calling wee are said to take Orders Yours are called Trades and Occupations and Mysteries Law and Phisicke are called Sciences and Professions many others haue many other names ours is Orders When by his Maiesties leaue we meet in our Conuocations and being met haue his further leaue to treat of remedies for any disorders in the Church our Constitutions are Canons Canons are Rules Rules are Orders Parliaments determine in Lawes Iudges in Decrees wee in Orders And by our Seruice in this Mother Church we are Canonici Canons Regular Orderly men not Canonistae men that know Orders but Canonici men that keepe them where wee are also called Prebendaries rather à Praebendo then à Praebenda rather for giuing example of obedience to Orders then for any other respect In the Romane Church the most disorderly men are their men in Orders I speake not of the viciousnesse of their life I am no Iudge of that I know not that but they are so out of all Order that they are within rule of no temporall Law within iurisdiction of no Ciuill Magistrate no secular Iudge They may kill Kings and yet can be no Traytors they assigne their reason Because they are no Subiects He that kils one of them shall be really hang'd and if one of them kill hee shall be Metaphorically hang'd hee shall bee suspended Wee enjoy gratefully and wee vse modestly the Priuiledges which godly Princes out of their pietie haue affoorded vs and which their godly Successours haue giuen vs againe by their gracious continuing of them to vs but our Profession of it selfe naturally though the very nature of it dispose Princes to a gracious disposition to vs exempts vs not from the tye of their Lawes All men are in deed we are in Deed and in name too Men of Orders and therefore ought to be most ready of all others to obey Now beloued Ordo semper dicitur ratione Aquin. principij Order alwayes presumes a head it alwayes implyes some by whom wee are to be ordered and it implyes our conformitie to him Who is that God certainly without all question God But betweene God Man we consider a two-fold Order One as all creatures depend vpon God as vpon their beginning for their very Being and so euery creature is wrought vpon immediately by God and whether hee discerne it or no does obey Gods order that is that which God hath ordained his purpose his prouidence is executed vpon him accomplishd in him But then the other Order is not as man depends vpon God as vpon his beginning but as he is to be reduced and brought back to God as to his end that is done by meanes in this world What is that meanes for those things which wee haue now in consideration the Church But the body speaks not the head does It is the Head of the Church that declares to vs those things whereby we are to be ordered This the Royall and religious Head of these Churches within his Dominions hath lately had occasion to do And in doing this doth he innouate any thing offer to doe any new thing Do we repent that Canon Constitution in which at his Maiesties first comming we declar'd with so much alacrity as that it was the second Canō we made That the King had the same authoritie in causes Ecclesiasticall that the godly Kings of Iudah and the Christian Emperors in the primatiue Church had Or are we ignorant what those Kings of Iudah and those Emperors did We are not wee know them well Take it where the power of the Empire may seem somwhat declind in Charls the great we see by those Capitularies of his that remain yet what orders he gaue in such causes there he saies in his entrance to them Nemo presumptuosum dicat Let no man call this that I doe an vsurpation to prescribe Orders in these cases Nam legimus quid Iosias fecerit We haue red what Iosiah did and we know that wee haue the same Authoritie that Iosiah had But that Emperor consulted with his Clergie before he published those Orders It is true he sayes he did But he from whom we haue receiued these Orders did more then so His Maiesty forbore til a representation of some inconueniēces by disorderly preaching was made to him by those in the highest place in our Clergie and other graue and reuerend Prelates of this Church they presented it to him and thereupon hee entred into the remedie But that Emperour did but declare things constituted by other Councells before but yet the giuing the life of execution to those Constitutions in his Dominions was introductorie and many of the things themselues were so Amongst them his 70. Capitularie is appliable to our present case there hee sayes Episcopi videant That the Bishops take care that all Preachers preach to the people the Exposition of the Lordes Prayer and he enioynes them too Ne quid nouum ne quid non Canonicum That no man preach any new opinion of his owne nay though it bee the opinion of other learned men in other places yet if it be Non Canonicum not declared in the Vniuersall Church not declared in that Church in which he hath his station he may not preach it to the people And so he proceeds there to Catechistical Doctrine That is not new then which the Kings of Iudah did and which the Christian Emperours did But it is new to vs if the Kings of this kingdome haue not done it Haue they not done it How little the Kings of this kingdome did in Ecclesiasticall causes then when by their conniuence that power was deuold into a forraine Prelates hand it is pitie to consider pitie to remember pitie to bring into Con emplation And yet truly euen then our Kings did exercise more of that power then our aduersaries who oppose it will confesse But since the true iurisdiction was vindicated and reapplyed to the Crowne in what iust height Henrie the eight and those who gouerned his Sonnes minoritie Edward the sixt exercised that iurisdiction in Ecclesiasticall causes none that knowes their Story knowes not And because ordinarily wee settle our selues best in the Actions and Precedents of the late Queene of blessed and euerlasting memory I may haue leaue to remember them that know and to tell them that know not one act of her power and her wisedome to this purpose When some Articles concerning the falling away from iustifying grace and other poynts that beat vpon that haunt had been ventilated in Conuenticle and in Pulpits too and Preaching on both sides past and that some persons of great place and estimation in our Church together with him who was the greatest of all amongst our Clergy had vpon mature deliberation established a resolution what should bee thought and taught held and preached in those poynts and had thereupon sent down that resolution to be published in the Vniuersitie not vulgarly neither to the people but in a Sermon Ad
A SERMON VPON THE XX. VERSE OF THE V. CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES Wherein occasion was iustly taken for the Publication of some Reasons which his Sacred MAIESTIE had been pleased to giue of those Directions for Preachers which hee had formerly sent foorth Preached at the CROSSE the 15th of September 1622. By IOHN DONNE Doctor of Diuinitie and Deane of Saint PAVLS London And now by commandement of his Maiestie published as it was then preached LONDON Printed for Thomas Jones and are to bee sold at his Shop in the Strand at the blacke Rauen neere vnto Saint Clements Church 1622. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE GEORGE Marquesse of Buckingham High ADMIRALL of ENGLAND c. WHen I would speake to the KING by your LORDSHIPS Meanes I doo Now when I would speake to the Kingdome I would doe that by your Lordships Meanes too and therefore I am bolde to transferre this Sermon to the World through your Lordships hands and vnder your Name For the first part of the Sermon the Explication of the Text my Profession and my Conscience is Warrant enough that I haue spoken as the Holy Ghost intended For the second part the Application of the Text it will be warrant enough that I haue spoken as his Maiestie intended that your Lordship admits it to issue in your Name It is because Kings fauour the Church that the Prophet sayes they are her Foster-Fathers and then those persons who haue also interest in the fauour of Kings are her Foster-Brothers and such vse to loue well By that Title as by many other also your Lordshippe loues the Church as you are her Foster-Brother loued of him who loues her And by that Title you loue all them in the Church who endeauour to aduaunce both the vnitie of our Church in it selfe and the vnitie of the Church with the godly designes of our religious King To which Seruice I shall euer sacrifice all the labors of Your Lordships humblest and thankefullest Seruant in Christ Iesus IOHN DONNE IVDGES 5.20 De coelo dimicatum est contra eos stellae manentes in Ordine cursu suo aduersus Siseram pugnauerunt They fought from Heauen The stars in their courses fought against Sisera ALl the words of God are alwayes sweete in themselues sayes Dauid but sweeter in the mouth and in the pen of some of the Prophets and some of the Apostles then of others as they differed in their naturall gifts or in their education but sweetest of all where the Holy Ghost hath beene pleased to set the word of God to Musique and to conuay it into a Song and this Text is of that kind part of the Song which Deborah Barak sung after their great victory vpon Sisera Sisera who was Iabin the King of Canaans Generall against Israel God himselfe made Moses a Song and expressed his reason Deut. 31.19 why The children of Israel sayes God will forget my Law but this song they will not forget and whensoeuer they sing this song this song shall testifie against them what I haue done for them how they haue forsaken me And to such a purpose hath God left this Song of Deborah and Barak in the Scriptures that all Murmurers and all that stray into a diffidence of Gods power or of his purpose to sustaine his owne cause and destroy his owne Enemies might run and read might read and sing the wonderfull deliuerances that God hath giuen to his people by weake and vnexpected meanes This world begun with a Song if the Chalde Paraphrasts vpon Salomons Song of Songs haue taken a true tradition That assoone as Adams sinne was forgiuen him he expressed as he cals it in that Song Sabbatum suum his Sabboth his peace of conscience in a Song of which we haue the entrance in that Paraphrase This world begun so and so did the next world too if wee count the beginning of that as it is a good computation to doe so from the comming of Christ Iesus for that was expressed on Earth in diuers Songs in the blessed Virgins Magnificat My soule doth magnifie the Lord In Zacharies Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel and in Simeons Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace This world began so and the other and when both shall ioyne and make vp one world without end it shall continue so in heauen in that Song of the Lamb Great and marueilous Apoc. 3. are thy workes Lord God Almighty iust and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints And to Tune vs to Compose and giue vs a Harmonie and Concord of affections in all perturbations and passions and discords in the passages of this life if we had no more of the same Musique in the Scriptures as we haue the Song of Moses at the Red Sea and many Psalmes of Dauid to the same purpose this Song of Deborah were enough abundantly enough to slumber any storme to becalme any tempest to rectifie any scruple of Gods slacknesse in the defence of his cause when in the History and occasion of this Song expressed in the Chapter before this we see That Israel had done euill in the sight of the Lord againe and yet againe God came to them That God himselfe had sold Israel into the hands of Iabin King of Canaan and yet he repented the bargaine and came to them That in twenty yeeres oppression he came not and yet he came That when Sisera came against them with nine hundred Chariots of Iron and all preparations proportionable to that and God cald vp a woman a Prophetesse a Deborah against him because Deborah had a zeale to the cause and consequently an enmity to the enemie God would effect his purpose by so weake an instrument by a woman but by a woman which had no such interest nor zeale to the cause by Jael And in Iaels hand by such an instrument as with that scarce any man could doe it if it were to be done againe with a hammer she driues a nayle through his temples and nayles him to the ground as he lay sleeping in her tent And then the end of all was the end of all not one man of his army left aliue O my Soule why art thou so sad why art thou so disquieted within me Sing vnto the Lord an old song the song of Deborah and Barak That God by weake meanes doth mighty workes That all Gods creatures fight in his behalfe They fought from heaven the starres in their Order fought against Sisera You shal haue but two parts out of these Diuision words And to make these two parts I consider the Text as the two Hemispheres of the world laid open in a flat in a plaine Map All those parts of the world which the Ancients haue vsed to consider are in one of those Hemispheres All Europe is in that and in that is all Asia and Afrike too So that when we haue seene that Hemisphere done with that we might
He troubled not so much as a cloud he imployed no Creature at all against the Philistines when they came vp with thirty thousand Chariots but hee 1. Sam. 23 5 breathed a dampe an astonishment into them he imprinted a diuine terror in their hearts and they fought against one another Iud. 6. God fore saw a diminution of his honour in the augmentation of Israels forces and therfore he reduced Gideons thirty two thousand to three hundred persons It was so in persons God does much with few and it was so in time God does much though late though God seeme a long time to haue forgot his people yet in due time that is in his time he returnes to them againe S. Augustine makes a vse ull Historicall note That that land to which God brought the Children of Israel was their owne land before they were the right heires to it lineally descended from him who was the first possessor of it after the floud but they were so long out of possession of it as that they were neuer able to set their title on foot nay they did scarce know their own title and yet God repossessed them of it reinuested them in it It is so for persons and times in his wayes in this world Much with few much though late and it is so in his wayes to the next world too for persons Elias knew of no more but himselfe that serued the right God aright God makes him know that there were seuen thousand more seuen thousand was much to one but it was little to all the world and yet these seuen thousand haue peopled heauen and sent vp all those Colonies thither all those Armies of Martyrs those flockes of Lambes innocent children those Fathers the Fathers of the Church and Mothers holy Matrons and daughters blessed Virgines and learned and laborious Doctors these seuen thousand haue filled vp the places of the fallen Angels and repeopled that Kingdome And wheresoeuer we thinke them most worne out God at this time hath his remnant as the Apostle Rom. 11.5 sayes and God is able to make vp the whole garment of that remnant So he does much with few in the wayes to heauen and that he does much though late in that way too thou mayest discerne in his working vpon thy selfe How often hast thou suffered thy Soule to grow cleane out of all reparations into ruine by thine inconsiderate and habituall course of sinne and neuer repaired it by any good vse of hearing the word or receiuing the Sacrament in a long time and when thou hast at any time come to a suruey of thy conscience how hast thou beene affected with an inordinate apprehension of Gods anger and his inaccessiblenesse his inexorablenesse towards thee and sunke euen into the iawes of desperation And yet Quia manet semen dei because the seed of God hath remained in thee Incubat Spiritus 1. 10. 3.4 the Holy Ghost hath sat vpon that seed and hatched a new Creature in thee a modest but yet infallible assurance of the Mercy of thy God Recollect all in raysing of sieges and discomfiting of Armies in restoring possessions and reinuesting right heires in repairing the ruines of the Kingdome of heauen depopulated in the fall of Angels in reestablishing peace of conscience in a presumptuous confidence or ouer-timorous diffidence in God God glorifies himselfe that way to doe much with little He does so but yet hee will haue something God is a good Husband a good Steward of Mans contributions but contributions he will haue hee will haue a concurrence a cooperation of persons Euen in that great worke which wee spake of at first the first creation which was so absolutely of Nothing yet there was a Faciamus let vs vs make Man though but one God yet more Persons in that worke Christ had been Matt. 4.3 able to haue done as the Deuill would haue had him doe to haue made bread of stones when hee had so great a number to feed in the Wildernesse but hee does not so Hee askes his Disciples Quot panes habetis How many loafes haue you and though they were but fiue yet since they were some he multiplies them and feeds aboue fiue thousand with those fiue Hee would haue a remnant of Gedeons Armie to fight his battailes A remnant of Israels beleeuers to make vp his Kingdome A remnant of thy Soule his seed wrapd vp somewhere to saue thy Soule And a remnant of thy selfe of thy Mind of thy Purse of thy Person for thy temporall deliuerance God goes lowe and accepts small Sacrifices a Pigeon a handfull of Flower a few eares of Corne but a Sacrifice he will haue The Christian Church implies a shrewd distresse when shee prouides that reason that clause in her prayer Quia non est alius Giue Peace in our time O Lord because there is no other that fighteth for vs If the bowels of compassion bee eaten out if the band of the Communion of Saints be dissolued we fight for none none fights for vs at last neyther we nor they shall fight for Christ nor Christ for them nor vs but all become a prey to the generall enemie of the name of Christ for God requires something some assistance some concurrence some cooperation though he can fight from heauen and the Starres in their order can fight against Sisera And therefore though God giue his glorie to none his glorie that is to doe all with Nothing yet he giues them their glorie that doe any thing for him or for themselues And as hee hath laid vp a record for their glorie and Memoriall who were remarkeable for Faith for the eleuenth Chapter to the Hebrewes is a Catalogue of them So in this Song of Deborah and Barake hee hath laide vp a Record for their glorie who expressed their faith in Workes and assisted his seruice That which is said in generall The Memorie of the iust is blessed but the name of the Prou. 13.7 wicked shall rot That is applied and promised in particular by him who can performe it by Christ to that woman who anointed him That whersoeuer his Gospell should be Preached in the whole world ther should also this that Mat. 26.13 this woman had done be told for a memoriall of her Shee assisted at his Funerall as Christ himselfe interprets her action That shee did it to burie him and hath her glorie how shall he glorifie them that aduance his glorie Shee hath her reward in his death what shall they haue that keepe him and his Gospell aliue Not a verse in Deborah and Baraks song and yet that is honourable euidence Not a commemoration at the Preaching of the Gospell and yet that is the honourable testimonie in this place and at these Exercises of such as haue contributed to the conueniencies of these Exercises but they shall haue a place in the Booke of life indelibly in the Booke of life if they proceede in that deuotion of assisting
Clerum onely yet her Maiestie being informed thereof declared her displeasure so as that scarce any houres before the Sermon was to haue been there was a Countermaund an Inhibition to the Preacher for medling with any of those poynts Not that her Maiestie made her selfe Iudge of the Doctrines but that nothing not formerly declared to be so ought to bee declared to be the Tenet and Doctrine of this Church her Maiestie not being acquainted nor suplicated to giue her gracious allowance for the publication thereof His sacred Maiestie then is herein vpon the steps of the Kings of Iudah of the Christian Emperors of the Kings of England of all the Kings of England that embraced the Reformation of Queene Elizabeth her selfe and he is vpon his owne steps too For it is a seditious calumny to apply this which is done now to any occasion that rises but now as though the King had done this now for satisfaction of any persons at this time For some yeares since when he was pleased to call the Heads of Houses from the Vniuersity and intimate to them the inconueniences that arose from the Preaching of such men as were not at all conuersant in the Fathers in the Schoole nor in the Ecclesiasticall Storie but had shut vp themselues in a few later Writers and gaue order to those Gouernours for remedy herein Then he began then he laid the foundation for that in which hee hath proceeded thus much further now to reduce Preaching neerer to the manner of those Primitiue times when God gaue so euident and so remarkable blessings to mens Preaching Consider more particularly that which he hath done now His Maiestie hath accompanied his most gracious Letter to the most Reuerend Father in God my Lords Grace of Canterbury with certaine Directions how Preachers ought to behaue themselues in the exercise of that part of their Ministerie These being deriued from his Grace in due course to his reuerend Brethren the other Bishops our worthy Diocesan euer vigilant for the Peace and vnitie of the Church gaue a speedy very speedy intimation thereof to the Clergie of his Iurisdiction so did others to whom it appertain'd so to doe in theirs Since that his Maiestie who alwayes taking good workes in hand loues to perfect his owne works hath vouchsafed to giue some Reasons of this his proceeding which being signified by him to whom the State and Church owes much The right Reuerend Father in God the Bishop of Lincolne Lord Keeper of the great Seale and after by him also who began at first his Maiesties pleasure appearing thereby as he is too Great and too Good a King to seeke corners or disguises for his actions that these proceedings should be made publique I was not willing only but glad to haue my part therein that as in the seare of God I haue alwaies preached to you the Gospell of Christ Iesus who is the God of your Saluation So in the testimony of a good Conscience I might now preach to you the Gospel of the Holy ghost who is the God of peace of vnitie and concord These Directions then and the Reasons of them by his Maiesties particular care euery man in the Ministery may see write out in the seuerall Registers Offices with his owne hand for nothing and for very little if hee vse the hand of another Perchance you haue at your conuenience you may see them When you do you shall see That his Maiesties generall intention therein is to put a difference between graue and solid from light and humerous preaching Origen does so when vpon the Epistle to the Romanes he sayes There is a great difference Inter praedicare docere A man may teach an Auditory that is make them know something that they knew not before and yet not Preach for Preaching is to make them knowthings appertaining to their saluation But when men doe neither neither Teach nor Preach but as his Maiestie obserues the manner to bee To soare in poynts too deepe To muster vp their owne Reading To display their owne Wit or Ignorance in medling with Ciuill matters or as his Maiestie addes in rude and vndecent reuiling of persons this is that which hath drawen downe his Maiesties piercing Eye to see it and his Royall care to correct it Hee corrects it by Christs owne way Quid ab initio by considering how it was at first for as himselfe to right purpose cites Tertullian Id verum quod primum That is best which was first Hee would therefore haue vs conuersant in Antiquitie For Nazianzen askes that question with some scorne Quis est qui veritatis propugnatorem vnius diei spatio velut e luto statuam fingit Can any man hope to make a good Preacher as soone as a good Picture In three or foure dayes or with three or foure Books His Maiesty therfore cals vs to look Quid primum what was first in the whole Church And againe Quid primum when we receiued the Reformation in this Kingdom by what meanes as his Maiestie expresseth it Papistry was driuen out and Puritanisme kept out and wee deliuered from the Superstition of the Papist and the madnesse of the Anabaptists as before hee expresseth it and his religious and iudicious eye sees clearly That all that Doctrine which wrought this great cure vpon vs in the Reformation is contained in the two Catechisines in the 39. Articles and in the 2. Bookes of Homilies And to these as to Heads and Abundaries from whence all knowledge necessarie to saluation may abundantly be deriu'd hee directs the meditations of Preachers Are these new wayes No way new for they were our first way in receiuing Christianity and our first way in receiuing the Reformation Take a short view of them all as it is in the Catechismes as it is in the Articles as it is in the Homilies First you are called backe to the practise of Catechising Remember what Catechising is it is Institutio viua voce And in the Primitiue Church when those persons who comming from the Gentiles to the Christian Religion might haue beene scandalized with the outward Ceremoniall and Rituall worship of God in the Church for Ceremonies are stumbling blockes to them who looke vpon them without their Signification and without the reason of their Institution to auoyd that daunger though they were not admitted to see the Sacraments administred nor the other Seruice of God performed in the Church yet in the Church they receiued Instruction Institution by word of mouth in the fundamentall Articles of the Christian Religion and that was Catechising The Christians had it from the beginning and the Iewes had it too for their word Chanach is of that signification Initiare to enter Traine vp a child in the way he should goe and when he Pro. 22.6 is olde hee will not depart from it Traine vp sayes our Translation in the Text Catechise say our Translators in the Margin according to the naturall force of the
published to condemne the Heresies of the Manichees of the Arrians of the Nestorians of the Papistes and others And therefore in these reasons which his Maiestie hath descended to giue of his Directions himselfe is pleased to assigne this That the people might bee seasoned in all the Heads of the Protestant Religion Not onely of the Christian against Iewes Turkes and Infidels but of the Protestant against the Romane Church The Foundation is in the Catechisme the growth and extention in the Articles and then the Application of all to particular Auditories in the Homilies which if his Maiestie had not named yet had beene implyed in his recommendation of the Articles For the fiue and thirtieth Article appoynts the reading of them both those which were published in the time of Edward the sixth and those which after In the first Booke the very first Homilies are of the Sufficiencie of Scriptures and of the absolute necessitie of Reading them sufficiently opposed against that which hath been sayd in that Church both of the impertinencie of Scriptures as not absolutely necessarie and of the insufficiencie of these Scriptures if Scriptures were necessarie And in the second Booke the second Homily is against Idolatrie and so farre against all approaches towards it by hauing any Images in Churches as that perchance Moderat Men would rather thinke that Homilie to seuere in that kind then suspect the Homilies of declination towards Papistrie Is it the name of Homelies that Scandalizes them would they haue none Saint Cyrills 30. Paschall Sermons which he preached in so many seuerall Easter daies at his Arch-bishoprike of Alexandria and his Christmas dayes Sermons too were ordinarily exscrib'd and rehearsed ouer againe by the most part of the Clergie of those parts and in their Mouthes they were but Homilies And Caluins Homilies vpon Iob as Beza in his Preface before them calls them were ordinarily repeated ouer againe in many places of Fraunce and in their mouthes they were but Homilies It is but the name that scandalizes and yet the name of Homilia and Concio a Homily and a Sermon is all one And if some of these were spoken and not reade and so exhibited in the name of a Sermon they would like them well inough Certainely his Maiestie mistooke it not that in our Catechises In our Articles in our Homilies there is inough for Positiue inough for Controuerted Diuinitie For that Iesuit that intended to bring in the whole body of Controuerted Diuinitie into his booke whom we named before desired no other Subiect no other occasion to doe that but the Catechisme of that Church neither need any sober Man that intends to handle Controuersies aske more or go further His Maiestie therefore who as he vnderstands his duty to God so doth he his Subiects duties to him might iustly thinke That these so well grounded Directions might as himselfe sayes bee receiu'd vpon implicite obedience Yet hee vouchsafes to communicate to all who desire satisfaction the Reasons that mou'd him Some of which I haue related and all which all may when they will see and haue Of all which the Summ is His Royall and his Pastorall care that by that Primitiue way of Preaching his Subiects might be arm'd against all kind of Aduersaries in fundamentall truthes And when he takes knowledge That some few Church-men but many of the people haue made sinister constructions of his sincere intentions As hee is grieued at the heart to giue you his owne wordes to see euery day so many defections from our religion to Popery and Anabaptisme So without doubt he is grieued with much bitternes that any should so peruert his meaning as to thinke that these Directions either restraind the Exercise of Preaching or abated the number of Sermons or made a breach to Ignorance and Superstition of which three scandals he hath been pleased to take knowledge What could any Calumniator any Libeller on the other side haue imagin'd more opposit more contrary to him then approaches towards Ignorance or Superstition Let vs say for him Can so learned so abundantly learned a prince be suspected to plot for Ignorance And let vs blesse God that we heare him say now That he doth constantly professe himselfe an open aduer sary to the Superstition of the Papist without any milder Modification and to the madnesse of the Anabaptist And that the preaching against either of their Doctrines is not only approued but much commended by his roy all Maiestie if it bee done without rude and vndecent reuiling If hee had affected Ignorance in himselfe he would neuer haue read so much and if he had affected Ignorance in vs hee would neuer haue writ so much and made vs so much the more learned by his Books And if hee had had any declination towards Superstition he would not haue gone so much farther then his rank and qualitie pressed him to doe in declaring his opinion concerning Antichrist as out of Zeale and zeale with knowledge hee hath done We haue him now and long long O eternall God continue him to vs we haue him now for a father of the Church a Foster-father such a father as Constantine as Theodosius was our posterity shall haue him for a Father a Classique father such a father as Ambrose as Austin was And when his works shall stand in the Libraries of our Posteritie amongst the Fathers euen these Papers these Directions these Reasons shal be pregnant euidences for his cōstant zeale to Gods truth and in the meane time as arrowes shot in their eyes that imagine so vaine a thing as a defection in him to their superstition Thus far he is from admitting Ignorance and from Superstition thus far which seemes to be one of their feares And for the other two which concurre in one That these Directions should restraine the Exercise of Preaching or abate the number of Sermons his Maiestie hath declar'd himselfe to those Reuerend Fathers To be so far from giuing the least discouragement to solid Preaching or to discreet and religious Preachers or from abating the number of Sermons that hee expects at their hands that this should increase their number by renuing vpon euery Sunday in the afternoon in all Parish Churches throughout the kingdome that primitiue and most profitable exposition of the Catechisme So that heere is no abating of Sermons but a direction of the Preacher to preach vsefully and to edification And therfore to end all you you whom God hath made Starres in this Firmament Preachers in this Church deliuer your selues from that imputation The Starres were not Iob 25.5 pure in his sight The Preachers were not obedient to him in the voice of his Lieutenant And you you who are Gods holy people and zealous of his glory as you know from St. Paul that Stars differ from Stars in glory 1 Cor. 15 14. but all conduce to the benefit of man So when you see these Stars Preachers to differ in gifts yet since all their ends are to aduance your saluation encourage the Catechizer as well as the curious Preahcer Looke so farre towards your way to Heauen as to the Firmament and consider there that that starre by which wee saile and make great voyages is none of the starres of the greatest magnitude but yet it is none of the least neither but a middle starre Those Preachers which must saue your soules are not ignorant vnlearned extemporall men but they are not ouer curious men neither Your children are you and your seruants are you and you doe not prouide for your saluation if you prouide not for them who are so much yours as that they are you No man is sau'd as a good man if he be not sau'd as a good Father and as a good Master too if God haue giuen him a family That so Priest and people the whole Congregation may by their religious obedience and fighting in this spirituall warfare in their Order minister occasion of ioy to that heart which hath beene grieued in that fulnesse of ioy Which Dauid expresseth The King shall reioyce in thy Psal. 21. strength O Lord and in thy saluation how greatly shall hee reioyce Thou hast giuen him his hearts desire and thou hast not withholden the request of his lipps for the King trusteth in the Lord and by the mercy of the most High he shall not bee mooued And with that Psalme a Psalme of Confidence in a good King and a Psalme of Thank sgiuing for that blessing I desire that this Congregation may be dissolued for this is all that I intended for the Explication which was our first and for the Application which was the other part proposed in these wordes FINIS