we are all fooles and in silence all are wise In the two former yet there may bee concealement of folly but the tongue is a blab there cannot be any kinde of folly either simple or wicked in the heart but the tongue will bewray it He cannot be wise that speakes much or without sense or out of season nor he knowne for a foole that saies nothing It is a great misery to be a foole but this is yet greater that a man cannot be a foole but he must shew it It were well for such a one if he could be taught to keepe close his foolishnes but then there should be no fooles I haue heard some which haue scorned the opinion of folly in themselues for a speech wherein they haue hoped to shew most wit censured of folly by him that hath thought himselfe wiser and another hearing his sentence againe hath condemned him for want of wit in censuring Surely hee is not a foole that hath vnwise thoughts but he that vtters them Euen concealed folly is wisdome and sometimes wisdome vttered is folly While others care how to speake my care shall be how to hold my peace 83 A worke is then onely good and acceptable when the action meaning and manner are all good For to doe good with an ill meaning as Iudas saluted Christ to betray him is so much more sinfull by how much the action is better which being good in the kinde is abused to an ill purpose To doe ill in a good meaning as Vzza in staying the Arke is so much amisse that the good intention cannot beare out the vnlawfull act which although it may seeme some excuse why it should not be so ill yet is no warrant to iustifie it To meane well and doe a good action in an ill manner as the Pharisee made a good praier but arrogantly is so offensiue that the euill manner depraueth both the other So a thing may be euill vpon one circumstance it cannot bee good but vpon all In what euer businesse I goe about I will enquire What I doe for the substance How for the manner Why for the intention For the two first I will consult with God for the last with my owne heart 84 I can doe nothing without a million of Witnesses The conscience is as a thousand witnesses and God is as a thousand consciences I will therefore so deale with men as knowing that God sees me and so with God as if the world saw me so with my selfe and both of them as knowing that my conscience seeth me and so with them all as knowing I am alwaies ouer-looked by my accuser by my Iudge 85 Earthly inheritances are diuided oft-times with much inequality The priuilege of primogeniture stretcheth larger in many places now than it did among the ancient Iewes The younger many times serues the elder and while the eldest aboundeth all the latter issue is pinched In heauen it is not so all the sonnes of God are heires none vnderlings and not heires vnder wardship and hope but inheritors and not inheritors of any little pittance of land but of a Kingdome nor of an earthly Kingdome subiect to danger of losse or alteration but one glorious and euerlasting It shall content me here that hauing right to all things yet I haue possession of nothing but sorrow Since I shall haue possession aboue of all that whereto I haue right below I will serue willingly that I may reigne serue for a while that I may reigne for euer 86 Euen the best things ill vsed become euils and contrarily the worst things vsed well proue good A good tongue vsed to deceit a good wit vsed to defend errour a strong arme to murther authority to oppresse a good profession to dissemble are all euill yea Gods owne Word is the sword of the Spirit which if it kill not our vices kils our soules Contrariwise as poisons are vsed to wholesome medicine afflictions and sinnes by a good vse proue so gainfull as nothing more Words are as they are taken and things are as they are vsed There are euen cursed blessings O Lord rather giue me no fauours than not grace to vse them If I want them thou requirest not what thou doest not giue but if I haue them and want their vse thy mercy proues my iudgement 87 Man is the best of all these inferiour creatures yet liues in more sorrow and discontentment than the worst of them whiles that Reason wherein he excels them and by which he might make aduantage of his life hee abuses to a suspitious distrust How many hast thou found of the fowles of the aire lying dead in the way for want of prouision They eat and rest and sing and want nothing Man which hath farre better meanes to liue comfortably toyleth and careth and wanteth whom yet his reason alone might teach that he which careth for these lower creatures made onely for man will much more prouide for man to whose vse they were made There is an holy carelesnesse free from idlenesse free from distrust In these earthly things I will so depend on my Maker that my trust in him may not exclude all my labour and yet so labour vpon my confidence on him as my endeuour may be void of perplexity 88 The precepts and practice of those with whom we liue auaile much on either part For a man not to bee ill where hee hath no prouocations to euill is lesse commendable but for a man to liue continently in Asia as he said where hee sees nothing but allurements to vncleannesse for Lot to be a good man in the middest of Sodom to bee abstemious in Germany and in Italy chaste this is truly praise-worthy To sequester our selues from the companie of the world that we may depart from their vices proceeds from a base and distrusting minde as if wee would so force goodnesse vpon our selues that therefore onely we would be good because we cannot be ill But for a man so to bee personally and locally in the throng of the world as to withdraw his affections from it to vse it and yet to contemne it at once to compell it to his seruice without any infection becomes well the noble courage of a Christian The world shall be mine I will not be his and yet so mine that his euill shall be still his owne 89 He that liues in God cannot be wearie of his life because he euer findes both somewhat to doe and somewhat to solace himselfe with cannot bee ouer-loth to part with it because hee shall enter into a neerer life and societie with that God in whom hee delighteth Whereas he that liues without him liues many times vncomfortably here because partly he knowes not any cause of ioy in himselfe and partly he finds not any worthy employment to while himselfe withall dies miserably because hee either knowes not whither he goes or knowes he goes to torment There is no true life but the life of faith O Lord let me
many learned Doctors and Diuines as no Nation vnder heauen more so flourishing Vniuersities as Christendome hath none such blessed opportunities such incouragements and now when we want nothing else shall we be vvanting to our selues Yea aboue all these the God of heauen fauours vs and doe wee languish The cause is his and in spight of the gates of hell shall succeed though wee were not our neglect may slacken the pase of truth cannot stay the passage Why are we not as busie as subtill more resolute Such spirits and such hands as yours Reuerend Lord must put life into the cold breasts of this frozen generation and raise them vp to such thoughts and endeuours as may make the emulation of our aduersaries equall to their enmitie To my Lord Bishop of WORCESTER EP. II. Shewing the differences of the present Church from the Apostolicall and needlesnesse of our conformity thereto in all things I Feare not to say those men are but superstitiously curious Right Reuerend and Honorable which would call backe all circumstances to their first patternes The Spouse of Christ hath been euer cloathed with her own rites and as apparell so Religion hath her fashions variable according to ages and places To reduce vs to the same obseruations which were in Apostolicall vse were no better then to tie vs to the sandals of the Disciples or seamlesse coat of our Sauiour In these cases they did what we need not and we may what they did not God meant vs no bondage in their example their Canons binde vs whether for manners or doctrine not their Ceremonies Neither Christ nor his Apostles did all things for imitation I speake not of miraculous acts We need not be silent before a Iudge as Christ was we need not take a towell and gird our selues and wash our seruants feet as Christ did we need not make tents for our liuing as Paul nor goe armed as Peter nor carry about our wiues as he and the other Apostles I acknowledge the ground not onely of separation but Anabaptisme and wonder that these conceits doe not answer themselues Who can chuse but see a manifest difference betwixt those lawes which Christ and his great Ambassadors made for eternall vse and those rituall matters which were confined to place and time Euery Nation euery person sinnes that obserues not those These for the most part are not kept of the most and are as well left without sinne by vs as vsed without prescription or necessitie by the Authors Some of them we cannot doe others we need not which of vs can cast out deuils by command Who can cure the sicke by oyntment and imposition of hands The Disciples did it All those Acts vvhich proceeded from supernaturall priuiledge ceased with their cause who now dare vndertake to continue them Vnlesse perhaps some bold Papists who haue brought in grosse magick in stead of miraculous authoritie and daub very carcases in stead of healing diseases There be more yet which we need not do What need we to choose Ministers by lot What need we to disclaime all peculiaritie in goods What need wee to Christen in riuers or to meet vpon their bankes What need we to receiue Gods Supper after our owne What to leane in each others bosome vvhile we receiue it what to abhorre leauen in that holy Bread what to celebrate loue-feasts vpon the receipt what to abstaine from all strangled and blood vvhat to depend vpon a maintenance arbitrarie and vncertaine vvhat to spend our dayes in a perpetuall pererration as not onely the Apostles but the Prophets and Euangelists some ages after Christ whosoeuer would impose all these on vs he should surely make vs not the sonnes but the slaues of the Apostles Gods Church neuer her selfe in such seruile termes yea Christ himselfe gaue at first some precepts of this nature which he reuersed ere long when he sent the Disciples to preach he charges Take not gold nor siluer nor money in your girdles afterwards Iudas caried the bagge He charges not to take so much as a staffe yet after behold two swords should the Disciples haue held their Master to his own rule Is it necessary that what he once commanded should bee obserued alwayes The very next Age to these Christian Patriarks neither would nor durst haue so much varied her rites or augmented them if it had found it selfe tyed either to number or kinde As yet it was pure chaste and which was ground of all persecuted The Church of Rome distributed the sacramentall Bread the Church of Alexandria permitted the people to take it the Churches of Affricke and Rome mixed their holy wine with water other colder Regions dranke it pure Some kneeled in their prayers others fell prostrate and some lifted vp eyes hands feet towards heauen some kept their Easter according to the Iewish vse the fourteenth of March the French as Nicephorus the eight of the Calends of April in a set solemnitie the Church of Rome the Sunday after the fourteenth Moone which yet as Socrates truely writes was neuer restrained by any Gospel by any Apostle That Romish Victor ouercame the other world in this point with too much rigour whose censure therefore of the Asian Churches was iustly censured by Irenaeus What should I speake of their difference of fasts there can scarce be more varietie in dayes or meats It hath euer been thus seene according to our Anselmes rule that the multitude of different ceremonies in all Churches hath iustly commended their vnitie in faith The French Diuines preach couered vpon the same rule which required the Corinthians to be vncouered we bare The Dutch sit at the Sacrament vve kneele Geneua vseth wafers we leauened bread they common vestures in Diuine seruice wee peculiar each is free no one doth either blame or ouer-rule others I cannot but commend those very Nouatian Bishops though it is a wonder any precedent of peace should fall from Schismaticks who meeting in Councell together enacted that Canon of indifferencie when the Church was distracted with the differences of her Paschal solemnities concluding how insufficient this cause was to disquiet the Church of Christ Their owne issue our Separatists will needs be vnlike them in good and striue to a further distance from peace whiles in a conceit not lesse idle then scrupulous they presse vs to an vniforme conformity in our fashions to the Apostles Their own practice condemnes them They call for some and yet keepe not all yet the same reason inforces all that pleads for some and that vvhich warrants the forbearance of some holds for all Those tooles which serue for the foundation are not of vse for the roofe Yea the great master-builder chose those workmen for the first stones which he meant not to imploy in the walls Doe we not see all Christs first agents extraordinary Apostles Euangelists Prophets Prophetesses See we not fiery and clouen tongues descending What Church euer since boasted of such founders of such means Why would
the ancient Minoei of whom Ierome speaketh while they vrged Circumcision by consequent according to Pauls rule reiected Christ So the Pelagians while they defended a full perfection of our righteousnes in our selues ouerthrew Christs iustification and in effect said I beleeue in Christ and in my selfe So some Vbiquitaries while they hold the possibilitie of conuersion and saluation of reprobates ouerthrow the doctrine of Gods eternall Decree and immutabilitie Poperie comes in this latter ranke and may iustly bee tearmed Heresie by direct consequent though not in their grant yet in necessarie proofe and inference Thus it ouerthrowes the truth of Christs humanitie while it holds his whole humane body locally circumscribed in heauen and at once the same instant wholly present in ten thousand places on earth without circumscription That whole Christ is in the formes of bread with all his dimensions euery part hauing his owne place and figure and yet so as that hee is wholly in euery part of the bread Our iustification while it ascribes it to our owne workes The all-sufficiencie of Christs owne sacrifice whiles they reiterate it dayly by the hands of a Priest Of his satisfaction while they hold a paiment of our vtmost farthings in a deuised Purgatory Of his mediation while they implore others to aide them not onely by their intercession but their merits suing not onely for their prayers but their gifts The value of the Scriptures whiles they hold them insufficient obscure in points essentiall to saluation and binde them to an vncertaine dependance vpon the Church Besides hundreds of this kinde there are Heresies in actions contrary to those fundamentall practices which God requires of his as prohibitions of Scriptures to the Laitie Prescriptions of deuotion in vnknowne tongues Tying the effect of Sacraments and Prayers to the externall worke Adoration of Angels Saints Bread Reliques Crosses Images All vvhich are so many recall vnderminings of the sacred foundation which is no lesse actiue then vocall By this the simplest may see what wee must hold of Papists neither as no Hereticks nor yet so palpable as the worst If any man aske for their conuiction In the simpler sort I grant this excuse faire and tolerable poore soules they cannot be any otherwise informed much lesse perswaded Whiles in truth of heart they hold the maine principles which they know doubtlesse the mercy of God may passe ouer their ignorant weaknesse in what they cannot know For the other I feare not to say that many of their errors are wilfull The light of truth hath shined out of heauen to them and they loue darknesse more then light In this state of the Church he shall speake and hope idly that shall call for a publique and vniuersall euiction How can that be when they pretend to be Iudges in their owne cause Vnlesse they will not be aduersaries to themselues or judge of vs this course is but impossible As the Diuell so Antichrist will not yeeld both shall bee subdued neither will treat of peace what remaines but that the Lord shall consume that wicked man which is now clearely reuealed with the breath of his mouth and abolish him vvith the brightnesse of his comming Euen so Lord Iesus come quickly This briefely is my conceit of Popery which I willingly referre to your cleare and deepe iudgement being not more desirous to teach the ignorant vvhat I know then to learne of you what I should teach and know not The Lord direct all our thoughts to his glory and the behoofe of his Church Written long since to Mr J. W. EP. V. Disswading from separation and shortly oppugning the grounds of that error IN my former Epistle I confesse I touched the late separation with a light hand onely setting down the iniury of it at the best not discussing the grounds in common now your danger drawes me on to this discourse it is not much lesse thanke-worthy to preuent a disease then to cure it you confesse that you doubt I mislike it not doubting is not more the way to error then to satisfaction lay downe first all pride and preiudice and I cannot feare you I neuer yet knew any man of this vvay which hath not bewraide himselfe far gone with ouer-weening and therefore it hath been iust with God to punish their selfe-loue with error an humble spirit is a fit subiect for truth prepare you your heart and let me then answer or rather God for me you doubt whether the notorious sinne of one vnreformed vncensured defile not the whole Congregation so as we may not without sinne communicate therewith and why not the whole Church woe were vs if wee should thus liue in the danger of all men haue we not sinnes enow of our owne but wee must borrow of others Each man shall beare his owne burden is ours so light that we call for more weight and vndertake what God neuer imposed It was enough for him that is God and Man to beare others iniquities it is no taske for vs which shrinke vnder the least of our owne But it is made ours you say though anothers by our toleration and conniuence indeed if we consent to them incourage them imitate or accompany them in the same excesse of ryot yet more the publique person that forbeares a knowne sinne sinneth but if each mans knowne sinne be euery mans what difference is betwixt the root and the branches Adams sinne spred it selfe to vs because we were in him stood or fell in him our case is not such Doe but see how God scorneth that vniust Prouerbe of the Iewes That the fathers haue eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge How much lesse are strangers Is any bond so neere as this of blood Shall not the child smart for the Parent and shall we euen spiritually for others You obiect Achans stealth and Israels punishment an vnlike case and extraordinary for see how direct Gods charge is Be ye ware of the execrable thing lest ye make your selues execrable and in taking of the execrable thing make also the Hoast of Israel execrable and trouble it Now euery man is made a partie by a peculiar iniunction and not onely all Israel is as one man but euery Israelite is a publike person in this act you cannot show the like in euery one no not in any it was a law for the present not intended for perpetuity you may as well challenge the Trumpets of Rams-hornes and seuen dayes walke vnto euery siege Looke else-where the Church of Thyatira suffers the woman Iezabel to teach and deceiue A great sinne Yet to you saith the Spirit the rest of Thyatira as many as haue not this learning I will put vpon you none other burden but that which you haue hold fast He saith not Leaue your Church but Hold fast your owne Looke into the practice of the Prophets ransacke their burdens and see if you find this there yea behold our best patterne the Sonne of God The Iewish
Rulers in Christ's time were notoriously couetous proud oppressing cruell superstitious our Sauiour feared not polluting in ioyning with them and was so farre from separating himselfe that hee called and sent others to them But a little Leauen leauens the whole lumpe it is true by the infection of it sinne where it is vnpunished spreadeth it sowreth all those whose hands are in it not others If we dislike it detest desist reproue and mourne for it we cannot bee tainted the Corinthian loue-feasts had grosse and sinfull disorder yet you heare not Paul say Abstaine from the Sacrament till these be reformed Rather he enioynes the act and controules the abuse God hath bidden you heare and receiue shew me where he hath said except others be sinfull Their vncleannesse can no more defile you then your holinesse can excuse them But while I communicate you say I consent God forbid It is sinne not to cast out the deseruing but not yours vvho made you a Ruler and a Iudge The vncleane must bee separated not by the people Would you haue no distinction betwixt priuate and publike persons What strange confusion is this And what other then the old note of Corah and his company Yee take too much vpon you seeing all the Congregation is holy euery one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye vp your selues aboue the Congregation of the Lord What is if this be not to make a Monster of Christs body hee is the head his Church the body consisting of diuers limbes All haue their seuerall faculties and imployments not euery one all vvho would imagine any man so absurd as to say that this bodie should be all tongue or all hands euery man a Teacher euery man a Ruler As Christ had said to euery man Goe teach and whose sinnes yee remit How senselesse are these two extreames Of the Papists that one man hath the Keyes Of the Brownists that euery man hath them But these priuiledges and charges are giuen to the Church True to be executed by her Gouernors the facultie of speech is giuen to the vvhole man but the vse of it to the proper instrument Man speaketh but by his tongue if a voice should be heard from his hand eare foot it were vnnaturall Now if the tongue speake not when it ought shall we bee so foolish as to blame the hand But you say if the tongue speake not or speake ill the whole man smarteth the man sinneth I grant it but you shall set the naturall body on too hard a rack if you straine it in all things to the likenesse of the spirituall or ciuill The members of that being quickned by the same soule haue charge of each other and therefore either stand or fall together It is not so in these If then notwithstanding vnpunished sinnes we may ioyne with the true Church Whether is ours such You doubt and your solicitors deny surely if we haue many enormities yet none worse then rash and cruell iudgement let them make this a colour to depart from themselues there is no lesse woe to them that call good euill To iudge one man is bold and dangerous Iudge then vvhat it is to condemn a vvhole Church God knowes as much vvithout cause as without shame Vaine men may libell against the Spouse of Christ her husband neuer diuorced her No his loue is still aboue their hatred his blessings aboue their censures Do but aske them were we euer the true Church of God If they deny it Who then were so Had God neuer Church vpon earth since the Apostles time till Barrow and Greenwood arose And euen then scarce a number nay when or where vvas euer any man in the vvorld except in the schooles perhaps of Donatus or Nouatus that taught their doctrine and now still hath he none but in a blind lane at Amsterdam Can you thinke this probable If they affirme it when ceased we Are not the points controuerted still the same The same gouernment the same doctrine Their minds are changed not our estate Who hath admonished euinced excommunicated vs and when All these must be done Will it not be a shame to say that Francis Iohnson as he tooke power to excommunicate his Brother and Father so had power to excommunicate his Mother the Church How base and idle are these conceits Are wee then Heretikes condemned in our selues Wherein ouerthrow wee the foundation What other God Sauiour Scriptures Iustification Sacraments Heauen do they teach besides vs Can all the Masters of Separation yea can all the Churches in Christendome set forth a more exquisite and worthy confession of faith then is contained in the Articles of the Church of England Who can hold these and bee hereticall Or from which of these are we reuolted But to make this good they haue taught you to say that euery truth in Scripture is fundamentall so fruitfull is errour of absurdities Whereof still one breeds another more deformed then it selfe That Trophimus vvas left at Miletum sicke that Pauls Cloake was left at Troas that Gaius Pauls hoast saluted the Romanes that Nabal was drunke or that Thamar baked Cakes and a thousand of this nature are fundamentall how large is the Separatists Creed that hath all these Articles If they say all Scripture is of the same Author of the same authoritie so say we but not of the same vse is it as necessarie for a Christian to know that Peter hosted with one Simon a Tanner in Ioppa as that Iesus Christ the Sonne of God vvas borne of the Virgin Mary What a monster is this of an opinion that all truths are equall that this spirituall house should be all foundation no walls no roofe Can no man be saued but he that knowes euery thing in Scripture Then both they and vvee are excluded heauen would not haue so many as their Parlor at Amsterdam Can any man be saued that knowes nothing in Scripture It is farre from them to be so ouercharitable to affirme it you see then that both all truths must not of necessitie bee knowne and some must and these we iustly call fundamentall which who so holdeth all his hay and stubble through the mercy of God condemne him not stil he hath right to the Church on earth and hope in heauen but whether euery truth bee fundamentall or necessarie discipline you say is so indeed necessarie to the well-being of a Church no more it may be true without it not perfect Christ compares his Spouse to an Army with banners as order is to an Armie so is discipline to the Church if the troopes be not well marshalled in their seuerall rankes and moue not forward according to the discipline of warre it is an Armie still confusion may hinder their successe it cannot bereaue them of their name it is as beautifull proportion to the bodie an hedge to a vineyard a wall to a City an hem to a garment feeling to an house It may be a body vineyard
of the sonnes of Anak the spirituall wickednesses in heauenly places If we looke at their number they are Legions If to their strength they are Principalities and Powers If to their nature they are spirits that rule in the aire We are men flesh and bloud single weake sinfull What euer we are our God is in heauen and doth whatsoeuer he will he is the Lord of Hosts though Cowards in our selues yet in him we are more than Conquerors he who is more than all power than All truth hath said it The Gates of Hell shall not preuaile against his Church Thanks be to God which giueth vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly he is the Lord of hosts his vndertakings are infallible Hath he said that the glory of the Euangelicall Church shall exceed the Legall Hath he said that In this place he will giue peace How can the Church faile of glory or the soule of peace His word can be no more defectiue than himselfe impotent Trust God with his owne causes trust him with thy selfe doe that he bids expect what he promises haunt this House of his wait on his ordinances The Lord of Hosts shall giue thee that peace which passeth all vnderstanding and with peace glory in that vpper House of his not made with hands eternall in the Heauens To the possession whereof that God who hath ordained vs in his good time mercifully bring vs. And now O Lord God of Hosts make good thy promises to this House of thine Whensoeuer any Suppliant shall in this place offer vp his praiers vnto thee heare thou in Heauen thy dwelling place and when thou hearest haue mercy What Word soeuer of thine shall sound out of this place let it be the fauour of life vnto life to euery hearer What Sacrament soeuer of thine in this place shall be administred let it be effectuall to the saluation of euery receiuer Thou that art the God of glory and peace giue peace and glory to thy Seruants for thy mercies sake for thy Sonnes sake euen the Sonne of thy loue Iesus Christ the iust To whom with thee and the holy Ghost one infinite God be giuen all praise honour and thanksgiuing now and for euer TO THE WORSHIPFVLL AND REVEREND Mr. Dr. HALL DEANE OF WORCESTER my worthie and much respected Friend all happinesse with my loue in CHRIST IESVS REuerend Sir this Sermon I know is at the Presse before you expected But I thought as this glorious Chapell occasioned it so it might minister occasion of perpetuall remembrance of the Chapell by remaining its first Monument And altho both these were confined to the priuate the Chapell for the Family of my Right Honorable Lord the Earle of Exceter who hath giuen the materiall thereof sufficient luster and the Copie of the Sermon to the Cabinet of my truly Noble and vertuous Lady his Countesse yet both these are much and oft required to the publike the Sermon to be an instruction and so it is the Chapell to be an example and so it may be The Sermon to teach all to be all glorious in their soules The Chapell to teach some who build houses for their owne habitation to set vp another for Gods Religion The Sermon was craued at the hands of my Honourable Ladie that it might come to the Presse who of her owne pious disposition gaue forth the Copie and for her Noble esteeme of your selfe and of the worth of your sermon was willing and desirous to giue it way to the Printer And this I thought good to impart vnto you and to the courteous Reader that you may be satisfied of the meanes how and the cause why it comes in publike And so praying for you and desiring your prayers for me I remaine Your truly louing Friend H. BAGVLEY THE TRVE Peace-Maker LAID FORTH IN A SERMON BEFORE HIS MAIESTY AT THEOBALDS September 19. 1624. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed by IOHN HAVILAND for NATHANIEL BVTTER 1624. THE TRVE Peace-Maker ESAY 32.17 Opus Iustitiae pax The worke of Iustice or righteousnesse shall be peace MY Text you heare is of Iustice and peace two royall graces and such as flow from soueraigne Maiesty There is a double Iustice Diuine and humane there is a double peace outward in the state inward in the soule Accordingly there is a double sense of my Text a spirituall a ciuill sense The spirituall concerning Theologicall Iustice and inward peace The ciuill concerning humane iustice and outward peace The spirituall thus The Messias shall cause the fruit of his perfect iustice to be our inward peace with God and our selues The ciuill thus The Magistrate shall cause the worke of ciuill Iustice in his administration to be our outward peace with one another In both or either as Musculus well there is an allusion in the Hebrew word to a field the soile is the heart or the State the seed is Iustice the fruit peace That which was waste ground is now a Carmell a fruitfull field and the fruit of this field of Iustice is peace As there is good reason we will beginne with the spirituall Iustice and Peace The great King of Heauen will disforest that peece of the world which hee calls his Church and put it to tillage it shall be sowne with righteousnesse and shall yeeld a sweet crop of peace in this onely not in the barren heaths of the prophane world shall true peace grow At first God and man were good friends How should there bee other than good termes betwixt Heauen and Paradise God made man iust and iust man whiles he was so could not chuse but loue the iust God that made him sin set them at odds in one act and instant did man leese both his iustice and peace now the world is changed now the stile of God is Fortis vltor God the auenger Ier. 51.56 and the stile of men God the auenger The sonnes of wrath Filij irae sons of wrath Ephes 2.3 There is no possible peace to be made betwixt God man but by the perfect Iustice of him that was both God man I would there were a peace in the Church about this Iustice It is pitie shame there is not but there must be heresies As there are two parts of Diuinity the Law and the Gospell so each of these haue their Iustice there is a Iustice of the Law and an Euangelicall Iustice The Iustice of the Law when a meere morall man is iustified out of his owne powers by the works of the Law very Papists will giue so much way to S. Paul so much affront to Pelagius as to renounce this freely anathematizing that man who by the strength of humane nature or the doctrine of the Law shal challenge iustification Vnlesse perhaps some Andradius haue priuiledge to teach Morall righteousnesse that this Ethica Iustitia was enough to iustifie and saue the old Philosophers The Euangelicall Iustice is
Father Let vs not number but weigh your texts The rather for that I finde these as your Master-proofes set as Challengers in euery of your defences In Genes 4.13 CAIN a bloudy Fratricide is excommunicated In Genes 6.1 2. The sonnes of God married the daughters of men In Genes 7.1 7. NOAHS time is approued as righteous and enters the Arke In 1 Pet. 3.20 21. The rest in NOAHS time were disobedient and perished What of all this Alas what mockage is this of the Reader and Scriptures Surely you euen ioyne Scriptures as you separate your selues This is right as your Pastor to proue all members of the visible Church elect and precious stones cites 1 King 7.9 where is speech onely of Salomons house in the Forrest of Lebanon his Porch for his Throne his Hall his Palace for Pharaohs daughter and when he comes to describe the office of his imaginarie Doctor thwacks fourteene Scriptures into the margent whereof not any one hath any iust colour of inference to his purpose and in this discourse of the power of the Church that he might seeme to honour his margent with shew of texts hath repeated six places twice ouer in the space of six lines For these of yours you might obiect the first to the Cainites not to vs Cain was cast out worthily Doe we either denie or vtterly forbeare this censure Take heed you follow him not in your voluntarie exile to the land of Nod. The second you might obiect to those mungrell Christians that match with Turkes and Pagans There are sonnes of God that is members of the visible Church and daughters of men which are without the bounds meere Infidels it is sinne for those sonnes to yoke themselues with those daughters What is this to vs Noah was righteous the multitude disobedient Who denies it yet Noah separated not from the corrupted Church till the floud separated him from the earth but continued an ancient Preacher of righteousnesse euen to that peruerse and rebellious Generation But it sufficeth you that Cain and the Giants were separated from the rest We yeeld it what will follow hence saue onely that notorious Malefactors must bee cast out and professed Heathen not let into the Church We hold and wish no lesse your places euince no more These before the Law In Leuit. 20.24.26 God chose our Israel from other people This was Gods act not theirs a sequestring of his Israelites from the Gentiles not of Israel from it selfe yours is your owne and from men in all maine points of your owne profession But therefore Israel must be holy If any man denie holinesse to be required of euery Christian let him feele your Maranatha In Nehem. 9.2 The Israelites separated themselues from the strangers which were Infidels whether in their marriage or deuotion Neither Gods seruice nor an Israelites bed was for Heathens This was not the constituting of a new Church but reforming of the old If therefore you can parallel vs with Pagans and your selues will be Iewes this place fits you Lastly what if there be an hatred betwixt the World and Christs true Disciples Ioh. 17.14.16 what if PETER charged his Auditors to saue themselues from the errors and practise of that froward Generation whose hands were yet freshly imbrewed with the bloud of Christ Act. 2.40 What if the same which PETER taught PAVL practised in separating his followers from hearing some obstinate and blasphemous Iewes Act. 19.9 What if the Church of Corinth were Saints by calling 1 Cor. 1.2 and therefore must be separated from the yoke of Infidels 2.6.17 Are these your patternes Are these fit matches for your brethren baptized in the same water and name professing euery point of the same true faith vsing for substance the same worship with you He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darknesse 1 Ioh. 2.9 SEP Which separation the Church of England neither hath made nor doth make but stands actually one with all that part of the World within the Kingdome without separation for which cause amongst others we haue chosen by the grace of God rather to separate our selues to the Lord from it than with it from him in the visible constitution of it SECTION VI. BVT all these examples perhaps are not so much to warrant what you haue done What separation is to bee made by churches in their planting or restauration In his Preface to the Reader and in his causes of separation defended pag. 4. Eiusdem p. 10. Refutat of M. Gyff p. 22. 2. Transgress p. 51. 52. 55. 66. 70. 85. 86. c. Inconstance of Browne p. 110. Inquiry into M White confessed by Fr. Iohnson pag. 63. Passage twixt Clifton and Smith And concerning the constitution of the Churches c. But the constituting of Churches now after the defection of Antichrist may more properly be called a repairing than a constitution c. as to condemne the Church of England for what shee hath not done for such a separation shee neither hath made nor doth make but stands actually one with all that part of the World within the Kingdome without separation Loe here the maine ground of this Schisme which your Proto-Martyr BARROVV hammers vpon in euery page an ill constitution Thus hee comments vpon your words For where such prophane confuse multitudes without any exception separation or choice were all of them from publike Idolatry at one instant receiued or rather compelled to bee members of the Church in some Parish or other where they inhabited without any due calling to the faith by the preaching of the Gospel going before or orderly ioyning together in the faith there being no voluntarie or particular confession of their owne faith and duties made or required of any and lastly no holy walking in the faith amongst them who can say that these Churches consisting of this people were euer rightly gathered or built according to the rule of Christs Testament In his words and yours I finde both a miscollection and a wrong charge For the former the want of noting one poore distinction breeds all this confusion of Doctrine and separation of men for there is one case of a new Church to be called from Heathenisme to Christianitie another of a former Church to be reformed from errors to more sincere Christianitie In the first of these is required indeed a solemne initiation by Baptisme and before that a voluntarie and particular confession of faith and therefore a cleare separation and exception of the Christian from the Infidell In the latter neither is new Baptisme lawfull though some of you belike of old were in hand with a rebaptization which not then speeding succeedeth now to your shame nor a new voluntarie and particular confession of Faith besides that in Baptisme though very commendable will euer be proued simply necessarie to the being of a Church so long as the erring parties doe actually renounce their doctrines and in open profession
intrude thus into the throne of your Maker Consider and conferre seriously What faith is it that is thus necessarily required to each member in this Constitution Your owne Doctor shall define it Faith required to the receiuing in of members is the knowledge of the Doctrine of saluation by Christ 1 Cor. 12.9 Gal. 3.2 Now I beseech you in the feare of God lay by a while all vnchristian preiudice and peremptory verdicts of those soules which cost Christ as much bloud as your owne and tell me ingenuously whether you dare say that not onely your Christian brethren with whom you lately conuersed but euen your fore-fathers which liued vnder Queene Elizabeths first confused reformation knew not the doctrine of saluation by Christ if you say they did not your rash iudgement shall be punished fearefully by him whose office you vsurpe As you looke to answer before him that would not breake the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax presume not thus aboue men and Angels If they did then had they sufficient claime both to true Constitution and Church But this faith must be testified by obedience so it was If you thinke not so yours is not testified by loue both were weake both were true Weaknesse in any grace or worke takes not away truth Their sinnes of ignorance could no more disanull Gods couenant with them than multiplicity of wiues with the Patriarchs SECT IX Order 2. Part of Constitution how farre requisite and whether hindered by constraint D. Allis against the Descript Confess of the Brownists Brow State of true Christians Inquire into M. White Ans ibid. Arist Pol. 3. c. 1. WHat wanted they then Nothing but Order and not all Order but yours Order a thing requisite and excellent but let the world iudge whether essentiall Consider now I beseech you in the bowels of Christ Iesus whether this be a matter for which heauen and earth should be mixed whether for want of your Order all the world must be put out of all Order and the Church out of life and being Nothing say we can be more disorderly than the confusion of your Democracie or popular state if not Anarchie Where all in a sort ordaine and excommunicate We condemne you not for no true members of the Church what can be more orderlesse by your owne confessions than the Trine-vne Church at Amsterdam which yet you grant but faulty If there be disproportion and dislocation of some parts is it no true humane body will you rise from the feast vnlesse the dishes be set on in your owne fashion Is it no Citie if there bee mudwalles halfe broken low Cottages vnequally built no State-house But your order hath more essence than you can expresse and is the same which Polititians in their trade call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorporating into one common ciuill body by a voluntary vnion and that vnder a lawfull gouernment Our Church wants both wherein there is both constraint and false office Take your owne resemblance and your owne asking Say that some Tyrant as Basilius of Ruffâ—â— shall forcibly compell a certaine number of Subiects into Mosco and shall hold them in by an awfull Garrison forcing them to new lawes and Magistrates perhaps hard and bloudy They yeeld and making the best of all liue together in a cheerefull communion with due commerce louing conuersation submissiue execution of the enioyned lawes In such case Whether is Mosco a true Cittie or not Since your Doctor cites Aristotle Arist Pol. 3 c. 1. Edesius Frumentius pueri à Meropio Tyrio Philosopho in Indiam dâ—portati postca ibi Christianam religionem plantarunt Ruffâ—n l. 1. c. 9. Foemina inter Iberâ—s let it not irke him to learne of that Philosopher who can teach him that when Calisthenes had driuen out the Tyrant from Athens and set vp a new Gouernment and receiued many strangers and bondmen into the Tribes it was doubted not which of them were Citizens but whether they were made Citizens vniustly If you should finde a company of true Christians in vtmost India would you stand vpon termes and enquire how they became so Whiles they haue what is necessary for that heauenly profession what need your curiosity trouble it selfe with the meanes SECT X. Constraint requisite 2 Chr. 33.16 2 Chr. 34.32 33. 2 Chr. 15.13 Barr. against Gyff Brow Reformation without tarrying Greenewood Conference with Cooper Browne Reformation without tarrying Conference with Doctor Andr. Master Hutch Conference with D. Andr. Reformation without tarrying Ber. Fides suadenda non cogenda Counterpoyson Dixit Pater familias seruis Quoscunque inueneritis cogite intrare c. Aug. Epist 48. Pless de Eccles c. 10. Aug. Quod si â—ogip riegem aliquem vel ad bona sicuisset vos ipsi miseri à nobis ad fidem purissimam cogi deluistis sed absit à nostra conscientia vt ad fidem nostram aliquem cogamus Aug. Epist 48. 68. Qui phreneticum ligat qui letharg excitat ambobus molestus ambos amat Ibid. Clâ—mant Neminem ad vnitatem cogendum quid hoc aliud quam quod de vobis quidam Quod volumus sanctum est YOu see then what an idle plea constraint is in the constitution of a Citie the ground of all your exception But it is otherwise in Gods citie the Church why then doth his Doctorship parallel these two And why may not euen constraint it selfe haue place in the lawfull constitution or reformation of a Church Did not Manasses after his comming home to God charge and command Iuda to serue the Lord God of Israel Did not worthy Iosiah when he had made a couenant before the Lord cause all that were found in Ierusalem and Beniamin to stand to it and compelled all that were found in Israel to serue the Lord their God What haue Queene Elizabeth or King Iames done more Or what other Did not Asa vpon Obeds prophesie gather both Iuda and Beniamin and all the strangers from Ephraim Manasses and Simeon and enact with them that whosoeuer would not seeke the Lord God should bee slaine What meanes this peruersenesse You that teach we may not stay Princes leisure to reforme will you not allow Princes to vrge others to reforme What crime is this that men were not suffered to bee open Idolaters that they were forced to yeeld submission to Gods ordinances Euen your owne teach that Magistrates may compell Infidels to heare the doctrine of the Church and Papists you say elsewhere though too roughly are Infidels But you say not to be members of the Church Gods people are of the willing sort True Neither did they compell them to this They were before entred into the visible Church by true Baptisme though miserably corrupted They were not now initiated but purged Your subtill Doctor can tell vs from Bernard that faith is to be perswaded not to bee compelled yet let him remember that the guests must be compelled to come in though
also procured the Bishops to helpe forward the same cause of decayed Doctrine with their diligent preaching and teaching of the people Goe now and say that suddenly in one day by Queene Elizabeths Trumpet or by the sound of a Bell in the name of Antichrist all were called to the Church Goe say with your Patriarch that we erect Religions by Proclamations and Parliaments Vpon these premises I dare conclude and doubt not to maintaine against all Separatists in the World that England to goe no higher had in the dayes of King Henry the Eighth a true visible Church of God and so by consequent their succeeding seed was by true Baptisme iustly admitted into the bosome thereof and therefore that euen of them without any further profession Gods Church was truly constituted If you shall say that the following idolatry of some of them in Queene Maries daies excluded them Consider how hard it wil be to proue that Gods couenant with any people is presently disanulled by the sinnes of the most whether of ignorance or weaknesse and if they had herein renounced God yet that God also mutually renounced them To shut vp your Constitution then Master Smith against R. Clifton Principl and Infer pag. 11. There is no remedie Either you must goe forward to Anabaptisme or come backe to vs. All your Rabbines cannot answer that charge of your rebaptized brother If we be a true Church you must returne if wee be not as a false Church is no Church of God you must rebaptize If our Baptisme bee good then is our constitution good Thus your owne Principles teach The outward part of a true visible Church is a Vow Promise Oath or Couenant betwixt God and the Saints Now I aske Is this made by vs in Baptisme or no If it be then we haue by your confession for so much as is outwardly required a true visible Church so your separation is vniust If it be not then you must rebaptize for the first Baptisme is a nullitie and if ours be not you were neuer thereby as yet entred into any visible Church SEP To the title of a Ring-leader wherewith it pleaseth this Pistler to stile me I answer that if the thing I haue done bee good it is good and commendable to haue beene forward in it if it bee euill let it be reproued by the light of Gods Word and that God to whom I haue done that I haue done will I doubt not giue me both to see and to heale mine errour by speedie Repentance if I haue fled away on foot I shall returne on Horse-backe But as I durst neuer set foot into this way but vpon a most sound and vnresistable conuiction of Conscience by the Word of God as I was perswaded so must my retiring bee wrought by more solid reasons from the same word than are to be found in a thousand such prettie Pamphlets and formall flourishes as this is SECTION XII AS For the title of Ring-leader wherewith I stiled this Pamphleter The answerers title if I haue giuen him too much honor in his Sect I am sorry Perhaps I should haue put him pardon an homely but in this sense not vnusuall word in the taile of this Traine Perhaps I should haue endorsed my Letter to Master Smith and his shadow So I perceiue he was Whatsoeuer whether he leade or follow God meets with him If he leade Behold Ier. 13.32 I will come against them that prophesie false dreames saith the Lord and doe tell them and cense my people to erre by their lyes If he come hehinde Thou shalt not follow a multitude in euill saith God If either or both or neither If hee will goe alone Woe vnto the foolish Prophets saith the Lord which follow their owne Spirits Ezech. 13.2 and haue seene nothing Howsoeuer your euill shall be reproued by the light of Gods word Your coniunction I cannot promise your reproofe I dare If thereupon you finde grace to see and heale your errours we should with all brotherly humblenesse attend on foot vpon your returne on Horse-backe but if the sway of your mis-resolued conscience be headie and vnresistable and your retiring hopelesse these not solide reasons these prettie Pamphlets these formall flourishes shall one day be fearefull and material euidences against you before that awefull Iudge which hath alreadie said Pro. 19.21 That iudgements are prepared for the Scorners and stripes for the backe of Fooles SEP Your pittying of vs and sorrowing for vs especially for the wrong done by vs were in you commendable affections if by vs iustly occasioned but if your Church be deeply drencht in Apostasie and you cry Peace Peace when suddaine and certaine desolation is at hand it is you that doe wrong though you make the complaint and so being cruell towards your selues and your own whom you flatter you cannot be truly pittifull towards others whom you bewaile But I will not discourage you in this affection lest we finde few in the same fault the most in stead of pittie and compassion affording vs nothing but furie and indignation SECTION XIII I PROFESSED to bestow pittie and sorrow vpon you and your wrong The Apostasie of the Church of England You entertaine both harshly and with a churlish repulse What should a man doe with such dispositions Let him stroke them on the backe they snarle at him and shew their teeth Let him shew them a Cudgell they flie in his face You allow not our actions and returne our wrong Ours is both the iniurie and complaint How can this bee You are the Agents we sit still and suffer in this rent Yet since the cause makes the Schisme let vs inquire not whose the action is but whos 's the desert Our Church is deepe drencht in Apostasie and we cry Peace Peace No lesse than a whole Church at once and that not sprinkled or wetshod but drencht in apostasie What did wee fall off from you or you from vs Tell me were we euer the true Church of God and were we then yours We cannot fall vnlesse we once stood Was your Church before this Apostasie Shew vs your Ancestors in opinion Name me but one that euer taught as you doe and I vow to separate Was it not Then we fell not from you Euery Apostasie of the Church must needs be from the true Church A true Church and not yours And yet can there be but one true See now whether in branding vs with Apostasie you haue not proued yours to be no true Church Still I am ignorant A Treatise of the Ministery of England against M. H. pag. 125. Queene Maries dayes you say had a true Church which separated from Poperie chose them Ministers serued God holily from thence was our Apostasie But were not the same also for the most part Christians in King Edwards dayes Did they then in that confused allowance of the Gospell separate Or I pray you were Cranmer Latimer Ridley Hooper and the rest
an Antichristian estate if God giue secret mercie what is that to her Gods superaboundant grace doth neither abate ought of her Antichristianisme nor moue you to follow him in couering and passing by the manifold enormities in our Church wherewith those good things are inseparably commingled Your owne mouth shall condemne you Doth God passe ouer our enormities and doe you sticke yea separate Doth his grace couer them and doe you display them Haue you learned to be more iust than your Maker Or if you be not aboue his iustice why are you against his mercy God hath not disclaimed vs by your owne confession you haue preuented him If Princes leasurees may not be stayed in reforming yet shall not Gods in reiecting Your ignorance enwrapped you in your errors his infinite wisedome sees them and yet his infinite mercy forbeares them so might you at once haue seene disliked stayed If you did not herein goe contrary to the courses of our common God how happy should both sides haue beene yea how should there be no sides How should we be more inseparably commingled than our good and euill But should you haue continued still in sinne that grace might haue abounded God forbid you might haue continued here without sinne saue your owne and then grace would no lesse haue abounded to you than now your sin abounds in not continuing What neede you to surfet of another mans Trencher Other sinnes need no more to infect you than your graces can sanctifie them As for your further light suspect it not of God suspect it to bee meere darknesse and if the light in you bee darknesse how great is that darknesse What so true and glorious a light of God and neuer seene till now No Worlds Times Churches Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Fathers Doctors Gen. 1.2 Esa 5.20 Woe to them that put darknesse for light Esa 59.9 Christians euer saw this truth looke forth besides you vntill you Externall light was Gods first creature and shall this spirituall light whereby all Churches should be discerned come thus late Mistrust therefore your eyes and your light and feare Esayes woe and the Iewes miserable disappointment we wait for light but loe it is darknesse for brightnesse but we walke in obscuritie SEP But the Church of England say you is our Mother and so ought not to be auoyded But say I we must not so cleaue to holy Mother Church as we neglect our Heauenly Father and his Commandements which we know in that estate we could not but transgresse and that hainously and against our consciences not onely in the want of many Christian Ordinances to which we are most straightly bound both by Gods Word and our owne necessities SECTION XVII THE Church of England is your Mother to her small comfort she hath borne you The Motherhood of the Church of England how far it obligeth vs. Deut. 21 22 23. and repented Alas you haue giuen her cause to powre out Iobs curses vpon your Birth-day by your not onely forsaking but cursing her Stand not vpon her faults which you shall neuer proue capitall Not onely the best Parent might haue brought forth a rebellious sonne to be stoned What then Doe we prefer dutie to piety and so plead for our Holy Mother Church that we neglect our Heauenly Father yea offend him See what you say it must needs be an Holy Mother that cannot be pleased without the displeasure of God A good wife that opposes such an husband a good sonne that vpbraids this vniustly Therefore is shee a Church your Mother holy Mater Ecclesia Mater est etiam Matris nostrae Aug. Epist 38. because shee bred you to God cleaues to him obeyes his commandements and commands them And so farre is shee from this desperate contradiction that shee voweth not to hold you for her sonne vnlesse you honour God as a Father It is a wilfull slander that you could not but hainously transgresse vnder her I dare take it vpon my soule that all your transgression which you should necessarily haue incurred by her obedience is nothing so hainous as your vncharitablenesse in your censures and disobedience Conscience is a common plea euen to those you hate we inquire not how strong it is but how well informed not whether it suggest this but whereupon To go against the conscience is sinne to follow a mis-informed conscience is sinne also If you do not the first we know you are faultie in the second He that is greater than the conscience will not take this for an excuse But wherein should haue beene this transgression so vnauoidable hainous against conscience First in the want of many Ordinances to which we are most strictly bound both by Gods Word and our owne necessities SECTION XVIII CAn you thinke this hangs well together The want of pretended Ordinances of God whether sinfull to vs and whether they are to bee set vp without Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—m per exteriorem viâ—lâ—â—tiaÌ„ corâ—â—pitur si interior innocentia custodiatâ—r cap. 114. 3. Custodi c. Ad docendum populum Israelâ—ticum omnipotens Deus Prophetis praeconium dedit non Regibus imperauit Aug. l. 2. contra Gau. c. 11. Barr. causes of separat def p. 6. Barr. Reformation without tarrying Aug. contra Petilian l. 2. Optatus Mileuit lib. 30. Bar. second Examination before the Lord Archbishop and Lord Chiefe-Iustice compar with his reply to M. Gyff Art 5. You should here want many of Gods Ordinances why should you want them Because you are not suffered to enioy them who hinders it Superior powers Did euer man wilfully and hainously offend for wanting of that which he could not haue What hath conscience to doe with that which is out of our power Is necessity with you become a sinne and that hainous Dauid is driuen to lurke in the wildernesse and forced to want the vse of many diuine Ordinances It was his sorrow not his transgression Hee complaines of this but doth he accuse himselfe of sinne Not to desire them had beene sinne no sinne to be debarred them Well might this be Sauls sinne but not his Haue you not sinnes enow of your owne that you must needs borrow of others But I see your ground You are bound to haue these Ordinances and therefore without Princes yea against them so it is your transgression to want them in spight of Magistrates Gaudentius the Donatist taught you this of old And this is one of the Hebrew Songs which Master Barrow sings to vs in Babylon that we care not to make Christ attend vpon Princes and to be subiect to their Lawes and Gouernment and his Predecessor the root of your Sect tels vs in this sense the Kingdome of Heauen must suffer violence and that it comes not with obseruation that men may say Loe the Parliament or loe the Bishops decrees and in the same Treatise The Lords Kingdome must wait on your policy forsooth and
many and strong contradictions of decrees in the frequent long and desperate Schismes of the Romish Church This lash is indifferently fit for all backs let him that hath no cause to smart complaine What needed this foule mouth then to breake forth into so palpable slanders of that holy Archbishop and Martyr Doctor Cranmer Refut p. 212. charging him vvith deepe dissimulation in soothing vp both these Kings in their contrary Decrees When it is most manifest that this Worthy Metropolitan was the onely man which durst for three dayes together openly in Parliament oppose those vvickedly proiected Articles of King Henry and this in speciall Insomuch as he vvas vvilled out of the house till the act might passe which notwithstanding he well knew King Henry hee stoutly refused Would this man thinke we care to bely all the Saints in Heauen for an aduantage What will not hee dare to say that vvill obiect inconstancie to him who sealed Gods truth with his blood The contradictions and weaknesses that he findes in this Synode of Constantinople Refut p. 1◠〈◊〉 doe no whit moue vs If he can allow and commend and cite against vs the seuen and thirtieth Canon of the councell for the worship of the Crosse or the fourescore and fifteenth for the holy Chrisme and yet disallow the thirteenth why may not we by the same Law cite and approue the thirteenth Canon against them and yet disauow those other SECT XVI NEither was it for vvant that I mentioned onely this Councell of Constantinople Refut p. 220. The more ancient Constitutions of Ancyra and Gangra and the first and fourth of Toledo besides the Apostolicall and Nicene might haue beene vrged by mee It vvas not mine intent vvith this blabber to say more then all but onely to take an handfull out of the Sacks mouth for a taste to the buyer That faire flourish therefore of Councels which hee musters vp against me herein will be but Refut p. 225. Arma armis contraria Wherein since my Refuter will needs make himselfe so busie let mee intreat him by the way to compare the Councell of a a Aboâ—â— Ann. 324. Câ—ngra with the Decree of his Pope Hildebrand The Councell sayes flatly Si quis discernit Presbyterium coniugatum c. If any man make difference of a maried Priest so as that by occasion of his mariage hee ought not to offer and doth therefore abstaine from his oblation let him bee accursed But his Hildebrand vxoratos Sacerdotes à diuino remonit officio laicis missam eorum audire interdixit nouo exemplo c. That is remoued maried Priests from their diuine office and forbade Lay-men to heare their Masses saith b b Sigeb de Gregor Pap. an 1074 Idem Math. Paris Sigebert Therefore by the sentence of the Councell Pope Hildebrand is accursed And accursed for that very point which made him a Romish Saint When my Refuter hath gnawed awhile vpon this bone he may hope to be rewarded with a crust Refut p. 225. vsque ad 234. And now for his Councels to make vp the number hee names for the foreman of the Quest the Councell of Ancyra somewhat before the Nicene one who hath passed a direct verdict against him allowing Deacons vpon their profession to marry The miserable euasions of his c c Vid. Bin. ibid. Binius and Baronius in this point argue both a minde and a cause desperate vvhiles without all colour of vvarrant they imperiously turne downe these maried Deacons to a lay-communion and faine this libertie onely in a forced Ordination not in a voluntarie Refut p. 226. As for that first Canon which hee citeth of the Councell of Arles That a man cannot be made Priest in the band of Wedlocke vnlesse hee promise conuersion It is a grosse counterfeit And that the world may see wee vse not to passe these censures vvithout euident reason It mentions the Arrians vvhich were not yet hatched It mentions Bonosus which liued long after in the time of Innocent 1. It mentions the Concilium Vasense which was yet later in the time of Leo the first When his authors can agree of the time and make good the Synode hee shall receiue an answer to it In the meane time it was either before the Councell of Nice or after it if before it was corrected by the Nicene a Prouinciall must yeeld to a Generall if after it was presumptuous in decreeing that peremptorily which the Generall determinately left free Refut pp. 227. Carthaginen 5. African Can. 3. sub Coelest Can. 37. Secundum proprios terminos vel propria statuta Where they read it Secundâ—â— priora statuta The Councell of Arausica is cited by him in direct termes opposite to the Ancyran He must make them friends ere hee can bring it forth against an enemie As for the maine stay of this cause of his which is the two Councels of Africke lent him by his Bellarmine it is grounded as our learned Iunius hath probably answered vpon meere corruption and mis-taking the Latine Copies taking propria for priora The charge of the Councell being onely that Deacons Priests Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their turnes of ministration should abstaine from their Wiues which no modest Diuine will not willingly subscribe vnto Moreouer I am sure if the one word be not corrupted the other is ambiguous and may as well signifie Balsamons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if these Canons were first Latine and after translated into the Greeke yet the Greeke shewes what was the first Latine and may well correct the mistaken Originall But to discusse the seuerall Councels which he onely thinkes fit to name and vtter by whole-sale against vs were a worke for a volume a part The old word is Dolosus versatur in generalibus There is deceit in generalities It were easie to shew that some of these are impertinent others plainly against them others corrupted to speake against vs as that of Mentz and Wormes whereof in the sequell others partiall to the faction of Rome So then here Obruimur numero He thinkes to cary it by number not by weight where with vs one piece of Gold is worth a whole bagge of Counters But if after the Tyrannicall impositions of his Siritius and Innocentius tooke place in the Church he could name for euery one of his Prouinciall Synods an hundred it were all one to vs wee are not the worse his cause no whit the better This Tradition after that in an emulation of the Montanisticall vaunt of Virginitie it had gotten head in the Church ranne like fire in a traine Those Prouinces that held correspondence at Rome according to the charge of d d Ad similitudinem sedu Apostolicae eos cuncta obseruare constituat Greg. Epist lib. 3. 34. Gregory spake as shee did prompt them What should they doe but follow their Mistresse The Greeke Church and those that either had dependance vpon it
tune of that knowne song beginning Preserue vs Lord. THee and thy wondrous deeds O God Wiâ—h all my soule I sound abroad verse 2 My ioy my triumph is in thee Of thy dread name my song shall be verse 3 O highest God since put to flight And fal'ne and vanisht at thy sight verse 4 Are all my foes for thou hast past Iust sentence on my cause at last And sitting on thy throne aboue A rightfull Iudge thy selfe doest proue verse 5 The troupes profane thy checks haue stroid And made their name for euer void verse 6 Where 's now my foes your threatned wrack So well you did our Cities sacke And bring to dust while that ye say Their name shall die as well as they verse 7 Loe in eternall state God sits And his high Throne to iustice fits verse 8 Whose righteous hand the world shall weeld And to all folke iust doome shall yeeld verse 9 The poore from high finde his releefe The poore in needfull times of griefe verse 10 Who knowes the Lord to thee shall cleaue That neuer doest thy clients leaue verse 11 Oh! sing the God that doth abide On Sion mount and blazon wide verse 12 His worthy deeds For he pursues The guiltlesse bloud with vengeance due He mindes their cause nor can passe o're Sad clamors of the wronged poore verse 13 Oh! mercy Lord thou that dost saue My soule from gates of death and graue Oh! see the wrong my foes haue done verse 14 That I thy praise to all that gone Through daughter Sions beauteous gate With thankfull songs may loud relate And may reioyce in thy safe aide Behold the Gentiles whiles they made A deadly pit my soule to drowne Into their pit are sunken downe In that close snare they hid for mee Loe their owne feet intangled be verse 16 By this iust doome the Lord is knowne That th' ill are punisht with their owne verse 17 Downe shall the wicked backward fall To deepest hell and nations all verse 18 That God forget nor shall the poore Forgotten be for euermore The constant hope of soules opprest verse 19 Shall not aye die Rise from thy rest Oh Lord let not men base and rude Preuaile iudge thou the multitude verse 20 Of lawlesse Pagans strike pale feare Into those brests that stubborne were And let the Gentiles feele and finde They beene but men of mortall kinde PSALME 10. As the 51. Psalme O God Consider WHy stand'st thou Lord aloofe so long And hidst thee in due times of need verse 2 Whiles lewd men proudly offer wrong Vnto the poore In their owne deed And their deuice let them be caught verse 3 For loe the wicked braues and boasts In his vile and outragious thought And blesseth him that rauines most verse 4 On God he dares insult his pride Scornes to enquire of powers aboue But his stout thoughts haue still deni'd verse 5 There is a God His waies yet proue 〈◊〉 prosperous thy iudgements hye Doe farre surmount his dimmer fight verse 6 Therefore doth he all foes defie His heart saith I shall stand in spight Nor euer moue nor danger ' bide verse 7 His mouth is fill'd with curses foule And with close fraud His tongue doth hide verse 8 Mischiefe and ill he seekes the soule Of harmelesse men in secret waite And in the corners of the street Doth shead their bloud with scorne and hate His eies vpon the poore are set verse 9 As some fell Lyon in his den He closely lurkes the poore to spoyle He spoyles the poore and helplesse men When once he snares them in his toyle verse 10 He croucheth low in cunning wile And bowes his brest whereon whole throngs Of poore whom his faire showes beguile Fall to be subiect to his wrongs verse 11 God hath forgot in soule he saies He hides his face to neuer see verse 12 Lord God arise thine hand vp-raise Let not thy poore forgotten be verse 13 Shall these insulting wretches scorne Their God and say thou wilt not care verse 14 Thou see'st for all thou hast forborne Thou see'st what all their mischiefes are That to thine hand of vengeance iust Thou maist them take the poore distressed Rely on thee with constant trust The helpe of Orphans and oppressed verse 15 Oh! breake the wickeds arme of might And search out all their cursed traines And let them vanish out of sight verse 16 The Lord as King for euer raignes From forth his coasts the heathen sect verse 17 Are rooted quite thou Lord attendst To poore mens sutes thou deo'st direct Their hearts to them thine eare thou bendst verse 18 That thou maist rescue from despight The wofull fatherlesse and poore That so the vaine and earthen wight On vs may tyrannize no more FJNJS CHARACTERS OF VERTVES AND VICES JN TWO BOOKES By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY singular good Lords EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON of WALTHAM AND JAMES LORD HAY HIS RIGHT NOBLE AND WORTHY SONNE IN LAW I. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES HIS LABOVR DEVOTETH HIMSELFE Wisheth all Happinesse A PREMONITION OF THE TITLE AND VSE of Characters READER THe Diuines of the old Heathens were their Morall Philosophers These receiued the Acts of an inbred law in the Sinai of Nature and deliuered them with many expositions to the multitude These were the Ouerseers of manners Correctors of vices Directors of liues Doctors of vertue which yet taught their people the body of their naturall Diuinitie not after one manner while some spent themselues in deepe discourses of humane felicitie and the way to it in common others thought it best to apply the generall precepts of goodnesse or decency to particular conditions and persons A third sort in a meane course betwixt the two other and compounded of them both bestowed their time in drawing out the true lineaments of euerie vertue and vice so liuely that who saw the medals might know the face which Art they significantly tearmed Charactery Their papers were so many tables their writings so many speaking pictures or liuing images whereby the ruder multitude might euen by their sense learne to know vertue and discerne what to detest J am deceiued if any course could be more likely to preuaile for herein the grosse conceit is led on with pleasure and informed while it feeles nothing but delight And if pictures haue beene accounted the bookes of Jdiots behold here the benefit of an image without the offence It is no shame for vs to learne wit of Heathens neither is it materiall in whose Schoole we take out a good lesson yea it is more shame not to follow their good than not to lead them better As one therefore that in worthy examples hold imitation better than inuention J haue trod in their paths but with an higher and wider steppe and out of their Tablets haue drawne these larger portraitures of both sorts More
Pr. 16.11 Pr. 15.9 Pr. 12.26 Pr. 28.6 Pr. 20.7 THe vprightnesse of the iust shall guide them and direct their way which is euer plaine and straight whereas the way of others is peruerted and strange Yea as to doe iustice and iudgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice so it is a ioy to the iust himselfe to doe iudgement all his labour therefore tendeth to life he knoweth the cause of the poore and will haue care of his soule His worke is right neither intendeth he any euill against his neighbour seeing he dwelleth by him without feare and what loseth he by this As the true balance and the weight are of the Lord and all the weights of the bagge are his worke So God loueth him that followeth righteousnesse and with men The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour and Better is the poore that walketh in his vprightnesse than hee that peruerteth his waies though he be rich Yea finally The memoriall of the iust shall be blessed §. 9. Deceit The kindes Coloured Direct Priuate Publike The iudgement attending it Pr. 16.18 COntrary to this is Deceit whether in a colour As he that faineth himselfe mad casteth fire-brands Pr. 26.19 arrowes and mortall things so dealeth the deceitfull man and saith Am I not in sport As this deceit is in the heart of them that imagine euill so in their hands are Diuers weights and diuers balances or directly Pr. 12.10 Pr. 10.10 Pr. 29.24 Pr. 1.19 Ec. 3.16 Ec. 3.17 Pr. 12.27 Pr. 20.17 Hee that is partner with a theefe hateth his owne soule and dangerous are the waies of him that is greedy of gaine much more publiquely I haue seene the place of iudgement where was wickednesse and the place of iustice where was iniquitie I thought in mine heart God will iudge the iust and the wicked yea oft-times speedily so as The deceitfull man rosteth not what he tooke in hunting or if he eat it The bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterward his mouth shall be filled with grauell §. 9. Loue To God rewarded with his loue with his blessings To men In passing by offences In doing good to our enemies LOue to God I loue them that loue me and they that seeke mee early Pr. 8.17 Pr. 8.21 shall finde me and with me blessings I cause them that loue mee to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures 2. To men 1. In passing by offences Pr. 10.12 Hatred stirreth vp contentions but loue couereth all trespasses and the shame that rises from them Pr. 12.16 Pr. 17.9 Pr. 15.21 so that hee onely that couereth a transgression seeketh loue 2. In doing good to our enemies If hee that hateth thee be hungry giue him bread to eat and if he bee thirstie giue him water to drinke Here therefore doe offend 1. the contentious 2. the enuious §. 10. The contentious whether in raising ill rumors or whether by pressing matters too farre THe first is hee that raiseth contentions among brethren which once raised Pr. 6.19 Pr. 18.19 are not so soone appeased A brother offended is harder to winne than a strong Citie and their contentions are like the barre of a Palace Pr. 16.29 This is that violent man that deceiueth his neighbour and leadeth him into the way which is not good Pr. 18.6 Pr. 26.21 the way of discord whether by ill rumors The fooles lips come with strife and as the coale maketh burning coales and wood a fire so the contentious man is apt to kindle strife and that euen among great ones A froward person soweth strife and a tale-bearer maketh diuision among Princes or by pressing matters too farre When one churneth milke Pr. 16.28 Pr. 30.33 he bringeth forth butter and he that wringeth his nose causeth bloud to come out so he that forceth wrath bringeth forth strife the end whereof is neuer good Pr. 29.9 for if a wise man contend with a foolish man whether he be angry or laugh there is no rest §. 11. Enuy The kindes At our neighbour At the wicked The effects to others It selfe THe second is that iustice whereby the soule of the wicked wisheth euill Pr. 21.10 Pr. 24.17 and his neighbour hath no fauour in his eies that moueth him to bee glad when his enemie falleth and his heart to reioice when he stumbleth and this is a violent euill Pr. 14.30 1. To it selfe A sound heart is the life of the flesh but enuie is the rotting of the bones 2. To others Anger is cruell and wrath is raging but who can stand before enuie Pr. 27.4 But of all other it is most vniust when it is set vpon an euill subiect Pr. 24.20 Pr. 3.31 Fret not thy selfe because of the malicious neither be enuious at the wicked nor chuse any of his waies neither let thine heart be enuious against sinners Pr. 23.17 Pr. 24.1 Pr. 24.2 Pr. 3.32 Pr. 24.20 nor desire to be with them for as their heart imagineth destruction and their lips speake mischiefe so the froward is an abomination to the Lord and there shall be none end of the plagues of the euill man and his light shall be put out §. 12. Iustice to man onely First to others 1. in Mercy The quality The gaine of it Pr. 3.3 Pr. 21.13 Pr. 12.10 Pr. 16.6 Pr. 3.4 LEt not mercy and truth forsake thee binde them on thy necke and write them vpon the table of thine heart this suffereth not to stop thine care at the cry of the poore yea the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast no vertue is more gainfull for By mercy and truth iniquity shall bee forgiuen and By this thou shalt finde fauour and good vnderstanding in the sight of God and man Good reason For he honoreth God Pr. 14.31 that hath mercy on the poore yea he makes God his debter He that hath mercy on the poore Pr. 19.17 Pr. 11.17 Pr. 21.21 Pr. 14.21 lendeth to the Lord and the Lord will recompence him So that The mercifull man rewardeth his owne soule for He that followeth righteousnesse and mercy shall finde righteousnesse and life and glory and therefore is blessed for euer §. 13. Against mercy offend 1. Vnmercifulnesse 2. Oppression 3. Bloud-thirstinesse Pr. 22.7 Pr. 14.20 Pr. 19.7 1. THat not only the rich ruleth the poore but that the poore is hated of his owne neighbour whereas the friends of the rich are many Of his neighbour Yea all the brethren of the poore hate him how much more will his friends depart from him though he be instant with words yet they will not Pr. 30.14 Pr. 22.16 2. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their iawes as kniues to eat vp the afflicted out of the earth These are they that oppresse the poore to increase themselues Pr. 22.22 Pr. 25.20 and giue to the rich that rob the poore because he is poore
vpright like to the straight and loftie Cedars of Lebanon 16. His mouth is as sweet things and he is wholly delectable this is my Wel-beloued and this is my Louer O daughters of Ierusalem His mouth out of which proceedeth innumerable blessings and comfortable promises is to my soule euen sweetnesse it selfe yea what speake I of any one part as you haue heard in these particulars hee is all sweets there is nothing but comfort in him and there is no comfort but in him and this if he would know is my Well-beloued of so incomparable glory and worthinesse that ye may easily discerne him from all others Forraine Congregations 17. O the fairest among women whither is thy Well-beloued gone whither is thy Well-beloued turned aside that we might seeke him with thee SInce thy Well-beloued is so glorious and amiable O thou which art for thy beautie worthy to bee the Spouse of such an husband tell vs for thou onely knowest it and to seeke Christ without the Church wee know is vaine tell vs where this Sauiour of thine is to be sought that we rauished also with the report of his beautie may ioine with thee in the same holy studie of seeking after him CHAP. VI. 1. My Well-beloued is gone downe into his Garden to the beds of spices to feed in the Gardens and to gather Lillies MY Well-beloued Sauiour if you would know this also is to be sought and found in the particular assemblies of his people which are his Garden of pleasure wherein are varieties of all the beds of renued soules which both he hath planted and dressed by his continuall care and wherein he walketh for his delight feeding and solacing himselfe with those fruits of righteousnesse and new obedience which they are able to bring forth vnto him 2. I am my Well-beloueds and my Well-beloued is mine who feedeth among the Lillies And now loe whatsoeuer hath happened crosse to mee in my sensible fruition of him in spight of all tentations my beloued Sauiour is mine through faith and I am his through his loue and both of vs are by an inseparable vnion knit together whose coniunction and loue is most sweet and happy for all that are his he feedeth continually with heauenly repast CHRIST 3. Thou art beautifull my Loue as Tirzah comely as Ierusalem terrible as an armie with Banners NOtwithstanding this thy late blemish of neglecting mee O my Church yet still in mine eies through my grace vpon this thy repentance thou art beautifull like vnto that neat and elegant Citie Tirzah and that orderly building of Ierusalem the glory of the world and with this thy louelinesse thou art awfull vnto thine aduersaries through the power of thy censures and the maiestie of him that dwelleth in thee 4. Turne away thine eies from me for they ouercome me thine haire is like a flocke of Goats which looke downe from Gilead Yea such beautie is in thee that I am ouercome with the vohemencie of my affection to thee turne away thine eies a while from beholding me for the strength of that faith whereby they are fixed vpon mee rauisheth mee from my selfe with ioy I doe therefore againe renew thy former praise that thy gracious profession and all thy appendances and ornaments of expedient ceremonies are so comely to behold as it is to see a flocke of well-fed Goats grasing vpon the fruitfull hills of Gilead 5. Thy teeth are like a flocke of sheepe which goe vp from the washing which eueryone bring out twins and none is barren among them Thy Teachers that chew and prepare the heauenly food for thy soule are of sweet accordance one with another hauing all one heart and one tongue and both themselues are sanctified and purged from their vncleannesse and are fruitfull in their holy labours vnto others so that their doctrine is neuer in vaine but is still answered with plentifull increase of soules to the Church 6. Thy Temples are within thy locks as a peece of a Pomegranate That part of thy countenance which thou wilt haue seene though dimly and sparingly is full of holy modestie and bashfulnesse so blushing that it seemeth like the colour of a broken peece of Pomegranate 7. There are threescore Queenes and fourescore Concubines and of the Damsels without number Let there be neuer so great a number of people and nations of Churches and assemblies which challenge my Name and Loue and perhaps by their outward prosperitie may seeme to plead much interest in me and much worth in themselues 8. But my Loue is alone and my Vndefiled she is the onely daughter of her mother and shee is deare to her that bare her the Daughters haue seene her and counted her blessed euen the Queenes and the Concubines and they haue praised her Yet thou onely art alone my true and chaste Spouse pure and vndefiled in the truth of thy doctrine and the imputation of my holinesse thou art she whom that Ierusalem which is aboue the mother of vs all acknowledgeth for her onely true and deare daughter And this is not my commendation alone but all those forraine assemblies which might seeme to bee Riuals with thee of this praise doe applaud and blesse thee in this thine estate and say Blessed is this people whose God is the Lord. 9. Who is shee that looketh forth as the morning faire as the Moone pure as the Sunne terrible as an armie with banners And admiring thy goodlinesse shall say Who is this that lookes out so freshly as the morning new risen which from these weake beginnings is growne to such high perfection that now shee is as bright and glorious as the Sunne in his full strength and the Moone in a cleare skie and withall is so dreadfull through the maiestie of her countenance and power of her censures as some terrible armie with ensignes displayed is to a weake aduersarie 10. I went downe to the dressed Orchard to see the fruits of the valley to see if the Vine budded and if the Pomegranates flourished Thou complainedst of my absence O my Church there was no cause I meane not to forsake thee I did but onely walke downe into the well-dressed Orchard of thine assemblies to recreate and ioy my selfe with the view of their forwardnesse to see the happy progresse of the humble in spirit and the gracious beginnings of those tender soules which are newly conuerted vnto mee 11. I knew nothing my soule set me as the chariots of my noble people So earnestly did I long to reuisâ— thee and to restore comfort vnto thee that I hasted I knew not which way and with insensible speed I am come backe as it were vpon the swiftest chariots or the wings of the wind 12. Returne returne O Shulamite returne returne that I may behold thee what shall you see in the Shulamite but as the companie of an armie Now therefore returne O my Spouse the true daughter of Ierusalem returne to mee returne to thy selfe and to thy former feeling of my
fallen how to strike a remorslesse The other in a distinct iudgement and a rare dexterity in clearing the obscure subtleties of the Schoole and easie explication of the most perplex discourses Doctor Reynolds is the last not in worth but in the time of his losse Hee alone was a well furnisht library full of all faculties of all studies of all learning the memory the reading of that man were neer to a miracle These are gone amongst many more whom the Church mournes for in secret would God her losse could be as easily supplied as lamented Her sorrow is for those that are past her remainder of ioy in those that remaine her hope in the next age I pray God the causes of her hope and ioy may be equivalent to those of her griefe What should this worke in vs but an imitation yea that word is not too bigge for you an emulation of their worthinesse It is no pride for a man to wish himselfe spiritually better then he dare hope to reach nay I am deceiued if it be not true humility For what doth this argue him but low in his conceit high in his desires only Or if so happy is the ambition of grace and power of sincere seruiceablenesse to God Let vs wish and affect this while the world layes plots for greatnesse Let me not prosper if I bestow enuy on them He is great that is good and no man me-thinkes is happy on earth to him that hath grace for substance and learning for ornament If you know it not the Church our mother lookes for much at your hands she knowes how rich our common father hath left you she notes your graces your opportunities your imployments she thinks you are gone so farre like a good Merchant for no small gaine and lookes you shall come home well laded And for vent of your present commodities tho our chiefe hope of successe be cut off with that vnhoped peace yet what can hinder your priuate trafficke for God I hope and who doth not that this blow will leaue in your noble Venetians a perpetuall scarre and that their late irresolution shall make them euer capable of all better counsell and haue his worke like some great Eclipse many yeares after How happy were it for Venice if as she is euery yeare maried to the Sea so she were once throughly espoused to Christ In the meane time let me perswade you to gratifie vs at home with the publication of that your exquisit Polemicall discourse whereto our conference with M. Alablaster gaue so happy an occasion You shall hereby cleare many truths and satisfie all Readers yea I doubt not but an aduersary not too peruerse shall acknowledge the Truths victory and yours It was wholsome counsell of a Father that in the time of an heresie euery man should write Perhaps you complain of the inundations of Francford How many haue been discouraged from benefiting the world be this conceit of multitude Indeed we all write and while we write cry out of number How well might many be spared euen of those that complaine of too many whose importunate babling cloyes the world without vse To my Lord the Earle of Essex EP. VIII Aduice for his Trauels MY Lord both my dutie and promise make my Letters your debt and if neither of these my thirst of your good You shall neuer but need good counsell most in trauell Then are both our dangers greater and our hopes I need not to tell you the eyes of the world are much vpon you for your owne sake for your fathers onely let your eyes be vpon it againe to obserue it to satisfie it and in some cases to contemn it As your graces so your weaknesses will be the sooner spied by how much you are more noted The higher any building is the more it requires exquisit proportion which in some low and rude piles is needlesse If your vertues shall be eminent like your fathers you cannot so hide your selfe but the world will see you and force vpon you applause admiration in spight of modesty but if you shall come short in these your fathers perfection shall be your blemish Thinke now that more eyes are vpon you then at home of forrainers of your owne theirs to obserue ours to expect For now we account you in the Schoole of wisedome whence if you returne not better you shall worse with the losse of your time of our hopes For I know not how naturall it is to vs to looke for alteration in trauell and with the change of aire and land to presuppose a change in the person Now you are through both your yeeres and trauell in the forge of your hopes We all looke not without desire and apprecation in what shape you will come forth Thinke it not enough that you see or can say you haue seene strange things of nature or euent it is a vaine and dead trauell that rests in the eye or the tongue All is but lost vnlesse your busie mind shall from the body that it sees draw forth some quintessence of obseruation wherewith to informe inrich it selfe There is nothing can quite the cost and labour of trauell but the gaine of wisedome How many haue we seene and pittied which haue brought nothing from forrain countries but mishapen clothes or exoticall gestures or new games or affected lispings or the diseases of the place or which is worst the vices These men haue at once wandred from their countrie and from themselues and some of them too easie to instance haue left God behind them or perhaps instead of him haue after a loose and filthy life brought home some idle Puppet in a box whereon to spend their deuotion Let their wracke warne you and let their follies be entertained by you with more detestation then pittie I know your Honour too well to feare you your young yeares haue beene so graciously preuented with soueraigne antidotes of truth and holy instruction that this infection despaires of preuailing Your very blood giues you argument of safety yet good counsell is not vnseasonable euen where danger is not suspected For Gods sake my Lord whatsoeuer you gaine lose nothing of the truth remit nothing of your loue and pietie to God of your fauour and zeale to religion As sure as there is a God you were trained vp in the true knowledge of him If either Angell or Deuill or Iesuit should suggest the contrary send him away with defiance There you see and heare euery day the true mother and the fained striuing and pleading for the liuing child The true Prince of peace hath past sentence from heauen on our side Doe not you stoope so much as to a doubt or motion of irresolution Abandon those from your table and salt whom your owne and others experience shall descry dangerous Those Serpents are full of insinuations But of all those of your owne country which are so much the more pernicious by how much they haue more colour
deserue You are a stranger to your selfe if you confesse not that God fauours you in this whip If he had stripped you of better things and scourged you with worse you should still haue acknowledged a mercifull iustice If you now repine at an easie correction you are worthy of seuerity Beware the next if you grudge and swell at this It is next to nothing which you suffer what can bee further from vs then these goods of outward estate You need not abate either health or mirth for their sakes If you doe now draw the affliction neerer then he which sent it and make a forraine euill domesticall if while God visits your estate you fetch it home to your body to your minde thanke your selfe that you will needs be miserable But if you loue not to fare ill take crosses as they are sent and goe lightly away with an easie burden EPISTLES THE SECOND VOLVME Containing TWO DECADS BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE SAME MOST GRATIOVS PATRONAGE OF THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE HENRY PRINCE OF GREAT BRITAINE HIS Highnesses VNVVORTHY SERVANT humbly prostrates himselfe and his second Labour With continuall Apprecations of all Happinesse THE CONTENTS AND SVBIECT OF EVERY EPISTLE DECAD III. EP. 1. To M rr SMITH and Mr ROB. Ring-leaders of the late separation at Amsterdam Setting forth their iniury done to the Church the iniustice of their cause c. EP. 2 To Sr ANDREW ASTELEY A Discourse of our due preparation for death and the meanes to sweeten it EP. 3. To M. SAM BVRTON Of the tryall and choice of the true Religion iustifying of all religions the Christian of all Christian the reformed EP. 4 To Mr EDM. SLEIGH Of the hardnesse of true Christianitie and the abundant recompence in the pleasures and commodities thereof EP. 5 To Mr W. L. Expostulating the cause of his vnsetlednesse in religion where is shewed that our dissentions are no sufficient ground of his suspension EP. To Sr EDMVND LVCY Of the different degrees of glory and our mutuall knowledge aboue EP. 7 To Mr T. L. Aduising concerning the matter of diuorce in the case of knowne Adulterie EP. 8 To Mr ROBERT HAY. Of the continuall exercise of a Christian whereby he may he preserued from hardnesse of heart c. EP. 9 To Mr I. F. Merchant Of the lawfulnesse of conuersation and trade with Infidels and Heretiques how farre it holdeth and wherein EP. 10 To the Gentlemen of his Highnesse Court A description of a good and faithfull Courtier DECAD IV. EP. 1 To Mr WALTER FITZ WILLIAMS Of the true and lawful vse of pleasure c. EP. 2 To Mr W. E.DD to Mr ROB. IERMIN Of the bloody and sinfull vse of single combats and the vniust pretences for this vnchristian and false manhood EP. 3 To Mr MAT. MYLWARD Of the pleasure of study and contemplation c. EP. 4 To M.I.P. Of the increase of Popery of the Oath of Allegeance and the iust sufferings of those that haue refused it EP. 5 To my brother Mr SA HALL Of the charge and weight of the Ministeriall function with directions for due preparation to it answerable cariage in it EP. 6 To M. A. P. Of the signes and proofes of a true faith EP. 7 To Mr EDWARD ALLEYNE A direction how to conceiue of God in our deuotions and meditations EP. 8 To Mr THOMAS IAMES Of the reason of the Papists confidence in appealing to the Fathers applauding his worthy offers and indeuors of discouering the falsifications of Antiquitie EP. 9 To M. E. A. Of fleeing or stay in the time of pestilence whether lawfull for Minister or people EP. 10 To M.R.B. A complaint of the iniquity of the Times with a prescription of remedy THE THIRD DECAD To Mr Smith and Mr Rob. Ring-leaders of the late Separation at Amsterdam EP. I. Setting forth their iniury done to the Church the iniustice of their cause and fearfulnesse of their offence Censuring and aduising them WEe heare of your separation and mourne yet not so much for you as for your vvrong you could not doe a greater iniury to your mother then to fly from her Say shee were poore ragged weake say she were deformed yet shee is not infectious Or if shee vvere yet she is yours This were cause enough for you to lament her to pray for her to labour for her redresse not to auoid her This vnnaturalnesse is shamefull and more hainous in you who are reported not parties in this euill but authors Your flight is not so much as your mis-guidance Plead not this fault is past excuse If wee all should follow you this vvere the vvay of a Church as you plead imperfect to make no Church and of a remedie to make a disease Still the fruit of our charitie to you is besides our griefe pitie Your zeale of truth hath mis-led you and you others A zeale if honest yet blind-folded and led by selfe-will Oh that you loued Peace but halfe so well as Truth then this breach had neuer beene and you that are yet brethren had beene still companions Goe out of Babylon you say The voice not of Schisme but of holinesse Know you vvhere you are Looke about you I beseech you looke behinde you and see if wee haue not left it vpon our backs Shee her selfe feeles and sees that shee is abandoned and complaines to all the world that we haue not onely forsaken but spoiled her and yet you say Come out of Babylon And except you will bee willingly blinde you may see the heapes of her Altars the ashes of her Idols the ruines of her monuments the condemnation of her errours the reuenge of her abominations And are wee yet in Babylon Is Babylon yet amongst vs Where are the maine buildings of that accursed Citie those high and proud Towers of their vniuersall Hierarchie infallible iudgement dispensation vvith the Lawes of God and sinnes of men disposition of Kingdomes deposition of Princes parting stakes vvith God in our conuersion through freedom of vvil in our saluation through the merit of our vvorks Where are those rotten heapes rotten not through age but corruption of transubstantiating of bread adoring of Images multitude of Sacraments power of Indulgences necessitie of Confessions profit of Pilgrimages constrained and approued Ignorance vnknowne deuotions Where are those deepe vaults if not mynes of Penances and Purgatories and whatsoeuer hath beene deuised by those Popelings whether profitable or glorious against the Lord and his Christ Are they not all raced and buried in the dust Hath not the Maiestie of her Gods like as was done to Mithra and Serapis beene long agone offered to the publique laughter of the vulgar What is this but to goe yea to runne if not to fly out of Babylon But as euery man is an hearty Patron of his owne actions and it is a desperate cause that hath no plea you alledge our consorting in Ceremonies and say still we
will you embrace him for his sake that hath stricken him or auoid him for his sake that hath forbidden you If you honour his rod much more will you regard his precept If you mislike not the affliction because he sends it then loue the life which you haue of his sending feare the iudgement which he will send if you loue it not He that bids vs flee when we are persecuted hath neither excepted Angell nor man whether soeuer I feare our guiltinesse if wilfully we flee not But whither shall we flee from God say you where shall he not both find and lead vs whither shall not our destiny follow vs Vaine men we may runne from our home not from our graue Death is subtle our time is set we cannot God will not alter it Alas how wise we are to wrong our selues Because Death will ouer-take vs shall we runne and meet him Because Gods decree is sure shall we be desperate Shall we presume because God changeth not Why doe we not trye euery knife and cord since our time is neither capable of preuention nor delay our end is set not without our meanes In matter of danger where the end is not knowne the meanes must be suspected in matter of hope where the end is not knowne meanes must be vsed Vse then freely the meanes of your flight suspect the danger of your stay and since there is no particular necessity of your presence know that God bids you depart and liue You vrge the instance of your Minister How vnequally There is not more lawfulnesse in your flight then sin in ours you are your owne wee our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly leese not hazard by staying wee with all their soules which to hazard by absence is to lose our owne we must loue our liues but not when they are riuals with our soules or with others How much better is it to bee dead then negligent then faithlesse If some bodies be contagiously sicke shall all soules bee wilfully neglected There can be no time wherein good counsell is so seasonable so needfull Euery threatning finds impression where the mind is prepared by sensible iudgements When will the ironhearts of men bow if not when they are heat in the flame of Gods affliction now then to runne away from a necessary and publike good to auoid a doubtfull and priuate euill is to runne into a worse euill then wee would auoid He that will thus runne from Niniue to Tharsis shall find a tempest and a whale in his way Not that I dare be an author to any of the priuate visitation of infected beds I dare not without better warrant VVho euer said wee were bound to close vp the dying eyes of euery departing Christian and vpon what-euer conditions to heare their last grones If we had a word I would not debate of the successe Then that were cowardlinesse which now is wisedome Is it no seruice that wee publikely teach and exhort that we priuately prepare men for death and arme them against it that our comfortable letters and messages stir vp their fainting hearts that our loud voyces pierce their eares afarre vnlesse we feele their pulses and leane vpon their pillowes and whisper in their eares Daniel is in the Lyons den Is it nothing that Darius speakes comfort to him thorow the grate vnlesse he goe in to salute him among those fierce companions A good Minister is the common goods hee cannot make his life peculiar to one without iniury to many In the common cause of the Church he must be no niggard of his life in the priuate cause of a neighbours bodily sicknesse he may soone be prodigall A good father may not spend his substance on one child and leaue the rest beggers If any man be resolute in the contrary I had rather praise his courage then imitate his practice I confesse I feare not so much death as want of warrant for death To M. R. B. EP. X. A complaint of the iniquity of the Times with a prescription of the meanes to redresse it WHiles I accused the Times you vndertooke their patronage I commend your charity not your cause It is true There was neuer any Age not complained of neuer any that was not censured as worst VVhat is we see what was we neither inquire nor care That which is out of sight and vse is soone out of mind and ere long out of memory Yet the iniquity of others cannot excuse ours And if you will be but as iust as charitable you shall confesse that both some times exceed others in euill and these all This earthly Moone the Church hath her fuls and wainings and sometimes her eclypses whiles the shadow of this sinfull masse hides her beauty from the world So long as she wadeth in this planetary world it should be vaine to expect better it is enough when she is fixed aboue to be free from all change This you yeeld but nothing can perswade you that shee is not now in the full of her glory True or else she were not subiect to this darkning There was neuer more light of knowledge neuer more darknesse of impiety and there could not be such darknesse if there were not such light Goodnesse repulsed giues height to sin therefore are we worse then our predecessors because we might be better By how much our meanes are greater by so much are our defects Turne ouer all records and parallell such helps such care such cost such expectation with such fruit I yeeld We see but our owne times There was neuer but one Noah whom the Heathen celebrate vnder another name that with two faces saw both before and behind him But loe that Ancient of dayes to whom all times are present hath told vs that these last shal be worst Our experience iustifies him with all but the wilfull This censure lest you should condemne my rigour as vnnaturally partiall is not confined to our seas but free and common hath the same bounds with the earth I ioy not in this large society Would God we were euill alone How few are those whose cariage doth not say that profession of any conscience is pusillanimity How few that care so much as to shew well And yet of those few how many care onely to seeme whose words disagree from their actions and their hearts from their words Where shall a man mew vp himselfe that he may not be a witness of what he would not What can he see or heare and not bee either sad or guilty Oathes striue for number with words scoffes with oathes vaine speeches with both They are rare hands that are free either from aspersions of blood or spots of filthinesse Let mee bee at once as I vse bold and plaine VVanton excesse excessiue pride close Atheisme impudent profanenesse vnmercifull oppression ouer-mercifull conniuence greedy couetousnesse loose prodigality simoniacall sacriledge vnbrideled luxury beastly drunkennesse bloody treachery cunning fraud slanderous detraction
enuious vnderminings secret idolatry hypocriticall fashionablenesse haue spred themselues all ouer the world The Sunne of peace looking vpon our vncleane heaps hath bred these monsters and hath giuen light to this brood of darknesse Looke about you and see if three great Idols Honour Pleasure Gaine haue not shared the earth amongst them and left him least whose all is Your deniall driues mee to particulars I vrge no further If any aduersary insult in my confession tell him that I account them the greatest part of this euill neither could thus complaine if they were not VVho knowes not that as the earth is the dregs of the world so Italy is the dregs of the earth Rome of Italy It is no wonder to finde Satan in his Hell but to find him in Paradise is vncouth and grieuous Let them alone that will dye and hate to be cured For vs O that remedies were as easie as complaints That we could be as soone cleared as conuinced That the taking of the medicine were but so difficult as the prescription And yet nothing hinders vs from health but our wil neither Gospell nor Grace nor Glory are shut vp onely our hearts are not open Let me turne my stile from you to the secure to the peruerse tho why doe I hope they will heare mee that are deafe to God they will regard words that care not for iudgements Let me tell them yet if in vaine they must breake if they bow not That if mercy may be refused yet vengeance cannot be resisted that God can serue himselfe of them perforce neither to their thanke nor ease that the present plagues doe but threaten worse Lastly that if they relent not hell was not made for nothing What should be done then Except we would faine smart each man amend one and we all liue How commonly doe men complaine and yet adde to this heape Redresse stands not in words Let euery man pull but one brand out of this fire and the flame will goe out alone What is a multitude but an heape of vnities The more we deduce the fewer we leaue O how happy were it then if euery man would begin at home and take his owne heart to task and at once be his owne Accuser and Iudge to condemne his priuate errors yea to mulct them with death Till then alas what auailes it to talke While euery man censures and no man amends what is it but busie trifling But tho our care must begin at our selues it may not end there Who but a Cain is not his brothers keeper Publike persons are not so much their owne as others are theirs Who sits at the common sterne cannot distinguish betwixt the care of his owne safety and his vessels both drowne at once or at once salute the hauen Ye Magistrates for in you stand al our lower hopes whom God hath on purpose in a wise surrogation set vpon earth to correct her disorders take to your selues firme fore-heads courageous hearts hands busie and not partiall to discountenance shamelesse wickednesse to resist the violent sway of euils to execute wholesome lawes with strictnes with resolutiō The sword of the Spirit meets with such iron hearts that it both enters not and is rebated Loe it appeales to your arme to your ayd An earthen edge can best pierce this hardned earth If iniquity die not by your hands we perish And ye sonnes of Leui gather to your Moses in the gate of the Campe consecrate your hands to God in this holy slaughter of vice Let your voice be both a trumpet to incite and a two-edged sword to wound and kill Cry downe sinne in earnest and thunder out of that sacred chaire of Moses and let your liues speake yet louder Neither may the common Christian sit still and looke on in silence I am deceiued if in this cause God allow any man for priuate Here must bee all actors no witnesses His discreet admonitions seasonable reproofes and prayers neuer vnseasonable besides the power of honest example are expected as his due tribute to the common health What if we cannot turne the streame Yet we must swim against it euen without conquest it is glorious to haue resisted in this alone they are enemies that doe nothing Thus as one that delights more in amendment then excuse I haue both censured and directed The fauour of your sentence proceeds I know from your owne innocent vprightnesse So iudge of my seuere taxation It shall be happy for vs if wee can at once excuse and diminish accuse and redresse iniquity Let but the indeuour be ours the successe to GOD. EPISTLES THE THIRD AND LAST VOLVME CONTAINING TWO DECADS BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE MOST HIGH AND EXCELLENT PRINCE HENRY PRINCE of WALES All happinesse MOst Gratious Prince LEt me not whiles I desire to be dutifull seeme importunate in my dedications J now bring to your Highnesse these my last and perhaps most materiall Letters wherein if J mistake not as how easily are wee deceiued in our owne the pleasure of the variety shall striue with the importance of matter There is no worldly thing I confesse whereof I am more ambitious then of your Highnesses contentment which that you place in goodnesse is not more your glory then our ioy Doe so still and heauen and earth shall agree to blesse you and vs in you For me after this my officious boldnesse I shall betake my selfe in silence to some greater worke wherein J may approue my seruice to the Church and to your Highnesse as her second ioy and care My heart shall be alwayes and vpon all opportunities my tongue and pen shall no lesse gladly be deuoted to my gratious Master as one Who reioyce to be your Highnesses though vnworthy yet faithfull and obsequious Seruant IOS HALL THE SVMME OF THE SEVERALL EPISTLES DECAC V. EP. 1. To my B. Lord of Bathe and Wels. Discoursing of the causes and meanes of the increase of Popery EP. 2. To my Lord Bishop of Worcester Shewing the differences of the present Church from the Apostolicall and needlesnesse of our conformity thereto in all things EP. 3. To my Lady MARY DENNY Containing the description of a Christian and his differences from the worldling EP. 4. To my Lady HONORIA HAY. Discoursing of the necessity of Baptisme and the estate of those which necessarily want it EP. 5. To Sir RICHARD LEA. Discoursing of the comfortable remedies of all afflictions EP. 6. To Mr PETER MOLIN Preacher of the Church at Paris Discoursing of the late French occurrents and what vse God expects to bee made of them EP. 7. To Mr THOMAS SVTTON Exciting him and in him all others to early and cheerfull beneficence shewing the necessitie and benefit of good workes EP. 8. To E. B. Dedicated to Sir GEORGE GORING Remedies against dulnes and heartlesnes in our callings and encouragements to cheerfulnesse in labour EP. 9. To Sir IOHN HARRINGTON
citie garment house without them it cannot be well and perfect yet which of our aduersaries will say we haue no discipline Some they grant but not the right as if they said Your Citie hath a bricke wall indeed but it should haue one of hewne stone your Vineyard is hedged but it should be paled and ditched while they cauill at what we want we thanke God for what we haue and so much wee haue in spight of all detraction as makes vs both a true Church and a worthy one But the maine quarrell is against our Ministerie and forme of worship let these be examined this is the circle of their censure No Church therefore no Ministery and no Ministerie therefore no Church vnnaturall sonnes that spit in the face of those spirituall Fathers that begot them and the Mother that bore them What vvould they haue Haue we not competent gifts from aboue for so great a function Are wee all vnlearned vnsufficient Not a man that knowes to diuide the word aright As Paul to the Corinths Is it so that there is not one wise man amongst vs No man will affirme it some of them haue censured our excesse in some knowledge none our defect in all What then Haue wee not a true desire to doe faithfull seruice to God and his Church No zeale for Gods glory Who hath been in our hearts to see this Who dare vsurpe vpon God and condemne our thoughts Yea wee appeale to that onely Iudge of hearts whether he hath not giuen vs a sincere longing for the good of his Sion he shall make the thoughts of all hearts manifest and then shall euery man haue praise of God If then we haue both ability and will to doe publike good our inward calling which is the maine point is good and perfect for the outward what want we Are wee not first after good tryall presented and approued by the learned in our Colledges examined by our Church-gouernors ordain'd by imposition of hands of the Eldership allowed by the Congregations we are set ouer doe wee not labour in word and doctrine doe we not carefully administer the Sacraments of the Lord Iesus haue we not by our publike meanes wonne many soules to God what should we haue and doe more All this and yet no true Ministers we passe very little to bee iudged of them or of mans day but our Ordainers you say are Antichristian surely our censurers are vnchristian tho we should grant it some of vs vvere baptized by Hereticks is the Sacrament annihilated and must it be redoubled How much lesse Ordination vvhich is but an outward admission to preach the Gospell God forbid that we should thus condemne the innocent more hands vvere laid vpon vs then one and of them for the principall except but their perpetuall honour and some few immateriall rites let an enemie say what they differ from Super-intendents and can their double honour make them no Elders If they haue any personall faults why is their calling scourged Looke into our Sauiours times vvhat corruptions were in the very Priesthood It vvas now made annuall which was before fixed and singular Christ saw these abuses and was silent here was much dislike and no clamour we for lesse exclaime and separate euen personall offences are fetcht into the condemnation of lawfull courses God giue both pardon and redresse to this foule vncharitablenesse Alas how ready are we to tosse the fore-part of our Wallet whiles our own faults are ready to breake our necks behind vs all the world sees and condemnes their Ordination to be faulty yea none at all yet they cry out first on vs craftily I thinke left we should complaine that Church-gouernors should ordaine Ministers hath bin the constant practice of the Church from Christs time to this houre I except onely in an extreame desolation meerely for the first course that the people should make their Ministers was vnheard of in all ages and Churches till Bolton Browne and Barrow and hath neither colour nor example Doth not this comparison seeme strange and harsh Their Tradesmen may make true Ministers our Ministers cannot who but they would not be ashamed of such a position Or who but you would not thinke the time mis-spent in answering it No lesse friuolous are those exceptions that are taken against our worship of God condemned for false and idolatrous whereof Volumes of Apologies are written by others we meet together pray reade heare preach sing administer and receiue Sacraments wherein offend we How many Gods doe we pray to or to whom but the True God In what words but holy whom do we preach but the same Christ vvith them what point of faith not theirs What Sacraments but those they dare not but allow Where lyes our Idolatry that we may let it out In the manner of performing in set Prayers Antichristian Ceremonies of crossing kneeling c. For the former what sinne is this The original and truth of prayer is in the heart the voice is but as accidentall if the heart may often conceiue the same thought the tongue her seruant may often vtter it in the same words and if dayly to repeat the same speeches bee amisse then to entertaine the same spirituall desires is sinfull to speake once vvithout the heart is hypocriticall but to speake often the same request with the heart neuer offendeth What intolerable boldnesse is this to condemne that in vs which is recorded to haue been the continuall practice of Gods Church in al successions Of the Iewes in the time of Moses Dauid Salomon Iehosaphat Ezekiah Ieremie Of the ancient Christian assemblies both Greeke and Latine and now at this day of all reformed Churches in Christendome yea which our Sauiour himselfe so directly allowed and in a manner prescribed and the blessed Apostles Paul and Peter in all their formall salutations which were no other then set prayers so commonly practised for the other lest I exceed a Letter tho wee yeeld them such as you imagine worse they cannot bee they are but Ceremonious appendances the body and substance is sound Blessed be God that we can haue his true Sacraments at so easie a rate as the payment if they were such of a few circumstantiall inconueniences how many deare children of God in all ages euen neere the golden times of the Apostles haue gladly purchased them much dearer and not complained but see how our Church imposes them not as to binde the conscience otherwise then by the common bond of obedience not as actions wherein Gods worship essentially consisteth but as themselues Ceremonies comely or conuenient not necessarie whatsoeuer is this a sufficient ground of separation How many moderate and wiser spirits haue we that cannot approue the Ceremonies yet dare not forsake the Church and that hold your departure farre more euill then the cause You are inuited to a feast if but a Napkin or Trencher be mis-placed or a dish ill carued do you run from the Table and not
perswade and pray these I will not faile of The rest to him that both can amend and punish To M. IONAS REIGESBERGIVS in ZELAND EP. VII Written some whiles since concerning some new opinions then broached in the Churches of HOLLAND and vnder the name of Arminius then liuing perswading all great wits to a study and care of the common peace of the Church and disswading from all affectation of singularity I Receiued lately a short relation of some new Paradoxes from your Leiden you would know what wee thinke I feare not to be censured as medling your truth is ours The Sea cannot diuide those Churches whom one faith vnites I know not how it comes to passe that most men while they too much affect ciuilitie turne flatterers and plaine truth is most-where counted rudenesse He that tels a sicke friend he lookes ill or termes an angry tumour the Gowt or a waterish swelling Dropsie is thought vnmannerly For my part I am glad that I was not borne to feed humors How euer you take your owne euils I must tell you we pitie you and thinke you haue iust cause of deiection and we for you not for any priuate cares but which touch a Christian neerest the Common-wealth of God Behold after all those hils of carkases and streames of blood your ciuill sword is sheathed wherein we neither congratulate nor feare your peace lo now in stead of that another while the spirituall sword is drawne and shaken and it is well if no more Now the politick State sits still the Church quarrels Oh! the insatiable hostilitie of our great enemy with what change of mischiefes doth he afflict miserable man No sooner did the Christian world begin to breathe from persecution but it was more punished with Arrianisme when the red Dragon cannot deuoure the childe hee tryes to drowne the mother and when the vvaters faile he raises warre Your famous Iunius had nothing more admirable then his loue of peace when our busie Separatists appealed him with what a sweet calmnesse did he reiect them and with a graue importunitie call'd them to moderation How it would haue vexed his holy soule now out of the danger of passions to haue foreseene his chaire troublesome God forbid that the Church should finde a Challenger in stead of a Champion Who vvould thinke but you should haue bin taught the benefit of peace by the long vvant But if your temporal state besides either hope or beleefe hath growne wealthy with warre like those Fowles which fatten vvith hard weather yet bee too sure that these spirituall broyles cannot but impouerish the Church yea affamish it It vvere pitie that your Holland should bee still the Amphitheatre of the world on whose scaffolds all other Nations should sit see varietie of bloody shews not without pitie and horror If I might challenge ought in that your acute and learned Arminius I would thus solicit and coniure him Alas that so wise a man should not know the worth of peace that so noble a sonne of the Church should not bee brought to light without ripping the vvombe of his mother What meane these subtil Nouelties If they make thee famous and the Church miserable vvho shall gaine by them Is singularitie so precious that it should cost no lesse then the safety and quiet of our common mother If it be truth thou affectest what alone Could neuer any eyes till thine be blessed with this obiect where hath that sacred veritie hid her selfe thus long from all her carefull Inquisitors that shee now first shewes her head to thee vnsought Hath the Gospell shined thus long and bright and left some corners vnseene Away with all new truths faire and plausible they may be sound they cannot some may admire thee for them none shall blesse thee But grant that some of these are no lesse true then nice points what doe these vnseasonable crochets and quauers trouble the harmonious plaine-songs of our peace Some quiet error may bee better then some vnruly truth Who binds vs to speake all we thinke So the Church may be still would God thou wert wise alone Did not our aduersaries quarrell enough before at our quarrels Were they not rich enough with our spoiles By the deare name of our common parents vvhat meanest thou Arminius Whither tend these new-rais'd dissensions Who shall thriue by them but they which insult vpon vs and rise by the fall of truth who shall be vndone but thy brethren By that most precious and bloodie ransome of our Sauiour and by that awfull appearance we shall once make before the glorious Tribunall of the Sonne of God remember thy selfe and the poore distracted limmes of the Church Let not those excellent parts wherewith God hath furnished thee lye in the narrow vvay and cause any weake one either to fall or stumble or erre For Gods sake either say nothing or the same How many great wits haue sought no by-paths and now are happy vvith their fellowes Let it bee no disparagement to goe vvith many to heauen What could he reply to so plaine a charge No distinction can auoid the power of simple truth I know he heares not this of me first Neither that learned and vvorthy Fran. Gomarus nor your other graue fraternitie of reuerend Diuines haue beene silent in so maine a cause I feare rather too much noise in any of these tumults There may too many contend not intreat Multitude of suters is commonly powerfull how much more in iust motions But if either he or you shal turne me home and bid mee spend my little moisture vpon our owne brands I grant there is both the same cause and the same need This counsell is no whit further from vs because it is directed to you Any Reader can change the person I lament to see that euery where peace hath not many clients but fewer louers yea euen many of those that praise her follow her not Of old the very Nouatian men women children brought stones and morter vvith the Orthodoxe to the building of the Church of the resurrection and ioyned louingly with them against the Arrians lesser quarrels diuide vs and euery diuision ends in blowes and euery blow is returned and none of all lights beside the Church Euen the best Apostles dissented neither knowledge nor holinesse can redresse all differences True but wisdome and charitie could teach vs to auoid their preiudice If we had but these two vertues quarrels should not hurt vs nor the Church by vs But alas selfe-loue is too strong for both these This alone opens the floud-gates of dissension and drownes the sweet but low valley of the Church Men esteeme of opinions because their owne and will haue truth serue not gouerne What they haue vndertaken must bee true Victory is sought for not satisfaction victory of the Author not of the cause Hee is a rare man that knowes to yeeld as well as to argue vvhat should we doe then but bestow our selues vpon that vvhich
too many neglect publike peace first in prayers that we may preuaile then in teares that we preuaile not Thus haue I beene bold to chat with you of our greatest and common cares Your old loue and late hospitall entertainment in that your Iland called for this remembrance the rather to keepe your English tongue in breath vvhich was wont not to be the least of your desires Would God you could make vs happie with newes not of truce but sincere amitie and vnion not of Prouinces but spirits The God of spirits effect it both here and there to the glory of his Name and Church To W. J. condemned for murder EP. VIII Effectually preparing him and vnder his name whatsoeuer Malefactor for his death IT is a bad cause that robbeth vs of all the comfort of friends yea that turnes their remembrance into sorrow None can do so but those that proceed from our selues for outward euils vvhich come from the infliction of others make vs cleaue faster to our helpers and cause vs to seeke and find ease in the very commiseration of those that loue vs whereas those griefes which arise from the iust displeasure of conscience will not abide so much as the memorie of others affection or if it doe makes it so much the greater corrasiue as our case is more vncapable of their comfort Such is yours You haue made the mention of our names tedious to your selfe and yours to vs. This is the beginning of your paine that you had friends If you may now smart soundly from vs for your good it must be the only ioy you must expect and the finall dutie we owe to you It is both vaine and comfortlesse to heare what might haue beene neither would I send you backe to what is past but purposely to increase your sorrow vvho haue caused all our comfort to stand in your teares If therefore our former counsels had preuailed neither had your hands shed innocent blood nor iustice yours Now to your great sinne you haue done the one and the other must bee done to your paine and we your well-willers with sorrow and shame liue to be witnesses of both Your sinne is gone before the reuenge of iustice will follow seeing you are guilty let God be iust Other sinnes speake this cryeth and will neuer be silent till it be answered with it selfe For your life the case is hopelesse feede not your selfe with vaine presumptions but settle your selfe to expiate anothers blood with your own Would God your desert had been such that we might with any comfort haue desired you might liue But now alas your fact is so hainous that your life can neither bee craued without iniustice nor be protracted without inward torment And if our priuate affection should make vs deafe to the shouts of blood and partialitie should teach vs to forget all care of publique right yet resolue there is no place for hope Since then you could not liue guiltlesse there remaines nothing but that you labour to die penitent and since your bodie cannot bee saued aliue to endeuour that your soule may bee saued in death Wherein how happie shall it be for you if you shall yet giue care to my last aduice too late indeed for your recompence to the world not too late for your selfe You haue deserued death and expect it Take heed lest you so fasten your eyes vpon the first death of the bodie that you should not looke beyond it to the second which alone is vvorthy of trembling vvorthy of teares For this though terrible to Nature yet is common to vs with you You must die what doe we else And what differs our end from yours but in haste and violence And vvho knowes vvhether in that It may be a sicknesse as sharpe as sudden shal fetch vs hence it may be the same death or a vvorse for a better cause Or if not so there is much more misery in lingring Hee dies easily that dies soone but the other is the vtmost vengeance that God hath reserued for his enemies This is a matter of long feare and short paine A few pangs lets the soule out of prison but the torment of that other is euerlasting after ten thousand yeares scorching in that flame the paine is neuer the neerer to his ending No time giues it hope of abating yea time hath nothing to doe vvith this eternitie You that shall feele the paine of one minutes dying thinke what paine it is to be dying for euer and euer This although it be attended with a sharpe paine yet is such as some strong spirits haue endured without shew of yeeldance I haue heard of an Irish Traitor that when he lay pining vpon the vvheele with his bones broke asked his friend if he changed his countenance at all caring lesse for the paine then the shew of feare Few men haue died of greater paines then others haue sustained and liue But that other ouerwhelmes both bodie and soule and leaues no roome for any comfort in the possibilitie of mitigation Here men are executioners or diseases there fiends Those Deuils that were ready to tempt the gracelesse vnto sinne are as ready to follow the damned vvith tortures Whatsoeuer become of your carkase saue your soule from the flames and so manage this short time you haue to liue that you may die but once This is not your first sinne yea God hath now punished your former sinnes vvith this a fearfull punishment in it selfe if it deserued no more your conscience which now begins to tell truth cannot but assure you that there is no sinne more worthy of hell then murder yea more proper to it Turne ouer those holy leaues which you haue too much neglected and now smart for neglecting you shall finde murderers among those that are shut out from the presence of God you shall find the Prince of that darknesse in the highest stile of his mischiefe termed a man-slayer Alas how fearfull a case is this that you haue herein resembled him for vvhom Topheth was prepared of old and imitating him in his action haue endangered your selfe to partake of his torment Oh that you could but see what you haue done what you haue deserued that your heart could bleed enough within you for the blood your hands haue shed That as you haue followed Satan our common enemy in sinning so you could defie him in repenting That your teares could disappoint his hopes of your damnation What a happie vnhappinesse shall this be to your sad friends that your better part yet liueth That from an ignominious place your soule is receiued to glory Nothing can effect this but your repentance and that can doe it Feare not to looke into that horror which should attend your sinne and bee now as seuere to your selfe as you haue been cruell to another Thinke not to extenuate your offence vvith the vaine titles of manhood vvhat praise is this that you vvere a valiant murderer Strike your owne brest as Moses
giues to this agent in warre A iust man and fearing God His warfare saith Chrysostme hurt him not Did not Christ himselfe bid euen hee that said who so smites with the sword shall perish with the sword in case of priuate reuenge Qui non habet gladium vendat tunicam emat gladium The Angels themselues are heauenly souldiers Euery Christian is a souldier As he is a Christian he fights not against flesh and bloud but principalities and powers as he is a Christian souldier he fights both against flesh and bloud and principalities All the warres of God So that contrary to S. Martin who said I am a Christian I may not fight he must say I am a Christian I must fight And why may he not God when he makes vs Christians leaues vs the same wit to deuise stratagems the same hands to execute them All things as Erasmus wittily haue in them naturally a meanes of defence the Horse heeles Dog teeth Oxe hornes Porcupine quills Bee sting Serpent poyson those weaker creatures that cannot resist haue either nimble feet to out-runne vs or wings to out-flie vs Onely man is left naked Yet so as his furniture within can soone furnish him for without Yet all horses all warres are not written holy As there is a spirituall euill warre of the flesh against the spirit so there is a temporall of flesh against flesh Vnde bella saith Saint Iames. Militare propter praedam to fight for a booty saith Ambrose is sinne That witty Alphonsus King of Artagon to whom wee are beholden for so many Apothegmes had for his Imprese a Pellican striking herselfe in the brest and feeding her young with the bloud with a word Pro lege grege All warre drawes bloud oft of the innocent part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore must neuer be but pro lege for Religion or pro grege for the Common-wealth And as it hath these two grounds so also two directors Iustice and Charity Iustice that requires both authority in the menager and innocence in menaging Authority A sub-ordinate power is not capable of holy warre He onely may say pro lege that is custos vtriusque tabulae he onely pro grege that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If priuate men shall say pro lege or pro grege they are traytors and not souldiers In them as he said to Alexander war is but theft and murder Only Kings are the publike iusticers of the world which can command peace with their owne and punish the breach of peace in others Innocence Wrong no man saith Ioh. Bapt. That non ex iure is more than vnchristian brutish Charity whether in the intention Peace must be the end of warre Bellarmine said this one thing well That warre to the Common-wealth is as vulnera Chirurgi or in the action both of vndertaking and cessation vndertaking according to the Iewish prouerbe First we must enquire of Abel and the heathen Poet could say extrema nemo primo tentauit loco no iust warre is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cessation vpon iust satisfaction as Shebaes head raises the siege of Abel This is bellum Domini and Holinesse is written vpon the bells of these horses of warre Such were the warres of that blessed Constantine both Theodosij Honorius and all whom God wrote Holy and made happy Such were many gallant Princes of old perswaded that those warres of Palestine were who in a cunning wile were sent to get the Holy Land that in the meane time they might leese their owne How many Councels were summon'd how many Armies leuied one of 300000. at once by Pope Vrbans procurement how many streames of Christian bloud spilt to recouer the land of them that murdred Christ which God had cursed to confusion terram sacerrimam in the Plautine sense Such are those that are vndertaken against the scourge of Christendome the creature of Mahomet that Turkish Magog Such are those that the Defender of the Christian Faith hath been iustly prouoked to vndertake against that Romish Vsurper PETERS successor in nothing but in denying his Master The inclemency of the late Pope labouring to forestall him in his iust throne and the absurd pragmaticall impudency of the present in that grosse prohibition of a fauourable naturall oath for his Maiesties security in a sort countenancing rebellion against his Person beside those shamelesse libels of his factors to the scorne of Gods Anointed haue seemed to vsurpe Samuels message Vade percute demolire To omit priuate motiues Pope Vrbane in that his zealous Oration to the Councell of Cleremont vsed no one reason to perswade the world to draw their sword against the Turkes which might not iustly be vrged to Christian Princes to scale the walls of Rome Doth he speake of the Saracens prophaning of Ierusalem we parallel the shamefull profanations of the spirituall Ierusalem their heathenisme was neuer so idolatrous Doth he he speake of abusing the sepulchre of Christ we parallel them with the abusing of his sacred body Doth he speake of the cruelty of those sauages we also may say of them Effunditur sanguis Christianus Christi sanguine redemptus c. neither need I feare to say with Iunius that in this they are Trucis Truciores But I know what difference there is betwixt a Preacher and an Herald our title is Euangelizantes pacem And tho the sword of the hand doth well yet it is the sword of the mouth that must slay that Man of sinne Yet this I dare say that if in the cause of God and his Church this warre should be vndertaken Holinesse should be written vpon our Horses bridles and as we shall enter with fewer crosses vpon our brests than those honest souldiers into their holy warre so both our cause should bee more holy and wee should returne with fewer crosses on our backes But I meddle not with this There is a warre that wee cannot shake off Not with the person but the corruptions of that foule Church wee haue long waged it God had neuer any quarrell vpon earth if this be not his Our blessed forefathers haue shed their bloud in this field are glorious let vs stir vp our christian courage to this seruice vpon our horses heads shall be written holines vpon ours glory and immortality But take these horses bels altered as fits better by this writing from themselues what God writes is done Write this man childlesse therefore he must be so Ioel doth not so well comment vpon this place Breake your plow-shares into swords and your sithes into speares Ioel 3.10 as Mich. 4.3 They shall breake their swords into mattocks and their speares into sithes Mattocks and sithes the instruments of profit one for the commodities aboue the earth the other for those vnder it which as I take it would not be so strictly restrained to the very time of Christs comming when there was an vniuersall peace on earth and the Temple of Ianus
of God as man who fell on his face to his Father And this is due to God as a Father as a master as a benefactor as a God infinite in all that he is Let me be bold to speake to you with the Psalmist Come yee children Psal 34.11 harken to mee and I will teach you the feare of the Lord. What is it therefore to feare God but to acknowledge the glorious tho inuisible presence of God in all our wayes with Moses his eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. Sic semper Deum praesentem intelligit ac si ipsum qui praesens est in sua essentia viderit Bern. form hon vitae 2 Sam. 15.26 Senec. Epist Psal 36.1 to bee awfully affected at his presence with Iacob quà m tremendus to make an humble resignation of our selues to the holy will of God with Eli It is the Lord and to attend reuerently vpon his disposing with DAVID Here I am let him die to me as seemeth good in his eyes This is the leare of the Lord. There is nothing more talkt of nothing lesse felt I appeale from the tongues of men to their hands the wise Heathen taught mee to doe so Verba rebus proba The voice of wickednesse is actuall saith the Psalmist wickednesse saith there is no feare of God before his eyes Behold wheresoeuer is wickednesse there can be no feare of God these two cannot lodge vnde◠one roofe for the feare of God driues out euill saith Ecclesiasticus Ecclus 1.26 As therefore Abraham argues well from the cause to the effect Because the feare of God is not in this place therefore they will kill me So Dauid argues backe from the effect to the cause They imagine wickednesse on their bed c. therefore the feare of God is not before them I would to God his argument were not too demonstratiue Brethren our liues shame vs. If we feared the Lord durst we dally with his name durst we teare it in peeces Surely we contemn his person whose name we contemn The Iewes haue a conceit that the sinne of that Israelite which was stoned for blasphemy was onely this that hee named that ineffable name of foure letters Iehouah Shall their feare keepe them from once mentioning the dreadfull name of God and shall not our feare keepe vs from abusing it Durst we so boldly sinne God in the face if we feared him Durst wee mocke God with a formall flourish of that which our heart tells vs we are not if wee feared him Durst we be Christians at Church Mammonists at home if we feared him Pardon me if in a day of gratulation I hardly temper my tongue from reproofe for as the Iewes had euer some malefactor brought forth to them in their great feast so it shall bee the happiest peece of our triumph and solemnitie if we can bring forth that wicked profanenesse wherewith we haue dishonoured God and blemisht his Gospell to be scourged and dismissed with all holy indignity From this feare let vs passe as briefly through that which wee must dwell in all our liues the seruice of God This is the subiect of all Sermons mine shall but touch at it You shall see how I hasten to that discourse which this day and your expectation calls me to Diuine Philosophy teaches vs to referre not onely our speculations but our affections to action As therefore our seruice must be grounded vpon feare so our feare must be reduced to seruice What strength can these masculine dispositions of the soule yeeld vs if with the Israelites brood they be smothered in the birth Indeed the worst kinde of feare is that we call seruile but the best feare is the feare of seruants For there is no seruant of God but feares filially And againe God hath no sonne but hee serues Euen the naturall sonne of God was so in the forme of a seruant that he serued indeed and so did he serue that he indured all sorrow and fulfilled all righteousnesse So euery Christian is a son and heire to the King of heauen and his word must be I serue We all know what seruice meanes For we all are or were I imagine either seruants of masters or seruants of the publique or masters of seruants or all these We cannot therefore be ignorant either what we require of ours or what our superiours require of vs. If seruice consisted only in wearing of liueries in taking of wages in making of curtesies and kissing of hands there were nothing more easie or more common All of vs weare the cognizance of our Christianitie in our Baptisme all liue vpon Gods trencher in our maintenance all giue him the complements of a fashionable profession But be not deceiued the life of seruice is worke the worke of a Christian is obedience to the Law of God The Centurion when he would describe his good seruant in the Gospell needed say no more but this I bid him doe this and he doth it Seruice then briefly is nothing but a readinesse to doe as we are bidden and therefore both Salomon and he that was greater than Salomon describes it by keeping the commandements and the chosen vessell giues an euerlasting rule Rom. 6.1 His seruants yee are to whom yee obey Now I might distinguish this seruice into habituall and actuall Habituall for as the seruant while he eats or sleepes is in seruice still so are wee to God Actuall whether vniuersall in the whole carriage of our liues which Zacharie tells vs is in holinesse Luke 1.75 and righteousnesse holinesse to God righteousnesse to men or particular either in the duties which are proper to God Inuocation and Attendance on his ordinance which by an excellence is tearmed his seruice or in those which are proper to vs as wee are peeces of a Familie Church Common-wealth the stations whereof God hath so disposed that we may serue him in seruing one another And thus you see I might make way for an endlesse discourse but it shall content me passing ouer this world of matter to glance onely at the generality of this infinite theme As euery obedience serues God so euery sinne makes God serue vs. One said wittily that the angry man made himselfe the iudge and God the executioner There is no sinne that doth not the like The glutton makes God his cator and himselfe the guest and his belly his God especially in the new-found feasts of this Age wherein profusenesse and profanenesse striue for the tables end The lasciuious man makes himselfe the louer Lud. Viues de verit Relig. l. 4. and as Viues saies of Mahumet God the Pandar The couetous man makes himselfe the Vsurer and God the broker The ambitious makes God his stale Esay 43.24 and Honor his God Of euery sinner doth God say iustly Seruire me fecisti Thou hast made me to serue with thy sins There cannot be a greater honor for vs than to serue such a master as commands heauen earth
but halfe so carefull to haue vnderstood as he hath been forward to censure he would either haue beene I doubt not more equall towards it or more weighty against it As this Epistle is come to mine hands so I wish the answer of it may come to the hands of him that occasioned it Intreating the Christian Reader in the name of the Lord vnpartially to behold without either preiudice of cause or respect of person what is written on both sides and so from the Court of a sound Conscience to giue iust iudgement SECTION II. The answerers Preamble retorted confuted IT is an hard thing euen for those that would seeme sober-minded men in cases of Controuersie to vse soberly the frownes and disaduantages of causes and times whereby whiles men are deiected and troden downe they vse to behold their opposites mounted on high too repiningly and not without desperate enuie and so are oft-times moued to shoot vp at them as from below the bitter arrowes of spitefull and spleenish discourses thinking any hatefull opposition sufficiently charitable to oppugne those aduersaries which haue them as they feele at so great an aduantage vpon this impotent maliciousnesse it commeth to passe that this Answerer vndertaketh thus seuerely and peremptorily to censure that charitable censure of ignorance which as shall appeare in the sequell he either simply or willingly vnderstood not and to brand a deare Church of Christ with Apostasie Rebellion Antichristianisme What can bee more easie than to returne accusations Your Preamble with a graue bitternesse charges me with First Presumption vpon aduantages Secondly Weake and weightlesse discourse Thirdly Ignorance of the cause censured It had beene madnesse in me to write if I had not presumed vpon aduantages but of the cause of the truth not of the times Though blessed bee God the times fauour the truth and vs if you scorne them and their fauours complaine not to be an vnderling thinke that the times are wiser than to bestow their fauours vpon wilfull aduersaries but in spite of times you are not more vnder vs in estate than in conceit aboue vs so wee say the Sunne is vnder a Cloud wee know it is aboue it * * Hier. Marco Presbyt De cauernis cellularum damnamus orbeÌ„ in sacco cinere volutati de Episcopis sententiam ferimus Quid facit sub tunica poenitentis regius animus Cypr. l. 3. ep 9. Haec sunt initia haereticorum vt sibi placeant vt praepositum superbo tumore contemnant Harison once theirs in Psal 12â— of Browns Antichristian pride and bitternes Bredw pref M. Brinsley his pref to the 2. part of the Watch. Optat. Mil. de Donat. Collegae non eritiss si nolitis fratres estis c. Disclaimed by themselues Answer against Broughton page 21. Would God ouerlinesse and contempt were not yours euen to them which are mounted highest vpon best desert and now you that haue not learned sobriety in iust disaduantages taxe vs not to vse soberly the aduantages of time there was no gall in my pen no insultation I wrote to you as brethren and wisht you companions there was more danger of flatterie in my stile than bitternesse wherein vsed I not my aduantages soberly Not in that I said too much but not enough Not in that I was too sharpe but not weighty enough My opposition was not too vehement but too slight and slender So strong Champions blame their aduersarie for striking too easily you might haue forborne this fault it was my fauour that I did not my worst you are worthy of more weight that complaine of ease The discourse that I roll'd downe vpon you was weake and weightlesse you shall well finde this was my lenitie not my impotence The fault hereof is partly in your expectation not in my letter I meant but a short Epistle you look't belike for a volume or nothing I meant onely a generall monition you look't for a solide prosecution of particulars It is not for you to giue taskes to others pens By what Law must we write nothing but large Scholasticall Discourses Such Tomes as yours May wee not touch your sore vnlesse wee will launce and search it I was not enough your enemie forgiue me this error and you shall smart more But not onely my omissions were of ignorance but my censures though seuere and solemne An easie imputation from so great a controuler I pardon you and take this as the common lot of enemies I neuer yet could see any Scribler so vnlearned as that he durst not charge his opposite with ignorance If Dr Whitaker Separat schis M. Gyfford an ignorant Priest Barr. p. 63. Confer of D. Aud. M. Hutchins with Barrow Mr Perkins Mr Gyfford and that Oracle of our present times Dr Andrewes went away content with this liuery from yours how can I repine If I haue censured what cause I knew not let me be censured for more than ignorance impudencie but if you know not what I censured let all my trust lye on this issue take both ignorance boldnesse and malice to your selfe Is your cause so mysticall that you can feare any mans ignorance What Gobler or Spinster hath not heard of the maine holds of Brownisme Am I onely a stranger in Hierusalem If I know not all your opinions pardon me your owne haue not receiued this illumination I speake boldly not your selfe M. Spr. Considerat Iren. lib. 1. Per singulâ—s 〈◊〉 â—â—vum aliquod ad fectant c. Euery day brings new conceits and not one day teaches but corrects another you must be more constant to your selues ere you can vpbraid ignorance or auoid it But whether I knew your prime fancies appeares sufficiently by a particular discourse which aboue a yeere since was in the hands of some of your Clyents and I wonder if not in yours Shortly am I ignorant If I were obstinate too you might hope with the next gale for me your more equall aduersarie at Amsterdam As I am my want of care and skill shall I hope lose nothing of the truth by you nor suffer any of your foule aspersions vpon the face of Gods Church and ours But whiles we striue who shall be our Iudge The Christian Readers who are those Presume not yee more zealous and forward Countreymen that you are admitted to this Bench so farre are we meere English from being allowed Iudges of them that they haue already iudged vs to be no * * Barr. confer with Hutchins fol. 1. Browne Estate of true Christians Defence of true Christians against the D. D. of Oxford Iohns against Iacob passim Bar. against Gyfford Christians We are Goates and Swine no sheepe of God since then none but your Parlour in the West and Amsterdam must bee our Iudges who I beseech you shall be our Aduersaries God be Iudge betwixt you and vs and correct this your vnchristian vncharitablenesse SEP The crime here obiected is separation a thing very odious in the
lewd men from the Church by iust censures You speake confusedly of your owne separation one while of both another while of either single For the first either confesse it done by our Baptisme or else you shall be forced to hold we must rebaptize Charact. of Beast Praef. But of this Constitutiue separation anon For the second of sinners whether in iudgement or life some are more grosse hainous incorrigible others lesse notorious and more tractable those other must be separated by iust censures not these Which censures if they be neglected the Church is foule and in your Pastors word faultie Iohns Inquir and therefore calls for our teares not for our flight Now of Churches faultie and corrupted some raze the foundation others on the true foundation build timber hay stubble From those we must separate from these we may not PETERS rule is eternall Ioh. 6.68 Whither shall wee goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life where these words are found woe be to vs if we be not found Amongst many good separations then yours cannot be separated from euill for that we should so farre separate from the euill that therefore we should separate from Gods children in the communion of the holy things of God that for some after your worst done not fundamentall corruptions H. Cl. Epistle before Treatise of Sinne against the Holy Ghost we should separate from that Church in whose wombe wee were conceiued and from betwixt whose knees we fell to God in a word as one of yours once said to separate not onely from visible euill but from visible good as all Antichristian who but yours can thinke lesse than absurd and impious Grant we should be cleane separated from the World yet if we be not must you be separated from vs Doe but stay till God haue separated vs from himselfe Neque propter paleam relinquam aream Domini neque propter pisces males rumpimus retia Domini Aug. epist 48 will the wise Husbandman cast away his Corne-heap for the chaffe and dust Shall the Fisher cast away a good draught because his Drag-Net hath Weeds Doth God separate from the faithfull soule because it hath some corruptions her Inmates though not her commanders Certainly if you could thorowly separate the World from you you would neuer thus separate your selues from vs Begin at home separate all selfe-loue and selfe-will and vncharitablenesse from your hearts and you cannot but ioyne with that Church from which you haue separated Your Doctor would perswade vs you separate from nothing but our corruptious Answ Counterpoyson p. 2. you are honester and grant it from our Church it were happy for you if he lied not who in the next page confutes himselfe shewing that you separate from vs as Christ from the Samaritans namely from the Church not the corruptions onely Counterpoyson p. 7. 8. c. and not as he did from the Iewes namely from their corruptions not from their Church His memorie saues our labour and marres his discourse SEP The separation we haue made in respect of our knowledge and obedience is indeed late and new yet is it in the nature and causes thereof as ancient as the Gospell which was first founded in the enmitie which God himselfe put betwixt the seed of the Woman and the seede of the Serpent Genes 3.15 which enmitie hath not onely beene successiuely continued but also visibly manifested by the actuall separation of all true Churches from the World in their collection and constitution before the Law vnder the Law and vnder the Gospell Genes 4.13 14.16 6.1 2. 7.1.7 with 1 Pet. 3.20.12 12.2 Leuit. 20.24.26 Nehem. 9.2 Ioh. 17.14.16 Acts 2.40 19.9 1 Cor. 6.17 SECTION V. YET if not equitie it were well you could plead age The antiquitie and examples of separation This your separation in the nature and causes of it you say is no lesse ancient than the first institution of enmitie betwixt the two seedes you might haue gone a little higher and haue said than our first Parents running from God in the Garden or their separation from God by their sinne But we take your time and easily beleeue that this your late separation was founded vpon that ancient enmitie of the seed of the serpent Euseb Hist Ecc. with the womans That subtle Deuill when he saw the Church breath from the persecutions of Tyrants vexed her no lesse with her owne diuisions seeking that by fraud which by violence he could not effect Hence all the fearefull Schismes of the Church whereof yours is part This enmitie hath not onely beene successiuely continued but also too visibly manifested by the actuall but wilfull separation of Heretikes and Sectaries from the Church in all ages But I mistake you yours is as ancient as the Gospell What Hen. Steph. Apol Herod Fox Act. Monu H. N. his booke Gal. 1.6 Eph. 6.17 Col. 1.5 1 Tim. 1 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Euangelium aeteruum of the Friers whose name they accursedly borrowed from Reuel 14.6 Or that Euangelium Regni of the Familists Or that Euangelium aliud whereof Saint PAVL taxeth his Galatians None of all these you say but as that Gospell of Peace of Truth of Glory so ancient and neuer knowne till Bolton Barrow and Browne Could it escape all the holy Prophets Apostles Doctors of the old middle and later world and light onely vpon these your three Patriarchs Perhaps Nonatus or Donatus those Saints with their Schooles had some little glimpse of it but this perfection of knowledge is but late and new So many rich Mines haue lien long vnknowne and great parts of the World haue beene discouered by late Venturers If this course haue come late to your knowledge and obedience not so to others For loe it was practised successiuely in the constitution and collection of all true Churches through all times before the Law vnder the Law after it We haue acknowledged many separations but as soone shall you finde the time past in the present as your late separation Iren. de Valen. l. 1. Innumerabilem multitudinem Scripturarum quas ipsi finxerunt afferunt ad stuporem insensatorum Vid. Preface to M. Iacobs and Iohnson Confer and Barr. pass Description of the true visible Church Nihil autem miram si ex ipsius instrumento aptentur argumenta cum oporteat hereses esse quae esse non possunt si non perperam Scripturae intelligi possunt Tertull. de Resurrect Ibid. So Barrow tearmes Mast Gyffords Refut pag. 102. Si Christianus Iudaicae praeuaricanti carnaliter coniungatur à commuâ—â—ne Ecclesiae segregetur Dist 28. q. 1. Caâ—â— cap. siquis Iudaicae c. 1 Pet. 3.19 2 Pet. 2.5 in the ancient and approued You quote Scriptures though to your praise more daintie indeed than your fellowes Who cannot doe so Who hath not Euen Satan himselfe cites the word against him which was the word of his
it long since a zealous and learned Sermon dedicated to our present Lord Archbishop by his owne Chaplaine hath no lesse taxed this abuse whether of insufficiencie or negligence though with more discretion than can bee expected from your malicious Pen. Learne henceforth not to diffuse crimes to the innocent For the rest your Baal in our Dispensations for Pluralities would thus plead for himselfe First he would bid you learne of your Doctor to distinguish of sinnes sinnes saith hee are either controuertible or manifest if controuertible or doubtfull men ought to beare one with anothers different iudgement if they doe not c. they sinne such is this if some be resolued others doubt and in whole Volumes plead whether conuenience or necessity how could your charitie compare these with sinnes euicted Secondly Propâ—suit secundum plenitudirem pâ—testatis de iure posâ—â—mus supra iuâ— d spensare Glossâ— pâ—ulo infra Papa coÌ„tra Apostolum dispensat c. SuÌ„ confer p. 52. M. Wâ—ites disco hee would tell you that these Dispensations are intended and directed not against the offence of God but the danger of Humane Lawes not securing from sinne but from losse But for both these points of Non-residence and insufficiencie if you sought not rather strife than satisfaction his Maiesties Speech in the Conference at Hampton Court might haue stayed the course of your quarrellous Pen No reasonable minde but would rest in that Gracious and royall determination Lastly Why looke you not to your owne Elders at home euen your handfull hath not auoided this crime of Non-residency What wonder is it if our world of men haue not escaped SEP You are wiser and I hope honester than thus to attempt though that receiued Maxime amongst you No Ceremony no Bishop no Bishop no King sauours too strongly of that Weed But what though you be loyall to earthly Kings and their Crownes and Kingdomes yet if you bee Traytâ—â—â— and Rebels agains the King of his Church Iesus Christ and the Scepter of his Kingdome not suffering him by his Lawes and officers to reigne ouer you but in stead of them doe stâ—â—p to Antichrist in his offices and Ordinances shall your loyaltie towards men excuse your Treasons against the Lord though you now cry neuer folowd Wee haue no King but Caesar Iohn 19.15 yet is there another King one Iesus which shall returne and passe a heauy doome vpon the Rebellion Luke 19.27 These enemies which would not haue me reigne ouer them bring them and slay them before me SECTION XXXIIII Our Loyaltie to Princes cleered theirs questioned Bar. against Gyfford Inconst of Brown p. 113. YOv that confesse our wisedome and honesty must now plead for your owne your hope is not more of vs than our feare of you To depose Kings dispose Kingdomes is a proud worke you want power but what is our will For Excommunication it is cleere enough While you fully hold that euery priuate man hath as much power in this censure as the Pastor and that Princes must be equally subiect with them to these their censures Let any man now deuise if the Brownists could haue a King how that King could stand one day vnexcommunicated Or if this censure meddle onely with his soule not with his Scepter How more than credible is it that some of your Assemblies in Queene ELIzABETHS dayes concluded Ibid. that shee was not euen in our sense Supreme Head of the Church neither had authority to make Lawes Ecclesiasticall in the Church Inquiry into Th. White It is well if you will disclaime it But you know your receiued position That no one Church is Superiour to other No authoritie therefore can reuerse this Decree your will may doe it yea what better than Rebellion appears in your next clause While you accuse our Loyaltie to an earthly King as treasonable to the King of the Church Christ Iesus If our Loyalty be a sinne where is yours If we be Traytors in our obedience what doe you make of him that commands it Pag. 36. Whether you would haue vs each man to play the Rex and erect a new Gouernment or whether you accuse vs as Rebels to Christ in obeying the old GOD blesse King IAMES from such Subiects But whose is that so vnsauourie weed No Bishop no King Know you whom you accuse let me shew you your Aduersarie it is King IAMES himselfe in his Hampton Conference is there not now suspition in the word surely you had cause to feare that the King would proue no good subiect Belike not to Christ What doe you else in the next but proclaime his opposition to the King of Kings or ours in not opposing his Esa 26.13 As if we might say with the Israelites O Lord our God other Lords besides thee haue ruled vs If we would admit each of your Elders to be so many Kings in the Church wee should stoope vnder Christs Ordinances Shew vs your Commission and let it appeare whether we be Enemies or you Vsurpers Alas you both refuse the rule of this true Deputie and set vp false Let this fearefull doome of Christ light where it is most due Euen so let thine enemies perish O Lord. SEP Not to speake of the errour of vniuersall Grace and consequently of Free-will that groweth on â—pace amongst you what doe you else but put in for a part with God inconuersion though not through freedome of will yet in a deuised Ministery the meanes of conuersion it being the Lords peculiar as well to appoint the outward Ministery of conuersion as to giue the inward grace SECTION XXXV GOe on to slander Euen that which you say you will not speake you do speake with much spight and no truth Errors of Free-will c. fained vpon the Church of England What hath our Church to doe with errors of vniuersall grace or Free-will Errors which her Articles doe flatly oppose what shamelesnesse is this Is shee guilty euen of that which shee condemnes If some few priuate iudgements shall conceiue or bring forth an error shall the whole Church doe penance Would God that wicked and hereticall Anabaptisme did not more grow vpon you than those errours vpon vs you had more neede to defend than accuse But see Christian Reader how this man draggs in crimes vpon vs as Cacus did his 〈◊〉 We doe forsooth part stakes with God in our conuersion wherein in a deuised Ministerie the meanes of conuersion well fetcht about There may bee a Ministerie without a conuersion and è conuerso There may be a conuersion without a Ministery Where now are the stakes parted 1 Cor. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet thus we part stakes with the Apostle that wee are Gods Fellow-labourers in this great worke He hath separated vs to it and ioyned vs with him in it it is he as we haue proued that hath deuised our Ministerie yea your selfe shall proue it it is his peculiar to appoint the outward Ministery
name of God may blesse them The prayers which accompany this solemnitie are parts of Gods worship not the contract it selfe This is a mixt action therefore compounded of Ecclesiasticall and ciuill imposed on the Minister not vpon necessity but expedience neither essential to him but accidentally annexed for greater conuenience These two friuolous grounds haue made your cauill either very simple or very wilfull SEP Your Court of faculties from whence your dispensations and tolerations for Non-residency and Plurality of Benefices are had together with your commuting of Penances and absoluing one man for another Take away this power from the Prelates and you maime the Beast in a limme SECTION XXXIX SEE if this man be not hard driuen for accusations when he is faine to repeate ouer the very same crime Commutation of Penance in our Church which he had largely vrged before All the world will know that you want variety when you send in these twice-sod Coleworts Somewhat yet we finde new Commutation of Penance Our Courts would tell you that here is nothing dispenced with but some ceremony of shame in the confession which in the greater sort is exchanged for a common benefit of the poore into a pecuniary mulct yet say they not so as to abridge the Church of her satisfaction by the confession of the offender and if you grant the Ceremony deuised by them why doe you finde fault that it is altered or commuted by them As for Absolution you haue a spite at it because you sought it and were repulsed If the censures be but their owne so you hold why blame you the managing of them in what maner seemes best to the authors This power is no more a limme of the Prelacy than our Prelacy is that Beast in the Reuelation and our Prelacy holds it selfe no more S. Iohns beast then it holds you S. Pauls beast Phil. 3.2 Sep. In your High Commission Court very absolute where by the Oath Ex Officio men are constrained to accuse themselues of such things as whereof no man will or can accuse them what necessity is laid vpon men in this case let your prisons witnesse SECTION XL. Oath Ex officio I Aske of Auricular Confession you send me to our High Commission Court these two are much alike But here is also very absolute necessity of confession True but as in a case of iustice not of shrift to cleare a truth not to obtaine absolution to a bench of Iudges not to a Priests eare Here are too many ghostly Fathers for an auricular confession But you will mistake it is enough against vs that men are constrained in these courts to confesse against themselues why name you these courts onely Euen in others also oathes are vrged not onely ex officio mercenario but noâ—ili The honorablest Court of Star-chamber giues an oath in a criminall case to the defendant So doth the Chancery and Court of Requests Shortly to omit forraine examples how many instances haue you of this like proceeding in the common Lawes of this Land But withall you might learne that no Enquiry Ex officio may be thus made but vpon good grounds D. Cosâ—â—s his Apol. as Fame Scandall vehement presumption c. going before and giuing iust cause of suspicion Secondly D. Auâ—r determ de Iurâ—â—â—rando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 5.12 Icsh 7.19 1 Sam. 14 43. G. Iohns M. Crud Trouble at Amsterd p. 132. Non potest quis in vna causa eodem momâ—nto duas portarepersonas vt in eodem iudicio accusator sit iudâ—â— Optat. 〈◊〉 7. that this proceeding is not allowed in any case of crime whereby the life or limmes of the examined party may be indangered nor yet where there is a iust suspition of future periury vpon such enforcement Thus is the suspected wife vrged to cleare hâ—â— honesty by oath Thus the Master of the house must cleare his truth Exod. â—â— 8 Thus Aâ—â—an and Ionathan were vrged to be their owne accusers though not by oath But if perhap◠〈…〉 Iusticer in their proceedings must this b◠〈…〉 petty-Courts at ho◠〈…〉 onely to the Commission Court of England but to the Inquisition of Spaine See 〈◊〉 your Pastor defending himselfe to be both an accuser and Iudge in the same cause See their proceedings Ex Officio without commission and if your prisons cannot witnesse it your excommunications may SEP Though you haue lost the Shrines of Saints yet you retaine their daâ—es and those holy as the Lords day and that with good profit to your spirituall carnall Courts from such as pâ—â—fane them with the least and most lawfull 〈◊〉 notwithstanding the liberty of the siâ— dayes labour which the Lord hath giuen and as much would the Masters of these Courts bee stirred at the Casting of these Saints dayes out of the Calender 〈◊〉 were the Masters of the possessed maid when the Spirit of diuination was cast out of her Act. 1â— 19 SECTION XLI WEe haue not lost but cast away the Idolatrous shrines of Saints Holy-dayes how obserued in the Church of England their daies we retaine theirs not for worship of them which our Church condemneth but partly for â—ommoâ— oration of their high deserts and excellent examples partly for distinction indeed therefore Gods dayes and not theirs their praises redound to him shew vs where we implore them where wee consecrate daies to their seruice The maine end of Holy-daies is for the seruice of God and some Socr. l. 5. c. 21. Est 9.17 Nehe. 12.27 1 Mac. 4.29 Iohn 10.13 Aug. Ep. 44. Scias à Christianis Catholicis nullum coli mortuorum nihil denique vt numen adâ—rari quod fit factum condituâ—â— Ã Deo Quae tolo orbe terrarum c. sicuti quoque Domini passio resurrectio in coelum ascensus aduentus Spiritus sancti anniuersar à solemnitate câ—â—ebrantur Aug. Epist 118. Churches of France and Flanders in Harâ— confess Th Whites Discouer p. 1â— as Socrates sets downe of old quo se à láborum conteâ—â—ione relaxâ—â—â— for relaxation from labour and if such daies may be appointed by the Church as were the Holy daies of Pâ—rim of the dedication of the wall of Ierusalem the dedication of the Temple whose names should they rather beare though but for meere distinction than the blessed Apostles of Christ But his is a colour onely for you equally condemne those dayes of Christs Birth Ascension Circumcision Resurrection Anunciation which the Church hath beyond all memory celebrated what then is our fault Wee keepe these holy as the Lords day in the same manner though not in the same degree Indeed we come to the Church and worship the God of the Martyrs and Saints is this yet our offence No but we abstaine from our most lawfull labour in them True yet not in conscience of the day but in obedience to the Church If the Church shall indict a solemne Fast doe you not hold
onely by gesse hauing neuer so much as read ouer one Treatise published in our defence and yet sticke not to passe this your censorious dooâ—e both vpon vs and it I leaue it to the Reader to iudge whether you haue beene more lauish of your censure or credit Most vniust is the censure of a cause vnknowne though in it selfe neuer so blame-worthy which neuerthelesse may be praise-worthy for ought he knowes that censures it SECTION XLVII On what ground Separation or Ceremonies were obiected HEE that leaues the whole Church in a grosse and wilfull errour is an Heretike he that leaues a particular Church for appendances is a Schismaticke such are you both in the action and cause The act is yelded the cause hath beene in part scanned shall be more This I vainely pretended to be our consorting in Ceremonies with the Papists Behold here the ground of your lowd challenge of my ignorance Ignorance of your Iudgement and practice Here is my abuse of you of my Reader and how durst I Good words M. R. What I haue erred I will confesse I haue wronged you indeed but in my charitie I knew the cause of Brownisme but I knew not you For to say ingenuously I had heard and hoped that your cause had beene lesse desperate My intelligence was that in dislike of these Ceremonies obtruded and an hopelesnesse of future libertie you and your fellows had made a secession rather than a separation from our Church to a place where you might haue scope to professe and opportunitie to enioy your owne conceits whence it was that I termed you Ring-leaders of the late separation not followers of the first and made your plea against our Church imperfection not falshood I hoped you as not ours so not theirs not ours in place Inq. into M. White so not quite theirs in peeuish opinion I knew it to bee no new thing for men inclin ng to these fancies to beginne new Churches at Amsterdam seuerall from the rest witnesse the letters of some sometimes yours cited by your own Pastor I knew the former separation and hated it I hoped better of the later separation and pittied it My knowledge both of * * Which vpon the Loâ—ds Praye hath â—â—nfuted some 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 M. Smith whom you followed and your selfe would not let me thinke of you as you deserued How durst I charge you with that which perhaps you might disauow It was my charity therefore that made my accusations easie it is your vncharitablenesse that accuses them of ignorance I knew why a Brownist is a true Schismaticke I knew not you were so true a Brownist But why then did I write Taking your separation at best I knew how iustly I might take occasion by it to disswade from separation to others good though not to yours Now I know you better or worse rather I thinke you heare more Forgiue mee my charity and make the worst of my ignorance I knew that this separation which now I know yours stands vpon foure grounds as some beasts vpon foure feet First God worshipped after a false manner Barr. and Grâ—en passim Penr Exam. Secondly Profane multitude receiued Thirdly Antichristian Ministery imposed Fourthly Subiection to Antichristian Gouernment The Ceremonies are but as some one paw in euery foot yet if we extend the word to the largest vse diuiding all Religion into Ceremony and Substance I may yet and doe auerre that your separation is meerely grounded vpon Ceremonies SEP And touching the ceremonies here spoken of howsoeuer we haue formerly refused them submitting as all others did and doe to the Prelates spirituall Iurisdiction herein through ignorance straining at Gnats and swallowing Camels yet are we verily perswaded of them and so were before we separated that they are but as leaues of that tree and as badges of that Man of sinne whereof the Pope is head and the Prelates shoulders And sowe for our parts see no reason why any of the Bishops sworne seruants as all the Ministers in the Church of England are Canonically should make nice to weare their Lords liueries Which Ceremonies notwithstanding we know well enough howsoeuer you for aduantage extenuate and debase them vnto vs to be aduanced and preferred in your Church before the preaching of the Gospell It is much that they being not so much as Reed nor any part of the building as you pretend should ouerturne the best builders amongst you as they doe The proportion betwixt Zoar and them holds well Zoar was a neighbour vnto Sodome both in place and sinne and obnoxious to the same destruction with it and it was Lots errour to desire to haue it spared Gen. 19.15 18 19 20. and so he neuer found rest nor peace in it but forsooke it for feare of the same iust iudgement which had ouertaken the rest of the Cities verse 30. The application of this to your Ceremonies I leaue to your selfe and them to that destruction to which they are deuoted by the Lord. SECTION XLVIII ANd touching Ceremonies you refused them formerly but not long Estimation of Ceremonies and subiection to the Prelates and when you did refuse them you knew not wherefore for immediately before your suspension you acknowledged them to be things indifferent and for matter of scandall by them you had not informed your selfe by your owne confession of a whole quarter of a yeere after Why refused you then but as the Poet made his playes to please the people or as Simon Magus was baptized for company But refusing them you submitted to the Prelates spirituall Iurisdiction there was your crime this was your Camell the other your Gnats Did euer any Prelate challenge spirituall rule ouer your conscience This they all appropriate to the great Bishop of our soules and if other grant them as your malice faineth what sinne is it to be the subiect of a Tyrant now vpon more grace refusing the Prelacy you haue branded the Ceremonies So you did before your separation Tell vs how long was it after your suspension and before your departure that you could haue beene content vpon condition to haue worne this linnen badge of your Man of sinne Was not this your resolution when you went from Norwich to Lincolneshire after your suspension Deny it not my witnesses are too strong But let vs take you as you are these Ceremonies though too vile for you yet are good enough for our Ministers of England As if you said Lord I thanke thee I am not as this Publican Why for our Ministers Because those are the Liueries and these the sworne seruants of the Antichristian Bishops 1 Cor. 4.1 Ier. in Psal 44. Heming Class 3. Potest Eccl. c. 10. Vt cuique suus clirus sua plebs in bis quae Domini sunt pie obsequerentur We haue indeed sworne obedience to our Ordinary in honest and lawfull Commandements but seruice to Christ But doth all obedience imply seruitude This obedience is as to spirituall
haue much wickednesse in the City where wee liue you in the Church But in earnest doe you imagine wee account the Kingdome of England Babylon or the Citie of Amsterdam Sion It is the Church of England or State Ecclesiasticall which wee account Babylon and from which we withdraw in spirituall Communion but for the Common-Wealth and Kingdome as we honour it aboue all the States in the World so would we thankfully imbrace the meanest corner in it at the extremest conditions of any people in the Kingdome The hellish impieties in the Citie of Amsterdam doe no more preiudice our Heauenly Communion in the Church of Christ than the Frogs Lice Moraine and other plagues ouer-spreading Aegypt did the Israelites when Goshen the portion of their inheritance was free Exod. 8.19 nor than the Deluge wherewith the whole World was couered did NOAH when he and his Familie were safe in the ARke Genes 7. nor than Satans throne did the Church of Pergamus being established in the same Citie with it Reuel 2.12 13. SECTION LIII THe Church and State if they bee two yet they are twins and that so The neerenesse of the State Church the great errours found by the Separatists in the French and Dutch Churches as eithers euill proues mutuall the sinnes of the Citie not reformed blemish the Church where the Church hath power and in a sort comprehends the State shee cannot wash her hands of tolerated disorders in the Common-Wealth hence is my comparison of the Church if you could haue seene it not the Kingdome of England with that of Amsterdam I doubt not but you could bee content to sing the old song of vs Bona terra mala gens Our Land you could like well if you might bee Lords alone Thanks be to God it likes not you and iustly thinks the meanest corner too good for so mutinous a generation when it is weary of Peace it will recall you you that neither in Prison nor on the Seas nor in the Coasts of Virginia nor in your way nor in Netherland could liue in Peace What shall wee hope of your ease at home Where yee are all you thankfull Tenants cannot in a powerfull Christian state moue God to distinguish betwixt the knowne sinnes of the Citie and the Church How oft hath our Gracious Soueraigne and how importunately beene sollicited for a Toleration of Religions It is pittie that the Papists hyred not your Advocation who in this point are those true Cassanders Cassand de Offic. boni viri which Reuerend Caluin long since confuted Their wishes herein are yours To our shame and their excuse his Christian heart held that Toleration vnchristian and intollerable which you either neglect or magnifie Good Constantine winkt at it in his beginning Bellar. de Laicis Euseb in vita Const but as Dauid at the house of Zeruiahâ— Succeeding times found these Canaanites to bee prickes and thornes and therefore both by Mulcts and banishments sought either their yeeldance or voydance If your Magistrates hauing once giuen their names to the Church indeuour not to purge this Augean Stable how can you preferre their Communion to ours But howsoeuer now lest wee should thinke your Land-lords haue too iust cause to packe you away for Wranglers you turne ouer all the blame from the Church to the Citie yet your Pastor and Church haue so found the Citie in the Church and branded it with so blacke markes as that all your smooth extenuations cannot make it a lesse Babylon than the Church of England Behold now by your owne Confessions either Amsterdam shall be or England shall not be Babylon These eleuen crimes you haue found and proclaimed in those Dutch and French Churches Fr. Iohns Artic. against the French and Dutch Churches FIRST That the Assemblies are so contriued that the whole Church comes not together in one So that the Ministers cannot together with the Flocke sanctifie the Lords day the presence of the members of the Church cannot be knowne and finally no publike action whether Excommunication or any other can rightly be performed Could you say worse of vs Where neither Sabbath can bee rightly sanctified nor presence or absence knowne nor any holy action rightly performed what can there be but meere confusion SECONDLY That they baptize the seede of them who are no members of any Visible Church of whom moreouer they haue not care as of members neither admit their Parents to the Lords Supper Meere Babylonisme and sinne in constitution yea the same that makes vs no Church for what separation can there bee in such admittance what other but a sinfull commixture How is the Church of Amsterdam now gathered from the World THIRDLY That in the publike worship of God they haue deuised and vsed another forme of Prayer besides that which Christ our Lord hath prescribed Matth. 6. reading out of a Booke certaine Prayers inuented and imposed by man Behold here our fellow-Idolaters and as followes a daily Sacrifice of a set Seruice-Booke which in stead of the sweet Incense of spirituall Praiers is offered to God very Swines-flesh Barr. against Gâ—ff a new Portuise and an equall participation with vs of the Curse of addition to the Word FOVRTHLY That rule and commandement of Christ Matth. 18.15 they neither obserue nor suffer rightly to bee obserued among them How oft haue you said that there can bee no sound Church without this course because no separation Behold the maine blemish of England in the face of Amsterdam FIFTHLY That they worship God in the Idoll Temples of Antichrist so the Wine is marr'd with the Vessell their seruice abomination with ours neither doe these Antichristian stones want all glorious ornaments of the Romish Harlot yet more SIXTLY That their Ministers haue their set maintenance in another manner than Christ hath ordained 1 Chron. 14. and that also such as by which any Ministerie at all whether Popish or other might be maintained Either Tythes or as ill Behold one of the maine Arguments whereby our Ministerie is condemned as false and Antichristian falling heauy vpon our Neighbours SEVENTHLY That their Elders change yeerely and doe not continue in their Office according to the Doctrine of the Apostles and practise of the Primitiue Church What can our Church haue worse than false Gouernors Both annuall and perpetuall they cannot be What is if not this a wrong in Constitution EIGHTLY That they celebrate marriage in the Church as if it were a part of the Ecclesiasticall Administration a foule shame and sinne and what better than our third Sacrament NINTHLY That they vse a new censure of suspension which Christ hath not appointed no lesse than English presumption TENTHLY That they obserue daies and times consecrating certaine daies in the yeere to the Natiuitie Resurrection Ascension of Christ Behold their Calendar as truely possessed Two Commandements solemnly broken at once and we not Idolaters alone ELEVENTHLY which is last and worst that they receiue vnrepentant Excommunicates
like pictures vpon course Canuasse which shew fairest at farthest attributing forraine approbation which you cannot denie to distance more than to desert How is it then that besides strange witnesses we which looke vpon this face without preiudice commend it God knowes without flattery wee can at once acknowledge her infirmities and blesse God for her graces Our neighbours yea our selues of Scotland know our Church so well that they doe with one consent praise her for one of Gods best daughters neither doe the most rigorous amongst them more dislike our Episcopall Gouernment than imbrace our Church what fraud is this to flie from the Church in common to one circumstance we can honour that noble Church in Scotland may we not dislike their alienations of Church-liuings If one thing offend doe all displease Yet euen this Gouernment which you would haue them resist to bonds and banishment who knowes not begins to finde both fauour and place what choice other Churches would make as you doubt not so you care not If you regard their sentence how durst you reuile her as a false Harlot whom they honour as a deare Sister If you were more theirs than we you might vpbraid vs Now you tell vs what perhaps they would doe we tell you what they doe and will doe Euen with one voice blesse God for England as the most famous and flourishing Church in Christendome your handfull only makes faces enuies this true glory Who yet you say despise not our graces no more than wee those of Rome See how you despise vs while you say you are free from despite How malicious is this comparison as if wee were to you as Rome to vs and yet you despise vs more Wee grant Rome a true Baptisme M. Smiths retort vpon M. Clifton p. 50. true Visibility of a Church though monstrously corrupted you giue vs not so much Thankes be to God we care lesse for your censure than you doe for our Church We haue by Gods mercy the true and right vse of the Word and Sacraments and all other essentiall gifts and graces of God if there might be some further helps in execution to make these more effectuall we resist not But those your other imaginary ordinances as we haue not so we want not Neither the Caldeans nor any Idolatrous enemies could make Sion Babylon nor the holy vessels profane so as they should cease to be fit for Gods vse but they were brought backe at the returne of the captiuity to Ierusalem Such were our Worship Ministery Sacraments and those manifold subiects of your cauills which whilst you disgrace for their former abuse you call our good euill and willingly despise our graces SEP Where the truth is a gainer the Lord which is truth cannot bee a loser Neither is the thankes of ancient fauours lost amongst them which still presse on towards new mercies Vnthankefull are they vnto the blessed Maiestie of God and vnfaithfull also which knowing the will of their Master doe it not but goe on presumptuously in disobedience to many the holy ordinances of the Lord and of his Christ which they know and in word also acknowledge he hath giuen to his Church to be obserued and not for idle speculation and disputation without obedience It is not by our sequestration but by our confusion that Rome and Hell gaines Your odious commixture of all sorts of people in the body of your Church in whose lap the vilest miscreants are dandled sucking her brests as her naturall children and are be-blest by her as hauing right thereunto with all her holy things as Prayer Sacraments and other Ceremonies is that which aduantageth hell in the finall obduration and perdition of the wicked whom by these meanes you flatter and deceiue The Romish Prelacie and Priesthood amongst you with the appurtenances for their maintenance and ministrations are Romes aduantage Which therefore she challengeth as her owne and by which she also still holds possession amongst you vnder the hope of regaining her full inheritance at one time or other And if the Papists take aduantage at our condemnation of you and separation from you it concernes you well to see where the blame is and there to lay it lest through light and inconsiderate iudgement you iustifie the wicked and condemne the righteous SECTION LVII ALL the sequell of my Answerer is meerely sententious The issue of Separation it is fitter for vs to learne than replie Where the truth gaines say you God loseth not I tell you againe where God loseth the truth gaineth not and where the Church loseth God which indowed her cannot but lose Alas what can the truth either get or saue by such vnkinde quarrels Surely suspition on some hands on others reiection for as Optatus of his Donatists betwixt our Licet and your Non licet Inter licet vestrum non licet nostrum nutant ac remigant animae Christianorum Optat. coâ—â—â— Pâ—â—m many poore soules wauer and doubt neither will settle because we agree not Thanks are not lost where new fauours are called for but where old are denied While your Poesie is Such as the mother such is the daughter where are our old our any mercies They are vnthankfull which know what God hath done and confesse it not They are vnthankfull to God and his Deputie which knowing themselues made to obey presume to ouer-ruâ—â— and vpon their priuate authoritie obtrude to the Church those ordinances to be obseâ—ued which neuer had being but in their owne idle speculation Your Sequestration and our confusion are both of them beneficiall where they should not and as you pretend our confusion for the cause of your Separation So is your Separation the true cause of too much trouble and confusion in the Church Your odious tale of commixture hath cloyed and surfeted your Reader already and receiued answer to satietie this one dish so oft brought forth argues your pouertie The visible Church is Gods Drag-not and Field and Floore and Arke Non enim propter malos boni deserendi sed propter bonos mali tolerandi sunt c. Sicut tolerauerunt Prophetae c. Aug. Ep. 48. Barr. against Gyff here will be euer at her best Sedge Tares Chaffe vncleane Creatures yet is this no pretence for her neglect The notoriously euill shee casts from her brest and knee denying them the vse of her Prayers and which your Leaders mislike of her Sacrament If diuers through corruption of vnfaithfull Officers escape censure yet let not the transgressions of some redound to the condemnation of the whole Church In Gods iudgement it shall not we care litle if in yours Wee tell wicked men they may goe to hell with the water of Baptisme in their faces with the Church in their mouthes we denounce Gods iudgements vnpartially against their sinnes and them Thus we flatter thus we deceiue If yet they will needs runne to perdition Perditio tua ex te Israel Our Clergie is
of the Romish Church will not admit Reconciliation SECTION VII The Romish Heresie concerning Iustification SECTION VIII Concerning Free-will SECTION IX Concerning Merits SECTION X. Concerning Satisfaction SECTION XI Concerning Purgatorie SECTION XII Concerning Pardons SECTION XIII Concerning the distinction of Mortall and Veniall sinne SECTION XIV Concerning the Canon of the Scripture SECTION XV. Concerning the insufficiencie of Scripture SECTION XVI Concerning the authoritie of Scripture SECTION XVII Concerning Transsubstantiation SECTION XVIII Concerning the Multi-presence of Christs bodie SECTION XIX Concerning the sacrifice of the Masse SECTION XX. Concerning the number of Mediators and the Inuocation of Saints SECTION XXI Concerning the Superstitious Heathenish and ridiculous worship of the Papists SECTION XXII Concerning the impossibilitie of the meanes of Reconciliation THE OPINION OF George Cassander A LEARNED PAPIST AND GRAVE DIVINE That by two seuerall Emperors FERDINAND and MAXIMILIAN was set on worke to compose these quarrels of the CHVRCH In his consultation pag. 56. 57. YEt J cannot denie but that in the beginning many out of a godly zeale and care were driuen to a sharpe and seuere reproofe of certaine manifest abuses and that the principall cause of this calamitie and distraction of the Church is to bee laid vpon those which being puffed vp with a vaine insolent conceit of their Ecclesiasticall power proudly and scornefully contemned and reiected them which did rightly and modestly admonish their reformation Wherefore my opinion is that the Church can neuer hope for any firme Peace vnlesse they make the beginning which haue giuen the cause of the distraction that is vnlesse those which are in place of Ecclesiasticall Gouernment will bee content to remit something of their too much rigor and yeeld somewhat to the Peace of the Church and hearkening vnto the earnest Prayers and Admonitions of many godly men will set themselues to correct manifest abuses according to the rule of Diuine Scriptures and of the ancient Church from which they haue swarued NO PEACE WITH ROME SECT I. The state of the now-Roman Church THERE is no one question doth so racke the mindes of men G. Cassand l. de Consult Art 7. Ex articulo hoc de Ecclesia omnis haec distractio quae hodie est in republica Christiana originem ducit at this day as this of the Church The infancy of the Church was sore and long vexed with heresies of an higher nature concerning God concerning Christ which stil strook at the head but her vigorous hoary age is exercised with a slighter quarrell concerning our selues which yet raiseth vp the greater broyles euery where by how much euery man naturally loues himselfe more than God Not to meddle with any forraine questions of this nature Too many seeme vnto me to mis-conceiue the state of our Church the Romish as if they had beene alwaies two as if from their first foundations they had been sensibly seuered in time and place like to Babylon and Hierusalem Aug. de Ciuit. or those two famous Cities opposed in S. Austens learned discourse Hence are those idle demands of some smattering questionists Where our Church hath thus long hid it selfe What yeere and day it came to light in which age that other Church lost it selfe Why we haue withdrawne our selues no further from them What is become of our sorefathers Which was the religion of the former world From hence haue those sharpe and rigorous censures passed on both sides whether of nouelty or of the desperate condition of those soules which haue departed out of our owne way Alas what monsters both of opinions and questions haue risen hence and haue vexed not their owne Authors onely for the Delphick Oracle said well It is fit a man should haue as he doth Iulian Caes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudicum si quis quae secit perferat aequum est but together with them the whole Church of God How many silly soules haue splitted vpon this rocke which had neuer needed any votiue monument of their wracke if they had but learned to hold no other difference betwixt vs and Rome than must needs be granted betwixt a Church miserably corrupted and happily purged betwixt a sickly languished and dying Church and one that is healthfull strong and flourishing Neither therefore did that Valdus of France nor Wickliffe of England nor Hierom of Prague Anno. Do. 1160. nor Luther of Germany euer goe about to frame a new Church to themselues which was not but onely endeuoured not without happy successe to cleanse scoure restore reforme that Church which was from that filthy soyle both of disorder errors wherewith it was shamefully blemished Al these rather desired to be accounted Physitians to heale than parents to beget a Church And the same haue we carefully done euer since do seriously and ingenuously professe of our selues this day Rome is alike to vs as it was of old to Hierome with Eugubium Rhegium Alexandria saue that this citie is both more famous Hierom. Epist ad Euagr. more neere vs Places do not varie either faith or title What Church soeuer God shall call daughter wee will call sister and so we safely may How many honest and chaste matrons haue we knowne that haue beene ashamed of a lewd sister and haue abhorred filthinesse in one of their owne bloud So it fareth now with vs Rome is ouergone with heresie with Idolatrie Let her practise her whoredome at home by her selfe It was not for vs with the safegard of our honestie to dwell with such a partner Not onely her wickednesse hath thrust vs out but her violence We yeeld therefore and sorrowfully complaine with the Prophet Esa 21.22 How is the faithfull citie become an harlot It was full of iudgement and iustice lodged therein but now it is full of murderers Thy siluer is become drosse and thy wine is brewed with water Away with the imperious name of a mother Wee are all the same Church by the virtue of our outward vocation whosoeuer all the world ouer worship Iesus Christ the onely Sonne of God and Sauiour of the world and professe the same common Creed some of vs doe this more purely Iren. l. 1. c. 2.3 others more corruptly In the meane time we are all Christians but sound Christians wee are not But how harslhly doth this sound to a weake Reader and more than seemes to need reconciliation with it selfe that the Church should be one and yet cannot be reconciled certainly yet so it is The dignitie of the outward forme which comprehends this vnitie in it selfe auailes nothing to grace nothing to saluation nothing to the soundnesse of doctrine The net doth not straight make all to bee fish that it hath dragged together ye shall finde in it vile weeds and whatsoeuer else that deuouring Element hath disgorged The Church is at once One in respect of the common principles of faith and yet in respect of consequences Cyp.l. 3.
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
with you also from him Doe not talke and purpose and proiect but execute Doe not so doe good that wee may thanke your death-bed for it and not you Late beneficence is better then none but so much as early beneficence is better then late Hee that giues not till hee dyes shewes that hee would not giue if hee could keepe it And God loues a cheerfull giuer That which you giue thus you giue it by your Testament I can scarce say you giue it by your will The good mans praise is Dispersit dedit he disperses his goods not he left them behind him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God His righteousnesse endureth for euer Psalme 112.9 Our Sauiour tells vs that our good works are our light Let your light so shine that men may see your good workes which of you lets his light go behinde him and hath it not rather caried before him that he may see which way it goes and which way himselfe goes by it Doe good therefore in your life that you may haue comfort in your death and a Crowne of life after death Now all this haue I spoken not for that I haue ought as S. Paul sayes whereof to accuse my Nation Blessed be God as good workes haue abounded in this age so this place hath superabounded in good workes Bee it spoken to the glory of that God whose all our good works are to the honour of the Gospell to the conuiction of that lewd slander of Solifidianisme London shall vye good workes with any City vpon earth This day and your eares are abundant witnesses As those therefore that by an handfull ghesse at the whole sacke it may please you by this yeeres Briefe to iudge of the rest Wherein I doe not feare lest Enuie it selfe shall accuse vs of a vaine-glorious ostentation Those obstreperous benefactors that like to Hens which cannot lay an egge but they must cackle straight giue no almes but with trumpets lose their thankes with God Almes should be like oyle which though it swimme aloft when it is falne yet makes no noise in the falling not like water that still sounds where it lights But howsoeuer priuate beneficence should not be acquainted with both the hands of the giuer but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret yet God should bee a great loser if the publike fruits of charity should bee smothered in a modest secrecy To the praise therefore of that good God which giues vs to giue and rewards vs for giuing to the example of posterity to the honor of our Profession to the incouragement of the wel-deseruing and to the shame of our malicious aduersaries heare what this yeare hath brought forth Here followeth a briefe memoriall of the charitable acts of the City this yeere last past c. And if the season had not hindered your eyes should haue seconded your eares in the comfortable testimonie of this beneficence Euge c. Well done good and faithfull seruants Thus should your Profession bee graced thus should the incense of your almes ascend in pillers of holy smoke into the nostrils of God thus should your talents bee turned into Cities This colour is no other then celestiall and so shall your reward be Thus should the foundation be laid of that building whose wals reach vp vnto heauen whose roofe is finished and laid on in the heauen of heauens in that immortalitie of glory which the God of all glory peace and comfort hath prouided for all that loue him Vnto the participation whereof the same God of ours mercifully bring vs through the Sonne of his loue Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite and incomprehensible God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen FINIS THE HONOVR OF THE MARIED CLERGIE MAINTAINED AGAINST THE MALICIOVS CHALLENGES of C.E. Masse-Priest OR THE APOLOGIE WRITTEN SOME yeares since for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall made good against the Cauils of C. E. Pseudo-Catholike Priest Jn three Bookes BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD AND MY MOST HONORED Lord GEORGE Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitane one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Councell MOST REVEREND FATHER and no lesse honored Lord IT was my desire and hope to spend the residue of my Time and thoughts in sweet and sacred Contemplation Satan enuying me this happinesse interrupts me by the malice of an importunate Aduersarie Twelue yeares agoe I wrote a little Apologeticall Letter for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall and now thus late when I had almost forgot that I had written it a moody Masse-priest drops out a tedious and virulent Refutation thorow my sides striking at the most Honorable and flourishing Clergie of the whole Christian world labouring not so much for my disgrace what would that auaile him as the dishonour and scorne of our holy Profession in the eyes of our people I could contemne it in silence if the Quarrell were onely mine Now my wrong cannot be distinguished from thousands God and his Church are ingaged in this cause which in my foile could not but sustaine losse neither may I be now silent with safetie without misconstruction Let this hand and Tongue bee no longer mine then they may serue my Master in Heauen and his Spouse on Earth That which I wrote in some three houres he hath answered in three quaternions of yeares and what I vvrote in three leaues hee hath answered in no fewer Pages then 380. Should I follow him in this proportion hee might after some Centuries of yeares expect an answer in Tostatus-hydes whose first word should be Quis legit haec Or if my patience would delay my Reply to the iust paces of his Answer this Volume of his vvould perhaps bee vanished into Grocers shops for waste Paper in thuris piperisue cucullos and vvould no more need answer then now it deserueth one But hearing of the insultation of some Popishly affected who gloried and triumphed in this ACHILLES pro Catholicis I addressed my selfe to the Worke vvith no little indignation and no lesse speed That my selfe-conceited Aduersarie and his seduced abettors may see how little a well-ordered Mariage is guilty of deadding our spirits or slacking our hands At the beginning of this Summers Progresse when it pleased his sacred Maiestie to take notice of this sorie Libell and to question vvith me concerning it I had not so much as read it ouer so newly vvas it come to my hands ere his happy returne be it spoken to the onely glory of him that inabled me I had not only finished this Answer but twice written it ouer with my owne hand and yet made this but the recreation of the weightier businesse of my Calling which now did more then ordinarily vrgeme It was my purpose to haue answered as beseemeth the person
the Popes leaue without any reasonable cause that such Mariage of his is a true Mariage and the parties maried are true Husband and Wife and their Issue truely legitimate although in so marying both the parties should sinne mortally in doing this act against the Vow of Chastity without a reasonable or at least a probable cause of their so licensing and consequently neither should the Pope himselfe be excused from mortall sin But if there be any reasonable cause of dispensing with this vow of Chastity then the party thus marying and dispenced with may both safely marry and liue in Mariage And hereupon it appeares That since a reasonable cause of dispensing with this Vow of Chastity may bee not onely the publike Vtility whether Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall but any other greater good then the obseruing of that Chastity it iustly followes that the Pope not only may but with a safe Conscience may dispence with a Priest of the Westerne or Roman Church that he may marry euen besides the cause of a publike benefit And therefore the determination of some hath beene too presumptuous in affirming That absolutely and without such cause the Pope cannot dispence whereas as we haue shewed the Pope may doe it without any cause though in so doing he should sinne and with any reasonable cause without sinne and in both the Matrimony stands firme Thus he Words that neede neither Paraphrase nor Inforcement And how h h Sedes clementissima quae nulli deesse consâ—euit dummodo albi aliquid vel rubei intercedat Matth. Paris Alius abusus est in dispensationibus cum Constitutis in Sacr. Ord. c. vsuall the practice of this Dispensation hath beene that we may not rest onely in Speculation appeares enough by the ingenious complaint of their i i Concil Select Card. Si Sacerdotes non maturâ deliberatione se astrinxerunt videat Rom. Pont. qui circa haec solet dispensare quid sit agendum in particularibus Mart. Perefius c. selected Cardinalls to Paul the third Who cry downe the abuse of these ouer-frequent Grants which they would not haue yeelded but vpon publike and weighty Causes especially say they in these Times wherein the Lutherans vrge this matter with so much vehemence Neither is it long since our kind Apostate M. Carier gaue vs here in England from bigger Men then himselfe an ouerture of the likelyhood of this liberall Dispensation from his holy Father of Rome vpon the conditions of our re-subiection Would we therefore but stoope to kisse the Carbuncle of that sacred Toe our Clergy might as well consist with holy Wedlocke as the Grecian Oh the grosse mockery of Soules not more ignorant then credulous Will his Holinesse dispense with vs for our sinne We can be dispensed with at home for his dispensation It is their Sorrow that the World is growne wiser and findes Heauen no lesse neere to Douer-Cliffe then to the Seuen-hills And ere we leaue this point it is very considerable what may be a reasonable cause of this Dispensation For those very k k His votis afirictus non potest Matrimonium absque Dispensatine iâ—ire quamuis vebementissimis carnis stimulis vrgeatur c. Sanch. l. 7. de Matr. Imped Disp. 11. Authoritas superioris dispensantis expectanda est Communis illa regula Doctorum nominatim Caietani nimirum quando ei qui vouit conflat aliquid esse melius praeteritá voti materia posse propriâ authoritate recedere Sanch. de Matr. l. 7. de Impedim Disp Iesuites which hold the power of this Vow such That the vehementest tentations and foyles of the flesh may not be relieued with an arbitrary Matrimonie since the matter of this Vow is so important and caries so much danger in the violation as that it is not to bee left to the power of a priuate Iudgement though morally certaine whether Matrimonie all things considered be in this particular expedient for that may bee fit for a man as a singular person which is not fit for him as part of the community yet they grant that this extreame perplexednesse and violence of carnall motions is a iust cause of dispensation What need we more Though some l l Angel Matr. 3. Jmped 5. in fine vera cruz 1. part spec art 15. Casuists be more fauourable and grant that in such cases we may not onely allow but perswade Matrimonie to the perplexed Votary As Cardinall m m Aen. Syl. Epist 307. So Benedict 12. gaue Dispensation to Petrarch Archdeacon of Parma to marry his Laura too neere him in blood as it is thought and ex vberiore gratiae that he should keepe all his Promotions and receiue yet more on coâ—dion that the said Benedict might haue the vse of Petrarchs sister Matth. Parker Defens of Pr. Marr. ex Fasciculo Temp. Platina vita Petrarchae c. Aeneas Syluius who was neuer lesse Pius then when he was Pius giues this hearty aduice to his friend Iohn Freünd a Roman Priest that he should notwithstanding his Orders helpe himselfe by Mariage yet the former will serue our turne If therefore those superiours which haue all lawfull and spirituall authority ouer vs shall haue thought good vpon this reasonable cause to giue a generality of dispensation to all such of our Clergie as shall not after all carefull and serious indeuours find themselues able to containe allowing them by these lawfull remedies to quench those impure flames What can any Iesuit or Deuill except against this This is simply the cleere case of them whose cause I maintaine And yet further Put the case this had not been if without the thought of any Romish Dispensation the n n Occidentalis non Orientalis Ecclesia castitatis obtulit votum in Dist 31. Easterne Church neuer held it needfull to require the Vow of single life in the Ministers of the Altar they know the words of their own Glosse why should not our Church challenge the same immunity for that from the generall consideration of Ecclesiastiques as such we may turne our eies to our Ecclesiastiques in speciall no Church vnder heauen kept it selfe more free from the bondage of those tyrannous Impositions The o o Vid postea Epist Girard Eboracens Arch. ad Anselm Huntingd. Fabian Polidor Virgil. vid. post lib. 3. Clergie of this Iland from the beginning neuer offered any such vow the Bishops neuer required it for more if any credit be due to Histories then a thousand yeeres after Christ The great Champion of Rome Master Harding was driuen to say They did it by a becke if not by a Dieu-gard but could neuer proue it done by either Neither is it more worth my Readers note then my Aduersaries indignation that the wise Prouidence of God so pleased to contriue it of old as that from the beginning of the first conuersion of this happy Island it rather conspired with the Greek Church then with the Roman After the Grecian account we
26. Chapters and for things which are not found in him As if the man had desperately sworne to write nothing but false Trust not me Reader Trust thine â—â—â—e eyes Thou shalt finde that Booke of h h Vid Et. sch Eaiâ— Basil Anno 1587. Eusebius to haue one and thirty Chapters and in the cited place thou shalt duly finde the History of Domnus Whose patience would not this impudency moue If I reckoned not examples enow or such as he likes not as vniustly seeming litigious there is choice enough of more Tertullian Prosper Hilary Eupsychus Polycrates and his seuen Ancestors to which let him adde 24 Diocesses at once in Germanie France Spaine Anno 1057 of maried Clergie-men recorded by their own i i For Act. Mon. in buâ— quaest Gebuilerus and make vp his mouth with that honest confession of Auentine k k Auent hist Boior l. 5. Their Wiues called praesbyterissa ibid. c. honesto vocabulo as he there speakes Sacerdotes illa tempestate publicè vxores sicut caeteri Christiani habebant filios procreabant Priests in those dayes publikely had wiues as other Christians had and begat children which the old Verse if he had rather expresses in almost the same termes Quodam Praesbyteri poterant vxoribus vti which his Mantuan hath yet spun in a finer thred as we shall shew in this Section What l l Hodie apud Graecos Sacerdotes post susceptum ordinem ducere vxorem sed vnicam ac virginem à Graecis didici Proposit Er asmicorum censur cum declaratione c. de caâ—â—ibaetu danger is there now therefore either of the breach of my promise to my worthy friend Master Doctor Whiting or of my diuorce or of his victory If the man and his modesty had not been long since parted these idle crackes had neuer beene But whereas this mighty Champion challeges mee with great insultation in many passages of his brauing discourse to name but one Bishop or Priest of note which after holy Orders conuersed coniugally with his Wife without the scandall of the Church branding such if any were for infamous and daring to pawne his cause vpon this tryall I doe here accept his offer and am ready to produce him such an Example as if all the Iesuites heads in the world stood vpon his shoulders Tu vero si quid minus per aetatem in hymnâ— Epistola intelligis His children hurt him not not his Wife lawfully conioyned in Wedlocke in those dayes God misâ—â—â—d 〈◊〉 the Mariage bed nor the cradle 〈◊〉 they could not tell how to wrangle against I doe not vrge to him that Prosper of Aquitane a Bishop and a Saint whose Verses to his Wife are famous and imply their inseparable conuersation Age iam precor mearum Cornes irremot a rerum c. Nor yet the fore-named Hilary Bishop of Poitlers who in his old age if that Epistle be worthy of any credit writing to his Daughter confesses her yeares so few that through the incapacitie of her age shee might perhaps not vnderstand the Hymne or Epistle of whom the honest Carmelite Mantuanus could ingenously confesse Non nocuit tibi progenies non obstitit vxor Legitimo coniunct a thoro Non horruit illa Tempestate Deus thalamos cunabula taedâ—â— Nor Bishop Simplictus of whom m m Sidon Apol. Conc. adâ—unct Cp. 9. l. 7. Sidonius giues this praise that his Parents were eminent either in Cathedris or Tribunalibus and that his Pedigree was famous either Episcopis or Praefectis and for his wife that she was of the Stock of the Palludii qui aut literarum aut altarium cathedras cum sui ordinis laude tenuerunt of whom also Sidonius can say she did respondere Sacerdotiis vtriusque familiae answer the Priesthoodâ— of either Family Nor Alcimus n n Alcim Auit Vien Gal. Arch. l. ad sororem circa An. 492. Auitus the French Archbishop who writing to his Sister of her Parentage hath thus Stemma Parentum I will not deare Sister make report of the Pedegree of thy great Grandsâ—â—â—eâ— c. 〈…〉 renowâ—ed life of Priests made famous to the World Quos licet antiquo mundus donârit honore Et titulis à primaeuo insigniuerit ortu Plus tamen ornantur sacris insignibus illi c. Nec jam atauos soror alma tibi proanosque retexam Vita Sacerdotum quos reddidit inclyta claros Nor Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania to whom Ausonius writes Tanequil tua nesciat istud And Formidatamque iugatam objicis c. These and such like might suffice reasonable men but since wee haue to doe vvith those Aduersaries whom S. Paul cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if we vrge hundreds of such euident examples turne vs off with bold shifts and will needs put vs to proue those acts which seeke secrecie Let him and all his complices whet their wits vpon that cleare and irrefragable place of Gregory Nazianzen a man beyond all exception who brings in his Father Gregory whom the world knowes to haue beene Bishop of the same See speaking thus of him Greg. Naz. Car. de vita sua Edit Marel Parâ— To. 2. p. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nondum tot anni sunt tui quot jam in sacris mihi sunt peracti victimis c. That is The yeares of thy age are not so many as of my Priesthood Words that will conuince the most importunate gain-sayer that Greg. Nazianzen was borne to his worthy father after the time of his holy Orders And lest any man should suspect that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nondum may reach onely to the birth not to the begetting of Gregory Nazianzen so as perhaps he might be borne after his Fathers Orders begotten before them Let him know to make all sure and plaine that Gorgonia and Caesarius the sister and brother of this Gregory were by the same father begotten afterwards as is euident both by that Verse of Nazianzen who speaking of his mother as then childlesse when she begged him of God sayes Ibid. de vita sua c. Iamâ— Cupiebat illa masculum foetum domi Spectare magna vt pars cupit mortalium Elias Cretens In Orat. Greg. Naz. 19. And the cleare Testimonie of Elias Cretensis Quamvis enim si natiuitatem spectes c. Although saith he if you regard his birth he was not the onely child of his Parents forasmuch as after him both Gorgonia and Caesarius were borne Thus he O infamous Gregories the scum of the Clergie O irregular Father that durst defile his sacred function with so carnall an act O shamelesse sonne that blushes not to proclaime his owne sinfull generation Goe now petulant Refuter and see whether you can either yeeld or answer As for that glorious shew of Antiquity where with C. E. hopes to bleare his Readers eyes gracing himselfe herein
know none must it needs therevpon be false Which of their Histories is not lyable to variety of report To beginne with the first The succession of Linus and Cletus and Clemens is diuersly reported is there no truth in it To end with the last The title of Paul the fift to the chaire of Peter in the lawfulnesse of his election is diuersly reported hath hee therefore no true claime to his seat But who euer placed Gregories pond in Sicily This is one of the fittens of his Fitz-Simons If other authors haue mentioned this narration then all the strength of this History lyeth not on Hulderick If none besides him his words vary not These are but tricks to out-face truth The Epistle in spight of contradiction is so ancient and what care wee then for names Whether it were Saint Vdalricke or Hulderick or Volusianus wee labour not much Let it bee the taske of idle Criticks to dispute who was Hecuba's mother and what was her age No lesse vaine is my Refuter that spends many wast words about his Saint Vdalricke in shewing the difference of time betwixt him and Pope Nicolas the one dying Anno 869. the other being borne 890. and prouing out of his obscure Sorbonist Monchiacenus that there were fiue Bishops of Auspurge betwixt the times of the one and the other whereby a simple Reader might easily bee deluded and drawne to thinke there is nothing but impossibily and vntruth in our report whereas there is nothing in all this peremptory and colourable flourish of his but meere cogging or misprision For both Illyricus apart and the Centurists and Chemnitius all Germanes that should be best acquainted with the state of their owne haue long since told him that his Saint Vdalricke was not the man whom they held the Author of this Epistle but Hulderick another not much different in name but differing in time aboue seuenty yeares Ne nominis aequiuocatio lectorem turbet Chem. hist de Caeliâ—otâ— and lest the equinocation of the name saith Chemnitius should trouble the Reader There is another Vdalricke of Augusta whom Auentine writes to haue dyed Anno 973. But this Hulderick Aeneas Syluius writes to haue dyed Anno 900 and in the yeare of his age 83. Thus he from the authority of two their famousest Historians from whose account Onuphrius differs not much But that my Refuter may hereafter saue the labour of scanning their discordant Computations whether it were either or neither of them it is not worth to vs one hayre of his crowne since with our faithfull and learned Foxe wee rather from the authority of ancient English Copies Act. Mon. p. 1055. ascribe it to Volusianus whose second Epistle also in the same stile to the same purpose is extant from the same Records not inferiour to the former What matters it for the name when it appeares that the Epistle it selfe is truly anclent ponderous reuerend Theologicall conuictiue and such as the best Romanes heads cannot after seuen hundred yeares shape a iust answer vnto Euen in some Canonicall Bookes though there bee difference in the names of the Pen-men there is full assent to their diuine authority And why is it not so in humane Thus then we haue easily blowne away these light bubbles of Discourse which our Aduersary hath raised out of the Nut-shell of his computation from the Age Person Writings of his Saint Vdalricke and returne his impuram nescio cujus nebulonis Epistolam with his ferrei oris and plumbei cordis backe whence it came to the Writer cited by my Aduersary not named But by better due to the next hand whereto I am no whit beholding for leauing it vn-englished In that C. E. spared not mee but himselfe who is nescio quis but he that leapeth into the Presse without a name Who Nebulo rather then he that masketh and marcheth sub nebulâ hoping to passe in the conflict for a doughtie Knight or Champion Sconoscinto not daring to lift vp his Beuer Who writes impuram Epistolam but he that hath scribbled a Voluminous Epistle to cry down pure and Honourable Mariage for the inhauncing of impure Celibate not that in Thesi Celibate is impure but in Hypothesi theirs forced and hypocriticall SECT III. AS for the difference that he finds in our number of Pope Nicolas whether first or second or third we may thanke his Gratian whose fashion it is as likewise Sigeberts to name the Popes without the note of their number wee are sure it was not Nicolas Nemo which wrote to Odo Bishop of Vienna reprouing him for giuing leaue to Aluericus a Deacon to marry thereupon sending his contrary Decree to the Germane Churches which it seemes or the like imposition gaue occasion to this noble Epistle But can there be any Game amongst our English Popish Pamphleters where the Fox is not in chase Where is the shame of this Romane Priest whiles he so manifestly belyes our holy reuerend worthy Master Foxe whom this Scoganly Pen dare say playes the Goose in the inconstancy of his Relation of this Nicholas first reporting him the first then the second when it is most manifest in the during Monuments of that industrious and excellent Author that he stil insists vpon Nicholas the second reiecting by many Arguments the opinion of them which haue referred it to the first Such truth there is in shorne crownes Iohn Husse was a Goose by name and now Iohn Foxe is a Goose by reproch Two such Geese are more worth then all the fawning Curres of the Romane Capitoll And how much more wit then fidelity is there in my Detector whiles he would proue that Pope Gregory had then no pond because there is now no ponds at Rome As if Rome were now in any thing as it was as if twelue hundred yeares had made no alteration Nunc seges est vbi Troia fuit As if the streets of Troy were not now Champaine As if his Lipsius could now find Rome in Rome As if lastly that man were vncapable of a large pond whose Sea is vniuersall As for the number of childrens heads I say no more for it then hee can against it this Historie shall be more worth to vs then his deniall But this I dare say that I know persons both of credit and honour Vid. quâ— supra l. 1. S. 12. Histor Rodulphi Bourn c. that saw betwixt fifty and threescore cast vp out of the little Mote of an Abbey where I now liue Let who list cast vp the proportion After the refusall of this worthy Epistle according to his fashion he tries to disgrace it with vs telling vs that therin the Bishop of Rome is stiled Supreme Head Gouernour of the whole Church If it were thus so much more powerfull is the Testimony against them by how much more the witnesse was theirs There must needs be much cause when he that so humbly ouer-titles the person resists the Doctrine so vehemently But the
not so affect vs if it were not with the danger of our owne Secure mindes neuer startle till God come home to their very senses Balac and his Moabites had wit enough to feare not wit enough to preuent iudgement They see an enemy in their borders yet take no right course for their safety Who would not haue looked that they should haue come to Israel with conditions of peace Or why did they not thinke Either Israels God is stronger then ours or he is not If he be not Why are we afraid of him If he be Why do we not serue him The same hand which giues them victory can giue vs protection Carnall men that are secure of the vengeance of God ere it doe come are mastered with it when it doth come and not knowing which way to turne them run forth at the wrong doore The Midianites ioyne with the Moabites in consultation in action against Israel One would haue thought they should haue looked for fauour from Moses for Iethroes sake which was both a Prince of their Country and father in law to Moses and either now or not long before was with Israel in the Wildernesse Neither is it like but that Moses hauing found forty yeeres harbour amongst them would haue been what he might inclinable to fauourable treaties with them but now they are so fast linked to Moab that they will either sinke or swim together Intirenesse with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chaines of Hell and bindes vs to a participation both of sin and punishment An easie occasion will knit wicked hearts together in conspiracy against the Church of God Their errand is deuillish Come curse Israel That which Satan could not do by the swords of Og and Sehon he will now try to effect by the tongue of Balaam If either strength or policie would preuaile against Gods Church it could not stand And why should not wee bee as industrious to promote the glory of God and bend both our hands and heads to the causes of the Almighty When all helpes faile Moab the Magician is sought to It is a signe of a desperate cause to make Satan either our Counsellor or our refuge Why did they not send to Balaam to blesse themselues rather then to curse Israel It had beene more easie to be defended from the hurt of their enemies then to haue their enemies laid open to be hurt by them Pride and malice did not care so much for safety as for conquest It would not content them to escape Israel if Israel may escape them It was not thank-worthy to saue their own blood if they did not spill the blood of others As if their owne prosperity had beene nothing if Israel also prospered If there bee one proiect worse then another a wicked heart will find it out Nothing but destruction will content the malicious I know not whether Balaam were more famous or Balac more confident If the King had not beene perswaded of the strength of his charm he had not sent so far payd so deare for it now he trusts more to his inchantment then to the forces of Moab and Midian and as heauen and earth were in the power of the charmers tongue he saith He that thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed Magicke through the permission of God is powerfull for whatsoeuer the Deuill can doe the Magician may doe but it is madnesse to thinke either of them omnipotent If either the curses of men or the indeauors of the powers of darknesse should be effectuall all would be Hell No Balac So short is the power of thy Balaam that neither thou nor thy prophet himselfe can auoid that curse which thou wouldest haue brought vpon Israel Had Balaam been a true Prophet of God this bold assurance had been but iust Both those ancient Seers and the Prophets of the Gospel haue the ratification of God in heauen to their sentences on earth Why haue wee lesse care of the blessings and lesse feare of the curses and censures of Gods Ministers Who would not rather haue Elishaes guard then both the Kings of Israel and Assyria He himselfe as hee had the Angelical chariots and horsmen about him so was he the chariots and horsmen of Israel Why should our faith be lesse strong then superstition Or why should Gods agents haue lesse vertue then Satans I should wonder to heare God speake with a false prophet if I did not know it hath beene no rare thing with him as with men to bestow words euen where he will not bestow fauour Pharaoh Abimelec Nebuchadnezzar receiue visions from God neither can I thinke this strange when I heare God speaking to Satan in a question no lesse familiar then this of Balaam Whence com'st thou Satan Not the sound of the voice of God but the matter which he speakes argues loue He may speake to an enemy he speakes peace to none but his owne It is a vaine bragge God hath spoken to me So may he doe to reprobates or Deuils But what said he Did he say to my soule I am thy saluation Hath he indented with me that he will be my God and I shall bee his I cannot heare this voice and not liue God heard all the consultation and message of these Moabites these messengers could not haue moued their foote or their tongue but in him and yet hee which asked Adam where he was askes Balaam What men are these I haue euer seene that God loues to take occasion of proceeding with vs from our selues rather then from his owne immediate prescience Hence it is that we lay open our wants and confesse our sinnes to him that knowes both better then our own hearts because he wil deale with vs from our owne mouthes The preuention of God forbids both his iourney and his curse And what if he had beene suffered to goe and curse What corne had this wind shaken when God meant to blesse them How many Buls haue bellowed out execrations against this Church of God What are we the worse Yea I doubt if we had bin so much blessed had not those Balaamitish curses beene spent vpon vs. He that knowes what waste winde the causelesse curses of wicked men are yet will not haue Balaam curse Israel because he wil not allow Balac so much incouragement in his opposition as the conceit of this helpe Or perhaps if Balac thought this Sorcerer a true Prophet God would not haue his Name so much as in the opinion of the heathen scandalized in vsurping it to a purpose which he meant not should succeed The hand of God is in the restraint of many euils which wee neuer knew to be towards vs. The Israelites sate still in their Tents they little thought what mischiefe was brewing against them without euer making them of counsell God crosses the designes of their enemies Hee that keepeth Israel is both a sure and a secret friend The reward of the diuination had easily commanded
perhaps doth not let downe this nourishing liquour so freely so easily Euen so small a variety â—â—fresâ—eth a weake Infant Neither will there perhaps want some palâ—tes which wil finde a more quick pleasing relish in this fresher sustenaÌ„ce these I thought good to please with a taste ere they come to sate themselues with a full Meale of this diuine nourishment in emulation of the good Scribe that brings forth both olde and new If it please God to inable my life and opportunities I hope at last to present his Church with the last seruice of the Historie of either Page wherein my Joy and my Crowne shall bee the edification of many Jn the meane time I dedicate this part vnto your Name whom J haue so much cause to obserue and honour The blessing of that God whose Church you haue euer made your chiefe Client bee still vpon your head and that honorable Societie which reioyces in so worthy a Leader To it and your selfe J shall be euer as I haue cause humbly and vnfainedly deuoted IOS HALL Contemplations THE ANGELL AND ZACHARIE WHen things are at the worst then God beginnes a change The state of the Iewish Church was extremly corrupted immediately before the newes of the Gospell yet as bad as it was not onely the Priesthood but the courses of attendance continued euen from Dauids time till Christs It is a desperately depraued condition of a Church where no good orders are left Iudea passed many troubles many alterations yet this orderly combination endured aboue an eleuen hundred yeares A setled good will not easily be defeated but in the change of persons will remayne vnchanged and if it be forced to giue way leaues memorable footsteps behinde it If Dauid fore-saw the perpetuation of this holy Ordinance how much did he reioyce in the knowledge of it who would not bee glad to doe good on condition that it may so long out-liue him The successiue turnes of the Legall ministration held on in a Line neuer interrupted Euen in a forlorne and miserable Church there may bee a personall succession How little were the Iewes better for this when they had lost the Vrim and Thummim sinceritie of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them euen whiles they and their Sonnes crucified Christ What is more ordinary than wicked Sonnes of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holinesse that makes or institutes a Church what euer become of the persons Neuer times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affoords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not haue come into the World but hee would haue some faithfull to entertayne him Hee that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his owne times There had bin no equalitie that all should either ouer-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are iust both of Aarons bloud and Iohn Baptist of theirs whence should an holy Seede spring if not of the Loynes of Leui It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children It is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certaintie but there is likelyhood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was iust as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Sauiour might bee holy on both sides If the stocke and the griffe bee not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not only in themselues but in God not more in flesh than in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to obserue that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women than the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrennesse ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious paire made no lesse progresse in vertue than in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A iust soule and a barren wombe may well agree together Amongst the Iewes barrennesse was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitfull of holy obedience shee was barren of children as Iohn which was miraculously conceiued by man was a fiâ— fore-runner of him that was conceiued by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a sonne of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not euery sonne of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse than irreligion Albeit he hath not so straitned himselfe vnder the Gospell as to tie his seruice to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large Hee allowes none but the authorised Hee authoriseth none but the worthy The Incense doth euer smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended vp from the hand of a iust Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the legall seruices God neuer purposed to burthen any of his creatures with deuotion How vaine is the ambition of any soule that would loade it selfe with the vniuersall charge of all men How thanklesse is their labour that doe wilfully ouer-spend themselues in their ordinarie vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so hee carefully obserued it The fauour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is our neglect It is our honour that wee may be allowed to wait vpon the God of heauen in these immediate seruices Woe be to vs if we slacken those duties wherein God honours vs more than we can honour him Many sonnes of Aaron yea of the same familie serued at once in the Temple according to the varietie of imployments To auoid all difference they agreed by lot to assigne themselues to the seuerall offices of each day The lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designement Matters of good order in holy affaires may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seene in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods owne choosing In lots and their seeming casuall disposition God can giue a reason though wee can giue none Morning and Euening twise a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of
mother neither words nor teares can suffice to discouer it Yet more had she beene ayded by the counsell and supportation of a louing yoke-fellow this burden might haue seemed lesse intolerable A good husband may make amends for the losse of a sonne had the root beene left to her intire she might better haue spared the branch now both are cut vp all the stay of her life is gone and shee seemes abandoned to a perfect misery And now when shee gaue herselfe vp for a forlorne mourner past all capacity of redresse the God of comfort meets her pities her relieues her Here was no solicitor but his owne compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a seruant the Ruler for a sonne Iairus for a daughter the neighbours for the Paralyticke here hee seekes vp the patient and offers the cure vnrequested Whiles wee haue to doe with the Father of mercies our afflictions are the most powerfull suitors No teares no prayers can moue him so much as his owne commiseration Oh God none of our secret sorrowes can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when wee are past all our hopes all possibilities of helpe then art thou neerest to vs for deliuerance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The heart had compassion the mouth said Weepe not the feet went to the Beere the hand touched the coffin the power of the Deity raised the dead What the heart felt was secret to it selfe the tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weepe not Alas what are words to so strong and iust passions To bid her not to weepe that had lost her onely sonne was to perswade her to be miserable and not feele it to feele and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealement doth not remedy but aggrauate sorrow That with the counsell of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his hand seconds his tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Yongman I say vnto thee arise The Lord of life and death speakes with command No finite power could haue said so without presumption or with successe That is the voice that shall one day call vp our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolued and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detaine their dead when he charges them to be deliuered Incredulous nature what doest thou shrinke at the possibility of a resurrection when the God of nature vndertakes it It is no more hard for that almighty Word which gaue being vnto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I doe not see our Sauiour stretching himselfe vpon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha vpon the sonnes of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling downe and praying by the Beere as Peter did to Dorcas but I heare him so speaking to the dead as if he were aliue and so speaking to the dead that by the word hee makes him aliue I say vnto thee arise Death hath no power to bid that man lye still whom the Sonne of God bids Arise Immediately he that was dead sate vp So at the sound of the last trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand vp glorious this mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sowne and at our day shall therefore spring vp with a plentifull increase of glory How comfortlesse how desperate should be our lying downe if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weake faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what hee hath done giuen vs tasts of what he will doe The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no power can raise one but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Vnder the old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha liuing a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament hee raised here the sonne of the Widow the daughter of Iairus Lazarus and in attendance of his owne resurrection he made a gaole-deliuery of holy prisoners at Ierusalem Hee raises the daughter of Iairus from her bed this widowes sonne from his Coffin Lazarus from his graue the dead Saints of Ierusalem from their rottennesse that it might appeare no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his ouer-ruling command Hee that keepes the keyes of death cannot onely make way for himselfe through the common Hall and outer-roomes but through the inwardest and most reserued closets of darknesse Me thinkes I see this yong man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleepe wiping and rubbing those eies that had beene shut vp in death and descending from the Beere wrapping his winding sheet about his loines cast himselfe down in a passionate thankfulnesse at the feet of his Almightie restorer adoring that diuine power which had commanded his soule back again to her forsaken lodging though I heare not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise wonder which his returned soule first vttered It was the mother whom our Sauior pitied in this act not the sonne who now forced from his quiet rest must twice passe through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he deliuered that she might acknowledge that soule giuen to her not to the possessor Who cannot feele the amazement and extasie of ioy that was in this reuiued mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world And both receiues and giues gratulations of of his new life How suddenly were all the teares of that mournfull traine dried vp with a ioyfull astonishment How soone is that funerall banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striuing was here to salute the late carkasse of their returned neighbour What awfull and admiring lookes were cast vpon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approued omnipotent How gladly did euery tongue celebrate both the worke and the author A great Prophet is raised vp amongst vs and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could finde for him whom they saw like themselues in shape aboue themselues in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This miracle might well haue assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Beere would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the graue of Infidelitie they shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised vp to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as hee had done for the yong man raise them from death to life from dust to glory The
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
the opportunity of Ahabs presence when he might be sure Iezebel was away Obadiah meets the Prophet knowes him and as if he had seene God in him fals on his face to him vvhom he knew his master persecuted Though a great Peere hee had learned to honor a prophet No respect was too much for the president of that sacred colledge To the poore boarder of the Sareptan here was no lesse then a prostration and My Lord Elijah from the great High Steward of Israel Those that are truely gracious cannot be niggardly of their obseruances to the messengers of God Elijah receiues the reuerence returnes a charge Goe tell thy Lord Behold Elijah is here Obadiah finds this lode too heauy neither is he more striken with the boldnes then with the vnkindnesse of this command boldnesse in respect of Elijah vnkindnesse in respect of himselfe For thus he thinkes If Elijah do come to Ahab he dies If he doe not come I die If it bee knowne that I met him and brought him not it is death If I say that he will come voluntarily and God shall alter his intentions it is death How vnhappy a man am I that must be either Elijahs executioner or my own were Ahabs displeasure but smoking I might hope to quēch it but now that the flame of it hath broken forth to the notice to the search of all the Kingdomes and Nations round about it may consume me I cannot extinguish it This message were for an enemy of Elijah for a client of Baal As for me I haue well approued my true deuotion to God my loue to his Prophets What haue I done that I should be singled out either to kill Elijah or to be killed for him Many an hard plunge must that man needs be driuen to who would hold his conscience together with the seruice and fauor of a Tyrant It is an happy thing to serue a iust master there is no danger no straine in such obedience But when the Prophet bindes his resolution with an oath and cleares the heart of Obadiah from all feares from all suspicions the good man dares bee the messenger of that which he saw was decreed in heauen Doubtlesse Ahab startled to heare of Elijah comming to meet him as one that did not more hate then feare the Prophet Well might he thinke thus long thus far haue I sought Elijah Elijah would not come to seeke me but vnder a sure guard and with some strange commission His course mantle hath the aduantage of my robe and Scepter If I can command a peece of the earth I see hee can command heauen The edge of his reuenge is taken off with a doubtfull expectation of the issue and now when Elijah offers himselfe to the eies of Ahab He who durst not strike yet durst challenge the Prophet Art thou hee that troubleth Israel Ieroboams hand was still in Ahabs thoughts he holds it not so safe to smite as to expostulate He that was the head of Israel speakes out that which was in the heart of all his people that Elijah was the cause of all their sorrow Alas what hath the righteous Prophet done He taxed their sin he foretold the iudgement he deserued it not he inflicted it not yet he smarts and they are guilty As if some fond people should accuse the Herald or the Trumpet as the cause of their warre or as if some ignorant peasant when he sees his fowles bathing in his pond should cry out of them as the causes of soule weather Oh the heroicall Spirit of Elijah he stand alone amids all the traine of Ahab and dares not onely repell this charge but retort it I haue not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that yee haue forsaken the Commandements of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim No earthly glory can daunt him who hath the cleere and heartning visions of God This holy Seer discernes the true cause of our sufferings to bee our sinnes Foolish men are plagued for their offences and it is no small part of their plague that they see it not The onely common disturber of men Families Cities Kingdomes worlds is sinne There is no such traitor to any state as the wilfully wicked The quietest and most plausible offender is secretly seditious and stirreth quarrels in heauen The true messengers of God cary authority euen where they are maligned Elijah doth at once reproue the King and require of him the improuement of his power in gathering all Israel to Carmel in fetching thither all the Prophets of Baal Baal was rich in Israel whiles God was poore Whiles God hath but one hundred Prophets hid closely in Obadiahs caues Baal hath eight hundred and fifty foure hundred and fifty dispersed ouen the villages and townes of Israel foure hundred at the Court Gods Prophets are glad of bread and water whiles the foure hundred Trencher Prophets of Iezebel feed on her dainties They lurke in caues whiles these Lord it in the pleasantest groues Outward prosperity is a false note of truth All these with all Israel doth Elijah require Ahab to summon vnto Carmel It is in the power of Kings to command the Assembly of the Prophets the Prophet sues to the Prince for the indiction of this Synode They are iniurious to Soueraignty who arrogate this power to none but spirituall hands How is it that Ahab is as ready to performe this charge as Elijah to moue it I dare answer for his heart that it was not drawne with loue Was it out of the sense of one iudgement and feare of another hee smarted with the dearth and drought and well thinkes Elijah would not be so round with him for nothing Was it out of an expectation of some miraculous exploit which the Prophet would doe in the sight of all Israel Or was it out of the ouer-ruling power of the Almighty The heart of Kings is in the hand of God and he turnes it which way soeuer he pleaseth Israel is met together Elijah rates them not so much for their superstition as for their vnsetlednesse and irresolution One Israelite serues God another Baal yea the same Israelite perhaps serues both God and Baal How long halt yee betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Nothing is more odious to God then a prophane neutrality in maine oppositions of religion To go vpright in a wrong way is a lesse eie-sore to God then to halt betwixt right wrong The Spirit wisheth that the Laodicean were either hot or cold either temper would be better borne then neither then both In reconcileable differences nothing is more safe then indifferency both of practice and opinion but in cases of so necessary hostility as betwixt God and Baal hee that is on neither side is the deadlyest enemy to both Lesse hatefull are they to God that serue him not at all then they that serue him with a riuall Whether out of guiltinesse or feare or
nothing more dangerous for any state then to call in forraigne powers for the suppression of an home-bred enemie the remedy hath oft in this case proued worse then the disease Asa King of Iudah implores the ayde of Benhadad the Syrian against Baasha King of Israel That stranger hath good colour to set his foot in some out-skirt-townes of Israel and now these serue him but for the handsell of more Such sweetnesse doth that Edomite find in the soile of Israel that his ambition will not take vp with lesse then all He that entred as a Friend will proceed as a Conqueror and now aimes at no lesse then Samaria it selfe the heart the head of the ten Tribes There was no cause to hope for better successe of so perfidious a League with an Infidell Who can looke for other then warre when he sees Ahab and Iezebel in the Throne Israel in the groues and temples of Baalim The ambition of Benhadad was not so much guilty of this warre as the Idolatry of that wicked nation How can they expect peace from earth who doe wilfully fight against heauen Rather will the God of Hosts arme the brute the senselesse creatures against Israel then he will suffer their defiance vnreuenged Ahab and Benhadad are well matched an Idolatrous Israelite with a paganish Idumaean well may God plague each with other who meanes vengeance to them both Ahab finds himselfe hard pressed with the siege and therefore is glad to enter into treaties of peace Benhadad knowes his owne strength and offers insolent conditions Thy siluer and thy gold is mine thy wiues also and thy children euen the goodliest are mine It is a fearefull thing to be in the mercy of an enemy In case of hostility might will carue for it selfe Ahab now after the diusion of Iudah was but halfe a King Benhadad had two and thirthy Kings to attend him What equality was in this opposition Wisely doth Ahab therefore as a reed in a tempest stoop to this violent charge of so potent an enemy My Lord O King according to thy saying I am thine and all that I haue It is not for the ouer-powred to capitulate Weaknesse may not argue but yeeld Tyranny is but drawne on by submission and where it finds feare and deiection insulteth Benhadad not content with the soueraigntie of Ahabs goods cals for the possession Ahab had offred the Dominion with reseruation of his subordinate interest he will be a tributary so he may be an owner Benhadad imperiously besides the command cals for the propriety and suffers not the King of Israel to enioy those things at all which he would inioy but vnder the fauour of that predominancie Ouer-strained subiection turnes desperate if conditions bee imposed worse then death there needes no long disputation of the remedy The Elders of Israel whose share was proportionably in this danger hearten Ahab to a deniall which yet comes out so fearefully as that it appeares rather extorted by the peremptory indignation of the people then proceeding out of any generosity of his Spirit Neither doth he say I will not but I may not The proud Syrian who would haue taken it in foule scorne to bee denied though he had sent for all the heads of Israel snuffes vp the wind like a wilde Asse in the Wildernesse and brags and threats and sweares The gods doe so to me and more also if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfulls for all the people that follow me Not the men not the goods onely of Samaria shall bee caried away captiue but the very earth whereon it stands and this with how much ease No Souldier shall need to bee charged with more then an handfull to make a valley where the mother City of Israel once stood Oh vaine boaster In whom I know not whether pride or folly be more eminent Victorie is to bee atchieued not to bee sworne future euents are no matter of an oath Thy gods if they had beene might haue beene called as witnesses of thy intentions not of that successe whereof thou wouldst be the Author without them Thy gods can doe nothing to thee nothing for thee nothing for themselues all thine Aramites shall not cary away one corne of sand out of Israel except it bee vpon the soles of their feet in their shamefull flight It is well if they can cary backe those skins that they brought thither Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as hee that putteth it off There is no cause to feare that man that trusts in himselfe Man may cast the dice of war but the disposition of them is of the Lord. Ahab was lewd but Benhadad was insolent If therefore Ahab shall be scourged with the rod of Benhadads feare Benhadad shall bee smitten with the sword of Ahabs reuenge Of all things God will not endure a presumptuous and selfe-confident vaunter after Elijahs flight and complaint yet a Prophet is addressed to Ahab Thus saith the Lord Hast thou seene all this great multitude behold I will deliuer it into thine hand this day and thou shalt know that I am the Lord Who can wonder enough at this vnweariable mercy of God After the fire and ruine fetcht miraculously from Heauen Ahab had promised much performed nothing yet againe will God blesse and solicit him with victory One of those Prophets whom hee persecuted to death shall comfort his deiection with the newes of deliuerance and triumph Had this great worke beene wrought without premonition either chance or Baal or the golden calues had caried away the thankes Before hand therefore shall Ahab know both the Author and the meanes of his victory God for the Author the two hundred thirty two yong men of the Princes for the meanes What are these for the Vant-gard and seuen thousand Israelite for the maine battell against the troupes of three thirty Kings and as many centuries of Syrians as Israel had single souldiers An equality of number had taken away the wonder of the euent but now the God of hoasts will be confessed in this issue not the valor of men How indifferent it is with thee O Lord to saue by many or by few to destroy many or few A world is no more to thee then a man how easie is it for thee to enable vs to be more then Conquerors ouer Principalities and Powers to subdue spirituall wickednesses to flesh and blood Through thee we can doe great things yea we can doe all things through thee that strengthnest vs Let not vs want faith we are sure there can bee no want in thy power or mercy There was nothing in Benhadads pauilions but drink and surfet and iollity as if wine should make way for blood Security is the certain vsher of destruction we neuer haue to much cause to feare as when we feare nothing This handful of Israel dares look out vpon the Prophets assurance to the vast host of Benhadad It is enough for that proud Pagan to sit
Ahab shall both bleed Naboth by the stones of the Iezreelites Ahab by the shafts of the Aramites The dogs shall taste of the blood of both What Ahab hath done in crueltie he shall suffer in iustice The cause and the end make the difference happy on Naboths side on Ahabs wofull Naboth bleeds as a Martyr Ahab as a murtherer What euer is Ahabs condition Naboth changes a vineyard on earth for a Kingdome in heauen Neuer any wicked man gained by the persecution of an innocent Neuer any innocent man was a loser by suffering from the wicked Neither was this iudgement personall but hereditarie I will take away thy posterity and will make thine house like the house of Ieroboam Him that dieth of Ahab in the City the Dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the field shall the Fowles of the aire eat Ahab shall not need to take thought for the traducing of this ill gotten inheritance God hath taken order for his heires whom his sin hath made no lesse the heires of his curse then of his body Their fathers cruelty to Naboth hath made them together with their mother Iezebel dogs-meat The reuenge of God doth at last make amends for the delay Whether now is Naboths vineyard paid for The man that had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse yet rues the bargaine I doe not heare Ahab as bad as hee was reuile or threaten the Prophet but hee rends his clothes and wears and lies in sack-cloth and fasts and walks softly Who that had seen Ahab would not haue deemed him a true penitent All this was the visor of sorrow not the face or if the face not the heart or if the sorrow of the heart yet not the repentance A sorrow for the iudgment not a repentance for the sinne The very deuils howle to be tormented Griefe is not euer a signe of grace Ahab rends his clothes he did not rend his heart he puts on sack-cloth not amendment he lies in sack-cloth but he lies in his Idolatry he walks softly he walkes not sincerely worldly sorrow causeth death Happy is that griefe for which the soule is the holier Yet what is this I see This very shadow of penitence caries away mercy It is no small mercy to defer an euill Euen Ahabs humiliation shall prorogue the iudgement such as the penitence was such shall be the reward a temporary reward of a temporary penitence As Ahab might be thus sorrowfull and neuer the better so he may be thus fauoured and neuer the happier Oh God how graciously art thou ready to reward a sound and holy repentance who art thus indulgent to a carnall and seruile deiection AHAB and MICAIAH OR The Death of AHAB WHo would haue look't to haue hard any more of the wars of the Syrians with Israel after so great a slaughter after so firme a league a league not of peace onely but of Brotherhood The haltars the sack-cloth of Benhadads followers were worn out as of vse so of memory and now they are changed for Iron and steele It is but three yeares that this peace lasts and now that warre begins which shall make an end of Ahab The King of Israel rues his vniust mercie according to the word of the Prophet that gift of a life was but an exchange Because Ahab gaue Benhadad his life Benhadad shall take Ahabs He must forfeit in himselfe what he hath giuen to another There can bee no better fruit of too much kindnesse to Infidels It was one Article of the league betwixt Ahab and his brother Benhadad that there should bee a speedy restitution of all the Israelitish Cities The rest are yeelded onely Ramoth Gilead is held backe vnthankfully iniuriously He that beg'd but his life receiues his Kingdome and now rests not content with his owne bounds Iustly doth Ahab challenge his owne iustly doth he moue a war to recouer his owne from a perfidious tributary the lawfulnesse of actions may not bee iudged by the euents but by the grounds the wise and holy arbiter of the world knowes why many times the better cause hath the worse successe Many a iust businesse is crossed for a punishment to the agent Yet Israel and Iuda were now peeced in friendship Iehosaphat the good King of Iuda had made affinity with Ahab the Idolatrous King of Israel and besides a personall visitation ioynes his forces with his new Kinsman against an old confederate Iuda had called in Syria against Israel and now Israel cals in Iuda against Syria Thus rather should it be It is fit that the more pure Church should ioyne with the more corrupt against a common Paganish enemy Iehosaphat hath match't with Ahab not with a diuorce of his deuotion Hee will fight not without God Inquire I pray thee at the Word of the Lord to day Had hee done thus sooner I feare Athaliah had neuer call'd him father This motion was newes in Israel It was vvont to be said Inquire of Baal The good King of Iudah will bring Religion into fashion in the Court of Israel Ahab had inquired of his counsellor What needed he be so deuout as to inquire of his Prophets Onely Iehosaphats presence made him thus godly It is an happy thing to conuerse with the vertuous their counsell and example cannot but leaue some tincture behind them of a good profession if not of piety Those that are truly religious dare not but take God with them in all their affaires with him they can be as valiant as timorous without him Ahab had Clergy enough such as it was Foure hundred Prophets of the groues were reserued from appearing to Elijahs challenge these are now consulted by Ahab they liue to betray the life of him who saued theirs These care not so much to inquire what God would say as what Ahab would haue them say they saw vvhich way the Kings heart was bent that way they bent their tongues Goe vp for the Lord shall deliuer it into the hands of the King False Prophets care onely to please a plausible falshood passes with them aboue an harsh truth Had they seene Ahab fearfull they had said Peace Peace now they see him resolute war and victory It is a fearfull presage of ruine when the Prophets conspire in assentation Their number consent confidence hath easily won credit with Ahab Wee doe all vvillingly beleeue what we wish Iehosaphat is not so soone satisfied These Prophets were it is like obtruded to him a stranger for the true Prophets of the true God The iudicious King sees cause to suspect them and now perceiuing at what altars they serued hates to rest in their testimony Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him One single Prophet speaking from the Oracles of God is more worth then foure hundred Baalites Truth may not euer be measured by the poll It is not number but weight that must cary it in a Councell of Prophets A solid Verity in one mouth is worthy to
without cruelty though in the hot chases of warre executions may be iustifiable yet in the coolenesse of deliberation it can bee no other then inhumane to take those liues which haue beene yeelded to mercy But here thy bow and thy sword are guiltlesse of the successe onely a strange prouidence of the Almighty hath cast them into thine hands whom neither thy force nor thy fraud could haue compassed If it bee victory thou aimest at ouercome them with kindnesse Set bread and water before them that they may eate and drinke Oh noble reuenge of Elisha to feast his persecutors To prouide a Table for those who had prouided a graue for him These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha he sends them from Samaria full of good cheare and iollity Thus thus should a Prophet punish his pursuers No vengeance but this is heroicall and fit for Christian imitation If thine enemy hunger giue him bread to eate if hee thirst giue him water to drinke For thou shalt heape coales of fire vpon his head and the Lord shall reward thee Be not ouercome with euill but ouercome euill with good The King of Israel hath done that by his feast which hee could not haue done by his sword The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel Neuer did a charitable act goe away without the retribution of a blessing In doing some good to our enemies wee doe most good to our selues God cannot but loue in vs this imitation of his mercy who bids his Sunne shine and his raine fall where he is most prouoked and that loue is neuer fruitlesse The Famine of Samaria releeued NOt many good turnes are written in Marble soone haue these Syrians forgotten the mercifull beneficence of Israel After the forbearance of some hostile inroade all the forces of Syria are mustered against Iehoram That very Samaria which had releeued the distressed Aramites is by the Aramites besieged and is affamished by those whom it had fed The famine within the walles was more terrible then the sword without Their worst enemy was shut within and could not be dislodged of their owne bowels Whither hath the Idolatry of Israel brought them Before they had beene scourged with warre with drought with dearth as with single cords they remaine incorrigible and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them euen to death there needs no other executioners then their owne mawes Those things which in their nature were not edible at least to an Israelite were now both deare and dainty The Asse was besides the vntoothsomnesse an impure creature that which the law of Ceremonies had made vncleane the law of necessitie had made delicate and precious the bones of so carrion an head could not bee picked for lesse then foure hundred pieces of siluer neither was this scarcitie of victuals only but of all other necessaries for humane vse that the belly might not complaine alone the whole man was equally pinched The King of Israel is neither exempted from the iudgement nor yet yeelds vnder it He walkes vpon the walls of his Samaria to ouersee the Watches set the Engines ready the Guards changed together with the posture of the enemy when a woman cries to him out of the Citie Help my Lord O King Next to God what refuge haue we in all our necessities but his Anointed Earthly Soueraigntie can aide vs in the case of the iniustice of men but what can it doe against the iudgements of God If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the wine-presse Euen the greatest powers must stoope to afflictions in themselues how should they be able to preuent them in others To sue for aide where is an vtter impotence of redresse is but to vpbraid the weaknesse and aggrauate the misery of those whom we implore Iehoram mistakes the suit The suppliant cals to him for a wofull peece of Iustice Two mothers haue agreed to eate their sonnes The one hath yeelded hers to be boiled and eaten the other after shee hath taken her part of so prodigious a banquet withdrawes her child and hides him from the knife Hunger and enuy make the Plaintiffe importunate and now shee craues the benefit of royall iustice Shee that made the first motion with-holds her part of the bargain and flyes from that promise whose trust had made this mother childlesse Oh the direfull effects of famine that turnes off all respects of nature and giues no place to horror causing the tender mother to lay her hands yea her teeth vpon the fruit of her owne body and to receiue that into her stomacke which shee hath brought forth of her wombe What should Iehoram doe The match was monstrous The challenge was iust yet vnnaturall This complainant had purchased one halfe of the liuing child by the one halfe of hers dead The mother of the suruiuing Infant is pressed by couenant by hunger restrained by nature To force a mother to deliuer vp her child to voluntarie slaughter had been cruell To force a Debtor to pay a confessed arerage seemed but equall If the remaining child be not dressed for food this mother of the deuoured child is both robbed and affamished If he be innocent blood is shed by authoritie It is no maruell if the questiō astonished the Iudge not so much for the difficulty of the demand as the horror of the occasion to what lamentable distresse did Iehoram find his people driuen Not without cause did the King of Israel rend his garments and shew his sackcloth wel might he see his people branded with that ancient curse which God had denounced against the rebellious The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee of a fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old nor shew fauour to the yong And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine owne body the flesh of thy sonnes and of thy daughters The tender and delicate woman her eyes shall bee euill towards her yong one that commeth out from betweene her feet and toward◠the children which shee shall beare for she shall eate them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitnesse He mournes for the plague he mournes not for the cause of this plague his sinne and theirs I finde his sorrow I find not his repentance The worst man may grieue for his smart onely the good heart grieues for his offence In stead of being penitent Iehoram is furious and turnes his rage from his sinnes against the Prophet God doe so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day Alas what hath the righteous done Perhaps Elisha that wee may imagine some colours of this displeasure fore-threatned this iudgement but they deserued it perhaps hee might haue auerted it by his prayers their
tormented 1298 Euer doing mischiefe 1302 And delights in it 1303 Deuotion Of the deceit of deferring our deuotions on conceit of present vnfitnesse and its euill effect 29 An excellent meanes to stirre vs to deuotion 138 A direction how to conceiue of God in our deuotions and meditations 347 Of the Pharisees and Papists deuotion how farre exceeding ours 411 Miserable is the deuotion that troubleth vs in the performance 993 The morning fittest for deuotion 1044 Superstition is deuotions ape 1047 A good heart is easily wonne to deuotion 1052 Deuotion so attended as not to neglect our particular calling 1186 Difference No difference betweene seruants friends and sonnes with God 50 Diligence What and how profitable 222 Discretion In a good action how good 6. What it is and what it worketh 212 A good guide for zeale 968 Discontent Its Character 190 Discontented humor seldome scapes vnpunished 930 Discourse It is but the froth of wisedome 1271 Dishonestie It growes bold when it is countenanced by greatnesse 1139 Dissembler Of dissimulation foure kinds 218 Its craft 932 Dissimulation how clad 958 One degree of dissimulation drawes on another 1109 Dissention An excellent rule for our cariage in the dissentions of the Church 29 The cause of dissentions with the deuils ioy at them should make vs to cease from them 56 Dissention in Religion an insufficient motiue of vnsetlednesse in it 324 An earnest disswasion from dissention 413 414 Oh the miserie of ciuill dissention 1120 Dissolution Pretty things of it by way of comparison 464 465 Not to hasten our dissolution 968 Distrust It makes our dangers greater 917 Diuorce Concerning matter of diuorce in case of apparent adultery with aduice to the innocent party in that behalfe 328 Doctrine This and exhortation must goe together 54 Doubt Of the minde that neuer doubts and that euer doubts 1270 Dreames Of what vse of old and also euen now 50 Drunkennesse Its resemblance with Couetousnesse 8 Of Noahs drunkennesse 827 828 Drunkennesse the way to all beastiall affections 837 A drunkards stile 1030 A beast or a stone is as capable of instruction as a drunkard 1105 A drunkard may be any thing saue good 1140 Duell The first challenge of Duell whence 1081 The censure of Duels 1120 Dulnesse Remedies against dulnesse in our calling 375 E EArnestnesse What it doth in prayer 10 Earth It yeelds no content 12 A pretty vse of that that wee are earth 68 The earth is made onely for action not for fruition 939 Ease Good things seldome gotten with ease 5 Of enduring a false worship with ease 1011 Youth and ease let loose their appetites 1145 Education A complaint of the mis education of our Gentry 393 What education workes 867 Parents should haue both of them a like care of their childrens education 996 Education hath no lesse power to corrupt theÌ„ nature 1327 Egypt Its plagues 872 Eglon His reuerence in receiuing a message from God 972 Ehud and Eglon. 970 Elegance what without foundnesse 10 Elijah with the widow of Sarepta 1330 Of his tempestuous coÌ„ming in to Ahab ibid. Of his being fed by the Rauens 1331 His deeds with the Baalites 1335 His Heroicall spirit 1336 Of his running before Ahab flying from Iezebel 1340 His cordiall in his iourney 1344 Hee is reuenged on Ahab 1364. His rapture 1368 The happinesse of Elisha in attending him ibid. Elisha his happinesse in attending Elijah 1368 What he cared for 1370 He s aw his masters departure 1371 His healing the waters 1378 Cursing the children 1374 Releeuing the Kings 1374 Of his being with the Shunamite 1378 Of him and Naaman 1383 His raising the Iron blinding the Assyrians 1390 Elizabeth that Queene praised and of whom enuied in life and scorned after death 479 Ely of him and Hanaah 1030 His zealous breach of charitie ibid. Of him and his sons 1032 Wee read of no other fault that he had but indulgence 1034 His admirable faith 1035 Embassadors their names sacred 1135 Emptinesse as in nature so spiritually there ought to be no emptinesse 1 End Satans assaults are sorest at our end 63 The liues of most are mis-spent onely for want of a certaine end of their actions 147 The end commonly answerable to the way 1116 Enemie wee are so to God actiuely and passiuely 529 A good vse to be made of an enemy 868 If God be our enemy we shall bee sure of enemies enough 971 Euen all the creatures 531 872 and 929 A fearfull thing to bee at the mercy of an enemy 1351 Enterprises the vndertaking of great enterprises had need both of wisedome and courage 973 Enuie vide Malice a proud man is alwayes enuious euen to all 52 Enuy a sinne punishment 55 The enuious character 198 Its kinds and effects 219 Enuie curious 914 Enuie in a malicious man once conceiued what it brings forth 1029 Enuie is blind to all obiects saue to other mens happinesse 1087 An enuious brest a fit lodging for the euill spirit ibid. An example of enuies casting off shame 1088 Enuy like the Iaundies 1089 Error is coÌ„monly ioyned with cruelty 564 The false patrons for new errors compared to the Gibeonites 958 Esau â—e Contemplation on Esau and Iacob 843 Esteeme Two things make a man esteemed 5 Euill an euill man described 12 Not to bee euill when there are prouocations thereto is commendable 65 In euill how ready the deuill is to set vs forward 140 The not doing of euill is requited with good 865 The infection of euil is much worse then the act 920 Whether wee may doe euill that good may come therof 946 Euery Christian the better for his euils 1000 If we bee not as ready to suffer euill as to doe good wee are not fit for the consecration of God 1004 The abetting of euill is worse then the committing it 1019 It is one of the greatest praises of Gods goodnesse that hee can turne the euill of men to his owne glory 1055 Examples as the sins of great men are exemplary so are their punishments 937 Where the examples of the weake serue 1103 Exceptions there was neuer any of whom some tooke not exceptions 1058 Excellency Twelue things that are excellent to behold 136 Excesse it is neuer good but commonly with admirable faculties there are great infirmities 61 Excesse a great argument of folly 1105 Excuse none for sin 911 912. Exhortation Doctrine and exhortation must goe together 54 Expectation what it doth in a resolued mind 3 Extremity sudden extremity is a notable triall of faith 15 884 Extremitye distinguisheth friends 25 Nature is too subiect to extremities He that hath found God present in one extremity may trust him in the next 1081 Extremity of distresse will send the prophanest to God 1109 1110 Eye A faithfull man hath three eyes 1 Of Sense 2 Of Reason 3 Of Faith 34 How it betrayes the heart c. 956 Hee can neuer keepe couenant with God that cannot keepe his eyes 1138 How temptation is let
their care whom it concernes onely I will haue leaue to speake for our owne Neither did I euer derogate ought from sacred Virginitie or lay it leuell whether absolutely or in all circumstances with holy Matrimonie neither did I euer conceiue of an impossibilitie of Continence in some persons Take away these three Grounds which I vtterly disclaime before God and Men together with his petulant Raylings and idle Excursions and what is become of the Volume of my great Aduersarieâ— Those three vast Paragraphes are shrunke into so few sheets of Paper that a Mouse may as soone runne away with his Book as with his god My Masters of Doway if ye bee the Superiors vnder whose permission this worthy Worke sees the light for shame keepe vp your lauish Vnthrifts of good time and send vs such Antagonists as may not faine Occasions to empty their Note-Bookes One dash of a Pen might thus iustly answer the most part of his bloughtie Volume wherein like a drunken Man he makes a fray with his owne shadow and like an idle Whelpe runnes about after his owne Sterne But that he may not complaine to bee cast off too contemptuously he shall receiue a faire account of Particulars SECT III. THe Theme of my Epistle is plainely no other then our Mariage censured hee answers of Theirs I would there were such cause of familiarity and entirenesse that what is said of one might agree to both But the world knowes we are two If I say our Clergie is heartily loyall to their King will he straight take it of theirs If that our Clergy is willingly subiect to more then the directiue Power of their Soueraigne will he challenge this to theirs The very Point which I purposely declined hee followes in hot chase Euen moderate Papists they are the words of my Epistle will grant vs free because not bound by Vow not so farre as those old Germanes proposse nosse And yet all my Detectors refutation still driues at the supposition of a Vow What haue we to doe with Votaries Our Clergie is free whether as Clergie or as ours First as persons Ecclesiasticall quà tales For holy Orders vvhether as orders or as holy are no hinderances of Matrimonie as Cardinall Cajetan truely and with him the vvhole Schoole That which may bee pretended for Impediment is either a Vow annexed or an Ecclesiasticall Statute b b Ordinasacro debitum Continentiae non est essentialiter annexum l. om Soâ—o l. 7. q. 4. de Iure Instit As for the Vow it is so farre from being essentiall to holy Orders as that it is made by c c Vide Caietan Opus de Castit Act. Conc. Trid. Alia est c. â—sa Monacâ—i alia Cleric Extr. de Voâ— c Pluâ—aâ—â—fiâ—endo promittit Mâ—nachus quà m â—eâ—pieâ—cto saâ—â—m ordinem â—â—câ—cus some learned Papists a difference betwixt the Obligation of their Religious and their Priests That their Religious are bound by a solemne Vow to single life in the very intrinsecall nature of their Profession their Priests onely by a Church Constitution without Vow And those that goe further with their famous Cardinal and teach That it is expresly forbidden to Bishops to ordaine any without the promise of single life ground this but vpon an Epistle of Pope Gregory d d Dist 28. Greg. Petr. Diaco l. 1. ep 42. Caiet vbi sâ—pra Polyd. Virg. c. a late and weake foundation and besides hold that their Vow is but semi-solemne and accidentally incident into this Profession for so much as here is neither a direct Exhibition of the Body to this purpose in the Offerer nor a direct Consecration to this end in the Admitter both which make vp the solemnity of the vow vpon which reason according to them a Religious Order because it yeelds ouer the Body vnto an estate repugnant to Matrimony doth of it selfe in it owne nature both hinder Mariage and nullifie it not so the Ecclesiasticall To which wee may adde That according to their owne e e Meldenaâ— sum q. 15. art 27. Item Voti sciennitas ex soli constâ—â—tione Ecclesiae est inuenta Matrimonij vero vinculum ab ipso Ecclesiae capite rerum omnium conditore c. Extra Item vinculum voti solennis solutio eius est ex statuto Ecclesiae Antonin Simplex votum apud Deum non mirtùs obligat quâm solenne Celest extr qui Clereci c. Doctors Solemnitie and Simplicitie make no difference of the Vow before God though before the Church A distinction too slight too newly vpstart to ouerturne an ancient and well grounded Institution Neither need wee any better or other proofe of the inconnexion of this Vow with holy Orders then that of their owne Dominicus à Soto f f Non est de essentia Sacerdotis seruare castitatem quandoquidem Graeci etiam ab Ecclesia Latinâ— permittuntur in coniugij foedere permaâ—ere Dom. Sot l. 7. de Iure q. 4. P. Venetus Brocard Lud. Vertomannus Ios. Indus of the Christians in India and Cathaia c. Non si quid Turbida Roma eleuet accedas Pers Non est de essentia Sacerdotis c. It is not of the essence of a Priest saith he to keepe single for that the Grecian Clergie are permitted euen by the Roman Church to continue in the estate of Mariage What can be more cleare If there were a necessary and inseparable connexion of a vowed Continency with holy Orders then would not neither could the Roman Church acknowledge a true Priesthood where it finds coniâ—gall Society Their act of allowance to the Greeke Church implyes a faire independency of these two which some of their clamorous Clients plead to haue indiuisibly coupled So as now all the strength of this necessary Celibate is resolued into the power of a Church statute and of what Church but the Roman All other Churches in the World as of Armenia Grecia Syria Ethiopia Russia the Georgians c. allow the coniunction of Ministerie and Mariage and are so farre from requiring a Vow of necessary Continencie that they rather erroniously prerequire a necessity of Mariage in the persons to be ordained It is onely the Church of g g Ecclesiae statuto nec vniuersalis sed Latinae Espenc l. 1. de Cont. c. 13. Id circo cum summus Pontifex possit at libitum c. Caiet Opus de Castitate Dubia causae Rome the great and imperious Mistresse of the World that imposes the yoke of this vow vpon her Vassalls Imposes it but ad libitum so as her great Paramour in whose vast Bosome that whole Church lyes may dispense with it as he lists Heare that irrefutable discourse of Cardinall Caietan His words beare weight and are not vnworthy the eyes of my Reader Therefore saith hee since the Pope may at his pleasure loose the Bond of that Statute it followes necessarily that if a Priest of the Westerne Church shall marry by