rejected and condemned afterwards and that very shortly Vse 1 This being a truth serves to confute all of the contrary minde as sometime was that Apostata Bernard Ochin who hath written certaine dialogues and laboured to establish this against the word of God Infinite it were to trouble you with all yet some The greatest is the examples of many of the holy Fathers as recorded in the Scripture who had many wives and are no where reproved I answer First it followes not Their reproofe is not set downe therefore it was not for seeing the Prophet Malachy reproves it why may it not be supposed others did so Besides many things were done that we never finde reproved which argues not the lawfulnesse of them The incest of Iacob and Lot Davids judgement against Mephibosheth and with Siba and such like Thirdly if it were not yet we live by precept not example Fourthly the multitude nor the greatnesse of offenders will excuse neither can antiquity prescribe against the word of God But as for the Fathers it is answered by the learned First that God remitted his law to them which appeares say they because he neither reproved it by his Prophets neither did he at the publishing of the Law expressely condemne it as he did some others as incest Levit. 19. before they thinke Iacobs marriage of two sisters was lawfull therefore he remitted his law yet so as they were not without all sinne in it For sinne they consider either as an aberration or turning aside from the perfect rule of God and so they sinned or else that which offends God so that it provokes him to punish and in this sense they sinned not God thus remitting the Law Others excuse the Fathers because they did it and God so permitted for the increase of the Church and not for any filthy unclean lust to satisfie it which was true in some though it hold not in others As Solomon and some others who cannot be excused of incontinencie Some excuse from some probable ignorance that either they knew not the Law or they thought not of it and so though not no sinne yet a lesse sinne Some the succeeding ages by their predecessors that though their examples make not sinne to be no sinne yet to be smaller sinnes to offend by their example who were otherwise good and holy men then when any thing is done with a wavering conscience and men are boldly the first that doe it for they are to be judged to sinne by error of judgement then perversity of affection Finally it is probable that God did winke at that in this people and their progenitours for the propagation of his people and to give passage to the fulfilling of his promise of the increasing of them and though God used that fact of the fathers well yet will it not follow that they sinned not when they turned aside from the word of God but if they sinned in it and so persevered and dyed impenitent what shall we thinke became of them It is probable they never repented either because they thought they sinned not or else because they well discerned not their sinne and yet might be pardoned it and were It is true to have Gods mercy for pardon requires repentance yet is it not necessary that every man should expressely repent himselfe of every particular sinne How many things are done which are not rightly done yet not done wickedly by us but in a conscience not well informed and so knew it not to be sinne And how many which are forgotten that they were done and yet by a mans generall humiliation for all his sinnes and craving pardon of unknowne sinnes Psal 19. pardon is obtained And those fathers often in their lives confessing themselves miserable sinners and humbling themselves no doubt that repentance and faith in Christ to come did save them But 2 Sam. 12.8 David had his masters wives It is answered by some that he did because God remitted his law to him But others it is never read that he took any one of them to wife neither is it said so but though the phrase into thy bosome is commonly understood of marriages yet it signifies there onely power and authority that is I have given thee all thy masters goods and have not excepted his wives that thou maist have them under thy power as other things Tremelius thus i. res personas etiam intimas charissimas eorum qui prius tui erant domini subjeci tibi But Deut. 25.5 the brother was to take the wife of his elder brother deceased It is answered by most that it was an extraordinary example and a speciall thing but no generall rule for else incest might be proved by it if it were generall Others answer that it must be taken and understood if he have not a wife before And so much they thinke those words carry if brethren dwell together And a reason of it is because it is not like that God would have a man to neglect his owne seed and his owne wife to raise up seed to others but onely he would have his brother substituted in his place I omit many more of no great weight though of some shew against all which the truth will stand and prevaile Vse 2 To perswade the men of our age against it for howsoever the forefathers escaped with it God either for the increase of the Church or by reason of their ignorance and rudenesse winked at it yet as in another case Acts 17.30 The time of this ignorance God regarded not but now he admonisheth all men every where to repent So may we say in this specially seeing Christ by himselfe and by others his Apostles hath declared us the law of the creation and brought it to the first institution he being as Revel 1. Alpha and Omega and as Hierom applies it to this when he found all things at his comming brought to Omega to an extremity and height he reduced them to Alpha to that which was in the beginning And if it were then granted to be no sinne yet will it be now They who excuse the fathers make as of man so of the world foure ages the childhood of it the youth the mans estate and the old age Now many things are fitting for children and may be tolerated in them which may not be in men of riper yeares as S. August saith in old time for men to goe with garments having long sleeves and skirts it was an argument of softnesse and wantonnesse But now if they should weare them with either they should be noted They say againe that that was the time of darkenesse ours of the light for though they were light in respect of the Gentiles they are darkenesse in comparison of us Now many things are tolerable in darkenesse which may not be borne withall in the light Then in this as in many other things we must not study what was done or borne withall but what is lawfull for us to doe and
and know themselves but men It is a thing that cannot be denied because stories of all times do manifestly prove it that sometimes errours and heresies have so much prevailed that the most part of them who held and possessed great places of office and dignity in the Church of God either for feare flattery hope of gaine or honour or else mis-led through simplicitie or directly falling into errour and heresie and departed from the soundnesse of the faith so that the sincerity of religion was upholden and the truth defended and maintained onely by some few and they molested persecuted and traduced as turbulent and seditious persons enemies to the common peace of the Christian world To say nothing of the times of Christ and after him of the first Churches in the Acts. This was the state of the Christian world in the time of Athanasius when in the Councell of Selencia and Ariminium the Nicence faith was condemned and all the Bishops of the whole world were carried from the soundnesse of the faith save Athanasius and some few Confessors banished with him So that Hieron contra Luciferam Ingemuit totius orbis miratus est factum se Arrianum So Hilarius contra Aux Episc Mill. complained that the Arrian faction had confounded all Paphnutius in the Councell of Nice for the marriage of Ministers was alone But yee are gone out of the way Though they succeeded them in their places yet not in their faith not in the truth of doctrine Doctrine There may be an ordinary and externall succession of place and person without succession of faith and truth of doctrine Manifest here in these Priests who held the places and did ordinarily succeed the Priests who were specially approved of God yet did not succeed them in faith and in soundnesse of truth And as it was in the times before often a succession of the one without the other And this is first manifest by the former doctrine for when it often happened that all the ordinary Priests such as had the outward succession were in errour God exciting extraordinary Prophets to reprove them as Isaiah Ieremie c. It must needs be that there was a separation of these two In particular it is manifest in the time of Elijah 1 King 19.14 So when wicked Ahaz was King 2 King 16.11 Vriah the high Priest corrupting the worship In the Church of the Jewes in Christs time it was so for they condemning Christ and his followers as schismaticall Joh. 9.22 and 12.42 This is further proved Acts 20.29.30 These had their succession from the Apostles and held the same seats the same places which the Apostles held yet had not the same truth and faith So out of the Ecclesiasticall stories it is manifest that the Arrian Bishops as Eusebius Nicomediens and Eustathius and others did derive their succession of place persons seats and Churches from the Apostles For they were called chosen and ordained after the custome of the Church and had no new but the lawfull calling So of the Donatists and Paulus Samosatenus in the Church of Antioch succeeded Peter as well as they did at Rome And the Greeke Church judged by the Papists schismaticall hath her personall succession not onely 1200. yeares as they confesse from Constantines time but long before from Andreas the Apostle as Nicephorus lib. 8. Chronol cap. 6. Reason 1 Because the grace of God and the truth is not hereditary that men should leave it at their pleasure to their heires and successors as they can their places and seats for John 3. as the winde so the Spirit blowes where it lists Not living men can make others whom they gladly would partakers of their faith and truth how should the dead and departed living men more likely Reason 2 Because as in a common wealth new Lords new lawes and succeeding men have different mindes affections wills desires ends c. and so change many things so it is in the Church And though they should leave them it as an inheritance yet we see children hold not their patrimony but many spend all so of this And as is said of Himeneus and Alexander that they made shipwrack of faith 1 Tim. 1.19.20 So of others Vse 1 Then falls to the ground the doctrine of Popery making this externall and personall succession a note of the Church and by it would prove theirs to be the true Church But if there may be such a succession without true faith and if true faith onely makes a true Church then can it be no true nor certaine note Besides it is not certaine nor expressed in the word of God that the Pope was Peters successor no not in place but to be proved onely by tradition and not to be deduced out of the Word as Bellarmine de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 12. confesseth And so the maine point whereon the government and Hierarchy of the Papacie dependeth hath no word in the Scriptures to prove it and so the whole is hanged upon the conjectures of men as upon a rotten threed For the Scripture not affirming it what assurance can there be for matter of faith the matter must needs be suspitious and doubtfull Againe even the histories which is their proofe are in such various opinions that a man can hardly tell whom to follow touching Peters comming to Rome and his immediate successors Some say he came to Rome in the first yeare of Claudius the Emperour some in the second some in the fourth some in the tenth and it may be that none of these is true sure it is all cannot be true For his successors Tertullian maketh Clement his next successor Optatus nameth Linus and then Clement Irenaeus maketh Linus then Cletus then Clement If they differ thus what certainty where should faith finde any sure ground If then the succession at best is questionable and doubtfull if it may be certaine and yet be dis-joyned from the succession of faith as it is most certainly in them and true faith onely makes a Church then can this be no true note of the Church Vse 2 To teach us not to be deceived with the glorious shew and great boast of such succession specially when there is an apparant digression from the faith or a probable doubt of corruption in it For what succession soever be it never so long or glorious as a greater could not be then these Priests and people could have objected unto the Prophet yet if it be without truth of doctrine and true faith which is the very soule of succession it is nothing else but a very dead carkasse whereas true faith without any such outward succession establisheth and maketh a Church And indeed one of the purest and most excellentest Churches was without such a succession For the Church of which Christ in his owne person was Authour and Master in which the Apostle was brought up instructed had no succession And yet none will or dare deny that it was the best and
Revel 18.8 9. Psal 58.7 10. Dan. 3.22 and 6.24 Reas 1 Because God will not only as is said of wisedome be justified of his children but of the wicked and prophane for that may have some exception against it lest it should be partiall this none in that kinde but God wresting this from them making them as Balaams asse to speake against nature so they against their mindes Reas 2 Because they might be without excuse when the judgments of God come upon them they have not humbled themselves when they were made eye witnesses or such as had certaine notice of Gods judgments so Daniel inferres Dan. 5.22 and without doubt that is it which doth amplifie the sinnes of men to make them riper for judgment as of Cain and Lots daughters Vse 1 This may teach us when wee heare of wicked and prophane men speaking of the judgements of God upon others not upon Gods people onely which they may doe in hatred of them because they like Israel sacrifice that to God which they as Aegyptians worship as God their lusts and affections and such like Nor upon such whose persons for some private respects they hate but others whose persons and sinnes they liked well enough before the judgement yet now they speake of them and give testimony to the judgment of God as just For say they he was an adulterer an usurer an oppresser or a grievous blasphemer when they live not in the same judgments nor in the same sinnes but in as great sinnes of another kinde living voyd of the feare of God being wicked and prophane therein observe the wisdome and providence of God which makes even the wicked to witnesse for him who by his powerfull providence makes the wicked whether in truth or hypocrisie it skils not give testimony unto him if the good will be silent as these hold their peace the stones shall speake one instance we have worth the noting agreeable to the times our Papists for their late more then hellish plot are taken and nye to their deserved ruine and confusion they who are out of the snare cry It is just with them whether they speake out of ignorance and humane piety or out of cunning and dissembling policy very tolerable in their superstition for the Churches good it skils not much as Philip. 1.15 16. If such comparisons be nor odious howsoever God is justified and hee hath testimony of his justice from the wicked while they say These are the border of wickednesse these are but a few desperate Papists and this is just upon them Vse 2 To teach men though wicked yet by the company encouragment example or applause of other wicked not to commit that which may bring the judgment of God upon them for come when it will they shall be as ready as other to justifie God and condemne them whether in hypocrisy and sinister respect it is not to the purpose or in truth when the other did not so strengthen their hands to sinne as that will presse them and make their hearts to sink in them But let them learne to look to those judgements of which God hath made them eye witnesses and given them as certaine intelligence of them and humble themselves to God and avoyd such and the like lest as they give now testimony to the justice of God in seeing his punishments upon others so others may give of them yea and by such things their sinnes be made the greater and their judgements be the heavier The border of wickednesse That is a Nation or Country where the people are marvellous wicked who have this recompence for their wickednesse insinuating in them the cause of their destruction the mooving and deserving cause their sinnes Doctr. Mens sins are the causers procurers of their own destruction what ever it be Isa 3.11 woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him And a people of whom the Lord is angry for ever Here two things are intimated unto us the one the cause in God which moves him to punish the wicked his anger and displeasure as sinne the cause in themselves Another the perpetuity of their punishment their destruction is for ever first for the cause then the continuance Doct. When the Lord bringeth vengeance and punishment upon the wicked it is in indignation and wrath whether temporall or eternall upon few or many Isa 27.4 God sayth in his care of his Vineyard fury is not in mee by the opposition and comparison we see his fury against the wicked hee corrects his owne in love not in anger but he is as fire which hath no pitty against wicked men Rom. 2.6 8. who will render to every man according to is workes but unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath and Rom. 9.22 Jer. 10.25 Reas 1 Because when he commeth to judge them he comes as a Judge who intends not the mending of malefactors arraigned before him but the ending of them and the cutting of them off so he with these minds only their destruction Reas 2 Because the Lord accompts them as enemies and adversaries such as he hates and abhorres Psal 5.6 now when men come against their enemies it is in indignation and wrath as Isa 1.24 Therefore saith the Lord the Lord of hosts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge mee of mine enemyes mourning that to them hee must come in wrath as to enemies Vse 1 This proves that there is a manifest difference betwixt the afflictions and corrections of the godly the punishments of the wicked those from love these from hatred those from a friend these from an enemy those from a Physitian who seeks to cure and mend them these from a judge to end them one in wrath the other in love Vse 2 To admonish wicked men to carry themselves very warily and to take heed how they procure punishment by their sinnes not onely for the thing it selfe but for the affection wherewith God will lay it upon them The thing of it selfe is heavy enough intolerable to be borne which the children of God with all the helpes and stayes they have have enough to undergoe and not to faint under how is it to them who are voyd of such things But how when they onely want not it but this is added his indignation and wrath grievous to a patient is the lancing cutting searing and corcives of the Chirurgeon though he do it with all the love and care he can possibly and expresse his fervent desire to cure them how grievous would it be if he should come raging and seek to fill himselfe with wrath and indignation when he comes to it so in this As the prayers and sacrifices of the wicked are abominable how much more when they are offered with a wicked minde so in this if they be heavy in themselves what when they are
parents by their experience respect and are able to discerne Reas 2 Because he may not dispose of the goods of his father without him not sell his land or alienate any thing from him but as he will dispose how then himselfe Vse 1 This reproveth those children that dispose themselves without their parents consent prey upon their right intangle and contract themselves yea and consummate marriages they not witting yea unwilling or by some necessity forced to shew some willingnesse which is the cause of so many untoward uncleane and polluted families and prophane succession as other times can witnesse so too many presidents in our dayes For as when children are compelled to match against their wills and where they have just occasion of exception for some sinister respect the parents have there follows much uncleannesse and impiety so when without the parents consent and not of their providing but they are their owne choosers shewing where parents consent is wanting there Gods blessing is away yea where parents consent is not there is Gods curse as in Esau and his posterity in Judah taking his Hoasts daughter Gen. 38.2 having Er and Onan such as God would not endure to live but slew them himselfe Yea that may also be seene Gen. 6.2 in the sonnes of Seth the Church which matched with cursed Chams seed of themselves without parents consent had such a wretched posterity This thing then is reproofe-worthy yea damnable in children without repentance parents are often causes of it and that first to some it is Gods retribution because they so served and abused their parents Secondly because they give such liberty to their daughters to wander as Dinah and so Ezek. 23.3 their brests come to be pressed and the teats of their virginity bruised or else their affections by often meeting are so intangled and inflamed as the fathers threats will not loose it nor the mothers teares cannot quench it It was not so Prov. 30.18 19. it should not be so Hierom to Demetr Epist 8.11 would not have Virgins alone solae sine matre for in a flocke of Doves the Kite often will prey upon one when they are abroad and it is a scabbed sheep that loves wandring and leaves the fold Thirdly because parents doe not take and use their right and provide for them in due time mates fit for them which makes them provide for themselves not without sinne but greatly sinning yet the parents partakers of it and oftentimes of much shame and griefe as it was with Tamar Gen. 38.26 But howsoever one mans sinne cannot excuse another nor yet the parents the childs sinne nor will not exempt them from the curse of God when they thus match to the griefe of their parents and the shortening of their dayes and life by whom they received life and should have their lives continued and lengthened Vse 2 To instruct children to be subject to their parents knowing what power they have over them to guide their choyce that without them they may not chuse and if they chuse for them they cannot without great cause and just exception stray themselves from liking smaller things they must endeavour to overcome they must not suffer themselves to be entangled by some who seeke by kind usage of them to steale away their hearts from their parents for their daughters to advance them as is the manner of some wretched and unconscionable men As Usurers get their fathers inheritance from them by feeding them with money so they must not set their affections by fervency of society and company upon others without parents and where never like to give allowance They ought to remember this is the fathers right to choose to dispose of them not onely in the generall but for the particular person But what if he be farre off and cannot see If he give thee liberty duely asking it of him he hath given his right from himselfe as Isaac to Jacob Gen. 28. But what if he upon some sinister respect deferre and passe the flower of her age I answer then hath God ordained the Magistrate as for their punishment so for their reliefe who is not to be sought to but when most urgent necessity requireth when the opposition stands betwixt Marriage and burning because that reveales the fathers fault and bewrayes his or her infirmity But what if he tender a match out of the Church a Papist or such like Then must the Child refuse with reverence not disposing of himselfe for as it were sinne to yeeld so the other is sinne to make choyce of himselfe But what if another that is not so religious and so fervent a lover of the Truth as is to be wished No direct denyall is lawfull but a wise delaying and a discreet gaining of time to sollicite God with their prayers who hath the heart of their Parents in his hand and to intreate them by mediation of best friends who if they can be diverted it is well if not I know no warrant a Child hath to deny his fathers choyce though he thinke and it may be he might choose better and he may looke for a blessing from God if in duty he thus submit himselfe to his Parents The last part of this honour is thankfulnesse which Children must performe to their Parents Doctrine Children must performe all thankfulnesse unto their Parents that is helpe them when they need and in age when their state and bodies are decayed and to be eyes and leggs and limbs unto them and to administer liberally according to their state and ability to them as they did to them when they were young and when yet they had nothing nor knew not how to get any thing that this is a part of honour Christ sheweth Math. 15.4 5 6. some thinke that of Psal 128.3 when children are made Olive plants not Olives onely and Olive branches which was a signe of peace so they to make peace and love betwixt their parents but plants such as might stand under them underproâ— and uphold them in their weaknesse and thus verily have good Children honoured their parents so did the sons of Jacob Gen. 42.1 2. so did Joseph Gen. 47.12 so did Ruth though but a daughter in law To this purpose Paul forbids that the Church should be burthened with widowes but their children Nephews ought to maintain them 1 Tim. 5.4 Reas 1 Because else he should not onely be unnaturall but unjust when the father by his speciall care for him and the mother by her prayers bearing and carrying of him watching with him lending eyes and legs and limbes to him feeding and nourishing of him deserveth it All which they the better deserve if they have children with whom they have the like labour and endeavour now justice requires to pay debt due and deserved Reas 2 Because they had forme from them as body and members and limbes so their education their trade their stocke and portion or both whereby they are that they are by the blessing of
they have but lived to heape up wrath against the day of wrath and to make up a greater measure of their sinnes that God may make a greater measure of vengeance So that it had beene better for them never to have beene borne or else to have dyed so soone as they were borne for the longer they live the more sinnes they commit and the greater shall be their torments But greater shall be his glory that is found in the way of righteousnesse and in wel-doing because he hath more glorified God And he ought still to use this as a blessing of God that he may glorifie him more and fit himselfe more for him and for his service imagining that as old age is a blessing so is it a bond that he should performe as Psa 71.17 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth even untill now therefore will I tell of thy wondrous workes Yea even unto mine old age and gray head O God forsake me not untill I have declared thine arme unto this generations and thy power to all them that shall come And if he have borne it in his youth it will be lesse burdensome in his old age for to others it is heavy Vse 2 Then is it lawfull for a man to pray for long life that he may live to glorifie God here so did David Psalm 102.27 so Hezekiah Isaiah 38.3 True it is that a Christian man should be equally prepared to life or death for in things wherein a man cannot certainely know which will make more for the glory of God and their owne good and salvations the will of man should be equally prepared for both left it should resist God so in this And because he should lesse torment and vex himselfe with the desire of life or feare of death yet is it not unlawfull for him to pray for life for the grounds before so he pray for it as for other things conditionally Truth is that of Solomon Eccles 7.1 The day of death is better then the day of ones birth because of miseries and fearefull times when it is like as August to be Diù vivere diù torquere to live long to be vexed long Or as Cyprian * Non solum fidelibus inutilis non est mars verumetiam utilis reperitur quoniam peccandi periculis hominem substra hit in non peccandi securitatem constituit Death is not only not unprofitable to believers but profitable because it sets a man out of danger of sinning and puts him in a security of not sinning Yet proves it nor that it is the more to be desired When as a man may shew his patience and spirituall fortitude in his owne miseries and the more he suffers and conquers the more he shall be glorified And in other mens miseries he may shew piety comfort and good will towards other and mercie to them in their miseries and finde himselfe the more mercie And his sinnes he may breake off not by ending his life but by amending of it by true repentance And so his age may be a crown of righteousnesse He is a wise Physitian that knowes how to temper his medicine that it will confirme health And he is a wise man who learnes so to live that a good death may follow after Doctrine Peace plenty prosperity a prosperous estate and plenty of outward things a liberall portion God hath promised and will performe to those who feare him and will walke in his wayes 1 Tim. 4.8 Bodily exercise profiteth little but godlinesse is profitable unto all things which hath the promise of the life present and of that that is to come Deut. 28.1 Psal 84.11 Reason 1 Because they may by them be better able both to glorifie God benefit men being helps of their weaknes and strength to their infirmities Reason 2 Because he might encourage them against all the discouragements they shall finde in professing his feare and by these ballance them that they be not driven backe from him by the tempests Satan will stirre up against them Vse 1 They who have the true feare of God may best be and live without carping care for the things of this life they may best take the Apostles exhortation Let their conversation be without covetousnesse Heb. 13.5 For they have his promise and covenant to be provided for of a liberall and rich portion he that hath covenanted with a rich wealthy man and one of great power with a Prince of a countrey that he shall be in safety and abundance under him for such and such service hath taken all care he will for it onely his care is to use it well so it should be with these And farre better may it be seeing his power and riches exceedeth all he hath promised and will performe and though the Lions lacke and suffer hunger yet shall they lack nothing at all who feare the Lord. But many wicked men voyd of Gods feare have more abundance then most of those who feare him Be it so yet is not this crossed for as the life of man consists not in abundance so not their prosperity when they have competencie And a little that is sufficient which the righteous hath where there is contentment with it is better then great riches of the ungodly And if such have not so great abundance and seeme sometime to be scanted it is either because they have some secret sin known to God which shuts up his hand towards them or because they seek them indirectly which God makes frustrate or he sees how their hearts would be upon them and stolne away from him and that riches would devoure or for a time obscure their religion knowing their hearts better then themselves or as Chrysost ho. 16. ad popul Antioch He first makes men fit to use and dispose the riches he meanes to give them and after gives them riches * Nisi hoc fecisset divitiarum erogatio non donum sed ultio fuisset poena Which unlesse he had done the bestowing of riches had not beene a gift but a punishment and revenge This publicke and generall charter of God hath these exceptions Vse 2 To teach every man what is the nighest and readiest way what is the Kings high-way to prosperity and plenty to riches and wealth the feare of God and the walking in his wayes Many men who hasten to riches and have set downe with themselves and resolved to be rich take many wayes to it by false weights and measures by cozenning or deceit by flattery or other wicked courses Happily a man may come to riches or abundance sooner then another that keepes the Kings high-way as he that hath found a bye and casting way may come to his journeyes end speedier then he that keepes the ordinary way but they shall not prosper with him Prov. 20.21 An heritage is hastily gotten at the beginning but the end thereof shall not be blessed But poverty shall come upon him Prov. 28.22 A
table of the Lord is contemptible or as the Geneva Not to bee regarded As if it were no matter what brought and layd upon it The table of the Lord So hee calls The Altar because the sacrifice is as it were a feast to the Lord and for the Priests And so the Altar is expressely called Ezek. 41.22 The Altar was three Cubits and hee said unto mee This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Table that is before the Lord And no doubt The Lords Table may also bee called an Altar in that harmelesse sense in which the fathers used it before Transubstantiation was hatched or thought of Ioh. Alsted Paratitla Theol. in verbo Propositionis mensa observes that the Greekes use both names but not or the same table They have two tables one upon which the Bread and Wine stands before the consecration which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Table and another to which the elements are carried from thence where they are also consecrated and that they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Seate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Altar But the fruitlesse Logomachy in this point which hath beene already hath beene but too much The table is put for the Altar a metaphor being like a Table the Lord being feasted at his Altar The Metaphor is cleare Esay 6 5.11 Yee are they that prepare a table for that troope 1 That make an Altar and sacrifice to good fortune as Mr. Selden interprets it in his learned booke De dis Syris Syntag. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. Such is that of the Apostle when hee calleth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ara which wee have not a fit english word for but wee usually though unfitly call the Altar of Divells The Table of Devills 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye say The Table is contemptible The Lxx. here have the same word againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But t is in the Hebr as ours have rendred it Contemptible Either 1. They saw the Sacrificing to be despised sleighted through such long dis-use by reason of the 70 yeares Captivity they had not recovered the fervour of former time to be so frequently before the Lord or 2. They look't scornefully on the meane building and ornaments of the Temple for it did not answer the glory of the former house So Tarnovius or 3. Because the Iewes were newly returned and were yet but poore and could not bring such rich oblations therefore the Priests grew cold and carelesse in attending on the altar or 4. Because they saw what was brought consumed with fire they thought any thing good enough for the fire good enough to be burnt The truth is The low and cheape opinion of Gods worship hath ever made a greater waste upon religion than an over-high and there is lesse danger though there be danger in superstition then in profanenesse Hence it was that the piety of ancient Christian times was so much in their reverent demeanour in Gods house though otherwise their devotion had much faeculentie and drosse ad mixt Among the many Canons to this purpose of other Churches and our owne every where obvious I cannot but here insert that every devout one which fell into my observation at the time of the collecting of these notes which Sir Hen. Spelman hath imparted to the world out of Bennet Colledge manuscript Non de bere ad ecclesiam c. We ordaine That men come not to the Church for any other cause then to praise God and to doe him service But Contendings a Pleadings and matters of arbitrement Tumults and Vaine talkings and all other like actions let them by no meanes be suffered in that holy place For there where Gods Name is called upon and Sacrifice offered unto God and where no doubt the Angels are frequent it is dangerous to doe or say any such thing as agrees not to that holy place For if the Lord cast those out of the Temple which bought or sold such victimes as were to be offered to himselfe â— how much more offended will he cast out them who pollute that place set apart for divine worship with vaine leasings mirthes and such like toâ—â—â— The place is Inter Capitula incertae editionis Cap. 10. In Concil Pam. brit pag. 591. Where you shall finde it both after the Latine and the Saxon Copy A devout Canon of that ancient but well nigh most corrupt age since Christ if it were made as Sr. H. Spelm. seemes to guesse by his placing it about An. Dom. 1050. And indeed all ages of the Church have beene tender in this point but ours But what a diseased mind is it to finde fault with the serving of God with comlinesse and honor and that it will not bee indured that wee should bee splendid at our owne tables and sordid at Gods as Bellarmin also complained even in that overdoting and superstitious Church Bellarm. in Gemitu Columbae of some prelats that they would provide rich wines for their owne tables and cared not what Tap-lash was served at Gods An instance that wee may easilyer complaine of then have remedied at least in our Country parish Churches This profanenesse is argued to be 1. against Gods Law 2. against the rule of common honesty and comelinesse vers 8. Verse 8 First against Gods law And if yee offer the blind for sacrifice or to sacrifice Is it not evill And if yee offer the lame and sicke is it not evill thus also the Lxx. and the Chald and Tremell reade it by an interrogation But Vatablus with the Tigurine on which hee noted as Cornel. a lap proem in min. proph pag. 6. affirmes which I have not seene but onely those notes of his which being taken from his mouth by Bertinus who succeeded him in his professor-ship at Paris were set out together with the Vulgar and Pagnin's version by Rob. Stephens An 1556. which I note here onely by the way and once for all and Pagn and Montan the French the English of Geneva and Iohn Tarnov who here and usually followes Luther they reade it affirmatively When ye offer the blind c. It is not evill The autorised Engl. before our last and Piscat supply it when yee offer the blind yee say it is not evill That is It is well enough though it be blind or lame It is not evill in your opinion who rather then you would lose any gaine say Melius est Il quam nil It is Lucas Osianders rime upon this place not mine better that which is ill and bad then nothing at all But the sense is much clearer in the interrogative Is it not evill That is It is evill And so it is the first argument against their profanenesse See the particulars explicated in the commentary The second is that it is Secondly Against the rule of coÌ„mon honesty and comlines Offer it now unto thy governor or as the Geneva to thy Prince will hee bee pleased with it or as the Genev.