Plea of all Innovators especially those of the refin'd and nimbler cut who in mysterious and abstruser points the very Riddles and Labyrinths of Divinity elevate their Acumen whet and sharpen the very point of their Spirit by which they thrust into the closet of the Almighty nay into his very Bosome ransacke his secrets there call out his Prescience his Will his Decree his Justice bring them to the Barre Arraigne them Censure them know at a haires breadth whom he will save or damne or else they will devest him of his God-head make him unjust and so manacling his Incomprehensiblenesse to their Reason belch sometimes their prouder blasphemies that God must doe this if he be God or else he is no God And thus whilst they follow too much the heat of their owne Spirit they come within the lash of our Prophet the Insipiens takes them by the sleeve the Foole here in the Text the holy Ghost puts it on them Not I Thus saith the Lord God Woe to the foolish Prophet that followes his owne Spirit Nil Sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio your richest wits are neither over-stor'd with wisedome nor holinesse neither with the subtilty of the Serpent nor the innocency of the Dove The ordinary way of knowledge they contemne nothing pleases them but the Curvet and the Levolto Vp they must in their metaphisicall Speculations their sublimate Raptures the high built scaffolds of their owne pride and spirit which indeed are but the fury of braines intranc'd and good for nothing but the torment of themselves and others There was never any great wit without a touch of madnesse which not rightly modifi'd as it ought is a fit stocke to graft a villaine on whither in Church or State I have observed some my selfe that have past for Master-peeces and petty miracles in their way when their discourse hath beene closely Atheisme and their jeast the Scripture And he that hath but traverst a little Ecclesiasticke story shal finde That in primitive times it was the only Seminary of Heresie and Revolt witnesse those two Fire-brands of their age Iulian and Arrius T was the greatnesse of their Braines made them lose their Bowells and the foule Blasphemies they breath'd thence purchas'd them a just Herse and Tombe in their owne dung It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God a dangerous into the hands of men but a most pernicious into the hands of our selves When in a presumptuous and proud dotage of our owne parts a foolish following our own spirit we commit idolatry with our owne bosome adore our selves worship the thoughts of our owne hearts not looking up to our primus Motor who rules and turnes this Machine and Frame of our little world but without any reflecting on our personall imperfections wee deifie these moulds of Earth as if wee could raise Eternity out of ashes or build Immortality on pillars of dust saying to our selves We shall bee as Gods when God saies we are but men and that man in his best honour is as the beast that perisheth You know there is a proverbe current now in our language but originally from the Spaniard O Lord keepe my selfe from my selfe and this is the tenour of our daily prayers Libera nos a malo Lord deliver us from evill What evill Ego sum malus libera me a me malo si bonus liberaverit me a malo me a me malo ero de malo bonus so the Father runnes his descant in his 30 Sermon de verbis Apostoli And doubtlesse if wee but ransacke the inward man sift the chinks and crannies of our owne breasts wee must acknowledge with the Apostle That in mee that is in my flesh dwelleth no good and therefore Libera me a malo me a me malo Lord deliver my selfe from my selfe my selfe from that evill in my selfe and my selfe from my selfe that am all evill High thoughts are but the vaine Alarums of the heart and 't is the pride of it that beats them Omnis homo qui sequitur spiritum suum superbus est Every man that followes his owne spirit is a foole we know but why a proud man good Saint Augustine the Father answers putatse aliquid esse cum nihil est He thinkes himselfe something when he is nothing and in such a thought there is both Pride and Folly and this Pride and Folly a very nothing Insomuch that we finde a blessednesse promised to those who are poore in Spirit pauperes Spiritu suo saith the Father divites autem Spiritu divino Serm. 30 de verb. Apost poore in their owne Spirit but rich in the Spirit of the Lord. True humility was ever a step to glory and to a sence and feeling of that Spirit which can either make us to know God or God us or us our selves as we should doe When my spirit was overwhelmed within mee saith David then thou knewest my path Psal 142.3 Quare defecit Spiritus tuus O Martyr in tribulatione posite When thou wert in tribulation O blessed Martyr why was thy spirit so troubled in thee the Father that made the Quaere answers it Vt non mihi arrogem vires meas ut sciam D. Aug. ut supra quod alius in me operatur istam virtutem that I might not be blowne up with a conceite of mine owne spirit not arrogate to my selfe mine owne strength but know that thou art the Fountaine of all vertues and that their streames runne from and by thee who doest only so replenish them and me that out of mine and their bellyes shall flow Rivers of living waters Thus as we are emptied of our own spirit God fils us up with his otherwise when we are full we are but empty still empty as well of knowledge as of grace groap after shadowes and refemblances of things and so are coze'nd with probabilities for truth There is but one certainty upon Earth and that is that there is nothing certaine there and there is but one knowledge in man and that is a great knowledge if he knew it well that hee knowes nothing nothing in himselfe as he should know Nosce teipsum was a wise mans Motto and indeed a hard taske if it be impartially done It is a twisting of our vanities a little closer a bringing of our selves within our selves that we may say we are men indeed that is understand our selves weigh our actions with our words and our deportment with our actions and then the Insipiens in the Text hath no reference to us we are Prophets of a diviner straine There are many Plausibilities in the world which passe currently for Gold glitter and spangle hansomely a farre off which brought unto the touch will prove at best but Alchimy or copper meere counterfeite peeces which have stamp and colour right but the mettall is naught Vniversus mundus exercet histrioniam the whole world is a meere Play where he that best dissembles acts best And such a one carries
first set up by Saint Ambrose in Millaine according to the custome of the Easterne Churches D. Aug. lib. 9. confes cap. 7. Ne populus maeroris taedio contabescat so that it was not only a speciall in ducement to the mortification of those which otherwise had been still secularly dispos'd but a maine cordiall and solace for them also which under the sword of Arrianisme were set apart of old for the Fiery Triall Some Philosophers are of opinion that the Spirit knoweth and understandeth onely by the help and service of the Sences Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu which if it bee generally true our eares doubtlesse are as trap-doores to our mentall faculties which as they are shut or open so shut or open to their spirituall operations But Aristotle here was too much a Naturallist and somewhat injurious to the soule in so beslaving it and setting it a begging of the senses as if it had not vertue and wisdome enough of it selfe to exercise her functions without the speciall administration of outward Adjuncts knowing that the Senses apprehend onely the simple Accidents and not the Formes and Essence of things much lesse the secrets in or above Nature which are a journey and taske for our contemplative and intellectuall powers and these also puzled sometimes in their inquisition and well nigh lost in the windings and turnings both of metaphisicall and naturall speculations And therefore doubtlesse in spirituall affaires where the Soule chiefely is imbarqu'd we are or should be more elevated to God by Reason than by Sense when we ascend to him by serious Meditations deepe Penetrations of his Word Tho. Wr. ut supra Majestie Attributes Perfections which chiefely transport those that are truely grave that are mortified indeed when this overtickling of the Sense by the plausibility of sounds this courting and complementing with the Eare by the elegance and raritie of some well-run-voluntary or descant are for Punies in devotion to whom notwithstanding they are as sensuall objects to ascend to God in Spirit to contemplate his sweetnesse blessednesse eternall felicitie though even in those also that are most pure and sanctified to whom the most curious Ayre that ere was set is not halfe so harmonious as one groane of the Spirit doe not alwayes attend those deeper cogitations but now and then intermingle their devotions with this sacred sensualitie which as a pleasant path leadeth to the Fountaine of spirituall joy and endlesse comfort And therefore let the Psalmist bee once more our remembrancer and as a remembrancer an informer too Laudate Dominum in Psalterio Psal 150.5 laudate eum in Cymbalis Iubilationis let our outward praises of the Lord so runne with those within that our Soule may magnifie him and our Spirit rejoyce in him that sav'd us and then no doubt wee may sing cheerefully of his Power and sing aloud of his Mercy so sing and sing aloud that our Psalterie may bare a part with our Cymball our heart with our tongue our sincerity with our profession our actions with our words Saint Augustine paraphrasing on that of the 104. Psalme Sing unto the Lord sing Psalmes unto him makes a criticisme betweene Cantate and Psallite Singing unto God singing Psalmes unto him Verbo Cantat Psallit Opere hee sings to God that barely professes him he Psalmes it that obeys him the one is but Religion voyc'd the other done and 't is this doing in spirituall businesse that sets the crowne on Christianity Profession onely shewes it and oftentimes scarce shewes it truly like an hypocriticall glasse which represents a feature as it would be not as it is as it desires to seeme not as it lookes Againe Psalterium pulsatur manibus D. Aug. ibid. Ore Cantatur Manibus Psallitur he that Sings makes use of the mouth hee that Psalmes it doth exercise the hand so that the mouth it seemes onely expresseth our faith the hand our good workes the one doth but tattle Religion the other communicates it And therefore our Prophet no sooner mentions his Cantate and his Psallite but immediately there followes a Narrate and a Gleriamini First Sing unto the Lord and sing Psalmes unto him and then in the next verse Talke of his wondrous works glory in his holy name So that belike He that onely sings unto God the vocall professor he doth but talke of his wondrous workes but he that Psalmes it the realist in Christianity he glories in his holy Name And to this purpose the Father doubles on the Prophet Psal 67. Sing unto God D. Aug. in Psal 67. sing praises unto his Name Cantat Deo qui vivit Deo Psallit nomini ejus qui operatur in gloriam ejus hee sings unto God that lives unto God and hee sings praises to his Name that doth something for the glory of his Name And happie is that man that so sings and sings praises that both lives and does to the glory of GODS Name And how can Gods Name be better glorified than in his House and how better in his house than by singing of his Power and Mercy his Mercy in so drawing us that wee can live unto him his Power for inabling us to doe something for his Glory And 't is well that Those whom God hath enabled to doe will doe something for Gods Glory for the Glory either of his Name of House A President this way is but Miracle reviv'd and the Thing done doth not so much beget Applause as Astonishment 'T is somewhat above Wonder to see the One without Prophanation or the Other without Sacriledge I meane not and I say I meane not to forestall the preposterous Comments of others which sometimes injuriously picke knots out of Rushes that Sacrilege which fleeces the Revenewes but the Ribbes and Entrailes of a Church defaces Pictures and rifles Monuments tortures an innocent peece of Glasse for the limme of a Saint in it Razes out a Crucifice and sets up a Scutchion Pulls down an Organ and advances an Houre-glasse and so makes an House of Prayer a fit den for Theeves And indeed this malicious dis-robing of the Temple of the Lord is no better than a Spirituall Theft and the Hands that are guilty of it are but the Hands of Achan and for their Reward deserve the hands Gebazi God is the God of Decency And Ornaments either In his House or About it as they are Ornaments are so farre from awaking his Jealousie that they finde his Approbation He that hath consulted with the Iewish Story cannot want instance this way nor illustration The Law of old required the Altar cleane the Priest wash'd the Sacrifices without blemish and this when there was yet not onely a Temple not built but not projected but this once enterpriz'd straightway stones must be choicely hewed from the Mountaines Artificers fetch'd from Tyre Cedars from Libanus Silver from Tharshish Gold from Ophir 1 King 6. 7. 2
or degrees of perfection in them in some of them not all Oculus corporis est anima animae mens the soule is the eye of the body and the minde is the eye of the soule and as the eye is the beautie of the face the bright Starre of that Orbe it moves in so is this the beautie and bright Starre of the soule and therefore that is called Mens quod emineat in Anima Minde because it shines in the soule as a light in the spheare it rolls in Hence some would derive the Etimology of Mens from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Aug. ut supra cap. 11. which signifies the Moone not so much for varietie of change as brightnesse or else Mens a mensurando from a dexteritie it hath in measuring or contriving Now Dijudicare mensurare estactus intellectus Parte 1. q. 79. Art 9. ad 4. sayes Thomas to judge and to measure is an art of the understanding and the understanding is the very forme and selfe-being of the soule or rather the soule of the soule as the apple of our eye is the very Eye of our eye so that the minde is the beame and splendor of the soule as the soule is of the body so neere Divinity and so much resembling it that the Romanes of old ador'd the Minde as a Goddesse and by Marcus Aemilius Scaurns there was a Temple dedicated Deae menti ut bonam haberent mentem as S. Augustine observes in his 4. Booke De civitate Dei 21. chapter Well then that we may now looke backe unto the Text we take not here the word Mens physically for reason and understanding as they are in Meris naturalibus but Theologically for the spirituall and regenerate part of man And so taken it stands at some distance with the word Anima though not with the word Spiritus For though every Soule be a kinde of Spirit yet every Spirit is not a Soule nor every Soule a Minde at least a Minde regenerate but Minde and Spirit for the most part kisse in Scripture Saint Paul in the latter end of this chapter calling that Mens which in the very beginning of the next he names Spiritus so that Minde and Spirit in a sacred sympathy goe hand in hand but soule and spirit doe sometimes justle My Soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoced in God my Saviour Luk. 1.46 Here the blessed Virgin makes a difference betweene her * Non in hoc gemmo vocabule gemina substantia intelligitur sed cum ad distinctionem ponitur gemina vis ejusdem substantiae una superior per spiritum altera inserior per animam designatur in hac utique divisione anima quod animale est in imo remanet spiritus autem quod spiritale est ad summum evolat ab infimis dividitur ut ad summa sublimetur ab anima seinditur ut domino uniatur De Spiritu Anima cap. 34. soule and her spirit and why why It is called soule in respect of vivification spirit of contemplation Soule as it is a leiger and sojourner with the body quickning and informing that Spirit as it is mounted and imbarqu'd for Heaven and rapt with the beatitude of that caelestiall Host the soule doth onely magnifie God as a God the spirit rejoyceth in that God as a Saviour In a word the soule in man as it is a soule is like Fire raked up in embers the spirit like that fire extenuated and blowne into a flame the one glowing in our ashy part the other sparkling in our intellectuall And this distinction the great Doctour himselfe useth to his Thessalonians where after some benediction at length he prayeth that their whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Thes 5.23 Marke hee begins with the spirit O culatissima hominis parte the Eagle part of man which eyes things divine that like another Mary alwayes sits at the feet of Iesus then comes the soule Stella in cap. 1. Lucae Quae naturales exercet ratiocinales this like another Martha is cumbred with much serving busied about Reason and the naturall faculties but the unum necessarium it hath not chosen yet And lastly the Body that villa Marthae the Village where our Martha dwells those earthly affections of ours which so taste of the body and earth that if they be not restrain'd make man as it were all body that is all carnall for which cause we finde some men call'd spirituall some animall and some carnall 1 Cor. 2.3 Thus the spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Pilot or Governour squaring and fashioning new motions in the regenerate and subjecting their will to the will of God The soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under whose Lee come the sensitive faculties Reason Iudgement not yet wash'd and purified by the spirit the body Organum illorum the engine and Instrument of both which they imploy in their diversities of actions and operations These three are the integrall parts of a man regenerate when of the earthly man there are only two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aret. in Ep. 1. Thess cap. 5. v. 23. soule and body no spirit he it is foolishnesse unto him Hence proceedes that double man so frequently mentioned in the Scriptures the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animall or carnall and lives yet in the state of Nature the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentall or spirituall and in the state of Grace shewing his profession by his Faith and his Faith by his Workes Now as with man there is a double man spirituall and secular so with the spirituall man there is a double man too inward and outward the one in the Text here call'd Minde the other Flesh that serving the Law of God and this the Law of sinne And here by the Law of God wee understand not that onely on Mount Sinai first promulgated by Moses and after him taught by the Prophets but that also on Mount Sion by Christ and his Apostles to wit The eternall will of God declared in the Doctrine of the Gospell which is no lesse a Law than the other and this Law every regenerate man doth serve serve though not fulfill serve with the minde a willing minde crying out with the Prophet My heart is ready Psal 42.1 my heart is ready so ready that it panteth and gaspeth for the water-brooke the Commandements of God which are as deepe waters But on the other side the Flesh playes the Craven and as if it had received some deadly wound makes him complaine with the same Prophet Thine Arrowes sticke fast in me there is no health in my flesh nor any rest in my bones by reason of my sinne Psal 38.3 You heare then how sinne still lyes at the doores of the Flesh though the Flesh be not properly the
D. Aug. serm 5. de verb. Apostoli Apostle by an ingenuous and humble confession of his owne frailties doth bemoane his present condition and though in the state of grace findes himselfe not onely not conformable but in part averse to the spiritualitie of this Law acknowledging with deepe groane that he was Peccati mancipium sold under sinne as he phraseth it that inward sinne he meane Concupiscence not onely a servant to it but a very captive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leading mee captive to the Law of sinne v. 23. A Metaphor taken from the practice of Generalls in their Warres whereas some are destin'd to the Sword so others to thraldome and imprisonment In which though there be not alwayes a noyse of slaughter there is of bonds and shackles and sometimes of death too when the Ammonite must to the Saw and the Axe and the Harrow of iron 1 Chron. 20.3 But in this Apostolicall Warre there is no danger of the Axe nor the Saw though there be of the shackle no stroake of Fate but of captivity no marking out to the Sword but to Ransome to that Empti estis pretio magno 1 Cor. 6.20 In expectation whereof though he complaine for a time of wretchednesse and death with a Quis me liberabit who shall deliver me from the body of this death yet a death indeed he rather bewailes than suffers this being the voyce not of one despairing Vox non desperautis sed deplorant is carnis infirmitatoÌ„ Aret. in c. 7. ad Rom. v. 24. Trahi captivum in legem peccati solum est renati cum â—mpii a gratia alieni ultro ad mala currunt imoruant Par. ad cap. 7. Rom. v. 25. but deploring his carnall infirmities So that in this service of the law of sinne Saint Paul is not a voluntiere you see but goes upon command hath his presse-money from the Flesh serve he must whether he will or no he hath a Marshall within him that dragges him as a slave and hee must fight or suffer This makes him groan indeed groan to an AeruÌ„nosus ego homo wretched wretched man that I am And yet though he so groane and under the heate it seemes of his restlesse assaults and is thereby inforc'd sometimes to retrait yet hee leaves not the field totally a Captaine he had rather be than a coward and a Captive hee is made but 't is much against the haire serve hee doth and must but assent hee will not Nemo sponte captivatur paer Rom. 7. his minde is ingag'd another way that 's for the Law of God but the Flesh the traiterous Flesh lyes in ambush all the while and this betrayes him to the Law of sinne this makes him so deeply complaine I know that in mee that is in my Flesh V. 18. dwelleth no good thing that is true none not in my Flesh no good there and why because it serveth the Law of sinne But I know againe that in me that is in my minde dwelleth some good that 's true too good there and why because it serveth the Law of God Et in isto bello est tota vita sanctorum Ser. 5. de verb. Apostoli saith Saint Augustine Every sanctified life is but a Duell such a Duell as this between the Minde and the Flesh No true childe of God but hath beene a Captive in this Combat whosoever is regenerate is spirituall I confesse but he is in part carnall too for as much as he hath not depos'd his carnall infirmities not yet totally uncloth'd himselfe of Nature and the Flesh Si quiâ— dubitet excutiat cor suum if any scruple it let him search his heart a little sift his owne bosome and there hee shall finde either his lust lurking or his hypocrisie we are not all Minde nor all Flesh but compos'd of both lest we should either despaire for our infirmities or grow proud through our spirituall endowments The Mind perhaps may be mounting and rowzing as it were her feathers take her flight upwards to God and his pure Law but the Flesh will be still bottoming Caro semper manet infirma semper nos in cursu moratur Aret. ad cap. 8. Rom. v. 21. fluttering here below and stooping servilely to the Law of sinne Now this Law hath not barely an habitation in our Members but a very Throne it not onely possesseth the Regenerate but raignes in him raignes in him as a Tyrant not as a King makes him a slave not a subject bids him acknowledge a sword for a Scepter and a Scorpion for a sword And therefore Lombard tells us Lib. 2. d. 32. that it is Ipse Tyrannus in membris a very Nero in our members or else Manubrium Daemonis as Pimenius hath it the Hilt of the Divels sword De vit pat l. 7. cap. 25. by which he brandisheth and plaieth so cunningly his prizes with the Flesh And of these and the like Fancies Greg. de val depec orig cap. 60. Bonavent sent 2. d st 32. the Schooles doe generally ring Vulnus animae and Languor naturae and Habitus corruptus and Vitium ingenitum A wound a disease a languishment nay a Vice they will heare of Thom. 1.2 q. 82. Art 10. ad 1. Estius sent 2. dist nct 32. lit g. b. Lom lib. 2. dist 32. lit 8. but not a Sinne a Sinne by no meanes the Master himselfe allowing the word Vitium but not Peccatum the Mother * Causa Fomes poena peccati Psal 51.5 De fide ad Pet. Diacon cap. 26. and Nurse and rod of Transgression the Tinder and Touch-wood of sin nay the match and the sparkle too and yet not sinne it selfe When our Apostle here Be-sinnes it over and over the man after Gods owne heart confessing that He was shapen in wickednesse and that in sinne this very sin his mother conceiv'd him And therefore S. Augustine or as some would have it Fulgentius puts it on Peter the Deacon as a point of Faith That every man was borne Impietati subditum so that not onely concupiscence it selfe but as they rarifie it with their Primi Motus the Ebullitions First-risings and Assayes of lust nay their Primo-primi or if they have an Art to mince them smaller their Primi-primo-primi are all Sin forasmuch as Concupiscence being evill of it selfe is of it selfe without the consent of the will * Pol. Synt. lib. 6. cap. 3. Omnes primi motus quia apti sunt insequirationem peream regulari si eam pervenerint dici possunt peccata etiam in parvulis fatuis quia sunt praeter ordinem naturae primitus institutae Gerson de reg mor. pag. 128. lit B. a sinne Otherwise in infants which by reason of their suckling and tender yeares cannot yet assent to wicked desires there should be no sinne at all whereas these inordinate motions are not barely the Symptomes but the very Impressions of a sickly soule Strom. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
shall be opened And lee a Vision saith the Text such a Vision as had alwayes God in it or his Angell A whirle-wind and a fire Ezeck 1.4 To shew belike that the true Prophet of the Lord must have Light with him aswell as Noyse Vnderstanding as Reproofe And thus addressed he is now sent to the house of Israel That house of stubbornnesse and rebellion where he must set his fore-head against theirs bid them reade in it the Prophet of the true God tell them that the gods which they blindly worship are no gods but their owne fancies the Prophets they dote on no prophets but their own Lyes And for their better unmasking and discovery hee doth first blazon them by their attribute Foolish then by their properties and they are two 1. Headstrong lead by their owne spirit 2. Ignorant see nothing for these he sayes there is an Woe denounced not meerely from himselfe but the very mouth of God Sic dicit Dominus Deus Thus saith the Lord God Here is all the businesse of our Prophet to the Israelite and mine to this reverend and learned Throng which by reason of some late distraction through my secular imployments I shall be enforc'd to present you in a broken discourse peec'd up from the remainders of my former more elaborate endeavours presuming that where there is so much Piety and Worth there is not onely an attentive patience but some charity A weake man wants all I beg them And now Woe to the Foolish prophets that follow their owne spirit and have seene nothing Which words are literall to the Hebrew text to the Greeke not so where we finde no mention at all of the Foolish prophet nor the Spirit which he followes onely the Vaticination of the heart and the Blindnesse which attends that Vae his qui prophetant de corde suo omninò non vident so S. Ierom reades it from the Septuagint Woe unto them which prophecy from their heart and see not at all It seemes the Father there understands the heart for the spirit and the wild conjectures of that he rivals with the folly of those which too much indulge the other the Blindnesse is alike in both so that the sence runnes the same way though the words doe not the Prophet after his owne heart being as Foolish as the other after his owne spirit and the non vident of the same latitude in both except the Omninò make the difference and so we divide between a Prophet that sees nothing and one that sees not at all And now the words being thus at peace for the matter of the Text Loe what warre in the manner of it Not seeing and yet a Prophet Following a Spirit and yet Foolish A Prophet and a Spirit at one and yet an Woe denonunc'd How can this be This word Propheta is no more than videns no lesse neither S. Bernard tells me and I am sure Prophets of old were call'd seers How comes then the Blind here to have his eyes unscal'd and the Non videns in the Text to be a Prophet Besides All wisedome and knowledge is from the Spirit saith Saint Paul How is it then that our Prophet is subject to Malediction and he that followes his Spirit to be thus entitled to Ignorance and Folly Saint Ierome labours the answer but not home Non quempiam meveat quod Prophetae appellantur Let it not trouble any that they are called Prophets for 't is the custome of the Scriptures Vnumquemque vaticinationis suae sermonis Prophetam nuncupare Every vision or Divination though delusive is a kinde of Prophecy and he that hath either a Prophet doubtlesse But a Prophet by way of restriction with his reproachfull Epithites of Falsus or Vanus or Insipiens They are all three in this Chapter though not in the Text in the Chapter within foure verses of the Text at the sixth verse we finde a lying Divination there is the falsus Propheta at the seventh a vaine Vision there is the vanus too And if we weigh the dependances of words with matter we shall bring this Vanus and Falsus within the verge of the Text too and so make the foolish Prophet the vaine and the Lying all one For whatsoever is false must be vaine and what is vaine is Foolish too Novit Deus homines vanos God knoweth vaine man Job 11.11 Vanus there is in the roote Naboüb which is as much as Concavum or Vacuum any thing that is hollow or empty a word which the Rabbines usually bestow on fooles who have nothing in them solid and compact and therefore in Scripture resembled not onely to an empty but to a broken vessell In the like manner the French as their Bolducus tells mee hath the word Folls quasi Follis Bolducus in Iob c. 2. metaphorically borrowed from a paire of Bellowes which as they take in Ayre so they give it and when they are full are nothing else Hence is that word of contumely and disgrace mention'd by the Evangelist Racha or more properly Richa from the Hebrew Rick Evacuare or offandere so that it seemes Folly is nothing else but a leaking or pouring out or spilling on the ground as Expositors glosse that place Mat. 5.22 And indeed meere simplicitie is but the poverty or emptinesse of the mind and therefore to bee empty and poore and foolish sounds one Omnis stultus eget saith Saint Augustine omnis qui eget stultus est every foole wants and every one that wants is a foole The Father doubling on the words doth at last distinguish them Egestas est verbum non habendi and Stultitia verbum sterilitatis habet egestatem aliquis habet non habere habet stultitiam habet nunquam habere Folly and poverty are names of barrennesse and want the one may have some expectation or at least hope of supply the other never Folly is not capable of alteration poverity is Folly will be folly though you bray it in a Morter 't is not onely feebts or shallow but perverse and thou shalt sooner beare it into Atomes than breake it of that course in which it is a driving 't will be alwayes following her owne Spirit the worst of Spirits Spiritum Eratoris where once captivated it can see nothing neither indeed desires to see And therefore the Father tells us that 't is not Quaevis but Vitiosa ignorantia such an ignorance as is not onely darke or pur-blind but refractory impatient as well of direction as restraint head-strong will not endure the curbe nor the snaffle but the Reynes loose on the necke gallops where it list not where it should carried meerely by the precipitation of the will without any guide or convoy of reason or understanding A Ship without Sterne or Rudder unman'd unballac'd without Pole or Compasse the scorne of every blast and billow Hence it is that the Holy Ghost puts the foole on those that are the Lackeys and Slaves of their owne
repellat in his fourth Booke of Epistles ex Registro 95. chapter Nay Rome her selfe though she much vaunt in the Title of the Mother Church is not without her Moles and Scarres this way Some of her owne Sonnes I know not whether out of Zeale or Envie have bespaul'd her shrewdly declayming against her Prelates for their suddaine jumpe from the Court to the Consistory whose former imployments and endeavours were wholly devoted Iuri Caesareo and could give no other account of their learning Quà m Venationi Voluptatibus student At Councels they were but as ciphers and margents or rather mutes whilst others spake they were Instar ligni elinguis vel lapidis muti As a dumbe stone or a tonguelesse peece of wood and such there were in Sacro Concilio Tridentino the sacred and famous Councell of Trent was not exempted from this infamy Stella in cap. 6. Lucae one of their Friers tells me so in his Commentaries upon the sixth of Luke 39. verse Pudet haec opprobria Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Now the Ground and Originall of these corrupt abuses in the Church Flens dico gemens denuncio Greg. ut sup I suppose to bee that which Saint Gregory mournfully obtrudes to some Prelates of his Age generally condemning herein the practices of France and Germany where there were none admitted to Sacred Orders sine commodi datione without a Gratuity or Present not remembring it seemes that strict precept of Christ to his Disciples Who giving them power against uncleane Spirits and sending them abroad to cure all manner of diseases bids them Heale the Sicke cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Divells but with this caution gratis accepistis gratis date neither provide golde your selves nor accept any offered you Loe freely you have received freely give Math. 10.10 The taking of a few shekels of Silver and a few changes of Rayment stuck Naamans Leprosy upon Gehazi and his upon his house for ever And upon this ground belike it was that our Saviour afterwards comming into the Temple of Ierusalem with great indignation overthrew the Tables of the money changers and the Seates of them that solde doves And why why The Church is not a place of merchandise Math. 21.12 the selling of doves is dangerous in the Temple if we may beleeve the Fathers comment on that place a sinne so hainous that it toucheth upon the holy Ghost Columbas vendere est despiritu sancto commodum temporale percipere he that makes a temporall commodity by the gifts of the holy Ghost Greg. lib. 4. Epist ex Reg st cap. 95. doth but sell doves in the Temple translates a Church to an Exchange makes a house of prayer but a den for theeves And for this or the like occasion one Symon doomes another with a pecunia tua tecum in perditionê Acts 8 10. Thy money perish with thee Acts. 8.10 And now for redresse of those grosse enormities in the Churches where they raigne as God forbid they should raigne or touch here in a Church reformed there are two things necessarily required in their Guides and Governours Vigilancy and Integrity that they looke on men fraught with sufficiency and worth and not transported with any sinister or by-respects either of profit or partiality 'T is lamentable that Ignorance and Simplicity should be thus braying out the Oracles of God that such beasts should be emploied about the carriage of his Arke which can doe nothing but low after their calves at home Moses tells plainely the Israelite 1. Sam. 6.12 non junges Bovem Asinum an Oxe and an Asse shall not plough together Deut. 22. that is as the Father moralls it Sapientem cum stolido non junges inpraedicatione verbi In the spirituall plough Wisedome and Folly are unequally yok'd Greg Hom'l 19. super Ezek. Knowledge and Ignorance will never draw together and therefore wee reade that the Raunge of the mountaines is the feeding for the wilde Asse Iob. 39.8 but the fruitfull Fielde for the Oxe that treadeth out the corne 1. Cor. 9.9 Send then the illiterate a grazing on the mountaines Ignorance and Barrennesse will dwell together But place the Schollar with the laborious Oxe direct Learning to the corne-field and the fruitfull Vine to the greene pastures and the still waters to the prepared Table and the cup that overstoweth from the Vale of death to the Path of Righteousnesse that hee may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psal 23. I conclude this tedious point with the advice of that devout Abbot to his advanced Proselyte and by way of humble suite preferre the same to the reverend care of him whom God's speciall providence hath made a super-intendent of his Church here Beseeching him in the bowells of Christ Iesus that those which shall bee hereafter partakers of his Dabo vobis whom he shall either sanctify by laying hands on or otherwise publikly admit to any service in the Church may be such as the Father there squares-out a President and a Patterne unto others Qui sunt compositi ad mores probati ad sanctimoniam parati ad obedientiam subjecti ad disciplinam catholici adfidem fideles ad dispensationem concordes adpacem conformes ad unitatem This is not all I yet presse closer with Saint Bernard Sint in judicio recti in jubendo discreti S. Bernard lib. 4. de considerat ad Eugenium circa medi um in loquendo modesti in professione devoti in zelo sobrji in misericordia non remissi in otio non otiosi quorum ingressus pacificus non molestus exitus qui Ecclesias non spolient sed emendent qui famae provideant suae nec invideant alienae Heere is all and that is enough enough I am sure for the matter of ordination t is time now to looke on the Parties ordered and they are described here by the word Pastors Pastors with a qualification after mine owne which is the second part I will give you Pastors after mine owne heart Dabo Pastores I will give you Pastors Pars 2. The word PASTOR is of a large dimension and if wee traverse the latitude and extent thereof it will involve in the generality any Teacher in the Church But because some of them insteed of starres fixt in their Orbes have prov'd Wandring starres Iude 13. reserved for darkenesse and the Text being in a direct Antipathy with such whom the Prophets style Idole corrupt brutish destroying Pastors Ier. 10.21 Let 's goe up a little to the Mountaines of Israell to the Fat pastures where the Lord's Flocke and Folds he and there from the scriptures themselves take a view whom he hath made choyce of what Pastors he hath cull'd out after his owne heart where wee shall finde that as God is a God of Providence so of Order And as in all other things so principally in his Church And that wee
may beginne in Moses for before every man was King and Prophet and Priest in his owne Family It will appeare that the first foundation of it was laid in inequality God then distinguishing her Attendants into three orders or degrees Priests Levites Nethinims and above these an Aaron as Superintendent and Commander After Moses death long after the people returning out of Babylon wee have a speciall mention of certaine Teachers in Israell which were also distinguished into three severall rankes Wisemen Scribes Disputers and these not onely succeeding but subordinate to the Prophets which Saint Paul hath a glaunce at against the Iewes where is the Wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer 1. Cor. 1.20 When the Temple was rebuilt though these Orders grew into Sects and instead of them wee finde Essenes Pharises and Sadduces yet not these Ephes 4.11 without their Primate and Metropolitan And in the time of our Saviour when Sects and Orders were so intermingled that wee could scarce distinguish them yet they all joyne in a Superior and wee meete with Priests and Scribes and Elders flocking for advise to the pallace of Caiaphas the high Priest Math. 26.3 After these wee finde Pastors Apostles Prophets Evangelists and they thus distinguished by the great Doctor Saint Paul And lastly Elders Presbyters Deacons and these under their Bishop Timothy 1. Tim. 1.5 So that a priority of degreee and power in the Priesthood wee may draw downe from Moses to Christ from Christ to the Apostles and from them to the Fathers and Prelates of the Church not only by Ecclesiasticall or Apostolicall tradition or constitution but for ought I am hitherto posseess'd of otherwise and I would some higher Iudgement would enforme mee better After Gods owne heart and * Quamvis forsan res ipsae in Ecclesia constitutae humani sint sive Ecclesiastici juris Ipsa tamen obligatio ad Reverentiam promptam Obedientiam talibus Ecclesiae constitutionibus exlnbendam est juris Divint Iuxta illa dicta Evangellca Math. 18.17 1. Cor. 14.32 Heb. 13.17 Io. Forbes Ir enicum lib. 2. cap. 1. sect 5. Iure divino Insomuch that Saint Ierome * S. Ieron comment in Epist ad Tit. cap. 1. himselfe who hath beene reputed a great stickler for the equality of Church-men and a Father that hath sometimes rivall'd Presbyters with Bishops Idem writing to his Evagrins tells him thus Vt sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de lege c. Parte 3. tract 4. Epist 9. ad Evagrium that wee may know Apostolicall traditions to bee derived from the old Law wee doubt not but of what condition Aaron his Sonnes and the Leuites were in the Temple Hoc sibi Episcopi c. The same Bishops Ministers and Deacons challenge in the Church Now who knowes not that Aaron by Gods owne appointment was superiour to his Sonnes his Sonnes to the Levites the Levites to the Nethinims So that a Bishop may claime a transcendency in the Christian Church even by divine Ordinance and Institution Est in lib. 4. sent dist 24. sect 25. or if the truth hereof could not be cleerely evidenced out of those sacred Monuments yet as the same * Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignâ—tate pendet cut si non Exors quaedam ab om tibus eminens det ur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes S. Hieron in Dialog adversus Luciferian Father addes for avoiding of factions and mutinies and confusion in the Church there is one eminently One requir'd necessarily to sit at the Helme and Rudder a Pilot and Steers-man in those differences A Bishop otherwise there would bee as many Schismes in the Church as Pastors And certainely where disorders have beene so frequent they have proceeded principally through a defect of superiours who either had not the edge of Authority or having it have blunted it though some who have beene imbark'd wholly in matters of Discipline have from the discontented spirits of their age receiv'd their censure rather of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Episcopi Arer in 1 Tim. 3.1 And yet if wee looke to the Analogy of Reason as well as Scripture we must either grant them a superintendency or else make an absolute confusion For it is here as it is with Instruments if all the strings be unisons there can be no harmony That hand is unshapen and little better than monstrous where all the singers are of the same length Parity in a Church is prodigious There must be as well a superiority in Ecclesiasticke as in Civill government there being required in both One eminent above the rest as Saul was higher than any of the people from the shoulders upwards 1 Sam. 9.2 'T is not enough that there are in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seers but there must be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseers so Saint Paul chargeth the Elders of Ephesus Take heed to the Flocke of which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers Acts 20.28 The old Roman was but laugh'd at that would make an Army of all Commanders for where there were none to obey there could be none to governe And therefore the Wise man sayes that the Church is Tanquam acies ordinatal as an Army with her Banners displayed Cant. 6.4 And in such an Army one Officer is subordinate to another and a common Souldier unto both Some are appointed to be Horse-men some to runne before the Chariots some Captaines of sifties some Captaines of hundreds some Captaines of thousands 1 Sam. 8.12 Hereupon Church-men have beene by some resembled unto Starres for as in the Firmament above one Starre differs from another both in glory and magnitude so they doe also in the Firmament of the Church here Others compare them unto Angels and as there is a Hierarchy of them so of these also the inferiour Angels are illuminated by a higher order of Angels so should it be with those Angels of the Church below the Spirits of the Prophets being subject to the Prophets and God being every where the God of Order and not of confusion 1 Cor. 14.33 Moreover it is evident that the 70. Disciples were inferiour to the Apostles the Levites to the Priests even Iure Divino and in consent to this the Fathers warble sweetly the Bishops succeeded the Apostles the Pastors and Presbyters the 70. Disciples so that as on the one side they were inferiour to the Apostles so on the other these to the Bishops Which allegation of the Cardinall for it is Bellarmines allegation some of your Dutch Hotspurs labouring to wave not onely exclude Bishops from Apostolicall authority but also from succession and to throw them cleane under hatches advance their owne Pastors and can allow them to be the Apostles Successors Aliquo modo Ames Bel. Enerv Tom. 2. c. 4. p. 113. but Bishops as they now are Nullo modo so the factious