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
pleased my gracious Redeemer not to neglect mee he came to me and knocked oft and called importunately at the doore of my heart by his word and chastisements and said Open the doore of thy soule O my sister my deare chaste comely vnspotted Church let mee come in and lodge and dwell with thee in my graces shut out the world and receiue me with a more liuely act and renouation of thy faith For loe I haue long waited patiently for this effect of thy loue and haue endured all the iniuries both of the night and weather of thy prouocations that I might at last enioy thee 3. I haue put off my coat how shall I put it on I haue washed my feet how shall I defile them I answered him againe pleading excuses for my delay Alas Lord I haue now since I left my forward profession of thee auoided a great number of cares and sorrowes must I take them vp againe to follow thee I haue liued cleane from the soile of these euills and shall I now thrust my selfe into danger of them 4. My Well-beloued put his hand from the hole of the doore and my bowels yearned toward him When my Sauiour heard this vnkinde answer of delay he let his hand fall from the key-hole which he had thus before without successe laboured about and withdrew himselfe from solliciting me any more whereupon my heart and bowels yearned within me for him and for the remorse of my so long foreslowing his admittance vnto me 5. I rose vp to open to my well-beloued and my hands did drop downe Myrrh and my fingers pure Myrrh vpon the handles of the Barres And now I rouzed vp my drousie heart what I could that I might in some cheerefull manner desire to receiue so gracious a Sauiour which when I but endeuoured I found that he had left behinde him such a plentifull blessing as the monument of his late presence vpon the first motions of my heart as that with the very touch of them I was both exceedingly refreshed and moued to further indignation at my selfe for delaying him 6. I opened to my Well-beloued but my Well-beloued was gone and past mine heart was gone when he did speake I sought him but I could not finde him I called him but he answered me not I opened to my beloued Sauiour but my Sauiour had now in my feeling withdrawne himselfe and hid his countenance from me holding me short of those gracious offers and meanes which I had refused and now I was almost past my selfe with despaire to remember that sweet inuitation of his which I neglected I sought him therefore in my thoughts in the outward vse of his ordinances and of my earnest prayers but he would not as yet be found of me or let me finde that I was heard of him 7. The watch men that went about the City found me they smote mee and wounded me the watch-men of the walls tooke away my vaile from me Those which should haue regarded mee and by their vigilancy haue secured mee from danger proued mine aduersaries in stead of comforting me they fell vpon me and wounded me with their false doctrines drawing me on into further errors spoiling me of that purity and sincerity of profession wherewith as with some rich and modest vaile I was formerly adorned and couered 8. I charge you O daughters of Ierusalem if you finde my Well-beloued that you tell him I am sicke of loue I aduise you solemnly O all yee that wish well to me for I care not who knowes the vehemencie of my passion if you shall finde my Sauiours presence in your selues before me pray for the recouerie of his loue to mee and bemoning my estate to him tell him how I languish with the impatient desire of his loue and presence to bee restored vnto mee 9. O the fairest among women what is thy Well-beloued more than another Well-beloued what is thy Well-beloued more than another louer that thou dost so charge vs O thou which art the most happy most gracious and most glorious of all creatures the chosen of the liuing God what is thy Well-beloued whom thou seekest aboue all other the sonnes of men what such eminencie is there in him aboue all Saints and Angels that thou art both so farre gone in affection to him and dost so vehemently adiure vs to speake vnto him for thee 10. My Well-beloued is white and ruddy the Standard-bearer of ten thousand My Well-beloued if you know not is of perfect beautie in whose face is an exact mixture of the colours of the purest and healthfullest complexion of holinesse for hee hath not receiued the spirit by measure and in him the Godhead dwels bodily he is infinitely fairer than all the sonnes of men and for goodlinesse of person may beare the Standard of comelinesse and grace amongst ten thousand 11. His head is as fine Gold his locks curled and blacke as a Rauen. The Dierie which dwelleth in him is most pure and glorious and that fulnesse of grace which is communicated to his humane nature is wonderously beautifull and so sets it forth as the blacke curled locks doe a fresh and well-fauoured countenance 12. His eies are like Doues vpon the riuers of waters which are washt with Milke and remaine in their fulnesse His iudgement of all things and his respect to his Church which are as his eies are full of loue and full of pietie shining like vnto Doues washed in water yea in Milke so as there is no spot or blemish to be found in them and they are withall so fully placed as is both most comely and most expedient for the perfect sight of the estate and necessities of his seruants 13. His cheekes are as a bed of spices and as sweet Flowers and his lips like Lillies dropping downe pure Myrrh The manifestation of himselfe to vs in his Word is sweet to our spirituall feeling as an heape of spice or those flowers that are vsed to make the best perfuming ointments are to the other senses his heauenly instructions and promises of his Gospell are vnspeakably comfortable and plenteous in the grace that is wrought by them 14. His hands as Rings of Gold set with the Chrysolite his belly like white Iuory couered with Saphyres His actions and his instruments which are his hands are set forth with much port and maiestie as some precious stone beautifies the Ring wherein it is set the secret counsels of his brest and the mysteries of his will are most pure and holy and full of excellent glorie 15. His legs are as pillars of Marble set vpon sockets of fine gold his countenance as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars All his proceedings are firme and stable and withall as Pillars of Marble set in sockets of tried gold so as they are neither subiect to wauering nor to any danger of infirmitie and corruption the shew and cariage of his whole person whereby hee makes himselfe knowne to his chosen is exceeding goodly and
Redeemer If thou die not if not willingly thou goest contrary to him and shalt neuer meet him Si per singules diâ—s pro â—o moreremur qui nos dlexit non sic debitum exolueremus Chrys Though thou shouldest euery day die a death for him thou couldest neuer requite his one death and doest thou sticke at one Euery word hath his force both to him and thee he died which is Lord of life and commander of death thou art but a tenant of life a subiect of death and yet it was not a dying but a giuing vp not of a vanishing and airy breath but of a spirituall soule which after separation hath an entire life in it selfe Hee gaue vp the Ghost hee died that hath both ouercome and sanctified and sweetned death What fearest thou Hee hath pull'd out the sting and malignity of death If thou bee a Christian carry it in thy bosome it hurts thee not Darest thou not trust thy Redeemer If hee had not died Death had beene a Tyrant now hee is a slaue O Death where is thy sting O Graue where is thy victory Yet the Spirit of God saith not hee died but gaue vp the ghost The very Heathen Poet saith Hee durst not say that a good man dies It is worth the noting me thinkes that when Saint Luke would describe to vs the death of Annanias and Sapphirâ— hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee expired but when Saint Iohn would describe Christs death hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gaue vp the ghost How How gaue he it vp and whither So as after a sort he retained it his soule parted from his body his Godhead was neuer distracted either from soule or body this vnion is not in nature but in person If the natures of Christ could be diuided each would haue his subsistence so there should be more persons God forbid one of the natures thereof may haue a separation in it selfe the soule from the body one nature cannot bee separate from other or either nature from the person If you cannot conceiue wonder the Sonne of God hath wedded vnto himselfe our humanity without all possibility of diuorce the body hangs on the Crosse the soule is yeelded the Godhead is 〈◊〉 vnited to them both acknowledges sustaines them both The soule in his agony foules not the presence of the Godhead the body vpon the Crosse â—â—â—les not the presence of the soule Yet as the Fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiuisibly inseparably is the Godhead with both of these still and euer one and the same person The Passion of Christ as Augustine was the sleepe of his Diuinity so I may say The death of Christ was the sleepe of his humanitie If hee sleepe hee shall doe well said that Disciple of Lazarus Death was too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction Let not vs Christians goe too much by sense wee may bee firmely knit to God and not feele it thou canst not hope to be so neere thy God as Christ was vnited personally thou canst not feare that God should seeme more absent from thee Quantumcunque te dâ—ieceris haâ—iâ—ior non eris Christo Hieron than he did from his own Son yet was he still one with both body and soule when they were diuided from themselues when he was absent to sense he was present to faith when absent in vision yet in vnion one and the same so will he be to thy soule when hee is at worst Hee is thine and thou are his if thy hold seeme loosened his is not When temptations will not let thee see him he sees thee and possesses thee onely beleeue thou against sense aboue hope and though he kill thee yet trust in him Whither gaue he it vp Himselfe expresses Father into thy hands And This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It is iustice to restore whence wee receiue Into thy hands Hee knew where it should be both safe and happy True he might bee bold thou sayest as the Sonne with the Father The seruants haue done so Dauid before him Stephen after him And lest we should not thinke it our common right Father saith hee I will that those thou hast giuen mee may bee with mee euen where I am he wils it therefore it must bee It is not presumption but faith to charge God with thy spirit neither can there euer be any beleeuing soule so meane that he should refuse it all the feare is in thy selfe how canst thou trust thy iewell with a stranger What sudden familiarity is this God hath beene with thee and gone by thee thou hast not saluted him and now in all the haste thou bequeathest thy soule to him On what acquaintance How desperate is this carelesnesse If thou haue but a little money whether thou keepe it thou layest it vp in thy Temple of trust or whether thou let it thou art sure of good assurance sound bonds If but a little land how carefully doest thou make firme conueiances to thy desired heires If goods thy Will hath taken secure order who shall enioy them Wee need not teach you Citizens to make sure worke for your estates If children thou disposest of them in trades with portions onely of thy soule which is thy selfe thou knowest not what shall become The world must haue it no more thy selfe wouldest keepe it but thou knowest thou canst not Sathan would haue it thou knowest not whether he shall thou wouldest haue God haue it and thou knowest not whether he will yea thy heart is now ready with Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord O the fearefull and miserable estate of that man that must part with his soule he knowes not whither which if thou wouldest auoid as this very warning shall iudge thee if thou doe not be acquainted with God in thy life that thou mayest make him the Guardian of thy soule in thy death Giuen vp it must needs be but to him that hath gouerned it if thou haue giuen it to Sathan in thy life how canst thou hope God will in thy death entertaine it Did you not hate me and expell mee out of my fathers house how then come yee to mee now in this time of your tribulation said Iephta to the men of Gilead No no either giue vp thy soule to God while he cals for it in his word in the prouocations of his loue in his afflictions in the holy motion of his spirit to thine or else when thou wouldest giue it he will none of it but as a Iudge to deliuer it to the Tormentor What should God doe with an vncleane drunken prophane proud couetous soule Without holinesse it is no seeing of God Depart from me ye wicked I know ye not Goe to the gods you haue serued See how God is euen with men they had in the time of the Gospell said to the holy name of Israel Depart from vs now in the time of iudgement he
Of gifts ministeries operations From the spirit are deriued gifts ministeries from the Sonne operations from the Father There are diuersities of gifts but the same spirit of ministeries but the same Lord of operations but the same God Away with all niceties of Pythagorean calculations All numbers are alike to me saue those which God himselfe hath chalked out vnto vs as here he hath manifestly done In one word An Vnity and a Trinity make vp this golden sentence There is a Trinity in this Vnity There is an Vnity in this Trinity First here is a perfect that is a Triple Trinity A Trinity of diuersities a Trinity of faculties a Trinity of giuers For there are so many diuersities as faculties and so many faculties as giuers The faculties are three gifts ministeries operations The giuers three The Father the Sonne the Spirit which all are included in one Vnity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same God And yet euen that Vnity hath his distinction whiles gifts are as it were by a specialty ascribed to the Spirit ministeries to the Sonne to the Father operations That our discourse may not seeme too perplexed wee will follow the foot-steps of our Apostle and with all possible perspicuity will apply the diuersities to the faculties the faculties to the giuers These Trinities to their Vnity and this done draw to a briefe conclusion A threefold Diuersity argues multiplicity What meant the Ancients to dreame but of three Graces here are a thousand graces gifts infinite Looke vpon all the grand-children of Adam that euer were amongst so many thousand millions of faces ye shall easily obserue some variety of fauours It is a wonder to see what diuersity of formes there is in that which wee call beauty No twins are so like as not to bewray some dissimilitude Certainly there is not so great variety of faces as of mindes As features are to the countenance so are gifts to the minde Each one hath some all haue many none haue all There are diuersities of gifts Salmeron with Caietan vnderstands here those gifts which wee call Gratias gratis datas Graces freely giuen wherein he saies true but not enough For as the old word is Fauours must be inlarged and â—hose gifts which make vs gracious are best worthy of this name It is not amisse that Hugo reckons vp three sorts of Gods gifts to man Gifts of nature of grace of glory By the gifts of nature wee are men by the gifts of grace we are holy by the gifts of glory we shall be blessed The gifts of nature are memory reason will wherein we excell the brute creatures The gifts of grace are faith hope charitie wherein we go beyond the Deuils The gifts of glory eternall and true blessednesse blessed and eternall truth true and blessed eternity wherein wee are equall to the Angels Amongst the gifts of nature the same Author reckons some to be of the lowest ranke some of the meane some of the highest In the lowest he accounts beauty and health of body In the meane hee accounts the faculties of the minde In the highest the vertues of the soule Thus there are diuersities of gifts There are some gifts of Regeneration there are some gifts of our calling by the former we are borne againe for our owne good with the latter we are furnished for the good of others These latter are peculiarly bestowed vpon seuerall men the former â—e by a certaine common propriety bestowed vpon all the Saints of God For as in the most wise disposition of this vniuerse the best things and those which are necessary for the sustentation of life as ayre light fire water are abundantly giuen to all but those things which serue onely for ornament and pleasure as Gold Pearle Precious stones are more sparingly bestowed vpon some few So euery sauing grace is abundantly dispensed to all Saints by the liberall hand of God Whereas tongues prophesie power of miracles as also eloquence skill honour and the rest of this kinde are reserued onely for some few receiuers And in all these what strange diuersity there is They differ in respect of themselues being in nature diuers from each other They differ in respect of the Subiect as being diuersly giuen to one and other for as the blinde Bard saw truly God doth not giue all to all They differ in respect of degree as they are more giuen to one than to other Thus euery way there are diuersities of gifts It is the common voice of nature that the same remaining the same cannot produce but the same but when we speake of the God of Nature that word of Bonauenture is more true Ab vnissimo Deo mananâ— multiforma ab aeterno temporalia From that most one God flowes multiformity of effects and from that eternall God temporall effects Hugo said well In te variatur qui in se non mutatur he is varied in thee who is not changed in himselfe If the diuine power had made onely one creature that alonely worke of his had beene worthy of a God and such as could proceed from no lesse than an omnipotent hand But now he hath created many things yea innumerable If God had made these many creatures altogether vniforme and like themselues onely distinguished in number not in forme the worke had beene more excellent and admirable than the frame of any one creature alone But now that he hath made these many these innumerable creatures no lesse different from themselues and so as that the difference of their formes striues with the praise of their number O the depth of diuine wisdome O the stupendious workmanship of omnipotencie And yet there is no Subiect wherein the power and prouidence of the Almighty doth so much magnifie it selfe as in the diuers Oeconomie of man In so much as in this little world there is a world of diuersities Maruell at your selues brethren and bee astonished at your owne prospects Whether we looke at the fashion of the face or the proportion of parts or the colour of the skin or the stature of the body or the indowments of the minde the degrees of faculties the disposition of nature the measure of graces the opportunities of stations or lastly the outward condition of our life O good God what wondrous diuersity is here how impossible is it for the eye to meet twise with the like obiect whithersoeuer it roueth Thus there are diuersities of gifts Away now from hence with all haughtinesse of pride all mutinies of enuie These two dangers will bee sure to haunt the most iust inequality The needy is enuious the rich is proud Poore I am contemned others are set vp others shine in scarlet and purple whiles I am patching of nasty raggs Others wallow in their wealth and excesse I fâ—â—â—sh for hunger Others Lord it in lofty seats I am trod vnder their foot-stooles Others are eloquent I am a stammerer Others excell in the skill of Arts and Tongues I am a silly ignorant And why
the thundrings and lightnings of the law Some negligent pastorlings there are which haue more heed to their owne hides than to the soules of their people I speake plaine truth in a plaine fashion nuda nudè as that faithfull monitor professes Howsoeuer I beseech you brethren suffer your selues to be stirred with this poore speech of mine Euen sleeping lions are wont to be awakened with the sting of a gnat Are these the Operations the diuersities whereof call God their Father God indeed but Deum ventrem that beastly deity the belly I tremble to adde the rest but I must whose glory is their shame whose end is damnation Is it now time for vs to play and keepe holi-day Behold two cruell enemies are vpon vs Impiety and superstition and doe we either sit still with our hands folded or rise and in a wilfull carelesnesse open the gates to our enemie That soueraigne Master of ours the great Housholder of the world when he was to goe forth into a farre Countrey yea rather when he was to returne to his owne euerlasting countrey and ours committed to euery one of vs one talent at the least to some more and bade vs Negotiamini dum venio Traffique till I come Loe he bade vs Negotiari not nepotari To trade not to trifle to labour not to deboshe And is this the traffique which he requires to seeke our owne to take our ease to say nothing to doe worse No these are those vncleane napkins rather wherin we haue slothfully hid the Talents which we should haue improued to the gaine of our Master by putting them into the hands of the Exchangers That awfull Iudge of heauen and earth will be sure vpon his returne to call vs to an account which if we must giue for our idle words why not also for our idle silence as Ambrose wittily What shall wee wretched creatures then answer for our selues Where shall we appeare It is a fearefull word O euill seruant but more fearefull that which followes Bring him hither and kill him before me Oh then let me intreat you let me adiure you brethren by the deare respect to your own soules by the bowels yea by the wounds and precious bloud of Iesus Christ by that dreadfull Tribunal before which we must al one day stand that you carefully indeuour to set forth and accomplish your ministeries with all holy operations Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reproue exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine Let euery of vs study to approue himselfe vnto God a labourer that shall not be ashamed and a right diuider of the Word of Truth Oh sweet Word and such as in comparison whereof the very harmony of heauen sounds harshly Well done good seruant thou hast beene faithfull in a little enter into thy masters ioy Oh let it be our onely ambition deare brethren that we may once heare this Word Let vs worke that which God hath commanded and God shall bee sure to crowne that which we haue wrought Yea and ye Honored Fathers who are this day met to consult of the weighty affaires both of Church and Common-wealth Worke now If euer ye haue wrought heretofore if euer ye will worke hereafter Now worke A large doore and effectuall is opened vnto you and many aduersaries ye see how audacious Will-worship hath of late set vpon vs how proudly the Tridentine faith hath aduanced her crost and hath dared to flie fiercely in the very face of the Gospell The Romish forces 〈◊〉 themselues openly into aray and haue dared to sound not an alarme onely but which no wise man knowes whether he should more stampe at or scorne a victory They presume to erect here amongst vs an Hierarchy emulous to yours and in the time of your life and health and vigor appoint what heires shall succeed in your Seas What wise spectator can thinke this indignity to be endured Is this to bee smothered in silence Is this to be any longer winked at Rouse vp your selues O yee holy Fathers if there be any ardor of Piety in your brests and destroy this Tyberine Monster Popery I meane with the breath of your mouthes and what euer grace and authority yee haue with our Gracious King with the Peeres and commons of this Realme improue it all with your best prayers and counsells to the vtter extermination of Idolatry to the happy victory and aduancement of the sincere Truth of God And thus ye see with how swift a pace I haue run ouer these Operations Ministeries Gifts and the diuersities of them all One thing onely remaines to bee duly considered of vs and that is That all these Ministeries Gifts Operations doe flow from one and the same Spirit Lord and God This Trinity from an Vnity Wherein yee easily discouer the Emphasis to lie not so much in the Author as in the Identity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall not therefore in the remainder of my discourse prosecute either the wonderfull wisdome of absolute perfection or the bountifull liberality of God but rather driue my speech to the consideration of the Vnity of this gracious giuer of all these Wee silly men in the height of our bounty bestow some one fauour vpon some one Subiect But this one God hath bestowed all vpon all and vpon euery one some Neither may we conceiue of any other whether fountaine or Ocean of good And why hath our Apostle so carefully beaten vpon this point vrging not so much the beneficence as the vnity of the Giuer Surely as Salmeron guesses well vt schismatum radices enelleret that hee might pull vp the roots of schismes For if there were diuers giuers there might be some reason for euery sect to stand for the author of his owne gift of his owne ministerie But now that one and the same Spirit hath giuen to euery one these diuers gifts that one and the same Lord hath appointed to euery one these diuers ministeries that one and the same God hath distributed to euery one these diuers operations Why should not all these gifts ministeries operations vnanimously conspire to the glory of that one giuer and founder of them all Certainly euery thing here sounds of vnity The Church is an entire body as our Apostle speakes soone after we are members of it One man is an eye another an eare a third is a tongue One is a palate another an hand another a foot yea one is a Thumbe another a little finger or if lower yet a ioint of that small limme Wee must all concurre in our desires and endeuours to the constitution and maintenance of this one body Whosoeuer he be that doth otherwise hee is iustly found guilty not onely of the violation of the publique weale but of Diuine Vnity And now O ye Reuerend Fathers I finde my selfe entred into a pleasing and ample common place and such a one as wherin I could wish with Peter to fix the Tabernacle of my abode Would to God
vnrighteousnesse we must redeeme it out of his hands with the highest ransome What is the price That is the maine thing in buying For Buying is no other than pactio pretij Else-where God proclaimes Hoe euery one that thirsteth come buy wine and milke without money and without price Esay 55. This is a Donation in forme of sale But here must be a price in the hand God will giue mercy and not sell it Hee will sell Truth and not giue it For what will he sell it First for Labour The Heathen Poet could say his gods sold learning for sweat The originall word here vsed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compara Get it any way either labore or precio yea labore vt precio This great foreman of Gods shop tells vs we cannot haue it vnder Prou. 2.4 Wee must seeke for her as siluer and search for her as for hid Treasures The veine of Truth lies low it must bee digged and delued for to the very center If Truth could be bought with ease and pleasure many a lazie Christian would bid faire for it who now resolue rather vpon want than toile The slothfull worldling will rather take vp a falshood for Truth than beat his braine to discerne Truth from falshood an error of free-cost is better than an high-rated Veritie Labour for Truth is turn'd ouer for the taske of Church-men no life sauours to these flegmaticke Spirits but that of the Lillies Neque laborant neque nent They neither labour nor spin This dull resolution is vnworthy of a Christian yea of a reasonable soule and if we should take vp no other for the body we should be fed with hunger and cloathed with nakednesse the earth should bee our fether-bed and the skie our Canopie wee should abound with want liue sauagely and die miserably It was the iust Canon of the Apostle He that labours not let him not eat Certainly he can neuer eat of the heauenly Manna of Truth that will not step forth to gather it Heare this yee delicate Courtiers that would heare a Sermon if yee could rise out of your beds that would lend God an houre if yee could spare it from your pleasures the God of heauen scornes to haue his precious Truth so basely vnder-valued if yee bid God lesse than labour for Truth I can giue you no comfort but that ye may goe to hell with ease The markets of Truth as of all other commodities varie It is the rule of Casuists Iustitia pretij non consistit in indiuiduo The Iustice of the Price doth not pitch euer vpon a point Sometimes the price of Truth hath risen it would not be bought but for danger sometimes not vnder losse not vnder disgrace not vnder imprisonment not vnder exile sometimes yet dearer not vnder paine yea sometimes it hath not gone for lesse than bloud It did cost Elias danger Michaiah disgrace Ieremie imprisonment the Disciples losse Iohn and Athanasius exile the holy Confessors paine the holy Martyrs death Euen the highest of these is pretium legitimum if God call for it how euer nature may tax it as rigorous yea such as the franke hearts of faithfull Christians haue bidden at the first word for Truth What doe yee weeping and breaking my heart For I am ready not to be bound only but to die for the name of the Lord Iesus saith S. Paul Act. 21. Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he giue for his life saith Satan but skin and life and all must a man giue for Truth and not thinke it an hard penny-worth Neither count I my life deare vnto me that I may finish my course with ioy saith the chosen vessell to his Ephesians Oh the heroicall spirits of our blessed fore-fathers that stucke not to giue their dearest heart-bloud for but some corollaries of sacred Truth whose burning zeale to Truth consumed them before those fires of Martyrdome and sent vp their pure and glorious soules like Manoahs Angell to heauen in the flame Blessed be God Blessed be his Anointed vnder whose gracious Scepter we haue enioyed daies as much more happy than theirs as their hearts were more feruent than ours We may now buy Truth at a better hand stake but our labour we carrie it with thanks I feare there want not those that would be glad to marre the market It can be onely knowne to heauen what treacheries the malice of hell may be a brewing Had but that Powder once taken nothing had beene abated of the highest price of our Predecessors we had paid for euery dram of Truth as many ounces of bloud as euer it cost the frankest Martyr should the Deuill haue beene suffered to doe his worst we might not haue grudged at this price of Truth Non est delicata in Deum secura confessio qui in me credit debet suum sanguinem fundere saith Ierome Christian profession is no secure or delicate matter he that beleeues must be no niggard of his bloud But why thus deare Not without good reason Monopolies vse to enhance the price Ye can buy Truth at no shop but one In coelo praeparata est Veritas tua Psal 89.2 Thy truth is prepared in heauen And it is a iust Rule of Law Quisque in rebus suis est moderator arbiter Euery man may rate his owne Neither is this only the sole commoditie of God but besides deare to the owner Dilexisti veritatem Thou hast loued Truth saith the Psalmist And it is a true rule in the Cases of Commerce Affectus astimari potest Our loue may be valued in the price Yea O God thy loue to Truth cannot be valued It is thy selfe thou that art Truth it selfe hast said so I am the Way the Truth and the Life We cannot therefore know how much thou louest thy Truth because as thy selfe is infinite so is thy loue to thy selfe What should we hunt for comparisons If all the earth were gold what were it when euen very heauen it selfe is trash to thee in respect of Truth No maruell if thou set it at an high rate It is not more precious to thee than beneficiall to vs. It frees vs Iohn 8.32 It renues vs Iames 1.18 It confirmes vs Prou. 12.19 It sanctifies vs Iohn 17.17 It defends vs Psal 91.4 Shortly it doth all for vs that God doth for God workes by his Almighty word and his Word is Truth Iohn 17. Therefore buy the Truth And if truth be thus precious thus beneficiall how comes it to passe that it is neglected contemned Some passe by it and doe not so much as cheapen it Others cheapen it but bid nothing Others bid something but vnder foot Others bid well but stake it not Others lastly stake downe but reuoke it The first that passe by and cheapen it not are carelesse vnbeleeuers The next that cheapen it and bid nothing are formall Christians The third that bid something but not enough are worldly semi-Christians The fourth that bid well and stake
imbrace the truth and as generaly in the publike confession so particularly vpon good occasion giue iust testimonies of their repentance This is our case wee did not make a new Church but mended an old your CLIFTON is driuen to this hold by necessitie of Argument Otherwise he sees there is no auoiding of Anabaptisme Mended saith your Doctor and yet admitted the misceline rabble of the prophane Say now that such separation were not made Let some few be holy and the more part prophane Shall the lewdnesse of some disanull Gods Couenant with others This is your mercy Gods is more who still held Israel for his when but few held his pure seruice Let that Diuine Psalmist teach you how full the Tents of Israel were of mutinous Rebels in the Desart yet the Pillar by day and night forsooke them not and Moses was so farre from reiecting them that he would not endure God should reiect them to his owne aduantage Looke into the blacke censures and bitter complaints of all the Prophets and wonder that they separated not Looke into the increased masse of corruptions in that declined Church whereof the blessed eyes of our Sauiour were witnesses and maruell at his silent and sociable incuriousnesse yea his charge of not separating Yee know not of what spirit you are Mat. 23. Now you flie to constitution as if notorious euils were more tolerable in continuance than in the collection of Assemblies Sardi had but a few names that had not defiled their garments Reuel 3.4 God praises these bids them not separate from the rest Thyatira suffers a false prophetesse the rest that haue not this learning Reuel 2.24 yet are bidden but to hold their owne not to separate from the Angell which hath not separated IEzABEL from the Church SECTION VII What separation the Church of England hath made Bar. p. 22. 55. Fr. Iohns against M. H. Act. Mon. possâ—â— YOVR charge is no lesse iniurious that the Church of England hath made no separation Concerning which you haue learned of your Martyr and ouer-seers so to speake as if before her late disclamation of poperie in Queene ELIzABETHS time she had not beene Her monuments could haue taught you better and haue lead you to her ancient Pedigree not much below the Apostolike dayes and in many descents haue shewed you not a few worthy witnesses and patrons of Truth all which with their holy and constant off-spring it might haue pleased you to haue separated from this imputation of not separating Will you know therefore how the Church of England hath separated In her first conuersion shee separated her selfe from Pagans in her continuance shee separated her selfe from grosse heretiques and sealed her separation with bloud in her reformation shee separated her selfe from wilfull Papists by her publike profession of Truth and proclaimed hatred of error and shee daily doth separate the notoriously euill by suspensions by excommunications though not so many as yours Troubl excom p. 191. M Spr. p 1. Besides the particular separations of many from the acknowledged corruptions in iudgement profession practise All these will bee auowed in spight of all contradiction with what forhead then can you say The whole Church of England hath not at all separated After all your shifts and idle tales of constitution you haue separated from this Church against the Lord not with the Lord from it If there bee Christ with vs if the Spirit of God in vs F Iun. lib. de Eccles if Assemblies if calling by the word whatsoeuer is or is not else in the Constitution there is whatsoeuer is required to the essence of a Church No corruption either in gathering or continuance can destroy the truth of being but the grace of being well If Christ haue taken away his word and spirit you haue iustly subduced else you haue gone from him in vs. And when you haue all done the Separatists Idol visible Constitution will proue but an appendance of an externall forme no part of the essence of a true Church and therefore your separation no lesse vaine than the ground than the Authors Lastly if our bountie should which it cannot grant that our collection was at first deeply faultie Ratibabitio retrahi c. Subsequens consensus Iacobi in Leam fecit eos coniuges d. 29. q. 1. S. sed obijcitur Barrow against Gyff cannot the Ratibabition as the Lawyers speake be drawne backe may not an after-allowance rectifie and confirme it In contracts your owne similitude a following consent iustifies an act done before consent and why not in the contract betwixt God and his visible Church Lo he hath confirmed it by his gratious benedictions and as much as may be in silence giuen vs abundant proofes of his acceptation That after-act which makes your Baptisme lawfull why can it not make our Church SECT VIII BVT for as much as Constitution is the very state of Brownisme Constitution of a Church Let vs I beseech you inquire a little into the complexion of your Constitution Whether Physicke or Law or Architecture haue lent you it sure I am it is in this vse Apocryphall Neuer man vsed it this scrupulously till your times Though what need you the helpe of Fathers or Schooles new words must expresse new Paradoxes It is no treason to come termes What then is Constitution Your Doctor can best tell vs As the Constitution of a Common-wealth or of a City H. Answorth Counterp p. 170. is a gathering or vniting of a people together into a ciuill Politie So saith he the Constitution of the Common-wealth of Israel and of the City of God the new Ierusalem is a gathering and vniting of people into a diuine Politie The forme of which Polity is Order which Order is requisite in all actions and Administrations of the Church as the Apostle sheweth and specially in the Constitution thereof So that next vnto faith in God it is to be esteemed most necessary for all holy societies Coloss 2.5 Hence Paul reioyced in the Colossians Order and Faith To this Constitution therefore belong a people as the matter secondly a calling or gathering together as the forme whereof the Church consisteth The Constitution of the Church of England is false in both Why so Haue we not a people Are not those people called together To preuent this you say our Constitution is false not none Why false Because those people haue neither Faith nor Order For Faith first Who are you that dare thus boldly breake into the closets of God Tertull. de Praescript Tu vt homo extrinsecus vnumquemque nosti putas quod vides vides autem quousque oculos habes sed oculi Domini sunt alti Homo in faciem Deus in praecordia contemplatur Principles and inferences concerning the visible Church Anno 1607. p. 13. the hearts of men and condemne them to want that which cannot bee seene by any but diuine eyes how dare you
sinnes be not attributed to them Thirdly That the Church bee not troubled with their multitude Aug. Epist 86. In his enim rebus de quibus nihil certâ— statuiâ— Scriptura Diuina mos populi Dei vel instituta matorum pro lege tuâ—â—da sunt Liuius Dcca l. 4 Nulla lex sâ—tis â—â—â—moda omnibus est id modo quaeritâ—â— si matorâ— partâ— in suâ—â—â—ma proâ—est Fourthly that they be not decreed as necessarie and not to be changed And lastly that men be not so tied to them but that by occasion they may bee omitted so it be without offence and contempt you see our limits but your feare is in this last contrary to his He stands vpon offence in omitting you in vsing As if it were a iust offence to displease a beholder no offence to displease and violate authoritie What Law could euer be made to offend none Wise Cato might haue taught you this in Liuie that no Law can bee commodious to all Those lips which preserue knowledge must impart so much of it to their hearers as to preuent their offence Neither must Law-giuers euer foresee what constructions will be of their Lawes but what ought to bee Those things which your Consistory imposes may you keepe them if you list Is not the willing neglect of your owne Parlour-Decrees punished with Excommunication And now what is all this to infallibility The sacred Synod determines these indifferent Rites for decencie and comlinesse to be vsed of those whom it concernes therefore it arrogates to it selfe infallibilitie A conclusion fit for a Separatist Cum consedissent sancti â—cligiosi Episcopi â—in Tom. 1. p. 239. Sancta Synod Câ—rthagi 4. sub Anastasio 553. Sancta Pacifica Synod Antiochen 1. p. â—20 Sancta Dei Apostolica Synodus 413. Peruenit ad Sanctam Synodum Can. Nic. 18 309. Sancta Synod Laodâ—ccoâ— 288. You stumble at the Title of Sacred euery straw lies in your way your Calepine could haue taught you that Houses Castles Religious businesses old age it selfe haue this stile giuen them And Virgil vittasque resoluit Sacrati capitis no Epithere is more ordinary to Councells and Synods The reason whereof may be fetched from that Inscription of the Elibertine Synod of those nineteene Bishops is said When the holy and Religious Bishops were set How few Councels haue not had this Title To omit the late The Holy Synod of Carthage vnder Anastasius The Holy and peaceable Synod at Antioch The Holy Synod of God and Apostolicall at Rome vnder Iulius The Holy and great Synod at Nice and not to bee endlesse The Holy Synod of Laodicea though but prouinciall What doe these Idle exceptions argue but want of greater SEP To let passe your Ecclesiasticall Consistories wherein sinnes and absolutions from them are as veniall and saleable as at Rome Is it not a Law of the Eternall God that the Ministers of the Gospell the Bishops or Elders should bee apt and able to teach 1 Timoth. 3.2 Titus 1.9 and is it not their grieuous sinne to bee vnapt hereunto Esa 56.10 11. And yet who knoweth not that the Patrons amongst you present that the Bishops institute the Archdeacons induct the Churches receiue and the Lawes both Ciuill and Ecclesiasticall allow and iustifie Ministers vnapt and vnable to teach Is it not a Law of the Eternall God that the Elders should feed the stock ouer which they are set labouring amongst them in the Word and Doctrine Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.1 2. And is it not sin to omit this duty Plead not for Baall Your Dispensations for Non-residencie and Pluralities of Benefices as for two three or more yea tot quot as many as a man will haue or can get are so many Dispensations with the Lawes of God and sinnes of men These things are too impious to bee defended and too manifest to bee denied SECTION XXXIII SOME great men when they haue done ill out-face their shame with enacting Lawes to make their sins lawfull While you thus charge our practise Sinnes fold in our Courts you bewray your owne Who hauing separated from Gods Church deuise slanders to colour your sinne Wee must bee shamfull that you may bee innocent You load our Ecclesiasticall Consistories with a shamelesse reproach Farre bee it from vs to iustifie any mans personall sinnes yet it is safer sinning to the better part Fie on these odious comparisons sinnes as saleable as at Rome Who knowes not that to be the Marâ— of all the World Periuries Murders Treasons are there bought and sold when euer in ours The Popes coffers can easily confute you alone What tell you vs of these let me tell you Mony is as fit an aduocate in a Consistorie as fauour or malice These some of yours haue complained of as bitterly as you of ours As if we liked the abuses in Courts G. Iohns Trouble and Excommunications at Amsterdam as if corrupt executions of wholesom Lawes must bee imputed to the Church whose wrongs they are No lesse hainous nor more true in that which followeth True Elders not yours should be indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This wee call for as vehemently not so tumultuously as yourselues That they should feed their Flockes with Word and Doctrine we require more than you That Patrons present Bishops institute Arch-Deacons induct some which are unable we grant and bewaile But that our Church-Lawes iustifie them wee deny and you slander For our Law if you know not requires that euery one to bee admitted to the Ministery should vnderstand the Articles of Religion Can. 34. not only as they are compendiously set downe in the Creed but as they are at large in our Booke of Articles neither vnderstand them onely but be able to proue them sufficiently out of the Scripture and that not in English onely but in Latine also This competencie would proue him for knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If this bee not performed blame the persons cleere the Law Profound Master Hooker tels you that both Arguments from light of Nature Lawes and Statutes of Scripture the Canons that are taken out of ancient Synods M. Hookers fift booke of Ecclesiasticall Politic. Pag. 26.3 the Decrees and Constitutions of sincerest times the sentences of all antiquity and in a word euery mans full consent and conscience is against ignorance in them that haue charge and cure of soules And in the same booke Did any thing more aggrauate the crime of Ieroboams Apostasie than that he chose to haue his Clergie the scumme and refuse of his whole Land Let no man spare to tell it them D. Dâ—wnâ—m of the office and dignitie of the Ministery Counterpoys pag. 179. Dist 34. Can. Lector Papa potest contra Apostolum dispensare Caus 25. q. 1. Can. sunt quidaÌ„ Dispensat in Euangelio c. De concess praebend Tit. 8. Ca. they are not faithfull towards God that burden wilfully his Church with such swarmes of vnworthy Creatures Neither is
you thus Why doth the same Prayer written adde to the Word which spoken addeth not Because conceiued Prayer is commanded not the other But first not your particular Prayer Secondly without mention either of conception or memorie God commands vs to pray in spirit and with the heart These circumstances onely as they are deduced from his Generals so are ours But whence soeuer it please you to fetch our Booke of publike Prayer from Rome or Hell or to what Image soeuer you please to resemble it Let moderate spirits heare what the pretious IEVVEL of England saith of it We haue come as neere as we could to the Church of the Apostles Apolog. p. 170. Accessimus c. H. Burr against Gyfford c. neither onely haue we framed our Doctrine but also our Sacraments and the forme of publike Prayers according to their Rites and Institutions Let no Iew now obiect Swines-flesh to vs He is no iudicious man that I may omit the mention of Cranmer Bucer Ridley Taylor c. some of whose hands were in it all whose voyces were for it with whom one IEWEL will not ouer-weigh ten thousand Separatists SEP The number of Sacraments seemes greater amongst you by one at the least than Christ hath left in his Testament and that is Marriage which howsoeuer you doe not in expresse termes call a Sacrament no more did Christ and the Apostles call Baptisme and the Supper Sacraments yet doe you in truth create it a Sacrament in the administration and vse of it There are the parties to bee married and their marriage representing Christ and his Church and their spirituall vnion to which mysterie saith the Oracle of your Seruice-Booke expresly God hath consecrated them there is the Ring hallowed by the said Seruice-Booke whereon it must bee laid for the Element there are the words of consecration In the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost there is the place the Church the time vsually the Lords day the Minister the Parish Priest And being made as it is a part of Gods Worship and of the Ministers office what is it if it be not a Sacrament It is a part of Prayer or preaching and with a Sacrament it hath the greatest consimilitude but an Idoll I am sure it is in the celebration of it being made a Ministeriall duty and part of Gods worship without warrant call it by what name you will SECTION XXXVIII HOw did Confirmation escape this number how did Ordination Marriage not made a Sacrament by the Church of England it was your ouer-sight I feare not your charitie some things seeme and are not such is this your number of our Sacraments you will needs haue vs take-in marriage into this ranke why so wee doe not you confesse call it a Sacrament as the vulgar misinterpreting Pauls Mysterium Eph. 5. why should we not if we so esteemed it wherfore â—erue names but to denotate the nature of things if wee were not ashamed of the opinion we could not be ashamed of the word No more say you did Christ and his Apostles call Baptisme and the Supper Sacraments but we doe and you with vs See now whether this clause doe not confute your last where hath Christ euer said There are two Sacraments Yet you dare say so what is this but in your sense an addition to the word yea we say flatly there are but two yet we doe you say in truth create it a Sacrament how oft and how resolutely hath our Church maintained against Rome that none but Christ immediately can create Sacraments If they had this aduantage against vs how could we stand How wrongfull is this force to fasten an opinion vpon our Church which she hath condemned But wherein stands this our creation It is true the parties to bee married and their marriage represent Christ and his Church and their spirituall vnion Beware lest you strike God through our sides what hath Gods Spirit said either lesse or other then this Eph. 5.25 26 27 32. Doth he not make Christ the husband the Church his Spouse Doth he not from that sweete coniunction and the effects of it argue the deare respects that should bee in marriage Or what doth the Apostle aâ—â—nde else-where vnto when hee saies as Moses of Eue wee are flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone And how famous amongst the ancient is that resemblance of Eue taken out of Adams side sleeping to the Church taken out of Christs side sleeping on the Crosse Since marriage therefore so clearely represents this mysterie and this vse is holy and sacred what error is it to say that marriage is consecrated to this mysterie But what is the Element The Ring These things agree not you had before made the two parties to bee the matter of this sacrament What is the matter of the Sacrament but the Element If they be the matter they are the Element and so not the Ring both cannot be If you will make the two parties to be but the receiuers how doth all the mysterie lie in their representation Or if the Ring be the Element then all the mysterie must be in the Ring not in the parties Labor to bee more perfect ere you make any more new Sacraments but this Ring is laid vpon the Seruice-booke why not For readinesse not for holinesse Nay but it is hallowed you say by the booke If it bee a Sacramentall Element it rather hallowes the booke than the booke it you are not mindfull enough for this trade But what exorcismes are vsed in this hallowing Or who euer held it any other than a ciuill pledge of fidelitie Then follow the words of Consecration I pray you what difference is there betwixt hallowing and consecration The Ring was hallowed before the booke now it must be consecrated How iâ—ely By what words In the name of the Father c. These words you know are spoken after the Ring is put on was it euer heard of that a SacrameÌ„tall Element was consecrated after it was applied See how-il your slanders are digested by you The place is the Church the time is the Lords day the Minister is the actor and is it not thus in all â—â—her reformed Churches aswell as ours Behold wee are not alone all Churches in the world if this will doe it are guiltie of three Sacraments Tell me would you not haue marriage solemnized publikely You cannot mislike though your founder seemes to require nothing heere but notice giuen to witnesses then to bed Well if publike Brâ— state of Christians 17â— you account it withall a graue and weighty businesse therefore such as must be sanctified by publike praier What place is fitter for publike praier than the Church Who is fitter to offer vp the publike prayer than the Minister who should rather ioyne the parties in Mariage than the publike deputy of that God who solemnly ioyned the first couple who rather than hee which in the
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
Gregorie Ariminensis their old Schoole-man was ashamed of this wicked arrogance and so was Durandus and Pighius and other their Diuines of a more modest temper I would the Iesuites could haue had the grace to haue beene no lesse ashamed and the Tridentine Doctors together with their executioners the Inquisitors Ind. expurg Madriticus p. 149. But what other men haue holily and truely spoken that they haue perfidiously wip't out witnesse their Index of Madrill in these words Out of the booke which is intituled The Order of Baptizing together with the manner of visiting the sicke Printed at Venice in the yeere 1575. Let these words bee blotted out Doest thou beleeue that not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord IESVS CHRIST Ex eod litro fol. 34. ad Med. thou shalt come to glory and soone after Dost thou beleeue that our Lord IESVS CHRIST died for our saluation and that no man can be saued by his owne merits or any other meanes but onely by the merit of his passion Ywis Hier. l. de libris Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the Scorpions and Snakes of the ancient Diuines as Ierome termed the errors of Origen amongst which the Reader must needs haue walked had not the graue Senate of the Inquisition wisely prouided for our safetie What hope is there now of peace vnlesse they could be content which Bellarmine grants to be the safest way renouncing the merits of their works not so much for their vncertaintie as the imperfection of their Iustice and danger of vaine-glory both to resolue and teach men to repose their whole confidence in the mercy and bounty of God which we can at once both wish and not hope for SECTION X. Concerning Satisfaction SATISFACTION hath neere affinitie with merit and indeed is but as another twig arising from the same root Than which no opinion could bee deuised more iniurious and reproachfull to the merits of CHRIST The word was not displeasing to the ancient Fathers nor in their sense to vs Onely this let mee touch in passing by Tert. de praescrip Fides â—â—â—inum salus proprietatum Consult c. de satisfact that the heedlesse abuse of words to the great wrong of the Church hath bred confusion of things as contrarily that of Tertullian is approued The assured sense of words is the safetie of proprieties Wee haue nothing to doe here with ciuill Satisfaction nothing with Ecclesiasticall whereof Luther not vnfitly said euen in Cassanders owne iudgement Our mother the Church out of her good affection desiring to preuent the hand of GOD Satisfactio penitentialis nihil aliud est quà m conatus infectum reddendiquod factum est Alphons Viruesius aduers Luth. chastises her children with certaine Satisfactions lest they should fall vnder the scourges of GOD. This Canonicall Satisfaction as many call it hath bin too long out of vse on both sides Yea more than this in all our Sermons to our people we beat importunatly vpon the necessity of penitence all the wholsome exercises thereof as fruits worthy of Repentance Not as Cassander wel interprets it as if we desired they should offer vnto God a ransom worthy sufficient for the clearing of the score of their sins but that we teach theÌ„ those offices must be performed by them which God requires of those sinners on whom he will bestow the satisfaction of his Sonne Let them call these satisfactions if they will we giue them leaue But that after the most absolute passion of Christ there should be yet behinde certaine remainders of punishment to be discharged by vs either here or in Purgatory with a purpose thereby to satisfie the diuine Iustice whether they be imposed by God or by the Priest or by our selues as the Tridentine distinction runnes we neither may nor can indure For how nicely soeuer these men distinguish it cannot be but this sacrilegious opinion must needes accuse the truly propitiatory sacrifice of Christ of some imperfection I know they say that both satisfactions may well stand together that of the Mediator and this of man whereof Bonauenture cals the one Perfect Cit. Cass ibid. the other Semiperfect But these are words Let the Sophisters tell me Doth not the fulâ—â—essell containe in it selfe the halfe or what need the one halfe a part when we haue the whole And lastly can any thing be added to that which is perfect But some of their heed fuller Diuines wil neither haue these two opposite nor subordinate to each other For it is a shame to speake what Suarez what Durand and other grosser Papists haue discoursed of this point Let them rather if they will hold which opinion yet hath beene controlled not by the Cardinall onely but by three Popes before him that mens satisfactions serue onely to apply vnto vs that which the satisfactions of Christ haue promerited for vs. Yet euen this shift will not serue Bellermine de Indulg l. 1. c. 4. Piâ—â— 5. Greg. l. 3. clem 6. For Christs satisfaction as they teach respects eternall punishment and not temporall How then can it once be imagined that we by our satisfaction should procure that his suffering which was destinated to the expiation of an eternall punishment should serue to the discharge of a temporall And why should we doe this rather than Christ himselfe Besides how absurdly doth this sound That he whose bounty hath paid our pounds for vs hath yet left vs out of our poore stocke to pay some few farthings for our selues Let me demand then whether could not Christ vndertake these temporall punishments for vs or would he not That he could not is impious that he would not is bold to say and illiberall to doe For where is there any restraint or what are the limits of his mercy The fault is remitted saith the conuenticle of Trent the punishment is not pardoned The Easterne Church would neuer haue said so which alwayes stoutly opposed her selfe to this error And indeed what a shamefull reproach is this to the infinite mercy of the forgiuer what a wrong to his iustice whereto is the punishment due but to the fault Did euer God inflict punishments that were not due Many a time hath he forgiuen to sinners those plagues which both they had deserued and he threatned but neuer did hee call backe for those arrerages which hee had forgiuen God punishes vs indeed or chastens vs rather and that sometimes well and sharply after the remission of our offence Not that hee may giue himselfe satisfaction of vs for how can it be so pleasing to him that it should bee ill with vs but that he may confirme vs to himselfe that he may amend vs Hee layes no stroke vpon vs with a reuenging hand but with a fatherly Wee suffer therefore now but wee satisfie not This is proper onely to that eternall Priest and to his eternall Priesthood and is no more communicable to Saints
which we call Ciuilitie in Trauell of which sort I haue not without indignation seene too many lose their hopes and themselues in the way returning as emptie of grace and other vertues as full of words vanitie mis-dispositions J dedicate this poore discourse to your Lo as besides my daily renued obligations congratulating to you the sweet libertie and happy vse of your home who like a fixed starre may well ouer-looke these planets and by your constant settlednesse giue that aime to inferiour eyes which shall bee in vaine expected from a wandring light The God of heauen to whose glory J haue intended this weake labour giue it fauour in the sight of his Church and returne it backe but with this good newes that any one of the sonnes of Iaphet is hereby perswaded to dwell euer in the tents of Sem. Vnto that diuine protection J humbly betake your Lo iustly vowing my selfe Your Lo humbly deuoted in all faithfull and Christian obseruance IOS HALL QVO VADIS SECT I. IT is an ouer-rigorous construction of the workes of God that in moting our ILAND with the Ocean he meant to shut vs vp from other Regions For God himselfe that made the Sea was the Author of Nauigation and hath therein taught vs to set vp a wooden bridge that may reach to the very Antipodes themselues This were to seeke discontentment in the bountie of God who hath placed vs apart for the singularite of our happinesse not for restraint There are two occasions wherein Trauell may passe Matter of traffique and Matter of State Some commodities God hath confined to some Countries vpon others he hath with a full hand powred those benefits which he hath but sprinkled vpon some His wise prouidence hath made one Countrey the Granarie another the Celler another the Orchard another the Arsenall of their neighbours yea of the remotest parts The earth is the Lords which he ment not to keepe in his hands but to giue and he which hath giuen no man his faculties and graces for himselfe nor put light into the Sunne Moone Starres for their owne vse hath stored no parcell of earth with a purpose of priuate reseruation Salomon would neuer haue sent his Nauie for Apes and Peacocks but yet held gold and timber for the building of Gods house and his owne worthy of a whole three yeeres voyage The Sea and Earth are the great Cofers of God the discoueries of Nauigation are the keyes which whosoeuer hath receiued may know that hee is freely allowed to vnlocke these chests of Nature without any neede to picke the wards Wise Salomons comparison is reciprocall A ship of Merchants that fetches her wares from farre is the good Huswife of the Common-wealth and if shee were so in those blinde Voyages of antiquitie which neuer saw Needle nor Card how much more thriftie must shee needs bee in so many helps both of Nature and Art Either Indies may bee searched for those treasures which God hath laid vp in them for their farre-distant owners Onely let our Merchants take heed lest they goe so far that they leaue God behinde them that whiles thy buy all other things good cheape they make not an ill match for their soules lest they end their prosperous aduentures in the shipwracke of a good conscience SECT II. AND for matter of policie nothing can be more plaine than that our correspondence with other Nations cannot possibly bee held vp without intelligence of their estate of their proceedings The neglect whereof were no other than to prostrate our selues to the mercy of an hollow friendship and to stand still and willingly lie open whiles we are plaid vpon by the wit of vntrustie neighbour-hood These eyes and eares of State are necessarie to the well-being of the head In which number I doe not include those priuate Inter-lopers intelligence that lie abroad onely to feed some vaine Cameleons at home with the aire of Newes for no other purpose saue idle discourse but onely those profitable Agents whose industry either fitteth them abroad for publike imployment or imployeth them after due maturitie in the fit seruices of the Common-wealth neither my censure nor my direction reaches to either of these occasions It is the Trauell of curiositie wherewith my quarrell shall be maintained the inconueniences whereof my owne Senses haue so sufficiently witnessed that if the wise Parents of our Gentry could haue borrowed mine eyes for the time they would euer learne to keepe their sonnes at home and not wilfully beat themselues with the staffe of their age vpon them let my pen turne a little as those that are more than accessaries to this both priuate and publike mischiefe SECT III. IT is the affectation of too early ripenes that makes them prodigall of their childrens safetie and hopes for that they may bee wise betimes they send them forth to the world in the minoritie both of age and iudgement like as fond mothers vse to send forth their daughters on frosting early in cold mornings though into the midst of a vaporous and foggie ayre and whiles they striue for a colour lose their health If they were not blinded with ouer-weening and desire they could not but see that their vnsetlednes carries in it a manifest perill of miscarriage grant that no danger were threatned by the place experience giues vs that a weake limbde childe if he be suffered to vse his legges too soone too much lames himselfe for euer but if he walke in vneuen ground he is no lesse subiect to maimes than crookednes Doe they not see how easily a young twig is bowed any way Doe they not see that the Midwife and Nurse are wont to frame the gristly head of the Infant to any fashion May not any thing be written vpon a blanke And if they make choice of this age because it is most docible and for that they would take the day before them why do they not consider that it is therefore more docible of euill since wickednesse is both more insinuatiue and more plausible than vertue especially when it meets with an vntutored Iudge and seeing there is so much inequality of the number of both that it is not more hard to find vertue than to misse vice Heare this then ye carelesse Ostriches that leaue your eggs in the open sand for the Sun to hatch without the feare of any hoofe that may crush them in peeces haue your stomacks resolued to digest the hard newes of the ruine of your children Do yee professe enmitie to your owne loynes then turne them as you doe loose to these dangers ere they can resist ere they can discerne but if yee had rather they should liue and grow bestow vpon them the kindly heat of your best plumes and shelter them with your own brest and wings till nature haue opened a seasonable way to their owne abilities SECT IIII. YEA let it be my iust complaint in this place that in the very transplantation of our Sonnes to the safer
higher restraint importunately vnto these desires wherein hee saies not much other then their owne Saint AQAINAS Omnibus animalibus c. In all perfect liuing creatures there is a naturall inclination to carnall coniunction But when Luther speakes of men blessed from aboue with this gift C. E. might haue heard him in another strain pleading both the possibility and worthinesse of this condition As in his Commentary vpon the h h Luth. in Psal 128. verse 3. Vnus idemque spir c. Psalme 128. verse 3. to giue one for all thus he saith For one and the same spirit hath distributed his gifts to some after one manner and to some after another c. Let them therefore to whom it is giuen to receiue this abide in their single life and let them glory in the Lord On the other side let them that are not so strong but know and feele their infirmity that they cannot liue both chaste and out of Matrimony Let these I say consider more their owne infirmity then the discommodities and troubles that belong vnto matrimonie Thus he grauely and holily SECT IX NOw to follow my Aduersary in particulars Whereas all the world sees that the vnlawfulnesse of their vow depends vpon the inability of performance he like a true Artist begins first with the vnlawfulnesse It is well Refut p. 29. that all these sheets of Paper which he hath spent in this point may serue for some necessary vse this which he hath put them to is foolishly superfluous If the vow of Chastity be vnlawfull he saith it must be either in respect of the vow Refut p. 30. or the matter vowed Not the first because vowes in generall are lawfull which he will proue out of Scriptures and Fathers Idle head Who euer denied it but the exploded Lampetians His owne Cardinall could haue taught him Bell. l. 2. de Monachis c. 15. Ad negotia huius vitae expeditiu◠peragenda aut ad vitanda peccata aut ad alios bonos sines Refut p. 32 33 34. vsque ad 42. Refut p. 43. vsque ad 48. pag. 34. vsque ad finem Parag. 1. Refut p. 45. that Luther and Caluin approue the vowing of things commanded first and then of things not commanded too to the auoyding of Sinne or other good purposes Not the second which he will proue by many arguments some of them from the Fathers extolling virginity and comparing it with the state of Angels and preferring it before mariage And who euer thought otherwise except Iouinian and perhaps not he And at last after some seuere examples of penance inioyned to fornicating vow-breakers by Chrysostome and Basil to incontinencie and rape by the ciuill Lawes as if these concerned vs so much as themselues hee descends to this challenge Let Mr. Hall if he be able produce vs some proofe although but one classical authority of any one ancient writer where he hath euer perswaded such as haue solemnly vowed chastity to vse Mariage as a meanes to ouercome temptations and he shall haue some excuse for calling it a filthy vow and his heroicall Luther for terming it a diabolicall thing So he I take him at his word onely let him not fly forth vpon the shift of solemnity which their Scholler lately hatched That were to seeke gray hayres in infancy First I bring forth that famous place of Saint Cyprian in his Epistle written both in his owne name and his fellow-Bishops to Pomponius concerning some vowed Virgins which were found in bed with men whereof one was a Deacon of which Virgins he with his Brethren passe this sentence k k Epist l. 1. Epist 11. Pudicè castè sine vlla fabula perseuerent Melius est vt nubant quà m in ignem delicijs fuis cadunt Quod si se ex fide Christo dicauerunt c. If they saith he haue faithfully dedicated themselues vnto Christ let them without all deceit perseuere in the course of Chastitie and so couragiously and constantly expect the reward of their Virginity Si autem perseuerare nolunt vel non possunt c. But if either they will not or cannot perseuere it is better that they marry then by their wantonnesse fall into the fire Let them giue no scandall to their Brethren and Sisters What could Luther or Caluin write more directly So that Erasmus notes in the Margine Etiam virginibus sacris permittit nubere Here Cyprian permits euen holy Virgins to marry l l Lib. 2. de Monach c. 34. Bellarmines shift hereof is ridiculous That Cyprian by occasion of some virgins which after their vow behaued themselues dishonestly aduised others that if they had not a firme purpose of perseuering they should not vow but marry whom we remit to the checke of his owne Pamelius yea of his conscience Indeed what is this but to mocke both the Author and the Reader For doth Cyprian at all varie the persons of whom hee speakes Doth he not speake plainly of Virgins deuoted to Christ And what perseuering could there be but in that which they had vndertaken And what had they vndertaken but a dedication of themselues to Christ What is this Reader but willingly to try his Oares against the streame of truth To the same purpose is that noted sentence of Hierome m m Hieronimus impendio semper virginitati fauens obid nuptijs iniquior Erasmus though otherwise none of the best friends to mariage who speaking of Virgins ascribed by their vow into the celestiall Family addes Quibus apertè dicendum c. Whom we must openly charge that either they would marry if they cannot containe or that they would containe if they will not mary See the Scholia of Erasmus vpon the place We know the elusion of this place also That Hierome speaks of virgins in purpose not in vow But whose name I beseech you was defamed by their lewdnesse or what was the heauenly and Angelicall Family whose glory was blemished herewith Was it of any other then professed Virgins Or could the act of a purposed Virgin onely shame Virgins professed To the same purpose is the aduice of n n Basil l. de virg Basil and o o Epiphan Heres 61. Melius est vnum peccatum habere quā plura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. Epiphan I would haue the yonger Widowes to marry Refut p. 51. He maried his daughter being a Virgin dedicated to Christ Epiphanius Adde to these an elder then they all Tertullian and with him all those Fathers which interpret Saint Pauls volo iuniores nubere of vowed widowes All which must needs hold that our Apostle allowes mariage for the lawfull remedy of vnable Votaries Let not this malicious Masse-Priest then turne vs ouer to his Tyberianus or Iouinian for the first founders of our opinion and practice which wee receiued from no other then that diuine Arch-hereticke that sate at the feet of Gamaliel from no other then the
soule in death the same day The same day was Q. Elizabeths Initium Regni her Coronation Ianuary 15 following That leasure enough might be taken in these great affaires the See of Canterbury continued void aboue a yeare At last in the second yeare of Q. Elizabeth 1559 December 17 was Matthew Parker legally consecrated Archb. of Canterbury by foure Bishops William Barlow formerly Bishop of Bathe then elect of Chichester Iohn Scory before of Chichester now elect of Hereford Miles Couerdale Bishop of Exeter Iohn Hodgeskins Suffragan of Bedford Mathew Parker thus irrefragably setled in the Archiepiscopall See with three other Bishops in the same Moneth of December solemnely consecrated Edmund Grindall and Edwin Sands The publike Records are euident and particular relating the Time Sunday morning after Prayers The place Lambeth-Chappell The manner Imposition of hands The consecrators Mathew Cant. William Chichester Iohn Hereford Iohn Bedford The Preacher at the Consecration Alexander Nowell afterwards the worthy Deane of Pauls The Text Take heed to your selves and to all the flocke c. The Communion lastly administred by the Archbishop For Bishop Iewel he was consecrated the Moneth following in the same forme by Mathew Cant. Edmund London Richard Ely Iohn Bedford Lastly for Bishop Horne he was consecrated a whole yeare after this by Mathew Cant. Thomas S. Dauids Edmund London Thomas Couentry and Lichfield The circumstances Time Place Form Preacher Text seuerally recorded The particulars whereof I referre to the faithfull and cleare relation of Master Francis Mason whose learned and full discourse of this subiect might haue satisfied all eyes and stopped all mouthes What incredible impudency is this then for those which pretend not Christianitie onely but the Consecration of God wilfully to raise such shamefull slanders from the pit of Hell to the disgrace of Truth to the disparagement of our holy calling Let me therefore challenge my Detector in this so important a point wherein his zeale hath so farre out-run his wit and with him all the Brats of that proud Harlot that no Church vnder Heauen can shew a more cleere eeuen vncontrolable vntroubled line of the iust succession of her Sacred Orders then this of ours if his Rome for her tyrannous Primacie could bring forth but such Cards the world vvould bee too straight for her He shall maugre be forced to confesse that either there were neuer true Orders in the Church of England which he dares not say or else that they are still Ours The Bishops in the time of King Henry the eight were vndoubted If they left Rome in some corrected opinions their Character was yet by confession a a Quis ignorat Cathol c. similiter Ordinatos verè esse Ordinatos quando Ordinator verè Episcopus fuerat adhuc erat saltem quantum ad characterem Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 10. indeleble They laid their hands according to Ecclesiasticall constitution vpon the Bishops in King Edwards dayes And they both vpon the Bishops in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths They againe vpon the succeeding Inheritors of their holy Sees and they lastly vpon vs so as neuer man could shew a more certaine and exquisite Pedigree from his great Grand-father then wee can from the acknowledged Bishops of King Henries time and thence vpwards to hundreds of Generations I confesse indeed our Archbishops and Bishops haue wanted some Aaronicall accustrements Gloues Rings Sandals Miters and Pall and such other trash and our inferiours Orders haue wanted Gâ—eazing and Shauing and some other pelting Ceremonies But let C. E. proue these essentiall which we want or those Acts and Formes not essentiall vvhich we haue Et Phyllida solus habeto In the meane time the Church of England is blessed with a true Clergy and glorious and such a one as his Italian generation may impotently enuy and snarle at shall neuer presume to compete vvith in worthinesse and honour And as Doctor Taylor that couragious Martyr said at his parting Blessed bee God for holy Matrimonie SECT XVIII MY Cauiller purposely mistakes my rule of Basil the Great Refut p. 90. 91. and my Text of the Great Apostle whiles from both I resolue thus I passe not what I heare Men or Angels say while I heare God say Let him be the Husband of one Wife he wil needs so construe it as if I tooke this of S. Pauls for a command not for an allowance As if I meant to imply from hence that euery Bishop is bound to haue a Wife Who is so blind as the wilfull Their Leo b b Leo ep 87. abaâ— 85. Tam sacra semper est habita ista Praeceptio calls these words a Preception I did not If hee knew any thing he could not be ignorant that this sense is against the streame of our Church and no lesse then a Grecian errour Who knowes not the extreames of Greece and Rome and the Track of Truth betwixt them both The Greeke Church saith Hee cannot be in holy Orders that is not maried The Romish Church saith He cannot bee in holy Orders that is maried The Church Reformed sayes Hee may bee in holy Orders that is maried and conuertibly Some good friends vvould needs fetch vs into this idle Grecisme and to the societie of the old Frisons c c Espenc lib. 1. de Contin c. 1. and if Saint Ierome take it aright of Vigilantius Espencaeus and Bellarmine and our Rhemists free vs. There is no lesse difference betwixt them and vs then betwixt May and Must Libertie and Necessitie If then Let him be the Husband of one Wife argue that a Bishop may bee a maried man I haue vvhat I would and passe not for the contrarie from Men and Angels We willingly grant vvith Luther that this charge is negatiue Refut p. 91 92. Non velut sanciens dicit saith Chrysostome But this negatiue charge implyes an affirmatiue allowance we seeke for no more As for the authorities which my Detector hath borrowed of his Vncles of Rhemes they might haue beene well spared He tels vs Saint Ierom sayes Qui vâ—am habuerit non habeat He who hath had one Wife not hee that hath one I tell him Saint Paul saith d d Tit. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any man be the Husband of one Wife not If hee haue beene Let e e Chrysost in 1. Tit. homil 2. Saint Chrysostome therein answer Hierome and Epiphanius and all other pretended opposites Obstruere prorsus intendit haereticorum era qui nuptias damnaâ—t c. He purpos'd in this to stop the mouthes of Heretikes that condemned mariage shewing that that estate is faultlesse yea so precious that with it a man might bee aduanced to the holy Episcopall Chaire Thus he whom their learned f f Esp vbi supra Bishop Espencaeus seconds and by the true force of the Text cleareth this sense against all contradiction Nec enim Paulini de Episcopis c. For
saith he those places of S. Paul concerning Bishops Priests and Deacons cannot be so eluded as that they doe onely belong to men that haue beene sometimes maried and are now Widdowers and single but the Text doth plainely note out Husbands and those that are now found in the present estate of mariage which is implyed both by the word esse and by vnius vxoris vir that is hauing one Wife not as some haue vnderstood it which hath had one for as Chrysostome hath noted the Apostle would by the societie of Mariage and Priesthood stop the mouthes of Heretikes that condemned mariage whereto adde That the Apostle amongst the vertues of a Bishop reckons vp this That he doth gouerne his owne house well not that he did gouerne it Thus he Vnto which let mee yet adioyne this other consideration that the Apostle describes what manner of Wife a Bishop should haue which as in other professions he hath not done so in this would haue beene vselesse if he had onely aymed at an estate past and not present Where it is a cunning tricke of the Rhemists and their Vulgar in stead of Their Wiues to reade The Women quite beside the Scope and Context of the Apostle As to the same purpose Whereas their Leo in the fore-cited Epistle sayes that this Precept of a Bishop to the Husband of one Wife was alwayes so sacred * * That the same condition is to be vnderstood of her that is to be chosen for the wife of the Priest Refut p. 92 93. vt etiam de muliere Sacerdotis eligenda eadem intelligatur seruanda conditio Bellarmine and his Mates would needs face vs out that the Copies are corrupted and contends to haue it read Sacerdotis Eligendi of the Priest to be chosen not of the Wife Whom our industrious and worthy Doctor Iames hath refelled both by the Presse and the Pen by the Coleine Edition and Manuscript authoritie As for that hee cites from Hierome against Vigilantius hee might haue found the Salue together with the Wound Our Rhemists dare vs from the imputation of his opinion For the rest Nothing is more plaine then that our Apostle according to the iust interpretation of Chrysostom Theoderet Theophylact and others alludes to the loose fashion as of the Greekes so especially of the Iewes with whom Polygamy and remariages after vniust diuorces were in ordinarie vse These the Apostolicall Spirit finds vnfit for the Man of God whom he therefore charges to be onely The Husband of one Wife Refut p. 94. 95. Neither doth it argue too much wit in my Refuter to bring two Fathers vpon the Stage for his purpose and then to set them together by the eares with each other Ambrose I meane and Hierome who in this which he cites them for confute one another Hierome though otherwise a backe friend to Wedlocke censuring the opinion of Ambrose as sauouring too strongly of Cainisme and superstition Howeuer euen the more vehement of the two out of this place doth hold Mariage compatible with holy Orders Refut p. 95. which is the onely thing I required So as still This one word shall confirme me against all impure mouthes Impure Not for preferring Continency as my Cauiller vvill take it but for deprauing of Mariage by the foule titles of Fleshlinesse and Sensualitie such as his owne Ibid. a worse we need not Neither doth S. Ambrose at all controll mee herein whiles he teacheth that the Apostle doth not here inuite vs to beget children in the Priesthood Habentem enim dixit filios non facientem wee did not challenge hence any command we challenge an allowance which we haue and proclaime That I may not say some Copies of Ambrose runne according as I haue learned of our eminent Doctor Fulke Habentem filios Espenc l. Praecit aut facientem Hauing children or begetting them The difference is not worth standing for Let it passe after his owne reading I could stop his mouth with the ingenuous answer of his Espencaeus Habentem enim c. For he said Hauing children not begetting them Debellatum hicesset c. This Field were wonne if either this were the Text and not the Glosse or they that thus interpret it were Apostles as they are not Thus their owne Bishop But I need not call for any aide The words of Ambrose doe plainely driue against an inuitation or command which we do willingly disclaime SECT XIX NOw vnhappy is this man that still shoots his Arrowes quite besides the Butt Refut p. 96. He proues forsooth with great zeale that the Fathers neuer vnderstood a positiue command in our Apostles words which I neuer thought so much as in dreame and then he bends his Forces against Byganie which I no where auouched The Man of valour loues to play his prizes alone Here is no command then saith he but a permission How much are we bound to him for his fauour Permission Thus much hee with his holy Father yeelds to their Stewes No here is a direct allowance Let him be the Husband of one Wife Not Hee may be so But this was onely for a time hee saith because of the paucitie of single Clergy-men Let him shew me the Apostles limitation and I am satisfied otherwise this misse-grounded conceit what countenance so euer it may finde in a priuate humane authoritie shall passe with vs as a Glosse of Burdeaux that marres the Text. But how shamelessely how fraudulently how like himselfe Refut p. 96. Chrysost in Tit. Hom. 2. doth my Refuter cite Chrysostomes Castigat impudicos c He checketh the incontinent saith the Father whiles hee permitteth them not after their second mariages to bee preferred to the gouernment of the Church and dignitie of Pastors and there my Refuter stops with So he whereas if he had gone forward the place had answered him and it selfe For saith Chrysostome hee which is found not to haue kept his beneuolence towards his wife which is c c The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by them translated falsly Defunctum gone from him how should he be a good Teacher to the Church Plainely shewing vs that hee intends this to those vnchaste Husbands which after an vniust diuorce of their former wiues haue maried also a second not after the death of the first The like Priestly fidelity he vseth in the place of Chrysostome Hom. 2. vpon Iob the poore man had taken vp some scraps of quotations vpon trust hauing neuer seene the Authors For Chrysostome neuer wrote any Homilies vpon the Booke of Iob onely he hath fiue Homilies of the Patience of Iob whereof this cited is the second vvherein his errori ignoscebat hath reference rather to sine crimine which he opposeth to irreprehensibiles then to vir vnius vxoris as the sequel plainely shewes As for Bigamy Refut p. 97. it is out of our way but since his loquacitie will needs roue thither let him shew that
affirmes Anselme to be the first that forbade mariage to the Clergy Reader in stead of all other ponderations weigh the words u u Henr. Huntinâ—d edit Sauil. p. 378. Eodem anno ad festum S. Michaelis tenuit Anselmus Archiepiscopus Concilium apud Londoniam in quo prohibuit vxores sacerdotibus Anglorum antea non prohibitas i. The same yeare on the Feast of S. Michael Archbishop Anselme held a Synode at London wherein hee forbade wiues to the Priests of England before not forbidden and tell mee vvhether my Detector be true The vvords are too plaine hee will wrangle yet with the sense and tels vs that the word Before may signifie perhaps Immediately before in the raigne of the Williams and not all succession of times It were well if he could escape so But this starting hole will not hide him For not to send him to Schoole to learne the difference betwixt Antea and Dudum or Pridem The same Author in the following words shewes vs the censures and conceits that passed vpon this Act as an absolute and vnheard-off noueltie like as in Germany the Historians brand this same act in Hildebrand with a nouo exemplo and inconsiderato praeiudicio And for the times preceding Polydore Virgil giues the very same witnesse Neither let him fly for succour to his Dunstan who neuer can be proued to haue prohibited the mariage of Priests though he disliked that Monasteries and Cathedrall Churches should be possessed by maried Clerkes Lastly â—here the testimonie is displeasing Refut p. 343. the vvitnesse himselfe must bee disgraced Curiositie led my Detector to search who this H. Huntingdon might be with one inquiry he might find him to be a Canon Regular of Austins Order and for dignity an Archdeacon a person past exception But for his parentage hee went no further then to the next Leafe to finde that he was the sonne of a noted and in those dayes eminent Clergy man Vid. supra His Epitaph at Lincolne shewes him to haue been the starre of the Clergie no whit dimmed in his acknowledged light or hindred in his influence by his coniunction in lawfull wedlocke What better instance could my Refuter haue giuen against himselfe If he thinke to insinuate that his birth made him partiall The Reader will easily consider that if such Parentage had been then accounted shamefull the Historian would haue had the wit to haue suppressed it And withall that hee durst not writing in the times when this thing was so familiarly and vniuersally knowne haue offered such a Proposition to the light out of a vaine partialitie to incurre the controlment of all eyes SECT XV. AS for our Fabian if C.E. finde him a Merchant Refut p. 333. I finde him to haue been Sheriffe of the Honorable Citie of London A man whose credit would scorne to be poised with an hundred namelesse Fugitiues parasiticall petty-chapmen of the late small-wares of Rome Neither can the name of a Citizen disparage him to any wise iudge How many haue our times yeelded of that ranke whom both Academicall education and experience and trauell and study haue wrought to an eminent perfection in all Arts especially in Mathematicks and History Such was Fabian whose fidelitie besides his other worths was neuer that I find taxed but by this insolent Pen that hath learned to forbeare no man He was too old for vs to bribe and too credible for C.E. to disgrace If hee would haue lent Rome but this one lye no man had beene more authenticall now his truth makes him fabulous Fabian That one fault hath marred our Archdeacon of Huntingdon also The Story which hee tels of the Cardinall of Crema the Popes Legate taken in bed after his busie indeuours against the maried Clergie the same day with an Harlot Refut p. 348. hath vndone his reputation Why will C. E. stirre this sinke No man prouoked him If hee did not long to blazon the shame of his friends hee had rather smothered this foule occurrence but since he will be medling Res apertissima negari non potuit celari non debuit saith Huntingdon The thing was most openly knowne it could not be denyed it might not be concealed Yet now comes an Vpstart-Nouice and dares tell vs from Baronius that this was a meere Fable how publike and notorious soeuer Huntingdon makes it with these men this rule is vniuersall whatsoeuer may tend to the dishonour of the Church of Rome is false and fabulous Indeed I remember what their Glosse said of old x x Dist 96. In script Clericus amplectens mulierem praesumitur bene agere si ergo Clericus amplectitur mulierem interpraetabuitur quòd causa benedicendi eam hoc faciat That is A Clergie man imbracing a woman must bee presumed to doe well if therefore a Clerke take a woman by the middle it must bee interpreted that he doth it to giue her his blessing * * So the Chronicle tels vs of Adelme Abbot of Malmesbury who when he was stirred to the vice of the flesh had wont to despite the Deuill and torment himselfe with holding a faire yong Virgin in his bed so long as he might say ouer the whole Pâ—alter Vid. Paâ—k Def. Polyd suppressing the name telleth the History Perhaps the good Legate was but bestowing his ghostly blessing on so needfull a subiect but that he was found in bed with her if C. E. were not as shamelesse as that Cardinal or his bed-fellow he durst not deny For what impudency is this to cast this relation only vpon H. Huntingdon when so many vncontrolable Pens haue recorded it to the world Men of their own stampe for Religion for Deuotion Matthew Paris Ranulfus Cestrensis Roger Houeden Polydore Virgil Fabian Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis otherwise called Florilegus Dictus Ioannes qui in Concilio c. saith he The said Iohn which in the open Councell had grieuously condemned all the y y Viz the maried so did the enemies of Mariage disgracefully terme the maried Clergie and so are the words of the Legate to bee vnderstood de latere meretricis be then railing against Mariage not whoredome property was deprehended in whoredome Concubinary Priests was taken himselfe in the same crime Now let my Reader iudge whether this Priests Truth or that Cardinals honesty were greater SECT XVI HIs third Ponderation is the same with the first Euery thing eekes His S. Dunstan and Anselme Gregory and Beda are againe laid in our dish we cannot feed on these ouer-oft-sod Coleworts I am challenged here to produce any Priest or Deacon that liued in Wedlocke before the times of Dunstan The man presumes vpon the suppression of Records For one I name him hundreds Who were they that Dunstan and his fellow Saints found seated in the Cathedrall Churches of this Land vvhom did they eiect Were they not maried Priests What did the eâ—ected Clergy plead but ancient possession After that in the Synod which Archbishop
altogether of humane constitution must like to remedies in diseases be attempered to the present estate of matters and times Those things which were once religiously instituted afterwards according to occasion and the changed quality of manners and times may be with more Religion and Piety abrogated which yet is not to bee done by the temerity of the people but by the authority of Gouernors that tumult may be auoyded and that the publicke custome may be so altred that concord may not be broken the very same is perhaps to be thought concerning the Mariage of Priests of old as there was great paucity of Priests so great Pietie also They that they might more freely attend those holy Seruices made themselues chaste of their owne accord And so much were those Ancients affected to Chastitie that they would hardly permit Mariage vnto that Christian whom his Baptisme found single but a second Mariage yet more hardly And now that which seemed plausible in Bishops and Priests was translated to Deacons and at last to sub-Deacons which voluntarily receiued custome was confirmed by the authority of Popes In the meane time the member of Priests increased and their Pietie decreased Inter hos quanta raritas eorum qui castè viuunt How many swarmes of Priests are maintained in Monasteries and Colledges and amongst them how few are there that liue chastly I speake of them which doe publikely keepe Concubines in their houses in stead of their Wiues Nec enim attingo nunc secretiorum libidinum mystâ—ria c. I doe not now meddle with the mysteries of their more secret lusts I onely speake of those things which are most notoriously knowne to the World And yet when we know these things how easie are we to admit men into holy Orders and how difficult in releasing this constitution of single life when as contrarily S. Paul teaches that hands must not be rashly laid vpon any and more then once hath prescribed what manner of men Priests and Deacons ought to be but of their single life neither Christ nor his Apostles hath euer giuen any Law in the holy Scriptures Long since hath the Church abrogated the nightly Vigils at the Tombes of Martyrs which yet had been receiued by the publike custome of Christians and that for diuers Ages Those Fasts which were wont to continue till the euening it hath transferred to noon and many other things hath it changed according to the occasions arising Cur hic humanaÌ„ constitutionem vrgemus tam obstinatè praesertim cùm tot causa suadeant mutationem Primùm enim magna pars Sacerdotum viuit cum malâ famâ parumque requieta conscientia tractat illa sacrosancta mysteria c. And why then doe we so obstinately vrge this humane constitution especially when so many causes perswade vs to an alteration For first a great part of our Priests liues with an ill name and with an vnquiet conscience handleth those holy Mysteries And then the fruit of their labours for the most part is vtterly lost because their doctrine is contemned of their people by reason of their shamefull life Whereas if Mariage might be yeelded to those which doe not containe both they would liue more quietly and should preach Gods Word to the people with authority and might honestly bring vp their children neither should the one of them bee a mutuall shame to other c. FINIS A BRIEFE SVMME OF THE Principles of Religion fit to be knowne of such as would addresse themselues to Gods TABLE Q HOw many things are required of a Christian A. Two Knowledge and Practice Q What are we bound to know A. God and our selues Q. What must we know of God A. What one he is and what he hath done Q. What is God A. He is one Almightie and infinite Spirit Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Q. What hath he done A. He hath made all things he gouerneth and preserueth all things and hath eternally decreed how all things shall bee done and hath reuealed his will to vs in his Word Q. What more must we know concerning God and his actions A. That God the Son Christ Iesus tooke our nature vpon him dyed for our redemption rose again and now liueth gloriously in Heauen making intercession for vs. Q. Thus much concerning God What must we know of our selues A. What we were what we are and what we shall be Q. What were we A. We were made at first perfect and happy according to Gods Image in knowledge in holinesse in righteousnesse Q. What are we now A. Euer since the fall of our first Parents we are all naturally the sonnes of wrath subiect to misery and death But those whom God chooseth out to himselfe are in part renewed through grace and haue the Image of God in part repaired in them Q. What shall we be A. At the general resurrection of all flesh those which were in part renewed here shall be fully perfited and glorified in body and soule those which haue liued and dyed in their sinnes shall be iudged to perpetuall torments Q. Thus much for our knowledge Now for our practice what is required of vs A. Due obedience and seruice to God both in our ordinary course of life and also in the speciall exercises of his worship Q. What is that obedience which is required of vs in the ordinary course of our life A. It is partly prescribed vs by the Law and partly by the Gospell Q. What doth the Law require A. The Law contained in Ten Commandements enioyneth vs all piety to God and all iustice and charity to our neighbour Q. What doth the Gospell require A. Faith in Lord Iesus with the fruit of it Repentance as our onely remedie for the breach of the Law Q. What is faith A. The affiance of the soule vpon Christ Iesus depending vpon him alone for forgiuenesse and saluation Q What is Repentance A. An effectuall breaking off our old sinnes with sorrow and detestation and an earnest purpose and endeuour of contrary obedience Q. Thus much of our obedience in the whole course of life What are the seruices required more specially in the immediate exercises of Gods worship A. They are chiefly three first Due hearing and reading the Word secondly Receiuing the Sacraments thirdly Prayer Q. Which call you the Word of God A. The holy Scriptures contained in the Old and New Testament Q. How many Sacraments are there A. Two Baptisme and the Lords Supper Q. What is the vse of Baptisme A. By water washing the body to assure vs that the blood of Christ applied to the soule of euery beleeuer clenseth him from his sinnes Q. What is the vse of the Lords Supper A. To be a signe a seale a pledge vnto vs of Christ Iesus giuen for vs giuen to vs. Q. What signifies the Bread and wine A. The body and blood of Christ broken and powred out for our redemption Q. What is required of euery Receiuer A. Vpon paine
raising Pride is euer discontented and still seekes matter of boasting in her owne workes How fondly doe men reckon without God Come let vs build As if there had been no stop but in their owne will As if both Earth and Time had beene theirs Still doe all naturall men build Babel forecasting their owne plots so resolutely as if there were no power to countermand them It is iust with God that peremptorie determinations seldome prosper whereas those things which are fearfully and modestly vndertaken commonly succeed Let vs build vs a Citie If they had taken God with them it had been commendable establishing of societies is pleasing to him that is the God of order But a Towre whose top may reach to Heauen was a shamefull arrogance an impious presumption Who would thinke that wee little Ants that creepe vpon this earth should thinke of climbing vp to Heauen by multiplying of earth Pride euer lookes at the highest the first Man would know as God these would dwel as God Couetousnes and Ambition know no limits And what if they had reacht vp to Heauen some Hils are as high as they could hope to be and yet are no whit the better no place alters the condition of Nature an Angell is glorious though he be vpon earth and Man is but earth though he be aboue the clouds The neerer they had been to heauen the more subiect should they haue been to the violences of heauen to thunders lightnings and those other higher inflamations what had this been but to thrust themselues into the hands of the reuenger of all wicked insolencies God loues that heauen should be lookt at and affected with all humble desires with the holy ambitions of faith not with the proud imaginations of our owne atchieuements But wherefore was all this Not that they loued so much to be neighbours to heauen as to bee famous vpon earth It was not commodity that was here sought not safety but glory whither doth not thirst of fame carie men whether in good or euill It makes them seek to climbe to heauen it makes them not feare to runne down headlong to hell Euen in the hest things desire of praise stands in competition with conscience and brags to haue the more clients One builds a Temple to Diana in hope of glory intending it for one of the great wonders of the World another in hope of Fame burnes it He is a rare man that hath not some Babel of his owne whereon hee bestowes paines and cost onely to be talked of If they had done better things in a vaine-glorious purpose their act had been accursed if they had built houses to God if they had sacrificed prayed liued well the intent poysons the action but now both the act and the purpose are equally vaine and the issue is as vaine as either God hath a speciall indignation at pride aboue all sinnes and will crosse our endeuours not for that they are euill what hurt could bee in laying one bricke vpon another but for that they are proudly vndertaken He could haue hindered the laying of the first stone and might as easily haue made a trench for the foundation the grane of the builders but he loues to see what wicked men would doe and to let fooles run themselues out of breath what monument should they haue had of their owne madnesse and his powerfull interruption if the wals had risen to no height To stop them then in the midst of their course he meddles not with either their hands or their feet but their tongues not by pulling them out not by loosing their strings not by making them say nothing but by teaching them to say too much Here is nothing varied but the sound of Letters euen this frustrates the worke and be fooles the workmen How easie is it for God ten thousand wayes to correct and forestall the greatest proiects of men He that taught Adam the first words taught them words that neuer were One cals for bricke the other lookes him in the face and wonders what he commands and how and why he speakes such vvords as were neuer heard and in stead thereof brings him morter returning him an answer as little vnderstood each chides with other expressing his choler so as hee onely can vnderstand himselfe From heat they fall to quiet intreaties but still with the same successe At first euery man thinkes his fellow mocks him but now perceiuing this serious confusion their onely answer was silence and ceasing they could not come together for no man could call them to be vnderstood and if they had assembled nothing could be determined because one could neuer attaine to the others purpose No they could not haue the honour of a generall dismission but each man leaues his Trowell and station more like a foole then hee vndertooke it So commonly actions begun in glory shut vp in shame All externall actions depend vpon the tongue No man can know anothers minde if this bee not the interpreter hence as there were many tongues giuen to stay the building of Babel so there were as many giuen to build the new Ierusalem the Euangelicall Church How deare hath Babel cost all the world At the first when there was but one language men did spend their time in Arts so was it requisite at the first setling of the world and so came early to perfection but now we stay so long of necessitie vpon the shell of tongues that wee can hardly haue time to chew the sweet kernell of knowledge Surely men would haue growne too proud if there had been no Babel It fals out oft-times that one sinne is a remedy of a greater Diuision of tongues must needs flacken any worke Multiplicitie of language had not beene giuen by the Holy Ghost for a blessing to the Church if the world had not beene before possessed with multiplicitie of languages for a punishment Hence it is that the building of our Sion rises no faster because our tongues are diuidde Happy were the Church of God if we all spake but one language Whiles we differ we can build nothing but Babel difference of tongues caused their Babel to cease but it builds ours Of ABRAHAM IT was fit that he which should be the Father and pattern of the faithfull should be throughly tryed for in a set copie euery fault is important and may proue a rule of errour of ten tryals which Abraham passed the last was the forest No sonne of Abraham can hope to escape temptations while he sees that bosom in which he desires to rest so assaulted with difficulties Abraham must leaue his Countrey and kindred and liue amongst strangers The calling of God neuer leaues men where it findes them The earth is the Lords and all places are alike to the wise and faithfull If Chaldea had not been grossely idolatrous Abraham had not left it no bond must tie vs to the danger of infection But whither must hee goe to a place he knew not to
yea without dimention of matter was truly admirable Doubtlesse he went oft about it and viewed it on all sides and now when his eie and mind could vntâ—â— with no likely causes so far off resolues I will goe see it His curiosity led him neeres and what could hee see but a bush and a flame which he saw at first vnsatisfied It is good to come to the place of Gods presence howsoeuer God may perhaps speak to thy heart though thou come but for nouelty Euen those which haue come vpon curiosity haue beene oft taken Absence is without hope If Moses had not come he had not beene called out of the bush To see a fire not consuming the bush was much but to heare a speaking fire this was more and to heare his owne name out of the mouth of the fire it was most of all God makes way for his greatest messages by astonishment and admiration as on the contrary carelesnesse caries vs to a meere vnproficiency vnder the best meanes of God If our hearts were more awfull Gods messages would be more effectuall to vs. In that appearance God meant to call Moses to come yet when he is come inhibits him Come not hither We must come to God we must not come too nere him When we meditate of the great mysteries of his word we come to him we come too neere him when we search into his counsels The Sun and the fire say of themselues Come not too neare how much more the light which none can attaine vnto We haue all our limits set vs The Gentiles might come into some outter courts not into the inmost The Iewes might come into the inner Court not into the Temple the Priests and Leuites into the Temple not into the Holy of Holies Moses to the Hill not to the Bush The waues of the Sea had not more need of bounds then mans presumption Moses must not come close to the bush at all and where he may stand he may not stand with his shooes on There is no vnholinesse in clothes God prepared them for man at first and that of skins lest any exception should be taken at the hides of dead beasts The rite was significant What are the shooes but worldly and carnall affections If these be not cast off when we come to the holy place we make our selues vnholy how much lesse should we dare to come with resolutions of sinne This is not onely to come with shooes on but with shooes bemired with wicked filthinesse the touch whereof pro-the pauement of God and makes our presence odious Moses was the Sonne of Amram Amram of Kohath Kohath of Leui Leui of Iacob Iacob of Isaac Isaac of Abraham God puts together both ends of his pedigree I am the God of thy father and of Abraham Isaac Iacob If he had said onely I am thy God it had beene Moses his duty to attend awfully but now that he sayes I am the God of thy Father and of Abraham c. He challenges reuerence by prescription Any thing that was our Ancesters pleases vs their Houses their Vessels their Cotâ— armour How much more their God How carefull should Parents be to make holy choices Euery president of theirs are so many monuments and motiues to their posterity What an happinesse it is to be borne of good Parents hence God claimes an interest in vs and wee in him for their sake As many a man smarteth for his fathers sinne so the goodnesse of others is crowned in a thousand generations Neither doth God say I was the God of Abraham Isaac Iacob but I am The Patriarkes still liue after so many thousand yeares of dissolution No length of time can separate the soules of the iust from their Maker As for their body there is still a reall relation betwixt the dust of it and the soule and if the being of this part be more defectiue the being of the other is more liuely and doth more then recompence the wants of that earthly halfe God could not describe himselfe by a more sweet name then if his I am the God of thy father and of Abraham c. yet Moses hides his face for feare If he had said I am the glorious God that made heauen and earth that dwell in light inaccessible whom the Angels cannot behold or I am God the auenger iust and terrible a consuming fire to mine enemies here had beene iust cause of terror But why was Moses so frighted with a familiar compellation God is no lesse awfull to his owne in his very mercies Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared for to them no lesse maiesty shines in the fauours of God then in his iudgements and iustice The wicked heart neuer feares God but thundring or shaking the earth or raining fire from heauen but the good can dread him in his very sunne-shine his louing deliuerances blessings affect them with awfulnesse Moses was the true son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of loue mercy could say How dreadfull is this places I see Moses now at the bush hiding his face at so milde a representation hereafter we shall see him in this very Mount betwixt heauen and earth in Thunder Lightning Smoke Earth-quakes speaking mouth to mouth with God bare faced and fearlesse God was then more terrible but Moses was lesse strange This was his first meeting with God further acquaintance makes him familiar and familiarity makes him bold Frequence of conuersation giues vs freedome of accesse to God and makes vs powre out our hearts to him as fully and as fearlesly as to our friends In the meane time now at first he made not so much haste to see but he made as much to hide his eies Twice did Moses hide his face once for the glory which God put vpon him which made him so shine that he could not bee beheld of others once for Gods owne glory which hee could not behold No maruell Some of the creatures are too glorious for mortall eies how much more when God appeares to vs in the easiest manner must his glory needs ouercome vs Behold the difference betwixt our present and future estate Then the more Maiesty of appearance the more delight when our sin is quite gone all our feare at Gods presence shall be turned into ioy God appeared to Adam before his sin with comfort but in the same forme which after his sin was terrible And if Moses cannot abide to looke vpon Gods glory when he descends to vs in mercy how shall wicked ones abide to see his fearfull presence when he sets vpon vengeance In this fire he flamed and consumed not but in his reuenge our God is a consuming fire First Moses hides himselfe in feare now in modesty Who am I None in all Aegypt or Midian was comparably fit for this embassage Which of the Israelites had bin brought vp a Courtier a Scholler an Israelite by blood by education an Aegyptian learned wise valiant
good to thee This argument seemed to carry such command with it as that Dauid not onely may but must embrew his hands in bloud vnlesse hee will bee found wanting to God and himselfe Those temptations are most powerfull which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and priuate respects admit of an easie dispensation If there were such a prediction one clause of it was ambiguous and they take it at the worst Thou shalt doe to him as shall seeme good to thee that might not seeme good to him which seemed euill vnto God There is nothing more dangerous than to make construction of Gods purposes out of euentuall appearances If carnall probabilities might be the rule of our iudgement what could God seeme to intend other than Sauls death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he vniustly persecuted how could Dauids souldiers thinke that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand than to fetch his bane and if Saul could haue seene his owne danger he had giuen himselfe for dead for his heart guilty to his owne bloudy desires could not but haue expected the same measure which it meant But wise and holy Dauid not transported either with mis-conceit of the euent or fury of passion or sollicitation of his followers dares make no other vse of this accident than the triall of his loyalty and the inducement of his peace It had beene as easie for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment but now his coat onely shall be the worse not his person neither doth he in the maiming of a cloake seeke his owne reuenge but a monument of his innocence Before Saul rent Samuels garment now Dauid cutteth Sauls both were significant The rending of the one signified the Kingdome torne out of those vnworthy hands the cutting of the other that the life of Saul might haue beene as easily cut off Saul needes no other Monitor of his owne danger than what he weares The vpper garment of Saul was laid aside whiles he went to couer his feet so as the cut of the garment did not threaten any touch of the body yet euen the violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of Dauid which findes a present remorse for harmefully touching that which did once touch the person of his Master Tender consciences are moued to regret at those actions which strong hearts passe ouer with a careles ease It troubled not Saul to seeke after the bloud of a righteous seruant there is no lesse difference of consciences than stomacks some stomachs will digest the hardest meates and turne ouer substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest food and complaine euen of dainties Euery gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and findes more safety in feare than in presumption And if it be so strait as to curbe it selfe in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not vnlawfull how much lesse will it dare to take scope vnto euill By how much that state is better where nothing is allowed than where all things by so much is the strict and â—nnorous conscience better than the lawlesse There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his wayes but he which makes no bones of his actions is apparently hopelesse Since Dauids followers pleaded Gods testimony to him as a motiue to bloud Dauid appeales the same God for his preseruation from bloud The Lord keepe me from doing that thing to my Master the Lords Annointed and now the good man hath worke enough to defend both himselfe and his persecuter himselfe from the importunate necessitie of doing violence and his Master from suffering it It was not more easie to rule his owne hands than difficult to rule a multitude Dauids troupe consisted of Male-contents all that were in distresse in debt in bitternesse of soule were gathered to him Many if neuer so well ordered are hard to command a few if disorderly more hard many and disorderly must needs bee so much the hardest of all that Dauid neuer atchieued any victory like vnto this wherein hee first ouercame himselfe then his Souldiers And what was the charme wherewith Dauid allayed those raging spirits of his followers No other but this Hee is the Annointed of the Lord. That holy Oyle was the Antidote for his bloud Saul did not lend Dauid so impearceable an Armour when hee should encounter Goliah as Dauid now lent him in this plea of his vnction Which of all the discontented Out-lawes that lurked in that Caue durst put forth his hand against Saul when they once heard Hee is the Lords Annointed Such an impression of awe hath the diuine Prouidence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men as that it makes Traytors cowards So as in steede of striking they tremble How much more lawlesse than the Out-lawes of Israel are those professed Ring-leaders of Christianitie which teach and practise and incourage and reward and canonize the violation of Maiestie It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refraine their owne hands from doing euil but they must carefully preuent the iniquitie of their heeles else they shall bee iustly reputed to doe that by others which in their owne persons they auoyded the Lawes both of God and man presuppose vs in some sort answerable for our charge as taking it for granted that wee should not vndertake those raynes which wee cannot mannage There was no reason Dauid should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty Whereto hee trusts so much that hee dares call backe the man by whom hee was pursued and make him iudge whether that fact had not deserued a life As his act so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience neither was there more meeknesse than force in that seasonable perswasion Wherein hee lets Saul see the error of his credulity the vniust slanders of maliciousnesse the oportunity of his reuenge the proofe of his forbearance the vndeniable euidence of his innocence and after a lowly disparagement of himselfe appeales to God for iudgement for protection So liuely and feeling Oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment and the lips of Dauid that it is not in the power of his enuie or ill nature to hold out any longer Is this thy voice my sonne Dauid and Saul lift vp his voice and wept and said Thou art more righteous than I. Hee whose harpe had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul hath now by his words calmed his fury so that now he sheds teares in steed of bloud and confesses his owne wrong and Dauids integrity And as if hee were new againe entred into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath hee prayes and prophesies good to him whom hee maliced for good The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to mee this day for now behold I know that
nature but turne the watery iuyce that arises vp from the roote into wine he will onely doe this now suddenly and at once which he doth vsually by sensible degrees It is euer duely obserued by the Sonne of God not to doe more miracle than he needs How liberall are the prouisions of Christ If hee had turned but one of those vessels it bad beene a iust proofe of his power and perhaps that quantitie had serued the present necessitie now hee furnisheth them with so much wine as would haue serued an hundred and fiftie ghests for an intire feast Euen the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy The munificent hand of God regards not our need onely but our honest affluence It is our sinne and our shame if wee turne his fauour into wantonnesse There must bee first a filling ere there bee a drawing out Thus in our vessels the first care must be of our receit the next of our expence God would haue vs Cisternes not Channels Our Sauiour would not bee his owne â—aster but hee sends the first draught to the Gouernour of the feast Hee knew his owne power they did not Neither would hee beare witnesse of himselfe but fetch it out of others mouthes They that knew not the originall of that wine yet praysed the taste Euery man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men haue well drunke then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine vntill now The same bounty that expressed it selfe in the quantitie of the Wine shewes it selfe no lesse in the excellence Nothing can fall from that diuine hand not exquisite That liberalitie hated to prouide crab-wine for his guests It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ which came from his immediate hand should bee more perfect than the naturall O blessed Sauiour how delicate is that new Wine which wee shall one day drinke with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome Thou shalt turne this water of our earthly affliction into that Wine of gladnesse wherewith our soules shall be satiate for euer Make haste O my Beloued and bee thou like to a Roe or to a yong Hart vpon the Mountaine of Spices The good Centurion EVen the bloudy trade of Warre yeelded worthy Clients to Christ This Romane Captaine had learned to beleeue in that Iesus whom many Iewes despised No Nation no Trade can shut out a good heart from God If hee were a Forreiner for birth yet hee was a Domestick in heart Hee could not change his bloud he could ouer-rule his affections He loued that Nation which was chosen of God and if he were not of the Synagogue yet hee built a Synagogue where hee might not bee a Partie hee would bee a Benefactor Next to being good is a fauouring of goodnesse We could not loue Religion if we vtterly want it How many true Iewes were not so zealous Either will or ability lacked in them whom duty more obliged Good affections doe many times more than supply nature Neither doth God regard whence but what wee are I doe not see this Centurion come to Christ as the Israelitish Captaine came to Elias in Carmel but with his Cap in his hand with much suit much submission by others by himselfe hee sends first the Elders of the Iewes whom hee might hope that their Nation and place might make gracious then lest the imployment of others might argue neglect he seconds them in person Cold and fruitlesse are the motions of friends where wee doe wilfully shut vp our owne lips Importunitie cannot but speed well in both Could wee but speake for our selues as this Captaine did for his Seruant what could wee possibly want What maruell is it if God be not forward to giue where wee care not to aske or aske as if wee cared not to receiue Shall wee yet call this a suit or a complaint I heare no one word of entreatie The lesse is said the more is concealed it is enough to lay open his want Hee knew well that hee had to deale with so wise and mercifull a Physitian as that the opening of the maladie was a crauing of cure If our spirituall miseries be but confessed they cannot fayle of redresse Great varietie of Suitors resorted to Christ One comes to him for a Sonne another for a Daughter a third for himselfe I see none come for his Seruant but this one Centurion Neither was he a better man than a Master His Seruant is sick hee doth not driue him out of doores but layes him at home neither doth he stand gazing by his beds-side but seekes forth He seekes forth not to Witches or Charmers but to Christ he seekes to Christ not with a fashionable relation but with a vehement aggrauation of the disease Had the Master beene sicke the faithfullest Seruant could haue done no more He is vnworthy to bee well serued that will not sometimes wait vpon his followers Conceits of inferioritie may not breed in vs a neglect of charitable offices so must we looke downe vpon our Seruants here on earth as that we must still looke vp to our Master which is in Heauen But why didst thou not O Centurion rather bring thy Seruant to Christ for cure than sue for him absent There was a Paralyticke whom Faith and Charitie brought to our Sauiour and let downe thorow the vncouered roofe in his Bed why was not thine so carryed so presented Was it out of the strength of thy faith which assured thee thou needest not shew thy Seruant to him that saw all things One and the same grace may yeeld contrarie effects They because they beleeued brought the Patient to Christ thou broughtest not thine to him because thou beleeuedest their act argued no lesse desire thinâ— more confidence Thy labour was lesse because thy faith was more Oh that I could come thus to my Sauiour and make such more to him for my selfe Lord my soule is sicke of vnbeliefe sicke of selfe-loue sicke of inordinate desires I should not neede to say more Thy mercie O Sauiour would not then stay byfâ—â— my suit but would preuent mee as here with a gracious ingagement I will come and heale thee I did not heare the Centurion say Either come or heale him The one he meant though he said not the other hee neither said nor meant Christ ouer giues both his words and intentions It is the manner of that diuine munificence where hee meets with a faithfull Suitor to giue more than is requested to giue when hee is not requested The very insinuations of our necessities are no lesse violent than successefull We thinke the measure of humane bountie runnes ouer when we obtayne but what we aske with importunitie that infinite goodnesse keepes within bounds when it ouer-flowes the desires of our hearts As he said so hee did The word of Christ either is his act or concurres with it Hee did not stand still when hee said I will come but hee went as hee spake When the
forefathers Ioshua caused the Sunne to stand still Elias brought fire downe from heauen Samuel astonisht the people with thunder and raine in the midst of haruest If thou wouldst command our beleefe doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Deuill shewes thee to haue some power ouer hell shew vs now that thou hast no lesse power ouer heauen There is a kinde of vnreasonablenesse of desire and insatiablenesse in infidelitie it neuer knowes when it hath euidence enough This which the Iewes ouer-looked was a more irrefragable demonstration of diuinity then that which they desired A Deuill was more then a Meteor or a parcell of an element to cast out a Deuill by command more then to command fire from heauen Infidelitie euer loues to be her owne caruer No sonne can be more like a father then these Iewes to their progenitors in the desert that there might be no feare of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wildernesse First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their seruitude The Sea yeelds way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the prouidence of God for water The Rocke yeelds it them then no lesse for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but mercy nothing from them but temptations Their true brood both in nature and sinne had abundant proofes of the Messiah if curing the blinde lame diseased deafe dumbe eiecting deuills ouer-ruling the elements raising the dead could haue beene sufficient yet still they must haue a signe from heauen and shut vp in the stile of the Tempter If thou be the Christ The gracious heart is credulous Euen where it sees not it beleeues and where it sees out a little it beleeues a great deale Neither doth it presume to prescribe vnto God what and how he shall work but takes what it findes and vnmoueably rests in what it takes Any miracle no miracle serues enough for their assent who haue built their faith vpon the Gospell of the Lord Iesus Matthew called THE number of the Apostles was not yet full One roome is left void for a future occupant who can but expect that it is reserued for some eminent person and behold Matthew the Publican is the man Oh the strange election of Christ Those other disciples whose calling is recorded were from the Fisher-boat this from the Tole booth They were vnlettered this infamous The condition was not in it selfe sinfull but as the taxes which the Romans imposed on Gods free people were odious so the Collectors the Farmers of them abominable Besides that it was hard to hold that seat without oppression without exaction One that best knew it branded it with poling and sycophancie And now behold a griping Publican called to the familie to the Apostle-ship to the Secretary-ship of God Who can despaire in the conscience of his vnworthinesse when hee sees this patterne of the free bounty of him that calleth vs Merits doe not cary it in the gracious election of God but his meere fauour There sate Matthew the Publican busie in his Counting-house reckoning vp the sums of his Rentals raking vp his arerages and wrangling for denied duties did so little thinke of a Sauior that he did not so much as look at his passage but Iesus as he passed by saw a man sitting at the receit of custome named Matthew As if this prospect had bin sudden and casuall Iesus saw him in passing by Oh Sauiour before the world was thou sawest that man sitting there thou sawest thine own passage thou sawest his call in thy passage and now thou goest purposely that way that thou mightest see and call Nothing can be hid from that piercing eye one glance wherof hath discerned a Disciple in the cloathes of a Publican That habit that shop of extortion cannot conceale from thee a vessel of election In all formes thou knowest thine own and in thine own time shalt fetch them out of the disguises of their foule sinnes or vnfit conditions What sawest thou O Sauior in that Publican that might either allure thine eye or not offend it What but an hatefull trade an euill eye a gripple hand bloody tables heapes of spoile yet now thou saidst Follow me Thou that saidst once to Ierusalem Thy birth and natiuitie is of the land of Canaan Thy father was an Amorite thy mother an Hittite Thy nauell was not cut neither wert thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all thou wast not swadled at all None eye pitied thee but thou must cast out in the open fields to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast borne And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine owne blood I said vnto thee Liue yea I said vnto thee when thou wast in thy blood Liue Now also when thou passed it by and sawest Matthew sitting at the receit of custome saidest to him Follow mee The life of this Publican was so much worse then the birth of that forlorne Amorite as Follow me was more then Liue What canst thou see in vs O God but vgly deformities horrible sinnes despicable miseries yet doth it please thy mercy to say vnto vs both Liue and Follow me The iust man is the first accuser of himselfe whom doe wee heare to blazon the shame of Matthew but his owne mouth Matthew the Euangelist tels vs of Matthew the Publican His fellowes call him Leui as willing to lay their finger vpon the spot of his vnpleasing profession himselfe will not smother nor blanche it a whit but publishes it to all the world in a thankfull recognition of the mercy that called him as liking well that his basenesse should serue for a fit foyle to set off the glorious lustre of his grace by whom he was elected What matters it how vile we are O God so thy glory may rise in our abasement That word was enough Follow mee spoken by the same tongue that said to the corps at Nain Young man I say to thee Arise Hee that said at first Let there bee light sayes now Follow mee That power sweetly inclines which could forcibly command the force is not more vnresistable then the inclination When the Sunne shines vpon the Isicles can they choose but melt and fall When it lookes into a dungeon can the place choose but be inlightened Doe wee see the Iet drawing vp strawes to it the Load-stone iron and doe wee maruell if the omnipotent Sauiour by the influence of his grace
Surely Israel came with a purpose to cauill Ieroboam had secretly troubled these waters that he might fish more gainfully One male-content is enough to embroile a whole Kingdome How harshly must it needs sound in the eares of Rehoboam that the first word hee heares from his people is a querulous challenge of his fathers gouernment Thy father made our yoke grienous For ought I see the suggestion was not more spightfull then vniust where was the weight of this yoke the toyle of these seruices Here were none of the turmoyles of warre no trainings marchings encampings entrenchings watchings minings sieges fortifications none of that tedious world of worke that attends hostility Salomon had not his name for nought All was calme during that long reigne And if they had payed deare for their peace they had no cause to complaine of an hard march The warlike times of Saul and Dauid had exhausted their blood together with their substance what ingratitude was this to cry out of ease Yea but that peace brought forth costly and laborious buildings Gods house and the Kings the walls of Ierusalem Hazar Megiddo and Gezer the Cities of store the cities of defence could not rise without many a shoulder True but not of any Israelites The remainders of Amorites Hittites Penzzites Hiuites and Iebusites were put to all the drudgery of these great works the taskes of Israel were easie and ingenuous free from seruility free from painfulnesse But the charge was theirs whose-soeuer was the labour The diet of so endlesse a retinue the attendance of his Seraglio the purueyance for his forty thousand stables the cost of his sacrifices must needs weigh heauy Certainly if it had layne on none but his owne But wherfore went Salomons Nauy euery three yeeres to Ophira to what vse serued the six hundred threescore and six Talents of Gold that came in one yeare to his Exchequer wherefore serued the large tributes of forraine nations How did he make siluer to be in Ierusalem as stones if the exactions were so pressiâ—e The multitude is euer prone to picke quarrels with their Gouernors and whom they feared aliue to censure dead The benefits of so quiet and happy a reigne are past ouer in silence the grieuances are recounted with clamor Who can hope that merit or greatnesse can shield him from obloquie when Salomon is traduced to his owne loynes The proposition of Israel puts Rehoboam to a deliberation Depart yee for three daies then come againe to me I heare no other word of his that argued wisdome Not to giue sudden resolutions in cases of importance was a point that might well befeeme the son of Salomon I wonder that he who had so much wit as to call for leisure in his answer should shew so little wit in the improuing of that leisure in the returne of that answer Who cannot but hope well to see the grey heads of Salomons secret Counsell called to Rehoboams Cabinet As Counsellors as ancient as Salomons they cannot choose but see the best the safest course for their new Soueraigne They had learned of their old master that a soft anger appeaseth wrath wisely therefore doe they aduise him If thou wilt be aseruant to this people this day and speak good words to them they will be thy seruants for euer It was an easie condition with one mouthfull of breath to purchase an euerlasting homage with one gentle motion of his tongue to binde all peoples hearts to his allegeance for euer Yet as if the motion had been vnfit a new Counsell Table is called well might this people say What will not Rehoboam grudge vs if he thinke much to giue good words for a Kingdome There is not more wisdome in taking varietie of aduice where the matter is doubtfull then folly when it is plaine The yong heads are consulted This very change argues weakenesse Some reason might bee pleaded for passing from the yonger Counsell to the aged none for the contrary Age brings experience and it is a shame if with the ancient bee not wisdome Youth is commonly rash heady insolent vngouerned wedded to will led by humour a rebell to reason a subiect to passion fitter to execute then to aduise Greene wood is euer shrinking and warping whereas the well-seasoned holds a constant firmenesse Many a life many a soule many a florishing state hath beene ruined by vndisciplined Monitors Such were these of Rehoboam whose great stomach tells them that this conditionating of subiects was no other then an affront to their new master and suggests to them how vnfit it is for Maiestie to brooke so saucy a treaty how requisite and Princely to crush this presumption in the egge As scorning therefore to bee braued by the base Vulgar they put words of greatnesse and terror into their new Prince My little finger shall bee thicker then thy fathers loynes My father made your yoake heauy I will adde to your yoake My father hath chastised you with whips I will chastise you with Scorpions The very words haue stings Now must Israel needes thinke How cruell will this mans hands bee when hee thus drawes blood with his tongue Men are not wont to speake out their worst who can endure the hopes of him that promiseth tyranny There can be no good vse of an indefinite profession of rigor and seuerity Feare is an vnsafe guardian of any state much lesse of an vnsetled Which was yet worse not the sins of Israel were threatned nor their purses but their persons neither had they desired a remission of iustice but of exactions and now they hear of nothing but burdens and scourges and Scorpions Here was a Prince and people well met I doe not find them sensible of ought saue their owne profit They doe not say Religion was corrupted in the shutting vp of thy fathers daies Idolatry found the free fauour of Priests and Temples and Sacrifices Begin thy reigne with God purge the Church demolish those piles of abomination abandon those Idol-mongers restore deuotion to her purity They are all for their penny for their ease Hee on the other side is all for his will for an imperious Soueraignty without any regard either of their reformation or satisfaction They were worthy of load that cared for nothing but their backs and he worthy of such subiects who professed to affect their misery and torment Who would not but haue looked any whither for the cause of this euill rather then to heauen yet the holy God challenges it to himselfe The cause was from the Lord that he might performe his saying by Abijah the Shilonite to Ieroboam As sinne is a punishment of sinne it is a part of iustice The holy One of Israel doth not abhorre to vse euen the grossest sinnes to his owne iust purposes whiles our wils are free to our owne choice his decrees are as necessary as iust Israel had forsaken the Lord and worshipped Ashtaroth the goddesse of the Zidonians and Chemosh and Milchom God
with thee is mercy and plentious redemption thine hand is open before our mouthes before our hearts If we did not see thee smile vpon suiters we durst not presse to thy footstoole Behold now we know that the King of heauen the God of Israel is a mercifull God Let vs put sackcloth vpon our loynes and strew ashes vpon our heads and goe meet the Lord God of Israel that he may saue our soules How well doth this habit become insolent and blasphemous Benhadad and his followers a rope and sackcloth A rope for a Crowne sackcloth for a robe Neither is there lesse change in the tongue Thy seruant Benhadad saith I pray thee let me liue Euen now the King of Israel said to Benhadad My Lord O King I am thine Tell my Lord the King all that thou didst send for to thy seruant I will doe Now Benhadad sends to the King of Israel Thy seruant Benhadad saith I pray thee let me liue Hee that was erewhile a Lord and King is now a seruant and he that was a seruant to the king of Syria is now his Lord he that would blow away all Israel in dust is now glad to beg for his own life at the doore of a despised enemy no courage is so haughty which the God of hosts cannot easily bring vnder what are mē or deuils in those almighty hāds The greater the deiection was the stronger was the motiue of commiseration That haltar pleaded for life and that plea for but a life stirred the bowels for fauour How readily did Ahab see in Benhadads sudden misery the image of the instability of all humane things and relents at the view of so deepe and passionate a submission Had not Benhadad said Thy seruant Ahab had neuer said My brother seldome euer was there losse in humility How much lesse can we feare disparagement in the annihilating of our selues before that infinite Maiestie The drowning man snatches at euery twig It is no maruell if the messengers of Benhadad catch hastilie at that last of grace and hold it fast Thy brother Benhadad Fauours are wont to draw on each other Kindnesses breed on themselues neither need wee any other perswasion to beneficence then from our owne acts Ahab cals for the King of Syria sets him in his owne Charet treats with him of an easie yet firme league giues him both his life and his Kingdome Neither is the Crowne of Syria sooner lost then recouered Onely hee that came a free Prince returnes tributarie Onely his traine is clipt too short for his wings an hundred twentie seuen thousand Syrians are abated of his Guard homeward Blasphemy hath escaped too well Ahab hath at once peace with Benhadad warre with God God proclaimes it by his Herald one of the sonnes of the Prophets not yet in his owne forme but disguised both in fashion and complaint It was a strange suit of a Prophet Smite me I pray thee Many a Prophet was smitten and would not neuer any but this wished to bee smitten The rest of his fellowes were glad to say Saue mee this onely sayes Smite me His honest neighbour out of loue and reuerence forbeares to strike There are too many thinkes hee that smite the Prophets though I refraine What wrong hast thou done that I should repay with blowes Hadst thou sued for a fauour I could not haue denyed thee now thou suest for thine hurt the deniall is a fauour Thus he thought but Charitie cannot excuse disobedience Had the man of God called for blowes vpon his owne head the refusall had beene iust and thanke-worthy but now that he sayes In the Word of the Lord Smite me this kindnesse is deadly Because thou hast not obeyed the voyce of the Lord behold assoone as thou art departed from me a Lyon shall slay thee It is not for vs to examine the charges of the Almighty Be they neuer so harsh or improbable if they bee once knowne for his there is no way but obedience or death Not to smite a Prophet when God commands is no lesse sinne then to smite a Prophet when God forbids It is the diuine precept or prohibition that either makes or aggrauates an euill And if the Israelite bee thus reuenged that smote not a Prophet what shall become of Ahab that smote not Benhadad Euery man is not thus indulgent an easie request will gaine blowes to a Prophet from the next hand yea and a wound in smiting I know not whether it were an harder taske for the Prophet to require a wound then for a well-meaning Israelite to giue it Both must bee done The Prophet hath what hee would what hee must will a sight of his owne blood and now disguised herewith and with ashes vpon his face hee way-layes the King of Israel and sadly complaines of himselfe in a reall parable for dismissing a Syrian prisoner deliuered to his hands vpon no lesse charge then his life and soone receiues sentence of death from his owne mouth Well was that wound bestowed that strucke Ahabs soule through the flesh of the Prophet The disguise is remoued The King sees not a souldier but a Seer and now finds that he hath vnawares passed sentence vpon himselfe There needs no other doome then from the lips of the offender Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast let goe out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to vtter destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people Had not Ahab knowne the will of God concerning Benhadad that had beene mercy to an enemy which was now cruelty to himselfe to Israel His eares had heard of the blasphemies of that wicked tongue His eyes had seene God goe before him in the example of that reuenge No Prince can strike so deepe into his state as in not striking In priuate fauour there may bee publike vnmercifulnesse AHAB and NABOTH NAboth had a faire Vineyard It had beene better for him to haue had none His vineyard yeelded him the bitter Grapes of death Many a one hath beene sold to death by his lands and goods wealth hath beene a snare as to the soule so to the life Why doe wee call those goods which are many times the bane of the owner Naboths vineyard lay neere to the Court of Iezebel It had beene better for him it had beene planted in the wildernesse Doubtlesse this vicinity made it more commodious to the possessor but more enuious and vnsafe It was now the perpetuall obiect of an euill eye and stirred those desires which could neither be well denyed nor satisfied Eminency is still ioyned with perill obscuritie with peace There can bee no worse annoyance to an inheritance then the greatnesse of an euill neighbourhood Naboths vines stood too neere the smoake of Iezebels chimneys too much within the prospect of Ahabs window Now lately had the King of Israel beene twice victorious ouer the Syrians no sooner is he returned home then hee is ouercome with euill desires The foyle