peerelesse that we may hope for new artes new manners new worldes to preuent articall hyperboreall harmes and to winne goods by the sonnes of Arcturus whom perhaps they can guide by their learning and answere the question in Iobs booke cap. 38. v. 32. against the Moone in sending her to God her creator to complaine of the Sun for keeping the light from her at his certaine times against innocent Adam by geuing him both natures of male and female in Paradise before Eue was made and telling of his ingendring with the beasts of the field against Noa the Preacher of righteousnes by reporting of the Crowes ielosie toward him to let passe many such impudent fictions vnreasonable impieties senselesse things But the Iewes credit is little worth with Christians and themselues are weried and tyred with looking so long for a new Messias whereas they had the right lambe of God among them and most horribly slaughtered him without all pitie or mercie euen according to the spirituall visions and diuine predictions of the Prophets that euery scripture might be fulfilled and no iote of Gods word passe vnaccomplished Act. c. 4. v. 28. The first comming of this lambe in humilitie is as certainly past as his second comming in maiesty glory is not farre of God grant we be found ready at the great comming of the great bridegrome with the fiue wise virgins that were so well prouided with oyle in their lamps Math. c. 25. v. 7 10. As I haue lightly passed ouer the light and vaine Iewes so I hope I may also do with the Turks considering that the very name of Iew and Turke are alike odious among good Christians The Alcoran and Mahomets whole heape of learning is not vnknowne to some students where Mahomet is made a greater and a mightier prophet then Christ because he had a greater body and was girded with a sword where the lambe of the diuell or rather that woolfe of hell is preferred before the lambe of God because the beast wrought more wonders then Iesus where God is said to be but one onely single God in person without any wife and therefore without any sonne or daughter or any such issue because God is not able in his extraordinary power to beget a body without ordinary means where diuers notable histories and speciall parts of the bible are fabulously deliuered strangly corrupted because otherwise they serue not his purpose where the finger of the diuell hath incountred the finger of God and the spirit of Belzebub opposed it selfe against the spirit of Christ This horrible abhominable booke although it be read of some men yet I trust there is not any christian that maketh any better account thereof then it deserueth though Leo Nardus gather out of it a certaine Confirmation of our gospell in his tollerable vnnecessary deuise being in truth the very booke of the diuell vnder pretense of worshipping the one only true God whereas no man cōmeth to the father but he whom the sonne leadeth and guideth as many texts of scripture might be alleaged to that purpose Iohn c. 14. v. 6. Math. c. 11. v. 27. c. In this booke Sergius a false monke and a Nestorian heretike had his hand therein thinking to go beyond all Antichrists in oppugning and defacing the diuinity of Christ Sabel l. 6. Enne 8. but I hope there shal not greatly neede any long confutation in this place either of Mahometists or of Nestorians or of any like hereticks that denied the deity of Christ they haue bene materially and throughly confuted by the best diuines of al ages from time to time euē since the primitiue church to this day and these Sergianks and Alcoranks cannot endure long but they shall be stopped vp as wels without water and they are carried about with a whirlewinde and tempest and to them the blacke darkenesse is reserued for euer 2. Pet. c. 2. v. 17. God be praised this poison hath not greatly at any time infected this church of Englād or any special mēbers therof but hath alwaies bin reckoned among the most venimous scismes the most horrible apostasies the most abhominable heresies of other erroneous churches and little better account may iustly be made of Scaliger that suttle maister of late yeares suttle as a spinners web full of cunning and simply good for nothing and therefore hated of right wisdome which the heathen miscalled Pallas as the morall physitian Petrarke writeth l. 1. dial 7. who eyther in the pride of his name Iulius Caesar or of his wit or militarship accounteth the ministers of holy things in al countries and places like those Mahometicall impostors which deceiued the king of Moluccae with their Manucodiata a bird of paradise for dreaming and fayning many matters thereby to lead the people into vaine hope and maintaine their opinions or sects Exercit. 228.5 And little better account hath bene made of Iosephus the writer of the Iudaicall historie and himselfe a Iewish priest who reporteth of Iesus but as of another good wise man or a good prophet at the most because he could say no more then he knew or would not seeme to be wiser then his countrymen from whom both the turkish and all other vngratious violent doctrines had their beginning l. 18. c. 4. antiq Some other places of christendome haue bene more touched and plagued with these corrupt inuentions of Iudaisme Nestorianisme Mahometisme such like execrable apostasies and heresies robbing Christ of his diuinity and themselues of their saluation in denying him to be the lambe of God I pray God wee may euer continue cleare in the vniuersities and cities which are to be the nurseries of true doctrine and seminaries of true religion the tree of apostasie and heresie must not onely be hewen downe but plucked vp by the very rootes and burned in vnquenchable fire Math. c. 3. v. 10. Certaine ancient fathers in the primitiue Church were troubled with confuting the wicked ruffianly apostata Iulian Carion saith l. 3. who desperately opposed himselfe with might and maine with haue among yee my maisters the Nazarites during that short florish of his empire which vanished like a mist euen as Athanasius had prophesied of him against the holy one in Israel the blessed lambe of God and not onely fought against Christ with the tyrannicall armes of a bloudy Emperour but also with the sophisticall weapons of a broken rhetorician euer ready aswel to martyr the zealous confessor with the one as to confute the most zealous doctor with the other But himself in the end was striken with an arrow wonderfully as Achab was cōstrayned to crie out in a horrible and wofull agonie Vicisti galilaee ô galilean thou hast gotten the victory ô Christ I must needes confesse my selfe ouercome and so he gaue vp the blacke ghost Theod. l. 3. c. 25. and certaine fragments of his glorious and blasphemous stile are yet extant sufficiently confuted aswell by many learned christians as by that
congregation him his people him and his saincts which excell in vertue in higher and lower places of degree and title both in the church and out of the church as those goods haue beene euer most plentifull since the world began with the godliest fathers of all ages and namely most of all with those chiefe men Noa Abraham Iacob Ioseph Salomon Iob Ezechias and the rest who neuer thought any goods too good for Gods Church for his right hand is on them that feare him throughout all generations as his children are right-handed one to another in all places and in all cases of truth and conscience Yet if these men in our white lilly mending dayes more diuine reformers forsooth and purer correctors of abuses then Moses if these litle ones diuine ones descended from the bosome of father Abraham or some better Saint if better may be for so they beare themselues euer with and aboue the best that haue all zeale and all knowledge among them and can spare or affourd no morsell or parcell of these their two Spirituall graces for other pore men simple creatures in respect of such new creators if they had bin in the time raigne of Moses Iosua or rather very Moses and very Iosua were now in their times for all must be drawne to M. reformers cōputatiō perhaps we shall heare news shortly of another cōputation then we must say in the yeare of reformation 1 2 3 4. so on apace as long as it lasteth be you sure of it that they would in their pure quick fine Sybilline melancholy the cause of Prophets and Prophetisses in Agrippaes minde that neuer kept a meane but was euer extreame in writing magicall toys or dispraysing all liberall and mechanicall arts in extolling women aboue men and suppressing almost euerie man with his owne excellencie in his Epistles no vnfit master for these extreme reformers haue sayde and say vnto Moses and Iosua euen as they said to our Mosees and Iosuees to our priests and rulers For looke how Corah Dathan Abyram and On rose vp before Moses and Aaron and tolde them in their reformatiue discipline ye take too much vpon you why lift yee your selues aboue the congregation of the Lord we are all as holie as you what Moses and Aaron ye are too high Num. c 16. v. 3. So spreaken our pure and holy ones reformers so our holy and pure ones speake euen thereabout as holy as Corah and as pure as Abyrams conspiracie and as pure and precise as all honest conspirators sober men men in other times who at the first euer pretended reformations and corrections of abuses and then corrections and reformations of vices and nothing but amending of vniust matters corruptions reliques these haue a pleasure to water and dresse and reuiue that withered oake that reformatoria quercus Ketti ducis adorning and adoring it as the only chiefe tree of the fielde and forrest euen in a precise iollitie to abase and ouer-crow the famous planetree of Xerxes or any other Dodonean shade but they for all their numbers of voyces their singular holines or hollownes of heart so cunningly hid were deuoured of the earth and swallowed vp quick to the example and terror of all conspiring reformers euen to the worlds end that now they should hinder the authoritie of Gods messengers no more like those cursed Dathanites And what became of furious Ket and what is like to come vpon these practisers that can neuer see when they are well Neither yet did Moses put of his zeale or leaue of from enriching the holy Priesthoode in Israël or from honouring their posterities successiuely after his and their death but hee gaue them the goods and lordships and dominions of many cities for themselues and the lands and suburbes of them for their cattle and substance Num. c. 35. Ios c. 21. No doubt at that time many rough mal-contents and enuious Reubenites spake among the Israëlites as our hotspurres Rufi say now among vs Church-bread is sweete that is stolne thinges are pleasant but heard they neuer of a sweete and pleasant poyson amōg their prouerbs delightfull at the first and at the last deadly It is not Gods will say they that know not the legacies of Gods will that they should be troubled with such reuenues with such lāds liuings with so many loaues which might finde an armie to defend Israel a number of lustie choise valiant yongmen a sort of experiēced captains and souldiers of the best stampe Notwithstanding such a vulgar and plausible insinuation the most prouident and heauenly law-geuer Moses reproueth their rebellious and stiff-necked harts he went forward in setling the ground of his godly gouernment because he by yeares and wisdome knewe better then they could tell him that their youth is too rash to wish that which troubleth men that their experience is vtterly imperfit that greatest hotspurres are least conquerors that a man is not deliuered by much strength that armour and men are counted but a vaine thing to saue a countrey that nations are not defended preserued by the puissance chiualry of the inhabitants but that the wisdom grauitie of learned mē the coūsel vnderstāding of sober discreet mē that the firy zealous heauēly minded man like the priest Phinees or the king Iehu that moderation which is neither too high nor too low halfe vp halfe downe euen in the mids that Gods blessing bestowed on those that blesse him is cause of al obediēce peace at home of all safetie and security in respect of forraine daunger abroad that the head and heart must rule the hand and foote that the outward partes must bee preserued by the inward and preserue one the other mutually that if they must needs take away goods from other men their value should be stretched out against their heathenish enemies and therefore he commaunded them in Gods holy name on the Eastside of Iordan in the land of promise and in the same holy name the fathers commaunded Iosua his successor on the other side of Iordan in the land of promise they willed charged their Tribes by the will of their God to whom they were al tributary that fortie and eight cities with the granges and villages and suburbes and all bounds and limits of them should be allotted vnto the principall fathers of the Leuites out of their inheritance which the Leuites God their God had bestowed vpon them among which eight and fortie cities were those six principal places of refuge noblest sanctuaries of safegard for the vnwilling vnluckie slayer euen those three cities within the riuer Chades Sichem Hebron and those three cities without the riuer Golan Ramoth Bosor standing in both the ends and in both the middle parts of the land that no tribe might be without the lordships of Leuy that the land and mannors of Leuy might with greatest libertie lie in euery part and on either side of
and violent robbery valiant ielousie and false dealing godly insinuation Lord God amend them if it bee thy will for they know not what they say Salomon writeth in his sure promise and exhortation that if his spouse be a wall he will build a siluer bulwark vpon it to make it the more venerable and glorious among men Reformers in their discipline and exhortation are as ready to steale his siluer worke away by a false plea as he was to set it vp by a good conscience they are ready to rob the Church for loue they now with all blasphemous impudencie professe it openly set a price on it as the malecious men in in old time did on Ioseph and Iudas in later time on Iesus himselfe and souldiers cast lots on his owne garment Gen. c. 37. v. 27. Math. c. 27. v. 5. and some care not in their madnesse if he were stripped from top to toe such is their lunacie and so are they puffed vp with pecuniary logick which Verres a worthy teacher hath taught thē making more account of monie then of men teaching other men how to buy the best princes aliue of their owne men but shal this Iugurth say of you relatiuely ô angliam venalem si inuenerit venditorem shall he thus vilely dishonor the iudges of this age with such proffers as if they were for his tooth maligning secretly our gracious blessed prince and deuising how to blot hir Royall immaculate glory in this hir mercifull and right Christian raigne by some such villanous desperate act whereby shee might be stained in all posterities and records by pleasuring Martinish malcontents once and displeasuring all learned men for euer euen for loue they would worse then that excessiue tyrant Richard the third play an enemies part to the Church for the loue they haue to God they wish the decay of Gods tēple these Antidauids and Antichrists haue not loued the habitation of his house nor the place where his honour dwelleth as their S. Dionysius to whom the hotter wittier they are the liker they are robbed the church of his god whome he worshipped because hee would tast of the goodnesse of his God but we see what sorow came on him euen by deriding that religion which was bad or as mad men and fooles and drunkerds cōdemne their own soules for mony and loose the blessings and ioyes of Gods kingdome to win the transitory goods of the earth by mischieuous waies being misled of an ignorant wil and vnaduised resolution blinded with a fond desire of innouation onely and presuming to rule the wheele which themselues neuer made or knew Salomon saith in the aboundance of that wisedome which God gaue him that if his sister and spouse be a dore as Christ metaphorically calleth himselfe a dore by which we enter into heauen as by his Church wee enter vnto him he will keepe hir in with the best wood he can come by euen with the boordes of Cedar wood which is a wood euer good of greatest continuance of fairest bewtie of noblest worthinesse insomuch that yong grāmarians can say prouerbially Cedro digna of a thing that deserueth immortality and the renowne of all posterity that preserueth it selfe and other things that are in it from corruption but these supposed gentlemen as far from gentlenesse as the goates be from sweetnes these courtiers as farre from curtesie as diuels are from goodnesse these shrewde reformers of Moses and Ioseph Salomon I pray God if it be possible they may once proue reformers of themselues and learne to be ruled by their rulers had rather that preseruation that future renowne that immortalitie of name those cedar bords should only or chiefly be giuen to the temporall scholler then the spirituall teacher to the easie hearer then the painefull speaker to the externall ruler the image of God then the internall ruler the other image of God then to the kings of all kings euen God himselfe or to his house for his owne sake that giueth all goods only for his houses sake as he blessed Pharao for Iofephs sake and the poore widdow of Sarepta for Elias sake and Laban for Iacobs sake where his blessed name is called vpon where his eares are open out of heauen to our praiers where the bottomlesse graces and immeasurable benefites and all happines begin where his owne word is once and for euer sent from aboue where in a better imitation of heauenly harmonie then Macrobius mentioneth l. 2. c. 3 Satur. the nightingale and the larke and al sweet birds for so I may well name them sing Iesus Gloria all the yeare where Gods owne worde is in mans phrase that men may vnderstand it a thousand times more worthy of golden couer and golden deske then the furious Iliads and fraudulent Iliads then the lion and fox of Homer were in the iudgement of Great Alexander according to the like cōparitiue argument of the kingly prophet Dauid who thinketh it no reason that himselfe should dwel within cedar walles and the Arke of God should abide in tentes and be carried vpon cart wheels in a more penurious and simple manner then was eyther lawful or expedient 2. Kings c. 6. v. 3. c. 7. v. 2. For Dauid did not make such a conclusiō as our deformers doe he was not so headstrong a gentleman or so presumptuous a man of worship as this great mender thus counselling all before he be called and cancelling that he neuer had with a metrapolitanisme of his owne making and fashion he said not that the arke of Gods couenant should stay on a cart still in other ages after him because in the primitiue necessitie it was first caried vpon cart wheeles as these seniors in rayling and iuniors in obeying say that the church must stand for euer as she stoode in her apodemicall mobilitie at the first in trauaile in trouble in sorow in persecution like the first churchmen and if that were granted yet euen at those dayes the true christians of the laytie layd downe their goods at the churchmens feete and they did not the like only that were infidels and very pagans Acts c. 4. v. 32. which bounty shewed in the dreadful time of persecution when themselues might haue neede shoulde teach our men to doe the like in time of peace and liberally supply the wants of the clergie which by vngodly Martinish vnreasonable absurdest meanes are beyond a meane very grieuous and many and if christian patience were not most intollerable ô yee diuelish cormorāts reade the 83. Psa v. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. repent make restitutiō of those church lands goods so lewdly and vngratiously gotten and kept and spent in pride and lecherie vnlesse with your other hellish paradoxes yee will make the time of peace in a setled state more niggardly and rauenous then that time of affliction in a moueable wandring common-wealth so that they may as readily protest and maintain this with Wall and
thy faith and thy church vnlesse their apostasie heresie and Martinisme preuaile and those goods which as thy Apostle S. Iames teacheth vs came from aboue by former good instruments be rauened and bribed and pulled away by these wicked instruments these mad dogs these infamous libellors from our feet and heads from our tables and studies from our mouthes and hearts to feede hounds to dresse whores to multiplie helhound and whore-hound ruffians swearers harebraines vnlesse we be desolate and forsaken without our owne patrones without tutors of our own without our owne Iudges as other men haue all of their owne without the possession and fruition of our own or rather of thy goods to the derision of thy omnipotent power to the contēpt of thy reuerend word to the ouerthrow of thy catholicke and apostolick church of thy faithfull and true bishops and priests which haue authority euen frō the great commission of thy holy spirite to be chargeable to the hearers and professors of the faith 2. Thessal c. 3. v. 8 9. in the dayes of this life and haue a more singular praeeminence then any other in the life of the resurrection Dan. c. 12. v. 3. which are the chiefest pillars in thy common-wealth that being in honor and reputation and enuironed with many godly Centurions defenders with many louing Dauids meeke Mosees and liberall Salomons the whole glorie and euery part thereof shall redound to thee ô father of heauen now in the last times and yeares of the world and continue euermore by thy mightie will as it did in the beginning of the law and the dayspring of the gospel when true zeal was earnest in enriching thy flock and tyrannie onelie occupied in empouerishing it when it was true religiō to confirme the estate of thy preachers and execrable atheisme to enfeeble them when it was esteemed for right diuinitie to obey God more then man for prophane Iudaisme to serue God and Mammon much more to serue Mammon and God after the Iewish cōstruction and antichristian manner that triumpheth in the name of bloud which is but aërie of seede which is but fierie of elementarie and minerall accidents which are but earthie and watrie of those bodilie blunt and sharpe properties and casual endowments which make the life tedious vnto men of this world and odious to thy maiestie in the world to come vnlesse they be consecrated to thy blessed lambe and dedicated to the vse of thy holy Church whose internall prosperitie first then externall is regarded of all good men howsoeuer these new putfoorths dronken textuals brainsick templaries monstrous protesters play the verball sophisters throughout their whole generations Now deere Christians let vs labour continually to bee deere to God let vs not vndoe the whole bodie for the faults of some parts let vs not for a worldly hope lose a heauēly certainty for accidentall shadowes essential substāces for indifferent ceremonies necessary lawes the good wheate for the cockle in the fields the fruitful trees for the fruitles hawty brāble in the woods for the fraile loue of a man the endles loue of our God his lambe that teacheth vs only to flie from the sin not the goods of the world but vse them godly and canonically Let vs I beseech you dulie consider the word of the Lord of hostes vnto Zachary his prophet which biddeth vs Execute true iudgement and shew mercy and compassion and that none imagine euill against his brother in his heart cap. 7. vers 9. Let vs daily and instantly pray vnto God to illuminate our knowledge with his heauenly empireall light to establish our faith to multiplie his gifts and graces vpon vs that wee sing with the spirit and with the vnderstanding as S. Paul our great doctor hath said If God be on our side who can be against vs who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all as a lambe to death how shall he not with him giue vs all euen all things also Rom. c. 8. v. 31 32. Let not vs make our selues worse then the heathen or reuerence our religious fathers bishops lesse then they did their holy men accounting their priests and pastors for nobles princes and their princes nobles for priests pastors of the people as Homer nameth metaphorically Agamēnon the prince of Graecians the pastor of the people Hector the prince of Troians the bishop of men as Sophocles and the other graue and sententious Tragedians call their prophetes princes and namely blinde Tyresias for being a prophet is called a king euen of a king as Virgil familiarly knowne to yoong schollers calleth Anius a king and a priest or as Moses rather telleth vs in his diuine iudgement that Melchisedech was the prince of Salem and the priest of God Genes cap. 14. v. 18. and S. Paul to preuent glossary cauils nameth him king plainely by the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the ground or foundation of the people whereon they build their cōfidence and strength Iesus being the corner stone Heb. c. 7. v. 1. and who hath not heard of the kingly prophete Dauid of Hermes that was a philosopher a priest a king and therof was among other Aegyptian princes named Trismegistus or thrise excellent Let not vs English men make our selues worse affected towarde Gods Church then our forefathers haue beene before vs whereof some leauing their crownes some their royalties some their riches deuoted themselues wholy to the orders of the Church and bestowed their liues and liuelihoods vpon Gods ministrations and seruices as some readers know very well besides diuers examples of other forraine chronicles iudging the name of a diuine better then of a man and the title of Gods priest as ioyfull and honorable with men and Angels as that which is the very best of all titles Let him that is taught in the word minister vnto him that teacheth in all good thinges who goeth a warfare at his owne cost who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruite thereof who feedeth a flocke and suffereth another to deuour the milke saith S. Paul the mightie Apostle and Bishop of the Gentiles Galat. cap. 6. vers 6. what true Christian man will once doe otherwise vnto an other then he would in that others place á paribus causis should be done to him saith Christ the almightie Sauiour Math. c. 7. v. 12. Let vs not follow Aërius the hereticke whose opinion concerning the equalitie of Bishops and Priests Epiphanius confuteth l. 3. haer 75. but rather satisfie our selues with the confutation thereof in that place then seeke new shifts for him and starting holes for that sentence of S. Ierome pronounceth a bishop to be a priest because they are diuers orders as a man might say in that phrase without confounding the degrees the same man which is a doctor is a maister but it doth not by conuersion iudge a priest to be a bishop a maister to bee a doctor Or if the