high Court of Parliament at Paris hath beene perturbed with the agitation thereof sithence This I thinke is the best seruice which I can yeeld to God my Soueraigne prince and to the common weale seeing it doth concerne euery good subiect both Theologically and ciuilly to vnderstand what hee doth owe to his King in his conscience for Religion and ciuilly it concernes him for the securitie of his state The Iesuits indeed haue most subtilly gon about to make an Antithesis or contradiction betwixt the Principautie and Priesthood holding this to be onely diuine and that onely humane and therefore that to be subiect vnto this vpon which Antithesis they build this vsurpation ouer Princes and states but if your Lo doe not stop your eares against the following discourse I hope your Lordship shall find that in my peregrination beyond seas I did furnish my selfe with as much concerning the substance of this question from the most learned both writers and speakers as is sufficient to ridde any man whatsoeuer of this dangerous doubt vnlesse it be those whose hearts and best spirits are already ouercome by the poyson of this deadly Absinthium And first I lay downe this generall Thesis that all such authoritie and power in the Church which doth disproue Christian orthodoxal Magistrates erecting violent vsurpations in their place is manifestly contrary to the voyce of Christ in the Euangell the practise of the primitiue Church approued by the great doctors thereof in all following ages yea and contrary the first ordinance of God in the typicall gouernment of Moses and consequently all such doctrine which doe mainetaine the same must bee hereticall and impious To cleare this generall Thesis in the fountaine let vs looke vpon the first plantation of Christs Church and the condition wherein it was setled which by the Spirit of God is compared to a vineyard Homo quidem paterfamilias plantauit vineam circundedit eam sepibus and so forth as we read in the Text A certaine husbandman planted a vineyard and hedged it about This is the vineyard of Christianitie watered and made fertile by the foure floods of the foure Euangelists as is mystically figured in Genesis A flood went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was diuided into foure heads Christ who is the planter of this vineyard hath fortified it in the Gospel with three seuerall walles as so many diches and rampards to compasse it The first fortification and wall is the word of God and holy Scripture against heresies and heretickes Vt potens sit exhortari in doctrinasana eos qui contradicūt arguere to be able to reach wholsome doctrin to improue them who speak against it The second Fortification is of spirituall Iurisdiction against those who be rebellious Qui Ecclesiam non audinerit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus Publicanus who is to be excommunicate from the company of the Saints The third Fortification is of Temporall power against humane inuasions Duo gladij Vpon the first of which three Ramparts hee hath placed learned Doctors in the Church who are furnished with spirituall wisedome to conuict herefie Vpon the second Prelates with authoritie to excommunicate those who be disobedient to the voyce of Christ. Vpon the third Brachium seculare Ciuill power of Princes to guard his Church from the persecution and inuasion of rauening Wolues from without and from intestine disorders without any of which three this Vineyard of Christ is neuer sufficiently fortified The erronious dreames of Anabaptists too much imitated by some pure and foolish Puritanes would depriue the Church of the vse of one of those strengths to wit of the secular Arme But specially this Iesuiticall Clergie hath preuailed mightly to breede a disiunction of the Ramparts which God wee see hath conioyned to rend asunder the Church and ciuill authoritie the Prince and the Priest which although they were contrarie in themselues as they be seuerall yet the Lord hath knit them together As of contrary Elements hee hath formed the vnitie of mans bodie and hath vnited a mans owne constitution of things meerely contrary soule and body heauen and earth Caro aduersus spiritum spiritus autem aduersus carnem saith the Apostle for euen as the soule of man which receiueth that diuine inspiration of wisedome and knowledge to rule our life is in it selfe a thing contemplatiue and abstract neuer able to subiect the members of our body to this Rule if it were not that the power of our actiue spirit sitting in the chaire of our conscience doth frame and force our will and the faculties of our minde to make our body obedient otherwise it should neuer obey vnto the soule by reason of the corruption therof Our soule is as the Alte of this Musicke our flesh as the Counterbase our actiue spirit as the Tenor and midcuple that ioyneth them This difference of our soule and spirit is cleere once by Saint Paul Ut seruetur corpus anima spiritus integor in die Domini nostri Our great Philosopher Christ againe did vse to say Tristis est anima meavsque ad mortem Spiritus quidem promptus caro autem infirma And Daniel Laudate Spiritus Animae Iustorum Euen so in Gods Church the Priests and Pastors are the soule which receiue the inspiration of Gods will in his law as the Scripture saith of them In quorū pectora condūtur Oracula Dei ex ore illorum promanant Eloquia diuina to bee taught and communicate to the people who bee the body of this Church if it were not by the power which God giueth vnto the Prince who sitteth in the Throne of authoritie and actiue wisedome like armed Pallas this bodie of ours would oftner refuse obedience to the soule as daily experience doeth prooue That Christian Princes to whose charge is committed the gouernment of States the rule of the people in pietie and iustice the protection of the Widdow the Orphanes the Innocent the Stranger the punishment of Malefactors and aduancement of the vertuous to Gods glory that those be not most diuine Offices and that therefore Ethnicke Princes haue had graunted by God himselfe the title to be his seruants who may deny it the Lords Annointed independent of any but of him alone and holding of him imediately the Charter of their authoritie Into the Iewish policie whereof God was the founder himselfe for an example to all vertuous and godly States wee see in the person of Moses a coniunction of spirituall and temporall power not onely did God esteeme his Vocation diuine but he giueth him the stile of a God Ego te constituam Deum Pharaonis I shall make thee the God of Pharaoh Moses did thereafter indeede by the direction of God separate those functions but alwaies in these termes that they should remaine in one vnited concurrence in the gouernment of Gods people like vnto the fingers of a mans hand
I demand what it is that shall make that lawfull and conuenient for Gods seruice Is it the signification of the words or the melodie of the tune and symphonie If the first then singing is not recommended as it is singing but rather as saying and then it were better such psalmes or hymnes were barely pronounced or read for so their sence and signification is best vnderstood If the second then instrumentall musique must likewise be admitted wherein the same sounds for tune and concord of parts are by the same rules of art practised and expressed But it may be oueradded that the musique of the voice is passable as hauing both these together and performing them with one breath Most true and therein is the chiefe excellency of that guift of God that in one and the same sound it edifieth both the vnderstanding and the affections Yet the other which cannot act but one of his properties is not therefore to bee condemned or contemned In physique some ingredients worke attrahende by their searching and vigorous quality of attraction others only adiuuando by diffusing the stronger simples and so helping the operation of them and without these the other would be lesse actiue and profitable Euen so in sacred musique the chiefe vigour of our praiers and adoration commeth from the ditty which worketh immediately vpon our vnderstanding but that is much helped and quickened by adding thereto a proportionable temper of artificiall harmony which shall make it penetrate the deeper into our affections As the Church militant in the three forenamd estates and seuerall times so and much more the Church triumphant in eternity doth out of the Scriptures supplie vs with proofe of the conueniency of setting foorth the praise of God with mellodious harmony For when in reading the Scriptures I view that little yet sufficient for our knowlepge which God hath reuealed concerning the state of the blessed Angels Saints in heauen mee thinkes it must needes bee great rashnesse to condemne that as superstitious or superfluous if imitated heere on earth which the spirit of God testifieth to bee the endlesse imployment of those that see God face to face in heauen Is not the Ierusalem which is aboue the mother of vs all into whose bosome we hope to be gathered Is it not that which wee hope and grone for in the vale of this flesh to become once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the Angells Is it not that which we daily pray for that Gods will may be done on earth as it is in heauen why then may wee not why ought we not euen now to imitate the worke of the Angells in their adoring the most High and as farre as we can performe that in our Churches the type of the euerlasting Temple which we shall when we are hereafter cloathed with immortalitie intend in heauen perpetually If we will open the booke of God the very window of heauen wee shall there see heare the blessed Seraphins thus blessing and adoring him that sitteth on an high throne crying to one another saying Holy holy holy Lord of hosts The whole world is full of his glory If we looke in further we may see the foure Euangelists figured out by the foure beasts full of eyes encompassing the throne without ceasing day and night singing the like Antiphone Holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and which is and which is to come If wee will yet view to the vtmost end we may behold Gods champions after their conquest ouer the beast holding in their hand as banners of that victory displaied more audibly then visibly the harpes of God The melody of which instruments they doe animate by singing the song of Moses the seruant of God and the song of the Lambe saying Great and maruellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty c. Apo. 19. 6. The voyce of a great multitude as the voyce of manie waters and as the voice of strong thundrings saying Halleluiah verse 3. And againe they sayd Halleluiah Loe here we haue plainly represented vnto vs not only singing and that by repetition againe againe but interchangeable chaunting in the Seraphins in that they are sayd to cry one to another holy holy holy which three sacred words the embleme of the euer-blessed Trinitie when I heare in the Te Deum in the vulgar tongue with a point of maiesticall correspondence grauely and reuerently sung in the Cathedrall Churches of England how others are affected I know not but for my selfe me thinks the very Celestiall Temple of God is brought downe among vs or we in these bodies rapt vp among the Seraphims and bearing parts in the Quyre of heauenly souldiers More ouer vnto such vocall singing here is distinctly added the other helpe of adoring and adorning the heauenly Maiestie by instrumentall harmonie the harpes and they honoured with an attribute euen the Harpes of God so styled either in regard of the subiect to whose praise they are vsed or of the Author by whose gift that and the like blessings are afforded to the best of the creatures both wayes designing one and the same fountaine GOD. I will not heere lest I should lose my selfe intrude into the search of hidden secrets treasured vp in heauen how and in what sense Angels and blessed Saints in heauen are to be vnderstood to sing before the throne of the Almightie whether this be in the Scripture described in a sensible forme onely for our capacity but to bee interpreted in a spirituall and allegoricall allusion surely if the substance of Angels and soules of men be not meerely incorporall it is not absurd to maintaine that they may immediately ex iunatis principijs similitudine substantiae in the most pure body or space of the heauen of heauens the seat of the blessed both raise such reall and corporeall voyces also be affected with the sweet harmonie and proportions of such sounds And when after the resurrection the soules of the faithfull shall bee clothed againe with their bodies it is not amisse to thinke that the bodie shall partake with the soule as of fullnesse of ioy so of the act and exercise of perpetuall adoration And as our naturall eyes shall then really and corporally behold the most beautifull obiect of our Sauiours glorified humanitie oculis meis videbo Redemptorē meū saith Iob so it is not against the analogie of faith to thinke that our tongues and mouthes may then employ them selues in endlesse vocall hymnes and songs of thanksgiuing of glory and worship to him that sitteth vpon the throne and to the Lambe who by his bloud hath redeemed vs out of euery kindred and tongue people and nation and hath made vs Kings and Priests vnto God his Father And sithence I haue been comforted from probable sweet and reuerend contemplations of the more learned to thinke that some sympathie may be betwixt the musicall Harmonie and the Angelicall nature it maketh me to presume a
and to shew that all voycing musicke though hauing so noble a precentor and being celebrated by so full a Quire of all the people of Israel verse 1. yet is not sufficient to display the zeale and ioy of the Church of God there commeth in besides as in Medio Chori the noyse of Tymbrels in the hands of Miriam and of all the women that came out after her verse 20. not to yeeld any new instruction to their vnderstandings though she were a Prophetesse but which is the true vse of such musicke first to giue a greater downeweight to their affections and to make their spirituall ioy ouerflow the bankes of ordinary apprehension and to transport them into an higher degree of heauenly rauishment by those artificiall sounds added to the naturall and secondly to infixe deeper in their minds and memories those diuine straines by recording and repeating the same point in the same verses a thing in Church musicke not to be abandoned if tempered with grauity as here we may expresly gather For when Moses and the people had begun their song in this manner I will sing vnto the Lord for hee hath triumphed gloriously c. Miriam with her troupe and instruments and voyces answered the men Sing yee vnto the Lord for hee hath triumphed gloriously c. vers 21. This because it did precede the deliuery of the ceremoniall law by Moses I thinke I may safely referre either to the law of nature or to the inueterate practise of the most antient Church of God euen from the first Patriarkes and Fathers of mankind In time of the Law the very enditer himselfe Moses did by the immediate command of God when he was to die leaue as his last Testament of monition or cygnea cantiō a formall song which as God put into his mouth so he into the mouths of the children of Israel Exod. 31. 19. to be a perpetuall witnesse to and against them which beginneth with a most rhetoricall and Poeticall exclamation of adiuring the heauens and earth to bee witnesses This pithy abstract of the admonitions and doctrines of Moses conteyning Gods benefits towardes his Church the vpbrayding of their ingratitude Gods threats against them and mysterious predictions of the vocation of the Gentiles c. The spirit of GOD did chuse to set downe to his Church rather in forme of Song then of Sermon thereby insinuating that it would be with more facility receiued and with deeper impression retained which is implied by Moses himselfe in the following words of the beginning of that song ver 2. My doctrine shall drop as the raine and my speech shall distill as the deaw As if hee had said this last doctrine of mine which I deliuered to Gods people by way of song shall indeed by the diuine matter thereof instruct their vnderstandings but shall by the manner of musicall inditement and recording therof pierce with the greater sweetnesse and facility and by a secret vnseene influence feed and refresh your soules as the hearbs and plants are cherished by the deaw and fedde by the soft showers And afterward when the Temple was to succeed the Tabernacle Dauid did before hand prouide Leuites and singers his preparations of that kinde were first when the Arke had rest 1. Chron. 6. 31. 1. Chron. 15. And shortly after the Temple was to be builded by Salomon 1. Chron. 25. At both Dauid appointed Leuites and singers with instruments of musicke c. And added thereto the ditties which they were to sing being a set forme of inuocation and thanksgiuing 1. Chron. 16. 8. Prayse yee the Lord c. which also is repeated among the Psalmes Psal. 105. Moreouer in a manner the whole Booke of Psalmes were by the same Prophet penned in Meeter to be sung as they are since in all ages and places in the Church of God Amongst which some Psalm 33. and 150. make especiall reference vnto the instrumentall musicke If heereto it be replied that all this furniture of musicke was proper to the Temple and meerely typicall and part of the pedagogy of the old Testament I may answere that in regard of the number and distinct offices and certaine kindes of instruments those constitutions of Dauid might well bee ceremoniall but the vse of instrumentall musicke in generall in the publike praising of God was and is morall or naturall not indeed of absolute necessity as if there were no lawfull seruice in the Church without it but of conuenience and expediency for the naturall fitnesse and decent fruitfulnesse which they may haue Neither can it be denied but that where the same cause of constitution yet remaineth the practise may be well retained at least as times and circumstances shall require or permit Now those that are most seuerely affected against the Church musicke among Christians vse this as a chiefe reason why it was established in that Church because it was a fit Schoolemaster for that people And are there not and alwayes will bee among Christians some that neede to be fed with milke as well as others with strong meate Did not Saint Basil obserue this and in that regard commend the prouidence of the spirit of God who by the Prophet Dauid had prouided for his Church perpetually that heauenly mysteries might be mingled with sweet melody That two sort of learners might thus bee the better prouided for those that are either young in yeeres or greene in growth of vertue might while they thinke to delight themselues with the melody receiue some good impression of instruction But if this cause seeme vnsufficient or Saint Basils authority not strong enough wee may out of the text it selfe where this musicall furniture for the Temple is instituted 1. Chron. 16. deriue a more constant reason which must needes hold in both Testaments Leuites were appointed to sing with instruments c. that they might make a sound and lift vp their voyce with ioy whence I thinke I may thus inferre The end and reason of the institution of such musicke by Dauid is not for ought I can finde said to be for any prefiguration of action to be fulfilled by the Messias or for any cause or consequent proper to the people and Church of the Iewes which with the sacrifices and other ceremonies were to expire but the reason there added is from a naturall or rather spirituall affection common to all Churches whether vnder the Law of Moses or vnder the Gospell of grace especially in flourishing times namely a cleare and feruent confession and profession of the mercies and graces of our God with thanksgiuing and exultation which as it is in the congregation to be solemnly performed with the voyce and that lifted vp viz. with singing so that it may be aduanced to the highest streyne of ioy it must or at least with conueniency may haue the help of instrumentall musique which may make a sound and lift vp their voice with ioy So if in the Christian Church where the vaile is
Papae ab Ecclesia as I haue shewen your Lordship already He told mee that the seat of Rome was like vnto one who hauing made vnlawfull purchase of many neighbour Lands doe so curiously maintaine their march stones that they will not haue them to be remooued halfe a foote quia vno dato incommodo multa sequuntur because that one graunted with the like equitie much more were to bee demaunded They doe well remember saith he that Embleme of Sylurus the Scythian vnto his eyghtie sonnes for the knot of their vnitie A sheafe of Arrowes hardly bound out of the which if one could bee taken out it would quickly make the rest to scatter The reformation of any one poynt might possibly they feare dissolue the whole Masse of that superstitibus trade These speeches did in like sort further my better iudgement Next againe vpon my arriuall at the Court of England vnto the which I brought the Commission of some aduertisements of this kinde from the same Mounsieur Causabon and others to the Kings Maiestie where my hearing his Maiesties learned discourses sometimes at his Maiesties Table I confesse did also much shorten my way seeing all the world doe talke of his rare and singular wit and of the sanctified knowledge which God hath giuen him in the holy Scriptures I hope I may without suspition of flatterie say of his Maiestie that which one of the first Order of wise men in the Land spake to my selfe while hee liued the late Earle of Salisbury that his Maiesties knowledge was supernaturall that he was the highest Spheare and neerest to God which did receiue the first influence of wisedome that hee was like to Salomon of whom it was said Beatiserui tui qui coram testant audiūt sapientiam tuam Happy are thy seruants who stand before thee and heare thy wisedome That his Maiestie did bestow vpon his seruants riches and knowledge and that himselfe did professe to haue gotten more encrease of good knowledge then of Estate since his Maiesties exaltation to the Crowne Thereafter comming to Scotland vpon the occasion of your Lordships transportation from the Castle of Edingburgh vnto Saint Iohns towne where you was confined I did oftentimes heare as your Lordship did that great and diuine Preacher now the Bishop of Galoway who for your instruction did expressely choose his Thesis against those fallacious and false grounds of the antiquitie vniuersalitie and succession of the Romane Church which bee the points that most entangle your Lordships witte and which hee did so learnedly cleere that for my part I doe acknowledge they helped greatly to disintangle my selfe After this I went to dwell in Dundie for the space of two whole yeeres where I did most diligently heare that excellent Preacher Master Dauid Lyndesay and his fellow labourers in the Church of that citie in whose worth I thinke doth consiste no small parte of the happinesse thereof I had my priuat conference with him to my great comfort as he can beare me record I had my solitarie exersices in diuers subiects of Theologie whereof I prayse the Lord I haue extant as manie testimonies as will suffice to shew my painfulnes to study the trueth of his worship till now in the ende it hath pleased him of his mercie to giue me by faith a sure holde of the thread of his word which is our onely guyde through this misticall pilgrimage of humane follies of which threade our great Theseus Lord Iesus Christ hath left thee on ende heere with vs vpon earth in his word and hath tyed the other vpon the gate of heauen which he did first open called for that by the spirit of God the first borne among the dead So that there is no meanes to ariue safelie vnto that porte but to keepe our eyes fixt vpon the course of this thread as our vndoubted Loadstarre Thus I doe ingenuously confesse my owne weakenesse to the glorie of God yea if it should be to my shame my vncertayne wandering in the wildernesse of my owne ignorance brought vp in my infancie in the simple profession of Gods word at home and then contemning it to goe a whooring after strange Gods beyonde seas like in that wise to the swyne in the Gospell before whome the pretious pearle should not haue beene caste And returning homeward to much a Cassandrist halting betwixt two that at my being at courte the kings Maiest in perceauing me thus to wander in matters of religion tolde me that I should take heede least I did imitate a certayne English gentleman who in his youth was a protestant in his trauayling beyonde seas a papist and in his returning a Cassandrist and now finally a most obdured Papist which word did wound my heart and spurre me to craue of God a happie Resolution which of his grace he hath so farre granted me as I haue sound it by experience that these who be of the number of his Saints and of the houshold of faith they are chosen of him in the same manner that he called their father Abraham to whom he spakesaying thou shalt get thee out of thy owne countrie that I may blessetheo in an other which words besides the litterall sense hath also this interpretation by remote theologie that he should not onely leaue his natiue countrie which was an Idolatrous land but that he should leaue his owne Idolatrous disposition he should quit the wisedome of the flesh and doctrine of humanity and so goe out of himselfe to beleeue Gods word absolutely which he did not vpon an instant for the spirit of God telles vs that when the Lord did first promise to him the comming of Isaac that the knowledge of the flesh tolde him that it had ceased to be with Sara after the manner of women Therefore he in his distrust layde himselfe vpon his face and laughed at God saying would to God that Ismael may liue but in the ende he did abiure humane wisedome and himselfe to beleeue Gods word so farre that when he had gotten Isaacs he went to sacrifice him willingly notwithstanding so manie promises giuen him of his succession wherevpon it was said of him by the holie spirit That Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnes Euen so the Lord hath made me to quite the Idolatrous land the doctrine of Idolatry peece and peece the traditiones of humanitie to quite my owne weake and darke vnderstanding and abiuring all other things whatsoeuer to betake my selfe to the incorruptible trueth of his eternall word which doth so shine in my conscience praysed be his holy name that I confes it ioyfully the more I fled it to follow superstition and the more I did practise these damones meridionales the more I lost out of sight the pole-starre of the right course to the kingdome of heauen Now thirdly I come to giue your Lordship my counsell how to extricat◅ your selfe foorth of this labirinth wherein you are and it shall consist of three
In nequissimo pane murmurabit ciuitas The mouthes of many shall blesse him who is liberall of his bread and the City shall murmure against him who doth it not and they shall call his wretched conquest Panem nequissimum A knauish bread If a Bishop study to bee rich hee is neither Starre nor Angell nor no matter heauenly Si terram cogitas terraes If a mans minde be muddy hee is mudde himselfe riches are indeed a blessing of God but wee finde seldome mention in the Scripture of a rich man in good termes but with hard title Salomon saith Alia infirmitas sub sole Diuitiae conseruatae in malum Domini Riches heaped vp for the mischiefe of their Master and the Euangelist speaking of a rich man Mortuus est Diues sepultus in Inferno The rich man died and was buried in Hell Againe our Sauiour saith It is as impossible for a rich man to enter into heauen as for a Camell to passe thorow the eye of a needle and the holy Spirit speaking by Saint Iohn in the second of the Apocalips to the Angell or Bishop of Laodicea Dicis quia Diues sum nullius egeo ecce miser pauper caecut nudus Thou sayest thou art rich and needest nothing behold thou art miserable poor blinde naked Wherby wee see that earthly desires in a Bishop be wretched nakednesse terra inanis erat vacua saith the Scripture The earth was empty and barren so be all the Prelates who delight in riches and earthly pleasures Againe Bishops must resemble the heauens being cleane in their very hearts they must not say Placet quicquid licet That uery thing doth please them which is lawfull but they must forbeare many pleasures lawfull to others that being cleane they may clense others Non valet tergere sordes manus quâ—… lutum tenet The hand which is spotted with clay it cannot purge filthinesse They must be well and perfectly ordered in their behauiours hauing them seasoned with wisedome and discretion as Christ faith to his Apostles habeto in vibis salem That they should haue salt whereof we see if there be too much in meat it makes it bitter if too little vnsauoury if a discreet measure it makes it pleasant and delicate to the Taste they must be round as the heauens we know that a circle is figura capacissima simplicima a most simple and capable figure which hath no Angle crooke point nor diuision shewing how euill lasinesse rest duplicity or crooked wayes become a Prelate Finally they must still moue as the heauens doe going from vertue to vertue from good to better for the common good of those who be vnder them Woe were vnto the infeiour world if the Celestiall spheares should intermit their course and stand stil euen as the round wheele when it beginneth to stand presently it goeth backe so In via Domini non progredi regredi est not to goe forward in the way of the Lord is to goe backward because in that circular and continuall motion which should be in pastorall piety there is no station nor repose Hec fuit iniquitas Sodoinae abundantia otium Therefore finally they must like vnto the heauens make continuall influxion of life and light in the inferiour members of Christ Church seeing it hath pleased God to let vnto them his Vineyard they are to remember the saying of our Sauiour Omnis arbor quae non facit fructum bonum excidâ—… per ignem mittetur Euery tree which brings not forth good fruit shall be cut downe and cast into the fire It is neither the blossome the flower nor the leafe which will please God but the fruit neither shewes of piety nor learned preachings but the edification of Christian soules will content God Exemplum dedi vobit vt quemadmodum egofeci ita vos faciatis saith Christ I haue giuen you example that as I haue done so might you doe The first Adam did feed vpon the fruits of the trees in Paradise but the second Adam vpon the fruits of his Saints who are the mysticall trees of this Vineyard as may be marked out of that answere giuen to his Apostles saying to him Rabbi manduca ego habeo alium cibum manducare quem vos nescitis I haue other meat to eat which you doe not knowe and this was the fruits of the Garden of Israel euen then transplanted for example the conuersion of the Samaritan woman was his thirst and vpon the Crosse he cryed sitio langushing for the like wing-grapes seeing Bishops are the chiefest trees in the Vineyard they must striue to produce the most excellent fruits of Christian vertues specially that euery one of their actions bee witnesses of their humility The tree the more it hath the roote humble and deepe in the earth it makes the fairer fruit the Prophet Esay doth affirme it Mittet radices deorsum faciet fructus sursum And the Wise-man saith Odibilis Deo hominibus superbia Pride is hatefull to God and man The Prelates be as is said before the head the heart and the stomacke of the spirituall body which being in good and wholesome constitution the members haue also their full vigour and strength The Prophet Ieremy speaking of the reformation of the people beginneth at the heads Si feceritis iudicium inter virum proximum eius aduenae viduae pupillo If you will iudge betwixt a man and his neighbour iustly and if you doe iustly to the stranger widdow and Orphane Therfore if Prelates would haue people purged from those damnable vices of ambition auarice pride and Atheisme they must keepe themselues reformed summarily they may cast backe their eyes a little to looke vpon the ruines of their Predecessours the late Bishops of Scotland who because they fell away from vprightnesse and sincerity and did abandon themselues to publike vices the Lord did spew them out Malos male perdidiâ—… loâ—…uit vineam suam alijs he made the wicked to perish wickedly and did let his Vine-yard to others CHAP. XI Why the Organs Glericall Vestiments and ancient Ceremonies which be vsed in the Church of England are againe to be receiued of vs in Scotland IT followes now for the happinesse of our domesticke vnion to speake of the ceremonies of the Church of England which as they are no many in number that I will heere treate of so they require no ouer long and tedious discourse They are conuersant about our two principall sences the one as Aristotle calleth it the sence of science and discipline the eare The other as Horace sheweth the conduit and inlet of the most deepe and firme impressions our eyes Segnius irritant animos demissaper aures quamqua sunt oculis subiecta sidelibus Vpon the first the admirable and diuine gifts of Musique doth worke vpon the second the graue and Maiestique yet plaine and sober habite of vestments both haue three operations on vs
withdrawne and the mysteries and mercies of God the Father in his beloued appeare more cleerely and gloriously there bee no lesse cause of holy ioy nay vnspeakable and glorious 1. Pet. 1. 8. why should not this our ioy breake forth into the like manifestation and that the best manifesting and enhaunsing thereof is by musicke and that euen instrumentall the spirit of God beareth record as I haue noted And verily if the imployment of instruments in the Iudaicall Temple maketh them meerely ceremoniall and debarreth the Christian Church of all such vse of the like in that kinde why doth not the same reason banish also all vse of singing in our Churches because Dauid instituted singers for the Temple for as yet I could neuer heere any direct and sufficient proofe why the one should haue a morall and perpetuall vse and the other onely a ceremoniall signification Thirdly as for the time of grace if sacred musicke were onely a cloud and typicall shadow it should then haue vanished when the body came and the most glorious morning starre appeared But wee finde that euen this bright starre when it first began to appeare in the earthly Horizon chose for the blasing forth the beames of his maiesty aboueall creatures or meanes in heauen or earth a troup of inuisible yet audible Choristers who descending from the Temple of the celcstiall Ierusalem praised God and cheered vp man with a short Christmasse Caroll but of a most sweet and mysterious ditty which all Christians delight to heere still sounding in their eares and hearts nay the very Angells themselues desire to behold vnderstand The same our Sauior as he cōming into the world would be saluted with musicke so euen with that mouth whence dropped the like hony the words of grace and life he vouchsafed to honour that exercise in the end of his last supper hee and his Apostles went to Mount Oliue singing an Hymne Neither after this our bridegroome was taken away did the children of the bridechamber let fall their parts in spirituall songs but both practised and exhorted to the continuance of this enkindling of zeale and piety Ephes. 5. 19. Colos. 3. 16. An expresse iniunction for Psalmes Hymnes and spirituall Songs and making melody Which vse to haue continued in the primitiue Church not onely Tertullian and other ancient Christians but euen the Ethnicke Plinny in his Epistle to Traiane the Emperour doth testifie Christo cuidam Deo hymnos canentes antelucanes But heere may bee and indeed is obiected that hymnes and songs vsed by our Sauiour or his Apostles or continued in the primitiue Church were onely vocal and without all artificiall instrument Wherto that I may shape answere I doubt not euen granting that their melody was onely singing thence to inferre à pari a firm consequence for the addition of the other kind of musick to auouch without imputation of a Paradoxe that the modulating voyce of a man and of an instrument are in this respect eiusdem rationis For if one looke into the nature of sounds in their generall cause they are nothing but reuerberations of the aire in their forme and relation they are deductions or compositions of proportions in the distances or connexions of high and low flat and sharpe So that whatsoeuer the immediate matter and instrument be whether meerely naturall as the throat teeth and tongue or aritificially composed of pipes or strings with metall or wood the sound it selfe as it melodious or symphoniacall maketh no difference of obiect but carrieth the same representation to the eare and iudgement of the hearers To this purpose may I not vnfitly apply that elegant comparison which Theodoret maketh between the voice of a man and a paire of organs in the parts of each In man saith he the lungs are the bellowes which are mooued not with foot or hand but by the muscels af the brest the teeth and roofe of the mouth supply the place of the pipes the tongue by its nimble motion performeth the office of the Musicians hand for the distinguishing and articulating the sounds Thus in the viuacitie of his rhetorique he seemeth in this comparison to make the protasis or proposition in the artificial and the reddition in the naturall by making man a musicall instrument Then presently followes the same resemblance with the terms inuerted to the naturall order where hee plainely sheweth that art hath heerein imitated nature in Citeraes and such like instruments wherin the teeth are represented by the strings the lips by the frets the tongue by the quill the vnderstanding by the hand which mooueth and striketh or stoppeth high and low lowd and soft slow and quicke in diuerse formes The like comparison is also vsed by Gregory Nyssen in his learned Treatise De opificio hominis where he resembleth the vse and parts of the flute or fife to the instruments of speech in man Vpon which liuely and mutuall resemblances as Theodoret calleth man a liuing organe and the copy of artificiall organs so may I terme an organ a singing man made with the hand or rather a liuelesse though not breathlesse guide of many voicesand parts But heere it will bee replyd that all artificiall instruments made by man come farre short of this one made by God himselfe that none of those how elegant soeuer and cunningly handled can possibly make a sound properly articulate much lesse significant and therefore that they are to bee excluded out of the seruice of God whereto the vocall musique may bee admitted because significatiue and vnderstandable To this may answer be made first by acknowledging with Theodoret that man being the image of God in imitating his Creatonr can produce no higher workes then such as are but shadowes of the workes of God That nature is the modell after which art worketh and that art is but the image or resemblance of nature And therefore that all the most curious instruments in the world are not comparable with an humane voyce for suauity and liuely expressions neither is instrumentall musique to be opposed vnto or compared with vocall but added as an helper a wife or second or if you will an hand-mayd thereunto In which respect I doe not hold it to bee eiusdem gradus though in generall eiusdem rationis as belonging to the same army but to be ranged in an inferiour squadron a guest of the sacred feast but at a lower table Secondly as for want of signification I maintaine it that the sound and harmony of Instruments though it be not articulate yet it is significant in its owne kinde I meane and proper element by gentle steps and sweete inflexions working vpon the affections and expressely nay powerfully speaking to them euen perswading instructing nay commanding them and imprinting in them the characters of vertue and deuotion and containing the seedes of good motions in the inward seat of the minde by the outer part of the sences and passions Thirdly in vocall musique