soyle of our owne Vniuersities and Innes of Court nothing is more preiudiciall than speed Perfection is the childe of Time neither was there euer any thing excellent that required not meet leisure but besides how commonly it is seene that those which had wont to swimme onely with bladders sinke when they come first to trust to their owne armes These Lap-wings that goe from vnder the wing of their damme with the shell on their heads runne wilde If Tutors bee neuer so carefull of their early charge much must bee left to their owne disposition which if it leade them not to good not onely the hopes of their youth but the proofe of their age lies bleeding It is true that as the French Lawyers say merrily of the Normans which by a speciall priuilege are reputed of full age at 21. yeares whereas the other French stay for their fiue and twentieth that Malitia supplet atatem so may I say of the younglings of our time that Precocitie of vnderstanding supplieth age statute but as it is commonly seene that those blossomes which ouer-runne the spring and will be looking forth vpon a February-Sunne are nipped soone after with an Aprill frost when they should come to the knitting so is it no lesse ordinary that these rathe-ripe wits preuent their owne perfection and after a vaine wonder of their haste end either in shame or obscuritie And as it thus falls out euen in our Vniuersities the most absolute famous Seminaries of the world where the Tutors eye supplies the Parents so must it needs much more in those free and honourable Innes as they are called for their libertie Colleges for their vse of our English Gentry wherein each one is his owne master in respect of his priuate study and gouernment Where there are many pots boyling there cannot but be much scumme the concourse of a populous citie affords many brokers of villany which liue vpon the spoyles of young hopes whose very acquaintance is destruction How can these nouices that are turned loose into the maine ere they know either coast or compasse auoid these rockes and shelues vpon which both their estates and soules are miserably wracked How commonly doe they learne to roare in stead of pleading and in stead of knowing the lawes learne how to contemne them Wee see and rue this mischiefe and yet I know not how carelesse we are in preuenting it How much more desperate must it then needs be to send forth our children into those places which are professedly infectious whose very goodnes is either impietie or superstitiō If we desired to haue sons poysoned with misbeleefe what could we doe otherwise Or what else doe those Parents which haue bequeathed their children to Antichristianisme Our late iourney into France informed me of some ordinary factors of Rome whose trade is the transporting and placing of our popish nouices beyond the seas one whereof whose name I noted hath bin obserued to carry ouer six seuerall charges in one yeare Are we so foolish to go their way whiles we intend a contrary period Doe we send our sonnes to learne to be chaste in the midst of Sodome The world is wide and open but our ordinary trauell is southward into the iawes of danger for so far hath Satans policie preuailed that those parts which are only thought worth our viewing are most contagious and wil not part with either pleasure or information without some tang of wickednes What can we plead for our confidence but that there is an boushold of righteous Lot in the midst of that impure Citie that there are houses in this Iericho which haue scarlet threds shining in their windowes that in the most corrupted aire of Poperie some well reformed Christians draw their breath and sweeten it with their respiration Blessed be God that hath reared vp the towers of his Sion in the midst of Babylon We must acknowledge not without much gratulation to the Gospell of Christ that in the very hottest climates of opposition it findes many clients but more friends and in those places where authority hath pleased to giue more aire to the truth world haue had many more if the Reformed part had happily continued that correspondence in some circumstances with the Roman Church which the Church of England bath hitherto maintained God is my record how free my heart is both from partialitie and preiudice Mine eies and eares can witnesse with what approofe and applause diuers of the Catholiques Royall as they are tearmed entertained the new-translated Liturgy of our Church as maruelling to see such order and regular deuotion in them whom they were taught to condemne for hereticall Whose allowances I well saw might with a little helpe haue been raised higher from the practise of our Church to some points of our iudgement But if true religion were in those parts yet better attended and our young Traueller could find more abetters and examples of pietie on whom we might relie yet how safe can it bee to trust young eies with the view and censure of truth or falshood in religion especially when truth brings nothing to this barre but extreme simplicity and contrarily falshood a gawdy magnificence and proud maiesty of pompous ceremonies wherewith the hearts of children and foolts are easily taken That Curtizan of Rome according to the manner of that profession sets out her selfe to sale in the most tempting fashion here want no colours no perfumes no wanton dresses whereas the poore Spouse of Christ can onely say of her selfe I am blacke but comely When on the one side they shall see such rich shrines garish Altars stately Processions when they shall see a Pope adored of Emperors Cardinals preferd to Kings Confessors made Saints little children made Angels in a word nothing not outwardly glorious on the other side a seruice without welt or gard whose maiestie is all in the heart none in the face how easily may they incline to the conceit of that Parisian dame who seeing the procession of S. Genoueisue goe by the streets could say O que belle c. How fine a religion is ours in comparison of the Hugenoes Whereto must be added that supposing they doe not carry with them but rather go to fetch the language of the place some long time needs be spent ere they can receiue any helpe to their deuotion whiles in the meane season their vnthriuing intermission is assailed with a thousand suggestions And who sees not that this lucrumcessans as the Ciuilians terme it offers an open aduantage to a busie aduersarie SECT VI. IN a word it hath beene the old praise of early rising that it makes a man healthfull holy and rich whereof the first respects the body the second the soule the third the estate all fals out contrary in an early trauell For health The wise prouidence of God hath so contriued his earth and vs that he hath fitted our bodies to our clime and the natiue sustenance of the place vnto
it not are glorious hypocrites The last that stake downe and reuoke it are damnable Apostats Take all these out of the societie of men and how many customers hath God that care to buy the Truth If Truth were some rich chattell it would be bought If Truth were some goodly Lordship or the reuersion of some good Office it would be bought If Truth were some Benefice or spirituall promotion Oh time it would be bought Yea how deare are we content to pay for our filthie lusts we will needs purchase them too oft with shame beggerie disease damnation only the sauing Truth of God will not off hand What is the reason of this First of all It is but bare simple plaine honest homely Truth without welt without guard It will abide none but natiue colours it scorneth to wooe fauour with farding and licking and counterfeisance it hates either bought or borrowed beauty and therefore like some natiue face among the painted lookes course and rusty There are two shops that get away all the custome from Truth The shop of Vanity the shop of Error The one sels knacks and gew-gawes the other false wares and adulterate both of their commodities are so gilded and gaudy and glittering that all fooles throng thither and complaine to want elbow-roome and striue who shall be first seru'd Whereas the secret worke of artlesse and vnpolisht Truth can winne no eie to view it no tongue to aske so much as What will it cost me Oh yee sonnes of men how long will ye loue vanitie and seeke after lies Secondly though Truth in it selfe be alwaies excellent yet the issue of it is not seldome distastefull Veritas odium There is one Michaiah whom I hate Am I become your enemie because I tell you the truth And this is the cause that Frier Menot alleages why Truth in his Time was so vnwelcome to the court But if truth be the mother of Hatred shee is the daughter of Time and Truth hath learn't this of Time to deuoure her owne brood So that in Time Truth shall consume hatred and at the last a galling Truth shall haue more thanks than a smoothing supparisitation In the meane time Veritas nihil erubescit praeterquā abscōdi Truth blusheth at nothing but secrecy as Tertull. How euer then fond or false hearts value the Truth let vs that should be wise Christians esteeme it as the pearle hid in the field which the man sold all that euer he had to purchase Would it not set any heart on fire with an holy anger to see wha the enemies of Truth bid and giue for falshood for faction Their liberty their country the life of their Soueraigne the eternall state of their soules hath not seemed too deare to cast away vpon an ill bargaine of mis-religion and shall not we bid so much as our zealous well-wishes our effectuall endeuours our carefull obseruances for the vndoubted truth of our Maker and Redeemer What shall I say to the miserable and stupid carelesnesse of these thriftlesse and godlesse times wherein euery thing is apprised euery thing is bought saue that which is most precious most beneficiall Truth Yee great ones are made for precedents to the inferiour world your example is able to bring either good or euill into fashion For Gods sake for your soules sake what euer transactions ye make for the world lay your plots for the blessed purchase of Truth Oh let not your fickle honours your vnsatisfying pleasures your worthlesse profits yea your momentany liues seeme deare to you in comparison of heauenly Truth It is no shame in other parts for great Peeres to be Merchants Mercatores tui erant principes saith the Angell concerning Babylon Reuel 18. Thy Merchants were the Princes of the earth And why should not yee great ones be the Merchants of Truth Blessed be the God of Truth yee are so It is no proud word to say that no Court vnder heauen hath so rich a stocke of Truth as this of Great Britaine yet let me tell you the very Angels knew not so much but they desired to know more Ephes 3.10 And if ye had already that vespertine knowledge of the Saints which ye shall once haue in heauen yet know that this Bargaine stands not more in the iudgement than in the affections What euer our speculations may be if our hearts be not set vpon Truth we may be Brokers we are not Merchants Brokers for others not Merchants for our selues As our Sauiour then when he bids vs sell all forsake all holds it done when in preparation of minde we are ready to abdicate all for his name though we doe it not so doth God hold vs to buy Truth when we bestow our best thoughts our dearest wel-wishes vpon it though we haue it already Oh stirre vp your languishing zeale ye noble Courtiers rouze vp your drouping loue to diuine Truth Giue your hearts to it ye cannot but giue all for it And if ye doe not finde the sweet gaine of this Bargaine in this lower Region of error and confusion ye shall once finde it in those eternall and empireall habitations of Truth where the God of Truth shall make vp the Truth of his promises with the euerlasting truth of his glorious performances where Mercy and Truth shall so meet and embrace one another that both of them shall embrace the faithfull soule for euer and euer This for the Bargaine of Truth The forbidden sale followeth sell it not Commonly what we buy we may sell Alexander not the Great but the good sold Miters Keyes Altars the verse giues the reason Emerat ille prius Hee bought them So Saint Austen of Simon Magus Volebat emere spiritum Sanctum quia vendere volebat spiritum Sanctum He would buy the Holy Ghost because he meant to sell it Giue me a man that buyes a Seat of Iudicature I dare not trust him for not selling of Iustice he that sits in the chaire of Symonie will not giue Orders will not sticke to sell soules Some things wee may buy to sell as Ioseph did the Egyptian corn some things wee must sell if wee buy as an Israelites inheritance Leu. 25. But here wee are charged to buy what it is a sinne to sell Buy the Truth and sell it not There is many a good thing ill sold Esau sels his birth-right for pottage Hanun and Shechem sell their Countrey for loue Dalilah sels her louer for a bribe The Patriarchs sell their Brother for twenty siluerrings Haman sels the Iewes for nought The Gentiles sell the Iewish girles for wine Ioel 3.3 Israel sels the righteous for siluer and the poore for shooes Amos 2.6 Their Iudges sell sins or innocencie for rewards Esa 5.23 Ahab sels himselfe to wickednesse Iudas sels his master Demas sels the Truth All these make an ill market And in all it is a sure rule the better the commodity is the more pernicious is the sale The indefinitenesse of the charge implies a generality Buy
where must at once vtterly fall off from that Church where that Man of Sinne sitteth His fall depends on the fall of others or rather their rising from vnder him If neither of these must be sudden why is your haste But this must not be yet ought as there must be heresies yet there ought not It is one thing what God hath secretly decreed another what must be desired of vs If we could pull that Harlot from her seat and put her to Iesabels death it were happy Haue wee not endeuored it What speake you of the highest Towers and strongest pillars or tottering remainders of Babylon wee shew you all her roofes bare her walles razed her vaults digged vp her Monuments defaced her Altars sacrificed to desolation Shortly all her buildings demolished not a stone vpon a stone saue in rude heapes to tell that here once was Babylon Your strife goes about to build againe that her tower of confusion God diuides your languages It will be well if yet you build not more than we haue reserued SEP You haue renounced many false doctrines in Poperie and in their places embraced the truth But what if this truth be taught vnder the same hatefull Prelacie in the same deuised office of Ministerie and confused communion of the prophane multitude and that mingled with many errors SECTION XXVI THe maine grounds of Separation YOu will now bee free both in your profession and gift You giue vs to haue renounced many false doctrines in Popery and to haue embraced so many truths we take it vntill more You professe where you sticke what you mislike In these foure famous heads which you haue learned by heart from all your predecessors An hatefull Prelacie Barr. and Gr. against Gyffe Confer Exam passim Penry in his Exam. Exo. 1.2 3 c. Ierem. 20.1 Ierem. 5. vlt. A deuised Ministerie a confused and profane communion and lastly the intermixture of grieuous errors What if this truth were taught vnder a hatefull Prelacie Suppose it were so Must I not imbrace the truth because I hate the Prelacie What if Israel liue vnder the hatefull Aegyptians What if Ieremie liue vnder hatefull Pashur What if the Iewes liue vnder an hatefull Priesthood What if the Disciples liue vnder hatefull Scribes What are others persons to my profession If I may be freely allowed to bee a true professed Christian what care I vnder whose hands But why is our Prelacie hatefull Actiuely to you or passiuely from you In that it hates you Would God you were not more your owne enemies Or rather because you hate it your hatred is neither any newes nor paine Who or what of ours is not hatefull to you Our Churches Bells Clothes Sacraments Preachings Prayers Singings Catechismes Courts Meetings Burials Marriages It is maruell that our aire infects not and that our heauen and earth as Optatus said of the Donatists escape your hatred Iohns praef to his 7. Reas Not the forwardest of our Preachers as you terme them haue found any other entertainment no enemie could bee more spightfull I spsake it to your shame Rome it selfe in diuers controuersarie discourses hath bewrayed lesse gall than Amsterdam the better they are to others you professe they are the worse Iohns 7. Reas p. 66. Tit. 3.4 yea would to God that of Paul were not verified of you hatefull and hating one another but we haue learned that of wise Christians not the measure of hatred should be respected Psal 69.4 but the desert Dauid is hated for no cause Michaiab for a good cause Your causes shall be examined in their places onwards It were happy if you hated your owne sinnes more and peace lesse our Prelacie would trouble you lesse and you the Church SECTION XXVII FOr our deuised office of Ministery you haue giuen it a true title The truth and warrant of the Ministery of England Mat. 28.19 Ephes 4.11 â— Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 3.1 Act. 13. 1 Tim. 3.6 1 Tim. 5.22 1 Tim. 2.15 Discourse of the trouble and Excom at Amst It was deuised indeed by our Sauiour when he said Goe teach all Nations and baptize and performed in continuance when he gaue some to be Pastors and Teachers and not onely the Office of Ministery in generall but ours whom he hath made able to teach and desirous separated vs for this cause to the work vpon due triall admitted vs ordained vs by imposition of hands of the Eldership and praier directed vs in the right diuision of the Word committed a charge to vs followed our Ministery with power and blessed our labours with gracious successe euen in the hearts of those whose tongues are thus busie to deny the truth of our vocation Behold here the deuised Office of our Ministery What can you deuise against this Your Pastor who as his brother writes hopes to worke wonders by his Logicall skill hath killed vs with seuen Arguments which he professeth the quintessence of his owne and Penries extractions whereto your Doctor refers vs as absolute I would it were not tedious or worth a Readers labour to see them scanned I protest before God and the world I neuer read more grosse stuffe so boldly and peremptorily faced out so full of Tautologies and beggings of the Question neuer to be yeelded Let me mention the maine heads of them and for the rest be sorry that I may not be endlesse To proue therefore that no communion may be had with the Ministery of the Church of England he vses these seuen demonstrations First Certaine Arg. against the Minist of England Counterpoys Because it is not that Ministery which Christ gaue and set in his Church Secondly Because it is the Ministery of Antichrists Apostasie Thirdly Because none can communicate with the Ministery of England but he worships the Beasts image and yeeldeth spirituall subiection to Antichrist Fourthly Because this Ministery deriueth not their power and function from Christ Fiftly Because they minister the holy things of God by vertue of a false spirituall calling Sixtly Because it is a strange Ministery not appointed by God in his word Seuenthly Because it is not from Heauen but from Men. Now I beseech thee Christian Reader iudge whether that which this man was wont so oft to obiect to his brother a crackt braine appeare not plainely in this goodly equipage of reasons For what is all this but one and the same thing tumbled seuen times ouer which yet with seuen thousand times babbling shall neuer be the more probable That our Ministery was not giuen and set in the Church by Christ but Antichristian what is it else to be from men to be strange to be a false spirituall calling not to be deriued from Christ to worship the image of the Beast So this great challenger that hath abridged his nine arguments to seuen might aswell haue abridged his seuen to one a halfe Here would haue beene as much substance but lesse glory As for his maine defence First
dare say wee want him Wherein I suppose in our censures Wee haue Peters keyes as his true successors both in office and doctrine our fault is that we vse them not as you would What Church doth so your first Martyr doth as zealously inueigh against the practise of Geneua Bar. Gyff ref So some of their owne haue termed their Excommunication Confess by M. Iohns Inquirie pag. 65. and all other Reformed Congregations in this point as against vs both for the woodden Dagger as he termes it of suspension and for their Consistoriall Excommunication Woe were to all the World if Christ should limit his presence onely to your fashions Here you found him and here you left him Would to God we did no more grieue him with our sins than you please him in your presumptuous censures in the rest you raile against our Prelates and vs Can any man thinke that Christ hath left peaceable spirits to goe dwell with Railers Indeed yours is free-hold so you would haue it free from subiection free from obedience This is loosenesse more than liberty You haue broken the bonds and cast the cords from you but you mis-call ouâ— tenure Wee hate villenage no lesse than you hate peace and hold in capite of him that is the head of his body Coloss 1.18 the Churchâ— vnder whose easie yoke wee doe willingly stoope in a sweet Christian freedome abhorring and reprouing and therefore notwithstanding our personall Communion auoiding all abominations In these two respects therefore of our confusion and bondage wee haue well seene in this Discourse how iustly your Sion accounts vs Babylon since it is apparent for the one that here is neither confusion nor Babylonish nor without separation For the other no bondage no seruility Our Prelates being our Fathers Amari Parens Episcopus debet non timeri Hier. ad Theophilum not our Masters and if Lords for their externall dignity yet not Lords of our Faith and if both these your respects were so yet so long as we doe inuiolably hold the foundation both directly and by necessary sequell any Railer may terme vs but no Separatist shall proue vs Babylon you may flie whither you lift would God yet further vnlesse you had more loue SEP Master H. hauing formerly expostulated with vs our supposed impietie in forsaking a ceremonious Babylon in England proceeds in the next place to lay downe our madnesse in chusing a substantiall Babylon in Amsterdam and if it be so found by due triall as he suggesteth it is hard to say whether our impietie or madnesse bee the greater Belike Master H. thinkes wee gather Churches here by towne-rowes as they doe in England and that all within the Parish Procession are of the same Church Wherfore else tels he vs of Iewes Arrians and Anabaptists with whom we haue nothing common but the Streets and Market place It is the condition of the Church to liue in the World and to haue ciuill society with the men of his World 1 Cor. 5.10 Ioh. 17.13 But what is this to the spirituall Communion of the Saints in the fellowship of the Gospell wherein they are separated and sanctified from the World vnto the Lord Ioh. 17.16 1 Cor. 1. 2 Cor. 6.17 18. SECTION LII I Need no better Analyser than your selfe saue that you doe not onely resolue my parts The veiw of the sinnes and disorders of others whereupon obiected and how far it should affect vs. but adde more whereas euery motion hath a double terme from whence and whither both these could not but all into our discourse Hauing therefore formerly expostulated with you for your since you will so terme it impietie in forsaking a ceremonious Babylon of your owne making in England I thought it not vnfit to compare your choice with your refusall England with Amsterdam which it pleaseth you to intitle a substantiall Babylon impiety and madnesse are titles of your owne choice let your guiltinesse be your owne accuser The truth is my charity and your vncharitablenesse haue caused vs to mistake each other My charity thus Hearing both at Middleburgh and here that certaine companies from the parts of Nottingham and Lincolne which Harbinger had beene newly in Zeland before me meant to retire themselues to Amsterdam for their full liberty not for the full approbation of your Church not fauouring your maine opinions but emulating your freedome in too much hate of our Ceremonies and too much accordance to some grounds of your hatred I hoped you had beene one of their Guides both because Lincolneshire was your Countrey and Master Smith your Oracle and Generall Not daring therefore to charge you with perfect Brownisme what could I thinke might bee a greater motiue to this your supposed change than the view of our so oft proclaimed wickednesse and the hope of lesse cause of offence in those forraine parts this I vrged fearing to goe deeper than I might be sure to warrant Now comes my charitable Answerer and imputes this easinesse of my challenge to my ignorance and therefore will needes perswade his Christian Reader that I knew nothing of the first separation because I obiected so little to the second It were strange if I should thinke you gather Churches there by Towne-rowes as wee in England who know that some one Prison might hold all your refined Flocke you gathered here by Hedge-rowes but there it is easier to tell how you diuide than how you gather let your Church be an intire body inioying her owne spirituall Communion yet if it be not a corrosiue to your heart to conuerse in the same streets and to bee ranged in the same Towne-rowes with Iewes Arrians Anabaptists c. you are to whit of kinne to him that vexed his righteous soule with the vncleannesses of foule Sodme That good man had nothing but ciuill societie with those impure Neighbours hee differed from them in Religion in practise yet could he not so carelesly turne off this torment His house was Gods Church wherein they had the spirituall Communion of the Saints yet whiles the Citie was so vncleane his heart was vnquiet Separation from the world how required Iohn 17.16 We may you grant haue ciuill societie with ill men spirituall Communion onely with Saints Those must be accounted the world these onely the Church your owne allegations shall condemne you They are not of the World saith Christ as I am not of the World Both Christ and they were parts of the Iewish Church The Iewish Church was not so sanctified but the most were extremely vncleane therefore wee may bee parts of a Visible vnsanctified Church and yet bee separate from the World 1 Cor. 1.2 Saint Paul writes to his Corinthians sanctified in Christ Saints by calling True 1 Cor. 3.3 but not long after he can say Ye are yet carnall In his second Epistle Come out saith he from among them But from whom From Infidels by profession not corrupted Christians SEP Wee indeed
parties written to and their crime 551 The Kindes of separation and which is iust 552 The Antiquity and examples of separation 553 What separation is to be made by Churches in their planting c 555 What separation the Church of England hath made 556 Consititution of a Church 557 Order 2. Part of constitution how farre requisite c. ibid. Constraint requisite 558 Constitution of the Church of England 559 The Answerers Title 561 The Apostasie of the Church of England ibid. The Separatists acknowledgements of the graces of the Church of England 564 The vnnaturalnesse of some principall Separatists 565 What the Separatists thinke themselues beholden to the church of England for ibid. The motherhood of the Church of England how farre it obligeth vs. 566 The want of pretended Ordinances of God whether sinfull to vs c. 567 The bonds of Gods word vniustly pleaded by the Separatists 568 The necessity of their pretended Ordinances 569 The enormities of the Church in common ibid. The Church of England is the Spouse of Christ 570 How the Church of England hath separated from Babylon 571 The separation made by our holy Martyrs 573 What separation England hath made ibid. The maine grounds of separation 574 The truth and warrant of the Ministery of England 575 Confused Communion of the profane 576 Our Errors intermingled with Truth 577 Whether our Prelacy be Antichristian 578 The iudgement and practise of other Reformed Churches 579 Our Synods determination of things indifferent 580 Sinnes sold in our Courts 581 Our loyalty to Princes cleered theirs questioned 582 Erros of free-will c. fained vpon the Church of England 583 Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 583 Whether our Ordinarie and Seruice-booke be made Idols by vs. 584 Marriage not made a Sacrament by the Church of England 587 Commutation of Penance in our Church 588 Oath ex Officio ibid. Holy-dayes how obserued in the Church of England 589 Our approbation of an vnlearned Ministerie disproued 590 Penances inioyned in the Church of England ibid. The practises of the Church of England concerning the Funerals of the Dead 591 The Churches still retained in England 592 The Founders and Furnitures of our Churches 593 On what ground Separation or Ceremonies was obiected 594 Estimation of Ceremonies and subiection to the Prelates 595 The state of the Temple and of our Church in resemblance 597 Whether Ministers should endure themselues silenced ibid. Power of reforming abuses giuen to the Church and the issue of the neglect of it 598 The view of the sinnes and disorders of others wherevpon obiected and how farre it should affect vs. 600 The neerenesse of the State and Church and the great errors found by the Separatists in the French and Dutch Churches 601 Conuersation with the World 603 The impure mixtures of the Church of England 604 The iudgement of our owne and our neighbours of our Church 605 The issue of Separation 607 The Brownists scornefull opinion of our people 608 The Conclusion from the fearefull answer of Separation ibid. A SERIOVS DISSWASIVE FROM POPERIE To W. D. Revolted c. YOV challenged me for my bold assertion of your manifold diuisions I doe here make it good with vsurie Those mouthes that say they teach you the truth say also and you haue beleeued them that they all teach the same As you finde them true in this so trust them in the other For me I cannot without indignation see that in this light of the Gospell God and his truth should thus bee losers by you and that a miserable soule should suffer it selfe thus grossely cozened of it selfe and glory Many can write to you with more profoundnesse none with more sincere feruencie and desire to saue you I call heauen and earth to record against you this day that if you relent or answer not your perishing is wilfull Wee may pittie your weaknesse but God shall plague your Apostasie if you had bin bred in blindnesse your ignorance had bin but lamentable now your choice and loue of darknes is fearefull and desperate Alas you cannot be condemned without our sorrow and shame What should we doe We can but intreat perswade protest mourne and gage our soules for yours if these auaile not who can remedie that which will perish Here this yet you weake Revolter if there be any care left in you of that soule which you haue thus prostituted to error if you haue any regard to that God whose simple truth you haue contemned and forsken what is this that hath driuen you from vs allured you to them For Gods sake let me but expostulate a little ere my silence Either be conuicted or inexcusable Our bad liues haue set you off Woe is me that they are no holier I bewaile our wickednes I defend it not Onely aske how they liue in Italie if they be not for the more part filths to the worst of ours goe with them and prosper Let all indifferent tongues say whether that very See whereon your faith depends euen within the smoke of his Holinesse be not for vitiousnes the sin be of the world we may condemne our selues their liues shal iustifie vs But you list not to looke so farre you see their liues at home you see ours The comparison is not equall They take this for the time of their persecution we of our prosperitie The stubbornest Israelite and the most godlesse Mariner could call vpon God in his trouble we are all worse with liberty Looke backe and see how they liued in former times while they prospered No Turkes saith ERASMVS more abominably though now as the worsâ— how 〈…〉 profeâ— might you 〈…〉 which would scorne that the most 〈…〉 should goe before them in a gracious life and in true 〈…〉 amon◠〈◊〉 there will be one Deuill I wish they were so good that wee â—gâ—ulate them but for my part I neuer yet could know that Papist which made conscience of all Gods ten morrall lawes Shortly whatsoeuer is vpraided to vs the truth is pure though men be vnholy and God is where he was whatsoeuer becomes of men For you if you had not fallen to coole affections and a loose life you had beene still ours It is iust with God to punish your secure negligence with error and delusion and to suffer you thus to lose the truth who had lost your care of obedience and first loue And now you doe well to shift off this blame to others sins which haue most cause to accuse your owne From maners to looke towards our doctrine the noueltie of our Religion you say hath discouraged you theirs hath drawne you with reuerence of her age It is a free challenge betwixt vs let the elder haue vs both if there be any point of our Religion yonger than the Patriarchs and Prophets CHRIST and his Apostles the Fathers and Doctors of the Primitiue Church let it be accursed and condemned for an vpstart shew vs euidence of more credit and age and
beene worthy to inioy him for her honest compassion Not more iustly then wisely therefore doth Salomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of loue and pity and adiudgeth the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger Euen in morality it is thus also Truth as it is one so it loues intirenesse falshood diuision Satan that hath no right to the heart would be content with a peece of it God that made it all will haue either the whole or none The erroneous Church striues with the true for the liuing childe of sauing doctrine each claimes it for her owne Heresie conscious of her owne iniustice could be content to goe away with a leg or an arme of sound principles as hoping to make vp the rest with her owne mixtures Truth cannot abide to part with a ioynt and will rather endure to leese all by violence then a peece through a willing conniuency The Temple IT is a weak and iniurious censure that taxeth Salomons slacknesse in founding the house of God Great bodies must haue but slow motions He was wise that said the matters must be all prepared without ere we build within And if Dauid haue laid ready a great part of the metals and timber yet many a tree must be felled and squared and many a stone hewne and polished ere this foundation could be laid neither could those large Cedars be cut sawne seasoned in one yeare Foure yeares are soone gone in so vast a preparation Dauid had not beene so intire a friend to Hiram if Hiram had not beene a friend to God Salomons wisdome hath taught him to make vse of so good a neighbour of a fathers friend he knowes that the Tyrians skill was not giuen them for nothing Not Iewes onely but Gentiles must haue their hand in building the Temple of God Onely Iewes medled with the Tabernacle but the Temple is not built without the aide of Gentiles They together with vs make vp the Church of God Euen Pagans haue their Arts from heauen how iustly may we improue their graces to the seruice of the God of Heauen if there be a Tyrian that can worke more curiously in gold in siluer in brasse in iron in purple and blew silke then an Israelite why should not hee be imployed about the Temple Their heathenisme is their own their skill is their Makers Many a one workes for the Church of God that yet hath no part in it Salomon raises a tribute for the worke not of money but of men Thirty thousand Israelites are leauied for the seruice yet not continuedly but with intermission their labour is more generous and lesse pressing it is enough if they keep their courses one moneth in Lebanon two at home so as euer ten thousand worke whiles twentie thousand breathe So fauourable is God to his creature that he requires vs not to be ouer-toyled in the workes of his owne seruice Due respirations are requisite in the holiest acts The maine stresse of the worke lyes vpon Proselytes whose both number and paines was herein more then the Natiues An hundred and fifty thousand of them are imployed in bearing burthens in hewing stones besides their three thousand three hundred ouer-seers Now were the despised Gibeonites of good vse and in vaine doth Israel wish that the zeale of Saul had not robbed them of so seruiceable drudges There is no man so meane but may bee some way vsefull to the House of God Those that cannot worke in gold and siluer and silke yet may cut and hew and those that can doe neither yet may cary burdens Euen the seruices that are more homely are not lesse necessarie Who can dis-hearten himselfe in the conscience of his owne insufficiency when he sees God can as well serue himselfe of his labour as of his skill The Temple is framed in Lebanon and set vp in Sion Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure There was nothing but noise in Lebanon nothing in Sion but silence and peace What euer tumults are abroad it is fit there should bee all quietnesse and sweet concord in the Church Oh God that the axes of schisme or the hammers of furious contentions should bee heard within thy Sanctuary Thine house is not built with blowes with blowes it is beaten downe Oh knit the hearts of thy seruants together in the vnity of the spirit and the bond of peace that we may minde and speak the same things that thou who art the God of peace maist take pleasure to dwell vnder the quiet roofe of our hearts Now is the foundation laid and the wals rising of that glorious fabricke which all Nations admired and all times haue celebrated Euen those stones which were laid in the Base of the building were not ragged and rude but hewne and costly the part that lyes couered with earth from the eyes of all beholders is no lesse precious then those that are most conspicuous God is not all for the eye he pleaseth himselfe with the hidden value of the liuing stones of his spirituall Temple How many noble graces of his seruants haue been buried in obscuritie not discerned so much as by their owne eyes which yet as hee gaue so hee crowneth Hypocrites regard nothing but shew God nothing but truth The matter of so goodly a frame striues with the proportion whether shall more excell Here was nothing but white Marble without nothing but Cedar and Gold within Vpon the Hill of Sion stands that glittering and snowy pile which both inuiteth and dazeleth the eyes of passengers a farre off so much more precious within as Cedar is better then stone gold then Cedar No base thing goes to the making vp of Gods House If Satan may haue a dwelling he cares not though he patch it vp of the rubbish of stone or rotten sticks or drosse of metals God will admit of nothing that is not pure and exquisite His Church consists of none but the faithfull his habitation is in no heart but the gracious The fashion was no other then that of the Tabernacle onely this was more costly more large more fixed God was the same that dwelt in both hee varied not the same mysterie was in both Onely it was fit there should be a proportion betwixt the worke and the builder The Tabernacle was erected in a popular estate the Temple in a Monarchy it was fit this should sauour of the munificence of a King as that of the zeale of a multitude That was erected in the flitting condition of Israel in the desert this in their setled residence in the promised Land it was fit therefore that should bee framed for motion this for rest Both of them were distinguished into three remarkable diuisions whereof each was more noble more reserued then other But what doe we bend our eyes vpon stone and wood and metals God would neuer haue taken pleasure in these dead materials for their owne sakes if they had not had a further intendment Me thinkes