an vnmercifull Tyrant I feare me their Consistoriall Iurisdiotiō would growe a Cruell griper especially being so Vniuersally extended in euery Parish as is intended by the promoters thereof and powerably armed with that supreme Vncontrowlable authoritie which they affect in causes Ecclesiasticall A braue spirituall motion and worthie not onely of these pidling sturres but euen of a Troian warre Yet their Precedent the Mosaicall Synedrion was a Ciuil Court as is afore mentioned would be reconsidered cum mero imperio and when it became mixt it was not meerly Ecclesiasticall when it became meerly Ecclesiasticall of a Pōtifical Consistory it soone prooued a Tyrannicall Court and by your good leaue was as nimble to encroach vpon Ciuill causes being an Ecclesiasticall Court as euer it was to intermeddle with Ecclesiasticall causes being a Ciuill Court The finest Methodists according to Aristotles golden rule of artificiall Boundes condemne Geometricall preceptes in Arithmetique or Arithmeticall preceptes in Geometrie as irregular and abusiue but neuer Artist so licentiously heterogenised or so extrauagantly exceeded his prescribed limits as Ambition or Coouetice Euery Miller is ready to conuey the water to his owne mill and neither the high Priestes of Ierusalem nor the Popes of Roome nor the Patriarkes of Constantinople nor the Pastors of Geneua were euer hastie to binde their owne handes They that research Antiquities and inquier into the priuities of Practises shall finde an Act of Praemunire is a necessarie Bridle in some cases The first Bishops of Roome were vndoubtedly vertuous men and godly Pastors from Bishops they grew to be Popes what more reuerend then some of those Bishops or what more Tyrannicall then some of those Popes Aaron and the high-Priestes of Ierusalem and of other ceremoniall nations were their glorious Mirrours and they deemed nothing too-magnificall or pompous to breede an Vniuersall reuerence of their sacred autoritie and Hierarchie We are so farre alienated from imitating or allowing them that we cannot abide our owne Bishops yet withall would haue euery Minister a Bishop and would also be fetching a new Patterne from old Ierusalem the moother-sea of the high-Priesthood So the world as the manner is will needes runne-about in a Circle pull-downe Bishops set vp the Minister make him Bishop of his Parish and head of the Consistorie call him how you list that must be his place what will become of him within a fewe generations but a high Priest in a low Ierusalem or a great Pope in a small Roome And then where is the difference betweene him and a Bishop or rather betweene him and a Pope not somuch in the qualitie of his Iurisdiction when in effect he may be his owne Iudge as in the quantitie of his Dioces or temporalties Or in case he be Politique as some Popes haue bene glad for their aduantage to tyrannise Popularly so he may chaunce be content for his aduauncement to popularise tyrannically and shall not be the first of the Clergie that hath cunningly done it with a comely grace Something there must be of a Monarchie in free states and something there will be of free states in a Monarchie The discreeter and Vprighter the Curate is the more circumspectly he will walke and degenerate the lesse Yet what generation without degeneration or what reuolution without irregularitie One inconuenience begetteth an other enormities grow like euill weedes take heede of a mischiefe and where then will be the corruptions Or how shall defection acknowledging no primacie or superioritie in any person or Court retire to his first institution if percase there should growe a Conspiracie in fellowship one Consistory iustifie an other for aduantage and their whole Synods fall-out in consequence to be like their Parts Men may erre and frailtie will slipp What should I alledge Historyes or autorities It is no newes for infirmitie to fall when it should stand or for appetite to rebell when it should obey Euery sonne of Adam a reed shaken with the wind of passion a weake Vessell a Schollar of imperfection a Master of ignorance a Doctour of errour a Pastour of concupiscence a superintendent of auarice a Lord of ambition a Prince of sinne a slaue of mortalitie Flesh is flesh and Blud a Wanton a chaungeling a compound of contrary elementes a reuoulting and retrograde Planet a Sophister an hypocrite an impostour an Apostata an heretique as conuertible as Mercury as variable as the weather-cock as lunatique as the Moone a generation of corruption a Whore of Babylon a limme of the world and an impe of the Diuell It is their owne argument in other mens case and why should it not be other mens argument in their case Vnlesse they can shew a personall Priuiledge ad imprimendum solum They may speake as they list termes of sanctification and mortificatiō are free for them that will vse them but the Common opinion is euen of the forwardest skirmishers at this day they doe like other men and liue like the children of the world and the brethren of themselues Some of them haue their neighbours good leaue to be their owne Proctors or Aduocats if they please Yet how probable is it they are now at their very best and euen in the neatest and purest plight of their incorruption whiles their mindes are abstracted from worldly thoughts to a high meditation of their supposed-heauenly Reformation and whiles it necessarily behooueth them to stand charily and nicely vpon the credit of their integritie sinceritie precisenesse godlinesse Zeale and other vertues When such respects are ouer and their purpose compassed according to their harts desier who can tell how they or their successours may vse the Keyes or how they will besturr them with the Sword If Flesh prooue not a Pope Ioane and Bloud a Pope Hildebrand good enough Accidents that haue happened may happen agayne and all thinges vnder the Sunne are subiect to casualtie mutabilitie and corruption At all aduentures it is a braue Position to maintaine a souerain and supreme autoritie in euery Consistorie and to exempt the Minister from superiour Censure like the high Priest or greatest Pontiffe whom Dionysius Haly carnasseus calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had neede be a wise and Conscionable man that should be a Parlamēt or a Chauncerie vnto himselfe and what a furniture of diuine perfections were requisite in the Church where so many Ministers so many spirituall high Iustices of Oier and Terminer and euery one a supreme Tribunall a Synode a Generall Councell a Canon Law a heauenly Law and Gospel vnto himselfe If no Serpent can come within his Paradise safe enough Or were it possible that the Pastor although a man yet a diuine man should as it were by inheritance or succession continue a Sainct from generation to generation is it also necessary that the whole company of the redoubted Seniors should wage euerlasting warre with the flesh the world and the Diuell and eternally remaine an incorruptible Areopage without wound or scarre
with a sencelesse Apoplexy in head which may easely ensewe such contagious Catharres and Reumes as I am priuy some of them haue bene grieuously disseased withall misse not but hitt them suerly home as they deserue with Supererogation You haue bene reputed euermore since first I heard of you in Oxford and elsewhere to haue bene as much giuen to fauour commende and frequent such as were approoued or toward in learning witt kinde behauiour or any good quality as may be required in any man of your demerit an vndoubted signe how much you loath Inuectiues or any needâ—…les conteÌ„tions I would as many your affectionate freÌ„ds would it had bene your fortune to haue encountred some other Paranymphes then such as you are now to discipline most vnwillingly I perceiue but most necessarily not without especiall consideration being so manifestly vrged and grosely prouoked to defend yourselfe But you haue ere now bene acquainted with patience perforce and I hope the most desperate swasher of them will one day learne to shew himself honester or wiser And thus recommending your sweet endeuours with your grauer studies to the highest treasury of heauenly Muses I right hartely take my leaue with a Sonet of that Muse that honoreth the Vrany of du Bartas and yourselfe of du Bartas elsewhere here of him whose excellent Pages of the French King the Scottish King the braue Monsieur de la Nöe the aforesayd Lord du Bartas Sir Philip Sidney and sundry other worthy personages deserue immortall commendation I thanke him very hartely that imparted vnto me those fewe sheetes and if all be like them truly all is passing notable â—…nd right singular Sonet THose learned Oratours Roomes auncient sages Persuasions Pith directours of affection The mindes chiefe counsail rhetoriques perfection The pleasaunt baulmes of peace warres fierce outrages Sweet Grecian Prophets whose smooth Muse assuages The Furies powerfull wrath poisons infection Philosophers by Causes due connexion Match't with th' Effects of Nature future ages Embrauing with rich documents of Art The wisest States-men of calme Commonweales The learned Generall Councels which impart Diuinest Lawes whose wholesome Physique heales Both Church and Layety All in One beholde Ennobled Arts as Precious stones in golde From my lodging in Holborne this of Iune 1593. Your most affectionate Barnabe Barnes Hauing perused my former Sonet if it may please you Sir to do asmuch for your deare frends Parthenophil and Parthenophe they shall haue the desired fruite of their short exercise and will rest beholding to your curteous acceptance which they would be glad to reacquite in the loouingest manner they may And so most affectionatly recommend themselues vnto your good selfe whose vnblemished fame they will euermore maintaine with the best bloud of their hartes tongues and Pennes We will not fay how much we long to see the whole Prayses of your two notorious enemyes the Asse and the Foxe Sonet Nash or the Confuting Gentleman The Muses scorne the Courtiers laughing-stock The Countreys Coxecombe Prâ—…nters proper new The Citties Leprosie the Pandars stew Vertues disdayne honesties aduerse rock 〈◊〉 vile champion slaunders stumbling block Graund Oratour of Cunny-catchers crew Base hroaching tapster of reports vntrue Our moderne Viper and our Countryes mock True Valors Cancer-worme sweet Learnings rust Where shall I finde meete colours and fit wordes For such a counterfaict and worthlesse matter Him whom thou raylest on at thine owne lust Sith Bodine and sweet Sidney did not flatter His Inuectiue thee toomuch grace affordes Parthenophil Sonet Haruey or the sweet Doctour Sidney sweet Cignet pride of Thamesis Apollos laurel Mars-his proud prowesse Bodine register of Realmes happinesse Which Italyes and Fraunce's wonder is Hatcher with silence whom I may not misse Nor Lewen Rhetoriques richest noblesse Nor Wilson whose discretion did redresse Our English Barbarisme adioyne to this Diuinest morall Spencer let these speake By their sweet Letters which do best vnfould Harueys deserued prayse since my Muse weake Cannot relate somuch as hath bene tould By these Forenam'd then vaine it were to bring New feather to his Fames swift-feathered wing Parthenophe THE PRINTERS ADVERTISSEment to the Gentleman Reader CVrteous Gentlemen it seemed good to M. Doctour Haruey for breuity-sake and bicause he liked not ouer-long Preambles or Postambles to short Discourses to omit the commendatorie Letters and Sonnets of M. Thorius M. Chewt and diuers other his affectionate frendes of London and both the Vniuersities Which neuerthelesse are reserued to be prefixed inserted or annexed either in his defensiue Letters enlarged with certaine new Epistles of more speciall note or in his Discourses ofNashes S. Fame already finished presently to be published as these shall like their interteinemâ—…t of whose fauorable plausible Welcome diuers learned and fine wittes haue presumed the best Howbeit finally it was thought not amisse vpon conference with some his aduised acquaintance to make choice of some two or three of the reasonablest and temperatest Sonnets but for variety to auoyde tediousnesse in the entrance rather to be annexed in the end then prefixed in the beginning of the present Discourses one of the foresayd M. Thorius an other of M. Chewt and the third of a learned French Gentleman Monsieur Fregeuill Gautius who hath published some weighty Treatises aswell Politique as Religious both in Latin and French and hath acquainted M. Doctour Haruey with certaine most profitable Mathematicall deuises of his owne inuention The residue is not added by me but annexed by the Autor himselfe whom I humbly recommende to your curteous Censure and so rest from ouertroubling you with my vnpolished lines Pierces Supererogation OR A NEW PRAYSE OF THE OLD ASSE A Preparatiue to certaine larger Discourses intituled NASHES S. FAME I Was euer vnwilling to vndertake any enterprise that was vnmeete for me or to play any part either in earnest or in iest that might ill-beseeme me and neuer more vnwilling then at this instant when I must needes do it or put something in hazard that I would be loth to commit to the curtesie of aduenture Not because my Confuters swordes or my enemies daggers carry any credite with the wise or because my Letters feare any discredite with the honest or because I cannot abide to be confuted that dayly confute my selfe and condemne euery mine owne default with rigour but because Silence may seeme suspicious to many Patience contemptible to some A good minde A bad hart to those that value all by courage A knowne forbearer of Libellers A continuall bearer of coales and there is no end of abuses vpon abuses of iniuries vpon iniuries of contempt vpon contempt where presumptuous Impudency and odious Slaunder the two errantest vagabonds in the world may safeconduct themselues and franckely passe vncontrolled Yet were that either all or the worst of all I could still vow Silence in brawles and would still professe Patience in wronges I hate brawles with my hart and can turne-ouer A volume of wronges with a wett finger
before the twoo Romane Procuratours of that Prouince Felix and Festus whome he entreated in honourable termes albeit ethnicke gouernours Were none more scrupulous then S. Paul how easily and gratiously might diuers Confutations bee reconciled that now rage like Ciuill Warres The chiefest matter in question is no article of beliefe but a point of pollicy or gouernement wherein a Iudiciall Equity being duely obserued what letteth but the particular Lawes Ordinances Iniunctions and whole manner of Iurisdiction may rest in the disposition of Soueraine Autoritie Whose immediate or mediate actes are to be reuerenced with Obedience not countermaunded with sedition or controled with contention He is a bold subiect that attempteth to binde the handes of sacred Maiesty and they loue controuersies well I trow that call their Princes proceedinges into Controuersie Altercations and Paradoxes aswell in Discipline as in Doctrine were neuer so curiously curious or so infinitely infinite but when all is done and when Innouation hath sett the best countenance of proofe or persuasion vpon the matter Kingdomes will stand and Free-Citties must be content Their Courts are no Presidents for Royall Courts their Councels no instructions for the Councels of Kings or Queenes their Consistories that would master Princes no informations for the Consistories vnder Princes their Discipline no Canon or platforme for soueraine gouernement either in Causes Temporall or Spirituall And can you blame them that maruell how of all other Tribunals or benches that Iewish Synedrion or Pontificall Consistory should so exceedingly grow in request that put Christ himselfe to death and was a whipp for his deerest Apostles I am loth to enter the listes of argumentation or discourse with any obstinate minde or violent witt that weeneth his owne Conceit a cleere Sunne without Eclipse or a full Moone without wanes but sith Importunacy will neuer linne molesting Parliaments and Princes with Admonitions Aduertisements Motions Petitions Repetitions Sollicitations Declamations Discourses Methods Flatteries Menaces and all possible instant meanes of enforcing and extorting the present Practise of their incorruptible Theorie it would be som-bodies taske to hold them alittle occupied till a greater Resolution begin to subscribe a surer Prouision to execute May it therefore please the busiest of those that debarre Ecclesiasticall persons of all Ciuill iurisdiction or temporall function to consider how euery pettie Parish in England to the number of about 52000. more or lesse may be made a Ierusalem or Metropolitan Sea like the noblest Cittie of the Orient for so Pliny calleth Ierusalem how euery Minister of thesayd Parishes may be promoted to be an high Priest and to haue a Pontificall Consistorie how euery Assistant of that Consistorie may emprooue himselfe an honorable or worshipfull Senior according to his reuerend calling for not onely the Princes of Families or the Princes of Tribes but the Princes of Citties or Iudges the Decurions the Quinquagenarians the Centurions the Chiliarkes were inferiour Officiers to the Seniors how a Princely and Capitall Court and euen the high Councell of Parlament or supreme Tribunall of a Royall Cittie for there was no Seniorie in Iudaea but at Ierusalem sauing when the Proconsul Gabinius in a Romane Pollicy deuided that nation into fiue parts and appointed foure other Consistories how such a Princely and stately Court should be the patterne of a Presbitery in a poore Parish how the Principalitie or Pōtificalitie of a Minister according to the degenerate Sanedrim should be sett-vpp when the Lordship of a Bishop or Archbishop according to their position is to be pulleddowne finally how the supremacie ouer Kings and Emperours should be taken from the highest Priest or Pope to be bestowed vpon an ordinarie Minister or Curate and how that Minister should dispense with Aristotles Law of instrumēts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or become more mighty then Hercules that could not encounter two charges attonce or at-least how that Ciuil Court that meere Ciuill Court for so it was before it declined frō the first institutiō euen as meerly ciuill as the Romane Senate should be transformed into a Court meerly Ecclesiasticall When these points are considered if withall it be determined by euidēt demōstration as cleere as the Sunne and as inuincible as Gods-word that whatsoeuer the Apostles did for their time is immutably perpetuall and necessarie for all times and that nothing by way of speciall respect or present occasiō is left to the ordinaunce dispositiō or prouisiō of the Church but the strict and precise practise of their Primitiue Discipline according to some Precepts in S. Paules Epistles and a few Examples in the Actes of the Apostles So be it must be the suffrage of vs that haue no Voyce in the Sanedrim All is concluded in afewe pregnant propositions we shall not neede to trouble or entangle our wittes with many Articles Iniunctions Statutes or other ordinances the Generall Prouinciall and Episcopall Councels lost much good labour in their Canons Decrees and whatsoeuer Ecclesiasticall Constitutions the workes of the fathers and Doctours howsoeuer auncient learned or Orthodoxall are little or nothing worth infinite studdies writings commentaries treatises conferences consultations disputations distinctions conclusions of the most-notable Schollers in Christendome altogither superfluous Well-worth afewe resolute Aphorismes that dispatch more in a word then could be boulted-out in fiften hundred yeares and roundly determine all with an Vpsy-downe No reformation without an Vpsy-downe In deede that is one of Machiauels Positions and seing it is prooued a peece of sound doctrine it must not be gain-sayd Euery head that hath a hand pull-downe the pride of Bishops and set vp the humilitie of Ministers Diogenes treade vpon Platos pompe An vniuersall reformation be proclaimed with the sounde of a Iewes-trumpe let the Pontificall Consistorie be erected in euery Parish let the high Priest or Archbishop of euery Parish be enstalled in Moses chaier it was Moses not Aarons Chayer that they challenge in their Senate he must be greater then Hercules that can fulfill both let the Ministerie be a Royall Priesthood and uery Minister within the precinct of his territorie and the dominiō of his Segniorie raigne like a Presbiter Iohn let it euerlastingly be recorded for a souerain Rule as deare as a Iewes eye that Iosephus alledgeth out-of the Law Nihil agat Rex sine Pontificis Sentorum sententia Onely let thesayd Pontife beware he prooue not a great Pope in a little Roome or discouer not the humour of aspiring Stukely that would rather be the king of a moulhill then the second in Ireland or England Some Stoiques and melancholie persons haue a spice of ambition by themselues and euen Iunius Brutus the first was somway a kinde of Tarquinius Superbus and Iunius Brutus the second is not altogither a mortified Creature but bewrayeth as it were some reliques of fleshe and bloud aswell as his inwardest frend Eusebius Philadelphus I dare come no neerer yet Greenwood and Barrow begin already to complaine of surly and solemne brethren and