palmes chrisme garments roses swords water salt the Pontificall solemnities of your great Master and whateuer your new mother hath besides plausible before he should see ought in all these worthy of any other entertainment then contempt Who can but disdaine that these things should procure any wise proselyte Cannot your owne memory recount those truly religious spirits which hauing fought Rome as resolued Papists haue left the world as holy Martyrs dying for the detestation of that which they came to adore Whence this They heard and magnified that which they now saw and abhorred Their fire of zeale brought them to the flames of Martyrdome Their innocent hopes promised them Religion they found nothing but a pretence promised deuotion and behold idolatry they saw hated suffered and now raigne whiles you wilfully and vnbidden will lose your soule where others meant to lose and haue found it Your zeale dies where theirs began to liue you like to liue where they would but dye They shall comfort vs for you they shall once stand vp against you While they would rather die in the heat of that fire then liue in the darknesse of their errors you rather die in the Egyptian darknesse of errors then liue in the pleasant light of Truth yea I feare rather in another fire then this Light Alas what shall we looke for of you Too late repentance or obstinate error Both miserable A Spira or a Staphylus Your friends your selfe shall wish you rather vnborne then either O thou which art the great Shepheard great in power great in mercy which leauest the ninety and nine to reduce one fetch home if thy will bee this thy forlorne charge fetch him home driue him home to thy Fold though by shame though by death Let him once recouer thy Church thou him it is enough Our common Mother I know not whether more pities your losse or disdaines thus to be robb'd of a son not for the need of you but her owne piety her owne loue For how many troops of better informed soules hath she euery day returning into her lap now breathing from their late Antichristianisme and embracing her knees vpon their owne She laments you not for that shee feares shee shall misse you but for that shee knowes you shall want her See you her teares and doe but pitty your selfe as much as she you And from your Mother Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge to descend to your Nurse Is this the fruit of such education Was not your youth spent in a society of such comely order strict gouernment wise lawes religious care it was ours yet let me praise it to your shame as may iustly challenge after all bragges either RHEMES or DOVVAY or if your Iesuits haue any other denne more cleanly and more worthy of ostentation And could you come out fresh and vnseasoned from the middest of those salt waues Could all those heauenly showres fall beside you while you like a Gedeons fleece want moisture Shall none of those diuine principles which your youth seem'd to drinke in check you in your new errors Alas how vnlike are you to your selfe to your name Iacob wrestled with an Angell and preuailed you grapple but with a Iesuit and yeeld Iacob supplanted his brother and Esau hath supplanted you Iacob changed his name for a better by a valiant resistance you by your cowardly yeelding haue lost your owne Iacob stroue with God for a blessing I feare to say it you against him for a curse for no common measure of hatred or ordinary opposition can serue a reuolter Either you must be desperately violent or suspected The mighty One of Israel for hee can doe it raise you falne returne you wandred and giue you grace at last to shame the Deuill to forsake your stepmother to acknowledge your true Parent to satisfie the world to saue your owne soule If otherwise I will say of you as Ieremy of his Israelites if not rather with more indignation My soule shall weepe in secret for your reuolt and mine eyes shall drop downe teares because one of the Lords flocke is caried away captiue To my Lord and Patrone the Lord DENNY Baron of Waltham EPIST. II. Of the contempt of the World MY Lord my tongue my pen my heart are all your seruants when you cannot heare me through distāce you must see me in my Letters You are now in the Senate of the Kingdome or in the concourse of the city or perhaps though more rarely in the royall face of the Court. All of them places fit for your place From all these let me call off your minde to her home aboue and in the midst of businesse shew you rest If I may not rather commend then admonish and before-hand confesse my counsell superfluous because your holy forwardnesse hath preuented it You can afford these but halfe of your selfe The better part is better bestowed Your soule is still retired and reserued You haue learned to vouchsafe these worldly things vse without affection and know to distinguish wisely betwixt a Stoicall dulnesse and a Christian contempt and haue long made the world not your God but your slaue And in truth that I may loose my selfe into a bold and free discourse what other respect is it worthy of I would adore it on my face if I could see any Maiesty that might command veneration Perhaps it loues me not so much as to shew me his best I haue sought it enough and haue seene what others haue doated on and wondred at their madnesse So may I looke to see better things aboue as I neuer could see ought here but vanitie and vilenesse What is fame but smoake and mettall but drosse and pleasure but a pill in suger Let some Gallants condemne this as the voice of a Melancholike Scholler I speake that which they shall feele and shall confesse Though I neuer was so I haue seen some as happy as the world could make them and yet I neuer saw any more discontented Their life hath bin neither longer nor sweeter nor their heart lighter nor their meales heartier nor their nights quieter nor their cares fewer nor their complaints Yea we haue knowne some that haue lost their mirth when they haue found wealth and at once haue ceased to be merry and poore All these earthly delights if they were sound yet how short they are and if they could bee long yet how vnsound If they were sound they are but as a good day betweene two agues or a sunne-shine betwixt two tempest And if they were long their honie is exceeded by their gall This ground beares none but maples hollow and fruitlesse or like the banks of the dead Sea a faire apple which vnder a red side containes nothing but dust Euery flower in this garden either pricks or smels ill If it be sweet it hath thornes and if it haue no thornes it annoyes vs with an ill sent Goe then ye wise idolatrous Parasites and erect shrines and offer sacrifices
not to eat when they are come Compelled not by perswasions for these were the first inuitations therefore by further meanes Though this conceit hath no place with vs where men are vrged not to receiue a new faith but to performe the old to abandon that wicked Idolatry which had defiled them and to entertaine but that truth which the very power of their Baptisme challenged at their hand But this was the old song of the Donatists Farre bee it from our conscience to compell any man to the faith If God did not draw vs and by a sweet violence bend our wils to his when should wee follow him Either you haue not read or not cared for the practise of the ancient Church and Augustines resolution concerning the sharp penalties imposed vpon the Donatists would God none of your kindred in his time with his excellent defences of these proceedings SECT XI BVT tell vs then what should haue beene done The Gospell should haue beene euery where preached All conuerts should haue beene singled out Constitution of the Church of England Barrow and Greenew passim and haue giuen a voluntary and particular confession of their Faith and Repentance I answer you The Gospell was long and worthily preached in the daies of King Edward enough to yeeld both Martyrs to the stake and Professors to the succeeding times Were their holy Sermons their learned writings and their precious bloud which was no lesse vocall of no force Afterwards in the beginning of Famous Queene Elizabeths reparation what confluence was there of zealous Confessors returning now from their late exile How painfully and diuinely did they labour in this Vineyard of God How did they with their many holy Partners which had shrowded themselues during that storme of persecution in a dangerous secrecie spread themselues ouer this Land and each-where drew stockes of hearers to them and with them Is all this nothing to their ingratefull Posteritie If you murmure that there were no more take heed lest you forget there were so many for vs we doe seriously blesse God for these and triumph in them All this premised now comes a Christian Edict from the State that euery man shall yeeld obedience to this Truth wherein they had beene thus instructed It was performed by the most whose submission what was it but an actuall profession of their faith and repentance And since such was their face who dares iudge of their hearts More than this if euer can be shewed absolutely necessary in such a State of the Church to the very constitution and repaired being thereof I doe here vow neuer to take the Church of England for my Mother Wee know and grieue to see how scornfully your whole Sect H. Answ Coūterp and amongst the rest your resolute Doctor turnes ouer these gracious entrances proceedings of these two Royall and blessed Reformers and whom should hee finde to raise his scoffes vpon but that Saint-like Historian M. Fox Act. Monu Edit 5. p. 1180. Now saies Master Fox a new face of things began to appeare as it were in a Stage new Players comming in the old thrust out Now saith your Doctors Comment new Bishops came in Counterp 226. as Players vpon the old stage of the Popish Church as if the Church were no whit altered but the men Shall we say this is too much malice or too little wit and conscience Euen in the Lord Protectors daies that holy man reports that after the Scriptures restored and Masses abolished greater things followed these softer beginnings in the reformation of the Churches P. Martyr P. Fagius Bucer c. Learned and godly Diuines were called for from forraine parts a separation was made though not so much willing as wilfull of open and manifest Aduersaries from Professors whether true or dissembled Commissioners were appointed to visit euery seuerall Diocesse Euery Bench of them had seuerall godly and learned Preachers to instruct the people in the truth and to disswade them from Idolatry and Superstition The Popes Supremacy not thrust but taught downe All wil-worship whatsoeuer oppugned by publike Sermons Images destroyed Pilgrimages forbidden the Sacraments inioyned to be reuerently and holily ministred Ecclesiasticall persons reformed in life in Doctrine Processions laid downe Presence and attendance vpon Gods word commanded the holy expending of Sabbath daies appointed due preparation to Gods table called for set times of teaching inioyned to Bishops and other Ministers all Shrines and Monuments of Idolatry required to bee vtterly taken from publike and priuate houses All this before his Parliament By that Six Articles 1547. Pag. 1182. Col. 2.60 all bloody lawes against Gods truth were repealed zealous Preachers encouraged so as saith that worthy Historian God was much glorified and the people in many places greatly edified What need I goe further than this first yeere Heare this and be ashamed and assure your selues that no man can euer reade those holy Monuments of the Church but must needs spet at your separation After that sweet and hopefull Prince what his Renowned Sister Queene ELIzABETH did the present times doe speake and the future shall speake when all these Murmurers shall sleepe in the dust The publike Disputations zealous preachings restaurations of banished Religion and men Extirpations of Idolatry Christian Lawes wise and holy proceedings and renewed couenants with God are still fresh in the memories of some and in the eares of all so as all the World will iustly say you haue lost shame with Truth in denying it Yea to fetch the matter yet further If the Reader shall looke backe to the dayes of their puissant Father King HENRY the Eighth Act Monu p. 999. 1000. he cannot but acknowledge especially during the time of Queene ANNE and before those six bloudie Articles a true face of a Church though ouer-spred with some Morphue of corruptions and some commendable forwardnesse of Reformation for both the Popes Supremacie was abrogated the true Doctrine of Iustification commonly taught confidence in Saints vntaught the vanity of Pardons declared worship of Images and Pilgrimages forbidden learned and godly Ministers required their absences mis-demeanors inhibited the Scriptures translated publikely and priuately inioyned to be read and receiued the Word of God commanded to be sincerely and carefully preached Act. Monu Edit 5. p. 1002. and to all this Holy Master Fox addeth for my conclusion such a vigilant care was then in the King and his Councell how by all wayes and meanes to redresse Religion to reforme errours to correct corrupt customes to helpe ignorance and to reduce the mis-leading of Christs Flocke drowned in blind Poperie Superstitious Customes and Idolatry to some better forme of Reformation whereunto he prouided not onely these Articles Barr. against Gyff Conference with Sperin and Master Egerton Greenw Barr. Arg. to Master Cartwr Master Trauers Master Clark Browne Reformation without tarrying Precepts Iniunctions aboue specified to informe the rude people but
Angels stand in his presence it could not bee but Gods fauour would bee sweeter his chastisements more easie his benefits more effectuall I am not my owne while God is not mine and while he is mine since I doe possesse him I will enioy him 46 Nature is of her owne inclination froward importunately longing after that which is denied her and scornfull of what she may haue If it were appointed that we should liue alwaies vpon earth how extremely would we exclaime of wearinesse and wish rather that we were not Now it is appointed wee shall liue here but a while and then giue roome to our successors each one affects a kinde of eternitie vpon earth I will labour to tame this peeuish and sullen humour of nature and will like that best that must be 47 All true earthly pleasure forsooke man when he forsooke his Creator what honest and holy delight he tooke before in the dutifull seruices of the obsequious creatures in the contemplation of that admirable varietie and strangenesse of their properties in seeing their sweet accordance with each other and all with himselfe Now most of our pleasure is to set one creature together by the eares with another sporting our selues onely with that deformitie which was bred through our owne fault yea there haue beene that haue delighted to see one man spill anothers bloud vpon the sand and haue shouted for ioy at the sight of that slaughter which hath fallen out vpon no other quarrell but the pleasure of the beholders I doubt not but as wee solace our selues in the discord of the inferiour creatures so the euill spirits sport themselues in our dissentions There are better qualities of the creature which we passe ouer without pleasure In recreations I will chuse those which are of best example and best vse seeking those by which I may not onely be the merrier but the better 48 There is no want for which a man may not finde a remedie in himselfe Doe I want riches He that desires but little cannot want much Doe I want friends If I loue God enough and my selfe but enough it matters not Doe I want health If I want it but a little and recouer I shall esteeme it the more because I wanted If I be long sicke and vnrecouerably I shall be the fitter and willinger to die and my paine is so much lesse sharpe by how much more it lingreth Doe I want maintenance A little and course will content nature Let my minde be no more ambitious than my backe and belly I can hardly complaine of too little Doe I want sleepe I am going whither there is no vse of sleepe where all rest and sleepe not Doe I want children Many that haue them wish they wanted It is better to be childlesse than crossed with their miscariage Doe I want learning He hath none that saith he hath enough The next way to get more is to finde thou wantest There is remedy for all wants in our selues sauing onely for want of grace and that a man cannot so much as see and complaine that he wants but from aboue 49 Euery vertuous action like the Sunne eclipsed hath a double shadow according to the diuers aspects of the beholders one of glory the other of enuy Glory followes vpon good deserts Enuy vpon glory He that is enuied may thinke himselfe well for he that enuies him thinkes him more than well I know no vice in another whereof a man may make so good and comfortable vse to himselfe There would be no shadow if there were no light 50 In medling with the faults of friends I haue obserued many wrongfull courses what for feare or selfe-loue or indiscretion Some I haue seene like vnmercifull and couetous Chirurgians keepe the wound raw which they might haue seasonably remedied for their owne gaine Others that haue laid healing plaisters to skin it aloft when there hath beene more need of Corrosiues to eat out the dead flesh within Others that haue galled and drawne when there hath beene nothing but solid flesh that hath wanted onely filling vp Others that haue healed the sore but left an vnsightly scarre of discredit behinde them He that would doe good this way must haue Fidelitie Courage Discretion Patience Fidelitie not to beare with Courage to reproue them Discretion to reproue them well Patience to abide the leisure of amendment making much of good beginnings and putting vp many repulses bearing with many weaknesses still hoping still solliciting as knowing that those who haue beene long vsed to fetters cannot but halt a while when they are taken off 51 God hath made all the World and yet what a little part of it is his Diuide the World into foure parts but one and the least containeth all that is worthy the name of Christendome the rest ouer-whelmed with Turcisme and Paganisme and of this least part the greater halfe yet holding aright concerning God and their Sauiour in some common principles ouerthrow the truth in their conclusions and so leaue the lesser part of the least part for God Yet lower of those that hold aright concerning Christ how few are there that doe otherwise than fashionably professe him And of those that do seriously professe him how few are there that in their liues deny him not liuing vnworthy of so glorious a calling Wherein I doe not pittie God who will haue glory euen of those that are not his I pitie miserable men that doe reiect their Creator and Redeemer and themselues in him And I enuy Satan that he ruleth so large Since God hath so few I will be more thankfull that he hath vouchsafed me one of his and be the more zealous of glorifying him because we haue but a few fellowes 52 As those that haue tasted of some delicate dish finde other plaine dishes but vnpleasant so it fareth with those which haue once tasted of heauenly things they cannot but contemne the best worldly pleasures As therefore some dainty guest knowing there is so pleasant fare to come I will reserue my appetite for it and not suffer my selfe cloied with the course diet of the world 53 I finde many places where God hath vsed the hand of good Angels for the punishment of the wicked but neuer could yet finde one wherein he emploied an euill Angell in any direct good to his children Indirect I finde many if not all through the power of him that brings light out of darknesse and turnes their euill to our good In this choice God would and must be imitated From an euill spirit I dare not receiue ought if neuer so good I will receiue as little as I may from a wicked man If he were as perfectly euill as the other I durst receiue nothing I had rather hunger than wilfully dip my hand in a wicked mans dish 54 Wee are ready to condemne others for that which is as eminently faulty in our selues If one blinde man rush vpon another in the way either complaines of others
for it nor our Sauiour haue bidden vs to flee for it nor God promised it to his for a reward yet if in some cases we hate not life we loue not God nor our soules Herein as much as in any thing the peruersenesse of our nature appeares that we wish death or loue life vpon wrong causes wee would liue for pleasure or we would die for paine Iob for his sores Elias for his persecution Ionas for his Gourd would presently die and will needs out-face God that it is better for him to die than to liue wherein we are like to garrison-souldiers that while they liue within safe walls and shew themselues once a day rather for ceremonie and pompe than need or danger like warfare well enough but if once called forth to the field they wish themselues at home 29 Not onely the least but the worst is euer in the bottome what should God doe with the dregges of our age When sinne will admit thee his Client no longer then God shall be beholden to thee for thy seruice Thus is God dealt with in all other offerings The worst and least sheafe must be Gods Tenth The deformedst or simplest of our children must bee Gods Ministers the vncleanliest and most carelesse house must be Gods Temple The idlest and sleepiest houres of the day must be reserued for our praiers The worst part of our age for deuotion We would haue God giue vs still of the best and are ready to murmure at euery little euill he sends vs yet nothing is bad enough for him of whom we receiue all Nature condemnes this inequalitie and tels vs that he which is the Author of good should haue the best and he which giues all should haue his choice 30 When we goe about an euill businesse it is strange how readie the deuill is to set vs forward how carefull that we should want no furtherances So that if a man would be lewdly witty hee shall be sure to be furnished with store of profane iests wherein a loose heart hath double advantage of the conscionable If he would be voluptuous he shall want neither obiects nor opportunities The currant passage of ill enterprises is so farre from giuing cause of encouragement that it should iustly fright a man to looke backe to the Author and to consider that he therefore goes fast because the deuill driues him 31 In the choice of companions for our conuersation it is good dealing with men of good natures for though grace exerciseth her power in bridling nature yet sith wee are still men at the best some swinge she will haue in the most mortified Austeritie sullennesse or strangenesse of disposition and whatsoeuer qualities may make a man vnsociable cleaue faster to our nature than those which are morally euill True Christian loue may be separated from acquaintance and acquaintance from intirenesse These are not qualities to hinder our loue but our familiaritie 32 Ignorance as it makes bold intruding men carelesly into vnknowne dangers so also it makes men oft-times causelesly fearefull Herod feared Christs comming because he mistooke it If that Tyrant had knowne the manner of his spirituall Regiment he had spared both his owne fright and the bloud of other And hence it is that we feare death because we are not acquainted with the vertue of it Nothing but innocencie and knowledge can giue sound confidence to the heart 33 Where are diuers opinions they may be all false there can bee but one true and that one truth oft-times must be fetcht by peece-meale out of diuers branches of contrary opinions For it falls out not seldome that Truth is through ignorance or rash vehemency scattered into sundry parts and like to a little Siluer melted amongst the ruines of a burnt house must be tried out from heaps of much superfluous ashes There is much paines in the search of it much skill in finding it the value of it once found requites the cost of both 34 Affectation of superfluitie is in all things a signe of weaknesse As in words he that vseth circumlocutions to expresse himselfe shewes want of memory and want of proper speech And much talke argues a braine feeble and distempered What good can any earthly thing yeeld vs beside his vse and what is it but vanitie to affect that which doth vs no good and what vse is it in that which is superfluous It is a great skill to know what is enough and great wisdome to care for no more 35 Good things which in absence were desired now offering themselues to our presence are scarce entertained or at least not with our purposed cheerefulnesse Christs comming to vs and our going to him are in our profession well esteemed much wished but when he singleth vs out by a direct message of death or by some fearefull signe giueth likelihood of a present returne we are as much affected with feare as before with desire All changes although to the better are troublesome for the time vntill our setling There is no remedy hereof but inward preuention Our minde must change before our estate be changed 36 Those are greatest enemies to Religion that are not most irreligious Atheists though in themselues they bee the worst yet are seldome found hot Persecuters of others whereas those which in some one fundamentall point bee hereticall are commonly most violent in oppositions One hurts by secret infection the other by open resistance One is carelesse of all truth the other vehement for some vntruth An Atheist is worthy of more hatred an Heretike of more feare both of auoidance 37 Waies if neuer vsed cannot but bee faire if much vsed are made commodiously passable if before oft vsed and now seldome they become deepe and dangerous If the heart be not at all inured to meditation it findeth no fault with it selfe not for that it is innocent but secure if often it findeth comfortable passage for his thoughts if rarely and with intermission tedious and troublesome In things of this nature we onely escape complaint if we vse them either alwaies or neuer 38 Our sensuall hand holds fast whatsoeuer delight it apprehendeth our spirituall hand easily remitteth because appetite is stronger in vs than grace whence it is that we so hardly deliuer our selues of earthly pleasures which wee haue once entertained and with such difficultie draw our selues to a constant course of faith hope and spirituall ioy or to the renued acts of them once intermitted Age is naturally weake and youth vigorous but in vs the old man is strong the new faint and feeble the fault is not in grace but in vs Faith doth not want strength but we want faith 39 It is not good in worldly estates for a man to make himselfe necessary for hereupon he is both more toiled and more suspected but in the sacred Common-wealth of the Church a man cannot be ingaged too deeply by his seruice The ambition of spirituall well doing breeds no danger He that doth best and may
beneficence Vpon thy people largely spread PSALME 4. As the ten Commandements Attend my people THou witnesse of my truth sincere My God vnto my poore request Vouchsafe to lend thy gracious eare Thou hast my soule from thrall releast verse 2 Fauour me still and dâ—igne to heare Mine humble sute O wretched wights verse 3 How long will yee mine honour deare Turne into shame through your despights Still will ye loue what thing is vaine verse 4 And seeke false hopes know then at last That God hath chose and will maintaine His fauorite whom yee disgrac't God will regard my instant mone verse 5 Oh! tremble then and cease offending And on your silent bed alone Talke with your hearts your waies amending verse 6 Offer the truest sacrifice Of broken hearts on God besetting verse 7 Your onely trust The most deuise The waies of worldly treasure getting But thou O Lord lift vp to me The light of that sweet looke of thine verse 8 So shall my soule more gladsome be Than theirs with all their corne and wine verse 9 So I in peace shall lay me downe And on my bed take quiet sleepe Whiles thou O Lord shalt me alone From dangers all securely keepe PSALME 5. In the tune of 124. Psalme Now Israel may say c. BOw downe thine eare Lord to these words of mine And well regard the secret plaints I make verse 2 My King my God to thee I doe betake My sad estate oh doe thine eare incline To these loud cries that to thee powred bin verse 3 At early morne thou shalt my voice attend For at day breake I will my selfe addresse Thee to implore and wait for due redresse verse 4 Thou dost not Lord delight in wickednesse Nor to bad men wilt thy protection lend verse 5 The boasters proud cannot before thee stay Thou hat'st all those that are to sinne deuoted verse 6 The lying lips and who with bloud are spotted Thou doest abhorre and wilt for euer slay verse 7 But I vnto thine house shall take the way And through thy grace abundant shall adore With humble feare within thy holy place verse 8 Oh! lead me Lord within thy righteous trace Euen for their sakes that malice me so sore Make smooth thy paths my dimmer eies before verse 9 Within their mouth no truth is euer found Pure mischiefe is their heart a gaving toome verse 10 Is their wide throat and yet their tongues still sound verse 11 With smoothing words O Lord giue them their doome And let them fall in those their plots profound In their excesse of mischiefe them destroy verse 12 That Rebels are so those that to thee flie Shall all reioyce and sing eternally verse 13 And whom thou dost protect and who loue thee And thy deare name in thee shall euer ioy Since thou with blisse the righteous dost reward And with thy grace as with a shield him guard PSALME 6. As the 50. Psalme The mighty God c. LEt me not Lord be in thy wrath reproued Oh! scourge me not when thy fierce wrath is moued verse 2 Pity me Lord that doe with languor pine Heale me whose bones with paine dissolued bin verse 3 Whose weary soule is vexed aboue measure Oh Lord how long shall I bide thy displeasure verse 4 Turne thee O Lord rescue my soule distrest verse 5 And saue me of thy grace 'Mongst those that rest In silent death can none remember thee And in the graue how shouldst thou praised be verse 6 Weary with sighes All night I caus'd my bed To swim with teares my couch I watered verse 7 Deepe sorrow hath consum'd my dimmed eyne Sunke in with griefe at these lewd foes of mine verse 8 But now hence hence vaine plotters of mine ill The Lord hath heard my lamentations shrill verse 9 God heard my suit and still attends the same verse 10 Blush now my foes and flie with sudden shame PSALME 7. As the 112. Psalme The man is blest that God c. ON thee O Lord my God relies My onely trust from bloudy spight Of all my raging enemies Oh! let thy mercy me acquite verse 2 Lest they like greedy Lyons rend My soule while none shall it defend verse 3 O Lord if I this thing haue wrought If in my hands be found such ill verse 4 If I with mischiefe euer sought To pay good turnes or did not still Doe good vnto my causelesse foe That thirsted for my ouerthrow verse 5 Then let my foe in eager chace Ore-take my soule and proudly tread My life below and with disgrace In dust lay downe mine honour dead verse 6 Rise vp in rage O Lord eft-soone Aduance thine arme against my foâ—ne And wake for me till thou fulfill verse 7 My promis'd right so shall glad throngs Of people flocke vnto thine hill For their sakes then reuenge my wrong's verse 8 And râ—use thy selfe Thy iudgements be O're all the world Lord iudge thou me As truth and honest innocence Thou find'st in me Lord iudge thou me verse 9 Settle the iust with sure defence Let me the wicked's malice see verse 10 Brought to an end For thy iust eye Doth heart and inward reynes descry verse 11 My safety stands in God who shields The sound in heart whose doome each day verse 12 To iust men and contemners yeelds verse 13 Their due Except he change his way His sword is whet to bloud intended His murdering Bow is ready bended verse 14 Weapons of death he hath addrest And arrowes keene to pierce my foe verse 15 Who late bred mischiefe in his brest But when he doth on trauell goe verse 16 Brings forth a lie deepe pits doth delue And fals into his pits himselue verse 17 Backe to his owne head shall rebound His plotted mischiefe and his wrongs verse 18 His crowne shall craze But I shall sound Iehouah's praise with thankfull songs And will his glorious name expresse And tell of all his righteousnesse PSALME 8. As the 113. Psalme Yee children which c. HOw noble is thy mighty Name O Lord o're all the worlds wide frame Whose glory is aduanc't on high Aboue the rowling heauens racke verse 2 How for the gracelesse scorners sake To still th' auenging enemy Hast thou by tender infants tongue The praise of thy great Name made strong While they hang sucking on the brest verse 3 But when I see the heauens bright The moone and glittering starres of night By thine almighty hand addrest verse 4 Oh! what is man poore silly man That thou so mind'st him and dost daine To looke at his vnworthy seed verse 5 Thou hast him set not much beneath Thine Angels bright and with a wreath Of glory hast adorn'd his head verse 6 Thou hast him made high soueraigne verse 7 Of all thy works and stretcht his raigne Vnto the heards and beasts vntame verse 8 To Fowles and to the scaly traine That glideth through the watry Maine verse 9 How noble each-where is thy Name PSALME 9. To the
Lord DENNY Baron of Waltham All Grace and Happinesse RIGHT HONOVRABLE WHen I would haue withdrawne my hand from diuine Salomon the heauenly elegance of this his best Song drew mee vnto it and would not suffer mee to take off mine eies or pen. Who can reade it with vnderstanding and not be transported from the world from himselfe and bee any otherwhere saue in Heauen before his time I had rather spend my time in admiration than Apologie Surely here is nothing that sauours not of extasie and spirituall rauishment neither was there euer so high and passionate a speculation deliuered by the Spirit of God to mankinde which by how much more diuine it is by so much more difficult It is well if these mysteries can be found out by searching Two things make the Scripture hard Prophecies Allegories both are met in this but the latter so sensibly to the weakest eies that this whole Pastorall-mariage-song for such it is is no other than one Allegorie sweetly continued where the deepest things of God are spoken in Riddles how can there be but obscuritie and diuers construction All iudgements will not I know subscribe to my senses yet I haue beene fearefull and spiritually nice not often dissenting from all Jnterpreters alwaies from the vnlikeliest It would bee too tedious to giue my account for euery line let the learned scan and iudge What-euer others censures be your Honours was fauourable and as to all mine full of loue and incouragement That therefore which it pleased you to allow from my pen vouchsafe to receiue from the Presse more common not lesse deuoted to you What is there of mine that doth not ioy in your name and boast it selfe in seruing you To whose soule and people I haue long agone addicted my selfe and my labours and shall euer continue Your Lordships in all humble and vnfained dutie IOS HALL SALOMONS SONG OF SONGS PARAPHRASED CHAP. I. Dialogue The Church to CHRIST 1. Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for thy loue is beter than wine OH that he would bestow vpon me the comfortable testimonies of his loue and that he would vouchsafe me yet a neerer coniunction with himselfe as in glorie hereafter so for the meane time in his sensible graces For thy loue O my Sauiour and these fruits of it are more sweet vnto mee than all earthly delicates can be to the bodily taste 2. Because of the sauour of thy good ointments thy name is as an ointment powred out therefore the Virgins loue thee Yea so wonderfully pleasant are the sauours of those graces that are in thee wherewith I desire to be endued that all whom thou hast blessed with the sense thereof make as high and deare account of thy Gospell whereby they are wrought as of some precious ointment or perfume the delight whereof is such that hereupon the pure and holy soules of the faithfull place their whole affection vpon thee 3. Draw mee we will runne after thee the King hath brought mee into his chambers wee will reioice and bee glad in thee we will remember thy loue more than wine the righteous doe loue thee Pull me therefore out from the bondage of my sinnes deliuer mee from the world and doe thou powerfully incline my will and affections toward thee and in spight of all tentations giue mee strength to cleaue vnto thee and then both I and all those faithfull children thou hast giuen mee shall all at once with speed and earnestnesse walke to thee and with thee yea when once my Royall and glorious Husband hath brought me both into these lower roomes of his spirituall treasures on earth and into his heauenly chambers of glory then will we reioice and be glad in none but thee which shalt be all in all to vs then will wee celebrate and magnifie thy loue aboue all the pleasures we found vpon earth for all of vs thy righteous ones both Angels and Saints are inflamed with the loue of thee 4. I am blacke O daughters of Ierusalem but comely If I be as the tents of Kedar yet I am as the curtaines of Salomon Neuer vpbraid me O yee forraine congregations that I seeme in outward appearance discoloured by my infirmities and duskish with tribulations for whatsoeuer I seeme to you I am yet inwardly well-fauoured in the eies of Him whom I seeke to please and though I be to you blacke like the tents of the Arabian shepheards yet to him and in him I am glorious and beautifull like the Curtaines of Salomon 5. Regard yee me not because I am blacke for the Sunne hath looked vpon mee the sonnes of my mother were angry against me they made me keeper of the vines but I kept not mine owne vine Looke not therefore disdainfully vpon me because I am blackish and darke of hiew for this colour is not so much naturall to mee as caused by that continuall heat of afflictions wherewith I haue beene vsually scorched neither this so much vpon my owne iust desert as vpon the rage and enuie of my false brethren the world who would needs force vpon me the obseruation of their idolatrous religions and superstitious impieties through whose wicked importunitie and my owne weaknesse I haue not so intirely kept the sincere truth of God committed to me as I ought 6. Shew me O thou whom my soule loueth where thou feedest where thou liest at noone for why should I be as she that turneth aside to the flocks of thy companions Now therefore that I am some little started aside from thee O thou whom my soule notwithstanding dearely loueth shew me I beseech thee where and in what wholsome and diuine pastures thou like a good shepherd feedest and restest thy flocks with comfortable refreshings in the extremitie of these hot persecutions for how can it stand with thy glorie that I should through thy neglect thus suspiciously wander vp and downe amongst the congregations of them that both command and practise the worship of false gods CHRIST to the Church 7. If thou know not O thou the fairest among women get thee forth by the steps of the flocke and seed thy Kids aboue the tents of the shepherds IF thou know not O thou my Church whom I both esteeme and haue made most beautifull by my merits and thy sanctification stay not amongst these false worshippers but follow the holy steps of those blessed Patriarkes Prophets Apostles which haue beene my true and ancient flocke who haue both knowne my voice and followed mee and feed thou my weake and tender ones with this their spirituall food of life farre aboue the carnall reach of those other false teachers 8. I haue compared thee O my loue to the troupes of horses in the Chariots of Pharaoh Such is mine estimation of thee O my Loue that so farre as the choisest Egyptian horses of Pharaoh for comely shape for honourable seruice for strength and speed exceed all other so farre thou excellest all that may be compared
the faith and worship of the true God Miracles must be iudged by the doctrine which they confirme not the doctrine by the miracles The Dreamer or Prophet must bee esteemed not by the euent of his wonder but by the substance scope of his teaching The Romanists argue preposterously while they would proue the truth of their Church by miracles wheras they shold proue their miracles by the truth To say nothing of the fashion of their cures that one is prescribed to come to our Lady rather on a Friday as * * * * * Pag. 7 Henry Loyez another to wash nine dayes in the water of MONTAGV as Leonard Stocqueau another to eat a peece of the Oake where the image stood as * * * * * Histoire miracle de nostre Dame Pag 73. Pag. 102. Magdaleine the widow of Bruxelles All which if they sauor not strong of magicall receits let the indifferent iudge Surely either there is no sorcery or this is it All shall be plaine if the doctrine confirmed by their miracles be once discussed for if that be diuine truth we doe vniustly impugne these workes as diabolicall if falshood they doe blasphemously proclaime them for diuine These works tend all chiefly to this double doctrine that the blessed Virgin is to be inuoked for her mediation That God and Saints are to be adored in and by images Positions that would require a volume and such as are liberally disputed by others whereof one is against Scripture the other which in these cases values no lesse besides it One deifies the Virgin the other a stocke or stone It matters not what subtle distinctions their learned Doctors make betwixt mediatioÌ„ of Redemption Examen Pacifique de la doctrine dos Huguenots O sauueresse sauue moy Manuel of French praiers printed at Liege by approbation and authority of Anton Ghenatt Inquisitor c. and Intercession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saint and the Image We know their common people whose deuotion enriches those shrines by confession of their owne Writers climbe the hill of Zichem with this conceit that Mary is their Sauioresse that the stocke is their Goddesse which vnlesse it be true how doe their wonders teach them lies and therefore how from God But to take the first at best for the second is so grosse that were not the second Commandement by Papists purposely razed out of their Primiers children and carters would condemne it it cannot bee denyed that all the substance of prayer is in the heart the vocall sound is but a complement and as an outward case wherein our thoughts are sheathed That power cannot know the praier which knowes not the heart either then the Virgin is God for that shee knowes the heart or to know the heart is not proper to God or to know the heart and so our prayers is falsely ascribed to the Virgin and therfore these wonders which teach men thus to honor her are Doctors of lies so not of God There cannot be any discourse wherein it is more easie to bee tedious To end If prayers were but in words and Saints did meddle with all particularities of earthly things yet blessed Mary should bee a God if shee could at once attend all her suters One sollicits her at Halle another at Scherpenheuuel another at Luca at our Walsingham another one in Europe another in Asia or perhaps another is one of her new Clients in America Ten thousand deuout Suppliants are at once prostrate before her seuerall shrines If she cannot heare all why pray they If she can what can God doe more Certainly as the matter is vsed there cannot be greater wrong offered to those heauenly spirits then by our importunate superstitions to be thrust into Gods Throne and to haue forced vpon them the honors of their Maker There is no contradiction in heauen a Saint cannot allow that an Angell forbids See thou doe it not was the voyce of an Angell if all the miraculous blockes in the world shall speake contrary wee know whom to beleeue The old rule was * * * * * Let no man worship the Virgin Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either that rule is deuillish or this practice And if this practice bee ill God deliuer mee from the immediate author of these miracles Change but one Idoll for another and what differ the wonders of Apollos Temples from those of these Chappels We reuerence as we ought the memory of that holy and happy Virgin We hate those that dishonour her we hate those that deifie her Cursed be all honour that is stolne from God This short satisfaction I giue in a long question such as I dare rest in and resolue that all popish miracles are either falsely reported or falsly done or falsely miraculous or falsely ascribed to heauen To Mr. WILLIAM BEDELL at Venice EP. VII Lamenting the death of our late Diuines and exciting to their imitation WE haue heard how full of trouble and danger the Alpes were to you and did at once both pity your difficulties and reioyce in your safety Since your departure from vs Reynolds is departed from the world Alas how many worthy Lights haue our eyes seene shining and extinguisht How many losses haue we liued to see the Church sustaine and lament of her children of her pillers our owne and forraine I speake not of those which being excellent would needs be obscure whom nothing but their owne secrecy depriued of the honour of our teares There are besides too many whom the world noted and admired euen since the time that our common mother acknowledged vs for her sonnes Our Fulke led the way that profound ready and resolute Doctor the hammer of hereticks The 〈◊〉 of Truth whom your younger times haue heard oft disputing acutely and powerfully Next him followed that honour of our Schooles and Angell of our Church learned Whitakers than whom our age saw nothing more memorable what clearnesse of iudgement what sweetnesse of style what grauity of person what grace of cariage was in that man Who euer saw him without reuerence or heard him without wonder Soone after left the world that famous and illuminate Doctor Francis Iunius the glory of Leiden the other hope of the Church the Oracle of Textuall and Schoole-Diuinity rich in languages subtle in distinguishing and in argument invincible and his companion in labours Lu. Trelcatius would needs be his companion in ioyes who had doubted our sorrow and losse but that he recompenced it with a sonne like himselfe Soone after self old reuerend Beza a long fixed starre in this firmament of the Church who after many excellent monuments of learning and fidelity liued to proue vpon his aduersaries that hee was not dead at their day Neyther may I without iniury omit that worthy payre of our late Diuines Greâ—nham and Perkins whereof the one excelled in experimentall diuinitie knew well how to stay a weake conscience how to raise a
I am glad of your sorrow and should weepe for you if you did not thus mourne Your sorrow is that you cannot enough grieue for your sinnes Let me tell you that the Angels themselues sing at this lamentation neither doth the earth afford any so sweet musicke in the cares of God This heauinesse is the way to ioy Worldly sorrow is worthy of pity because it leadeth to death but this deserues nothing but enuy and gratulation If those teares were common hell would not so enlarge it selfe Neuer sinne repented of was punished and neuer any thus mourned and repented not Loe you haue done that which you grieue you haue not done That good God whose act is his will accounts of our will as our deed If he required sorrow proportionable to the hainousnesse of our sins there were no end of mourning Now his mercy regards not so much the measure as the truth of it and accounts vs to haue that which wee complaine to want I neuer knew any truly penitēt which in the depth of his remorse was afraid of sorrowing too much nor any vnrepentant which wisht to sorrow more Yea let me tell you that this sorrow is better and more then that deepe heauinesse for sinne which you desire Many haue been vexed with an extreame remorse for some sinne from the gripes of a galled conscience which yet neuer came where true repentance grew in whom the conscience playes at once the accuser witnesse Iudge tormentor but an earnest griefe for the want of griefe was neuer found in any but a gracious heart You are happy and complaine Tell me I beseech you This sorrow which you mourne to want is it a grace of the spirit of God or not If not why doe you sorrow to want it If it be oh how happy is it to grieue for want of grace The God of all truth and blessednesse hath said Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and with the same breath Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted You say you mourne Christ saith you are blessed you say you mourne Christ saith you shall be comforted Either now distrust your Sauiour or else confesse your happinesse with patience expect his promised consolation What doe you feare You see others stand like strong Oakes vnshaken vnremoued you are but a reed a feeble plant tossed and bowed with euery wind and with much agitation bruised Loe you are in tender and fauourable hands that neuer brake any whom their sinnes bruised neuer bruised any whom temptations haue bowed You are but flax and your best is not a flame but an obscure smoake of grace Loe here his spirit is as a soft wind not as cold water he will kindle will neuer quench you The sorrow you want is his gift Take heed lest while you vex your selfe with dislike of the measure you grudge at the giuer Beggers may not chuse This portion he hath vouchsafed to giue you if you haue any it is more then he was bound to bestow yet you say What no more as if you tooke it vnkindly that hee is no more liberall Euen these holy discontentments are dangerous Desire more so much as you can but repine not when you doe not attaine Desire but so as you be free from impatience free from vnthankfulnesse Those that haue tryed can say how difficult it is to complaine with due reseruation of thankes Neither know I whether is worse To long for good things impatiently or not at all to desire them The fault of your sorrow is rather in your conceit then in it selfe And if indeed you mourne not enough stay but Gods leisure and your eyes shall runne ouer with teares How many doe you see sport with their sinnes yea brag of them How many that should die for want of pastime if they might not sin freely and more freely talke of it What a Saint are you to these that can droop vnder the memory of the frailty of youth and neuer thinke you haue spent enow teares Yet so I encourage you in what you haue as one that perswades you not to desist from suing for more It is good to be couetous of grace and to haue our desires herein enlarged with our receits Weepe still and still desire to weepe but let your teares be as the raine in a sunne-shine comfortable and hopefull and let not your longing sauour of murmur or distrust These teares are reserued this hunger shall be satisfied this sorrow shall bee comforted There is nothing betwixt God and you but time Prescribe not to his wisedome hasten not his mercy His grace is enough for you his glory shall be more then enough To M. HVGH CHOLMLEY EP. V. Concerning the Metaphrase of the Psalmes FEare not my immoderate studies I haue a body that controls me enough in these courses my friends need not There is nothing whereof I could sooner surfet if I durst neglect my body to satisfie my mind But whiles I affect knowledge my weaknesse checkes me and sayes Better a little learning then no health I yeeld and patiently abide my selfe debarred of my chosen felicity The little I can get I am no niggard of neither am I more desirous to gather then willing to impart The full handed are commonly most sparing We vessels that haue any empty roome answer the least knock with a hollow noyse you that are full sound not If we pardon your closenesse you may well bear with our profusiō If there be any wrong it is to our selues that we vtter what wee should lay vp It is a pardonable fault to do lesse good to our selues that wee may doe more to others Amongst other endeauours I haue boldly vndertaken the holy Metres of Dauid how happily iudge you by what you see There is none of all my labours so open to all censures none whereof I would so willingly heare the verdit of the wise and iudicious Perhaps some thinke the verse harsh whose nice eare regards roundnesse more then sense I embrace smoothnesse but affect it not This is the least good quality of a verse that intends any thing but musicall delight Others may blame the difficulty of the tunes whose humour cannot be pleased without a greater offence For to say truth I neuer could see good verse written in the wonted measures I euer thought them most easie and least Poeticall This fault if any will light vpon the negligence of our people which endure not to take paines for any fit variety The French and Dutch haue giuen vs worthy examples of diligence and exquisitnesse in this kind Neither our eares nor voyces are lesse tunable Here is nothing wanting but will to learne What is this but to eate the corne out of the eare because we will not abide the labour to grinde and knead it If the question bee whether our verse must descend to them or they ascend to it wise moderation I thinke would determine it most equall that each part should
remit somewhat and both meet in the midst Thus I haue endeauored to doe with sincere intent of their good rather then my own applause For it had beene easie to haue reached to an higher straine but I durst not whether for the graue Maiesty of the subiect or benefit of the simplest reader You shal still note that I haue laboured to keepe Dauids entire sense with numbers neither lofty nor slubbered which mean is so much more difficult to find as the businesse is more sacred and the liberty lesse Many great wits haue vndertaken this task which yet haue either not effected it or haue smothered it in their priuate deskes and denied it the common light Amongst the rest were those two rare spirits of the Sidnyes to whom Poesie was as naturall as it is affected of others and our worthy friend M. Syluester hath shewed me how happily he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas to the sweet singer of Israel It could not be that in such abundant plenty of Poesie this work should haue past vnattempted would God I might liue to see it perfected either by my own hand or a better In the meane time let me expect your impartiall sentence both concerning the forme and sense Lay aside your loue for a while which too oft blindes iudgement And as it vses to be done in most equall proceedings of iustice shut me out of doores while my verse is discussed yea let me receiue not your censure onely but others by you this once as you loue mee play both the Informer and the Iudge Whether you allow it you shall encourage me or correct you shall amend me Either your starres or your spits Asteriscus Veru that I may vse Origens notes shall bee welcome to my margent It shall be happy for vs if God shall make our poore labours any way seruiceable to his Name and Church To M. Samuel Sotheby EP. VI. A Preface to his Relation of the Russian affaires TRauell perfiteth wisedome and obseruation giues perfection to trauell without which a man may please his eyes not feed his braine and after much earth measured shall returne with a weary body and an empty minde Home is more safe more pleasant but lesse fruitfull of experience But to a mind not working and discursiue all heauens all earths are alike And as the end of trauell is obseruation so the end of obseruation is the enforming of others for what is our knowledge if smothered in our selues so as it is not knowne to more Such secret delight can content none but an enuious nature You haue breathed many and cold ayres gone farre seene much heard more obserued all These two yeares you haue spent in imitation of Nabuchadnezzars seuen conuersing with such creatures as Paul fought with at Ephesus Alas what a face yea what a backe of a Church haue you seene what manners what people Amongst whom ignorant superstition striues with close Atheisme treachery with cruelty one Deuill with another while Truth and Vertue doe not so much as giue any chalenge of resistance Returning once to our England after this experience I imagine you doubted whether you were on earth or in heauen Now then if you will heare me whom you were wont as you haue obserued what you haue seene and written what you haue obserued so publish what you haue written It shall bee a gratefull labour to vs to posterity I am deceiued if the ficklenesse of the Russian state haue not yeelded more memorable matter of history then any other in our age or perhaps many centuries of our predecessors How shall I think but that God sent you thither before these broiles to be the witnesse the register of so famous mutations He loues to haue those iust euils which hee doth in one part of the world knowne to the whole and those euils which men doe in the night of their secrecy brought forth into the Theater of the World that the euill of mens sinne being compared with the euill of his punishment may iustifie his proceedings and condemne theirs Your worke shall thus honor him besides your second seruice in the benefit of the Church For whiles you discourse of the open tyranny of that Russian Nero Iohn Basilius the more secret no lesse bloody plots of Boris the ill successe of a stolne Crowne tho set vpon the head of an harmelesse Sonne the bold attempts and miserable end of a false yet aspiring chalenge the perfidiousnesse of a seruile people vnworthy of better gouernors the miscariage of wicked gouernors vnworthy of better subiects the vniust vsurpations of men iust tho late reuenges of God cruelty rewarded with blood wrong claimes with ouerthrow treachery with bondage the Reader with some secret horror shall draw-in delight and with delight instruction Neither know I any Relation whence hee shall take out a more easie lesson of iustice of loyalty of thankfulnesse But aboue all let the world see and commiserate the hard estate of that worthy and noble Secretary Buchinski Poore gentleman his distresse recals euer to my thoughts Aesops Storke taken amongst the Cranes He now nourishes his haire vnder the displeasure of a forraine Prince At once in durance and banishment He serued an ill master but with an honest heart with cleane hands The masters iniustice doth no more infect a good seruant then the truth of the seruant can iustifie his ill master A bad worke-man may vse a good instrument and oft-times a cleane napkin wipeth a foule mouth It ioyes me yet to thinke that his piety as it euer beld friendship in heauen so now it wins him friends in this our other world Lo euen from our Iland vnexpected deliuerance takes a long flight and blesseth him beyond hope yea rather from heauen by vs. That God whom he serues will bee knowne to those rude and scarce humane Christians for a protector of innocence a fauourer of truth a rewarder of piety The mercy of our gracious King the compassion of an honourable Councellor the loue of a true friend and which wrought all and set all on worke the grace of our good God shall now loose those bonds and giue a glad welcome to his liberty and a willing farewell to his distresse He shall I hope liue to acknowledge this in the meane time I doe for him Those Russian affaires are not more worthy of your records then your loue to this friend is worthy of mine For neither could this large sea drowne or quench it nor time and absence which are wont to breed a lingring consumption of friendship abate the heat of that affection which his kindnesse bred religion nourished Both rarenesse and worth shall commend this true-loue which to say true hath been now long out of fashion Neuer times yeelded more loue but not more subtle For euery man loues himselfe in another loues the estate in the person Hope of aduantage is the loadstone that drawes the iron hearts of men not vertue not desert No age afforded more
god his deuotion can bee but his pleasure whereas the mortified soule hath learned to scorne these friuolous and sinfull ioyes and affects either solid delights or none and had rather be dull for want of mirth then transported with wanton pleasures When the world like an important Minstrell thrusts it selfe into his chamber and offers him musicke vnsought if he vouchsafe it the hearing it is the highest fauour he dare or can yeeld He rewards it not he commends it not Yea hee secretly lothes those harsh and iarring notes and reiects them For he finds a better consort within betwixt God and himselfe when he hath a little tuned his heart with meditation To speake fully the World is like an ill foole in a Play the Christian is a iudicious spectator which thinkes those iests too grosse to be laught at and therefore entertaines that with scorne which others with applause Yet in truth we finne if wee reioyce not there is not more error in false mirth then in vniust heauinesse If worldlings offend that they laugh when they should mourne we shall offend no lesse if we droop in cause of cheerefulnesse Shall we enuy or scorne to see one ioy in red and white drosse another in a vaine title one in a dainty dish another in a iest one in a book another in a friend one in a Kite another in a Dogge whiles wee enioy the God of Heauen and are sorrowfull What dull metall is this we are made of We haue the fountaine of ioy and yet complaine of heauinesse Is there any ioy without God Certainly if ioy be good and all goodnesse bee from him whence should ioy arise but from him And if hee be the author of ioy how are we Christians and reioyce not What do we freeze in the fire and starue at a feast Haue we a good conscience and yet pine and hang down the head When God hath made vs happy doe we make our selues miserable When I aske my heart Dauids question I know not whether I bee more angry or ashamed at the answer Why art thou sad my soule My body my purse my fame my friends or perhaps none of these onely I am sad because I am And what if all these what if more when I come to my better wits Haue I a father an aduocate a comforter a mansion in heauen If both earth and hell conspired to afflict me my sorrow cannot counteruaile the causes of my ioy Now I can challenge all aduersaries and either defie all miseries or bid all crosses yea death it selfe welcome Yet God doth not abridge vs of these earthly solaces which dare weigh with our discontentments and sometimes depresse the balance His greater light doth not extinguish the lesse If God had not thought them blessings hee had not bestowed them and how are they blessings if they delight vs not Bookes friends wine oyle health reputation competencie may giue occasions but not bounds to our reioycings We may not make them Gods riualls but his spokes-men In themselues they are nothing but in God worth our ioy These may be vsed yet so as they may bee absent without distraction Let these goe so God alone be present with vs it is enough He were not God if he were not All-sufficient We haue him I speake boldly Wee haue him in feeling in faith in pledges and earnest yea in possession Why doe we not enioy him why doe we not shake-off that senselesse drowsinesse which makes our liues vnpleasant and leaue-ouer all heauinesse to those that want God to those that either know him not or know him displeased ToM. W.R. Dedic to M. Thomas Burlz EP. IX Consolations of immoderate griefe for the death of friends WHile the streame of sorrow runs full I know how vaine it is to oppose counsell Passions must haue leasure to digest Wisdome doth not more moderate them then time At first it was best to mourne with you and to mitigate your sorrow by bearing part wherein would God my burden could be your ease Euery thing else is lesse when it is diuided And then is best after teares to giue counsell yet in these thoughts I am not a little straited Before you haue digested griefe aduice comes too early too late when you haue digested it Before it was vnseasonable after would be superfluous Before it could not benefit you after it may hurt you by rubbing-vp a skinned sore a-fresh It is as hard to choose the season for counsell as to giue it and that season is after the first digestion of sorrow before the last If my Letters then meet with the best opportunitie they shall please me and profit you If not yet I deserue pardon that I wished so You had but two Iewels which you held precious a Wife and a Sonne One was your selfe diuided the other your selfe multiplyed You haue lost both and well-neere at once The losse of one caused the other and both of them your iust griefe Such losses when they come single afflict vs but when double astonish vs and tho they giue aduantage of respite would almost ouerwhelme the best patient Lo now is the tryall of your manhood yea of your Christianitie You are now in the lists set vpon by two of Gods fierce afflictions show now what patience you haue what fortitude Wherefore haue you gathered and laid vp all this time but for this brunt Now bring forth all your holy store to light and to vse and approue to vs in this difficultie that you haue all this vvhile beene a Christian in earnest I know these euents haue not surprised you on a sudden you haue suspected they might come you haue put-cases if they should come Things that are hazardous may be doubted but certaine things are and must be expected Prouidence abates griefe and discountenances a crosse Or if your affection were so strong that you durst not fore-thinke your losse take it equally but as it falls A wise man and a Christian knowes death so fatall to Nature so ordinarie in euent so gainefull in the issue that I vvonder he can for this either feare or grieue Doth God onely lend vs one another and doe we grudge when he calls for his owne So I haue seene ill debters that borrow vvith prayers keepe vvith thankes repay vvith enmitie We mistake our tenure vve take that for gift vvhich God intends for loane Wee are tenants at will and thinke our selues owners Your vvife and child are dead Well they haue done that for vvhich they came If they could not haue dyed it had been worthy of vvonder not at all that they are dead If this condition vvere proper onely to our families and friends or yet to our climate alone how vnhappie should we seeme to our neighbours to our selues Now it is common let vs mourne that vve are men Lo all Princes and Monarchs daunce vvith vs in the same ring yea what speake I of earth The God of Nature the Sauiour of men hath trod the same
steps of death And doe we thinke much to follow him How many seruants haue vvee knowne that haue thrust themselues betwixt their Master and death vvhich haue dyed that their Master might not dye and shall vve repine to die vvith ours How truely may vve say of this our Dauid Thou art worth ten thousand of vs yea vvorth a world of Angels yet he died and dyed for vs. Who would liue that knowes his Sauiour died who can be a Christian and vvould not be like him Who can be like him that vvould not die after him Thinke of this and iudge whether all the vvorld can hire vs not to die I neede not aske you vvhether you loued those whom you haue lost Could you loue them and not wish they might be happy Could they be happy and not dye In truth nature knowes vvhat shee vvould haue Wee can neither abide our friends miserable in their stay nor happie in their departure We loue our selues so vvell that wee cannot be content they should gaine by our losse The excuse of our sorrow is that you mourne for your selfe True but compare these two and see whether your losse or their gaine be greater For if their aduantage exceed your losse take heed lest while you bewray your loue in mourning for them it appeare that you loue but your selfe in them They are gone to their preferment and you lament your loue is iniurious If they were vanished to nothing I could not blame you tho you tooke vp Rachels lamentation But now you know they are in surer hands then your owne you know that hee hath taken them which hath vndertaken to keepe them to bring them againe You know it is but a sleepe which is miscalled Death and that they shall they must awake as sure as they lie downe and wake more fresh more glorious then when you shut their eyes What doe we with Christianitie if we beleeue not this and if we doe beleeue it why doe we mourne as the hopelesse But the matter perhaps is not so heauy as the circumstance Your crosses came sudden and thicke You could not breathe from your first losse ere you felt a worse As if hee knew not this that sent both As if he did it not on purpose His proceedings seeme harsh are most wise most iust It is our fault that they seeme otherwise then they are Doe we thinke wee could carue better for our selues O the mad insolence of Nature that dares controll where shee should wonder Presumptuous clay that will be checking the Porter Is his wisdome himselfe Is he in himselfe infinite is his Decree out of his wisdome and doe we murmur Doe wee foolish wormes turne againe when he treads vpon vs What doe you repine at that which was good for you yea best That is best for vs which God seeth best and that he seeth best which he doth This is Gods doing Kisse his rod in silence and giue glory to the hand that rules it His will is the rule of his actions and his goodnesse of his will Things are good to vs because he wils them He wils them because they are good to himselfe It is your glory that he intends in your so great affliction It is no praise to wade ouer a shallow Ford but to cut the swelling waues of the Deepe commends both our strength and skill It is no victory to conquer an easie and weake crosse These maine euils haue crownes answerable to their difficultie Wrestle once and goe away with a blessing Bee patient in this losse and you shall once triumph in your gaine Let God haue them with cheerefulnesse and you shall enioy God with them in glory To Mr J.A. Merchant EP. X. Against sorrow for worldly losses IT is fitter for me to begin with chiding then with aduice what meanes this weake distrust Goe on I shal doubt vvhether I vvrite to a Christian You haue lost your heart together with your vvealth How can I but feare lest this Mammon was your God Hence vvas Gods iealousie in remouing it and hence your immoderate teares for losing it If thus God had not loued you if hee had not made you poore To some it is an aduantage to leese you could not haue been at once thus rich and good Now heauen is open to you which vvas shut before and could neuer haue giuen you entrance with that load of iniquitie If you be wise in menaging your affliction you haue changed the world for God a little drosse for heauen Let me euer lose thus and smart when I complaine But you might haue at once retained both The stomach that is purged must be content to part with some good nourishment that it may deliuer it selfe of more euill humors God saw that knowes it you could not hold him so strongly while one of your hands was so fastned vpon the world You see many make themselues wilfully poore vvhy cannot you be content God should impouerish you If God had willed their pouertie he vvould haue commanded it If he had not vvilled yours he vvould not haue effected it It is a shame for a Christian to see an Heathen Philosopher laugh at his owne shipwracke while himselfe howles out as if all his felicity vvere imbarked vvith his substance How should wee scorne to thinke that an Heathen man should laugh either at our ignorance or impotence ignorance if wee thought too highly of earthly things impotence if vve ouer-loued them The feare of some euils is vvorse then the sense To speake ingenuously I could neuer see vvherein pouertie deserued so hard a conceit It takes away the delicacie of fare softnesse of lodging gaynesse of attire and perhaps brings vvith it contempt this is the vvorst and all View it now on the better side Lo their quiet security sound sleepes sharpe appetite free merriment no feares no cares no suspition no distempers of excesse no discontentment If I were Iudge my tongue should be vniust if pouertie went away vveeping I cannot see how the euils it brings can compare with those which it remoues how the discommodities should match the blessings of a meane estate What are those you haue lost but false friends miserable comforters Else they had not left you Oh slight fickle stay that windes could bereaue you of If your care could goe with them here vvere no damage and if it goe not with them it is your fault Grieue more for your fault then for your losse If your negligence your riotous mis-spence had empaired your estate then Satan had impouerisht you now vvould I haue added to your griefe for your sinne not for your affliction But now since vvindes and vvaters haue done it as the officers of their Maker vvhy should you not say vvith mee as I with Iob The Lord hath taken Vse your losse well and you shall find that God hath crossed you with a blessing And if it were worse then the world esteemes it yet thinke not what you feele but what you
bodie vexation of conscience distemper of passions complaint of estate feares and sense of euill hopes and doubts of good ambitious rackirgs couetous toyles enuious vnderminings irkesome disappointments weary sacieties restlesse desires and many worlds of discontentments in this one What wonder is it that we would liue We laugh at their choice that are in loue with the deformed and what a face is this we dote vpon See if sinnes and cares and crosses haue not like a filthy Morphew ouer-spread it and made it loathsome to all iudicious eyes I maruell then that any wise men could be other but Stoicks and could haue any conceit of life but contemptuous not more for the misery of it while it lasteth then for the not lasting we may loue it wee cannot hold it What a shadow of a smoake what a dreame of a shadow is this wee affect Wise Salomon sayes there is a time to be borne and a time to dye you doe not heare him say a time to liue What is more flitting then time Yet life is not long enough to be worthy of the title of time Death borders vpon our birth and our cradle stands in our graue We lament the losse of our parents how soone shall our sonnes bewaile ours Loe I that write this and you that reade it how long are we here It were well if the world were as our tent yea as our Inne if not to lodge yet to bait in but now it is onely our thorow-fare one generation passeth another commeth none stayeth If this earth were a Paradise and this which we call our life were sweet as the ioyes aboue yet how should this ficklenesse of it coole our delight Grant it absolute who can esteeme a vanishing pleasure How much more now when the drammes of our honey are lost in pounds of gall when our contentments are as farre from sincerity as continuance Yet the true apprehension of life though ioyned with contempt is not enough to settle vs if either we be ignorant of death or ill perswaded for if life haue not worth enough to allure vs yet death hath horror enough to affright vs. Hee that would die cheerefully must know death his friend what is hee but the faithfull officer of our Maker who euer smiles or frownes with his Master neither can either shew or nourish enmitie where God fauours when he comes fiercely and puls a man by the throat and summons him to Hell who can but tremble The messenger is terrible but the message worse hence haue risen the miserable despaires and furious rauing of the ill conscience that findes no peace within lesse without But when he comes sweetly not as an executioner but as a guide to glory and profers his seruice and shewes our happinesse and opens the doore to our heauen how worthy is he of entertainment how worthy of gratulation But his salutation is painfull if courteous what then The Physician heales vs not without paine and yet wee reward him It is vnthankfulnesse to complaine vvhere the answer of profit is excessiue Death paineth how long how much with what proportion to the sequell of ioy O death if thy pangs be grieuous yet thy rest is sweet The constant expectation that hath possessed that rest hath already swallowed those pangs and makes the Christian at once wholly dead to his paine wholly aliue to his glory The soule hath not leysure to care for her suffering that beholds her crowne which if shee were conioyned to fetch thorow the flames of hell her faith would not sticke at the condition Thus in briefe he that liues Christianly shall dye boldly he that findes his life short and miserable shall dye willingly hee that knowes death and fore-sees glory shall die cheerefully and desirously To M. Samuel Burton Arch-deacon of Glocester EP. III. A discourse of the tryall and choice of the true Religion Sir This Discourse inioyned by you I send to your censure to your disposing but to the vse of others Vpon your charge I haue written it for the wauering If it seeme worthy communicate it else it is but a dash of your pen. I feare onely the breuitie a Volume were too little for this Subiect It is not more yours then the Author Farewell WE doe not more affect varietie in all other things then wee abhorre it in Religion Euen those which haue held the greatest falshoods hold that there is but one truth I neuer read of more then one Hereticke that held all Heresies true neither did his opinion seeme more incredible then the relation of it God can neither be multiplyed nor Christ diuided if his coat might bee parted his bodie was intire For that then all sides chalenge Truth and but one can possesse it let vs see who haue found it who enioy it There are not many Religions that striue for it tho many opinions Euery Heresie albe fundamentall makes not a Religion We say not The Religion of Arrians Nestorians Sabellians Macedonians but the sect or heresie No opinion challenges this name in our vsuall speech for I discusse not the proprietie but that which arising from many differences hath setled it selfe in the world vpon her owne principles not without an vniuersall diuision Such may soone be counted Tho it is true there are by so much too many as there are more then one Fiue religions then there are by this rule vpon earth which stand in competition for truth Iewish Turkish Greekish Popish Reformed whereof each pleads for it selfe with disgrace of the other The plaine Reader doubts how he may fit Iudge in so high a plea God hath put this person vpon him while he chargeth him to try the spirits to retaine the good reiect the euill If still he plead with Moses insufficiencie let him but attend God shall decide the case in his silence without difficultie The Iew hath little to say for himselfe but impudent denials of our Christ of their Prophecies whose very refusall of him more strongly proues him the true Messias neither could he be iustified to be that Sauiour if they reiected him not since the Prophets fore-saw and fore-told not their repelling of him onely but their reuiling If there were no more arguments God hath so mightily confuted them from heauen by the voice of his iudgement that al the vvorld hisseth at their conuiction Loe their very sinne is capitally written in their desolation and contempt One of their owne late Doctors seriously expostulates in a relenting Letter to another of his fellow Rabbins what might be the cause of so long and desperate a ruine of their Israel and comparing their former captiuities with their former sinnes argues and yet feares to conclude that this continuing punishment must needs be sent for some sinne so much greater then Idolatry Oppression Sabbath-breaking by how much this plague is more grieuous then all the other Which his feare tels him and he may beleeue it can be no other but the murder and refusall of their
with both and neither I flatter you not this of yours is the worst of all tempers heat and cold haue their vses luke-warmnesse is good for nothing but to trouble the stomacke Those that are spiritually hot finde acceptation those that are starke cold haue a lesser reckoning the meane betweene both is so much worse as it comes neerer to good and attaines it not How long wilt you halt in this indifferency Resolue one way and know at last what you doe hold what you should Cast off either your wings or your teeth and loathing this Bat-like nature be either a bird or a beast To dye wauering and vncertaine your selfe will grant fearfull If you must settle when begin you If you must beginne why not now It is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly and whose opportunity is doubtfull God cryeth with Iehu Who is on my side who Looke at last out of your window to him and in a resolute courage cast downe this Iezabel that hath bewitched you Is there any impediment which delay will abate Is there any which a iust answer cannot remoue If you had rather wauer who can settle you But if you loue not inconstancy tell vs why you stagger Bee plaine or else you will neuer bee firme What hinders you Is it our diuisions I see you shake your head at this and by your silent gesture bewray this the cause of your distaste Would God I could either deny this with truth or amend it with teares But I grant it with no lesse sorrow then you with offence This earth hath nothing more lamentable then the ciuill jarres of one faith What then Must you defie your mother because you see your brethren fighting Their dissension is her griefe Must she lose some sonnes because some others quarrell Doe not so wrong your selfe in afflicting her Will you loue Christ the lesse because his coat is diuided Yea let mee bodly say The hemme is torne a little the garment is whole or rather it is fretted a little not torne or rather the fringe not the hem Behold here is one Christ one Creed one Baptisme one Heauen one way to it in summe one religion one foundation and take away the tumultuous spirits of some rigorous Lutherans one heart our differences are those of Paul and Barnabas not those of Peter and Magus if they be some it is well they are no more if many that they are not capitall Shew me that Church that hath not complained of distraction yea that family yea that fraternity yea that man that alwayes agrees with himselfe See if the Spouse of Christ in that heauenly mariage song doe not call him a young Hart in the mountaines of diuision Tell me then whither wil you go for truth if you will allow no truth but where there is no diuision To Rome perhaps famous for vnitie famous for peace See now how happily you haue chosen how well you haue sped Loe there Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe a witnesse aboue exception vnder his owne hand acknowledgeth to the world and reckons vp 237 contrarieties of doctrine among the Romish Diuines VVhat need we more euidence O the perfect accordance of Peters See! worthy to be recorded for a badge of truth Let now all our aduersaries scrape together so many contradictions of opinions amongst vs as they confesse amongst themselues and be you theirs No they are not more peaceable but more subtle they haue not lesse dissension but more smothered They fight closely within doores without noyse all our frayes are in the field would God wee had as much of their cunning as they want of our peace and no more of their policy then they want of our truth Our strife is in ceremonies their 's substance ours in one or two points theirs in all Take it boldly from him that dares auouch it there is not one point in all Diuinity except those wherein we accord with them wherein they all speak the same If our Church displease you for differences theirs much more vnlesse you will be either wilfully incredulous or wilfully partiall vnlesse you dislike a mischiefe the lesse for the secrecy VVhat will you doe then VVill you be a Church alone Alas how full are you of contradictions to your selfe how full of contrary purposes how oft doe you chide with your selfe how oft doe you fight with your selfe I appeale to that bosome which is priuy to those secret combats beleeue me not if euer you find perfect vnity any where but aboue either goe thither and seeke it amongst those that triumph or be content with what estate you finde in this warfaring number Truth is in differences as gold in drosse wheat in chaffe will you cast away the best mettall the best graine because it is mingled with this offall VVill you rather bee poore and hungry then bestow labour on the farme or the furnace Is there nothing worth your respect but peace I haue heard that the interlacing of discords graces the best musick and I know not whether the very euill spirits agree not with themselues If the body be sound what though the coat be torne or if the garment be whole what if the lace be vnript Take you peace let me haue truth I cannot haue both To conclude Embrace those truths that we all hold and it greatly matters not what you hold in those wherein we differ and if you loue your safety seeke rather grounds whereon to rest then excuses for your vnrest If euer you looke to gaine by the truth you must both chuse it and cleaue to it Meere resolution is not enough except you will rather lose your selfe then it To Sir EDMVND LVCY EPIST. VI. Discoursing of the different degrees of heauenly glory and of our mutuall knowledge of each other aboue AS those which neuer were at home now after much heare-say trauelling toward it aske in the way What manner of house it is what seat what frame what soile so doe we in the passage to our glory we are all pilgrimes thither yet so as that some haue lookt into it afarre through the open windowes of the Scripture Goe to then whiles others are enquiring about worldly dignities and earthly pleasures let vs two sweetly consult of the estate of our future happinesse yet without presumption without curiositie Amongst this infinite choice of thoughts it hath pleased you to limit our discourse to two heads You aske first if the ioyes of the glorified Saints shall differ in degrees I feare not to affirme it There is one life of all one felicity but diuers measures Our heauen beginnes here and here varies in degrees One Christian enioyes God aboue another according as his grace as his faith is more and heauen is still like it selfe not other aboue from that beneath As our grace begins our glory so it proportions it Blessednesse stands in the perfect operation of the best faculties about the perfectest obiect that is in the vision in the fruition of God All
pay vs what we haue lent and giue vs because we haue giuen That is his bounty this his iustice O happy is that man that may be a creditor to his Maker Heauen and earth shall be empty before he shall want a royall payment If we dare not trust God whiles we liue how dare we trust men when we are dead men that are still deceitfull light vpon the balance light of truth heauy of selfe-loue How many Executors haue proued the executioners of honest Wils how many haue our eyes seene that after most carefull choice of trusty guardians haue had their children and goods so disposed as if the Parents soule could returne to see it I doubt whether it could bee happy How rare is that man that prefers not himselfe to his dead friend profit to truth that will take no vantage of the impossibility of account What-euer therefore men either shew or promise happy is that man that may be his own auditor superuisor executor As you loue God and your selfe be not afraid of being happy too soone I am not worthy to giue so bold aduice let the wise man of Syrach speak for me Doe good before thou die and according to thine ability stretch out thine hands and giue Defraud not thy selfe of thy good day and let not the portion of thy good desires ouer-passe thee Shalt thou not leaue thy trauels to another and thy labours to them that will diuide thine heritage Or let a wiser then he Salomon Say not to morrow I will giue if now thou haue it for thou knowest not what a day will bring forth It hath beene an old rule of liberality He giues twice that giues quickly whereas slow benefits argue vncheerfulnesse and lose their worth Who lingers his receits is condemned as vnthrifty he that knoweth both saith It is better to giue then to receiue If we be of the same spirit why are wee hasty in the worse and slacke in the better Suffer not your selfe therefore good Sir for Gods sake for the Gospels sake for the Churches sake for your soules sake to be stirred vp by these poore lines to a resolute and speedy performing of your worthy intentions and take this as a louing inuitation sent from heauen by an vnworthy messenger You cannot deliberate long of fit obiects for your beneficence except it be more for multitude then want the streets yea the world is full How doth Lazarus lye at euery doore how many sonnes of the Prophets in their meanly-prouided Colledges may say not Mors in olla but fames how many Churches may iustly plead that which our Sauiour bad his Disciples The Lord hath need And if this infinite store hath made your choice doubtfull how easie were it to shew you wherein you might oblige the whole Church of God to you and make your memoriall both eternall and blessed or if you had rather the whole Common-wealth But now I finde my selfe too bold and too busie in thus looking to particularities God shall direct you and if you follow him shall crowne you howsoeuer if good bee done and that betimes he hath what he desired and your soule shall haue more then you can desire The successe of my weak yet hearty counsell shall make me as rich as God hath made you with all your abundance That God blesse it to you and make both our recknings cheerfull in the day of our common Audit To E.B. Dedicated to Sir George Goring EP. VIII Remedies against dulnesse and heartlesnesse in our callings and incouragements to cheerfulnesse in labour IT falls out not seldome if wee may measure all by one that the minde ouer-layed with worke growes dull and heauy and now doth nothing because it hath done too much ouer-lauish expence of spirits hath left it heartlesse as the best vessell with much motion and vent becomes flat and dreggish And not fewer of more weake temper discourage themselues with the difficulty of what they must doe some Trauellers haue more shrunke at the Mappe then at the way Betwixt both how many sit still with their hands folded and wish they knew how to be rid of time If this euill be not cured we become miserable losers both of good houres and of good parts In these mentall diseases Empiricks are the best Physicians I prescribe you nothing but out of feeling If you will auoid the first moderate your owne vehemency suffer not your selfe to doe all you could doe Rise euer from your deske not without an appetite The best horse will tyre soonest if the reines lye euer loose in his necke Restraints in these cases are encouragements obtaine therefore of your selfe to defer and take new dayes How much better is it to refesh your selfe with many competent meales then to buy one dayes gluttony with the fast of many And if it bee hard to call off the mind in the midst of a faire and likely flight know that all our ease and safety begins at the command of our selues he can neuer taske himselfe well that cannot fauour himselfe Perswade your heart that perfection comes by leisure and no excellent thing is done at once the rising and setting of many Sunnes which you thinke slackens your worke in truth ripens it That gourd which came vp in a night withered in a day whereas those plants which abide age rise slowly Indeed where the heart is vnwilling prorogation hinders what I list not to doe this day I loathe the next but where is no want of desire delay doth but sharpen the stomack That which we doe vnwillingly leaue we long to vndertake and the more our affection is the greater our intention and the better our performance To take occasion by the fore-top is no small point of wisedome but to make time which is wyld and fugitiue tame and pliable to our purposes is the greatest improuement of a man All times serue him which hath the rule of himselfe If the second thinke seriously of the condition of your being It is that we were made for the Bird to flye and Man to labour What doe we here if we repine at our worke We had not beene but that we might be still busie if not in this taske we dislike yet in some other of no lesse toyle there is no act that hath not his labour which varies in measure according to the will of the doer This which you complaine of hath beene vndertaken by others not with facility onely but with pleasure and what you chuse for ease hath beene abhorred of others as tedious All difficulty is not so much in the worke as in the Agent To set the mind on the racke of a long meditation you say is a torment to follow the swift foot of your hound all day long hath no wearinesse what would you say of him that finds better game in his study then you in the field and would account your disport his punishment Such there are though you doubt and wonder Neuer thinke to detract from
perswade and pray these I will not faile of The rest to him that both can amend and punish To M. IONAS REIGESBERGIVS in ZELAND EP. VII Written some whiles since concerning some new opinions then broached in the Churches of HOLLAND and vnder the name of Arminius then liuing perswading all great wits to a study and care of the common peace of the Church and disswading from all affectation of singularity I Receiued lately a short relation of some new Paradoxes from your Leiden you would know what wee thinke I feare not to be censured as medling your truth is ours The Sea cannot diuide those Churches whom one faith vnites I know not how it comes to passe that most men while they too much affect ciuilitie turne flatterers and plaine truth is most-where counted rudenesse He that tels a sicke friend he lookes ill or termes an angry tumour the Gowt or a waterish swelling Dropsie is thought vnmannerly For my part I am glad that I was not borne to feed humors How euer you take your owne euils I must tell you we pitie you and thinke you haue iust cause of deiection and we for you not for any priuate cares but which touch a Christian neerest the Common-wealth of God Behold after all those hils of carkases and streames of blood your ciuill sword is sheathed wherein we neither congratulate nor feare your peace lo now in stead of that another while the spirituall sword is drawne and shaken and it is well if no more Now the politick State sits still the Church quarrels Oh! the insatiable hostilitie of our great enemy with what change of mischiefes doth he afflict miserable man No sooner did the Christian world begin to breathe from persecution but it was more punished with Arrianisme when the red Dragon cannot deuoure the childe hee tryes to drowne the mother and when the vvaters faile he raises warre Your famous Iunius had nothing more admirable then his loue of peace when our busie Separatists appealed him with what a sweet calmnesse did he reiect them and with a graue importunitie call'd them to moderation How it would haue vexed his holy soule now out of the danger of passions to haue foreseene his chaire troublesome God forbid that the Church should finde a Challenger in stead of a Champion Who vvould thinke but you should haue bin taught the benefit of peace by the long vvant But if your temporal state besides either hope or beleefe hath growne wealthy with warre like those Fowles which fatten vvith hard weather yet bee too sure that these spirituall broyles cannot but impouerish the Church yea affamish it It vvere pitie that your Holland should bee still the Amphitheatre of the world on whose scaffolds all other Nations should sit see varietie of bloody shews not without pitie and horror If I might challenge ought in that your acute and learned Arminius I would thus solicit and coniure him Alas that so wise a man should not know the worth of peace that so noble a sonne of the Church should not bee brought to light without ripping the vvombe of his mother What meane these subtil Nouelties If they make thee famous and the Church miserable vvho shall gaine by them Is singularitie so precious that it should cost no lesse then the safety and quiet of our common mother If it be truth thou affectest what alone Could neuer any eyes till thine be blessed with this obiect where hath that sacred veritie hid her selfe thus long from all her carefull Inquisitors that shee now first shewes her head to thee vnsought Hath the Gospell shined thus long and bright and left some corners vnseene Away with all new truths faire and plausible they may be sound they cannot some may admire thee for them none shall blesse thee But grant that some of these are no lesse true then nice points what doe these vnseasonable crochets and quauers trouble the harmonious plaine-songs of our peace Some quiet error may bee better then some vnruly truth Who binds vs to speake all we thinke So the Church may be still would God thou wert wise alone Did not our aduersaries quarrell enough before at our quarrels Were they not rich enough with our spoiles By the deare name of our common parents vvhat meanest thou Arminius Whither tend these new-rais'd dissensions Who shall thriue by them but they which insult vpon vs and rise by the fall of truth who shall be vndone but thy brethren By that most precious and bloodie ransome of our Sauiour and by that awfull appearance we shall once make before the glorious Tribunall of the Sonne of God remember thy selfe and the poore distracted limmes of the Church Let not those excellent parts wherewith God hath furnished thee lye in the narrow vvay and cause any weake one either to fall or stumble or erre For Gods sake either say nothing or the same How many great wits haue sought no by-paths and now are happy vvith their fellowes Let it bee no disparagement to goe vvith many to heauen What could he reply to so plaine a charge No distinction can auoid the power of simple truth I know he heares not this of me first Neither that learned and vvorthy Fran. Gomarus nor your other graue fraternitie of reuerend Diuines haue beene silent in so maine a cause I feare rather too much noise in any of these tumults There may too many contend not intreat Multitude of suters is commonly powerfull how much more in iust motions But if either he or you shal turne me home and bid mee spend my little moisture vpon our owne brands I grant there is both the same cause and the same need This counsell is no whit further from vs because it is directed to you Any Reader can change the person I lament to see that euery where peace hath not many clients but fewer louers yea euen many of those that praise her follow her not Of old the very Nouatian men women children brought stones and morter vvith the Orthodoxe to the building of the Church of the resurrection and ioyned louingly with them against the Arrians lesser quarrels diuide vs and euery diuision ends in blowes and euery blow is returned and none of all lights beside the Church Euen the best Apostles dissented neither knowledge nor holinesse can redresse all differences True but wisdome and charitie could teach vs to auoid their preiudice If we had but these two vertues quarrels should not hurt vs nor the Church by vs But alas selfe-loue is too strong for both these This alone opens the floud-gates of dissension and drownes the sweet but low valley of the Church Men esteeme of opinions because their owne and will haue truth serue not gouerne What they haue vndertaken must bee true Victory is sought for not satisfaction victory of the Author not of the cause Hee is a rare man that knowes to yeeld as well as to argue vvhat should we doe then but bestow our selues vpon that vvhich
too many neglect publike peace first in prayers that we may preuaile then in teares that we preuaile not Thus haue I beene bold to chat with you of our greatest and common cares Your old loue and late hospitall entertainment in that your Iland called for this remembrance the rather to keepe your English tongue in breath vvhich was wont not to be the least of your desires Would God you could make vs happie with newes not of truce but sincere amitie and vnion not of Prouinces but spirits The God of spirits effect it both here and there to the glory of his Name and Church To W. J. condemned for murder EP. VIII Effectually preparing him and vnder his name whatsoeuer Malefactor for his death IT is a bad cause that robbeth vs of all the comfort of friends yea that turnes their remembrance into sorrow None can do so but those that proceed from our selues for outward euils vvhich come from the infliction of others make vs cleaue faster to our helpers and cause vs to seeke and find ease in the very commiseration of those that loue vs whereas those griefes which arise from the iust displeasure of conscience will not abide so much as the memorie of others affection or if it doe makes it so much the greater corrasiue as our case is more vncapable of their comfort Such is yours You haue made the mention of our names tedious to your selfe and yours to vs. This is the beginning of your paine that you had friends If you may now smart soundly from vs for your good it must be the only ioy you must expect and the finall dutie we owe to you It is both vaine and comfortlesse to heare what might haue beene neither would I send you backe to what is past but purposely to increase your sorrow vvho haue caused all our comfort to stand in your teares If therefore our former counsels had preuailed neither had your hands shed innocent blood nor iustice yours Now to your great sinne you haue done the one and the other must bee done to your paine and we your well-willers with sorrow and shame liue to be witnesses of both Your sinne is gone before the reuenge of iustice will follow seeing you are guilty let God be iust Other sinnes speake this cryeth and will neuer be silent till it be answered with it selfe For your life the case is hopelesse feede not your selfe with vaine presumptions but settle your selfe to expiate anothers blood with your own Would God your desert had been such that we might with any comfort haue desired you might liue But now alas your fact is so hainous that your life can neither bee craued without iniustice nor be protracted without inward torment And if our priuate affection should make vs deafe to the shouts of blood and partialitie should teach vs to forget all care of publique right yet resolue there is no place for hope Since then you could not liue guiltlesse there remaines nothing but that you labour to die penitent and since your bodie cannot bee saued aliue to endeuour that your soule may bee saued in death Wherein how happie shall it be for you if you shall yet giue care to my last aduice too late indeed for your recompence to the world not too late for your selfe You haue deserued death and expect it Take heed lest you so fasten your eyes vpon the first death of the bodie that you should not looke beyond it to the second which alone is vvorthy of trembling vvorthy of teares For this though terrible to Nature yet is common to vs with you You must die what doe we else And what differs our end from yours but in haste and violence And vvho knowes vvhether in that It may be a sicknesse as sharpe as sudden shal fetch vs hence it may be the same death or a vvorse for a better cause Or if not so there is much more misery in lingring Hee dies easily that dies soone but the other is the vtmost vengeance that God hath reserued for his enemies This is a matter of long feare and short paine A few pangs lets the soule out of prison but the torment of that other is euerlasting after ten thousand yeares scorching in that flame the paine is neuer the neerer to his ending No time giues it hope of abating yea time hath nothing to doe vvith this eternitie You that shall feele the paine of one minutes dying thinke what paine it is to be dying for euer and euer This although it be attended with a sharpe paine yet is such as some strong spirits haue endured without shew of yeeldance I haue heard of an Irish Traitor that when he lay pining vpon the vvheele with his bones broke asked his friend if he changed his countenance at all caring lesse for the paine then the shew of feare Few men haue died of greater paines then others haue sustained and liue But that other ouerwhelmes both bodie and soule and leaues no roome for any comfort in the possibilitie of mitigation Here men are executioners or diseases there fiends Those Deuils that were ready to tempt the gracelesse vnto sinne are as ready to follow the damned vvith tortures Whatsoeuer become of your carkase saue your soule from the flames and so manage this short time you haue to liue that you may die but once This is not your first sinne yea God hath now punished your former sinnes vvith this a fearfull punishment in it selfe if it deserued no more your conscience which now begins to tell truth cannot but assure you that there is no sinne more worthy of hell then murder yea more proper to it Turne ouer those holy leaues which you haue too much neglected and now smart for neglecting you shall finde murderers among those that are shut out from the presence of God you shall find the Prince of that darknesse in the highest stile of his mischiefe termed a man-slayer Alas how fearfull a case is this that you haue herein resembled him for vvhom Topheth was prepared of old and imitating him in his action haue endangered your selfe to partake of his torment Oh that you could but see what you haue done what you haue deserued that your heart could bleed enough within you for the blood your hands haue shed That as you haue followed Satan our common enemy in sinning so you could defie him in repenting That your teares could disappoint his hopes of your damnation What a happie vnhappinesse shall this be to your sad friends that your better part yet liueth That from an ignominious place your soule is receiued to glory Nothing can effect this but your repentance and that can doe it Feare not to looke into that horror which should attend your sinne and bee now as seuere to your selfe as you haue been cruell to another Thinke not to extenuate your offence vvith the vaine titles of manhood vvhat praise is this that you vvere a valiant murderer Strike your owne brest as Moses
censure of that resolute Hierome Ego è contrario loquar c. I say saith he and in spight of all the world dare maintaine that now the Iewish ceremonies are pernitious and deadly and whosoeuer shall obserue them whether hee be Iew or Gentile in barathrum Diaboli deuolutum Shall frie in Hell for it Still Altars still Priest sacrifices still still washings still vnctions sprinkling shauing purifying still all and more than all Let them heare but Augustines censure Quisquis nunc c. Whosoeuer shall now vse them as it were raking them vp out of their dust hee shall not bee Pius deductor corporis sed impius sepulturae violator an impious and sacrilegious wretch that ransacks the quiet tombes of the dead I say not that all Ceremonies are dead but the Law of Ceremonies and of Iewish It is a sound distinction of them that profound Peter Martyr hath in his Epistle to that worthy Martyr Father Bishop Hooper Some are typicall fore-signifying Christ to come some of order and decencie those are abrogated not these the Iewes had a fashion of prophesying in the Churches so the Christians from them as Ambrose the Iewes had an eminent pulpit of wood so wee they gaue names at their Circumcision so wee at Baptisme they sung Psalmes melodiously in Churches so doe we they paid and receiued tithes so doe wee they wrapt their dead in linnen with odors so wee the Iewes had sureties at their admission into the Church so wee these instances might be infinite the Spouse of Christ cannot bee without her laces and chaines and borders Christ came not to dissolue order But thou O Lord how long how long shall thy poore Church finde her ornaments her sorrowes and see the deare sonnes of her wombe bleeding about these apples of strife let mee so name them not for their value euen small things when they are commanded looke for no small respect but for their euent the enemie is at the gates of our Syracuse how long will wee suffer our selues taken vp with angles and circles in the dust yee Men Brethren and Fathers helpe for Gods sake put to your hands to the quenching of this common flame the one side by humilitie and obedience the other by compassion both by prayers and teares who am I that I should reuiue to you the sweet spirit of that diuine Augustine who when hee heard and saw the bitter contentions betwixt two graue and famous Diuines Ierome and Ruffine Heu mihi saith he qui vos alicubi fiâ—al inuenire non possum Alas that I should neuer finde you two together how I would fall at your feet how I would embrace them and weepe vpon them and beseech you either of you for other and each for himselfe both of you for the Church of God but especially for the weake for whom Christ died who not without their owne great danger see you two fighting in this Theatre of the world Yet let me doe what he said he would doe begge for peace as for life by your filiall pietie to the Church of God whose ruines follow vpon our diuisions by your loue of Gods truth by the graces of that one blessed Spirit whereby we are all informed and quickned by the precious bloud of that Sonne of God which this day and this houre was shed for our redemption bee inclined to peace and loue and though our braines be different yet let our hearts be one It was as I heard the dying speech of our late reuerend worthy and gratious Diocesan Modo me moriente viuat ac floreat Ecclesia Oh yet if when I am dead the Church may liue and flourish What a spirit was here what a speech how worthy neuer to die how worthy of a soule so neere to his heauen how worthy of so happy a succession Yee whom God hath made inheritors of this blessed care who doe no lesse long for the prosperitie of Sion liue you to effect what hee did but liue to wish all peace with our selues and warre with none but Rome and Hell And if there bee any wayward Separatist whose soule professeth to hate peace I feare to tell him Pauls message yet I must Si tu pacem sugis ego te ab Ecclesia fugere mando Would to God those were cut off that trouble you How cut off As good Theodosius said to Demophilus a contentious Prelate Si tu pacem fugis c. If thou flie peace I will make thee flie the Church Alas they doe flie it that which should be therir punishment they make their contentment how are they worthy of pittie As Optatus of his Donatists they are Brethren might be companions and will not Oh wilfull men whither doe they runne from one Christ to another Is Christ diuided we haue him thankes be to our good God and we heare him daily and whither shall we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Thus the Ceremonies are finished now heare the end of his sufferings with like patience and deuotion his death is here included it was so neere that he spake of it as done and when it was done all was done How easie is it to lose our selues in this discourse how hard not to be ouerwhelmed with matter of wonder and to finde either beginning or end his sufferings found an end our thoughts cannot Lo with this word he is happily waded out of those deeps of sorrowes whereof our conceits can finde no bottome yet let vs with Peter gird our coat and cast our selues a little into this sea All his life was but a perpetuall Passion In that he became man he suffered more than wee can doe either while we are men or when we cease to be men he humbled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea he emptied himselfe We when we cease to be here are cloathed vpon 2 Cor. 5. Wee both winne by our being and gaine by our losse he lost by taking our more or lesse to himselfe that is manhood For though euer as God I and my Father are one yet as man My Father is greater than I. That man should be turned into a beast into a worme into dust into nothing is not so great a disparagement as that God should become man and yet it is not finished it is but begun But what man If as the absolute Monarch of the world hee had commanded the vassalage of all Emperors and Princes and had trod on nothing but Crownes and Scepters and the necks of Kings and bidden all the Potentates of the earth to attend his traine this had carried some port with it sutable to the heroicall Maiestie of Gods Sonne No such matter here is neither Forme nor Beautie vnlesse perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the forme of a seruant you haue made me to serue with your sinnes Behold hee is a man to God a seruant to man and be it spoken with holy reuerence a drudge to his seruants Hee is despised and reiected of men yea as
that the new man by being more wise in God may out-strip the old And how shall that be done If we would dispossesse the strong man that keepes the house our Sauiour bids vs bring in a stronger than hee and if we would ouer-reach the subtiltie of the old man yea the old Serpent bring in a wiser than he euen the Spirit of God the God of wisdome If we would haue Achitophels wicked counsels crossed set vp an Hushai within vs The foolishnesse of God is wiser than the wisdome of men Could we but settle God within vs our craftie hearts would be out of countenance and durst not offer to play any of their deluding tricks before him from whom nothing is hid and if they could be so impudently presumptuous yet they should be so soone controlled in their first motions that there would be more danger of their confusion than of our deceit As ye loue your selues therefore and your owne safetie and would be free from the perill of this secret broaker of Satan your owne hearts render them obediently into the hands of God giue him the keyes of these closets of his owne making beseech him that he will vouchsafe to dwell and reigne in them so shall we be sure that neither Satan shall deceiue them nor they deceiue vs but both we and they shall be kept safe and inuiolable and presented glorious to the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for euer and euer Amen FINIS The Best Bargaine A SERMON PREACHED TO THE COVRT AT THEOBALDS on Sunday Sept. 21. 1623. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM EARLE OF PEMBROKE LORD high Chamberlaine CHANCELLOR of the Vniuersity of Oxford One of his MAIESTIES most Honourable Priuy Counsell RIGHT HONOVRABLE LEt it please you to receiue from the Presse what you vouchsafed to require from my pen Vnworthy I confesse either of the publike light or the beames of your Honours iudicious eies yet such as besides the motiue of common importunity I easily apprehended might bee not a little vsefull for the times which if euer require quickning Neither is it to no purpose that the world should see in what stile we speake to the Court not without acceptation This and what euer seruice I may bee capable of are iustly deuoted to your Lordship whom all good hearts follow with true Honour as the great Patron of learning the sincere friend of Religion and rich purchaser of Truth The God of Heauen adde to the number of such Peeres and to the measure of your Lo graces and happinesse Your Honours in all humble and faithfull obseruance IOS HALL THE BEST BARGAINE PROV 23.23 Buy the Truth and sell it not THE subiect of my Text is a Bargaine and Sale A bargaine enioyned a sale forbidden and the subiect of both bargaine and sale is Truth A bargaine able to make vs all rich a sale able to make any of vs miserable Buy the Truth and sell it not A sentence of short sound but large extent the words are but seuen syllables an easie load for our memories the matter is a world of worke a long taske for our liues And first let mee call you to this Mart which holds both now and euer If yee loue your selues bee yee customers at this shop of heauen Buy the Truth In euery bargaine there is merx and mercatura the commoditie and the match The commoditie to be bought is the Truth The match made for this commodity is Buying Buy the Truth An ill Iudge may put a good Interrogatory yet it was a question too good for the mouth of a Pilate What is Truth The schooles haue wearied themselues in the solution To what purpose should I reade a Metaphysicall Lecture to Courtiers Truth is as Time one in all yet as Time though but one is distinguished into past present future and euery thing hath a Time of it owne so is Truth variously distinguished according to the subiects wherein it is This is Anselmes cited by Aquinas I had rather say Truth is as light Send forth thy Truth and thy light saith the Psalmist which though but one in all yet there is one light of the Sunne another of the Moone another of the Starres another of this lower aire There is an essentiall and causall Truth in the Diuine vnderstanding which the schooles call Primo-primam This will not bee sold cannot be bought God will not part with it the world is not worth it This Truth is as the Light in the body of the Sunne There is an intrinsecall or formall truth in things truly existing For Being and True are conuertible and Saint Austen rightly defines Verum est illud quod est All this created Truth in things is deriued exemplarily and causally from that increated Truth of God this the schooles call Secundo-primam and it is as the light of the Sun-beames cast vpon the Moone and Starres There is an extrinsecall or secondary truth of propositions following vpon and conformable to the truth of the things expressed thus Verum is no other than Esse declaratinum as Hilario And this Truth being the thing it selfe subiectiuely in words expressiuely in the minde of man terminatiuely presupposeth a double conformitie or adequation Both of the vnderstanding to the matter conceiued and of the words to the vnderstanding so as Truth is when wee speake as wee thinke and thinke as it is And this Truth is as the light diffused from those heauenly bodies to the Region of this lower aire This is the Truth we are called to Buy But this deriuatiue and relatiue Truth whether in the minde or in the mouth hath much multiplicitie according to the matter either conceiued or vttered There is a Theologicall Truth there is a naturall there is a morall there is a ciuill all these must bee deare bought but the best at the highest rate which is Theologicall or diuine whether in the principles or necessary conclusions The principles of diuine Truth are Scriptura veritatis Dan. 10. The Law of Truth Mal. 2. The Word of Truth 2 Cor. 6. The necessary conclusions are they which vpon irrefragable inferences are deduced from those holy grounds Shortly then euery parcell of Diuine Truth whether laid downe in Scripture or drawne necessarily from Scripture is this Mercimonium sacrum which we are bidden to Buy Buy the Truth This is the commoditie The match is Buy that is Beat the price and pay it Buy it Of whom For what Of whom but of the owner of the Maker The owner It is Veritas Domini Gods Truth Psal 117. His stile is the Lord God of Truth Psal 31. The Maker The works of his hands are truth and iudgement Psal 111. And if any vsurping spirit of error shall haue made a free-bootie of Truth and shall with-hold it in
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
it at any price At no price sell it It is the fauour of God that it may be bought for any rate It is the Iustice of God that vpon any rate it should not bee sold As buying and selling are opposites in relation So that for which wee must not sell Truth is opposite to that for which we may buy it We must buy it with labour therefore we may not sell it for ease If need be we must buy it with losse therefore we may not sell it for gaine we must buy it with disgrace we may not sell it for honour we must buy it with exile or imprisonment we may not sell it for libertie we must buy it with paine we may not sell it for pleasure We must buy it with death wee may not sell it for life Not for any not for all of these may we sell Truth this were damnosa mercatio as Chrysostome In euery bargaine and sale there must be a proportion now ease gaine honour liberty pleasure life yea worlds of all these are no way counteruailable to Truth For what shall it profit a man to win the whole world and leese his owne soule And hee cannot sell Truth but his soule is lost And if any thing in the world may seeme a due price of Truth it is Peace Oh sweet and deare name of Peace the good newes of Angels the ioy of good men who can but affect thee who can but magnifie thee The God of heauen before whom I stand from whom I speake knowes how oft how deeply I haue mourned for the diuisions of his Church how earnestly I haue set my hand on worke vpon such poore thoughts of reunion as my meannesse could reach but when all is done I still found we may not offer to sell Truth for Peace It is true that there be some Scholasticall and immateriall Truths the infinite subdiuision whereof haue rather troubled than informed Christendome which for the purchase of peace might bee kept in and returned into such safe generalities as minds not vnreasonable might rest in but sold out they may not be If some Truths may be contracted into a narrower roome none may be contracted for Qui diuinis innutriti sunt eloquijs as that Father said Those that are trained vp in diuine truths may not change a syllable for a world Tene quod habes Hold that thou hast is a good rule in all things which if in temporalities it were well obserued we should not haue so many gallants squander away their inheritances to liue Cameleon-like vpon the ayre of fauour But how euer this be too wel obserued in these earthly things by frugall hands which take as if they were quicke hold as if they were dead yet in spiritual graces it can neuer be obserued enough we get Truth we buy it as Iacob did his birth-right to keepe to enioy not to sell againe If therefore the world if Satan shal offer to grease vs in the fist for truth let vs answer him as Simon Peter did Simon the Sorcerer Thy mony perish with thee because thou hast thought the Truth of God may be purchased with mony What shall we say then to those pedling petty-chapmen which wee meet withall in euery market that will be bartring away the truth of God for trifles Surely the forme of our spirituall market is contrary to the ciuill In our ciuill markets there are more buyers than sellers there would be but poore takings if many did not buy of one but in the spirituall there are more Sellers of Truth than Buyers Many a one sels that he neuer had that he should haue had the Truth of God Here one chops away the Truth for Feare or ambition There another lets it goe for the old shooes of a Gebeonitish pretence of Antiquitie Here one parts with it for a painted gilded hobby-horse of an outwardly pompous magnificence of the Church there another for the bables of childish superstition One for the fancies of hope another for the breath of a colloguing Impostor Amongst them all Diminutae sunt veritates à filijs hominum Psal 12. Truth is failed from the children of men Yea as Esay complained in his time Corruit in platea veritas Esa 59.14 Truth is fallen in the streets What a shame it is to see that in this cleere and glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell vnder the pious gouernment of the true Defender of the Faith there should not want some soules that should trucke for the truth of God as if it were some Cheapside or some Smithfield-Commoditie Commutauerunt veritatem Dei They haue changed the Truth of God into a lie Rom. 1.25 And all their care is that they may be deceiued good cheape Whose heart cannot bleed to see so many well-rigg'd and hopefull Barkes of our yong Gentry laden with the most precious merchandises of Nature and Grace hall'd in euery day to these deceitfull Ports of Error the owners partly cheated partly robbed of Truth despoiled of their rich fraight and at last turn'd ouer-boord into a sea of Desperation Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that yee should not obey that ye should not hold fast the Truth Where shall I lay the fault of this miscariage Me thinkes I could aske the Disciples question Nunquid ego Domine Is it we Lord Are there of vs that preach our selues and not Christ Are there that preach Christ and liue him not Woe to the world because of offences It must needs bee that offences should come but woe to the man by whom the offence commeth God forbid that we should be so bad that the seuen hils should not iustifie vs But what euer we be the Truth is still euer it selfe neither the better for our innocence nor worse for our guilt If men be faultie what hath Truth offended Except the sacred word of the Euer-liuing God can mis-guide you we haue set you right We are but Dust and Ashes yet O God giue vs thine humble vassals leaue in an awfull confidence so far to contest with thee the Lord of heauen and earth as to say If we be deceiued thou hast deceiued vs. It is thou that hast spoken by vs to thy people Let God be True and euery man a Lier Whither should we goe from thee Thou hast the words of eternall life Deare Christians our fore-fathers transmitted to vs the intire inheritance of the glorious Gospell of Iesus Christ repurchased by the bloud of their martyrdome Oh let not our ill husbandry impaire it Let not posterity once say they might haue beene happy but for the vnthriftinesse of vs their progenitors Let it not be said that the coldnesse of vs the Teachers and professors of Truth hath dealt with Religion as Rehoboham did with his shields which he found of Gold but lest of Brasse If Truth had no friends we should plead for it but now that we haue before our eyes so powerfull an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christian faith that
with his verie pen hath so laid error vpon the backe that all the world cannot raise it what a shame were it to be wanting to him to Truth to our selues But perhaps now I know some of your thoughts you would buy Truth ye thinke you would hold it if ye could be sure to know it There are many slips amongst the true coyne Either of the mothers pleaded the liuing childe to be hers with equall protestations oathes teares True yet a Salomons sword can diuide Truth from falshood and there is a test and fire that can discerne true metals from adulterate In spight of all counterfeiting there are certaine infallible marks to know Truth from Error Take but a few of many whether in the originals in the natures in the ends of both In the first Truth is diuine Error is humane what is grounded vpon the diuine word must needs be irrefragably true that which vpon humane Traditions either must or may be erroneous In the second Truth is one conforme euer to it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said Omne verum omni vero consonat All Truth accords with euery Truth as Gerson and as it is pure so peaceable Error is full of dissonance of cruelty No particulars of ours dissent from the written verity of God We teach no man to equiuocate Our practise is not bloudy with treasons and massacres In the third Truth as it came from God so is referd to him neither hath any other end than the glory of the God of Truth Error hath euer some selfe-respects either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filthy lucre or vaine-glory profit or pride We doe not pranke vp nature we aime not either to fill the cofers or feed the ambition of men Let your Wisdomes apply and inferre and now if ye can shut your eyes that you should not see the Truth and if ye care not for your soules when ye see it sell it Let no false tongue perswade you there is no danger in this sale How charitably so euer we thinke of poore blinded soules that liue in the forced and inuincible darknesse of error certainly Apostasie is deadly How euer those speed that are robbed of Truth you cannot sell Truth and be saued Haue mercy therefore on your own soules for their sakes for the sake of him that bought them with the deare ransome of his precious bloud And as God hath blessed you with the inualuable treasure of Truth so hoard it vp in your hearts and menage it in your liues Oh let vs be Gens iusta custodiens veritatem Esa 26. A iust nation keeping fast the Truth So whiles ye keepe the Truth the Truth shall keepe you both in Life in Death in Iudgment In life vnto death in death and iudgement vnto the consummation of that endlesse and incomprehensible glory which the God of Truth hath prepared for them that ouercome To the happy possession whereof he that hath ordained in his good time as mercifully bring vs and that for the sake of the Son of his Loue Iesus Christ the Righteous To whom with thee O Father and thy blessed Spirit one infinite God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT THE RECONCILEMENT OF THE HAPPILY-RESTORED and reedified Chapell of the Right Honourable the Earle of EXCETER in his House of S. IOHNS ON SAINT STEPHENS DAY 1623. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for GEORGE WINDER and are to be sold at his shop in Saint DVNSTONS Church-yard 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY SINGVLAR GOOD Lady the Lady ELIzABETH Countesse of Exceter RIght Honourable this poore Sermon both preached and penned at your motion that is to mee your command now presents it selfe to your hand and craueth a place though vnworthy in your Cabinet yea in your heart That holy zeale which desired it will also improue it The God whom your Ladiship hath thus honoured in the care and cost of his House will not faile to honour you in yours For me your Honour may iustly challenge mee on both sides both by the Druryes in the right of the first Patronage and by the Cecils in the right of my succeeding deuotions Jn either and both that little J haue or am is sincerely at your Ladiships seruice as whom you haue merited to be Your Honours in all true obseruance and duty IOS HALL A SERMON PREACHED AT THE REEDIFIED CHAPEL OF THE RIGHT HONOVRAble Earle of Exceter in his House of Saint Iohns HAGGAI 2.9 The glory of the latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I giue peace saith the Lord of Hosts AS we haue houses of our owne so God hath his yea as great men haue more houses than one so hath the great God of Heauen much more more both in succession as here the latter house and the first and in varietie He hath an house of flesh Ye are the Temples of the liuing God An house of stone Salomon shall build me an house An house immateriall in the Heauens 2 Cor. 5.1 Wherfore then hath God an house Wherefore haue we ours but to dwell in But doth not he himselfe tell Dauid and so doth Stephen the Protomartyr vpon whose day we are falne tell the Iewes that He dwels not in Temples made with hands True He dwels not in his House as we in ours by way of comprehension he dwels in it by testification of presence So doe we dwell in our houses that our houses containe vs that we are only within them and they without vs. So doth he dwel in his that yet he is elsewhere yea euery where that his house is within him Shortly God dwels where he witnesses his gracious presence that because he doth both in the Empyreall heauen amongst his Angels and Saints and in his Church vpon earth therefore his dwelling is both in the highest Heauen in perfect glory and on Earth in the hearts and assembly of his children As of the former our Sauiour saith In domo Patris mei In my Fathers house are many Mansions So also may we say of the latter There is much variety and choice in it There was the Church of the Iewes the Church of the Gentiles There is a materiall and a spirituall house In the one Salomons Zorobabels such piles as this In the other so much multiplicity as there are Nations yea Congregations that professe the Name of Christ One of these was a figure of the other the Materiall vnder the Law of the Spirituall vnder the Gospell Yee see now the first house and the latter the subiect of our Text and discourse The latter commended to vs comparatiuely positiuely Comparatiuely with the former Maior gloria Positiuely in it selfe In this place will I giue peace Both set out by the stile of the promiser and a vower saith the Lord of Hosts All which challenge your
Religion leade all our proiects not follow them let our liues be led in a conscionable obedience to all the Lawes of our Maker Farre be all blasphemies curses and obscenities from our tongues all outrages and violences from our hands all presumptuous rebellious thoughts from our hearts Let our hearts hands tongues liues bodies and soules be sincerely deuoted to him Then for men let vs giue Caesar his owne Tribute feare subiection loyalty and if he need our liues Let the Nobility haue honour obeisance obseruation Let the Clergy haue their dues and our reuerence Let the commons haue truth loue fidelity in all their transactions Let there be trutinae iustae Leu. 19.36 Iust balances iust weights pondera iusta Let there be no grinding of faces no trampling on the poore Amos 5.11 no swallowing of widdowes houses no force no fraud no periury no perfidiousnesse Finally for our selues let euery man possesse his vessell in holinesse and honour framing himselfe to all Christian and heauenly temper in all wisdome sobriety chastity meeknesse constancy moderation patience and sweet contentation so shall the worke of our righteousnesse be peace of heart peace of state priuate and publike peace Peace with our selues peace with the world peace with God temporal peace here eternall peace and glory aboue vnto the fruition wherof he who hath ordained vs mercifully bring vs for the sake of him who is the Prince of Peace Iesus Christ the righteous A COMMON APOLOGIE OF THE CHVRCH OF ENGLAND AGAINST THE VNIVST CHALLENGES OF THE OVER-IVST SECT COMMONLY called BROWNISTS WHEREIN THE GROVNDS AND DEFENCES OF THE SEPARATION are largely discussed Occasioned by a late Pamphlet published vnder the name of AN ANSWER TO A CENSORIOVS EPISTLE Which the Reader shall finde prefixed to the seuerall SECTIONS By IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO OVR GRATIOVS AND BLESSED MOTHER THE Church of England THE MEANEST OF HER CHILDREN DEDICATES THIS HER APOLOGIE AND WISHETH ALL PEACE AND HAPPINESSE NO lesse than a yeere and a halfe is past Reuerend Deare and Holy Mother since J wrote a louing monitorie Letter to * * Smith and Robinson two of thine vnworthy Sons which I heard were fled from thee in person in affection and somewhat in opinion Supposing them yet thine in the maine substance though in some circumstances their owne Since which one of them hath washt off thy Font-water as vncleane and hath written desperatly both against Thee and his owne fellowes From the other J receiued not two moneths since a stomack-full Pamphlet besides the priuate iniuries to the Monitor casting vpon thine honourable Name blasphemous imputations of Apostasie Antichristianisme Whoredome Rebellion Mine owne wrongs I could haue contemned in silence Meam iniuriam patienter tuli impietatem contra Sponsam Christi ferre non potui Hieron ad Vigilant but For Sions sake J cannot hold my peace Jf I remember not thee O Ierusalem let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth It were a shame and sinne for me that my zeale should be lesse hot for thine innocencie than theirs to thy false disgrace How haue J hastened therefore to let the World see thy sincere Truth and their peruerse slanders Vnto thy sacred Name then whereto J haue in all pietie deuoted my selfe I humbly present this my speedie and dutifull labour whereby I hope thy weake Sonnes may bee confirmed the strong encouraged the rebellious shamed And if any shall still obstinatly accurse thee I refer their reuenge vnto thy Glorious Head who hath espoused thee to himselfe in Truth and righteousnesse Let him whose thou art right thee In the meane time we thy true sonnes shall not only defend but magnifie thee Thou maist be blacke but thou art comely the Daughters haue seene thee and counted thee blessed euen the Queene and the Concubines and they haue praised thee thou art thy Welbeloueds and his desire is towards thee So let it be and so let thine be towards him for euer and mine towards you both who am the least of all thy little Ones IOS HALL A COMMON APOLOGIE AGAINST THE BROWNISTS SECTION I. IF TRVTH and PEACE Zacharies two Companions had met in our loue this Controuersie had neuer bin The Entrance into the worke Zach. 8.29 the seuering of these two hath caused this separation for while some vnquiet mindes haue sought Truth without Peace they haue at once lost Truth Peace Loue vs and themselues God knowes how vnwillingly I put my hand to this vnkinde quarrell Nothing so much abates the courage of a Christian as to call his Brother Aduersarie We must doe it Math. 18.7 woe be the men by whom this offence commeth Yet by how much the insultation of a brotherly enemie is more intolerable and the griefe of our blessed Mother greater for the wrong of her owne So much more cause I see to breake this silence If they will haue the last words they may not haue all For our carriage to them They say when Fire Otho Frising ex Philem. Vâ— Chaldeâ—â—â— Ruffin Eccles Hist l. 2. cap. 26. the god of the Chaldees had deuoured all the other woodden Deities that Canopis set vpon him a Caldron full of water whose bottome was deuised with holes stopt with waxe which no sooner felt the flame but gaue way to the quenching of that furious Idoll If the fire of inordinate zeale conceit contention haue consumed al other parts in the separation and cast forth more than Nebuchadnezzars Furnace from their Amsterdam hither Dan. 3. it were well if the waters of our moderation and reason could vanquish yea abate it This little Hin of mine shall be spent that way wee may try and wish but not hope it The spirits of these men are too well knowne to admit any expectation of yeeldâ—nce Since yet both for preuention and necessary defence this taske must be vndertaken * * id Treatis of certaine godly Minist against Bar. I craue nothing of my Reader but patience and iustice of God victory to the Truth as for fauour I wish no more than an enemie would giue against himselfe With this confidence I enter into these lists and turne my pen to an Aduersarie God knowes whether more proud or weake SEP IT is an hard thing euen for sober-minded men in cases of controuersie to vse soberly the aduantages of the times vpon which whilest men are mounted on high they vse to behold such as they oppose too ouerlie and not without contempt and so are oft-times emboldned to roule vpon them as from aloft very weake and weightlesse discourses thinking any sleight and slender opposition sufficient to oppresse those vnderlings whom they haue as they suppose at so great an aduantage Vpon this very presumption it commeth to passe that this Author vndertaketh thus solemnely and seuerely to censure a cause whereof as appeareth in the sequele of the discourse he is vtterly ignorant which had he been
an Antichristian estate if God giue secret mercie what is that to her Gods superaboundant grace doth neither abate ought of her Antichristianisme nor moue you to follow him in couering and passing by the manifold enormities in our Church wherewith those good things are inseparably commingled Your owne mouth shall condemne you Doth God passe ouer our enormities and doe you sticke yea separate Doth his grace couer them and doe you display them Haue you learned to be more iust than your Maker Or if you be not aboue his iustice why are you against his mercy God hath not disclaimed vs by your owne confession you haue preuented him If Princes leasurees may not be stayed in reforming yet shall not Gods in reiecting Your ignorance enwrapped you in your errors his infinite wisedome sees them and yet his infinite mercy forbeares them so might you at once haue seene disliked stayed If you did not herein goe contrary to the courses of our common God how happy should both sides haue beene yea how should there be no sides How should we be more inseparably commingled than our good and euill But should you haue continued still in sinne that grace might haue abounded God forbid you might haue continued here without sinne saue your owne and then grace would no lesse haue abounded to you than now your sin abounds in not continuing What neede you to surfet of another mans Trencher Other sinnes need no more to infect you than your graces can sanctifie them As for your further light suspect it not of God suspect it to bee meere darknesse and if the light in you bee darknesse how great is that darknesse What so true and glorious a light of God and neuer seene till now No Worlds Times Churches Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Fathers Doctors Gen. 1.2 Esa 5.20 Woe to them that put darknesse for light Esa 59.9 Christians euer saw this truth looke forth besides you vntill you Externall light was Gods first creature and shall this spirituall light whereby all Churches should be discerned come thus late Mistrust therefore your eyes and your light and feare Esayes woe and the Iewes miserable disappointment we wait for light but loe it is darknesse for brightnesse but we walke in obscuritie SEP But the Church of England say you is our Mother and so ought not to be auoyded But say I we must not so cleaue to holy Mother Church as we neglect our Heauenly Father and his Commandements which we know in that estate we could not but transgresse and that hainously and against our consciences not onely in the want of many Christian Ordinances to which we are most straightly bound both by Gods Word and our owne necessities SECTION XVII THE Church of England is your Mother to her small comfort she hath borne you The Motherhood of the Church of England how far it obligeth vs. Deut. 21 22 23. and repented Alas you haue giuen her cause to powre out Iobs curses vpon your Birth-day by your not onely forsaking but cursing her Stand not vpon her faults which you shall neuer proue capitall Not onely the best Parent might haue brought forth a rebellious sonne to be stoned What then Doe we prefer dutie to piety and so plead for our Holy Mother Church that we neglect our Heauenly Father yea offend him See what you say it must needs be an Holy Mother that cannot be pleased without the displeasure of God A good wife that opposes such an husband a good sonne that vpbraids this vniustly Therefore is shee a Church your Mother holy Mater Ecclesia Mater est etiam Matris nostrae Aug. Epist 38. because shee bred you to God cleaues to him obeyes his commandements and commands them And so farre is shee from this desperate contradiction that shee voweth not to hold you for her sonne vnlesse you honour God as a Father It is a wilfull slander that you could not but hainously transgresse vnder her I dare take it vpon my soule that all your transgression which you should necessarily haue incurred by her obedience is nothing so hainous as your vncharitablenesse in your censures and disobedience Conscience is a common plea euen to those you hate we inquire not how strong it is but how well informed not whether it suggest this but whereupon To go against the conscience is sinne to follow a mis-informed conscience is sinne also If you do not the first we know you are faultie in the second He that is greater than the conscience will not take this for an excuse But wherein should haue beene this transgression so vnauoidable hainous against conscience First in the want of many Ordinances to which we are most strictly bound both by Gods Word and our owne necessities SECTION XVIII CAn you thinke this hangs well together The want of pretended Ordinances of God whether sinfull to vs and whether they are to bee set vp without Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—m per exteriorem viâ—lâ—â—tiaÌ„ corâ—â—pitur si interior innocentia custodiatâ—r cap. 114. 3. Custodi c. Ad docendum populum Israelâ—ticum omnipotens Deus Prophetis praeconium dedit non Regibus imperauit Aug. l. 2. contra Gau. c. 11. Barr. causes of separat def p. 6. Barr. Reformation without tarrying Aug. contra Petilian l. 2. Optatus Mileuit lib. 30. Bar. second Examination before the Lord Archbishop and Lord Chiefe-Iustice compar with his reply to M. Gyff Art 5. You should here want many of Gods Ordinances why should you want them Because you are not suffered to enioy them who hinders it Superior powers Did euer man wilfully and hainously offend for wanting of that which he could not haue What hath conscience to doe with that which is out of our power Is necessity with you become a sinne and that hainous Dauid is driuen to lurke in the wildernesse and forced to want the vse of many diuine Ordinances It was his sorrow not his transgression Hee complaines of this but doth he accuse himselfe of sinne Not to desire them had beene sinne no sinne to be debarred them Well might this be Sauls sinne but not his Haue you not sinnes enow of your owne that you must needs borrow of others But I see your ground You are bound to haue these Ordinances and therefore without Princes yea against them so it is your transgression to want them in spight of Magistrates Gaudentius the Donatist taught you this of old And this is one of the Hebrew Songs which Master Barrow sings to vs in Babylon that we care not to make Christ attend vpon Princes and to be subiect to their Lawes and Gouernment and his Predecessor the root of your Sect tels vs in this sense the Kingdome of Heauen must suffer violence and that it comes not with obseruation that men may say Loe the Parliament or loe the Bishops decrees and in the same Treatise The Lords Kingdome must wait on your policy forsooth and
God proclaimed our Church not his By whose hand hath he published her diuorce You haue shamed her wombe not she her bed not God her demeanour Your tongues are your owne who can forbid you We know you will plead and excuse and censure and defend till all the world be weary we may pray with Hierom to this sense that of the Psalmist Increpa Domine Bestiaes Calami yet we see your Pens Tongues and Presses busie and violent I will not applie to you that which Augustine of his Donatists Aug. cont Epist Parmen l. 1. Though truth compell you to be dumbe yet iniquitie will not suffer you to be silent But if you write whole Marts and worlds of Volumes you shall neuer be able either to iustifie your Innocence or excuse your fault In the meane time the noyse of your contentions is so great that your truth cannot be heard Learned Iunius and our learnedst Diuines and neighbour Churches haue oft heard your clamors neuer your truth Epist Iunij ad Separ So little haue you of this and so much of the other that wee are ready to wish as he of old either ourselues deafe or you dumbe SEP Is not Babylon the Mother of Gods people whom he therefore commandeth to depart out of her lest being partakers of her sinnes they also partake of her plagues And to conclude what say you more against vs for your Mother the Church of England than the Papists doe for their Mother and your Mothers Mother the Church of Rome against you whom they condemne as vnnaturall Bastards and impious Patricides in your separation from her SECTION XXIII THE spirit of your Proto-Martyr would hardly haue digested this title of Babylon Mother of Gods people a murdering Step-mother rather How the Church of England hath separated from Babylon Gyff refut 2. transg Reuel 18.2 Ans fore-speech to Counterpoyse Shee cannot be a Mother of Children to God and no Church of God Notwithstanding Gods people would he say may be in her not of her So Babylon bore them not but Sion in Babylon But I feare not your excesse of charitie You flye to your Doctors challenge and aske what we say against you for vs which Rome will not say for her selfe against vs Will you iustifie this Plea of Rome or not If you will why doe you reuile her If you will not why doe you obiect it Heare then what wee say both to you and them our enemies both and yet the enemies of our enemies First wee disclaime and defie your Pedigree and theirs The Church of Rome was neuer our Mothers Mother Our Christian faith came not from the seuen-hilles Neither was deriued either from Augustine the Monke A Simone Zelota Niceph. Alij à Ios Arimath cuius hic sepulchrum cernitur Angli Pascha Graeco more celebrarunt Iacob Armin. Disp Cant. 8.8 Fr. Iun. l. sing de Eccle. or Pope Gregorie Britanie had a worthy Church before either of them lookt into the world It is true that the ancient Romane Church was sister to ours heere was neere kindred no dependance And not more consanguinity than while she continued faithfull Christian loue Now she is gone a whoring her chaste sister iustly spitteth at her yet euen still if you distinguish as your learned Antagonist hath taught you betwixt the Church and Papacie she acknowledges her Sisterhood though she refraines her conuersation as she hath many slauish factious abettors of her knowne and grosse errors to whom we deny this title affirming them the body whereof Antichrist is the head the great Whore and Mother of abominations so againe how many thousands hath she which retaining the foundation according to their knowledge as our learned Whitakers had wont to say of Bernard follow Absolom with a simple heart all which to reiect from Gods Church were no better than presumptuous cruelty It were well for you before God and the world if you could as easily wash your hands of vnnaturall impiety and trecherousnesse as we of Bastardy and vniust sequestration There can be no Bastardy where was neuer any Motherhood we were nephewes to that Church neuer sonnes vnlesse as Rome was the mother City of the world so by humane institution we suffered our selues to bee ranged vnder her Patriarchall authoritie as being the most famous Church of the West a matter of courtesie and pretended Order no necessity no spirituall obligation As for our sequestration your mouth and theirs may bee stopt with this Answer As all corrupted Churches so some things the Church of Rome still holds a right a true God in three persons true Scriptures though with addition a true Christ though mangled with foule and erroneous consequences true Baptisme though shamefully deformed with rotten Traditions and many other vndeniable truths of God some other things and too many her wicked Apostasie hath deuised and maintained abhominably amisse the body of her Antichristianisme grosse errors and by iust sequell heresies their Popes Supremacie infallibility Illimitation Transubstantiation Idolatrous and superstitious worship and a thousand other of this branne In regard of all these latter wee professe to the world a iust and ancient separation from this false faith and deuotion of the Romish Church which neither you will say nor they shall euer proue faulty yea rather they haue in all these separated from vs who still irrefragably professe to hold with the ancient from whom they are departed In regard of the other wee are still with them holding and embracing with them what they hold with Christ neither will you I thinke euer prooue that in these we should differ As for our communion they haue separated vs by their proud and foolish excommunications if they had not wee would iustly haue begun from their Tyranny and Antichristianisme from their miserable Idolatry but as for the body of their poore seduced Christians which remaine amongst them vpon the true foundation as doubtlesse there are thousands of them which laugh at their Pardons Miracles Superstitions and their trust in merits reposing onely vpon Christ we adhere to them in loue and pittie and haue testified our affection by our bloud ready vpon any iust call to doe it more Phil. Morn du Plesses Lib. de Eccle. cap. 10. neither would feare to ioyne with them in any true seruice of our common God But the full discourse of this point that honourable and learned Plesses hath so forestalled that whatsoeuer I say would seeme but borrowed Vnto his rich Treatise I referre my Reader for full satisfaction Would God this point were thorowly knowne and well weighed on all parts The neglect or ignorance whereof hath both bred and nursed your separation and driuen the weake and inconsiderate into strange extremities This say wee of our selues in no more Charity than Truth But for you how dare you make this shamelesse comparison Can your heart suffer your tongue to say that there is no more difference betwixt Rome and vs than
we may not either haue or expect now in the Church that Ministery which Christ set Where are our Apostles Prophets Euangelists If we must alwayes looke for the very same administration of the Church which our Sauiour left why doe we not challenge these extraordinary functions Doe wee not rather thinke since it pleased him to begin with those Offices which should not continue that herein he purposely intended to teach vs that if we haue the same heauenly businesse done we should not be curious in the circumstances of the persons But for those ordinarie callings of Pastors and Doctors intended to perpetuity with what forehead can he deny them to be in our Church How many haue we that conscionably teach and feed or rather feed by teaching Call them what you please Superintendents that is Bishops Prelates Priests Lecturers Parsons Vicars c. If they preach Christ truly vpon true inward abilities vpon a sufficient if not perfect outward vocation such a one let all histories witnes for the substance as hath bin euer in the Church since the Apostles times they are Pastors and Doctors allowed by Christ Vbi res conuenit quis non verba contemnat Aug. de Ord. n. 2. We stand not vpon circumstances and appendances of the fashions of ordination manner of choice attire titles maintenance but if for substance these be not true Pastors and Doctors Christ had neuer any in his Church since the Apostles left the earth All the difficultie is in our outward calling Let the Reader grant our graue and learned Bishops to be but Christians and this will easily bee euinced lawfull euen by their rules For Brow state of Christians if with them euery Plebeian Artificer hath power to elect and ordaine by vertue of his Christian profession the act of the worthiest standing for all how can they deny this right to persons qualified besides common graces with wisdome learning experience authority Either their Bishopricke makes them no Christians a position which of all the world besides this Sect would be hissed at or else their hands imposed are thus farre by the rules of Separatists effectuall Now your best course is like to an Hare that runnes backe from whence she was started to flie to your first hold No Church therefore no Ministery So now not the Church hath deuised the Ministery but the Ministery hath deuised the Church I follow you not in that idle circle Thence you haue beene hunted already But now since I haue giuen account of ours I pray you tell me seriously Who deuised your Office of Ministery I dare say not Christ not his Apostles not their Sucessors What Church euer in the world can be produced vnlesse in case of extremity for one turne whose conspiring multitude made themselues Ministers at pleasure what rule of Christ prescribes it What reformed Church euer did or doth practise it what example warrants it where haue the inferiours laid hands vpon their Superiours What congregation of Christendome in all records afforded you the necessary patterne of an vnteaching Pastor or an vnfeeding Teacher It is an old policy of the faulty to complaine first Certainly there was neuer Popish Legend a more errand deuice of man than some parts of this Ministery of yours so much gloried in for sincere correspondence to the first Institution SECTION XXVIII Confused CoÌ„munion of the profane Perplexae sunt istae duae ciuitates in hoc seculo inuicemque permixtae dâ—â—ec vltimo iudicio dirimantur Aug. de Ciuit. Dei l. 13.3 Eze. 18.20 Orig. Vnusquisque propter proprium peccatuÌ„ morietur in propria iustitia viuet c. Fr. Iohns Artic. against the Dutch and Fr. Answ against Broughton Discouer of Brown Troubles and excom at Amst Charact. praef lidem in publico accusatores in occulto rei in semetipsos censores pariter nocentes DaÌ„nant fâ—ris quod intus operantur YOur scornfull exception at the confused communion of the profane multitude sauours strong of Pharisee who thought it sinne to conuerse cum terrae filijs the base vulgar and whose very Phylacteries did say Touch me not for I am cleaner than thou This multitude is profane you say and this communion confused If some be profane yet not all for then could be no confusion in the mixture If some be not profane why doe you not loue them as much as you hate the other If all maine truths be taught amongst some godly some profane why will you more shun those profane then cleaue to those Truths and those godly If you haue duly admonished him detested bewailed his sin what is another mans profanenesse to you If profanenes be not punished or confusion be tollerated it is their sin whom it concerneth to redresse them If the Officers sin must we run from the Church It is a famous pregnant protestation of God by Ezekiel The righteousnes of the righteous shall be vpon him and the wickednes of the wicked shall be vpon himselfe And if the Fathers sowre Grapes cannot hurt the childrens teeth how much lesse shall the neighbours But whither will you runne from this Communion of the profane The same fault you finde with the Dutch and French yea in your owne How well haue you auoyded it in your separation let M. White George Iohnson Master Smith be sufficient witnesses whose plentifull reports of your known vncleanesses smothered mischiefes malicious proceedings corrupt packings communicating with knowne offenders bolstering of sinnes and willing conniuences as they are shamefull to relate so might well haue stopt your mouth from excepting at our confused Communion of the profane SEP Shall some generall Truths yea though few of them in the particulars may be soundly practised sweeten and sanctifie the other Errours Doth not one Heresie make an Heretike and doth not a little Leuen whether in doctrine or manners leauen the whole lumpe 1 Cor. 5.6 Gal. 5.9 Hag. 2.13 If Antichrist held not many truths wherewith should he couâ—tenance so many forgeries or how could his worke bee a mysterie of iniquitie which in Rome is more grosse and palpable but in England spunne with a finer threede and so more hardly discouered But towâ—â—de no further in vniuersalities we will take a little time to examine such particulars as you your selfe haue picked out for your most aduantage to see whether you bee so cleare of Babels Towers in your owne euidence as you beare the world in hand SECTION XXIX HOw many and grieuous errors are mingled with our Truths shall appeare sufficiently in the sequell If any want let it bee the fault of the accuser Our Errors intermingled with Truth It is enough for the Church of Amsterdam to haue no errors But ours are grieuous Name them that our shame may be sequell to your griefe So many they are Barr. Confer with M. Hutchins c. and D. Andr. so grieuous that your Martyr when he was vrged to instance could finde none but our opinion concerning
some kind-hearted Mediators may perswade vs eyther diuide Christ or betray him with a kisse The Truth is on high they may well ascend to vs as Leo sayd of old but for vs to descend to them is neither safe nor honest First of all how too plaine is it Epist ad Euph. Pell cit lib. 3. de Laicis that the Romane Church is palpably declined from that ancient puritie of Religion which she once professed It is not more certaine and sensible that the Citie of Rome is descended from her seuen Hils to the Martian Plaines that lye below them or Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 25. that the spightfull Heathens of old as Eusebius reports turned the Sacred Monument of the Tombe of Christ into the Temple of their Venus An. 1170. Ex lec com Henr. Token Illiric Prophrythmic Vita S. Brig Praefixa Reuela What a cloud of witnesses haue we of this noted decay of that Church yea witnesses of their owne To beginne with the other Sex Hildegardis a Numne and a famous Prophetesse of her time accuses the Apostolicall Order of the vtter extinguishing of Religion amongst them Matilda or Maâ—d who liued in the same Age censures them for common Apostasie from the Christian faith and both of them by some extraordinary Reuelation cleerely and directly prophesied of this Religious and Holy restauration of the Church which our dayes see accomplished Saint Brigit the Foundresse of the Order of Saint Sauiour which was * * Anno 1370. Reuel l. 1. c. 41. cruciare uno crucifigere electorum anim c. Reuel extrau c. 8 Grosse teste in Manusc Anno 1250. Io. Treuisa translated into English Habetur initio Polychron Kanulph in Manuscript Anno 900. Artic. in Concil Constant editu 1535. Anno 1350. lib. Vade mecum Lib. Aduers Ement donat Constant Aeneas Syl. de gest Concil Anno 1416. Ad Pium. 2. lib. Reform Cur. RoÌ„ Anno 1400. Auentin Annal. 〈◊〉 7. Osiand Confut. Thes Coster canonized by Pope Vrban sticks not to teach openly in her Writings that the Pope doth torment yea crucifie the soules of the Elect and boldly foretels that all his Followers and Abettors and whole Clergie shall be cut off and that his Sea shall sinke downe into the bottome of Hell and this shee doth so tartly and vehemently that the Romanists of those times threatned and indeuoured to burne her aliue Robert our Bishop of Lincolne to whom the greatnesse of his Head gaue an homely but famous name whom Illyricus mis-nameth Rupertus a worthy and peerelesse man in his age durst before the Popes owne fare openly accuse the Pastors of his time to be the Spoylers of the Earth the Dispersers and Deuourers of Gods flocke the vtter wasters of the Holy Vineyard of God That Carthusian of Coleyne which is said to haue gathered that Booke of the Bundle of times complaines that Truth was then perished from the sonnes of men Petrus de Aliaco a Cardinall confesses that the ancient Diuines built vp the Church but the then-present Seducers destroyed it And vnto these agree Iohn de Rupescissa a Monke Picus Earle of Mirandula Trithemius the Abbot Laurence Valla And those worthie Lights of the Councell of Basil the Cardinall of Arles and Thomas de Corsellis But Nicholas Clemangis the Archdeacon of Bayeux speakes nothing but stones and bullets who in a whole Volume hath freely painted out the corrupt estate of the Church neither did Dominicus Bishop of Brixia speake any whit more sparingly who euen in those times durst set before his Booke this Title The Reformation of Rome To say nothing of Ioachim of Peter of Ferrara the Lawyer of the three Theodericks of Lyra Petrarch Gerson Euerard the Bishop of Salisburg Erasmus Cassander Espensâ—us the Iury of Cardinalls selected by Paul the Third amongst which Gaspar Cotarenus Iames Sadolet and our Cardinall Poole were as they might of eminent note Aluarus Pelagius * * Io. Mirandula Marsil Fecin CoÌ„ineus report him to haue bin a Prophet Epenc in Tit. Ostand Papa non Papa SAVANAROLA of Florence and whomsoeuer those times yeelded at once both learned and good Euen Pope ADRIAN himself the Sixt of that Name whiles he instructs his Legate in his message censures the Church and ingenuously complaines that all was gone to wracke and ruine What shall we then say to this Can any man be so partiall as to thinke that so many Saints of both Sexes Prophets Prophetesses Monkes Doctors Cardinals Popes should as Ierome speakes of the Luciferian Heretikes meerely deuise these slanders to the disgrace of their holy mother If any man can be so mad he is well worthy to be euer deceiued Indeed Rome was once an holy Citie Mat. 4.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gâ—r hadammim Ezek. 21.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theocrit edyss â—n Hier. de vita Pauli Ruff. l. 1. c. 20. Dum contentionis vitio nimis aguntur c. Hier. aduers Luciferianos but now as no lesse famous the other way she is become a City of bloud This Grape is growne a dry Raisin Neyther did that good Heremite ANTONY so iustly say of his Alexandria as wee may now of Rome Woe to thee thou Strumpetly Citie into which the Deuils out of all the rest of the World haue assembled themselues Certainely therefore so shamefull and generall a deformitie could not but bee discerned by our latter Papists and to auoyd all shifts wee haue gently and louingly laid our finger vpon these spots But in the meane time how haynously haue they taken it and as Ruffinus speakes of Apollinaris the Heretike whiles they are transported with the vicious humor of contention and will bee crossing euery thing that is spoken out of the vaine ostentation of a strong wit they haue improoued their idle brabbles to Heresies HIEROME sayd wittily They vse to winke and deny which beleeue not that to bee done which they would not haue done It is therefore a most lamentable and fearefull case that a Church which of her owne fauourites is iustly accused of many and dangerous errors should blocke vp against her selfe the way whereby shee should returne into the Truth Fr. à Victoria Relect quarta de Potestate Papae Concilij Propos duodecima Sect. vltima Deuentum est ad hunc talem statum vbi nec mala nostra nec remedia pati possumus Iudicij impeccantiam Senec. Ep. 28. and as FRANCIS a Victoria honestly complaines should neyther indure her owne euils nor their remedies For whiles shee stands vpon it that shee cannot erre and stubbornely challenges vnto her Chaire a certaine Impeccancie of Iudgement that wee may borrow a word from TERTVLLIAN what hope can now remaine of recouering the Truth How are we now too sawcie that dare mutter ought against her The first hope of health must needs bee fetcht from the sense and acknowledgement of the disease That of the Epicure is common and true The beginning of recouery is the
bee no lesse Controuersie defacto than of the possibility of errour Besides there are other Popish opinions of the same stampe but more pragmaticall which are not more pernicious to the Church than to common-weales as those of the power of both Swords of the deposition of Princes disposing of Kingdomes absoluing of Subiects frustration of Oathes sufficiently canuased of late both by the Venetian Diuines and French and ours which are so palpably opposite to the libertie of Christian Gouernment that those Princes and Peeple which can stoope to such a yoke are well worthy of their seruitude and can they hope that the great Commanders of the World will come to this bent we all as the Comick Poet said truly had rather be free than serue but much more Princes or on the contrary can wee hope that the Tyrants of the Church will be content to leaue this hold What a fopperie were this For both those Princes are growne more wise and these Tyrants more arrogant and as Ruffinus speakes of George Ruff. l. 1. c. 23. Procaciter vt raptum Episcopatum gerunt c. the Arrian Gallant they insolently gouerne an vsurped Bishopricke as if they thought they had the managing of a proud Empire and not of a Religious Priesthood SECTION VI. That the other Opinions of the Romish Church will not admit Reconciliation BVt let vs bee so liberall as to grant this to our selues which certainely they will neuer grant vs for this olde Grandame of Cities thinkes her selfe borne to command and will either fall or rule Neyther doth that Mitred Moderator of the World affect any other Embleme than that which Iulian iestingly ascribes to Iulius Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rule all Iulian. Caesares or to Alexander the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to conquer all It was a degenerating spirit of Adrian the Sixt which caused to bee written vpon his Tombe Binius in vita Adrian in the Church of Saint Peter That nothing in all his life fell out so vnhappily to him Socrat. l. 5. c. 20. c. 14. as that he gouerned Let this I say be granted vs There want not I know some milder spirits Theodosians that can play with both hands which thinke if these busie points were by the moderation of both parts quietly composed it might bee safe for any man so it be without noyse to thinke what hee list concerning the other differences of Religion These are the Ghosts of that Heretike Appelles whose speech it was Euseb l. 5. c. 13. ex Roâ—nâ— That it is sufficient to beleeue in Christ crucified and that there should bee no discussing of the particular warrants and reason of our faith Or the brood of Leonas one of the courtiers of Constantius Socrat. l. 2. c. 32. and his Deputie in the Seleucian Councell which when the Fathers hotely contended as there was good cause for the Consubstantialitie of the Sonne Get you home said hee and trouble not the Church still with these trifles Saint Basil was of another minde from these men who as Theodoret reports when the Lieutenant of Valens the Emperor Theodor. lâ— c. 27. perswaded him to remit but one letter for peace sake answered Those that are nursed with the sincere Milke of Gods Word may not abide one sillable of his sacred Truth to be corrupted but rather than they will indure it are ready to receiue any kinde of torment or death Elâ—â—sius and Syluanus which were Orthodox Bishops and those other worthy Gardians and as Athanasius his title was Champions of the truth were of another minde from these coole and indifferent Mediators Epiph. l. 1. Initio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cypr. de simplic praelat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So farre as the Sacred truth will allow vs wee will accompany them gladly but if they vrge vs further wee stand still or start backe and those two courses which Epiphanius aduised as the remedies of Heresie Heed and Auoydance both those doe we carefully vse and performe Great is the offence of discord and vnexpiable and such in the graue iudgement of Cyprian as is not purged with the bloud of our passion and iustly doe we thinke that Fiend of Homer worthy of no place but Hell But yet wee cannot thinke concord a meete price of truth which it is lawfull for vs to buy at any rate but to sell vpon any termes is no lesse than pâ—cular Let vs therefore a little discusse the seuerall differences and as it vses to bee done when the house is too little for the stuffe Let vs pile vp all close together It shall bee enough in this large Haruest of matter to gather some few Eares out of euery Shocke and to make a compendious dispatch of so long a taske 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grossest of the Popish Heresies and as HIEROME obiects to ORIGEN the most venomous opinions of Rome which haue bred so much trouble and danger at this day to the Church of God are either such as doe concerne our selues not without some â—â—spect to God or such as concerne God not without some respect to vs Of the former sort are those which in a certaine order such as it is of discourse are conuersant about Iustification Free-will the merit of our workes humane satisfaction Indulgences Purgatory and the differences of mortall and Veniall sinnes These therefore first offer themselues to our examination SECTION VII The Romish Heresie concerning Iustification THat point of Iustification of all other is exceeding important Caluin De vera Pacific contra Interim insomuch as CALVIN was faine to perswade that if this one head might bee yeelded safe and intire it would not quite the cost to make any great quarrell for the rest Would to God that word of CASSANDER might bee made good Consultat de Iustific which doubted not to say That which is affirmed that men cannot bee iustified before God by their owne strength merits or workes but that they are freely iustified by faith was alwaies allowed and receiued in the Church of God and is at this day approued by all Ecclesiasticall Writers Yea I would they would bee ruled by their Thomas Aquinas in this In Galat. in Iâ—c 2. who attributes Iustification to workes not as Iustification is taken for an infusion of grace but as it is taken for an exercise or manifestation or consummation of Iustice If this were all in this point all would be peace Concil Trid. sess 6. c. 7. si quis dixerit sola fide c. Com. 9. But whilst the Tridentine Fathers take vpon them to forge the formall cause of our Iustification to be our owne inherent Iustice and thrust Faith out of Office what good man can choose but presently addresse himselfe to an opposition Who would not rather dye than suffer the ancient Faith of the Church to be depraued with these idle Dreames Goe now ye great Trent Diuines and bragge of your selues as
enmitie But there are some enmities more secret and which doe not outwardly bewray themselues but behold heere is publique resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not subiect But perhaps it will once yeeld of it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cannot Xiphil Epist Dionis sayth the Spirit of God See in how rebellious an estate we are to God What pronenesse is heere to will good what abilitie to performe it Let the Papists if they will sacrifice to themselues as Seianus had wont of old or to their nets as the Prophet speaketh As for vs come what can come vpon our opposition wee neither can nor dare arrogate vnto our selues those things which by an holy reseruation incommunicablenesse are proper onely vnto the Highest It is safe indeed for the Papists when they will to come vp to vs but we cannot goe downe to them without a fearefull precipitation of our soules Consult Cass cit Bonauent in haec verba hoc piaruÌ„ mentium est vt nil sibi tribuunt c. Let Cassander witnesse this for vs Let Bonauenture himselfe witnes it for him This is the propertie of holy minds to attribute nothing to themselues but all to the grace of God So that how much soeuer a man ascribe to the grace of God hee swarueth not from true pietie though by giuing much to grace hee withdraw something from the power of nature or Free-will but when any thing is withdrawne from the grace of God and ought attributed to nature which is due to grace there may bee great danger to the soule Thus farre those two ingenuous Papists But to inferre wee giue all to grace the Papists something to nature and what they giue to nature we giue to God Therefore we doe and say that which is fit for holy minds they if Bonauenture may be witnesse that which swerues from piety and is ioyned with much danger of their soule SECTION IX Concerning Merits THe foundation of Popish Iustification is the freedome of our will and vpon the walls of Iustification is merit raised wee will haue no quarrell about the word Bucer cit à Cass Cypr. l. 3. ep 20. Prâ—â— Iud. The holy Fathers of old as wee all grant tooke the word in a good sense which the later Diuines haue miserably corrupted About the thing it selfe wee must striue eternally we promise a reward to good workes yea an euerlasting one It is a true word of the Iewes He that labours in the Euen shall eat on the Sabbath Qui laborauit in vespera comedet in Sabbatho Conc. Trident. Orthod expl l. 6. Caiet in Galat. for God hath promised it and will performe who yet crowneth vs in mercy and compassion as the Psalmist speaks not as the Papists in the rigour of iustice not as Andradius according to the due desert of our worke By the free gift of God and not our merits as Caietan wisely and worthily Or if any man like that word better God doth it in Iustice but in respect of his owne promise not the very dignity of our workes That a iust mans worke in the truth of the thing it selfe is of a value worthy of the reward of heauen which industrious and learned Morton cites out of the English Professor of Dowâ—y and hath a meet proportion both of equality and dignity Weston de Tripl hom off l. 2. Vid. protest Appeal lib. 2. c. 11. Tom. 1. in Th. 3. d. 11. to the recompence of eternall life as Pererius and that in it selfe without any respect of the merits and death of Christ which Suarez and Bajus shamed not to write seemes iustly to vs little lesse than blasphemie But say our moderate Papists CHRIST hath merited this merit of ours neither can any other workes challenge this to themselues but those which are done in GOD as Andradius speaks but those which are dipped and dyed in the bloud of CHRIST as our later Papists elegantly and emphatically speake But what is this but to coozen the world and to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnskilfull Our sinnes are dyed in the bloud of CHRIST not our merits Or if they also Hath CHRIST then deserued that our workes should bee perfect How comes it about that the workes of the best men are so lame and defectiue Hath he deserued that though they bee imperfect yet they might merit What iniurie is this to God what contradiction of termes Behold now so many Sauiours as good men what I doe is mine what I merit is mine whosoeuer giues me either to do or to merit Whosoeuer rides on a lame horse cannot but moue vn-euenly vneasily vncertainly what insolent ouer-weeners of their owne workes are these Papists which proclaime the actions which proceed from themselues worthy of no lesse than heauen To whom wee may iustly say as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian Set vp ladders O yee Papists and clime vp to heauen alone Socr. l. 1. c. 7. Erigâ—â— vobis scalus c. Homo iustus 〈◊〉 c. Who can abide that noted speech of Bellarmine A iust man hath by a double title right to the same glory one by the merits of CHRIST imparted to him by grace another by his owne merits contrary to that of the Spirit of God The wages of sinne is death but The gift of God is eternall life vpon which words another Cardinall Caietan speakes in a holier fashion thus He doth not say that the wages of our righteousnesse is eternall life but The gift of God is eternall life that wee may vnderstand and learne that we attaine eternall life not by our owne merits but by the free gift of God for which cause also he addes By Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. fin Behold the merit behold the righteousnesse whose wages is eternall life but to vs in respect of IESVS CHRIST it is a free gift Thus Caietan Caiet Câ—â— in Rom. 6. What could either Luther or Caluin or any Protestant say more plainly How imperfect doth the Scripture euery where proclaime both Gods graces in vs and our workes to him and though the graces of God were absolutely perfect yet they are not ours if our workes were so yet they are formerly due And if they be due to God what recompence of transcendent glory is due to vs Behold wee are both seruants and vnprofitable Not worthy saith God worthy and more say the Papists Ephess 2. By grace yee are saued through faith and that not of your selues saith God By grace indeed but yet of our selues say the Papists What insolencie is this Let our Monkes now goe and professe wilfull pouertie whiles Ezekiah did neuer so boast of his heaps of treasure as these of their spirituall wealth Hier. Epitaph Fabiolae Hierome said truely It is more hard to bee stripped of our pride than of our Gold and Iewels for euen when those outward ornaments are gone many times these inward rags swell vp the soule
ought that is memorable in the way he takes it vp but how many thousand matters of note fall beside him on either hand of the knowledge whereof he is not guilty Whereas some graue and painfull Author hath collected into one view whatsoeuer his Countrey affoords worthy of marke hauing measured many a foule step for that which wee may see dry-shod and worne out many yeeres in the search of that which one houre shall make no lesse ours than it was his owne To which must be added that our vnperfect acquaintance may not hope to finde so perfect information on the sudden as a naturall inhabitant may get by the disquisition of his whole life Let an Italian or French passenger walke thorow this our Iland what can his Table-bookes carry home in comparison of the learned Britaine of our Camden or the accurate Tables of Speed Or if one of ours should as too many do passe the Alpes what pittances can his wild iourny obserue in comparison of the Itinerarie of Fr. Schottus and Capugnanus Or he that would discourse of the Royalties of the French Lillies how can he be so furnished by flying report as by the elaborate gatherings of Cassaneus or of Degrassalius What should I bee infinite This age is so full of light that there is no one countrey of the habitable world whose beames are not crossed and interchanged with other Knowledge of all affaires is like musicke in the streets whereof those may partake which pay nothing Wee doe not lie more open to one common sinne than to the eies and pens of our neighbours Euen China it selfe and Iaponia and those other remotest Isles and Continents which haue taken the strictest order for closenesse haue receiued such discoueries as would rather satisfie a Reader than prouoke him to amend them A good booke is at once the best companion and guide and way and end of our iourney Necessity droue our forefathers out of doores which else in those misty times had seene no light wee may with more ease and no lesse profit sit still and inherit and enioy the labours of them and our elder brethren who haue purchased our knowledge with much hazard time toyle expence and haue beene liberall of their bloud some of them to leaue vs rich SECT XII AS for that verball discourse wherein I see some place the felicity of their Trauell thinking it the only grace to tel wonders to a ring of admiring ignorants it is easie to answer that table-talke is the least care of a wise man who like a deepe streame desires rather to runne silent and as himselfe is seldome transported with wonder so doth he not affect it in others reducing all to vse rather than admiration and more desiring to benefit than astonish the hearer withall that the same meanes which enable vs to know doe at once furnish vs with matter of discourse and for the forme of our expression if it proceed not from that naturall dexteritie which we carry with vs in vaine shall wee hope to bring it home the change of language is rather an hinderance to our former readinesse and if some haue fetcht new noses and lips and eares from Italie by the helpe of Tagliacotius and his schollars neuer any brought a new tongue from thence To conclude if a man would giue himselfe leaue to be thus vaine and free like a mill without a scluse let him but trauell thorow the world of bookes and he shall easily be able to out-talke that tongue whose feet haue walkt the furthest what hath any eye seene or imagination deuised which the pen hath not dared to write Out of our bookes we can tell the stories of the Monocelli who lying vpon their backs shelter themselues from the Sunne with the shadow of their one only foot We can tell of those cheape-dieted men that liue about the head of Ganges without meat without mouthes feeding only vpon aire at their nosthrils Or of those headlesse Easterne people that haue their eyes in their breasts a mis-conceit arising from their fashion of attire which I haue sometimes seene Or of those Coromandae of whom Pliny speakes that couer their whole body with their eares Or of the persecutors of S. Thomas of Canterbury whose posteritie if we beleeue the confident writings of Degrassalius are borne with long and hairie tailes souping after them which I imagine gaue occasion to that prouerbiall iest wherewith our mirth vses to vpbraid the Kentish Or of Amazons or Pigmees or Satyres or the Samarcandean Lambe which growing out of the earth by the nauell grazeth so farre as that naturall tether will reach Or of the Bird Ruc or ten thousand such miracles whether of nature or euent Little need wee to stirre our feet to learne to tell either loud lies or large truths We haue heard a bird in a cage sing more change of notes than others haue done in the wilde liberty of the wood And as for the present occurrences of the time the world about vs is so full of Presses that it may and is growne so good a fellow that it will impart what it knowes to all the neighbours whose relations if sometimes they swarue from truth we may well consider what variety of report euery accident will yeeld and that therefore our eares abroad are no whit more credible than our eyes at home Yea rather as Tully could say that at Antium he could heare the newes of Rome better than at Rome so may we oft-times better heare and see the newes of France or Spaine vpon our Exchange than in their Paris or Madrill Since what liberty soeuer tongues may take to themselues a discreet man will be ashamed to subscribe his name to that whereof hee may be afterwards conuinced SECT XIII SINCE therefore Trauell cannot out-bid vs in these highest commodities which concerne the wealth of the minde all the aduantage it can afford vs must bee in those mixt abilities wherein our bodies are the greatest partners as dancing fencing musicke vaulting horsemanship the onely professions of the mis-named Academies of other Nations Who can denie that such like exercises are fit for young Gentlemen not onely for their present recreation but much more for the preparing of them to more serious action Yet must these learne to know their places what are they else but the varnish of that picture of Gentry whose substance consists in the lines and colours of true vertue but the lace or facing of a rich garment but the hang-bies of that royall court which the soule keeps in a generous heart He that holds Gentilitie accomplished with these though laudible qualities partakes more of his horse than his horse can possibly of him This skill then is worthy of our purchase yet may not be bought too deare and perhaps need not to be fetcht so far Neither my profession nor my experience will allow me to hold comparisons in this kinde but I haue bin heartned by no meane masters of these Arts to
cogitation working as it commonly doth remissely causeth not any sudden alteration in our Traueller but as we say of Comets and Eclipses hath his effect when the cause is forgotten Neither is there any one more apparant ground of that lukewarme indifferency which is fallen vpon our times than the ill vse of our wandrings for our Trauellers being the middle ranke of men and therefore either followers of the great or commanders of the meaner sort cannot want conuenience of diffusing this temper of ease vnto both SECT XV. ALl this mischiefe is yet hid with a formall profession so as euery eye cannot finde it in others it dares boldly breake forth to an open reuolt How many in our memory whiles with Dinah they haue gone forth to gaze haue lost their spirituall chastity and therewith both the Church and themselues How many like vnto the brooke Cedron run from Hierusalem thorow the vale of Iehosaphat and end their course in the dead sea Robert Pointz in his preface to the testimonies for the reall presence 2 Chron. 24. A popish writer of our Nation as himselfe thought not vnlearned complaining of the obstinacy of vs hereticks despaires of preuailing because he findes it to be long agoe fore-prophecied of vs in the Booke of the Chronicles At illi Protestantes audire noluerunt It is well that Protestants were yet heard of in the old Testament as well as Iesuites whose name one of their owne by good hap hath found Num. 26.24 Like as Erasmus found Friers in S. Pauls time inter falsos Fratres Socrat. in Iosuam l. 1. c. 2. q. 19. Gretser contra Lerneum c. 1. 2. Vere aiquidam haereticus Iesuitas in sacris literis repertri But it were better if this mans word were as true as it is idle Some of ours haue heard to their cost whose losse ioyned with the griefe of the Church and dishonour of the Gospel we haue sufficiently lamented How many haue wee knowne stroken with these Aspes which haue died sleeping And in truth whosoeuer shall consider this open freedome of the meanes of seducement must needs wonder that we haue lost no more especially if he be acquainted with those two maine helps of our Aduersaries importunity and plausibility Neuer any Pharisee was so eager to make a Proselyte as our late factors of Rome and if they be so hot set vpon this seruice as to compasse sea and land to winne one of vs shall we be so mad as to passe both their sea and land to cast our selues into the mouth of danger No man setteth foot vpon their coast which may not presently sing with the Psalmist They come about mee like Bees It fares with them as with those which are infected with the pestilence who they say are carried with an itching desire of tainting others When they haue all done this they haue gained that if Satan were not more busie and vehement than they they could gaine nothing But in the meane time there is nothing wherein I wish we would emulate them but in this heat of diligence and violent ambition of winning Pyrrhus did not more enuy the valour of those old Romane souldiers which he read in their wounds and dead faces than we doe the busie audacitie of these new The world could not stand before vs if our Truth might be but as hotly followed as their falshood Oh that our God whose cause we maintaine would enkindle our hearts with the fire of holy zeale but so much as Satan hath inflamed theirs with the fire of fury and faction Oh that he would shake vs out of this dull ease and quicken ourslacke spirits vnto his owne worke Arise O North and come O South and blow vpon our garden that the spices thereof may flow forth These suters will take no deniall but are ready as the fashion was to doe with rich matches to carry away mens soules whether they will or no. Wee see the proofe of their importunity at home No bulwarke of lawes no barres of iustice though made of three trees can keepe our rebanished fugitiues from returning from intermedling How haue their actions said in the hearing of the world that since heauen will not heare them they will try what hell can doe And if they dare bee so busie in our owne homes where they would seeme somewhat awed with the danger of iustice what thinke we will they not dare to doe in their owne territories where they haue not free scope onely but assistance but incouragement Neuer generation was so forward as the Iesuiticall for captation of wils amongst their owne or of soules amongst strangers What state is not haunted with these ill spirits yea what house yea what soule Not a Princes Councell-Table not a Ladies chamber can be free from their shamelesse insinuations It was not for nothing that their great Patron Philip the second King of Spaine called them Clerices negotiadores and that Marcus Antonius Columna Generall of the Nauy to Pius Quintuâ— in the battell of Lepanto and Viceroy of Sicile could say to Father Don Alonso a famous Iesuite affecting to be of the counsell of his conscience Voi altri padri di Ihesu hauete la mente al ciclo le mani al mondo l'anima al diauolo SECT XVI YEt were there the lesse perill of their vehemence if it were only rude and boysterous as in some other sects that so as it is in Canon shot it might be more easily shund than resisted but here the skill of doing mischiefe contends with the power their mis-zealous passions hide themselues in a pleasing sweetnesse and they are more beholden to policy than strength What Gentleman of any note can crosse our Seas whose name is not landed in their books before hand in preuention of his person whom now arriued if they finde vntractable through too much preiudice they labour first to temper with the plausible conuersation of some smooth Catholike of his owne Nation the name of his Countrey is warrant enough for his insinuation Not a word yet may be spoken of Religion as if that were no part of the errand So haue we seene an Hawke cast off at an Hernshaw to looke and flie a quite other way after many carelesse and ouerly fetches to towre vp vnto the prey intended There is nothing wherein this faire companion shall not apply himselfe to his welcome Countryman At last when he hath possest himselfe of the heart of his new acquaintance got himselfe the reputation of a sweet ingenuity and delightfull sociablenesse he findes opportunities to bestow some witty scoffes vpon those parts of our religion which lie most open to aduantage And now it is time to inuite him after other rarities to see the Monastery of our English Benedictines or if elsewhere those English Colleges which the deuout beneficence of our well-meaning neighbours with no other intention than some couetous Farmers lay saltcats in their doue-coats haue bountifully erected There it is a wondes
is in a charitable abdication hearken to the Duties which God layes vpon you The remoueall of euill must make roome for good First therefore our Apostle would haue our hearts cleared of euill dispositions then setled in good The euill dispositions that do commonly attend wealth are Pride and Misconfidence Against these our Apostle bendeth his charge That they be not hye-minded That they trust not in vncertaine riches For the first It is strange to see how this earthly drosse which is of it selfe heauy That they be not hye minded and therefore naturally sinkes downward should raise vp the heart of man and yet it commonly caries a man vp euen to a double pitch of pride one aboue others the other aboue himselfe Aboue others in contempt aboue himselfe in ouer-weening The poore and proud is the Wisemans monster but the proud and rich are no newes It is against all reason that metals should make difference of reasonable men of Christians for as that wise Law-giuer said A freeman can be valued at no price Yet Salomon noted in his time The rich rules the poore not the wise and Siracides in his The rich speakes proudly and what fellow is this and Saint Iames in his The man with the gold ring lookes to fit highest And not to cast backe our eyes doe ye not see it thus in our times If a man be but worth a foot-cloth how big hee lookes on the inferiour passengers and if he haue purchased a little more land or title then his neighbours you shall see it in his garbe If he command it is imperiously with sirrah and fellow If he salute it is ouerly with a surly and silent nod if hee speake it is oracles if hee walke it is with a grace if hee controll it is in the killing accent if he entertaine it is with insolence and whatsoeuer he doth he is not as he was not as the Pharise sayes like other men He lookes vpon vulgar men as if they were made to serue him and should thinke themselues happy to be commanded and if he bee crossed a little hee swels like the sea in a storme Let it be by his equall he cares more for an affront then for death or hell Let it be by his inferiour although in a iust cause that man shall be sure to be crusht to death for his presumption And alaâ— when all is done after these hye tearmes all this is but a man and God knowes a foolish one too whom a little earthly trash can affect so deeply Neither doth this pride raise a man more aboue others then aboue himselfe And what wonder is it if hee will not know his poore neighbours which hath forgotten himselfe As Saul was changed to another man presently vpon his anointing so are men vpon their aduancement and according to our ordinary Prouerb Their good and their blood rises together Now it may not be taken as it hath beene Other cariage other fashions are fit for them Their attire fare retinue houses furniture displease them new must be had together with coaches and lacquies and all the equipage of greatnesse These things that no man mistake me I mislike not they are fit for those that are fit for them Charity is not strait-laced but yeelds much latitude to the lawfull vse of indifferent things although it is one of Salomons vanities that seruants should ride on horse-backe and hee tels vs it becomes not a swine to bee ring'd with gold but it is the heart that makes all these euill when that is puft vp with these windy vanities hath learned to borrow that part of the deuils speech All these things are mine and can say with him that was turned into a beast Is not this great Babel that I haue built or with that other patterne of pride I sit as a Queene I am and there is none beside me Now all these turne into sinne The bush that hangs out shewes what wee may looke for within Whither doth the conceit of a little inheritance transport the Gallants of our time O God what a world of vanity hast thou reseru'd vs to I am asham'd to thinke that the Gospell of Christ should be disgraced with such disguised clients Are they Christians or Antickes in some Carnevale or childrens puppets that are thus dressed Pardon I beseech you men brethren and fathers this my iust and holy impatience that could neuer expresse it selfe in a more solemne assembly although I perceiue those whom it most concernes are not so deuout as to be present Who can without indignation look vpon the prodigies which this mis-imagination produces in that other sex to the shame of their husbands the scorne of Religion the damnation of their owne soules Imagine one of our fore-fathers were aliue againe and should see one of these his gâ—y daughters walke in Cheape-side before him what doe you thinke he would thinke it were Here is nothing to be seene but a verdingale a yellow ruffe and a periwig with perhaps some feather wauing in the top three things for which he could not tell how to find a name Sure he could not but stand amazed to thinke what new creature the times had yeelded since he was a maÌ„ if then he should run before her to see if by the fore-side he might ghesse what it were when his eyes should meet with a poudred frizle a painted hide shadowed with a fan not more painted brests displayd and a loose locke erring wantonly ouer her shoulders betwixt a painted cloth and skinne how would he yet more blesse himselfe to thinke what mixture in nature could bee guilty of such a monster Is this thinkes he the flesh and blood is this the hayre is this the shape of a woman or hath nature repented of her worke since my dayes and begunne a new frame It is no maruell if their forefathers could not know them God himselfe that made them will neuer acknowledge that face he neuer made the hayre that hee neuer made theirs the body that is asham'd of the Maker the soule that thus disguises the body Let me therefore say to these dames as Benet said to Totilaes seruant Depone filia quod portas quia non est tuum Lay downe that ye weare it is none of your owne Let me perswade them for that can worke most that they doe all this in their owne wrong All the world knowes that no man will rough-cast a marble wall but mud or vnpolisht ragge That beauty is like truth neuer so glorious as when it goes plainest that false art in stead of mending nature marres it But if none of our perswasions can preuaile Heare this ye garish Popingayes of our time if you will not be ashamed to cloath your selues in this shamelesse fashion God shall cloath you with shame and confusion heare this yee plaister-faced Iezabels if you will not leaue your dawbing and your high washes GOD will one day wash them off with fire and brimstone I grant
kept our Easter insomuch as Beda tels vs that Pope Iohn the fourth about the yeere 637. was faine to require of the English that they would keepe their Pasch after the Romane fashion a difference as it was then taken of no small importance The story of S. Aidanus and Colmannus may be herein an abundant witnesse And for the Britans Beda left them in the Cloze both of his Life and History fast to Greece loose from Rome After the Grecian forme we celebrated the Sacrament of Baptisme After the Grecian Liberty wee continued the Mariages of persons Ecclesiasticall through so many Centuries of yeeres without the scandall without the contradiction of the Christian World so as now we are but repossessed of the ancient right of our Forefathers which the interposition of the Romish tyranny for a while iniuriously debarred Our Aduersaries haue wont to brand vs for the vncharitable censures of our Forefathers and can they thinke the successions of many Generations so faithlesse that they made solemne Vowes for no other purpose but onely to breake them It was the question of the rich and precious Iewell of England to which his Hardie Aduersary had neuer the face to reply My Refuters forehead is stronger with a weaker wit Let him try here the power of his audacitie And if the Church of this Iland in the daies of her forced seruitude to the Roman See maintained this liberty as wee proue in the sequell and deriued it to Posterity how much more free shall it be for vs to renue and inioy it after the iust excussion of that seruile yoke Let now C. E. goe waste good houres and marre cleane Paper in disprouing the Mariage of Romish Votaries and in the meane time come as neere my Question as Thames is to Tiber What is this but to mocke the Reader and abuse himselfe How much wiser is he growne in the processe of his discourse where hee grants our Mariage and denies our Clergie from which weake and witlesse Hold if we beat him not in the due place we suffer not enough from that rude Hand SECT IIII. HAuing then hitherto detected no error no ignorance but his owne Refut p. 17. hee now descends to vntruths and finds here so many mistakings lyes falsifications that a Reader would wonder by what Art I could couch so many of them in so smal a roome and might verily thinke that I could out-ly the Legends and out-iuggle a Iesuit But ere I haue done these shall appeare to be but the fictions of a passionate fugitiue the Man shall be cooler I shall be innocent and my Reader shall say that if that forehead had not beene so oft crossed it could not haue had so little shame My first vntruth is that I auouch Saint Paul to call the single life of Priests A Doctrine of Deuils Reader Is my Detector awake I said That to maintaine the vnlawfulnesse of the Mariage of the Minister of God is according to Saint Paul A Doctrine of Deuills and now he would perswade the World I said thus of the single life of his Priests What can wee make of this That single life is a Doctrine If not truth yet let him learne to speake sense But that hee may not alwayes refute what I neuer affirmed I must ghesse at what he meant He would elude this charge with that stale shift worne out with the Pens of his Predecessors that Saint Paul is to bee vnderstood according to Theodoret of those which call Mariage execrable Nuptias execrabile according to Saint Austin that say Mariage is euill and of the Deuils making according to Clemens Alexandrinus Of those that abhorre Mariage Of Manichees and other Heretikes as Ambrose and Epiphanius from which Catholikes are so farre that they approue it for a Sacrament First the words of Saint Paul are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbidding to marry not condemning Mariage Then we know well what the Tacians Ebionites Encratites Montanists Marcionites Manichees Adamites and Apostoliques held of Matrimonie The Apostle brands them here But what Them only Whiles he condemnes them doth he free those that partake with them The Act is one Forbiddance of Mariage whether to some or to more or to al S. Paul expresses not The number doth not varie the quality And if one be a part of all then to condemne Mariage in some one kind of Men can it be other then the partaking of an vniuersall condemnation of it This then only he hath gained that some others haue beene deeper in this euill then themselues Obiect But our Apostle speakes of them which condemne Mariage as euill in it selfe Answ Be ye Holy All things are cleane to the cleane We take what he giues No mans mouth shall condemne my Refuter but his own What was he that accused Mariage of Vnholinesse out of Sancti estote of vncleannesse out of Omnia munda mundis of Contamination with carnall concupiscence Was it not his owne Pope p p Innoc. Exuperio Tolos Epis Epist 3. c. 1. Dist 82. Proposuisti Innocentius Who was hee that interpreteth of Mariage the Text Rom. 8.8 Those that are in the flesh cannot please God that called the maried Man no lesse then the Whoremonger Sectatorem libidinum Praeceptorem vitiorum A follower of Lust a teacher of Vice that said Mariage was a loosing the reynes to Luxury an inhiation after obscene lusts was it not his Pope q q Ead. Dist c. Plurimos ad HimeriuÌ„ Tarraca Epist â— Semoâ—e namque differentiam peruersi nominis Connubij vnam eandemque rem effecisti Adulterij coniugij Laur. Valla Canon Eccl. Later l. 1. de Volupt Siricius the first Founder if we may beleeue their now-defaced Glosse or forced Continency Who was it that called Mariage a defiling with vncleane society and execrable contagion Was it not his Councell of r r Vxorum aut quarumcunque foeminarum immuÌ„dae societate execrabili contagione turpari Conc. Tol. 8. c. 5. cit à C.E. p. 231. Toledo Who was it that called Mariage Spurcitias immundas filthy beastlinesse Was it not his s s Vide Regist Eccl. Wigorniensis postea l 3. Saint Dunstan and Oswald Let him construe this and then tell me what it is if this be not to condemne Mariage as t t Essendo il matrimonio vn stato Carnale Pleaded in the Councell of Trent Hist Concil p. 662. euill Yet more his owne example shall conuince him He pleads out of Saint Austin that this text amongst others intends to strike at the Manichees now the Manichees allowed Mariage to their Auditors that is Analogically their Laity forbad it to their Electi that is their Clergy So farre approuing it in their layick-Clients that no modest Penne may write u u August de Haeres ad Quod-vult-Deum whence they fetched their Sacramentall Bread Either then the Manichees must bee excluded or Papists must be taken in for company into this doctrine of
Father said Neque opus passeri fugere ad montem In them as Chrysostome said long since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace of Virginitie is lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world make sport with such Maiden-head For the rest The God of Heauen iudge betwixt vs and our enemies To him we appeale how vvee desire to serue him in chaste Wedlocke whom they dishonour with vncleane and false Virginitie Not to put my Detector in mind how honorably he now speakes of mariage how dares he talke of our fleshlinesse and their chastity as if hee had to doe with a world that were both deafe and blind Do not their owne Records fly in their faces and tell him there are but a few of them honest Did not their own t t Concil Delect Cardin. Paul 3. Exhib Alius busiâ—â— turbat populum Christianum in Monialibus c. Vbi in plarisque monasteriis fiunt publica sacrilegia cum maximo omnium scandalo select Cardinals complaine that the most of their Nunneries were iustly scandalized with sacrilegious incontinencies Do not our u u Mat. Paris Hist Angl. Hen 3. p. â—085 Et quâ—d indignum est scribi ad domâ—s religiosarum veniens facit exprimi mammillas earundem vt sic physice c. Histories tell vs that in the raigne of Henry the third Robert Grosthead the famous Bishop of Lincolne in his Visitation was faine to explore the virginity of their Nuns by nipping off their dugs indignum scribi as Matth. Paris Doe not the x x In haâ— etiam vrbe meretrices c. Concil del Card. Prius est quà m mechari continentiam ducere criminosam de singul cler Refut 88. forenamed Cardinals find it a common greeuance that their Curtezans rode in state thorow Rome it selfe attended euen at noone day with the retinue of their Cardinals and with their Clergy-men Doth he finde the Church of England to maintaine Stewes and to raise rents from professed filthinesse Can hee deny the vnnaturall beastlinesse that raignes in his Italy But what doe I stirre this puddle Let mee heare no more brags of their chastitie no more exprobrations of our lasciuiousnesse SECT XVI AS if my Refuter had vowed to write no true word he challenges me for translating Isidores Turpe votum a filthy Vow I turne to my Epistle and finde it not englished by me at all His own conscience belike so construes it or if some former Impression of mine which I beleeue not had so turned it here is neither ignorance nor vnfaithfulnesse Wheresoeuer is sinne there is filthinesse And if a lawfull vow bee properly de meliore bono can there not therefore be an vnlawfull vow What was that of Iepthaes or that of S. Pauls forty Conspirators But the word there saith he signifies a promise As if euery vow were not a promise and if Isidore takes votum for promissum y y Dist 28. Greg. Petro. Diac. l. 1. Ep. 42. Gregorie takes by his construction promissum for votum in this very case we haue in hand This vow of theirs therefore is metonymically filthy because it makes them such In one word that he may raue no more of Epicures Turks Pagans Their vow is in profession glorious filthy in effect And now for a conclusion of this point I must out of all these grosse and ignorant passages of his though vnproperly yet truely vow to the world that a truer Bayard did neuer stumble forth in the Presse SECT XVII HEe hath done with their owne vowes and now descends to vs whom hee confesses vowlesse His scorne cannot strip vs of the benefit of that Truth which hee confesseth Thus then hee writes I freely with other Catholikes grant Refut p. 89. that our English Ministers according to their calling make no vowes I grant their mariage to be lawfull I grant that euery one of them may bee the Husband of one Wife c. And why did not this liberalitie of my wise Detector tye vp his Tongue in his purse all this while No more was required no lesse is yeelded whereto is all this iangling But that his grant may proue worse then a deniall thus hee proceeds But wee deny them to bee truely Clergie-men or to haue any more authoritie in the Church then their wiues or daughters haue and this because they want all true calling and Ordination For they entred not in at the doore like true Pastors but stole in at the window like theeues We deny their ministerie I say to be lawfull because they did runne before they were sent tooke their places by intrusion c. Let Master Hall disproue this and I will say Tu Phyllidasolus habeto Thus he A deep crimination and such as if it could be proued would rob our question of the State and vs of our duely challenged honour Reader this vehemency shewes thee where his shoo wrings him It is the gall of Romish hearts that we prosper and are not theirs Where they haue presumed vpon credulitie they haue not stucke to say we are not men like others but more frequently and boldly that wee are no Christian men and here most peremptorily that we are no Clergie-men There is no Church no Christianitie no Clergie not theirs Neither can we be in Orders whiles we are out of Babylon The man dreames of the Nags-head in Cheape-side where his lying Oracle Tradition hath not shamed to report Iewel Sands Horne Scory Grindall and others in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths time being disappointed of the Catholike Bishop of Landaffe to haue laid hands mutually on each other and that from hence haue flowed our pretended Orders This our shameless * * Alias Halywell the Iesuite Sacrobosco heard of some good old folks they had it of one Neale Professor Ebrius in Oxford Kellison took it of Sacrobosco and C. E. of him Concordat cum Originali Diabolus est mendax pater eius And is not this a worthy engine to batter down the wals of a whole Church to blow vp all our ordination Is it possible that any Christian face should be so gracelesse as to beare out such an apparent and ridiculous falshood against so many thousands of witnesses against the euidence of authenticall Records against reason and sense it selfe For can they hope to perswade any liuing man that these hauing at that time a lawfull Archbishop of their owne religion legally established in the Metropoliticall chaire by an acknowledged authority the sway of the times openly fauoring them when all Churches all Chappels gladly opened to them that they would bee so mad as to goe and ordaine themselues in a Tauerne He that would beleeue this may be perswaded that their adored blocks can weepe and speake and moue that their Cake is God Neuer truth could be cleared if not this No lesse then the whole Kingdome knew that Q. Mary dyed in the yeare 1558 Nouember 17 and her Cardinal then Archb. of Canterbury accompanied her
rayled much and hurt nothing laboured much and gained nothing talked much and said nothing It is a large and bold word but if any one clause of mine be vnproned if any one clause of mine be disproued any one exception against my defence proued iust any one charge of his proued true any one falshood of mine detected any one argument of mine refelled any one argument or proposition of his not refelled Let me goe away conuicted with shame But if I haue answered euery challenge vindicated euery * * I onely except that one slip of my Pen that I said Gratian cited a sentence out of Austin which was indeed his owne anthoritie iustified euery proofe wiped away euery cauill affirmed no proposition vntruely censured nothing vniustly satisfied all his malicious obiections and warranted euery sentence of my poore Epistle Let my apologie liue and passe and let my Refuter goe as he is C. E. Cauillator Egregius Let my cause bee no more victorious then iust and let honest Mariages euer hold vp their heads in despite of Rome and Hell With this Farewell I leaue my Refuter either to the acting of his vnbloody executions of the Sonne of God or the plotting of the bloody executions of the Deputies of God or as it were his best to the knocking of his Beads But if he will needs be medling with his pen and will haue me after some Iubilies to expect an answer to my fixe weekes labour I shall in the meane time pray that God would giue him the grace to giue way to the knowne Truth and sometimes to say true Yet to gratifie my Reader at the parting I may not conceale from him an ancient and worthy Monument vvhich I had the fauour and happinesse to see in the Inner Librarie of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge An excellent Treatise written amongst seuenteene other in a faire set hand by an Author of great learning and Antiquitie Of Rome in France He would needs suppresse his name but describes himselfe to be Rotomagensis The time wherein it was written appeares to bee amids the heat of contention which was betwixt the Archbishop of Canterbury Yorke for precedency * * As also the contention betwixt the Church of Roane and Vienna Râ—g Houed which quarrell fell betwixt Rodulph of Canterbury and Thurstin of Yorke in the yeare 1114 at which time Pope Paschalis wrote to King Henry concerning it and was renued after about the yeare 1175. The Discourse shall speake enough for it selfe ROTOMAGENSIS ANONYMVS AN LICEAT SACERDOTIBVS INIRE MATRIMONIA SCire volui quis primus instituit ne Sacerdotes Christiani inire deberent Matrimonia Deus an homo Si enim Deus eius certe sententia tenenda obseruanda est cum omni veneratione reuerentia Si vero homo non Deus de corde hominis non ex ore Dei talis egressa est traditio Ideoque nec per eam salus adquiritus si obseruetur nec amittitur si non obseruetur Non enim est hominis saluare vel per dere aliquem pro meritis sed Dei proprium vnius est scilicet quod Deus hoc instituerit nec in veteri Testamento nec in Euangelio nec in Apostolorum Epistolis scriptum reperitur in quibus quicquid Deus hominibus praecèpit insertum describitur Traditio ergo hominis est non Dei non Apostolorum institutio Quemadmodum Apostolus instituit vt oportet Episcopum esse vnius vxoris virum Quod minime instituisset si adulterium esset quod Episcopus haberet simul vxorem Ecclesiam quasi duus vxores vt quidam asserunt Quodque de Scripturis sanctis non habet authoritatem eadem facilitate contemnitur qua dicitur Sancta enim Ecclesia non Sacerdotis vxor non spousa sed Christi est sicut Ioannes dicit Qui habet sponsam sponsus est huius inquam sponsi Ecclesia sponsa est tamen huic sponsae licet in parte inire matrimonia ex Apostolica traditione Dicit enim Apostolus ad Cor. Propter fornicationes inquit vnusquisque vxorem suam habeat caetera vsque volo omnes homines esse sicut meipsum sed vnusquisque proprium donum habet à Deo alius quidem sic alius verò sic Non enim omnes habent vnum donum virginitatis scilicet continentiae sed quidam virgines sunt continentes quidam vero incontinentes quibus concidit nuptias ne tentet eos Sathanas propter incontinentiam suam in ruinam turpitudinis corruant Sed Sacerdotes quoque alij quidem continentes sunt alij vero incontinentes qui continentes sunt continentia sua donum à Deo consecuti sunt fine eius dono gratia continentes esse non possunt Incontinentes vero hoc donum gratiae minime percipiunt qui cum intemperantia suae conspersionis tum etiam animi infirmitate per carnis desideria diffluunt Quod nullo modo facerent si continentiae gratiam virtutem à Deo percepissent Sentiunt enim ipsi aliam legem in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suae captiuantem eos in lege peccati quod nolunt agere cogentem qui de corpore mortis huius liberantur gratia Dei. Hac itaque eos lege captiuante carnis concupiscentia stimulante aut fornicari coguntur aut nubere Quorum quid melius fit Apostolica docemur authoritate qua dicitur melius nubere quà m vri Quod melius est id certe eligendum tenendum est Melius est inquam nubere quia peius est vri Quia melius est nubere quà m vri conueniens est incontinentibus vt nubant non vt vrantur Bona etenim sunt nuptia sicut Augustinus ait in libro super Genesin ad literam in ipsis commendatur bonum naturae quo incontinentiae regitur prauitas naturae decoratur foecunditas Num vtriusque sexus infirmitas propendens in ruinam turpitudinis recta excipitur honestate nuptiarum vt quod sanis possit esse officium sit aegrotis remedium Neque enim quia incontinentia malum est ideo connubium vel quo incontinentes copulantur non est bonum Imo vero non propter illud malum culpabile est bonum sed propter hoc bonum ventale est illud malum quoniam id quod bonum habent nuptiae quod bonae sunt nuptiae peccatum esse nunquam potest Hoc autem tripartitum est fides proles Sacramentum In fide attenditur ne praeter vinculum coniugale cum altera vel cum altero concubatur In prole vt amanter suscipiatur benigne suscipiatur religiose educetur In Sacramento vt coniugium non separetur demissus aut demissa ne causa prolis alteri coniugatur Haec est tanquam regula nuptiarum qua vel naturae decoratur foecunditas vel incontinentiae regitur prauitas
long had beene to punish Noah that was righteous After forty daies therefore the Heauens cleare vp after an hundred and fifty the waters sinke downe How soone is God weary of punishing which is neuer weary of blessing yet may not the Arke rest suddenly If we did not stay some-while vnder Gods hand we should not know how sweet his mercy is and how great our thankfulnesse should be The Arke though it was Noahs Fort against the waters yet it was his prison he was safe in it but pent vp he that gaue him life by it now thinkes time to giue him liberty out of it God doth not reueale all things to his best seruants behold He that told Noah an hundred and twenty yeares before what day he should goe into the Arke yet foretels him not now in the Arke what day the Arke should rest vpon the Hills and he should goe forth Noah therefore sends out his Intelligencers the Rauen and the Doue whose wings in that vaporous ayre might easily descry further then his sight The Rauen of quicke sent of grosse feed of tough constitution no Fowle was so fit for discouery the likeliest things alwaies succeed not He neither will venture far into that solitary world for feare of want nor yet come into the Arke for loue of liberty but houers about in vncertainties How many carnall mindes flye out of the Arke of Gods Church and imbrace the present world rather choosing to feed vpon the vnsauory carkasses of sinfull pleasures then to bee restrained within the straight lists of Christian obedience The Doue is sent forth a Fowle both swift and simple Shee like a true Citizen of the Arke returnes and brings faithfull notice of the continuance of the Waters by her restlesse and empty returne by her Oliue leafe of the abatement how worthy are those Messengers to be welcome which with innocence in their liues bring glad tydings of peace and saluation in their mouthes Noah reioyces and beleeues yet still he waites seuen daies more It is not good to deuoure the fauours of God too greedily but so take them in that we may digest them O strong faith of Noah that was not weary with this delay some man would haue so longed for the open ayre after so long closenesse that vpon the first notice of safetie hee would haue vncouered and voyded the Arke Noah stayes seuen dayes ere he will open and well-neere two Moneths ere he will forsake the Arke and not then vnlesse God that commanded to enter had bidden him depart There is no action good without Faith no Faith without a word Happy is that man which in all things neglecting the counsels of flesh and blood depends vpon the commission of his Maker Contemplations THE SECOND BOOKE NOAH Babel ABRAHAM ISAAC sacrificed LOT and Sodom BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORD STANHOPE ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST HONORABLE PRIVIE COVNCELL All Grace and Happinesse RIght Honourable I Durst appeale to the iudgement of a carnall Reader let him not bee preiudicate that there is no Historie so pleasant as the Sacred Set aside the Maiestie of the Jnditer none can compare with it for the Magnificence and Antiquitie of the matter the sweetnesse of compyling the strange varietie of memorable occurrences And if the delight be such what shall the profit be esteemed of that which was written by GOD for the saluation of Men J confesse no thoughts did euermore sweetly steale Me and Time away then those which I haue imployed in this subiect and I hope none can equally benefit others for if the meere Relation of these holy things bee profitable how much more when it is reduced to vse This second part of the World repayred I dedicate to your Lordship wherein you shall see Noah as weake in his Tent as strong in the Arke an vngratious Sonne reserued from the Deluge to his Fathers curse modest pietie rewarded with blessings the building of Babel begunne in pride ending in confusion Abrahams Faith Feare Obedience Isaac bound vpon the Altar vnder the hand of a Father that hath forgotten both nature and all his hopes Sodom burning with a double fire from Hell and from Heauen Lot rescued from that impure Citie yet after finding Sodom in his Caue Euery one of these passages is not more full of wonder then of edification That Spirit which hath penned all these things for our learning teach vs their right vse and sanctifie these my vnworthy Meditations to the good of his Church To whose abundant grace J humbly commend your Lordship Your Lordships vnfainedly deuoted in all due obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations THE SECOND BOOKE NOAH NO sooner is Noah come out of the Arke but he builds an Altar not an house for himselfe but an Altar to the Lord Our faith will euer teach vs to prefer God to our selues delayed thankfulnesse is not worthy of acceptation Of those few creatures that are left God must haue some they are all his yet his goodnesse wil haue Man know that it was he for whose sake they were preserued It was a priuiledge to those very bruit creatures that they were saued from the waters to be offered vp in fire vnto God what a fauor is it to men to be reserued from common destructions to bee sacrificed to their Maker and Redeemer Loe this little fire of Noah through the vertue of his faith purged the world and ascended vp into those heauens from which the waters fell caused a glorious Rainbow to appeare therein for his securitie All the sins of the former world were not so vnsauory vnto God as this smoake was pleasant No perfume can be so sweet as the holy obedience of the faithfull Now God that was before annoyed with the ill sauor of sinne smells a sweet sauour of rest Behold here a new and second rest First God rested from making the World now he rests from destroying it Euen while we cease not to offend he ceases from a publike reuenge His word was enough yet withall he giues a signe which may speake the truth of his promise to the very eyes of men thus he doth still in his blessed Sacraments which are as reall words to the soule The Raine-bow is the pledge of our safety which euen naturally signifies the end of a showre all the signes of Gods institution are proper and significant But who would looke after all this to haue found righteous Noah the Father of the new World lying drunken in his tent Who could thinke that wine should ouerthrow him that was preserued from the waters That he who could not be tainted with the sinfull examples of the former world should begin the example of a new sinne of his own What are we men if we be but our selues While God vpholds vs no temptation can moue vs when he leaues vs no temptation is too weak to ouerthrow
enemies vpon himselfe True Christian fortitude teaches vs not to regard the number or quality of the opponents but the equity of the cause and cares not to stand alone and challenge all commers and if it could be opposed by as many worlds as men it may be ouerborn but it cannot be daunted Whereas popularity caries weake minds and teaches them the safety of erring with a multitude Caleb saw the giantly Anakims and the walled Cities as well as the rest and yet he sayes Let vs go vp and possesse it As if it were no more but to go and see and conquer Faith is couragious makes nothing of those dangers wherwith others are quailed It is very materiall with what eyes we looke vpon all obiects Feare doth not more multiply euils then faith diminisheth them which is therefore bold because either it sees not or contemnes that terror which feare represents to the weake There is none so valiant as the beleeuer It had beene happy for Israel if Calebs counsell had beene as effectuall as good But how easily haue these Rulers discouraged a faint-hearted people In stead of lifting vp their ensignes and marching towards Canaan they sit them downe and lift vp their voice and cry The rods of their AEgyptian Task-masters had neuer beene so fit for them as now for crying They had cause indeed to weepe for the sinne of their infidelity but now they weepe for feare of those enemies they saw not I feare if there had beene ten Calebs to perswade and but two faint spies to discourage them those two cowards would haue preuailed against those tenne sollicitors How much more now ten oppose and but two incourage An easie Rhetoricke drawes vs to the worse part yea it is hard not to run downe the hill The faction of Euill is so much stronger in our nature then that of Good that euery least motion preuailes for the one scarce any sure for the other Now is Moses in danger of losing all the cost and care that euer he bestowed vpon Israel His people are already gone backe to AEgypt in their hearts and their bodies are returning Oh ye rebellious Hebrewes where shall God haue you at last Did euer Moses promise to bring you to a fruitfull Land without Inhabitants To giue you a rich Country without resistance Are not the graues of Canaan as good as those of Aegypt What can ye but dye at the hands of the Anakims Can ye hope for lesse from the Aegyptians What madnesse is this to wish to dye for feare of death Is there lesse hope from your enemies that shall be when ye goe vnder strong and expert Leaders then from the enemies that were when yee shall returne masterlesse Can those cruell Egyptians so soone haue forgotten the blood of their fathers children brothers husbands which perished in pursuing you Had yee rather trust the mercy of knowne enemies then the promise of a faithfull God Which way will ye returne Who shall diuide the Sea for you Who shall fetch you water out of the Rocke Or can ye hope that the Manna of God will follow you while yee runne from him Feeble minds when they meet with crosses they lookt not for repent of their good beginnings and wish any difficulty rather then that they finde How many haue pulled backe their foot from the narrow way for the troubles of a good profession It had been time for the Israelites to haue falne downe on their faces before Moses and Aaron and to haue said Ye led vs thorow the Sea make way for vs into Canaan Those Giants are strong but not so strong as the Rocke of Rephidim ye stroke that and it yeelded If they be tall the Pillar of God is higher then they when we looke on our selues we see cause of fear but when we consider the miraculous power of you our leaders we cannot but contemne those men of measures Leaue vs not therfore but go before vs in your directiōs go to God for vs in your praiers But now contrarily Moses and Aaron fall on their faces to them and sue to them that they would be content to be conducted Had they beene suffered to depart they had perished Moses and his few had beene victorious And yet as if he could not be happy without them be falls on his face to them that they would stay We haue neuer so much need to bee importuned as in those things whose benefit should make vs most importunate The sweetnesse of Gods Law and our promised glory is such as should draw all hearts after it And yet if we did not sue to men as for life that they would bee reconciled to God and be saued I doubt whether they would obtaine yea it were well if our sute were sufficient to preuaile Though Moses and Aaron intreat vpon their faces and Ioshua and Caleb perswade and rend their garments yet they moue nothing The obstinate multitude growne more violent with opposing is ready to returne them stones for their prayers Such hath been euer the thankes of fidelity and truth Crossed wickednesse proues desperate and in stead of yeelding seekes for reuenge Nothing is so hatefull to a resolute sinner as good counsell We are become enemies to the world because we tell them truth That God which was inuisibly present whiles they sinned when they haue sinned shewes himselfe glorious They might haue seene him before that they should not sinne Now they cannot choose but see him in the height of their sinne They saw before the Pillar of his ordinary presence now they see him vnusually terrible that they may with shame and horror confesse him able to defend able to reuenge The helpe of God vses to shew it selfe in extremitie He that can preuent euils conceales his aide till danger be ripe And then he is fearfull as before he seemed conniuent Of CORAH'S Conspiracie THe teares of Israel were scarce drie since the smart of their last mutiny and now they begin another The multitude is like a raging Sea full of vnquiet billowes of discontentment whereof one rises in the fall of another They saw God did but threaten and therefore are they bold to sinne It was now high time they should know what it is for God to bee angry There was neuer such a reuenge taken of Israel neuer any better deserued When lesser warnings will not serue God lookes into his Quiuer for deadly arrowes In the meane time what a weary life did Moses lead in these continuall successions of conspiracies What did hee gaine by his troublesome gouernment but danger and despight Who but he would not haue wisht himselfe rather with the sheepe of Iethro then with these wolues of Israel But as he durst not quit his hooke without the calling of God so now he dare not his Scepter except he be dismissed by him that called him no troubles no oppositions can driue him from his place we are too weake if we suffer men to chase vs from that
the iourney and curse of the couetous prophet if God had not stayed him How oft are wicked men cursed by a diuine hand euen in those sins which their heart stands to It is no thank to lewd men that their wickednesse is not prosperous Whence is it that the world is not ouer-run with euill but from this that men cannot be so ill as they would The first entertainment of this message would make a stranger thinke Balaam wife and honest Hee will not giue a sudden answer but craues leasure to consult with God and promises to returne the answer he shall receiue Who would not say This man is free from rashnesse from partiality Dissimulation is crafty able to deceiue thousands The words are good when he comes to action the fraud bewaries it selfe For both he insinuates his own forwardnesse and casts the blame of the prohibition vpon God and which is worse deliuers but halfe his answer he sayes indeed God refuses to giue them leaue to goe He sayes not as it was He charges me not to curse them for they are blessed So did Balaam deny as one that wisht to be sent for againe Perhaps a peremptory refusall had hindered his further sollicitation Concealement of some truths is sometimes as faulty as a deniall True fidelity is not niggardly in her relations Where wickednesse meets with power it thinkes to command all the world and takes great scorne of any repulse So little is Balac discouraged with one refusall that he sends so much the stronger message Mo Princes and more honorable Oh that wee could be so importunate for our good as wicked men are for the compassing of their owne designes A deniall doth but whet the desires of vehement suitors Why are we faint in spirituall things when we are not denied but delayed Those which are themselues transported with vanity and ambition thinke that no heart hath power to resist these offers Balacs Princes thought they had strooke it dead when they had once mentioned promotion to great honour Selfe-loue makes them thinke they cannot be slaues whiles others may be free and that all the world would be glad to runne on madding after their bait Nature thinks it impossible to contemn honor and wealth and because too many soules are thus taken cannot beleeue that any would escape But let carnall hearts know there are those can spit the world in the face and say Thy gold and siluer perish with thee and that in comparison of a good conscience can tread vnder foot his best proffers like shadowes as they are and that can doe as Balaam said How neere truth and falshood can lodge together Here was piety in the lips and couetousnesse in the heart Who can any more regard good words that heares Balaam speake so like a Saint An housefull of gold siluer may not peruert his tongue his heart is won with lesse for if he had not already swallowed the reward and found it sweet why did he againe sollicit God in that which was peremptorily denyed him If his mind had not beene bribed already why did he stay the messenger why did he expect a change in God why was he willing to feed them with hope of successe which had fed him with hope of recompence One prohibition is enough for a good man Whiles the delay of God doth but hold vs in suspence importunity is holy and seasonable but when once he giues a resolute deniall it is prophane saucinesse to sollicit him When we aske what we are bidden our suites are not more vehement then welcome but when we begge prohibited fauours our presumption is troublesome and abhominable No good heart will endure to be twice forbidden Yet this opportunity had obtained a permission but a permission worse then a deniall I heard God say before Go not nor curse them Now he sayes Goe but curse not Anon he is angry that he did not goe Why did he permit that which he forbade if he be angry for doing that which he permitted Some things God permits with an indignation not for that he giues leaue to the act but that he giues a man ouer to his sinne in the act this sufferance implies not fauour but iudgement so did God bid Balaam to goe as Salomon bids the yong man follow the wayes of his owne heart It is one thing to like another thing to suffer Moses neuer approued those legall diuorces yet he tolerated them God neuer liked Balaams iourney yet he displeasedly giues way to it as if he said Well since thou art so hot set on this iourney be gone And thus Balaam tooke it else when God after professed his displeasure for the iourney it had beene a ready answer Thou commandedst me but herein his confession argues his guilt Balaams suite and Israels Quailes had both one fashion of grant in anger How much better is it to haue gracious denials then angry yeeldings A small perswasion hartens the willing It booted not to bid the couetous prophet hasten to his way Now he makes himselfe sure of successe His corrupt hart tels him that as God had relented in his licence to goe so he might perhaps in his licence to curse and he saw how this curse might blesse him with abundance of wealth hee rose vp earely therefore and saddled his Asse The night seemed long to his forwardnesse Couetous men need neither clocke nor bell to awaken them their desires make them restlesse O that we could with as much eagernesse seeke the true riches which onely can make vs happy We that see onely the out-side of Balaam may maruell why he that permitted him to goe afterward opposes his going but God that saw his heart perceiued what corrupt affections caried him hee saw that his couetous desires and wicked hopes grew the stronger the neerer he came to his end An Angell is therefore sent to with-hold the hasty Sorcerer Our inward disposition is the life of our actions according to that doth the God of spirits iudge vs whiles men censure according to our externall motions To goe at all when God had commanded to stay was presumptuous but to goe with desire to curse made the act doubly sinfull and fetcht an Angell to resist it It is one of the worthy imployments of good Angels to make secret opposition to euill designes Many a wicked act haue they hindered without the knowledge of the agent It is all one with the Almighty to worke by Spirits and men It is therefore our glory to be thus set on worke To stop the course of euill either by disswasion or violence is an Angelicall seruice In what danger are wicked men that haue Gods Angels their opposites The Deuill moued him to goe a good Angell resists him If an heauenly Spirit stand in the way of a Sorcerers sinne how much more ready are all those spirituall powers to stop the miscariages of Gods deare children How oft had we falne yet more if these Guardians had not
greatest Citie Ioshua himselfe was full of Gods Spirit and had the Oracle of God ready for his direction yet now he goes not to the Propitiatorie for consultation but to the Spyes Except where ordinary means faile vs it is no appealing the immediate helpe of GOD we may not seeke to the posterne but where the common gate is shut It was promised Ioshua that he should leade Israel into the promised Land yet he knew it was vnsafe to presume The condition of his prouident care was included in that assurance of successe Heauen is promised to vs but not to our carelesnesse infidelitie disobedience He that hath set this blessed Inheritance before vs presupposes our wisdome faith holinesse Either force or policy are fit to be vsed vnto Canaanites He that would be happy in this spirituall warfare must know where the strength of his enemy lyeth and must frame his guard according to the others assault It is a great aduantage to a Christian to know the fashion of Satans onsets that he may the more easily compose himselfe to resist Many a soule hath miscaried through the ignorance of his enemy which had not perished if it had well knowne that the weaknesse of Satan stands in our faith The Spyes can finde no other lodging but Rahabs house Shee was a victualler by profession and as those persons and trades by reason of the commonnesse of entertainment were amongst the Iewes infamous by name and note shee was Rahab the Harlot I will not thinke she professed filthinesse onely her publike trade through the corruption of those times hath cast vpon her this name of reproach yea rather will I admire her faith then make excuses for her calling How many women in Israel now Miriam was dead haue giuen such proofes of their knowledge and faith How noble is that confession which she makes of the power and truth of God Yea I see here not onely a Disciple of God but a Prophetesse Or if she had once been publike as her house was now 〈…〉 worthy Coâ—â—t and so approued her selfe for honest and wise behauiour that she is â—â—ought wâ—â—hy to bee the great Grandmother of Dauids Father and â—e holy Line of the Messias is not ashamed to admit her into 〈◊〉 happy Pedegreeâ—â—he mercy of our God doth not measure vs by what wâ— were It would be wide with the best of vs if the eye of God should looke backward to our former estate there â—e should see Abraham an Idolater Paul a Persecuâ—â— Manasses a Necromancer Mary Magdalen a Curtizan and the best vile enough to be ashamed of himselfe Who can despaire of mercy that sees euen Rahab fetcht into the blood of Israel and line of Christ If Rahab had not receiued these Spies but as vnknowne passengers with respect to their money and not to their errand it had been no praise for in such cases the thanke is rather to the ghest then to the Oast but now she knew their purpose she knew that the harbor of them was the danger of her owne life and yet shee hazards this entertainment Either faith or friendship are neuer tried but in extremities To shew countenance to the messengers of God whiles the publike face of the State smiles vpon them is but a courtesie of course but to hide out owne liues in theirs when they are persecuted is an act that lookes for a reward These times need not fauour wee know not what may come Alas how likely is it they would shelter them in danger which respect them not in prosperity All intelligences of State come first to the Court It most concernes Princes to harken after the affaires of each other If this poore Inholder knew of the Sea dried vp before Israel and of the discomfiture of Og and Sehon Surely this rumour was stale with the King of Iericho he had heard it and feared and yet in stead of sending Ambassadors for peace hee sends Pursuiâ—nts for the Spyes The spirit of Rahab 〈◊〉 with that same report wherewith the King of Iericho was hardâ—ed all make not and vse of the messages of the proceedings of God The King sends to tell her what she knew shee had not hid them if shee had not knowne their errand I know not whether first to wonder at the gracious prouision of God for the Spies or at the strong faith which hee hath wrought in the heart of a weake woman two strangers Israelites Spies and noted for all these in a foraine in an hostile Land haue a safe harbour prouided them euen amongst their enemies In Iericho at the very Court gate against the Proclamation of a King against the indeuours of the people Where cannot the God of heauen either find or raise vp friends to his owne cause and seruants Who could haue hoped for such faith in Rahab which contemned her life for the present that she might saue it for the future neglected her owne King and Country for strangers which she neuer saw and more feared the destruction of that Citie before it knew that it had an aduersarie then the displeasure of her King in the mortall reuenge of that which he would haue accounted treacherie She brings them vp to the roofe of her house and hides them with stalkes of Flax That plant which was made to hide the body from nakednesse and shame now is vsed to hide the Spies from death Neuer could these stalkes haue been improued so well with all her houswifery after they were bruised as now before they were fitted to her wheele Of these shee hath wouen an euerlasting web both of life and propagation And now her tongue hides them no lesse then her hand her charitie was good her excuse was not good Euill may not be done that good may come of it we may doe any thing but sinne for promoting a good cause And if not in so maine occasions how shall God take it that weare not dainty of falshoods in trifles No man will looke that these Spies could take any sound sleepe in these beds of stalkes It is enough for them that they liue though they rest not And now when they heard Rahab comming vp the staires doubtlesse they looked for an executioner but behold she comes vp with a message better then their sleepe adding to their protection aduice for their future safety whereto she makes way by a faithfull report of Gods former wonders and the present disposition of her people and by wise capitulations for the life and security of her Family The newes of Gods miraculous proceedings for Israel haue made her resolue of their successe and the ruines of Iericho Then only doe we make a right vse of the workes of God when by his iudgements vpon others weare warned to auoid our owne He intends his acts for presidents of iustice The parents and brethren of Rahab take their rest They are not troubled with the feare and care of the successe of Israel but securely goe with the current of the present
that Story whereon the faith and saluation of all the World dependeth Wee cannot so much as doubt of this truth and bee saued no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angell is concealed Euery particle imports not more certainty than excellence The time is the sixth moneth after Iohns Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceiued in the Spring borne in the Solstice Hee in whom the World receiued a new life receiues life in the same season wherein the World receiued his first life from him and hee which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and inlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angell A man was too meane to carry the newes of the Conception of God Neuer any businesse was conceiued in Heauen that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the God of Heauen in Wombe of earth No lesse than an Arch-Angell was worthy to beare this tydings and neuer any Angell receiued a greater honour than of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall an euill Angell was the first motioner of the one to Eue a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden A good Angel is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Ioseph in that place which as the Garden of Galile had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that euill Angell was of our ruine But that which those glorious spirits could not doe themselues they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good newes reioyces the bearer With what ioy did this holy Angell bring the newes of that Sauiour in whom wee are redeemed to life himselfe established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospell was an Angell that office must needs be glorious that deriues it selfe from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angell to be the first Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angell comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiuing of him that was the God of strength To a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginitie espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole worke God would haue nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a marryed Virgin which should bee a Virgin-mother Hee that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would bee the Sonne of man without mans seed would bee the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witnesse and a Guardian of her fruitfull Virginity If the same God had not bin the author of Virginity and Marriage he had neuer countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whither doth this glorious Angell come to finde the Mother of him that was God but to obscure Galile A part which euen the Iewes themselues despised as forsaken of their priuiledges Out of Galile ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angell comes to that Galile out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to bee conceiued in that Galile out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which giues honour and priuiledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heauen the Heauen doth not make the honour glorious No blind corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angell The fauours of God will finde out his children wheresoeuer they are with-drawne It is the fashion of God to seeke out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours we cannot runne away as from the iudgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galile are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Ierusalem he cares not how homely he conuerse with his owne Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth than with the proud Dames in the Court of Ierusalem It is a great vanitie to respect any thing aboue goodnesse and to dis-esteeme goodnesse for any want The Angell salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her Hee salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddesse For vs to salute her as he did were grosse presumption For neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a spirit saluted her that was flesh and bloud here on earth it is not for vs that are flesh and bloud to salute her which is a glorious spirâ—t in Heauen For vs to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angell the Salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angell in the praise of her which was more ours than his How iustly doe we blesse her whom the Angell pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angell proclaimeth beloued of God O blessed Mary hee cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angell said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy selfe we beleeue the Angell and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose wombe all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angell much more the Virgin That very Sex hath more disaduantage of feare if it had bin but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddennesse she could not but haue bin troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end euer in comfort Ioy was the errand of the Angell and not terrour Feare as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time vnfit to receiue the messages of God Soone hath the Angell cleared these rroublesome mists of passions and sent out the beames of heauenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soule by the glad newes of her Sauiour How can ioy but enter into her heart out of whose wombe shall come saluation What roome can feare finde in that brest that is assured of fauour Feare not MARY for thou hast found fauour with God Let those feare who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate cals for confidence and that confidence for ioy What should what can they feare who are fauoured of him at whom the Deuils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the euill
right Commentary vpon Gods intention in this act for the terrour of the disobedient and to giue his voice to the certaintie of that future iudgement which his late guest had threatned to Israel sometimes it pleased the wisedome of God to expresse and iustifie himselfe euen by the tongues of faulty Instruments Withall he hath so much faith and courage as to fetch that carkasse from the Lion so much piety and compassion as to weepe for the man of God to interre him in his owne Sepulcher so much loue as to wish himselfe ioyned in death to that body which he had hastened vnto death It is hard to finde a man absolutely wicked Some grace will bewray it selfe in the most forsaken brests It is a cruell courtesie to kill a man and then to helpe him to his graue to betray a man with our breath and then to bedew him with our teares The Prophet had needed no such friend if hee had not met with such an enemy The mercies of the wicked are cruell IEROBOAMS Wife IT is no measuring of Gods fauour by the line of outward welfare Ieroboam the idolatrous vsurper of Israel prospers better then the true heires of Dauid Hee liues to see three successions in the throne of Iuda Thus the Iuy liues when the oake is dead Yet could not that mis-gotten crown of his keep his head alwaies from aching He hath his crosses too God whips sometimes more then his own His enemies smart from him as well as his children his children in loue his enemies in iudgement Not simply the rod argues loue but the temper of the hand that weelds it and the backe that feeles it First Ieroboams hand was striken now his Sonne Abijah the eldest the best sonne of Ieroboam is smitten with sicknesse As children are but the pieces of their Parents in another skin so Parents are no lesse striken in their children then in their naturall lims Ieroboam doth not more feele his arme then his sonne Not wicked men onely but beasts may haue naturall affections It is no thanke to any creature to loue his owne Nature wrought in Ieroboam no grace He is enough troubled with his sons disgrace no whit bettered I would haue heard him say God followes me with his afflictions it is for mine impiety what other measure can I expect from his iustice Whiles mine Idols stand how can I look that my house should prosper I will turne from my wickednes O God turne thou from thy wrath These thoughts were too good for that obdured heart His son is sick he is sorrowfull but as an amazed man seeks to go forth at the wrong doore his distraction sends him to a false help He thinks not of God he thinks of his Prophet He thinks of the Prophet that had foretold him he should be a King he thinks not of the God of that Prophet who made him a King It is the property of a carnall heart to confine both his Obligations and his hopes to the meanes neglecting the Author of good Vaine is the respect that is giuen to the seruant where the Master is contemned Extremity drawes Ieroboams thoughts to the Prophet whom else he had not cared to remember-The King of Israel had Diuines enow of his owne Else hee must needs haue thought them miserable gods that were not worth a Prophet And besides there was an old Prophet if he yet suruiued dwelling within the smoke of his Palace whose visions had bin too well approued why would Ieroboam send so farre to an Ahijah Certainly his heart despised those base Priests of his high places neither could trust either to the gods or the Clergie of his own making His conscience rests vpon the fidelity of that man whose doctrine hee had forsaken How did this Idolater striue against his owne heart whiles he inwardly despised those whom he professed to honour and inwardly honoured them whom hee professed to despise Wicked brests are false to themselues neither trusting to their owne choice nor making choice of that which they may dare to trust They will set a good face vpon their secretly-vnpleasing sinnes and had rather be selfe-condemned then wise and penitent As for that old Seer it is like Ieraboam knew his skill but doubted of his sinceritie that man was too much his neighbour to be good s Ahijahs truth had beene tryed in a case of his owne Hee whose word was found iust in the prediction of his Kingdome was well worthy of credit in the newes of his sonne Experience is a great encouragement of our trust It is a good matter to be faithfull this loadstone of our fidelity shall draw to vs euen hearts of iron hold them to our reliance As contrarily deceit doth both argue and make a bankrupt who can trust where he is disappointed O God so oft so euer haue we found thee true in all thy promises in all thy performances that if we doe not seeke thee if wee doe not trust thee in the sequell wee are worthy of our losse worthy of thy desertions Yet I do not see that Ieroboam sends to the Prophet for his aide but for intelligence Curiositie is guilty of this message and not deuotion hee cals not for the prayers not for the benediction of that holy man but for meere information of the euent He well saw what the prayers of a Prophet could doe That which cured his hand might it not haue cured his sonne Yet he that said to a man of God Intreat the face of the Lord thy God that he may restore my hand sayes not now in his message to Ahijah Intreat thy God to restore my Sonne Sinne makes such a strangenesse betwixt God and man that the guilty heart either thinkes not of suing to God or feares it What a poore contentment it was to foreknow that euill which hee could not auoid and whose notice could but hasten his misery Yet thus fond is our restlesse curiosity that it seekes ease in the drawing on of torment He is worthy of sorrow that will not stay till it comes to him but goes to fetch it Whom doth Ieroboam send on this message but his wife how but disguised Why her and why thus Neither durst he trust this errand with another nor with her in her own forme It was a secret that Ieroboam sends to a Prophet of God none might know it but his owne bosome and she that lay in it if this had bin noised in Israel the example had been dangerous Who would not haue said the King is glad to leaue his counterfeit deities and seek to the true Why should we adhere to them whom he forsakes As the message must not be knowne to the people so shee that beares it must not bee knowne to the Prophet her name her habit must be changed shee must put off her robes and put on a russet coat she must put off the Queene and put on the peasant in stead of her Scepter she must take vp
to a liking to a forbearance of his misdeuotion Yea so much the more doth the heart of Asa rise against these puppets for that they were the sinne the shame of his father Did there want thinke we some Courtier of his Fathers retinue to say Sir fauour the memorie of him that begot you you cannot demolish these statues without the dishonour of their Erector Hide your dislike at the least It will bee your glory to lay your finger vpon this blot of your fathers reputation If you list not to allow his act yet winke at it The godly zeale of Asa turnes the deafe eare to these monitors and lets them see that hee doth not more honor a father then hate an Idol No dearenesse of person should take off the edge of our detestation of the sinne Nature is worthy of forgetfulnesse and contempt in opposition to the God of Nature Vpon the same ground as hee remoued the Idols of his father Abijam so for Idols he remoued his Grand-mother Maachah shee would not be remoued from her obscene Idols shee is therefore remoued from the station of her honor That Princesse had aged both in her regency and superstition Vnder her rod was Asa bruought vp and schooled in the rudiments of her Idolatry whom she could not infect she hoped to ouer-awe so as if Asa will not follow her gods yet she presumes that shee may retaine her owne Doubtlesse no meanes were neglected for her reclamation none would preuaile Religious Asa gathers vp himselfe and begins to remember that he is a King though a sonne that she though a mother yet is a subiect that her eminence could not but countenance Idolatry that her greatnesse suppressed religion which hee should in vaine hope to reforme whiles her superstition swayed forgetting therefore the challenges of nature the awe of infancy the custome of reuerence hee strips her of that command which hee saw preiudiciall to his Maker All respects of flesh and blood must be trampled on for God Could that long-setled Idolatry want abettors Questionlesse some or other would say This was the religion of your father Abijam this of your Grand-father Rehoboam this of the latter daies of your wise and great Grand-father Salomon this of your Grand-mother Maachah this of your great Grand-mother Naamah why should it not be yours Why should you suspect either the wisdome or piety or saluation of so many Predecessors Good Asa had learned to contemne prescription against a direct law He had the grace to know it was no measuring truth by so modeme antiquity his eyes scorning to looke so low raise vp themselues to the vncorrupt times of Salomon to Dauid to Samuel to the Iudges to Ioshua to Moses to the Patriarks to Noah to the religious founders of the first world to the first father of mankinde to Paradise to heauen In comparison of these Maachahs God cannot ouerlooke yesterday the ancientest error is but a nouice to Truth And if neuer any example could be pleaded for puritie of religion it is enough that the precept is expresse He knew what God said in Sinai and wrote in the Tables Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image nor any similitude Thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them If all the world had beene an Idolater euer since that word was giuen hee knew how little that precedent could auaile for disobedience Practice must bee corrected by law and not the law yeeld to practice Maachah therefoe goes downe from her seat her Idols from their groue shee to retirednesse they to the fire and from thence to the water Wofull deities that could both burne and drowne Neither did the zeale of Asa more magnifie it selfe in these priuatiue acts of weeding out the corruptions of Religion then in the positiue acts of an holy plantation In the falling of those Idolatrous shrines the Temple of God flourishes That doth he furnish with those sacred treasures which were dedicated by himselfe by the Progenitors Like the true sonne of Dauid hee would not serue God cost-free Rehoboam turned Salomons gold into brasse Asa turnes Rehoboams brasse into gold Some of these vessels it seemes Abijam Asaes father had dedicated to God but after his vow inquired yea with held them Asa like a good sonne payes his fathers debts and his owne It is a good signe of a well-meant deuotion when wee can abide it chargeable as contrarily in the affaires of God a niggardly hand argues a cold and hollow heart All these were noble and excellent acts the extirpation of Sodomie the demolition of Idols the remouall of Maachah the bountious contribution to the Temple but that which giues true life vnto all these is a sound root Asaes heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes No lesse laudable workes then these haue proceeded from Hypocrisie which whiles they haue caried away applause from men haue lost their thankes with God All Asaes gold was but drosse to his pure intentions But oh what great and many infirmities may consist with vprightnesse What allayes of imperfection will there be found in the most refined soule Foure no small faults are found in true-hearted Asa First the high-places stood still vnremoued What high places There were some dedicated to the worship of false gods these Asa tooke away There were some misdeuoted to the worship of the true God these hee lets stand There was grosse Idolatry in the former there was a weake will-worship in the latter whiles hee opposes impietie hee winkes at mistakings yet euen the varietie of altars was forbidden by an expresse charge from God who had confined his seruice to the Temple With one breath doth God report both these The high-places were not remoued yet neuerthelesse Asaes heart was perfit God will not see weakenesses where he sees truth How pleasing a thing is sinceritie that in fauour thereof the mercy of our iust God digests many an errour Oh God let our hearts goe vpright though our feet slide the fall cannot through thy grace be deadly howeuer it may shame or paine vs. Besides to confront his riuall of Israel Baasha this religious King of Iudah fetches in Benhadad the King of Syria into Gods inheritance vpon too deare a rate the breach of his league the expilation of the Temple All the wealth wherewith Asa had endowed the House of the Lord was little enough to 〈◊〉 an Edomite to betray his fidelitie and to inuade Israel Leagues may bee made with Infidels not at such a price vpon such tearmes There can bee no warrant for a wilfull subornation of perfidiousnesse In these cases of outward things the mercy of God dispenceth with our true necessities not with the affected O Asa where was thy piety whiles thou robbest God to corrupt an Infidell for the daughter of Israelites O Princes where is your pietie whiles yee hire Turkes to the slaughter of Christians to the spoile of Gods Church Yet which was worse Asa doth not onely imploy the
Ahab shall both bleed Naboth by the stones of the Iezreelites Ahab by the shafts of the Aramites The dogs shall taste of the blood of both What Ahab hath done in crueltie he shall suffer in iustice The cause and the end make the difference happy on Naboths side on Ahabs wofull Naboth bleeds as a Martyr Ahab as a murtherer What euer is Ahabs condition Naboth changes a vineyard on earth for a Kingdome in heauen Neuer any wicked man gained by the persecution of an innocent Neuer any innocent man was a loser by suffering from the wicked Neither was this iudgement personall but hereditarie I will take away thy posterity and will make thine house like the house of Ieroboam Him that dieth of Ahab in the City the Dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the field shall the Fowles of the aire eat Ahab shall not need to take thought for the traducing of this ill gotten inheritance God hath taken order for his heires whom his sin hath made no lesse the heires of his curse then of his body Their fathers cruelty to Naboth hath made them together with their mother Iezebel dogs-meat The reuenge of God doth at last make amends for the delay Whether now is Naboths vineyard paid for The man that had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse yet rues the bargaine I doe not heare Ahab as bad as hee was reuile or threaten the Prophet but hee rends his clothes and wears and lies in sack-cloth and fasts and walks softly Who that had seen Ahab would not haue deemed him a true penitent All this was the visor of sorrow not the face or if the face not the heart or if the sorrow of the heart yet not the repentance A sorrow for the iudgment not a repentance for the sinne The very deuils howle to be tormented Griefe is not euer a signe of grace Ahab rends his clothes he did not rend his heart he puts on sack-cloth not amendment he lies in sack-cloth but he lies in his Idolatry he walks softly he walkes not sincerely worldly sorrow causeth death Happy is that griefe for which the soule is the holier Yet what is this I see This very shadow of penitence caries away mercy It is no small mercy to defer an euill Euen Ahabs humiliation shall prorogue the iudgement such as the penitence was such shall be the reward a temporary reward of a temporary penitence As Ahab might be thus sorrowfull and neuer the better so he may be thus fauoured and neuer the happier Oh God how graciously art thou ready to reward a sound and holy repentance who art thus indulgent to a carnall and seruile deiection AHAB and MICAIAH OR The Death of AHAB WHo would haue look't to haue hard any more of the wars of the Syrians with Israel after so great a slaughter after so firme a league a league not of peace onely but of Brotherhood The haltars the sack-cloth of Benhadads followers were worn out as of vse so of memory and now they are changed for Iron and steele It is but three yeares that this peace lasts and now that warre begins which shall make an end of Ahab The King of Israel rues his vniust mercie according to the word of the Prophet that gift of a life was but an exchange Because Ahab gaue Benhadad his life Benhadad shall take Ahabs He must forfeit in himselfe what he hath giuen to another There can bee no better fruit of too much kindnesse to Infidels It was one Article of the league betwixt Ahab and his brother Benhadad that there should bee a speedy restitution of all the Israelitish Cities The rest are yeelded onely Ramoth Gilead is held backe vnthankfully iniuriously He that beg'd but his life receiues his Kingdome and now rests not content with his owne bounds Iustly doth Ahab challenge his owne iustly doth he moue a war to recouer his owne from a perfidious tributary the lawfulnesse of actions may not bee iudged by the euents but by the grounds the wise and holy arbiter of the world knowes why many times the better cause hath the worse successe Many a iust businesse is crossed for a punishment to the agent Yet Israel and Iuda were now peeced in friendship Iehosaphat the good King of Iuda had made affinity with Ahab the Idolatrous King of Israel and besides a personall visitation ioynes his forces with his new Kinsman against an old confederate Iuda had called in Syria against Israel and now Israel cals in Iuda against Syria Thus rather should it be It is fit that the more pure Church should ioyne with the more corrupt against a common Paganish enemy Iehosaphat hath match't with Ahab not with a diuorce of his deuotion Hee will fight not without God Inquire I pray thee at the Word of the Lord to day Had hee done thus sooner I feare Athaliah had neuer call'd him father This motion was newes in Israel It was vvont to be said Inquire of Baal The good King of Iudah will bring Religion into fashion in the Court of Israel Ahab had inquired of his counsellor What needed he be so deuout as to inquire of his Prophets Onely Iehosaphats presence made him thus godly It is an happy thing to conuerse with the vertuous their counsell and example cannot but leaue some tincture behind them of a good profession if not of piety Those that are truly religious dare not but take God with them in all their affaires with him they can be as valiant as timorous without him Ahab had Clergy enough such as it was Foure hundred Prophets of the groues were reserued from appearing to Elijahs challenge these are now consulted by Ahab they liue to betray the life of him who saued theirs These care not so much to inquire what God would say as what Ahab would haue them say they saw vvhich way the Kings heart was bent that way they bent their tongues Goe vp for the Lord shall deliuer it into the hands of the King False Prophets care onely to please a plausible falshood passes with them aboue an harsh truth Had they seene Ahab fearfull they had said Peace Peace now they see him resolute war and victory It is a fearfull presage of ruine when the Prophets conspire in assentation Their number consent confidence hath easily won credit with Ahab Wee doe all vvillingly beleeue what we wish Iehosaphat is not so soone satisfied These Prophets were it is like obtruded to him a stranger for the true Prophets of the true God The iudicious King sees cause to suspect them and now perceiuing at what altars they serued hates to rest in their testimony Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him One single Prophet speaking from the Oracles of God is more worth then foure hundred Baalites Truth may not euer be measured by the poll It is not number but weight that must cary it in a Councell of Prophets A solid Verity in one mouth is worthy to
renuing the remembrance of Gods mercies 1093 Merit Concerning it 647 Method A false method the bane of many hopefull endeuours 279 Micha His idolatry 1009 Michaiah The Prophet commended 1362 c. His sentence by Ahab 1363 Michal her wyle 1088 Her scorne and end 1130 Mildnesse This and fortitude must lodge together as in Moses 915 Minde Of tranquilitie of minde p. 32 Of doing good with an ill minde 63 64 Minister A pretty description of a bold minister without abilities p. 5 Of much ostentation with little learning in a minister p. 5 An apologie for the mariage of Ministers 297 c. Of the ministers great charge 344 c. Whether a minister vpon conceit of insufficiency may forsake his calling 379 A ministers wisdome in taking his time to speake 474 The truth and warrant of the ministery of the Church of England 575 Certaine arguments against it ibid. The censure of such as think that they can goe to heauen without the ministery of the Word 694 Of the Church of England approuing an vnlearned minister 590 Whether ministers should endure themselues silenced 597 Of ministers mariage whether lawfull 717 c. A meanes to make the ministerie effectuall 870 A pretty picture of the ministers portion among a discontented people 875 A note for ministers in reprouing 915 An excellent example for a minister among a troublesome people 919 Flatterie in a minister what 920 The ministerie will not grace the Man but the Man must grace the ministery 922 The regard that should bee vnto the ministerie 925 1017 Ministers must not stand on their owne perils in the coÌ„mon causes of the Church 926 The lawfulnesse of a ministers calling a thing very materiall 927 The approbation of our calling is by the fruit ibid. The worlds little care of the ministers blessings 932 The honour that Heathen gaue to the Prophets vvill iudge or shame our times towards their ministers 935 A note for ministers not to goe beyond their warrant 940 Another note for to enduce ministers to mildnesse in their admonitions 956 A good ministers losse is better seene in his losse then presence 970 Holy ministers a signe of happy reconciliation with God 973 It is no putting of trust in those men that neglect Gods ministers 974 Of not caring for a ministers doctrine that is of an euil life 1000 The ministers pouerty is religions decay 1010 A pretty censure of the good cheape minister 1011 The withdrawing the ministers meanes is the way to the vtter desolation of the Church 1012 Minister Mercy how well fitting a minister 1016 Where no respect is giuen to the minister there is no religion 1017 If ministers be prophane who shall be religious 1028 The ministerie not free of vncleannesse 1033 No ministers vnholinesse should bring the seruice of God in dislike ibid. The sinnes of Teachers are the teachers of sinne 1061 He is no true Israelite that is not distressed in the want of a minister of a Samuel 1062 1063 For ministers to heare religion scorned and be silent is not patience but want of zeale 1130 An excellent note for ministers ibid. A note for yong ministers 1187 Ministers called Fishers 1201 Of niggardlinesse to our ministers 1271 Of all others the sinne of a minâ—ster shall not goe vnreuenged 1321 There is nothing wherein the Lord is more tender then in the approuing of the truth of his ministers 1335 The ministers message is now counted euill it vnpleasant 1361 The departure of a faithfull minister worthy our lamentation 1371 1372 Miracles concerning the miracles of our time 284 285 The desiring a miracle without a cause is a tempting of God 967 Miracles are not purposed to silence and obscurity 1369 Miriam Of Aaron and Miriam 913 Mischiefe they that seeke it for others fall into it themselues 1099 Mockers their sinne iudgement and end seene in Michol 1130 A caueat for mockers 1374 Modestie with that which is contrary to it 224 What Christian modesty teacheth 910 Those that passe its bounds grow shamelesse in their sinnes 938 Monument What is a mans best monument 12 Those monuments would God haue remaine in his Church which cary in them the most manifest euidences of that which they import 928 Motions good motions make but a thorow-fare in wicked mens hearts 874 875 Labouring minds are the best receptacles for good motions 1017 The foulest heart oft-times entertaines good motions 1089 The wicked are the worse for good motions 1091 Good motioÌ„s in wicked mens hearts what like 1106 Mourning of immoderate mourning for the dead 307 A pretty item in mourning for the dead 913 Moses Or his birth and breeding 866 His mothers affection sweetly described ibid. The Contemplations of his killing the Hebrew 867 His calling 869 The hand of Moses lifted vp 893 Of his Vaile 907 Of his modesty 910 Mildnesse fortitude how they meet together in him 914 Two patternes of his meeknesse 916 An admirable pithy speech of his to Israel at their desire of going backe to Egypt 918 Moses death 939 What an example of meekenesse hee was in his death 941 Multitude the successe of dealing with an obstinate multitude 919 A multitude is a beast of many heads 1303 Murmurers Gods mercy to them 887 Musicke what good it doth to Saul in his deiection 1079 N NAaman Of him and Elisha 1383 Nabal and Abagail 1102 His churlish answer to Dauids seruants 1105 Naboth Of him and Ahab 1356 His deniall of Ahabs request censured 1317 Name A mans good name once tainted what compared to 16 A good name worth the striuing for 60 Obseruations of a good name 135 Of significant names 1031 Naomi and Ruth 1022 Nathan Of him and Dauid 1141 Nature Naturall more difference betwixt a naturall man and a Christian a then betweene a man and a beast 27 How ready nature is to ouerturne all good purposes 143 Nature and grace described in Cain and Abel 817 Nature not content except it might be its own caruer 929 Necessitie It will make vs to seeke for that which our wantonnesse hath despised 921 922 None to bee contemned for their necessitie 1103 Neere When we come too neere to God 870 Neutralitie Wherein odious wherein commendable 139 Hatefull to God in matters of Religion 1337 New God makes new 466 Wee must bee made so too ibid. A reproofe of our new things ibid. Oâ— our New-yeares gifts to God ibid. Newes Ill newes doth either runne or fly 1036 Noble The character of one truely noble 178 Nourishment The power of it is not in the creature but in the Maker 996 Number Of Dauids numbring the people 1246 His sinne therein ibid. O OAth Of the oath of allegeance and iust suffering of those that haue refused it 342 Of the oath Ex officio 988 How sacred and vnuiolable an oath should be 947 Oaths for conditions of Peace whether bound to be kept if they be fraudulent 959 The sequel of a breaking an oath ibid. Euen a iust oath may be rashly