occasioneth a number of young hypocrites who else had neuer knowne any such sinne as dissimulation and had beene more knowne to the Common-wealth It is only ridiculous dull Preachers who leape out of a Library of Catechismes into the loftiest pulpits that haue reuiued this scornefull Sect of Atheists What Kings embassage would be made account of if it should be deliuered by a meacock and an ignorant Or if percase he send variety of Embassadors and not two of them agree in one tale but be deuided amongst themselues who will harken to them Such is the deuision of Gods Embassadors here amongst vs so many cow-baby-bawlers and heauy-gated luâ—…berers into the Ministry are stumbled vnder this Colledge or that Halls commendation that a great number had rather heare a iarring blacke-sant then one of their balde Sermons They boldly will vsurpe Moses chaire without anie studie or preparation They would haue their mouthes reuerenced as the mouthes of the Sybils who spoke nothing but was registred Yet nothing comes from their mouthes but grosse full-stomackt tautologie They sweat they blunder they bounce and plunge in the Pulpit but all is voyce but no substance they deafe mens eares but not edifie Scripture peradventure they come off thicke and three-folde with but it is so vgly daubed plaistred and patcht on so peeuishly speckt and applied as if a Botcher with a number of Satten Veluet shreds should clout and mend leather doublets and Clothbreeches Gette you some witte in your great heades my hottespurd Deuines discredit not the Gospel if you haue none damme vp the Ouen of your vtterance make not such a bigge sound with your empty vessells At least loue men of witte and not hate them so as you doe for they haue what you want By louing them and accompanying with them you shall both doe them good and your selues good They of you shall learne sobriety and good life you of them shall learne to vtter your learning and speak moouingly If you count it prophane to arte-enamel your speech to empeirce and make a conscience to sweeten your tunes to catch soules Religion through you shall reap infamy Men are men and with those thinges must be mooued that men wont to be mooued They must haue a little Sugar mixt with their soure Pills of reproofe the hookes must be pleasantly baited that they bite at Those that hang forth their hookes and no bayte may well enough entangle them in the weedes enwrap themselues in contentions but neuer winne one soule Turne ouer the auncient Fathers and mark how sweet and honisome they are in the mouth and how musicall and melodious in the eare No Orator was euer more pleasingly perswâ—…siue then humble Saint Augustine These Athists with whom you are to encounter are speciall men of witte The Romish Seminaries haue not allured vnto them so mâ—…ny good wittes as Athisâ—… It is the superaboundance of witte that makes Atheists will you then hope to beat them downe with fusâ—…y brown-bread dorbellisme No no either you must straine your wits an Ela aboue theirs and so entice them to your preachings and ouer-turne them or else with disordered hayleshotte of Scriptures shall you neuer scarre them Skirmishing with Atheists you must behaue your selues as you were conuerting the Gentiles All antique histories you must haue at your fingers-end No Phylosophers confession or opinion of God that you are to be ignorant in Ethnicks with their owne Ethnick weapons you must assayle Infinite laborinths of bookes he must runne thorough that wil be a compleat Champion in Christs Church Let not sloth-fauoring innouation abuse you Christ when hee sayd you must forsake all and follow him meant not you should forsake all artes and follow him Luke was a Phisitian and followed him Phisitians are the only vpholders of humane Artes. Paul was a Pharisie and brought vp in all the knowledge of the Gentiles and yet he was an Apostle of Iesus Christ. Though it pleased our louing crucified Lord during his residence heere vppon earth miraculously to inspire poore Fishermen and disgregate his gifts from the ordinary meanes yet since his ascention into heauen meanlesse miracles are ceased Certaine meanes he hath assigned vs which he hath promised to blesse but without meanes no blessing hath he warantized When the deuill would haue had him of stones to make bread he would in no kind consent no more will he consent of blocks and stones in these dayes to make distributers of the bread of life What are Asses that will take vpon them to preach without giftes but bread made of stones Euen as God sayd vnto Adam Hee should gette or earne his bread with the sweat of his browes so they that will haue heauenly bread enough to feed themselues and a family which is a congregation or flocke must earne it and get it with the sweat of their browes with long labour study and industry toyle and search after it No one Art is there that hath not some dependance vppon another or to whose top or perfection we may climbe without steppes or degrees of the other Humaine artes are the steppes and degrees Christ hath prescribed and assigned vs to climbe vp to heauen of Artes by which is Diuinity Hee can neuer climbe to the toppe of it which refuseth to climbe by these steppes No knowledge but is of God Vnworthy are wee of heauenly knowledge if we keepe from her any one of her hand-maydes Logique Rhethorique History Philosophy Musicke Poetry all are the handmaydes of Diuinity She can neuer be curiously drest or exquisitely accomplisht if any one of these be wanting God delighteth to be magnified in all his Creatures especially in al the excellentest of his creatures Artes are the excellentest of his creatures not one of them but descended from his Throne What saith Dauid Praise the Lord Sunne Moone praise him ye bright starrs praise him heauen of heauens waters that be aboue the heauens That is praise the Lord Metaphusicall Philosophy which art conuersant in all these matters Into the maiesty and glory of the Sunne and Moone thou seest the bright Starres predominance and moouing thou knowest the heauen of heauens and waters that be aboue the heauens in part though not at large thou comprehendest therefore praise him in all these Take occasion preachers in your sermons from the wonders and secrets these to include to extoll his magnificent name and by humaine artes abstracts to glorifie him Prayse yee the Lord thus Dauid proceeds yee Dragons and all deepes Fyre Hayle Snow and vapours stormy winds and tempests execute his word Mountaines hilles fruitfull trees and all Cedars Beasts and Cattell creeping thinges and fethered foules Princes and Iudges of the world young men and Maidens old men and Children prayse yee the name of the Lord. So that it is lawfull to execute his word that is in preaching of his word by similitudes and comparisons drawne from the nature property of all these to laud and amplifie the
my Brother and Sister In slaying them that are sent to declare the wil of God you resist the will of God and are guilty of all their damnations which are yet vnconuerted whom liuing their preaching might haue reduced The violating of any of the Cömmandements is death Thou shalt not kill is one of the principall Commaundements your fault at the first sight deserueth Hell-fire What doe you but proclaime open warre against heauen when you destroy or ouer-throwe any of the Temples of the holy Ghost which are mens bodies They are the Tabernacles which the Lord hath chosen by his Spirit to dwell in But the bodies of my Saints and Prophets vvhich you slay and stone are no triuiall ordinary Tabernacles such as Peter my Disciple would haue had me to make in the Wildernesse for Moses Elias and my selfe but Tabernacles like the Tabernacle at Ierusalem where I haue ordained my name to be worshipped Their words as my words I will haue worshipped Their heads are the Mounts from whence I speake to you in a holy flame as to your fore-fathers wandring in the desert I haue tolde you here-to-fore they are the Salt of the Earth with whose Prayers and Supplications if this masse of sinne were not seasoned it would sauour so detestably in Gods nostrils hee were neuer able to endure it They are the eyes and the light of the world if the eye lose his light all the whole body is blind and hence it came that they were surnamed Seers for they only foresaw praied and prouided for the people I tell you plainly if it were possible for you to plucke the Sunne out of Heauen and you should do it so consequently leaue all the world in darknesse you should not be liable to so much blame as you now are in killing them I send vnto you They are your Seers your Prophets your chiefe Eyes which you haue slaine destroied and put out Was Caine a Vagabond on the face of the earth for killing but one Abel tenne thousand iust Abels haue you slaine that were more neere and ought to haue beene more deere to you then Brothers and shall I not destitute your habitation for it scatter you as vagabonds through-out the Empires of the world As you haue made no conscience to stone my Prophets and slay them I sent vnto you so shall the strange Lords that leade you captiue and they amongst whom many hundred yeers you shal soiurne make no coÌ„science to cut your throats for your treasure and giue a hundred of you together to their Fencers and Executioners to try their weapons on for a wager and winne maisteries with deepe wounding you O Ierusalem Ierusalem deepe woes and calamities hast thou incurd in stoning my Prophets and slaying them I sent vnto thee How often would I haue gathered thy children together when they went astray How often would I haue brought them home into the true sheep-fold when I met them straying I came into the World to no other end but to gather together the lost Sheepe of Israell You are the flock and Sheepe of my pasture when I would haue gathered you together you would not heare my voice but hardned your harts You gather your selues in counsaile against me euery time I seeke to call you or to gather you Deny if you can that I sent not my Prophets in all ages to gather you That with my Rodde and my staffe of correction I haue not sought from time to time to gather you that by benefits and manifold good turnes I haue not tryde all I might to tye you or gather you vnto me Lastly that in mine own person I haue not practised a thousand waies to gather you to repentance and amendment of life If you should deny it and I not contradict it the diuell my vttrest enemy would confirme it Let me speake truely and not vauntingly although it be lawfull to boast in goodnes such hath alwaies bin my care to gather you that I thought it not enough to gather my selfe but I haue prayed to my Father to ioyne more Labours and Gatherers with me to reape and gather in his Haruest How often haue I gathered the multitude together and spoke vnto them When the people were flocked or gathered vnto mee out of all Citties and had nothing to eate I fed them myraculously with fiue Barlie-loues two fishes I would not haue shewd the wonders of my God-head but to gather you together The first gathering that I made was of poore Sea-faring men whome I haue preferd to be myne Apostles Would you haue beene gathered together when I would haue had you you had gathered to your selues the Kingdome of Heauen and all the riches thereof Now what haue you gathered to your selues but ten thousand testimonies in the Sonne of Gods testimony that he desired and besought you to suffer your selues to be gathered by him and you would not Souldiours that fight scatteringly and doe not gather themselues in ranke or battaile array shall neuer winne the day If you knew how strong and full of stratagems the diuell were with how many Legions of lustfull desires he commeth embattailed against you that secret ambushes of temptations he hath layde to intrappe you then would you gather your selues into one body to resist him then would you gather your selues to gather in prayer to with-stand him then would you gather for the poore which is to gather for Souldiers to fight against him Eâ—…eemosyna a morte liberat et non patitur hominemire in tenebras Almes deedes deliuer a man from death and keepeth his soule from seeing confusion As water quencheth fire saith the Wise-man so almes giuing resisteth sinne And if it resisteth sinne it resisteth the Diuel which is the father of sinne All my Fathers Angels stand gathered together about his Throne No bread is made but of graines of Corne gathered together no building is raysed but of a number of stones glued and gathered together There is no perfect society or Citty but of a number of men gathered together Geese which are the simplest of all foules gather themselues together goe together flie together Bees in one Hiue hold their consistory together The starres in Heauen do shine together What is a man if the parts of his body bee disparted and not incorporated and essentiate together What is the Sea but an assembly or gathering together of waters and so the Earth a congestion or heaping vp of grosse matter together A Wood or Forrest but an host of Trees encampt together A generall Counsaile or Parliament but a congregation or gathering together of special wise men to consult about Religion or lawes O what a good thing is it sayth Dauid for Bretheren to liue or be gathered together in vnity If there were no other thing to ratifie the excellence of it but the euill of his diameter opposite which is diuision or distraction it were infinitely ample to establish the title of his dignity Nor Dauid nor all
Firmament is not his handy-worke nor will they credite one generation telling another of his wonders They followe the Pironiks whose position and opinion it is that there is not hel or misery but opinion Impudently they persist in it that the late discouered Indians are able to shew antiquities thousands before Adam With Cornelius Tacitus they make Moyses a wise prouident man well seene in the Egiptian learning but deny hee had any diuine assistance in the greatest of his miracles The water they say which he strooke out of a Rocke in the Wildernes was not by any supernaturall worke of GOD but by watching to what parte the Wild-asses repayred for drink With Albumazar they holde that his leading the Chyldren of Israell ouer the Red-sea was no more but obseruing the influence of Starres and wayning season of the Moone that with-draweth the Tydes They seek not to know God in his workes or in his Sonne Christ Iesus but by his substance his forme or the place wherein he doth exist Because some late Writers of our side haue sought to discredit the story of Iudith of Susanna and Daniell and of Bell and the Dragon they thinke they may thrust all the rest of the Bible in like manner into the Iewish Thalmud and taxe it for a fabulous Legend This place serueth not to stand vppon proofes or by confutation to confirme principles neither dare I with the weake droppe of my wit offer to vpholde the high Throne of the Godhead since hee that but stretcht out his hand to vnder-prop the Arke falling was presently striken dead O Lord thou hast tenne thousand stronger pillers then I am I am the vnworthiest of all wormereserued wretches once to speake of thee or name thee My sinnes are alwaie before me Princes will not let those come before them with whom they are displeased I am afraid the congealed clowdes of my sinne will not let my praiers come neere thee O fauour thy glory though I haue displeased thee with folly I will not bee so vnweaponed-ieopardous to ouerthrow both thy cause and my credite at once by ouer-Atlassing mine inuention That which I vndertake shall bee onely to throw one light Dart at their faces from a farre and exhort all able pennes to arme themselues against thine Atheisticall maledictours Of Atheists this age affordeth two sorts the inwarde and the outward The inward Atheist is hee that deuours widowes houses vnder pretence of long prayers that like the Panther hideth his face in a hood of Religion when he goeth about his prey He would professe himselfe an Atheist openly but that like the Pharisies he feareth the multitude Because the multitude fauours Religion he runnes with the streame and fauours Religion because he would be Captaine of a multitude To be the God of gold he cares not how many gods he entertaines Church rites hee supposeth not amisse to busie the Common-peoples heads with that they shold not fal aboard with Princes matters And as Numa Pompilius in Rome and Minos in Athens kept the people in awe thrust what tyrannous laws they list vpon them the one vnder pretence he did nothing without conference of the Nimph Egeria the other vnder colour he was inspired in a certaine hollow Caue by Iupiter so hee makes conscience and the spirit of God along side-cloake for all his oppressions and pollicies A holy looke he will put on when he meaneth to doe mischiefe and haue Scripture in his mouth euen whiles hee is in cutting his neighbours throate The propagation of the Gospell good Saint-like man hee onely shootes at when vnder suppressing of Popery hee striues to ouer-throwe all Church-liuings So that euen as the Gospell is the power of God to saluatiō to euery one that belieueth so is it in him the diuels power of beguiling and vndoing to euery one that belieues him He it is that turneth the truth of God to alie and buildeth his house by hypocrisie that hath his mouth swept and garnished but in his heart a whole legion of diuels The outward Atheist contrariwise with those things that proceede from his mouth defileth his heart He establisheth reason as his God and will not be perswaded that God the true God is except he make him priuie to all the secrecies of his beginning and gouernment Straightly he will examine him where hee was what he did before he created Heauen and Earth how it is possible he should haue his beeing from before all beginnings Euery circumstance of his prouidence he wil run through question why he did not this thing and that thing and the other thing according to their humors Being earthly bodies vnapt to ascende in their ambitious cogitation they will breake ope and ransack his Closet and if conueniently they may not come to i◅ then they will derogate and depraue him all they can Little do they consider that as the light which shined before Paul made him blinde so the light of Gods inuisible misteries if euer it shine in our harts will confound and blind our carnall reason Philosophies chiefe fulnesse wisedoms adopted Father next vnto Salomon vnsatiable Art-searching Aristotle that in the round-compendiate bladder of thy braine conglobedst these three great bodies Heauen Earth and the wide world of Waters thine Icariansoaring comprehension tossed turmoiled but about the bounds and beginning of Nilus in Nilus drownd it selfe being to seely and feeble to plunge thorow it If knowledges second Salomon had not knowledge enough to engraspe one Riuer and alledge probabilitie of his beginning and bounding who shall engraspe or bound the heauens body Nay what soule is so metaphusicall subtile that can humorously sirenize heauens soule IEHOVAH out of the concealements of his God-head He that is familiar with all earthly states must not thinke to be familiar with the state of heauen The very Angels know not the day nor howre of the last iudgement if they know not the day nor houre of the iudgement which is such a generall thing more priuate circumstances of the God-head determinately they are not acquainted with And if not Angels his sanctified attendants much lesse are they reuealed to sinners Idle-headed Atheist ill wouldst thou as the Romans acknowledge and offer sacrifice to many gods that wilt not grant one God From thy birth to this moment of thine vnbeleefe reuolue the diary of thy memory and try if thou hast nere prayd and beene heard if thou hast been heard and thy prayer accomplisht who hath heard thee who hath accomplisht it Wilt thou ratifidely affirme that God is no God because like a Noune substantiue thou canst not essentially see him feele him or heare him Is a Monarch no Monarch because hee reareth not his refiant throne amongst his vtmost subiects Wee of all earthlings are Gods vtmost subiects the last in a manner that he brought to his obedience shal we then forget that wee are any subiects of his because as a mongst his Angels he is not visibly conuersant amongst vs