sententia vide Lod. Vivem de verit Christ fidei lib. 4. which allowes not the people of God to try before they trust but because she findes the ignorance of the most to bee her greatest reuenue shakels the soules of infinit numbers in the prison of a darke implicit faith as if they could not be holy but in stupidity nor good Christians vnlesse they turne beasts and bee led without reason but shall we with such curious diligence suruey the nature and conditions of those wares that are commodious for the body and shall we trust a few plausible words of the Chapman goe no farther in matters of that moment as religion is vpon the truth whereof dependes the saluation of our soules Why Is it not possible for men to be men and erre are not many false prophets gone out into the world are there not many falshoods for one truth doth not falshood at the first blush sometimes seeme as truth Was there neuer any rotten wood varnished or painted was it neuer knowne that a strumpet put vpon her the attire and gestures of an honest matron Now how shall all this fraud bee discouered if wee will put out our owne eyes and not vse that discretion which God and nature hath left vs for the differencing of things I confesse indeed that if we will resigne vp our selues wholy to some others opinion and degrade our selues of our own vnderstanding wee may fall vpon some truths in the worship of God but this is by chance not iudgement and is not much better then if we should againe build vp the * Acts 17.23 Altar to the vnknown God To remedy all these inconueniences let vs embrace the allowance of the blessed Apostles 1 Thes 5.21 of St Paule who exhorts vs to try all things and hold that which is good 1 Iohn 4.1 of St Iohn who bids vs not to beleiue every spirit but try them whether they are of God 1 Pet. 3.15 of St Peter who requires that wee be ready alwaies to giue an answere to euery man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in vs. This that wee may be able to doe let vs goe on and shew the best meanes whereby wee may discerne truth from falshood in matter of religion Where first it is no reason why it should not easily be granted that that is truth which beares conformity to the minde of the first truth God for our vnderstanding is no otherwise true then as it is euen and adequate to things themselues considering them as they are nor are those Entitles true but as they are agreeable to diuine vnderstanding which is not only the measure but the cause of all things but if in any thing certainely in religion that is most true that beares correspondency with Gods minde and will for who should prescribe what belongs to his honour but himselfe Shall man who knowes so little in and about himselfe especially since his vnderstanding grew crazie by his fall attempt to define how his maker shall bee serued The effect of this presumption is too well known in the superstitious who measuring God by themselues thrust such vnseemely kindnesses vpon him as are wholy vnworthy of his maiesty yea to speake the truth worship their owne fancies insteed of a deity what an ilfauoured and mishapen peece of honour would it bee which a silly country fellow should lay downe for the right service of our king may we not quickly imagine what an vntoward forme of diuine worship that would proue which poore ignorant man a worme no man deviseth No no let vs let God alone with his owne honour he is best knowne how great he is to himselfe and can surely tell vs what his will is he cannot be deceiued because most wise he will not deceiue because most good It is by the sunne that wee behold the sunne it must be by God himselfe that wee can know God and therefore for this point wee may set vp our resolution with Ambrose in his epistle against Symmachus 2. Epist cont Symmachum coeli mysteria doceat me Deus ipse qui condidit non homo qui seipsum ignorauit cui magis de Deo quam Deo credam As for the mysteries of heauen let God teach vs who made vs not man who knowes not himselfe concerning God whom should we better trust then God himselfe That of Saint Hilary is of kinne to this Lib. 1. de Trinit concedamus cognitionem sui Deo idoneus enim sibi testis est qui nisi per se cognitus non est let vs leaue to God the knowledge of himselfe and since he is not known but by himselfe hee is fittest to be his owne witnesse but let vs with attentivest reverence marke the seuerity of God himselfe in the prophecy of his seruant Esay Es 29.14 the words whereof his owne sonne repeates in the fifteenth of Matthew Mat. 15.9 In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men Now since the conceit of man is so vaine a measure of diuine worship and that God must bee honoured after his owne way it remaines to be but enquired where the seate of his will is * Saluianus readily answeres vs De guber mundi lib. 3. ip sum sacrae scripturae oraculum Dei mens est the oracle of holy scripture is the mind of God Ioh. 77.17 If it be truth we seeke for thy word O Father is truth saith our Sauiour Behold the louing care of God to man when by reason of our lame and blinde vnderstanding wee could not soare vp to God to enter our selues into his acquaintance hee hath descended downe to vs by those who haue beene from euerlasting in his bosome his deare sonne and spirit he hath conveied vnto vs his counsailes 2. Pet. 1.21 Greg. mag and by the men who spake and wrote as they were inspired hath sent vs as Gregories phrase is diverse epistles concerning his will here then may we rest that whatsoeuer his word enioineth is well-pleasing whatsoeuer it forbiddeth is vnacceptable to him whatsoeuer is of a middle nature it is vncertaine whether it may be wellcome It is most certaine it is not expected They are then too daring that thrust vpon the people of God as necessary to their saluation or their makers worship those obseruances that we are sure are beside they are not sure are not against this written word If it were possible in these contentious times for any one man of an humble and indifferent spirit no more to heare of those differences of religion which so much troubles the world then that good poore man in the story of* Alexander did of those wars that had filled all Asia in his time Vide Curtium in lib. 4. and had beene long round about him before hee had diligently read ouer the holy scriptures and if afterwards there should without all forestalling perswasions or Oratory
quainter phrases St Austen bewailes this vanity of his lib 3. conf cap. 5 with whom whilest not conuerted Tully aboue all compares seemed worthier of his study then any of our inspired authors we may think it a malady of great wits which had need to be cured by such repentance let good wits therefore take heede of it Now as we loue truth and the records of it so if we would store our selues therewith I know nothing more necessary then to come with honest and purged affections for a minde blurred with sensuall vanities worldly corruptions diuelish wickednesse can hardly take the faire impressions of truth Sap. 1.4 Into a malicious soule wisdome as it is in the booke of Wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is a subiect vnto sinne If pride be the domineering sinne in vs 〈…〉 and hath giuen vs any of the waters of strife to drinke Lord how hard wee study yet not to buy but disgrace a truth if it hath bin our ill lucke to haue vented an errour wee take it our credit to defend it and though wee are conscious of the falshood yet wee must not seeme to erre In our conferences which should serue to put vp truth before vs it is victory that is onely aimed at A modest man dares scarce speake what is true for feare of putting vs into the contrary error and as the leauen of pride is so soure so is it wonderfully swelling as if plaine and certaine truths were occupata materia a matter already taken vp by others of low and vulgar wits and vnfit for the sublimity of our spirits we range after curious speculations that still will runne away from vs or if caught will bee of no vse wee peremptorily determine where wee should onely religiously admire againe if this spirit haunt vs a new error pleaseth vs better then an auncient established truth thinking it a brauer act to be the maister of a young vanity then the disciple of an aged truth no wonder then if some now and then picke out of their authors such a point for their venting which others saw as well as they and could haue bought it but being but a toy and not worth the expence haue wisely scorned it these marketings can hardly bee avoided by men of pride humility is more thirsty and still on the getting hand because indeed blessed bee him who as hee frustrats proud wits Luk. 1.15 Ψ. 25.9 so hath hee promised that the humble he will teach his way Now as the fate of pride is so is that of worldlings so is that of sensuality so is that of enuy sois that of vncharitablenesse all these hang plummets vpon the soule suffer her not to ascend vp to many truths nay though our vnderstandings be sometimes of their owne naturall vigour soaring yet as the very Eagles made for stight can onely flutter not mount when weighty stones are tyed to their feet so these base and vnworthy affections cannot choose but clogge and presse vs when wee are to raise vp our spirits to any high point but did wee carry in our breasts contented chast moderate peaceable affections indeavouring nothing more then to be holy as God is holy 1. Pet. 1.16 the eye of our soules would oft see more cleerely pearce more deepely into heauenly misteries that rule of our Sauiour is most diuine Ioh. 7.17 If any man will doe the will of my father he shall knowe of the doctrine whether it be of God Much here might bee added concerning those many preiudices whereof wee should also rid our selues before we can entertaine truth it is true it is true is the cry of many but why it is attended with signes Mat. 24.24 yea but false prophets shall doe wonders euen to the deceiuing of the elect themselues if that were possible it is confirmed by the sufferings of the professors 〈◊〉 yea but 't is not the paine but the cause that maketh a martyr it is accompanied with prosperity yea but the Apostles that church wherein the faith was most purely kept 〈◊〉 11.37 were destitute afflicted tormented it is followed by multiudes yea but it was neuer so well with the world that the best thing should please the most 〈…〉 7.13 the broad way heares ill it is bequeathed by our auncestors but walke not in the statutes of your fathers Ezek. 20.18 I am the Lord saith God sometimes by his prophets it were ill with truth if a long custome could prescribe against it it is taught by great Rabbies but they list not to be men nor euer could produce any character that exempts them from ignorance it is deliuered by those of reputed sanctity yea but our sauiour mentioneth false prophets that shall come in sheepes clothing Mat. 7.15 nor is I will not say a counsell of Saints but men a quire of Angells to bee welcomed with any other curtesy then a curse Gal. 1.8 if they bring things contrary to what hath bin receiued from Christ I wonder at our sottishnesse that can bee patient to haue our vnderstanding giued by these weake preiudices that we may breake them let vs be perswaded of this easy truth 2. Cor. 1.24 that none but God can Lord it ouer faith because he alone is set aboue errour and deceit the Apostle saith it vpon deliberation what Dauid did in hast euery man is a lyar Rom. 3.4 Ps 116.11 what through Ignorance what through negligence what through malice small reason haue wee then to prime our consciences vpon any one sleeue not knowing whether he will runne with them To auoide all these impediments to the procuring of truth let vs in the last place commend prayer vnto you by which holy men haue confessed that they haue more profited then by reading hearing Aug. Epist 112. or any other diligence Iob. 32.8 for if it be true what Elihu saith there is a spirit in man but it is the inspiration of the Lord that giueth vnderstanding and it being most true what our sauiour hath that his Father will giue the spirit to those that aske him Luk. 11.13 who can doubt but that devout prayer is one of the currantest coines whereby wee may traffique with God for the obtaining of those illuminations that shall bring truth with them into our breasts Thus haue I reuerent Fathers and bretheren brought you what I haue conceiued in this argument I am not much acquainted with your eares and therefore know not how to fit them onely I thought that a discourse of truth and the purchase of it might not be vnsutable to that place wherein is held so famous a Mart of truth or did the considerations of mine owne meannesse deterre mee since I knew I came amongst the wise with whom as Prospers phrase is truth is not then onely great when great ones teach it But if you will except Vide Prosp praesat in 2. l.
de vita contempl wee need no encouragement in this kind for wee haue bought truth already then I haue nothing to say but this euermore defend it with your tongue and penne and if need bee seale it with your blood euer more adorne it with the holinesse and integrity of your liues that so when this life shall bee changed into a better you may with soules full of truth the more comfortably come into the presence of the God of truth to whom Father sonne and holy ghost bee ascribed all glory and praise now for euer FINIS IAMES I. VER 16. Doe not erre my beloued brethren IF error were only the disease of the ignorant it might reasonably bee said vnto me Physition heale thine owne country flocke come not hither where various learning hath provided sufficient preseruatiues against this euill or if this malady of the soule might be cured by a bare information of the vnderstanding the matter more conueniently might bee left to your publicke schooles or priuate studies then brought vp into your pulpit but since experience abundantly teacheth that the most dangerous and troublesome errors haue had their birth and breeding amidst the tongues and pens of men famed for their wit learning and since the affections which many times are as inordinate in the greatest clerks as the simplest Idiots doe though very irregularly I confesse too too oft lead the vnderstanding I could not take it so misbeseeming a worke for a preacher who hath so much to doe with the ordering of mens affections to take in hand this subiect in this place let mee then once more Reuerent Fathers beloued brethren venture vpon your patience and as heretofore I haue from that wise king invited you to buy the truth Prov. 23.23 so suffer mee now from this holy Apostle advise you to fly error A thing if yet I can entitle it to entity well worth our speediest flying from it or chasing it from vs. Errorem definirefacilius quam finire Aug. lib. 1. contra Academicos cap. 4. For if wee define error which is sooner defined then finished said Licentius what is it but a pittifull deformity incongruity betwixt our vnderstanding and the things which God and nature haue established For as it is the iustice of truth to consider euery thing as indeed it is herein nobly doing right to the first truth God the fountaine of that setled being which things haue so on the contrary iniurious error is a false witnes-bearer against God reporting otherwise of things then God made them or then hee would haue them to bee apprehēded by vs either fastning vpon things what belongs not to them or denying to them what doth Alas how haue we lost God and the tracks of things as he hath left them to vs yea how haue wee lost our selues and the indowments wherewith wee were trusted For whereas reason was bestowed vpon vs to be a lamp whereby we might discerne betwixt truth and that which is the shadow thereof error hath put out this light and so deprived vs of that which is the soule of the soule to vse Philo his words euen as the apple is the eye of the eye De mundi opificio Philosophers speake of a naturall appetite which the soule of euery man hath to know what is true in things therefore howsoeuer there may be found thousands that most gladly would deceiue others scarce one among them would willingly be deceiued himselfe Yet I know not how error hath somewhat dulled this appetite I am sure it cannot satisfie it but frustrates the honest desires of the soule and insteed of her due meate feeds her either with incertaine opinions which breed crude and vndigested tenents in the iudgement or else with certaine falshood the very poyson of the minde Nor is error only dangerous to the first harborers of it but like the plauge it runns from man to man no man almost being content to erre to himselfe but hath a longing to transmit his erronious conceits to others as it appeareth in all Hereticks But the malignity of error is neuer of greater force then when it lighteth into men of our calling for when we haue once lost part of our priestly pectorall Exod 28.30 our vrim our light of true doctrine and haue clad our selues in the darke hue of falshood wee conueigh our fashion vnto multitude of soules and cannot perish alone By this you see the perrill and cannot but welcome our Apostles admonition calling you from it But then is an admonition in this kinde so much the more to be heeded the fouler the error is concerning which the warning is giuen Such a one is this which Saint Iames meanes for if you will surveigh the verses bordering vpon my text you shall finde him labouring to root that impiously absurd conceit out of mens minds that God is a sollicitor and temptor to sinne The diuell greedy after the destruction of soules was it seems impatient of any long delay ere hee wrought his feates and therefore not tarrying vntill the Gospell of our Sauiour were generally planted and strongly rooted in mens hearts by the preaching of the apostles hee very early began to sow his tares where the Lords first husband men had cast in their good seed Nay so diligent was the malice of Satan in his hireling Simon Magus the Patriarch of hereticks that the Apostles were prevented Haeretic Fabul compend de Simone for as Theodoret writeth when he had quitted Samaria he trauelled into diuers parts where the Apostles had not preached forestalling as he went along the mindes of men with his detestable impostures that the doctrine of Apostolicall teachers might wholly bee shut out or enter with greater difficulty now among his pestilentiall errors Aduers haereses cap. 24. that was one as Vincentius testifieth that God the creator was author of the euills euen of sinne an impiety which wanted not abettors in all ages For besides Simon Cerdon Marcion Florinus in the first times and the Manichees with the Priscillianists afterwards euen our present age hath afforded that impure sect of the Libertines fouly guilty that way It is probable that some in the Apostles time had drunk of Simons cuppe which might moue Saint Iames to giue caveats to his schollers that they erre not in this point Howsoeuer we deeme of the occasion moving him to write his admonition is so much the waightier the more grieuous the error which hee speakes of is an error primae magnitudinis of the biggest size For if God be an author of or a tempter to sinfull euill if wee cannot bee content to say that he permits offences but will haue him to necessitate them if wee cannot rest satisfied with that truth that God doth in his infinit wisdome make vse of the wicked wills of his creatures to his owne glory but wee will further say that hee makes their wills so wicked if when men are read to be
TRVTH AND ERROR DISCOVERED IN TWO SERMONS IN St MAries in Oxford By ANTONY WHITE Master of Arts of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD Printer to the Famous Vniversity for Henry Curteyne 1628. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Sr HENRY NEVILL OF PILLINGBERE IN Berks his much honoured Patron Sir THE life of man is a continuall warfare both against vices that assault the will and errors which inuade the vnderstanding Against these enimies of the soule doe those sermons serue especially the latter whose chiefe employment is to weaken error by cutting of the auxiliary forces which bad affections lend it what seruice I haue herein done to the church and truth which done by so raw a souldier in so short a velitation can bee but small I bring vnder your view and the like curteous eyes of those to whom you shall please to shew it I should much feare the exactnesse of your iudgement did I not know it tempered with that candor which vseth well to accept the honest endeavours of the weakest In this assurance I leaue you to the reading of these following sermons resting alwaies Your Worships in my best services ANTONY WHITE PROV 23. VER 23. Buy the truth but sell it not IT were as fruitlesse a diligence for a Divine in writing of this nature as this excellent book of Prouerbs is to enquire out methodicall connexions of sentences as it were for an artist to study the coherences of Bedes axiomes Not therefore to trouble you with anxious prefaces this way let it suffice you men fathers and brethren that our royall Preacher doth in this verse commend to his studious hearers a commodity fittest for humane nature to desire and enioy Truth concerning which his advice hath two branches one in tearmes affirmatiue it is to bee bought the other in negatiue it is not to be folde of the first whereof hopeing that the God of truth will assist me and presuming that your loue of truth will accompany me I purpose for to speake Where first I must with Solomon take it for granted that there is a truth and that it may bee bought Cicero in Lucullo For I hope I am not come amongst those Academists of whose schoole those in Cicero with Cicero himselfe were who with an incongruous confidence deliuer that there is nothing of whose truth we may bee confidently assured Vide Lact. lib. 3. cap. 6. Lactantius answeres this folly wittily Si nihil omnino scias id ipsum nihil possesciri tolletur if no truth may be knowen why would they haue that passe for truth that nothing can be knowne Nay whereas it is their ambition to confute the opinions of all other men as false how can this be without a secret profession of some truth for what can giue the foile to falshood but truth Besides whereas they allow some verisimilitude herein they confesse a truth vnlesse which Austen laughes at Aug lib. 2. contra Academicos they will professe that what they see is the likenesse and purtrature of that which they neuer saw This ancient fancy hath not yet giuē vp the ghost euen in our daies nor will as long as there remaines in the world so much ignorance lazines iealousie pride prophanes for each of these lend somewhat to this opiniō an ignorant mā lead by the examples of those many things which he is not able to comprehend concludes in hast that nothing may be cōprehended as if nothing were to be bought because through his blindnesse hee sees nothing in the market The lazy one quickly weary of the search of truth impatient of any longer labour rests contented with the first appearances of things and giues vp the verdict to his shallow iudgement that there is in euery point well nigh equall probability but no pressing certainty The iealous person casts his eye vpon the dissenting varieties of Doctrines that are in the world and yet all eagerly defended by learned Patrons hee obserues that what one cries vp for an holy truth an other cries downe for blasphemous error that both sides with confident asseueration produce and plead their euidences and withall that princes and rulers of the earth doe equally serue their turnes with either doctrines to manage their affaires herevpon he is suspitious that there is no constant verity in whatsoeuer is proposed but that it is for politique ends only that men haue auouched this or that for truth or it may bee because he findes by some experience that those vpon whose iudgments he hath relyed haue sometimes deceiued him though this were his owne fault to take things soe ouerhastily vpon trust yet to ease himselfe he will vnaduisedly complaine of that great vncertainty that is in all things thinking it best for the time to come rather to suspend his assent then venture a new cosening the vpshot of all is this that he will be so bablish as because there is much deceit and sophistication in wares therefore he will conculde no wares are good or therefore he will buy none The contentious man who in the pride of his wit glories that he is able to gainesay whatsoeuer any shall averre for true Anaxagoras for there wanted not an* odde fellow that would crosse you if you said the snow is white hee at last comes to be so farre transported in opinion as to thinke there is nothing but opinion which you well know falls short of certaine knowledge and is as the schooles speake alwaies cum formidine oppositi with some suspition that there may be falshood in it Aquinas 2a 2ae q. 1. artic 4. Lastly there will neuer be wanting the Impious person who to finde some shelter for his irreuerence to God good things his greatest enimies he will as farre as his prophane witte can helpe him call in question even the first and best knowne truths to which improbous labour I suppose hee much forceth himselfe knowing how much it might concerne him that there were no God to punish his villany no immortality of that soule no resurrection of that body that must bee reserued for eternall torments nor any rule of that goodnesse by which he must one day bee iudged but these vnworthy conceits are as more then my hope is farre from any of you my beloued bretheren who haue learnt in the schoole of Aristotle herein well deseruing of humane nature that euery man hath in him that which is accommodate to truth Vide Arist lib. 1 de moribus ad Eudemum lib. 1. Rhetor. cap. 5. and that hee is not denyed the finding out of many certainties nay you haue beene taught in a higher schoole that truth the noble plant that came downe from heauen shall spring out of the earth also as Dauid sings Ps 85.11 and that many shall runne too and fro Dan. 12.4 and knowledge knowledge not meere opinion shall bee increased as speaketh Daniell But this will better appeare when I shall somewhat open
the kinde nature of that truth whereof our author here treateth Solomon who wrote so many bookes euen to wearinesse of flesh giues this as the Epitome of all Feare God and keepe his commandements Eccl. 12.13 which being the whole duty of man may well be thought the chiefe scope of those writings wherein he hath preached to posterity more particularly for this booke of his parables hee salutes his reader in the very entrance with a discouery of his full drift which is Prov. 1.2 that men should know wisdome and instruction and that they should perceiue the words of vnderstanding now the vnderstanding he promiseth is not as we may well suppose only of earthly and worldly things which wee can all well and soone enough finde out without the helpe of so great a teacher but of those better higher matters belonging to the seruice of God the tranquillity of soules and the wellfare of all societies in that great house of God the world It remains then that the truth here spoken of should finde an interpretation agreeable to the maine scope of the author and consequently import the true knowledge which appertaineth to the true worship of the most true God in whose right service stands the whole duty and felicity of man Following then this sense as knowing none other to follow I must a little resume my former obseruation that Solomon supposeth there is such a true knowledge in diuine matters and that we may bee possessors thereof for why should we be set to buy that which is not and to what purpose is it if it may not be bought herein wee haue the more sober scepticks of our age somewhat yealding and plyant Vide Mont. ess lib. 2. cap. 12. Charr de la sag lib. 2. cap 2. For Montagnie and Charron those two French writers that call for such a suspence of iudgments almost in all inferiour things allowing vs rather to cheapen then buy yet they willingly grant divine verities which when reuealed from God we must with ready submission assent vnto as vnto vncontroleable truths But whether our Pyrronists euen in faith will grant so much or no wee will confidently auerre it vpon these grounds First wee confesse God to be our father and Lord now a sonne honoureth his father and a seruant his Lord Mal. 1.6 as the Prophet Malachy but not only by the spirit of prophecy as I take it but following herein the very light of nature well inferres For there cannot be a closer sequence then of these termes pater filius obsequium dominus servus hominium obedience is due from the sonne to the father homage from the tenant to his Lord. If then at the very instant of our being that bill was drawne whereby we stand obliged to God it is necessarily requisite that there should be some certaine rule of that worship which wee owe to him and that we should be acquainted with it Our very nature confirmes vs in the acknowledgement that such a truth is likewise to bee found lib 3. cap. 10. For as Lactantius well shewes euen by the testimony of those who saw nothing but by the twilight of nature man is naturally inclined to some religious conceits lib. 1. de legibus Vide Purch pilgrimag passim Philosophers haue differenced him from all other creatures by this inclination so that indeed as Cicero long agoe obserued and our late nauigations haue plentifully discouered there is not any so wild a portion of mākind which doth not serue some deity striuing to content it with those kinds of worships which they hope will be accepted Is there then this propension of all to some religion is there no religiō which may truly satisfie it Why is our vnderstanding desirous of the knowledg of an infinit truth if it be not capable thereof why capable if there be no way to enioy it Why doth our will not stay it self vpō any finite obiect but is still pressing forward to an infinit goodnesse if there be no certaine course to bee made partakers thereof I will first beleiue that God giues and our nature receiues so admirable a property in vaine before I can be perswaded that there is no true religion which only is that which can giue rest to these restlesse appetites of our soules Adde in the last place that man a creature of one of the highest formes for he is but little inferiour to the Angells should bee one of the foolishest and most wretched if religion were meerely but a name or fiction or if hauing truth in it could not possibly be possessed by vs. For as Ficinus well shewes De relig Christ cap. 1. many as the Apostles forsake all things all men something out of the loue or feare of a Godhead we quit present things in hope or dread of future our consciences are continually exercised either in feasting our selues for the obserued or vexing our selues for the omitted duty to that divine power which we acknowledge now if all this were vtterly in vaine we are most vaine and miserable especially since wee obserue in inferiour creatures no naturall disposition to abstaine from present good things in expectation of future or carry themselues in such a voluntary strictnesse We may not who for want of time must bee faine to leaue out some thing necessary stand too long vpon superfluous matters therefore will vpon the premises which even nature may subscribe vnto conclude that there is some where extant a forme of the true worship of God whereof man may bee partaker But the troublous dispute of the world is what this true worship is wherein it consists where to bee bought by what meanes to be purchased Let mee hasten then to these points not vnfit for this place necessary I am sure for these times wherein so many are at a stand which way to take not a few haue turned their backs to that wherein they ought to haue proceeded and all of vs God pardon our coldnesse and faint-heartednesse not so forward to vphold and beautify the truth which wee doe embrace The phrase of buying here vsed somewhat directs vs in our inquiry for the law of this action is that wee consider of the wares that are tendred vnto vs. Hee that would haue vs take things because offered doth not fell but impose and tirannize A man may safely suspect his dealing that would haue vs choose and winke or buy in the darke The basenesse of falshood shuns the light but truth as Tertullian speaketh Lib. cont valent cap. 3. nihil erubescit nisi solummodo abscondi is ashamed of nothing but to be hid it calles for all eyes and feareth not the seuerest tryall if it were onely guilded ouer it might forbid touching or scraping but being massy solid gold throughout the more you handle and examine it the brighter it will appeare It cannot therefore be but a* Turcisme in the Church of Rome De Turcarum
eyes full of adultery and that could not cease from sinne great promisers of liberty to others they themselues being the servants of corruption as the Apostle largely describes their manners Now such as these hauing hearts already full of sensuality there is no roome for heauenly contemplations of chast truth whatsoeuer vigor and cleerenesse and intentiuenesse of the mind is requisite to the right discerning of things the very strength of the soule is lost in the armes of Dalilah frugality sobriety the sinewes of a sound iudgement are loosed besides there are not any of those holy and seuere truths in Gods word but these men wish and long they were false and a little matter will improue a wish into a beleefe quod volumus facile credimus as on the contrary he is apt to take those doctrines to be true which are indulgent to his dareling vices he would faine sinne with some warrant that hee may pacify fame abroad and conscience at home if it were possible natur a hominis procliuis in vitia vult non modo cum veniâ sed cum ratione peccare Lib. 4. c. saith Lactantius and therefore he sedulously hunts after and would gladly finde out some doctrines vnder whose protection he may offend in this purfuite euen the passages of scriptures are serched into by some to see what patronage they will afford to their intemperances that so they may securely inioy the pleasure of ill deeds making that their poyson which is appointed to be their medicine Thus haue I Fathers and brethren as breifely as so many particulars would permit shewed that they are our morrall evills to which wee may lay most of our errors in matters of religion that wherein I should now enlarge my selfe but cannot vnlesse I should trespasse to much vpon your patience is that for the avoidance of error wee would all of vs study true piety which standing in the feare of God must needs be the beginning of sauing wisdome this feare it being grounded in loue will make you still haue an eye to your fathers will and if a man will doe the will of my Father saith his son he shall know of the doctrine whether it bee of God now the will of God is that you bee industrious humble peaceable moderate in your desires religious in your liues and euery way contrary to the misbehauiored men which I haue set before you bee thus and the victory against error may soonest be atchiued sooner a great deale then by all the provisions of naturall witt or secular learning One of the heathens had this speech Aug. ep 20. Socrates Quibus satis persuasum vt nihil mallent esse quam viros bonos his reliqua facilis est doctrina so may I say diuine knowledge will easily impart it selfe to such who can be perswaded to desire to be nothing so much as true hearted Christians and can be content to be guided by Gods spirit for such haue the vnction whereof St Iohn speakes 1 Ioh. 2.20 and shall know all things all things meet for such knowledge and seruice of God here as shall make them partakers of his sight and glory hereafter David giues euery good man great assurance when he asketh what man is hee that feareth the Lord and subioynes Ps 25.12 him shall hee teach the way that he shall choose who is lead by God is out of the road of destroying error O lord by thy word and spirit guide vs all here present by thy sonne who is the truth bring vs to thy sonne who is the life and that it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all others that haue erred are deceiued we beseech thee to heare vs good Lord Letany to whom all praise and glory bee ascribed now and euer FINIS