things the one that our orders condemned by them we ought to abolish the other that theirs wee are bound to accept in stead thereof And the other he that would bring in the use of the surplice into the reformed Kirkes where iâ— hath no place cannot be excused from schisme and superstition whatsoever hee alledge for his excuse As he speakes of one so hee speakes of all The drierie lamentations heavie complaints of the unsupportable burthen of the ceremonial yoke powred out in all ages by the holy men of God may provoke the compassion of the hardest hearts Augustine in his time complained that the Kirke was pressed contrarie to Christs mercifull institution with such a servile burthen of ceremonies that the state of the Iewes under the law was more tollerable then the condition of Christians seeing they were subject onely to Gods ordinances not to humane presumptions as Christians are How would hee at this time have mourned for the case of other Kirks and for the perill that I am in Erasmus Polidorus Virgilius c. â—ing the same ditta It is a certaine truth many ceremonies little faith Look how much is added to the midding of rites as much is withdrawen not onely from Christian liberty but from Christ himself and his faith while the multitude seeketh for that in rites which they should seek in the onely sonne of God Iesus Christ. The greater bulk of bodily ceremonies the lesse spirit of true devotion The true worshippers under the Gospel shall not say The Ark of the Lord they shall forget all those outward ceremonies and never revive them Moses his vaile farre more all other things that neither were nor are froÌ„ God is removed and now may we with open face behold the glory of God Then the sea about the altar was of brasse and could not be pierced with the sharpest sight but now our sea about the throne is glasse clearly convoying the knowledge of God unto our minds The Amphiscij can tell that the more shadow the lesse light The shadow alwayes accompanies the body sometimes it followes behinde but sometimes also it comes before Ye may be sure the dark body of error is not farre off when the shadowes of ceremonies are at hand and iustly may feare that they are the harbingers sent before by Satan whatsoever be mans intention to make place for their owne substance Oh if the Lord would open your eyes to see the subtill working of that mystery of iniquity The web may be divided in mens intentions who possibly mind no more for time to come then they urge for the present But in the iustice of God punishing the world for the contempt of the truth and in respect of Satans malice bringing in his lye it is all of one threed And that which is begun by one may be wrought out by another entring upon the preceeding labours Ye see not this weed growing but it will be perceived to have growen The seeds of Popery were secretly sowen in the Primitive Kirke and by degenerating ages grew up to that monstrous height which now the world wonders at But alas all our countrey wit is Mâ—tanoia after wit My people are like the Athenians who as Demades objected to them never intreated for peace but in mourning gowns that is after they had suffered great calamitie in battell When afterward ye are poysoned with errour and over laden with crosses ye and your children after you shall be forced to cry out upon your owne madnesse and folly that would not see and resist the beginnings of so great evils The remanent sparkles of natures light looking upon the common providence of God may let your Honours see that it serves most for the prosperity of Kirkes and Kingdomes that ilk constitution and order in a societie should sort with the nature disposition and condition of the people My people have from the liberal hand of their God externall abundance for the honest sustentation of their bodies with a substantial sound and simple religion for the salvation of their soules Yet farre from the artificial fulnes whereby the Tyrian spirits of the world do disquiet their neighbour nations striving to subject all to their formes that they may reigne over all as Queenes against the protestations made in all the confessions of faith of other Kirkes A single forme of policie is more fit for a plain people and mean provisions then the gorgeous shew of a pompous port necessarily requiring rents complements and carriage that neither this land may beare neither wee nor our fathers have learned Rites must have rents their service is both cumbersome costly they scorne the assignations of our plotted povertie they strive with Statesmen Earles and Lords for place precedencie they loath the preaching of the Gospell and like better the chief places of estate The restitution of the Kirk to her wonted possessions to her worldly dignities must goe on together with equall speed Neither can so long experience be denied but that ordinarily the estate of the common wealth accompanies the constitution of the kirk as the morning starre goes with the Sunne which Constantine acknowledged in his grant to the Kirkes of Africa thus beginning his Epistle Considering that the due observation of things pertaining to true religion and the worship of God brings great happinesse to the whole estate and common wealth of the Empire of Rome and Charles the 8. of France lamentably experienced For when he had faire occasions to reforme the Kirke of Rome at his pleasure and to help the Kirk of God he neglected both wherefore shortly after striken with a sudden sicknesse he died according to the forewarning of Savanarola who told him plainly that he should have great successe in his voyage to Italy for reforming the corrupt state of the Kirk which if hee did not he should returne with dishonour and God would reserve the honour of that work unto some other All the policie of Achitophel and wisdome of Salomon cannot establish a kingdome wherein the kingdome of Christ is misregarded His true worship is the pillar and wall of policies If the Lord remove his truth from you hee will deprive you also of your civill liberties and give you over into the hands of mercilesse enemies If he spare not his own strength and glory but give over the one to captivity and the other to the hands of his enemies he shall respect you no more theÌ„ the mire in the street The nation and kingdome that will not serve the Lord shal perish and these nations shall be utterly destroyed My faithfull ministers and obedient children to the meanest are all Gods people and his majesties loyal subjects and faithfull servants The testimonies of his love belong to them all for their comfort in this world and safe conduct to the world to come As they feare God they honour his highnesse they pray for him and his children and all
our God set upon your heades that they have made you the meath of ther religious wishes they haue with vehement desires longed to see the things that ye have seene And have not spared to profess that in your case they would rather suffer themselves to be dissolved then that one pinne of that holy Tabernacle so divinelie compacted should be loosed Within and amongst your selves that puritie of profession received universallie with so full consent that Prince and Peeres Pastors and people were all for Christ one heart one soule of these who beleeved with such evidences of Gods favour that the windowes gates of heaven seemed to be opened to raine downe upon this Land spirituall gifts to save you as sometime they had beene readie to powre downe raine to destroy the world every hand almost received some gift and every head crowned with some grace with such successe that it brought a rare unitie prosperitie peace upon Kirk cōmon wealth With such power and presence of the spirit of God in converting comforting confirming his people that Satan was seene fall like lightening from heaven the infidel and unbeleever casting himselfe downe on his face and confessing that undoubtedlie God was amōgst yow and in the middest of your meetings as the soules of his own secret ones can best beare witnesse who have beene most submitted to that holie and happie simplicitie the effectes whereof yet remayning in the harts of many all worldly power be it never so violent sall not be able to remove it And with such terrour from God and the Kings Lawes that ye wanted not your Theodosians publikly humbling themselves The hardest hearted and haughtiest were made to stoup The Atheist either changed in heart or in countenance and forced to play the hypocrite the proudest papist eyther made like you or made to leave you Heresie never hatched within your walles and the Babylonish brood of schisme in the infancie till this tyme was dashed against the stōes Ye sought not then my dere children with Iohn and Iames like great Princes one to sitt on the right hand another on the left nor to be busked with earthly glorie and Persian pompe better beseeming the kings of the world then the kingdome of Christ. The Carbuncles the Saphyres the Emeraulds the Chrysolites the gold the precious stones wherewith my foundation walles windowes gates were set and adorned were out of the Lords own thesaurie Your ambition was then set upon spirituall glorie the cōquest of syn and Satan by the powerfull puritie of the Word Sacraments and discipline The joy of your soules was to see Christ reigning in the middest of his enemies his sword dividing the father from the sonne and the sonne from the father yea a man frō himself parting the soule and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and ending in glorie to God and peace upon earth Then were the tabernacles of God amiable then provoked ye one another with cheerefulnes to go up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob ye were sure there to learne his wayes and how to walke in his pathes Then found ye the Lord his glorie filling his Sanctuarie and one of the largest springs of the blood of Christ from Eden watring the citie of God and glaiding your soules wearied with sinne This was my beautie so truelie glorious in the sight of God and his Angels that all the glorie of this lyfe is unworthie to enter in comparison with it Better to you to have this glorie under a crowne of thornes with our Saviour in a chaine with Paul in the Lyons den with Daniel then all the splendor of Tiberius of Nero of Darius wherewith the weak eyes of the world are dazled and pitifullie to my great griefe bewitched And surely your forgetfull ingratitude were inexpiable if with the mater ye remembered not the finger of God wonderfully working in the meanes of that glorious reformation We have to regrate that the Atheisme of these dreggs of tymes and manners is become so gross that all events now are sacrilegiously ascribed to second causes If Naaman his cure or Anna her fruitfulnes or the Egyptiā or Babylonian libertie had fallen out in these godles tymes it had beene counted foolishnes and simplicitie of men over religious upon the ignorance of alterations wroght by nature or policie to attribute them to God Yet God is the Lord Of him and through him and for him are all things Ezrah Nehemiah and the godly of that time acknowledge no less the wonderfull working of God in their redemption from the bondage of Babylon then their fathers did their deliverance out of Egypt Although the power of God was not so miraculous in the one as in the other Consider a little and mark the constitution of the tyme before this reformation was wrought the grandeur pride insolencies of my office bearers thē the averse disposition induration of the personages both at home abroade upon whom in mans eyes it did depend the heathenish darknes of idolatrie and palpable blindnes of superstition wherin the multitude was wrapped and ye shal be forced to say that he who would have intended a change of religiō might have received that desparing answer which a man of great spirit and place an enemie of Romish pride and a desirer of reformation gave concerning Luthers purpose Brother brother goe to your cloyster and say have mercy on me ô God All seene second causes were posting on in a contrarie course or if any possibilitie of alteration could haue beene imagined what hope could there have beene therof except it had beene wrought with the edge of the sword bathed in blood as Grostead the hammer of Rome said a little before his death Yet to the endles praise and wonderfull goodnes and wisdome of our God be it remembred the great worke was so singularly brought about and perfected that almost without blood except the blood of a few martyres wherein through the same wisdome and goodnes for commending and ratifying the truth the mouth of the sword of persecutors was dipped the whole bodie and shadow substance and ceremonies roote and branches of Romish Idolatrie were at once cut off Thus by reason of the wonderfull manner of Gods working of my own feeling and yours of the wonders wrought amongst you and of the testimonie of others both friends and foes about us may not ye with one voice say and sing with the Kirk Psal. 126. When the Lord turned againe the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dreamed then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Then sayd they among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them the Lord hath done great things for us wherof we are glad And would God as your deliverāce was in many things like that of Israel so your infidelitie and unthankfulnes were not like theirs there arose an other
teares day and night take hold of the king of glory wrastle with him as becomes Israel pray againe and againe with Abraham let him not depart out of your hearts nor from his owne tabernacles in this land your God lookes to be intreated loves to be importuned he is loth to leave you altogether No sudden eclipse comes upon you but like that of old when the glory of the Lord departed by degrees first from the Cherub to the doore of the house Ezek. 10. 4. then to the entry of the gate of the Lords house v. 19. then from the midst of the citie to the mountain towards the East side of the citie chap. 11. 23. Better keepe his presence now then seeke him through the streetes when hee is gone Choose rather to mourn in Sion for preuenting comfortles Babel then sitting desolate by the rivers of Babel to burst out in bitter teares in remembrance of sweet Sion The triall begins upon Pastors but ye know not upon whom it shall stay The large time of so faire occasion in the schoole of Christ requires two things now at your hands One is that yee bee able to try the spirit and to know with certainty what to follow The way to establish your selves is not with the Romans to rest upon a blinde faith receiving for truth whatsoever carries my name or authority nor with the rich man in the Gospell to wish that one may rise from the dead for your satisfaction Neither as it was in the time of Eliah to seek for a miracle from heaven nor yet to run to any on earth for decision of all questions for within and amongst your selves all are divided and without Papists are your enemies Protestants are strangers to your secrets and unacquainted with your covenants and oathes your comfort may be that your father died not intestate Let his testament bee read with attentiue reverence Search his latter will which he hath left for a plain and perfect direction to his comming againe Consider what is most agreeable to his wisedome what makes most for his honour for the edification of your owne soules for the restraint of the liberty of the flesh and for the comfort of a distressed conscience without respect to the appearances of wisedome and humility among men or to that which seems most to serve to your worldly credit that wooes your flesh or courts your carnall senses for this will bee a meager consolation when the horrors of God are upon your soules ready to be presented before his Iustice Continue in the things yee have learned and are perswaded of knowing of whom yee have learned them Have yee attained by a conscientious use of prayer hearing meditation conference unto a perswasion of that which is now in debate have ye an inward witnes testifying to your soules that your teachers by their fidelity the effectual blessing of God upon their labours have caried with thē the seale of their ministery Then cōtinue bee not caried about with every wind of doctrine to the hellish disturbance of the heavenly peace of your soules In the time of tentation ponder with your hearts what better warrants yee have for some practises of religion more substantiall in mens estimation and whether the motives of the one alteration may not as wel inforce the other As ye should be able to try your selves whether ye are in the faith or not which Paul requireth of the whole Kirk of Corinth so should ye have skill to try the spirits whether they be of God or not For such are perverted as are ever learning never come to the knowledge of the truth And as in respect of the time yee ought to be teachers and to be able to edifie every one another in the most holy faith so are yee charged by the Apostle Peter to be ready to give an account even to your enemies of that hope which is in you He that hath faith can try himselfe can try the spirits and teach others and give a reason both of his hope and practise before the adversary The other is that once having gained a godly resolution of the truth you suffer nothing earthly to divert you from the profession maintenance of the same It is now high time for you who have been hearing of Christ so many yeares to be put to your trial how yee have learned Christ to give proof of your passive obedience when the Lord calles you no lesse then of your active Offences schismes troubles persecutions have been in all times in every period of the Kirk hath opened a back doore for a worldling to slip forth at Others before us have had their own trials these in the dispensation of God are now made ours Hee hath never been a Christian in action that hath not been a martyr in affection And let the world still sit in the chaire of the scorners that professor that will not bee a ceremoniall confessor would refuse to bee a substantiall martyr The smallest threed of the seamlesse coat of thy Saviour the lowest hem of his garment the least pin or latchet of that heavenly tabernacle may be a matter of a glorious and comfortable suffering to thee And the lesse the cause be it being Christs cause the more rare acceptable is thy testimony The heart may be sound and voyd of Idolatrie and yet the outward action of adoration may prove Idolatrous Knowledge is greater and Christ now more glorious by confessions martyrdomes prescription of time and profession of all nations then in the primitive times He that now counteth it no religion to renounce a Christian rite and receive an Antichristian in place therof would not have spared of old to set Antichrist himself in the throne of Christs kingdome We are unthristie bankerupts wasting that thesaurie unworthily every penny whereof was painfully and narrowly gathered together The worthy martyrs of preceding times and glorious instruments of reformation if they were alive in these decaying dayes how would they bee ashamed of so degenerated children How ready would they be in your places to suffer for the name of Christ Or if yee had lived in their troublesome times spoyled of your goods hated of the world pinched in prison sequestrate from wife house and children looking every houre for death consider what would have been your thoughts of infidelity your words of blasphemy your deeds of defection If it please my glorious head to call you to suffer for his name let your care bee as Peter hath taught you 1. to sanctifie him in your hearts and not to feare the feare of men 2. to bee ready with your mouthes to make apologie to every one that craveth a reason of your hope and 3. to have a good conversation in Christ that they who speak evill of you may be ashamed And let your comfort be 1. a good cōscience arising upō two grounds One that ye suffer for wel doing the other that the