by the swiftnesse of his motion would set all the world on fire so Mercy must ever be set near Justice for the cooling and tempering thereof In his mercy our King desires to resemble the God of heaven who measureth his judgements by the ordinary cubit but his kindnesses by the cubit of the Sanctuary twice as big yea all the world had been a hell without Gods mercy He is rich in having a plentifull exchequer of his peoples hearts Allow me said Archimedes to stand in the aire and I will move the earth But our King having a firm footing in his Subjects affections what may he do yea what may he not do making the coward valiant the miser liberall for love the key of hearts will open the closest coffers Mean time how poore is that Prince amidst all his wealth whose Subjects are onely kept by a slavish fear the jaylour of the soul. An iron arm fastned with scrues may be stronger but never so usefull because not so naturall as an arm of flesh joined with muscles sinews Loving Subjects are most serviceable as being more kindly united to their Sovereigne then those which are onely knock'd on with fear and forcing Besides where Subjects are envassaled with fear Prince and People mutually watch their own advantages which being once offered them 't is wonderfull if they do not and wofull if they do make use thereof He willingly orders his actions by the Laws of his realm Indeed some maintain that Princes are too high to come under the roof of any Laws except they voluntarily of their goodnesse be pleased to bow themselves thereunto and that it is Corban a gift and courtesy in them to submit themselves to their Laws But whatsoever the Theories of absolute Monarchy be our King loves to be legall in all his practices and thinks that his power is more safely lock'd up for him in his Law then kept in his own will because God alone makes things lawfull by willing them whilest the most calmest Princes have sometimes gusts of Passion which meeting with an unlimited Authority in them may prove dangerous to them and theirs Yea our King is so suspicious of an unbounded power in himself that though the widenesse of his strides could make all the hedge stiles yet he will not go over but where he may He also hearkneth to the advise of good Counsellers remembring the speech of Antoninus the Emperour Aequius est ut ego tot taliumque amicorum consilium sequar quam tot talesque amici meam unius voluntatem And yet withall our King is carefull to maintain his just Prerogative that as it be not outstretched so it may not be overshortned Such a gratious Sovereigne God hath vouchsafed to this Land How pious is he towards his God! attentive in hearing the Word preaching Religion with his silence as the Minister doth with his speech How loving to his Spouse tender to his Children faithfull to his servants whilest they are faithfull to their own innocence otherwise leaving them to Justice under marks of his displeasure How doth he with David walk in the midst of his house without partiality to any How just is he in punishing wilfull murder so that it is as easie to restore the murthered to life as to keep the murtherer from death How mercifull is he to such who not out of leigier malice but sudden passion may chance to shed bloud to whom his pardon hath allowed leisure to drop out their own souls in tears by constant repentance all the dayes of their lives How many wholsome Laws hath he enacted for the good of his Subjects How great is his humilitie in so great height which maketh his own praises painfull for himself to heare though pleasant for others to report His Royall virtues are too great to be told and too great to be conceal'd All cannot some must break forth from the full hearts of such as be his thankfull Subjects But I must either stay or fall My sight fails me dazell'd with the lustre of Majestie all I can do is pray Give the King thy judgements O Lord and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne smite through the loins of those that rise up against his Majestie but upon him and his let the Crown flourish Oh cause his Subjects to meet his Princely care for their good with a proportionable cheerfulnesse and alacrity in his service that so thereby the happinesse of Church and State may be continued Grant this O Lord for Christ Jesus his sake our onely Mediatour and Advocate Amen THE PROFANE STATE BY THOMAS FULLER B. D. and Prebendarie of Sarum ISAIAH 32.5 The vile person shall be no more called liberall nor the churl said to be bountifull EZEK 44.23 And they shall teach my people the difference betwixt the Holy and the Profane CAMBRIDGE ¶ Printed by ROGER DANIEL for Iohn Williams and are to be sold at the signe of the Crown in S. Pauls Churchyard 1642. The Profane State THE FIFTH BOOK CHAP. 1. The Harlot IS one that her self is both merchant and merchandise which she selleth for profit and hath pleasure given her into the bargain and yet remains a great loser To describe her is very difficult it being hard to draw those to the life who never sit still she is so various in her humours and mutable 't is almost impossible to character her in a fixed posture yea indeed some cunning Harlots are not discernable from honest women Solomon saith she wipeth her mouth and who can distinguish betwixt that which was never foul and that which is cleanly wiped Her love is a blank wherein she writeth the next man that tendreth his affection Impudently the Harlot lied Prov. 7.15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee else understand her that she came forth to meet him not qua talis but qua primus because he came first for any other youngster in his place would have serv'd her turn yet see how she makes his chance her courtesie she affecting him as much above others as the common road loves the next passenger best As she sees so her self is seen by her own eyes Sometimes she stares on men with full fixed eyes otherwhiles she squints forth glances and contracts the beams in her burning glasses to make them the hotter to inflame her objects sometimes she dejects her eyes in a seeming civility and many mistake in her a cunning for a modest look But as those bullets which graze on the ground do most mischief to an army so she hurts most with those glances which are shot from a down-cast eye She writes characters of wantonnesse with her feet as she walks And what Potiphars wife said with her tongue she saith unto the passengers with her gesture and gate Come lie with me and nothing angrieth her so much as when modest men affect a deafnesse and will not heare or a dulnesse and will not
am much perplexed to find the beginning of Christian Churches in the Scripture There I find the Saints meeting in the house of Marie the mother of Mark in the School of Tyrannus in an upper Chamber but can see no foundation of a Church I mean of a place and structure separated and set apart solely for Divine Service B. That the Saints had afterwards Churches in your sense is plain 1. Cor. 11.22 Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Here the opposition is a good exposition of the Apostles meaning and the Antithesis betwixt Houses and Church speaks them both to be locall so that S. Paul thought their materiall Church despised that is abused and unreverenc'd by their lay-meetings of Love-feasts therein A. By your favour S r the Apostle by Church meaneth there the assembly or society of Gods servants as appears by what followeth or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Them and not that not speaking of the Place but Persons The latter words of the Apostle comment on the former shewing how to shame those who had not that is to neglect and upbraid the poore is to despise the Church of God B. Pardon me S r for the Apostle therein accuseth the Corinthians of a second fault Imprimis he chargeth them for despising Gods materiall Church Item for shaming their poore brethren in their Love-feasts The particle And sheweth the addition of a new charge but no expounding or amplifying of the former But S r suspending our judgements herein let us descend to the Primitive times before Constantine we shall there find Churches without any contradiction A. Not so neither Herein also the trumpet of Antiquity giveth a very uncertain sound Indeed we have but little left of the story of those times wherein Christian books were as much persecuted as men and but a few Counfessour-records escaping martyrdome are come to our hands Yea God may seem to have permitted the suppression of primitive History lest men should be too studious in reading and observant in practising the customes of that age even to the neglecting and undervaluing of his written Word B. Yet how slenderly soever those Primitive times are storied there is enough in them to prove the Antiquity of Churches I will not instance on the decrees of Evaristus Hyginus and other Popes in the first three hundred years about the consecrating of Churches because their authority is suspected as antedated and none are bound to believe that the Gibeonites came from so far a Countrey as their mouldy bread clouted shoes did pretend Churches are plainly to be found in Tertullian two hundred years after Christ and Eusebius witnesseth that before the time of Dioclesian the Christians had Churches which the Tyrant caused to be destroyed A. But Origen Minutius Felix Arnobius and Lactantius being press'd by the Heathen that Christians had no Churches answered by way of confession yielding that they had none This is the difficulty perplexeth me It was a bloody speech of Abner Let the young men rise up and play before us But worse is their cruelty who make sport at the falling out of the old men when the reverend brows of Antiquity knock one against another and Fathers thus extremely differ in matters of fact B. Why S r A charitable distinction may reconcile them if by Churches stately magnificent Fabricks be meant in that acception the Christians had no Churches but small Oratories and Prayer-places they then had though little low and dark being so fearfull of persecution they were jealous the Sunne-beams should behold them and indeed stately Churches had but given a fairer aim to their Enemies malice to hit them Such an homely place learned S r Henrie Spelman presents us with which was first founded at Glastenbury thatched and wattled And let not our Churches now grown men look with a scornfull eye on their own picture when babes in their swadling clothes And no wonder if Gods House Erubuit domino cultior esse suo The Church did blush more glory for to have Then had her Lord. He begg'd should she be brave Christ himself being then cold and hungry and naked in his afflicted members Such a mean Oratory Tertullian calls Triclimum Christianorum the Parlour or Three-bed-room of the Christians A. But it seems not to consist with Christian ingenuity for the fore-named Fathers absolutely to deny their having of Churches because they had onely poore ones B. Take then another Answer namely in denying they had no Temples they meant it in the same notion wherein they were interrogated to wit they had no Temples like the Pagans for Heathen Gods no claustra Numinum wherein the Deity they served was imprisoned Or may we not say that in that age the Christians had no Churches generally though they might have them in some places the elevation of their happinesse being varied according to severall climates And Christendome then being of so large an extent it might be stormy with persecution in one countrey and fair weather in another We come now to the Necessity There is no absolute necessity that Christians should have Churches No necessity at all in respect of God no absolute necessity in respect of men when persecution hinders the erecting of them In such a case any place is made a Church for the time being as any private house where the King and his Retinue meet is presently made the Court. Christians have no direct precept to build Churches under the Gospel I say direct For the Law of God which commands a publick Sanctification of a Sabbath must needs by way of necessary consequence imply a set known and publick Place Besides Gods command to Moses and Solomon to build a Temple in a manner obligeth us to build Churches In which command observe the body and the soul thereof The body thereof was Ceremoniall and mortall yea dyed and is buried in our Saviours grave The soul thereof is Morall and eternall as founded in Nature and is alwayes to endure Thus S. Paul finds a constant bank for Ministers Maintenance lockt up in a Ceremoniall Law Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn The Apostle on the Morality couched therein founded the Charter of endowment for Ministers in the Gospel Besides God hath left a warrant dormant with his Church Let all things be done decently and in order And this ties Christians to the building of Churches for their publick Assemblies whereby not onely Decency but Piety is so much advanced especially in these three respects 1 Hereby the same meat serves to feed many guests one Pastour instructing many people in the same place 2 Devotion is increased with company Their praises are the louder and musick is sweetest in a full consort their prayers are the stronger besetting God as it were in a round and not suffering him to
the Laver and set it on a pavement of stone He jointly advanceth the pains and gains the work and wages of Ministers which going together make a flourishing Clergy with Gods blessing and without mans envy His mortified mind is no whit moved with the magnificent vanities of the Court no more then a dead corps is affected with a velvet herse-cloth over it He is so farre from wondring at their pomps that though he looks daily on them he scarce sees them having his eyes taken up with higher objects and onely admires at such as can admire such low matters He is loved and feared of all and his presence frights the Swearer either out of his oathes or into silence and he stains all other mens lives with the clearnesse of his own Yet he daily prayeth God to keep him in so slippery a place Elisha prayed that a double portion of Eliahs Spirit might rest upon him A Father descanteth hereon that a double portion of grace was necessary for Elisha who was gratious at Court lived in a plentifull way and favoured of the Kings of Israel whereas Eliah lived poorely and privately And more wisdome is requisite to manage prosperity then affliction In his grave writings he aims at Gods glory and the Churches peace with that worthy Prelate the second Jewell of Salisbury whose Comments and Controversies will transmit his memory to all Posterity Whose dying pen did write of Christian Union How Church with Church might safely keep Communion Commend his care although the cure do misse The woe is ours the happinesse is his Who finding discords daily to encrease Because he could not live would die in peace He ever makes honourable mention of forein Protestant Churches even when he differs and dissents from them The worst he wisheth the French Church is a Protestant King not giving the left hand of Fellowship to them and reserving his right for some other Cannot Christs coat be of different colours but also it must be of severall seams railing one on another till these Sisters by bastardizing one another make the Popish Church the sole heir to all truth How often did reverend Whitgift knowing he had the farre better cheere send a messe of meat from his own table to the Ministers of Geneva relieving many of them by bountifull contributions Indeed English charity to forein Protestant Churches in some respect is payment of a debt their children deserve to be our welcome guests whose Grandfathers were our loving hosts in the dayes of Queen Mary He is thankfull to that Colledge whence he had his education He conceiv'd himself to heare his Mother-Colledge alwayes speaking to him in the language of Joseph to Pharaohs Butler But think on me I pray thee when it shall be well with thee If he himself hath but little the lesse from him is the more acceptable A drop from a spunge is as much as a tunne of water from a Marish He bestows on it Books or Plate or Lands or Building and the Houses of the Prophets rather lack watering then planting there being enough of them if they had enough He is hospitable in his housekeeping according to his estate His bounty is with discretion to those that deserve it Charity mistaken which relieves idle people like a dead corps onely feeds the vermin it breeds The ranknesse of his housekeeping produceth no riot in his Family S. Paul calls a Christian Family well ordered a Church in their house If a private mans house be a Parochiall a Bishops may seem a Cathedrall Church as much better as bigger so decently all things therein are disposed We come now to give a double Example of a godly Bishop the first out of the Primitive times the second out of the English Church since the Reformation both excellent in their severall wayes S t AVGUSTINE the Learned and painfull Bishop of Hippo in Africa for the space of 40 yeares where he dyed in the 70 th yeare of His Age about y e yeare of o r Lord 430. W. Marshall sculp CHAP. 11. The life of S. AUGUSTINE AUgustine was born in the City of Tagasta in Africa of Gentile parentage Patricius and Monica though their means bore not proportion to their birth so that the breeding of their sonne at Learning much weakned their estate in so much as Romanian a noble gentleman all the world is bound to be thankfull to S. Augustines Benefactour bountifully advanced his education It will be needlesse to speak of his youth vitious in manners and erroneous in doctrine especially seeing he hath so largely accus'd himself in his Confessions 'T is tyranny to trample on him that prostrates himself and whose sinnes God hath gratiously forgotten let no man despightfully remember Being made a Presbyter in the Church of Hippo this great favour was allowed him to preach constantly though in the presence of Valerius the Bishop whereas in that age to heare a Priest preach when that a Bishop was in the Church was as great a wonder as the Moon shining at mid-day Yea godly Valerius one that could do better then he could speak and had a better heart then tongue being a Grecian and therefore not well understood of the Africans procured Augustine in his life-time to be designed Bishop of Hippo and to be joyned fellow-Bishop with himself though it was flatly against the Canons For a Coadjutour commonly proves an hinderer and by his envious clashing doth often dig his Partners grave with whom he is joyn'd besides that such a superinstallation seems an unlawfull bigamy marrying two husbands at the same time to the same Church Yea S. Augustine himself afterwards understanding that this was against the Constitutions of the Church was sorry thereat though others thought his eminency above Canons and his deserts his dispensation and desiring that his ignorance herein should not misguide others obtained that the Canons then not so hard to be kept as known because obscure and scattered were compiled together and published that the Clergy might know what they were bound to observe Being afterwards sole Bishop he was diligent in continuall preaching and beating down of Hereticks especially the Manicheans in whose Fence-school he was formerly brought up and therefore knew best â—â— To come to his death It happened that the Northern countreys called by some Vagina gentium the Sheath of people though more properly they may be termed Ensis dei the Sword of God sent forth the Vandalls Albans and Gothes into the Southern parts God punishing the pride of the Roman Empire to be confounded by Barbarous enemies Out of Spain they came into Africa and massacred all before them The neighbouring villages like little children did flie to Hippo the mother-City for succour thirteen moneths was Hippo besieged by the Gothes and S. Augustine being therein prayed to God either to remove the siege or to give the Christians therein patience to suffer or to take him out of this