated goodness which no hard fortune can dant no felicity can corrupt that to which our Saviour hath promised Salvation he that continues to the end shall be saved All this is contained in this word Dixi I am resolv'd Again from whence comes that main imperfection of our lives Vnsettledness and flitting from one thing to another frequent relapsing into sins once forsaken Whence are we so easily carried with every wind of Fear of Hope of Commodity All is because we have not yet learned our Dixi are not yet resolv'd we know not what to will or nill till present occasion take us we have not advisedly decreed set down before hand what we will follow in our lives in our conclusions And without that Dixi a man is but like a Ship without a Ballast easily overturn'd with every blast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways The kingdom of Iudah was full of such men for amongst twenty two Kings who sate in the Throne nine of them totally relaps'd and fell away to Idolatry and all the Priests and People with them But we need not go to fetch Examples so far so long since our own Kingdoms and latter times are able sufficiently to store us How easily were the branches of Popery lop'd under Hen. 8. and and the very stumps of it rooted up under Edw. 6. How easily did it recover again under Queen Mary both Top and Cut and yet with the same facility was it again lop'd rooted up under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Certainly were Religion a matter of conscience and not of formality undertaken first with Dixi custodiam out of Love and Conscience it could not be that so often so easie so general a change could be made from one Religion to another The like we may see in all moral courses interrupted by inconstancy mutability and change He that can comply and peice in with all occasions and make an easie forfeiture of his honesty makes it a custom to relapse into sins formerly repented of may well impute it to this that he hath not taken up a resolution that he hath not made his Dixi custodiam like unto the Laws of Medes and Persians which alter not and without which a man is like the Sea moved and troubled with every wind that blows upon it For would he say the word this Dixi custodiam would quit him from the greatest part of his follies and sins too How said I would he but speak the word Nay I fear me most men think these two words Dixi custodiam a greater difficulty then so and more indeed then they have For first for Dixi It is not a word of such strange and unknown sound which we that are aliens by nature from the Covenant of Grace utter strangers to the language of God can never learn rightly to pronounce Are we able to sound it in our hearts throughly to take up this resolution Resp. I see no reason but that I may say We are able For first David did it not by any spirit peculiar to himself as that by which he Prophecied and did those things which lay not within the rule of common persons 2. David did it who was by nature as great a stranger to the Covenant of Grace as we 3. David did this for example to us and it is here recorded that we might learn to do the like But all this were labour lost if it were impossible to do it 2. Custodiam this is enough to prove Dixi feasible But yet there is a greater doubt for custodiam Having learn'd this language taken up this resolution are we able to stand to it to make it good Was there ever man who had so setled his resolution custodire vias but that he was sometimes constrained to leave his right way and wander in spite of all his custodiam careful watch he kept Resp. For answer to this question I must confess I am in a streight For me thinks 't is no good argument to say we know of none that have so kept their ways Therefore it is impossible they should be kept Yet if I should say it were possible whether I should offend the truth I cannot so easily pronounce but sure I am I should offend the times For many learned men can delight themselves in discoursing of the weakness of man's nature of the difficulty yet impossibility of keeping the Laws of God 2. Again on the contrary side should I say that we are bound to take up this Dixi custodiam Resolution with David but with reservation that in this life we can never be able to make it good I do not see what I could do more to dishearten to deter men from entertaining this lesson of Christian Resolution which above all lessons in the world I would have commended unto them For what wise man will attempt that which he knows before-hand to be impossible To those who enquire whether it be possible to bring this Dixi into Fieri make it good in practise I answer as the Angel doth Revel vj. Veni vide try and make experience an possibile For many things have been thought impossible till experience hath proved them possible It is observed by those who writ the Acts of Alexander the Great that he enterprized many things with good success which no man else would ever have attempted because they doubted of the possibility of the enterprise Let us be like Alexander and attempt impossibilities It may be experience will discover that to be possible which fear never could They are ill discoverers that think there is no Land where they can see nothing but Sea How many of late times have ventured their persons their purses by Sea and Land in new Discoveries and new Plantations of the good success whereof they have had little or no assurance before hand How much better and surer adventure were this whereof we now treat which if we attain unto the honour and profit is infinite If we fail of it the very missing of it cannot be without a great and rich return We read of a Father who dying commanded his sons to dig in his Vineyard for there they should find much Gold Accordingly they did so and Gold they found none yet the digging and moving of the earth about the roots of the Vine caused it to bring forth so abundantly that it yeilded them a rich revenue What if God do so by us Suppose he commands us to dig for Gold to keep his Laws which yet he knows we cannot yet the labour it self though it miss the end intended cannot but infinitely benefit us for our very endeavour in this kind is much set by Est aliquid prodire tenus He that by striving to keep all hath kept most hath done himself an happy turn And now lastly by so much the more
90. Christian Omnipotency Philip. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ that enableth or that strengthneth me p. 114. Luke 18. 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint p. 131. My kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 Iesus answered my kingdom is not of this world If my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Iews c. p. 146. 1 Sam. 24.5 And it came to pass afterward that Davids heart smote him because he had cut off Sauls Skirt p. 161. John 14.27 Peace I leave unto you My peace I give unto you p. 177. The profit of godliness 1 Tim. 14.8 But Godliness is profitable unto all things p. 193. A Second Sermon on the same Text. p. 214. Iacobs Vow Gen. 28.20 And Iacob vowed a vow saying If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and give me bread to eat and rayment to put on c. p. 228. Dixi Custodiam Psal. 36.1 I said or resolved I will take heed to my ways p. 244. MISCELLANIES p. 257. Letters concerning the Synod of Dort A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and sold by Robert Pawlet at the Bible in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet EPiscopacy as established by Law in England not prejudicial to Regal Power written by the special command of the late King by R. Sanderson late Lord Bishop of Lincolne The Whole Duty of Man laid down in a plain and familiar way for the use of All but especially the meanest Reader Necessary for all Families with private Devotions for several Occasions The Gentleman 's Calling Written by the Author of The Whole Duty of Man The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety Or an Impartial Survey of the Ruines of Christian Religion Undermin'd by Unchristian Practice By the Author of The Whole Duty of Man A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture Or the Certain and Indubitate books thereof as they are received in the Church of England By Dr. Cosin Lord Bishop of Durham Divine Breathings or a Pious Soul thirsting after Christ in an hundred excellent Meditations Hugo Grotius de Robus Belgicis Or the Annals and History of the Low-Countrey Wars in English wherein is manifested that the United Netherlands are indebted for the glory of their Conquests to the Valour of the English A Treatise of the English Particles shewing much of the variety of their significations and uses in English and how to render them into Latin according to the propriety and elegancy of that language with a Praxis upon the same By William Walker B. D. School-master of Grantburn with a Table newly added The Royal Grammar commonly called Lillies Grammar explained opening the meaning of the Rules with great plainness to the understanding of Children of the meanest capacity with choice observations on the same from the best Authors By W. Walker B. D. Author of the Treatise of English Particles A Catalogue of the names of all the Parliaments or reputed Parliaments from the year 1640. A Narrative of some Passages in or relating to the Long Parliament by a person of Honour Sober Inspections into the Long Parliament By Iames Howel Esquire Dr. Sprackling against the Chymists Nemâ—sius's Nature of Man in English By G. Withers Gent. Inconveniences of Toleration A Letter about Comprehension A Collection of Canons Articles and Injunctions of the Church of England By Anthony Sparrow Lord Bishop of Exon. The Bishop of Exons Caution to his Diocese against false doctrines delivered in a Sermon at his Primary Visitation The form of Consecration of a Church or Chappel and of the place of Christian Burial by Bishop Andrews A Thanksgiving Sermon preach'd before the King by I. Dolhen D. D. Dean of Westminster and Clerk of the Closet Bishop Brownrigs Sermon on the Gunpowder Treason A Letter to a Person of Quality concerning the Fines received by the Church at its Restauration wherein by the Instance of one the richest Cathedrals a fair guess may be made at the receits and disbursments of all the rest A Narrative or Journal of the Proceedings of the Lord Holles and the Lord Coventry Ambassadors Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty at Breda Written by a person of Quality concerned in that Ambassie A Narrative of the Burning of London 1666 with an account of the losses and a most remarkable Parallel between it and MOSCO both as to the Plague and Fire Lluellyns three Sermons on the Kings Murder A Collection of the Rules and Orders now used in Chancery Iter Lucitanicum Or the Portugal Voyage with what memorable passages interven'd at the Shipping and in the Transportation of her Sacred Majesty Katherine Queen of Great Britain from Lisbon to England By Dr. Samuel Hynde All sorts of Law Books A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISME AND SCHISMATICKS WHEREIN Is briefly discovered The Original Causes of all Schism HEresie and Schism as they are commonly used are two Theological scar-crows with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright away such as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appear either erroneous or suspitious for as Plutarch reports a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all Cocks and Hens that so the imperfection of his Art might appear by comparison with Nature so men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder an inquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appear but howsoever in the common manage Heresie and Schisme are but ridiculous terms yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly when they are not by imputation but indeed It is then a matter of no small importance truly to descry the nature of them and they on the contrary strengthen themselves who through the iniquity of men and times are injuriously charged with them Schisme for of Heresie we shall not now treat except it be by accident and that by occasion of a general mistake spread through all the writings of the Ancients in which their names are familiarly confounded Schisme I say upon the very sound of the word imports Division Division is not but where Communion is or ought to be Now Communion is the strength and ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civil whosoever therefore they be that offend against the common society and friendliness of men if it be in civil occasions are guilty of Sedition and Rebellion if it be by reason of Ecclesiastical difference they are guilty of Schisme So that Schisme is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a lay Schism yet the great benefits of Communion notwithstanding in regard of divers distempers men are subject to Dissention and Dis-union are often necessary For when either false
or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for truth and Acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or Schisme but due Christian animosity For the opening therefore of the nature of Schisme something may be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary Separation and that is that the cause upon which Division is attempted proceed not from Passion or from Distemper or from Ambition or Avarice or such other ends as humane folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary reasons and that when all other means having been tryed nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open separation so that Schisme if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once members Now As in Mutinies and civil Dissentions there are two Attendants in ordinary belonging unto them one the choice of one Elector or Guide in place of the general or ordinary Governor to rule and Guide the other the appointing of some publick place or Randezvous where publick Meetings must be celebrated So in Church-dissentions and quarrels two appurtenances there are which serve to make Schisme compleat First in the choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was the cause and effect of Schisme Secondly the erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the dividing parts to meet-in publickly For till this be done the Schisme is but yet in the womb In that late famous Controversie in Holland De Praedestinatione auxiliis as long as the disagreeing parties went no further than Disputes and Pen-combates the Schisme was all that while unhatch'd but as soon as one party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating party there to meet now what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme To know no more than this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct how you are to judge and what to think of Schisme and Schismaticks yet because of the Ancients by whom many are more affrighted than hurt much is said and many fearful dooms pronounced in this case We will descend a little to consider of Schism as it were by way of Story and that partly further to open that which we have said in general by instancing in particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more then needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schisme above due measure for what the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvised and open fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of men the tye of love and Communion doth most especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves men from the guilt of it but true and unpretended conscience yet when they came to pronounce of Schisme in particular whether it was because of their own interest or that they saw not the Truth or for what other cause God only doth know their judgements many times to speak most gently were justly to be suspected Which that you may see we will range all Schisme into two ranks First is a Schisme in which only one party is the Schismatick for where cause of Schisme is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of seperation is the Schismaticks Secondly there is a Schisme in which both parties are the Schismaticks for where the occasion of separation is unncessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schisme But you will ask Who shall be the judge what is necessary Indeed it is a question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoil it but because the true solution of it carries fire in the tail of it for it bringeth with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors to you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be animo defaecato if you have cleared your self from â—roath and growns if neither sloth nor fear nor ambition nor any tempting spirit of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the true impediments why both that and other questions of the like danger are not truly answer'd if all this be and yet you know not how to frame your resolution and settle your self for that doubt I will say no more of you than was said of Papias St. Iohn's own Scholar Your abilities are not so good as I presumed But to go on with what I intended and from that that diverted me that you may the better judg of the nature of Schisms by their occasions you shall find that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three wayes either upon matter of Fact or upon matter of Opinion or point of Ambition for the first I call that matter of fact when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful so the first notable Schisme of which we read in the Church contained in it matter of fact for it being upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than error if I may so speak for it was no less than a point of Judaism forced upon the Church upon worse than error I say thought further necessary that the ground of the time for keeping of that Feast must be the rule left by Moses to the Iews there arose a stout question Whether we were to celebrate with the Iews on the fourteenth Moon or the Sunday following This matter though most unnecessary most vain yet caused as great a combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many years together In this fantastical hurry I cannot see but all the world were Schismaticks neither can any thing excuse them from that imputation excepting only this that we charitably suppose that all parties did what they did out of conscience a thing which befel them through the ignorance of their Guides for I will not say through their malice and that through the just judgment of God because through sloth and blind obedience men examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couch'd down indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them By the way by this we may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the
gone him through then if you please you may look back and take a veiw of his imperfections and supply them out of some other Authours partly Latine as Iustine Salust Caesar's Commentaries Hirtius Velleius Paterculus partly Greek as Polybius Plutarch Dionysius Halycarnasseus Appianus Alexandrinus Dion Cassius out of which Authours you may reasonably supply whatsoever is wanting in Livie Having thus brought the Story to the change of the Empire you must now begin another course and first you must take in hand Suetonius Tranquillus who being carefully perused your way lies open to the reading of our Politician's great Apostle Tacitus Now the same infelicity hath befallen him which before I noted in Livie for as this so that is very imperfect and broken a great part both of his Annals and Histories being lost And as I counsel'd you for Livie so do I for Tacitus that you read him throughout without intermingling any other Authour and having gone him through in what you shall see him imperfect Dion Cassius or his Epitomizer Xiphiline will help you out though by reason of your fore-reading of Suetonius you shall find your self for a good part of the Story furnish'd before hand And thus are you come to the Reign of Nerva where Suetonius and Tacitus ended hitherto to come is a reasonable task for you yet If you shall desire to know the State and Story afterward till Constantine's death and the Division of the Empire or farther to the fall of the Western Empire let me understand your mind and I will satisfie you For the Editions of those Authours hitherto mentioned your choice is best of those whom either Lipsius or Gruterus or Causabon have set forth though if you be careful to buy fair Books you can scarcely chuse amiss your Greek Authours if you list not to trouble your self with the Language you shall easily find in Latine sufficient for your use Onely Plutarch what ever the matter is hath no luck to the Latine and therefore I would advise you either to read him in French or in English But as for Tacitus the cheif Cock in the Court-basket it is but meet you take special good advise in reading of him Lipsius Savile Pichena and others have taken great pains with him in emaculating the Text in setling the Reading opening the Customs expounding the Story c. and therefore you must needs have recourse unto them yet this in onely Critical and not Courtly Learning Tacitus for your use requires other kind of Comments For since he is a Concise Dense and by repute a very Oraculous Writer almost in every line pointing at some State-Maxim it had been a good employment for some good Wit to have expounded proved exemplified at large what he doth for the most part onely but intimate Something our Age hath attempted in this kind though to little purpose Gruterus hath collected certain places here and there collected out of him and Scipio Anâ—mirati hath glossed him in some places according to the shallowness of the new Italian Wits But Annibal Scotus Groom of the Chamber to Sixtus Quintus hath desperately gone through him all whom I would wish you to look upon not for any great good you shall reap by him for he is the worst that ever I read onely you shall see by that which he hath with great infelicity attempted what kind of Comment it is which if it were well performed would be very acceptable to us From the order of Reading we come to the Excerpta and to such things as we observe and gather in our reading Here are two things to be marked First the matters and things which we collect Secondly the manner of observing gathering registring them in our paper-books for our speedy use To omit all that which belongs to the style and language wherein your Authour writes in which I suppose you mean not much to trouble your self matters observable in History may be all rank'd under three heads First there is the Story it self which usually we gather by Epitomizing it Secondly there are Miscellanea such as are the Names and Genealogies of Men descriptions of Cities Hills Rivers Woods c. Customs Offices Magistrates Prodigies certain quaint observations as who was the first Dictator when the Romans first began to use Shipping or to coin gold what manner of Moneys the Ancients used their manner of War and Military Instruments and an infinite multitude of the like nature Thirdly there are Moralia For the first you need not trouble your self about it it is already done to your hand For there is almost no story of note whereof there is not some Epitome as good as any you can frame of your own Indeed if you did intend any exact knowledge of History it were good you did this your self though it were Actum agere Because what we do our selves sticks best in our memories and is most for our use But since your aim is at something else you may spare your own and make use of others labours The second Head is pleasant but is meerly Critical and Scholastical and so the less pertinent to you and therefore I shall not need to speak any more of it The Third which I called Morals is that Penelope which you must wooe under this I comprehend all Moral Sentences and Common Places all not able examples of Iustice of Religion c. Apothegins Vafre sâ—mulanter dicta facta Civil stratagems and plots to bring ends about censures upon mens persons and actions considerations upon mens natures and dispositions all things that may serve for proof or disproof illustration or amplification of any Moral place considerations of the circumstances of actions the reasons why they prove successful or their errours if they prove unfortunate As in the second Punick War why Annibal still prevailed by hastning his actions Fabius on the contrary by delay And this indeed is one of the special profits that comes by History And therefore I have always thought Polybius might we have him perfect one of the best that ever wrote Story For whereas other Historians content themselves to touch and point at the true reasons of Events in civil business Polybius when he hath Historically set down an action worthy consideration leaves it not so but reveiws it insists and as it were comments upon it considers all the circumstances that were of any force in the manage of it and contents not himself as it were to cast its water but looks into its bowels and shews where it is strong and where diseased Wherefore I would have you well acquaint your self with him and especially with those passages I now spake of that they may be patterns to you to do the like which that you may with greater assurance and profit do make special account of those who wrote the things of their own times or in which themselves were Agents especially if you find them to be such as durst tell the truth For as it is with Painters who
many times draw Pictures of fair Women and call them Helen or Venus or of great Emperours and call them Alexander or Caesar yet we know they carry no resemblance of the persons whose names they bear So when men write and decipher actions long before their time they may do it with great wit and elegancy express much politick wisdom frame very beautiful peices but how far they express the true countenance and life of the actions themselves of this it were no impiety to doubt unless we were assured they drew it from those who knew and saw what they did One thing more ere I leave this Head I will admonish you of It is a common Scholical errour to fill our papers and Note-books with observations of great and famous events either of great Battels or Civil Broiles and contentions The expedition of Hercules his off-spring for the recovery of Peloponnese the building of Rome the attempt of Regulus against the great Serpent of Bagradas the Punick Wars the ruine of Carthage the death of Caesar and the like Mean while things of ordinary course and common life gain no room in our Paper-books Petronius wittily and sharply complain'd against Scholemasters in his times Adolescentulos in Scholis stultissimos fieri quia nihil ex iis quae in usu habemus aut audiunt aut vident sed piratas cum catenis in littore stantes tyrannicos edicta scribentes quibus imperent filiis ut patrum suorum capita praecidant sed responsa in pestilentia data ut virgines tres aut plures immolentur in which he wisely reproves the errour of those who training up of youth in the practise of Rhetorick never suffered them to practise their wits in things of use but in certain strange supralunary arguments which never fell within the sphere of common action This complaint is good against divers of those who travel in History For one of the greatest reasons that so many of them thrive so little and grow no wiser men is because they sleight things of ordinary course and observe onely great matters of more note but less use How doth it benefit a man who lives in peace to observe the Art how Caesar managed wars or by what cunning he aspired to the Monarchy or what advantages they were that gave Scipio the day against Hannibal These things may be known not because the knowledge of these things is useful but because it is an imputation to be ignorant of them their greatest use for you being onely to furnish out your discourse Let me therefore advise you in reading to have a care of those discourses which express domestick and private actions especially if they be such wherein your self purposes to venture your fortunes For if you rectifie a little your conceit you shall see that it is the same wisdome which manages private business and State affairs and that the one is acted with as much folly and ease as the other If you will not beleive men then look into our Colledges where you shall see that I say not the plotting for an Headship for that is now become a Court-business but the contriving of a Bursership of twenty nobles a year is many times done with as great a portion of suing siding supplanting and of other Court-like Arts as the gaining of the Secretary's place onely the difference of the persons it is which makes the one Comical the other Tragical To think that there is more wisdom placed in these specious matters then in private carriages is the same errour as if you should think there were more Art required to paint a King then a Countrey Gentleman whereas our Dutch Pieces may serve to confute you wherein you shall see a cup of Rhenish-wine a dish of Radishes a brass Pan an Holland Cheese the Fisher-men selling Fish at Scheveling or the Kitchen-maid spitting a loin of Mutton done with as great delicacy and choiceness of Art as can be expressed in the Delineation of the greatest Monarch in the world From the order of Reading and the matters in Reading to be observed we come to the method of observation What order we are for our best use to keep in entring our Notes into our Paper-Books The custom which hath most prevailed hitherto was common placing a thing at the first Original very plain and simple but by after-times much increased some augmenting the number of the Heads others inventing qâ—â—â—ter forms of disposing them till at length Common-place-books became like unto the Roman Breviarie or Missal It was a great part of Clerk-ship to know how to use them The Vastness of the Volumes the multitude of Heads the intricacy of disposition the pains of committing the Heads to memory and last of the labour of so often turning the Books to enter the observations in their due places are things so expensive of time and industry that although at length the work comes to perfection yet it is but like the Silver Mines in Wales the profit will hardly quit the pains I have often doubted with my self whether or no there were any necessity of being so exactly Methodical First because there hath not yet been found a Method of that Latitude but little reading would furnish you with some things which would fall without the compass of it Secondly because men of confused dark and clowdy understandings no beam or light of order and method can ever rectifie whereas men of clear understanding though but in a mediocrity if they read good Books carefully and note diligently it is impossible but they should find incredible profit though their Notes lie never so confusedly The strength of our natural memory especially if we help it by revising our own Notes the nature of things themselves many times ordering themselves and tantum non telling us how to range them a mediocrity of care to see that matters lie not too Chaos-like will with very small damage save us this great labour of being over-superstitiously methodical And what though peradventure something be lost Exilis domus est c. It is a sign of great poverty of Scholarship where every thing that is lost is miss'd whereas rich and well accomplish'd learning is able to lose many things with little or no inconvenience Howsoever it be you that are now about the noon of your day and therefore have no leisure to try and examine Methods and are to bring up a young Gentleman who in all likelihood will not be over-willing to take too much pains may as I think with most ease and profit follow this order In your reading excerpe and note in your Books such things as you like going on continually without any respect unto order and for the avoiding of confusion it shall be very profitable to allot some time to the reading again of your own Notes which do as much and as oft as you can For by this means your Notes shall be better fixt in your memory and your memory will easily supply you of things