put him off to another sheet and let us once more return to our own our more enlightned David and cry out with him Let Heaven and Earth praise the Lord Ps 69.34 let us acknowledge that they do so by exhibiting Copious Matter of Divine Praise to every eye that beholds them let us apply that of David once again and call upon that other Heaven our Soul within us Ps 103.1 which came from thence Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name and upon that other Earth our Flesh about us which was made of it that our very Soul may worship Him and our very Body all the outward works of our Lives testifie to Him to our Selves and to the World that we Believe him to be that we Believe in him according to his Commands upon us that we Magnifie him for his Goodness to us 28. Hitherto I have with Sadness enough but that scarce any Sadness can be enough that such Times as these force such a Calling as ours to Prove such a Truth as this evinc'd such a Fundamental Truth without which there can be no Truth as well as no Salvation that there Is a God by the Testimony of Heaven and Earth of Man and of all the Inferiour Creatures and Inferiour Principles resulting from these which by some who have the Shape of Men and the Contradiction of there is nothing to Compare them to but Themselves are more Believ'd and Betroth'd Truths than that Principle of Principles as well as Being of Beings that there is a God 29. I go on to Confirm this Truth by Nature with the Countenance which those Spiritual Men the Fathers who have had an Oaâ— in the same Boat and that more Spiritual Man the Apostle St. Paul whose Example is my Just Warrant and the general sense and purpose of the Scriptures of God which make Them and Him to be Spiritual Men do shew to this kind of Argument 30. In his Heâ—â—mer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World take it in its Latitude and full Comprehension as it is made up of Both Globes is a School which does Instruct and Discipline us in the Knowledge of God So that in the sense of that holy Father we have not done amiss to prove a God by the Testimony of the Worâ—d the witness-bearing of Heaven and Earth 31. Facil ùs credas Prophetiae Discipulus Naturae 〈◊〉 Resurâ—ect saies Tertullian we shall the more easily be induc'd to believe the Old and New Testament the Prophecy and Gospel if we have first been the Disciples of Nature and study'd those Lectures which she has read to us in this Nether Orb the VVorld Below so that in the sense of that Pious Father we are much Excusable in drawing arguments through the whole Map of the Earth to Convince a God though we cannot choose but be sorry that Ortelius who was never till now fit to be quoted in Divinity is now fit all over 32. St. Bernard saies that he had Nullos aliquando Magistros nisi Quercus Fagos no other Masters and Tutors in Divinity for some space of time than the Oken and the Beechen Trees and yet these Dumb Masters these Un-mov'd Tutors who were not more Ignorant in Themselves than an occasion of Knowingness to him though no Preacher were clos'd up in the Hollow of the Trees even these could Teach him that there is a God so that in the sense of that humble Father we have un-heretically submitted to ask Counsel of the Meanest Creatures and to Learn â—â—e Power of God from the very Feebleness of Frogs and Mice 33. And though Irenaeus twenty years Elder than the Eldest of these hath said Deus sine Deo non cognoscitur that as we cannot see the Sun L. 4. advers Haer. c. 14. Sicut Oculus Luce nos tantùm suâ sed Solu Ipsum Luce solem conspicit Idemque qui Videtur Visum facit Grot. Silv. l. 1. Eucharist but by the * Light of the Sun so without God we cannot Know God yet that may be either Cum Favore understood that we cannot know God at all not Confusedly not Remotely by any by all of the Creatures unless we see the Power and VVisdome of God in the Order and Disposition of Every of them or else Rigidly that we cannot Savingly know God without the more Especial Light of his own Word and Gospel and then the Inference will be that he that does not know God at all not so much as by the Creatures is without God in this World without the Acknowledgement of him Natura Humana nec Rationem nec Orationem De Diis suscipere potest sine Diis Iamblicus c. 26. not without the Subsistence by him He that does not know God savingly not so much as by his VVord shall be without God in the Other VVorld without the Benefit and Mercy of God unless a Metaphysical Benefit a meer Notional Mercy to Be though in Torments not without the Severity and Judgement of God All this it argues but it argues not at all that God Himself Is Not no more than we may conclude there is no VVealth in the VVomb of the Sea as indeed in some sense there is not if it be either Vse or Possession and not a Bare Being which does dare esse to Wealth because we do not know what Jewels are bred or what Gold has been cast away in the Bowels of the Main 34. To all these let me adde that Axiom of the Schools Media Perfecta and quae-Ordinantur that as all the Means which God hath ordain'd are Compleat and Perfect to the Production of that Effect for which God ordain'd them so the Chain of Causes the Scale the Motion the End the Inclination of Creatures the whole VVorld and every part of it are Joyntly and Severally Perfect and Sufficient Means whereby to know a God * Est quaedam Imperfecta Perfectio at sciat Homo se non esse Perfectum in hac Vita Primasius in Col. c. 1. in Fine Imperfectly and let none suspect he stumbles at a Contradiction in the repugnancy of those two words for is there not a Distinction of Aquinas Perfectio in Viâ Perfectio in Patriâ and is not that in Via an Imperfection if compar'd to that in Patria at least that He Is fince they were never ordain'd to reach out to us any further and more Clear Distinct and Exact Knowledge of God though they will not enough speak All the Praises of the Almighty yet even They will enough stop the Mouth of the Atheist and put his Lying Lips to silence Ps 31.18 which speak Derogatory and Blasphemous things Proudly and Disdainfully against the Righteous Judge of all the Earth 35. And above all these let me adde that Paul and Barnabas us'd the like Natural Argument to prove the Invisible God and if you weigh the
turn nor suit with that ground of Method which not I make choyce of but the Perversness of Man proposes to me and compels upon me if he Fights with Wood and Hay 1 Cor. 3.12 and Stubble and I warr'd with Gold and Silver and Pretious Stones I shall not Componere but Dilatare his Obstreper as Fauces for want of a Reply ad Idem such a Goliah as this must have the Neck of his Objection cut off with his own though a Leaden Sword the Other and Better way would indeed satisfie Other and Israelited better and Un-Philistin'd men to Remember them that there is a God who already believe this Truth but not to make him Know that there is a God who as yet Denies it and doing that must by Miserable Undoing Consequence Deny this Book to be Made by him whom himself he Denies to Be. 2. Therefore by a Rational Physick against the Pestilence and Infection of so Ill an Air a Disease more dangerous than that other noysome Pestilence Psal 91.6 which walketh as this hath done though now it attempts to wast even at Noon-day in Darkness for That does testifie a God though an Angry one which This out-braves Psal 65.8 and the People were afraid of the Tokens of That as of God's Tokens whom This out-dares and with design that that Ill Air may not onely leave off to Poyson the Air next to it but begin to Purge it self I shall first Convince the Falshood of the Atheists more said and Divulg'd than Beleeved opinion out of those Principles which it is impossible for Themselves as they are what they profess themselves Meer Men to Gainsay and shall Secondly in Honour to the Scripture and the God of them either Convert Them who if they thrust not themselves without the Pale thrust the Pale from themselves or at least Confirm those who are within the Pale that they may not be seduc'd to Pluck One Stake out of it by a Mixt kind of Natural and Spiriâ—ual Argument from the general manner and Method and Stile Aim and sense and Purpose of the â—criptures that a God is the Auâ—hour of them 3. To apply my self First to the Quality of the Opponents Acts 5.3 4. whose Hearts Satan hath filled to Lye to the Holy Ghost not to Lye unto Men but unto God and is not â—his a Sacrilege in grain to withhold God from the People and beyond That of them who with-held the Gift of the People from God in Proving that there is a God out of such Evident and Created Principles which Themselves will be no more able to Disprove than a Dog to Bite the Moon at which He Barks and yet for the sake of Others I have heeded that Counsel of Putean Comus Cavendum est ne vel Ipso Latratu Mordeat 4. And did not God Himself and Moses Himself imply as much that God might be known though noâ— in His Simply-Intire essence eveâ— by Scriptures themselves or to Angels themselves for Nothing buâ— God can thus Comprehensively know God at least in His Existence and Being in a more Remote but Certain and Infallible though Confus'd knowledge eveâ— by the Light of Nature thougâ— there be more of Resplendency iâ— the Sun than in a Candle yet it is as sure that we Do See by a Candle as by the Sun When God Himself hath told us by Moses that Iâ— the Beginning Gen. 1.1 God Created the Heavens and the Earth in the very Beginning of the Word of God and hath not First Expresly told us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God Himself Is for it is never to be said He was of whom there is not Erat quando non Erat but in the same Line and Verse that He is too else Revel 1.4.8 Exod. 9.14 His Name I AM is brought into suspicion before that Beginning but hath left the Heavens and the Earth that He Made to tell us That 5. And do not the Apostles themselves do the same and upon the same Ground and perhaps in reference to that very First Verse in â—he Written Book of God being â—aught so to do by the Example of God and Moses as well as by Inpiration of God They do not tell â—s in Terminis that God Is much â—ess do they attempt that which They well knew to be a thing Imâ—ossible to Prove Him to Be à Priori such a very Proof as this besides the Arrogancy of it in taking upon them to be in greater â—avour with God and to see deeper into Him Exod. 33.23 than Moses did who saw Him but à Posteriori in His Back Parts would be but an Artificial a more Elaborate and subtle kind of Denying God They only tell us Involvedly that He is when they tell us that They Do and We should Believe in God the Father Almighty To Beleeve In Him He and They have taught us in Holy Scriptures but Credere Deum to Beleeve Him to Be the next Words after teach us That Maker of Heaven and Earth 6. Now if Any shall say a fresh as Galen once did Omnia Dicit Nihil Probat that Moses does but Say God did This and That Made Heaven and Earth He does not Prove it to Reply to all such who are themselves as Natural as was Galens Study let me take That Heaven and That Earth themselves into my Discourse whereby to Prove their Maker I begin with Part of That which God Made and out of which He Made Us the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof Take the Whole of it or take it in Pieces either Way there is a God 7. All of it and the Glory of it all the Vrbes and the Civitates the stately Buildings and the societies of Men whence were they the Cities did not Build themselves the Russet Coontryman knows as much as this comes to that not Orpheus â—idle Musick but the Hands of Laborious Men have done all this but whence then were Those Men He in the Woods and Fields and He in the Grove of City-Houses knows that too that as some of them have Children so All of them have had Parents but whence those Parents they know that too that as some of them Are Grand-fathers so All of them have Had Grand-fathers but whence still came they from their Fore-fathers and Those from a First of all As certainly as you cannot tell Any man alive Shall have a Future Child for the same Power Jer. 22.30 that said Write ye This Man Childless may if He please for God and His Power Attribute and Person are Convertible and thâ— same say Write ye This Woman untimely Is 37.3 for the Children are come to the Birth and there is no Strength to Bring forth so certainly you may know that there was a First Man of all that had no Man at all to his Father Orbe Novo Juven Sat. 6. Caeloque Recenti Vivebant Homines qui Rupto Robore Nati Compositique Luto Nullos habuere Parentes
whose Honour He was made If He can tell Thee neither this nor that believe Him in Nothing else and if He can tell Thee believe a God For if He deale plainly with thee Why He denyes a God His only and Bosome Reason is this that He would not have a God to Punish Him and such a Reason as this does not Deny but Confess God nor does only Confess God but Prove Him too Whence came this Fear of After Punishment which stands at the elbow of every desperately-bad Attempt but that it was †Non solum Innatum sed etiam Animo Insculptum esse Deos. Cicero l. 3. de Nat. Deorum Laertius in vita Zenonis imprinted with indelible Characters into the Soul of Men who may sooner wash away His own Soul than wash these signatures out of it by that God who would be Known and Acknowledg'd when Protected Man Will not do it by due by Fear of being Out-Lawd from that Protection and Providence by which He Rules and governes the Whole Great World and that Prowd little-Great World Man who thinks Himself to be Bigger and of more Consideration than the Whole 19. Which last Epithetes of Ruling Protection and Governing Providence casts me upon a fift Argument by which Nature Herself in the Best desires even of the Worst of Men does testify that there is a God Of Nature a God Above Nature And that is the Naturall Inclinations and Propenseness and even-Beseechings of Man to partake in the Blessings of God 20. That there is such a Naturall inclination in Man in the whole Species because in every Individuum of it will appear most dilucidly and uncontradictorily when Any That Man is surpriz'd and beset with a Weight of Suddenness of Danger and Death which He would escape out of which He cannot Extricate Himself by all the Wit of Man so that He will even Faile rather than Faile Mori ne Moriatur Mart. so that He will make Choice of one kind of Death without any †Hic rego non Furor est id Fury or Preposterousness since His designe is not simply to avoyd Death but Comparatively a worse and more formidable kind of it so that to Him the less painfull Death has some proportion and Analogy to Life it self in respect of those fiercer anguishes which He thus avoyds and in some sense escapes Death by Incurring it Bring we to such a Test that most daring Atheist who all His Life Deny'd God and see if His Practice in that eruption and Uncounseldness be not somewhat Godly in defiance of His Opinion At That Instant you shall hear Him both Confess God and Invoke God Invoke God that He would not Vicem rependere and Deny Him also Matth. 4.5 6. Lege Talionis Walk up with Him to the Brow of a Hill suppose it like that Pinacle upon which the Devill set our Saviour Himself Tempting One Person of the God-head to make Him Deny Another by Tempting God His Father where all the way He sees nothing else but Hill at that Instant and on that Top and Brow of the Hill do Thou Stand and suppose Him to Fall to See nothing into which He must Fall but Pitch and Brimstone and Flames of Fire tell me now Didst thou not hear him Cry out with as much Acknowledgment as with horrour God Bless me God Protest me God Deliver me Such a Cry when he had not Leisure to be ill-advis'd by his deprav'd Corrupted Reason must needs flow out of a Naturall Inclination to believe that there is a Supreme Invisible Povver vvhich is the Preserver of Men Job 7 2◠and to Believe such a Preserver such a Governing and Providentiall Power is to believe a God in vvhom such a Povver does Reside and Dvvell And that This is a True Belief does follow out of the Convinc'd Truth of the Naturall Inclination and the Naturality of the Cry for Nature herself will bear witness that no Inclination and Desire which proceeds meerly and Directly firstly and Originally from Her was ever in vain 21. And then why does the Atheist Rashly deny him from whom at his Most Need by an Innate Impulsion he does Soberly begg Ayd Thou knowst that there is a God and thou hearst That Denying Man when He is Ready to Perish cry out God save me Remember then that Thy God hath said said and sworn As I live Rom. 14.11 saith the Lord Every Tongue shall Confess to God Every Tongue the most Blasphemous Tongue Shall do it when you hear such a Tongue Deny God with the same Oath with which God hath sworn It shall Confess him when you hear It swear by the very Name of Him whom it Denyes to be think that Matth. 21.16 as Christ hath said Out of the Mouth of Babes and Sucklings thou hast perfected Praise so God hath perfected Truth out of the Mouth of them who are but Once Born and are not New-Born Babes who either have not suckt the Sincere Milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 or else by a Divellish Assmilation for they themselves are Satan Manifested in the Flesh and like Spiders turn what they feed upon into their vicious selves have converted That Milke into Poison Beseech we God that as All things even Persecutitions and Miseryes of All sorts do work together for Good Rom. 8.28 to them that Love God so All things even Atheismes and Blasphemyes of all sorts Believed and Done may work together to the Magnifying of God by all Saints so much the more as He is Vilify'd by a Desperate Few of this Untoward Generation Thus the whole Earth does attest that God who Beares up the Pillars of it Psal 75.3 And the whole Heavens do so too 22. I must not now rest upon That Text of David The Heavens Declare the Glory of God Psal 19.11 and the Firmament sheweth his handy-worke I must not stay to Disprove the God-Confessing though the Christ-God Denying Socinus in His Comment upon that Text that the Heavens declare the Glory of God only by a pre-supposition that God was known to be before the Heavens were seen for That Text Clears it self and saves me the labour God was not only known Before but Made known by them the Firmament sayes David sheweth his handy-work sheweth by the very Prospect of it self that it self is the handy-worke of God Here I must not stay but as to Christiaus the right Method is to Prove and Confirme Any Truth in Nature by the Greater Truth of the Word of God so to the Atheists we must Prove the very Truth of God himself in his Word by the lesser Truth because more evident to them in Nature the Good Christian I know will Pardon me for his sake Aesop who is so Cockish as to Preser One single Grain of Corn above that Rich Jewell which might Purchase to him an intire harvest 23. And yet in This that I may not only dwell upon Nature or rather
that whilst I do so I may shew you that I have the Authority of the Ancient Fathers who are Patres though Patrati Patres and of the more Ancient and Father to them the Apostle S. Paul so to do I shall confirme that Text by a Reason of Theodorets drawn out of Nature herself and shew by the Consent of Other Fathers that Nature herself does much help us in the Inchoative knowledge of a God nay by the Practice of S. Paul himself who does Countenance such kind of Arguments as These by his own example 24. First then perhaps in too much Civility of Complyance but as Austin said he would rather speak false Latine Ossum to Edify than True Os not to be understood Veritas in dicto so I must rather choose to write a Naturall Theology whereby to reclaime an Atheist than a Disbelieved supernaturall whereby to leave him still in that Pit in which there is no Truth give me leave as the Importunity of the Atheist Compels me to wave both the Testimony of David and of Theodoret too and to strengthen the Truth of David with the Reason of Theodoret When we see any stately Palace Well-built it is Impossible for us but to reflect presently upon the skill and Contrivance of the Architect and Master-Builder whose Wit and Industry brought This to passe To him we refer all the Prayse of the Edifice what is there more a Palace more Stately better Built than Heaven certainly none of the Fools Imaginary Paradises upon Earth and can he be lesse than God that Raisd such a sumptuous Structure thou art less than Man thou art worse than Devill that thinkst so Satan himselfe knew what a Powerfull God he was in shaking heaven aswell as in Casting him out of it 25. Luke 10. â—8 But though He fell from heaven like Lightning Bonum est nob is esse Hic Matth. 17.4 I am so in Love with it that I cannot on the sudden let passe the discourse of Heaven but in a Continuation and Inhancement of that Naturall Argument must call upon my Reader by occasion of those heavens above him Psal 2.4 to acknowledge that God who sitteth in the heavens and to let his Name Psal 8.1 be excellent in all the Earth who hath set his Glory above the heavens 26. In the Motion of them there is Nihil Temerarium nihil Fortuitum nihil Varium sayes the great Orator L. 2. de Natura Dâ—â—ruÌ„ Nothing Rash and unadviz'd nothing Casuall and by meer Chance nothing altering and unstable but a Constancy and Order in them All and yet were there not This Constancy but That Casualty * Quodest ex his vel si omniahaec sunt Philosophandum est sive nos Inexorabili lege Fata coÌ„stringunt sive Arbiter Vniverst Deus Cuncta disponit sive Casus Res Humanas sine Ordine Impellit Jactat Philosophia nos tueâ—t debet Haec adhortabitur ut Deo Libenter Pareamus ut Fortunae Contumaciter Resistamus haec docebit ut Deum sequaris Feras Casum Senec ep 16. 1 Cor. 14.33 he that was as great a Philosopher as the other an Oratour would Infer God and Dispute an Acquiescence in God even from thence and therefore he infers That very Deity to Regulate them whom Our S. Paul cals the God of Order and of Peace If the wit of his meer Speculation could discover and unveile so much of the Godhead to him how much more and Better might he as he did have known That God by the Sense and experience of those many Benefits which those heavens distill hourely upon us Why does the Sun so Constantly and indefatigably Travell but that all we upon the Globe of the Earth those who dwell upon the One Face of it and those who upon the Other might have a Vicissitudinary Comfort and Benefit of his Light that by It we might See One Another See what to doe and how to live See That Sun it self and see through That Psal 19.6 to God Why is nothing hid from the heat thereof but that the heat of That Sun might Inanimate and Quicken Us and All other Living Creatures For us So much it is of that Nature of God of which God would have us to be Gal. 6.9 Not to be Weary in Well-Doing that we may Piously Imagine This it selfe to be One Reason why God does not suffer the Sun which does so much Good to us to Run his own Proper and Naturall Course but to be wheeld about by the Motion of another and by another Motion Contrary to his own lest so Beneficiall a Giant as the Sun might be suspected to do that Good he does willingly and knowingly and thereupon might be ador'd as God And yet the Persian Excesse of Religion though a Lofty and Damnable Crime in worshipping the Sun it self for God out of a mistaken Gratitude for those Benefits which he receives by the Influences but not by the donation of the Sun which very Benefits themselves do enough teach him that There Is a God though they do not teach him enough Who that God Is this Idolatry in esteeming somewhat else to Be God which Is not so Is more excusable and will be Lesse though Grievously Punisht than the Atheists defect of Reigion which is a sin if not the same to be compar'd with That against the Holy Ghost in worshipping No God at all and out of a base †Plutarc in His Book De superstitione define Atheism to be Stupor quidam Deos non sentientium Stupidity not seeing a Footstep or Image of God in any thing though every thing he sees is either a dimme †Creatura est quosi Deâ— vestiginm Suarez Disput 2. sect 2. Footstep at least or a Brighter * Exemplumque Dei quisque est iâ— Imagine pâ—vo Manil l. 4. c. ult Psal 14.1 cur diciâ— insipiens quod non est Deus Cur nisi quia stultus Insipiens Anselm In corde non in ore quiae si velit Hoc verbis eloqui stultus esse sicut est Publici Assensus Judicio arguretur Hilar. in Psal 52. Image of God since our School-men have told us true and our own Naturall Reason hath approv'd their doctrine Imago Dei in Rationalibus in Coeteris Vestigium sure Our David did not erre when he tells us what a Foole such an Atheist is though he be which yet is the worst being so of all but in his Heart an Atheist not only A Foole but The Foole no such Foole in the world as he and how can he be otherwise who has no Light of Reason in his Soul for want of such a Light as this same in the Gospel though Virgins are called Foolish Ones or how can he have that Light Mat. 25. who by that does not See and Grant an Image a Delineation a Reflection of the Godhead in that very Soul of his 27. Let us leave the Atheist awhile and
and to Incourage that Duty we mean a Reward from God upon pious Man we declare what that duty of Piety is to do that which is Conscionably Right what ever †Vir Bonus quod Honesti se facturum putaverit faciet etiam si Laboriosum erit Damnosum Senec. Ep. 76. Ps 115.16 wrong befalls us here for doing it we declare When that season of Reward Is not alwaies here in Our World in that Earth which God hath given to the Children of Men but ever hereafter in Gods world in that Heaven which is the Lords and which he will give to the Children of the most high and yet Ibid. 82.6 Damnum Tuâ—pi Lucro Proterendo Chilâ— the wrong which befalls here to Right and Conscionable Men is the strongest Weapon which the Natural Man I can scarce call him so for Nature which God made will never be so Ungrateful as not to Acknowledge her Maker which the Unnatural Man takes into his hand wherewith to War against the very Being of God and to beat down the useless unprofitable dis-advantagious nay sometimes the dangerous Ruinating Capital Integrity of Man who not only in Vain Ps 73.13 Ps 35.12 Cleanses his heart and washes his hands in Innocency but is evilly Rewarded too for his Good to the spoiling of his Soul indeed if such an Opinion as this once enter into it This the best of Heathen the wisest of meer Natural Men Seneca Ep. 74. does confess to have been a great stumbling-block whereby to shake the honesty of Man and to overthrow the very being of God ex Has Deploratione nascitur from this deplorable wretchedness which betides the wisest and best Men it is that Men are so Ingrateful Estimators and Interpreters of Divine providence and Abrogators of Divinity it self 37. The Adversariness to St. Paul's and Job's Argument is set down to the height by Job and Seneca let us see what Job and Seneca themselves Reply to what themselves out of worse Mouths than their own Object Job goes on with shame and indignation that so falsly-confident and undisturb'd an inference should be made out of so feeble a Ground that Men should be more Insensible of a Deity than the very Beasts that to them he sends them for better Information V. 7.8 But ask now the Beasts and they shall teach thee speak to the Earth upon which those Beasts feed and It shall Teach Thee the Beasts are provided for and will not that God which Caters for them sustain Men the Beasts are all alike neither better nor worse and they feed all alike and shall not Men who have a difference in goodness amongst themselves aswel as a difference in being from the Beasts have a divers Portion and that divers Portion distributed according to the Rules of Equity and Judgement Mercy and Truth Reason it self will tell you they shall though not secundum hic nunc any not only Reason but if you will take his word whose Name is word and Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Volatilia will tell you the same Ask the Fowls of the Air Mat. 6.26 and they shall tell you They sow not neither do they reap nor gather into Barns yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them from these our Saviour proves that providence more expresly which Job only intimates and proves it by such a Reason which is Cognoscible even to Natural Men and that providence proves a God and a Father too a powerful God and a loving Father a Heavenly God and Father V. 8. Job goes on the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee the parts and joints of which they are compacted and made the Fins and Scales with which they are arm'd and drest is it not a wise and an infinite power that made them and put them on Is it not by providence that they Live out of that Air which is Causa sine quâ Non without which thou canst not Live and within the glassy Element under which thou canst not choose but Dy and is not that wisdom and power and providence the three Letters which spell a God to thee and are not those Muta Animalia thy Tutours to teach thee to read a God in the great Book of Creatures some scatter'd leaves of which themselves are At length he descends peremptorily and Irrefragably to his Conclusion Who knoweth not who 't is an Universal challenge and no Atheist will ever dare to give in an Answer He will rather learn one Lesson more a sober silence from those Dumb and yet Teaching Counsellours V. 9 to whom Job sends him to School who knoweth not in all these that the Hand of the Lord hath wrought this 38. And that Conclusion of Job is as a Premise which makes way for that other Conclusion of Seneca Ibid. since there is a God that made all these since there is a God who suffers Ill that which Appears to be Ill to befall really good Men Placeat Homini quicquid Deo placuit Let that be acceptable to Man which Man cannot choose but see to be pleasing to God and to be allotted to Man by God whether the Lot be fallen to him in a fair Ground Ps 16.6 or whether he hath neither part nor Lot in this matter Acts 8.21 in any good Ground at all Let it suffice for the Child of Abraham by Faith and the Brother of Abraham by Adoption as being Son of the same God who was Abraham's Father that he only Inherits that penurious condition of his Father Abraham Luke 12.13 that that only No-Inheritance be divided betwixt his Brother Abraham and him in that Acts 7.5 God for a while Gives no Inheritance to either of them no not so much as to set their foot on whilst he has some hopeful assurance that as God was Abraham's so he will hereafter be his â—en 15.1 exceeding great reward 39. That other Heathen who was more Poet than Philosopher and less wise than witty into what a Maze Ovidius in Morte Tibulli and Labyrinth and Intricacy was he brought upon such a Ground as this Cum Rapiunt Mala Fata Bonos That 's the quarrel he has against God that Good Men suffer Ill things and untimely Deaths upon this occasion how does he strive to Hoodwink his reason and yet in his own expression elsewhere Sic certat tanquam qui vincere Nollet for that reason breaks through the transparent Veyl which he puts upon it and velit nolit will be his Clue to bring him back to his right wits agen for throughout he does confessingly deny and Grants against himself First Ignoscite Fasso He would be Pardon'd for what he says and certainly it is a fault that needs a pardon truth though it cannot alwaies protect does ever forgive it self and then Sollicitor Nullos esse putare Deos 't is but Sollicitor 't is not Vincor his Passion stirr'd and mov'd and tempted
this Narrow way nor was it the Well-taught Judgment but the ungovern'd Ambition of Caesar who said he would rather be the First at a siege than the second at Rome it savours sure of more Naturall and Rational aswell as Christian and Gospell Divinity to desire to be the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 11.11 rather than the greatest in any Kingdom upon earth if it be so that it must be aut Caesar aut Nullus how Many of the Nones will there be if it be so that it must be Only a Prince is happy into how close a Room is Felicity Pent how does it Thwart and Contradict imprison and even inslave its own self in that it is become thus un-diffusive and incommunicable and is Therefore neither good nor happy for what is Good is Sui Diffusivum the more Good the further it reaches as the Bright and Apparent Sun is a greater blessing than when That Sun weares a cloud upon his Face and goes to Bed in darkness Hid from our eyes and what is Happy is so far from being like a Crown that it is Impatiens Non-Consortis the less happy Lucan Erasm in Mor. Encom the less others are happy with it Nulla boni viri and none but the Good Man is the Blessed Man Jucunda Possessio sine socio Since therefore a fift makes Wisdom to be This happyness and the Wise Man This King †Sapiens uno Minor est Jove Dives Liber Honoratus pulcher Rex denique Regum Horace does so and he does well in doing so had he Rightly known what the True Wisedom is but by reason of This Errour He makes That which he calls happyness to be Nothing at all because the Wisest of meere Natururall men Hoc tantum scio me nihil scire has so much of Socrates in him to know and understand and Confess †This is All his wisdom to Arrogate to himself None of this he has much of Wisedom but he is Wise enough to apprehend that there is much more of Wisedom which he cannot comprehend and therefore he will not indure to be denominated Wise †Omnis denominatie sumiturà Majori from the lesser part he knows much but that much is little to what he knows not He Rules himself well by that Talent and Portion of Wisedom which he has but he does More Mis-Rule himself for vvant of More of that Wisedom Since a sixt does define Happyness to Consist in Operation in Well-doing Aristotle in One place does so in the Contentment and satisfaction and Delight which follows that Operation that Well-doing Aristotle in another place does so But since happyness cannot be vvithout a Rest from Labours for a Toilsom happiness vvho can avvay vvith since that delight does not alvvayes follow Well-doing here or if it does since That is not the Supreme happiness From the uncertainty in all These the vvisest of Naturall men what Happiness is from the certainty in all these and in all mankind besides that happiness is and is to be desir'd Let the Natural Man upon this very ground search the Scriptures to find that happiness 73. Happiness is in very deed the desire of all and yet it cannot behad upon this earth if it could a King who has the most command of this Earth is most like to have had it And yet that such a one a very King who was a meer natural Man could not have it here but in Heaven nor there neither but in his †Summum Bonum Animorum est Deo Frui Trismegist Pimand Dial. 1. God and the God of Heaven for story has told us that when Egyptian Priests told any of their Egyptian Kings his God would have him leave his Kingdom and come to him he presently and chearfully Kill'd himself as he thought up to Happiness and God and Heaven 74. Since all the writing of Heathens will not help us to it though severally they agree in telling us that there is such a thing and yet severally contradict each other in what that things is let me go on as I long since promis'd to the honour of God and his Scriptures to propose the Scriptures of God by a Natural reason even to him who is yet but a Natural Man out of which he may truly learn what that happiness is and how he may reach up to and be involved in that true happiness 75. Nemo Malus Felix Juven Certainly it is not for nothing that Man knows his Sin if unremedy'd will unhappy it is sure to a good end this and more certainly Man does not desire a vain and impossible thing when he would be happy for †Nature has given an appetite to nothing Sat. 4. Natura nihil Frustra but the God of nature has provided something to fill up that appetite Let me therefore propose to a modest scrutiny and sober examination such inquiries as these 76. Is it not of necessity of the very essence of God that the same God who is a just God should be a merciful God too Is it not exceeding probable Psal 5.21 that as the Justice of God does set our sins in order before our eyes and thereby Naturally make us to fear that punishment which belongs and is due to the disorderliness of our sin so the mercy of God would set in order before our eyes too some infallible method of reclaiming us from that sin and Indow us with a holiness contrary to that sin and instate us in a happiness contrary to the punishment of that sin What would better prescribe this holiness and hold forth this happiness than the written Law of our teaching God and the written promises of our gracious God since if there were no directing Law we could not learn to be holy if there were no incouraging Promises we could not claim to be happy and if neither of them were written by the corruption of man and the deceiveableness of Tradition they might both of them be chang'd and interpos'd and expurg'd till they agree with the humour and wilfulness and exchequer of man who insted of the establish'd universal Religion of God might obtrude upon us the mutable Doctrines of a Sect and partee If it be probable that such a Law be written and upon so indubitate a ground as to have the choicest attribute of God that which God most loves and man most loves his very mercy to attest the Probability of it that such a Law is written and we find it not in all the volumes the most Apophthegmatical discourses of the wisest the most learned and most devout of Heathens whose Books are as dark to any such purpose as the Ink they wrote with or the Black Ball we Print with and if there be such a Book of Books not only in that That one Book is made up of several Books but in that All the Books in the world together are not comparable to that one-several that one-every Book whose design it
can be no less than God that spoke and made it 79. Nay hath not God himself given way to such a manner of Arguing as this when as Christ the Son abridges the Gospel into two Commandments so God his Father Mat. 22.40 Contracts the Law into a Command and a Promise upon Obedience to it and a Threat upon Rebelling against it Isa 1.18 and makes his Entrance upon it with such a Preface Come now and let us reason together and as an Inference out of the whole For the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Which intimates to us V. 20. that as we must Believe because God hath said it so we may Argue and Reason that God hath said it because what is Deliver'd there is above the Power and Capacity of any Creature I shall for a little while Respite the Promises Threats of Scripture which is Isaiah's Argument that Scripture is the Word of God because in right order I ought to begin with the beginning and to consider first the Stile and Method of God from the very first Word and so on throughout his Book 80. The Stile and Method in which the Word of God begins does continue to the end it speaks as from One having Authority Mat. 7.29 and not as the Humane Scribes and Writers whose occasional sudden Voyce and Considerate Purposing Pen too are subject to Errour In the Doctrines of Man the Method is to Prove unless it be onely in Re Factâ that he who speaks brings his Eyes with him as the Witnesses which saw such a thing done In all else it is his Reason which sways us and works upon our Belief and not his Name But in holy Scriptures the Case is alter'd Moses in the beginning of them does onely say that In the Beginning Gen. 1.1 God created the Heavens and the Earth He does not Prove God nor that Great Work of God the Creation and in this the Authority of Moses nay of All Mankind nay of the very First of them All is altogether Invalid and Un-concluding and that one Exception of being an Eye-witness is in this case wholly taken off For though the Invisible things of God are clearly seen by the Creation of the World though Every man may know Rom. 1.20 by Every thing he sees that there is a God that made it and there was a time when it was made yet Moses was no Eye-witness of the making of the World for himself was made long after and himself tels us so neither could he receive by the Testimony of Man in what Order the World was made because Man was the last thing that was made in the World not onely Scripture tels us he was the last but Reason it self tels us he could not be the first his Vbi must have been made before himself could be plac'd in it He that wrote that Book and the whole Pentateuch does every where discover a great measure of Wisdome in himself and therefore could not possibly be guilty of so much gross and absurd Folly to think his own Testimony Valid when out of himself there are Irrefragable Reasons against the Validity of his single Testimony or the Joynt Concurrency of the whole Rational Creation and therefore too it cannot be but that he would have the Eternal Creatour qui nec Fallere potest nec Falli to be understood the sole Author and himself onely to have been as the Pen in the Hand of God whil'st God himself was the Ready Writer Psal 45.1 In Man Reason is the Authority but in God Authority is the Reason and therefore Man proves and God onely saies nay let me say that this it self is the most powerfull proof that can be either urg'd or imagin'd that God hath said it tâ—e very Method incommunicable and un-applicable to Creature does signifie that it is that God which spake these words who hath acquainted us that this is his peculiar Stile Psal 82.6 Dixi I have said that ye are Gods Deputed Gods by me to stand in my Room to Distribute my Justice to Execute my Vengeance 1 Tim. 6.15 Psal 97.9 who my self am the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Exalted far above all Gods so that we may not onely Pardon as Hyperbolical but Approve as Literally true that Vehement Expression of Raimundus de Sabunde Dum Minùs Probat Magìs Probat In Naturali Theologia God does prove all he saies the more in that he does not Prove at all but Say because did he Prove it would administer Doubt that the Words were Mans who though perhaps he be in Many Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to Say by way of Authority Non Vox Hominem sonat This is indeed Act 12.22 not the Voyce of Man but of God and since so it is he that would have a Richer Pawn a firmer Obligation than the Bare Word of God and yet I do not well to call it his Bare Word for his Dixit Factum est Psal 33.9 go together what he saies is never Bare but alwaies apparel'd with Performance I know not what to compare him to but to our Covetous Purchasers who think their Lease Imperfect and their Bargain lost if they have it not For Ever and for One Day at least more than for ever For Ever and a Day Thus the Stile and Method proves God to be the Author of them The Manner and Matter does so too The Manner does so in another manner of Stile and Method It finds fault in the whole Creation Gal. 2.17 though it makes not Fault in any part of it It is Objurgatory and Rebuking to those on Earth and to those in Heaven too and what Creature Amongst Us will be so Bold to Stile and Manner it so Loftily and Majestically and All-Knowingly it tels us not onely that All Men are Sinners Jam. 3.2 but it uses the Hands of those very Sinfull Men to self-acknowledge their particular most grievous and hainous Sins and makes those Men hold up their Hands at the Bar of Heaven and not onely cry Guilty in the Mass as Heathens do but thus and thus thus and thus hainously and specifically Guilty and what Creature will be so Injurious to his own Fame to leave his Shame and Scandal and Dis-repute upon Record not onely as he is one of Mankind but too as he is this Individual Man A Seneca In Vita Beatâ c. 18. In Alto omn. though he cryes out In Profundo Omnium Vitiorum sum would never cry out against his own Covetousness though he did against the Avarice of other Men in his own Behalf he is more sparing and saies Sapiens for himself did Opine himself to be that Wise Man non optat Divitias sed Mavult and he leaves others to tell us more Loudly not onely of Senecae Praedivitis Hortos Martial but of his Amor Sceleratus Habendi and not
forth that Treasure and that Pearl for us Let us therefore with a Comparative Contempt of these cry out as St. Austin did Whatever else the Lord our God hath given to us In Psal 26. let him what he hath been a long time doing take it all away and give us these For 89. With these as he will give us an Establish'd and Persevering so he will also give us an Un-afflicted Goodness Sin and Misery go together and neither of them can enter into Heaven Sin is a Moth which will eat a hole into our Happiness Mat. 6.20 and Misery is a Thief which will steal it all away and there is no room for such Guests as these There was sometime a kind of Hell in the Lower Heavens Gen. 19.24 but all the Fire and Brimstone of them will be rain'd down upon the Sodoms and Gomorrahs here nay those very Heavens themselves will endure the Plague which they did Inflict they will Melt away with forvent heat 2 Pet. 3.12 and onely that Heaven shall endure for ever in which there is and will be nothing else but God and Angels Saints and Joy 90. The Pleasures there are much more and much more Pleasures than Man can either Desire or Apprehend for they are not onely Pleasures for evermore Ps 16.11 but they are too a whole River of them Psal 36.8 91. There is Honour and that more multiply'd in the Nature of it than in all those words of St. Peter 1.1.7 Praise and Honour and Glory and more Magnify'd still in that the Father of Jesus Christ will honour those there Joh. 12.26 who serve Jesus Christ here 92. The Wisdome there is infinitely beyond all the Wisdome in this World not onely beyond all the Wisdome of the Children of this World who are so Wise in their Generations one would scarce think they were ever Children but of the Children of Life and Light too whil'st they are in this World The Best the Chiefest Wisdome of the Children In this World though not of the Children Of this World is to be Wise to Another a Greater a Better World 't is true Nemini sapit qui sibi non sapit and 't is as true as that Nec sibi sapit qui sibi non in Aeternum sapit Ps 111.10 The Beginning of that Wisdome is the Fear of GOD and the Instructers in that Wisdome are the holy Scriptures 't is the great Eulogie that St. Paul gives of them to Timothy 2.3.15 that they are Able to make him wise unto Salvation and in the verse after All of them are given by Inspiration from GOD so that this one Link in the Chain of Happiness is sufficient to both those ends for which I insist upon it both that Scriptures might be search'd as the onely Certain Foundation of Future Bliss and that that God might be acknowledg'd whose Gift that Happiness is and whose Fear does begin to make us Wise unto it And if there be so much VVisdome in the very Way to Salvation how much more in the Enjoyment of it As certainly as much More as that First Principle which is equally agreed upon by all Mankind has Certainty in it Totum est majus suis Partibus for Here we know but it is but in Part we Prophecy but in the most Studious or most Enlightned of us it is but in Part 1 Cor. 13.9 10. but hereafter When that which is Perfect is come then that which is in Part shall be done away VVe are Children so long as we are here we speak we understand we think V. 11 as Children Then onely when we are grown up to a Perfect Man Eph. 4 13. unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ and that is only when we enter into Happiness shall we cast away Childish Things for though in that place St. Paul was become a Man even below Stairs and out of Heaven by a special and bountifull Illumination and Sanctification yet how many of us together in respect of Knowledge and Holiness cannot make up one St. Paul And yet the Knowledge which the Man St. Paul had here was but VVeak and Childish and that onely Manly and Perfect which he Now has Above The Evangelical Knowledge which he had and we have here was indeed Perfect if Compar'd to a Legal Knowledge but very Lame and Heavy Dull and Ignorant if set in Competition with that in Heaven so Theodoret interprets that place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so St. Paul too when in the verse after he does so far Un-Man himself as to wrap up himself and us in the same Thick Cloud for Now We see through a Glass Darkly We not a very Paul excepted but Then Face to Face and lest that might be suspected for a meer piece of Civility humbly to involve himself in that Ignorance which is the Lot of All he speaks more home yet and to his own Door Now I know in Part but then shall I know even as I also am known and what VVisdome what Knowledge Greater and more Sublime than to Know even as God himself Knows sure if there be a Prius and Posterius in the Knowledge of God the first thing that he ever knew was that himself Alwaies Is from Everlasting and to be VVise in some granted Proportion Psal 93.2 even by the Testimony of God himself as he is VVise 93 There is also a Contentfull Goodness a Filling a Satisfying Happiness Lord shew us the Father Ioh. 14.8 and it sufficeth nay not onely the Father but the Son and the Holy Ghost too are shew'd sufficiently to all the Saints of God here in their Exile and will be shew'd sufficingly to them all Above in their Countrey 94. The End why I propose to my Atheist-Reader all these several Branches of our Future Happiness which will hereafter be bestow'd by the Father of Spirits and are Heb. 12. ◠in the mean while attested by the Spirit of the Father is that he may by that Lov'd Argument of Self-Preservation and for his very own sake be in love with those Scriptures of God which so much Out-Promise and Out-Give all that All Natural Men have written or can desire that by these he might Know and Acknowledge Love with Reverence and Serve with Fear that God who is even by Natural Reason which to the Atheist is instead of God convinc'd to be the Bountifull Author both of these Scriptures and of all other Bounties 95. May such Reasons as these be effectual upon him to seek all his Happiness at the hands of that God who is Rerum omnium Pleroma Irenaeus l. 2. c. 1. the One Onely Fulness and Satisfaction Center and Rest of All things without whose Blessing in a Contentment here and in making that Contentment an Earnest of a Heaven our Souls are Empty when our Chests are Throng'd and our Appetite even when it is Sated Hungers after we know not what
make a God of Any or of All of These in that you Had Them and They Had not you in that they Serv'd you and you Rul'd them and an Gbedient God a Bounden and Chain'd Deity a Divinity under Lock Key You was never so much Persian to allow of much less Q. Curtius l. 4. scribit de Persis quod Deos quo Certius retinerent catenis vinciebant when Fortune has now turn'd one half of her wheel will you make the Clay Feet the Iron legs the Brazen Belly and Thighes of That prosperity a God whose Breast and Arms of Silver and Head of Fine Gold Dan. 2.32.33 you could not indure to worship Let Men that wrangle at wealth and for wealth the Clent and the Lawyer Creep and Crouch to such Images as These and think if they will that they are well awake the while whilst That they Dote upon is but an Image and not the Architype a Beam and not the Sun least of all Mal. 4.2 That of Righteousness and they themselves when they expect to grasp it do but Dream but let my Good Lord look higher and Pity the Childings at the Barre Let Him not be Froward with them that are Froward but buy love with love with so cheap a Fee let Him Purchase the One and Onely God who though He be but One and Onely Is and has All things and will sell them All at the Price of Love Prov. 8.17 I love them that love Me would they have Estates V. 18. and Titles Riches and Honour are with Me would they have Unmolested Estates and Unforfeited Titles yea Durable Riches and Righteousness what ever the violence of Time or Man takes away Is neither Wealth nor yours That which Lasts is Wealth and That which Is You is Yours the Philosopher said well Omnia Mea Mecum Bias. but your Christian Lordship sayes better Omnia mea Ego your self is only and all your Own nor can you stand in Need of Any thing from Any Other but from Christ may He Clothe you with His Robe of Righteousness and no matter though there be never a Pocket in it with That Robe you will have Peace with God and Without That Pocket Peace with Men too That you may be blessed Both these wayes and be so like your IESUS Luke 2 ult as to Increase in Favour with GOD and Man whilst you are on Earth at least inseparably and without any Altercation in Favour with Him who is God and Man in Heaven and yet in Both those Natures is but One Person and in That One Person is the same God with the other Two Three Persons and One God is the Prayer of Your Lordships obliged Chaplain and faithfull Servant WILLIAM TOWERS Polytheismus Vapulans OR There is but One GOD. 1. HOw Necessarily that First Doctrine that there Is a God is to be backt with this second Doctrine that there Is but one God will appear out of the corrupt nature of all the self-deifying opinions of some and the Diabolical practices of others 2. 'T is not only so in this great Case but it is so also in almost every Case where Man has more of passion then judgement and loves Interest above Truth and almost every man has so and dos so that when he is convinc'd he has been in an unprofitable errour he will never think he can run far enough from that unrewarding mistake till he runs into another Equally as bad as that and then dos not care how irrecoverably he sinks into a second Ditch so long as he is sure he escapes the danger of the former Pit 'T is so in the Religion of Nature in Morality 'T is not enough to tell the Covetous Man how base his sin is whilst he dos as Bion says he days †Sordidi Divites ita facultatum curam habent quasi propriarum ita parcunt tanquam alienis take so much care over his wealth as if it were his own his beloved Spouse Incubat Auro and so much spare it and forbear it as if it were another Mans to tell him that he starves himself that he may starve others to tell him that it is better to give then to hoard and that he hoards up his own Damnation that his Hell is stole away when his Bags are Risâ—ed if he grieves more for the sin of him that open'd his Chest then because he left it empty When you have told him all this and more made him fear to be Rich Is 33.14 as much as he fears the everlasting burnings you will make him apt to sin as much in prodigality and wastfulness as he did before in laying up and going to Bed with the Key in his mouth Therefore you must tell him too that though the sparkling and yellowness of his Gold be like the Flame of fire of which too much and an ungovern'd heap will burn him yet a little of it if it kindles not in the very heart will warm him you must not only tell him Josh 7.21 that to with-hold the Wedge of another Man and to bury it in his own Tent will cause him to be put to death V. 26 and to have a heap of stones over him in Earth I and if he repent not if he testifie not his repentance by dispersing V. 22 by restoring to the owner and by giving to the poor a heap of Coals over him in Hell too insted of a heap of Gold and Silver under him but you must tell him too that 1 Tim. 5.8 if he provides not for his own he is worse then an Infidel and if he provides not of his own he is the same Man still worse then Infidel you must not only tell him that his extortion whereby he makes the poor eat stones Is 3.15 instead of Bread whereby himself grinds the poor people of God Ps 53.4 and eats even them up as it were Bread that this makes him to be less charitable Mat. 4.3 then the Devil himself who besought that stones might be made Bread but you must tell him too V. 4 that himself must live by Bread also though not by Bread only you must not only tell him as St. L. 2. Ep. 6. Non modo aliena non appetas hoc enim publicae leges pâ—niunt He means when the appetite is fill'd and not when it yawns sed Tica quae sunt aliena non sâ—ves Hierom does that he must not covet that which is another Mans for every right Christian St. will say as St. Austin did that the superfluity and over-plus of a rich Man is the debt and portion of a poor Man but you must tell him too that though every Man besides is his neighbour himself is his neighbour also Proximus egomet mihi is a good rule when it is a common rule and not an inclosure when it lets this and that Man be proximus too as in a Circle though the Line that is
Beza sayes they shall be Damned in a passive sense nor only they shall Damne themselves in an Active sense by wilfull Perjury or by wiâ—full Impenitency but they shall Damne themselves too by Approbation of the Sentence against them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall Take Damnation as their Due as a Right charge against them as a Just Judgment upon them Coloss 1.20 and ever since the Angels which stand Confirm'd by That Jesus who hath Reconcil'd all things whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven have been very Wary not to admit but to Reject any Over Humilities of Man to them to the Derogation from the Honour of Their One only God and the whole Multitude of them sung Glory be to God in the Highest not to GOD'S Luke 2.14 least of all to themselves 5. Thus from the Finite and Made Nature of all things els in Earth and Heaven too there is but One God for I list not to seek out Another God in that which is No where in Purgatory nor in That which is the Worst where in Hell And though this might suffice yet I go on to prove the Unity of the Godhead from the very Nature of the God-head 6. He is One singularitate so as he is Only One not so as the Sun is Only One for though there never was nor will be any more than One Sun in the Firmament yet if God had so pleas'd there Might have been and still May be as many Suns as Stars as well as Certainly there Will be neither Sun nor Starrs but He is so One Onely God that it is Impossible and Contradictory to the very Nature and Essence and Power of God that there should be More Gods than One for if there were More there were None and that because each God could not be Infinit as being Excluded from That somewhat els which is God as well as He from which if He be excluded He is a Finite God and as good have no God at all as a Finite One which in very deed is no God at all and if He be Not excluded He is the very same with That somewhat els and so not More Gods but One God Each God were not Almighty or not a Free Agent not Almighty because He could not do any thing contrary to the Doing of that other God who is equally Almighty as Himself i. e. neither of them is Almighty which is a Tam and a Quam Negatively as good as we can devise to Allow them or els He is not a Free Agent because if He could do it He must not have Will to do it till He can obtain leave from His Fellow-God to surcease the contrary Action and these to be Infinit and Voluntary and Almighty are the very Nature and Essence and Power oâ— God without All or without Any of which He is as Pliny said some would have the Tribunatus to be Lib. 1. ep 23. Inanis Umbra sine Honore Nomen and Lucan to the same purpose of Pompey if I forget not as if One of them had Read the other stat Magni Nominis Umbra Thus That immutable God in whom there cannot be so much as a shadow of Changing James 1.17 would yet Himself be nothing els but shadow and that upon such a No Ground as by the same Reason Locus est pluribus Umbris Nullique Deo and all Hesiods Three hundred Jupiters would not be sufficient to make up One. Let me Illustrate This by occasion of That passage in Lucan with the vanity Nothingness of a Bandy'd Power against Power and a Fighting will against will even up on Earth When the Breach was made so wide betwixt Caesar and Pompey that One Land would not hold their Power nor One Verse so much as Their Name but that Caesarve Priorem must stand by Himself and then Pompeiusve Parem by Himself when they could not knit and yoke together unless in Virgil's quarrelsome expression Pede pes Densusque Viro Vir when Caesar would have none Above Him but would Himself be supreme and Pompey would have none Equal to Him but would Himself be more supreme than Caesaer what follow'd then but Pila Minantia Pilis the exact and terrible Picture of their Desires Thwarting their Desires and when could there be an end of these Discords till there was an end of one of these Ambitious Pretending Supremes nay even After He was deceast as if there were a new Civill war betwixt His own Putrifying Members as if one fide of Him did Side with Caesar and Another with Himself One Grave could no more hold All of Pompey than One Pharsalia could hold Pompey and Caesar too Jacere Uno non poterat tanta Ruina Loco Martial as if Pompey were as much divided against Himself even after he left off to be himself as a third Poet tells us the very Flames of departed Etheocles and Polynices did point severall wayes and held up the Lasting Fewd even after Death it self which was begun for Empire-sake betwixt Both of them Alive Fratris primos ut Contigit Artue Ignis edax Statius Thebaid lib. ult Tremuere Rogi Novus Advena Bustis Pellitur exundant Diviso Vertice Flammae Nor shall I yet let pass this Oneness of singularity but give you a very good and Rationall Account of itfrom that solid probation which even the Heathens themselves have affixt to it Those three properties of Ens which is one of the first Lessons we read in all the Metaphysicians Plato and his followers have wisely thought fit to apply to God Himself and to prove the Unity of the Godhead not only by the propriety of Unity Insequuti Doctoris vestigia singulari Ingenio eloquentia non Incuriosâ Platonici multi unum modò esse Deum Ratione Triplici probare connituntur primo quia summa est Vnitas Nam si quodlibet summum est Vnicum quid magis Vnicum est quam summa Unitas Est etiam Unus quia est Veritas summa enim viritas una est Nam si Duae summae Veritates esse dicantur aut Una earum habet quicquid Altera habet aut Non si prius datur una est non Duae Si secundum est Neutra est summa Deest enim Isti Illud verttatis quod in Illa est Illi quod est in Ista Item unus est Deus quia summa est Bonitas summa quippe Bonitas quicquid Boni reperiri usquam potest complectitur Quod si Duas induxeris Bonitates summas quicquid Boni est in Vna est in Altera Alioqui Neutra esset summa secundum Boni Ipsius Naturam Unum sunt non Duo Neque est aliquid Illis admixtum praeter Bonitatis Naturam quia summae non essent sed Inquinatae Unum itaque sunt Omnine L. C. Rhodiginus Lectionum Antiquarum lib. 22. cap. 4. M. D. XCIX pag. 1029. but by those other two
there is One God that there is but One God that nothing else is Really God with a Note upon Deut. 6.4 and proceed in one word openly against the Romanist who now more than ever laies Snares to draw us off from the True Worship of the One God and though he does not make somewhat else his God in Terminis yet in effect he does whil'st he applyes that Worship which is onely Proper to the Onely True God to somewhat else that is not God though he is not got into the Inner Rooms of the Polytheists yet I am sure he treads upon their Threshold and in another word against the Opinionist and Ill Liver of our own the one being a Recusant though not a Romanist and the other robbing God of his honour as much as he though not the same way as he 11. But before I proceed to these hear this one Word of God which it self calls upon you to hear it Hear Deut. 6.4 O Israel whatever sounds contrary to this it must not be listned to the Lord our God is ONE Lord we should wear this Verse written in our Heads and Hearts we should read and peruse it there for it is already there written and engraven by the Finger of God as it is Recorded of the Jews Fagius in Exod. 13. that they writ it out in Parchment and wore it within their Hair and upon their Brow and upon their Left Arm. 12. And yet does not Rome at Rome and Rome in England sin against the Unity of the Godhead which she confesses to Believe whilst on this side and on yonder side the Sea she bows down to Images and invokes Saints and at this instant labours though in a Mine and fights against our Religion though under the Cloke of it both in Church and State to make Proselytes not onely to more Spirits than one but to less than Spirit to less than Un-canoniz'd nay to less than Breathing Man to Stocks and Stones Psal 115.135.17 Quibus non est Spiritus in Ore Ipsorum I could wish but that they are too cunning not onely for me but a while for the State too to discover that some Man's Buff was taken off and sent to his Holy Father with that Question graven upon it Haeccine Tunica Filit Tui Would the Pope himself trow ye as his Emissary Counterfeit Protestant that he might be a Successfull Fisher of Men though the very Success in Errour is the greatest Dammage and draw all of us as Fish to his Net I fear me he would rather draw with the Binding of a Fagot 13. He that worships Images on Earth and Saints in Heaven nay that undoubted Saint the Virgin Mary although even we also justly acknowledge that she is Quantò splendidior Ovid. Met. lib. 2. quà m caetera sidera fulget Lucifer quantò quà m Lucifer Aurea Phoebe Tantò Virginibus Praestantior omnibus More than or as much as or besides the Holy Of-spring of that Virgin Mary gives that Honour of God to another either Thing or Person which God himself faies he will give to neither I am the Lord that is my Name Is 42.8 and my Glory will I not give to another neither my Praise to Graven Images What greater Glory than Invocation what greater Praise than Prayer of which in its Distinction Praise is part I will worship towards thy holy Temple and Praise thy Name Psal 38.2 What harm has the Blessed Virgin done us that we should afflict that Modesty and Humility of hers which no doubt she retains in Heaven and is even there also the Handmaid of her God though the very Best and Best-beloved that he has with an undue Praise and an unheard Prayer Not onely the Holy Ghost tels us that when she heard those great Eulogies and Wellspeakings Luk. 1.28 Hail O thou highly Favour'd the Lord is with thee V. 29. In Lib. cui Tit. Meditationis Vitae Christi Lat. Dar. à Michaele ab Isselt c. 2. Blessed art thou among Women though from the Mouth of an Angel who knew better what he said than either they or we She was troubled at his saying but their own Ludovicus Granatensis adds a Timuit to the Turbata est and gives this reason for it Nihil enim Humili adiosius est quà m proprias audire Laudes Nothing is more Hatefull to an Humble Mind than to hear it self Commended why then do they to the very Spirit of her whom they so much love that thing which she so much hates unless they will conceive she hath put off her Humility with her Cloaths of Flesh and will not afford her as many Virtues in Heaven as she had on Earth He goes on Nihil magis timet quam hujusmodâ— Gratulationes She fears nothing more than a Mess of Praises and why will they diet her with that she is afraid to tast of why are they not more Civil than to put so excellent a Lady whom they can never enough esteem onely bating her the honour of her God into a Fright She is indeed Angelical whatever they will below God she has the Passion of Hope that they will Convert the Passion of Joy when they do Convert not to her but God and the Passions of Fear and Grief when they do Convert not to God but her and he goes on still and still wondrously and Pathetically well Quemadmodum Avarus metuit Latrones as a covetous Man when he rides with his Master behind him a Portmantieu of gold at his back fears a high-way Theef sic verus humilis metuit laudes hominum quae sunt fures humilitatis so one that is truly humble fears an over-praise which is an enemy pessimum inimicorum genus laudantes and a Theef too Tacitus to steal away her humility and why then will they put her into so great and so dangerous a fear as if they suspected either she is not truly humble or else would not have her be so hereafter Let them take heed lest by such Adulatory complements themselves be those Theeves of whom our Saviour the Son of our Virgin Mary and of their Goddess Marry hath said that they shall not come to Heaven to break through Mat. 6.20 and steal there Let them if they will bow in their Churches as our late †In his Speech in the Star-Chamber June 14.1637 Arch-Bishop hath observed Moses and Aaron fell down upon their faces at the door of the Tabernacle Numb 20.6 as Hezekiah the King and all with him did they bowed and worshipped 2 Chron. 29.29 as David calls upon all to do Ps 95.6 O come let us worship and bâ—w down nay let me without offence for I hope none at home will be angry at the very and express words of Scripture adde one example more of this kind of veneration because the reason of it is involv'd in it Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Micah 6.6
Sacrifise not unto them Literall and proper Sacrifices they must mean for those Other Sacrifices of Praise Thanksgiving they offer to Saint and Angell and those other Sacrifices Heb. 13.1.6 with which God is well pleased of doing good and Communicating they offer even to Men to their God and Christ what do they offer they offer even Christ Himself will they thus Pay Him with nothing els but his own Coin Heb. 10.14 will they multiply the offerings of Christ notwithstanding He by ONE Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Will they multiply Christ himself whilst every one that Receives has All Christ and yet All Christ is still in Heaven too and all this Bodily notwithstanding that assertory Truth of the Heathen Man Matth. 5.17 In Plauto Amphytrio Sâ—siâ—m alloquitur qui se Domi ait esse cum peregre sit Copus Christi Domi in Coelorum Coelo tamen peregre in terrâ in Hac Terra in Illa in Hac in Illis in Hoc ore in Illo in Hoc in Illis founded upon the unalterable Principles of Nature which as the Law Christ came not to destroy but to fulfill Tun ' id dicere audes quod nemo unquam Homo antehac Vidit nec Potest fieri Tempore uno Homo Idem Duobus Locis ut Simul Sit Quae neque Fieri Possunt neque Fando unquam accepit quisquam Profers Were their Christ not yet ascended were He still Bodily upon earth though without any Consecration of theirs which as the Poet sayes his verses can bring down the Moon DeCoelo possunt deducere Christum Had he erected almost All of Christianity had and not yet Instituted the Holy Supper they would then have nothing at all to Offer to their Christ and to His Father but of the same kind Prayer and Praise which they offer not to Him alone but to him and to Angell and to Saint too unless they would relapse into abolisht Judaism and Sacrifise a Bullock still since therefore we cannot be perswaded to worship Saint and Angell as they do though in an Inferiour yet in a Spirituall degree since we cannot be wrought upon to Sacrifise as they pretend to do Really but only in Commemoration as Christ hath taught Luke 22.19 Do this in Remembrance of me I must take leave in one word more to take off this worship from Saint and Angell in that very word upon which they Found their Mistaken Duty by which it may appear they worship God amisse in giving that worship which is Peculiarly His to that which is not He and we worship God aright by the peculiar debt of Invocation though not by the Impropriety of Sacrifice Heb. 10.18 since it is as true as Gospell There is no more Offering for sin which will make way into the Inquiry after those which they cal the Authenticall examples in Scripture 20. Amongst the Rest it seemes to be warily done that they Name not the 148. Psalm the Psalm begins Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens their Note upon that is All ye Heavenly Spirits praise God V. 2 the Psalm goes on Praise ye him all His Angells though in the form of the words David Here seems to speak to Saints and Angels yet Intentionally He speaks and prayes only to God that Saints and Angels should praise Him and expects no more to be heard by Saint and Reply'd to by Angell then he believes Sun and Moon Heaven and Waters can grant a Request V. 3 V. 4 or that Fire and Hayle Snow and Vapours have eares or that Beasts and Cattell V. 8 Creeping things and flying Fowle can understand V. 10 or that Kings and Princes and Judges V. 11 are to be Worshipt more than Civilly or that People are to be worshipt at all V. 11 and the Reason why all these should Praise the Name of the Lord as doubtless they all doe Omnia precantur hymnosque Proclus l. de Sacrif concinunt ad Ordinis sui Ducem alia Intellectuali modo alia Rationali alia Sensitivo alia Naturali is exprest verse 13. for His Name Alone is Excellent which though they Render Is Exalted it matters not since every Exaltation is Excellent in suo genere and every excellency exalted and if thus to be excellent super omnia to have His glory above the Earth and Heaven be the Partiall cause of spirituall praise for the Adaequate Cause is that excellency and the Declaration of it and the Command upon it then nothing els must at all partake of that kind of Worship though in an Inferiour degree all eis being excluded by that Alone-Excellent to signify that whatever els it be which has an Inferiour Excellency t is not excellent at all as to the Claim of this praise for throughout the Psalm David does only say and often say Praise him and Praise him and not Praise Him thus and thus in summitate whereby he asserts to God not only the Chief but the All of Praise and in that word The prayse of all his Saints or as They a Hymn to all his Saints is only meant that God is the Praise of theÌ„ al that God Verse 14 who Inhabiteth the Prayses of Israel takes possession of them all Psal 23.3 and will not divide stakes with an Inmate Saint not that the Saints should be a Praise and Hymn and Song one to the other els if their degree of Excellency be Title enough to a Degree of Spiritual praise if That should chance to be true which Macrobius out of Plato tells us Plato cùm de Sphaerarum Coelestium volubilitate tractaret singulas ait Sirenas singulis orbibus Insidere significans Sphaerarum motu Cantum Numinibus exhiberi Macrob in Somn. Scipion. l. 2. cap. 3. and a Councill should tell us so too that there is a severall Siren sitting upon each severall Heaven and singing praise to God we must sing Spirituall Praises not only to God though only to God we must not only to Saint and Angell to whom we must not at all but to that New Society of Sirens too But let us examin their grounds in Scripture Gen. 32.24 There wrestled a Man with him Their Note sayes this Man was an Angel and this wrestling Spiritual as appears by Jacobs earnest prayer and the Angels Blessing but whence comes this Man to be an Angel the Text Sayes not so why is not this Man the second Person in the God-head who vouchsaft to appear to Jacob in he would that man-hood which he would after Take why may not Jacob V. 29 when he sayes Tell me I pray thee thy name seem to desire a further and plainer knowledge of this Mystery and why may not the answer wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name intend that Jacob should be Thankfull for so much Revealing of the Lord unto him and that the plainer evidence of the second Person was reserv'd to after Ages what
ought to worship God the more reverently and sincerely 1 Cor. 11.10 because of the Angels Untill I make thine enemies thy foot-stool Ps 110.1 Here the wicked are the foot-stool of God in being subjected to his will though against their own and in this respect the worshipping at his footstool does mean that we should not refrain even in the sight of the wicked to sing that new Song Ps 40.3 which God hath put into our Mouth and which they are unacquainted with even praise unto our God to this end that many even the wicked may see it and fear and trust in the Lord in the last place and out of the first Text He tells us †Pag. 472 Col. 2. in Fine Scabellum ejus est ipsa Christi humanitas the Manhood of Christ is this foot-stool To the purpose then understand we by this foot-stool as Auguanus does in the simplicity of his heart the humanity of Christ quae totaliter Deo conform is est and not only that but the whole Earth also and in that Earth not only the Church the Saints of God but the very wicked also and not only the Church Militant on Earth but that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven confirm'd in an establisht undecaying Righteousness by Christ Jesus the Holy Angels of God and understand we not by this foot-stool exclusively the humanity of Christ and nothing else but that nay understand we not that humanity of Christ only Sacramented as Doway does in the design of their hearts and then if it does not more redound to the honour of God and to the edifying and increasing of his Church that we should sincerely worship God all the Earth over not only in the Congregation of the Saints the more to inflame their devotion by the Conjunction of ours with theirs but in the presence of the wicked to make them asham'd of their irreligious folly and to invite them by our example to draw near unto the Lord with unfeigned Lips and unfeining Hearts and all this because of the Angels of God nay because of the God of those Angels if thus to do and thus every where to do and upon these grounds does not conspire in a more probable effectuality and a more innocent uninsnaring conspiration to both those ends then to worship the Body of Christ himself as that foot-stool and only to worship that Body Sacramented at some times in some places with some few then we will quit this extensive interpretation and run totis pedibus into their limited sentence 28. And least that reason which David gives and which they render because IT is holy might bear sway against this multiform sense confining the foot-stool only to one and the worship to that very footstool to evade this pretended reason I must give them to know not only that that word in the Original may be equally translated IT or He but that in that place it ought rather to be translated he because in the Verse after is set down what that worship is to invocate the Lord and because though it were so for IT is holy yet the worship is not of it but at it explained in the last verse of that Psalm and in both the same words in which the reverence is charged upon us in the 5. v. Exalt ye the Lord our God and ad re say they and worship say we Hitherto there is a perfect agreement with the 5. 1 Cor. 1.10 and last v. they do what the Apostle would have us all to do though Doway will neither hearken to us nor him speak the same thing and the explication follows In or at his holy Mount because the Lord our God is holy the Mount is confessedly holy yet the holiness of the Mount is not alleged as a reason why we should worship it but the holiness of our God why we should worship in or at his holy Mount I go on to inquire after their And elsewhere by which words and some search I find out of their notes upon Gen. 48.5 That they mean the Invocation of Angels grounded upon Mat. 18. Acts 12.1 Cor. 11. For want of their New Testament of which I am bereft they ought to be content as I must that I reply out of the Originals 29. And first what says Matthew for them He says but not for them that Christ himself said 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwaies behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven what means our Saviour by this not that we should invoke Angels himself tels us no such matter but that we should not despise little ones that is it which himself tels us and upon this ground because they have Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had they hence infer'd that God had appointed Angels Ministring Spirits to take care for and to protect little ones they had argu'd right and we would shake hands with them in this matter let them tell us no more then what that Text tells us let them infer no more then what our Saviour Christ infers and we are agreed is it not enough to that purpose to take off contempt from little ones that God takes so much care of them as to appoint Angels over them though they never pray as they are never bid so to do to Angels and are not those words design'd to this purpose by Christ had Christ said Despise them not Ps 115.16 for to these Children of Men I have given the Earth Despise them not for it is for their sake Job 38.8.9 that I have shut up the Sea with doors and made the Cloud the Garment thereof and tho thick darkness a swadling band for it Despise them not for for them it is that I have created the Lights in the Firmanent of Heaven for signs and seasons Gen. 1.14 Ps 104.19 for dars and years 't is for them that I have appointed the Moon for seasons for them that the Sun knoweth his going down His going down with his Rays into the Bowels of the Earth and his bringing up from thence Herb for the service both of Man and Child that God hath done all or any of these for mankind is reason enough not to contemn the least of them but is it reason enough that Man should fall down and first worship and then eat his Herb Sarculo Amicas Colit hic Fruges Et suum hic mandit Bibit ille E man Thesourus è Soc Jesu Numen If so Happy the Heathen that are Heathen still Felices Gentes quibus haec nascuntur in Hortis Numina Juven That Man should exalt the Sun and adore the Moon that Man should bow to the Sea and kneel down to the Lights nay to the Cloud nay to the thick darkness and do his reverence to these swadling bands and to that Garment as to sacred Reliques for all of these let us
who do it not from whom by such a Continu'd Omission she may hope that in time they may forget they ever were Commanded to call upon God onely for by this as God is in himself so we acknowledge him to be our God our God in that we pray to him and our God in that we pray as he hath commanded us and is not this Treason against the Divine Majestie when by our Disloyal Prayers we give those Acknowledgements to another whereby he that did make and should rule us is testify'd to be our God and our King does not this seem to make him either a Nescient God that cannot understand our Requests unless they are convey'd to him through the Intercession of others or else a Proud God that will not admit of an Immediate Access unto himself as if he that humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in Earth Ps 113.6 would for all that take so much State upon him as not to take notice of the Best things that are in Earth and Heaven besides those things which are in God himself and which are God himself Humble and Faithfull Prayer God hath never told us that Saimt or Angel does hear the words of our Lips if any of them do this at any time yet who can tell that this or that Saint or Angel does hear at this time when that Letany is pray'd Holy Mary Manual pag. 422. Pray for us St. Michael Pray St. Gabriel Pray St. Raphael Pray And not onely St. John and St. Peter and St. Paul Pray but St. Agnes and St. Cecily and St. Anastasia Pray nay when some pray to this or that Forged Saint which are so far from being now in Heaven that we have no assurance they ever were on Earth Yet for those Real and Un-doubted Saints far be it from me to fasten a Shame upon any of them whom God hath Glorify'd I onely wish they may not Rival their God in Honour and I am sure themselves wish the same with me nor be over-charg'd with Reverence more than themselves Desire or God Appoints who can tell that their Present Employment when Busy Man invokes them is not design'd to them by their God elswhere and then take we heed that we do not apply that Ubiquitariness to be Everywhere at once which is properly attributed to God to Saint or Angel but then for the especial part of Prayer that of the Heart without which the Lips do onely Mutter they do not Pray and that of the Heart onely if the Heart prays to Saint or Angel does not that Heart make Saint or Angel God though unmeaningly whose Property alone it is to search the Heart Rom. 8.27 and the Reins Deos qui Colit Ille Facit Martial He that worships Religiously makes that a God which he Ignorantly Worships and Prayer is an Especial part of Worship and that of the Heart an Especial part of Prayer And if Any thing else but God must be Religiously Invok'd if any thing else but God can pry into the Hearts notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does acknowledge that he can do it and 〈◊〉 Act. 1.24 that he onely Thou Lord which knowest the Hearts how little Honour is there of which we leave God the Sole Proprietary though the Angels and Saints in Heaven know themselves cannot honour him enough much less we if as From us and To us we may invoke others besides God others besides God may search into our Hearts and what though they of Rome often say and often in a day and in that Variation throughout those three Creeds the Apostolical as Text the Nicene and Athanasian as Commentary and perhaps in one more and larger than all these the Tridentine all the Deliberations and Conclusions of that Councel being sworn to as if they were all one Creed that they Believe in God Almighty the Maker of Heaven and Earth of all things Visible and Invisible that they worship God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity yet whil'st they worship Saints and Angels too and imbase the Honour of God down to them in their several Confessions of Faith they do not what they say they do but rather acknowledge what they ought to do entirely to worship God which it is the whole purpose of this Discourse to Argue and Perswade and upon the Knees of my Soul to Beseech them to do I shall conclude with that Advice of holy David Give unto the Lord 1 Chron. 16.28 29. ye Kinreds of the People give unto the Lord Glory and Strength Give unto the Lord the Glory due unto his Name even this Come before him Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness To worship any else Religiously is to Rob God of his due it is unbeauteous altogether deformed in his Eyes and in the Eyes of all his Saints and Angels Therefore onely To him who is the Blessed 1 Tim. 6.16 Rev. 15.4 and onely Potentate To him who is Onely Holy To God Onely Wise Be Honour and Power Everlasting Rom. 16.25 Be Glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen APOSTROPHE To my Honour'd Patron The LORD TRACY My good Lord HOW your Noble self and my other dear Lord Newport will excuse me to both of whom I have not perform'd all that I have promis'd to either though as to me the Performances of both your Lordships have exceeded the Reality of your own and the Vanity of other mens Promises which were spoke into the Air and writ upon the Water I cannot tell and I have but these two empty Reliefs that my Breach is but a Delay Et mea sit solo Tempore lapsa Fides And that there is less of Affliction to either of your Honours whil'st such Trifles as these do less swell and perhaps a little more consideration may make amends in the Substantialness of the rest for the Froth of these Give me leave I beseech you to acquaint your Lordship why I insist so much against Doway-Rome and why in that particular against their Worshipping of Saints and why too I intermit my Advertisements to the English Opinionist and ill Liver I have done the first because in a late Disputation held at Winchcombe some of my Brethren Nov. 9. and my self have been accus'd for Romishly-affected in the Good Will we are thought to bear to Holy-dayes how unjust this Imputation was did then appear how Rash and Unadvised G. Goodman Bishop late of Gloucester I collect out of my Ordinarie's Dedication to the Lord General and by the way the Civil Supremacy was asserted by us whom some will traduce as guilty of Dis-affection against the Allowance of those who though by a new kind of Popery would be accounted the main Pulpit-Champions for it to whom he intimates some holy Thanks for the expected Reviviscency of Festivals I have done this against Doway-Rome because I have Rational Presumptions some of them may be my Early Readers and