returning from the Lake of Minturnum where he was forced to skulk from the proscriptions of Scylla Catenae fuga exilium honorificaverunt dignitatem that is their Exilements Imprisonments Scornes Miseries did imblazon their dignities and set a varnish upon that Gold which the evil tongues of those and these dayes had laboured to rust and with Calumnies Canker-eat and deface Victrix causa malis placuit sed victa Gatono I loved the Church when she was unlovely when she was blackest then was she comely A dis-figured Parthenia is the lov'd Mistress of a constant Argalus Bright Cynthia with all he spots is amiable and our Ladies in smaller volumes imitate the pale Lady of the skies In my Mother the Church her spots are not black Foyles but red the Red-letter daies being the Ornament of her Year her Festivals my present subject so many pillars as in Solomon 's Porch the beautie and flourish of the building I do acknowledge that learneder Pens have laboured in this Argument and I come forth burthened with their just Fames and must needs incur the censure of an impertinent and superfluous Scribler Scribendi Cacoethes is a Disease incurable for which there is no dose in our Pharmacopaea I can make no other Apologie then this that Nil est dictum quod non est dictum prius the Mode perchance the Fashion may be new but the ground-work is old If I prove Scinctillula de Scinctilla a Sparkle of a Spark is honour enough Longè sequor vestigia semper adoro The many little Starrs in the firmament make a very rare Via lactea which the greater Luminaries do neither envie nor obscure Let my vantage Candle I pray be taken into the pound to make weight at least while your Christmass Tapers carry the glory of the day These Apologetick complements premised I proceed to prove the Antiquity and Legality of these Festivals wherein also I am prevented by the learned Dr. Gunning after whom to glean is too much honour for me unworthy to carry his Books And first of the Antiquity of Easter what can be more reverend for its Age more holy for its Subject it was instituted by the Apostles themselves kept by them and is indeed the leading Sabbath or rather Holiday of the year Dies Dominicus non Sabbatum creationis the Lords Day a Commemoration of the Resurrection of our Saviour which was the complement and perfection of the Redemption of the World This is the Lords day in which his Arm brought mighty things to passe And for the Antiquity of Lent it is deriv'd by Dr. Gunning very far to whose more authentick authority I refer you According to Helvicus and the Cronologer upon him we finde it instituted by that good Prince Sigisbert amongst us English-men having first restored Christian Religion in the year of our Lord 640. but at Rome it obtained sooner observance in Telesphorus his Episcopacy of that See For then the name of Pope was not appropriate to the Bishop of Rome onely but was shared among the rest of his Brethren but in Phocas the Emperour's dayes Boniface the third usurped the title of Universal Bishop and did affix the name of Papa to the Roman See onely though S. Gregory before him plainly said That whoever did assume that title was the fore-runner of Antichrist What need the Geneva Glosse is not S. Gregory enough to state the Question And in 142 Lent was instituted at Rome the forementioned Telesphorus being Pontifex Maximus but as for the business it self the Antiquity makes no great matter no more then our long contentions for the Superiority of Oxford and Cambridge though in this present Parliament my Mother hath got the right-hand side and to shew my thankfulness for that Vote I shall tell the noble Suffragators of a piece of Petrarch a Poet too yet of good authority wherein speaking of the ancientness of the Disputative Ergo he saith Vetustum illud ergo hoc Oxoniense illud Parisciense Which doth intimate that Cambridge had no name then or no ergo or ergo fallor let these Universities be for ever styled as my Father Ben calls them most politickly in his Dedication before Volpone most equal Sisters It is not the oldness of any thing unless it be also very good makes it praiseworthy Stand in the old way that was the first covenant of the Decalogue was a holy Precept but fight for the Good old Cause which was a covenant for Mischief and Treason was an abominable invitation and a call to Rebellion Curse ye Meroz was a very good commination against those backward Israelites which kept their Tents and would not rise with the Lord against the mighty but to your Tents O Israel and the new Curse you Meroz of our times was the decoy to Sedition Tumults and War and a spur to England to ruine themselves to cut off the best King that ever Christianity knew The Iewes at this day attribute their long abandoning and dispersion to their rebellion against the house of Judah Shall a Iew repent of that sin of Witchcraft and shall the Godly Party wipe their mouths like the Harlot and say it is a sweet thing and persist in impenitency and provide for future Risings Pudet haec approbria vobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Countreymen I am ashamed of your obstinacy and beseech you to undeceive your selves These Meditations if read with impartial eys will befriend you into the true way that way which your King upon his Theatre of Martyrdom told you you had forsaken Remember the words of your dying Father of a true Jonathan though not the son of Rhacab but a sober Prince a chaste Prince a pious Prince and for his sake who prayed for your Pardon who purchased your Act of Indempnity with his own Blood of his Mercifull Son for his Son's sake for his Christ's sake yet in this your day leave off murmuring repining speaking evil of Dignities and every high thought of heart and come with old Barsillai you and your sons and families bring the King to Jerusalem settle him in his Royal City with joy and make one Festival more then I write of make one Iubilee to the universal rejoycing of this yet distracted Nation At this Repentance Heaven will dance the Angels will be pleasant and your own hearts wil be enlarged with everlasting comforts Which is the hearty vote of a true Son of the Church of England and a Religious Physician That word makes me reflect upon my selfe and commands me to shew some reason why I intitle this Book The Religion of a Physician since that hath been used by Doctor Brown an able Artist in that Faculty To whom for that and his Vulgar Errors the world stands still engaged and obliged I do not do it for this end and purpose that either in Physick wherein he was admirable or in Theologie wherein he was curious I should match my selfe with him or labour to out-vie him A poore Dwarf
Bemoaning others none doth them bemoan Calm as the Lew at Sea yet themselves blown By Envy's blasts and Sequestration Upon the Quick-sands of deep Wants yet then They are still meek and most becalmed men Nay though their Lenten faces and dry cheeks And shrivel'd stomachs for cold water seeks And get it not their hunger doth encrease And they thirst on but 't is for Righteousness The mercy that they cannot finde they give They will not hurt the poorest worm alive For innocence is in their Hearts and Hand No Wool no Snow so white on Cotswold-lands As are their thoughts and actions their eyes And often lift-up hands are known to'th'skies And in Contentions and Domestick Jarres Or when Ambition raiseth Civil Warres For Peace is all their Intercession No arm'd Petitioners which won't lay down Unlesse they have their wills which when they 've got They are undone and ruin'd by the Vote No these though in their just requests deni'd Rest with repuls'd content and satisfy'd Or if a Persecution on them fall They don't recalcitrate but take it all Call 'um Malignants Enemies to th' State Words on good Christians stampt too much of late A Sigh perchance is sent or look on high But not a word provoking rather die And for the Name of Iesus and his Truth They suffer gladly open not the mouth Thus in their lower garments they appear Now in their upper Robes triumphant tire Please to behold them Those those tatter'd things The scorn o' th' world the foot-balls of proud Kings Those are the persons now array'd in white In garments which surpasse the brightest light With Ensignes of their blood-got Victories Palmes in their hands these are the Martyrs these They whom despightfull men did hale like Rogues And hurrie up and down to Synagogues Unto high Courts of Justice first by throats Of people murder'd then by Judges votes How hear they now another hue and die Their actions bear Hark! there 't is Loyaltie VVhat here was Treason call'd Disturber here Is there a Laureat for a Peace-maker The Innovator here is there on high VVith Angels all in Uniformity All in one voice one sacred Anthem's sung That holy Quire and sacred Saints among The Spirit there though present and still by Likes their set Form and holy Liturgie Amen begins the Hymne Amen concludes And this is chanted out by multitudes And tongues and people of a several shew VVho learn'd these Anthems they there use below VVhere 's their accusers now they 'r slunk away And not a man has any thing to say The mouth of all Iniquity is shut And Satan to perpetual silence put VVhat shall we do who live in the sad age VVhere all these Combatants were on the Stage Some flying up in fire some flowing on In streams of their own blood to the Lambs Throne VVe follow must and with long steps adore These Hero's that shall never suffer more Who ne're shall thirst nor hunger nor drop tear But with the Lamb keep Iubilean year Upon the Prohibited Festivall of the Nativity of our Saviour WHat are our prayers refus'd and do the Jews Prevail that we decry this High day's News Born and not own'd 't is Covenanted well 'Twixt Rabbi Presbyter and Israel We shall joyn Synagogues in time and say No Christ come yet as well as No Christ's Day Who could imagine things should alter thus That an Index Expurgatorius Should passe upon the Calendar and Red Letters expung'd and Black be hallowed The very Horn-books censures undergo Because they do begin with Christ-cross-row The times were not so stingie once but cry'd Mass I defie thee but allow'd Christ-tide A Generation now starts up so holy That counts all Festivals but two meer folly Saint Rent day and Saint Gunpowder the rest As superstitious Figments are supprest Not so these sixteen hundred years till now As if a light from Hell had broken through And a new voice of sense quite contrary Had cry'd Saul Saul why dost thou honour me Chim cham Enthusiasmes Bells do backward ring With Motto's chang'd Honour no God no King O for an Athanasian spirit that Durst now stand up and these new Arrians flat Or that the Swedish Sword had found the way To weed Socinus from Cracovia Blest Reformation had it so gone on And beat into their heads the first of Iohn A Sword is best Expositor for brains Who poyson Scripture with divine Rats-banes But Jews have shipt them over in Dantz ' boats And we like Brutes have swallowed Polish Oats Crellians and Crollians and Socinians we And any thing but Catholicks may be Thus Hersie doth burgeon since the Creed In the suppressed Liturgie doth bleed But Jew do'st thou by an unalter'd Law As if the Persian did thy conscience awe Still keep a Passeover and solemnize That day the day from Aegypts tyrannie The Type of this day's birth and we to wipe Out of our Calendars the Antitype Why don't we keep this Festivall as well Is a day from Aegypt good and not from Hell Did Abraham joy through Faith's dimme Perspective To see in after-thousand years Christ live And we who from the true Apostolick See Deduce an uncontroll'd Chronologie Like Iob in bitternesse of soul defie And damn the day of this Nativity Are our own births and dayes but on repute 'Cause none our Mothers can nor Clerks confute And shall the Mother-Church of the whole world In this one computation be controul'd Senselesse contest when her Authority For the alter'd Sabbath good we grant to be We give her Faith to th' Resurrection But for the Birth of Christ her verdict's gone Abhor my soul this base confederacy Praeludium to a Sanedrim when I A Synod see and Iudaisme go on From the deniall of the day to th' Son Let us in Chorus joyn with Angels they No share i' th' Anthem have who hate the Day Let us with Eastern Sages come from far Worship the Babe discover'd by a Star And let the mad Apostates of the Age Get Gold and Myrrhe but ne're be counted Sage A MEDITATION Upon the Churches pious Observation OF LENT THis is that portion of the year in which as the Prophet sayes the Lord calls for Fasting and Mourning Sackloth and Ashes the usuall Rites of the Jewish Penitence wherein we Christians as well as they of the Circumcision should forsake our beds of Pleasure and boords not onely of excesse but convenient food to the dismantling and attenuating the body that the soul being made active and unclogg'd of the load of her unweildy scabbard may be more expedite in the exercise of holy duties He that is to go a great journey sayes Minutius Felix doth not load himself but lighten his garments lest the balast of his obese and heavy body should sink him in the way Ships that are for speed and saile are not big bottom'd but gaunt and made neat for their quicker dispatches No man seeing a Flemmin and a Spaniard both dress'd
of that resort VVho after Christ's Ascent made Holy Court A Consistory of Votaries still staying For the Descent o' th' Holy Ghost in praying Initiate first in Iohns repentance then Consorting still with Apostollick men It was capacity enough they erre VVho think one may shoot up a Presbyter As Slips and Grafts are wont whose secret growth Not their own selves nor yet the Gard'ner know'th Unlearn'd undisciplin'd from shop or stall And start to Callings Apostolicall Fishers indeed were call'd the meanest trade But did not teach till they were able made God-taught for many yeares yet then not fit Untill inspir'd by Tongues their open'd wit Call'd to their memories those Doctrines which Their Master taught in Parabolick speech Then so enlightned gifted by the God Of VVisdome who on their obtuse braines rode As at the First Creation Formes were struck Out of Opacous Chaos and that Muck. VVhat could they not unfold what Mysteries Of deepest Knowledge could not these Twelve Keys Unlock which could Heaven-doores or shut or loose So with new gifts their old names they did lose But now a Cobler in existency And not translated to Divinity Nor able to translate 'cause of a trade Mean as was Peter's will a Priest be made And venture at a Pulpit very blew Not from Saint Peters Chaire but from Saint Hugh Preparatory knowledge was requir'd Ev'n in those Twelve which after were inspir'd VVhen first sent forth with neither Scrip nor Shooes They did but onely carry the good newes Of a Redeemer come and blesse the place VVith peace not yet accomplisht with full Grace Time did produce that Consummation And in the interim this great thing done A new Apostle chosen Iudas Seat VVas this day fill'd the number made compleat Not all alike in order then no need Of this high day's solemnizating deed One from inferiour order is promoted And to succeed by holy lot is voted If equall all th' election had been vain Seventy as good as Twelve no Chorah's train Are amongst these nor no Church-Leveller No self-exalting filthy Presbyter And yet the Congregation is all Holy But Priests and Deacons under these rule solely The Forms of Iew-Church-government remaine The Offices not Names they doe retain Then welcome to thy high Investiture Sacred Matthias may thy Rites endure May a succession of such Pastors be For ever in thy Churches Hierarchie And though the Apostles Names ceas'd with their Gifts For time and custome names of Orders shifts And changeth as it pleaseth yet their pow'r Of Order-giving lasteth to this houre Corrective and directive right and all The ordinary power 's Episcopall Making of Presbyters by laying Hands Is the continu'd practice of all Lands Unless since Calvin did get up and ride And set on Bishops his foul foot of pride E're since Rebellion in the Minor flocks Hath sprung and One hath caused many Knocks Yet the abused world doth plainly see There is no peace but in this Prelacy Geneva's platformes and new fangled stuffe Will end in its long Beard and little Ruffe Whil'st the Apostolick Successors shall As did their Predecessors Martyrs fall And like Matthias Pastor of the Jews Be ruin'd by false men hir'd to accuse And sweare that blasphemy which all accord A truth that Christ was Son o' th' Living Lord. Upon the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin NOw Israel's bereft of both her Kings And an Usurper hath command of things The promis'd Shilo comes the Sceptre rent From Iudah then is Iudah's Lion sent It is a good exchange i' th' vacancy Of a good King to have a Deity When humane Helps and God's known Deputies Are snatch'd away Himself is our supplies He does resume his Sceptres lent but then Woe to persidious and rebellious men 'T is not the breaking Seals or batt'ring Crowns Subdues the Donor he 's above the Lowns And lets them act a while to their own wills That they may see from whence spring all their Ills Injustice Murder Liberty that Word And pure Religion that can draw the sword Upon their right Protectors suffer'd are To shew the mischief of Religious war When did a pious Rebel e're come off But with his own disgrace and peoples scoff These Soveraigns Hail's and Ave's now set by Let us with Angels Mary gratify Though this great Salutation so divine Is not allow'd so much as in a Sign The Day indeed as it referres to Rent Is not put down by Mayor nor Parliament Let 's keep it as we may for Mary's Son This day proclaim'd was the Redemption The Apolutrâ—sis the generall Pay Which solv'd the world of a smart reck'ning day Surety and Payment too is this day's boon Security and satisfaction For Surety's as in Lawes Municipall Are in chief Debtors and oblig'd for all Bound for what they ne're drank as we use say And yet the Judge enforceth them to pay Our summs of sin were high and not to be Discharg'd but by a Surety that was free God did engage in 's person to defray What all the world could not conjunctim pay Obedience for us which we could not do And Death too that we might not undergo The merit of his Person was above Our Debt he supererogates in love Then for his sake no single person hate Who beares Christ's name as you have done of late Nor suffer the memoriall of her day By beardless Ministers be swept away Who in a senseless zeale some years since run Down both our Lady's Day and her Great Son And got a name unto his action due By Common Council being styl'd a Jew On Saint Marks Day FIrst Bishop Mark of Alexandria And Patriarch of that ancient See this day Is dedicate unto thy memory Which doth confirm the sacred Hierarchy An argument invincible from whom And Antioch we derive and not from Rome Yet when the Latian Empire after ten Bloody Phlebotomies of martyr'd men Began to nauseate blood and being fill'd With such sad sights did honour what they kill'd And the Spread Eagle to the Cross gave way The Ensign which an Angel did display To fighting Constantine the Emperour Being then the sole most Christian Governour And Rome the Mistress of the World that See Above the rest had the precedencie Not so from the beginning 't was but meet The Seat o' th' Empire and the Churches Seat Or Chaire Apostolick should be together The sacred Power of calling Synods thither Over its subject Priests for unity And Order made the Roman chiefest See Thither appeales of grieved Churches came And thence the Fountain of that Bishops fame For bodies Oecumenicall without A head would be but monstrous without doubt Read the degrees and ranks the structure made By which Church-government in Saint Paul is laid Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors Some Preachers sub supra all not Masters That had confusion been 't was fit the best Of bodies should with the best form be blest Christ is the Head by Joynts and Sinews all