still an outward faire shew and tincture of golde They demand where was the golde demonstrate the place I answere in that Masse But for the extracting therof and purifying it from drosse God hath giuen vs the true touchstone his sacred Word which can onely manifest the true Church and withall reuerend Bishops and worthy Ministers that haue beene instruments to refine purge it from the drosse of superstitions foule ceremonies and iugling inuentions The Papists brag themselues the true ancient Church and taxe ours of nouelty of heresie But wee iustly tell them that Ecclesâ—â—enomen tenent contra Ecclesiam dimicant that they vsurpe the name of the Church yet persecute it For the truth of our Church wee appeale to the Scriptures Nolo humanis documentis sed diuinis oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari It is fit the holy Church should be proued rather by diuine oracles then humane precepts or traditions We stand not vpon numbers which yet wee blesse God are not small but vpon truth You see as the Church of the Iewes so any particular Church may be sicke inwardly To describe these internall diseases I will limite them into 4. 1 Error indeed Heresie cannot possesse a Church but it giues a subuersion to it Errare possum Hereticus esse non Possum sayth that Father I may erre an heretike I cannot be Now Quic quid contra veritatem sapit heresis est etiam vetus consuctudo What is diametrally opposed against the Truth is heresie yea though it be an ancient and long receiued custome But Logicke which is a reasonable discourse of things shewes a great difference betweene diuersae and contraria A Church may bee sicke of errour and yet liue but heresie a wilfull errour against the fundamentall truth violently prosecuted and persisted in kils it Therefore Haeresis potius mors quam morbus Heresie is rather death then sickenesse When the truth of doctrine or rather doctrine of truth hath beene turned to the falshood of Heresie God hath remoued their Candlesticke turned their light into darkenes Error may make it sicke but so that it may be cured The Churches of Corinth Galatia Pergamus had these sicknesses the holy Ghost by Paul and Iohn prescribeth their cures If they had been dead what needed any direction of Physicke If they had not beene sicke to what tended the prescription of their remedy To God alone and to his maiesticall word bee the impossibility of erring That Church that man shall in this erre palpably that will challenge an immunity whosoeuer thinkes he cannot erre doth in this very perswasion erre extreamely I know there is a man on earth a man of earth to say no more that challengeth this priuiledge Let him proue it Giue him a term ad exhibendum and then for want of witnesse ho may write Teste meipso as Kinges doe Witnesse our selfe c. Nay aske his Cardinals Fryers Iesuites This is somewhat to the Prouerbe Aske the sonâ— if the Father be a thiefe But hee cannot erre in his definitiue sentence of Religion Then belike hee hath one spirite in his consistory and another at home and it may in some sort be said of him as Salust of Cicero Alâ—â—d stanâ— aliud sedens de Republica loquitur He is of one opinion sitting of another standing Let God bee true but euerie man a lier One of their owne said Omnis homo errare potest in side etiamsi Papa sit Any man may erre in faith yea though hee were the Pope If they will haue Rome a sanctuary let them take along with them Petrarcha's catachresicall speech calling it a Sanctuary of Errors What particular Church then may not erre now can it erre and be sound Bee the errour small yet the ache of a finger keepes the body from perfect health The greater it is the more dangerous Especially 1. either when it possesseth a vitall part and affecteth infecteth the Rulers of the Church It is ill for the feet when the Head is giddy 2. or when it is infectious and spreading violently communicated from one to another 3. or when it carries a colour of truth The most dangerous vice is that which beares the countenance and weares the cloake of vertue 4. or when it is fitted to the humor and seasoned to the rellish of the people Sedition affectation popularity couetousnesse are enough to driue an errour to an heresie So the disease may proue a Gangrene and then enserecidendum ne pars sinceratrabatur no meanes can saue the whole but cutting off the incurable part Pereat vnus potius quam vnitas 2 Ignorance is a sore sicknesse in a Church whether it bee in the superiour or subordinate members Especially when the Priests lippes preserue not knowledge Ill goes is with the body when the 〈◊〉 are blind Deuotion without instruction often windes it selfe into superstition When learnings head is kept vnder Auarices girdle the land growes sicke Experience hath made this conclusion too manifest Our fore-fathers felt the terrour and tyranny of this affliction who had golden Challices and wodden Priests that had either no Art or no hart to teach the people Sing not thou Romane Syrâ—n that Ignorance is the damme of deuotion to breed it it is rather a damme to stifle restraine and choke it vp Blindnesse is plausible to please men not possible to please God Grant that our faults in the light are more hainous then theirs who wanted true knowledge Ex furibus enim leges eos grauius puniunt qui interdiù furantur For the lawes doe punish those theeues most seuerely that feare not euen by day to commit outrages Yet in all reason their sinnes did exceede in number who knew not when they went awry or what was amisle Rome hath by a strange and incredible kinde of doctrine gone about to proue that the health which is indeede the sicknesse of a Church Ignorance Their Cardinal Cusaen faith that Obedientia irrationalis est consummata obedientia perfectissima c. Ignorant obedience wanting reason is the most absolute and perfect obedience Chrysostome giues the reason why they so oppose themselues against reason Haeretici sacerdotes Claudunt ianuas veritatis c. Hereticall Priestes shut vp the gates of Truth For they know that vpon the manifestation of the Truth their Church would be soone forsaken If the light which maketh all things plaine should shine out Tunc hi qui prius decipiebant nequaquaâ— ad populum accodere valebunt post quam se senserint intellectos then they who before cosoned the people could preserue their credits no longer being now smelt out and espied Hence the people aime at Christ but either short or gone and not with a iust Ieuell But Nemo de Christo credat nisi quod Chrâ—stus de se credi voluit Let no man beleeue other thing of Christ then what Christ would haue beleeued of himselfe Non minus est
Deum fingere quam negare saith Hylary It is no lesse sin to faine a new God then to deny the true God The Priestes call the people Swine and therefore must not haue those precious pearles And so the people Amant ignorare malunt nescire quod iam oderunt had rather continue ignorant as not louing to know those things which they cannot loue because they know not But alas Ignorance is so farre from sanity and sanctity that it is a spilling and killing sicknesse Men are vrged to reade the Scriptures that neuer emptied Treasur-house of knowledge they answere Non sum Monachus vxorem habeo curam domus I am no Priest I haue a wife and a domesticall charge to looke to This is that Pestilence no ordinary sicknes that infects to death many soules to thinke that knowledge belongs onely to Priestes This is a worke of the Diuels inspiration not suffering vs to beholde the treasure least wee grow rich by it Dices non legi non est haec excusario sed crimen Thou sayest I haue not read this is no excuse but a sin The Romists sticke not as once the Valentinian heretikes veritatis ignorantiam cognitionem vocare by a Paradoxe Pseudodoxe to call the ignorance of the truth the true knowledge thereof Like those Wisd. 14. that liuing in a warre of ignorance those so great plagues they called peace But Quiea quae sunt Domini nesciunt a Domino nesciuntur They that will not know the Lord shall not be knowne of the Lord. It is obiected 1. Cor. 8 Knowledge puffeth vp Let Iraeneus expound it Non quod veram scientiam de Deo culparet alioquin seipsum primum accusaret Not that he blamed the true knowledge of God for then he should first haue excused himselfe Beloued Let the word of God dwell in you plenteously Do not giue it a colde intertainement as you would doe to a stranger and so take your leaue of it but esteeme it as your best familiar and domesticall friend making it as our Postill sweetly your chamber fellow study-fellow bedfellow Let it haue the best roome and the best bed the parlour of our conscience the resting place in our heart Neglected things are without the doer lesse respected with in but neere the dore Sed quae pretiosae sunt non vno seruantur ostio the more worthy things are not trusted to the safety of one dore but kept vnder many lockes and keyes Giue terrene things not onely regard preserue them with a more remoued care But this pearle of inestimable value this Iewell purer then the golde of Ophir lay it not vp in the Porters lodge the outward eare but in the Cabinet and most inward closure of thy heart Deut. 11. Therefore shall yee lay vp these my words in your heart in your soule Mary thought that place the fittest receptacle for such Oracles This is that Physicke which can onely cure the sicknesse of Ignorancâ—s Vbi ignorans inâ— nit quod 〈◊〉 contumâ—x quid timeat laborans quo praemiaetur 〈◊〉 quo nutriâ—tur famelicus conuiuium vulneraetus remidium where the ignorant may find what to learn the refractary what to feare the labourer wherewith to bee rewarded the weake nourishment the guest a banker the wounded a remedy to cure him Be not ignorant be not sicke Search the Scriptures reade obserue This is not all Non prodest Cibus qui statim sumptus emittitur the meate nourisheth not which tarrieth not in the stomack It must bee digested by meditation and prayer Meditatio docet quid desit oratio obtinet ne desit Meditation shewes our want praier procureth supply Let it not be said of our perfunctory reading as it was of the Delphian Oracle Quoties legitur toties negligitur that wee disregarde what we read Read to learne learne to practise practise to liue and liue to prayse God for euer 3 A third sicknesse which may inwardly afflict a Church is Dissention a sore shaking to the ioyntes an eueruating the strength and a dangerous degree to dissolution The world being but one teacheth that there is but one God that gouernes it one God that there is but one Church one truth The Church is not onely Columna veritatis sed columba vnitatis the pillar of truth 1. Tim. 3.15 but also the Doue of Vnitie Cant. 6. My Doue my vndesiled is alâ—ne Dissentions like secret and close Iudasses haue giuen aduantagious meanes to our common enemies both to scorne and scourgethe Church Clemens Alexandâ—â—â— brings in the Heathen exprobrating our Religion for vntrue vnwarrantable â— Quia omnis Secta Christianismitâ—tulum sibi vendicat tameu aliae aliam execratur condemnat Because euery sect challengeth to it selfe the citie and right of true Christianity yet one curseth and condemneth another Within how much the narrower limits this distraction is pent it so much the more violently bursteth forth and striues to rend the bowels of a Church Like som angry and furious vapour or exhalation restrained that shakes the very earth for vent and passage Such hath been the distractednesse of some times that men haue laboured to be newters and studied more to be indifferently disposed to eyther side then to be religious at all Such a time doth Erasmus mention Quando ingeniosares fuit esse Christianum when it was a point of policy and wit to bee a Christian. I confesse indeed that Vnity is no inseparable and vndoubted marke of the Church for there was an vnity in those murdering voyces Crucifie him Crucifie him The Kings of the earth haue banded themselues together against the Lord. Those fauourers and factors of Antichrist Reu. 17. that make warre against the Lambe are all saide to haue one mind Nay Chrysostomo saith that Expedit ipsis Daemonibus obaudire sibi inuicem in Schismate It is necessary for the very Diuels to hearken one to another and to haue some mutuallity in their very mutiny an vnion in their distraction yet cannot it not bee denied but that dissention in a Church is a sicknesse to it It goes ill with the body when the members agree not Those that dwell in one house should be of one mind It indangers the whole building to ruine when the stones square and 〈◊〉 one with another What detriment this hath been to whole Christendome hee hath no mind that considers not no heart that condoles not wee may say with the Athenians Auximus Philippum nos ipsi Athenienses We haue strengthned King Philip against vs by our owne contentions Christian Nation fighting with Christian hath laid more to the possession of the Turke then his owne sworde Where is the Greeke Church once so famous i Graeciam in Graecia quaerimus saith Aeneas Syluitu We seek for Greece in Greece scarse find the remaining ruines Behold wee haue laide wast our selues who shall pitty vs our owne seditions haue betraied the peace of
and townes 〈◊〉 our gold and goods worldlings gods transporting our wiues children friends shrieking vnder the hand of slaughter we need not call for mourning women Ier. 9. to waile for vs our owne eyes would run downe with teares and our eye lids gush out with waters Let profanenesse lift vp his wicked hand against God to blaspheme his name despise his truth disallow his Saboaths abuse his patience deride his treatinges his threatnings his iudgements this we see and suffer without compassion without opposition But knowing the iudgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but haue pleasure in them that do them These Sicknesses may afflict a Church inwardly Shee may be sicke outwardly 1. by the persecution of man 2. by the affliction of God By persecution of man I need not call your thoughts back to elder times weary you with antiquities to iustifie this assertion This Church of ours so well remembers this sicknes in Q. Maries dayes as if she were but newly recouered whence discended those euils but à culmine Pontifieio as one cals it from the top tower of the Pope yet the Romists stick not to answere this laid to their charge by auerring paradoxically that their persecution was in loue as Sara to Hagar In loue they tyranized slandered beat imprison'd manacled massacred burned vs all in loue As Philippides cudgelled his father pleaded it was in loue If this were charity then sure the very mercies of the wicked are cruell their loue is worse then others hatred Nunquid ouis lupum persequitur aliqnando non sed lupus oueÌ„ Quem videris in sanguine persecutionis gaudenteÌ„ lupus est saith Chrysost. doth the sheep euer persecute the wolfe no but the wolfe the sheep whom thou seest delighting in the bloud of persecution let him plead what he will he is a very wolfe Wee tell the Papists as Augustine told the Donatists notwithstanding their distinguishing by tenses and pretenses that their persecution exceeded in cruelty the very Iewes For the Iewes persecuted Christicarnem ambulantis interra these Christi evangelium sedentis in caelo the flesh of Christ walking on earth the Papists the Gospell of Christ sitting in heauen But their cruelty is our glory we haue sprung vp the thicker for their cutting vs downe Plures efficimur quoties matimur Contrary to the rules of Arithmeticke our substraction hath beene our multiplication The Church of God morte vinit vulnere nascitur receiueth birth by wounding life by dying Occidi possumus vinci non possumus as the ineuitable inuincible truth hath manifested Wee may be killed we cannot be conquered For thy sake we are killed all the day long as Paul saith from the Psalmist to shew that both the Church of the old Testament and of the new giue experimental testimony of the truth yet in althese thing we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs If our plant had not beene set vp by the all-prospering hand of God the malignancie of these enemies would haue soone rooted it vp They haue verefied in their persecutions against vs what one of their own writes of the Turkish Alcoran Omnium quae in Alchorano continentur vltima resolutio est gladius The last resolution propagation propugnation of althings contained in the AlchoraÌ„ in the Popes decretals is not the word but the sword But blessed be our God that hath limited this rage and sealed vs our Quietus est Though they will haue no peace with vs wee haue peace with him that can ouer-rule them But haue we no persecutors still Oh that no Israelite would euer strike his brother There are two sorts of Porsecutors remaining Esau's and Ismaels nourished with the same ayre borne on the same earth and caried in the indulgent bosome of the same Church But nobis ignominia non sit patià fratibus quod passius est Christus neque illis gloria facere quod fecit Iudas Let it be no more shame for vs to suffer of our brethren what our Sauiour suffered of his then it is glory for them to do the workes of Iudas Some persecute with the hand others with the tongue Exercent hi sapientiam illi patientiam Ecclesiae The latter exercise the wisdome the former the patience of the Church We are secured from Ahabs and Herods and Neroes the teeth of the dogges be broken and the iawes of the wolues pulled out the Bonners and butchers of the Church are husht in their graues Oh that the Serpents also which hisse and spet their venime at our peace when all the birds of our ayre sing acclamations to it were at quiet But as then be that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit euen so it is now Now so and will be so We cannot see an end of these things without the end of all things Our turne is still to suffer we returne not blow for blow but in stead of sounding a point of warre we cry one to another patiamur potius Let vs rather suffer Let the Romane affections like so many pestilent riuers runne all in mare rubrum or rather in mare mortuum into the red Sea into the dead sea and snatching the sword of vengeance out of his hand that owes it quit themselues on their imagin'd enemies with â—loud and death Let him that is stiled the Seruant of seruants shew himselfe the Tyrant of tyrants Philosophy teacheth that externall accidentes change inward quality â—s but without an absolute mutation ipsius speciei they change no substances A Church may indeed at one time be better or worse disposed then at another more hote or more cold more sicke or more whole But as it were a strange fitte that should transform Apuleius into an Alie so it were a strange variation of accidents in a Church that should turne patience into cruelty humiliâ—y into pride a Tutour into a tormentour Let their motto be ferio the terme whereon all their arguments râ—lf let ours be fero It is far better to suffer then to offer wrong Let sauage persecution sit vnder the Ensignes of wolues meekenes and patience be our armes and armours This outward malady of a Church Persecution discouers the malignity of it selfe in many extentions Especially 1. in martyring her professors 2. in treason against her Soueraignes 3. in seducing her Seers 1 Martyrdome God hath in all ages of his Church suffred som witnesses of his holy truth to be purified like gold in the fire Though they are blessed that haue so suffered the Church hath in conclusion gained by this losse yet during the turbulent working of these thunder exhalations in our ayre we haue lamented miseram regionis fâ—ciem the miserable state of our country whose face hath bin scratcht and torne by the bloudy nailes of these persecuting beares Needs must the land be sicke where